Charlie did not like being called old-timer, that was apparent. He shot a glance at Addie but jerked his chin in a gesture that told her to go.
Kendrick had disappeared again and so hadn’t been around for the conversation. The cubs had moved to the wide front porch, the morning nice, playing with the toys Addie had bought for them at the discount store.
She sank down on a chair to watch them. “Where’s your dad?”
Robbie shrugged. “Around. It’s okay. Dimitri and Jaycee are here to watch us.”
“Do they watch you a lot?”
“They take care of Dad,” Robbie said. “So does Seamus, but in a different way. The three of them are—what does Dad call it? His inner circle.”
“I see.”
Addie sank into silence. Robbie, after giving her a puzzled look, went back to playing with the cubs.
Kendrick seemed to be surrounded by people who’d do anything for him. Even Robbie readily looked after the two younger boys so Kendrick wouldn’t have to worry so much. Seamus had come charging out here as soon as Kendrick called to him, and so had Dimitri and Jaycee.
Addie thought about the embraces each of the trackers had exchanged with Kendrick, the nuzzling, the blatant demonstrations of affection. She wondered whether Jaycee leapt into Kendrick’s bed every time he needed to work off some tension. She’d certainly intimated that she was willing.
All three Shifters had given Addie assessing stares, wondering how she fit into Kendrick’s world. Temporary aberration? Lover? Babysitter? Seamus had been kinder, but Seamus was now in love with a human woman and likely understood better. Not that Addie herself knew what she was to Kendrick.
Dimitri bounded out onto the porch, evidently done with kitchen work. The cubs greeted him with glee.
“Uncle Dimitri—will you play big bad wolf for us?” Robbie asked him.
Dimitri growled. “I’m already a b-big . . .” He struggled with the next word, and gave up. “Wolf. Mean.” He curled his fingers like claws.
The cubs laughed. “Do it, Uncle Dimitri.”
Dimitri glanced at Addie and actually blushed. “C-can’t be s-stripping down in front of Addie.”
“Addie can turn around,” Brett said. “Come on, Uncle Dimitri.”
Addie rose. “I’ll go inside. Just be careful.”
All three boys cheered. They started chanting Big Bad Wolf, Big Bad Wolf.
Addie closed the front door, shutting herself into the dim interior. A few moments later, she heard vicious snarls, and quickly opened the door again.
A huge wolf stood on the porch. Its coat was not the gray or black she expected but a deep shade of red-brown. Dimitri had lowered himself to his belly, and was stalking the cubs, his ears flat, growls coming from his mouth. The boys were pretending to be afraid—Brett and Zane had become tiger cubs, but Robbie remained a boy, scrambling out of the way to come around behind Dimitri and pull his tail.
Dimitri howled in feigned outrage, saw Addie watching, and winked at her.
Addie bit back a laugh and decided to leave them to it.
She left the living room for the back, to make sure the cubs’ room had been put to rights this morning. As she entered the hall, she saw Jaycee just going into the bedroom Addie was more or less sharing with Kendrick.
Addie hurried in behind her. Jaycee had halted in the middle of the room and was looking around with her quick eyes.
“Hey,” Addie said before the other woman could speak. “I’ve heard Shifters have a thing about territory. Well, this is mine.”
Jaycee turned around and gave her a big, false smile. “And that’s fine. I’m just getting the lay of the land. But Kendrick can’t stay in here with you. Not safe.”
“I think that’s Kendrick’s choice,” Addie said stiffly.
“You’re wrong about that.” Jaycee looked her over. “We’re Kendrick’s seconds, his trackers, his bodyguards. He doesn’t need human scent all over him. If he wants a quick release with you, that’s okay, but unless he’s crazy enough to mate-claim a human—and we’d do our best to talk him out of it—he can’t cozy up to you. Too dangerous. Trust me, I’ve been keeping our guy out of danger for years.”
“I see. How about when your compound was destroyed?” Addie said, angry.
Jaycee’s condescending but tolerant look vanished. She zipped across the room before Addie could blink, grabbed Addie by the throat, and pinned her against the nearest wall.
“How do you know about that?”
“Kendrick told me,” Addie said, or tried to say. Hard to talk with a hand squeezing her windpipe.
“He didn’t tell you the whole of it—he never will. We were taken by surprise, we fought like hell, and then we followed protocol. We laid low until he summoned us. Well, now he’s called us, and we take care of him, honey. Get that through your pretty head.”
Jaycee shook Addie, not enough to hurt, but enough to tap her head against the wall. Jaycee released her, strode back to the dresser, and resumed pulling Kendrick’s clothes out of the drawer.
Addie rubbed her throat. “You don’t have to bother with that. I’ll take mine out, instead.”
Jaycee, her hands full of Kendrick’s T-shirts, stopped, nodded, and put the shirts back into the drawer—neatly.
“That’s a better solution. Find a small bedroom away from the rest of us. Don’t worry, sweetie, I don’t sleep with Kendrick without his permission. If he wants you, he’ll come to you.”
Addie fetched the small tote bag she’d bought in San Antonio, stepped past Jaycee, and started putting her new clothes into it. She didn’t say a word, because she knew she’d only start a knock-down, drag-out girl fight, and she was realistic enough to know she couldn’t win. The strength in Jaycee’s hand around Addie’s throat, even with the woman holding back, had told Addie that.
Jaycee moved to the high bed and began to strip off its sheets. “No offense, honey, but I have to wash these. Too much human scent.”
“Oh, you go right ahead,” Addie said brightly. “I understand.”
Jaycee nodded. “Good. I know it’s hard for humans when they first come to us, but you’ll catch on.”
I’d bitch-slap her if I thought I could land it before she broke my arm. Addie swallowed her rage, picked up her tote bag with a jerk, and stalked out of the room.
She found Charlie in the kitchen doing a final cleanup. The dishwasher was running, humming and filling the room with the scent of soap.
“Charlie, will you give me a ride?” Addie asked.
Charlie tossed a last towel into the washing machine in the laundry alcove and returned to her. “Sure thing. Where do you want to go?”
“Home. It’s in Loneview.”
Charlie’s face fell. “Aw, honey, you aren’t going to leave me out here with all these Shifters are you?”
Why, when Charlie said honey did Addie feel warmed, but when Jaycee said it, Addie bristled and wanted to smack her?
“It’s time for me to go. Dimitri is looking after the kids, Jaycee wants to clean every trace of me out of the house, and I shouldn’t leave my sister to cope on her own. I think it will be safe enough now for me to go back.” She’d find a real lawyer and ask Bo to vouch for her if the police went back to accusing her of abetting the shooting. She’d make them realize she had nothing to do with it.
Charlie shook his head. “I don’t think you should run just because that woman is giving you a hard time. Stand your ground.”
“It’s not that.” Addie drew a breath, surprised how much her chest hurt. “If I stay, I will stand my ground, and she’ll break every bone in my body. I need to get away and think.”
Charlie studied her, then gave a conceding nod. “I get it. You’d fight for him but you don’t want to have to.”
“I don’t know what I’m feeling. That’s why I need to just
. . . go.”
“Maybe you should talk to Kendrick first.”
Addie hesitated. She’d been geared up to run, but Charlie was right. She should at least tell Kendrick to his face what she wanted to do instead of simply disappearing.
Plus, she could watch his reaction and see whether he really wanted her to stay or go. Men went on about not understanding women when they were harder to figure out than differential calculus.
“Where is Kendrick?”
Charlie shook his head. “That, I do not know. I saw him go up toward the barn, but that was right after breakfast.”
“Thanks, Charlie.” Addie slung the tote’s long strap onto her shoulder and went out the back door.
Kendrick wasn’t in the barn. The mare had been turned out into the large open corral behind it and was enjoying herself running around, but Kendrick was nowhere in sight.
Grinding her teeth, Addie headed back down the slope toward where Charlie kept his truck at the end of the long drive. She’d sit in the pickup and wait for Kendrick to return from wherever he’d gone, but she wasn’t going back into the house. Not with Jaycee busy trying to eradicate Addie’s scent from every inch of it.
As she went around the truck to the passenger door, a gigantic Bengal tiger shot out from the shadows of the tall cottonwoods and came right for her.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Addie was too stunned to even scream. The tiger was orange and black, had intense, golden eyes, was larger than any animal she’d ever seen, and had her cornered against the truck in a heartbeat. Sunlight glinted from a silver and black Collar around its neck.
“Good tiger,” Addie said. “Nice kitty.”
The tiger’s eyes narrowed but it didn’t move. Addie reached for the door handle of the truck.
Instantly the tiger’s heavy paw was on her hand. No claws, but Addie wasn’t going to touch the truck anytime soon.
. . . There aren’t any other tigers, Kendrick had said. Just the one she’d seen in the parking lot in San Antonio.
“How the hell did you find me?” she asked him.
The tiger growled again, but before it could finish, a black and white streak flashed around the pickup, and a white tiger bowled into the orange one. Both tigers went down in an explosion of dust.
Addie flung her tote bag through the open window of the truck and turned to face the snarling ball of teeth, claws, and striped fur. What she thought she could do, she didn’t know, but just standing there wasn’t going to cut it.
She turned around, cupped her hands over her mouth, and shouted, “Dimitri!”
Addie didn’t need to bother yelling for him, she realized a moment later, because the red wolf was already charging down the hill, followed by the smaller, faster missile of a leopard. Both Dimitri and Jaycee hit the hindquarters of the orange tiger, whose roar rattled the truck’s windows.
Kendrick was fighting hard, giant paws batting, huge mouth opening, ears back, snarls unceasing. The red wolf bit down on one of the Bengal’s back legs, and the Bengal shook him off so hard Dimitri went tumbling. The leopard—Jaycee—darted in, her moves quick and precise.
But the Bengal was fast. He whipped around, swatted Jaycee aside, and returned instantly to battle Kendrick, giving him no time to take advantage of the distraction.
Dimitri gathered himself and tried again, this time aiming to land on the Bengal’s back. Again, the orange tiger whipped around in a lightning-swift move, smacked Dimitri out of the way, and swung back to Kendrick. Dimitri fell to the dirt, landing hard. He tried to get to his feet, but collapsed with a whimper. Jaycee, who’d leapt at the tiger while he’d batted Dimitri, was hit with a giant paw, and went down.
Just as Addie started to go to her and Dimitri, the Bengal managed to throw off Kendrick and get around him to lope toward the house.
The cubs were up there. Addie started running for the porch, Kendrick ahead of her. Behind her, she heard Dimitri yelp again, nothing at all from Jaycee.
Kendrick was one stride behind the Bengal but couldn’t catch him. The only reason Addie reached the porch first was that the Bengal stopped suddenly at the bottom of the steps, and Addie let her momentum carry her around both tigers.
“No!” she yelled. She stretched out her arms shielding the boys—who had all shifted—from the threat of the Bengal.
Addie knew she was completely useless. The tiger could fling her aside as easily as he had Dimitri and Jaycee—even more so.
The cubs and the wolf pup had crowded onto the porch swing, watching with wide eyes. Kendrick used the Bengal’s sudden stillness to land on top of him.
But the orange tiger, instead of spinning to fight, dropped to his belly. He extended his front paws, lowered his head, and huffed through his mouth.
Addie came down one step. “Kendrick, stop!”
Kendrick held himself back from bringing his open jaws down on the tiger’s neck, but he kept his chest on the Bengal’s back, pinning him.
The Bengal huffed again. Brett and Zane peeked down at him, then to Addie’s astonishment, they half jumped, half fell from the swing and padded down to the orange tiger. Robbie as wolf followed more cautiously.
The Bengal did nothing. Brett, the bolder of the boys, touched one tiny white paw to the Bengal’s giant one.
The Bengal let out another breath. Brett touched his nose, his green eyes full of interest.
“He’s not going to hurt them,” Addie said softly.
She didn’t know how she sensed that. A part of her knew that the Bengal could be playing possum in order to snap his mouth over the vulnerable cubs, but Addie for some reason didn’t believe that. The tiger had stopped his charge, had ceased fighting altogether, because he’d seen the cubs.
Kendrick very slowly eased himself from the Bengal’s back. The Bengal remained still, doing nothing even when Brett bit his ear. Zane, encouraged by his brother’s daring, tapped the Bengal’s front paw.
Kendrick shifted into his human form, standing up slowly. “Tiger,” he said, his voice gravelly rough. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
* * *
Jaycee, Kendrick saw when his trackers staggered to the porch, had only been winded—heavily so—but Dimitri had a broken wrist.
Kendrick remained standing over Tiger, his arms folded, while his cubs, growing evermore courageous, started crawling on him. Tiger raised his head and Kendrick tensed, but Tiger only met Kendrick’s gaze without hostility.
Won’t hurt them, Tiger was saying, in tiger. Protect the cubs.
“Get the hell away from them!” Jaycee came panting up, clutching her bare stomach. “Damn it, Kendrick, what are you doing?”
“Leave it alone,” Kendrick snapped.
Kendrick was an alpha Shifter, a massive tiger, for the Goddess’s sake, and neither he nor his crack team had been able to stop Tiger rushing for his cubs. Only Addison had managed to put herself in front of them, to try to keep the giant Bengal from the little ones.
A stupid move. Kendrick glared at Addison. Tiger could have killed her—easily.
Addison scowled right back at him. “This is the Shifter I saw, right? In San Antonio?”
Kendrick gave her a nod. Jaycee said angrily, “You mean she led him to us? He’s Collared, Kendrick. We’re screwed, because of her. What were you thinking? No humans are supposed to enter our territory until they’re thoroughly vetted. Who made that rule? Oh, yeah. You.”
While this was true, Kendrick’s temper frayed. “Addison is under my protection, and when the hell did you start questioning my judgment?”
“When you started thinking with your gonads,” Jaycee snapped. “This is another thing trackers are supposed to do—point out when you’re being an idiot.”
Kendrick snarled at her. If she’d kept her leopard form, he’d have swatted her across the weed-choked lawn. As it was, he kept his
admonishment a very loud growl.
Addison let out an exasperated breath. “Screw this. Charlie, can I get that ride now? You come with us, Dimitri. You need a hospital.”
Dimitri hobbled toward them, cradling his arm, muttering in Russian. He never spoke Russian unless he was furiously angry or in serious pain. The man who conversed in fluent English without an accent couldn’t remember a word of English in extreme circumstances. He didn’t stammer when he spoke Russian either.
Charlie had come around the house to watch from a safe distance. Now he averted his eyes from Jaycee’s very full breasts and kept them on Dimitri’s broken arm.
“I’ll get you some pants,” he said to Dimitri.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Kendrick broke in. “I’ll treat him, and he’ll be fine. Shifters heal fast.” In fact, if Kendrick didn’t set the arm very quickly, it would heal wrong and have to be re-broken by the end of the day. “Dimitri, come here.”
Dimitri moved to him obediently, still cursing in Russian. Jaycee put her hands on her thighs, breathing hard.
Dimitri shouldn’t have shifted—bones were different in each shape, and he might have caused more damage. Kendrick felt the arm, finding the pieces that moved. A clean break at least. He’d be fine by tomorrow.
“Charlie, do you have any bandages?” Kendrick asked. “A splint would be even better, but I’ll take what you have.”
“Lemme see.” Charlie went, in his limping trot, around to the back of the house—not past the tiger lounging on the steps.
Kendrick caressed Dimitri’s arm. “I’ll do it quickly.”
Dimitri nodded. He knew what was coming, but he gave Kendrick a stoic look.
Kendrick kneaded Dimitri’s shoulder and then neck, trying to loosen him, send reassurance. But it would hurt, and any painkiller Charlie might have, short of a hefty dose of tranquilizer, wouldn’t help.
Addison watched anxiously, dividing her attention between them and Tiger. Kendrick dimly wondered where she was asking Charlie to take her, but first things first.
He put firm hands on Dimitri’s arm, waited until Dimitri steeled himself, and then snapped the bones back into place.