He was about two steps away when he heard the chuffing sound. Stopping instantly, Seth tuned in to all his senses. There was a cat in this alley with him, a big, strong-ass cat with blood on its mind.
“Its showtime, baby,” Seth mumbled with excitement. He’d just grabbed the hem of his shirt, about to rip it over his head so he could shift, when he was knocked down.
His body and face hit the ground with a painful thump. Defenses kicking in, he rolled over instantly to face his assailant but was in no way prepared for what he would see.
This cat was huge, easily weighing more than 250 pounds and probably longer than seven feet, even though he couldn’t see beyond the big-ass head full of white fur and crystalline blue eyes glaring down at him. No, the teeth definitely took precedence: All of them were more than two inches long, dripping with spittle down onto him.
Seth’s cat reacted instantly, his own teeth elongating, claws emerging from his fingers, body ruffling with fur … then the first bite came to his left shoulder. He yelled as pain rippled through his body. The next bite was to his side, and Seth’s cat struggled at the halfway point with his human screaming and writhing in pain. Whatever happened after that was a total loss since the world Seth had once known, the dream of becoming FL and mating Caprise Delgado, faded into an abyss of darkness.
Chapter 16
Sedona
“You can slow down now,” X said from about three feet behind Caprise.
She was perfectly naked as they moved through the canyons, which made him thankful for the night. Before he’d followed her, Bas had shifted, handing him some extra sweats one of his guards had been carrying. So at least his bottom was covered. He held the top for Caprise, if she’d stop to accept it.
She’d been on the move since leaving the group about twenty minutes ago, and he’d been right behind her. For the first ten minutes he’d decided she needed to come down from the adrenaline rush of shifting. If Caprise didn’t want to be lumped in with their shifter community it stood to reason she hadn’t taken her shifter form in a while—and most likely she’d never been involved in a battle with another shifter. Yet tonight, she’d done both. Her emotions were liable to be all over the place right now. And even though he was the last person to be on emotion-control duty, X was determined to be the one to see her through this.
The innately sexual look in Bas’s eyes as he’d seen her cat in action said the FL was definitely interested in what he saw. A female was fair game until she was mated, and while X and Caprise had enjoyed each other sexually, neither one of them was even considering the mating part. Hell, X didn’t even know all the details to shifter mating and all that ceremonial BS Rome and Nick had gone through. And he wasn’t rushing to sign up for any type of Shadow Shifter mating class to learn.
At the same time, he didn’t want Bas even entertaining thoughts of touching Caprise. Bas was a womanizer, there was no kind way to put that, and it wasn’t all just reputation as Rome had endured. It was the cold honest truth. If ever there was a shifter who abhorred even the thought of being tied to one woman for any length of time, it would be Sebastian Perry. Just one more concrete reason why Bas’s ogling of Caprise needed to be checked—immediately.
She kept walking right into the dark canyon. A breeze blew by and for the first time, X realized she could actually be chilly. So instead of speaking again he closed the distance quickly, pulling her arm so she’d have no choice but to stop walking and turning her to face him. With his other hand he thrust the shirt at her, an air of déjà vu surfacing. “Put it on,” he said forcefully.
Of course since it was Caprise he was speaking to she rolled her eyes before yanking the shirt from his grasp. Another man might have had the decency to turn away while she dressed. But X had never claimed to be like any other man. He watched, with great interest, as her arms stretched upward to slip the impossibly large sweatshirt over her breasts.
“Better now?” he asked when he was certain he could speak without his voice cracking like some punk-ass little boy.
Why the sight of her naked never ceased to arouse him, X had no clue. He’d seen this body a couple of times already. He’d touched her, fucked her, he should be so over it. And yet here he was, standing in the middle of some damn healing canyon after they’d killed three shifters, with a hard-on that was quickly growing painful.
“You’re an ass!” was her heated retort.
X chuckled because for one scary-ass moment he thought she might actually cry. Her bottom lip had quivered when she turned back to face him and her forehead looked a little furrowed. And she was a female—whom he’d discovered were prone to emotional fits after battle. But he should have known better.
She was in his face in about two seconds, her bony finger poking—with a little discomfort—into his bare chest.
“You do not fight for me! I can handle my own. And I had that cat. I would have taken him down without your help,” she yelled.
After she’d finished and gulped in air for a breath, X grabbed the wrist of the offending finger and pulled. For good measure he grabbed her other wrist and looked her right in the eye.
“I interrupted because I didn’t want him to roll over and kill you,” he told her.
“I had him!”
X nodded in agreement. “You did.” She’d also had a good portion of his self-control as he’d watched both cats tumble over that butte falling about ten feet to the ground. “But I’m not used to watching females take a fall like that. And I’m definitely not used to seeing you in that position.”
“I can fight in any form,” she told him, yanking at her arms for him to let go. “I can take care of myself, whether it’s from a cat or a … I … I mean…” Her voice trailed off.
Then she did look away, her head down, wrists still trapped by his.
“I know you’re a fighter, Caprise. But that’s not what this is about, is it?”
“No,” she said, her head snapping back around at him. “It’s about you not trusting me enough to handle myself.” She huffed.
Okay, X could accept that. Nothing would stop him from taking down a kill. That’s how jaguars operated. And despite her earlier denial, Caprise was a jaguar. And if he wasn’t mistaken—which he really didn’t believe he was this time—Caprise was about to have some type of breakdown. X still prayed for no appearances by tears, but pulled her close to his chest, kissing the top of her head.
“You did good out there. Even though I told you to stay behind me.”
“I don’t have to stand behind you or any man.”
X waited a long moment, giving her a minute to catch her breath, to clear her mind, which he knew was whirling right about now.
“You want to tell me about the man you did stand behind? The one who hurt you so bad you’re throwing stones at me every chance you get.”
She remained still. X admitted to himself that he could have been wrong. This could have been about something totally different. But no, he wasn’t. From what he did know about females there were only two things that could get them this worked up—family and/or a man. And since Nick was the doting older brother who had been trying his damndest not to even yell at Caprise, X was betting on the latter.
“Why should I tell you anything?” she asked quietly.
“You don’t have to,” he told her even though right at this very moment he wanted her to tell him more than anything else in this world. “But it might help.” Again, hypocrisy almost choked him. But X had good reasons for keeping his trap shut about his past—good goddamn reasons.
“And Caprise, I have to be straight with you about this. I’m going to find out sooner or later. You could save us both some time by just telling me who the guy was that was stupid enough to fuck with you.”