I heard a couple of sharp inhales, but that was about it. “I don’t see why that is so important to you. So, I’m a hyena shifter. So what?”
“Your being a hyena shifter isn’t the problem, Sinclair. A hyena being in charge of my house is.”
My eyebrows rose. “Your house?”
Since when?
“I care for this house, love it, protect it. It is my house.”
I had always thought Conrad was devoted to the council house. I never knew he was fanatical about it.
He seriously needed a hobby.
“Actually, I believe it is my house now.”
“A panther shifter belongs in this house!” Conrad shouted. “You are an abomination.”
Yeah, I’d heard something like that before.
“Whatever.” I turned to look at the kids. “What he seems to be freaking out over is that I’m a hyena shifter.”
“I thought you said you were mated to a panther.”
“I am.”
“You can do that?” Terry stared at me. “Mate outside your species, I mean?”
“Oh sure.”
What were they teaching these kids?
Terry grinned as some of the tension faded from his posture. “Cool.”
I suspected Terry wanted to get to know his friend Darcy a little bit more.
“If two of you boys can lift me up, we can get out of here.”
“Yeah, we can—”
“You’re not going anywhere!” Conrad was shouting again.
“Look,” I said as I started to turn toward the soon to be ex-butler, “you can’t—”
I roared when Conrad pulled the trigger and shot Terry in the leg. My temper flared, becoming a scalding fury. Something dark swept over me, stealing my ability to breathe. My eyes narrowed as they went monochrome. The pain that ripped through my body as it twisted and turned, fueled my rage.
I growled as I dug my claws into the cement and then launched myself at Conrad. The man’s high-pitched scream echoed through the room, mingling with the sounds of his gun discharging. I felt something slam into me, but I was too enraged to care, or to stop my attack.
Conrad had betrayed everything he was supposed to stand for. He had betrayed me. He had kidnapped innocent children to use for his own sick reasons. He had done something to Stone.
He obviously needed to die.
I bit Conrad, clamping down with my sharp teeth, and scratch at every bit of skin I could reach. I wasn’t going to give him time to shift into a panther. I had to keep up my attack until he was dead.
When I felt something touch my back, I snarled as I spun around.
“Sinclair!”
I growled as I crouched down, my ears going back flat against my head.
