The Runaway Cat (Book 2 Cloverleah Pack Series) (13 page)

Chapter Fourteen

But of course that wasn’t going to happen.  Kane waited until everyone had finished eating before making his move.  His opening comments, directed straight at Diablo, were pitched loud enough to cut through the other men’s chatter.

“Diablo. We haven’t heard a lot about you this evening. We know you are a cat shifter.  What type of cat are you?”
  Kane’s tone wasn’t giving anything away but Diablo immediately knew trouble was coming.  Problem was he didn’t quite know what Kane’s issue with him was so for now he decided to keep his answers short and honest until he knew what Kane’s end game was.

“A mix breed.  Black panther.” Bland tone, bland face, Diablo could play this game all day.  He could see Griff looking at him with a worried expression on his face but for now Diablo focused on Kane.

“So does that make you a big cat or one of the smaller ones?”

“Depend on what you are comparing me too.”

“What mix?”

Crap, Diablo didn’t want to answer that one.  He should have guessed his size could be an issue for an Alpha but as he hadn’t been in this position before, where he actually wanted the pack to accept him for Griff’s sake at least he didn’t quite know what to say except the truth.  “Cougar and tiger.”

“What type of tiger?”

“Siberian.”  Diablo heard Dean gasp and Kane narrowed his eyes. 

It was Scott that spoke up though. “How the hell did that happen?  How did a cougar end up mated with a Siberian tiger in the United States?”

Diablo sighed.  “My mother was on heat.  The circus was in town.  My father happened to be the star attraction.  They fucked in
cat form through the bars and then my mother let my father out of the cage once she had shifted into her human form.  He ran off and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. They were not mates.  Given his size my mother had the one cub, me.”

“So I will ask again.  How big are you?”  Kane’s voice was positively terse and when he saw Diablo raise his eyebrow he added, “in comparison to the cougar and the tiger.”

“Bigger than the cougar, slightly smaller than the tiger.”

“And when compared to a wolf like Griff or me or Shawn here?”

“Bigger.” Diablo looked at Griff who was holding his hand and gave him a small smile before he turned back to Kane, his face expressionless once more. “A lot bigger probably although I haven’t seen your wolf form Kane, nor Shawn’s.”

Kane’s frowning face didn’t let up when Shawn gently put his arm over his mate’s shoulder.  It was though Shawn was trying to keep Kane calm.
  But then Kane changed tactics, or so it appeared.

“And this mating thing with your mother and father?  Is that common among cat shifters? To fuck and leave?”

“My mother and father were not mates.  They fucked once.  No claiming involved. When my mother let my father out of his cage she didn’t expect him to stay and he didn’t disappoint. Unless they find their true mates’ cats are solitary creatures and prefer to be on their own.”

Kane leant forward and leaned his arms on the table pointing a finger at Diablo. “You claimed Griff and then you did a runner too.  Isn’t that just the same, fuck and leave?” The anger in Kane’s voice was evident to everyone in the room. Diablo closed his eyes for a second as he felt a wave of sadness from Griff come washing over him.  He just wanted to get up and punch the living shit out of Kane for hurting Griff.  But then he would b
e just as bad and as angry as Kane was. He wasn’t going to hurt Griff no matter what Kane said.

Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm.

“You know the story about what happened with that Kane.  I know that Griff told you.  I’m not about to discuss any aspect of what I do in my undercover life with you or the impact it might have had on me or Griff.”  Diablo could tell his anger was starting to show and he quickly reined it in and tried a more reasonable approach. “Doesn’t it say something that I came back and Griff is happy that I am here?”

“Yes but for how long?” Kane was growling now.  “You claimed Griff.  You obviously won’t let him claim you
being as you are the stronger animal and all.  So you are free to come and go as you please?  Do you know what it does to a wolf without his mate, cat?  Do you?”

Diablo knew that Griff was going to say something and he squeezed Griff’s hand to keep him quiet.  For the moment this was between Kane and Diablo.

“Yes I do.” Diablo kept his voice soft trying not to antagonize Kane any further.

“Do you?  Do you really? Griff will be in pain.  In a short time he will get sick and then he will die in pain.  And because you cats are ‘solitary’ creatures you won’t even care.”  Kane was shouting now and every one at the table was looking at him stunned. 

Diablo knew it was time to make a strategic exit before his own anger escalated this argument into a physical fight. For all his anger Kane really cared about Griff and this was something the pack had to sort out for themselves.  Even if Diablo promised Kane that he would never leave Griff, which he had already promised Griff himself, he knew the Alpha would not believe him.  Not in the mood he was in.  He stood up and stepped away from the table.

Griff stood up to go with him and Diablo stopped him. He stood close to Griff and pulled Griff’s head down so they were looking at each other and for a moment no one else existed.  Diablo could see the anguish in Griff’s face and his gut twisted at the thought of being the cause of that pain.

“No Griff honey,” he said in a voice soft, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “You need to stay and sort things out with your Alpha and your pack.  I told you I won’t stop you having anything to do with them and I meant it.”

Leaning his head forward so their foreheads were touching Diablo reached Griff through their mind link.

I have to go honey or this will get ugly and I don’t want to fight your Alpha or your pack. It will hurt you. You need to stay and make things right so you don’t lose your pack.

I am coming with you. I don’t want you running off where I can’t find you. If the pack won’t accept you then they don’t accept me either.
Griff’s inner voice was firm.

I am going home, to our home. Is it okay to call it our home?

Griff nodded, a quick grin flashing over his face at Diablo’s thoughts.

I will be there
waiting for you when you are done here.  I promise. Don’t break your bond with your pack over this.  They just don’t understand that when a cat shifter mates it is as permanent, if not more so than anything a wolf shifter goes through. And I…I am too angry to explain it properly right now.

We can both talk to Kane - we can get him to see we are the same as him and Shawn.

He isn’t going to believe anything I say right now my lover.  You know that.  But he will believe you.  So please honey, stay here and make the peace.  It will be easier for you to do if I am not in the room stirring all Kane’s Alpha blood.

What about my Alpha blood? That is pretty stirred up too.  He had no right to attack you the way he did. You are my
mate in every sense of the word and I am bloody angry at the way Kane has treated you.

But he is still your Alpha, Griff honey.  You need him in your life just as you need this pack.  You don’t have to lose me over it and I won’t have you losing them.  Now let me go hon and I will be waiting to stir your Alpha blood myself in a different way when you get home.

Up against the wall?

That’s just one way I can think of easing your tensions lover
…

Both men smiled at each other and then Griff walked with Diablo to the door.  As they got there, Kane called out, “Griff we haven’t finished here,” his voice still as angry as ever.

Griff looked back at Kane his eyes flashing and his mouth set in a harsh line. “Give me a bloody minute,” he snarled. His Alpha power snapped through the room like a whip. Kane backed off surprised.  Griff had never spoken to him like that before.

As Diablo went to go out the door, Griff pulled him back towards him and bent his head down to give Diablo a scorching kiss, his hands pulling at Diablo’s behind to
hold their bodies as close together as possible.  Diablo relaxed into the kiss, flexed his body into Griff’s and wound his hands in Griff’s long hair, letting Griff have his way.  Long moments later Griff pulled back and let him go.  Diablo gave him a saucy wink and headed down to the truck.  Stripping off his clothes he put them on the hood of Griff’s truck and then he shifted and padded off, his black cat form disappearing into the darkness.

Griff stood by the door for a minute longer, pushing away his intense feelings of
arousal for his mate and called on his anger that had been festering since Kane first opened his mouth instead.  Then he slammed the door shut and stalked over to the table.

“How dare you treat my mate like that.  How dare you.”
  Griff roared he was so bloody angry.  In that moment it didn’t matter that Kane was his Alpha.  It didn’t matter that they had been friends virtually their whole life.  All that mattered was that Griff was a man defending his mate and that was a powerful thing to see. Griff positively bristled with anger and his power crackled off him and bounced around the room.

Kane didn’t back down
in stance but his voice did soften.  Griff was his best friend after all.  “I had to know about the cat, Griff.  You know that.  I am the Alpha here and I have to know what I am dealing with for the safety of the pack.”

“The cat’s name is Diablo.  He is my mate.  That is all you have to know.  He has every right to be accepted into this pack on that basis alone.”  Griff wasn’t backing down.

“Look I had to know about his size because I had to know if I could fight him.  And I was trying to get him to understand that he has to stick around with you now he has claimed you because I don’t want to see you hurting.  Griff you are my oldest friend, surely you understand that.”

Griff shook his head as he pictured Diablo’s gorgeous cat form.  There is no way Kane could take him - it would be pure luck if the whole pack could with the exception of Shawn.

“So you decided the best way to convince him to stick around was to attack him, ha?  Was that a really good idea?  Shit Kane, Diablo could take you or me in a heartbeat as a cat.  He is fucking near four hundred pounds of pure muscle. He is the most amazing bloody cat I have ever seen.  It would take the whole pack, or Shawn’s magic to bring him down and even then it would be 50/50 for the pack at least.”

“
He left.  He backed down.  He obviously didn’t think he could take me or he would have challenged me.”  Kane’s voice was so smug, Griff just wanted to hit him but before he could say anything, Shawn spoke up and he was talking to Kane.

“You know my lover, for an Alpha, you are pretty dumb sometimes.”  Kane looked at Shawn in shock.

“You were so busy making this is a size pissing contest that you didn’t notice some really important clues about Griff and Diablo.”  Now both Kane and Griff were waiting for Shawn to elaborate, as were the other men who up until now had been silent as the anger had raged around the room.

“Diablo left because he was getting really angry at you Kane.  He knew that what you were saying was upsetting Griff and he was seriously pissed when he stood up from the table.  He didn’t fight with you because he knew that would hurt Griff all the more.  He trusts his mate enough to let Griff stay here alone and fix a bond with
his pack even though the Alpha clearly doesn’t want his mate around. He did that for Griff. He took himself out of the equation so that you, Kane, would calm down.”

Kane sat silently for a moment thinking over what Shawn had said.
Then he looked up at his oldest friend who was still angry and in mate protection mode.

“Look Griff, I don’t know what to say.  I was just angry because I knew he claimed you and then left you.  I know he came back
but you had to go and get him. I also know that cat shifters are loners.  They don’t do pack and they don’t do mates.  You wouldn’t be able to claim him…”

Griff sat down.  “Actually I have. Claimed him that is. Not that it is really any of your business.  And for your information the bond between true mates with a cat shifter is more intense than anything a wolf might experience.  Yes we are in pain if our mate leaves but we do have the pack support to help us through it.
It’s not automatically a death sentence. You said yourself cats are solitary creatures.  If something happened to me, Diablo would be totally on his own and would probably be dead within a month.  He wanted to be part of this pack for my benefit, not his and you basically turned him down.”

“You have claimed him?  Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because frankly with your attitude there was no point. And it really isn’t your business. You had a hate on for the guy from the moment you saw him at Claude’s.  So what is your real problem Kane?  You just don’t like cats or is it Diablo specifically?”

“I don’t have a problem with cats.  It’s just Diablo’s…”  The rest of what Kane had to say was lost in a mumble and Dean piped up, “What was that?”

Shawn laughed and ran his fingers down Kane’s face.  “He said that Diablo is just too damn good looking for his own good.  Its okay lover, I think he is gorgeous too.  Who wouldn’t think that with all that blond hair and long muscles that Diablo’s got going on?  God, combine that with the whole black clothes look, tight jeans, tempting package and his ‘don’t fuck with me attitude’ and even I would be tempted.”