“Do you know who did?”
There was no way this would end well if he turned Melcori in, but an Alpha could usually tell when someone was lying, and he didn’t wish to be torn apart if he angered him. “It was a tragedy.” Truth. He saw the others relax at his words.
“Do you know what happened to the dryads that were here? Where did they take my mother?” A teenager with a shaky voice piped up. The same one that had sounded close to tears a minute before.
A change in the wind brought the scent of unbridled power pouring off the more petite man. He didn’t have any shifter characteristics, and his eyes didn’t have the stereotypical traces of amber of those kissed by the moon. Despite this, Xavier’s danger senses blared high alert. Out of all the entire group, this one was the most dangerous despite his size.
“Who are you all?” He wanted to ask what they were, but that didn't sound nice even in his head. He had to maneuver with a delicate hand if he didn’t want these strangers or his mentor to tear him apart—a delicate dance between powerful entities—one he had done more than once.
“I’m Anthony Carrow. This is my mate, Alpha Silver of the Moon Pack, my mother Hallea, you know Oliver, and this is Katlego, but he goes by Kat…”
He lost track of Anthony’s words once he met the gaze of a slim man with gorgeous amber eyes and beautiful cocoa skin—beads clacked in his braids, accompanying Xavier’s rapidly beating heart.
Before he could give a greeting or ask him out, the pretty man transformed into a cougar and pounced.
Xavier collapsed beneath a powerhouse of muscle, fur, and claws. Don’t forget the claws. Even retracted, their danger remained. He didn’t dare breathe or wouldn’t even if he could pull any oxygen into his lungs with the heavy feline on top of him.
“Kat, off,” the Alpha commanded.
Katlego, or Kat, licked a wet stripe up Xavier’s face from chin to forehead before sashaying away as if his mission had been accomplished. The sly cat’s gleaming eyes reinforced that Kat had already done everything he had hoped to achieve.
Mine.
The words were spoken into Xavier’s head—in a voice that wasn’t his.
“What?”
“Are you all right, Xavier?” Oliver asked. Xavier doubted his sincere concern since Oliver bit his lip as if hiding a smile.
Asshole.
“I thought I heard something.” He wouldn’t confess who or what. He didn’t want to sound like a mad person. He climbed to his feet and tried not to wince. Between the heavy cat and the rock embedded into his spine, he was more than a little battered.
“Hearing voices, are we?” Oliver taunted.
“How do you…” Before he could continue, his magic pulsed and wrapped around Katlego. The cougar shimmered a bright gold before transforming back into the pretty, pretty man.
“I was right. You are my mate,” Kat said, licking his lips. Before Xavier could respond, Kat lunged at him. Xavier toppled backward, caught off-guard by the sudden weight, and slammed onto the ground.
He found the rock again.
“Ouch.”
“Are you okay?” Kat asked, even as he remained straddling Xavier’s waist.
Xavier found it hard to focus on anything other than Kat’s bright smile. He rubbed his hands up and down Kat’s thighs, confirming that a gorgeous man was sitting on top of him and not the result of a vivid dream or a coma. It wouldn’t surprise him to wake up after Melcori got him into a situation that might result in unconsciousness. “I think a rock is permanently fused into my spine.”
“Good thing I’m excellent at healing,” Kat smirked.
“Good thing,” he agreed, still dazed from his second fall.
The beautiful shifter beamed like the sun. “Hi, mate!”
“You might want to get off him if you want him to breathe,” Anthony teased.
Kat moved to the side, and Xavier was reunited with his old friend, oxygen. He sucked in a deep breath, desperate to refill his lungs. The pretty man wasn’t any lighter as a human than a cougar—likely a one-to-one ratio.
“Sorry.” The laughter in Kat’s mischievous eyes didn’t reassure Xavier at all. He was as smug in his human form as his sly feline version.
