Winter (Rise of the Pride, Book 2) (2 page)

The moment the office door opened, Talon
Shaw stood there, his wide shoulders touching the door frame, his
eyes sparking amber. Rain drops glistened in his dark hair. He
inhaled deep and moved forward, dropping to his knees. His large
hand pressed softly against Liberty’s stomach.

“Liberty?” he asked, his voice sounding
thick like he was about to shed tears. One moment Liberty was on
the couch…the next, Talon had scooped her up into his arms and spun
her around as he shouted out his happiness. “I’m going to be a
father!”

“Put me down, Talon!” Liberty barked,
turning green again. “Now!”

“Let her go, Talon,” Nova warned with a
grin, thankful her sister didn’t lose her ginger ale on her mate.
Talon saw the look on Liberty’s face and rushed her toward the
bathroom. The sound of Liberty getting sick was cut off when Talon
kicked the door closed with his booted foot.

Nova smiled at her sister’s mate and his
obvious concern as she left the office, almost running into Winter
as he leaned against the wall in the hallway just outside the door.
The big blond jumped back almost three feet, his eyes wide.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, sliding past him so
she wouldn’t even get close to touching him. She didn’t have time
to worry about the damned Guardian. Nova had somewhere she needed
to be.

“Where are you going?” he asked, following
her down the hallway and looming over her, just outside of reach.
She didn’t need him bothering her or asking questions, because if
he knew where she was heading, Nova was sure he’d raise hell
again.

“Cole,” Nova called out, ignoring the
panther at her back as she leaned against the bar. “I’m out of
here. Liberty will be leaving soon, too. She isn’t feeling very
well. Call me if you need anything.”

As she made her way out of the bar, Winter
growled behind her when the door closed in his face. Nova cringed
when she heard him push through with a curse.

“I asked you a question,” he barked. He used
his long legs to move in front of Nova, trying to stop her from
getting to her car, but she walked around him with a scowl on her
face. Thankfully, the rain had finally let up, because Nova didn’t
think she could handle seeing him drenched with a wet shirt stuck
to his bulging muscles.
Stop, Nova! You’re only making it
worse!
“Are you going out with him again?”

“That’s none of your business,” Nova
replied, gritting her teeth. She really didn’t want to talk to him
about the fact that she was going home to get ready for another
date with Perry. The last time that happened, Winter had lost his
temper and Dane had to send him away. “Tell Dane I’m going
home.”

“Nova,” he called out, cursing when she shut
the door to her car and pulled out onto the two lane highway,
heading south to her home. She didn’t even look in the rearview
mirror as she sped away, wishing that she was going home to get
ready for a date with the panther instead.

Winter pounded his fists into the punching
bag in his garage, his mind strictly focused on the area he needed
to hit to achieve the best satisfaction. The tightness in his
muscles sent a burning fire through his arms that was more than
welcomed. Sweat poured down the sides of his face, his back, and
his legs. His frustrations were not leaving his mind as well has
he’d hoped. His panther was pacing, upset over one tiny woman.

She was out on a fucking
date
. The
little human female that had been eating up his every waking
thought for the past two months was on another date with some low
life jerk she had no business hanging around in the first place.
The human male was not man enough to handle that little
spitfire.

“Fuck,” Winter snarled, feeling his canines
thicken in his mouth. He wasn’t jealous.
Punch!
No, he
wasn’t.
Punch!
He just couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Punch!
She wasn’t his.
Punch! Punch!

Every time he closed his eyes, Winter could
see her laughing at something he’d said or done. He’d watched her
from the corner of his eye most days when he’d stayed in human form
to work on putting new locks on the old farmhouse.

He remembered one time she’d been sitting at
the kitchen table, reading a book. It was one of those romance
novels she loved so much. The sun had been shining through the
kitchen window and caught the side of her face. She’d radiated
beauty and he’d been so mesmerized by her, he’d dropped his
screwdriver, causing a loud clattering against the tile floor. When
she’d looked up from her book, those brown eyes of hers sparkled
and the smile that lit her face had made his heart swell.

They’d been together for weeks while the
wolves had caused havoc in their town. He’d thought that he and
Nova had become friends, but it’d been Dane who’d been protecting
her for the past week and a half. The other Guardian had been
requested ever since Winter found out that Nova had been seeing
this douchebag, Perry. He’d definitely angered her by voicing his
concern about the male. That pissed off the little woman, and she’d
refused to talk to him for two days…wouldn’t even look at him.

It wasn’t his problem. Nova had her own free
will and could date whomever she damn well pleased. She wasn’t his
mate.

Or was she?

He didn’t even know, because he refused to
touch her. He didn’t want to take that chance, not like his alpha
had done with Nova’s sister, Liberty. Granted, it was an accidental
moment when his alpha touched the female, but he hadn’t stopped
himself from having contact with Liberty’s skin.

As a panther male, one didn’t touch a
female. One touch was all it took for their kind to find their
mates. Winter wasn’t like some of his brothers. He wanted to fall
in love the old fashioned way. He didn’t want to doom a female to
being with him if they were not compatible. Hell, everyone had told
him that in their world, you found your mate first and love would
come later.

Even with their reassurances, he refused to
touch any woman. He had never wanted to touch one as badly as he
did with Nova. She had him wrapped around her pinky finger all
those weeks they’d been together. He’d been solely in charge of her
security detail while the pride had searched for Evie, but they’d
never gotten close enough to touch. They’d talked, even shared a
few meals. He’d prowled outside her home in the middle of the night
while she slept, just so he could make sure she was safe, and that
the wolves who were in the area brought no harm to the little
human.

And little she was. Nova Raines was barely
five foot four and she weighed next to nothing. Her beauty was what
human men wanted, what they craved. She could’ve been modeling for
magazine covers in New York or Los Angeles, but she was here, in
the tiny town in northern Mississippi, helping her sister run a bar
on the outskirts of their town. She’d given up her dreams of
becoming a nurse to save the family business.

Having been human once, Winter knew the pain
of the transformation. Liberty had been lucky. She was already
comatose when Talon had forced his blood down her throat, and the
healer had given her enough sedative to at least make her forget
the hours she screamed in pain in the main house. No one ever told
the alpha’s mate about those horrible three days, but everyone
remembered it all too well.

Winter had never forgotten the pain…the
begging for death as his body had accepted the blood, making him
change into something lethal. He was different now, bigger. He’d
been an average sized human five years ago, barely six foot tall
and less than two hundred pounds. Now, he towered over many of his
pride. At six foot five and almost three hundred pounds of muscle,
Winter wasn’t one to cross.

There was something in the shifter’s blood
that made him grow, and grow larger he had. He had strength that no
human male, no matter his size, would have even with the best
training. A werepanther could run at speeds faster than any of his
animal cousins. Yes, he was a paranormal creature only once thought
to be a myth.

As a human, he’d lived in the worst parts of
Memphis, trying to keep himself alive while caring for his mother
and baby sister. They’d both died the night everything changed.
Winter squinted his eyes, trying not to remember that night, but
like always, when he let down his guard…the memories came back.

They’d been at home, the family gathered for
a rare family meal. His mother was attempting to stay clean and had
cooked a decent meal for them. He was twenty and his baby sister
was only eleven. The conversation had strayed to her schoolwork and
how he’d just gotten a job with Shaw Security Specialist, making
enough money to be able to move them out of the slums within the
next few months. That was…until the front windows shattered,
bullets flying everywhere.

The kitchen was open to the front room and
the first bullet hit his mother in the head, ending her life with
no suffering. Winter lunged for Summer, his sweet baby sister, but
he was too late. A bullet grazed his shoulder and buried itself in
her chest. The next one got him in the leg, but at the time, he
didn’t care. His only worry was for Summer.

She died in his arms, gasping for every
breath.

It wasn’t until two days later that he woke
up in the hospital. He’d been hit more than just in the leg. He’d
taken another bullet to his abdomen, barely missing vital organs.
Winter had come alive that day, demanding to be released. He wanted
vengeance and he would stop at nothing until he found the people
responsible for killing the only family he had.

He checked himself out of the hospital
against doctor’s orders, and made it his life’s mission to find the
killers. He checked into a motel for the first night, planning and
preparing. When he arrived at work the next morning, everything
changed.

As he stepped into the office, two pairs of
icy blue eyes swung in his direction. Savage, his then-boss, and
the owner’s brother, Noah, glared at him, their nostrils flaring in
what he thought at the time was anger. He’d not had a chance to
even explain what had happened before he collapsed on the floor
from a fever he didn’t even realize he had…or the infection that
almost took his life.

They’d smelled the infection with their
superhuman senses. Of course, Winter didn’t know that at the time,
but now he understood. It was either let him die or change him. He
remembered Savage telling him as much and apologizing for the next
few days until the pain would subside enough for Winter to hold a
coherent thought.

The day he opened his eyes and wasn’t in
pain, Winter stumbled around the room on all fours and thought he
was going insane. There was something taking up his brain…his
thoughts. No, it wasn’t something…it was someone.

His panther.

Savage had calmed him and had taken him
under his wing for the next several months, teaching him how to
live and thrive. They grew to be brothers in all ways, even blood.
It’d been Savage who’d changed him on Noah’s urging, and in the
end, he was thankful for everything they’d done.

The men who’d killed his mother and baby
sister were found. The extent of their injuries were unexplainable
and they died painfully. It was the right thing to do and Winter
had no remorse for the actions of the night he and a few Guardians
went hunting in the city.

His phone rang, interrupting his workout.
Winter frowned when he saw it was the sheriff’s department phone
number. He’d been working with them on a missing child case last
week and he thought everything was taken care of when he and Savage
had found the kid hiding in the woods about a mile from the
playground she’d walked away from only a few hours prior.

“Winter,” he answered.

“Winter, it’s Sheriff Lynch,” he announced.
“I need to get in touch with Liberty, but she isn’t answering her
phone.”

“What’s going on?” Winter asked, going on
instant alert. “Is there something wrong at the bar?”

“I really need to speak with Liberty,” the
sheriff replied, a heavy sigh coming through the phone. Winter’s
panther sat up straighter in his mind. Warning bells were going off
in his head and he
knew
this had nothing to do with the
bar.

“Is it Nova?” he growled, his panther
prowling angrily.

“Do you know where Liberty is or not?” the
other man asked. “I have to notify the next of kin before I can say
anything.”

A deafening roar left Winter’s mouth as the
words sank in, words he’d wished he’d never heard. His knees hit
the floor as a pain worse than his first shift struck him in the
center of his chest.

“Wait!” the sheriff hollered. “Nova is
alive, but she’s at the Methodist Hospital. I need you to find
Liberty and bring her here.”

“What happened?” Winter demanded, his
canines so thick in his mouth, he tasted blood on his lip where
they’d nicked the tender skin.