Chapter Ten
Gray
L ionel stared at me over Lottie’s purple-hazed eyes, his insane smile twisted with a dollop of cruelty.
The latter came naturally to the ass-aholic leader of the NYC panther claw.
The former? His insanity had better be temporary, or I’d find a way to remove that taint to his bloodline through a previously undiscovered orifice. Like his throat.
In fact, the only reason he still breathed was because of the three words he said that stopped me in my tracks a moment before. “You were right.”
“I was what?” I didn’t bother to keep my tone civilized. Or my claws—pun intended as it was the only sort I ever told—from sliding out where my nails should have been and raking them across the trash cans that lined the alley’s depths.
Somewhere in the shadows, some poor shifter mewled.
Retreating figures told me Lionel’s strategy wasn’t a popular choice.
His champion wasn’t anywhere in sight—probably locked in a breeding cage somewhere.
His numbers depleted by the minute, even if he wasn’t aware of that yet.
What he did know was that he couldn’t take me. Not alone.
Which was why he kept my mate held between us as a human shield.
That pithy offering wouldn’t do shit for his fading mortality rate that reduced with every second he held a too-shiny motherfucking blade to my mate’s throat. That plummeted further when the first bead of purple-tinged blood trickled across her alabaster skin.
How much of that shit did he pump into her?
“Repeat what you just said to me.” I raked my claws across the brick of the nearest building.
Lionel winced and even Lottie, in her drug-fucked state, shuddered at the horrendous resulting sound.
“You were right.” Lionel shrugged like my show ponying didn't bother him in the least.
I stared at the other shifter, not a hint of the shadows beneath his skin showing that should be there, or the claws he could shred Lottie’s throat with...
The overwhelming scent hit me in a wave of arousal that hit me at a time I didn’t want or need it, turning me worse than feral. Pheromones. Suddenly I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“She was bait.”
I stared back at him as full understanding dawned beyond the flurry of one-word text messages I exchanged with him back in the apartment. Acid rose from my belly in a reversal of gravity that changed my world and left my hands itching for the woman I’d lay my life down for.
“You heard me in the alley that night.”
Lionel nodded. “I had to wait and see who claimed her. My choice wasn’t popular with the claw, but then we don’t have a lot of choices left. I think you’ve guessed.”
“Your powers are weakened. You need her— us —to...” I canted my head, watching the powerless shifter lower his blade and counted the breaths out in my head. Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen... “Breed?”
“New blood is needed. These walls are cages. They cripple us.” He tapped the crumbling building at his side.
Sixteen. Fifteen.
A few extra shadows flitted backward leaving Lionel alone. Either he didn’t notice, or he didn’t care. His self-imposed cafe had lost him that instinct too.
“You’ve done that to yourself.” Fourteen. Thirteen. “Panthers should be wild. Free. This unnatural catastrophe ... you’re living the results.”
He smiled at me sadly. “But if I set them free now, they’ll die.”
“That’s already happening.” The trail of purple blood stained Lottie’s shirt, followed by a fresh trickle of red. The shadows writhed beneath my own skin, my exhausted beast writhing to the surface, ready to tear apart the pathetic creature who threatened our mate. “Give her to me.”
Nine.
“And you’ll let me go?” He laughed humorlessly.
“No,” I said softly. “But I'll see my mate safe. My other mate needs her.”
“You are the alpha.” His sarcasm lacked pretty much anything.
I shot him a glance, reminded forcibly of Blake. I need to get back to him. More footsteps, this time slower, more curious ones, back toward us.
Four.
“I have my own to care for.”
Three.
Lionel nodded, pushed Lottie forward.
Two.
She tottered toward me. I caught her as he spread his hands.
“Then do it.”
One.
I held his gaze, shook my head. My arms tightened around her. No chance was I letting my mate go now she was exactly where she was supposed to be. With me.
“I don’t need to,” I said softly.
Gathering Lottie in my arms, I carried her from the alley unassailed as the first shifters used their remaining talents and tore into their leader who wore the brunt of their decisions.
For those ear-bleeding moments I was glad Lottie was too out of it to hear his screams.
****
B lake and Lottie lay side by side, pale as death in my bed as I covered them both in a nest of blankets and raised her wrist to his lips.
“Bite, brother. Mark her as ours,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his temple.
Live. Please.
No matter how much he irritated the shit out of me, how many times I had to haul his ass out of trouble and across state and county lines ... I still loved him. As much as I loved her.
“Did she agree?” he slurred. The tip of his tongue peeked between parched lips to taste her. A shudder rippled along his body at the mere scent of our mate, so close. But still he held back.
Lionel might have screwed his claw to the wall and worn the consequences, but I won’t let Blake die because of some qualms when she’s fucked out of her mind and it’s not his fault.
Because she was in no state to say yes. So, I would say it for her.
“She agreed, Blake. She’s yours,” I lied, pressing her flesh to his lips.
“Finally,” he mumbled around the too-thin limb, and bit.
His jaw was so fucking weak the mark didn’t even take. Cursing low in my throat as his hands fell away, I slid in behind him, cupped my hands beneath his chin, and forced his bite.
A scream ripped from Lottie’s throat as Blake’s jaw locked around her wrist. He swallowed once, then again. Just as her eyes cleared, registering her pain—
So did his.
“You fucking asshole,” he groused around her flesh.
Though he didn’t let go of his prize, the cynical part of my possessive shifter-mind noted. I released his jaw and lay back, watching the show unfold before me.
Blake’s energy unfolded in waves like the blankets he threw back as he arced over her, pushing her back.
“I’m sorry, sweetness. But I need to have you now,” he murmured.
The tinge of regret in his eyes was fast hidden beneath a wave of molten desire even I could feel as he lifted her tiny form and pushed her between my spread legs.
Our mate panted, her head flicking back and forth as she took both of us in. Confusion scrolled across her face, though she seemed to be used to taking the strangeness of us in her stride by now.
“A few days with us, and we've altered your life.” It was as close an apology as she’d get from me.
Asshole that might make me, but the way she looked at me, all wide eyes without a hint of that godforsaken purple haze thankfully inhabiting her gaze, she was the most tempting damn creature I’d ever seen. Right now, that honor belonged to someone else.
Blake gripped my thigh in warning as he positioned her as he wanted.
Offering him a slow nod I closed my hands around Lottie’s hips, dragging her up my body until her back pressed to my chest. Her sweet struggles, not really a fight after all, more a squirm of anticipation as she studied the bite on her wrist and the shifter who marked her, rubbed her warmth between us.
“Shall I?” I offered, raking my claw tips lightly across her body.
Blake nodded tersely. Pupils blown wide, his gaze coasted over her form as he mouthed words neither of us could hear but we both understood with perfect clarity.
I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry—
“It’s all right. I wanted you to.” Lottie’s forgiveness blazed from her like a beacon, calling to him. To us.
I wrapped my arms tight around her knowing she’d need the support in a moment as he shucked his jeans to his knees, pushed her flimsy dress aside. Both of us hooked a claw in her panties, and I raised my hand, half transformed across her stretched out, vulnerable body like the perfect offering.
“Stay still, sweet thing,” I murmured against her ear. My tongue darted out to taste the shell.
Then I swiped my fully extended claws across her softness as Blake flicked his wrist.
Every inch of material shredded from her lithe body.
“Too beautiful,” Blake murmured reverently, leaning down to press his lips to the mark he gave her, licking and sucking as she moaned for him, whispered his name. His gaze darted up to mine.
I swallowed hard, tilting her head to the side, asking an unspoken question of my own.
Are you sure?
Blake nodded. Just once.
Breathing out a long exhale I licked Lottie’s neck gently, then clamped my mouth over my own mark, its permanent shadows dark and angry against her pale flesh, sucking hard. Blake mirrored me, laving and sucking at her wrist until she arched between us.
I slid fully beneath her body, shoving my jeans down. “Be fast, Blake. Or you’ll lose your turn.”
His smile when he raised his head was nothing short of feral. “Together.”
A growl of agreement reverberated in my chest as I dropped a hand between her legs to find his cock where he rubbed against her and worked him hard. It’s been too long. “Together, then.”
Blake moaned and surged into my hand until our balls nestled together in the sticky warmth of her thighs. “Fuck, too good. Make me paint her first,” he begged me.
My grip tightened. “That's how you want to claim your mate? Scent her skin like a feral dog?” I snarled, working him faster.
Fuck, I wish I’d thought of that first. The thought turned me on until I wondered if I’d join him and coat her back in my cum before either of us sank into her heat.
“Don’t I get a choice in this?” Lottie panted between us. Her hands wandered freely across Blake’s chest and shoulders, touching him as he had never permitted her contact before she allowed his mark once I fucked her. Out of self-preservation, I suspected.
Or forgave him for taking it.
“Not tonight, Lottie,” I murmured. Pumping Blake’s cock faster in a painfully inescapable grip, I jerked him over her stomach as I held myself still beneath them both. “Watch him spend himself for you. Only for you.”
Lottie’s giggle froze us both.
She tipped her head back, looking at me upside down. And she’s still so fucking cute. “No, silly. He’s coming for you, too.”
Blake groaned, surging into my hand to prove her point on cue as he leaned down to kiss her upside-down mouth gently, then transferred her taste to my lips.
His tongue slid inside as his warm seed soaked my fingers and her stomach.
I let him take control if only for a moment, offering his thanks.
Blake’s kisses were liquid heat, and I knew from experience he was far from done.
We would be fucking our girl for hours, long after she was through with us.
He licked my lips clean of his kiss. “Thank you,” Blake murmured, holding my gaze. “For everything.”
I pressed my forehead to his. “You’re welcome.”
Warm heat squirmed between our taut bodies, reminding me of the third amongst us.
“Not that I object to seeing the two of you go at it, but can I join in?”
I stared down into Lottie’s luminous, haze-free eyes, and my cock surged with fresh blood.