Mirror Image Seduction (Feline Shifters of Down Under Book 1) (4 page)

Maggie chuckled again. “Oh, that’s a great story. It has cheetahs and everything. You have to stay so you can hear it all.”

“I knew it! He wasn’t lying!”

Excitement chased away her previous fears, until they stepped through a pair of wooden double doors and the loud chorus of deep male voices stopped as though they were on a switch. Flick, then silence.

Eight sets of golden brown eyes stared at her, all of them belonging to beautiful men.

Lacey’s knees went weak, and Maggie squeezed her tight as she sagged, leaning in to whisper. “Toughen up, love, and you’ll soon be running rings around all of them.”

Maggie lifted her head and continued to drag Lacey toward the large dining room table.

“Everyone, this is Lacey. Lacey, my other seven sons and my husband, Brad Monaghan.”

Nine sons? Bloody hell, as an only child this was so far out of her realm of normal, she couldn’t begin to process it. The older man, the father, stood at the other end of the table before he walked around to them, his brown eyes twinkling with mischief much like Dylan’s had earlier.

“You look like Dylan,” she blurted out, and there was a moment of silence before everyone in the room burst into laughter.

“I sure hope so, Lacey. He is my boy.” Brad’s chuckle was deep and strong, exactly what Lacey had always assumed an alpha male would sound like.

“C’mon, boys, sit down.” Maggie fluttered her hands at her sons, and all nine of them fell into line, or more accurately, into their chairs.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Lacey, and welcome to our home.” Brad Monaghan nodded at her and headed back to his own seat.

“Sit here, Lacey.” Maggie once again tugged her into a chair and indicated to the delicious fair before them. “Don’t be shy now, dig in.”

The men didn’t need to be told twice, all ten of them grabbing at the bowls of pasta and rice salads, forking pieces of cooked meat and sharing around bread and drinks while sliding curious sideways glances at her.

“Here you go.” Ryan exchanged his extremely full plate with her empty one and began filling it. “You’ll miss out if you don’t hurry.”

“Thanks.” Lacey picked up her fork and ignored the interested looks from all of Dylan and Ryan’s brothers. She’d never be able to eat all Ryan had served her, but she’d try. She scanned around the table. They were all well built, tall and handsome. They were a lethal combination for any woman with red blood pulsing in her veins.

Chapter Five

Lacey began eating the wholesome, delicious food, answering the few questions Maggie sent her way. The conversation stayed light, for which Lacey was grateful. At least, until she’d eaten all she could and was about to rest her cutlery down on her plate. It was then, that one of the brothers, a rather cheeky one, looked her way.

“So Mum says you’re a journalist…”

She nodded, heat flaming in her cheeks as every person at the table turned their full attention her way.

“And you’re looking into what happened with that kid Dylan and Ryan saved?”

She nodded again, her belly quivering with nerves yet again.

“So it’s true? That the twins rescued him.”

The smug brother gave her a sexy smirk. “Hell yeah, of course it’s true. It sure as fuck wasn’t the lions. There’s no one else around here that can move the way we do.”

“Max! Language at the table! Don’t think I won’t wash your mouth out with soap just because you’re grown.”

“Sorry, Mum.”

As entertaining as it was to watch a fully grown man cower at his mother’s threat of a forced soap mouth wash, Lacey was stuck on
how
the men saved the boy while appearing to him as animals. And who mentioned anything about bloody lions? Cameron had said cheetahs…

“And what
are
you guys exactly?”

“Max, I don’t think that’s your place…” Maggie tried to interrupt again, but this time Max simply continued on over her.

“We’re cheetahs, baby. Fastest and most agile of all the big cats.”

Lacey swallowed hard as a ringing started in her ears. She’d heard this from Cameron but hadn’t thought it actually possible. She decided that a false bravado was the best tact with this particular brother. She was going to fake it ‘til she made it. Especially since no one else was jumping up to help out. The room had gone deathly quiet.

“Really? Well, Cameron did tell me he was rescued by a couple of cheetahs, but I hadn’t thought it was possible. Did a couple escape from the zoo and this is all a cover up for it?”

She looked around the group of now shuffling, uncomfortable looking males when Ryan reached over and put his hand over hers. “No, wild cheetahs would have hurt the boy. Sweetheart, Max is telling you the truth. We’re shifters, more specifically cheetah shape shifters. We can turn into our feline form anytime we need or want to.”

Lacey’s chest felt tight, and her lungs wouldn’t work right. She forced out a laugh, then coughed a little to clear her dry throat.
Fake it ‘til you make it,
she kept repeating the mantra in her mind.

“Really? I’d like to see that.”

And that was all it took for all seven brothers to push their chairs back and stand up.

“Awesome! Let’s go show her before she changes her mind.”

“May as well get it over and done with.” She heard one of them mutter as they walked past her and out the door toward the front of the house.

Completely overwhelmed, she turned away from the huge men as she attempted to calm her breathing.

She searched out the twins with her gaze, finding first Dylan then Ryan. Their expressions were ones of shock, yet their eyes sparkled with excitement. Dylan’s jaw was set hard, and Ryan’s mouth was turned down a little.

“Where are they all going?”

“Ah…”

Maggie stood up and motioned to the twins to head out the room. “Looks like this is happening regardless of your plans, boys. You two may as well join your brothers. Lacey, this is going to be one hell of a show that you’ll never forget.”

She looked straight at Lacey and smiled gently. “I hope you’re ready for this, Lacey.”

Acid burned in her belly as it churned, but she managed to push herself to her shaky feet.

“What am I really about to see, Maggie?”

She walked next to the shorter woman, her muscles quivering in anticipation of what was to come.

“The other side of my family.”

When Maggie pushed open the entrance door to reveal the front porch, Lacey’s hand flew to cover her mouth as she gasped in shock. Ten large, spotted cats sat or prowled around the space before her. They all had the cheetah’s iconic black tearstain lines on their faces along with lithe, agile feline bodies.

Lacey choked on a scream as her lungs froze in her chest. She jerked back, and her heart began to pound so fast it was all she could hear.

“No. Im…possible…”

She struggled to speak with her dry mouth and her tongue refusing to work right. One of the cats purred and stepped forward, his golden brown eyes making direct eye contact with hers. She gasped again in horror as she recognized the gaze as Dylan’s—just with more gold and less brown than his human eyes. She stumbled backwards and landed hard against the doorframe, pain splintering through her shoulder as black spots formed before her and grew until they eclipsed her vision.

“No…” Her whisper was hoarse as she struggled to get air into her lungs.
I can’t breathe!

Maggie cried out as Lacey felt her body loosen and begin to fall. The world turned on its axis, and she heard a tortured animalistic whine as everything went pitch black.

****

Panicked, Dylan shifted back to human and clothed himself in a pair of jeans as he dove to catch his mate. His knees hit the rough timber of the deck hard, but he ignored the sharp jarring pain that ran up his thighs as Lacey limply landed in his lap.
Phew
. He’d got to her in time. Not wasting a moment, he brushed the dark strands of hair away from her pale face and neck so he could find her pulse point. Pressing two fingers against her throat, he held his breath until he felt what he was searching for, the steady beating of her heart. His shoulders sagged with relief.

“She’s alive, Ryan, she’s alive.”

“Thank fuck for that!”

Squeezing his eyes closed he cradled her against his chest for a moment. He sensed Ryan kneeling before him. Without a word he knew his brother needed to reassure himself that she was okay, that she’d merely fainted. Dylan pressed a kiss to Lacey’s clammy forehead before he gently handed her over to his twin. The moment she was safe in his brother’s embrace he whirled around on a growl.

“Max, you had
no
right! Lacey is
our
mate, not yours. It was our decision on when we would tell her our truth!”

He took a menacing step toward his arrogant brother, who, like all of his siblings, was now in human form. He would pay, in flesh, for harming his mate…

“Dylan! Stop!”

His father’s booming voice cut through the night air like a whip, and a primal instinct took over Dylan’s body and rendered him motionless. That was the voice of his Alpha. It was a tone that no cheetah in their coalition could disobey and one his father very rarely used.

“Max was impulsive with his decision to speak and act as he did tonight, and he will receive punishment. But that punishment will not be by your hand, son. I will not stand for my children fighting with such violence as you intended to inflict on your brother, Dylan. You and Ryan shifted along with all of your brothers. None of you are blameless. Go with Ryan and take your mate home and care for her, knowing that I will handle Max. Neither you nor Ryan will seek any further justice in regard to the matter.”

Dylan whined a little, but he bowed slightly to his father. His blood still boiled and needed an outlet, but he would not go against his father’s orders. Especially since his father was right. He or Ryan could have stood up to Max before they all shifted. Dammit, he was so used to following his older siblings’ lead. But none of them were mated. He and Ryan were the first to find their mate, so they were all in completely uncharted territory. This was going to be up to him and Ryan to work out. He needed to remember that and not allow his brothers to put stupid ideas in his head. He moved to follow Ryan down the steps to their car where he opened the door for Ryan to climb in with their mate, his heart still racing and his throat dry.

He closed his twin and their mate safely in before moving around the front of the car to the driver’s door. Just before he opened it he took a deep breath, paused and looked up to the house. His fury had dampened a little, and he was grateful his father had stepped in. He didn’t want to hurt any of his family. He loved each one of them. He could see now he hadn’t really been mad at Max, but the situation. He would have never forgiven himself if he’d permanently maimed any of his brothers like he’d intended to do to Max. With a heavy sigh he opened the door but froze as he heard his father’s voice echoing out from the house.

“Max, you will spend a full ten days in cheetah form in the feeding yard at the zoo. That should give you ample time to think, and next time you want to come between a cheetah and his mate, you will think twice before you do it. You should have at least discussed revealing our truth to Lacey with the twins before you went ahead and did it.”

A shudder ran through Dylan as he slid into the car and drove toward their home. That was harsh. The feeding yard was what they called the smaller enclosure at the zoo where they kept a pair of cheetahs that were feed twice daily near a platform people could come and watch from. Normally, the shifters never went in there. There wasn’t room to run at full speed and having people oohing and ahhing over them while they ate was downright degrading. Maybe he should have just knocked Max out. It would have been kinder to him. Dylan grinned as he guessed his brother was probably wishing for the same thing about now. He eyed his twin and their mate.

“How’s she doing?”

“Hasn’t stirred yet, but her breathing has evened out and her skin isn’t cold anymore.”

That was good. Dylan let the comfortable silence linger as he drove. In a matter of minutes, Dylan pulled up in front of their house and moved around to open the way for Ryan. Dylan took her from his twin and couldn’t believe how right she felt in his arms. Together, they guided her inside and before long they had Lacey settled on Ryan’s bed.

Dylan stepped away and let his brother take over, standing in the door way with his arms folded over his chest as Ryan gently removed her shoes. He sucked at this stuff.

“What do we do now, Ry?”

Ryan shrugged as he moved to stand next to him.

“Guess we just have to wait for her to wake up. She got one hell of a shock and passed out. Thankfully, you caught her before she could hurt herself, so hopefully she’ll wake up soon.”

He nodded at his brother and sent up a prayer of thanks to his father, grateful for the inherited ability for fast shifting he’d been born with.

“Okay. And what the hell do we do with her when she wakes up?”

Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We need to work out a way to keep her here with us. I was hoping we could make at least a little headway with her before we told her about our truth, but I think we’ve blown that.”

Dylan growled as his anger rose again.

“If she runs from us and refuses to see us ever again … I’m going to make Max’s life hell. Regardless of what Dad said.”

Ryan sighed. “You don’t mean that, and you know it. We’re as much to blame as Max. We didn’t have to blindly follow his lead to shift in front of her. How about you go for a run back to the house and bring her car down here?”

He eyed off his sleeping mate, heat stirring in his groin at how beautiful she was lying on the dark blue comforter Ryan kept on his bed. Lacey showed no sign of stirring yet, so he supposed he did have time to do what Ryan had suggested.

“Go on, I won’t leave her side, and if she wakes up to find you in this mood, it’s not going to help our cause.”

With a snarl Dylan tilted his head until his neck cracked. Stress set off his fight or flight mechanism every time, and man, was he in the mood for a fight. His twin had a point.

“Okay, okay. I’ll go.”

He forced himself from the room then the house. It was hard. His instincts demanded he stay close to his mate, but Ryan was right. He needed to cool off, and Lacey would want her car and belongings close by. Had she brought her handbag into the house with her before dinner? He hoped not. He really didn’t want to have to risk running into anyone tonight. They’d want to talk, but with the mood he was in, he’d be more likely to rip their head off. He valued his family too much to risk that happening.

Standing in front of their home he took a deep breath and looked up at the half moon in the clear country sky. He closed his eyes and called on his magic to strip his clothes and transform him to his feline form.

The moment his four feet hit the ground, he took off at a sprint up to the main house. There was nothing faster than a cheetah going flat out, and he made the distance in no time. He circled her car twice before finally stopping and shifting back to human, his muscles quivering from the run but a delicious feeling of adrenaline pumping through him settled his anger down to a manageable level. He glanced into the car and saw her bag on the driver’s seat. As he opened the door he smelled his mother’s scent and knew she’d placed Lacey’s things out here for them.

He smiled as he opened her bag to look for her keys. His mother seriously rocked. He fumbled around in her bag for a moment before guilt had him clenching his jaw. His mother had taught him better than to rifle through a woman’s handbag uninvited. Just as he palmed her key chain, the screen on her phone lit up with a text message. He pulled the phone out to check who it was. Afternoon had turned to evening, and Dylan wasn’t sure if Lacey lived with her parents or a friend who would be worried about her not having returned yet.