Dammit, Trip was too young to go to the Mother.
He flicked her ears as he held her head and repeated, “El, I know you’re in there, baby.I know you can hear me.”
No response.But her eyes were glued to his.
“I need you to listen.We need your magick, sweetheart.We need you to shift back.We need you here.It will help us save Trip.”
The great head swiveled to stare at the male on the floor.His sense of smell was fucked up with the soot in the air, and the essence of whatever the fucker had used to blow up their cavalcade, but he could scent her horror at his words.
“We need you to shift.”
Ryan whispered, “Please, baby.We need you to be strong for us.”
That was a huge ask, and Marc and Ryan both knew how unfair it was.She was the Shifter equivalent of a toddler.She’d been introduced to this aspect of her life in a goddamn trial by fire, but then, what about El’s life hadn’t been like that?
She was the heiress to a family fortune all because her granddad hadn’t liked most of his relatives, and had lumped her in a trust fund that made her public enemy number one in her family circle.
She’d been kidnapped, had dealt with more abduction attempts than beggared belief, and only God and Shawn knew what else his poor mate had suffered through...
“Be strong for us, El.Please, sweetheart.We need you.”
The Panther’s great hand tilted to the side, and Marc did the only thing he could do.
He shifted too.
Chapter 2
As an exquisite agony roared through his veins, Trip gasped as the pain became pleasure and then that ecstasy was replaced with pain once more.
He let out a roar of fury, then immediately rolled over from his prone position on his back and clambered to his feet.
Trip stared around the disaster area that was his home, but he had to shake his head several times before the images started to piece together and make any sense.
He shook his head, and immediately regretted it.His mane, already coated with soot and grime and only the Goddess knew what else, was limp against his head, and when he saw Marc was standing there, Ryan was in his Lion form, and El was back in her Panther skin...all while blown out cars were dosed with water to cut out the rest of the flames, well, he was confused.
To say the least.
Realizing that he’d been injured—never let it be said he wasn’t smart—he shifted back, and let out a deep, hoarse cry as his body assimilated into his two-legged form.
The depths of his injuries made themselves known then because if he felt this shit now after a shift?
Well, hell.
He’d been on the brink of death.
“Ryan, shift back too.”
A screech of pain escaped the Lion that was his Triad brother, then it morphed into a: “God-fucking-dammit, that hurts!”
Trip shot him a commiserative glance, and before he could ask Marc what was going on—aside from the obvious, i.e.the shell of their secured vehicles, the fires and the injured Shifters on the ground.Marc reversed his form.
When he was on four paws, he rubbed his side against the Panther that sat there as regal as anything.
Trip had to smile at the sight of her.
He’d seen her last night like this.More than anything, she looked bored.Had looked even more bored when they’d had to repeatedly shift back and forth to get her to revert to form, too.
Marc nuzzled his head along hers, making her snarl at him when he nudged her from her seated position and onto her feet.He rubbed his length along hers, coating her with his scent, then he nudged her head and, with the speed of a powerful male, shifted back.
