“What’s the problem?”
“She’s got a big male in tow—a wolf by the scent and size and look of him—and she’s got some of the guys whipped into a frenzy. He’s wrapped around her pretty much, human teeth bared, growling at anyone who dares to glance in their direction. And, according to Zeke, they were over to the pharmacy.” Smash paused, suddenly fascinated by the toes of his well-worn shitkickers. “Buying condoms.”
“Fuck.” Cal ran a hand through his hair. A complication he didn’t need right now. For a few years now, some of his lieutenants and many of the younger cats had been sniffing around his niece. She’d ignored all of them and he hadn’t pressured her into a choice—although he had been angling for her to take a feline mate. But for her to turn up now with a fuckin’ wolf? Flaunting him under their noses? Buying fuckin’ condoms together?
“His stink on her?”
“Well….” Smash hesitated and looked away from his fascinating boots to a spot over Cal’s shoulder. Mesmerized by the knots in the polished oak paneling behind him, no doubt. He understood the puma’s reluctance to speak. He’d made his intentions in that direction pretty well known, going so far as to approach Cal for her hand. But Summer’d never given Smash the time of day.
“It’s faint. But it’s there. He hasn’t marked her yet, though.”
A string of curses hissed out of him and the hair stood up on the back of his neck, his fangs descending. He arched his back, bones cracking as he suppressed the shift and took a deep breath. “You recognize him?”
“Yeah. That Brick Northridge character, lives up the mountain.”
Halfway between Shady Heart and Los Lobos. Right in the path of Cal’s land grab. He’d suffered the lone wolf’s presence only because Gee had planted him there as a brutalized teen. And no one crossed Gee. And because it annoyed the shit out of Magnum that he’d given the banished rogue a pass so close to cat territory, allowing him into Shady Heart when he pleased.
He nodded. “The one who carves the animal figurines Brynna sells in her boutique. She can’t keep ’em stocked. The tourists—hell, even the cats—love ’em.” And all cash exchanges in Shady Heart eventually floated up or trickled down for the greater good.
“Yeah. Comes in for a drink—or to get laid—from time to time, when he brings the carvings and stocks up on supplies. Usually minds his own business. The girls like him. But this…hell, Boss. It’s Summer. ”
Damn it. The wolf was no skinny youth now. He’d grown huge and muscular, at least as big as he and Smash. Likely his niece had no idea what she played with. Or…maybe she did. But no way he’d let the standoffish clan princess, who’d rejected the suit of every one of his cats, hook up with a fuckin’ wolf. Not while he lived.
“Get ’em in here,” he growled. “Now.”
Chapter Five
Three big cat shifters jumped Brick from behind, twisting his arms behind his back, holding him down. He flashed back to ten years earlier, Timothy Leary without the Day-Glo posters or the psychedelic buzz. Another bar. Another bar fight. His challenge to Magnum in The Den in Los Lobos, when he’d been beaten bloody and senseless and banished from the Black Hills Pack.
But he’d done nothing this day…except enter the Graymarket Trading Company Saloon and Casino with Summer Krazy Glued to his side. A scramble of voices immediately bombarded him, made his skull go all Excedrin Headache No. 42. Until his female stroked the back of his neck, calming and soothing as only she could. The “Macarena” of sound inside his brain slowed to a jiggle, the cacophony of white noise and static ebbing and dimming, her gentle song playing in the background. But her apparent willingness to touch him so familiarly in front of the cats—hell, her need to—seemed to craze them.
His gaze riveted on her. His need to wrap himself around her mushroomed. Her face grew taut, anguish stamped on her tight features, as chaos erupted in the saloon. He smelled the cats, the flood of testosterone, their sexual arousal. They wanted her. As much as they wanted him dead. Must. Protect. Her. No matter the cost. “Get the hell out of here, sweetheart,” he muttered. “I’ll follow. Go. Fly, Aura Lee.”