Gilbert (15 page)

Tracking Lyndon wasn’t as hard as it could have been, even without being able to scent him. The stench from the fire was just too strong for anything else to filter through it. But Lyndon left marks, using his claws gouging trees or tearing at the ground. There was the occasional cougar growl to guide them, too. More than once, Gilbert heard a wolf’s howl and knew Josiah was guiding his group.

The farther they went, the stronger the offensive odour from the fire. Gilbert’s eyes were watering because his nose stung. A glance at Levi and Jihu showed them to be in the same state. He wondered if Lyndon was being affected too since he was in his cougar state. Could he smell anything but destruction?

Jihu rubbed at his eyes and Gilbert stopped him with a gesture. Levi stopped too and Gilbert lifted his T-shirt at the neck hole and pulled it up over the lower part of his face. Jihu’s flash of a grin made his stomach flutter, and Levi pulled his shirt up too, muttering about how they should have been smart enough to bring bandanas.

They resumed their trek and despite the hour, the further they went, the lighter it became due to the downed trees and the obliteration of the leafy canopy that had been there before the fire. There was nothing to block the rays of the moon as it flowed to the Earth. Gilbert felt like they were targets, but he couldn’t say why.

“We’ve been hiking for over an hour, should we stop for a drink?”
Jihu asked.

Gilbert caught Levi’s eye and tapped his wrist. Levi looked at his watch then out in the direction Lyndon was off in. He gave a curt nod and came over to Gilbert and Jihu. “Drink up. I’m going to scout a little further ahead. It’s clear enough that you should be able to see me.” He looked off to his right, where somewhere, perhaps a mile or more away, Josiah and the others were on the hunt. “Have you heard Josiah lately?”

Gilbert and Jihu glanced at each other then at Levi. “No,” Gilbert answered, something very much like dread spreading in his gut. “Jihu, when was the last time you heard him?”

Jihu sucked on his lips for a second then released them, the moonlight bringing a shine to the succulent flesh. “Maybe half an hour ago? I’m not sure. They could be further away from us, though, right?”

“Yeah,” Levi said but worry creased his brow and pinched his features. “I’m gonna try the radio.”

Gilbert checked his phone, unsurprised when it showed no signal. “One day I’m going to get a satellite phone, or at least one with better connectivity than this piece of shit.” He scowled and stuffed it back in his pocket. “Did you drink?”

Jihu shook his head and dug a water bottle out of his pack. He handed it to Gilbert then got another for himself. “You, too.”

Gilbert almost choked on his water when he glanced at Jihu. Just seeing his mouth around the opening of the bottle, and the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed, sent all kinds of dirty thoughts into Gilbert’s head.

Jihu sputtered and coughed, splattering Gilbert with water. “Don’t do that,” Jihu wheezed. “God, you’re going to make me drown myself!”

“Sorry.” Gilbert grinned and took another long sip.

“Where’s Levi?” Jihu asked.

“Shit.” Gilbert capped his water and looked in the direction Levi had headed. He saw nothing but more of the singed and burnt forest. “I thought he was going to contact the others.”

Jihu looked around, rotating slowly in a circle. “Maybe he had bad service? It’s hilly, he might not have been able to get them, or they could be out of range. Or we could…be… Oh. He’s there, with Lyndon.”

Gilbert’s heart nearly pounded right out of his chest as he saw Levi, almost completely hidden by several tumbled-down trees. Levi was petting Lyndon, and while that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, Gilbert couldn’t blame him. Besides, there were no helicopters, and he heard no one other than Jihu, and now that he could focus on it, the low timbre of Levi’s voice.

“Should we leave them alone for a few minutes?”

“Until we finish our water,” Gilbert told Jihu. “Drink up, and try not to be so sexy doing it this time.”

Jihu, the little minx, licked his lips as he fluttered his lashes at Gilbert. “I’ll try,” he purred, and Gilbert’s cock thought that meant it was time to get down to business, growing erect in a matter of seconds.

“Great. Now I get to run around with a hard-on,” Gilbert snorted, because while it wasn’t comfortable, it was worth it to see Jihu light up like he did. He drank his water and when they were both done, they headed over to Levi. Lyndon was a dozen feet ahead, sniffing at the ground.

“He said he can catch a whiff here and there of the occasional animal, but mostly everything just smells burnt.” Levi sighed and stretched. “Let me try Oscar. Lyndon didn’t seem concerned. He thinks Josiah is keeping his howling to a bare minimum for safety reasons.”

“Makes sense,” Gilbert said, hooking an arm over Jihu’s shoulders. It was a muggy night, and they were both a little sweaty, but Gilbert knew Jihu wanted the physical closeness, too. “The closer we get, the more quiet we’ll need to be so as not to wind up on the wrong side of someone.”

“Yeah,” Levi spoke quietly into the radio and his entire posture relaxed when Oscar answered his call. They were, as Lyndon had thought, keeping quiet. Josiah had caught a hint of shifter scent, and Esau had split from the group to track it down.

“Should he be off by himself?” Jihu turned worried eyes to him.

Gilbert hitched a shoulder up and let it back down. “Esau…I don’t know him as well as I do some of my other cousins, because Esau’s almost ten years older than me, but that also means he’s wiser and more experienced, and don’t let his easy-going demeanour fool you. I think he’s pretty vicious under there, although I have nothing to back that suspicion up.”

“He throws a fucking vicious punch,” Levi grumbled. To Jihu, he said, “Esau has a past. Don’t know what it is, because no one talks about it. But he was gone for six years or so, I think. Came back to Colorado in twenty-ten, and if anyone knows what he was off doing, it’d only be Grandma Marybeth. Esau’s folks passed away when he was barely eighteen. That’s about all I know. Oh, and he hits like a fucking freight train ploughing into you, over you, whatever. He’s a beast. So yeah, he’s gonna be okay.”

Jihu’s eyes were huge and Gilbert bent to kiss his soft lips.

“Aw, come on you two, enough of that.” Levi popped Gilbert’s ass and snickered.

Gilbert flipped his cousin off and kept his arm on Jihu’s shoulder as they resumed walking, until eventually the way became too narrow. Gilbert dropped back a few steps behind Jihu, keeping him between himself and Levi. That niggling feeling of something bad coming had reared up again and Gilbert’s spine itched with the sensation.

He tried to peek unobtrusively over his shoulder, because the way the wind was blowing, if he didn’t hear someone come up behind them, he sure wouldn’t catch their scent. As far as he could tell, no one was tailing them. But the feeling didn’t cease, in fact it grew stronger and Gilbert sped up until he was all but stepping on Jihu’s heels.

“Why are you trying to hide it from me? I can feel how worried you are, it’s leaking out of you like water running through a strainer.”

“Because I didn’t want to stress you. I can’t pinpoint any reason for what I’m feeling, it’s just…just there.”
Gilbert glanced over his shoulder again and still saw nothing worrisome. He went back to looking at Jihu’s silky hair and the landscape in front of them.

“We’re mates, Gil. Wouldn’t you want me to share it with you if I was so worried?”

Gilbert sighed internally, because he couldn’t miss the hurt in Jihu’s thought. Okay, he’d been an ass.
“Of course I would. You’re right. I just want to protect you and spare you the shit I’m feeling, and that’s not fair to you or me, and detrimental to our bond, I’m sure.”

“Mmhm. I’ll let you make it up to me after we finish this. Maybe I’ll even mark you again.”

“Oh fuck, Jihu! God damn, my cock is so hard it’s going to drill through my pants! And my nipples—”
Gilbert rubbed his hand over one and bit his tongue to stifle his moan.

“Your nipples?”
Jihu purred, tossing visions of himself biting the tender nubs right into Gilbert’s mind. They were still raw and so sensitive they were damn near throbbing, and Jihu’s input wasn’t making life any easier for Gilbert.

“Stop,” he hissed, now pressing a hand to his groin. If he gave himself a little more pressure, more friction, he’d come.
“I don’t wanna walk around out here with cum-soaked underwear on. I’ll…I’ll chafe.”

“Can’t have that,”
Jihu returned with more than a hint of humour.
“We’ll just have to—”

Gilbert half turned, a roaring in his ears turning out to be something much more—much worse. He heard Jihu’s breath hitch, heard a cougar scream, Levi yell. Everything registered at once, along with the three wicked-looking beasts barrelling at him, and Jihu.

“No!” Gilbert yelled, anger flinging his leopard to the surface. Fear was its sidekick and he screamed as he shifted, praying he’d be done before the three Amur leopards reached him.

Chapter Thirteen

God, they’d screwed up! Jihu spun around and saw them, saw Gilbert’s pained expression as he began to shift. Jihu shouted and he saw Levi in his peripheral vision running, heard Lyndon’s cougar yowling. They’d screwed up and kept the wind at their face instead of at their backs!

Jihu pulled his leopard up and in seconds, he shifted. Gilbert was mid-shift, and whether that was normal for his breed of shifter or not, Jihu had no idea. What he did know was, they were in serious trouble, and Gilbert was vulnerable in the state he was in, half man, half leopard. Jihu’s leopard was small, reflecting his human size, but fear and love made him fierce in a way nothing else could have.

The three other Amurs were definitely not their friends. They growled, a low rumble from their chests, and began to spread out. Jihu wasn’t an experienced fighter, but he knew having one of the bad cats on three of their four sides was a very bad position to be in. Yet he couldn’t leave Gilbert.

Jihu stood in front of his mate, his ears laid back and tail slapping from side to side as his anger grew. Who were these assholes to think they could harm him, or his mate, or his new family? No one. They were no one to him.

Jihu snarled and bared his teeth. He slapped at the leopard in front of him, leaping forward as soon as he felt that Gilbert’s shift was complete. Jihu recognised the scent he caught from this shifter. One of the guards, Kim. He’d always mocked Jihu, probably because Kim had some twisted envy of him.

“Guards.”
Jihu sent the thought as he pulled back to avoid Kim’s claws.

“They’re fixing to be dead guards,”
Gilbert growled in his head, then Jihu couldn’t think anymore, because Kim and the other two guards—Gi and Jin, their scents were faint but recognisable as they surged forward—leapt.

There was no build up, no toying with them. Jihu and Gilbert were attacked, and the ensuing clash of claws and teeth was every bit as violent as it could be. Jihu yowled as he rolled to his back, quickly coming to his feet behind Gi. He ripped down the cat’s side. Then Kim was there, and pain seared Jihu’s shoulder. He hissed and spat and twisted away, hoping the swipe of claws wasn’t as bad as it felt.

But being hurt pissed him off even more, and Jihu didn’t fight his leopard’s impulse. He lunged for Kim, and met him mid-air. Kim’s legs were longer, his body bigger, but Jihu was more flexible and he contorted his upper half so that he could get to the tender, vulnerable underside of Kim’s belly.

Jihu’s intention as a leopard was different than that of his human half. That part didn’t want to kill, but his leopard wanted a swift end to this battle so it could get to its mate. The internal battle cost him, and Jihu missed his chance to stop Kim, either permanently or temporarily. Jihu hit the ground hard, and scrambled around just in time to have Kim slam him back down.

Kim’s muzzle was dripping with saliva, his teeth sharp and deadly as he yowled. The intent to kill was clear in his eyes, and the stink of his arousal was pungent. One of his big paws was pressed to Jihu’s neck, pinning him in place. But—Kim had already forgotten Jihu’s asset.

Jihu rolled his lower half and raked his back claws down Kim’s belly. Deep or not, he didn’t know, he just didn’t want to die, not now that he’d found Gilbert.

Kim’s eyes widened and a pained mewling sound split the air as he jerked back. He caught Jihu’s neck with a claw, but the damage was miniscule, nothing compared to the pain Kim felt as he fell over, writhing on the ground.

Jihu didn’t look to see the damage. He didn’t want to know. He needed to get to his mate. Gilbert was locked in a violent embrace with Jin, both leopards pawing and biting, snarling as they tried to tear one another apart.

Gi was still down, but he was trying to get up. Jihu ran to him and slapped him, paw and claws sending the message—get up, and you’re dead. Gi whined and lay back, blood seeping from his side. Jihu yowled in warning, the only one Jin would get. He didn’t give a crap if it was two on one, he wasn’t going to watch Gilbert die or be hurt any more than he already was.

Jihu growled and came up to Gilbert’s side. He lowered his head and turned his eyes up at Jin. Gilbert tried to push him away, mentally telling Jihu to run, but Jihu refused. What kind of mate would do such a thing, leave his other half to fight?

Gilbert’s anger pulsed into him, not at Jihu, but at their situation. Gilbert had tried to restrain himself, had battled his leopard’s instincts, but Jin was not backing down and the realisation that he would have to kill Jin to end this infuriated Gilbert.

If Jihu could have done it for him, he would have, but just then Gilbert released his inner beast and slammed Jin down. Jin didn’t give an inch, slashing out with his deadly sharp claws. He caught Gilbert’s cheek and tried to lunge up at his neck. Then Gilbert’s angry scream was muffled by the tender flesh of Jin’s throat as he tore at it, bringing the battle to an end, or at least, their immediate battle.