Romancing the leopard, p.23
Romancing the Leopard, page 23
Lenny’s eyes narrowed. “A Tracker?”
“She sent for him yesterday. If I’ve got my times right, he’ll likely be here any minute.”
That news seemed to be enough for the jumpy tiger with the Russian accent. He glanced between Lenny and Rick. “This wasn’t what I was told. Or promised. I want no more of this.”
In a blink, he was gone, moving at that speed that made him blur.
Cat wanted to ask what he’d been promised—because if Lenny and Rick had promised something to do with her she was going to tell Tom to shoot Lenny and she was going to run more electricity through Rick.
Too late now. She’d have to leave…whoever the hell he was to the Trackers.
From his prone position on the ground, Rick raised his hands. “I wasn’t going to hurt you, you know,” he snarled up at her. “I was trying to keep you out of the fight so you didn’t get hurt.”
“Right. Because you care so damned much about what happens to me the person. If that were true, Rick, you wouldn’t be backing Lenny.”
“I just want a mate. A family. Is that so much to ask?”
“When the person you’re pursing is unwilling? Yes. Yes, it is. Fucking hell, man, just find a willing mate.”
“Tried that. There aren’t enough of them.”
“Then find a nice human you can love and adopt babies, you asshole. Stop stalking people for their wombs. Stalking is bad. Also, you’re not entitled to anything, not a family, not attention, not anything at all, and thinking you’re owed what you want ‘just because’ is fucked up. This is not rocket science.”
“And she should know,” Tom answered, “given how she’s smart enough to do rocket science.”
She grinned at Tom. “Thank you.”
“Only the truth of the thing,” Tom said with a wink.
Lenny’s low hiss broke through the conversation. The skin along his face was jumping as if he was on the verge of shifting. Shifting shapes took time and left him vulnerable. He couldn’t want to shift in that moment, not if he had any sense at all. But since Lenny had proved himself low on sense lately, she wasn’t sure that would deter him.
His voice so gravely it was almost unintelligible now, Lenny said, “This was none of your business. This was none of anyone’s business. This was between me and the woman, and you will pay dearly for your interference.”
“The woman? The woman?” Cat snarled. “I have a fucking name. This is why you’re still alone. You’re an asshole.”
Lenny finally looked away from Tom to growl at her. “I’ll deal with you soon,” he said in his guttural tone.
She raised her pepper spray in warning.
And in the next instant, Dylan moved.
33
Cat watched, frozen in place, as Dylan swung the long barrel of the gun around and slammed Lenny in the side of the head with the butt. Even at a distance, Cat heard the crack of bone.
Lenny hadn’t noticed the change in Dylan’s grip, or that it left him in no position to prevent the swing. His hands were all wrong and he had no purchase to keep the heavy base of the gun from smacking into him.
The hit stunned Lenny and he wobbled a little to one side. Dylan continued to take advantage, slammed him with the shotgun again, and then leverage up and over so he was the one straddling Lenny now.
He pressed the barrel into the tiger’s throat, pushing down with his weight. Lenny scrambled at the barrel, trying to push it up. The gun lifted off his throat an inch. Dylan released the pressure suddenly, which brought the gun up so fast Lenny’s grip on it slipped.
And then Dylan swung the barrel around to point it at Lenny’s face.
“I won’t miss at this range,” Dylan said, the front of the shotgun resting on Lenny’s forehead.
Lenny raised his hands, palms up, and relaxed back into the ground, snarling, but the glow in his eyes finally, finally dimmed.
In the distraction, Rick had removed the Taser prongs. Cat swung back to him as he rose on his elbows, prepared to spray him with the pepper spray if he lunged for her again.
He raised his hands, palms out in a mirror of Lenny’s pose. “I’m done,” he said, though he sounded bitter. “All I wanted was a family. Not a stint in confinement.”
“Should have thought of that before stalking me across the country,” she said with no sympathy.
“She’s not yours to keep,” Lenny said to Dylan, his voice more normal now.
She swung back to them but kept Rick in her peripheral vision and her pepper spray trained on him.
“She belongs to the tigers,” Lenny said.
“No,” Dylan and Cat said at the same time.
“And I’m done with the tigers now,” Cat added. “No more. From any of you.”
“Or you’ll answer to the leopards,” Dylan said.
“You don’t want to do that on this coast,” a new voice said.
Every gaze turned to face the newcomer. Though Dylan didn’t move the barrel of his gun from Lenny’s forehead, Tom swung his around to face the potential new threat.
He was the first to let out a breath and lower his weapon. “You’re the Tracker,” he said.
“How can you tell?” Cat asked. Then she remembered. “You’re a hybrid. You can sense the tigers.”
Tigers sensed other tigers, where they were, sometimes even what form they were in, even when they weren’t visible or they’d kept downwind so their scents didn’t carry. And it turned out, hybrids could sense other tigers, too. She wasn’t hybrid, so she’d never had that advantage, but she realized Tom did. Amy did as well.
The other tiger could have been another irritating male come to join Lenny. But now that she paused to study him, she was sure Tom’s guess was right. The new tiger had that…thing she’d never been able to explain properly in words that most of the Trackers had. A kind of confident stillness. To be fair, the hot assassin who’d come after her sister all those years ago had had that same stillness. He’d been a Tracker before turning assassin, so that made sense. Amy’s biological father—also a former Tracker—had the stillness thing, too. It wasn’t like they looked like statues. And it wasn’t like they didn’t move. But there were no extra movements. They seemed to take in everything around them without appearing to look. And when they did move, it was with purpose.
“I’m Nick Lee,” the Tracker said.
Outside of his stillness, he was a pretty average looking man. Not unattractive at all. He was actually handsome, with black hair cut short and very dark brown eyes, but he wasn’t obvious either. Not the way Dylan was sort of smack-you-in-the-face handsome and sexy. Nick Lee was more subtle. Like you had to look at him twice before you’d notice him. She realized that was probably pretty useful for a Tracker.
“Sorry I wasn’t here earlier,” he added. “Got caught in the traffic leaving the place.”
Cat groaned and looked at Dylan who was still straddling Lenny and hadn’t moved the barrel of the gun from his forehead. “We’re gonna get stuck in that too on the way to Portland.”
“Sounds like,” he said, sounding resigned and normal and not like he was holding a tiger down at gun point. Though his eyes continued to glow faintly. He was very still now too, coiled, like he was ready to act at any moment. And while he had the gun on Lenny, his gaze was steady on Nick.
She faced Nick again. “There was a third tiger but he took off. I didn’t know him. He’s not one of the males who’s been harassing me for months.”
“Lenny and Rick have been?” Nick asked.
She didn’t have to ask how Nick knew their names. She’d told Elizaveta who they were. If she sent a Tracker, she’d have given the Tracker all the information he needed.
“They wrapped it up in pretty words, but yeah, they’ve been persistently pestering me back in New York. More so than the others.”
“Others?” Nick asked, raising his brows.
She rolled her eyes. “Too many males thinking my womb is open for business.” She snarled at that. “You know, you people have a serious issue with this, right? The way your males act.” She realized she was talking to one of those males as she spoke, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t cared from the beginning.
Too many of the young tiger males acted this way. It was a really serious issue in the tiger society. And it felt like no one did anything about it. The Mate Run—their standard answer to keeping the males in line, allowing the female tigers choice, but still giving the illusion of competition—had been breaking down for the last twenty or thirty years, maybe longer. Maybe it hadn’t ever really been a great solution.
Cat hadn’t been around two hundred years ago, when tiger society had fallen into blood and death and chaos. She couldn’t judge their solution at the time because it had worked—enough to keep them from complete extinction. But it wasn’t working anymore. Hadn’t worked well in years. The males had grown entitled. And the fact that they now felt entitled to any possible person who might be able to bear them children only compounded the problem.
“For the record,” she said, “I’m not eligible for this weird tiger version of courting anymore. Spread the word.”
Nick nodded. “Elizaveta said as much. The word is being spread.” He glanced at Lenny and Rick. “The rest of the males will abide by your choice.”
“You sure?” she said with no little annoyance.
“If not, they’ll have to face the full force of our laws,” Nick said, sounding very matter-of-fact.
“And ours,” another new voice said into the quiet that followed his statement.
Now who was joining the party? Cat turned to face yet another newcomer.
The woman was average height, maybe five foot six, with thick brown-black hair pulled up into a bun. She was dressed elegantly in wide-legged pants and a button down shirt, yet still managed to look like she fit in the campsite surroundings. Which was a strange contrast that would have sent Cat down an analysis hole under different circumstances. The woman held herself almost regally, but with a calm quiet that nearly matched the Tracker’s stillness.
Dylan sighed loudly enough for the entire site to hear. “You didn’t need to come all this way,” he said to the woman.
“Of course I did. You’re my youngest. You might be an adult, but you’re still my baby.”
Cat pressed her lips together even as Dylan rolled his eyes. This was Dylan’s mother? Shit. Dylan’s mother. She hadn’t anticipated meeting this powerful woman so soon.
The woman’s dark-eyed gaze moved to her, and she smiled very faintly. “Catalina Donovan. I’m Maria Jones. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“You too. I think. Depends on how all this goes.” Cat gestured at her surroundings.
Maria showed no reaction to that comment. She faced Nick. “Elizaveta was kind enough to call me, too. The tiger in this territory that was involved but ran away, he’ll be watched.”
Nick tilted his head down in a brief nod. “Seems fair. Let us know if he causes any more trouble. We’ll take care of him.”
“Will my son’s mate have any more trouble from the tigers?”
“No.” Nick stared at Maria’s raised brow. His confidence meeting hers.
Cat watched, fascinated. If she hadn’t been the center of this conversation, this all would have been even more interesting.
“I’ll take these two back to the elders to face trial,” Nick said. He glanced at Lenny. “Attacking another shifter, in broad daylight when humans could witness the fight is against our laws.”
“He challenged him,” Cat said, not even a little sorry to throw Lenny under the bus. “To a death match.”
That was very illegal in tiger society, among other tigers. Ending death matches was the reason the whole Mate Run thing had been instituted. Starting one could get a tiger sent to confinement for months, sometimes years depending on the outcome. She wasn’t sure what happened when they challenged other shifters, but she imagined it was a similar offense. And Lenny officially deserved to be locked up because he’d tried to hurt Dylan. She had no sympathy for the asshole at all.
Nick’s gaze moved to Dylan and Lenny. “This true?” he asked Dylan.
Cat scowled. “Of course, it’s true. You think I’m lying?”
Nick had the sense to look chagrinned. “Sorry. Force of habit to confirm information.”
Cat made a disgusted noise. “If I say it, it’s true.”
“She’s very smart,” Dylan said. “I wouldn’t argue with her.”
That mollified her irritation.
“I’ve heard,” Nick said, giving her a slight smile. “Sorry to cause offense.”
“You’re forgiven. This time.”
“Fair enough.” He gestured at Dylan. “I’ll take him now, if that’s okay?”
Dylan rose slowly, but he kept the gun pointed at Lenny even as he moved toward Cat.
Nick gestured at Lenny. “Up. My car’s this way. Do I have to bind you or will you face the elders freely?”
Lenny snarled at Cat. “This is your fault.”
Argh, she was going to lose her shit with these guys. Seriously. “Why? Why do you all insist on blaming other people for your actions? You did what you did and now you have to pay for it. All you. All. You.”
“Some men never learn,” Maria said, her tone philosophical. “It’s a problem.” She shrugged.
Since Maria was the only other woman present, Cat appreciated the support.
Lenny rose to a crouch, his stare on Dylan. “I’ll be seeing you again,” he whispered in a quiet hiss.
Cat blinked and Maria was standing beside Lenny, his head pulled back sharply by his hair, and her claws against his throat. Tiger shifters didn’t do partial shifts. They couldn’t actually let claws out of their fingers without changing into their animal form. Maria was still very much in human form, but the claws that had erupted from her fingertips were all big cat. Sharp and deadly. She tapped one of those claws against Lenny’s jugular.
“My son has a large and very dangerous family,” she whispered, but loud enough for the others to hear. “His mate is part of that family now. And we kill to protect family.” She dragged her claw gently against Lenny’s throat and a thin line of blood appeared in its wake.
The wound healed almost immediately, but a few drops of blood remained to prove Cat hadn’t imagined the injury.
Maria’s voice dropped further. “I take threats to my family very seriously, young tiger. You’d do well to keep away.”
“I wouldn’t upset her anymore,” Nick said. He hadn’t moved from his spot several yards away, but he’d crossed his arms over his chest, looking perfectly at ease with Maria threatening to kill Lenny.
“Wow,” Cat said in a whisper to Dylan. “Your mom is impressive. And scary.”
He nodded. “Tried to warn you.”
“I like it,” Cat said.
This earned a faint smile from Maria, though she didn’t loosen her grip on Lenny. To him, she said, “I will release you to your people’s justice. But know, Catalina Donovan is protected by the leopards now.”
She stepped away from Lenny in a graceful move that appeared effortless and yet Lenny still ended up on his face in the dirt.
“Yeah, I like her a lot,” Cat said to Dylan, grinning at Maria.
Maria raised her brows in response, her only show of reaction.
34
Nick wasted no time scooping Lenny off the ground. He wrenched his hands behind his back, a move that made the tiger wince and snarl in response. The Tracker ignored Lenny’s quiet curse and glanced at Tom. “Elizaveta sends her thanks for everything. She’ll be in touch later.”
“Always a pleasure to work with Elizaveta,” Tom said.
Cat felt her own brows rising to her hair line at Tom’s quiet smile as he said pleasure, his gaze turned inward. There was a story there between Tom and Elizaveta. That was very interesting. Her curiosity nearly had her blurting out questions but she figured she better let Nick haul Lenny and Rick away first.
Cat plucked at her shirt as sweat trickled down her back. She wasn’t sure if the sweat was from the climbing mid-day heat or her earlier fear and anger. Either way, the knowledge sunk in that she wasn’t exactly at her best for meeting Dylan’s mother. Too late to change that now. But she would have preferred to at least have her hair combed and be less sweaty in front of a shifter who could smell her emotions.
Rick dragged himself to his feet as Nick approached and walked ahead of the Tracker without argument. He gave Lenny a sour look, and glanced back at her once. But he didn’t comment as he stalked away.
She’d half expected a parting insult or something. That Rick didn’t do that made her think better of him. Not much better. But better than she thought of Lenny.
“Well, this is an interesting first meeting,” Maria said into the ensuing silence.
Cat huffed out laugh. Dylan’s mother was good at understatement.
Dylan shook his head at Maria. “Thanks for the backup. I had this, though.”
She shrugged. “I know. I taught you well.” She nodded at his shotgun. “But as I said, you’re my baby.” She glanced at Cat. “And I wanted to meet your mate. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Deacon.”
Cat frowned up at Dylan.
Dylan said, “My oldest brother took months to introduce his mate to the family. My mother was less than pleased.”
“Yes,” Maria said dryly.
That was the mate who was also a human. Had Deacon delayed introducing his mate for so long because she was human and not a shifter?
Maria was a strong and scary matriarch. It was important to know where she stood with the woman. And Cat liked to have as much information about a situation as possible.
So she asked, “Do you have an issue with me being human?” Curious but not accusatory. If Maria had a problem with her being human, that would just be something they had to deal with going forward. But she did want to know before they went any further.
