El clenched her eyes shut, then with a groan, whispered, “Do it, Marc.”
Marc triggered his own shift, and with a cry of pain, El transformed too.
The minute she did, Trip’s eyes widened in surprise.He felt the magick flow through him even though he was too weak to force it himself.Something about her, something strange prompted his Lion into rearing its head, urged the beast out to play.
The cat was hiding himself, tucked small in a ball in a corner of Trip’s soul, licking his wounds, mewling his pain.But El’s mating magick, whatever the fuck that was, had him standing up on shaky legs and demanding to be released.
Before he knew it, he was back as a Lion.This time, the pain wasn’t too bad.It was manageable.
He tried to let his own magick heal some of his wounds, but it took a moment to just breathe in deep and get some air.
“You can stay in this form now, baby,” Marc murmured, stroking her head.He was nude, and Trip assumed that was because his own clothes had been wrecked from multiple shifts.“You just rest and relax.There’s no need to worry.They’ll be fine now.”
Trip was still a little shaky on his paws, but Ryan wasn’t.The two of them converged on her, doing as Marc had done.Rubbing themselves against her, nudging her with their heads, pawing at her gently and generally cosseting her with as much love as their beasts were capable of.
She was letting out a damn near rumble of pleasure when they finished.And that was exactly how he wanted her...
“El, concentrate on staying in that form, okay?The guys will be shifting back and forth again, so focus on holding the Panther.This is good practice, okay?”
She nuzzled her head into his hand which Marc took as acceptance.
“Go ahead, guys.”
Trip flashed back without any help, Ryan too.They smirked at each other’s naked asses, then after a series of rapid shifts, found themselves as good as new.
Well, relatively speaking.
They’d still ache like a bitch and they had a massive adrenaline drop coming, but hell, they were alive.
Something Trip might not have been were it not for his new mate.
Astonished by that, he was about to ask what the fuck was going on when the sirens that had been a nagging irritant in the distance were suddenly very close.
“Here.”Clothes were shoved at him, and he blinked as Adam did the same to Marc and Ryan.“Get dressed.You can’t greet the cops in your skin.”The PA stared down at El.“We need to get her out of here.The last thing we need is her being taken away or us being fined for having unlicensed animals around here.”
“Unlicensed, hell,” Adam bit off.“She’s a damn Panther.It’s not like she’s a pussy cat.”
Ryan pulled a face, then they heard a bellow that had them all turning to seek out the source of the noise.Even El turned her head.
“Get your goddamn asses out of the way so they can get in, you morons.”
Marc’s lips twitched.“Think Shawn can handle this situation?”
“For the moment,” Ryan confirmed.“Just until we get ourselves steady.”
To El, Marc looked down and, stroking her head, murmured, “Sweetheart, let’s get you inside, okay?”
Her docility had Trip frowning when she just padded toward the steps that led to Pride House, their State’s governmental seat, without a peep.
He shot Ryan a look but his Triad brother just shook his head.“Let’s be grateful she went so easily.We can deal with her situation later.”
Trip nodded, then as peered back at Shawn, El’s fourth and unexpected mate, took control of a situation none of them had been prepared for.
Chapter 3
When the sound of sirens could be heard even over the yells that were making his voice hoarse, he realized the authorities had arrived.
Too little, too late.
