At least I got a hearing.
While Kaci ate in silence and Ethan and Reid played cards, I stared out the kitchen window, my thoughts flitting from the Alphas deciding my fate, to Kaci and her unsure future, to Brett recovering from the injuries I hadn’t been able to save him from. Then my mind turned to the enforcers, even then on their way to Radley’s hideout in the mountains, and how badly I wanted to join them. I could really have used some therapeutic ass-kicking right about then.
But then my thoughts came back to Marc, as they always did eventually. Was he on the plane yet? Was he thinking about me? Had he meant it when he’d written not to come looking for him? Would it matter if he had?
A flicker of movement from the window snagged my eye, pulling me from my thoughts like a sailor from the sinking wreck of his own ship. I froze, staring at the tree line, and something moved again—a flash of black, then nothing but the stirring of evergreen shrubs and half-dead grass in the breeze.
I stood for a better look, setting my mug on the coffee table as my eyes narrowed. Someone was skulking around out back and he obviously didn’t want to be seen. Which meant he wasn’t one of ours.
A shiver of fear and excitement raced up my spine. I’d thought I would miss all the action, but once again, the action had come to me…
Thirty-Two
“What’s wrong?” Ethan held his cards to his chest, glancing at the window in mild curiosity. But Reid set his hand down and stood, heading for the sink before I’d even rounded the coffee table.
“Did you see it?” I leaned over the double basin by his side, déjà vu sharpening my sudden dread.
“A second ago.” We stared some more, then Reid stiffened. “There. He just passed behind that twisted tree. Be on the other side in a second.”
My eyes found the twisted trunk, and sure enough, a patch of shiny black fur slunk out from behind it as I watched.
“Do you recognize him?” I whispered, though I knew Kaci would hear us.
“Recognize who?” she demanded. Her fork clinked on the edge of her plate, but I didn’t turn. I didn’t want to lose sight of the trespasser again.
“Not yet.” Reid ignored her question, as did I. We didn’t have answers yet anyway. “Doesn’t matter, though. Our guys are long gone by now, or else holed up in the lodge.”
I nodded. “He’s heading that way.” Toward the lodge, where the Alphas were gathered with an injured tom, and no one to protect them, other than Michael. Michael fought damn well for a lawyer, but he was only one man, and there was no telling how many strays were really in the brush.The tabby’s chair slid back from the table and Ethan squeezed in at the sink on my other side. Kaci hung back in silence.
“I’ll go. Keep an eye on him while I Shift.” With that, Reid disappeared into the living room, already pulling his shirt over his head.
“What’s going on?” Kaci’s voice was tight with tension and encroaching panic.
I smiled and put one arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. “It’s fine. Reid’s just going out to take care of an intruder.”
“Who is it?”
I blinked at the raw fear in her voice, then searched out the cat again when Ethan turned to comfort her. Or maybe to pull her away from the window. “We don’t know yet. Probably one of the strays. Ethan, get her out of here.”
“Come on, Kaci.” He guided her by one shoulder, glancing at me in question as he ushered her out of the kitchen. “We have some movies set up in the living room.”
She went reluctantly, but I could feel her eyes on my back. She wasn’t happy being left out, and I couldn’t really blame her.
Several minutes later, Reid huffed and I turned from the window to find him standing on the linoleum clad in nothing but shiny black fur rippling over long feline muscles. He huffed again and tossed his head toward the front yard, probably asking me if our unscheduled visitor was still there.
“Yeah. He’s moving slowly, scouting everything out,” I said. Reid nodded and padded toward the back door, where I let him out. “Be careful.” He nodded, then took the steps at a trot.
I closed the door behind him and returned to the window. A second later he raced across the yard. Reid slowed as he approached the tree line, coming up on the intruder from the rear, his paws no doubt silent even on crunchy dead grass.
The stray paused, and his ears arched forward on alert. Reid dropped to his belly, and when the stray moved on, he rose. Three steps later two large black blurs dropped from the trees on either side of him.
“No!” I screamed, and Ethan came running. Outside, claws slashed, fur flew, and howls of pain sliced through the peaceful calm like a machete through birthday cake. “No!” I shouted again, leaning over the sink in fury. My fist slammed into the glass and it shattered, slicing open my knuckles. I barely felt the pain, I was so numb with shock and outrage. “They set him up!” I whirled to face Ethan, holding my bleeding hand in front of me. “They’re here for Kaci. They waited for the guys to clear out, then they set a trap, and we let Reid walk right into it.”
“Shit!” Ethan yelled, his eyes still glued to the fight outside. I turned back in time to see a spray of blood arc across the dead grass, staining the ground bright red. The shape in the middle of the huddle went still and the two remaining cats stepped back to reveal Reid, limp and unmoving. He was dead, his throat ripped out by the stray whose muzzle still dripped blood.
Ethan twisted on the cold water and shoved my hand under the faucet. “Pick out the glass!” he ordered, then raced over the linoleum to lock the back door. I plucked two shards of glass from my fist as he ran across the kitchen behind me, brushing past a newly shocked Kaci on his way to lock the front door. Then he was back again, wrapping a towel from the dish drainer around my bloody fist.
“Call Dad.” He pressed my good hand over the makeshift bandage to hold it in place. “Call him, then Shift. Do you understand?”
“Ethan, I’m cut, not stupid.” I had to let go of the towel to dig my phone from my pocket. Fortunately auto-dial made it possible to call my father with the press of only one button. While the electronic tone rang in my ear, my gaze settled on Kaci, whose eyes were wide with mounting horror.
“They’re here for me? Why?” she demanded, her voice shrill with fright, her arms wrapped around her torso.
I frowned, surprised and dismayed all over again by how little she knew about us. “They’re trying to form a Pride, and you can’t have a real Pride without a tabby. But don’t worry. We won’t let them take you.” Or me either, because the consensus was that two tabbies were better than one.
Naked now, Ethan dropped to his hands and knees on the hardwood behind her. And still the phone rang in my ear. “Shit! He’s not answering.”
“Call someone else!” Kaci’s eyes were huge in fear, and she glared at the phone, as if it were the source of all the trouble. “Call one of those other guys. The enforcers.”
“I can’t. They all went out in cat form. No pockets,” I added when she shot me a confused look. But Michael hadn’t gone out at all… I pressed End Call, then auto-dialed my oldest brother. The phone buzzed in my ear.
Then it buzzed on my right. What the hell…?
The phone rang again in my ear—than again somewhere to my right. I whirled around to see Michael’s cell phone vibrating on the counter by the fridge. “Damn it!”
“What?” Kaci backed slowly toward the far corner.
“Michael didn’t take his phone.” Dumbass!
I glanced out the window to find the strays slinking across the yard boldly. And as I watched, a fourth form stepped from the bushes, in human form.
Zeke Radley. Shit!
Ethan moaned behind me and I turned toward the living room. My brother now resembled a bald jaguar, other than the occasional odd bulge where things were still changing and coming together. He was almost through Shifting, but even in cat form he probably couldn’t hold off three toms, and I didn’t stand a chance without claws. I’d have to Shift. And so would Kaci.
Thinking quickly, I redialed my father’s number, then crossed the linoleum toward the terrified young tabby as the phone rang in my ear. I sat in one of the kitchen chairs and pulled her toward me. “Kaci, you have to Shift. We both do.”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently, her hair slapping both of us in the face. “No! I can’t! I don’t ever want to be that again!”
“We have to, hon. We can’t defend ourselves otherwise.”
“We’ll keep calling,” she insisted. “The doors are locked. They can’t get in and we’ll keep calling for help.”
But help wasn’t answering.
“Kaci, locked doors won’t stop them. Dead bolts will slow them down long enough for us to Shift, but they will get in, and we need to be able to defend ourselves. We need canines and claws.”She shook her head again, not quite as violently this time, but with no less determination. “I can’t do it, Faythe.” Tears stood in her eyes. “I do bad things when I’m a cat. I can’t do it again.”
“Yes you can. You have to. I won’t let anything bad happen.”
“No!” she shouted, spraying me with spittle, then backed toward the table while I wiped my face.