Page 73 of Brandon’s Mate

They all knew the story. Brandon’s mom, Jenny, was from the Broken Hill clan. When Brandon’s dad disappeared after being turned into a shifter against his will by another Broken Hill panther, Jenny had been forced into being Alton Raines’ consort. To survive, she’d pretended Brandon was Raines’ son.

After Jenny left Broken Hill and found Xander, Raines had her followed and ended up kidnapping Jenny and Brandon. Xander had been forced to challenge him to get them back. When he won, he could have been alpha of Broken Hill—a large, wealthy clan—but had walked away and taken his family back to the Bad Bloods.

When Brandon asked him why, Xander always said he didn’t have it in him to be an alpha, which was bullshit. Everyone knew his panther was dominant as fuck.

Hell, sometimes, deep down where he didn’t admit it to anyone, he’d wondered if his dad had really won the challenge at all, or if it was just a story.

Because if he was that strong, how could he have managed to be subordinate to Flynn all these years?

All Xander would ever say to that was that he needed his people around him—and not people whose shit would make him crazier than he already was.

Now Brandon said, “I thought Broken Hill went legit after Dad took out Raines.”

“They did,” Remy said. “But the new alpha did that by forcing out all the die-hard militant members of the clan. They moved away and started a splinter group, off the grid.” He paused. “And one of Alton’s numerous mates went with them, along with his unborn cub.”

That brought back unwanted memories. “Cindi?”

“That’s her.” Remy looked up at him. “Do you remember her at all?”

“Not very well,” Brandon said. “I was like, two and a half. Just that she was really pretty and really scary and I hated her. And that Mom gave her a major beat-down in the fight arena the day Dad defeated Raines,” he added. “That was cool.”

Colt said, “It seems from the other intel we’ve come up with, that Raines 2.0 is going after world shifter domination again. Only he’s doing it smarter. In secret, and using money and influence instead of brute force like his psycho dad.”

That was bad news. Smart psychos were even scarier than violent psychos.

“That must be what Nick knew,” Brandon said. “And that’s why he called me. He found out about my family’s history with Raines, and he thought I’d want to know.”

“Not just because of that,” Kitty said. “Remy, can you call up that map you showed us before? Of that last town Jax and Raines took over?”

“Malone,” Remy said. “Yeah.”

He pulled the map onto the screen. “Here,” Kitty said. “Look where Raines started out building his territory. Less than an hour from the Bad Bloods. You really think that’s a coincidence? He probably blames Xander for taking his supposed legacy away from him.”

“He can’t be going after our crew,” Colt said. “Everyone knows we have dragons.”

“Yeah,” Brandon said slowly. “But he sure was interested in the idea of magical artifacts. Like maybe some that can protect you from dragon magic?”

“Damn,” Colt said.

“We have to find out where he’s headquartered,” Brandon said. “Have you been able to track Jax’s cell signal to Raines?”

Remy shook his head. “Raines was using some kind of encryption. I couldn’t trace it. But I’m still trying.”

Brandon nodded. “If you can’t, then we’ll have to just hope he agrees to that meeting.”

Chapter 30

Late that afternoon, Brandon and Remy took off by themselves in Brandon’s truck. They refused to take Kitty along.

“Do I want to know where you’re going?” Kitty asked, grabbing Brandon on the porch before he could escape. She glared at him suspiciously. “This isn’t some crazy-ass kamikaze attack on somebody, is it?”

“No, it isn’t, and yes, you do want to know. But I’m not telling you, because it’s a surprise.”

“Historically, most surprises involving one or both of the McCall brothers usually end in me having to bleed them. Just sayin’.”

Brandon backed her up until she was pressed against the door of the redneck porch fridge. He kissed her neck. “Not this time. It’s all part of my evil plan to ruin you.”

“Really,” Kitty said, angling her neck for more kisses. Then her brain kicked in and she pulled back, trying to glare at him—which was difficult with his lips on her neck.