Shadow Mated (Ouachita Mountain Shifter Book 5) (11 page)

Felix stared at her, calmly wiping his cheek and sucking the blood from his finger before giving her an empty smile. “I know,” he said low. “That’s why this is going to hurt him so much, and feel so damn good to me.”

Bailey’s face scrunched in a frown as Gash reached to pull her away. But with no further warning, Felix moved like lightning, yanking her to his chest. One hand tangled in her hair to jerk her head up and the other wrapped around her throat, his claws digging in to hold her still.

Gash, panicked, reached for her, but stopped when he noticed his brother’s claws drawing blood. His hands went to his head, eyes wide and desperate.

Adira felt hers go wet.

“No,” Mirena whispered, glancing desperately to the sky. “Come on… come on…”

If they could just catch one free light to pull from, it might not be enough, but they’d try. They’d try so hard.

Cats hissed and snarled from every direction. The tension was blistering. One thing to set them off is all it would take, and then this would be a blood bath.

“Felix,” Gash breathed, his hands in front of him in surrender. “Please,” he ground out. “Please don’t hurt her. I’ll go with you. You can take it out of my skin. Whatever you want from me, you can have it. Just please… please don’t hurt her.”

Felix’s expression lost all sense of formality, twisting into a thing of rage. “Oh, I can make it quick. She wouldn’t feel a thing. I could slice through her jugular with one flick of my wrist. But there’s nothing fun about that, and you certainly wouldn’t learn your lesson. And when it all boils down, that’s what needs to happen here.”

Gash shook his head, eyes pinned to a furious Bailey while he tried to negotiate with Felix. “A lesson? Okay, alright. I get it. I can’t escape you. I’ve learned it. Please. Let her go.”

“Not good enough,” Felix whispered, his eyes going glassy. Some far away memory made him pause before he continued. “Pops told me to teach you your lessons. That you needed to learn, the way I did. But you never learn, brother.
You never fucking learn
.” His voice had risen to a screech, and he seemed to catch himself, his next words sounding oh so quiet in comparison. “So I’ll have to make it hurt real bad. Worse than ever before. This is the way you will finally learn.”

Gash shook his head. “No, Felix. Damn it, I’m begging here. I’ll do anything.”

Felix lowered his nose to Bailey’s neck while she snarled at his nearness. He breathed slow and deep, his nostrils pulling in with his inhale.

“Oh, yes, Brother. This is going to hurt so bad.” He leveled his gaze on Gash. “Did you know your mate is with young?”

“Oh,” Nastia murmured. “Oh no. No, no, no, no. This cannot be. This cannot take place. This cannot happen. It will not. Can not. Will not. Can not. Will not…”

The shock on Gash’s face was so obvious, the entire clan could see this was the first he was hearing of it.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Felix murmured. “Probably too fresh. But I can scent it in her blood. She carries your young.”

“Bailey?” Gash’s broken voice was all cracks and craters.

“Didn’t know.” She could barely get the words out through the chokehold Felix had on her, and her expression was all pinched with regret and determination, angry tears streaking her face. “Thought it… was nerves.”

Adira could sense the power shifting in the air. Felix had made a grave mistake revealing Bailey’s condition. Now he had a mama cat, a daddy cat, and an entire crew of aunts and uncles willing to tear into him. Adira didn’t have a mother, but she’d been versed in the ways of Mother Nature, and she knew well how fiercely one could defend the innocent.

Even unto death.

And as if her thoughts were prophetic, things came to head quickly.

Bailey shifted. In a puff of air, she became sinewy strength covered in orange and black fur. Claws slashed out at Felix and he jumped back to escape her heavy paw.

Gash shifted, and the rest of the Ouachita clan. The emerging bears made Felix’s eyes bulge in horror as they lumbered forward, swiping at the rangy Alley Cats and sending them skittering with very little effort.

Adira watched Bailey as she hissed and pawed at Felix, but somehow, he managed to keep his hand around her neck. All she had to do was shred his hand. Surely he’d loosen her then. But instead she continued swiping for his head while Gash circled for an open angle to pounce.

“She’s going for a kill shot,” Nastia murmured. “Once to the head would do it, as big as her paws are. Can not. Will not. Can not. Will not…”

“Sisters,” Mirena squeaked. “What shall we do? What can be done?”

“Can not. Will not. Can not. Will not…” Nastia wasn’t herself. This was too much for her right now.

Adira watched the horrific scene unfold, feeling more helpless than she did even before she’d come into her powers. They would fail the Ouachita clan, and in turn, the light, the goodness they’d spent their lives protecting. They’d fail
each other
if she didn’t come up with a solution quick.

Double tiger… double tiger…

Realization grabbed Adira, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it earlier. There wasn’t one tiger. There were two. The power of a second life growing inside Bailey.

Her gaze went to Gash and skidded to a halt. His snarl drew his face up like a man ready to burn his enemies to the ground. Enemies he’d been hiding from.
Hidden dragon
.

Adira looked to the sky.
Bubbling trouble, brewing storm
.

The ancient spell they’d used to conjure Destiny and the rainbow was more than just a spell. It was prophetic.

Draw from the animals, their love is pure
.

She turned to her sisters. “I know what to do.”

But the realization came a moment too late. Just a second sooner and disaster might not have been their fate.
The future is already begun.

Nastia’s gaze was focused on one of the bears. It was impossible to tell them apart, and they both fought the cats with such brute strength. But one captured Nastia’s attention, and just when Adira looked up, a panther pounced on his shoulders as he fought off two others. Using his massive razor teeth, the cat took a hunk out of the bear’s flank as his claws shredded a line of red in the brindle fur. The clearing erupted in a deafening roar, and the cat threw his jaws wide, preparing to go for the throat.

“No more!” Nastia screamed. “I know a way.” She threw her hand forward, extending her fingers like claws. With a flick of her wrist, the panther’s head twisted sideways with a sickening crack and he went limp, falling backward off the bear.

Adira shook her head but no words would come.
Not like this, not like this!

Life was valued above all. Even a life dedicated to evil. It was why the Sorcera had never gone vigilante on the Magei. Life could never be taken, even for the sake of defeating the wicked.

“No!” Mirena cried, but her warning was cut off when a dark magic from above began swirling over Nastia. Around and around it spun until it began to form a funnel, stretching down, down, down.

The shifters fought on, unaware of the storm growing above them. Unaware even that Nastia had killed one to draw the darkness to her.

“
Five hundred and eight. Five hundred and eight
,” Nastia murmured strangely, her voice picking up to be heard over the roar of the swirling cloud above her. “We must circle now, and cast the spell. Quick, before I’m overtaken. Draw from my darkness but filter it through your light. Your two to my one, this will work. Once the spell is cast and Ouachita is safe, you lock me away so I can’t hurt anyone. And then you—
five hundred and eight, five hundred and eight
—find my anchor. If anything can bring me back from darkness, it will be my anchor. If you cannot find it…”

“We will,” Adira screamed over the wailing wind. “I swear it, we will, sister.”

Mirena nodded her agreement, concern stretching her face into a grimace as she eyed the storm above them.

Forming a circle, the three pressed their palms together, letting their energies combine. But it didn’t feel comforting like it usually did. Nastia’s inky power bled over their light just like the dark night sky bled over the stars. There was plenty of power for the #binding spell. And like the sky, more dark than light.

Be the light in the night, the right in the fright.

Always more dark than light. It was just as Adira thought, more power belonged to the darkness. No wonder so many Sorcera couldn’t resist it without an anchor. Power was a seductive beast.

But maybe it wasn’t so bad if you used evil for good intents.

Heed this: give as much as you take, lest the darkness be your fate.

As the three began chanting the incantation, Adira hoped they would somehow be able to resist the pull of the darkness.

Let us not be lost
, she prayed to the mystics, hoping they could still hear her though her light had gone murky.
Let us not be lost
.

Chapter Twelve

Gash’s cat circled Felix just waiting for the moment he shifted. The second Bailey was out of his grasp, Gash was going to shred him to tiny pieces.

Destroy him. Destroy threat to mine and young
.

He twitched, his hackles raising along his spine. His Bailey had a young growing inside her. One he’d put there with love. He hadn’t meant to, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want it with every fiber of his being.

Mason’s words about Magic came back to him…

How much harder do you think he will fight, if it means keeping his mate and young safe?

Gash could answer that question now with certainty. In fact, it focused every random thought and worry into a single, pinpoint of clarity.

He’d fight until every foe was defeated. It would never be like his nightmare. He’d tear them all down, one by one, until his family was safe. And if it cost him every drop of blood, every breath of oxygen… it wouldn’t be too much. Because nothing was too much when it came to protecting his mate and young.

Felix continued to duck Bailey’s hits while still guarding his back against Gash’s impending attack. But he couldn’t maintain his position for long. Not with the storm whipping the wind into a frenzy, and the cats falling away at Ouachita’s attack.

The entire clan was fighting for Bailey. Fighting hard to keep his mate and young safe, and it reaffirmed that Gash was in just the right place. He owed them a life. Owed them everything.

Felix’s gaze darted around the clearing, measuring his time, a wicked gleam in his eye. He’d have to shift soon. He couldn’t battle two angry cats without his own doing the fighting. Gash would take him now, but the claws in Bailey’s neck were Felix’s leverage. Couldn’t risk an injury like that. Their bond couldn’t heal something that mortal, and even if it could, it would endanger their baby. He wouldn’t chance it.

All he could do was wait… wait…

The violent roar of a bear ripped through the clearing, bringing a millisecond stop to the fighting before it all picked back up. Thames. A panther had pounced on him, and was ripping his back to ribbons. Theron lumbered forward, rearing up on his hind legs to help his brother, when suddenly, the cat went limp, falling to the ground in a lifeless heap of sable fur.

A bark of thunder was the only warning before the clouds above began swirling over the marker indicating the spot where the witches stood.

Something was happening. His cat could sense the power in the air that could only be caused by magic. It was so close to nighttime that the sun was already gone. But the witches said they needed stars and he couldn’t see a single one.

His cat crouched low, bunching his hind legs tight, readying to attack. All he needed was a split second distraction, and if his hunch was right the witches were about to give him that.

Wait… wait…

Screams ripped along the wind, starting nearest the marker, animal at first and then changing to human, as the curse began to spread. Werecats all around twisted and contorted, fighting the change that was forced upon them with a gruesome result. Bones rattled and joint came unhinged. Eyes went bloody from strain as they fought hard to maintain their form, to no avail.

Felix whipped his head around, confused. With a swipe of his claws to Bailey’s face, he shifted in one quick blink, bringing his jaguar forward with an angry howl. And as soon as she was clear of him, Gash sprung, landing on his brother and rolling with him to the ground, ripping and tearing whatever flesh he could find.

Destroy him. Nothing threatens mate. Not even blood.

But it was a short fight because in a matter of minutes, Felix transformed to human again and Gash’s claws were slicing skin instead of fur. Not that it would keep him from tearing his brother up as he deserved.

“Gash! Wait.
Stop!
” The voice belonged to Doc, and was sharp enough to make him stop killing Felix. Doc was naked, crouching over Bailey’s tiger. “She
needs
you. Now.”

Gash released Felix and he scrambled away, leaving a trail of red.

Bailey lay on the ground, bleeding heavily from her neck and face where Felix had clawed her. Her tiger rumbled a pain-filled snarl as Gash loped over, lowering himself to the ground to lick her wounds and push his bond at her.

Heal, mate
.
You’re safe now
.

The clearing was growing quiet, and was more human now than animal.

Bailey whimpered, flinching as Gash continued to clean her wounds. Ducking a nip of her teeth when the healing increased her pain, he growled a warning, giving the mating bond everything he had. And when in the next heartbeat, a purr rippled from her throat, Gash knew she was going to be okay.

Good mate
.

He shifted, letting his body return to a man’s, and reached out his hand for her. Bailey’s body changed, and carefully she stood to her feet, letting him pull her close against his chest. The remnants of battle stained her skin. Raw, recently healed flesh discolored her face and neck, but it would heal with time.

Gash pressed her body against his, shielding the vital area where a tiny life grew inside her. As he brought his hands around her back and let one move up to cradle her head, relief replaced the adrenaline coursing through his veins. The witches’ curse had come through. No one was ever taking his Bailey or his young from him. No one ever.

Ever.

He’d make the Ouachitas safe for them always. If he had to promise the witches a fucking kidney in exchange for staying, he would. And the bears… Thames’s chapel was getting moved to the top of the list. And if Theron wanted anymore music shit, he could have it.

Gash turned his head to see Felix stumbling to his feet, wounds gaping and refusing to heal. Eyes wide, he stared down at his own body like it was a foreign object.

He should kill him. It was the smart thing to do. He should break his neck so he could never threaten Bailey again.

A snarl rumbled Gash’s chest, impossible to contain.

But the witches’ fate was worse than any death. Felix and the other Alley Cats were permanently disabled. Shifters trapped in very human bodies. Animals unable to ever run free again. Unable to use their power to hurt others anymore.

“May I have your attention?” Adira’s voice rang through the silence that had fallen over the clearing. The cloaking spell was gone and all three witches were clearly visible, their long dresses flapping in the wind as they stood beneath the fading funnel that dipped from the sky.

“What have you done to us?” Felix hissed, his voice shaking from the absence of his animal’s usual snarl.

“It’s a #binding curse. Your animals are not gone, however, they are trapped within, never to be released again. You have abused your power for too long and now it has been taken from you. You shall live…” Her eyes fell to the dead panther who had attacked Thames. “Except for this one. You shall live, but it will be as a human. With the weaknesses of a human, and...” She tilted her head. “And with the strengths of a human.”

“Are you insane, woman?” One of the Alley Cats spoke up. He held his hand to his stomach, and Gash could see him trembling from feet away. “What strengths does a human have? Without our animals, we’re nothing.”

“There are many,” Adira answered simply. “You only have to seek them out and accept them. This is your way now. Let this be a lesson learned, that you may never again abuse the power you possess. Let it be a lesson to us all,” she said more quietly.

Felix straightened his shoulders, his voice going deadly. “Whatever you’ve done, undo it.”

Adira clasped her hands together at her waist looking like someone straight from the prairie. “I cannot.”

“Do it,” Felix insisted. “Do it, and we will leave and never come back here again.” He glanced at Gash. “We’ll go our separate ways and call it done. A truce.”

“Even if I believed you, I cannot undo the curse. It’s impossible. As I said, you must accept your new circumstances and make the best of them. And perhaps… perhaps someday you can be happy like your brother is.”

Felix frowned hard, his eyes darting to find leverage. But he had none. As Adira said, he was completely powerless against Ouachita and the Sorcera.

He turned on Gash, stumbling to keep himself upright. “I won’t let this go, brother. I won’t let
you
go. You’re a shadow. You can’t escape it. But pops was wrong about you. You don’t need as much training as he thought. If you can do
this
to your blood, to the clan you swore allegiance to… you’re more heartless than I thought.”

Gash clenched his jaw so tight he heard it crack. “I could have killed you. I could have been free of you for good, but I let you live. I should kill you now…”

Felix turned when he noticed his cats melting back into the darkness. Leaving with their tails tucked as any bully does when their power is challenged. To Gash’s horror, Felix gave him his back, and what he saw there twisted his stomach into a million knots. Thick ribbons of scar tissue stretched from his shoulders to his waist to form an S.

Felix had never been so careless with his back. Not with any of the cats, but especially not with Gash. And now, he knew exactly why. It explained why Felix never shifted human before the clan. Neither had pops. Said it was lowly for a shadow leader to show his back.

But that was bullshit wasn’t it.

“Who took your skin?” Gash managed, but he already knew.

The Alley Cats were backing away, scowling at Felix like he was the traitor instead of Gash. And for all intents and purposes, he was. He’d led them into a battle they couldn’t win, and now they would suffer without their animals.

Felix twisted around, his face a mask of frustration and fury Gash couldn’t hope to interpret. “Who do you think? Pops. He made me, I made you. And this isn’t over,” he hissed, backing away.

“
It’s over
,” Nastia boomed. Gash snapped his gaze to the Sorcera, shocked to see her eyes almost glowing with her anger. “It’s well and done. You will do no more damage to these people. And if you ever wish to be redeemed, you’ll accept it now, and be on your way.”

As if her words were a catalyst, rain dumped from the sky in sheets, drenching the clearing and everyone in it.

“Go,” Magic yelled across to Felix. “And don’t ever come back, ya asshole.”

Gash watched his brother duck back against the blackness of the forest, his eyes haunted and promising revenge.

Should have killed him
.

“We’re safe,” Bailey whispered, clinging to him. She kissed his chest, trembling with leftover adrenaline.

Gash nodded, calling over to Adira, “Can he find a way to break the curse?”

She cocked her head. “He can. But it has a built in safety mechanism. The curse will only be broken if his heart finds light.”

“What does that mean?”

“If he turns good,” Mirena clarified. “A changed heart is the only cure for this curse. And if that happens, he would no longer be a threat to you.”

“If,” Gash murmured.

Mirena nodded. “If.”

He sighed, his shoulders bowing in relief. The threat to his family was really over. Felix didn’t have it in him to break the curse, and with it, he was weak.

The clan gathered around the Sorcera, their relief palpable in the air.

“Had me worried there for a minute, Sunshine,” Mason grumbled, smirking at Adira. “But you did good. Real good. Even with all the
manhood
hanging out.”

She pursed her lips in response, and he let out a chuckle.

“We nearly failed,” Mirena muttered. “It was only because of Nastia that the curse worked.”

Gash looked around, taking in the wounds his clanmates wore. They were all beat up a bit, but nothing life threatening. Thames looked like he’d taken the worst of it when three cats had come at him at once. Streaks of red ran down his back, but he seemed more angry than hurt, his face screwed up in a snarl.

“Five hundred and eight,” Nastia slurred, and then collapsed, only missing the ground because Theron was nearby and lunged to catch her.

“Shit,” he murmured.

“What’s wrong with her?” Doc asked, rushing forward.

Adira shook her head. “Nothing you can fix, Doc. She’s battling the darkness. Inside, where her soul is. When she’s fought it as long as she can stand, she’ll sleep. And when she wakes again, she’ll fight.”

“But I thought she had until the September equinox,” Layna said.

Mirena glanced to the sky before answering. “She invited it in.”

“Why?” Thames snapped. “Why would she do that?”

The two Sorcera shared a look.

“She killed the were-panther on your back to save you and draw the darkness to her so we could harness its power for the spell.”

Thames’s jaw went tight and silence fell over the group.

Gash knew the weight of taking a life. None of the ones that bloodied his hands had been innocent—and neither was the one Nastia had taken—but the worth or lack thereof didn’t lesson the guilt.