Shadow Of A Mate (2 page)

“Of course. I’m sorry,” she apologised with a wince before making her escape to see to other patients in the full hall.

He watched her go and the second nurse didn’t say anything, just returned to the sentry position at the edge of the curtain area of Nikko’s bed. Far enough away not to be obtrusive and not too far away as to be unable to keep a sharp eye on his brother’s condition.

Kyle stopped beside his mother and crouched so he was at her eye level. “Why don’t you brush his hair like you used to do mine when I was little, Mam?”

He handed her the brush then went around to the other side of the bed. Before he gave it any conscious thought, he started telling Nikko about some of the stupid things he’d gotten up to when he was younger as he held his brother’s hand, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed.

After a minute he saw his mother do as he’d suggested, gently passing the brush through the black hair. Nikko’s hair was lighter than his and his mother’s and it looked like it might have a slight wave to it as well.

Papa stepped forward to perch on the edge of the bed and gripped Nikko’s knobbly knee. Even through the heavy knit blanket Nikko’s body looked thin and frail. Papa joined in with Kyle’s stories, adding how he and Mam had reacted to the times Kyle had misbehaved and gotten into trouble. Most of the stories were of times where he’d done something really stupid, but could look back on it now and laugh.

The stories included when he’d broken his arm jumping off the roof to prove to Mack and Tryst that cats did so land on their feet. What he hadn’t counted on was the fact that although he did in fact land on his feet, it was a big house, he was seven and the ground was hard.

He lost count of the stories, but when the beeping slowed more Kyle looked at the monitor, tears blurring his vision.

One beep, two...then nothing. The beat counter finally stopped counting.

“No!” Mam screamed out and collapsed onto Nikko’s body, clutching Nikko’s hand to her cheek as she cried.

Swallowing hard, Kyle focused on the monitor as the nurse came forward and quietly disconnected the machine so the flat tone ceased to sound.

His brother was dead.

Other people, pack members and shifters who dragged themselves out of their own beds gathered around them and formed a mourning circle.

Nikko’s nurse detached the drip and the other wires before she melted away into the background again, only stopping long enough to put a hand on his shoulder briefly. “You did a very sweet thing, Mr. CathFawr.”

Kyle blinked up at her, feeling lost. “I just wanted him to know he was loved.”

Kyle was in a bubble of muffled sound as Kane ran back over to him, crying. He hugged the cub, purring to try and soothe him, but he was numb again. Nothing but the shattering realisation that his brother was gone processed through his mind.

He heard someone coming closer, but didn’t turn around.

No doubt it was one of the medical staff coming to see to the machines or someone wanting to offer their condolences. Kyle wasn’t in the right mind to deal with either.

Neither was his mother. Papa picked her up and put her on the bed, letting her curl around Nikko just as her jaguar would have if she wasn’t too upset to shift.

The footsteps paused and Kyle turned around just in time to see a large male shifter leap at his father and take him to the ground. Papa snarled and instantly reacted to the challenge. Kyle pushed Kane toward his mother and she got off the bed to take him, the tears instantly dried on her face and her jaguar’s protective instincts came into play. Mam would protect Kane like her own cub.

Amazingly brave, Kane shifted into his puma form and hissed at the shifter fighting Papa.

Kyle stepped toward the fight, filled with fury at this happening now, here of all places, but restrained himself and denied the urge to attack. There was no way he’d be able to control himself right now in a fight.

If Kyle interfered then the shifter could argue unfair challenge. It would also make his father look weak. The inner circle and the shifters close to them—pack mates—wouldn’t care, but the others, especially the new ones could come to doubt Arthwr as an alpha. That could be dangerous.

He couldn’t catch sight of the challenging shifter’s face, but he recognised the male’s scent. It was the black lion from the Moonlight Mountain pack. Rogo. Rogo had followed his sister here for treatment and to repay the debt the shifter insisted he owed Jay.

How could he turn on them after that? Kyle’s jaguar enjoyed a fleeting moment of satisfaction as his father shifted quickly and swiped at Rogo. Papa was damn big.

Papa’s betas, Cash and Damian, ran into the room closely followed by other high ranking shifters in the pack. They created a circle around the fighting males, acting as a protective barrier to keep the pack away from them in case someone got hurt.

Rogo swiftly initiated his shift as well and Kyle cursed as the large man morphed into a massive lion with fur as dark as midnight. A few of the injured shifters they’d rescued clambered out of bed and somehow summoned the energy to shift. Kyle thought they’d come to defend Arthwr, but they didn’t.

The smaller ones wriggled through to the front of the crowd and sat at the edge of the circle.

The wolves howled softly and the felines hissed and yowled.

When Damian lashed out at Rogo’s hind quarters one of the hurt shifters spat at the beta as if he were the bad guy in all this. What the hell?

Kyle focused back on the fight as Cash calmed Damian and the fossa shifter. The anger inside him simmered, but the logical part of his brain pointed out something that made him pause. Rogo’s attacks and strikes weren’t landing as hard as he knew the lion could hit. Why wouldn’t Rogo fight to his full ability when the shifter was the one that started the fight?

He noticed the exact moment Arthwr realised this, too. Kyle’s father delivered a powerful, open pawed smack to Rogo’s head and the lion went down. His father used the opening to shift back and stand up, towering over Rogo.

“Why challenge me?”

Rogo rolled to his paws, but made no move to attack again.

If Kyle wasn’t watching closely he’d have missed Rogo darting a look at something behind Arthwr. The black fur receded into smooth dark skin. Since Kyle was mated, the sight of the naked man did nothing for him but he heard the small appreciative gasp from his beta coming from his left.

He looked where Rogo had and couldn’t see anything the lion could be concerned by. But the circle surrounding them was now three or four shifters thick and he couldn’t see all the way to the back from where he was.

“I yield,” Rogo said dropping his head in submission.

Kyle stepped forward and to the side so that he could get the same line of sight as Rogo, but he still couldn’t see anything of consequence.

The injured shifters forced their way through the circle and surrounded Rogo, taking a few clawed swipes from some of the other pack members that had entered the hall to see what the commotion was about.

Things were getting out of control.

Arthwr was a good alpha. Kyle may be bias, but he knew the rest of the pack felt that way, too, especially the ones that had come from packs that didn’t have good alphas.

But that protective instinct was heightening the tension in the room and exciting peoples’ beasts in the wrong way. It would only take a spark to send this into a riot.

One of the hot headed shifters, a jackal, backed into Mam and almost knocked Kane out of her arms. Kyle was at her side in a shot, snarling at the shifter.

Holding Kane in her arms, it appeared Mam was holding the small puma back. Kane was brave for a cub, protective, too. He’d fit in well around here.

The jackal went to snap at him before realising who it was. Being an alpha’s son gave him a respected position in the pack.

Actually being an alpha in his own right, even one not fully matured yet gave him even more. The only person that was more dominant than him was his father now. A few months ago Beta Cash and Beta Damian were more dominant, too, but mating with Jay had forced him to grow up a little more. He still hadn’t come fully into his alpha power yet, but his jaguar had made certain they were able to take care of Jay when it came to other shifters. Kyle’s cat was fixed on becoming a good mate for Jay and to his jaguar that meant being able to beat the bigger, badder shifters.

If it came down to it Kyle was reasonably sure he could beat anyone in this pack and any neighbouring pack in a challenge. All except the alphas of course.

The jackal blanched at his mistake and shrank back with a whimper.

Kyle growled at any other shifters that came too close and Kane copied him, the little feline hissing at them as well. He turned his attention back to his father, waiting to see what would happen next.

Arthwr walked over to Rogo and tapped the shifters neck to acknowledge and accept his submission. “Why did you attack me?”

The pack around them fell silent, wanting to know the answer as well.

Rogo lifted his head but Kyle saw the lion shifter was careful not to move suddenly as he stood. “I was asked to clear a path for one I owe a great deal. He said he could not explain, only that he needed everyone away from the young jaguar’s bed.”

Kyle spun around and his feet were moving before he processed everything Rogo had said.

His heart stopped as he saw a shirtless elderly man bent over his brother, leaning on him. What the fuck? His jaguar bellowed out his fury at being tempted from Nikko’s bedside.

Kyle and his father raced over, Mam and the others right on his heel. As he got closer he scented the stench of witchcraft. No witch was going to dishonour his brother. Kyle couldn’t protect him in life, but he was damned if he was going to fail in protecting Nikko now as well. Nikko would have a pack burial befitting a beloved alpha, he and Papa would see to that.

“Get away from him.”

Straightening to his full height, he didn’t fight the half shift as his hands became feline, great claws extending from his fingertips. The closer he got the more the unnatural, evil smell clouded his senses. The hairs on the back of his neck rose and it felt as if someone had scraped their hand the wrong way up his fur.

Dark magic.

Reaching the bedside a split second before his father, he took the opportunity to rip the man away from Nikko’s body.

Some weird light emanated from the man’s body, but it diminished like someone extinguishing a candle when Kyle took hold of the older man. The man turned in his arms and reached out as if to touch Kyle’s face, but he pulled back before the wrinkled hand made contact.

Strange people touching him set his teeth on edge, it was an alpha thing. Even if it wasn’t, the stench of dark magic clung to the man like a cloak. He showed his teeth in warning at the stranger.

Deep sorrow crashed over him like a wave, but he had no idea where it had come from. All he knew was that his jaguar cowed, his claws retracting and the weight of grief and sadness doubled in his heart.

Shaking his head to clear it, Kyle reminded himself that good people didn’t smell of dark, evil magic. He growled, curling his upper lip. If he was in his other skin right now, his ears would be pinned back to his skull and his tail would be puffed up.

What kind of trick was the old man playing?

Kyle pushed the man away from him, his cat hissing at coming so close to something evil.

All of a sudden the strength seemed to fail the man and he fell. Kyle caught him by reflex but the man was a deadweight and Kyle didn’t want to hurt him. Why, he didn’t know.

They sank to the floor, and Kyle automatically reached for and hauled the magic wielder into his lap. He gazed down at the man, frowning. Why was he familiar?

Just seconds ago he was intent on ripping the intruder limb from limb, but despite all the concrete facts that the man’s scent shouted evil, Kyle didn’t want to believe it. Something just wasn’t right.

Papa crouched at his side, sniffing just above the magic wielder’s head before flinching back with his lips parted, displaying inhumanly sharp teeth. “Dark magic.”

“Yes,” he answered.

His father must have picked up on some of his apprehension and confusion because the alpha jaguar faded and Papa fell into father mode, looking at him in concern. “What’s wrong?”

So many things. But none he could adequately put into words so Kyle shook his head and took another deep breath, trying to scent beneath the magic. Unfortunately, the bitterness of evil was all he could smell. That and blood. The old man’s chest was covered in it, most of it dried and brown.

“So brave for one so little,” Rogo said, awe clear in his voice as the lion shifter stared at the old man in Kyle’s arms. Rogo must have gotten up and come over whilst Kyle was holding the old magic wielder.

Kyle stared up at Rogo uncomprehendingly. Until a sickening realisation began to stir in his gut.

One I owe a great deal...

Jay. Rogo was talking about Jay.

Kyle swallowed past the bile in his throat and looked at the elderly male lying in his lap. He quickly stuck his nose into the crook of the man’s neck and drew in a deep breath. The stench of something unnatural and evil wasn’t coming
from
the man. It was something
inside
and on top of the man, tainting him. Killing him.

With a shaking hand he reached up and tilted the man’s head to the side so that he could see his neck. Even as his eyes focused on the mating bite there, the one his jaguar intimately recognised, he knew what he’d done.

If he looked past the grey sparse hair and wrinkles, the bloody wounds in the man’s chest and thought of how happy and relieved the man had looked moments before Kyle rejected him...he knew that look.

Jay looked at him like that, as if it was an amazing thing each morning when he woke up and saw Kyle beside him. Every morning Kyle saw the same worry behind the smile. Each day he kissed the pink lips that turned up ever so slightly in a smile of wonder when Kyle called him mate
.