From thecat.
Maybe there was something to this Familiar stuff. Zach closed his eyes. He hadn’t been good at this when they’d practiced on the porch, but he tried. He pushed on the anger, shoved it deep, and imagined the walls going up around it. It didn’t want to go, but by both Jessie’s and Cara’s expressions, he was succeeding. At least, he wasn’t projecting anymore.
“Better?” he asked.
Cara nodded. “Better.”
“So glad,” he added in a clipped tone. He couldn’t even look at Jessie because his emotions behind the walls were a seething, chaotic mess. He carefully picked up Buffy and set her down on the ground. Then he stood.
“I’m going for a shower.” He stalked away, with Spike trailing after him.
* * *
If Kade had been an Empath, he figured the very bushes he pushed past would have shriveled and died.
He hoped his rage was giving Zach a royal headache. Bloody bastard deserved it.
Kade knew he needed to ramp down. But his beast made a grab for control. Ramping itup.
As his heart accelerated madly, he ran faster and faster, his claws tearing huge furrows in the ground. He leaped and crashed deliberately into a tree. His momentum snapped the trunk off at the eight-foot height. Tree and Kade toppled together to the ground.
The blackness was there, waiting to take his humanity and bury it so deep that he’d never recover. He’d been down this road before. Lost himself in the beast, shortly after his mate’s death. Only the actions of a healer in the form of a Gryphon, and his sister, had saved him.
He paused, breathing hard. He wouldn’t let it win. Time to stop acting like a juvenile. He needed to calm down. But his mind repeatedly dragged him over the details. He’d relieved Neil on patrol. The other had dressed and headed for the house. Kade was prepping to strip when he’d gotten nailed.
One second, nothing. Then an emotion so intense every hair on his body had stood on end. And then more than just his hair.
He hadn’t remembered sprinting to where Zach and Jessie were embracing. Not merely embracing. Their lips were locked like they were giving each other the breath of life.
Overwhelmed, Kade’s first instinct hadn’t been charitable. It had taken everything he had to keep himself from sinking his claws into the Empath. If Cara hadn’t appeared, he might have lost it. Would he have regretted it? It wasn’t Zach’s fault that Kade was developing an attachment to Jessie. That seeing them, together, had made him want to rip Zach apart.
The strength of his reaction surprised him. It had been a long time since he’d skirted the edge of blackness. But Jessie had taken him there so fast he’d been unable to stop it. Was it due to the blood injections? She’d only had one so far. And mere hours ago, at that. No. He’d been attracted to her before the blood transfer. Perhaps it was stronger, now?
What radiated off them had been powerful. Almost enough to drop him to his knees. Or make him want to join them.
But not with Zach, dammit. Sabres mated in triads, but the males were usually at least friends. Most times, they were close friends. Sometimes even blood brothers. He could barely look at Zach without baring his teeth.
Not that it mattered. The triad bond was a uniquely Sabre thing. Dires had their own version, only theirs was centered on the pack. The other Cryptids tended to be monogamous, and as far as he knew, most didn’t share the telepathic connection. Even if he and Zach had been bosom buddies, it wouldn’t matter. They couldn’t form the triad with Jessie.
What was he thinking? He wasn’t mating Jessie. She’d given him no indication that Kade’s interest was reciprocated. The woman had enough on her plate, without him panting after her like a dog. And from what he’d felt, she had feelings for Zach. Strong ones.
The memory twisted something inside him, but he forced himself past it. Perhaps he should get Cara to pull from another donor. But Kade was unique in that he’d had a mate and lost her. Cody and Ryan were mated to Kitani, so they wouldn’t want to risk upsetting that balance. And the other Weres were likely still hopeful that they would someday meet their mates. Engaging in something that might result in a permanent bond, even accidentally, would not be their first choice.
Yet considering the dearth of female Sabres, some might consider it. Perhaps he and Cara were wrong to limit the possibilities. But as one who’d already had and lost his true mate, Kade was the best chance to break Jessie’s ties to Braden. And give her freedom. He just hoped it worked.
His heart rate had dropped. The beast still circled in his brain, but Kade resumed his patrol with a troubled, but calmer, mind.
Moments later, his regained calm shattered into a million fragments. He’d passed through the pasture and entered the forest beyond. The bushes and trees were vivid to his beast’s eye.
As was the scent that drifted from the hard packed earth.
Fresh, only seconds old—Dires.
* * *
Zach turned the water to full and stood with it blasting over his head and shoulders. The beleaguered hot water tank had recovered enough to turn his skin red beneath the onslaught.
He embraced the pain. He’d behaved like a Neanderthal out there. Came within a hair’s breadth of releasing his anger on not only Kade, but everyone within reach. And it seemed his reach was expanding. He wasn’t sure what to think about that. Was his power rampaging out of control? Between Cara and Jessie, he was tapping into things that might be better left alone.
