Shadow Of A Mate (8 page)

“God no,” the lynx shot back.

It didn’t faze Mack though, as the man poked his tongue out and pulled faces behind the lynx’s back.

“You’re an idiot.” Kyle smiled to soften his insult.

Mack grinned and wagged a finger at him. “Ahh, but you made me your beta. So who’s the idiot now, mister big bad alpha?”

There was no reasoning with him. Kyle turned away, smothering the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. It would only encourage Mack. And to be honest, Mack did have a point. Several well-meaning people in the pack had come to him to try and dissuade him from naming his two best friends as his betas.

Only his parents hadn’t protested or tried to change his mind by suggesting other, more experienced shifters. They understood that he needed people he could totally and completely rely on. Who better than someone who already knew all your secrets and you knew all theirs?

Rogo stood silent and stoic a few feet away, taking everything in. As far as Kyle knew the shifter had always lived in a pack surrounded by mountains and forestry. Perhaps Rogo hadn’t been to a city before?

“Are you okay, Rogo?” Kyle hadn’t been convinced taking Rogo with them was the best idea, but the lion shifter hadn’t given him a reason to be sorry yet. So he’d try to keep an open mind.

Rogo used to intimidate him, being so big and obviously strong, but Kyle frowned as he realised the shifter didn’t bother him in that way now. His jaguar was certain they were stronger. Interesting.

He was well aware part of his dislike of the shifter stemmed from Jay’s reaction to the man the first time they met in Alpha Maddox’s territory. It was the only time apart from Logan that Jay had reacted to another male. Logan could be explained away because of the attraction charm the wolf was cursed with. And it would be hypocritical to be mad about Jay finding Logan attractive when Kyle had had a crush on the wolf as well when he was younger.

“Are you okay?” Kyle repeated the question when Rogo looked confused.

“I am fine,” Rogo replied formally, only sparing him an obligatory glance.

There was something off. Kyle couldn’t pinpoint it, but something in the lion’s body language was advertising Rogo’s unease. It didn’t feel aggressive or threatening, his jaguar would have felt it if that was the case.

Kyle nodded and moved back to his betas and Logan, casually keeping an eye on the lion. Rogo suddenly went tense as a board, eyes locking onto something and turning gold. Kyle followed Rogo’s gaze. Merrick came striding back toward them, grumbling about money grabbing idiots.

Why would...? Kyle’s eyes flew wide as his nose picked up on the scent of Rogo’s arousal. A quick look back at Rogo confirmed the lion was indeed aroused.

Rogo caught him looking, but dismissed him and returned to watching Merrick with that intense, hungry stare.

He looked away, knowing he was blushing.

Merrick seemed to either be completely unaware or ignoring the whole thing. Tryst caught his eye, casting a questioning look at Rogo before coming back to Kyle. “What’s that about?” Tryst’s voice was too quiet for anyone else to hear but Kyle wasn’t going near that subject. It was just too weird, anyone finding Merrick attractive.

Merrick was, well...an ass.

Sure the shifter had good genes, Jay had them, too, with the blond hair and blue eyes, but that was where it stopped. The scowl Merrick constantly wore didn’t make a great first impression and when the man opened his mouth things went from bad to worse. Rogo being fascinated with Merrick was kind of like someone lusting after the bogey monster.

Kyle shuddered and pushed the thought away.

He motioned everyone together so he didn’t have to talk so loud. “How are we going to get out of the city?” Now that Kyle had seen what lay ahead of them he was rethinking the original plan to simply run and attack. They’d need to move quickly while not being obvious.

Logan’s eyebrows lowered as the wolf looked confused. “A cab?”

The wolf may be one of his father’s best trackers, but strategy clearly wasn’t his strong suit. Before Kyle knew just how far Katrianna’s reach extended he wasn’t going to risk losing the element of surprise.

Kyle was about to explain it, but Tryst jumped in, face serious and focused.

“We can’t, if she thinks we’re coming after her, she’ll have people watching transport links in and out of the city. She might not know about the plane because she doesn’t know about Merrick. So I think he should go and buy a local’s car, or maybe we should borrow a shop’s loading van since that will be big enough to carry us all and hide in plain sight.” Tryst gestured with his hands as he spoke, emphasising his point.

“How did you come up with that?” Merrick shot a glare at Tryst that clearly said he doubted Tryst could ever have come up with that plan on his own.

“Every evil witch in films has minions,” Tryst asserted giving Merrick a look that said it was obvious.

Kyle shook his head, avoiding looking at Merrick. If he did, he’d laugh and he didn’t have time to soothe egos. It was clear that Jay’s uncle thought they were all morons. Since they couldn’t hurt Merrick, his betas seemed to take great joy in making the man want to pull his hair out in frustration. Kyle couldn’t lie. It was damn funny to watch.

No matter what the shifter wrote in a letter, or what Jay said, Kyle didn’t trust the man. Not even after the lynx took a beating from him to make a point to the shifter community that Jay was protecting.

Logan suddenly jerked back. “Uhhh, not to alarm anyone, but I think we’re being watched.” The wolf immediately began sniffing the air, trying to get a location.

Kyle’s jaguar rose without him having to reach for it and searched with their new senses. The heartbeat of his friends distracted him for a minute as his vision flashed and he got an impression of their bodies like sonar. That was new. He pushed the distraction aside and pinpointed the next nearest heartbeat.

“Behind the luggage buggy.”

Kyle discreetly wiped away the small wetness under his nose before anyone noticed and smothered the flame of power he’d raised. The strain of keeping the new alpha powers contained was taking its toll on his body. Who knew what kind of damage it was doing to him inside.

Logan growled next to him. It wasn’t challenging, just annoyed. No doubt the wolf was used to being the first one to know things like that. Logan was a tracker after all.

Mack shot in that direction, leaping over the cart and trailers.

Seconds later there was a yelp and sounds of a scuffle, but Kyle knew Mack could handle it. It was probably some human photographer hoping to get a snap up an actress’s skirt after hearing there was a plane coming in off schedule. Some members of the press were like cockroaches that just wouldn’t die.

A thin blond man stumbled into view, Mack just behind him, shoving the man over to them. Rogo tensed, though made no move to help the man up when he tripped. Mack growled low and continuously, scaring the human. The man crab-walked on his hands away from Mack, pleading for them to just let him go. There was no sign of a camera.

Not a paparazzo then.

Tryst came up to his side and he sensed Merrick stepping back to blend in with the shadows. As soon as Kyle could no longer see the lynx, the man’s scent disappeared, all traces of it vanishing as if Merrick were never here.

Narrowing his eyes, Kyle made a note to self to research that nifty little trick when he was home. Jay’s uncle had a lot of secrets.

Rogo backed away as well, leaving Kyle and Tryst to deal with the human. Kyle didn’t miss the concerned squint the lion shot toward where Merrick had disappeared, however.

He drew himself up to his full height, tensing his chest and arm muscles to appear even bigger as he walked closer to the human towering over him. Kyle stared at him for a moment, waiting for the male to look away from Mack and realise the real threat was behind him.

Kyle knew the second the human felt his presence. The man squeaked and flipped around, cowering on the floor. “Why are you watching us?”

Kyle didn’t like scaring people but they didn’t have time to win the man’s trust so he would be entirely honest. Fear was the next best motivator. No matter how much he hated putting that look of terror in someone’s eyes, he didn’t have the luxury of sitting down and having a leisurely chat.

“I-I-I wasn’t,” the human forced out between trembling lips. The scent of the lie tickled Kyle’s nose. Otherwise the human smelled relatively good.

He gave the human an assessing glance, noting the tight black clothes, the watery big blue eyes and the way the man bit his lip. None of it had any affect on him, but his jaguar was taking an interest. There was something important here.

Trying to look at this from an objective perspective he tried to put his finger on what was bothering him.

It could be a coincidence that the man shared some physical attributes with Jay, right down to the nervous stutter. More likely it was a trap. If this was one of Katrianna’s followers then they couldn’t let him go and warn her.

On the other hand if the human was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time then it was unlikely he would keep quiet about it if they let him go.

“Why were you watching us?” He tried one more time to get the truth from the human.

“I wasn’t, I was waiting to unload the plane like I’m supposed to. I’m airport staff.” The lie rolled smoothly off the human’s tongue, but the worry and fear in the man’s eyes gave him away as well as his scent.

Kyle peeked up at Mack, seeing his beta shake his head.

Nodding imperceptibly, Mack held up a leather wallet and flipped it open, going through it.

“Then why don’t you have a fluorescent vest on?”

“They aren’t mandatory,” the human answered with a sneer, trying to lie his way out of trouble.

“You’re lying,” Tryst said in a sing-songy voice.

“His licence says his name is Deke and he has a cash register pass for a grocery store called
Veggin It Up.
”

Logan perked up at hearing the name. “I know that place, it’s not far from here.”

Perfect. They’d go with plan b of Tryst’s then.

The human cast a dark look at the wolf shifter before looking up at Kyle with those wide blue eyes. “Please don’t hurt me.” The vulnerable quiver in the human’s voice tugged at his conscience.

As Kyle looked at the human he had the sudden image of kissing the man, grabbing him by the hair and taking his mouth roughly right there and then.

He flinched back from the thought, shocked and off balance.

“He goes with us,” he announced firmly, unable to look away from the human even as his head began to ache. Whatever was going on with him involved this human. His jaguar was sure of it. One way or another he’d get to the bottom of it.

Mack and Tryst gawked at him as if he’d lost his mind. And Kyle wasn’t sure they were wrong, but something was telling him to keep the human close.

“Explain.” One word, nothing more. Merrick’s demand floated from the darkness. He didn’t bother looking for the lynx, it would only piss the shifter off when Kyle was able to see him when everyone else couldn’t. With his cool new heartbeat detecting senses he had no doubt he could find Merrick, scent or no scent.

“He might be a spy for Katrianna, scoping out the airport. We can’t let him go. Even if he doesn’t work for her, he’ll run to the police and then we’ll have a shit storm of sirens and attention we don’t want.” Kyle lay it all out there and waited for Merrick to come back with some sort of scathing remark or argument.

Merrick came out of the darkness, his scent returning to the room. “Agreed. He comes with us.”

Kyle almost fell over with shock. Did Merrick really just agree with him?

“No, please. Let me go.” Deke was on his feet in a second, eyes wildly flicking from one person to the next, trying to appeal to anyone to help him. Kyle watched it all silently.

There was still that image in his head. As he grabbed his backpack off the ground and unzipped it to get his weapons harness, he subtly touched the bite mark on his neck again. Just one touch and the offensive image was gone.

He turned away and motioned for Mack to keep a close guard on the human. Mack nodded, creeping closer to Deke and making it clear the human wasn’t going to be escaping any time soon.

They stopped outside the grocery store entrance, casually looking about and searching for anyone that appeared to be taking too much of an interest in them. Even Merrick had agreed with him that borrowing a vehicle would be a better plan than trying to buy one. They’d have to first get their hands on enough cash and then find someone willing to sell and keep it quiet. That just hadn’t seemed worth the risk.

No one seemed bothered by their arrival.

All they had to do was wander to the back of the shop while the store owner was otherwise occupied and go out the back door to get the keys to the van. With Deke’s cash register ID they’d be able to get the keys from the lock box. Logan said that he’d worked there as a teen and the owner always used the same ID pass for everything. Apparently good security was a trap created by
the man.

The owner’s loss was their gain.

Merrick and Rogo were watching the human while Logan had gone in ahead and was currently charming the owner into letting them have a crate of tinned food and a case of bottled water for way less than they cost.

Negotiations were also one of Logan’s specialties.

Dropping a big amount of cash at a store like this would raise suspicions from the locals as well as eat into their cash reserves so the less they paid, the better. They didn’t know what they’d need so hoarding resources was good. Credit cards also weren’t an option here.

As soon as Logan got what they needed Kyle would slip out the back and swipe the keys. They’d already seen the delivery had been unloaded so there was no reason for anyone to check on the van. By the time anyone noticed it was missing, they’d be long gone and hopefully halfway to Katrianna.

“I’ll keep watch by the back door, boss.” Tryst waited for him to nod before going off to do just that.