“Where are we going?” Katy asked, looking back at where Kannon had disappeared. Was he okay? The sight of blood made her gag, but he needed help. She needed him to be okay.
“Kannon didn’t kill you,” Sora said.
“And thank God for that blessing, but you didn’t tell me where we’re going.”
“To the New Tarian Pride. Kannon won’t have you here alone. Not anymore.”
“I…I guess I don’t understand.”
“Do you know how terrified I was to sneak out of the Pride and come to town all alone?” Sora whispered thickly. Her eyes searched Katy’s for understanding. Aw, there was that submissive female she’d seen in the bar. “I’m terrified of getting in trouble. Of getting punished. But I came anyway because I know a strong bond when I see one. If anything happened to you, it would hurt Kannon. And he’s a good one. I don’t even like males, but Kannon… He tries to be good. And just because my bond didn’t work out doesn’t mean I don’t believe in it.”
“Believe in what?” Katy asked. “Love?”
Sora nodded. “Yes, that. You’ll come to the New Tarian Pride, and maybe Kannon will be able to sleep enough to heal tonight. You’ll be safe there. “Probably.”
Chapter Fourteen
He was a monster. A monster. A motherfucking monster.
Kannon grunted as he wrapped the bandage one last time around his ribs. He needed this bleeding to stop so he could look like a run-of-the-mill human man to Katy when she came out to his truck. He wanted to pretend tonight hadn’t happened, that she hadn’t seen him Changed and in a brawl with another dominant male. God, he couldn’t even imagine what that had looked like to a human. An innocent, sweet-natured, normal woman.
Why were his goddamned hands shaking? He had been fine, fueled by the adrenaline that got him through every lion fight, but the second he’d realized Katy was there, everything had changed. He’d pulled off a fight he was focused on. Pulled off a kill, and for what? Because she’d uttered his name in the softest, prettiest murmur, and it had spoken to his soul and drew his lion up. She was a damn siren. Okay, something was definitely wrong with him.
She’d stopped him mid-fight, and that had never happened in his entire life. It would’ve taken the Jaws of Life to pry him from a kill before she came along.
His name on her lips was the only spell she needed.
His phone vibrated, and it was Sora. “We’re coming down. Pull around front quick. The police are still here.”
Great.
He taped the end of the bandage and shut the lid to the first-aid kit, shoved it back into the toolbox. He didn’t have a damn shirt because he’d gotten Sora’s message while he was cooking dinner in his cabin. Four words in a text, and he’d never gotten to town so fast in his life.
Abel is hunting her.
Sora was an invisible. She was a broken leftover from the Tarian war, a reluctant queen who had been dethroned, and who now worked very hard to go unnoticed. And what had she done? Left the safety of the New Tarian Pride territory and watched over Katy for him.
He hopped in the truck and peeled down the road, maneuvered through the line of cars and police cruisers, turned into the circle drive of the Mountain Lodge Inn, and skidded to a stop right in front of the door. Sora was carrying Katy’s suitcase and Katy was running for the truck already. Good girls.
The thump of her suitcase being tossed in the back was loud and rocked the truck, but fuck it. This was just an old work truck, and another scratch or two would only give it more character. He could hear the buzz of the excited humans around the truck.
…Did you see them?...
…He cracked that guy’s skull right on the table…
…Did you hear the roaring?...
…Best vacation ever…
…Worst vacation ever…
…Fuckin’ shifters, always attacking people in public…
…String them all up….
…Put them in one place and nuke them…
…Should’ve done that years ago…
…Unsafe…
…Shifter rights bullshit…
…Look what they’re capable of…
…There’s blood on the bottom of my shoe. Who is going to pay for new ones?...
…Look at this video I got of them…
And on and on it went until Kannon wished he could plug his ears and drown them all out.
The girls climbed in, Katy first, and without hesitation, she scooted across the bench seat and settled right next to him. Well…that was a surprise. At least she wasn’t running away screaming.
Onlookers were milling around the front door, and he spied a couple news reporters headed their way, so Kannon eased them out onto the main road and away from the chaos. The silence was thick in the cab.
He cleared his throat. “Sora, someday you will need a favor, a big one. You come to me with it. No matter what it is, I owe you.”
Sora murmured, “I don’t need any—”
“You took care of Katy tonight, and someday I’ll repay you,” he gritted out.
“Okay,” Sora whispered, eyes on her hands clenched in her lap. Whatever the Old Tarian Pride had done to her, he wanted to kill them all over again.
He pulled into a fast food parking lot as soon as they were out of range of the news cameras and bystanders with their damn camera phones all pointed at them. He parked and gripped the wheel until his knuckles turned white.
“I’m sorry,” he said to Katy.
But she threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight. “Are you okay?”
She sniffled, and her voice sounded thick. Was she crying? Oh, God, what did he do with crying?
He wrapped his arm around her and slid his hand up her back, gripped her hair, and held her close. “Did he touch you? Or hurt you?” The answer mattered more than anything. It determined how hard he would hunt down Abel.
“No, no, nothing like that. He just broke into my room and saw me sleeping and left a note. And wouldn’t leave me alone at dinner.”
“He won’t mess with you anymore,” Kannon promised.
“You’re bleeding like a stuck pig,” Katy exclaimed. “I saw him clawing you, and you were hurt, and then you left and I feel like I’m in a dream. A bad dream.”
And that admission made his chest feel very heavy. He was a nightmare. She was right. He was a bad dream, and it was affecting her now.
“I was so worried about you,” she whispered against his neck.
Wait…what?
She eased back and shoved him in the shoulder. “Don’t ever leave like that again. I spent the entire time I was packing imagining you bleeding out in the woods somewhere.”
“I…” Kannon frowned and stared at her, utterly baffled by her reaction. “I don’t understand. You aren’t scared of my lion…and you were….worried for me?”
“Fuck yeah! Kannon, you were bleeding a lot.” Her eyes went round as she repeated slowly. “A—lot.”
He looked over at Sora, but she just shrugged and said, “I told you. You have a purple bond. Right now it’s glowing like a neon beer sign.”
Fantastic, two crazy women on his bench seat. But he wouldn’t complain one bit.
Tonight could’ve gone way, waaaaay different.
Chapter Fifteen
She was trying to focus on all the bad and shocking stuff that happened tonight, but Kannon’s bicep was really distracting. How could a man have such strong muscles? She poked it again. It was like it was flexed, but it wasn’t. Apparently the man was made out of rocks and cement and icebergs and stuff. He was just holding her hand in the truck as he drove with the other, but that arm muscle was poking out like Mount St. Sexyman.
“I’m trying to focus on your bleeding and pain, but do you do lots of curls or something?”
Kannon snorted. “No. I work at the shop and have a predator inside me. One of the only pros about the entire shifter thing is I stay strong.”
“Squeak, squeak,” she said as she squeezed his arm a couple times.
“That’s the most un-masculine sound I can think of to make when you touch a man’s body.”
“I’m going to make that sound during sex.”
Kannon belted a laugh, and Sora snickered beside her.
“Okay, this is good! At least we are to the joking part of the night. Because, seriously, that was intense earlier. All I wanted to do was eat a steak and maybe have a cocktail and watch a live band. I’m still on vacation, you know? But instead I got to see my boyfriend nearly eat another lion.” Oh shit. She clenched up. “I didn’t mean boyfriend. I meant friend that is a boy.”
“I’m not a boy,” Kannon said smoothly.
“Manfriend. Friend that is a man.” Why was she talking like a robot? Just be cool.
Kannon squeezed her hand. Ooooh, the squeeze and let go. She knew this move from Dayton.
But Kannon squeezed and held on.
He held…on…tighter.
What was happening right now?
They pulled onto a dirt road and up to a security checkpoint. Great, more police. Only the man inside the small mini-cabin didn’t look like a police officer. His medium brown hair was burred short, his green eyes were glowing a little too bright, and he wore a gray sweater instead of a uniform.
“Hey, Gray,” Kannon said, after rolling down the window.
“Ha! Your name is Gray and you’re wearing a grey sweater,” Katy observed like the village idiot. Her heart was good, but this mouth wouldn’t stop blabbing sometimes.
Kannon wasn’t smiling anymore. “Open the gate,” he demanded.
“The police were just here,” Gray growled. “Ronin’s waiting up at the big house for you. But now you’re bringing her in?”
Sora hissed.
“Not you, Sora. You belong here,” Gray barked.
Sora’s shocked eyes snapped right to his. “What?”