Fated for Forever(52)

“Is this the best protection Arkadia has to offer? A little kitty cat.” He laughed manically.

“Say good-bye, bitch.” He swung the gun around until it pointed at Rebecca’s small baby bump and

pulled the trigger.

“No!” Ashby yelled and dove to knock Rebecca down. He felt the bullet graze past his arm as Nic

jumped on top of him to cover them with his body. Above them an eardrum-shattering roar filled the tiny

apartment. Nic, Ashby and Rebecca looked up to see a huge saber-toothed tiger standing between them and

the shooter.

Roaring again, the tiger swiped away the gun before jumping on top of the attacker, who was screaming

in high-pitched tones. The screeches quickly turned to blood-filled gurgles as the saber-toothed tiger bit

down on the man’s throat and shook him like a rag doll.

Aleks, Kate, Bran, Caleb and Liam burst through the apartment door. Aleks’s hands shifted as he

advanced on the saber toothed tiger. Rebecca wiggled out from under Nic and Ashby to stand between her

charging mate and the half-ton tiger behind her.

“Aleks stop! Leave Sebastian alone, he saved us!” she said, holding up both hands to stop her mate.

Aleks stopped in the middle of the floor staring up at the tiger that was currently standing over his tiny

mate.

“Sebastian?” he asked incredulously.

Rebecca looked down and wrinkled her nose at what was left of the attacker, before stepping over his

body and moving toward Aleks.

“Yes, Sebastian. He shifted into super kitty and saved us,” she said, beaming proudly.

Ashby knew in that moment he never loved his friend more. The eviscerated man at her feet warranted

only a nose wrinkle and she was looking at her shifted cat like a proud mama. No other could fill the role as

Alpha Mother more.

“Thank you Sebastian. Is that your real name?” Ashby asked, walking up beside the tiger. He picked up

his bathrobe from the sofa where he had left it nearly a week ago.

The huge saber toothed tiger shimmered and in its place a lithe, sandy-haired man stood looking at them

with fearful brown eyes. Ashby wrapped the robe around him. Liam sucked in a breath.

“You knew. You had to know!” he yelled, turned, and left the apartment slamming the door behind him.

“Oh dear. Aleks go after Liam, he’s hurting and needs you as a friend. Oh, and take that with you

please,” Rebecca said, pointing to the bloody body. Aleks opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked at

Sebastian, opened his mouth, then looked at Rebecca who was staring at him expectantly, then closed it.

“Yes dear,” he said. He reached down grabbed the body by the ankle and dragged it out of the

apartment. Bran and Caleb winced as they heard the thunk, thunk, thunk sounds coming from the stairs as

the body hit each step on the way down.

“My name is Sebastian. I told Liam my name the day we met in the alley,” Sebastian said.

“Liam said it just popped into his head. Was that because you are mates?” she asked. Sebastian nodded.

“I have weak telepathic abilities,” Sebastian explained, still looking a little dazed.

“Sebastian, why didn’t you tell us? We would have kept you safe,” Ashby said, sitting the smaller man

down on the sofa.

“I didn’t mean to lie. When I first came here I was so scared but then Rebecca found me. And she was

warm and safe. I thought to myself, I’d rather be her cat and safe than a man again. I was scared all the

time,” he said shuddering.

“You must have realized at some point that Liam was your mate, and that he wouldn’t hurt you.” Ashby

wrapped an arm around the man when he began to shake.

“I was sold by my Alpha. I only recently felt safe enough where I was thinking about shifting back. I

knew the one that caged me was close to finding me and I had to warn everyone, I just didn’t know how.

Liam isn’t like my old Alpha, I know that now,” he said as tears began to stream down his cheeks.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but how can you have two forms? I didn’t even know that we had

domesticated cat shifters,” Bran asked. Sebastian shook his head.

“There aren’t any. I’m a hybrid. My grandparents on my mother’s side were a tiger and a wolf and the

grandparents on my father’s side were a lion and a hawk. Each couple produced a half breed baby. Those

babies grew up met, fell in love and had me. True hybrids occur when four individual animals come

together to make two, that come together to make one. I can shift into any animal that I see and my

telepathic abilities may get stronger after I’m claimed by my mate,” Sebastian explained.

“OK, I take back wanting to be a bear. I want to be a hybrid,” Rebecca whispered, eyes wide. Kate