Jinx’s Mate(7)

“Excuse me?” Jinx wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.

“Why do you come into my life now? At the worst time of my life I find you. It seems wrong.” She glanced up at him, her big green eyes still full of tears. “Mating is supposed to be a happy time, but it’s an unsuitable time with the death of my sister.”

“Maybe fate threw us together now because you need it.” The words sounded too full of emotion for him. He was a man ruled by his head, not his heart. Decisions were made after careful consideration, not by flipping a coin.

“What happens to me now? To the clan? Will you kill us all?”

He reached forward, taking her by the shoulders. Her eyes went wide with fear, and her body trembled under his touch. “I won’t hurt you.”

She eyed him with suspicion. “What about the others?”

“Let me put it another way, no one is here to hurt you. As for what happens to the clan, a new Alpha will have to step up and try to gather the pieces. My clan, as well as Ty’s, will be here to help in any way we can.” He nodded to Ty, who stood near the door with Styx and Tex.

“We could use you upstairs,” Ty called to him.

He nodded, knowing he had to be there in case there was more of an outburst. “Will you come with me? Once it’s over, we can see that your sister has a proper burial.”

She brushed a strand of Autumn’s hair from her face before turning back to him. “Will this pain ever end?”

“No.” He took her hand in his. “With time it will lessen, but it will never completely leave you. In time you’ll stop thinking about her every second of the day and then something will spark a memory and you’ll be right back to this moment. The loss fresh within you, tearing at your soul and breaking your heart.”

“Wow, I can see you’re a cheerful one. No sugar coating, just wham bam. I like that.”

“That’s good, because I’m not sure I know how to sugar coat anything. I’ve never had a problem telling people how it is, even if they don’t want to hear it. I am truly sorry for your loss.” He took her other hand, letting the energy flow through them, warming them both from the inside out.

“Thank you. Autumn was my best friend, my sister. I don’t know how to go on without her.”

“I know it sounds cheesy, but take it one day at a time. I can’t replace her, no one can, but each day I’ll be there to help you through it.” Behind him, Ty cleared his throat. “Will you accompany me to the conference room?”

She looked down at her bloodstained clothes and nodded. “Yes. My clan members are there and they look to Ben for support. I might be able to help keep them calm. Unless you start shooting into the audience.”

“I promise nothing like that is going to happen.” Enjoying her touch, he kept his hand in hers and led the way to the door. “We came here to free you from what he was doing, not to kill any of you.”

“I hope that’s true.” She stopped as they neared Ty.

“Come on, lass, he’s not going to hurt you.” Jinx tugged her hand, forcing her to come with him past Ty. “I understand you’re distrustful, but we’re not here to harm any of you.”

After Ty fell in step behind them, Jinx turned enough to look back. “Did anyone go in search of Tad and Milo? The man that came through the other door said he killed someone.”

“Milo and Tad are fine. They were dealing with another group of guards outside the other door, which is how that one got through. He killed someone all right, but it wasn’t one of our men. He killed one of his own clan members.” Ty shook his head, clearly unable to believe he had mistaken one of his own clan for an enemy.

What kind of training did Avery give his guards? They reacted without knowing who they were shooting at. That would get more people killed than would keep them safe. Whoever took over as Alpha had some serious issues to deal with. The first being security. There were always shifters passing through the resort, and the threat level could be higher than that of a clan with a compound.





Chapter Four




While the newcomers tried to calm the clan members, Summer stood off to the side of the platform with Ben. Her emotions were twisting her up inside. The tigress within her wanted to be with Jinx, standing beside him while he liberated her clan, but the other half of her could only think of losing Autumn.

“Don’t listen to them, they killed the guards in the tunnels,” someone in the audience hollered.

Unable to stand by as the two sides argued, Summer squared her shoulders and stepped onto the platform. For the Texas Tigers only have thirty members, the room was extremely noisy.