Gray
Lionel stared at meover Lottie’s purple-hazed eyes, his insane smile twisted with a dollop of cruelty. The latter came naturally to the ass-aholic leader of the NYC panther claw. The former? His insanity had better be temporary, or I’d find a way to remove that taint to his bloodline through a previously undiscovered orifice. Like his throat.
In fact, the only reason he still breathed was because of the three words he said that stopped me in my tracks a moment before.“You were right.”
“I was what?” I didn’t bother to keep my tone civilized. Or my claws—pun intended as it was the only sort I ever told—from sliding out where my nails should have been and raking them across the trash cans that lined the alley’s depths.
Somewhere in the shadows, some poor shifter mewled. Retreating figures told me Lionel’s strategy wasn’t a popular choice. His champion wasn’t anywhere in sight—probably locked in a breeding cage somewhere. His numbers depleted by the minute, even if he wasn’t aware of that yet. What he did know was that he couldn’t take me. Not alone.
Which was why he kept my mate held between us as a human shield.
That pithy offering wouldn’t do shit for his fading mortality rate that reduced with every second he held a too-shiny motherfucking blade to my mate’s throat. That plummeted further when the first bead of purple-tinged blood trickled across her alabaster skin.
How much of that shit did he pump into her?
“Repeat what you just said to me.” I raked my claws across the brick of the nearest building.
Lionel winced and even Lottie, in her drug-fucked state, shuddered at the horrendous resulting sound.
“You were right.” Lionel shrugged like my show ponying didn't bother him in the least.
I stared at the other shifter, not a hint of the shadows beneath his skin showing that should be there, or the claws he could shred Lottie’s throat with...
The overwhelming scent hit me in a wave of arousal that hit me at a time I didn’t want or need it, turning me worse than feral.Pheromones.Suddenly I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“She was bait.”
I stared back at him as full understanding dawned beyond the flurry of one-word text messages I exchanged with him back in the apartment. Acid rose from my belly in a reversal of gravity that changed my world and left my hands itching for the woman I’d lay my life down for.
“You heard me in the alley that night.”
Lionel nodded. “I had to wait and see who claimed her. My choice wasn’t popular with the claw, but then we don’t have a lot of choices left. I think you’ve guessed.”
“Your powers are weakened. You need her—us—to...” I canted my head, watching the powerless shifter lower his blade and counted the breaths out in my head.Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen...“Breed?”
“New blood is needed. These walls are cages. They cripple us.” He tapped the crumbling building at his side.
Sixteen. Fifteen.
A few extra shadows flitted backward leaving Lionel alone. Either he didn’t notice, or he didn’t care. His self-imposed cafe had lost him that instinct too.
“You’ve done that to yourself.”Fourteen. Thirteen.“Panthers should be wild. Free. This unnatural catastrophe ... you’re living the results.”
He smiled at me sadly. “But if I set them free now, they’ll die.”
“That’s already happening.” The trail of purple blood stained Lottie’s shirt, followed by a fresh trickle of red. The shadows writhed beneath my own skin, my exhausted beast writhing to the surface, ready to tear apart the pathetic creature who threatened our mate. “Give her to me.”
Nine.
“And you’ll let me go?” He laughed humorlessly.
“No,” I said softly. “But I'll see my mate safe. My other mate needs her.”
“You are the alpha.” His sarcasm lacked pretty much anything.
I shot him a glance, reminded forcibly of Blake. I need to get back to him. More footsteps, this time slower, more curious ones, back toward us.
Four.
