White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel) (14 page)

S
he found the two men in the dark at the top of the hill. She almost missed them—they blended so well into the night. Kendrick’s ability to do so was uncanny. He could suddenly become unnoticeable, standing in perfect stillness while shadows seemed to swallow him.

Both of them were doing that now. They were also standing very close together; in fact, they were embracing. Not just a manly clasp with a few back pats, but a long, bodies-pressed-together hug.

Addie stopped, her mouth going dry. Seamus lifted his head from Kendrick’s shoulder, nuzzled the bigger man’s neck, then leaned into him again.

Addie couldn’t look away. She’d never thought about it before, but watching two very hot men hold each other was . . . hot.

The two men must know she stood there. She hadn’t tried to approach softly, and she understood by now that they’d catch her scent.

Even so, they took their time unwinding from the hug, giving each other one last nuzzle.

“I know you didn’t come to eavesdrop,” Kendrick said
easily, turning to her. “Join us, Addison. We have much to discuss.”

*   *   *

A
ddison looked surprised to be included, but Kendrick figured it would save time. Addison would need to know what was going on, and this way he could have one conversation instead of two similar ones.

That’s why I’m leader
, he told himself dryly.
I’m so damned efficient.

“I told you I’d brought my Shifters to Texas and set up in a bunker off that way.” Kendrick pointed an arm to the northwest. “We fixed it up until it was a nice place to live.”

“For a bunker,” Seamus put in. “No windows.”

“Then, as I mentioned, it was destroyed,” Kendrick went on. “The Austin Shifters thought we’d abducted a young woman, when all she’d done was move into our compound with her boyfriend. And, as you know, I’ve been working with Dylan since then, while looking for a new place for my Shifters.”

Seamus frowned at him, clearly uncomfortable with all Kendrick was revealing. But Kendrick wanted Addison to know, to understand.

Kendrick continued. “As I said, I was helping him round up feral Shifters who’d followed a leader he took down in Mexico. But lately, there’s been other strange shit happening in the Shiftertowns around here. Shifters are disappearing for days, not saying where they’re going or where they’ve been. They haven’t exactly challenged their hierarchy, but they don’t obey when they should. Dylan asked me to help him find out what these Shifters were doing, and to catch and interrogate them when we can.”

“And what,” Seamus asked slowly, “have you found out?”

“They’re trying to form their own Shifter communities,” Kendrick said. “Out from under the hierarchy imposed on them by the human government. Like we did.” His voice took an ironic note. “Only a little less civilized. They’re choosing their clan leaders based on dominance and want to run things by a council of clans.”

“That doesn’t sound too unreasonable,” Seamus said. “Optimistic, but not unreasonable. Shifter clan leaders don’t always get along.”

He shot Kendrick a look. A long time ago, Kendrick had been forced to challenge another Shifter, a Lupine clan leader, for control of their group, and Kendrick had won. Kendrick had killed the other Shifter and taken over, which had been one of the hardest things he’d done in his life.

The other Shifter had been, up until his betrayal, Kendrick’s closest friend. The pain of the man turning on him and forcing Kendrick to kill him had lingered for years. Still lingered.

Kendrick shook his head, pulling himself back to the present. “If it stopped at them wanting to form their own enclave, Dylan would simply keep an eye on them, maybe figure out how he could use them. But they’ve moved one step beyond. These Shifters want to remove their Collars, and then destroy the Collared Shifters. Shifters happy to stay under the yoke of human rule are endangering all Shifters, they say, and so must either be recruited or killed. They’re trying to recruit the cubs first, because many of them now don’t have Collars and never will.”

“Shite,” Seamus said, his slow anger rising. “Are they out of their minds?”

“Seems that way. I was able to infiltrate one of the groups, wearing a fake Collar and keeping a low profile. Unfortunately, at one meeting I saw Ivan Cranford. And he saw me.”

Seamus stared at him for a few heartbeats.
“What?”

“I evaded Ivan when I left and told Dylan I couldn’t go back. I thought I’d given Ivan the slip, but next thing I knew, he was looking for me. A couple nights ago, he found me. He and his backup had guns and they opened fire. I’m guessing he meant it to look like a gang shooting—a tragedy, but nothing to do with Shifters.”

“Oh, holy . . .” Seamus put his hands on top of his head and walked a few paces away.

Kendrick was aware of Addison, listening hard, her arms tightly folded as though she were cold in the hot late-May night. Her eyes were filled with horror as she realized they
were talking about the Shifter she’d watched Kendrick send to dust.

Kendrick drew a long breath. “He’s dead, Seamus. I killed him.”

Seamus kept his back to them for a long time. He let his hands drop and looked up at the stars, which swam thick and white across the black backdrop. The night was clear, no clouds between them and the heavens.

Seamus turned around again. He didn’t approach, keeping a distance between himself and Kendrick.

“Did ye give him a chance?” Seamus asked.

“Yes.” Kendrick’s body tightened with anger as he remembered. Ivan had aimed at Kendrick as he’d flowed out of the diner, a tiger, then cursed as Kendrick flattened himself to the ground just in time for the bullet to soar over Kendrick’s head.

Then Ivan had thrown the gun aside and shifted, meeting Kendrick as his wildcat. They’d fought savagely. Kendrick, filled with the rage of a Shifter protecting his cubs, hadn’t held back.

Ivan, lower in dominance than Kendrick, hadn’t stood a chance. Kendrick had tried to make himself ease off, give Ivan the opportunity to surrender, but Ivan was determined to fight on. Conquer or die. Kendrick, enraged and fearing for his cubs, couldn’t stop himself. He’d torn Ivan apart.

Then Ivan had
apologized
but warned Kendrick at the same time that he could expect more Shifters to fight him. Kendrick had wanted to lie down and weep after he’d sent Ivan to dust but he’d had to get his cubs to safety.

Seamus’s breath came faster, sharing Kendrick’s grief. Seamus flinched, as though a cramp had clenched his body, then he let out a soft sound of distress.

Kendrick went to him, his instinct as leader and Guardian to comfort him. “I gave him what chance I could.”

Seamus twisted away. “No, don’t touch me.”

“I never meant it to go down like that,” Kendrick said. “I was protecting my cubs.”

He placed a hand on Seamus’s arm, and Seamus jerked from him, eyes wide. “Ye don’t understand. I can feel it—all
ye did. Your anger, fear, grief—I
feel
it.” He thumped both hands to his gut. “Ye have to back off, leave me be.”

Seamus didn’t explain his bewildering statements, simply pivoted and strode away. He didn’t go far, stopping to throw his head back and study the stars.

Kendrick’s chest tightened, his hands clenching. He didn’t know what Seamus meant or how the death of Ivan would affect Seamus’s loyalties to him. He couldn’t lose Seamus, not after all they’d been through.

Kendrick felt a hand touch his. Addison had come to stand beside him, her fingertips on his hot fist.

“You didn’t have a choice,” she said quietly.

Kendrick didn’t move, letting her touch ease him. “A leader pledges to protect his Shifters. That means
all
of them, regardless.”

“You
were
protecting them,” Addison pointed out. “Why was defending your cubs wrong?”

“If I had an easy answer, my life would be so much better,” Kendrick said with grim humor. “I hurt him. That hurts me.” He gestured at Seamus, who’d drawn into himself.

Addison’s fingers caressed his. “You can’t think that what everyone in the world does is your fault.”

“Not everyone in the world,” Kendrick said. “I’m not that crazy. Just people I pledged to take care of.”

Another caress. “You’ll figure it out,” Addison said softly.

Kendrick stopped. In his dream last night, Addison had stood with him under the sky and said the same thing.
You’ll figure it out. Look around you, white tiger. Live.

Had the dream been premonition? Or his brain trying to get him to understand?

Voices floated up the hill from the house, small ones with determination only tigers could have. “They want to stargaze too,” Robbie called as he walked with the younger boys toward them.

Zane stared up at Robbie in outrage. “No,
you
wanted to,” he said when they reached Kendrick and Addison. “And told us we had to come with you.”

Robbie flushed, but Kendrick didn’t admonish him. Robbie had to give in to Zane’s and Brett’s needs all the
time—once in a while they should give in to his. “Is Uncle Seamus all right?” Robbie asked.

Seamus straightened up and came back to them. He had a welcoming look on his face but Kendrick saw the strain.

Robbie seemed to notice the tension as well. He was perceptive, for a cub. He pointed upward. “Look, there’s the Great Bear.”

Addison glanced skyward, following his finger. “Ursa Major,” she agreed. “I never knew it was a bear when I was little. I only knew it as the Big Dipper. And the Little Dipper over there.” She pointed to the north sky.

“That’s not a dipper,” Robbie said, with the incredulous tone of a boy who knows something an adult doesn’t. “The Great Bear is a mother bear Shifter searching for her son. When bear Shifters were first created by the Fae, a mother and her cub escaped out of Faerie into what would become America. One day, the cub went missing and the mother bear searched for him frantically. The native people of the place where she found refuge told her to look in the sky. That night, she looked up, and saw the little bear.”

Robbie pointed at Ursa Minor—the little bear, Addie realized—and continued. “The mother bear leapt high, swung up on the stars, and started chasing her errant son. The Fae came boiling out of Faerie, ready to shoot them both down. The shamans of the native tribe used their magic to change the mother and son into stars. The Fae couldn’t reach them and went back home. So now the mother chases the son around and around the North Star.”

Robbie moved his arm to illustrate as he talked, and Addison listened, enchanted.

“It’s not the story I learned,” she said when he finished.

“There’s all kinds of stories about the stars,” Robbie said. “Dad knows them all. He told us.”

Addison sent Kendrick a look. “Did he?”

Kendrick rounded up his sons. “Inside, you three. It’s getting late and colder. Seamus?”

Seamus, without saying a word, started for the house. He leaned down and picked up the smaller boys on his way, and Robbie, with a hopeful look at Addison, went after them.

“I’ll be in to put you to bed,” Addison promised, then she turned to Kendrick. “Is he going to be all right? Seamus, I mean.”

Kendrick looked after his tracker, who had reverted to his good-natured ways with the boys. “I don’t know. There’s something going on with him.”

“Will you tell me?” Addison gazed up at him as wistfully as Robbie had. “The Shifter stories of the constellations?”

There were many—the Lovers, which humans thought of as the twins of the Gemini, the Tiger, and the Wolf Cubs. Kendrick had a tale for each of them.

“Yes,” he said in a low voice. “When this is done, I’ll tell you the legends of the stars.”

Addison didn’t answer for a time. She studied him with her clear-eyed watchfulness, then gave him a nod. “Good. I’ll hold you to that.”

*   *   *

C
harlie made no comment about having to accommodate yet another Shifter in his house and had a bedroom ready for Seamus by the time Addie walked back in with Kendrick.

“Does me good to see the place so alive again,” Charlie said to Addie as he bustled around with pillows and blankets.

Seamus disappeared into his room, and Addie heard him on the phone as she lingered in the hallway. Seamus was speaking in a gentle tone, obviously to someone he cared about.

“I’ll be all right, sweetheart,” he said. “Home as soon as I can.”

His voice was so full of love that Addie’s heart ached. How wonderful to have someone care that much for you that every word was a caress. She thought of her conversation with Charlie when he said that not everybody was lucky to love someone who loved them back.

Addie sighed, hid her longing, and went to put the boys to bed.

The little ones seemed happier tonight, less afraid. Uncle Seamus was here, they were safe in Charlie’s house, and Addie could tell them more stories.

Addie repeated stories from the
Oz
books, which she knew by heart—the originals, not the 1939 musical. All three boys were fascinated, listening, mouths open, until they finally drooped and slept.