Hunted (29 page)

When I finally leaned back and wiped my mouth with a paper napkin, Matt slid his arm about my shoulders and leaned close. “Are you all right?”

“I ought to be asking you that.” I reached up and cupped his cheek with my right hand. “I’ve never been as scared or angry as I was the moment I realized you’d been shot.” Just the memory of that moment had my mouth going dry again.

“Then you’ve got a pretty good idea how I felt to have to watch you fight that son of a bitch.”

“Since you’ve brought up what happened last night,” Uncle Adam said. He leaned back in his chair and snagged the coffee carafe from off the counter behind him. He filled first my mug and then Matt’s before topping off his own. “Would you mind explaining what happened?”

I didn’t need to ask what he meant. My shifting into a tiger was the proverbial elephant in the room just then.

“I don’t know.” And that was the God’s honest truth. I rubbed my face with my hands. “I wanted to kill Jennings after what he’d done. It was bad enough to finally know for sure he was responsible for my parents’ deaths. I wanted vengeance for that and for having to be on the run for so long. But seeing Matt lying there bleeding was too much. I didn’t care if I died in the fight as long as Jennings died before me.

“Then I shifted. At first I didn’t realize anything was different. You know how it is those first few moments after a shift. You’re there, in the back of the animal’s mind but still slightly disoriented. I realized Jennings was looking at me like I’d sprouted a second head or something but figured he was just surprised by how quickly I’d shifted. It wasn’t until I moved and realized I felt different, bigger, heavier, stronger. Then I saw the different fur and color patterns and the human me turned into a gibbering idiot. Then you were there, Grandma, scratching between my ears. You weren’t surprised, were you?”

She smiled, her pride obvious. “No. Your mother never shifted into anything except a jaguar to the best of my knowledge. But she’d never really been pushed and certainly never like you had been. Even though you’d said you’d never shifted into anything but a jaguar, I had a feeling that if you were pushed hard enough, you might surprise us all.” She reached across the table and patted my hand.

“Matt, I swear I didn’t know.” I looked up at him, worried what he’d think.

“Sweetheart, don’t look so scared.” He grinned and carefully pulled me close. I wrapped my arms around him, careful not to squeeze too hard and hurt his wound. “You’re my mate and what happened yesterday just proves we’re well suited. The jaguar is my predominant shifted form, but I’ve been known to shift into a lion on more than one occasion.”

I shook my head, amazed at my luck. But there were still questions I needed answered and I swallowed against a sudden bubble of nausea. “What about Jennings?” Memory of how my tiger had dragged the dead cougar across the floor only to drop it at my grandmother’s feet returned and I closed my eyes as I focused on not throwing up.

“Stefan took care of the carcass,” Matt said. “He’ll do an autopsy on it and then dispose of it.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“He didn’t shift back after you killed him. That doesn’t happen often. Stefan wants to know why and I agreed. Once he’s done, he’ll make sure the carcass is taken far from here and taken care of. No one will ever be able to trace Jennings back to us.”

“His people?”

“It was amazing how quickly they were ready to turn on him once he was no longer a danger to them. They’ll be watched and they know it. Don’t worry, they’ll not be any trouble to any of us,” Danny replied.

“Is it really over?” Intellectually I knew it was, or at least that it was close to being over. But emotionally, it might take me a long time to believe it.

“It is, or it will be soon,” Matt assured me.

“Some of the other clan leaders will be here for lunch. We’ll be discussing what happened last night and what led up to it. We’ll also start talks about how to make sure it never happens again,” Grandma said. “But, that will only happen if you and Matt get some rest. Stefan was adamant about that when he checked on you two earlier.”

I wasn’t tired, not now, but one look at Matt was all it took to agree. I could see the pain in his eyes. So I nodded and carefully stood. His hand slipped into mine and I waited as he slowly, painfully stood. Even as I slid an arm around his waist, he slid his around mine. We leaned on one another as we moved slowly out of the kitchen.

“It’s been a hell of a week, Finn,” he said as he settled on the edge of the bed a few moments later.

“It certainly has,” I agreed. “And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” I bent and lightly kissed him. As he leaned back, I slid out of the robe, tossing it across the foot of the bed. Then I slid beneath the sheet at his side. We might both be too sore for loving, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t cuddle.

“Are you sure?” he asked softly.

“About being here, with you?”

He nodded.

“More sure than I’ve ever been of anything in my life.” I leaned up and kissed him. “Get some rest. You need to be at your best when the other clan leaders get here.”

“You too.”

I shifted so my head rested on his shoulder and my hand on his chest. This was home, where I belonged. Now it was up to both of us to make sure nothing else threatened it or those who looked to us for leadership and protection.

I’m older than 20 and younger than death and that’s all you’ll get from me about my age. After all, it’s not polite to ask a woman how old she is. I’m a mother, a daughter and was a wife. I’ve spent most of my life in the South and love to travel. The only problem with that is my dog always thinks I’ve abandoned him when I do and it takes weeks to reassure the poor thing and my cat resents the fact I came back before he could figure out a way to kill the dog and hide the body. My house is haunted — it is, really. I swear it. What else explains the table that plays music and the light that comes on by itself? — but it’s mine and I love it. Okay, I’m a little strange. But that makes life interesting.

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