Pride Mates

Chapter Twenty-two

"Can you get him free?" Kim yelled at Sean, over the frenzy of violence inside the warehouse.

"If he'll hold still." Sean grabbed the chain that had been linked to the wall. Michael continued to snarl and thrash, the manacle cutting into his paw.

"Michael." Kim knelt next to him and reached for him but got scratched for her pains. "Michael, sweetie. It's all right."

Michael knew damn well it wasn't all right. Inside, two enormous wildcats fought for dominance, and they wouldn't stop until one was dead. Their snarls sounded over the thunder that boomed through the alley. The building heaved when the two battling Shifters smashed into a wall.

If Fergus wins, he'll kill the rest of us. Or maybe Fergus would keep Kim alive to be his sex toy, which was not something she wanted to think about. Still less did she want to think about Liam losing, dying, Sean having to send him to dust.

Sean yanked the chain, hook and all, from the wall. Michael yowled, then took off down the alley, the chain dragging behind him.

"He'll run home," Sean said. "You go too, Kim."

"I'm not leaving Liam."

"Kim, damn it, I don't know what's going to happen in there."

"Why don't you go? Round up Dylan and everybody to come and stop Fergus."

"With Liam like that? Too dangerous."

"At least you'd be safe. Fergus won't let you live, and Liam keeps thinking you want me for yourself for some reason. He might kill you in his frenzy."

"Oh, and you'll be safe from him, will you? I'm staying, Kim. I'm the Guardian."

He meant he'd have to dispatch the loser with his magic sword, sending his soul into the next world. From Sean's grim look, he feared it would be Liam.

"Then I'm staying too," Kim said. Inside, the two Shifters fought like crazy, foam and blood flying. "I love him."

"Fine then. We'll die together."

Sean marched back into the warehouse. The rain changed to a pelting of pea-sized hail, bouncing on the alley floor.

"Perfect," Kim muttered.

The hail came down so fast it piled on the pavement before it could melt. Kim ducked into the shelter of the building, afraid and angry.

The two Shifters rolled over and over, and Sean stood back like a referee, his sword ready. Weeks ago, Kim wouldn't have been able to tell the fighting wildcats apart, but she knew Liam now. He and Fergus were matched in size, but Liam's cat was thicker with muscle, his coat darker, his eyes a deeper gold. Right now his eyes glittered with hatred, and his teeth were fully extended as he snapped them at Fergus's neck.

Fergus scrambled out of the way, half shifting back to human to do so. Liam followed him, pinning him again. The wildcats clawed and bit. This was worse than the fight between Liam and Dylan, because there'd never been love lost between these two. Rage and hatred burned in the thickly humid air.

Thunder boomed outside, and then a bolt of lightning struck the roof. Kim screamed as bricks came down around her.

She saw Liam turn to her, drawn from the fight. In that moment, Fergus, his hide nothing but bloody strips of skin, pounced on Liam's back. His mouth was open wide, jaws ready to snap Liam's spine in two.

Sean shouted. Kim couldn't hear him over the thunder; she just saw his mouth open. Liam whirled in time, closing his teeth on Fergus's throat. He ripped, and blood sprayed across the floor.

Fergus went down in a heap. Liam stepped back, his fur red with Fergus's blood, and roared his victory. His eyes held fire, joy, and triumph.

Sean walked forward with his sword. Liam stopped him, rising into his human form as he moved, his body covered in scratches and angry bruises. He went to Fergus and nudged him with his foot. The wildcat's body flopped against the floor, blood spilling from a pool beneath it.

Liam turned away, contempt for his fallen enemy in every movement. As soon as his back was turned, Fergus whipped to his feet, bellowing in dying rage as he launched himself at Liam. Kim shrieked.

But Sean was there. He stepped between Fergus and his brother, and caught Fergus's leap on the Guardian's sword.

Fergus's wildcat eyes widened as the sword went through his chest. He'd been dying already, and the blade completed it. The body fell to the ground, silent and still. Chanting in a language Kim didn't know, Sean slowly withdrew the blade. The big cat shimmered, then crumbled to dust.

"You weren't supposed to do that," Liam snarled at Sean. "His final breath should have been mine."

"Yeah, well, I've done it." Sean's stance was defiant. He'd have done anything, the tiny rational part of Liam realized, to keep from having to send a second brother to the Summerland.

Again his love for Sean and the wildcat's jealousy warred within him. "Go," Liam said. "If you don't, I might kill you, and I don't want to lose you too."

"Kim," Sean said.

Liam's white-hot rage rose. "Kim stays with me."

Sean strode for the door, moving fast. "Kim," he said again.

"It's all right. I'll stay."

Her voice was quiet, a cool note amid the heat. Sean gave Kim one last look, then made himself sheathe the sword and duck out into the deluge.

Liam was across the floor, pulling Kim against him before Sean's footsteps faded.

"Kim." He loved saying her name.

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't know, and I don't care." Liam pressed Kim against the brick wall.

He wanted her with an intensity he'd never felt before. She was his mate, his, forever. A dim part of Liam's mind kicked him. You love her. Don't hurt her.

"You should get away from me," he said.

"What?"

Liam focused on her eyes. They were beautiful, wide and blue. Like an Irish lake, he'd thought once. He hadn't changed his mind.

"Don't let me hurt you."

Kim touched his face. He flinched, then made himself accept her touch. "I don't want to go," she said. "Besides, it's frigging hailing out there."

"I can't go slow. I can't be nice."

She smiled and laced her arms around his neck. She was shaking, but her eyes were soft. "Sounds like fun."

"Kim."

"Liam." She kissed the tip of his nose. "I don't want to go slow. I need you."

He kissed her. The bricks scraped his arms as he shielded her from the wall. She wrapped her legs around his hips, her skirt riding up her thighs. It was easy to shove aside the elastic of her thong, to find her opening with his cock. She sucked in a breath, eyes widening, as he slid firmly into her.

How could he have ever thought that sex in human form was boring? He was content never to do it as a wildcat again. Kim was hot and wet, so easy to enter. She arched against him, her nipples rubbing him through her thin shirt. Liam shielded her from the wall with his arms, the bricks abrading his already bloody skin.

His adrenaline hadn't cooled from the fight. He needed this mating. Liam's heart rocketed, his blood hot.

Kim's sheath clenched him, her body and his fitting together perfectly. His mind went blank. All he felt was Kim, all he smelled was her body and her sex, her breath, her hair. He licked her face. He tasted her neck. He thrust into her, his blood pumping. Outside, lightning crackled, blinding flashes followed by booms of thunder. The hail fell like bullets on the roof, balls of ice bouncing in through the wide door.

"Liam. Yes."

Liam squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his forehead on the wall. He shoved himself into her as though he wanted to crawl inside her and be part of her. His shoulders bunched; his breath burned in his lungs.

Kim shuddered in climax, her feet around his buttocks. The heels of her sandals grated his skin, and he didn't care.

Still holding her with one arm between her and the wall, Liam pounded his fist into the brick. Another lightning strike lit the world, and Liam came.

Sweat poured from him, his body on fire. Kim was screaming, and Liam heard his own voice ring through the warehouse. He was falling. Kim, he had to catch her.

He landed flat on his back, Kim's soft body on top of his. The movement slid him out of her hot sheath, and he groaned with loss.

Kim smiled down at him. "Holy shit. That was...good."

Liam wanted to answer her, tell her it was the best he'd ever had, that he loved her. He could only gasp for breath. The pain of his fight, the bewilderment of his flooding instincts, robbed him of his voice.

Kim closed her hand on him, and he groaned again.

"You're still hard. I thought you came."

Liam nodded. "I did." Gritting his teeth, he turned her over to put her beneath him and entered her once more.

Sex had never been like this before. Not free-for-all, no-holding-back, wet and messy sex. Kim laughed with it.

Not to mention having it on a bare cement floor with a naked, half-crazed, hard-bodied Shifter on top of her while a hailstorm raged outside. Another lightning bolt could strike the building and bring it down on top of them, and Kim didn't care.

"I love you, Liam," she shouted.

He opened his eyes. Once beautiful blue, they were now Shifter gray-white.

Kim would be afraid later. Right now, she was as crazed as he was. Was this what he meant by mating frenzy?

Liam pumped into her for a few more minutes, then dragged in a breath and filled her with his hot seed. Liam collapsed on top of her, breathing hard, his body roasting. He lingered on her, kissing her face and hair, then rolled off onto his back, still breathing as though he'd just finished a ten-mile run.

They lay still for a long time, Liam's breathing hoarse, Kim too tired to move. Gradually the hailstorm slackened, the time between lightning strikes increasing. Thunder rumbled in the distance, the storm drifting away, following the river.

Liam didn't move, and Kim wondered if he'd dropped off to sleep. She propped her aching body on one arm. "Are you all right?" she asked.

Liam lay face up, eyes open, his breathing rapid. "I don't know."

"The storm's letting up. It's what my mother liked to call a 'wham-bam, thank you, ma'am' storm."

Liam didn't answer, didn't laugh.

"You know what the storm dying off means," Kim continued. "It means that Sean and your dad are going to come looking for us. I bet Connor and Glory will too. And Ellison. He was real worried about you when I saw him earlier. In fact, every Shifter curious about what happened to you will be showing up pretty quick."

Liam raked his sweating hair from his face. "They shouldn't."

"Like that's going to stop them."

"Kim." Liam's face twisted, and he wrapped his arms around his chest. "I need to find my Collar before they get here."

"Is that what you really want?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Fergus was crazy. He'd have destroyed us."

Kim noticed he hadn't answered the question. "You don't think Shifters can adapt to going without the Collar again?"

"Not like this." Liam's chest expanded with an agonized breath. "We'll kill each other. Gods, Kim, I wanted to kill Michael. I needed to. Even Sean. My own brother. And the feelings haven't gone away. If they come to get us, I'll fight. I'll kill until someone kills me."

"And me?"

He reached for her. "No. You, I just want to fuck."

"I should be flattered, but I have the feeling I wouldn't last very long. You have stamina."

"I'd hurt you. I've already hurt you." He touched her bruised lip.

"You didn't. Don't you get it, Liam? You could have, but you didn't."

"That's no guarantee, love. I want you so damn bad." He kissed her swollen lips and drew back, eyes flicking from white to blue to white again.

Kim touched the red line on his neck. Liam flinched but didn't stop her.

"Or you could go," she said softly. "Run away back to Ireland or something. Live free."

Liam closed his eyes, blotting out the awful look in them. "Not without you. I don't want to live without you." He bowed his head, resting on Kim's shoulder. "But Fergus was right. I'd use you until there was nothing left of you. I'd not be able to stop myself." He raised his head, expression anguished. "Don't you understand? If I'm this way, I can't have you."

Kim rubbed his arms, wishing she could tell him that everything would be all right. You'll be fine, you'll get used to it, you'll learn to control your instincts. But she had no idea whether it would be all right. The Lupine who'd attacked her in her bedroom had been the victim of Fergus's experiments, ready to slaughter Kim to torture Liam. She'd seen the way Liam had looked at innocent Michael and at his own brother, as though they were enemies he needed to destroy. She had no idea what kind of crazed being Liam would become.

"I can't tell you to put yourself into captivity again for me," she said. "I don't want you to."

"I hate the Collar. Kim, I hate it so much. It hurts us when we so much as think about the way we used to be. One surge of adrenaline and it's giving us pain. You can't know what that's like. Always living in fear of the pain."

"You're right. I don't know."

"Being free of it..." Liam slid his fingers and thumb around the mark where the Collar had been, his wild smile emerging. "It's a joyous thing, love. I can do anything I want, and no one can stop me."

"Not even me?"

"No. That's the trouble."

"Sean said you weren't like this before--before you all took the Collar, I mean."

"Not this out of control. Not with twenty years of need falling on me at once. But it was like this too. We were strong and free, and those few who knew about us were in awe of us. Even the Fae acknowledged our strength, that we no longer served their whims. That's what rankles most--the Fae helped to bind us. They've always wanted to bind us." Anger danced in his eyes, lines pulling the sides of his mouth. "We hate them for it."

"What about humans?" Kim made herself ask.

"Human beings are weak, short-lived. No threat." Liam's eyes eased back to the blue she'd fallen in love with. "The one I'm lying on now is so beautiful. And I love her."

"I'll help you escape, Liam. I want you to be free. Don't find the Collar. Please."

Liam closed his eyes again, tight. He shuddered, lips shaking, as though wave after wave of panic ripped through him.

After a long time, he opened his eyes again, and something in them had been defeated. "No, love. They need me here. And I never, ever want to wake up in the morning knowing that I hurt you."

Kim touched his face. The anguish in his voice a moment ago when he'd said he hated the Collar had been real. He hadn't mentioned his loathing before this, but Shifters were strong and could resign themselves to pain, and he'd probably seen no use in voicing his rage to Kim. Having the Collar off, feeling the pain evaporate for the first time in twenty years, must be incredible for him. She wasn't sure how he could even contemplate putting it back on.

"No one would blame you if you went," she said. "Dylan would take over again, like before, and Sean would still be Guardian. They'll look after Connor and everyone else. You know that."

"I'd blame me."

"But free, you could start working on how to liberate the rest of your kind."

Liam kissed her forehead. "No, love. Free I'd be thinking of only myself and how good it felt to be away from all this. I'd start despising them for being weak, find myself a pride of ferals and try to take over. A wonderful Shifter-man I'd be."

"You can't know that. Like you said, all these urges are built up. Maybe in time--"

"And maybe not." His voice went hard, and he rolled off Kim and to his feet. "We find the Collar."

Kim remained on the floor, staring up at his hard body. He was beautiful--firm muscle, broad shoulders, chest dusted with dark hair, now damp with sweat. His skin was covered with scratches from the fight, but they were healing, even the deepest ones only angry red lines. The worst wound was around his neck, where his Collar had been.

As he forced himself to turn from Kim to look for the Collar, Kim knew that Fergus had never understood just how strong Liam was. He'd made the choice to give up his freedom to stay with his family and help them in their captivity. Fergus had sacrificed others in his cause; Liam was sacrificing himself, just as he had when he'd stepped forward and taken the whipping to spare Connor pain.

Kim got reluctantly to her feet, trying to brush off the worst of the dirt she'd rolled in. Liam was already looking, quick gaze darting everywhere as he skirted the dust in the corner that had been Fergus. He didn't show much remorse about killing his clan leader, but Fergus had been nuts. Also, she knew the man wouldn't have gone meekly home, promising to stop his experiments: I'm sorry, Liam, you're right. I've been a bad Shifter.

Kim thought about Fergus's mates, and the offspring Fergus had mentioned. Would they mourn him? Would they try to exact revenge on Liam or move on with their lives? What would Liam, as clan leader, do to them? Would all of those Shifters down in San Antonio accept him without rancor? This would be interesting to watch--interesting being a euphemism for scary.

Behind her, Liam said, "Here it is."

She swung back to find Liam holding the thin silver and black chain as if it was a poisonous snake. Kim chewed her lip as he gripped the ends, one plain, one with the Celtic knot, in his white-knuckled fists.

"Will it work?" she asked. "It's not broken?"

"Once it's on me again, it should. Justin said that Brian's experiments let him figure out how to unfuse the Collars from us, not disable the chips inside. He hadn't got that far, yet." Liam took a long breath. "This will hurt me, Kim. You should go."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Maybe I just don't want you seeing me weak and pathetic, love. A Shifter's got his pride."

"Liam, I've seen you strong, crazed, violent, angry, happy, sad, and far gone in passion. I love every single one of those, especially the last one. Did you know your pupils widen when you come? It's like you want to take all of me in, forever. It's very sexy."

"Is it, now? Well, this won't be. It wasn't pretty the first time I put on a Collar, and I don't imagine this will be much better."

Kim folded her arms. "I'm not leaving. I'm your mate, remember? In the traditional human wedding ceremony, we promise to stick together for better or worse. That means not just when everything's pretty, but when it's bad, very bad."

"I'm thinking there's no line in there about watching your Shifter mate take his Collar."

"Not last time I checked, but the idea is the same."

Liam looked down at the Collar, chest rising sharply. "I can't lie to you, Kim. It's a bit easier knowing you're near me." He looked up, his eyes clear, dark blue, full of fear and full of love. "Wish me luck."

"I love you," Kim said.

A hint of his warm, wicked smile touched his mouth. "Love you too, sweetheart."

He studied the Collar a long moment, then took another sharp breath and lifted the chain to his throat.

Liam's muscles tightened as the Collar settled against his neck. Kim had no idea how the thing fastened, but as he touched the bare end to the Celtic knot, she heard a loud click, and then Liam screamed.

Cords stood out on his neck, and his entire body arched backward. He balled his fists and clenched his teeth, fighting the agony.

Kim rushed to him. Shifters comforted and helped each other with touch--maybe she could ease him a little bit if she could hold him. Liam thrashed as spasms racked his body, his screams becoming hoarse cries.

She reached for him. "Liam."

Liam focused on her, his eyes white-blue. "No, Kim. Stay back."

"You need me." Kim grabbed his wrists, but he snapped them away from her.

"I said stay back."

"And I said, you need me."

Kim darted between his hands and slid her arms around his sweating waist. His skin was ice-cold. She rubbed his back, trying to warm him.

"Kim, no."

"You need me," she repeated firmly.

Liam drew breath after shuddering breath. He stood stiffly, body shaking at the same time. Then with a cry of agony, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck.