Eminence Shifters 8

Kenzie

Cougar shifters Rayne, Trace, and Baylor Soames have isolated themselves from their pride, and from life, for four decades. They’d hoped Trace would finally heal from the horrific torture that left him to battle debilitating PTSD. A forced trip home to Eminence changes everything when they find their mate.

Mackenzie Thurling is Eminence’s bank manager. When her bank is robbed and she’s assaulted, she’s rescued by a terrifying and compelling stranger. Meeting him—and his brothers—changes everything Kenzie previously believed about her home town.

The failed robbery attempt, the death of one of the robbers, and the capture of another pit an entire bear-shifter sleuth against the Eminence pride. They seek revenge and the return of the bear Alpha’s lover, bringing death to Eminence and starting a war.

When only Rayne embraces the gift of his mate and the ties to his pride, loyalties are divided among the brothers as they all fight to survive.

Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

Length: 67,812 words 

KENZIE

Eminence Shifters 8

Ashley Malkin

￼

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

KENZIE

Copyright © 2017 by Ashley Malkin

ISBN: 978-1-64010-403-7

First Publication: June 2017

Cover design by Harris Channing

All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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PUBLISHER

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com 

DEDICATION

Dear Readers,

Thank you for buying this legal copy of my work. I dedicate this book to my wonderful step-daughter, Lexie. She is my biggest supporter and never seems to tire of listening to my ideas. She has a love of reading that rivals my own and together we lose ourselves in the infinite possibilities of paranormal fiction. Thank you, Lexie, for caring, for listening, and for inspiring me to continue delving into my imagination and writing even more stories.

Ashley 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ashley was born in England but has lived in Australia since she was three years old. Her love of reading has grown into a love of writing stories. All her stories will have a happy-ever-after, because that’s what she feels everyone deserves. In Ashley’s world, love conquers all adversity and their trust and faith bring about the infinite happiness her characters deserve. She hopes you enjoy escaping into her world for a little while.

For all titles by Ashley Malkin, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/ashley-malkin

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

About the Author

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

Landmarks

Cover

KENZIE

Eminence Shifters 8

ASHLEY MALKIN

Copyright © 2017

Chapter One

“This is bullshit,” Trace said vehemently, voicing his displeasure at their current assignment. “It’s a bullshit patrol, drummed up by that sadist Cooper, just to make us jump through his enforcer-invented hoops.”

“I agree wholeheartedly, brother of mine,” Baylor said. “Both on the bullshit assignment and the fact Cooper is a sadist. Nothing ever happens in Eminence, let alone from midnight to dawn.”

“He obviously has something against us getting a good night’s sleep.” Trace growled as he bumped fists with Baylor and glared at their brother, Rayne, who was smiling as he surveyed the completely empty main street.

Trace was well aware that Rayne was enjoying being back home in Eminence after so many years away, but did the bastard have to smile so damned much? Trace wanted to go back to the Yukon. Back to where they’d spent the last forty-odd years roaming the wilds as cougars.

Trace hated everyone, humans especially. Hated everyone but his brothers. Given half a chance, people would use any cause to become barbaric animals. Then they’d free their true natures and inflict pain and depravity on anyone they could. Trace knew this for a fact. He had the scars to prove it.

“Stop snarling, for fuck’s sake,” Baylor hissed. “You’ll wake up the town and then we’ll have to talk to them, reassure them that there’s not a wild animal roaming the streets.”

“There is a wild animal roaming the streets,” Rayne said impassively. “He’s just masquerading as a human right now.”

“Fuck you,” Trace said, flipping his brother the bird.

They hit the end of the main street and split up, walking back through town using side streets. They checked the alleys for any paranormal or human intruders.

“This is futile,” Trace said softly, knowing his brothers would both hear him. The snow was thick on the ground, but Trace left no footprints and made no sound. He was a cat and a trained special-ops soldier.

Trace may have thought this assignment was futile, and below him, but he still gave it one hundred percent of his concentration. He was never going to be caught off guard again. Never going to be held against his will. The narrow alley he was walking down seemed to loom closer on each side as his memories of the pit filled his mind.

Trace tried to control his breathing as the alley closed in around him and the smell of the pit suddenly swamped his senses. He opened his mouth to scream, but found his throat was clogged with the stench of human waste and rotting flesh. His own rotting flesh, his own waste.

The thick, muddy walls of the pit pressed against his naked body as he tried to claw his way free. The sounds of men screaming in pain and others laughing in delight filled his mind. Lit cigarette butts rained down on him, sizzling on his damp, sweaty skin as they burned him.

“Trace. Trace, come back to us.”

“Eminence. We’re in Eminence. You’re safe.”

“We won’t let anything happen to you, Trace. Not again.”

Rayne. Baylor. They’d finally come for him. They’d taken him out of that hell.

“Eminence. We’re home.” Rayne said softly.

Warm arms embraced him, lifted him from his knees. Rayne and Baylor were holding him. Rayne and Baylor had come. They always came when Trace got lost in his waking nightmares.

“I got this,” Trace said, his voice sounding hoarse as he shrugged out of his brother’s tight hold. “Thanks.”

“Three more hours and we get to eat Melanie’s muffins straight out of the oven,” Rayne said.

Trace saw the lines of worry etched around his brother’s eyes. Lines that he’d put there. “Those fucking muffins are the only reason I don’t take off and head back to Canada.”

“She’s an amazing cook,” Baylor agreed. “If she wasn’t mated to the Alpha, I’d steal her away.”

“You’d still have to get past Cooper, Hunter, and Dane,” Rayne said.

“I’d put up a good fight,” Baylor said, his pupils bleeding to yellow as his cat surfaced. “I fucking love her muffins.”

Trace couldn’t stop the smile that stretched his lips. Baylor was being an idiot. He was a vicious bastard, no denying it, but he also had too much respect for the men of the pride—and the mating bond itself—to ever seriously consider stealing away with a mate.

“Don’t forget her pies,” Trace said, shaking off the last of his panic. “If it wasn’t for the fact Finn is the size of a barn, I might have joined you in that fight.”

“When we find our mate, we’ll have to ask Melanie to teach her how to cook all those treats she lavishes on us,” Rayne said.

Trace and Baylor both turned to look at Rayne. He had to be joking. Trace knew he couldn’t be serious. They didn’t want a mate. They weren’t mate material. Well, he and Baylor weren’t.

“Mate?” Baylor asked.

“You say that as though it would be a curse, not a blessing,” Rayne said, his own cougar surfacing and making his eyes glow brightly in the dark alley.

“It would be a fucking curse. For her!” Trace knew very well he was barely able to look after himself, let alone a woman. A Mate. Trace shook his head. “If it weren’t for the two of you…”

“Don’t fucking say it, Trace. Don’t even think it,” Baylor interrupted. “I won’t last a single day without you. I’d have no reason to. We’re in this together. We stay together and we stay alive. It’s that simple.”

Trace flashed to that terrible march out of the jungle. To the way his brothers had fought to get him home to safety. They’d had to fight the enemy and they’d had to keep Trace from giving in to his injuries and despair. They’d been the only reason he’d made it out still breathing.

“It’s still the truth. I can’t be responsible for a mate.”

“If we follow the trend of the rest of the men in this pride, then you wouldn’t be caring for her alone, Trace,” Rayne said. “We’d be doing it together. The same way we do everything.”

“We don’t need anyone else,” Baylor said. “We have everything we’ll ever need. Leave it alone, Rayne. Trace is all that matters. We keep him safe and whole. This town is fucking with your mind.”

“We came back to see to Mom and Dad’s affairs. Once the ranch is sold, we go back,” Trace said. “You promised, Rayne.”

Trace winced as he saw the pain wash briefly through Rayne’s eyes before he masked it again. The sooner they got back to their mountain in the Yukon the better. No one would hurt them there. No one would find them. Rayne would see that he didn’t need anyone else. He’d see they were better off alone.

He had to, because Trace didn’t know how much longer he could stay here. He was dying here. He was slowly being sucked back to that pit and one day he knew he may never find his way free.

* * * *

Kenzie let the blind slip through her fingers as the three men walked down the street away from the bank. She smiled as she remembered a time, not four months ago, when she wouldn’t have paid them the slightest bit of notice. Before she knew that such wildly imagined creatures were actually real.

“How the hell had I never noticed that so many men in this town were really wolves? I must have had my head up my ass my entire life.”

Kenzie padded back to her desk in her stockinged feet. When she worked late into the night she allowed herself the luxury of taking off her high heels. Those she reserved for the bank’s business hours.

She sat back behind her desk and stretched. “One more hour and I’m heading home. No more wasting time ogling the hot men.”

The men she’d been staring at had been patrolling the streets for the last two weeks. They were obviously ex-military. She could set her watch by their movements. They passed the bank at exactly seven minutes past the hour from midnight to at least three in the morning, anyway. That was the latest she’d ever stayed back.

It was also obvious that they were not fully human. The way they moved with such fluid grace and unleashed power was too similar to what she’d witnessed in Canada, at her sister’s wedding. Kenzie closed her eyes and let her mind drift back over every detail of that enchanted night. The night she’d felt all her child-like wonder of life return.

Lara’s wedding had been held at the Heartland Forest near Niagara Falls. It was a magical wedding and a magical venue. Too excited to sleep, Kenzie had wrapped herself in a blanket and sat in the recliner on her room’s small balcony. She’d sat there for hours and enjoyed the beauty and ambience of the serene moonlit night.

When two wolves had run from the trees and splashed playfully in the stream below her balcony, she’d been thrilled. She’d been almost too afraid to breathe for fear of scaring them off. So, she sat, still and silent as she enjoyed the sight.

Of course, she nearly passed out when they turned into two naked men. Lara’s new brothers-in-law. She deduced, if Dean’s brothers could turn into wolves, then Dean most certainly could, as well.

She never told her sister, or anyone, what she’d seen. She knew it was a secret for a good reason, or Lara would have shared it with her already. She did, however, watch Dean and his family very closely as they said farewell to the guests the next day, and it had been glaringly obvious that they were not human. None of them.

The way they moved, the way they watched their wives and children—as if ready to kill anyone who threatened them. It was so predatory, so primal. So, damned sexy. Kenzie vowed then and there to keep the secret, and Lara, safe.

When she’d returned to Eminence, however, she saw that she’d been blind to things in her own town, as well. The sheriff, the fire chief—definitely wolves. Then there was the town’s unofficial mayor, Finn Frederick. How could someone as big as a barn move like a ninja unless they were supernatural? Answer, they couldn’t.

Kenzie treated them no differently when they came into her bank to conduct their business, but she saw them now for what they were. She was never leaving Eminence, not ever.

She’d been offered a promotion to be the manager of the main branch of the Bank of Colorado in Denver, but she was reluctant to leave now that she’d discovered werewolves existed. She felt as though she was a guardian of their secret somehow, even though the wolves weren’t aware of her knowledge.

She sighed, knowing she was being an idiot. “Like they need me to help them. They’re strong, powerful and awesome. I’m nothing. What the hell am I staying here for?”

She sighed again as she glanced at her window, remembering the three men patrolling the town. The way they moved was beautiful to behold. They didn’t just walk, they stalked. Their shoulders rolling smoothly as they shifted the weight of their massive frames precisely and proudly. They seemed aware of each step they took, constantly immersing all their senses in the world around them. Constantly on guard, always scanning their surroundings.

“Fascinating,” she murmured. “Maybe I’ll leave when it stops being so incredible to watch them.” She took off her glasses and rubbed at her tired eyes. “Wolf-candy is not worth losing another hour’s sleep.”

She slid her glasses back on and focused once more on her monitor. She was determined to get the loan approval done for the young couple she’d seen earlier today. The woman had looked like her baby may be born any day, and Kenzie wanted them to know they could buy the small cottage they had their hearts set on before that happened.

Kenzie finished the loan application and sent it off to the Bank of Colorado’s head office. She slipped her feet back into her heels and shut down her computer.

She was trudging through the snow a few minutes later, rugged up and in desperate need of sleep. She loved her job as the Bank Manager of Eminence’s only bank, but right now she could have done without the bone-numbing cold.

* * * *

“How much longer do you want to wait?” Marshall asked, his impatience making him sound every inch the bear he was. “I’m not getting any fucking younger.”

“No, just uglier,” Leith said, throwing him a can of beer.

“My contact says the cats patrolling at night are new to town, but they’re ex-military. She says their vicious fuckers, too.” Geordie smiled down at his cell phone. “They’ve not broken routine on their search grid for the past three nights I’ve had her watching them.”

Marshall watched their brother Geordie as he slipped the cell phone back into his jeans pocket. Geordie was small for a bear shifter, pretty, too. It’s how he got all the ladies eating out of his hand and sucking his cock.

Marshall felt his lip curl as his resentment stirred and his dick hardened. It had been a long time since he’d had a woman willingly see to his needs. Not that he minded taking the unwilling ones, he just wished he’d been handed a few of the same genes that saw Geordie get so lucky all the time.

“I’m heading back to our room. Don’t come around for a couple of hours.”

“Not sharing this particular morsel,” Leith said, his eyes blazing red.

Marshall was glad he wasn’t the only frustrated one. “You’ve kept this one to yourself all week, Geordie. Are you getting serious about her?”

“Perhaps she’s a troll,” Leith said. “We know you’re not particularly fussy when it comes to women. Men, on the other hand, you’re quite singular in your choice.”

Geordie’s smirk turned into a sneer as he took a step toward Leith. Marshall stepped between them. Leith would kill Geordie if he wasn’t careful, then their Alpha would be pissed at him for not taking care of his pretty baby boy.

“Leave him be,” Marshall said, pushing Leith back along the bed of the truck. Leith’s head hit the metal toolbox with a satisfying thud. Leith just laughed, his brother was built like a tank. Marshall doubted anything could crack his thick skull. He ought to know, as twins, he’d been pounding on Leith their entire life.

“Geordie always shares when he’s done with them. Exercise a little patience. We have a job to do. The Alpha has the next job lined up for us in Wyoming.” Leith ignored him and continued to glare at their younger brother. “Go have your fun, Geordie. We’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

Leith jumped off the bed of the truck as Geordie climbed behind the wheel and pulled out of the rest stop with the wheels churning up the slush and ice. He was driving too fast as he headed back to their motel in Burnt Creek.

“If we can’t get past the cats patrolling at night, then I say we hit the bank first thing,” Leith said. “We probably have a better chance of getting away at that time, too. According to Geordie’s contact, the cats are real careful of the humans in their town. They won’t be able to shift if we hit them in the daytime.”

Marshall nodded, liking the idea more and more as he thought it through. “Who knew you’d come up with a good idea after all these years.”

“I’m more than just a pretty face, unlike Geordie.”

Marshall could smell the jealousy rolling off Leith. “I suppose Geordie has no say in how the Alpha treats him. None of us do. My only comfort is that perhaps Geordie doesn’t even like the old bastard.”

Leith smiled cruelly as the red drained from his eyes. “It would serve him right if he didn’t.”

“True.” It made Marshall get all warm inside to imagine Geordie being unwilling as their huge Alpha took what he wanted from their little brother’s body. “So, we’re agreed? We hit the bank in the morning and move straight on to the next job.”

“I hope there’s no shifters in the next town. I’m sure the Alpha is giving us all the hard jobs.”

“Nah, he just knows we’re the best.”

“Tomorrow the pussy cats of Eminence are going to see that first hand,” Leith said, his eyes shining brightly in the night. “I hope they put up a fight.”

“Which is why I’m going to leave you outside the city limits.” Marshall turned and started walking back to their hotel. “We don’t want any complications this time.”

“That wasn’t a complication, that was fun,” Leith said, stepping up to his side and bumping him with his shoulder. “You know it was.”

Marshall’s cock thickened as he recalled the bank manager of the last bank they’d robbed. She’d been the reason they’d taken hours to empty the vault instead of minutes. What a few hours that’d been, though.

“I hear the bank manager in Eminence is a pretty little thing, too.”

Marshall licked his lips as he considered Leith’s words. “Maybe a little complication would be nice.” 

Chapter Two

Rayne sat with his brothers at the diner as they drank coffee and waited for the bank to open. Once he deposited this latest batch of checks, they’d head home and do some chores before hitting the sack for a few hours’ sleep before tonight’s patrol shift.

“Who still uses checks?” Baylor asked miserably. “Hasn’t internet banking made it here yet?”

“Says the man who only just got a smartphone,” Trace said, glaring at Rayne as he sipped his coffee.

“Says the man who doesn’t even own a phone,” Rayne said, shooting Baylor a smirk. He wasn’t concerned about Trace’s bad moods. He reserved all his worry for the times Trace was lost to his fear and pain. Times that were becoming more frequent now they all spent less time as their cougars.

“It’s nearly nine,” Trace said, his voice laced with the growl of his caged cat. He glared around at the other diners, his lip curling as a soft snarl slipped free. “Baylor and I will wait here. It doesn’t take the three of us to hand over the checks.”

Rayne nodded and slipped Baylor a quick glance. Baylor’s nod was barely perceptible, but Rayne saw it. Baylor would watch over Trace. He left the diner without another word, and had crossed the street in time to walk into the bank with a few other customers who’d been waiting outside the bank for it to open.

It was too warm inside for him. He’d become accustomed to the freezing conditions of the Yukon, and central heating made him feel claustrophobic. Shit, I’m getting as bad as Trace. I need to either get my humanity back, or give it up for good. There really was no choice, though. He’d never leave Trace alone. Never. Trace would die if they left him to his demons.

Rayne completed the deposit slip and joined the small queue for the single teller. He supposed tellers may eventually be unnecessary with the way computers were taking over the world, but for now, the young man had a job.

The loud slam of the main doors closing sounded like a gunshot and had him reaching for his absent sidearm. He spun as his hand clasped over the empty space on his thigh.

“Fuck.” The muttered curse was drowned out by the cocking of a shotgun. Rayne’s shifter senses took in the scene unfolding before him.

“Down. Everyone get down on the floor!” one of two men holding the loaded shotguns said. “Do it!”

Rayne railed against his feelings of helplessness, but did as he was told. There were seven humans in the bank, including the teller, and the men holding the guns were aiming them directly at him.

It was exactly what Rayne would have done in their shoes, too. The men were both shifters, bear shifters, and Rayne was currently their biggest threat. They’d scented him just as easily as he’d scented them.

“Don’t even think about it,” the second man whispered, stepping up to Rayne and holding the shotgun barrel against his temple. “Lie flat on the floor like a good little kitty-cat and no one will get hurt.”

Rayne swallowed a snarl as he held his hands above his head and slowly knelt. He then reluctantly moved to lie flat on the floor. The bear put one booted foot on his back, effectively rendering Rayne helpless to make a move without him feeling it.

“Where’s that pretty bank manager at?”

“Come on out here, precious, or we start shooting the customers.”

Rayne felt small vibrations on the old bank’s floorboards and then heard a door being opened. What came next nearly made him shift on the spot.

“I’m here. I’ll give you whatever you want. You don’t need to hurt anyone.”

Her words were spoken smoothly, with no tremor betraying any fear or anxiety. Her scent as it hit him like a wrecking ball, however, told him something else entirely. The woman was both terrified and angry. She was also his.

She smelled like ripe berries in the spring. Sweet and juicy. His cat tore at him. It wanted to rip the bears apart for holding guns on his mate. Scaring his mate. Looking at his mate.

“What a delightfully suggestive offer, pretty lady. What say you, brother? Shall we each have a few minutes alone time with this morsel before we take our money and run?”

Over my fucking dead body. Rayne didn’t know how he remained human, how he even remained sane as the scent of their lust filled his senses. He took shallow breaths as the scent of his mate’s terror drowned out the smell of the bear’s filthy arousal. He desperately tried to remember he was more than just a cougar, he was a soldier, too. He was trained for this. No one would hurt his mate while he drew breath.

* * * *

“What the fuck now?” Baylor said, rising so quickly he sent the table crashing to the floor. Sirens pierced the air, drowning out the sound of his and Trace’s cups smashing.

“Are they stopping at the bank?” Trace said, running to the door at a speed that was far from human.

“Trace, wait.” Baylor ground his teeth together as he became stuck in a gridlock of people trying to exit the diner to see what was happening across the street.

Hunter Frederick and his brother, Dane, had stopped Trace some ten feet from the bank’s closed doors. They were each holding one of Trace’s arms in an iron grip as he struggled to get free.

“I’ve got him,” Baylor said, shoving Trace back against Hunter’s truck and planting his fist against his sternum. “Trace, there are too many people watching. Stay with me, now.”

“Rayne,” Trace ground out the word, his canines so long his words were garbled.

“Rayne is inside?” Hunter asked. Baylor nodded as Trace growled, his eyes beginning to change to amber.

“Do you want to get him killed?” Dane said, leaning in and gripping the sides of Trace’s head. “Listen to what we know so far. Assess for yourself what needs to be done. You’re not alone here, Trace. More help is on the way. We’re going to make sure everyone stays safe, including your brother.”

“What exactly is happening in there?” Trace said slowly. Baylor watched Trace’s cat slowly recede from his eyes as he pulled himself back under control.

“Can you believe someone is trying to rob the bank?” Hunter said, his tone arctic. “Our fucking bank.”

More deputies arrived, some human, and Baylor pushed harder against Trace’s chest. “We need to help the people in there, not worry about you, Trace. Losing it is going to get Rayne killed.”

“Bears,” Trace said, shaking free of Dane’s hold and pushing easily from Baylor’s restraining fist. “I scent bears.”

Baylor took a deep breath, as did Hunter and Dane.

“A shifter comes in here and does this in our town?” Dane swore as he pulled out his cell phone. “Samson. No, we don’t have it under control, actually. We need some of your men. The two men robbing the bank are shifters. Bears, to be specific.”

Dane had spoken too softly for anyone but a shifter to hear and the deputies were now moving people off the main street.

“How do you know there are only two of them?” Baylor asked, watching Trace closely as his brother paced a few steps away and stared intently at the bank’s closed doors.

“The bank manager, Mackenzie Thurling, pushed the silent alarm and called 911,” Dane said. “She’s smart, too. She relayed as much information as she could before the robbers called her out of her office, but she left the line open.”

“You have ears inside the bank?” Trace moved too quickly to Dane’s side.

“Careful, Trace,” Hunter said softly. “The whole fucking town is looking at us right now.”

“If Finn sees you doing that shit he’ll order you to leave,” Dane said threateningly. “Is that what you want?”

That threat hit the mark. Trace shuddered and shook his head. “I’m good. Sorry. It’s just…” Dane clasped Trace’s shoulder and just nodded his understanding.

“What can you hear through the phone line, Dane?” Baylor asked. Fear slithered down his spine as Hunter and Dane exchanged guarded looks. “What? Is Rayne hurt?”

“There are two robbers in there,” Hunter started.

“Bears,” Trace interrupted, his voice sub-vocal as his soldier took over from his cat’s feral drive to tear into the bank for their brother.

Baylor wouldn’t stop him if it looked like Rayne would be hurt. Without Rayne, he and Trace would be lost. They’d be dead already if it weren’t for him.

“Before we left the office we heard them order someone, we can only assume it was Rayne, since we now know he’s in there, onto the floor. They called him kitty-cat. So, they’re very aware he’s a shifter and they’ll be watching him closely.”

“He won’t risk exposing us,” Baylor said, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose as his cat’s howls of rage threatened to tear his mind apart. “No matter what they do to him, or the humans inside. Rayne is too controlled to let his cat take over. You don’t have to worry about him on that score.”

Hunter closed his eyes and held up his hand to silence Baylor. He pushed the ear-bud deeper into his ear as he swore and locked gazes with Dane.

“What the fuck are they thinking?” Dane said, tipping his head as he listened to the same conversation Hunter was having.

“Cameron Harvey is back at the station, he’s listening to the open line,” Hunter said.

“Has Rayne been hurt?” Trace asked, lifting his head and scenting the air deeply. “I can’t smell his blood.”

“No, he’s fine, although I think your belief in his control is about to be sorely tested.” Hunter pulled out his cell phone the instant Baylor heard it vibrate. “Samson, send Evan Harvey. We need a sniper.”

Baylor frowned and waited for Hunter to elaborate. His cat was pacing restlessly and he saw Trace shudder as his own cat pushed to be allowed free to go and get their brother. Cam was speaking too softly for them to hear the communications and Baylor found it frustrating as hell to be out of the loop when Rayne was in danger.

“Give them communicators so they can hear everything Cam’s relaying,” Dane said. “We have enough problems without their cats complicating things by making a very public appearance in the middle of a bank siege.”

Hunter stalked around to the passenger side of his patrol car and returned with two sets of communicators. “Channel 4,” he said simply. “I need to call Finn.”

Baylor and Trace quickly tuned in the handsets and pushed in the small ear pieces. Their eyes locked as they heard what Cameron Harvey was saying. His voice was a rough grumble, his cat’s anger dripping from every word.

“I might shift and go in there myself if those fuckers carry out their threat. I won’t simply listen on speaker and do nothing while they beat and rape that poor woman.”

* * * *

Kenzie couldn’t help the cry of pain that shot from her mouth as the man back-handed her. She was thrown against the counter, her head striking the edge hard before her legs completely collapsed and she slumped to the floor.

She was immediately lifted into the air as the smaller of the two men gripped her arm in a painful hold and set her on her feet. “You pushed the fucking alarm, didn’t you?”

Kenzie’s ears were ringing and the room swam in and out of focus as she fought back the bile rising in her throat. Her face throbbed, her head felt like it had cracked open and her arm was being crushed by the man holding her. He was too strong for his size. Too powerful. She feared what he really might be.

If he was a wolf, then she and the customers in the bank were in more danger than just being shot. Shifters would not leave them alive to tell anyone what they’d seen if they betrayed themselves in here. She needed to think. She needed to think of a way to let them escape without them needing to expose what they truly were.

Her life, the life of her teller, and the customers depended on it. “I’ll give you the money.”

Kenzie hoped that was all they wanted now. She couldn’t see them wasting time on assaulting her when it sounded as though the entire sheriff’s department was now outside. Paul, her teller, was lying prone on the floor with the customers. He had his hands on his head, but he was staring up at her. He gave her a small nod and tried for a smile. She winced as she tried to smile back, her cheek throbbed and a trickle of blood ran from her split lip.

“Yes, you will.” The man holding her snarled as he shook her.

“There looks to be about ten cops out there already,” the larger man said. He’d moved to the side of the large glass window and was peering outside, his rifle, however, was pointed directly at a large man lying face down on the floor. “There’s a sea of uniforms out there.”

Kenzie’s gaze settled on the man the robber was aiming his rifle at. He was wearing black cargo pants and a tight black T-shirt. She recognized him immediately. He was one of them. One of the three men she’d watched patrolling the last few nights. Her breath hitched as he lifted his face and looked directly at her. His eyes, she could swear his eyes just shone like flashlights for a second. Is he a part of this? He’s a wolf, too. She couldn’t get her mind to work through all the possible scenarios when she was so scared.

“We still have some time,” the man holding her said, pulling her roughly along with him as he rounded the counter. “They won’t risk the hostages until they’ve made contact and tried ‘negotiating.’” Kenzie’s ankle twisted and one shoe came loose as she tried to break from his punishing hold.

“Open the cash drawers.” He shrugged a backpack off his shoulder and let it slide to the floor, his other hand holding the rifle steady as he pointed it at her knee. “If I shoot you here, you won’t die straight away, but it will hurt so much you’ll wish for death. Put the money in the bag and then we’ll go to the vault. Together, just the two of us.”

Kenzie shuddered as a low growl rumbled through the air. She couldn’t take her eyes off the rifle pressed to her knee, so she didn’t know which of the three werewolves had just growled, but it was a terrifying and threatening sound that had her entire body erupting in goose bumps.

Kenzie’s mind continued to work sluggishly as she opened the cash drawer and frantically stuffed notes into the backpack. She was struggling to fight her fear and think of a way to get the robbers their money while keeping the hostages safe. As the manager, they were her responsibility. She needed to focus on minimizing the threat to them, not on her own pain, not on her own fear.

“Don’t mess her up too much, brother,” the larger man by the window said.

Kenzie rose and held out the bag of money. “All the money’s in there,” she said. Her voice sounded small and tremulous and she hated that she was so scared of what they had planned for her. She took a deep breath as she looked around at the scared people on the floor.

“You haven’t hurt anyone. If you tell them you’re taking me with you, the police will probably let you leave.”

“We have an escape plan already, pretty. It’s good to see you being so cooperative, though. Open the vault.”

He shoved her roughly against the metal of the vault door as he strode to the window, his shotgun pointed at the man in black. “I’ll stand guard. Get the cash and have your fun, but make it quick. Leith will have heard the sirens. He’ll be here soon.”

There was only her office and the vault behind the counter. She knew the police were listening. She’d made sure the phone was on conference before she’d left her office. They now knew the robbers were expecting help to arrive, and that they planned on hurting her. Kenzie just couldn’t see how that helped the other hostages, or herself, right now though. She had no other option but to do as she was told and trust in Sheriff Frederick.

She stopped looking at the huge man stalking toward her and focused on what she’d been told to do. Her hand shook as she pressed the combination into the vault’s electronic keypad and pulled back the heavy door once the lock disengaged.

The vault’s cold air washed over her as the robber pushed her roughly inside. She stumbled, her remaining shoe coming off as she fell to her knees on the concrete floor.

“This will be the first of many, bitch. Get used to being on your knees.” 

Chapter Three

Rayne closed his eyes and begged for his cat to remain calm. If he did something rash, not only would he have a shotgun wound to contend with, but he might get his mate shot, as well. She was just a tiny little thing, and yet the two bears had felt the need to hurt her. They would die for that alone.

His mate had been terrified and in pain as she’d bargained for the lives of the hostages, for his life. She was magnificent. He was in actual pain as he lay there, desperately needing to defend his mate, but unable to move for fear of getting her killed.

He needed help. He needed his brothers, his pride, like never before. He’d heard the police arrive, so knew Hunter was out there, but was helpless to communicate with any of the pride while he remained human.

When the bear pushed his mate into the vault and stepped in after her, Rayne felt hope surge. Now the odds were considerably better, and his tiny mate was out of the firing line.

Then he heard the big fucker in the vault speak. His lewd threat was followed by the unmistakable sound of a zipper. The sound echoed in the silence and speared Rayne’s heart. He was not going to lie here and do nothing while his mate was violated. Moving at a speed he didn’t know he was capable of, Rayne surged to his feet and ran directly at the bear by the window.

Glass shattered as the shotgun fired. Rayne and the robber both tumbled out onto the icy sidewalk. He felt nothing but rage. No pain, no fear, just the burning need to get to his mate before the bear…he couldn’t finish the thought. He slammed the bear’s skull onto the sidewalk before springing to his feet.

“Secure the prisoner, Dane,” Hunter said loudly.

Hunter’s words were ringing in his ears as he ran back inside at full, preternatural speed. His mate was still inside the vault. The stunned humans lying on the floor were only just beginning to lift their heads. He ran faster, determined they not see him as he passed them on the way to the vault.

A scream split the air as he pulled open the partly-closed metal door and saw his mate sprawled face down on the floor. Her clothes were torn and her body bare from the waist down.

The huge bear turned his torso toward Rayne, his shotgun raised. Rayne let his cat’s fury loose. His claws pierced through his fingertips as he shoved the shotgun aside. The blast echoed around the vault as Rayne reached out and gripped the man’s head.

His claws dug deeply into the monster’s skull as he twisted sharply. The sound of vertebrae snapping made a satisfying crunch. Rayne released the bear’s head and watched dispassionately as the man slid lifelessly to the ground.

A small sob had his gaze snapping to the tiny, brave woman who was now his life. Her eyes were wide with fear, her face covered in blood as she stared at him, her torn skirt clutched to her body.

“Thank you.” She smiled at him, blood running off her chin from a nasty gash on her lip. His breath caught in his throat and his heart thundered.

“You…we…beautiful.” The words came out garbled, so he took a deep breath and tried again. “You’re welcome, beautiful.”

* * * *

Trace was beside Hunter as Dane put thick manacles on the semi-conscious bear, noting that Dane had surreptitiously plunged his claws deep into the robber’s side. The blood was hidden amongst the blood leaking from the numerous cuts the broken window had inflicted.

Rayne had vanished back into the bank before Hunter had finished speaking. Trace was confused. A state he found himself in more and more as he was forced to wear his human form for such long periods.

“God, no.” He heard Baylor speak and turned to find his brother was a blur of motion as he pushed past him and entered the bank at only a slightly faster than human pace.

Now Baylor had gone in there. Rayne had been free. He’d been safe out on the street having incapacitated one of the stinking bears already. Trace sniffed, his lip curling at the stench of bear.

“Hunter, why the hell did Baylor go inside?”

If Hunter answered, Trace didn’t hear him. When he’d sniffed at the offensive smell of frightened bear, he’d inhaled an unfamiliar scent that had taken his cat a few heartbeats to discern. While he’d been worrying about Rayne, and then Baylor, running back into the bank where a gunman was yet to be contained, his cat had deciphered the scent. Blood. Female. Mate.

No. It couldn’t be happening. As Trace’s mind rebelled at the very suggestion that he had a mate, his body propelled him through the shattered window. This is not happening. This is not happening.

His boots crunched on the broken glass. Humans rose from the ground and embraced each other, their voices an annoying drone in his ears.

His cat followed its nose. The rich, sweet scent of their mate’s blood drawing him like a moth to a flame. With each step the scent of her fear and pain, and her blood, thickened in the air.

His cat roared inside his mind, remembering the sound of a shotgun firing moments after Rayne had run back inside the bank. That thought had the human part of his mind focusing sharply on what had happened.

“Whether I’m capable, ready, or otherwise, of having a mate, she’s still mine. If that bear has hurt her?”

“Don’t.” Baylor blocked the gap in the partly opened vault door. The scent of his mate was driving him crazy. He needed, no, he had to get to her. He had to…

“What the fuck do you mean, don’t? Don’t what?”

“You and I are only going to add to her distress if we go in there, Trace.” Baylor stood his ground, crossing his arms over his chest. Baylor was vibrating with rage, but Baylor was always furious about something.

“Where is Rayne? Where is our mate? I want to see her, Baylor. I’m not going to be able to stop my—”

“Who are those men? Why are they here? Is it over, Mr.…”

Baylor closed his eyes, his body trembling. Trace found his cat was doing the same thing as it listened to the delicately feminine voice. Then he barreled into Baylor, sending his brother flying over his back as he ran into the vault.

Trace was a shifter, and had also trained as an army ranger a lifetime ago. Then, he’d lived as his cat for the last forty years. All of this had honed his innate abilities until he was deadlier than any native cougar. Deadlier than most shifters, too.

He swung his gaze around the vault, absorbed everything he saw, assessed it, and analyzed it in a nanosecond. The bear collapsed on the ground, his pants at his ankles, his head at an unnatural angle. An exquisite looking woman sat on the floor, her clothes torn or missing. The only woman in the vault. He was looking at his mate.

Her honey–blonde hair was pulled back in a messy bun, long tendrils escaping in shiny waves down the slender column of her neck. Her face was pale, with red blotches swelling rapidly as he gazed at her. Blood ran down her chin and dripped onto the clothes bunched on her lap. Her eyes were blue rimmed pools of black, her pupils wide as she stared at him.

Rayne was squatting in front of her, his hands outstretched, but not touching her, as she began to shake.

“Trace, this is the bank manager. She needs a doctor.” Rayne didn’t look at him as he spoke. He kept his gaze focused on their mate.

“I’ll get Jason,” Hunter said.

Trace was losing it. He hadn’t sensed Hunter approach as he stared at the woman before him. His gaze flicked momentarily to the dead bear, and he shuddered as he saw the man’s exposed genitals. He then stared hard at the woman’s torn clothes and bare legs. He shook his head, finding his vision blurring as his mind rebelled against the horrific thought forming. Had he raped her?

The woman leaned a little closer to Rayne and lifted her hand to her bruised mouth, cupping it with her hand. Rayne leaned closer, bridging the distance between them so she could whisper into his ear. Trace, however, had very good hearing. “Did he say bear? The robber isn’t a wolf like you?”

“Well, fuck,” Baylor said.

“Trace, step aside,” Finn said.

Trace did so instantly. He growled at his failure to notice the Alpha’s approach and stepped farther into the vault, closer to his mate. His mate stared up at him with wonder, not fear, on her beautiful, bruised face and Trace felt a thudding sensation in his chest. It was his heart. It felt as if it had started to beat for the first time in over forty years.

His life had just become infinitely more complicated, but he’d also been granted a small boon. It seemed his tiny, prim, and very human bank manager had been harboring a big, fat, furry secret. She already knew shape-shifters were real.

Chapter Four

“Miss Thurling, can I arrange for you to see Dr. Reed in his home clinic?”

Mr. Frederick may have been looking at her as he towered over her and filled the remaining space in the now crowded vault, but she knew from the way his eyes darted between the dead body, and the other men in the vault, that he was really just trying to get her out of the way so he could deal with the dead shifter.

A bear? Who the hell knew they were real, as well? Kenzie shuddered as she remembered the feel of his claws on her body, the rough scrape of his hairy skin against her naked flesh.

“Miss Thurling, are you going to be sick?”

Big, bad wolf number one, the one who’d saved her, was still squatting in front of her. He gave her a questioning look as he smiled. He then deftly caught a waste paper basket as it flew at her face. She’d seen none of the men in the vault move, but someone had thrown it.

“Here, you can use this. Can we have a blanket? Miss Thurling is going into shock.”

Kenzie shuddered and promptly lost the contents of her stomach. She retched until her stomach felt like it was going to turn inside out. Her eyes streamed with tears and she felt like she was going to faint when she swiped the back of her hand across her mouth to wipe away her drool and vomit. “Crap, my lip.”

As the throbbing in her lip waned a little, she became aware that big bad wolf number one was rubbing circles on her back with his large hand. Despite feeling gross, snotty, and bruised, she felt strangely comforted by the contact and began to relax back into his touch.

She shook her head and stiffened her spine as she realized what she’d been doing. She struggled against the lethargy and shock that was threatening to overwhelm her and remembered she had a job to do.

“I need to see to the safety of my co-worker and our customers. Please excuse me.”

Kenzie’s head throbbed as she spoke. She softly probed the spot that ached and winced at the painful lump she found at the back of her skull. When she drew her hand away her fingers were bloody.

“I can assure you that all the customers are unharmed, Miss Thurling,” the sheriff said. “You are the only casualty and I insist we get you to a doctor as soon as possible. If you won’t see Doctor Reed, I can have your…have my deputies take you to your own physician, or the local hospital.”

“I’m sorry, Sheriff Frederick, but there’s certain procedures I need to follow after an incident like this.” She shuddered again as she looked at the body of the dead man. The dead wolf, bear, whatever he was. “Especially when a death has occurred in the course of a robbery.”

“You’re hurt, Miss Thurling,” Finn Frederick said, putting his hand on big bad wolf number two as a growl rumbled from the man mountain. “Hunter is quite capable of dealing with the coroner and securing the bank while the Soames brothers see to your medical needs.”

Kenzie frowned as big, bad wolf number two stared intently at her from behind the messy curtain of his shoulder-length brown hair. His eyes almost shone. His body was vibrating as he stood beside Mr. Frederick.

Kenzie glanced to big, bad wolf number three. He wasn’t as tall, or as wide as big, bad number two, but he was still a good foot taller than her five-two, and he was all muscle. Short, military-style dark hair and dark green eyes. She would swear he seemed to be fighting to stay still. He appeared to be angry, and angry at her since she was the one he was glaring at. Kenzie felt sadness sweep through her, followed quickly by anger at herself.

Maybe I really do need to see a doctor. I’m having the most ridiculous thoughts. Of course he’d rather be somewhere else. There’s a dead body in here.

“This will help,” the man behind her said. Big, bad wolf number one draped a blanket over her shoulders and Kenzie pulled her legs up under it, suddenly very aware of the cold concrete under her naked ass.

“I need,” Kenzie’s teeth knocked together as tremors suddenly wracked her entire body. She tugged at the blanket, trying to pull it closer, but her fingers were shaking so much she couldn’t get a grip.

“Take her,” she heard Finn Frederick order. “Say nothing until Melanie and some of the other women are there. I’ll deal with the bears.”

The fact that Finn Frederick had taken control, not his brother, the sheriff, didn’t escape her notice as big, bad wolf number two swooped on her and gathered her in his arms.

“I have you now, little one. No one will hurt you.”

He stalked from the vault as he whispered the words into her hair. His lips brushed over the shell of her ear and more shivers wracked her body, these ones making her nipples harden. A wave of pleasure tingled down her spine.

“Who…who are you?” Kenzie managed as the man ignored the bank’s open doors and stepped through the broken glass of the front window and carried her across the street.

“Trace.”

Kenzie got only the briefest glimpse of a large crowd of people gathered outside the diner before she was carried around the corner. This was wrong. She needed to be at the bank until the glass was boarded up or replaced. She needed to talk to the customers who’d been held hostage. She needed to talk to Paul, debrief him and arrange for counseling if he needed it.

“Not happening. You’re hurt. You need to see a doctor,” Trace said. “I don’t give a shit about anything or anyone else right now. That fucker hurt you, he, he was, he…”

Kenzie’s mouth popped open. She hadn’t been aware she was speaking out loud.

“Trace. Let’s get her to Doc.” Big, bad wolf number one appeared from nowhere and opened a truck door. Trace placed her gently on the back seat. He stared down into her eyes, his massive body visibly trembling.

“I was outside. I didn’t know you were in there. Didn’t care about anything except my brother Rayne. I’m sorry.”

Kenzie saw pain, regret, and anger in his expressive eyes. “Rayne?”

“That would be me, sweetheart. I was in the bank when the fuckers came in. Thank god I was.”

Rayne. The man who’d saved her from…no, she wasn’t ready to go there yet. Her head throbbed and her body shook as she was swamped by an overwhelming fatigue. She’d deal with the bank and all the complications after a nap. She’d never felt this tired before.

* * * *

Geordie ignored the small stings as the broken glass dug into his back. He focused instead on the deputy who was placing thick manacles over his wrists. The cat was taller than him, tall for a cat, too, but he was still a cat. Geordie was a bear. The strongest of all the shifters. Geordie looked down at the restraints and flexed his muscles.

“Don’t even think about it,” the deputy said. “We’ve tested these on bigger bears than you. You won’t be breaking loose.”

The manacles were attached to a thick chain, the chain attached to a metal loop in the center of the concrete cell. The deputy pushed him onto a metal chair, the only piece of furniture in the room. The glass in his back dug deeper into his skin and a hiss of pain escaped his lips.

“Unusual cell for a county jail,” Geordie said, attempting to mask his expression of pain. He looked around at the bare walls and ceiling. The cell was solid concrete, except for the thick metal door they’d entered through.

“Not when you attract as many paranormal scumbags as we seem to.” He pushed Geordie’s legs against the chair and fastened thick metal bands over his ankles.

The deputy nodded at the massive man who entered the cell. “Thanks for coming so quickly, Samson.”

“Axel and Calder have completed a perimeter sweep of the town. The other one was waiting by the turn off to Burnt Creek. They’re tracking him now.”

The two men smiled when Geordie failed to hide his disappointment. He’d been counting on Leith coming to get him and Marshall out of this mess. Leith might have been a prick, but he was a proud prick. He wouldn’t leave his brothers behind. Well, not Marshall, anyway.

“Do you want to tell me now what the fuck the three of you think you were doing, or would you rather tell me after I’ve torn your balls off?”

The large man stepped closer, his eyes blazing amber as his cat began to surface. The guy looked to be nearly three hundred pounds as a human, as a cougar, he’d be enormous. Geordie’s balls shrank and pulled up close to his body as he fought to control his bladder. The cougar was about to tear off his nuts, Geordie was in no doubt of it.

“I want to speak to Marshall first.” Marshall was a bastard, but he was ruthless and smart. Marshall would be able to broker a deal with the cats that would see them live through this, maybe even see that they kept their nuts, as well.

“Marshall? He the fucker who thinks it’s fun to rape helpless women?” The deputy balled his hands into fists as he stepped up beside the man he’d called Samson.

“I listened to the 911 call,” Samson said. “They were both intending to rape the bank manager. I suspect you also planned on using her as a hostage to make your escape.”

Geordie flinched as the men both growled at him. He was telling them everything they wanted without even opening his mouth. He tried to school his features and hide his fear.

“Marshall. I want to speak to Marshall.”

Samson lifted his hand and smiled as long, curved claws sprang from his fingertips. Samson swiped his claws across his lap, tearing open his jeans and exposing his groin. Geordie was ashamed of the yelp that sprung from his mouth.

“I won’t be asking a third time. What. Were. You. Doing?”

* * * *

Leith was driving too fast as he neared the outskirts of Burnt Creek. He gritted his teeth and relaxed his foot off the accelerator, bringing the truck back under the speed limit. He didn’t need to be pulled over for speeding. Not when he only had murder on his mind. Marshall was dead. Some fucking bastard had killed his brother.

He’d known the job had gone bad as soon as he’d heard the sirens. That fact had not overly concerned him. They’d escaped plenty of times after the cops had come. They had a routine escape plan in place for such occurrences.

He was to wait thirty minutes before heading into town to collect his brothers. This gave them time to gather the cash and begin to throw some dead and dying humans out the door as a diversion for their escape. The police never bothered to pursue them until they’d seen to the stupid humans, and by that time, they were always long gone.

He was only a few minutes into his wait when he’d felt it. Felt the bond he shared with Marshall shatter and fade to nothing. His twin was dead. Leith had been too shocked to think, he’d just reacted on instinct. He’d turned tail and run.

Losing his twin had left a cold and aching hole in Leith’s soul. He’d never been alone before, not truly alone like this. He’d felt Marshall with every beat of his heart for as long as he’d lived, until now. The loss of their bond was unexpectedly painful. The feeling of weakness infuriating.

Now his panic was subsiding, he told himself he needed to put distance between himself and the stinking town so he’d have time to think. Think of a way to get Geordie out of there, assuming the little bastard was even still alive.

“He’s a sniveling little coward. Of course he’s alive. He wouldn’t even care that Marshall was dead as long as he saved himself.”

Leith felt a grin stretch his lips as his bear growled out his fury. “The Alpha will send me help to get Geordie back. The Alpha might even come himself, if it’s to rescue his pretty baby. Then I’ll be able to hunt down the cat responsible for killing Marshall and kill him. Kill him slowly. Maybe I’ll tear apart all of his family first, all of his brothers if he has any. And I’ll make him watch.”

His plans for vengeance filled the void Marshall’s loss had left with red-hot rage. He was comforted and soothed by the idea of exacting revenge on the cat who’d left him feeling so empty, so alone.

Leith drove straight past their motel. It was too close now that the cats would be on the lookout. He needed to go somewhere a bear’s scent would blend in and go unnoticed.

He pulled over at the first rest stop, shoved everything he needed into his backpack, and abandoned their stolen truck. He ran into the woods at the steady, loping pace he could run at all day. Once he was safely hidden amongst a natural sleuth, he’d call his Alpha.

A bear’s vengeance was about to rain down on the cats of Eminence and they’d be helpless to stop it. Marshall would be avenged as Leith and his sleuth bathed in the blood of the cats. Leith’s anger swelled and his bear roared for more. They’d bathe in the blood of their mates and their cubs, too. He’d kill every last one of them for taking Marshall away from him. Eminence was about to become a fully human town. 

Chapter Five

Rayne carried their mate across the lawn and up the steps of Jason’s home. Bethany was at the door, her face paler than usual, her brows furrowed.

“Finn said Kenzie had some cuts, not that she was unconscious.”

“She’s just asleep,” Baylor said tersely.

“Fabulous, there’s another doctor in town. I can get some time off at last.” Rayne followed the sound of Jason’s voice and winced at the anger he felt rolling off the doctor. “Put her on the bed.”

Rayne did as Jason said, but as soon as Jason stepped up to her side, Trace lost it. Rayne moved at full speed to pin a snarling Trace to the wall of the examination room. “Jason needs to examine her, Trace. We need to know exactly how much the bear hurt her before I stopped him.”

“He died too quickly,” Trace ground out between snarls. “I saw the bruising on her thighs.”

Bethany’s gasp drew his attention to the doorway. “No, Jason,” Bethany breathed.

“Michael.” Jason wrapped Bethany in his arms and held her until Michael arrived a second later. “I’ll do everything I can for Miss Thurling. You go with Michael and I’ll call you the second she wakes up. She might want you here with her.”

“Kenzie,” Bethany said. “Her name’s Kenzie. She’s so sweet. She’s had coffee with all of us mates a number of times. She was becoming a good friend. I need to call Melanie.” Bethany looked at Rayne and then his brothers. “I’m sorry you had to find your mate this way. We’ll do whatever we can to help her through this.”

“She thinks we’re wolves,” Rayne said. “I don’t know how, or why, she knows about shape-shifters, but she was surprised the man who attacked her was a bear.”

Bethany squeezed his arm as Michael led her from the room. “We’re all here for you.”

As soon as the exam room door was closed, Trace shrugged from his hold. “I’ll help you, Jason. I’m in control now. I just need to know she’s going to be all right.”

Jason nodded and accepted Trace’s help to lift her so he could examine her head wound.

Rayne and Baylor moved to the other side of the narrow bed. Rayne’s cat gave a long sigh when he touched her again. While Trace held her against his chest, Rayne pulled out the pins and unwound the tight bun that held her hair against her head. By the time he’d finished, her hair was flowing onto the bed. The soft golden tresses reached past her cute ass.

Thoughts of her ass had his cat snarling and growling. He did nothing to reign in his fury at the bears who’d thought to hurt her. He was in a safe place amongst shifters, his cat was free to vent. Trace and Baylor joined him and the room vibrated with their rage.

“She has a fairly deep gash on her head. I’ll need to suture it,” Jason said, sifting through the strands of Kenzie’s hair.

“I don’t like needles.”

“I’m sure you’d like bleeding to death, less,” Jason said simply.

“It’s a toss-up.” Kenzie pulled back from Trace’s chest and turned to face him. “Were you just growling?”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Oh.” Kenzie relaxed back against Trace and Rayne smiled as she buried her nose in his shirt and inhaled. The mating musk they were all excreting now they’d met their mate was a physiological reaction they were helpless to stop. It served to make their mate notice them. Rayne had never been happier at Mother Nature. “You smell as good as you look.”

She groaned and banged her head against Trace’s chest.

Trace smiled and then sobered. He shook his head, fighting against the pull of their mate. “Jason is our doctor. Can you tell him where you’re hurt?”

“My head and my brain, apparently. I’m sorry for blurting that out. I’m an idiot.”

Baylor hooked his finger under her chin and growled as he tipped her face up until she met his gaze. “So, you’re the one,” Baylor said.

Rayne smiled as their mate just blinked up at Baylor. She didn’t pull away or flinch at Baylor’s blatant hostility. She was tough for such a tiny human. She’d need to be to deal with both Baylor and Trace.

“Seeing as we’re going to be spending a lot of time together, I should introduce you properly. This is my brother Baylor.”

“You’re big, bad wolf number three. Baylor, is a lot simpler.”

Rayne snorted. He couldn’t help it. Kenzie was hilarious. “What was my name?”

She turned to him as her cheeks turned bright red. “You came in first. You were big, bad wolf number one.”

“Huh, wolf my ass.” Kenzie pulled her head back and stared at Trace with obvious confusion. “When can we tell her we’re not wolves?”

Rayne groaned as Kenzie’s jaw dropped open.

“You just did,” Jason said acerbically. “Get out before you make things any worse. Bethany can assist me now Kenzie is awake. Michael will guard you three until Finn arrives.” Michael was at the door before Rayne could utter a protest. “Make sure they don’t say or do anything else the Alpha won’t be pleased about.”

They might all have been older than Jason and Michael, but they held little standing in the pride after being away for so long. They were on the duty roster to patrol at night only because Rayne had gone to Finn for help.

Even before discovering Kenzie, Rayne had desperately wanted to return to the pride. He missed his human existence, missed the bonds of pride and family. Not that he’d have ever burdened Trace with that knowledge. He’d have also returned to the Yukon with them, without protest, if they hadn’t wanted to remain in Eminence.

“We’ll be right outside if you need us,” Rayne said. He brushed his lips over Kenzie’s in the lightest of caresses. She gasped in surprise and touched her lips. She seemed to have felt the same tingle of pleasure he had. It warmed his heart and softened the pain that leaving her was causing him. He wouldn’t be returning to the Yukon now. Even if Baylor and Trace refused to remain, he was going nowhere. He had a mate and he would not turn down the precious gift he’d been given.

“Out.” Jason made the word a command. Jason wasn’t an enforcer, but his strength and position had their cats following his orders instinctively.

“You don’t need to go far,” Michael said, smiling his understanding at how difficult it was to leave their mate. “Just don’t go barging back in there and Jason will let you all live.”

* * * *

Kenzie smiled warmly at the beautiful Bethany as she entered the room and ran over to clasp her hand.

“Hi, Bethany. Not how I expected my Tuesday morning to unfold.”

“I bet. It must have been terrifying. Samson told me you were really smart, and brave.”

Kenzie couldn’t help her snort of derision. “I was scared out of my mind. Those men—those…whatever they were—they were going to hurt me, Bethany. I could see it in their eyes. They intended to hurt me, and they weren’t going to leave me alive when they were done with me.”

Kenzie shrank away from Jason as roaring erupted outside the exam room. Actual roaring. She looked up at Jason as he snarled and cursed under his breath. His eyes changed for a brief instant, but she saw it. They flashed amber, the same way big, bad wolf—no, his name was Rayne. Jason was the same as Rayne.

“Kenzie, Trace said something when you were brought in, when you were still unconscious. He was worried the man in the vault had hurt you. That he…”

Tears filled Bethany’s eyes and Jason wrapped a massive arm around his wife and kissed her hair affectionately. “I can do this, Bethany. You don’t need to relive that day.”

“Bethany, please. I’m so sorry. I should go. Thank you, Jason.” Kenzie’s heart ached for the pain she saw in Bethany’s eyes. She didn’t know what sort of trauma Bethany had undergone, but she had no intention of making her go through it again because of her. Kenzie started to slide off the narrow cot but was stopped as Jason gripped her leg firmly.

“I need to suture your head wound, and you need to wait for Melanie to arrive.” Kenzie opened her mouth to tell him she was fine, but he silenced her with a disapproving stare. “Finn will not be pleased if you leave.”

“Well, Finn can just build a bridge and get the fuck over it. I don’t answer to him.”

Bethany laughed and Jason smiled lovingly down at the small woman who very obviously owned his heart and soul. Kenzie had seen that same look on the face of her sister’s husband. These wolves, or whatever the hell they were, they loved with every ounce of their being. Kenzie thought Bethany and her sister were very lucky women.

“Before I suture your head wound, Miss Thurling, I need to know if you have any other injuries under that blanket you’re clinging so fiercely to.”

Kenzie tightened her hold on the blanket protecting her modesty. “Please, call me Kenzie, and no, I’m not injured anywhere else.”

“He hit you?” Bethany said slowly, her eyes moving from her cut mouth to her eyes.

“The smaller one did, and I fell against the counter. I guess that’s how I got the cut on my head.”

“Then in the vault,” Jason said, squeezing Bethany to his side. “Rayne heard him threaten to rape you.”

It was helpful that Bethany reached out and took hold of her hand again, and that Jason was being the consummate professional. She wished her own doctor was as sweet, patient, and compassionate.

She shuddered and wriggled uncomfortably, but shook her head in answer. Her throat was clogged with unshed tears and she was having trouble breathing as she recalled the attacker’s hands and claws tearing at her clothes. Tearing at her skin.

“I’ll suture your head wound as soon as I’ve ruled out a concussion. Any blurred vision, nausea?”

Roars and snarls sounded outside the door, followed by a thunderous crashing. The whole house shook on its foundations. Kenzie’s lungs were burning as panic had her unable to draw breath.

Jason’s large hand settled against her cheek. “Breathe, Kenzie,” he said calmly.

Wild animals were tearing apart his house and he was telling her to breathe? “I’m going to inform the Soames brothers they’re upsetting you, then I’ll return. Bethany?”

“I’m fine, Jason. Thank you. Don’t be too hard on them. They’re frantic to know.”

Jason turned away and opened the door just enough for him to squeeze his massive frame through. Silence descended immediately and Kenzie gulped in some much-needed air.

“That was the Soames brothers? All that noise?”

Bethany nodded and smiled at her. “I’m sorry you were hurt, but I’m glad Rayne got to you before that bear could…”

Kenzie understood little of what was happening at present, but she saw fear and pain on Bethany’s face and knew in her heart that Bethany had suffered greatly at the hands of someone equally as brutal and cruel as the men who’d attacked her.

“Rayne saved me, Bethany. I was so scared. I fought, but the man, he was so big and incredibly strong. He held me down with one hand and…” Kenzie stopped and shook her head. She didn’t want to hurt Bethany. The woman had been nothing but kind to her, today especially. She wouldn’t do anything to cause her more pain.

“It’s something you need to talk about. Believe me, it will consume you if you try to bottle it up and ignore the fear and pain you suffered. It will be worse for the Soames men, too, if they’re left wondering exactly what happened. They’ll imagine the worst possible scenario and it will hurt them greatly to think they failed you.”

Kenzie knew Bethany was right when it came to her own feelings. She would stew on it when she was all alone in her apartment. She’d think of how much worse it could have been if Rayne hadn’t saved her. Her mind started to spin as she began to think of what those two robbers would have done to her. One of them had said she’d wish for death and she’d seen the cruelty in his eyes. He’d have had her begging for death long before they finally delivered it.

What she didn’t understand, however, was why it would hurt the Soames men. Any of them. Her head hurt too much to even try and work out why her big, bad wolves, or whatever they were, would care about her.

Kenzie returned Bethany’s smile and took a deep breath. “I’m the manager. I was supposed to protect everyone, but that man was huge. I tried to fight him off. He just held me down like I was a bug. His claws dug into my back, pinning me there as he shredded my clothes and pulled my legs apart.”

“It’s okay. You’re safe now, Kenzie. Rayne made sure he’d never hurt anyone ever again.” Kenzie was shocked when Bethany reached over and wiped away the tears she hadn’t realized were running from her eyes. Kenzie didn’t cry. She’d made herself too strong for that.

* * * *

Baylor threw himself into the melee, pinning Trace under him as his brother thrashed and clawed, his cougar wild and enraged. Trace’s claws squealed on the tile floor as he fought for purchase on the hard surface.

“Keep him down while I check on Michael,” Rayne said, climbing through the hole in the drywall Michael’s body had just made.

“You’re going to fix that,” Jason said dispassionately as he stared down at them. “He didn’t rape her. Rayne stopped him in time.” Jason’s tone was now gentle, the depth of understanding in his simply spoken statement making Baylor shudder for what Bethany must have gone through.

Trace’s cougar stilled under him, but Baylor didn’t relax his grip. He kept his arms locked around his brother’s neck. Baylor did, however, breathe a sigh of relief. Rayne had risked exposure when he’d acted inside the bank, but Baylor couldn’t fault him.

If he’d have been the one in there when that bear had prepared to assault their mate, even though she was a stranger, he’d have done the same thing. He might not want a mate, but his cat didn’t agree with him. His cat raged anew at the idea of what might have happened had Rayne not acted as he had.

No, Baylor would have done a lot worse than moving at preternatural speed, as Rayne had. That had taken the kind of control Baylor knew he didn’t possess. He wondered if he’d ever possessed such separation from man and beast. He only knew he hadn’t in a very long time. Certainly, not in the lifespan since they’d lost Trace. Those weeks of searching the jungle for his brother had changed Baylor almost as much as they’d altered Trace. Trace snarled, his head swinging up into Baylor’s face.

“Fuck,” Baylor swore as his lip split and his mouth filled with blood.

“Gentlemen,” Melanie said softly. Her eyes surveyed the shattered drywall and timbers that spilled from the massive hole in the wall as she and Jade walked past them.

Baylor nodded a greeting to them as he lay on top of his brother, barely managing to keep Trace from bucking him off. “Ladies.”

Michael shook plaster from his hair as he used the door to exit the room he’d been thrown into. “That equipment better not be damaged,” Jason said, his usual acerbic demeanor returning. He followed Jade and Melanie back into the examination room and slammed the door behind him.

“Thanks for the concern, Jason, but I’m fine. Just a few broken ribs,” Michael said, his smile wide as he looked down at Baylor. “Brothers, what can you do? I think you can let him up now, Baylor.”

Baylor released Trace slowly. “Do that again and I’m going to just shoot you.”

“I’ll give him the gun,” Michael added, wincing as he stretched.

Trace rose to his feet and shifted, his eyes retaining the feral glow of his still-enraged cat. “I still say the fucker died too quickly. I would have torn him apart.”

“What a lovely first impression that would have made for our mate,” Rayne quipped. “Hi, I’m Trace, and this is what I do to people who displease me.”

Baylor coughed to hide his laugh, and waited for Trace to retaliate. Trace shocked him when he didn’t move, didn’t swear. He didn’t even storm off to brood. Instead, he did something Baylor never thought he’d see again. He smiled and then chuckled.

“Yeah. It would have taken years of therapy before she could even look at me without screaming.”

“Just as well it was me in that bank then.”

“Just as well.”

Michael appeared beside Trace and handed him some sweatpants and a T-shirt. Baylor’s teeth ground together as he looked at Trace’s scars. His chest, back, and abdomen bore the worst of the long, red, puckered lines, but his entire body was littered with the evidence of human cruelty.

Baylor snarled softly as he recalled how he’d made those men suffer for what they’d done, and it still hadn’t been enough to dull his rage. His cat wasn’t yet satisfied that suitable retribution had taken place. Rayne was right to watch him closely when they were near humans. Baylor still wanted retribution for all that Trace had suffered, for how he still suffered.

How the hell am I going to be a mate? The old, familiar rage at what had been done to Trace, and the new fury he felt toward Kenzie’s attackers churned inside him.

“You’re going to have to find a way to let it go,” Trace said, now fully dressed as he stood in front of him. Baylor had lost himself to the rage again. “We both are. I can’t expect her to carry the weight of all my pain, all my anger. It’s too much.”

Baylor nodded. He was struck dumb by the depth of pain he saw in Trace’s eyes. The anger and pain were too much for them to bear, that’s why they’d retreated from their humanity and lived as cats for forty years. How could one tiny woman be expected to deal with all their baggage?

“What was fate thinking giving us a mate?” Baylor finally said. “We’re not mate material. We should go before we hurt her.”

Rayne’s growl was the only warning he got before he found himself pinned to the wall, Rayne’s forearm tight across his throat.

“I would do anything for you and Trace. You know this. I’ve been beside you every day since his capture and every day since we got him out of that hell, but this is where I finally have to draw the line. It’s already too late for me. I cannot leave her.” Sadness filled Rayne’s eyes and they shimmered with unshed tears. “It would kill me, Baylor.”

“I think it’s too late for me, too,” Trace said softly. “I don’t know how to deal with the happiness I feel inside right now. Kenzie’s scent, the feel of her in my arms, it did something to me. Changed me. It’s awakened a part of me I thought died in that pit decades ago. I need you to help me through this, Baylor, because I know if we leave here now, I’ll finally be dead.”

“You’ll be surprised at how strong your mate is,” Michael said. He resumed his post in front of the exam room door.

“How can you even say that? You don’t know her any better than we do.” Baylor’s anger shot straight back to simmering point. He lived his life just a hair’s breath away from exploding with banked rage.

“You’re right, I don’t know her any better than you. I just know fate chose her to be yours and I’ve yet to see fate choose a mate who wasn’t perfect for her men.”

“You’re saying I should have faith?”

“He’s saying you should listen to your heart,” Rayne said.

Baylor turned and took three steps away before his legs locked in place. “I don’t have a heart.” Baylor wasn’t sure if he was talking to his brothers, or simply trying to convince himself. Trace wants my help? Then we’re both fucked, because I have no clue what we’re supposed to do with a mate.

Chapter Six

“I can still feel his claws in me. Feel the scrape of his coarse hairs on my inner thighs. The foul way he smelled.” Kenzie shuddered. “Then, when he was dead, when Rayne had killed him, I was glad, Bethany. Glad he was dead. What sort of person does that make me?” Tears slipped from her eyes again and Kenzie swiped at them, furious with her own weakness.

“The kind who recognizes that she’s allowed to be scared when terrible things happen to her,” Melanie said.

“And then trusts her friends to help her deal with that fear,” Jade said kindly.

Kenzie was surprised to see Melanie and Jade standing beside Bethany. She hadn’t heard them come into the room. She’d been trying to ignore the tugging as Jason stitched her head wound, and had focused her attention on Bethany.

“You’ve had a terrible day, but it’s going to get a whole lot better now.” Melanie looked at her with sympathy as she smiled.

“It can’t get much worse.” Kenzie laughed along with the other women and felt her fear begin to drain away as Melanie hugged her. “Thanks for coming to see me.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Jade said, hugging Bethany and wiping at her own eyes. “We mates have to stick together for the sake of our big, bad shifters.”

Kenzie blushed. Jade and Melanie had obviously been told what she’d called the Soames men before she’d known their names.

“It’s going to be wonderful to have you as our sister as well as our friend,” Melanie mumbled in her ear. “No more having to keep secrets from us. Your new family will always be here for you.”

Kenzie hugged Melanie as her head throbbed. She had no clue what the women were talking about. Mates? New family? Her friends were weird, but lovely.

“I know you’re going to want to wash the blood from your hair,” Jason said, pulling off his gloves. “Do it gently so you don’t dislodge any of these sutures.”

“Thank you, Dr. Reed. I will. I really need to get back to the bank. I have so many calls to make regarding the robbery, and I need to check on Paul. He shouldn’t be the one dealing with head office.”

Kenzie’s head was still throbbing, but she had responsibilities she couldn’t shirk. She went to slide off the bed and looked at the blanket wrapped around her.

“Shit, I need to go home and get some clothes first.”

“Jason can bring you some of Bethany’s jeans.” Melanie looked at Jason and he nodded as he tidied up his medical equipment. “We need to have a conversation about shape-shifters before your men run out of patience and tear the door off the hinges.”

“Shape-shifters?” Kenzie felt her heart begin to race. “I…” She didn’t want to talk about her sister and the secret she’d held so close to heart for the last few months.

“I’ll leave you ladies alone for a few minutes. I’ll make tea,” Jason said. “Come when you’re ready.”

Kenzie smiled as Jason kissed Bethany before leaving the room. The kiss was not a sweet peck on the lips. It was a hot, passionate kiss that had left Bethany’s cheeks pink and her eyes glazed.

“Beautiful.” Kenzie’s hand flew to her mouth and she felt her cheeks warm with embarrassment.

“It is,” Jade said, a wistful smile on her lips. “That’s the wonderful thing about shape-shifters. They love deeply and unapologetically. We’re so lucky.”

Melanie didn’t smile. She was tiny, beautiful, and right now, fierce. “How do you know about shape-shifters?”

These women were a part of the secret Kenzie had been protecting. She owed them the truth. The whole truth. Once they knew she’d been protecting her sister, they’d understand and not be mad at her. She hoped they’d see she was trustworthy.

“You remember a few months ago when I went to my sister’s wedding?”

“At Niagara Falls?” Melanie asked.

Kenzie nodded, unable to look away as Melanie held her in a taut gaze. “I saw something the night of the wedding, something magical. When I came home I found my eyes had been opened to something that’s been right in front of me all my life.”

“You saw someone change into a wolf,” Melanie said flatly.

Kenzie shook her head. “I saw two wolves run out of the trees to play in the water. It was captivating to watch. Then, they were men. My sister’s new brothers-in-law, actually.”

“Wow. That must have been quite a shock,” Jade said. “None of us knew about shape-shifters until we met our men.”

“It was. I realized that her new husband, Dean, must be a wolf, too. I’ve never told anyone.” Kenzie felt a small frisson of fear run down her spine. “I never even told my sister what I saw. She kept her husband’s secret and so have I. I would never tell anyone about your men. I promise.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Bethany said, squeezing her hand softly. “We’re not worried about that.”

Kenzie’s breath released in a whoosh of relief. “I thought for a minute there…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. What had I thought? That they’d kill me.

“You do realize that you’re a part of their world now?” Melanie said.

“Because of what I saw? Yes. This may sound stupid, but I was offered a promotion two months ago, to run the main branch in Denver, but I turned it down.”

“That’s quite a step up from Eminence,” Jade said.

“Why didn’t you take the promotion?” Bethany asked, her brows furrowed as she squeezed her hand encouragingly. “It would have been a smart career move.”

Kenzie bit her lip, embarrassed to admit her stupidity to her friends. They all remained silent and she knew she needed to tell them, even though they’d think her insane. “It’s hard to describe, but I felt responsible for helping to maintain the secrecy of what your men are. I felt I was a part of something wondrous, even though none of you knew I was aware of your magical world.”

“Had you ever met the Soames brothers before tonight?” Melanie asked.

“No, but…” Kenzie felt her cheeks flame as she fidgeted, her embarrassment growing uncomfortable.

“But, what?” Bethany asked, a smile on her face.

“This is truly embarrassing. I’ve seen them a few times over the last two weeks as they walked around the town at night. They’re guarding it, aren’t they? Guarding their town?”

Melanie nodded and Kenzie wondered why that was necessary. She hoped now her friends knew she was aware of their husbands being shifters, that this was something she could one day ask them.

“What’s embarrassing about seeing them patrol?” Jade asked.

“Patrol,” Kenzie said the word slowly, her eyes closing as she recalled the exact way the men had moved through the dark streets. They’d moved purposefully, gracefully, alert to any danger. “Yes, they were patrolling.”

Jade’s laugh brought her back to their conversation. She wanted to bang her head against a wall. “The embarrassing thing was my going to the window each hour just to see them walk by. They were fascinating, beautiful, and dangerous all at once.”

“You were drawn to them,” Melanie said, her gaze softening to one of sympathy and understanding. “We all know that feeling. We were drawn to our men the minute we met them. They were impossible to ignore.”

“Impossible,” Kenzie muttered. She shook her head and winced as it felt like her brain was bouncing against her skull. “I was being an idiot. They never saw me. Didn’t know I existed, but still I stayed late at work, watched for them, waited for them to walk by. Pathetic.”

“That’s a new twist,” Bethany said. “Melanie, do you think Kenzie knew? That maybe she knew before they did?”

“Does it matter?” Jade said. “They certainly know now.”

“I don’t know,” Melanie said. “I also won’t claim to know much about the Soames brothers, as they only returned home a couple of weeks ago, but I know shifters. You need to be prepared, Kenzie, because now they’ve found their mate, they won’t want to be anywhere but with you. It’s going to seem strange to you, but to them, it’s as natural as breathing.”

“When you say ‘with me,’ do you mean…actually, what the hell do you mean?” Kenzie winced as she shook her head in frustration. “And what the hell is a mate?”

Melanie took her hand from Bethany and then reached for her other hand. She looked Kenzie in the eyes and smiled warmly.

“Your sister is the mate of a wolf shifter, she also married him. Does that distinction mean anything to you?” Kenzie opened her mouth to say no, but Melanie shook her head, her long hair a wavy mass of strawberry-blonde curls, her green eyes searching Kenzie’s. “What does your heart tell you? You’ve been around human couples your whole life, Kenzie. Did your sister’s relationship feel different? Especially after you found out he was a shifter.”

Kenzie nodded, remembering the groom’s brothers and his relatives. The couples had all seemed deeply in love. Their souls had been entwined, their love and devotion to each other shining from their eyes.

“Lara’s ex was abusive and she’d only recently managed to get away from him. When she told me she was marrying Dean, after knowing him only a few months, I was understandably worried. That was until I saw them together. Dean would die before he ever hurt my sister. I’m in no doubt of that.”

“I’m happy your sister has finally found happiness and love,” Melanie said. “It sounds like she suffered before meeting her wolf, very much like all of us. Our lives were hard before we met our men. We can share our stories with you now you’re one of us.”

“No!” All the pieces finally fell into place. “I’m not normally this slow, but I’m not normally held at gunpoint while my bank is robbed, thrown against a counter, and nearly raped, either. You can’t think that I’m…that I could be…their mate?”

Growling from outside the door had all the women looking in that direction. Kenzie felt a tremor of fear shake her body, but the other women just smiled.

“We don’t think it, they do,” Jade said with a chuckle. “Although this time, I think you might have known it first.”

“One thing before we go and join the others,” Melanie said. “Your sister, she’s married to only one brother?”

Kenzie was too stunned to speak. She wasn’t this “mate.” She couldn’t be. The way the men in this town adored their wives, the love she’d seen in Dean’s eyes as he looked at Lara, could she have that, too? Have it with all her big, bad wolves?

“Oh, shit. All of them think I’m their mate.” Kenzie would be winning prizes for stupidity if they were being offered today. “Lara only has one husband, but all of you, you have more.”

“We thought it was unusual until it just kept happening,” Melanie said. “Maybe it’s just more common for wolves to have only one mate?”

“Charlie has four,” Bethany said. “All wolves.” The smile she gave Kenzie was mischievous and it made Kenzie laugh. She needed to laugh or she’d be paralyzed by her panic. Three men. How would she have sex with three men?

“I manage just fine with four husbands, and one of them is Finn,” Melanie said.

“Damn. Can you read minds?”

“No, I just had the same conversation with myself when my men told me they were all my mates. Then I ran away in terror.”

“No, you didn’t?” Kenzie said.

“Damn straight I did,” Melanie winked at her, her smile wide and her eyes filled with happiness. “Luckily cats run faster than humans and they caught me before I froze to death.”

“We’ll share our stories another time,” Bethany said, giving Melanie a hug. “Right now, your men need to speak with you and Jason will be angry if our tea gets cold.”

Kenzie’s legs wobbled, but she managed to stay on her feet as Melanie hooked her arm around her waist and helped her to stand. Bethany picked up some jeans from the chair by the door, Kenzie hadn’t heard Jason return with them. The women held her steady and helped her to pull them on.

“Thank you. I’ll replace these, Bethany.”

Kenzie had so many questions her mind was spinning. There was one, however, that she wanted answered before she faced the three Soames brothers again. She wanted to know what sort of “big, bad” they were. They apparently weren’t wolves, and she had no clue what else they could be. She just hoped they weren’t bears. She shuddered and steeled herself to ask.

“I thought they were wolves, like my sister’s husband, but they’re not, are they?”

“Nope,” Jade said. “They’re much sexier. Come on, can you walk, or shall I have one of your three gorgeous men come and carry you?”

“This has to be the strangest conversation I’ve ever had. The rabbit hole is on the other side of this door, isn’t it?”

Bethany opened the door and gently patted Kenzie’s cheek. “No, Alice, but Eminence has just become your wonderland.”

* * * *

Samson had left the bear alone in the cell for nearly an hour as he watched him closely from the observation room.

“He’s about as tough as a box full of kittens,” Dane said, handing Samson one of the mugs of coffee he was carrying. “I think I might have actually heard him crying earlier. What were you doing to him?”

Samson grimaced at the strong, stale taste of the coffee. “Is it some sort of law that police station coffee has to taste like shit?”

Dane shrugged and nodded to the man slumped in the chair. “So, what did you do to make the man cry?”

“Nothing. I haven’t even gone back in there since you left. He’s been very talkative though. He hates his brothers, Marshall and Leith, keeps whining that their father should have drowned them at birth like he did their sisters.”

“So, he comes from a nice, loving family? Can’t imagine why he turned to a life of crime.”

“It’s no excuse for abusing women. We all heard what he planned to do to Miss Thurling, and I don’t imagine she would have been his first victim.”

Dane nodded and Samson handed back the mostly full mug of coffee. “I think he’s ready for a little chat now.”

“I’ll stay in case you need back-up.”

Dane chuckled as Samson simply growled at him. Even if the man hadn’t been manacled to a chair, Samson doubted he could have bested him in a fight. He looked to weigh about a hundred and fifty pounds, which gave Samson a two-hundred-pound advantage.

The scent of fear and sweat washed over him as he opened the airtight metal door. The man in the chair jerked upright from his slump. He stared at Samson with wide, fear-filled eyes. His expression desperate, not contemptuous, as Samson would have expected.

“Where’s Marshall? I need to speak to him. Please, just let me speak to my brother.”

Samson walked slowly toward the man. He did nothing to disguise his cat’s rage. He was away from any human staff at the sheriff’s station and was free to use all his gifts to extract as much information as he could about the men who’d thought to attack his town. His pride.

What the two brothers had planned to do to the poor bank manager hit too close to home after what his own mate, Bethany, had suffered at the hands of a criminal. Then there was the fact that they would probably have killed Rayne. They wouldn’t have left him alive and risked him thwarting their escape plans.

“What you need is of no interest to me.” Samson spoke softly, calmly. The bear saw his own death in Samson’s eyes. He didn’t need to yell to get that message across.

“No. I mean…” He slumped back into the chair and hung his head. “What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with why you thought a town full of cougar shifters would stand idly by while you and your brothers robbed our bank and hurt our women.”

“We’re bears,” the man said, straightening his spine as his eyes glowed red and his claws punched through his fingertips. “We rule the shifter world and don’t need permission from anyone to take what we want.”

Well, that had struck a nerve, and it also pissed Samson off, but he shelved his anger for a moment as he assessed the bear’s attitude. He truly believed what he said about his race.

“Which was why you felt the three of you were going to be able to successfully rob our bank. You didn’t feel threatened by all the lesser shifters you scented around Eminence.”

“Of course not. We’re the Alpha’s best team, which is why he sends us to any towns that stink of shifter. We’ve never been caught.”

“Clearly,” Samson said softly, his eyes sweeping over the man and landing on his exposed genitals.

The bear seemed to realize his mistake and lowered his torso as far as he could in an effort to protect his balls. “I mean, until today. We’ve only come up against a few cats, and none like you. Most shifters piss themselves when they scent bear.”

“You’ve seen that happen?” Samson asked, wondering where the idiot got his information from. The bear shook his head, but looked up defiantly.

“I know that even your women prefer bears.”

This surprised and disturbed Samson, but he was too experienced to betray any of his emotions.

“We’re only cats,” Samson said tonelessly.

“You should let Marshall and I go before Leith comes for us. If you have any mates or cubs in this town, he’ll find them and use them to bargain for our release.”

Samson was doing all he could to control his rising fury. Both his mate and cub had already suffered at the hands of deranged madmen. It would never happen again. Not while Samson and his brothers still lived.

The bear foolishly interpreted Samson’s silence as fear. He rose from his slump and squared his shoulders, his chin lifting proudly. “You should let us both go. Now. Leith has a particular fondness for mates. He says they fight harder and scream louder. I agree with him. They don’t stop fighting, even after you break their arms and legs.”

The next thing Samson was aware of was cold concrete at his back. He blinked through a red haze of intense rage and saw Dane’s face swim in and out of focus.

“Stop, Samson.” Finn’s voice echoed in the near-empty room but it was the Alpha’s power that rendered Samson unable to move. “Hunter, ask Jason to come as soon as he’s finished treating Kenzie’s injuries. He might be able to save the bear.”

“Do you care if he dies?” Dane said, his rage making his voice rough and garbled, but Samson understood him. “He just admitted to raping other shifters’ chosen mates.”

Samson roared out his anguish, having no other release while the Alpha’s command kept him immobile. Samson forced the image of Bethany’s bloody body when they’d rescued her from the monster, Cristian Renta, from his mind and sought the inner calm his commando training had instilled in him. He trained the soldiers of this pride and he needed to set a better example. By the time he was under control, he found Jason was standing in front of him, his strong hand gripping his shoulder.

“No one will take Bethany and Stephen from us ever again.” Samson nodded as he saw Jason’s cat surface to reinforce those words. “We have taken every precaution now. Our home is a fortress.”

Samson looked over Jason’s shoulder and saw the bear was slumped, unmoving, in the chair he was still manacled to.

“Is any of this blood yours?” Jason asked, wiping his hand over Samson’s cheek.

“No,” Samson managed to reply. His throat felt raw and painful. He wondered how long he’d been roaring.

Jason released his hold on Samson’s shoulder and backed away. “I think you can drop his testicles now.” 

Chapter Seven

Leith pushed himself even harder. The cats were still on his trail. It seemed impossible. He couldn’t believe they’d pursued him this far and this fast, but they had, and he was growing tired.

He’d gone through three different sleuths of bears, all native, and the cats had not faltered once in discerning his scent and following him. If he didn’t know better, he’d think they had an electronic tracker on him, but he knew that wasn’t possible.

He was lucky the winter wasn’t too harsh or he’d have found no bears wandering around at all. Heading down to the river, he waded into the freezing flow and decided he needed to shift if he hoped to lose the cougars. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he kept wading upstream as he placed the call to his Alpha.

“Are you in Wyoming yet?”

Darnel Thwaites didn’t like small talk and he didn’t mince words. Leith gulped before answering. His Alpha also didn’t tolerate failure, and losing Marshall, Geordie, and the money from the Eminence bank was a huge failure.

“No, Alpha. Marshall died in the attempted robbery and Geordie’s fate is presently unknown to me. I just know he didn’t make it out of Eminence.”

The silence dragged on for so long that Leith was tempted to simply hang up, but that would do him no good. If he tried to flee, Alpha Thwaites would hunt him down himself. No one escaped the man’s wrath.

“Attempted robbery? So, you failed to get my money and you’ve made no attempt to ascertain the safety of your brother Geordie? You don’t even know if he’s alive?”

“The cats, they’re tracking me as we speak. I haven’t had—”

“I’m sending the breaker brothers to Eminence. Make sure you’re there to meet them. They will aid in your rectifying your previous failure. I want my money and I want Geordie returned to me.”

“Yes, Alpha Thwaites. I’ll meet them at the Grand Springs Motel.” It was all Leith could say. The man had told him what he wanted done and he had no choice but to follow orders.

The line went dead and Leith crushed the phone before tossing it into the fast-flowing water.

“Fucking great. Ruben and Trevor are coming.” The two bears were the Alpha’s younger brothers and the sleuth’s enforcers. The two of them were twins and had been inseparable since birth, doing everything together. Literally, everything. They ate, slept, fucked, killed, and probably even shat together.

The thought of the twin enforcers made his heart clench painfully as he felt the loss of his own twin more keenly. Marshall needed to be avenged, even if it cost him his own life. He needed to find whoever had taken Marshall’s life and exact some painful and deadly revenge, but only after he’d made them beg for death for a week or two.

Perhaps it was good, after all, that the breaker brothers were coming. They were rumored to be over four hundred years old and were the strongest and most vicious creatures he’d ever encountered. He would appeal to them on a level only another twin would understand. Then they’d join him as he sought out Marshall’s killer and made the pride of cats in Eminence pay for what they’d cost not just him, but Alpha Thwaites, as well.

Leith let his bear free and shifted before turning and heading downstream. Back toward Eminence. Alpha Thwaites was not going to be merciful if he didn’t get his money and his boyfriend back, but that was not Leith’s priority. The death of the cat who took Marshall from him was his main objective.

* * * *

Trace felt the tension drain from his muscles as the door to the exam room opened and Melanie appeared in the doorway with Kenzie at her side. His cat then snarled as his gaze swept over the bruises on her face and neck.

“Trace, could you help me get Kenzie to the kitchen? Jason is making us all some tea,” Melanie said.

Trace then saw that Kenzie was leaning heavily on the Alpha’s tiny mate, not that she was a lot taller herself. He saw the small lines of strain surrounding Kenzie’s beautiful blue eyes and her lush pink lips. She was in pain.

She was in his arms before he’d even made the conscious decision to pick her up. She was trembling, and that made his cat growl in anger. His mate should not be scared of him.

“I’ll take you to the kitchen. You’re in pain and my cat doesn’t like it.” Her small frame tensed and she inhaled sharply.

“Your cat?”

“We hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” Jade said. “We wanted the three of you to be there when Kenzie learned of what you were.”

“You heard how she learned about her brother-in-law’s dual nature?” Bethany asked.

“We did,” Rayne said. “I look forward to meeting this Dean. He sounds like he’s going to give Lara the happiness she deserves.”

Kenzie inhaled sharply and turned to look at Rayne, tears swimming in her eyes. “Thank you, Rayne. I think he will, too.”

So, that was how you talked to a woman. Trace took a deep breath and followed Melanie, Jade, and Bethany to the kitchen. Kenzie was still tense in his arms. He knew he needed to say something. Something that would reassure her of her safety.

“I won’t hurt you, Kenzie.”

Kenzie’s taut frame grew stiffer, her trembling increasing as she nodded once. He could hear her teeth squeak as they ground together. Her scent changed, too. Her fear was growing. He’d meant to reassure her, and had apparently done the opposite. Fuck.

He decided silence was perhaps better, and didn’t speak again until they reached the kitchen. Bethany went straight to Jason and was enfolded completely in his massive arms.

Asher moved at preternatural speed and swept Jade off her feet and was rewarded by a soft peal of laughter from his newly pregnant mate. It all seemed to come so naturally to the other men. Trace was lost. He had no clue what to do.

“There,” he said simply, depositing Kenzie gently onto a chair and stepping away. He moved stiffly, feeling awkward and clumsy. Something he’d not felt in a very long time. He was an apex predator, and while he’d been living as his cat for the last forty years he’d felt nothing but confident and powerful.

“Smooth,” Hunter said, slapping him on the back as he passed him to get to Melanie.

“Leave him alone,” Baylor said with a small growl.

Trace watched the amber fire of Baylor’s cat bleed into his eyes and prepared for the ensuing fight.

“I saw that in the bank,” Kenzie said. “I saw Rayne’s eyes do that. It’s incredible. It makes you look beautiful and deadly.” She clapped a hand over her mouth and closed her eyes.

“I don’t know why I said that,” she mumbled from behind her hand.

Melanie laughed and pulled from Hunter’s hold to give Kenzie a hug. “It’s a side effect of the mating musk your men are excreting. It makes your brain misfire, or something, because every single thought just pops out your mouth. No matter how inappropriate it might be.”

“We’ve all been there,” Jade said. “Just be warned. You won’t be able to lie to them. Not ever. The truth will come out no matter how hard you may try to be evasive.”

Kenzie nodded, but kept her hand over her mouth. Trace was surprised to find he was smiling as he watched her. She was adorable. His heart skipped a beat and a lump formed in his throat. He was in trouble. He had feelings for Kenzie that he didn’t understand. Feelings that made him feel helpless.

He dragged in a breath and his lungs burned from the acrid stench of fear and pain and rot. He was rendered blind by the utter darkness. His body screamed with pain while the wire that bound his wrists and ankles dug deeper into his flesh as he struggled to get free.

“Thank you for carrying me here, Trace. I was in pain and you helped me. I’m sorry for feeling embarrassed about it.”

A soft hand pressed against Trace’s cheek and the sweet smell of berries washed the stench of the pit from his mind in an instant. Trace was still blind, but he pressed his face into that soft hand and breathed deeply, drawing comfort and peace into his soul with each breath.

He blinked several times and when his vision cleared, he saw the most beautiful woman in the world staring up at him with troubled blue eyes. His beautiful woman. His cat staked the claim and Trace accepted the bond. No matter how frightening the prospect was, Kenzie was his. He’d die before he left her. He’d die if he left her.

* * * *

Kenzie had kicked herself when she saw the pain she’d caused the man called Trace. He’d seen her in pain and had picked her up without hesitation. That was an instinctively kind thing to do and she’d thanked him by tensing up and feeling painfully embarrassed. A fact he obviously hadn’t missed by the terse way he’d plopped her in the chair.

Nice one, Kenzie.

Then to top it all off, his friends had noticed his own ensuing embarrassment and had teased him. Baylor then looked as though he intended to fight the sheriff for teasing his brother.

She’d watched as all the color drained from Trace’s face and his body grew rigid. Her own excruciating humiliation disappeared as she watched the huge man, cat, whatever he was, slide away from reality to a place of pure terror.

Kenzie could kick herself later for creating this nightmare because she was so stubbornly independent, but right now her entire focus was on Trace. On what she’d done to him.

“Kenzie, don’t,” Rayne said harshly.

Kenzie ignored him. She could see that Trace was in pain. Not physical pain, not now, but he’d been hurt, and right now he was reliving it. She had no idea what had happened to the man, she just knew it was bad. Unimaginably bad if she was judging his body language correctly.

She’d minored in psychology and majored in business at college, thinking it would help her deal with the misogynistic culture of the banking world and move ahead in her chosen career. Right now, however, she was never more thankful of her choice.

Kenzie’s hand tingled as she pressed it to Trace’s clammy cheek. Then her heart had clenched as he gripped her wrist and pressed his face into her hand as she quietly thanked him for helping her and apologized for being so embarrassed when he’d carried her.

His grip on her wrist tightened as he took several deep breaths and finally opened his eyes. His eyes were black pools of pain, and as he blinked, she watched his pupils contract, allowing the soft green of his irises to reappear.

“What happened to you? So much pain. Too much.”

His hand squeezed her wrist so tightly she feared her bones would break, but she ignored it. This man had suffered much worse agony, continued to suffer it if the dark circles she saw under his eyes were any indication.

“I died,” Trace whispered, his voice rough and strained. “I’ve been dead for decades but my brothers refused to let me go.”

A small, strangled sob bubbled up as her heart ached for the man standing before her and for the brothers who had fought for so long to keep him alive. She felt fury, true fury for the first time in her life.

Someone—or maybe a whole bunch of someone’s—has done terrible things to this man. They’d taken away…decades, he’d said. Just how old was he?

Kenzie closed her eyes and a tear slipped free to run down her cheek. She didn’t know if it was from the pain of his punishing grasp on her wrist, or from the pain of witnessing his suffering, but she ignored it.

“Will you sit with me? I’m cold.”

Trace nodded and used his thumb to wipe the tear from her cheek. Kenzie finally noticed that there was a deathly silence in the room. She glanced around to see that it was still filled with people. People who were all staring at her.

Trace released her wrist and put his arm around her waist, guiding her back to the chair he’d sat her in only a few minutes ago. Minutes that now seemed like hours.

Trace pulled the chair next to her close and sat down. He wrapped his thick, muscular arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side. His shirt was damp with sweat, but she could feel the warmth of his body beneath it and snuggled closer.

She glanced down at her throbbing wrist and saw dark crimson finger marks on her skin. She quickly covered it with her other hand and took a deep breath. Her lungs filled with the most amazing smell. It was a musky smell of pine trees and man. It made the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise and tingle. It was a delicious scent and she turned her head to Trace’s shoulder and took another deep breath.

Trace lowered his face to her head and did the same. “You smell delicious to me, as well. It makes me feel all warm inside.”

“Me, too,” Kenzie said. She felt her cheeks heat as she realized what she’d said.

Baylor sat heavily in the chair on her other side. “Kenzie.” He was staring down at her, his brows furrowed and his eyes filled with pain. She saw his eyes flick to her lap and she moved her hands closer to her body in an attempt to hide the marks Trace had left. “I’m Baylor. It’s nice to meet you.”

Kenzie nodded, unsure what to say. They’d already been introduced, but this time was different. Different for Baylor, anyway. She recalled the way he’d leapt to Trace’s defense when the sheriff had teased him. Baylor was here because Trace was here, and that was the only reason. For some reason that thought made Kenzie sad, so very sad.

She startled a second later when warm hands settled on her shoulders. Her skin tingled and the smell of pine and musk thickened in the air. She knew without looking that it was Rayne. She fought the urge to sigh. His touch felt good. Having the three men surrounding her felt good.

Three strangers, Kenzie. Get a damned grip on yourself.

Rayne’s breath tickled her ear and she moaned softly before managing to stop herself. “Thank you for helping Trace like that. You were incredible. You are incredible. More than I ever dreamed my mate would be.”

Mate. The room spun a little as she recalled what Melanie, Bethany, and Jade had told her. She looked up at Baylor and saw his frown was still there, his anger still rolling through him. She wasn’t what he wanted.

She let her eyes close as fatigue and sadness washed over her. She didn’t understand any of this, but she knew one thing. Baylor was not going to be a part of her life. Not ever, and that thought was so painful she wanted to cry.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

“Join the club,” Trace said. He pulled her closer to his side and she relaxed against him.

“It’s a shitty club.”

Baylor shifted in his seat, moving himself farther from her. “Yes, it is,” he said.

* * * *

Rayne saw the pain and confusion on Kenzie’s face, scented it marring her wonderful aroma, and wanted to tear Baylor apart for causing it.

“Kenzie, I heard Trace mention to you that we are in fact cats, not wolves as you had so insultingly believed,” Asher said. “I suppose you guessed we’re not the domestic variety?”

Kenzie’s eyes opened and she forced a smile as she sought out who had spoken.

“I’m Asher Pollock. One of Jade’s husbands. One of her mates.”

Jade gave Asher a wide smile as he moved her to stand in front of him and wrapped his arms around her. Rayne envied the ease and openness of their affection.

“Because our mates are human, it wasn’t easy for any of us to explain the kind of attraction we feel for them as shifters.” Rayne’s gaze shot to Asher and found he was staring at him, not Kenzie. “The mating bond will affect you, Kenzie, just as it would a shifter, and you will feel confused by the strong emotions you experience for them.”

Kenzie went to shake her head, but stopped when Jade raised her eyebrows at her. “I feel something,” Kenzie admitted reluctantly. “But I think ‘attraction’ is too strong a word, Asher.”

Rayne smiled as the fire returned to her eyes. She’d need to fight if they had any chance of including Baylor in their mating. Rayne looked at the sullen expression on Baylor’s face as he tried to distance himself from what was happening. You can try to fight your feelings, Baylor, but I think our little mate is going to win you over.

“I think you’re all too big to be housecats,” Kenzie said, shifting closer to Trace and away from the tension emanating off Baylor. “So, lions? Tigers?”

“I’m a tiger,” Bethany said. “Well, I can’t shift into one, but Stephen will once he reaches puberty.”

Rayne smiled at the shocked expression on Kenzie’s face. “But you said…”

“I was raised in the foster system after my mother was killed by my bastard of a father. I didn’t know I was a shifter until my mates found me.”

“We’re cougars,” Trace said. “Do you want to see me?”

“He’s been dying to show you,” Rayne said.

Kenzie stared up at Trace and held her breath.

“I’m not going to shift in front of the other women,” Trace said. “We have to get naked and their mates would kill me.”

“I don’t think I want to see you naked, either,” Kenzie said, pulling away from him and trying to shrug out of his hold. “I don’t even know you.”

Trace stilled, his body shaking as a long, low growl ripped from his throat.

“She wasn’t insulting you, man,” Asher said lightly. “Humans are a bit prudish when it comes to nudity.”

“Where is Jason?” Trace ground out, his jaws locking tight as he rose and stepped away from Kenzie.

Baylor rose, too, standing so quickly his chair crashed to the ground. He was gripping Trace’s shoulders before Rayne had even seen him move.

“Trace, are you hurt?” Baylor searched their brother’s face with a raptor-like stare.

Trace exploded in a shower of light and torn clothing, his cougar roaring so loudly the plates on the kitchen dresser rattled.

“Oh,” Kenzie breathed. She stood and backed away from Trace as he stalked toward her. “You’re huge. You’re bigger than the wolves. Bigger than a cougar.” She stumbled over Baylor’s fallen chair. Rayne caught her before she hit the ground.

“Thank you,” she mumbled as Trace stopped just inches from her. She was short, so Trace was staring straight into her eyes as she reached out her hand to touch him.

Trace snarled and Kenzie’s hand froze in mid-air. Rayne’s cat wanted to hurt Trace for threatening Kenzie. Then he saw her wrist. Trace lowered his head and licked at the swollen, purple flesh.

Kenzie tried to pull her hand back but Rayne was quicker than her. Much quicker. He gripped her hand and rolled it over slowly. The livid bruise circled her entire wrist, the finger marks easy to discern.

“Trace did it when he was struggling to come back to us,” Baylor said.

“And you saw this and did nothing to help her?” Rayne would have jumped on Baylor if he hadn’t currently been trying to comfort Kenzie. He wrapped his free arm around her waist when she began to tremble. Hauling her close he inhaled her sweet scent in an attempt to regain some semblance of calm.

“I saw her try to hide the marks and respected her for not wishing to hurt Trace’s feelings. What the hell would you have done, Rayne? Look at how he’s feeling now.”

Trace moved quickly, knocking Baylor off his feet as he shifted back to human.

He straddled Baylor, his hands around his throat. “I wouldn’t have felt as bad as I do now knowing she’s been sitting there listening to us crap on about matings when her wrist is probably broken. She’s in pain, Baylor. You left her suffering to spare my feelings? Well, in the future don’t do me any fucking favors.”

Trace leapt off Baylor and shifted as he ran from the room. Baylor rubbed at his throat, the same finger marks that graced Kenzie’s wrist fading rapidly thanks to his shifter genetics. An advantage Kenzie didn’t have. Wouldn’t have until they mated.

Rayne felt her trembling increase and whispered into her hair. “It will be all right, sweetheart.”

If we ever mate.

“I’d guessed he’d been hurt,” Kenzie murmured, shaking her head and trying to pull from his embrace. “But his back. Those scars…who would do such a thing? It’s beyond horrible.”

Rayne cursed loudly. She’d seen the myriad of scars that littered Trace’s back.

“Humans.” Baylor spat the word out like it was a curse word. His eyes flared bright as he backed from the kitchen to follow Trace. “It’s what they do to each other, only Trace survived longer than a human. He gave them more entertainment than they were used to. They really enjoyed what they did to him.”

Rayne let Baylor go, knowing it would be pointless to try and stop him from protecting Trace. Rayne would normally feel compelled to follow them, yet he didn’t feel any such compulsion right now. Not with Kenzie trembling in pain and distress in his arms.

His brothers were quite capable of looking after themselves for a while. Trace hadn’t meant to hurt Kenzie when he’d been momentarily lost to his demons, but he had, and that was something he was going to have to live with. Baylor had had a choice to make when he’d seen Kenzie had been hurt, and he’d chosen poorly. Kenzie was not only an innocent, she was theirs to protect. Baylor needed to get that straight, or leave them.

“Please, Rayne. I’ve caused enough trouble for everyone. I’m fine. I just want to go. I have to see to the bank and then I want to go home. I just want this day to be over.”

“Jason is at the jail with the prisoner,” Hunter said. “He said he’d meet you at his clinic in town and X-ray Kenzie’s wrist if necessary.”

“Come on, Kenzie. I’m taking you to see Doc.” Rayne picked her up and ignored her protests that she was fine. She was not fine and he would see she got treatment for her new injury.

He didn’t see Baylor or Trace as he buckled Kenzie into the passenger seat of their truck and left the Reeds’ compound. Kenzie had stopped arguing and was staring out the window at the snow-covered fields.

“Will they be okay? I didn’t mean to cause trouble between you and your brothers. It’s obvious you’re all extremely close.”

“I imagine they’ll be at the clinic before us,” Rayne said. Smiling reassuringly at Kenzie when she looked at him with disbelief. “I know them better than you, Kenzie. They’ll be there. Trust me.”

“Is it crazy that I already do trust you?”

“No. It’s the mating bond. It’s causing an instinctual reaction and you’re not accustomed to following your instincts as we shifters are.”

She nodded and turned to watch the fields whizz by as he drove too fast in his need to get her arm seen to.

“I’m so sorry for what Trace suffered. Do you think he’ll ever be able to tell me what happened to him?”

“I do. Believe it or not, but this is the happiest I’ve seen him in over forty years.”

Maybe having Kenzie to care for would finally pull Trace out of his own personal hell, or perhaps it would drive him to his grave. Rayne didn’t know, but he knew he’d already decided where he was supposed to be. Rayne’s cat had decided in that bank, when it had first scented her blood. He’d found his mate and he was going to keep her.

Whether Trace and Baylor were willing to finally fight their way out of that jungle was their choice now. Rayne saw now that the fight had always been theirs. He’d just kept them alive and sane so they’d have the chance to choose. He hoped with all his heart they chose Kenzie, because he’d done all he could. The rest of the battle was theirs alone to fight. 

Chapter Eight

Kenzie’s mind positively swam with confusion. She’d seen a man change into a cougar. She’d seen the scars from horrific injuries litter Trace’s strong, muscled back. Injuries that apparently had been dealt to him by humans. Injuries that made her heart ache for a total stranger. Ache for herself, too. She wanted Trace not fear her for being human. She wanted to get to know him. She wanted him, wanted all three of them. Even Baylor with his snarls and bristly manner made her want.

She felt the “mating bond” all right. She’d recognized the feelings Melanie, Jade, and Bethany described as they told her about meeting their husbands, their mates. Her whole body felt like it was on fire when they so much as looked at her. Then, when one of them touched her she felt a myriad of sensations and emotions. Pleasure, peace, and she felt connected to them. Connected in a way she’d never experienced before, not even with her own family.

Kenzie was scared as they pulled up outside Jason’s clinic. She was scared Trace and Baylor wouldn’t be there. Scared they would be and she’d just become more attached to two men, who by all accounts, were unattainable. The sidewalk was empty, the sky dark and ominous as thick snow clouds filled the afternoon sky. Tears pricked at her eyes.

Rayne got out of the truck and Kenzie took the moment of solitude to compose herself as he walked around to her door.

“I don’t even know them. Why do I care that they’re not here?” Her voice hitched and she took a deep breath to calm herself. “I don’t know them and they don’t want to know me. Simple.”

Rayne’s expression was fierce as he opened her door. His eyes glowed and she could swear she saw the tips of long, sharp canines as his lip curled in a snarl.

“We shifters have excellent hearing, Kenzie. I heard what you just said. Did you not understand a single thing you were told today?” He unhooked her seatbelt and pulled her up against his hard, trembling chest, his arms wrapping tightly around her. “You are our mate. In the span of our three centuries of life as shifters, we only get gifted one, and you’re it. If Baylor and Trace choose to walk away from our mating, they will never be able to be with another woman, never find love, never find peace. To put it simply, they’ll cease living.”

Kenzie gasped, her heart racing so hard she could feel her pulse pounding in her throat.

Rayne’s eyes returned to green, the amber light fading. “And I’ll do nothing to stop it because it’s too late for me. I have already accepted you as mine and my cat has all but claimed you. Making love to you, marking you as mine, is already unnecessary for my fate to be sealed.”

He licked his lips, his gaze lowering to her mouth. Kenzie licked her own lips, suddenly wanting his mouth on hers more than she’d ever wanted anything, even air.

“I love you, Kenzie. I want you, Kenzie. I’m yours, if you’ll have me. Yours forever.”

Kenzie’s injured wrist crunched painfully as she wrapped her arms around Rayne’s neck, tangling her fingers in his tousled dark hair. She didn’t care that they were in public, didn’t care that they were virtual strangers. She felt the connection to Rayne and knew he already owned her heart.

She released her fear and trusted her feelings. She looked into the deep green of his eyes and saw he’d bared his soul. She moved to place her lips over his, but he’d seen the acceptance in her eyes and crashed his lips down onto hers. She moaned as her split lip stung, and Rayne immediately gentled the kiss.

He licked over the spilt and she felt his chest vibrate as he growled softly. “I want to kill that bear for hurting you, Kenzie. I’m sorry if that scares you, but I want to hold you safe in my arms forever and never let you go.”

“Don’t kill him, just keep him in jail so he can’t hurt anyone else.” Kenzie giggled as Rayne’s smile grew feral and his eyes twinkled with tiny yellow sparks.

“Spoilsport.”

“I should be terrified at your bloodthirsty nature, but somehow I find it endearing.” She shook her head and banged her forehead softly against his chin. “Must be that mating musk stuff.”

Kenzie jumped as warm hands settled on her shoulders. Her lungs filled with the soothing scent of pine and man. Trace pressed his hard frame against her back and a moan of pleasure spilled embarrassingly from Kenzie’s mouth.

“It’s too late for me, too.” Trace’s lips burned against her neck as he trailed kisses to the juncture of her shoulder. “I’m sorry for hurting you, Kenzie. It terrifies me that I did that to you, but I can’t leave you, even if that’s what I should do for your own safety. You’re mine.”

Kenzie saw tears fill Rayne’s eyes as he smiled at her. “I don’t want you to leave me, Trace. I want you, too. We’ll find a way to make it work. I don’t know how I know that, but I know we’re supposed to be together.”

“We are,” Rayne said softly, “all of us.” Kenzie saw his gaze flick to a spot behind them and knew Baylor was there, too.

Baylor was a shifter. He had excellent hearing and would have heard everything they’d just said. Kenzie was in the arms of two men and still felt an emptiness inside her. It was confusing and painful.

She’d seen her friends happy living in ménage relationships, but had never considered that for herself. Now, however, she knew she’d never be really happy unless Baylor was in her life as well as his brothers. She looked at Rayne and he smiled sadly at her.

If Baylor chose to walk away from this, from whatever this was becoming, she was certain Rayne would miss his brother just as much as Kenzie would. She wrapped her arms tighter around Rayne’s neck as Trace peppered kisses up her neck to her lips. She opened to his gentle kiss and shivered as he moaned.

Kenzie had never felt so happy, and so sad, in all her life. She reveled in the pleasure of Trace’s kiss and vowed to never let Rayne and Trace feel they weren’t enough for her. She pushed the pain and emptiness that pulsed through her from Baylor distancing himself into a ball and locked it away. She’d take it out and cry over it when she was alone.

She’d never let it touch Trace or Rayne, they’d been dealing with pain for decades. Kenzie would see that they only saw how happy she was that she had them in her life, and she was happy. Mostly, I am happy.

* * * *

Baylor’s hands were bunched into fists at his sides, his anger a hair’s breath away from bursting free as he followed Rayne, Kenzie, and Trace into the examination room in Jason’s clinic.

He hadn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t deserve Trace’s, or Rayne’s anger. Kenzie had hidden the marks and he’d simply respected her desire to keep it hidden. Trace hadn’t meant to hurt her, and she’d seemed fine. Baylor’s cat swiped its claws through his guts, the pain burning away his anger and turning it to shame.

She’s my mate. She was hurt helping Trace with her gentle touch and kind heart, and she did fucking help him. He snapped straight out of hell with her scent, words, and touch. It was a miracle and I should worship at her feet because of that. I should have seen that someone cared for injury. She deserved to be treated with reverence for what she’d done, for who she was, and I fucking did nothing.

“Do you have a problem, Baylor?” Jason asked. “Because if you don’t stop growling, I’m going to throw you out on the street where you belong.”

Baylor pulled his thoughts together and shot a snarl at the doctor. “I’d like to see you try.”

“I heard what you did,” Jason said acidly. “I should throw you out just for your callous treatment of your mate.”

Baylor wanted to grip Jason by the throat and show him the meaning of callous.

“I was trying to hide the injury, too,” Kenzie said quietly. “He can stay or go. The choice is his.”

The pain and resignation in Kenzie’s words had Baylor staggering back a few steps until his back hit the wall. She wasn’t talking merely of leaving the examination room. He looked at her, really looked at her, and sucked in a shocked breath.

Her head was downcast, her body shaking. What little of her face he could glimpse through the curtain of long blonde hair was stark white. This was the same woman who this morning had faced down two armed robbers, had offered herself up as a hostage to save all those people in the bank with her, including his brother. He’d done this to her.

“I’m staying,” he said, his voice cracking on his suddenly dry throat. He swallowed hard. “Trace might need me.”

Jason turned his back on him and focused on Kenzie, but Baylor could scent the man’s anger, and Baylor knew in his heart he deserved it. He just didn’t trust humans. Didn’t trust himself with a human. He was still so angry at what had happened to Trace, what they’d done to him. What I’d allowed to happen when I failed to find him for two fucking weeks.

“One more sound,” Jason uttered the threat without turning away from his examination of Kenzie’s bruised wrist.

Baylor tried to reign in his rage and self-loathing, closing his mouth tight to stop any further snarls inadvertently slipping out. Trace and Rayne ignored him completely, didn’t even spare him a glance, their attention fixed on Kenzie as they stroked her hair and whispered reassurances to her.

His cat was a caged beast inside him as Baylor refused to go to her and do the same. As Baylor refused to do what was right, what Kenzie deserved from him.

“I’ll take an X-ray to make sure I don’t need to operate, but I’m certain your wrist is broken, Kenzie. Shattered, actually.”

Trace’s complexion grew ashen and Baylor ran to his side, afraid he’d pass out. “This isn’t about me, Baylor. Back off.” Trace cupped Kenzie’s chin and lifted her face so she was looking at him. “I know that must be painful. Do you need something for the pain before Jason takes the X-rays?”

Kenzie looked down at the scars that circled Trace’s wrist. She straightened her spine and stroked the fingers of her uninjured hand over the thick, raised marks left by the thin wire restraints Trace had been bound with.

“I’m managing okay, for now. Thank you, Trace.”

Baylor couldn’t stay. He couldn’t stay and witness the understanding in Kenzie’s eyes. She knew Trace had suffered injuries much more serious than hers, knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her, and laid no blame for her own injury on him. With her simple gesture, she’d placed the blame for her broken wrist on the people who tortured him. She’d made it clear he didn’t need her forgiveness, because it wasn’t his fault.

Baylor was walking down main street, his stride measured as he headed for his truck. She was perfect for Trace. She was perfect for Rayne. She was simply perfect. Michael’s words came unbidden to his mind. Fate had indeed known what it was doing when it had chosen Kenzie for their mate.

His cat was waging an internal battle with Baylor, demanding he return to his mate. Demanding he do whatever it took to make her forgive him his transgressions and gaze at him the way she had Trace.

“Not happening. I’m too fucking angry. I’ll only hurt her, and I don’t want to do that.”

He reached his truck and found he was panting for breath, his shirt clinging to his sweat-soaked skin despite the snow that was beginning to fall. He slammed his fist into the door of his truck and hissed at the pain, knowing he deserved more pain, not less, for the way he was treating Kenzie.

“I’m scared. Scared of a tiny human female.”

Saying the words out loud didn’t make him feel any better. It didn’t give him any peace. There was no epiphany, no light shining from the sky showing him the path to everlasting happiness.

“I’m fucked. I need to find a way of letting go of my anger, or leave Eminence forever.”

Chapter Nine

“He’s double backed,” Calder said with a growl, his cat irate at having his prey elude him.

“I say he’s still here,” his brother Axel said. “I think he’s here somewhere amongst the native bears. There’s so many around here that he’s using them to hide.”

“You’re wrong. His scent vanished completely ten miles back. I think he’s heading back to Eminence.”

Axel snarled. “I hope you’re fucking wrong.”

“I’m never wrong, remember. You’ve got the fucking T-shirt.”

“Then we need to warn them.”

“Scout ahead a few more miles, just to make sure. I’ll start back.”

Calder watched his brother disappear into the inky darkness. The storm had moved south, back toward home, but it was still freezing. He imagined Peata and Lily snuggled up close to Max, warm and safe in their bed, and his cat roared out its fury. The bear was going back to Eminence, and he and Axel weren’t there to help protect their mate and child.

Calder ran toward home. He had Axel checking he wasn’t wrong, so he didn’t bother trying to track the stinking bear. He just ran south as fast as he could. He was probably an hour away from being able to contact any of the pride with their telepathic link and his cell phone was in his truck, even further south than that.

He’d been too cocky, too confident that the bear wouldn’t slip past him and he’d put his pride in danger by being so far out of contact.

“Stop snarling. You’re giving me a headache,” Axel said. “You didn’t make the decision alone, Calder. I thought we were right behind him, too.”

Calder snarled his answer. Axel wasn’t going to relieve his anxiety, nothing would until he’d made contact with one of the pride and put them on alert. He suddenly wished they had the annoying vampire, Aiden, in on the hunt. The vampire could have made contact telepathically from this distance, plus he could run faster than him.

“Fucking vampire.”

“How the hell have you made this Aiden’s fault?” Axel admonished. “You were right, Calder. There’s not even a whiff of him farther north. The bastard got past us. I’m right behind you.”

Calder used his fury, his frustration, and his worry to push himself harder as he ran. He needed to warn Finn. He needed to warn Max to keep Peata and their cub safe. He needed to catch the bear and rip his head off.

* * * *

Kenzie walked into her bedroom and almost moaned as she looked at her bed. She was so tired. Both physically and emotionally drained. As inviting as the bed was, she wanted to shower first. She needed to get the feel of that monster off her body. His claws, his hands, his course, hairy groin rubbing against her.

“Kenzie, are you all right? Do you need help?”

Rayne Soames. He was another matter altogether. He and Trace were currently in her living room, some ten feet away. To be honest, they were filling her small living room.

“I’m fine.” She didn’t have the energy to explain why she’d moaned. She just didn’t.

They’d reluctantly taken her to the bank after they’d finished at the clinic. The two men had then stayed by her side as she’d inspected the new front window and filled out the necessary reports for her head office. She’d then called Paul, her teller, and arranged for him to see a counselor before finally letting the men bring her home.

She looked down at her borrowed jeans and her filthy blouse. She couldn’t have dreamed the sort of nightmare today had turned into. She pulled her arm from the sling it was resting in and gritted her teeth at the deep, throbbing ache in her plastered wrist.

Jason hadn’t needed to operate, thank goodness, but her wrist was broken, several bones having cracked under the strength of Trace’s grip. Trace Soames, another of today’s surprises.

Kenzie shook her head. She refused to try and deal with any more drama. If she went down that path, she’d end up thinking of Baylor.

“Don’t cry, little one,” Trace whispered into her hair. “It’s breaking my heart. Is it your wrist? We have the tablets Jason gave you for the pain, please won’t you take one?”

“I’ll get a glass of water,” she heard Rayne say as she tried to remember when she’d begun to cry—maybe when Rayne and Trace had come into her bedroom?

“I want a shower and I want to sleep. I want to forget…forget the bear, forget the pain.”

Trace handed her a small white pill, his expression steely, brooking no argument. He was a stunning man. Extremely tall, thickly muscled and deeply tanned. His green eyes shone in a face graced with high cheekbones and a chiseled jaw. Fine white scars littered his right cheek and jaw, running down his neck to disappear beneath his shirt. It only made him look stronger, a survivor, a warrior.

Rayne handed her a glass of water, his expression equally stern. “Take the damned pill, Kenzie. We’ll help you get clean. We’re here to help you forget.”

“You’re here because you ignored my request for you both to go home.”

She swallowed the tablet and almost choked when they both growled.

“You’re hurt, exhausted, and you’re ours,” Rayne finally said. “We won’t ever leave you. Don’t you understand that yet?”

More tears spilled from Kenzie’s eyes, her heart aching. She nodded and handed Rayne back the glass of water. She should be happy. She had two gorgeous men standing in her bedroom. Two men who made her body burn. Their touch, hell, when they looked at her, they made her want to strip off her clothes and pounce on them.

“I’m beginning to understand, Rayne.” She cupped his cheek with her left hand and sighed as her body hummed with pleasure. She pressed her lips together, refusing to add to the concern she already saw in his eyes. What Baylor did, or didn’t do, was not Rayne’s responsibility. Baylor had chosen his own path.

“We’re here for you, Kenzie,” Trace said. He stood with her in his arms and walked to her small bathroom.

The two men undressed her, showered her, and tucked her in bed without once making her feel embarrassed or awkward. They were tender and caring.

“Rest, Kenzie,” Rayne said, kissing her lips softly. It was the first hint of intimacy since they’d entered her bedroom.

“We’ll be here watching over you,” Trace said, kissing her deeply and betraying how much control he’d been using when he’d helped her to shower. She was breathless when he broke the kiss. He cupped her face and stroked her cheek lightly with the rough pad of his thumb. “Sleep, my beautiful mate. We have forever to enjoy each other’s bodies.”

Kenzie watched the men leave. They flicked off the light and she stared into the darkness, her mind running over the last twenty-four hours and all that had happened. She’d reached the part of the day where the bear had her pinned to the floor of the vault when she felt the numbing effects of the pain medication kick in. She let the medication pull her into sleep without a fight.

Heat surrounded Kenzie as she rolled over, her mind fuzzy, her arm throbbing. Moonlight spilled through a gap in her bedroom drapes. She blinked drowsily and tried to make sense of the huge form lying beside her. It moved and yellow eyes shone in the reflected moonlight. A massive cougar was beside her. A small rumbling growl made the mattress vibrate. Kenzie turned her head and saw another cougar was stretched out on the bed behind her.

Trace walked toward her and handed her a glass of water. “You should take another pill, you’ve been moaning in your sleep.”

Kenzie’s heart leapt into her throat and her eyes flew to the cougar in front of her. It lowered its head as it growled. Baylor. He was pissed off and surly, even as his cougar. He was also here.

She didn’t speak, afraid Baylor would run, afraid she was simply dreaming this whole thing. She swallowed the tablet and handed the glass back to Trace, resting her injured arm against the warm softness of Baylor’s body as she settled herself back onto her pillow. She was almost asleep again when she heard and felt the rumbling coming from Baylor. He was purring. Kenzie felt completely content as she drifted back to sleep.

* * * *

Baylor heard the vibration of Trace’s cell phone and woke instantly. Kenzie’s sweet scent was all around him and it made him angry that he found the smell so damned wonderful. Her slight weight as she leaned into him was giving him pleasure.

“Fuck. Why does that feel so fucking good?”

“Because she’s yours,” Rayne said through their link. “Even if you’re currently in denial.”

Rayne was wrong. He wasn’t in denial, he was in no doubt that Kenzie was his mate. He was, however, just as certain that he was not capable of loving a human mate. He could only offer her hate and anger. Then there was his unresolved guilt and self-loathing. In short, he would make her life a misery.

Trace walked noiselessly from Kenzie’s bedroom. When Baylor heard Cooper’s voice, he stopped breathing and listened to what the pride enforcer was saying.

“Calder just made contact,” Cooper said, his voice terse, his tone furious. “The bear gave them the slip and Calder feels certain he’s heading back here.”

“What do you need?” Trace asked.

“I need you and Rayne to join in the patrols, immediately. Baylor can take Kenzie to Samson’s compound and stay with her there if he wishes. She’ll be too vulnerable in her apartment in town.”

“We’ll take her home before we begin the patrol,” Trace said. “It’s secure and defensible.”

“Fine. You and Rayne patrol from the north of your property to our home. It’s a big area. My dads, Theo and Paul, will be patrolling the area with you.”

Baylor slipped away from Kenzie’s side and leapt off the bed without jostling her. He saw Rayne do the same. They were both human as they joined Trace in Kenzie’s living room.

“He’s coming back for his brother,” Baylor said. “We should have anticipated he would.”

“I can’t see him coming back to fight an entire pride of shifters single-handed,” Rayne said.

“He’ll be bringing more bears,” Trace said with certainty. Baylor watched the color drain from Trace’s face as a tremor wracked his body. “It’s going to become a war. What the fuck is he thinking?”

Baylor strode forward and pulled Trace into a fierce embrace. “I’d fight an entire town of bears alone, if necessary, if they had you or Rayne.” Baylor and Rayne had killed over a hundred enemy soldiers to free Trace from his pit of living death the day they’d finally found him.

Baylor wanted to pick Trace up and take him forcibly out of this town. Take him away from anything that would trigger the painful and debilitating breaks from reality that saw him immersed in the horror of his past.

Trace slapped him on the back and took a deep breath. “I know you would. I want to tell you that I’ll leave Eminence with you, Baylor. That I’ll return to Alaska with you and we can roam as our cats until we die, but I can’t. No matter how much being human is torturing me, the pull to be with Kenzie is stronger.”

Looking over Trace’s shoulder, Baylor saw the tiny woman who’d made that escape impossible standing in the doorway. She was pale and drawn looking, her long blonde hair tousled with sleep. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on and she took his breath away. She’d changed everything for him and his brothers.

“We have to get you out of town, Kenzie. The bear who escaped is coming back,” Rayne said, striding to Kenzie and embracing her with an ease Baylor both loathed and envied.

“Do you think he’s coming for his brother?” Kenzie asked.

“We do,” Rayne said. “We also know he won’t be coming alone. There’s too many of us here for him to risk that.”

“I can go to Denver for a few days, although I don’t understand why you want me to leave.”

“You stay with us, Kenzie. We’ve discussed this,” Rayne said. He picked Kenzie up and she squirmed in his hold, pushing against his chest with her hand.

“Rayne, you have no…I mean, you and Baylor are not wearing any clothes.”

Baylor wanted to laugh at the depth of Kenzie’s embarrassment, but stopped himself in time. He didn’t laugh, not at anything. He shook his head and growled as he moved to where he’d left his clothes on the sofa and dressed at an unhurried pace.

“Humans are too hung up on nudity,” he mumbled. “Shifting is easier when we’re not clothed. We aren’t going to rape you just because we have no clothes on.”

Kenzie’s sharp intake of breath had him turning his gaze on her as he buttoned up his cargo pants. Her blush had vanished. She was now as white as a sheet. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Please put me down, Rayne. I need to pack a bag.” She turned on her heel the instant Rayne set her on her feet. She stopped short of slamming her bedroom door, but she did close it with force. Baylor still heard her softly uttered curse over the bang of the door.

The words failed to penetrate the ice around his heart. “This is what I am, honey. I never pretended to be anything else.” She was right. He was a fucking asshole.

* * * *

It was noon by the time Leith made it back to their motel in Grand Springs. He detected the familiar scent of his sleuth’s enforcers, Trevor and Ruben, as soon as he got out of his truck, so wasn’t surprised to find them in his room when he opened the door.

“Why the fuck are we wasting time in this town. We need to get your whore of a brother out of the mess you got him in so we can go back home where we belong.”

Trevor was the smallest of the twins, standing only a couple of inches taller than Leith’s six foot five inches, he was also the meanest. While his brother, Ruben, was seven feet of muscle and heartless brutality, Trevor was evil incarnate. Trevor laughed as he tore babies limb from limb. Leith shuddered as the memory flashed through his mind.

“Because I have a way to find out exactly where Geordie is and how much he’s told the stinking cats about us and our sleuth.”

“Do tell,” Ruben said softly as Trevor grunted in obvious disapproval.

“The woman Geordie spent time with over the past week, she’s from Eminence, and she told us everything we needed to know about the pride’s security patrols.”

“Clearly not everything,” Trevor said sardonically, “or we wouldn’t need to be here.”

Leith gritted his teeth and held onto his bear’s rage as he took the hit from Trevor.

“The female whose scent is all over this room? She was here with Geordie?” Trevor asked, his eyes alight with pleasure. Leith’s silence was all the confirmation Trevor needed. “He really is a naughty boy. The last time he was caught being unfaithful, the Alpha gave him to me for a week.”

Leith winced, despite his dislike of Geordie. He remembered what Geordie had looked like after spending a week in Trevor’s bed.

“You know where to find her?” Ruben asked, licking his lips and ignoring his brother’s attempts to make Leith retaliate in some way.

“She works in a bar here in Grand Springs. It’s where Geordie picked her up.”

“I’m thirsty,” Ruben said bluntly. He strode to the door and exited the room without another word.

Leith followed, not pitying the woman they were going after. She’d proven she wasn’t worthy of his pity when she’d betrayed her own pride. Now she would pay for that disloyalty with her body and her life, in that order.

* * * *

Rayne ran through the snow as he circled farther north in his patrol of the Alpha’s property. They’d been patrolling for four hours and had yet to find any sign of bear.

“Do you think Kenzie and Baylor are okay?” Trace asked through their link.

“That’s a loaded question, Trace. If you mean are they physically well? Then, yes, I’m confident no one has slipped through the pride’s net.” Trace’s chuckle had an unexpected lump forming in Rayne’s throat. He thought he’d never hear that sound coming from his brother again.

“No, I meant do you think she’s hit him with something yet?”

“That, I can’t answer with any confidence at all,” Trace said honestly. “He’s cantankerous enough to drive a saint to violence.”

“He’s going to leave. You realize that?”

Rayne paused as he glimpsed movement in the trees ahead. Paul, one of Finn’s fathers, slid out from between two trees.

“Theo and I are going farther north, right to the edge of the town limits.”

“I’ll stay and patrol around your home. Trace can cover the gap from here to our ranch.”

Paul nodded and disappeared into the trees again. The wind picked up, sending flurries of snow high into air as it howled through the trees. “There’s more snow on the way,” Rayne said. The snow was going to seriously impede visibility and the wind was going to make finding, and following, any scent nearly impossible.

As Rayne started his run north, he thought about Kenzie and wondered if her time alone with Baylor was going to make a difference to Baylor. He didn’t want Baylor to leave them. Baylor had suffered since Trace’s capture and subsequent torture, he knew this. Baylor had sacrificed everything to keep Trace alive ever since. Baylor needed the life Kenzie offered them, he deserved happiness. He deserved love. Baylor may even need her more than Trace did.

“This is going to be a long day,” Trace said.

“I’ll see you back here in an hour,” Rayne said. “Stay safe.”

“This is Eminence,” Trace said. “Nothing ever happens here. Remember?”

Rayne wasn’t sure that was true now, and even if it was, he had the feeling he’d always feel this level of anxiety when Kenzie was out of his sight. He wanted her safe, always, and that would be best achieved if she stayed in his arms. Always.

He shook his head, clearing the distracting thoughts of his soft, sweet, mate in his arms and focused on keeping her and the rest of the pride safe. Seeing the bruises and cuts on Kenzie’s body when they’d showered her had nearly unhinged him. The bear had come too damned close to raping her. No one would harm her ever again.

He let his rage at what the bears had intended for his mate drive away all of his fatigue. He ran hard and fast, determined that if the bear that had escaped returned to Eminence, it would not reach Kenzie. He’d kill it before it got anywhere near her.

* * * *

Kenzie woke with a start and blinked her eyes in the dim light of a strange room. Rayne’s room, she remembered, sighing at the memory of waking earlier that day with two huge cougars on either side of her. She found she missed her big, furry guardians.

Her stomach rumbled, and she glanced at her watch. It was past noon. She’d missed breakfast and lunch, let alone lunch and dinner the night before. It had been a crazy couple of days. Finding the bathroom adjoining Rayne’s bedroom, she took care of her full bladder and went in search of food. Rayne and Trace had told her to help herself to whatever she needed.

They’d told her this right before they’d left her here with Baylor. The asshole. She’d still been hurting from Baylor’s cruel comment and hadn’t wanted to face him, so she’d retreated to Rayne’s room. She’d been too tired to face any more of Baylor’s surly attitude and had curled up in Rayne’s big bed.

Baylor had made it very clear what he thought of her. She was human and he hated humans.

“It doesn’t matter what this mating bond shit is making me feel toward him. If he doesn’t want me then I have to get the fuck over him.”

Kenzie clutched at the pain in her chest with her good hand. She stumbled and nearly fell head first down the stairs. Taking a few deep breaths, she waited for the pain to ease before making her way downstairs.

The house was silent, not that that meant anything. The men moved without making a sound. Kenzie loved the way they moved. It had captured her complete attention the first time she’d seen the Soames brothers. She’d been attracted to them even then, before she knew anything about cougars and mates.

She smelled the coffee as she entered the large kitchen. She went to the pot on the counter and touched it lightly. It was still warm. She had to open a couple of cupboards until she found a mug, but then she quickly poured herself some and sat at the stool by the kitchen counter.

She looked around the kitchen as she sipped the hot, bitter brew. The room was devoid of any clutter. There were no pictures, ornaments, magazines. Nothing. There was no warmth, no personality. If not for the pot of coffee, she would think no one even lived in the house.

A rhythmic thumping sound caught her attention. Curious, she put down her coffee and went in search of the source. A door off the kitchen stood ajar. Opening it a little further, she saw a set of stairs leading down into what must be a basement. The sound grew louder as she slowly descended. When she reached the bottom step, her breath froze in her lungs at the sight before her.

Baylor had his back to the stairs as he punched, and then kicked, a punching bag suspended from the ceiling. His strikes were powerful, his movements smooth as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Wearing only boxer briefs, his skin shone with sweat and his muscles bulged.

He was beautiful. He was tall and leanly muscled, moving with an innate gracefulness that would make a dancer weep with envy. Desire swept hot and heavy through her body. Despite knowing she could never have this beautiful man, her body still craved him. She wanted to run her fingers over his sweat-slicked muscles and trace every defined bulge. Kenzie wanted to hold him and be held by him, as well as his brothers.

She’d never wanted a man as much as she did all three of these men. She ached for their touch, for them to be in the same room as her, but this was different. As she gazed at the muscled perfection of Baylor, she knew she was in trouble, because he was never going to be hers and she didn’t know if she’d survive the loss when he eventually left her.

* * * *

Baylor took a deep breath and wobbled as the scent of arousal swamped his senses. Kenzie’s arousal. That he’d missed her presence until now was a sign of his mental deterioration.

She was a distraction that could cost him and his brothers their lives.

He turned and saw her at the bottom of the stairs. Small, feminine, her cheeks flushed, her breathing rapid. “Mine,” his cat roared in his mind.

He was standing in front of her a second later. The attraction was too strong to ignore and he’d moved without even thinking. She was dangerous.

“You’re so beautiful,” she said. She groaned and dropped her head. “I’m sorry I interrupted you. I’m leaving now.”

As she turned, he placed his arm on the stair railing, blocking her path. He should let her go. He didn’t need her. Didn’t want her.

“I want you, Kenzie.” The words were out before he’d had time to stop them. “Be in no doubt of that. But…”

Her face was flushed from both her embarrassment and her arousal as she looked up at him. Her gaze locked onto his and he saw her pain clearly. His cat fought him for control.

“But I’m human,” she said. Her eyes filled with tears and ran down her flushed cheeks.

“I’m attracted to you despite my anger toward humans.” She turned to leave and he caught her arm. She didn’t look at him, her head remaining lowered, her exquisite face hidden behind the curtain of her long, blonde hair.

“I know you’re nothing like them. Not anything like anyone who’s ever lived.”

“But, you don’t want me. You can’t accept me. Won’t accept me.”

Hearing the accusation hurled at him was painful and he couldn’t miss the sorrow in her words. He knew how deeply he was hurting her, scented the depth of it. “I’m not good enough for you, Kenzie.”

She turned then and gazed deep into his eyes. “How can you say that? I’ve seen how you are with Trace. How you must have always been there for him. You’re a good man, Baylor.”

“I caused the agony he’s living with. I let Trace down when he needed me. It took me two weeks to find him, and what they did to him in those two weeks have continued to torture him for the last forty years.”

“It tortures all of you,” Kenzie said softly.

“I should have found him. I should have saved him before they did…did that to him.”

Baylor released Kenzie’s arm and stepped away from her as his body began to shake. “If you’d seen him when we found him, Kenzie, seen what they’d done to him, what they’d made him. It happened because I didn’t find him for two fucking weeks.”

“You didn’t do that to him, Baylor. You and Rayne saved him. You’re a good man, Baylor Soames. One of the best I’ve ever known. You and Rayne have stayed by his side ever since, haven’t you?” Baylor could only nod. He didn’t want to hear that he was a good man. He knew he wasn’t.

“You’ve helped him heal, kept him alive. Kept him alive for me. I’m going to stay with him, too. I intend to do everything I can to help him heal, to see him whole again. I love him. He has me, as well, now. You all have me.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “Only…you’re choosing to walk away from me.”

Baylor felt his anger surge up inside him, black and ugly as it surrounded his heart and filled his mind. His anger was a living thing. He hated the men who’d nearly killed Trace. He hated the humans and their wars for putting them all there in the first place. He hated himself for not finding Trace sooner. He hated it hadn’t been him instead of Trace. Trace was too good, too pure to have been tainted by such evil. It should have been him.

“I don’t deserve a mate. I’ve become a creature of my anger now. I don’t deserve happiness, a mate, or a home. I deserve nothing good.”

“Not even a life, apparently.” She shot back. “Then you died in that jungle, Baylor.” 

She had no idea what she was doing to him. What she did to his steely resolve to remain unaffected and distant. Each word she spoke chipped away at the wall encasing his heart.

Everything she did for Trace showed she was nothing like the human monsters who’d tortured him for weeks. Instead, she’d already begun to heal the cracks in Trace’s psyche. He’d seen it. She was healing his inner wounds as nothing he’d done ever had. 

If he was honest with himself, for once, then he should also concede she was healing him, as well. She’d shown him how broken his own psyche was. How much he, himself, needed to heal from the ordeal they’d all suffered through.

He may not have been the one in that pit, but he’d been beside Trace in hell the entire time, and ever since. Until Kenzie.

He heard her crying as she ran up the stairs away from him, and he let her go. Her words were ringing in his ears. Had he died back there in that jungle? Died looking for Trace? Died when they’d found him and seen what had been done to him? Had he died getting Trace out of that hell??

He thought back over everything he’d accomplished in the last forty years. “Nothing. I’ve achieved nothing.”

He’d watched over Trace like he was an avenging angel, not his brother. He’d done everything he could to protect Trace. To try and to keep his demons away. But, despite his best efforts, Trace still hadn’t moved past the events of his torture. He’d stopped living. They all had. Baylor hadn’t once thought about the future, dreamed of happiness, of love. He’d thought of nothing but how much he hated the human race until his life was nothing but hatred and rage.

Did he truly want a life? Trace, Rayne, and Kenzie did, and they wanted him to be a part of it, even Kenzie. Kenzie who he’d done nothing but hurt with his animosity and reluctance. She was helpless to fight the innate attraction the mating bond brought about and it would have been extremely confusing for a human. His outright rejection of her, and his own feelings toward her, must have made it even more bewildering. Beautiful, sweet, and loving Kenzie.

She already loved them, had accepted them. That was why she cried for them when she was in a lot of pain herself, both physical and emotional. Baylor saw that love had made the tiniest person the strongest in their relationship. Not all strength was physical and his mate was a powerhouse when it came to healing their wounds and taking away their pain and rage.

Kenzie, his mate. Dark and choking tendrils seemed to fall from his heart. He inhaled the scent of Kenzie’s pain and sorrow. He’d done that to her. He’d hurt his mate. A mate he had no clue what to do with. He turned back to the punching bag and a new resolve formed in his mind.

“I have to get my shit together because I don’t want to hurt her again.”

He punched and kicked at the bag as he looked to the future for the first time in decades. He had a mate. He and his brothers had a mate. “What the fuck do I do with a mate?”

His claws punched through his fingertips as his cat roared in triumph. He and his beast were once again in total harmony. They had a mate.

* * * *

The female was easy to find as she was working the afternoon shift in the bar where they’d first met her. She was rightfully wary as the three of them approached her, but Leith had spent enough time around Geordie to know exactly what to say to put her at ease.

“We’re going to free Geordie, Sarah, but we need your help. Geordie needs your help.”

“Not here,” she hissed. She looked up at Ruben and took a small step back. A reaction most people had when they stared up at the huge man.

“Geordie told me he was taking you with us when we leave. Are you all packed?” Leith smiled as she visibly relaxed and nodded. Geordie always promised them that. The idiots always believed him.

“I’ll meet you out back in five. I’ll just tell the boss I’m taking my break.”

As soon as they got Sarah into Ruben’s truck, she proved to be as verbose as she was stupid. It appeared to Leith that she was going to give them all the information they needed without the use of violence. He found that a little disappointing.

“They have him in the jail. In the special cell they have for shifters. I tried to go and see him, sneak in, you know. Only that fucker, Samson, was there.”

“Samson?” Leith asked.

“He’s an arrogant prick. Some sort of soldier in his former life. Always thought himself too fucking good for us. Then he went and found a mate in some bar in Mexico. She’s a whore—they’re all fucking whores.”

“You’re a stunning creature,” Leith said, trying not to gag on his own words. “I don’t know why the men in your town aren’t falling at your feet and begging for you to be their mate.” Leith conceded she was easy on the eye, but as dumb as an ox, and vicious in her jealousy.

“My friends and I, we formed a club, you know. We’re cougars. We were born here, have been a part of this pride all our lives, but the men just used us for sex and then took up with humans.”

“Outrageous,” Ruben said smoothly. “Taking a human for a mate is against all we, in our sleuth, believe in.”

Sarah smiled coyly at Ruben and reached over to rub his shoulder. “Do you have a mate? What was your name again?”

“No, I don’t, Sarah. You can call me Ruben. All my friends do.”

“So, you formed a club?” Leith said, attempting to find out all he could so he could end the charade of civility and do what he wanted to the stupid bitch. Do everything he wanted.

“We moved here to Grand Springs, me and five of my friends. We couldn’t stand seeing those human bitches all over our men. Would you believe the bank manager has already staked a claim on Rayne and his brothers? I mean, she only met him yesterday and he’s already killed for her. What does she have that I don’t? She’s pretty, if you like your women small and skinny, but…ow. What the hell?”

“What did you say?” Leith’s bear was filling his mind with blind rage. Killed yesterday? Marshall had been killed yesterday. “You know who murdered my twin? Who murdered Marshall?”

“You’re hurting me!” Sarah’s eyes began to glow and her lip curled in a snarl.

The stupid cat thought she could beat a bear in a fight. Good, I like it when they fight me. Leith reined in his bear with promises of bloody retribution for their lost brother.

Leith relaxed his grip and tried to stop himself from backhanding the bitch through the truck window. “That was my brother,” he said softly. He lowered his eyes and hoped she didn’t notice the fiery red glow of his beast’s rage.

“Oh shit, yeah. I’m sorry.” She didn’t look, or sound, the least bit sorry as she flicked back her long dark hair and rubbed at her arm. “Well, it was Rayne Soames who broke your brother’s neck.”

“Rayne Soames,” Leith said, committing the name to memory, his bear already thirsting for the man’s blood.

“Rayne just happened to be in the bank, you see, when the robbery took place. He lost his shit and risked exposing our race to a bank full of humans when the bear—your brother—attacked the stupid bank manager. He thinks she’s his mate or something.”

Leith’s growl was loud, the air in the car vibrating with the sound of his fury.

Sarah’s eyes widened, fear beginning to taint her feline stench. Leith’s cock was hard in a second, despite his anger. He loved the smell of fear.

“I didn’t know he was in there, because I was at work already, or I would have called Geordie and warned him.”

She was right to fear him. He was going to kill her, eventually. Leith tried for a reassuring smile. “I know you would have, sweet thing. Geordie told us he’d fallen hard for you.”

“He did?” Sarah said, her voice cracking as she tried to recover her composure. “Me, too. I can’t wait to see him again.” She looked out the windscreen and ran her hand seductively across the back of Ruben’s thick, hairy neck. “My house is that one on the left.”

Trevor caught his gaze in the rear-view mirror as he pulled up in front of a two-storied cottage. “You live here alone, little one?”

“We all share, all the girls in the club. They’re still at work. Won’t be home for a couple more hours. You want to meet them? They’re real pretty.”

Leith was glad it was growing dark. She missed his look of contempt. That this creature had called other women whores was utter hypocrisy.

Sarah’s screams were muted slightly as Leith stepped under the shower’s scalding hot spray an hour later. He washed the smell of sweat, blood, and sex from his skin with her coconut-scented body wash. He’d slacked his lust and some of his fury on Sarah’s sweet body and he could now focus fully on the task ahead. He had to free his stupid whore of a brother, Geordie, and kill the cat who’d taken his brother’s life.

The screaming had stopped by the time he’d finished washing and Leith felt a small pang of disappointment. He wouldn’t have minded another turn with the traitorous cow. He wiped steam from the bathroom mirror and twisted to admire the damage she’d done to his back with her long, wickedly sharp claws.

“She seemed most surprised you weren’t taking her with you after we freed Geordie,” Trevor said. “What exactly did your brother promise her?”

“Nothing he intended to actually deliver,” Leith said coldly, jealousy surging at Geordie’s easy conquest of anyone he set his eye on. “He would have given her to Marshall and me as soon as she’d outlived her usefulness.”

“So, we break Geordie out tonight,” Trevor said. “Sarah was most helpful in detailing the security measures the cats have in place.”

That and more, Leith mused. “They’re weak,” Leith said, a small growl rumbling out with his words. “They all sleep in their beds with their human mates instead of safeguarding their territory. I want time alone with this Rayne Soames.” Leith licked his lips and smiled as a new plan formed in his mind.

Ruben’s massive body filled the bathroom doorway. “We can dump her in the woods on our way to Eminence.”

“Perfect. If she’s discovered it will look like she was the victim of an animal attack,” Trevor said, a smile curving his lips.

“She was,” Ruben said blandly. “I’m hungry. I wonder if she has any decent food in this crappy place.”

Leith left Trevor to wash up in the bathroom and went back into the bedroom to admire the brothers’ handiwork. Sarah was unrecognizable. If she was ever found, her face was so damaged they wouldn’t even be able to use dental records to identify her.

“I will make you watch, Rayne Soames, as I do even worse to the human you killed my brother to protect.” 

Chapter Ten

It was dark as Rayne met up with Trace and they turned to make the twenty-minute run south from the Alpha’s home to theirs. The day had been the longest he’d experienced in four decades. They’d had no contact with Baylor throughout their extended patrol duty and Rayne ached to see Kenzie again.

“We have a problem,” Cooper’s tense voice broke into his mind through the pride link. “I can’t reach my dads, Theo and Paul. They should have been home by now, but Mom and Chris haven’t seen them.”

“We saw Paul a few hours ago. He was heading north,” Trace said.

“They reported in an hour ago that all was clear and that they were heading home. That’s the last contact we had.”

“Who’s closest to their last contact location?” Finn said. The Alpha’s mental voice betrayed his concern.

“We are,” Rayne said, already heading back the way they’d come, Trace right on his heels.

“The entire pride is on alert,” Cooper said. “The mates and cubs are being taken to the safe rooms.”

“Kenzie?” Rayne asked.

“Baylor has been notified.”

Rayne had a bad feeling about this. “The bear?”

“Samson, Barrett, Evan, Asher, Gabe, and Finn are already in town. Jason, Drake, and Caine are there, too, in case we have any casualties.”

Rayne noted that the pride’s biggest and fiercest fighters were now in place surrounding the prisoner. He was, after all, the likely target if they proved to be under attack.

Rayne admired Cooper’s ability to remain focused on the overall protection of the pride, and the town, when he must be frantic with worry over his fathers. “We’ll find them, Cooper,” Rayne said. He only hoped he wasn’t going to find them hurt, or worse.

They’d run north for only a few miles when he scented them. Bears, blood, and cougars. He slowed immediately and nodded to Trace to circle to the left. Rayne knew the bears were gone, their scent the weakest of what he was smelling, but his training had kicked in. He’d be of no help to anyone if he rushed into an ambush and got himself killed.

“There’s only one heartbeat,” Trace whispered through their private link.

Only Rayne heard the terrible words and he focused on the sounds coming from the quiet forest. Trace was correct. “Fuck.”

Rayne crept forward, the smell of blood filling his nose and sending his cat into a blind rage. These bears had killed one of his pride. How was he going to tell Cooper, Finn, Hunter, and Dane that one of their fathers had been killed? How would their mother survive the loss of one of her mates? He knew such a loss could lead to the death of all the members of a mated group.

Drops of blood stained the snow as Rayne pressed his body flat and inched forward, all his senses alert for an attack. The blood was from both cats and bears.

Drops turned to streaks, and by the time Rayne could see the bodies of two cougars lying in the snow, he was crawling through pools of blood. Theo’s blood.

Trace shifted back to human as Rayne circled the unmoving cougars, his eyes darting around, searching for any threats.

“Paul is bleeding badly from a gut wound,” Trace said solemnly. “We need to get him to Jason or he won’t survive.”

Rayne flicked his gaze to Trace and saw his hands were already soaked with blood as he used them to apply pressure to the tear in Paul’s abdomen. Rayne growled as he prepared to deliver the bad news. He would do everything possible to see Connie didn’t lose two of her mates today.

* * * *

Kenzie washed her face and scowled at her red, puffy eyes. She looked like shit and felt even worse. She’d never lost a close relative or friend. She was lucky to have both her parents and sister alive and well, as were her grandparents, but she imagined this is what it felt like. Her heart was aching, literally. As though someone had reached into her chest and squeezed it until it was bruised. All because a man she’d met yesterday was not going to be in her life. Didn’t love her.

“I’m insane.”

Admitting that didn’t do anything to dull the heartache, however.

The door to Rayne’s bedroom crashed open with a bang. Kenzie screamed in surprise and spun around to see Baylor standing inches behind her.

“You’re going to Samson’s.”

He picked her up without another word and slung her over his shoulder. She was placed gently onto the front seat of his truck only moments later. She buckled her seat belt as he jumped in behind the wheel and immediately sped down their drive.

Kenzie glanced at him only briefly, noted the tense set of his jaw and the anger burning in his eyes as he concentrated on the road ahead. So, he’d decided she couldn’t even be in the same house as him. He was really determined to keep her out of his life.

She turned her face away from him and stared out into the growing dark as more tears ran from her eyes. Her heart ached with each beat and she wondered if it was going to lose its fight and simply stop. Even the growing love she felt for Trace and Rayne didn’t dull the agony of Baylor’s outright rejection.

“Why are you crying?” Baylor asked in a surprisingly tender tone.

“I’m…” She wanted to deny she was crying but the words just came out as a strangled cough.

“You can’t lie to your mates, honey.”

She wanted to snort in derision at that statement, but it hurt too much to even think the words. She knew she’d be unable to speak them out loud. But, you’re not going to be my mate, Baylor.

“We have nothing to say to each other, Baylor.” The words came out, so they must be the truth.

“We have a lot to talk about, Kenzie, but now is not the time. The pride is under attack.”

Kenzie gasped, her gaze flying to his angry face. “Trace and Rayne?” she managed to ask, her throat constricting with fear.

“They’re fine, Kenzie.” He reached across and gently cupped her cheek. “I promise you they’re safe. We’ve lost contact with two of the pride who were on patrol and Cooper is making sure all the mates and cubs are safe. You’re going to the bunker at Samson’s and I’ll stay on patrol there to keep you and the other mates safe.”

“Two of the pride?” Kenzie watched Baylor’s eyes fill with amber. When he opened his mouth and growled, she saw long, shiny, white canines.

“Two of Cooper’s fathers haven’t returned from patrol.”

Kenzie felt like a self-centered bitch. All she’d thought about was herself, that Baylor wanted to get rid of her. When in reality, someone’s fathers, someone’s mates, were missing, maybe hurt.

“I’m sorry.” She sat back in the seat and mentally chastised herself.

I am a self-centered bitch. She needed to accept the love of the two men she had, and move on. People were suffering real pain. People were fighting for their lives, for their pride. Her pride now. She vowed to be a better person for these people who were now her family.

* * * *

Leith followed Trevor and Ruben as they approached the very edge of town. They’d all remained as bears, using their enhanced senses to their fullest. The stink of cat was thick and fresh, but so far, they’d seen no one but the two old fuckers up in the hills. That fight had been too short. Ruben and Trevor had not been made enforcers owing to them being the Alpha’s brothers. They were powerful and deadly fighters.

Leith stopped suddenly, a flicker of movement high in the branches of a tall spruce drawing his gaze and making his hackles rise. Ruben and Trevor were several yards ahead of him when snarls ripped through the air and cougars appeared out of nowhere. Huge cougars, lots of huge, fucking cougars.

A group of three cougars descended on Ruben. One running in from behind and taking the huge bear to his knees. The other two ran in from either side and bit into the thick fur around Ruben’s neck. Their huge jaws combined to completely sever his head. Ruben hadn’t even had the chance to raise so much as a paw in his own defense.

Leith backed up, preparing himself to either flee or fight. The decision was made when the largest of the group of cougars roared, making snow fall from the trees like a mini avalanche as his power punched through the air in a sonic wave.

Leith watched Trevor rear up on his hind legs before the pride’s Alpha. The six remaining cougars closed in as the Alpha cougar leapt on Trevor, his massive paws raking deep channels down Trevor’s back as the surrounding snow became crimson. Leith turned and ran, his only goal survival.

He ran hard for several minutes, the sounds of roaring and snarling growing faint by the time he happened upon a truck parked in a small clearing behind a ranger station. The truck was empty, the stench identifying it as belonging to one of the cougars.

Leith shifted and touched the hood of the truck. It was still warm. Opening the driver’s door, he found some clothes strewn on the seat and the keys in the ignition.

“One of the little kitties has made this far too easy for me.”

Leith quickly dressed and drove sedately out of the clearing. He didn’t want to risk speeding and drawing attention to himself in a town obviously already on high alert. He still had plans for this town.

He was coming back for Geordie and would not be coming back alone. Alpha Thwaites had simply wanted his fuck-toy returned to him when he’d sent his brothers to Eminence. That had all changed when the cats killed Trevor and Ruben.

Leith laughed out loud as he imagined the carnage Alpha Thwaites was going to rain down on this sleepy little town of cougars. As he slowed at a crossroads, he saw an old, faded sign in the trucks headlights: “Soames Horse Stud.”

He turned the truck down the road, a new plan emerging as revenge warmed his heart with fiery rage.

“If the cats are all on alert, then who’s watching the pretty little bank manager Sarah told me about? I might not find Rayne Soames at home, but I bet his little human is there.”

* * * *

Baylor wanted to stop the truck and take Kenzie into his arms. Her tears were ripping him apart. She’d fallen silent after his reassurance that Rayne and Trace were unharmed, and he had no idea what else to say to her to ease her fear.

He hadn’t found it easy talking to women before he’d enlisted, and after they’d come home from Vietnam, he’d stopped talking to anyone except his brothers. Most of the time they’d remained as cougars, so any communication in the last forty years had been predominately telepathic. He felt sweat run down his back as he tried desperately to think of something helpful to say.

“I’ll bathe in the blood of anyone who tries to harm you, Kenzie.”

Kenzie inhaled sharply, drawing Baylor’s attention from the road. She was cowering in the corner of her seat, as far away from him as she could get. Her scent was no longer filled with sadness, she was terrified. Terrified of him.

He swore and looked back at the road to see headlights coming toward them. As the vehicle drew closer, he recognized the bright-red truck. “What’s Gabriel Prentiss doing driving out to our place?”

Baylor slowed, expecting Gabe to do the same. Only Gabe didn’t slow. He sped up, drawing closer in seconds. The hairs on Baylor’s neck tingled as they rose in warning. He slammed his foot down on the accelerator and twisted the wheel as Gabe’s truck sped toward them.

Baylor’s quick reflexes saved them from a head-on collision, but the sound of metal gnashing together was deafening as Gabe’s truck hit the back tray of Baylor’s. They were in an uncontrolled spin as they hit the ditch at the side of the road and flipped over and over.

Baylor was thrown through the windscreen on the first flip, having failed to buckle his seatbelt in his haste to get Kenzie to safety. He shifted before he landed, allowing him to land gracefully on his four feet. He was bloody from the cuts caused by his journey through the windshield, but he’d escaped the crash without a broken neck.

Gabe’s truck was nose first in the ditch, the door open and the cab empty.

“Kenzie,” Baylor screamed her name in his mind, a roar splitting the night. He ran around to the passenger side of the still rocking, mangled truck.

“What have you done with Kenzie?” Rayne demanded, the fact that he was frantic traveling through the pride link. “Why isn’t she at Samson’s?”

“Gabe’s truck just ran us off the road. I’m going to see what condition she’s in. I need to get her clear of the wreckage.”

“Wreckage,” Rayne said before a loud roar of raw pain nearly drove Baylor to his knees.

Baylor scented the sweet, rich scent of Kenzie’s blood as he lowered his head to peer into the crushed cab of his upturned truck. The window was a spider’s web of shattered glass, preventing him from seeing inside, so he concentrated on the sound of her strong, steady heartbeat as his cat howled into the night. She was hurt, but alive.

“Kenzie?” Rayne said, his pain a living thing in the way he’d whispered her name.

“I can hear her heartbeat, scent her blood.” He ignored Rayne’s agonized snarl and pushed his head through the window’s shattered glass. She was a tiny bundle of tangled, bloody hair as she sat suspended and unmoving, still securely buckled in the now upside-down passenger seat.

“I’ll need someone to come and help me,” Baylor said. “I can see her. She’s unconscious, and breathing normally. At this time, I won’t shift back and leave her unprotected. Whoever ran us off the road could well come back to try and finish us off.”

He pulled his head free, ignoring the fresh cuts from the broken glass and turned his back on Kenzie. He moved slowly to the open door of Gabe’s truck. It was empty, but it had been driven here by a bear.

“Drake and Caine are already on the way to you,” Gabe answered through the pride link. “Rayne and Trace have found Theo and Paul. Jason has gone to help Paul. He’s in a bad way.”

Baylor leapt onto his up-turned truck and moved in a slow circle, watching to see if the bear was going to come back. He wouldn’t give the fucker another chance to hurt Kenzie. That he’d allowed it to happen once was killing Baylor.

“And Theo?” Baylor was almost afraid to ask.

Rayne answered after a lengthy silence. “They killed him. We scented three bears.”

“I left my truck behind the ranger station,” Gabe said. “If someone ran you off the road, I’d bet money it was the bear I’m in the process of tracking.”

“You’re going to find both your truck and the bear gone, Gabriel,” Finn said bluntly. The Alpha’s cold tone spoke volumes. He was hurting over the loss of his father, but the safety of the pride came first.

“I’m so sorry about your dad,” Baylor said. The words were useless in easing any of the pain and shock Finn and his brothers must be feeling, but Baylor meant them.

“He’s beyond our help now, Baylor, but the rest of my pride aren’t. What we need to find out is why he was even there to run you off the road. Your farm isn’t on the way out of town. You, your brothers, or Kenzie would appear to be his targets.”

“We’ll find out,” Samson said. His coldly furious tone made Baylor shiver. “We still have a bear we can ask.”

“Whoever is responsible will pay for killing our father,” Cooper said. “I’m nearly home. Do you want to be the one to tell Mom, Finn?”

“No, you’re closer, Cooper. I’ll come as soon as I’ve visited the bear we have in our jail.”

The silence that followed was complete, the entire pride stunned and mourning the loss of Theo Frederick. Baylor wanted nothing more than to shift and take Kenzie in his arms, but she was in more immediate danger from a bear shifter who had apparently targeted them specifically.

His mind was set now. The bear had pushed any lingering doubt from Baylor’s mind. Kenzie was his and he’d die protecting her if that’s what it took. Walking away was no longer an option. It was also a physical impossibility.

The minute he’d seen the wreckage of his truck, his fate had been sealed. The bond he’d been fighting had snapped into place like a band of steel. He knew now that his life would end if Kenzie no longer lived. She was alive though, so he stayed alert to make sure she stayed that way.

When Kenzie woke, he was going to tell her, no matter how fucked up it came out, that she was his. His woman was not going to be in any doubt that he was hers and that she was stuck with his grouchy self for the rest of her long life.

* * * *

Trace sat beside Paul, holding a bag of fluids high as Jason continued to work on the injured cougar. Trace was witnessing first-hand why Jason was lauded as the best shifter doctor in the country. His training as a doctor had only been on humans. He’d compounded that with years of training in feline anatomy, and more recently, hybrid vampire anatomy.

“I’ve managed to put clamps on the tear to his vena cava,” Jason muttered, not looking up from Paul’s unmoving body. “But if I don’t unclamp it soon he’s going to suffer major organ failure. At this point, his shifter genetics won’t save him from that. Drive faster.”

Rayne nodded, and the truck shot forward as he planted his foot on the accelerator.

“Just don’t hit any bumps, Rayne.”

Trace saw the strain on Rayne’s face as he strove to drive faster, but avoided any potholes. The headlights of the truck following them cast an eerie glow through interior of Jason’s van. They were both fighting their rage over this attack, as well as being desperately worried about Kenzie. Trace knew she was alive, was on her way to them now, but he wouldn’t be reassured completely until she was in his arms.

By the time Jason had stabilized Paul enough to transport him to his home operating room, Cooper had arrived to care for Theo. They had all remained silent, words unnecessary amongst shifters who could easily scent the deep sadness and underlying rage coming from each other. Theo’s death was a tragedy, but one that would not go unavenged.

The Eminence pride might not be an aggressive pride by nature, but they were more than willing, and able, to fight if threatened. This had not merely been a threat. This had been an assault.

Finn was at Samson’s compound, waiting in the snow with his other parents standing by his side. When they pulled to a stop, Connie and Chris stood back as Finn stepped forward.

“What do you need, Jason?” the Alpha said, his eyes a burning amber.

Trace huffed out a breath as the wave of emotion emanating from Finn hit him hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. The emotions mixed in that wave were raw and primal. Fury, sorrow, pain, fear, all mixed into a cocktail that marked Finn as a grieving son and an incensed Alpha.

Blood would flow for this attack, both bear and cougar. Somewhere was an Alpha bear that had ordered this assault on the pride. The fire shining in Finn’s eyes marked that Alpha for death.

“Take the IV from Trace and I’ll carry Paul. I need him on the table now.”

The IV bag vanished from Trace’s hand and he was left staring at Connie and Chris as Jason and Finn moved at preternatural speed to save Paul’s life.

“I’ve never feared death before, Rayne,” Trace said, staring at the couple as they slowly, and stiffly, approached Cooper’s truck as it pulled to a stop. “In fact, I’ve craved it for decades now, as you know. Would have welcomed it as a release from my pain, but now…”

“Kenzie will never face this.” Rayne reached into the van and pulled Trace out, enfolding him in his arms as Trace began to shake. “We’ll keep her safe and we’ll keep each other alive so she never has to feel this sort of loss.”

Trace’s mind didn’t slip into the pit this time. He was terrified, shaking with fear as sweat slicked his skin. Connie’s and Chris’s pain was a living thing as it filled the air around them, Connie’s quiet sobs at odds with the depth of her heartbreak.

“I have to stay alive,” Trace said. “Kenzie can never be in this much pain. She needs us.”

“Baylor better get his shit together,” Rayne hissed softly, his voice so low no one but Trace would hear him. “Because this must be what she’s feeling right now with Baylor refusing their bond.”

Trace pulled from Rayne’s embrace as he heard another vehicle approaching. Approaching fast.

“It’s Caine and Drake,” Cooper said.

Trace hadn’t felt him approach, but the man was beside him. Trace didn’t think, he reached out and embraced Cooper. He held him tight for a brief moment, ignoring his aversion to human contact and instead heeding his cat’s tactile nature and offering comfort to his grieving pride mate.

“Trace.” Cooper hugged him back briefly, accepting the show of sympathy, and then releasing him before the contact could prove painful for his broken psyche.

Rayne embraced Cooper next, words unnecessary as their cats gave and received the comfort that was pride. Trace finally saw all that Rayne had sacrificed for him and why Rayne had wanted to stay in Eminence after they’d finalized the sale of their parent’s property.

He could see the ambulance now as it turned off the road and drove up the long drive to the Reed’s compound. “Kenzie.”

Baylor had shifted back to human after Caine and Drake had arrived and he and Rayne had been caught up helping Jason keep Paul alive, so they knew nothing of Kenzie’s condition after the car crash. They only knew she was alive.

Trace staggered back as his fear for her rocked him. Rayne was there to steady him. Rayne was always there for him. Trace had suffered greatly in the jungle, lost much of himself, but he’d gained something, too. Something he was only now realizing. An unbreakable bond with the two men who were now more than just his brothers. They now shared a mate, and a pride, as well.

“She’s alive,” Rayne said. “And Jason is here to make sure she stays that way.”

“I know,” Trace said, feeling the truth of those words seep into his bones. “I trust him.”

Rayne gasped at his words, but Trace just squared his shoulders and watched the van as it pulled to a stop. Trace had come out of that jungle alive because Rayne and Baylor had refused to let him go.

They’d killed to free him from his captors, dragged his lifeless body from that jungle despite him begging for them to kill him. They wouldn’t let him die alone and they’d loved him so much they’d spent the last forty years living for him when he hadn’t had the strength to do it for himself.

He was finally ready to take back his life. He may never be whole. May never be the man he was before, but he was Kenzie’s mate and he was alive. He wanted to be alive, needed it to keep her from the devastation he’d seen in Connie’s eyes.

“I’ll make Baylor see that it’s time we started living again, Rayne. You don’t have to carry me anymore. I’m ready to fight for my life again. Fight for Kenzie. Fight for you and Baylor. Fight for my pride.”

Rayne’s hand landed on his shoulder and he squeezed once before he rushed forward to open the van door.

* * * *

Rayne inhaled sharply, his canines elongating as his claws punched through his fingertips. Metal crunched as his grip on the van’s door twisted the metal.

“She’s going to be fine, Rayne,” Caine said, stepping from the van and blocking Rayne’s view of Kenzie.

Caine disappeared as he unleashed his helpless fury on his pride mate and tossed Caine over his shoulder. “She doesn’t look ‘fine,’” Rayne managed, his voice rough with his cat’s growl.

Baylor slid from the van, Kenzie cradled in his arms, his eyes burning brightly with his fury. “Get yourself under control and I’ll give her to you,” Baylor said. “Holding her, feeling her heartbeat against your chest will help calm your cat.” Rayne’s gaze momentarily flickered to Baylor and his brother frowned at him. “It’s what’s kept me from going crazy.”

Rayne took a slow, deep breath and held out his arms. “Who are you, and what have you done to my brother?”

“That bastard was a pain in the ass,” Caine said. Rayne glanced over, regretting his actions as Caine dusted off his jeans. “We found this cougar, snarling viciously as he stood on his up-turned truck, guarding his helpless mate. Him, I could grow to like.”

Rayne stared down at Kenzie as he turned and walked carefully into Jason’s home. Kenzie was still unconscious, her hair wet with blood, her face pale. Her breathing was unlabored, her heartbeat slow and steady. Baylor had been right, he felt a little less feral now he held her close.

“Is she going to be all right?” he heard Trace ask. He was surprised when Baylor answered, not Drake or Caine.

“They don’t think she’s broken anything, but Drake and Caine can’t rule out any internal injuries from the seatbelt. We’ll need to wait until Jason’s able to do some scans.”

Bethany was holding the front door open for them, her tear-filled eyes gazing past them to the people on her front lawn. “Jason is already operating on Paul. He asked that Drake and Caine join him if Kenzie is stable.”

The next hour was one of the longest Rayne had lived through in the last forty years. He’d refused to release Kenzie, choosing to sit with her cradled in his arms, her IV bag hanging from the window latch above his head. He heard the trucks come and go as other members of the pride came to support the Alpha and his family. A pall of grief settled over the compound. Rayne knew only too well how much it hurt to lose a parent.

Trace and Baylor both paced the exam room in silence and Rayne left them to their thoughts as he stared at Kenzie and grieved that his parents hadn’t lived to meet her. Hadn’t lived to see Trace smile again. See the spark of life once again ignited inside him.

“Mom and Dad would have loved you,” Rayne said softly, stroking his fingers over Kenzie’s cheek. “I’m sorry they’ll never get to meet you. Get to see your belly grow big with their grandchildren.”

“I wish I’d been able to come back sooner,” Trace said. “We only saw them a few times because of me.”

“They loved you, Trace,” Baylor said fiercely. “They knew you were where you needed to be and that we were keeping you safe.”

The all too familiar anger was back in Baylor’s voice as he refused to let Trace blame himself for anything that had to do with the results of his captivity.

Kenzie’s eyelids fluttered and Trace and Baylor were instantly kneeling beside him.

“I didn’t know,” Kenzie muttered, her eyes still closed. “I’m so sorry.”

“Kenzie,” Baylor said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry I let you get hurt.”

Kenzie’s eyes popped open and she blinked several times until her gaze found Baylor. “What happened? We were driving to Samson’s.”

Rayne leaned down and kissed her, his lips sealing over hers as she gasped in surprise.

Her lips were, soft, her mouth a warm cavern of her sweet scent that he lapped up with his tongue, softly stroking until she moaned and returned the caress with her own tongue.

“Mine,” Rayne whispered the vow and took the kiss deeper, his arms wrapping around her until she sat astride him on the chair, her body pressed tightly to him, but still too much space separated them.

He felt the rush of warmth and moisture flood her pussy as it was currently sitting right over his growing erection. He grew so hard he wouldn’t have been surprised to hear the material of his borrowed sweatpants rip from the strain.

“Christ,” Trace murmured. “You have to stop, Rayne. Jason is coming.”

“He wouldn’t be the only one,” Baylor whispered, the door to the exam room opening.

Rayne pulled from Kenzie’s mouth slowly, despite feeling the doctor’s gaze on him. His mate was just too delicious and too tempting.

“You’re breathing doesn’t sound right,” Jason said brusquely. “I think you need your ribs X-rayed.”

Kenzie looked dazed as she stared up at Rayne, but he saw her eyes slowly focus, and then begin to shine with tears. “What happened to the two men who were missing? Are they…did they…were they found?”

It stunned Rayne that Baylor was the one to answer Kenzie. “Come on, honey. Jason needs to do his tests, then we’ll talk about what’s happened tonight. All of us together. The way it’s going to be forever now.”

Baylor lifted Kenzie up and held her gently as he followed Jason from the room. Rayne shook his head and looked at Trace. “What the fuck?”

“I guess something that happened tonight made Baylor change his mind,” Trace said.

Bethany stepped into the room at that moment, a pile of clothes in her arms.

“I brought some clean clothes for Kenzie to wear,” she said softly. “Don’t give him too hard a time for fighting the mating. If he’s anything like Jason, he’ll be kicking his own ass forever as it is. He made the right choice in the end. That’s all that really matters. You’re all going to be together. We can’t ever forget how blessed that makes us.”

Bethany hiccoughed a small sob and tears ran down her cheeks. Michael appeared behind her and wrapped her in his arms. “I know this is selfish, but I really need Samson.”

Rayne knew exactly where Samson would be right now. “I’ll go and question the bear. That way Samson can come home.”

Michael shook his head, but smiled his thanks at Rayne. “Samson wouldn’t want anyone else to do the interrogation now. He’s the best the pride has and he knows it. He’ll come home as soon as he’s found out everything from that bear.”

“Thank you, Rayne,” Bethany said, turning to bury her head against Michael’s chest. “I’m just being all emotional. I know he’s safe, and the protection of the pride comes first. He’s doing what he does best to protect me, our baby, and the whole pride.”

“You’re an exceptional woman, Bethany Reed,” Finn said. The Alpha stepped out from behind Michael. Rayne hadn’t heard or scented his approach. Their Alpha had locked his emotions, and his power, in a vault of self-control.

“Thank you for helping Paul,” Finn said, his voice flat, his emotions still tightly under control. “Jason told me he’d have died without your swift first-aid.”

Rayne was too choked up to speak, so nodded in acknowledgment, but the Alpha had already gone, just as silently as he’d appeared. Finn had a lot on his plate right now. The safety of the pride being only a part of it.

“Will she choose to die?” Trace asked.

“It’s not the same as our mom, Trace.” Rayne swallowed the ball of emotion that formed in his throat. “Mom only had one mate. She lost everything when Dad had that heart attack.”

“She may still choose to die,” Trace said.

Bethany let out a horrified gasp. “What? She wouldn’t?”

Michael stared daggers at Trace before lifting Bethany and turning to stalk away.

“I guess they haven’t had that conversation with her yet?” Rayne said. Trace paled and spun around to face Rayne, his eyes growing panicked.

“What if Kenzie can’t accept that about us? What will Kenzie do when she sees how painful it is for Connie? If Connie can’t accept Theo’s loss and she kills them all…Kenzie’s going to run from us. We’re fucked, Rayne. I’ll die if she leaves. I won’t make it. I’m sorry for all you’ve done, all the years you’ve wasted watching me circle the drain, but I won’t…I can’t, live without her.”

Rayne embraced Trace and followed him to the floor as Trace lost his fight with the pain. His brother’s roars chilled Rayne to the bone. So much agony, so much anguish that he wondered again at how Trace had managed to live through the two weeks of torture.

Trace stiffened and roared as he re-lived each cut, screamed as they broke his fingers one by one, over and over again. “You’re in Eminence, Trace. You’re safe. It’s Rayne. I have you, brother.”

Tears scalded Rayne’s cheeks as he restrained Trace’s arms, stopping him from flailing around and injuring himself. “Trace, it’s Rayne. I have you. Come back.”

Rayne knew from experience that this was going to be a bad episode. Trace was sometimes catatonic for weeks following a break this severe.

Kenzie tapped him on the shoulder. “Can I try?” she asked softly.

She dropped to the ground next to Trace and lay beside him. Trace screamed, his arm pulling from Rayne’s grasp in his adrenaline-charged terror. Kenzie moved closer, avoiding the muscled arm that could have shattered her skull and wrapped her arms around Trace, whispering his name over and over.

Trace stiffened as Kenzie made contact and Baylor was there, ready to tear Kenzie away, but Trace wrapped his arms around Kenzie, caging her, then rolling so he was on top of her.

“I’m here, Trace. I’ll always be here. Come back to me. Come back to Rayne. Come back to Baylor. You’re safe now. We’ll keep you safe.”

Trace’s eyes flew open, his breathing ragged and harsh as he stared down at Kenzie. “Kenzie.”

He saw her. He wasn’t in the pit. He was back.

“Holy hell,” Baylor said.

“Heaven,” Trace said. “You’re my heaven, Kenzie. I want you to stay with me. Please don’t leave me.”

“I don’t think I can leave you, Trace. I feel like we’re connected somehow. Is that an odd thing to say?”

“That’s a perfect thing to say,” Rayne said. He saw that Jason, Finn, and Michael had come to help them. He nodded his thanks and lay on the floor beside Kenzie. “We feel it, too. You’re ours, Kenzie, and you’ve already accepted it.”

Trace smiled at him and dropped a kiss on Kenzie’s lips. “I heard you calling me back. I actually heard you and it all just went away. The pain, the smell, the darkness.”

Baylor shocked Rayne for the second time as he sat beside them and stroked his fingers through Kenzie’s tangled hair. “We need to let Jason finish those X-rays now, honey. Would you feel better if Trace went with you?”

Kenzie tilted her head back and nodded to Baylor, her brows furrowed in confusion.

Join the club, sweetheart.

Trace rose swiftly, managing to keep Kenzie in his arms. “Wait,” Kenzie said, and Trace immediately halted. She turned to look back at Rayne. “Can you come, too?”

Baylor’s head dropped infinitesimally, but Rayne was a shifter, he didn’t miss it.

She shifted her gaze to Baylor. “Both of you.”

Kenzie was perfect, and she was theirs. All of theirs. No matter what happened next, they would be facing it together. Rayne only hoped they all survived to have the long and happy mating they all wanted, they all deserved.

Chapter Eleven

Samson stared into the cell through the barred glass of the one-way mirror. The bars having been added after a tiger shifter had broken through the glass and attacked their good friend Brody.

The bear was still weeping pathetically, despite his bleeding having long since stopped. His testicles hadn’t started to grow back yet, and likely wouldn’t unless they allowed the man to shift, something Samson had no intention of allowing now. Not now one of their own had been killed.

“Theo was a good Alpha,” Gabriel Prentiss said. He stepped into the observation room, Evan Harvey entering right behind him. “He used to be able to make me piss myself with one look when I was a kid.”

Samson’s lip curled into a half smile. “He wasn’t the warrior Finn is, but he was a strong Alpha. A good man. He was right to step down when Finn’s power peaked. We’ve only survived the battles we’ve faced unscathed, until now, because of Finn and his brothers.”

“I didn’t know him as the Alpha, but he was a good man,” Evan said. “It’s all so pointless. The bears came to rob the damned bank, even knowing there were shifters in the town. I don’t understand it.”

“That’s because I failed in my last interrogation,” Samson said. He stretched out his hands and let his cat emerge as far as he could let it and keep control. His claws emerged fully, his canines descended and his growl was all cat.

“That’s bullshit,” Gabe said. “This is not your fault. I was watching. He told you everything.”

“But I obviously didn’t ask the right questions.” His voice was thick and rumbling, his cat ready to kill. He wouldn’t though. The kill, when it came, belonged to Finn. “I’m going to be a little more direct with my questions this time, and with my punishments if I don’t think he’s being honest.”

“I almost pity the poor bastard,” Evan said. Samson turned, directing the full force of his rage and guilt on Evan. “Almost. I said almost.” Evan backed up against the wall, his hands up in surrender.

“Save it for that piece of shit, Samson,” Gabe said. “Right now, Finn needs you to be the ruthless soldier we know and love.”

Samson couldn’t stop the growl that seemed to rumble out from his soul. He smiled when Evan paled. “Theo was my Alpha when I was a boy, and my friend when I was a man. I’ll see that no more of our pride dies at the hands of this sleuth. They started this fight and I’ll make sure they die regretting they ever did. All of them.”

In the few steps it took Samson to leave the observation room and enter the concrete cell, he’d taken his rage, and his grief, and turned it into the icy cold of a soldier out for revenge. The bear noticed immediately and began to whimper louder, his fear an acrid stench that smothered the smell of blood that pervaded the cold, still air.

“Tell me why a slimy, immoral sack of flesh such as you would warrant rescuing by someone other than your brother?” Samson saw the surprise in the prisoner’s eyes turn to understanding and smiled. “And while we’re chatting, perhaps you’d like to tell me who’s been feeding you information about our town, because you’re sure as shit not bright enough to have pulled this off without inside knowledge.”

Samson had taken a stab in the dark with his last statement, basing it only on one of the bears deciding he’d visit the Soames ranch when a pride of cougars was pursuing him. It had snagged Samson as being completely incongruous. Either Kenzie or one of the Soames brothers must have been his target, and since two of that short list of people had been in the vault when Rayne had killed this man’s brother, it seemed the most likely motive was revenge.

There was only one way for a stranger to find out exactly who had killed the bear and where he lived. One of their pride had betrayed them.

“Shall we do this the hard way again? Your testicles haven’t grown back yet, but you still have all of your limbs.”

* * * *

Kenzie endured the X-rays only because she’d been outnumbered three to one. She had a sore shoulder and her chest hurt when she breathed, but she wasn’t in enough pain to be seriously hurt. The X-rays proved her point, but she didn’t gloat over being proved right. The three Soames men had been genuinely concerned for her.

They’d needed to know she was in no danger from her injuries and she didn’t like them being worried. It made her feel bad. Bad enough to submit to tests she knew weren’t warranted. Especially when the one insisting the most vehemently had been Baylor. Plus, the whole pride was suffering right now. She’d been stunned to learn of Theo Frederick’s brutal murder.

“You have a mild concussion and you’re going to be sore for a few days,” Jason said, reaching behind him to open the door to the room that housed the X-ray and scanning equipment. “I’ll make sure you have enough pain killers. Just rest, nothing strenuous for at least forty-eight hours.”

As he removed his lead apron, he’d turned and directed the last statement at the three men who’d immediately streamed through the door once he’d opened it. Kenzie thought that a little odd, but lost her train of thought the second Trace lifted her into his arms.

“Do you need something for the pain now?” Trace asked, his brows furrowed and his green eyes dark.

“No, thank you. I’m really not in that much discomfort considering how bad the accident was.”

“I’ve never been happier that the truck we brought was a sturdy one.” Baylor stepped close, really close. Kenzie could feel the warmth radiating from his large body. She ached to reach out and touch his muscled chest, but was too uncertain of him to open herself up to further rejection and pain.

“We need to talk,” Baylor said simply, his face tense as he gritted his teeth.

Kenzie’s heart clenched painfully, hurting much more than the myriad of bruises that littered her torso, or the small cuts that were scattered over her face and arms from the truck’s shattered glass.

Baylor’s serious expression softened a little, but she knew that was probably out of sympathy for her. She knew him to be an honorable man from the way he’d spent decades protecting Trace.

An honorable man would feel bad about breaking her heart. She hurt so much just anticipating his words of rejection that she wondered if she’d actually die when he spoke them. She looked up at Trace, and then at Rayne, who were currently talking quietly with Jason.

“I want you to be happy, Baylor. Please find a way to be happy.” He frowned and opened his mouth to speak when Cooper walked into the room.

“We need you all to come into the living room. Finn has just spoken to Samson. It’s bad.”

“We’ll talk when we’re alone, Kenzie,” Baylor said angrily. “When will we be done with these damned bears?”

Done with them. Done with me. Kenzie felt herself deflate, sorrow making her tired and weak. Her introduction to the cougar’s world in Eminence had been brutal and painful with all the attacks, pain, and death. Sorrow for Theo’s brothers and mate left Kenzie feeling raw, emotionally labile, and exhausted. She sagged against Trace’s chest and felt tears fill her eyes when he kissed the top of her head.

“Thank you for saving me again, little one. You were very brave, but I’m terrified I could have hurt you.”

They were in the living room now, and the air positively vibrated with emotion. The faces around her were all familiar, but she’d never seen them look like this. Sorrow, pain, fury radiated off these kind people. People who had lost a father, a friend, a member of their close family. She saw that being a member of this pride meant you were family.

Trace sat on the sofa next to Michael and arranged Kenzie until she was sitting on his lap, his arms around her, her back pressed to his hard chest. She could feel the strong beat of his heart and drew comfort from it in the midst of so much suffering.

Bethany was similarly seated on Michael’s lap and she reached over and took her hand. “As soon as Melanie and Finn get here, we’ll start the meeting. Melanie just arrived and she needed to see Connie and Chris first.”

Melanie would be devastated, feeling both the anguish of her four husbands and her own sadness for the loss of her father-in-law.

“This is terrible on so many levels,” Kenzie found herself saying. “Connie has lost her husband, her husbands have lost their brother, her sons a father, the pride…” She found she couldn’t continue, she lowered her head as a sob tore from her throat.

A cold hand cupped her cheek and tilted her head back up. Kenzie was shocked to see it was Connie standing in front of her. The room grew instantly silent.

“I’m so sorry Theo was killed,” Kenzie said. “I didn’t know him well, but he was always so happy, so kind.”

She hadn’t thought, had just blurted the words out from her heart, and they seemed inadequate now. She hoped she hadn’t just offended a woman grieving for her husband, her mate. Kenzie didn’t think she’d survive Baylor walking away. She couldn’t conceive of the pain Connie must be feeling at losing a mate she’d been with for years. Maybe hundreds of years from what she now knew of the shifters’ long lives.

“Thank you, Kenzie. He was a good man. I’m sorry, too, that your introduction to shifters, the burgeoning of your mating bond, is to be tainted by the deep sorrow I, and the pride, am feeling right now. Matings are something to be celebrated. Please know how happy I am that your men have found you.”

Kenzie lost sight of Connie as tears blurred her vision. Connie was incredible. Even in her darkest hour she found something good to cling to. “Thank you, Connie. I look forward to getting to know you better.”

Connie’s hand left her cheek and Kenzie swiped at her eyes with the fingers of her right hand. The cast scratched her face, but she was drawing strength from Bethany’s grip on her left hand, and refused to let her friend go.

When the tears were gone, Kenzie saw Melanie now stood in the middle of a circle of her husbands, her eyes red and puffy, her face pale. Connie was standing beside them, her husband, Chris, holding her close. Jason was standing beside the sofa, holding Bethany’s free hand.

Finn cleared his throat before speaking. “I’ll start by saying thank you to Jason. Thanks to you, my friend, Paul is going to recover fully.”

Jason didn’t answer, he just grunted, his eyes remaining fixed on Finn. Kenzie could swear the huge man looked uncomfortable with being thanked and acknowledged with such obvious affection.

“Samson has discovered that we’ve been betrayed by a member of our own pride.”

Bethany gasped, but Kenzie couldn’t take her eyes off Finn. He looked to grow several inches taller than his already gargantuan height. His eyes glowed brightly with undisguised fury.

“Sarah Webster, the daughter of the town’s mechanic, Felix, was in an intimate relationship with the bear we currently have in a cell. She supplied him with information on our pride and our security measures. She informed him of our strict policy on revealing our status to the humans of our town, so they planned the robbery to use our desire for secrecy to their best advantage.”

“Bitch,” Melanie said vehemently.

“Axel and Calder Wilder have gone to Grand Springs, where she now lives, to bring her here to me. Felix has been questioned by Barrett and Asher. They’re certain he was unaware of his daughter’s actions. He was, however, aware of her dislike for the human mates in our pride. Apparently, Sarah and five of her friends all moved away in an effort to distance themselves from the pride, not for work, as we were led to believe.”

“We should have been told,” Hunter said bitterly. “Their anger and jealousy made them a danger to the pride.”

“Felix should have told us. We could have watched them,” Cooper added, his gaze fixed on his mother.

“Samson said the prisoner’s brother, Leith, knew Sarah, and that she was the one feeding Geordie the information they needed. Samson’s certain she told this Leith that it was Rayne who killed their brother Marshall. Marshall was Leith’s twin, and while neither of them were fond of him, he was certain Leith would want to mete out revenge to the man who killed his twin.”

“That explains why he went after the Soames brothers on his way out of town, but why the rescue attempt?” Michael asked. “Those three bears came for our prisoner. It doesn’t sound as if his brother did it out of loyalty or love, so why?”

“Our prisoner is also the Alpha’s lover.” Finn paused to allow everyone to absorb the ramifications.

Bethany suddenly dropped Kenzie’s hand and ran across the room as Samson entered. Samson scooped her up, holding her against him as he kissed her deeply, her feet dangling a foot from the floor.

Kenzie looked around, expecting to see embarrassment on the men’s faces at the very public display of affection, but saw none. There was only understanding and acceptance.

Samson broke the kiss and set Bethany down on her feet, keeping one arm around her as he enfolded Connie in the other. She nodded at whatever he was saying and Samson then embraced Chris.

Samson didn’t release Bethany as he walked around to embrace Finn, Cooper, Hunter, Dane, and then Melanie. “Matthew?”

“He’s asleep in the safe room. Rose and Connell came to watch over him.”

Kenzie frowned at the names and Trace kissed her neck, then softly whispered in her ear. “Samson, Michael, and Jason’s parents.”

“I gave the prisoner a piece of each of the bears we killed to smell. He has identified them.” Samson’s tone was arctic, a complete change from the man who was just passionate with his mate, and sympathetic to members of his pride.

“They were the enforcers of his sleuth and the Alpha’s brothers. The Alpha, Darnel Thwaites, merely wanted his lover returned before this attack. Now he will be seeking revenge for the death of his brothers, as well. We need to prepare for a war.”

“Bring it on,” Cooper said.

“He’s certain the Alpha will retaliate?” Finn asked. Kenzie flinched at the aggression in Finn’s voice.

Samson nodded tightly. “In force.”

“Then they’ll all die.” Finn’s words sent a shiver up Kenzie’s spine. Trace tightened his hold, his warmth doing nothing to drive away the cold terror that began to spread through her.

She’d just met them. She only just accepted that they were hers. Trace and Rayne were, anyway, and now she might very well lose them. Lose them because of greed.

“This is not our fault,” Kenzie said, her voice louder than she intended, but once she’d let her anger out there was no pulling it back. “They came here, here to our town, to rob us. They have no right to claim revenge as a motive. They’re simply low-life thieves.”

Finn walked toward her, and Kenzie put her hand over her mouth to stop her tirade. He halted just a foot from her, his gaze so intense it was impossible to look away.

“Bad things happen to good people, too, Kenzie. Being in the right won’t save us from death. We have to fight to protect what’s ours or we’ll be killed. Shifter law dictates we do whatever is necessary to protect both our families and our anonymity. It may seem brutal to one so new to our pride, but it’s the way of our world.”

Kenzie shook her head. “I’ve known you as my friends for a lot longer than I’ve known you as shifters. There is nothing brutal about any of you. You’re only doing what’s necessary to ensure the safety of your wives, parents, and children. Hell, you’re even protecting the humans of this town. You’re fighting for your existence, not for money.”

“Welcome to my pride, Mackenzie Thurling. It’s an honor to have you join us.”

When Finn stepped back, Rayne and Baylor squatted in front of her, each taking one of her hands in theirs.

“You’re incredible, Kenzie,” Rayne said. “And fierce for such a tiny thing. Remind me never to piss you off.”

Kenzie’s heart skipped a beat as Rayne smiled at her, his green eyes filled with desire. The air between them felt electric. Kenzie moaned when Trace kissed the back of her neck, then sucked at her skin. Her nipples hardened as desire spread through her body like wildfire.

“So fucking sexy,” Trace said with a soft growl. His tongue was hot as he licked the tender skin he’d been sucking. Kenzie shuddered and Rayne growled, his eyes now a glowing amber instead of the deep green they normally were.

“We need to be alone,” Baylor said harshly. “We can’t…talk, with so many people around.”

Icy dread seeped out of Kenzie’s heart, dousing the heat of her desire in a millisecond. Baylor was leaving. Kenzie watched his scowl deepen as he looked around the room for an exit.

“Won’t you even stay and fight for the pride?” Kenzie let out a small cry of pain as she pulled her hands free and ripped Trace’s arms from around her stomach. She was on her feet before the three men had the chance to stop her.

“I’ll save you the trouble of telling me good-bye, Baylor. The pride needs you if there’s going to be a fight, not me. I’m useless.”

Kenzie managed to take three steps before she was picked up, and for the second time today, thrown over Baylor’s shoulder.

“Oh, no you don’t, honey. We are having this conversation.”

“The bunker is currently empty.” Kenzie lifted her head and saw Samson staring at them, Bethany still tucked under his arm. “No mating has ever gone smoothly, ours included. Listen to him, Kenzie. You might be pleasantly surprised at what he has to say.”

Kenzie was about to say something very un-lady-like to Samson when Baylor did that running really fast trick, and Samson was no longer there for her to scream at.

Baylor put her down and she saw she was in a large iron shed with a concave roof. Rows of neatly made cots filled half the space, the other half filled with exercise equipment. Trace and Rayne appeared beside Baylor a second later.

“Stop doing that, Baylor. You can’t just drag me around like that. I’m not a bale of hay.”

His lips slammed down over hers as his arms enfolded her. His hands roamed down her back and fire ignited, full-force, through her body once more. His tongue dipped between her lips as she moaned, despite her anger at him. He tasted wild, hot, and delicious.

When his hands cupped her ass, and pulled her against his straining erection, Kenzie was so needy she rubbed her aching pussy against him. His tongue licked over hers and then withdrew. He licked her lips and lifted his head, grinding his pelvis against her. She nearly came, the pleasure he’d given her already greater than anything she’d experienced before. Not that having one previous boyfriend qualified as vast experience.

“Does this look like I’m saying good-bye?”

The heat and need in Baylor’s voice stoked Kenzie’s own desire and she felt her skin ignite. He may be leaving, but she had to have him. Even just this once. If she didn’t have him inside her soon she knew she’d die. Her head swam as the smell of pine and musk filled the air.

“I’m burning for you. Please, Baylor. Please.”

“You better be fucking sure,” Rayne said. “Because if you leave now she may never recover from your loss.”

Kenzie looked for Rayne, but her vision blurred. She was so hot. The heat of her desire was no longer bearable, it was painful.

“Rayne.” She ended up mouthing the word, no sound emerging from her suddenly parched throat. She wanted to ask him what was happening. Wanted to ask Trace to help her, but she had no voice.

“We have you, Kenzie,” Trace said. Kenzie felt her clothes being removed and then cool hands were a soothing balm as they stroked over her skin.

More hands smoothed over her breasts, up her thighs. So many hands. The fire receded, the pain disappeared leaving her burning desire behind.

“I didn’t mean to start the mating,” Baylor said.

Kenzie opened her eyes and gasped as she found she could see and that Baylor was standing naked in front of her, his erection straining toward her. “But I’m not sorry I did. I’m only sorry for being such a fool and fighting how desperately I love and need you, Kenzie. I’m never going to stop being angry at the way humans hurt Trace, but that wasn’t you. You’ve saved Trace. Saved both of us. Can you forgive me? Will you accept me as your mate?”

Kenzie couldn’t think of what to say, how to describe how happy he’d just made her. She wasn’t sure there were words for how Baylor’s admission had freed her soul, allowing her to at last embrace the full measure of joy she felt at being his mate. At him saying he was going to stay with her. She had all three of them and it felt right. Perfect. So instead, she reached out and gripped his shoulders, pulling him against her. She was complete. She was home.

“Kenzie,” Baylor said, his mouth then sealing over hers in a kiss that started out tender and soon became passionate. She felt her body heat again, not in the same burning pain, but in need. He wasn’t close enough. She needed him inside her, connected to her.

She clutched at his shoulders as he broke their kiss and pulled his head back to stare into her eyes. “I need you to say it,” he said.

Baylor picked her up and lowered her onto a sea of soft blankets, following her down so he was lying above her. His naked body was a sensual delight to every inch of her flesh his touched.

A hand caressed her arm, sending waves of pleasure to her core. She turned, wanting more. Rayne was lying naked by her side, his gaze intense as he licked his lips. “If we do this, it’s forever. You need to be sure.”

She looked around for Trace and found him similarly naked, lying on her other side. He leaned in and kissed her and she wrapped her legs around Baylor’s hips. She was surrounded by them, but felt alone and adrift. Her pussy throbbed with need. She rubbed her core over the hard length of Baylor’s cock, wanting him inside her. She knew it was too late to turn back.

She’d wanted them from the moment she saw them. She may not have known why at the time, but now she did, and she still wanted them. She’d never be whole without them. All of them. Baylor finally accepting her had shown her she’d been kidding herself that having only Rayne and Trace would have ever been enough. She’d never have been truly happy without Baylor being hers, as well.

Connie’s devastated face flashed through her mind. One day that could well be her. She shuddered as fear tightened her chest, making breathing impossible. She swung her gaze to each of them in turn before finally settling back on Baylor. She had their answer. Living in fear of losing one of them, all of them, was bearable. Living without them, impossible.

“Kenzie,” Baylor said, staring down at her with all his emotions clear for her to see. “Say you’ll accept me?”

“I think I accepted you when you were still big-bad-wolf number three.”

“I love you,” Baylor said, his smile changing his face from handsome to devastating.

Kenzie smiled at him in return. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted from you.” 

Chapter Twelve

Baylor had scented Kenzie’s fear, and his cat nearly broke loose from his control. His beast was furious that Baylor had pushed Kenzie away for so long instead of fighting his every instinct to take her in his arms and make her his.

Baylor decided he’d never be human again if Kenzie rejected him, living as an enraged cougar would be his only option, because if he remained human he’d have no outlet for his self-loathing and turn into a monster.

Finn would have had to kill him for endangering their race. Her words not only saved him, but anyone he’d have come across in his mindless anguish.

“I don’t deserve you, Kenzie, but I’m never letting you go. Never.”

Her hot, wet pussy slid over his cock and he moaned, taking her lips and sealing her fate. She was his. All the desire he’d refused to accept rushed through his veins, igniting an all-consuming lust he’d never before experienced. He was making her his, forever, before he tore apart from wanting her so badly.

Baylor broke their kiss, pulling away from her luscious lips only long enough to apologize for what he was about to do. “I want to lick every inch of your delectable body. Drive you crazy with desire until you beg for release, but the mating has stared and any delay in our marking you would cause you pain now.”

“Marking me?” Kenzie panted.

She didn’t realize she was about to make him come as she rubbed her bare pussy over his cock again. Baylor ground his teeth together as he clamped down his pelvic floor in a desperate attempt to stop his orgasm. It was Rayne who recognized his problem and finally answered. Baylor grimaced at him in thanks.

“The mating is sealed when we make love to you for the first time. We bite you as we come, injecting some of our saliva into your bloodstream. The bite is said to be very stimulating.”

“The combination of our semen and saliva is what changes you. It makes you live as long as we do, heal quicker, and be able to bear our cubs,” Trace said.

Finally, under control, Baylor dropped a kiss on Kenzie’s open mouth. “It means you’re ours.”

Kenzie released his shoulders and cupped his cheeks. “You get a raincheck on the licking and begging, then. I want you. I want you all so badly. Condoms. We need condoms.”

With just a small tilt of his pelvis, Baylor’s cock was lodged firmly at the entrance to Kenzie’s pussy. “Shifter genetics make us immune to carrying or contracting most human diseases, including all sexually transmitted ones.” Kenzie’s body relaxed again and she rocked her pelvis up to meet his. “You’re so wet, so tight.”

Baylor thrust his hips, advancing only slightly. He pulled back, terror at what he’d nearly done making his head hurt. “Are you a virgin?”

Kenzie looked up at him and he saw how he’d wounded her. “No, I’m not. I’ve had one previous sexual partner.”

While his cat wasn’t happy that someone had touched his mate intimately, Baylor was not so lost to his instincts to be a hypocrite. Balancing on one arm, so as not to crush the tiny woman who now owned him, he ran his fingers over the creases between her brows.

“I was afraid of hurting you, Kenzie. Afraid of taking you too roughly for your first time. I never want to hurt you. Not ever again.” He saw tears in her eyes as she forgave him for all he’d done to hurt her in the past couple of days. Her body relaxed beneath him and he thrust slowly into her until he was buried as deeply as he could go.

They both moaned. He was in heaven. Her eyes were glazed and her smile drove away his fear that she might be moaning in pain. She was there with him, in heaven as their bodies and souls joined as one.

The need to claim her became uncontrollable. He was already on the brink of orgasm, but couldn’t wait another second. Her pussy pulsed around him, beginning to grow slick and tight as her own release drew close.

“Mine.” He pulled out and thrust back in, going impossibly deeper. She moaned and his body took over. His thrusts came faster, harder and Kenzie mirrored his actions in her own drive to reach her peak.

She shuddered, her hips rotating as she rubbed her clitoris against him. She screamed his name and he blindly sought the column of her neck, licking and sucking as he let his canines descend.

Her pussy was milking his cock as she came. He let his desire free, peaking as he bit through her tender flesh. She tasted sweeter than the ripest berries, her blood washing over his tongue and driving his orgasm on. He pumped his hips harder, his cum shooting out in painfully erotic streams.

He wasn’t sure if he’d passed out, but when his shattering orgasm released him back to reality, he was laying over Kenzie as she panted, her hands caressing his ass in lazy circles.

“Wow.” He heard her mumble against his shoulder.

He pulled himself together and pushed up his torso, his arms shaking a little at the effort.

“Seal your mark,” Rayne said, his voice thick.

Baylor followed his command, licking over the four teeth marks he’d left on the front curve of Kenzie’s pale neck. Tasting her blood again made his balls let loose another few spurts of cum. He groaned and pushed his cock deeper into her welcoming heat. Kenzie’s pussy clamped down, her own sigh of pleasure music to his ears.

“Wow? Is that all you can say?”

Kenzie’s eyelids opened after a few flutters and her smile lit up her face until she looked like an angel sent from heaven. His angel now.

“I’ll beg without any licking. That was incredible.”

Rayne and Trace both laughed, but Baylor saw the truth behind Kenzie’s smile. She was happy, of that there was nothing more certain, but there was also relief. Relief from the fear, pain, and torment his anger had placed in her heart.

“I’ll never again give you cause to doubt how deeply I love you, Kenzie. I’m yours. Yours forever. And I thought I could live without you,” he said, feeling her breath wash over his chest as she softly sighed.

“I told myself I could live without you and still be perfectly happy with Rayne and Trace.” She gazed at him with such sadness.

“Kenzie.” She placed her index finger over his lips.

“I knew I never would be, but for their sake I would have attempted to never show them how much I missed you. How there was an empty place in my heart that only you could ever fill.” She frowned and chewed on her lower lip. “Is that how Connie feels, only a thousand times worse because she’s had Theo’s love for…”

“For nearly two hundred years,” Trace said.

“I can’t even imagine how she feels,” Rayne said. “It’s different for shifters, for us. When you die, no matter how many of us are left alive, we stop wanting to live when your heart stops. That’s you Kenzie. You’re our heart. All of ours.”

She smiled, nothing but joy in her eyes now. He vowed on his life that he’d never let his anger be an instrument of pain to his mate again. He’d direct it at those who deserved it. Like the bears who’d hurt her. The bears who were, no doubt, coming back to try and hurt her again. For them, he’d unleash all his rage and fury.

He looked at Trace and saw deep happiness on his brother’s face as he leaned down to kiss Kenzie. Trace would not lose the person who’d saved him, who was making him live again. Kenzie was not only Baylor’s, Kenzie was theirs. She was now the heart and soul he thought he’d lost. No one was hurting her.

* * * *

Trace saw in his peripheral vision that Rayne had gone to the bunker’s shower room and was now returning with wet and dry towels. He couldn’t pull his gaze away from the beauty of his mate. He thought momentarily that he should have thought of that. Kenzie was his everything. He needed to put her above everything in his life now, even the driving need to claim her.

“Trace and Rayne need you, angel,” Baylor said softly.

This broke the trance her radiance had put him in. The voice had come from a stranger. No, from the vague recollection of a man Trace had once known. Known before he’d been captured. Before his body and mind had shattered into a thousand tortured pieces.

“Baylor,” Trace managed to rasp out. “You…” Baylor looked different, too. Years younger. His face held none of the harsh planes of his unconcealed rage and hatred. The rage was now only hinted at by the yellow sparks in his green eyes. His cat was still ready to fight, to kill, to exact vengeance on anyone who posed a threat.

“I have a warm towel to make you comfortable, sweetheart,” Rayne said, handing a towel to Baylor.

Trace saw that same spark of menace in Rayne’s eyes as he smiled at Kenzie and then flicked his gaze around the empty bunker.

“Samson will keep everyone away or I’ll tear them new ones,” Baylor said, smiling at Kenzie as she wriggled away from him, obviously uncomfortable with them caring for her.

Trace captured Kenzie’s face between his hands, stilling her movements as she locked gazes with him. He saw the mating heat rise in her, her cheeks flushing red as her pupils dilated. Her scent was thick with her hunger and he was the one she was staring at. She desired him, lusted for him, it was a heady feeling.

Trace had never before been wanted the way this woman wanted him. Her eyes sparkled with desire, her breath came out in soft, urgent pants as her hands brushed over his chest, over his scars, like the wings of a butterfly.

She moaned as he gave into his own lust and kissed her. He stroked his tongue into her mouth. No one before her had shown such raw hunger for him, and after what had been done to him, he never dreamed one ever would.

He pulled his mouth reluctantly from hers. He needed more. He needed to hear her say that she wanted him, all of him, the scars, the debilitating flashbacks. Him. The Trace who’d made it out of that hell. The Trace he’d be forever now. The Trace who would die for his mate. The Trace who’d die without her.

“I want you so badly, Kenzie, but I need to know you can love the Trace Soames that was dragged out of that jungle by his stubborn-ass brothers. I may never be capable of fully leaving that hell. Can you, will you, be able to live with me as I am? Live for the next couple of centuries with me as I am?”

Her eyes filled with tears as she reached up to pull his head down until only an inch separated them. She blinked several times, her tears spilling over and running down her cheeks.

“Trace Soames, you’re an idiot.”

Baylor and Rayne snorted softly, but Trace was unable, and unwilling, to break eye contact with his beautiful, fierce mate.

“The person before me is the strongest and bravest man I’ve ever known. A man who survived and has fought to remain alive for the last forty years, despite the pain and suffering dragging him under countless times. Of course, I want you as you are. You are the real Trace. You’re my Trace. I love every single thing about you.”

“We can’t wait any longer,” he heard Rayne say. Kenzie winced, her body jerking. She was in pain.

“After the claiming we’ll have forever to explore each other’s bodies.” Trace couldn’t stop his growl as Kenzie softly stroked his painfully hard cock.

“You’re so beautiful.” She scowled at him when he huffed in denial. He knew exactly what his scarred body looked like. “Your scars don’t define you, Trace. In fact, they enhance your tall, dark, and very deadly, hero vibe. You’re hot, bad-ass, and sexy.”

Trace didn’t have to agree with Kenzie to know she meant every word. Her hand had gripped his shaft, she was stroking him as she spoke. She licked her kiss-swollen lips as she stroked him and rubbed her nipples against his chest.

He pulled her closer and slowly reclined so she was lying on top of him. She spread her legs and guided his cock to her entrance, a sigh escaping as she circled her hips and drove herself down until he was balls-deep.

“Forever won’t be long enough,” she whispered, sealing her lips over his as he released his control.

Trace was finally in heaven. He hadn’t had to die to get there, he’d just had to come home to find it. Find her. Kenzie was his heaven. Rocking into Kenzie, matching her frenzied pace as she took pleasure from their joining was worth every second of pain he’d suffered to reach this moment. If he’d never been in hell, he’d have never known what pure ecstasy was, and being inside his destined mate, inside Kenzie, was just that.

His balls drew up tight as his release neared. He would not go without her. He kept one arm around Kenzie’s waist, keeping her close, and nuzzled his way through her long, silky hair to nip at her shoulder. He licked and kissed until he found the spot that made her moan. This was where his mark belonged.

Lifting his hips, he thrust harder. With his free hand, he squeezed Kenzie’s perfect ass. Dipping his fingers lower he scooped up some of her cream and rubbed it over the pucker of her anus.

“We’ll share you next time.”

Kenzie gasped in response, thrusting her ass back against his circling finger.

“One of us in the heaven of your pussy. One in that sweet-tasting mouth, and the other here.”

Her muscle relaxed allowing him to push his finger inside her tight ass, and driving his cock deep as she screamed, her orgasm shook her tiny body.

Trace kept thrusting, his canines lowering as his hunger for Kenzie peaked. His orgasm burst through him, the pleasure blinding him to everything but the feel of her. He lowered his head to her shoulder and bit down, moaning as the taste of Kenzie’s blood had his balls contracting again, bathing her womb with more of his seed. She was his. His mate, his lover, his life.

He could feel Kenzie’s heart beating wildly as she collapsed on his chest. Beating in perfect time with his own. Trace kissed Kenzie’s forehead and gave Rayne a concerned look. Kenzie’s face was growing flushed again.

Trace stood, Kenzie still in his embrace, his cock still semi-erect in her pussy. “I’d love nothing better than to stay here forever.”

“The bunker?” she asked, looking genuinely puzzled.

“Inside you, little one.” Kenzie lowered her gaze, her embarrassment making her face turn crimson. “Rayne,” Trace said, his concern for Kenzie overriding his sex drive. His cock softened and she moaned as it slid from her body. Rayne nodded once and took her from Trace’s arms. “We have forever, Kenzie.”

She stared at him, her brows furrowing as she shivered. “I will not let anyone take our forever, Trace.” Rayne disappeared into the shower room with her.

* * * *

“She’s scared about us, not herself,” Trace said. “Seeing Connie when she’s still in so much pain, and undecided about how she sees her future, must be very hard for Kenzie. For all the mates.”

“We haven’t been here since the pride’s latest generation of shifters have found their mates. I don’t know if any of them know what can happen to them when they’re mated to brothers and only one dies.”

Trace looked shocked at the idea. “They must know. It’s not a secret, we’ve always known.”

Baylor stared at the open doorway where Rayne had taken Kenzie. “That’s because we’re shifters. All these mates are human, or raised as humans in Bethany and Morgan’s case. Bethany clearly had no idea what the loss can do. I imagine the others don’t either.”

“We should have told her,” Trace said, roughly pulling on his sweatpants and beginning to pace. “She may not have mated us if she’d known. What have we done?”

Baylor saw the panic in Trace’s eyes and feared Trace’s guilt was putting him on a downward spiral into one of his episodes. He got in his path, clamping his hands over his brother’s shoulders and shaking him until Trace looked at him.

“Did she really ever have a choice once we’d seen her? No matter what we told her, what we did, she was ours from the minute we laid eyes on her. More importantly, we were hers before we’d even met her. Remember that. She knew before we did.”

Trace nodded and Baylor could breathe again as he saw the anguish drain from his face. “So, you think the mating is a two-way thing, human and shifter alike?”

“I think Kenzie has shown that it’s a definite possibility. Either way, I’m in no doubt she was always destined to be ours. Look at the miracle she’s worked on the pair of us.”

Trace nodded and sat down heavily on one of the bunks. “I’ve never said thank you, Baylor, for saving me, for staying with me, for bringing me back each time I lost myself to the pit.”

“I know.”

Trace looked up at him then, his soul bared, his agony no longer hidden. “Do you know why that was?”

“Because until we met Kenzie, you’ve spent your every waking moment wishing for the salvation of death.”

“Not just the waking moments.”

Baylor winced, expecting his regret to knife painfully through him. It didn’t.

“Thank you, Baylor.” Trace stood and rushed at him, nearly bowling him over as he hugged him fiercely.

Baylor felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He’d carried his guilt around for so long he’d grown accustomed to its crippling effects. Kenzie had changed everything for them in two short days. Kenzie, his mate.

“I never wanted a mate,” Baylor said, hugging Trace back.

“And now?”

“Now I’d die for her.”

* * * *

Rayne had felt the fine layer of sweat on Kenzie’s skin as he’d taken her from Baylor’s arms. No matter how hard his cock throbbed and ached, he was putting his mate’s comfort above his own.

“I think a shower will make you feel better. I’m only sorry we’re not at home, Mom and Dad had a huge corner bath installed in the master bathroom a few years ago. It’s even big enough for all of us.”

Kenzie smiled sadly at him. “How did they die, if that’s not a rude question? You’ve told me that shifters are immune to human diseases and that you live for hundreds of years. Were they really old? Shit, how old are you?”

Rayne smiled as he turned on the shower, trying to ignore the way Kenzie’s breasts had bounced with each step he took.

“Are you staring at my breasts?”

“They are exquisite,” Rayne said, unabashed at being caught ogling his beautiful mate. “If you hadn’t been in pain and shock last night, I’d have shown you how irresistible they are, as well as that bare pussy you had hidden under your prim business clothes.”

Heat flared in Kenzie’s eyes as he set her on her feet under the shower’s warm spray. “But you did resist.”

“Of course, it was what you needed, and a good mate always does what’s best for their mate.”

Rayne’s cock jerked and he nearly came as Kenzie cupped her breasts and teased her nipples with her fingers. “And now?”

Rayne dropped to his knees, wrapping one arm around Kenzie’s waist as he sucked one taut nipple into his mouth and knocked her hand away to take over the teasing of the other.

Kenzie let out a gasp as her knees buckled. His arm held her upright as he teased, licked, sucked, nipped, and generally worshipped her breasts. She steadied herself, tangling her fingers in his hair and moaning as she began to shudder.

“Rayne, I’m going to come.”

Rayne didn’t stop, her arousal was a musky sweet aroma that surrounded him, infusing him with a hunger like nothing he’d ever felt before. The steam of the shower carried the scent deep into his lungs as he breathed her in. Her scent was carried like oxygen to every cell in his body, and every cell tingled with pleasure.

He became a creature of desire as she came in his arms. He couldn’t wait. He was going to come and he needed to be inside her, to mark her, as she’d just marked him with her scent, with her sweet taste. She was his.

Holding her tight he surged to his feet, claiming her mouth as he pressed her back to the tile wall. Her hunger matched his own, her tongue driving into his mouth to lick his as she wrapped her arms around his neck her and her legs around his hips.

Adjusting his hold, he cupped her ass and drove his cock deep into her pussy. She pushed down, impaling herself and rocking her hips as she moaned, her orgasm still pulsing through the walls of her core. His balls drew up tight, but she felt too good. He clamped down his muscles and let the pleasure continue to rise.

When Kenzie tore her mouth from his, she was panting for breath. He kissed the column of her neck, nipping and teasing behind her ear as he continued to rock into her with slow, steady thrusts.

“Rayne, I’m so close again. Please.”

Her plea was unnecessary. He would always be there for her. He let his canines descend, a growl rumbling free as his cat grew impatient for him to claim their mate. He sucked at the spot he’d chosen, preparing her for his teeth.

“Do it, Rayne. I need you to claim me, too.”

He let his razor-sharp teeth slide into her delicate skin, her moan matching his as her blood coated his tongue. He couldn’t hold back, not now. He let his primal nature free, pounding into her as her pussy squeezed his cock as she came.

He locked his knees, holding them both upright as his orgasm tore through him. He withdrew his teeth and sealed his mark, his cat reveling in the sealing of their claim.

“Mine forever, Kenzie.”

He’d come home. Not just to Eminence, but to his life. A life he’d given up hope of ever having until that day in the bank. The day Kenzie’s scent had claimed him. Finding her had reset his life to where it was always meant to be. The fact she’d done the same for Trace and Baylor only deepened his love for her.

“You are our life now, Kenzie. I don’t know if you’ll ever understand how much you’ve given us with your love and acceptance.”

“I know that you’re mine. I can never understand all you’ve been through, I wasn’t there. I do promise to always listen if you need to talk and to always love you. All of you.”

The fact he hadn’t heard Baylor and Trace join them shocked him. As a soldier and a shifter, he was never caught unawares. “Shit. I didn’t even hear you.”

“You were a little busy,” Baylor said. “I think I’d have missed a bomb going off when I was inside our gorgeous mate.”

Kenzie lowered her head, her cheek resting on his chest as the water streamed down his back. “I’m suddenly so tired I can’t move.”

Rayne reluctantly pulled from her body, set her on her feet, and helped Baylor and Trace to wash her hair and body.

“Exquisite, is right,” Trace said, spending an inordinate length of time washing Kenzie’s breasts.

Once they were all clean and dry, Baylor carried Kenzie to the makeshift bed he and Trace had made by pushing several of the sturdy bunks together. Rayne noticed that the bruising to her face had all but vanished, the mating speeding up her healing process already. By morning, the damage the bears had inflicted on her would only remain in her memories.

“My arm is itchy,” Kenzie said, trying to scratch under her cast.

“In a couple of days, we’ll have Jason X-ray your arm.” Trace kissed each of Kenzie’s fingers. “You’ll heal much faster now you’re our mate. I’m terrified I’ll hurt you again, Kenzie.”

Kenzie shook her head, anger flaring fiercely as she stared at him. “Your leaving me is all you could ever do to hurt me.” She put her hand over her heart. “I can feel you inside me. You love me. I’ll always come for you now, Trace.”

Trace simply nodded, pulling the covers back as Kenzie shivered and lifted her onto the bed. He needed time. In time Rayne knew Kenzie would heal him completely. She’d done more in three days than they’d done in forty years.

“This bunkhouse has no heating. Shifters don’t need it because we’re hot.” Kenzie laughed breaking the somber atmosphere as Rayne had hoped. “And I’m not at all sorry you need our body heat to keep you warm.” He lay beside her and pulled her close.

“You are warm,” she murmured, pushing her butt against Trace as he lay down behind her.

“We’ll have a bigger bed made for our home,” Baylor said, untucking the sheet and blankets to lie across the bottom of the beds.

“We need to do a lot to the place now we’re not selling it,” Trace said.

He felt Kenzie stiffen. “You were leaving Eminence?”

“We only came back to sell the place when Mom and Dad died,” Trace said. “We were going back to Alaska as soon as it was sold.”

“You never did tell me how your parents died, Rayne. If it’s too hard for you to discuss, I’ll just shut up.”

Rayne pulled Kenzie closer and kissed her head as she used his chest as a pillow. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t tell you. I miss Mom and Dad, but their passing was inevitable at some point. No one lives forever.”

“Vampires and demons do, apparently,” Trace supplied helpfully.

Kenzie looked up at him, her eyes wide. “We have forever, sweetheart. Tonight, you need to heal from your injuries. Sleep is what you need, not an introduction in all things supernatural.”

Baylor tickled Kenzie’s feet and she giggled, the pout she was working on disappearing. “Our dad was born with a faulty heart valve. Jason had been trying to convince him to have it replaced for years, but Dad was born two hundred and fifty years ago. He didn’t abide by ‘all these modern gizmos and do-dads,’ as he called them.”

“So, he chose to die instead?” Kenzie asked softly.

“Did you hear Baylor say how old he was?” Rayne ran his hands over Kenzie’s back, smoothing out her tense muscles. “If he’d been human he would have died as an infant. His shifter genetics enabled him to live a very long and happy life.” Kenzie sighed, relaxing into him. She felt incredible.

“I suppose when you look at it like that. Your mom?”

“She was a cougar, too.” Trace said. “She couldn’t survive without him. They were found in bed together, wrapped in each other’s arms, when Cooper went looking for them.” Trace tensed, his grief tainting the air. “I wish I’d come home sooner, been a better son.”

“We told you, Trace,” Baylor said. “They knew you were where you needed to be. They were just glad you were alive, that we all came home from that jungle.”

Rayne continued to stroke Kenzie as they all thought through Baylor’s words. He was right. His parents were glad they’d come home. They’d loved each other until the day they died. They’d died happy and fulfilled. Most people didn’t.

“How old are all of you?”

“I’m the baby at one-hundred and four,” Rayne said, chuckling at Kenzie’s shocked expression as she lifted her head to examine his face.

“I’m the eldest,” Trace said. “I’m about one-hundred and twenty. Baylor is a hundred and ten. I think his anger issues have a lot to do with middle child syndrome.”

Kenzie’s body shook as she quietly laughed. “I hope I look as well preserved as all of you at that age. So, you have a home in Alaska?” Kenzie yawned as she closed her eyes.

“Only a cave, sweetheart. Sleep now. We can talk tomorrow, and the next day, we have a lot to learn about each other and I intend to make sure we have a very long time to do it in.”

They were all silent as Kenzie’s breathing slowed and deepened. Rayne saw Trace staring at Kenzie, his fear an acid scent he was glad Kenzie couldn’t detect. “You can do this, Trace. We can do it together.”

* * * *

Trace wanted desperately to believe Rayne, to believe himself worthy of Kenzie’s trust, but he couldn’t. He had nightmares, terrors induced from his time in hell. He knew he lashed out in his sleep, had often woken with one or both of his brothers holding him down. He had also not slept as a human for decades.

“What if I hurt her again?”

He looked at the bulky cast on her slim arm and guilt sliced through his guts in a painful twist.

“You won’t,” Rayne said with a confidence Trace was incapable of feeling.

“She’ll heal quicker now we’re mates,” Baylor added.

“Do you think that makes any fucking difference? That I’ll be in any way appeased if I hurt her again knowing she’ll heal quicker? My god, Baylor. What if it was you? What if you weren’t sure that you wouldn’t shift and slice her in two thinking she was one of those fuckers carving into you for their own amusement again.”

“I trust you, Trace,” Kenzie murmured as she rolled over and laid her head on his chest.

She caressed over his scars, and damn if he didn’t feel a whole lot better. She was draining his anger away, siphoning it into herself somehow. This was how he’d felt each time she’d brought him back to the present. She’d eased not only his pain and panic, but she’d left him feeling at peace, calm, and centered. Whole. He wondered if she’d eventually drain the well of rage, fear, and pain until it was completely empty. 

“Is that what happened?” Kenzie asked softly. “Did they do this for fun?”

His tiny mate sounded deadly, despite her speaking at barely above a whisper.

“You sound angry, little one. Don’t be. It was a long time ago.”

“But it’s still hurting you. They’re still hurting you.”

“You’re helping more than anything ever has.”

“Did they die?”

“Painfully,” Baylor said.

Trace watched Kenzie’s face in the darkness as he stroked his hands over the soft skin of her back. She might think her expression hidden by the near complete darkness, but they had very good eyesight. He saw the grim look of satisfaction she now wore and he was pleased their brutal nature didn’t make her fear them.

“You were born to be a shifter’s mate,” Rayne said. 

“She was born to be our mate,” Baylor added.

They all remained silent as Kenzie’s breathing slowed again. He kept his voice soft and tried to hold onto the sense of peace she’d instilled in him. “Don’t let me hurt her.”

“We won’t,” his brothers both said. 

“Do you think the bears are going to come back?” Trace asked when he was certain Kenzie had fallen asleep in their arms.

“I’m certain of it,” Baylor said.

“Then they’ll die,” Trace said. “All of them.” 

Chapter Thirteen

Leith showered in his hotel room, his rage at failing to kill the shifter and his bitch making him reckless. “The fucker was right there. If it wasn’t for the fact I still need to rescue my worthless brother, I would go back and kill him right now. I’d have taken the bitch, though. Having her as the sleuth whore for a while would at least have been a small compensation for losing Ruben and Trevor.”

Toweling himself dry, he sat heavily on the bed as he reached for the phone. He couldn’t delay this phone call any longer. He only hoped the Alpha believed he’d tried hard enough to save his brothers. He didn’t plan on being another casualty in this whole cluster-fuck of a robbery attempt.

“Alpha Thwaites.” Leith fought to keep the tremor from his voice, instead focusing on his burning desire to kill Rayne Soames and torture his mate. Marshall would be avenged. “I have nothing but more bad news for you. This pride of cats has proven to be more powerful than any we’ve previously encountered.”

“Do you have Geordie or not?”

Leith heard his own death sentence in the timbre of his Alpha’s voice. “We fought hard, but failed to free him.”

Leith had to cover the phone as the Alpha bellowed out his anger in a deafening roar. Darnel Thwaites didn’t tolerate failure well because he’d experienced it so rarely. Unsurprising when death was a real possibility for those who angered the Alpha.

“Put Trevor on the phone.”

Leith knew better than to delay any longer. “Both Trevor and Ruben were killed in our attempt to free Geordie. The cats—”

“Are going to die. Give me your location.”

* * * *

Kenzie woke feeling warm. Strong arms were wrapped around her and a hard, muscled chest was her pillow. The room was dark, the only noise the breathing of the men surrounding her. She breathed deeply, closing her eyes in pleasure as the smell of musky pine filled her senses.

“Mine,” she whispered, kissing the smooth hard plane of Baylor’s chest, right over his heart.

A hand smoothed down her back to cup her ass, pulling her higher to meet his demanding lips. His tongue swept into her mouth as he devoured her moan of pleasure and growled softly. Her nipples pebbled as the vibrations from his growl sent shivers of delight right to her pussy.

Baylor kept their lips joined as he rolled until she was lying beneath him, his hands cupping her breasts, his thumbs stroking her now aching nipples.

“I need to taste this sweet-smelling cream,” Trace said, his hands caressing up her legs, parting them as he settled his huge frame onto the mattress. His breath washed over her wet folds, making her shiver with pleasure.

“Trace.” She spoke his name as a plea, shocked at her brazen demand. “I’ve never…” she admitted, suddenly embarrassed.

Baylor growled, kissing her softly, reverently. “Your pleasure is the priority in our love-making, Kenzie. We want to know what you like, what you need. Never be ashamed to ask for what you desire. I guarantee it will be a pleasure to give it to you.”

She was too shocked to answer as Trace licked her clitoris, then sucked it gently. She bucked her hips, appalled that she was pushing herself tighter to his mouth, but helpless to resist. His tongue circled her aching bud and she moaned loudly, the pleasure more than she’d ever dreamed it would be.

Baylor kissed her softly, then left her gasping as he moved his mouth to her breast, nipping lightly as her nipple before sucking. Trace moved his mouth to her opening, his tongue delving inside to lick and tease at her sensitive flesh.

“You taste better than you smell, and you smell divine,” he murmured, his breath making her clitoris throb. Baylor sucked harder on her nipple, his fingers pinching and rolling her other one as Trace sucked her clit, stroking his finger into her.

Kenzie’s body exploded with sensation as her climax soared and peaked under their ministrations. She shook and writhed as they continued to lick, suck, and tease her body. Her orgasm drew out until she was breathless, her clitoris becoming painfully sensitive. “Trace, no more. Please.”

He released her immediately, his finger gently withdrawing from her body.

“I need you, Kenzie,” he growled.

“We both need you,” Baylor said, her nipple releasing with a popping sound from his mouth.

Kenzie wasn’t sure she was ready for anal sex, and when she was, she was certain she’d want Rayne there with them.

She’d been a shy, virgin when her first boyfriend had initiated her to sex. He’d have her suck his cock until he was nearly coming, then he’d fuck for a few strokes until he came.

Needless to say, she’d been in no hurry to repeat the lack-luster experience. But now, with these men, she knew the romance books she’d read had not been lying. Sex could be amazing, incredible, earth shattering.

Deciding she was going to be an equal partner in the “giving pleasure” part of this new relationship, she lifted her hands and pushed on Baylor’s chest.

“I want to taste you.” She’d hoped she wasn’t making a fool of herself, and Baylor’s hungry growl as he swiftly lay on his back, pulling her on top of him as he did, made her sure she hadn’t.

“I’m all yours, angel. Anytime, anywhere you want me.”

“Me, too,” Trace said, gulping as his words came out as a broken rasp. “Please, please, me, too.”

“Thank you,” she breathed into Baylor’s mouth, kissing him and then licking and kissing her way down every muscled inch of his body until she was staring at his cock in the dim light of the bunker.

“I’ve never really wanted to do this before,” she admitted, her tongue dipping into the fluid shining at the head of his cock. “Hmmm, you taste nice.”

“You’re killing me, angel,” Baylor said huskily.

Trace moved to kneel behind her, and Kenzie pushed her ass against his erection, suddenly feeling empty and aching for him. “Can I make love to you, Kenzie?”

Kenzie felt bold, bolstered by their blatant desire for her. She felt alive. She licked down the length of Baylor’s impressive length, enjoying the sense of rightness that enveloped her. “I’m all yours. Anytime, anywhere, you want me.”

“Now you’ve gone and made me envision all sorts of wicked places we can share your body,” Baylor said, groaning as she took the head of his cock into her mouth and sucked him as deep as she could. “Damn. I’m not going to last.”

She groaned, too, as Trace pushed the head of his cock slowly inside her. She stroked and sucked Baylor as she rocked back against Trace. Within seconds they were moving as one, each giving and receiving pleasure as though they’d been lovers for years, not hours.

“So good, little one,” Trace said, curling his frame over her, his hands reaching around to fondle her breasts and tease her nipples.

Baylor swept up her hair, holding it at the base of her neck. “You look like a goddess. I’m going to come,” he moaned. “Let me go if you need to.”

Kenzie’s own orgasm was coming fast, but her heart squeezed at Baylor’s words. He had been a prick to her, but he loved her. Was living up to his vow to put her first.

She sucked him deeper, almost gagging as his cock swelled impossibly bigger. He roared, his cum shooting over her tongue and down her throat. She drank in his moans as she drank down his pleasure. She wanted to, found giving him pleasure was driving her own higher.

“I’m coming,” Trace said. “But not without you.” He released one of her breasts, his fingers moving lower to circle her engorged clitoris. One circle and she came, releasing Baylor’s cock as she cried out.

Trace roared as he, too, came. They rocked against each other until their orgasms waned and they both sighed. “You’re never leaving our bed.”

Baylor lifted her until she was lying on top of him, her breathing ragged, her limbs trembling as she languished in the afterglow of their lovemaking. “Tempting, but not possible,” Kenzie said, deciding to step forward in this new life the way she intended to continue. “Not when I have a bank to run.” She didn’t want them to ever believe she’d be happy being, figuratively, tied to the kitchen sink, barefoot, and pregnant.

“Stupid bank,” Baylor said, shaking her as he barked out a laugh.

“If it wasn’t for the stupid bank we might never have met her,” Trace said, his hands rubbing soothing circles over her bare back and ass. “Are you cold? You’re shivering.”

“That’s because your touch feels so incredible. Is it normal to be this aroused all the time?”

“Yes,” Rayne said at the same time as Baylor and Trace.

Kenzie’s fatigue was forgotten as she stared up at Rayne, drinking in the sight of his tall, lean frame dressed in the camo pants and black T-shirt she’d first seen him in. His dark hair was swept back from his face, tousled and damp. His green eyes seemed to glow as his gaze locked with hers. “God, you look so damned sexy.”

“I wish I had the words for how you look right now, Kenzie. Nothing I could say would adequately describe how much I want you.”

“But?” Baylor said, rising smoothly, Kenzie locked tight to his chest.

“We have to have a meeting with Finn. Now.”

Kenzie shuddered at the coldness in Rayne’s voice. “I’ll be fine. You all go if you have to.”

Baylor and Trace growled, but Rayne smiled, stepping forward and taking her into his arms. “You are not leaving our sight, sweetheart. We just need to shift.” He tapped his temple with his index finger. “The whole pride is shifting so we can have the meeting through our pride link.”

Kenzie hugged Rayne, unafraid to show how pleased she was to see him. “I missed you.” She kissed his neck and he groaned, his cock shifting against her. Drawing her attention to how hard he was.

“I think I missed you more.” He took a deep breath. “Especially when I can scent what went on this morning.”

She should have been embarrassed by his statement, but that was the old Kenzie. The new Kenzie wasn’t ashamed of how much she craved her three mates. How could she be when they were so honest and open about their desire for her?

His words finally sank into her brain and she was thrilled. “I get to see you all as cougars again?”

Rayne kissed her, scrambling her thoughts as he released her lips and kissed the spot where he’d bitten her, marked her.

“Oh, God.” Her pussy clenched as she came, delicious waves of bliss sweeping through her.

“No arguments,” Trace said, his hard body pressing to her back as she continued to shudder. “You’re never leaving our bed.”

* * * *

Rayne wanted to rip off his clothes and bury himself in his delectable mate, but there was something driving him harder than even his lust for his new mate. His need to protect her. Her and the entire pride. The pride that was once again his family. He’d come home, found a mate, and landed in a shit-storm.

He would have his time with Kenzie. It just had to wait until the threat to her was gone. “Samson found out more about the threat to our pride. Finn won’t risk a face to face meeting after what he’s learned. I was doing a sweep outside when I ran into Samson. We have to shift now.”

Kenzie gasped as she watched Trace and Baylor shift. Rayne set her on her feet and stepped back, quickly shedding the clothes he would have to put back on after the meeting.

He let his cat free, a task that was strangely even easier after the decades he’d spent living as his cat. He’d spoken to Amber’s mate, Hudson, a week ago, and he’d said it was the same for him after he’d lived for years at a time as his coyote.

He enjoyed Kenzie’s smile of delight as he stalked back to her. She laughed as he licked her face.

“You’re so huge, and so soft.”

Her hands stroked over his fur before she dug her fingers into his thick coat. Her touch gave him just as much pleasure as his cat as it did as a man. She was more of a gift than he’d ever dreamed of receiving. Had he known a mate was this wonderful, he’d have been searching the world for her.

He felt a stab of pain, but it was the pain of an old wound. One that had now healed, leaving only the dull ache as a reminder. He’d found Kenzie at the perfect time. Fate had gotten it right. Any sooner than right now and he wouldn’t have been ready for the gift she was. He couldn’t have left his brothers any sooner, had they not accepted Kenzie as their own.

They surrounded Kenzie until she was able to pet them all, which she did with a mix of child-like glee and wonder. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. Jade was right, cougars are much sexier that wolves.”

Finn’s voice had them all stilling. Kenzie fell silent immediately, but continued to stroke their coats.

“The traitor, Sarah Webster, has been discovered,” Finn said without preamble. His mental voice carrying the same contained rage and grief he’d had earlier.

“Discovered?” Asher asked. “I take it she wasn’t found alive, then?” The ex-counselor picked up the subtle nuance in wording that Rayne had missed.

“I didn’t have the pleasure of killing her,” Finn said. “But rest assured the bears made her pay for her treachery.”

Rayne’s cat rumbled with rage. She had been the person to betray the fact that Rayne had killed the bear at the bank. He wasn’t concerned for his own safety. He was enraged that her revealing that fact had led to Kenzie and Baylor being nearly killed.

“Axel and Calder were sent to bring her to me and found the scent of all three bears in her home. That was also where they’d tortured and abused her,” Finn continued dispassionately. “Axel and Calder eventually found her remains dumped in the woods some fifteen miles north of town.”

Rayne looked at Baylor and then Trace. “That could have been Kenzie’s fate,” Trace said.

“It still could be,” Finn said. “Apparently, this particular sleuth is more ruthless than any I’ve ever heard of. They make a practice of getting what they want by targeting mates and cubs as leverage. As soon as I’ve given you all your assignments, you’re to act immediately. We’re on alert as of now.”

Finn had superseded Cooper’s usual role as enforcer and set the assignments for the upcoming battle himself, making sure each member of his pride was exactly where they were needed most.

Cooper had remained silent until now, so Rayne knew he must have approved. Alpha or not, Cooper would not endanger the pride simply to spare Finn from having hurt feelings.

“This sleuth is based a thousand miles away and has the means to get here by helicopter. The mature males number in the sixties.”

“We move now,” Finn added, his fury bleeding through enough to let them all know their Alpha was relishing this fight when it arrived. They hadn’t drawn first blood, but Finn would draw the last.

Rayne was certain that whoever came looking to harm a single soul in Eminence was going to die. He was amongst those protecting Kenzie and the other mates who were heading to the Alpha’s home, and he was prepared to fight to the death in that aim.

He’d faced greater numbers when he and Baylor had fought to free Trace and he was just as determined to win now. He shifted back and swept Kenzie into his arms, kissing her deeply. Needing to fill his every cell with her scent. Maybe he was even more determined.

* * * *

When Rayne released her to Trace, she was breathless, her head still reeling with the wonder of them shifting from man to beast and back again. It was something she knew she’d never cease to be in awe of, even if she spent hundreds of years with them.

“I love you, Kenzie,” Trace said. His kiss was just as passionate, just as desperate, and Kenzie felt fear fill her. Something bad is happening.

“Come with me, angel. We can save water and shower together.” Baylor was making a habit of throwing her over his shoulder. They were out of the shower in under a minute, adding fuel to Kenzie’s growing fear.

“What’s happening, Baylor?”

Rayne had already pulled his clothes back on and helped her dress as Baylor pulled on his camo pants, black T-shirt, and black boots. His short dark hair was still wet, his blue eyes shining with amber sparks.

“Finn believes the bears are coming to retrieve the prisoner and pose a threat to the pride. As a precaution, all the mates and cubs are being placed in special safe rooms. The pride has three now, four if you count Michael’s bunker where his computers are. It’s been reconstructed to keep out anything, even a demon.”

“Demons, safe rooms, why…”

“You can ask Melanie, Jade, and Amber why they’ve become necessary. I’m taking you to the Alpha’s, and they’ll be down in his safe room with you.” Rayne said.

The hairs on Kenzie’s arms rose. This was much more than one bear coming for his brother. Rayne was taking her to Melanie’s, not Trace and Baylor. She knew they weren’t going for a nice, relaxing stroll in the woods.

“Are you able to tell me what’s happening and where you’re all going to be? Or is it a secret?”

“You’re a part of this pride,” Baylor said. “You’re also my mate. No secrets between us. Not ever.” Kenzie smiled as Baylor picked her up and spun her in a circle. It was such a carefree thing to do. Not something Baylor would have done twenty-four hours ago. Before he’d committed to being hers forever.

“You’re crazy, Baylor, and I love you.”

“Then marry me.”

Trace walked in after taking his shower. He’d been rubbing his hair dry with a towel and froze in place, the towel dropping to the floor.

“But…we met only…” she stuttered.

“You know how this works, Kenzie,” Rayne said, snatching her from Baylor and spinning her around again. “The other mates are all married, legally, to the eldest brother. That’s Trace, but you’re married to all three of us in reality. Marry me?”

Kenzie squealed as Trace pulled her from Rayne’s hands and spun her around, as well. “What you don’t know, is that we have a second ceremony in front of the entire pride where you commit yourself to all of us.”

“I’m dizzy. Stop spinning me around before I puke.” Her nausea and their happiness had her shaking her head in wonder. They were about to face something terrible, she knew it, and yet they couldn’t contain their joy. Maybe they didn’t want to.

She recalled Connie’s devastation at losing one of her mates. All sane thoughts left her mind. She went with her gut. Her heart. It told her she was never going to be happy without them and she wouldn’t waste a single day of the time she had with them.

“Well?” Baylor asked.

“Can my parents come to both weddings, or just the legal one?”

“So, it’s a yes?”

Baylor didn’t wait for Kenzie to answer. He took her in his arms and kissed her. Kenzie’s arms and legs wrapped around Baylor as she moaned and pulled him closer.

* * * *

Rayne wanted to tear off her clothes as the scent of her arousal threatened to unhinge him completely, but they were about to leave for their assigned patrols.

“Baylor, we need to get Kenzie to the safe room and get in position. We can celebrate our engagement when the threat hanging over the entire town is gone.”

“Shit,” Baylor said, shaking his head and passing Kenzie to Trace.

“You drive me wild, woman. I swear I could kiss you and make love to you all day and still not have had my fill of you.” Trace groaned as Kenzie climbed up his body and sealed her mouth over his.

“She’s perfect,” Baylor said, wincing as he adjusted himself.

Rayne did the same, his cock painfully hard. “Trace, you need to get to our ranch before it gets dark. Take the sheets. You know what to do.”

Kenzie broke her kiss with Trace and looked dazed as she turned her gaze on him. “The sheets?”

“I’ll explain on the way to the safe room. I’m sorry, sweetheart, but it’s time to leave.”

Kenzie sobered quickly as Trace placed her on her feet. She kissed Trace again, and then Baylor before taking his hand. “I want a raincheck on our engagement celebrations.”

Rayne squeezed her hand as he looked at his brothers. They’d fought together for a long time, whether it was in a war for their country, or the fight to keep Trace alive. He was a part of something bigger now. They all were. They had the entire pride with them in this fight and it was time to start trusting them.

“We’ll see you as soon as we can,” Trace said, finding the words to say good-bye when Rayne couldn’t.

“Keep her safe,” Baylor said simply.

Rayne left without looking back, Kenzie clutching his hand as though her life depended on it. They’d been driving for five minutes before he was able to fulfill his promise to tell her where everyone was going to be.

“Baylor is joining Finn at the old ranger station five miles north of town. He’s taking the bear there, hoping to keep any fighting away from the town and its human inhabitants. Trace is going home, in case this Leith fellow breaks from his sleuth and decides to seek revenge on me again for killing his brother.”

He glanced over and saw Kenzie nod. “That was why we were run off the road?”

“The young female we discovered had given the robbers information on our security had a serious issue with the human mates who’d recently come to the pride. She told them all they needed to know. She obviously told them I was the one who killed the bear in the vault. She expected them to take her with them when they left. They killed her instead.”

“That’s awful. What she did, not really that she’s dead. She’s partly responsible for Theo’s death, and for Baylor and me being run off the road.” She was quiet for a few minutes and Rayne watched her sadness turn to anger. “So why do you need the sheets?”

Rayne hesitated. It wouldn’t be easy for Kenzie to hear this part. “We emptied your apartment. Took all your belongings to our place so your scent was strong there. Again, hoping to keep the bears out of town.”

“Yes,” she said simply.

“The sheets we…we’ve been sharing, they hold the strongest of all our scents. It will leave any bear passing in no doubt that you are there. If you’re there, they’ll assume I will be, too.”

After only a few seconds, Kenzie nodded once. “Gross, but it makes sense. So, tell me where everyone will be. I’m going to go crazy locked in that safe room not knowing what’s happening.”

“Melanie will be there with you. She can hear her mates telepathically through their mating bond.”

“Really?” When he smiled at her she shook her head. “Is that an Alpha thing? It’s so cool.”

Rayne shook his head and laughed. Kenzie was incredible. He wanted this over so he could begin their lives together. Wanted her to be free of fear.

“No, it’s not an Alpha thing. Talk to Melanie, Jade, and Amber about it.”

“I wish I could hear you, Rayne.” Kenzie’s voice hitched a little. She was scared, and she’d been hiding it from him.

“I don’t like that you can keep your feelings so well hidden. I’m scared, too, Kenzie. I’m terrified of being apart from you. I’ll be tortured not knowing what’s happening to you while we’re apart.”

“That’s exactly how I feel about all of you.”

He reached over and took her hand, pulling it onto his lap as he continued to drive. “I’m also scared about being apart from Trace and Baylor.”

“They’ve had you there for them for a long time,” Kenzie said, showing she really did understand the dynamics of his relationship with his brothers.

“You’re very insightful, my mate. I’ll remember that when it’s your birthday. We’ll have to work very hard to conceal what we buy for you. I’m also scared for the pride. Theo’s death was devastating. I won’t let anyone else die. I won’t.”

It was Kenzie who squeezed his hand then. Her unspoken support bolstering his determination.

“I’ll be patrolling the Alpha’s property with Dane, Wes, Hudson, and Chris. Connie and Paul will be there with you in the safe room.” They drove in silence until they turned up the long drive to the Alpha’s home. He didn’t want to leave Kenzie feeling nothing but their combined fear. “So, when exactly is your birthday?” 

Chapter Fourteen

Kenzie stared after Rayne, her lips still tingling from his kiss, her body shaking in fear. It was such a confusing mix emotions, she wondered if she were going insane.

“They pack quite a punch, don’t they?” Amber said, taking her hand and leading Kenzie to one of the sofas in the huge underground room. “I’m new to this whole ‘mate thing,’ too. It hasn’t gotten any easier for me yet, so I’m not going to be of much help, I’m afraid.”

“That was your mate doing all the growling?”

Amber blushed as she nodded. “Hudson has issues.”

“Only when you’re not in his arms,” Jade said, sitting on Amber’s other side as she rubbed her flat stomach. “I think I’m going to be sick again.” She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Nope, all good. When Hudson’s holding you, Amber, he’s very civilized.”

Kenzie smiled at Jade and squeezed Amber’s hand. “I heard you came to town to see Jade and fell in love with the place. It wasn’t Eminence’s beautiful scenery that kept you here?”

“Oh, it was that, too.” Jade smiled as Amber blushed. “That and four, huge coyote shifters claiming her as theirs.”

“We’re both staying now,” Amber said. “The gallery has been our life-long dream and Wes and Troy have made it a reality.”

Kenzie knew the twins, knew of them, anyway. Everyone in the financial world knew of the massive wealth the twins had accumulated and built on from a young age. “They’re computer geniuses, not artists. I’ve been to your gallery, ladies. You’re both extremely talented.”

“She’s right,” Melanie said, coming to join them as she rocked her little boy in her arms. “They may have built the gallery, but you two fill it with all those wonderful paintings.”

Kenzie noticed Melanie’s eyes were still red and she looked unusually pale. “Why don’t you sit, I’ll rock him for a while.”

Kenzie was pleased that Melanie accepted her offer. Matthew didn’t stir as she held him against her chest, his head resting on her shoulder. She kissed his soft blond curls and breathed in the smell of baby shampoo. “He’s such a good baby, Melanie.”

“I can’t take all the credit. Having four husbands means I’ve had a lot of help.”

“That’s the only thing keeping me sane right now,” Amber said.

“Oh, Amber, I didn’t know. Congratulations.”

Amber studied her face for a moment before finally smiling. “Thank you. The news hasn’t been universally celebrated by our family. Our mom is having a thousand fits.”

“Pregnant before your weddings. What sort of girls have I raised? What will my friends think of me?” Jade said in a high-pitched voice.

Amber, Jade, and Melanie all laughed, and Kenzie felt herself relax a little more. “Does she really only think of this in terms of herself? Isn’t she happy about being a grandmother?” Jade and Amber just stared at her.

“We haven’t met their mom,” Melanie explained. “She didn’t come for their weddings. It clashed with her spa day.”

“No?”

“We’re not going to be like her,” Amber said. “We’ll be the best mothers to our babies and they’ll never doubt our love for them for a single second.”

“Dane said Hudson is threatening to kill him if he doesn’t find out why you’re sad, Amber,” Melanie said.

“Sorry. Just have Dane tell him we were discussing my mother. He’ll understand perfectly then.”

Kenzie had turned, expecting to see the steel door open and Dane entering. It was still closed and Dane was nowhere to be seen. Then she remembered.

“You can hear him! He’s talking to you while he’s a cougar?”

“It’s happened to a few of us,” Melanie said. “Some of us can communicate in words, but all of our men can feel our emotions through the mating bond.” She looked at the bed in the far corner of the room where Connie was lying beside her still unconscious mate, Paul.

Amber cleared her throat. “I can’t imagine how this feels for her. I wouldn’t know how to go on without one of my men.”

Tears fell from Melanie’s eyes and she buried her head in her hands. Amber and Jade embraced their friend and held her as she sobbed. When she finally raised her head, she sucked in a deep breath and shook back her long hair.

“I need to get a handle on this or my emotions are going to distract my men. They can’t be focused on anything but the fight ahead right now.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Kenzie said, feeling helpless to do anything but sympathize with her friend. “Were you very close to Theo?”

Melanie’s eyes filled with tears again and she hiccupped as she tried to speak, her voice low as she cast her glance to the bed with Connie and Paul.

“It’s, it’s not just losing him that’s so painful. I found out something else today. Something my men hadn’t shared with me. Something terrifying.”

Amber and Jade both froze. Kenzie saw her own fear reflected on the other women’s faces.

“Something to do with shifters?” Kenzie asked hesitantly. She wasn’t sure she wanted there to be something terrifying in her future, not when she’d just accepted her mates and their proposal of marriage.

Melanie looked over at Connie again and Kenzie shuddered as cold dread seeped into her bones. Even the warm baby in her arms didn’t drive away the chill.

“I was told from the start that when the female in a mating such as mine, all of ours, dies, the men will join her, not wanting to live without their mate. They never told me that if one of them died, my grief over my lost mate could kill me, consequently killing the rest of them. Connie has lost a man she’s been with for two hundred years. That’s enough of a weight to bear.”

“Damn,” Jade said.

“I can understand it,” Amber said. “Even though I’ve only been with my men for a few weeks, they’re a part of me now.”

“It would be like living with only half of your soul,” Kenzie said. They all remained silent, their thoughts on the men who were out there fighting an enemy who’d already proven they would kill for what they wanted.

“I won’t be the cause of my men’s deaths,” Connie said quietly. Kenzie startled, having not heard the older woman approach. Connie cupped Melanie’s cheek before turning to Kenzie and holding out her arms. “Can I hold him?”

Kenzie passed Matthew to Connie and saw peace and happiness wash some of the grief from the woman’s eyes.

“I have too much to live for to allow my grief to consume me. Paul and Chris have lost their brother, I won’t disrespect their love for Theo by allowing myself to fade away. I have four boys I adore, a daughter-in-law who is the light in my darkness.”

Melanie released a small sob. Connie kissed Matthew’s head. “And I have a grandson who I intend to see grow into the Alpha I know he is. I want to know all my grandbabies, one of whom I hope will be a girl.”

Melanie stood and hugged Connie. “I don’t know if there will be any girls,” Melanie said. “I’m only glad you’ll be here to meet my babies when they come.”

“Don’t live in fear,” Connie said. “It will only taint the time you have with them all. No one lives forever, well, except vampires, demons, and angels. I’ve had a lot longer with my men than most human women have. I celebrate that fact by living each day to the fullest. Loving them wholeheartedly with every heartbeat. And the sex is phenomenal, even though I’m over two-hundred years old. No erectile dysfunction for an elderly shifter.”

Kenzie held back her snort of laughter at Connie’s unexpected statement, Melanie didn’t.

“Connie, I love you so much.” Melanie hugged her mother-in-law, smiling in happiness and relief. “Thank you for showing us how to deal with this. You’re incredible.”

Kenzie looked at the ceiling, imagining her men out there protecting their pride, their town, their way of life. Her. “Stay safe and come back to me. All of you, please come back to me.”

Amber, Jade, and Melanie surrounded her and they formed a huddle as they all embraced each other and drew strength from their shared heartache and fears.

“Now I understand why you said I was a part of your family, Melanie. You’re all my sisters now.”

* * * *

“Drive the bars through his shoulders then bend them,” Finn instructed Samson. “I don’t want him freeing himself and joining the fight.”

Baylor held the prisoner against the large spruce at the edge of the clearing and felt no sympathy when Samson drove a steel bar through the bear’s shoulder and deep into the massive tree trunk.

He ignored the screams, holding the bear still as he thrashed to free himself from his and Dylan’s grip. This man had been set on raping Kenzie, then kidnapping her to do it over and over until he and his brothers were tired of her. He was beneath contempt. He’d have let the bear die after Samson’s attack, but Finn had been right to save him. He was useful now as bait.

“Scream all you like, asshole,” Dylan said. “You’re doing a great job of bringing the fight right to us.”

Samson pushed in the second steel bar and bent it back against the tree trunk. “He’s not going anywhere, Finn.”

Baylor released the bear and he screamed again as his full weight dragged on the metal through his shoulders.

“I will heal,” he gasped, “Darnel will come for me and then I will make him kill your children and rape your mates. I’ll dance on your fucking graves.”

Dylan and Baylor were the most recently mated men here at the ranger station where Finn had set up this ambush, and their beasts were the most feral in their protection of their new mates.

Samson tackled Dylan before he reached the prisoner and Gabriel held Baylor still, stopping him from tearing the man apart.

“He’ll die for what he’s done,” Finn said coldly. “First he will serve his purpose and bring the fight away from our town.” Finn stepped close to the bear, his rage and power leaking through the Alpha’s shields. “Then I will end him.”

The bear was an idiot. “I will take your mate last, Alpha cat. I will make her watch as her friends are used and discarded like trash. Then I will show her how a real man fucks a woman.”

Baylor felt a chill run down his spine as he watched the Alpha’s calm response. Finn reached out his hand, the claws now fully extended, and drew it across the newly healed flesh of the bear’s exposed abdomen. Blood flowed in a curtain down the prisoner’s skin and soaked the torn material of his jeans.

The bear’s screams weren’t what had sent that shiver of fear down Baylor’s spine. It was Finn’s glacial calm as he meted out his response. Finn was a caged creature of base instincts right now, his father’s death stoking the explosive vengeance their Alpha was holding inside.

“The bears don’t know what they’ve unleashed with this unprovoked attack,” Gabriel whispered under his breath.

“They’re about to find out,” Dylan said. “I’m fine, Samson.” Samson released him and Dylan pulled off his shirt. “I hear helicopters.”

Baylor tilted his head, straining to hear what Dylan had, but only the wind stirred the trees as it blew through the cold night air. A howl split the night as Dylan finished undressing.

“That was Hudson. He hears them coming, too.” Dylan shifted, his coyote immediately loping off into the trees to take his assigned position.

Finn cocked his head and stared at the bear impaled on the tree. “I’m letting you live because I want your boyfriend to come here. I want to be the one to show him how wrong he was to think he rules the shifter world.”

“You think…you think you do?” The bear was struggling with his pain, but his arrogance was returning now he thought he was about to be rescued.

“No, you small-minded degenerate.” Finn looked to the sky at the same instant Baylor finally heard the beat of the helicopter’s blades. “I rule this town and you’ve fucked with the wrong pride.”

“Sikorsky,” Baylor said, stripping his clothes and letting them drop to the ground.

“Gives us a maximum incursion of eighty hostiles if the pilots stay and fight,” Samson said.

The prisoner began to laugh, a high-pitched laugh that Baylor felt sounded more hysterical than threatening.

“Darnel’s brought the entire sleuth. I will live to see your mate suffer, Alpha.”

Finn didn’t so much as glance at the man. He looked at his assembled pride members and nodded. “We go as planned. Attack in groups if you can.” He nodded to Cameron, the cougar had already shifted and was awaiting Finn’s orders. “Cameron and his brothers have shown us how to fight bears.”

The Alpha walked to the very center of the clearing, staying human as everyone else shifted.

Baylor took up his position beside Gabriel at the left side of the clearing behind the ranger station. Samson and Jason flanked Finn. Cameron ran off to the right to join Dylan while Axel and Barrett disappeared around the front of the ranger station.

“This place smells of blood and death,” Baylor said. The frozen ground still leaked the scent of carnage.

“That would be wolf blood,” Gabriel said. “A pack of wolves tried to annihilate us, nearly killing Jordanna in the process.”

“Fuck,” Baylor said, easily feeling the rage that still burned through Gabriel. “Jordanna is lucky to have this pride as her family. She couldn’t get better protection.”

“Enough chit chat, ladies,” Cooper said. “Stay alert, they’ve landed.”

* * * *

Trace had arrived home and moved quickly to open all the boxes containing Kenzie’s clothes. He’d flung them on the bed, her scent calming him as it wafted through the air.

He’d just opened the last window when he heard the coyote howl. That was the signal. They were here. Trace had not faced an enemy in a long time, and the last time he had, it had ended very badly. He’d been trying to free a human prisoner from one of the pits in an enemy stronghold when he’d been shot in the head.

When he’d healed sufficiently to regain consciousness, he was in that same pit, standing on the prisoner’s rotting corpse, his hands and feet bound with fine metal wire. He couldn’t move, couldn’t shift to free himself, the pit’s damp, slime-covered walls hugged his body like a macabre shroud.

“It’s time,” Cooper said, slapping him on the back and snapping him back to reality.

“I don’t want to be a liability,” Trace said, his honesty paining him with its truth. “If someone dies because I lose it?”

“Shift, my friend. You’re not helpless this time. You’re also not alone. We all have your back. Fighting bears is best done in pairs or groups. We need you.”

Trace followed Cooper’s lead and they both quickly shed their clothes and shifted. Cooper had been right. He could feel each shifted pride member as their pride link joined their minds. “Thank you.” He directed that thought to Cooper alone.

His cat was a creature of instincts and Trace had spent longer as a cat than any of the assembled pride. He felt at home like this, powerful, his demons banished to the recesses of his human psyche.

“Hunter, Max, Caine, and Lucas are in position in town,” Cooper informed the entire pride. “Once the attack progresses we’ll know if the bears are targeting Eminence. If they’re not, then the four of them will join the fight wherever they’re needed.”

Cooper nodded at the assembled pride members gathered on Trace’s front lawn. Evan and Drake moved to stand by the horse sheds. Asher and Mason ran to the trees surrounding the house and disappeared into the darkness. Michael and Troy moved farther down the yard and stood in a patch of complete darkness where the barn and trees met. Cooper moved inside the house and Trace followed, positioning himself in front of the large picture window in the sitting room.

He could see the yard, the drive, and the paddocks leading to the road. He hoped their guess was right and that some of the sleuth would come for Rayne and Kenzie. Not because he was itching for a fight, he just didn’t want Baylor’s group at the ranger station to be overwhelmed.

“Trust Finn,” Baylor said. “He’s been through this before while we were having our holiday in the Yukon.”

Trace chuffed a laugh. The time they’d spent as cougars had been nothing like a holiday. It had been a time of torment and agony as Trace fought to come back to humanity.

He pictured his tiny mate. The last time his demons had dragged him away from reality she’d called him back. Her warm, soft body pressed to his had replaced the pit’s slimy walls. Her soft voice had pierced through the screams and banished the darkness. Kenzie was his life. She’d keep him in the light. He wanted to believe this.

“Even if you slip away, Trace. I’ll always find you. I’m yours.”

Trace swung his head around, scared he’d see Kenzie was behind him. Cooper was sitting silently by the door, his cat completely immobile as he listened, watched, and waited.

“Was that…”

“I heard her, too,” Rayne said. “She’s doing everything backward. She recognized us first, even though she didn’t understand why she was so drawn to us.”

They stayed silent for a minute, but Kenzie didn’t reach out to them again.

“And now she’s formed a mating link without even knowing it,” Baylor said. “Should we tell her we heard her?”

“She’ll work it out,” Trace said. “Our mate is very smart.”

She was incredible. Trace was focused and calm as he awaited what would happen next. He felt the ties to his pride and was strengthened, not confined. He needed them, and in return, he’d die to keep all of them safe. That was what he was born to do. He was free. He was home.

Chapter Fifteen

Leith waited at the small sports field outside of Grand Springs where he’d told the Alpha to land. He heard the two Sikorsky helicopters before he saw them. Within minutes, however, the first one was landing. The Alpha was first out, followed quickly by twenty of his sleuth. The first helicopter quickly took off again, allowing the second one to land and disgorge the rest of the attack squad.

Alpha Thwaites strode directly to him, his shrewd gaze sweeping him from head to foot. “You healed quickly from the confrontation with the cats that managed to kill my brothers.”

Leith lifted his shirt to expose a livid bruise and a long gash on his back. The Alpha merely grunted, the red fading from his eyes. If he hadn’t been injured running that bastard Soames and his bitch off the road, the Alpha would have killed him. He contained his relief and winced dramatically as he lowered his shirt.

“Tell me what we need to know.”

“There are only twenty cats in the town and a few mutt coyotes they’ve let into the pride.” Leith couldn’t contain his sneer of disgust. Tainting bloodlines with human DNA and then allowing other breeds of shifters into their midst. “We’ll be doing the world a favor ridding it of these vermin.”

Leith was flying through the air a second later, his chest crushed to the point he couldn’t draw air. He shifted as he landed heavily on his back some fifty feet from the Alpha and the men of his sleuth.

He gasped in air, his bear rising shakily to stand on all four paws as the shift rapidly began healing his damaged ribs and lungs.

The Alpha charged him. He’d shifted, and the scarred bear towered several feet over him. “Are you forgetting we have the sleuth’s honor at stake here? They killed my brothers, your enforcers. They’ve taken one of our own, your brother.” He paused to snarl and growl.

“We are not here as a service to the fucking world. We’re here to show these shifters we rule them. They live or they die, at our hands, because we are better than them.”

“Yes, Alpha.” Leith was joined by the rest of the men as they all answered as required.

“Lead the way, Leith. You can tell us what you know as we run. I’m going to be watching you, boy. That Ruben and Trevor perished while you slithered away, has not escaped my notice.”

Leith turned toward the trees at the edge of the field and ran, his aching chest forgotten as his mind worked to find a way to live past tonight’s fight. When the cats were dead and Geordie was safely in his arms, Darnel Thwaites was going to tear him apart.

* * * *

The bears ran through the woods at the edge of town. Max Wilder remained unmoving and unseen, perched high up on the slender branches near the top of the spruce. He’d seen them land at the school’s sports field and had notified Cooper immediately.

“Are they moving into town?” Hunter asked. The town sheriff was on the roof of his station, watching over the sleepy town as the first rays of dawn began to lighten the horizon.

“No, they’re moving north at a fast pace. They’re not making any effort to conceal their presence.”

Max could feel the tree shaking as the bear’s heavy paws rocked the ground like a mini-earthquake.

“Follow them, but stay hidden. As soon as they’re clear of town we’ll follow.”

Max waited until the last of the bears had vanished into the trees before leaping down the tree to the thicker lower branches and remaining aloft to follow the bears.

“Cooper, there’s sixty-three bears coming your way fast. I’m following. If they split up I’ll let you know.”

Max ignored the chatter, concentrating on keeping a discreet distance from the attacking bears, and on staying hidden. They’d made the same mistake the wolves had when they’d come to Eminence looking for a fight. Cats are equally at home in the trees and they’d neglected to look up.

* * * *

“He’s no longer here. His blood is calling to me. We go north,” Alpha Darnel said.

In truth, the stink of Geordie’s blood was nauseatingly thick in the air. A human could probably have followed the stench. “You’d know best,” Leith said instead, ready to put his plan in place as soon as they reached the crossroads.

He’d decided he wanted to live the remainder of his life as a lone bear. He had skills the Alpha had honed over the last two centuries. He would live like a king, just not in the United States. Not anywhere Alpha Thwaites had ties.

“Alpha,” Leith said, slowing to a stop, his snout in the air as he sampled the wind. “Fuck it. I can smell the delicious scent of mate. The man who killed Marshall found his mate that day. What if they’re hiding Geordie with her, hoping to keep them both from us?”

He was so excited at the prospect of torturing Rayne Soames by slowly killing his mate, that he almost missed the Alpha’s massive paw as it swung at his head.

“I can scent your brother clearly, Leith. What are you planning?” Alpha Thwaites held him in his fiery stare, but Leith was well-practiced at telling half-truths. Lying without lying was his specialty.

“These cats are cunning, they proved this by killing your own brothers. I suspect the blood is north as you can clearly scent. I’m certain, however, that Geordie is east, hidden with the murderer and his mate while they draw us into a trap using his blood.”

The Alpha released Leith from his stare and lifted his snout, growling loudly in frustration. “I can’t scent anything to the east that hints of Geordie.”

“I feel him, Alpha. I feel his soul reaching to me, begging me to save him from the torture he’s enduring.” Leith was taking a gamble that the Alpha thought Leith’s relationship to his worthless brother was strong enough to make his excuse a possibility. He’d felt Marshall die, so it was possible it could happen.

“Francis, lead your squad east with Leith. Kill him if it looks like he’s pulling something. Make it quick, but painful, then join us.”

The Alpha left without looking back, taking the majority of the sleuth with him. Perfect. Now he hoped a few of the cats were guarding their little female. They could kill Francis and his squad while Leith killed this Rayne Soames. He decided, seeing as things were all going his way, that he’d keep the little bank manager for a while. She would be his reward for avenging Marshall and freeing himself of a death sentence.

“Move,” Francis said, his paw swiping at him with such force he was knocked off his feet.

He may help the cats kill this asshole.

* * * *

Trace stood at attention when Max’s voice broke the silence of the pride link.

“You have a group of twenty-two heading your way, Cooper,” Max said. “The rest are heading straight for you, Samson.”

“No chance of any hiding back in town?” Cooper asked.

“Not a chance,” Max said. “They’re about as stealthy as bulldozers.

“The town is clear,” Hunter said. “I’ve been to the playing field. The helicopters are empty. They’re all coming to you.”

“Tell me you disabled their means of escape?” Samson said dryly.

“Can a helicopter fly without any propellers?”

“No,” Wes and Troy answered together. “We get to keep them, don’t we?”

Trace felt ridiculous smiling as his cougar. Wes and Troy Pollock were unusual twins. Their bond so strong it appeared they shared the same brain sometimes. A brilliant brain that had amassed the two geeks more wealth than they could hope to spend in even a shifter’s lifetime. They’d also built an airfield in Eminence for the jet they owned and piloted.

“You fly helicopters, too?” Baylor asked.

“No, but how hard can it be?” Troy said.

“A bear just flew it. It must be easy,” Wes finished.

“Enough,” Cooper said. “Kill enough bears and they’re all yours.”

“Done,” the twins said.

Trace chuffed as he laughed at Cooper’s snarl of frustration, earning him a glare from their pride enforcer as he tried to coordinate their defense. Trace found himself liking this pride bond more and more. The men of the pride were strong, loyal and irreverent at times. Trace had had a lifetime’s worth of melancholy and despair. He liked living in the light again.

“Max, follow the main group. Lucas and Hunter will join you. Caine, come to us.”

“I’m a little disappointed all sixty-three aren’t coming here,” Baylor said. “I’m not sure they’ll be enough bears for me to kill.”

“They’ll be enough,” Cameron Harvey said. “Just don’t forget the old adage, ‘the bigger they are the harder they fall.’”

“Don’t be underneath one when it falls, though,” Ben Harvey added. “Landon nearly broke my spine the last time he fell on me.”

“They’re nervous,” Rayne said for Baylor and Trace alone to hear. “This is going to be a hard fight with a high chance of not everyone surviving it.”

“Keep Kenzie alive,” Trace said. “I can survive anything else, I’ve proven that.”

Trace felt the fine vibrations of the floor boards and he snarled. They were coming here because they thought Kenzie was here. They were going to find nothing but disappointment and their own deaths when they arrived.

Trace moved to the door and slipped outside, his body pressed low to the ground as dawn broke. For the first time in decades he embraced the prospect of living, and no one was going to take that from him. “I love you, Kenzie. And yes, your parents can come to both ceremonies.”

* * * *

Kenzie clutched at her head, her gasp of surprise bringing Amber and Jade to her side.

“Are you okay?” Amber said. “You’re very pale.”

“I heard…Trace just said…”

“You heard Trace?” Jade said, shooting a concerned look at Melanie.

Melanie handed a peeled banana to Matthew and kissed him. “Mommy will be right back, sweetie.” She was frowning when she joined them. “What’s happened? Have you felt one of your men get hurt?”

“No, not at all,” Kenzie said, feeling bad for worrying any of her friends. “Trace, I just heard Trace answer a question I asked hours ago.”

“That’s great,” Jade said. “I haven’t heard my men, but I hope to one day. Wes, Troy, and Asher can communicate even when they’re human. Barrett and I feel very left out.”

“What did he say?” Melanie asked, turning to wave at Matthew as he called for her.

“He said my parents can come to both ceremonies and that he loved me.”

The three women stared at her for a second and then they all squealed and hugged her. Melanie was actually jumping up and down.

“They already asked you to marry them? This is so exciting. We’ll have a huge wedding. We’re all going to be bridesmaids. We’re your sisters now. Connie, Kenzie is getting married. I’m calling Peata now, the others need to know.”

Kenzie smiled at Jade and Amber as they began to tell her what color dress she should have and what style would best accentuate her curves. Their men were about to face an army of goodness knew how many bears and her friends were planning a wedding.

“Congratulations,” Connie said. She hugged her, then held her at arm’s length until Kenzie met her gaze. “Live every day to the fullest and be happy, Kenzie. In a few hours, this will all be over and you can begin your new life with your mates.”

“Peata, Jordanna, Bethany, and Morgan all send their congratulations. We have a breakfast date on Saturday to begin planning the wedding,” Melanie said.

Fear and happiness warred again inside Kenzie. “My life is never going to be dull with three shifters as my mates.”

“I don’t expect it will,” Connie said. “Let them have this moment,” she said softly, looking at Melanie as she spoke animatedly on speaker phone to the mates in Jordanna’s safe room. “Believe me, we’re all terrified for our men, but we have to keep it buried deep inside. If we let it overwhelm or consume us, our mates will feel it and that distraction could cost them their lives.”

“So, you think happy thoughts and our mates only feel that?”

“We try,” Connie said, looking over at where Paul still lay on the bed. “We think of all the joy our mates have brought us, and let that fill our minds.”

“That’s easy to do, even after knowing them for only a couple of days. I’ve never known such happiness. They’re everything to me, now. It’s crazy.”

“It’s love in the shifter world,” Jade said, her and Amber running over to embrace her again. “Everything is bigger, wilder, faster.”

“Perfect,” Amber added.

“Perfect.” Kenzie pictured her men and sent them all her happiness, joy and love. She refused to dwell on her fear for them. She’d do what little she could to help them, even if was all in her head.

* * * *

Rayne’s mind filled with pure delight, leaving him feeling cleansed and alive once the sensation waned.

“Kenzie. She knows we can hear her.”

“My bad,” Trace said. “I just told her that her parents were welcome at both wedding ceremonies. She must have heard me.”

“Then, thank you, Trace,” Baylor said. “She’s very happy and she’s shared it with us. I love that woman.”

“They’re coming,” Cooper said through the pride link.

“I want to be with you,” Rayne said. “Both of you.”

“You hold our lives in your hands, Rayne,” Trace said. “Keep Kenzie safe. You have the most important job.”

“Not the hardest, though.”

Rayne looked around at the snow-covered trees. Dane, Wes, Hudson, and Chris were out here with him, the last line of defense for their mates inside the safe room. None of them would be wishing they were anywhere else, but none of them had Trace as a brother. A brother whose life had been a living hell until three short days ago.

Rayne let his cat snarl its frustration. He had been ready to walk away from Trace and Baylor for Kenzie, but he’d never imagined it would have been easy. Today’s assignment was proving just how painful it would have been.

Hudson’s soft yip had his cat snapping to attention. His mind no longer clouded with doubt or divided loyalties. Someone was coming for his mate.

* * * *

Calder saw them in the distance as they wound their way through the thick trees surrounding the Prentiss homestead. “Men. Human. Ten of them. Heavily armed. Rifles, side arms, and knives,” he said. “Six coming in from the north, four circling around to approach the house from the south.”

“We’re on the ones in the south,” his father, Tagan, said. He and his other father, Noah, were here protecting his mother, Neva, as well as Calder’s mate, Peata, and their cub, Lily.

“You have to be fucking kidding me?” Cooper said. “They must have rappelled down before the bears landed.”

Calder was already moving, jumping to the ground to intercept the men before they cleared the trees. They’d be easier to pick off one at a time that way.

“They’ve come armed with exact knowledge of the pride’s defenses and they are aiming to wipe us out,” Calder said, his mind filling with rage that anyone sought to harm his mate and cub.

“Sarah Webster told them everything,” Samson said in disgust. “Her friends are going to have to be dealt with. We can’t risk anything like this happening again.”

“We need to win this fight first, Samson. I’ll warn Dane he most likely has company coming,” Cooper said.

“They’re already here,” Rayne said coldly. “Same number, armed the same. And here I was thinking I’d be happily sitting this fight out while I finished my knitting.”

“Welcome home,” Calder said. “Eminence has been busy this past couple of years. This is just a normal day for us.”

“They are not getting our mates,” Rayne said. “Not while I’m still breathing.”

“Rowan, circle around and stop them spreading out. We want them contained. Anne and James. Stay inside the house, kill anything that comes inside that’s not a cougar.”

Calder knew nothing would get past Gabe, Drake, Caine, and Rowan’s parents. Not when their daughter-in-law, Jordanna, and their grandson, Elijah, were in the safe room, but he didn’t want them out in the open, either. Losing one of the pride was already too great a loss.

“Connell and Ben, kill anything on two legs.”

Ben had recently completed the soldier training with Samson, and Connell, Samson’s, Jason’s and Michael’s father, was one of the original pride soldiers, back when Theo had been Alpha. They were the strongest fighters Calder had here and Calder knew they’d go where they were needed most. They didn’t need him telling them what to do.

Calder moved back into the trees as he approached the man at the back of the group coming in from the north. The man was sweeping his rifle in arcs of a hundred and eighty degrees, then walking backward as he did the same to protect the group’s rear.

“They’re mercenaries,” Rayne said into the silence of the pride link. The fight had already begun at the ranger station and the Soames’ farm.

Calder had to agree, the man he was about to kill had had military training. “They haven’t fought cats before.” Calder shared that information before severing his link to the pride. He needed to focus.

He leapt, landing on the man’s back as he swung to face forward. His rifle discharged, cracking the silence of the morning and tolling the bell for this squad’s death.

Calder heard bones snap as his weight slammed the man into the icy ground. His claws dug into the flesh around his thick neck and he screamed. The scream was silenced instantly when Calder’s teeth sank into the back of the man’s neck and he tore out several vertebrae, effectively severing his spinal cord and ending his life.

Gunfire began, echoing around in the trees. Calder ignored it and went hunting his next victim as screams drowned out the gunfire. 

Chapter Sixteen

Baylor watched as Samson shifted back to human and conveyed the news of the invading forces to Finn. Baylor watched the Alpha control his rage, his mind working to best protect his pride, all of them, cougars, coyotes, and humans alike. Baylor had seen the way the pride functioned as a cohesive unit whose only aim was the safety of its members and their continued secrecy to further that aim.

“We were wrong, Rayne, to stay away and try to heal. The healing only began when we came home. Even before meeting Kenzie.”

“We were just existing before that,” Trace added. “We’re about to have company. Stay safe, brothers.”

“Back at you,” Rayne said. “Baylor, channel some of that rage you’ve been harboring for decades and kick some furry bear butt.”

Samson shifted back and Baylor focused his attention back on the tree line, the bears were close enough for him to scent them now. He snarled his impatience, this part was the hardest. Waiting for the battle to begin only left his mind free to think of all he had to lose now.

“The humans are aware of shifters,” Finn said. “They’ll be a liability to our race if they’re put in the human judicial system. They knew why they were coming here. They came to kill shifters, our mates, and our cubs. They die. Take no prisoners.”

As Samson conveyed the Alpha’s orders to the rest of the pride through their link, Baylor saw what that order had cost him and he didn’t envy him. Baylor had delivered enough deaths to the humans, and he’d hoped never to do it again. But the Alpha was right. They’d come to kill women and children. They deserved no more pity than the animals who’d tortured Trace.

A huge bear barreled into the clearing. It stood on its hind legs as it shook its head and roared. It was easily ten feet tall, its massive bulk topping five hundred pounds. Even in the early light of a still, icy morning, its eyes shone red.

“Die, fucker. No one touches our mates.” Baylor’s mind was then focused only on the cats around him and the bears spilling out of the trees behind their Alpha. Kill. Survive. Kill again. He ran into the fray, close on Samson’s heels.

* * * *

Rayne watched the men slide through the trees, a line of trained soldiers, who now sold their loyalties to the highest bidder. These mercenaries had chosen the wrong assignment. They moved well as a team, quiet for humans, but they were up against shifters and they were about to discover they were outmatched, even if they weren’t outnumbered.

As the men reached the tree line behind the Alpha’s home, the leader gave the signal for them to split up. Five men circled to the left, five to the right. Rayne dropped from his perch on a low branch and followed the group going left, watching as Hudson’s coyote moved soundlessly behind the group circling right.

They were intending to enter the large home’s front and rear doors simultaneously. They weren’t going to succeed. Dane Frederick waited until the groups were fifty yards apart before attacking the man in the rear, springing on the man from the roof of the barn.

Rayne heard the man’s neck snap in the silence of the still morning and sprang onto the back of the last mercenary in line. His front claws dug deep, meeting Kevlar, the claws of his hind legs anchored deep into the man’s calves. The man screamed and bucked beneath him, but Rayne’s weight easily held him pinned.

More screams filled the air. Rifles began to fire and fire spread down Rayne’s side. He was too exposed. Rayne gripped the man’s head between his jaws and jerked. The body beneath him stilled instantly and Rayne ran back into the thick trees. He stayed low to the ground as he searched for the man who’d shot him.

The man was a smoker and the scent of cigarettes clung to his clothes making him easy to find. Circling behind he found the man peering out from behind a tree, his rifle sight to his eye as he aimed at the spot where Rayne had been only seconds ago. The man was an idiot.

Rayne snarled, not out of uncontrollable rage, he simply wanted the man to turn so he could more easily rip his throat out. The rifle swung in an arc as the man turned. He shot wildly, his aim too high. Rayne leapt, pinning the man to the ground and tearing out his throat before he’d taken his next breath.

Leaving the man to gurgle as he bled out, he tasted the air and followed the strong scent of man, blood, and fear. He found Hudson. The coyote was pulling a bloody body out of the trees and into the Alpha’s back yard. He dropped it beside three other corpses, all bearing the same wounds to their throats.

“Get the man you killed. We need to do a body count. I don’t want any more surprises.”

Rayne followed Hudson’s orders. It was the right thing to do. These men coming after their mates was surprise enough for today.

By the time Rayne had dragged the second body out and dropped it beside the others, Wes, Dane, and Chris had joined them. Chris had been on the porch, the lack of any blood on his sleek golden coat announcing none of the attackers had made it that far.

They stood in silence, staring at the men who’d come to kill their mates and cubs. “Did they really think we’d leave our mates undefended?” Rayne said at last.

“Sarah was driven away by her jealousy and hatred of our mates,” Dane said. “She was blind to how precious they are to us.”

“She simply couldn’t understand the depth of the bond. That lack of understanding is directly responsible for Theo’s death, for all of this.”

Rayne understood the rage, the blind fury Chris was feeling. He’d been in the same position forty years ago when he’d thought he’d lost Trace. He and Baylor had torn the jungle apart looking for him. They’d recklessly killed the enemy in scores until they’d finally located him.

“We nearly lost Trace. I understand exactly how you’re feeling.” He’d lived each day ever since wondering if he’d lose Trace anyway, until Kenzie. Kenzie changed everything.

“If she weren’t already dead I’d have petitioned Finn to allow me to end her life. She was a woman, but she deserved to die for everything she’s caused.”

“Should we join in the fight at the ranger station or Rayne’s home now, Hudson?” Dane asked.

“No. These men made it into our territory and we can’t be certain more won’t come. This sleuth is set on our total annihilation, that much I’m sure of. We stay and guard our pride’s most precious possessions.”

Rayne knew that Hudson Stroud, Amber’s mate, had only joined the pride a few weeks before they’d come home, but that Dane had already deferred to the man was the correct decision. Hudson had fought with the ruthless calm of his beast and killed half of the attacking party single-handedly.

“Is any of that blood yours?” Wes Pollock, one of Jade’s mates, asked, nudging Hudson’s side with obvious affection. The brothers-in-law had bonded well, not just as pack mates. Their mates, and soon their cubs, would benefit from that camaraderie and added safety.

“Huh, so little faith. I’m insulted.” Hudson turned and resumed his post at the edge of the clearing. Rayne watched as the others quickly did the same. “We stay until Cooper tells us to do otherwise.”

Rayne’s side began to burn as his adrenaline dropped. The bullet was still in there, the metal irritating his ribs as he ran. The silence in the pride link was more irritating, though. He wanted to know that Trace and Baylor were alive, that this was over, and to tell them Kenzie was safe.

He leapt up into a spruce tree, climbing higher until the Alpha’s house and the surrounding outbuildings and paddocks were clearly visible.

Calder Wilder’s voice broke the silence five minutes later. “We have the situation here contained.”

Hudson replied for them, his tone equally icy. They fell back into silence as they all awaited news from either Cooper or Finn. Rayne ignored the ache in his side, the dripping of his blood the only sound as the sun rose above the treetops and bathed the dead bodies in pale winter light.

Senseless deaths by arrogant, greedy men was not confined to the human world. Shifters had started this carnage and his pride would see they didn’t live to repeat their reign of terror on any other towns, any other mates and cubs. They were barbarians.

* * * *

Leith caught the scent of female and abandoned the rest of his sleuth to the attacking cougars. He ran for the house. He would take her from the murderer Rayne Soames and have the man’s dying memory be watching a bear run off with his mate.

I’ll kill the man who took Marshall from me and leave the rest of the cats to die. Alpha Thwaites will have to mete out their punishment.

Leith howled in pain, his body collapsing under him as his spine snapped.

“You forgot to guard your thoughts, Leith.” Francis. He’d been too distracted by his thoughts of revenge and escape to watch his back. “Alpha Thwaites wishes you a pleasant trip to hell.”

Leith struggled to flee as Francis flipped him onto his back. His severed spinal cord had left his hind legs paralyzed. He swiped at Francis with his front claws, stretching his neck to try and bite the fucker as he snarled and stepped easily away.

Roars sounded around them as the battle raged on, but Leith’s vision was narrowed to include only the massive bear that snarled down at him.

Francis punched into his exposed abdomen with his claws fully extended. The blow was painful, but it was burning agony that had him howling blindly as Francis pulled out his intestines in a deliberately slow pull.

“Alpha Darnell said to tell you this is for running like a coward and letting his brothers die.”

Leith’s bear snarled and bellowed in pain as the sounds on the battle around him grew dimmer. He couldn’t move, couldn’t flee, couldn’t save himself.

I failed you, Marshall.

Leith felt his life draining from him as his body grew cold. He thrashed his head and roared in helpless agony until he had no strength left. The last sound he heard was the triumphant roar of the cougars.

* * * *

Trace had quickly learned that tackling an enraged bear head-on achieved nothing but his own blood loss. He’d only fought native bears before and these were a whole lot bigger, with claws more akin to machetes.

After botching his first attack and being sliced deeply down both sides before being tossed aside by the rampaging bear, he waited several seconds before throwing himself back into the fray.

Evan Harvey seemed to have the best strategy, so Trace joined Mason Reeder as the large coyote ran at the bear coming for him. Trace ran hard, ramming into the bear with all of his four-hundred-pound weight. The bear was knocked to the ground, his body rolling. As the bear threw its head back and roared, Mason bit into the thickly furred throat deep enough to sever its carotid.

Mason tore away flesh as the bear bellowed in pain and struggled to its feet. Mason’s gaze met Trace’s and they turned as one toward the bears running for the house. The ground shook as the bear they’d attacked finally collapsed. Trace didn’t lose focus as Mason repeated Trace’s action, knocking the closest bear to the ground by sliding into its legs.

Trace and Mason kept killing as a team, the howls and roars in his yard slowly dimming until all that could be heard was panting. Trace swung his head around wildly, looking for his next prey. His yard looked like a bizarre kind of killing field. The bears were huge, their black fur stark against the blood and snow-covered ground.

“Count them,” Cooper said harshly.

“There’s exactly twenty-three,” Asher Pollock said, he shook himself and blood flew from his coat to rain down on the growing pools of crimson around them.

“Whoever can’t make the twenty-minute run to the ranger station in fifteen stays here.” Cooper turned and ran, all seven of them ignoring their injuries and following right behind him.

* * * *

Baylor thought he was a vicious fighter. Then he saw Finn and Samson tear a bear in half, that was before Finn had even shifted.

As the bear he’d just killed twitched at his feet, Finn addressed the Alpha charging toward him. “This can end now if you choose it.”

“Noooo” Geordie screamed. He pulled against the steel rods, achieving nothing but more blood loss. “Look at how they treat bears.” His words faded as he gasped in obvious agony.

The Alpha of the sleuth rose on his hind legs and roared, the air rippling with the sound and his unleashed power. He was massive, tall, wide, and bat-shit crazy. His eyes burned red and he continued to roar, shaking his massive head from side to side as he seemed to lose himself to his rage.

When he dropped back onto all fours and ran straight at Finn, he was frothing at the mouth. Baylor could only wonder why the sleuth followed the insane monster.

Finn shifted, his massive cougar running straight at the other Alpha. Baylor was forced to look away as the trees around the clearing disgorged a wave of snarling bears. They’d been expecting forty, but their sheer bulk made it seem as though there was twice that number.

Samson and Cameron left the Alpha to Finn and ran to meet the nearest bear. It was powerful, its massive body running fast on all fours, its head raised in a roar. Baylor watched as Cameron Harvey ran toward it, sliding onto his belly at the last minute and then flipping to his back as his momentum carried him forward under the bear’s body.

Its roar turned to a screech of pain as it staggered forward, blood streaming onto the snow beneath it. Samson knocked the bear to the ground with a swipe of his paw across the bear’s side. One bite to the throat and the bear shuddered as it died. Samson shook the blood from his face and followed Cameron into the mass of bears.

Baylor ran at the nearest bear, it reared up on its hind legs, swiping at Baylor with its long, sickle-shaped claws. Baylor dodged the blow, snarling as he spun back to face the bear. Jason Reed had run in behind the distracted bear, and in a smooth leap, landed on its back, knocking it back onto all fours as it spun, attempting to dislodge the four-hundred-pound cougar.

Baylor saw his chance and ran forward, jaws as wide as he could open them and latched on to the bear’s throat. Wrapping his paws around its head and neck he bit deeper and swung his head to the side.

Warm blood flooded his mouth as the huge monster collapsed on top of him. Baylor’s breath whooshed from his lungs as the combined weight of the bear and Jason crushed him.

He bucked and twisted, sliding free of the body as only a cat could. He shook his head and blinked the blood from his eyes. Jason was snarling at a bear as it circled him, rising to its full height in an effort to look more threatening. Baylor knew exactly what to do. He ran at the bear, leaping onto its back. Jason did the rest.

Baylor and Jason had killed five bears as a team, and the clearing was still overflowing with the attacking force. Dylan Stroud’s coyote was massive, fast, and deadly as he ran through the clearing, helping to tear at the vulnerable abdomen, or exposed throat, of any bear the cougars were fighting. Even with his help, they were hopelessly outnumbered and the bears were beginning to learn. They’d started to fight in teams.

Two bears, coming in from opposite directions had nearly torn Baylor in half. Dylan had saved him when he’d crippled one of them by severing its hamstring with a well-aimed bite. The bear had dropped him when it fell, giving Barrett Pollock the opportunity to slice open its throat with his claws.

Six bears surrounded him and Jason. A brief glance around and he saw more bears doing the same as they isolated each of the killing pairs the pride had formed. They’d reduced the number of the sleuth, but not enough to win the fight.

Baylor looked at Jason and their gazes locked briefly as they acknowledged the inevitable. They both snarled. They would die fighting. Baylor took a deep breath, almost choking on the scent of blood, and ran at the closest bear.

The bear stumbled, falling at his feet with his neck conveniently exposed. Baylor bit into the tough hide, pushing his teeth through the tough muscles and ligaments before reaching the blood vessels they protected. He dug his claws into the bloody snow for purchase and pulled. The bear was gurgling frothy blood as Baylor spat out the flesh and looked at the cougar standing on the bear’s back.

“You look like shit,” Trace said to him alone. He then took off, running toward one of the circling bears, a coyote on his heels.

Suddenly the odds were a lot better. Cooper, Evan, Drake, Asher, Michael, and Troy joined Trace and Mason, throwing themselves at the bears and breaking apart their newly formed groups.

It felt like hours later that Baylor limped toward Trace. All the bears were dead, or dying, and he was exhausted, bloody, and jubilant. He nudged his brother, but Trace ignored him, his body tense, his attention fixed on something ahead.

When Baylor moved to stand beside Trace, he saw what had captured his brother’s full attention. Finn. Coyote’s and cougars made their way toward their Alpha, forming a circle around him. Once they were all assembled, Finn finally asked the burning question that haunted them all.

“Status.”

“We have a pile of human corpses,” Hudson reported.

“The same to report here,” Calder said. “They didn’t get close to our mates and cubs.”

Finn looked around, his gaze drifting over each of Cooper’s team and then his own. There was no one who was uninjured. Once assured everyone in his pride was alive, Finn shifted back to human.

Baylor could feel the entire pride in his mind, the silence heavy as everyone shared the fact the fight was not only over, it was won.

There was a bear on the ground beside Finn, its massive body shuddered as it drew in gasping breaths. The scarred snout and his sheer size identified him as the Alpha of the bear sleuth. Baylor thought Finn had already killed him. This was better. He’d lived to see his sleuth defeated. Finn was proving he was equally as ruthless as the bear Alpha, just not insane.

“You sent your men here looking to take our money, when that failed you came seeking vengeance for a situation of your own making.” Finn snarled, low and deadly as blood still ran from his numerous healing wounds. “You could have approached me to seek the release of your”—Finn cast a derisive look at the bear still impaled on the tree. A bear that looked a whole lot less arrogant as he hung limply, his lowered gaze fixed on his dying Alpha—“man. Instead, you came here thinking us weak, thinking we would not safeguard that which you hold no regard for—the lives of every shifter under my protection. Your lover has told us how you kill indiscriminately and for no purpose other than greed or power. You also wantonly risk the exposure of our existence. Notwithstanding the loss of my father, you are owed death for that fact alone.”

The bear made an attempt to rise, his massive limbs shaking as blood ran from his snout. Baylor and the assembled pride all took a step forward. Finn held up his hand to stop them.

“Shift if you wish to die as a man. I don’t care either way. You will die by my hand as soon as you see the last of your sleuth punished for what you have all done.”

Finn’s hand remained raised, keeping them all stationary as the bear Alpha finally managed to stand. His roar of anger at Finn’s words sounded more like a cub mewing, despite the fire in his eyes.

“Cooper.” With that one word, their enforcer stepped away from Finn’s side, his entire body vibrating with rage as he approached the prisoner.

“Darnel,” Geordie screeched. “You have to stop this. We can start again. You can’t let them kill me. You love me. We’re better than cats. We’ve proved that time and—”

The Alpha whimpered as Cooper leapt at the man, ending his life far too mercifully, in Baylor’s opinion, with a single swipe of his claws. Geordie’s head wobbled once before toppling to the side, his eyes fixed in a look of surprise. Geordie’s head had almost been severed. It swung in the rising wind, attached only by a remaining strip of skin and muscle.

“You don’t deserve to die as a bear,” Finn said, stalking closer to the bear with each word. “But I have a father to bury.”

The bear managed a weak growl, his lips pulling back to reveal long, blood-stained teeth. Finn ignored the useless attempt at a threat, gripped the man’s head, and twisted sharply.

The cracking of his neck snapping echoed through the clearing. The sound signaling a poignant ending to the sleuth’s reign of terror on the shifter and human world alike. If the bears had won the day, the deaths they’d have dealt to any survivors and the pride’s human mates would not have been as merciful.

“He got off lightly,” Baylor said to Trace and Rayne alone.

“He lived to see his men die, his plan’s thwarted. That’s enough of a punishment for me,” Trace replied.

“He’s dead,” Rayne said. “They’re all dead and Kenzie is safe from the twisted form of retaliation she’d been marked for. I’m happy with that. Are you both going to live?”

“We managed to live without you, for what, an hour?” Trace said.

“We’ll live,” Baylor said, knowing that Rayne had hated not being with them after watching their backs for so long. “You?”

“Barely a scratch.”

“Go get our mate, hug her for us,” Baylor said. “I’m going to try and reach her through our link and tell her I love her.”

“You’re going to be a good mate,” Rayne said.

“I don’t know what I was doing, thinking I could walk away from her. I was an idiot. She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever known and she was mine from the minute she saw us in the street that night. It just took me a long time to accept that fact.”

Trace nudged him in the side. “You don’t think fate was wrong giving us a tiny human for our mate?”

“Hell no. I’m never doubting fate again.”

Baylor was snapped out of their private conversation as Cooper and Finn gave them their assignments for the clean-up and disposal of the dead bears and humans. He knew it would be hours before he’d be holding Kenzie in his arms, a fact only made tolerable by the fact his precious mate had been able to link to them through their mating bond. He’d take full advantage of her genius and fill her mind with his love for her, and with images of what he intended to do to her when they were finally together again.

Chapter Seventeen

“It’s over,” Rayne said, shifting back to human.

“Asher has some broken bones,” Wes said. “He won’t be able to shift until Jason’s had a chance to look at him. He said he’s not the most seriously injured of the pride.”

As the rest of them shifted and made their way back to their discarded clothes, Wes gave Hudson a sympathetic smile.

“Which one of my brothers is hurt?” Hudson’s tone was clipped, his eyes glowing bright red with his coyote’s anger.

“He didn’t want you told, but Asher thinks you should get over there, regardless.”

“Who?” Hudson’s howl split the morning air as he shifted back to his coyote. He tensed and snarled his impatience as he waited for Wes to finish.

“Dylan isn’t doing so good. Jason and Lucas are working on him first.”

Hudson disappeared into the trees. Rayne uttered a silent prayer. “Anyone else in a bad way?”

“Asher says it’s hard to tell. Everyone is covered in blood.”

Rayne winced, his side throbbing badly. “It’s going to be a while before Jason has the chance to take out the bullet in my side. Anyone want to dig it out for me?”

Dane smiled, but shook his head. “More than my life’s worth to mess with a bullet wound. Jason would be extremely annoyed.”

“Not if no one tells him.” Rayne used his shirt to mop up the blood still flowing from the wound. “Anyone?” Dane, Wes, and Chris just shook their heads as they all ran up the Alpha’s front steps to go and get their mates.

Kenzie was going to worry about him, but he wouldn’t be lying when he told her he’d heal. He was more concerned with what he’d tell Amber about Dylan. She wouldn’t even have Hudson here with her to make things easier.

* * * *

Calder shifted back the second the second he’d reported to the Alpha that they had no casualties. He ran up the front steps, Rowan on his heels. “I’m going to hold Peata and Lily for a few minutes, then we can deal with the bodies.”

“I say we tell them to stay in the safe room until all the bodies are gone,” Rowan said. “Jordanna’s blindness might spare her from seeing what we had to do to protect them, but the others shouldn’t have to see it.”

“I’m scared that one day the brutality of our world will change how Peata feels about me,” Calder admitted.

“Then you don’t see the way she looks at you, Calder. She’s never going to stop loving you.”

Calder just grunted, pushing his worries aside for now and accepting Rowan’s reassurance. He didn’t need to borrow trouble, enough seemed to find its way to Eminence all on its own.

* * * *

Kenzie couldn’t stop pacing, despite knowing her men were all alive. She wanted to see them, touch them, assure herself they were in one piece.

“Cooper is being an ass,” Melanie said, tugging her hair away from her face and pushing it behind her ears. “He won’t tell me if he’s injured, or what condition Finn or Hunter are in. They fought bears. I need details, knowing they’re alive isn’t enough information for me.”

Kenzie ran to Melanie and hugged her. “I feel exactly the same. They have all told me they loved me fifty times and not to worry, but that just makes me worry more.”

“We all feel the same,” Jade said. “At least the two of you were able to find out for us that everyone is alive.”

“Ask Baylor, Rayne, and Trace,” Amber said, coming to put an arm around both Melanie and Kenzie. “Tell them that I’m crying, that I’m having stomach cramps because I’m certain my men are badly hurt and everyone is scared to tell me.”

Melanie’s eyes lit up as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “You’re brilliant, Amber. Devious and manipulative, I love you. I’ll get Jordanna and Peata to do the same. Between us, we should be able to find out how battered all our mates are.”

Kenzie loved these women. Their friendship had blossomed when she’d met her mates, and now, sharing this whole horrible experience, Kenzie knew she was bound to them forever. They really were family to her now. Sisters.

“I love it,” Kenzie said. “Give me a second.”

As Melanie talked to Peata, Kenzie centered her mind on Baylor. It was more difficult now she wasn’t so scared they might be killed any minute, but she finally did it. His laughter filled her mind as she’d attempted to say Amber was crying and in pain.

“Nice try. You can’t lie to your mate, angel. What are you up to?”

“Damn,” Kenzie said, her teeth grinding together.

“We forgot about that part,” Melanie said.

“I’m sorry, Baylor. We’re all going crazy being cooped up here, knowing you all have to be hurt, but aren’t telling us exactly how bad.”

Baylor was quiet for a long moment, then he surprised her. “I’d be killing mad if I knew you were hurt and everyone refused to tell me what had happened to you. I’m sorry, Kenzie. Our trying not to worry you has made all of you even more concerned than you need to be.”

Kenzie’s mouth had dropped open as Baylor spoke to her. She snapped it shut. “Have you got a head injury? You don’t sound like Baylor.”

Baylor’s laugh again filled her mind and it eased some of her fear. “What can I say? You bring out a side of me I didn’t know existed.”

“It’s a beautiful side, a magnificent side, and it’s made the impossible happen. I now love you even more.”

“My Kenzie. What do you want to know?”

As Baylor told Kenzie what he could see of the other men’s injuries, she relayed it to Jade, Amber, and Melanie. Melanie then told Peata what Baylor was saying as Peata and Jordanna had also failed to lie to their mates.

Amber put on a brave face when told that Dylan was unconscious, and that Jason and Lucas were tending to him.

“He’s strong and Jason is brilliant,” Amber said. “I want to get out of here. I need to see him.”

“Dane is coming. We’ll take you to Dylan, Amber.” Amber nodded as Jade hugged her.

“Thank you, Baylor, and I’m sorry you’re hurting. Are the cuts really almost healed?”

“They are. They’ll be healed fully by tonight. I miss you.”

Kenzie blushed scarlet as Baylor then managed to fill her mind with his feelings of lust. Kenzie was embarrassed to feel so needy and aroused around her friends. She was at the refrigerator, holding a bottle of icy cold water against her forehead when she heard the lock to the safe room door disengage.

Tears of relief filled and overflowed Kenzie’s eyes as the door swung open. It’s over, really over.

Dane was first through the door. He hugged Melanie and then they both went to check on his mother and father.

Wes came in next, hugging both Jade and Amber and quickly taking both women out of the room.

Kenzie inhaled sharply before launching into a run. Rayne was pale and bloody, a huge smile on his face as he held out his arms to her.

“You’re bleeding. Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt? We need to get you to—”

Rayne pulled her into his strong arms, his mouth pressing gently over hers. “All I need is you, sweetheart.” He deepened the kiss and despite Kenzie trying to hold herself away from him, he pulled her closer, moaning as she opened her mouth to his demanding tongue.

Kenzie wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tight as she savored Rayne’s rich, decadent taste. When he slowly weaned his lips from hers, she released her hold on his neck and stepped back, taking the blood-soaked shirt from his hand.

“Show me where.” He twisted his torso and blood welled and oozed from a small hole in his side. “Baylor said he’s already healing from his wounds. Why aren’t you?”

“I’ll heal quickly once the bullet’s removed.”

Kenzie tried not to show her distress. She knew Jason was with a seriously injured Dylan, so she wouldn’t even suggest they seek his help. “Aren’t Jordanna’s mates paramedics?”

Rayne nodded and smiled at her. “Then let’s find one of them, shall we?”

* * * *

Trace and Baylor worked at collecting the bears, but his attention was really on Jason and Lucas as they tended to an unconscious Dylan. Mason—Dylan, Lucas, and Hudson’s adoptive brother—stood to the side watching, his expression grim. It was difficult to be elated at having survived the most brutal attack he’d ever experienced as a shifter, while one of their own was still fighting for their life.

The sound of heavy vehicles drawing close had everyone tensing. They didn’t need humans happening on the clearing behind the abandoned ranger station and finding a group of half-dressed, bloody men piling up the bodies of abnormally enormous bears.

“Max’s fathers, Tagan and Noah, are bringing their largest horse transports to move the bodies to the gorge,” Finn said. “Gabe’s father, James, is doing the same at your ranch, Trace and Baylor.”

“What the hell will you do with them once they’re all there?” Trace asked, shaking his head as he envisaged the sheer number of bear and human bodies the pride had to dispose of.

“I have a friend who’s very good at burning things,” Finn said slyly. “They’ll be nothing but ash in a matter of minutes.”

Trace must have shown his disbelief as Samson clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s true, Brody is a powerful creature and we’re very blessed to have him as our ally.”

“And our friend,” Finn added.

Trace exchanged a troubled look with Baylor.

“I’m ready to move Dylan.” Jason waved to Michael. “Bring the truck as close as you can.”

“What do you want done with the other casualties?” Finn asked. “Do you need Charlie to come from Pine Falls?”

“I think Gabe and Lucas will be able to triage and treat anyone whose injuries aren’t going to heal without treatment. I won’t call her unless I think someone can’t wait for me to finish with Dylan.”

Hudson’s coyote was a blur as it ran into the clearing. He shifted the instant he was beside his brothers.

“He’s alive,” Mason said, throwing his arm around Hudson. “Amber?”

“No one got near her.” Hudson’s normally surly expression slipped into one of sheer panic. “Shit, I left her there at Finn’s. I didn’t think. I just ran as soon as Wes told me Dylan was hurt.”

It was Asher Pollock, his brother-in-law, that embraced Hudson next. “Wes and Jade are bringing Amber and meeting us at Jason’s. Come on, help us lift Dylan into Michael’s truck, you know he weighs a ton.”

Everyone in the clearing stopped what they were doing and watched as Dylan’s coyote was carefully placed in the bed of Michael’s truck.

Finn took charge again as Michael drove away. “Anyone who needs medical treatment should go to Jason’s. Gabe will treat your wounds and assess if you need to see Jason. Cooper, take your team back to the Soames farm and load the bodies there. I’ll contact Calder and Dane and have them bring the dead mercenaries.”

Trace looked at Baylor’s healing cuts and then down at his own rapidly healing ones. “I guess we have to wait a little longer to see our mate.”

“We’re lucky,” Baylor said. “If you hadn’t come when you did we…”

“We’re lucky to have such a strong pride. Finn is a good Alpha. We should have come home years ago. I’m sorry, Baylor.”

Baylor smiled, a genuine smile that Trace hadn’t seen since before their tour in Vietnam. “Then we’d have been here when Kenzie was still a damned child. It would have been torture waiting for her to grow up.”

“I know you think you failed me, Baylor.”

Trace had tried for decades to have this conversation with Baylor, but his brother had always refused to listen. Baylor would sever their telepathic connection and disappear for days. Trace knew he’d remained close, by his scent, but he stayed away until he was sure Trace wasn’t going to bring up the painful topic again.

“You didn’t fail me. I’d dragged myself through so much swamp searching for that shithole of a prison that even Axel and Calder wouldn’t have been able to follow the trail. You saved me. Not just because you and Rayne managed to actually find me in that jungle, but because you kept me alive for all these years. Kept me alive when you knew I only wanted to die. Your tenacity has given us both our lives back. We have a mate now.”

“I’ve been so angry for so long,” Baylor said. “I hated what they did to you, but I hated more that each day we failed to find you had allowed them to inflict more torture.”

“You weren’t sitting on a beach sipping Mai-tai’s, were you?” Baylor snorted as he barked out a laugh. It was music to Trace’s ears.

“I guess I see your point. Rayne and I didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, didn’t rest for a single minute of those two weeks. We were half-dead when we ran into that camp to get you.”

“Can you accept my thanks now?”

Baylor nodded, his eyes glowing amber as his emotions swelled. “You’re welcome, Trace.”

* * * *

Dane had received word that the pride was to meet at the Reed compound when everyone had finished their appointed tasks and collected their mates. As Rayne was injured, Kenzie had insisted on driving. Acquiescing to her demand had calmed her, and allowed her to feel she was helping him. It also meant he got to stare at her for the entire ten-minute drive, something he knew he would never tire of.

“You’re so beautiful you take my breath away,” Rayne said, holding Kenzie’s hands as Gabriel Prentiss pulled the bullet free of the muscle it was lodged in. She seemed to be in more pain than he was as she watched Gabriel work. “It honestly doesn’t hurt that much, sweetheart.”

“I suggest you shift for a few hours,” Gabe said. “But if you’re as stubborn as the rest of the pride, you’ll ignore me and do whatever the hell you want. I can see now why Jason’s always in a bad mood.”

“Why would we shift when holding our mates is all we want to do?” Barrett said. Rayne was surprised, considering the sheer number of bears the pride had fought, that only he and Barrett were here for Gabe to treat.

“Thanks, Gabe,” Rayne said, kissing Kenzie’s neck and enjoying the shudder that ran through her body. “I’ll do it as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course you will.” He pulled off his gloves with a snap and pulled on a new pair as he moved down the kitchen table to examine a bleeding wound on Barrett Pollock’s back. “Is that a bear’s tooth or claw in there?”

“Not sure,” Barrett said, a smile on his face as he stared into Jade’s eyes. “Could be either. I just know the wound won’t close until you yank it out for me. I’d do it myself, but I can’t reach it.”

“You’re all crazy,” Kenzie said, “You do realize that?”

“They have no idea,” Jade said, kissing Barrett’s cheek.

Bethany and Kenzie took on the task of supplying all the members of the pride with sweet tea as they arrived. Soon Melanie, Peata, Jordanna, and Morgan arrived with their mates, and they all busied themselves making sandwiches, as well.

Trace and Baylor were last to arrive, a fact that was driving Kenzie crazy, but Rayne took as a good sign. It meant they were relatively uninjured or one of the others would have sent them in sooner.

They walked in behind Cooper and Finn, their faces pale, their expressions stunned.

“Jesus,” Rayne said, moving quickly to his brothers and running his gaze over them searching for major wounds. “You both look awful. Why the hell didn’t you come sooner? Where are you hurt?”

“They’re not hurt,” said a small blond man. He walked into the kitchen, a seven-foot-tall stranger at his back. “They’re just a little overwhelmed.”

The scent of bear filled Rayne’s senses. He shifted without thinking, his clothes shredding as he snarled at the two strangers, preparing to attack them.

“You might want to take a few steps away from Brody,” Cooper said calmly.

“Do it or die,” the tall stranger said. He picked up the smaller man with one arm and stepped closer to Rayne. His eyes glowed red fire, his canine’s stretching and curving. Bear. Rayne’s hackle’s rose as he backed toward Kenzie.

“Rayne, stop,” Finn’s command rang out. He stepped out from behind the bear and despite his confusion, Rayne was still impressed by the bear’s sheer size.

“Finn, Cooper,” Melanie squealed. “Brody, Landon.” She pushed past him and ran into Finn’s arms.

Rayne relaxed his stance. Finn would have torn the bear apart if he posed a threat to his mate, not leaned closer so she could embrace both him and the small man named Brody.

“Don’t even think of shifting back in here, buddy.” The bear growled at Rayne to emphasize his point. “We came here to help, I won’t have my mate subjected to threats.”

“Or seeing your bare ass,” Finn said. “A point I agree with Landon on. Come back when you’re decent and we’ll introduce you to our friends from Pine Falls.”

Rayne was back in under fifteen seconds, not fully trusting his mate to strangers, not while Trace and Baylor looked to be in no state to protect her.

“Rayne, this is Brody York and his mate Landon Damarin.” Finn raised an eyebrow at Rayne and he stretched out his hand in welcome immediately.

“Rayne Soames. I think you’ve already met my brothers Trace and Baylor.”

Landon shook his hand and Rayne winced as his bones ground together. “I’m sorry for my threatening behavior toward you and your mate. After today, the scent of bear made me act rashly.”

Landon’s grip relaxed, but he still eyed him warily. “Understandable, I suppose.”

Rayne stepped back, not risking his life by attempting to shake Brody’s hand. “Hello,” he said instead, tipping his head in welcome.

“Hi. I think your brothers might need something sweet to drink. They still look to be a little dazed.”

Rayne looked to his brothers for an explanation, but both of them paled further and shook their heads.

“Everyone is here, Finn,” Cooper said.

Finn nodded and nuzzled Melanie’s neck before setting her on her feet. “We’ll go home in a minute, sweetness. I have a few things to say first.”

Finn stepped out the kitchen door, and Rayne joined the rest of the men and their mates as they somberly followed the Alpha. The entire pride was soon gathered in the compound.

Rayne took Kenzie’s offered hand and was shocked at how cold it was. “Kenzie, what’s wrong?”

“I’m suddenly so tired. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re in shock,” Trace said, cupping Kenzie’s pale face in his hands.

“We’ll be home soon and get you in a warm bath. Then you can sleep,” Baylor said. “We all can.”

Rayne glanced at Trace, knowing he feared hurting Kenzie in his sleep. Trace smiled at Kenzie and then at Rayne. “That sounds great.”

Rayne seemed to have missed a lot in the few hours he’d been separated from his brothers. He would find out everything before they arrived home. His cat was prickly as hell feeling so uninformed. It just didn’t feel right after the three of them being joined at the hip for four decades.

“Thank you all for coming,” Finn said. “I’ll keep this brief. We all have injuries we need to recover from and mates we need to hold.” The Alpha smiled at Melanie despite his melancholy expression.

“We showed our true strength as a pride today as we fought against a foe that bested us in numbers and muscle. We train and we fight for a common goal, the safety of our mates and cubs. We are bound together as a pride by our love, our loyalty, and mutual respect, not fear. We’re a peaceful pride, but not a helpless one. I abhor the need for bloodshed, but won’t allow my pride to be threatened and slaughtered.”

Rayne looked at Trace and Baylor and found it hard to contain his emotions. He’d come home to finalize his parent’s affairs, and had hoped they’d enjoy the comradery of being amongst their pride again and want to stay. He’d been given all that he’d hoped for and more. They were home, they had a mate, and his brothers had returned to the land of the living.

“Tonight, we celebrate life,” Finn continued. “Tomorrow, we’ll gather at the pride’s memorial ground at dawn and mourn the loss of my father Theo. Then I will be sending a contingent to Flathead National Park in Montana. Samson will be leading the group, and Wes will be flying the helicopter.” Finn looked at Wes.

“I’ll know how to fly it by then.”

“We need to make sure there will be no repercussions from the remaining members of the sleuth.” Finn looked at Landon and Brody who stood beside him. “Landon and his brother, Elliot, have agreed to accompany Samson. Thank you, Landon. Your presence will hopefully negate the need for further bloodshed. If not…”

“If not, then I’ll toast their asses before they lay a claw on my mates or any of your pride,” Brody said.

When nobody laughed at the idea of the small man taking on a sleuth of angry bears, Rayne glanced at Trace and Baylor.

“He just had to say toast,” Trace whispered with a moan.

“I know,” Baylor said, shuddering.

“Thank you, my friend,” Finn said with a warm smile. “Until tomorrow.”

Rayne picked Kenzie up as the pride said their farewells and took their mates home. “I can’t believe we have you all to ourselves at last.”

“At last?” Kenzie smiled. “Didn’t we only meet three days ago?”

“Does it feel like three days?”

“No, it feels like three hours and forever, all at once. So much has happened my head is still spinning.” She reached up and stroked his cheek. “Then there’s my three mates.”

“Three fiancés,” Baylor corrected.

“Even that doesn’t feel strange, when my mind tells me it should.”

“You’re ours. You were born to be ours,” Trace said. “That’s why it feels right.”

“You knew you were ours before we did,” Rayne said. He stopped walking and started to laugh.

“Why is that funny?” Kenzie asked, frowning up at him.

“It’s not, sweetheart. I was just wondering what the hell we were doing. Our truck was destroyed.”

* * * *

Kenzie woke, surprised to find she was lying down. She recalled Asher Pollock driving them all home, but couldn’t remember ever getting to the men’s home. She was warm, and naked, with an equally naked body on either side of her. Their deep, steady breathing told her they were asleep.

She blinked several times and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness was able to see that Baylor was on her right, Trace on her left. Trace’s face was tense, his body restless. He groaned softly and she could see his eyes moving rapidly under his closed lids. He wasn’t having a good dream. He was in the grip of one of his nightmares.

He tossed his head to the side, a low growl rumbling from his throat. The whole bed vibrated with the menacing sound and the hairs rose on the back of Kenzie’s neck. She felt Baylor stir beside her, his arm snaking over her waist and pulling her back against his tense frame. Away from Trace.

She had a decision to make. She’d already committed to spend forever with these men, agreed to mate and marry them. How did she intend to deal with Trace’s pain? Pull away and let him deal with it as he always did, alone?

“Shh…” Kenzie soothed. Reaching out, she smoothed her hand down Trace’s chest, feeling the ridged scars that were not clearly visible in the dim light. He tensed, his growl growing louder.

“Come away,” Baylor breathed into her ear, his voice the faintest whisper as he tightened his hold on her.

“He’s my mate.” She gripped Baylor’s arm and tried to tug it away. It was useless, his thick muscles rippled as he continued to slowly ease her from the bed.

“Let her try,” Rayne said softly. “God knows nothing we’ve tried has ever helped him.”

She turned to see Rayne standing by the bedside, his magnificent body backlit by the moon’s dim light shining through the open drapes.

Baylor slowly eased his hold and reluctantly released her with a hissed warning. “He’ll never forgive himself if he hurts her again.”

Kenzie wriggled back toward Trace, unsure what was the right thing to do. “I don’t know how to help you, Trace. I only know I hate seeing you in pain.” She pressed the full length of her body to his side, wrapping her arm across his abdomen. He was massive, six-feet-eight of rigid muscle as he again tensed.

“I know I love you, Trace, and I don’t want you to go back to that horrible place, even in your dreams. We need to make new memories, better ones, then you can dream of them instead. You haven’t had the chance to do that since Rayne and Baylor saved you. We can now.”

Trace’s body relaxed as she spoke. He shuddered and took a deep breath. “What sort of dreams will you make for me, Kenzie?” Baylor pressed to her back and kissed her shoulder.

“We will make love, the three of us together, often. With our bodies and hearts joined as one, our bond will grow stronger.” She felt Baylor’s cock fill and harden as it pressed against her ass. She took a deep breath, ignoring the aching need growing inside her.

“We will be together every night, every weekend, talking and laughing as we share our pasts and plan our future. I’ll fall pregnant one day and we’ll love our baby from the moment it’s conceived. We’ll be so happy the entire world will feel our joy.”

“I want those dreams, my Kenzie.” Trace opened his eyes and rolled to face her, cupping her cheek with his hand. “I want that life. I want to live again, all because I have you.”

“Then let’s start now,” Kenzie said, her voice husky as emotions clogged her throat. “I need you, Trace. I need you all.”

Trace smiled and the shadows left his eyes. They sparkled with joy. With love. With desire. He was back with her, his demons banished for the night at least. She’d take that for now. She hoped she could give him what she’d promised, something better to dream of. She’d try forever to keep that smile on his face, his demon’s banished.

Trace’s lips pressed to hers and she closed her eyes and drank him in. He kissed her deeply, his tongue sweeping into her mouth as he rolled her to her back. The bed dipped as Rayne joined them.

“You’re our miracle,” he said, his hands smoothing up her thighs as he parted her legs to lay between them. His breath teased her as it washed over her damp folds and engorged clitoris.

She was desperate for him to touch her. She wanted his mouth on her, licking, sucking. She ached, her pussy throbbed and clenched. She pulled from Trace’s lips. “Rayne, please.”

Trace kissed down her neck, kneeling beside her and taking both breasts in his hands, kneading then and rubbing his thumb over her nipples. They hardened under his touch, pleasure streaking through her. “Trace.”

“You’ll scream my name, too,” Baylor said. He leaned over and kissed her, nipping at her lower lip. “When I make you come, my cock will be buried deep in your ass.”

Kenzie was writhing now, their gentle touches not enough. She reached out and took both Trace’s and Baylor’s cocks in her hands, needing them as desperate as she was. She stroked them gently as they hissed, the silky-soft skin sliding over the stiff flesh beneath.

Rayne’s lips closed over her throbbing clit, his finger circling her entrance. She pushed wantonly against his mouth and finger, her pussy aching to be filled.

“You taste so sweet,” Rayne said. He circled her clit with his tongue and then growled. Kenzie exploded, the vibrations rocketing her to an intense orgasm.

* * * *

Trace stared down at his mate as she thrashed and moaned with pleasure. This was a memory he would love to dream of. She was a vision as she came. Her voice had broken into his nightmare and pulled him back to reality. Her words had filled him with hope. “This is definitely something to dream about.”

Kenzie’s eyes popped open, her breathing ragged as she smiled at him. “I have another image for you then.” She seemed a little shaky as they helped her to kneel on the bed. “I want to taste you.”

Trace’s cock nearly exploded at the mental image alone. Kenzie’s pink, kiss-swollen lips wrapped around him. “Fuck.” Kenzie gripped his face and pulled him to her lips. He wrapped her in his arms, careful to hold her gently, her tiny body so fragile as it leaned against him.

Fragile she was not, though. His woman was strong and courageous, her heart enormous. She was perfect.

Kenzie broke their kiss, smoothing her hands down his chest. She followed the path of her hands with her mouth, kissing each scar, each burn. “You survived. You can’t ever go back there. You’re mine and I won’t ever let you go.”

She stroked her hand over his cock and licked up his length. Her tongue was wet, hot, and delicate, teasing him and making his toes dig into the bed as he staved off his orgasm.

“Sweet, and tangy,” she mumbled, licking up his pre-cum and moaning at the taste.

“You’re making one hell of a memory for all of us,” Baylor husked, clearing his throat. “I’m about to come, Kenzie. I promised to do that inside your ass, and I never break a promise.”

“I need you all,” Kenzie said, her pupils so dilated her eyes appeared black.

“Come here, sweetheart,” Rayne said, growling as his hands circled her waist and he pulled her on top of him, his cock sliding deep inside her wet pussy. They both moaned and Trace had to grip the base of his cock. He was on the edge, but he wanted his memory to be of him coming in her mouth. He needed it.

Baylor disappeared, but returned a second later, an open tube of lubricant in his hand. Kenzie lowered her head to kiss Rayne, her ass rising and falling as she rode Rayne. Trace moved to kneel by her side, his cock still pinched at the base.

“I need to prepare you, honey. This will be a little cold and then it will sting a little as I stretch you.”

She broke her kiss and smiled up at Trace, shivering as Baylor pressed his lube-coated fingers to her anus. “I want this. It feels right, but I’ve never done it before.”

“We won’t hurt you, Kenzie,” Trace assured her. She smiled up, her love and trust as clear as her desire.

She reached out and swirled her finger through the cum pooling at the head of his cock. He groaned as she sucked her finger into her mouth and moaned, as well. “I like the way you taste.”

He leaned forward, pressing his cock to her lips as she withdrew her finger. Her mouth enveloped him, her fingers stroking his shaft in teasingly soft caresses. “Heaven,” he whispered.

“Heaven,” she repeated as Baylor pressed his cock to her ass.

She opened her mouth and sucked his cock in, her fingers prying his from the base of his cock as she took over, wrapping her hand around his length. He kept his eyes open, not daring to even blink lest he miss a moment of this dream turned reality.

Baylor held Kenzie’s long blond hair secured in his hand at the base of her neck as he thrust into her ass. This left her face visible as she moaned in pleasure around his cock, stroking him faster and harder as she rocked her slender body between Rayne and Baylor, their cocks filling her in turn.

They were one, they were joined and bonded as mates and lovers. A unit that nothing but death would part. “I’m coming,” he roared, her ministrations finally too much for him to hold off any longer.

He came hard, his eyes open as she swallowed around him, drinking his cum down with a blissful smile on her face. His knees shook, but he stayed upright, stroking her cheek as she released him and screamed her own pleasure. Rayne and Baylor pumped into her wildly for a few more strokes before stilling and calling out Kenzie’s name as they, too, came.

Kenzie took his hand in hers as she collapsed down onto Rayne’s chest, panting as she recovered. “I’m not sure that once is enough to really cement that memory, Trace.”

He laughed, his soul filling with happiness and driving out the heavy weight of his pain. He would never forget a single second of what they’d just shared.

“I think you’re right. We’ll need to do it a few hundred more times before I’m sure I’ve got it all memorized.” 

Chapter Eighteen

Kenzie’s mind was fuzzy and her eyes bleary as the men woke her to leave for Theo’s funeral. The atmosphere was somber, and Kenzie dressed quickly in the jeans and sweater Trace handed her.

“Is this appropriate for a funeral? Shouldn’t I wear something a little dressier?”

“It’s perfect for a shifter farewell, sweetheart,” Rayne said, handing her her coat and scarf.

Trace had moved to the window. “Baylor is back with Asher’s truck. We should hurry.”

Kenzie looked around, only now noticing Baylor wasn’t there.

Rayne chuckled as he picked her up and ran down the stairs. “I see you’re not a morning person.”

“This isn’t morning,” Kenzie said, rubbing her eyes as Rayne fastened her seatbelt. “Mornings have sunlight involved.”

They rode in silence, each of them lost to their sadness as they drove through dirt tracks to the edge of a huge clearing. “Where are we?” she whispered in Rayne’s ear as he lifted her from the huge truck.

“We’re deep in the Alpha’s land. It’s sacred to the pride. Only Shana, the pride shaman, lives out here. She watches over our fallen.”

Kenzie had lived in Eminence all her life, and worked in the bank for years, she’d thought she’d known everyone. She’d never met anyone called Shana.

Out of the mist that settled over the freezing clearing, a tall, grey-haired woman walked toward them. “Welcome to our pride, Kenzie Thurling.” She then turned to stare at Trace, Baylor, and finally Rayne.

“Welcome home, boys. I’m sorry for your loss. Your parents will be pleased you are finally home.” She looked directly at Trace. “And that your healing has finally begun.”

Shana took Kenzie’s arm and led her away from the men. “The Alpha is waiting,” she said cryptically. Kenzie went with the older woman as her men stayed behind. “I will take you to where the mates are waiting. Your men need to shift. We honor our dead as they fell. Theo died as a cougar. They will share that form as his body is given to the earth.”

Kenzie nodded, understanding only half of what the woman had said. As they approached the fire burning in the center of the clearing, Kenzie got her first real look at Shana. She walked tall and straight, but her face was heavily lined. She’d been told that Connie was, incredibly, over two hundred years old, but she still looked like a woman in her forties. It begged the question, How old must Shana be?

As they rounded the large fire she saw that all the other human mates, or mostly human, in Bethany and Morgan’s case, were gathered in a small group. Kenzie felt a small measure of relief that they all looked just as anxious and puzzled as she was.

“Thank you, Shana,” Peata said. Shana bowed her head, accepting the thanks before walking into the trees. “Hi, Kenzie.” Peata kissed her and gave her a one-armed hug, her other hand gripping her daughter’s hand as one-year-old Lily gazed at the fire with wonder.

Kenzie was hugged and kissed by the other women, but no one spoke, the tension palpable.

An enormous cougar entered the clearing from the trees, Chris emerging behind him carrying the body of a massive cougar. The cougar’s coat was clean, whatever injuries had caused his death, covered by bandages.

“That’s Finn. Chris is carrying Theo,” Melanie said. “His brother will give his body to the fire before he shifts.” Kenzie and the other women nodded. She wasn’t the only one to wipe away tears.

“That’s Paul with Connie.” Connie walked beside a limping cougar. Melanie continued her commentary as the clearing filled with cougars. All of them were huge, but Finn was easily the biggest amongst them.

“The lion is Anne,” Jordanna whispered, “my mother-in-law.”

Kenzie was surprised when she recognized Trace, Rayne, and Baylor before Melanie said their names. It wasn’t that she recognized their animal forms, having only seen them as cougars once. It was more that she responded to the way they felt. There was a connection she could feel reach into her soul.

When a small cougar joined the cougars, coyotes, and one lion around the fire, Kenzie knew it was Shana. “How old is Shana?” Kenzie asked without thinking.

She was surprised when all the women just shrugged. “She claimed to be three-hundred when Connie was a cub,” Melanie said.

Two massive bears lumbered into the clearing, a slim, gorgeous blond man walking between them. Brody. Chris walked close to the flames, his head lowered as he laid Theo on the ground at the edge of the huge bonfire. He shifted, his body shooting off sparks of light, blinding his form until his cougar stood beside Theo’s.

With a roar, he nudged his brother’s body and turned to join his mate and Paul.

Kenzie gasped as Theo’s body rose into the air. She looked at the other women, their tears shining in the firelight as they silently watched.

“Brody is doing it,” Melanie said, shifting Matthew to her other hip and squeezing Kenzie’s hand. “We don’t even know everything a demon can do. We just know Brody’s wonderful.”

All the cougars and Anne roared and the coyotes howled as Theo’s body descended slowly into the fire. The flames flared brighter as they began to consume Theo’s body. Then the fire was incandescent, too bright to look at. Kenzie shielded her eyes and turned her head, the light growing brighter still behind her closed lids.

An instant later the light was gone, the clearing ringing in the sudden silence. Blinking her eyes several times, she tried to get the after image of the fire to vanish. When it did, she saw the fire was extinguished, a pile of fine ash all that now remained.

“Wow,” Kenzie breathed.

“Wow, is right,” Bethany said. “That man is amazing. And I’m not just saying that because he saved my baby.”

Kenzie’s mouth dropped open, but Bethany waved her hand in front of her and mouthed, “later.”

Finn roared, cracking the still air as the first rays of dawn hit the distant horizon. A fierce wind whipped around them, circling the clearing until it centered on what remained of Theo’s funeral pyre. The ash rose high into the air and Finn roared again before running into the trees. He was gone in an instant, his speed incredible. The ash followed, remaining high in the air as Brody climbed onto the back of one of the bears, gripping tight to its thick coat.

The bears followed Finn, followed the ash, the rest of the assembled shifters disappearing before her eyes.

“Come,” Connie said, snapping Kenzie out of her trance. She’d been staring into the trees, not quite able to believe what had just happened. Kenzie saw that Paul was still at Connie’s side, his legs shaking as he leaned against his mate.

“Paul and I would like you all to join us at home for breakfast. Your men will be hungry when they’ve finished their run.”

It was such a normal thing to say. Completely at odds with everything that had just occurred. “Thank you, Connie. We’d love to.” Melanie squeezed Kenzie’s hand again and tugged her toward where all the trucks were parked.

“I’m never going to get used to all of this.”

“You will,” Melanie said, “And sooner than you think.” 

Epilogue

Melanie’s words had proved right and six weeks later Kenzie was standing in front of a mirror, completely at ease as she surveyed her appearance.

“Who taught you to do hair like this, Jordanna? It’s gorgeous.”

Jordanna sat on the side of Kenzie’s new, massive, bed and waved off the compliment. “I’ve had long hair all my life and loved to experiment with different styles when I was a teenager.”

“I never progressed past a ponytail or a bun.” Kenzie turned her head, admiring the soft curls that fanned around her neck. The messy bun on top of her head spilling more swirling tendrils down her back.

“That dress,” Morgan said. “You look like a model in a wedding dress catalog.”

“She looks like an angel,” her mom said. “You girls all look like angels.”

Kenzie smiled and handed her mom another tissue. She’d been bursting into tears all day. “Thanks for everything, Mom. You’ve helped make this day everything a bride could wish for.”

“Rubbish. What’s a few flowers scattered around? Besides, you already have everything a bride could wish for, three drop-dead-gorgeous husbands.” Her mom’s teasing had the room erupting in giggles.

“Unless you have four,” Melanie said, smiling at Jordanna, Jade, and Amber mischievously.

Samantha Thurling fanned herself dramatically. “Kenzie, if I had my time again…”

“You’d still marry Dad. You were knocked up, remember?”

“Who wasn’t?” Peata laughed, drying tears from her eyes. “I’m ruining my make-up.”

“You’re adorable,” Kenzie’s mom said, hugging Peata and passing her a tissue. “And you married three hot firemen. Be still my aching heart.”

Kenzie let the laughter sink into her heart. These women were incredible. She missed her own sister terribly since she’d moved to Canada, but she couldn’t say she was as close to Lara as she was to these women. The bonds of their pride went far deeper than the ties of blood.

Her sister poked her head in the door. “You all sound like a flock of geese.” Lara smiled widely. “Rayne sent me up here to confiscate all the booze.”

Their mom picked up the champagne bottle and hugged it to her chest. “Not a chance.”

Her parents had been nothing but happy for Kenzie when she’d told them she was engaged to the three Soames brothers. They’d pulled out all stops to help redecorate the Soames family home. They’d spent every weekend helping to fix the gardens and then paid for the entire wedding, from the dress to the caterers.

“I’m coming in,” her father said. “I hope you’re all decent.” Everyone laughed as Kenzie’s father walked into the room with his hand over his eyes.

“Donald, stop messing around. Is it time?” her mom asked.

“Yes, it is, and I’d like a moment with the blushing bride please.”

“We’ll line up outside,” Lara said. “Don’t keep those men waiting much longer. They look like they’re about to go crazy.”

Lara winked at her, and Kenzie was glad of the fact she and Lara could now confide in each other about their husbands’ other nature. It had been quite a shock for Lara when Kenzie had told her she knew Dean was a wolf shifter, and that Kenzie was marrying three cougar shifters.

As the women filed out, Kenzie couldn’t contain her smile. “You’re all so beautiful.” Their pale blue dresses hugged every curve. The plunging backs sure to drive their husbands crazy. Needless to say, Melanie had chosen them for that express purpose.

“You’re a vision, Kenzie.” Her dad smiled at her and stared into her eyes. “Just tell me you’re happy.”

Kenzie frowned. “I thought you were okay with me marrying them?”

“Oh, I am. I’ve lived in this town my whole life and never seen one ménage marriage end badly. That’s a lot better than the statistics in conventional marriages. I’m your dad. I need to know you’re happy, that’s all.”

“I never dreamed I could ever be this happy.”

* * * *

Trace held his wife, his mate, in his arms as they rocked to the music. “This dress was designed to kill me, wasn’t it?” He skimmed his fingers down the length of Kenzie’s spine. His already hard cock throbbing painfully as his fingers dipped under her dress and found the curve of her naked ass. “Commando, too. When the hell can we leave?”

“Commando?” Baylor said, appearing at Kenzie’s back and winding his arm around her waist. He groaned as he pulled her against him. She was now sandwiched between them. “Damn you feel good.”

“At least no one can see so much of that delicious skin now,” Rayne said, joining them on the dance floor and tilting Kenzie’s chin up so he could kiss her. “Did Trace say we were leaving?”

“No, he didn’t,” Kenzie said. “And no, we’re not. We haven’t even cut the cake.”

“Who needs cake,” Trace said. “I have you, and I intend to nibble and lick you all night.”

The scent of Kenzie’s arousal hit his nose. She closed her eyes and moaned. “Now you have me wanting to leave.”

Hudson and Amber glided past them on the small wooden dance floor. “I wanted to say congratulations,” Hudson said, clapping Trace, Rayne, and then Baylor on their shoulders.

“She’s everything I never knew I needed or wanted,” Trace said. “Thank you, Hudson.”

Hudson frowned. “What? I didn’t mean for marrying your mate.” Hudson looked at Rayne and then Baylor before shaking his head. “You don’t know? Cats, such a terrible sense of smell.”

“Kenzie, that’s…” Amber started, but Hudson laughed and danced her away, his lips over hers.

“What was that about?” Kenzie asked.

Trace looked at Baylor and then Rayne. They smiled slowly, their cats lighting their eyes to a faint amber glow. Could it be possible? Well, it was likely, not just possible, if he considered the amount of time they’d spent making love to Kenzie in the past six weeks.

“Do we need Jason?” Trace asked, his hopes rising so high he’d now be crushed if Hudson was proved wrong.

“No,” Baylor growled. “If the dog can smell it, then we’ll be able to taste it.”

Kenzie moaned as Baylor’s lips lowered to his mark. She shuddered as she came, hard and fast when Baylor’s canines pierced her skin. “Oh, God,” she said, her breath and body shuddering. “Tell me no one saw that.”

Trace scented it the instant Baylor withdrew his canines. He swiped his finger across the puncture wounds, collecting the drops of blood, and then licking his finger. His cock nearly exploded. Her normal, sweet taste enhanced with the wild musk of a shifter.

Rayne groaned as he licked Kenzie’s wound, sealing it as he tasted her blood. Rayne lifted Kenzie into the air, Trace and Baylor too stunned to stop him. “Do you know what this means, sweetheart?” Rayne kissed her before she’d had a chance to answer.

Baylor clapped Trace on the shoulder. “We’re making another of those promised memories.”

“And I love our baby already,” Trace said. “Kenzie was right.”

Rayne set Kenzie on her feet and Trace and Baylor closed ranks so they surrounded their tiny mate. Love and joy surged through Trace’s veins. She’d given him back so much and now she’d given him a baby, too. Their baby.

“Did…did you say, ‘our baby’?”

“Our baby,” they all said.

Kenzie’s smile was jubilant, her happiness obvious. “I love you all so much.”

“Now can we go home?” Trace asked, returning her smile and hopefully showing her how happy he was, too.

“Who needs cake?”

Kenzie grabbed his hand and tugged him from the dance floor. He needed nothing but Kenzie. Kenzie and our baby.

THE END

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