Panther Magic (11 page)

Don’t, you’ll just make this
worse for the both of you. I’m okay, really.

You don’t look okay, and I want
to kill that fucker.

Zeb’s furious reply made Arran
grin, and Kate’s lips kicked up into a wonky smile.

Trust me, in other
circumstances I might let you, but that would be counterproductive. I might
kick him in the gonads, though if I get close enough.

Arran and Zeb both burst out
laughing, and Kate grinned at them.

“
What’s so fucking funny?” Draco looked far from
amused, whereas the rest of the councilors had grown thoughtful. Cole was
grinning from ear to ear, and Gunnar held up his hand to demand silence.

“
As usual, Draco, you’re completely missing the
evidence right in front of your eyes.” He fixed his steely grey gaze on the
other shifter, and the other man huffed out a breath.

“
What fucking evidence? According to these pictures,
the human ought to be barely walking, yet she stands there mouthing off at us,
with no evidence of any injuries. So how do we know these—” He threw the
pictures on the floor. “These are even real.”

Cole’s bear growled loud enough
to shake the room, and Gunnar sighed.

“
I’m going to ignore the insult you’ve just bestowed
on our head of security for now, and point you to the facts. Ask yourself why
she is not showing any sign of injury now. Come closer, please, my dear.” He
addressed Kate with a kind smile, and after a glance at Arran and Zeb, she
complied and stepped up to Gunnar Anderson.

“
Lift your hair off your shoulders, and let me see
your marks, please.”

Kate complied, and Gunnar leant
forward to pull the neckline of her T-shirt down, until her bite marks were
exposed.

“
So what?
They bit
her. Doesn’t mean she’s this fabled true mate. Just means she was a willing bit
of human pussy.”

****

Okay, that was it. Never mind her
men.
She
was going to kill that piece of scum. Over the rushing in her
ears and the furious growls of her mates filling her brain, she barely
registered the judge’s response. Whatever he said caused the room to erupt, and
Cole’s heavy hands on her shoulders pulled her out of her bloodthirsty
thoughts. She shook her head to clear it, and Cole let go of her. He wore the
hugest grin when she looked up at him, and Gunnar Anderson, too, was smiling at
her.

The
dickwad
intend on harming her men sat staring at her doing goldfish impressions. In any
other circumstances she would have found that amusing, but she was still far
too damn furious. The barely functioning rational side of her did wonder where
all this pent up aggression came from. There was a part of her that wanted to
leap over the tables and benches separating her from the councilmembers and
tear their throats out, one by one. She had the oddest notion of being able to
do just that, but how? She couldn’t shift,
or
could
she? Shutting her eyes Kate let the strange sensations consume her. The air
around her seemed to grow heavier, and her
skin ached as though
it was too small for her frame, yet … damn
it, she couldn’t quite do
what she wanted to do.

Let it go, baby. Just breathe
and let it go.

Yes, little wildcat, this
isn’t you. Breathe … in … out, come back to us.

Her men’s voices in her head
helped her to calm down further, and she forced herself to concentrate on
breathing, and ran an unsteady hand through her hair. She was half expecting to
find there to be claws on the ends of her fingers, and to have sprouted black
fur, like her men, which ought to have been a ridiculous notion, only she
couldn’t shake the notion that she might have done just that.

No, you haven’t changed, not
fully anyway, but fuck me if it didn’t look as though you were going to. I
guess you must have shifter blood somewhere in your ancestry, to have achieved
this much. It certainly explains a few things. I’m so proud of you, wildcat.

The awe in Zeb’s voice made her
feel a foot taller, and she swung round to look at him. The approval she read
in his gaze made her heart beat faster. Arran, too, smiled at her, and winked.

You would make a beautiful
panther, baby, if you could shift completely. And I reckon Draco pissed his
pants.

Kate had to smile at that, and
just for good measure glared at the bloody fool again.

“
Put your claws away, my dear.” Gunnar Anderson’s
amused voice brought her attention back to him. Head cocked to one side he was
regarding her with a certain amount of … was that admiration? Surely that
couldn’t be right, but a quick scan round the room confirmed the same look on
most of the shifters in attendance in this room. A handful scowled, clearly not
at all happy with what they had just witnessed, and as for Cole and her men,
they looked about ready to do cartwheels in excitement.

She suppressed a giggle at that
thought, and her tense muscles relaxed further.

“
I don’t know how much, if anything of my conclusions
you heard, young lady?” Kate shrugged her shoulders at Gunnar’s question.

“
Sorry, I … well, I’m not exactly sure what happened
there, but no, I didn’t hear what you said, sir.”

Gunnar’s smile lit up his face,
before he sobered and then addressed the entire room.

“
Even the most hardened critics will not be able to
deny that this young lady here is indeed mated to Arran and Zeb Harris. What’s
more, considering her almost transformation it is also clear that she must have
some shifter genes. Sadly, it seems too diluted to enable her to shift
completely.” He glanced over at Draco and smirked. “Then again, for some here
that might prove a godsend. We all know how unpredictable newly awakened shifters
can b
e
.”

Draco snorted at that, but
remained otherwise quietly sat in his seat, and Kate had to quell the urge to
slap him, which she supposed was an improvement on wanting to rip his throat
out. Really, that was just far too messy. What had she been thinking?

Zeb’s and Arran’s mental chuckles
filled her brain, and she dropped her gaze to the floor to avoid showing her
thoughts to the judge.

It’s okay, he’s on our side,
baby.

Sure enough when Kate looked up
it was to find Gunnar smiling.

“
As she has demonstrated on several occasions now,
this human, or should that be half-shifter, has established a mind connection
with her mates.”

A murmur went through the crowd,
and Gunnar nodded, while Draco’s scowl grew.

“
No one here needs reminding how rare, if not to say
impossible that is where one part of the mated trio isn’t a full shifter.
Everyone will also agree that a mating such as this should result in strong
shifter offspring that we as a community are desperately in need of. It would
therefore be completely counterproductive to eliminate one or both of the males
in this trio.”

Kate breathed a sigh of relief,
and a murmur of assent went through the crowd.

Draco shot to his feet, and
Gunnar gestured for him to sit back down, which he did eventually after a long
hard stare from the puma shifter.

“
This is not to say that there will be no punishment
for their crimes. Killing a human regardless of the circumstances cannot be
tolerated. Therefore Arran and Zeb Harris are to pay monetary reparations to
the families of the men they killed. I understand they all live in impoverished
conditions, and an anonymous donation will go a long way to help that community
as a whole. Furthermore to avoid any possible connection being made with the
shifter community, Arran and Zeb Harris are forthwith forbidden from remaining,
and returning to the UK for the duration of ten years, starting the minute they
leave this hearing.”

Kate’s mouth fell open, and she
stared at the judge. She wanted to scream and rail at him, but she couldn’t
seem to find the words. She looked toward her men instead, and while they
looked far from happy, they nodded their agreement, and Kate’s world tilted on
its axis.

She would never see them again,
if they were exiled like this. Breathing became difficult, and she couldn’t
hear what else the judge was saying, as the world narrowed to a dim corridor of
slowly encroaching darkness. The last thing she was aware of, before she
allowed the darkness to swallow her, was Zeb’s growl in her ear as he caught
her from falling. His delicious scent enveloped her, and then nothing.

Chapter
Eleven

Zeb cradled his precious burden
to his chest, not caring one iota about his blood dripping to the floor, where
he’d broken the chains around his wrists for the second time. While he had been
reasonably sure that Jackson would have caught Kate, no one else bar him and
Arran was going to lay a finger on their mate again. Besides he would heal
quickly enough, especially with his mate safely back in his arms where she
belonged.

Her horror at the verdict had
soothed his savage beast. She wouldn’t be so shocked and miserable that she
fainted, if she didn’t care about them as much as Zeb and Arran did. This was a
complication, a bump in the road. That was all. Zeb shook his head at Arran
when he stepped up to him ready to relieve Zeb of Kate, having been released of
his own chains by the guards.

“
You’re bleeding all over her. Go, get cleaned up,
and I’ll take care of her, bro. We can’t go to the airport like this.”

Zeb would have argued, but a
quick glance down reiterated his brother’s assessment. Shirtless as he was, he
was leaving a trail of blood on the floor, and while his injuries were already
healing, his jeans were definitely worse for wear. Reluctantly he handed her
over, but not before he sniffed her again. She appeared to be peacefully
sleeping, but she was far too pale for his liking. His brother’s worries hit
him in the gut as he handed Kate over, and apart from snuggling into Arran’s
chest with a small sigh, made no other moves.

“
I wouldn’t worry over her too much. She’s been
through a hell of a lot these past few days, and mated or not, she’s still
mostly human. Their bodies are far more fragile than ours.” Cole stepped closer
to look down on their mate, and smiled. “Judging from past experience with my
mate, she simply needs to sleep and recharge. She hardly slept last night
either, too worried about you.
Emmi
said every time
she fed the baby she could hear Kate move about in her room, so be patient, let
her sleep, and she’ll be just fine when she does wake up.”

Arran nodded, but Zeb was having
none of that.

“
We haven’t got time. You heard the judgment. We’re
supposed to leave straight away.” He glared at Gunnar Anderson, who gave him a
curious smile. Zeb was uncomfortably aware that he owed the older shifter his
life, and thus couldn’t berate him for his judgment. In truth, both he and
Arran had expected far worse.

He tore his gaze away from the
shifter and back toward Kate.

“
I’m not leaving her again.” At Arran’s annoyed
growl, he flicked a glance up to his brother. “I mean we aren’t.”

His panther whined, and Cole’s
amused chuckle grated on his last damn nerves.

“
Who said anything about leaving her? Zach is waiting
out front with the car to take you to the airport, and as well as your luggage
he happens to have Kate’s suitcase. Her passport is on top.”

Cole winked at him, and Arran
laughed.

“
We can’t just abduct her,” he said, and Gunnar
coughed.

“
Gentlemen, you might want to have this discussion
not in my hearing. After all what I don’t know about, I can’t act on.” He
gathered his papers and left, and Jackson punched Zeb in the shoulder and
smirked.

“
Go, get cleaned up. With a bit of luck she’ll rouse
enough so you can ask her, before you make it onboard your jet, but if not…”

He let the words trail off and
simply grinned. Zeb exchanged a look with his brother, and then glanced back
down on Kate. His animal rose with a possessive snarl, and he knew there and
then that she would be going with them regardless. She might well go ballistic
on them when she realized, but then again, there were always ways of
distracting them.

I like your way of thinking,
Zeb, and I guess it’s only
an abduction
if we stop her
from leaving when she does wake up, right?

Too fucking right, little bro,
but I intend on keeping her so busy that she won’t even dream of wanting to
leave us.

Arran laughed, and Zeb grinned
back at him.

“
Go, I’ll meet you at the car. I best go and freshen
up.”

Arran needed no further
encouragement, and when he was out of hearing, Zeb turned toward Cole Jackson
and held out his hand.

“
I’m not sure what you had to do to get this all
arranged in our favor, and I’m sure I don’t want to know, but I’m sure fucking
glad you’re on our side.”

Cole ignored his hand and pulled
him into one armed hug instead.

“
Don’t mention it. Besides the minute I saw her
injuries, I knew you did the right thing. She’s your mate. I know I’d skin any
bastard alive who would dare lay a hand on my
Emmi
or
Gabe.” He paused, and a dark shadow crossed the bear shifter’s face

“
Which reminds me, time to check
out Draco’s connections.
There’s no room for his views on the new
council.
Safe trip, Zeb, and good luck with Kate.
I
reckon you’re
gonna
need it.”

Before Zeb could question him on
that ominous statement, Cole had left the room, and Zeb went in search of the
nearest restroom.

Having suitably freshened up and
donned the clean clothes one of the grumbling guards brought in for him, Zeb
joined his brother and a still sleeping Kate in the back of the car, and Zach
sped away from the mansion. The action caused the assembled pack of hyenas,
which had been sent to oversee their departure, to scatter into all directions,
as he gunned the engine and headed straight to them.

“
Damn fuckers,” Zach mumbled under his breath. “One
day, I’ll make them dance. They enjoy their jobs far too much.”

“
Agreed,” Zeb and Arran said in unison, and Zeb
pulled Kate’s legs on his lap. He instantly felt calmer, holding onto his mate,
and it soothed the sting of jealousy he felt at Arran being the one whose lap
Kate sat on.

“
Stop glaring at me, bro. I’d say we take it in turns
to hold her, but you don’t really want to disturb her and have her wake up,
before we’re safely in the air, do you?”

Zeb shook his head and frowned at
his brother.

“
No, but it shouldn’t be a problem, if she does, does
it? You don’t think she’d object to coming with us?”

Zach coughed into his hand, and a
clear
bullshit
could be heard.

Arran glared at the back of
Zach’s head, and tightened his jaw.

“
No, I don’t think she would, not really, but I’m not
taking any chances either.”

Don’t get cold feet on me now,
bro.

I’m not. I just want to do
this right. She’s our mate, but I’m not sure how she’ll feel about having to
relocate to Vegas permanently. Her whole life is here in London, after all.

Arran hugged Kate closer and
inhaled deeply. It wasn’t like Arran to be this unsure of himself, but then
again, they had never had a mate before, and Zeb knew just how he felt. He ran
a hand over his face, suddenly tired beyond belief.

Neither one of
them had gotten a lot of sleep over the last couple of days, and
now
that the imminent danger had passed, exhaustion was fast pulling him under.

A tense silence fell in the car,
and when they finally reached Heathrow, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Thanks to their status and the fact they had a private jet, check in procedures
were completed in record time. They got a few strange looks when they presented
a still sleeping Kate’s passport, but no one challenged them either, and not
for the first time Zeb was grateful for the fame that came with their job.

It was a pain in the ass at
times, but it sure opened doors and insured them VIP treatment. He just hoped
that Kate would like living in Vegas. They had just accepted a longstanding
assignment at one of the premiere show hotels in the great city. The advance
alone had paid for the hire of this jet, which had made their latest tour much
easier to cope with. Fortunately the performance Kate had attended had been one
of their last ones of the tour, before they settled in Vegas.

Zeb wouldn’t have liked to
explain to their fans or their manager why they couldn’t meet their
obligations. Their agent was one of the best in the business, but the man was
human and clueless about the real nature of their act. It was only their
immediate circle who knew, and they were all shifters like them.

Their rags to riches story had
graced many a magazine cover over the years, and Zeb was fully aware that half
of their allure was the fact that no one could figure out how they did what
they did. Naturally gifted magicians, the ability to use their panthers, and
the other animals their inner circle shifted into, gave them an edge.

One that made them less than
popular with certain members of the council, but that couldn’t be helped.

He pushed the maudlin thought
away, and smiled at the steward who greeted them on board. If the man wondered
why Kate was with them, he was too polite to comment, simply welcomed them on
board.

“
Takeoff will be shortly. I’m afraid for your own
safety everyone on board will have to remain strapped into their seats for
that.” The man briefly glanced at Kate’s inert form, and Arran growled his
annoyance. In other circumstances his brother’s short temper would have amused
Zeb. It was normally him with the too short fuse, but not today. In truth,
Arran looked as exhausted as he himself felt.

“
That won’t be a problem,” he said, and together they
managed to get Kate sat and strapped into the seat between them.

She stirred slightly, and her
mouth fell open as her head rolled onto Zeb’s shoulder. Asleep and snoring
softly she looked utterly adorable, and the wave of affection he felt for her
made his inner animal roll over in submission. Arran, too, grinned, as he took
Kate’s hand in his.

“
I could watch her sleep all day,” he said.

“
Yeah, me too, but I’ll be glad when we get her into
bed. I’m fucking knackered.”

Arran grunted his agreement. When
the plane finally leveled off and the seat belt sign went out, it was with a
certain amount of relief that they all fell into the plush king size bed
located in the on-board bedroom. The brothers stripped naked and having
divested their precious girl of her t-shirt and jeans, slid in either side of
her.

Arran went out like a light, his
nose buried in the side of Kate’s neck. It took Zeb longer to fall asleep, but
eventually he, too, gave into the inevitable.

****

Kate had the strangest dream. Her
men were in there, and Cole
Jackson,
and she was … not
shifting exactly, but she felt as though she ought to. Anger coursed through
her, as a pair of dark eyes taunted her. She wanted to kill those eyes, and the
force of her hatred to the unknown person that gaze belonged to scared her. A
myriad of strange scents and noises assaulted her senses. Car doors slammed,
the low rumble of men’s voices, snatches of traffic, more car doors, and was
that the sound of an airplane?

More voices, the odd sensation of
being lifted, carried, and then plummeting as though she was falling, only she
wasn’t. Softness against her naked skin, followed by the hard, hair roughened
planes of a man’s
embrace
, and then nothing but the
soft drone of an engine that lulled her back to sleep.

Kate jerked awake what felt like
hours later. A dead weight pinned her legs in place, and the soft exhalations
of one of her men’s breathing sent instant tingles of awareness down her spine.
With it came the peace that could only be found by being in the presence of
both her men. Her heart beat faster when she realized that they were indeed
both here with her, wherever here was, and that they were both fast asleep.

Arran’s even breathing tickled
her neck, and it was his leg over hers that held her pinned in place, and on
top of Zeb. His steady heart beat under her ear, and she lifted her head slightly
to study his face. He had one of his hands interlinked with hers, as though he
was afraid she would run away, not that she could move, which brought with it
more pressing concerns.

She really needed to pee, but how
to extricate from between her men without disturbing the sleeping beasts, and
where on earth was she? Judging by the monotonous drone and the slight
vibrations they were on some sort of moving vehicle. Her earlier dream came
back to her.
Surely not?

She propped herself up a little
higher and frowned at her bra and knickers. The men themselves were naked, and
her hormones woke up kicking and screaming when it dawned on her what the hard,
hot rod poking her backside was. She gave an experimental wiggle, and Arran
groaned in his sleep and mercifully moved his legs off of her and rolled on his
side and away from her.

One down, one
to go.
Somehow she didn’t think extricating herself out of Zeb’s
clutches would be as easy to achieve, and sure enough when she gently tried to
tug her hand out of his, he grunted in his sleep and tightened his hold on her.

Kate sighed and giving up for
now, looked around her. They were definitely in some sort of plush bedroom. The
emergency lighting was on, and out of the small oval shaped windows she could
see nothing but black sky.

Oh my God.
She was on board a private jet, that much was clear, and
she slapped her free hand over her mouth to stop herself from making a noise.
She should have known that was useless, because Zeb woke up with a low growl,
and she briefly looked into the eyes of his panther before they bled back to
the color of dark molten chocolate. Her insides tightened in need at the
instant flare of lust, and she lost herself in the smile that lit up his
features, as he released her hand, buried his digits in her hair instead, and
pulling her back down and on top of him, kissed her.