Page 21 of Bad Blood Panther

Xander glanced up. “I am?” he said, sounding genuinely surprised. Jenny looked down at her hands, her face still burning. “Oh,” he muttered. “Shit. Sorry.”

Flynn’s eyebrows went up at that. It looked like Xander apologies were still pretty rare. Jenny rushed to change the subject. Who knew it would seem less scary—and less embarrassing—to talk about Broken Hill?

“Um, Flynn? You wanted to know why I came here?” she asked.

Flynn sighed. “Not really,” he said. “Mostly I want to know what trouble you’re potentially bringing down on my crew, and why you brought it here in the first place.”

“Me too,” Xander said. “And, just FYI, that ‘I don’t think anybody’s after me’ shit from last night—not at all convincing.”

It was probably true, though. Alton probably wasn’t after her. He was after Brandon. She should tell them that now, but she just couldn’t bring herself to. Xander wasn’t ready yet. He could barely handle the idea of the mating bond, and if he freaked out, Flynn might make her leave. This was her one chance; she couldn’t blow it.

She needed to get Xander used to the idea of being her mate before she hit him with another major shock.

“I kind of have to start at the beginning,” she said to Flynn. “Is that okay?” She glared at Xander. She wasn’t afraid to do that; he wasn’t scary. Just rude. “And I never sound convincing. It’s a downside of being shy.”

Flynn rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he said. “Just start sometime this century, okay?”

Fine. She took a deep breath.

“Broken Hill is a big clan,” she began. “Almost a hundred panthers. It used to be even bigger.” Until Alton took over. “The last two alphas, Rhett Powell and his father Liam, built up the clan’s numbers, and even more important, they built up the clan’s wealth with strategic business investments. They own several very profitable corporations.”

Flynn nodded, with a gesture to get to the point, already. But he wouldn’t understand if she didn’t explain it all.

“There was a faction that didn’t like the idea of a panther clan going corporate. They didn’t want to leave the old ways behind; they felt like our animals were being shunted aside, that the clan was getting too human and forgetting who they really were. About five years ago, that group secretly began plotting to take over the clan, led by a shifter named Alton Raines.”

“Douchebag,” Xander muttered.

Flynn looked questioningly at Xander.

“I never liked that guy,” Xander said. He shot off another staple, then turned suddenly to Jenny. “Didn’t you date him? After Cindi and I—” He broke off.

“Yes, I ‘dated’ him.” She made air quotes around the ‘date’ word. Alton had treated her like dirt, as if he were doing her a favor by paying the tiniest bit of attention to her.

As if fucking him was an honor. When actually he was terrible at it.

“He ‘dated’ everybody,” she said. “Mostly at the same time. Panther clans—unlike a lot of shifters—tend to have more females than males. In order to keep our clan pure panther, Alton wanted to bring back the days where the males had harems.” One male, with lots of females bonded to him and competing for his attention.

Flynn raised his eyebrows. “And you all went along with that?”

Yeah. Said the lion. “Don’t lion prides do the same?” she asked.

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Some,” he said. He gestured toward his empty bedroom. “My fated harem clearly hasn’t gotten their memo, though.”

Huh. A sense of humor. Who knew?

Xander snorted. “That’s fucked,” he said. “Is that why you wanted to leave? So you don’t have to be part of that asshat’s harem?” He said the word like it tasted bad.

She shook her head. “He hasn’t paid attention to me in a long time.” Not since her pregnancy with Brandon started to show, and he could point it out to everyone as proof of his virility. Then he’d dumped her for more desirable mates. Prettier, unscarred ones.

“Lucky you,” Xander muttered.

She added, not looking at either of them, “I’m low status and not valuable, because of my scar.” She touched her face reflexively. “And because, well, I’m not brave and I get social anxiety, so I’m not sought after as a breeder because they think I won’t make brave warriors.” Her only value was being Brandon’s mother, and now that he was so close to not being a baby anymore, they’d take him away from her and raise him to be a killer. And she would be expendable.

Xander was growling low in his throat. She looked over at him, startled. “That’s just fucking stupid,” he said.

Some of the shame lifted from her heart when she heard him say that.

“But you still think Raines might be coming after you,” Flynn said. “Why?”