“Outstanding hit, Burke.” He barked his enthusiasm and then growled again, wanting nothing more than to join his buddy. Yet a part of him whimpered. That part Ted had scarred came limping back to life, terror like a bitter taste in his mouth. And Monty hated himself for it.
Ted screamed and struck at Burke again and again. But Burke continued to dig at him. The man should have been dead by now, but of course he wasn’t. He somehow managed to snake his weapon between them.
Monty let out a stream of warning barks. “Burke, look out!”
Ted smacked Burke in the temple with the butt of his rifle. Then he shoved Burke away from him with supernatural strength. Before he could shoot, one of his buddies dragged him back, just as a cat leapt and missed him. Ted shot the cat and raced away, one hand held to his face. But before he escaped the lodge, he looked back over his shoulder.
“I’ll find you again, boy. See if I don’t.”
Monty growled, caught between a fine sweat of terror and an overwhelming need to kill. He shook from the strain before realizing the danger had yet to pass. Though his reinforcements had overtaken the Hunters and rogue cats, Stacey still battled Lex in the center of the room.
He shook himself free of the past, of the memories of cages and torture and blood, and stepped forward. The friggn’ cat will kill me if she’s hurt. Hell, he could smell Stacey’s bonding scent clearly on his friend. Yet he suddenly noticed none of the others stepping forward to help her out. Instead they watched and waited, taking in a show.
Ty sat on his haunches while Grady grinned and lay down, his wrists crossed.
“I give her another swat to the head and he’s down,” Grady said.
“Nah. The bastard is big. I’m thinking it’ll take more than that. She hits like a girl.” Ty’s whiskers twitched with laughter, especially when Stacey hissed at him.
Then she yowled and went for Lex’s jugular.
Monty shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d seen cats kill. He lived with the pride. But her ferocity impressed him because she gave Lex no quarter. She didn’t flinch when the bigger cat flailed and pierced her skin. She didn’t stop pulling at the bastard’s throat. And when Lex went limp, she gave a final crunch, breaking his windpipe before she dropped him and walked over to Dean.
“Holy shit. Now I’m in love.” Monty wagged his tail, glad she didn’t look too worn down. A little bloody and beaten up, but nothing that wouldn’t heal.
With a disdainful sniff, she glanced at Dean. “Will he live?”
“Do you care?” He knew damn well she did. He could see the anxiety bristling her fur.
Yet she responded with a calm she had to be far from feeling. “I suppose. I wouldn’t want Burke or Rachel to be too upset if he dies.”
“Yeah. Right. He’ll live.” He frowned down at Dean. “I think.”
Stacey walked between him and Dean and nudged Monty out of the way. Then she plastered herself to Dean’s side and didn’t move. “Go get him help.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Monty loped to Burke, who had already shifted and was calling in a medical team. In minutes the raptors would appear to lend a hand.
They watched while Stacey licked Dean’s wounds, her paw keeping him steady while she tended him.
“Oh hell. That looks mighty possessive.” Burke made a face at the pair, but Monty could tell his friend was pleased.
He shifted back and joined Grady and Ty who stood by the far wall, watching Joel. “Hate to tell you boys, but I smell a mating. I think I’m owed some money.” He noticed Grady’s annoyance, which made his win even sweeter.
“Not from me you don’t.” Ty grinned. “I hedged my bets. I’ll be collecting from Joel as soon as he lets go of those two.”
They watched Joel, still in his massive bear form, carting two bloodied Hunter carcasses toward the growing pile in the middle of the room.
Ty cleared his throat. “I, ah, think I’ll talk to him later about my winnings.”
Grady snickered. “Smart man.”
“Shut up.”
Monty gave his friends an update on what he knew about this mess and watched Burke check over his brother. The cat seemed satisfied his brother would live, from the relief on his face. He stepped aside and motioned for Monty to join him.
Monty crossed to his pride leader. Christ, it sounded so weird to think of himself—a wolf—belonging to a pack of cats. “Burke?”
“You okay?”
Sensing the direction of the conversation, Monty closed up, burying his fear, his confusion and his frustration under an unassuming smile. “Sure. Why are you asking?”
“Something passed between you and that Hunter.” Burke scowled as he glanced around him. “I think the fucker got away.”
For now. “We’ll catch him.”
“Yeah, well, my bet is he’s going to be the order’s new priority. A Hunting party this close to Cougar Falls? Not good, wolf. Not at all.”
Monty didn’t like it either. His thoughts immediately went to Sophie. The woman was skittish enough around their own kind, new to being Ac-taw. If she fell in with Hunters, she might never recover. Hell, he still hadn’t.
“Monty?” Burke put a hand on his arm, instinctively knowing the wolf needed to be touched.
“You’re a good pride leader,” Monty said, gruff with sincerity.
“I know.”
Monty snorted. “And way too arrogant for a pussy.”
“That’s Boss Pussy to you, mange-boy.”
Monty sneered and flipped him the bird. They bantered, engaging Grady, the bear and the fox as well. But though he pretended all was well, he knew the nightmares would return, and they’d plague him until he finally ended this. Until he’d mounted Ted Norris’s fucking head to his wall.
Chapter Nine
Three days later, Dean still couldn’t believe it. Stacey had defeated Lex Gates. And she’d been vicious about it. She’d impressed the pride, Quince’s cats and everyone around town—or so he’d been told by Grady, who added to tales about her bravado with every visit to the sickroom Dean had been forbidden to leave.
With a wince, he dragged his legs over the side of the bed. Nurse Ratched, as Ty called the bird who’d healed the fox from his own brush with Hunters, had done her best to stitch Dean up. But even she’d needed help and called in crotchety old Doc Stanley, whose sage advice of rest and more rest Dean could have done without. He didn’t need to sleep, he needed Stacey’s warm thighs and sweet kisses to heal him. Unfortunately the princess needed to tend to her fans instead of the man who’d nearly died trying to save her sexy ass.
His brothers didn’t seem too worried about him either, which peeved him more than a little. Neither of them had offered him any sympathy. Instead they stuck him with Rachel and Julia—torture at best. The mothers-to-be had been practicing all that nurturing crap on him, which wouldn’t have been too bad if that had involved soft caresses, comments about his bravery and red meat. But they insisted on chastising him for nearly getting himself killed in between force-feeding him broth and vegetables. Christ, if they kept it up, his cat might shrivel up and die.
To make matters worse, they were pleasant about it. He didn’t need nice. He needed someone tough, arrogant and a bit mean. Someone so fucking beautiful he couldn’t take his eyes from her, even when she frowned at him or made fun of him for being too far beneath her to notice.
Where the hell was she? It had been three days now. Anytime he brought up her name, the idiots around him changed the subject.