Anger flared in Cristian's eyes, making the gold spark. "You're still family, Kenzie. Still pack. I'll talk about what I damn well please. Soon, you'll have to remember who you are." He gave her a long look. "You'll understand, in the end."
Without giving Kenzie a chance to answer, he turned his back and walked away, picking up into a jog a dozen strides down the road.
Kenzie watched him go in disquiet, knowing the abrupt back-turning for what it was. He was telling her he wasn't afraid to show her his vulnerable side, because it made no difference. He was stronger than any Shifter around and always would be.
Soon, you'll have to remember who you are.
Kenzie didn't like the hint, or the implication that he'd oust Bowman sooner or later. Had he anything to do with last night's attack? Had he figured out a way to clear Bowman out of his way? She didn't see how, but, as she'd thought at the beginning of the conversation, Uncle Cris could be slippery.
Damn him. Whatever he'd been on about, he made the crisp winter air oppressive. Kenzie watched her uncle jog away for a time before she quickened her steps down the road the rest of the way to Cade's.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bowman didn't like the thought of Kenzie and Ryan out there alone. Not today.
He started out of bed, letting out a grunt of pain when his leg reminded him it wasn't all the way healed. It wasn't agonizing anymore, but very stiff, the muscles pulled all to hell. The break itself would already be fused, or close to it, but the soft tissues were going to ache and annoy him for a while.
He managed to make it to his feet. Bowman balanced on his good leg while the splinted leg stuck out like a white flagpole. Damn doctors.
All right, so they'd been nice and patched him up. He knew he'd have spent a worse night without the doctors in the clinic helping him out, but Bowman wasn't in the mood to be grateful. He just wanted out of the bloody splint.
He managed to swing his leg up to the bed. He reached for one of the Velcro straps that held the splint to his leg and tugged at it. Nothing happened.
Frustrated swearing filled the room. Good thing everyone had left the house, because this was just stupid.
Bowman gave a harder yank. The strap ripped open, but he lost his balance and fell on his backside on the carpet next to the bed. "Shit!"
The front door to the house swung open, sending a draft of cold air inside. Damn it-another Shifter on his territory, and Bowman was flailing around like a bug on his back.
"Bowman? You in here? I know you are-I can smell you."
Bowman let out his tense breath. "Jamie. Get the hell back here."
Jamie entered the room with his usual restless energy. He didn't exactly laugh when he saw Bowman, buck naked and sprawled on the rug, his bad leg stuck up straight, but his mouth twitched and his ferocious eyes looked dangerously near to twinkling.
"Man, you got screwed over." Jamie folded his arms and stared down at his alpha. "Want me to get a crane?"
"Shut the hell up, and help me get this splint off."
"Sure you should?" Jamie asked. His tatts moved as his arms tightened.
"I'm sure. Get me out of this thing."
"All right¸ but if you hurt yourself because you took it off too soon, it wasn't me who helped you, all right? If Kenzie finds out, she'll tear my balls off."
"Don't worry, she'd be so busy ripping me a new one you'd have time to get away."
Jamie crouched next to Bowman, reaching for the strap around his ankle. "Didn't it occur to you to pick out a more submissive mate?"
"Nope." Bowman tugged on another strap at his thigh. "If I had a mate so meek she obeyed my every command without arguing, I'd be bored out of my mind. Although sometimes . . ." He thought of Kenzie's sparkling eyes and sassy smile. No, he liked her just the way she was.
"Speaking of Kenzie," Jamie said, "I saw her talking to Cristian. They were on the upper road, in a lonely stretch, the two of them going on about something."
Bowman swallowed the anger that built up in his throat. "He's her uncle and pack leader. Of course she talks to him."
"More like arguing. I couldn't hear, but I could see. He was trying to intimidate her."
"Was she intimidated?"
Jamie snorted. He tore open the last strap and helped Bowman gently pry the splint apart. "What do you think? She looked pretty mad."
Bowman shrugged as though the news didn't alarm him. "If something's up, she'll tell me."
"You trust her that much?"
The splint came away, and Bowman breathed a sigh of relief. Then he dug his nails into his skin as air hit it. Everything itched.
"Yes. I do." Bowman bent a fierce eye on Jamie as he scratched away at his leg. "You'd damn well better trust her too, or we have a problem."
"Oh, I trust her," Jamie said, stacking the pieces of splint and setting them aside. "But I don't trust that Romanian werewolf an inch."
Calling a Shifter a werewolf was an insult-Shifters were a living species; werewolves were movie monsters humans turned into after they were bitten. "I hear you. Help me up."
Jamie lent his sinewy strength while Bowman struggled to get his bad leg under him. Jamie pulled him upright, and finally Bowman was standing.
His hurt leg was annoyingly weak, and Bowman made a face as he tried to put weight on it. "Why did you come?" he asked Jamie. "Or did you sense I was going to get out of bed and fall on my ass?"
"Because of seeing Cristian," Jamie said. "I didn't like the idea of you here alone and hurt while he was wandering around."
Jamie backed away, letting Bowman find his balance on his own, but Jamie's touch had helped Bowman some. Shifters needed one another's comfort, strength, the sense that they were part of a group. Being alone was a terrible thing for a Shifter.
"Thanks," Bowman said. Jamie made such a good tracker because he could anticipate his leader's needs without being told, and took initiative with what he thought was right.
"You're welcome." Jamie looked him up and down and folded his arms again. "But if you think I'm helping you get dressed, you can forget about it."
"Just find me some pants," Bowman growled.
* * *
Walking to the landing end of the zip line gave Bowman a chance to stretch out the still-healing leg, as well as show every Shifter in Shiftertown that he was already up and feeling much better.
He and Jamie didn't pass anyone on the way, though. They were all at Cade's, friends and rivals alike.
Cade had rigged the zip line he'd been going on about high up on a hill above his own house, with a platform in the tall trees. The line ran almost the length of Shiftertown, gliding down the long hill to another platform at the bottom, where Bowman and Jamie headed. Cade had tested the zip line extensively on himself, figuring that if it could take his weight, then it would be safe for cubs.
Why the hell Cade had decided it was a good idea to put up a zip line at all, Bowman didn't know. When he'd asked, Cade had given him his straight-faced look and said, "Bears just want to have fun."
A bear was coming down the line now. It was a cub, in its grizzly form. It clung to the handle with its oversized paws, its back legs dancing as it descended in a rush toward Bowman. At the last minute, the cub dropped from the line to land on the platform with precision.
He bounced up and ran to Bowman, jigging around him, making happy little bear noises, which made Jamie laugh.
The cub, one of Cade's nephews by the look of it, circled Bowman again, then Jamie, then sprang off the platform and scampered to the path that led back up the hill.
Ryan was coming down next. "Cowabunga, Dad!" He let go of the bar and leapt the last few feet down, landing in Bowman's outstretched arms.
Bowman steadied himself on his good leg before lowering Ryan to the ground. "There, are you happy now?" Bowman rumbled at him.
"Nope." Ryan wriggled away. "Have to go again!" He scrambled off the platform and ran up the path after the other cub.
Before Bowman or Jamie could say a word, another rider came barreling toward them. This time it was Kenzie, sensibly in human form, her hands locked around the bar, a crash helmet on her head.
She lifted her legs in a perfect right angle to her body, using the momentum to propel her faster. Bowman's libido charged at the sight of his mate swinging gracefully through the air.
"Woo-hoo-hoo-hooooo!" she bellowed.
She was coming straight for Bowman. Jamie jumped well back, but Bowman waited for her. Kenzie loosened her hold and dropped at the last second, and Bowman caught her.