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Frosty
I had been desperate to get back to him and had begged Prayer, and when she teleported us, I assumed we were going back to the clutch. I was wrong. As traumatized as Kassie had been at the time, Prayer wanted her to understand that she was the MVP of the team. Sebastian and Cato are going to need to work together because we need Kassie to maintain communication between shifters. She is the hub and the only method of two-way communication we possess.
When we popped in at Black River, and Prayer knocked on their door, we could plainly hear Sebastian threatening Kassie with various forms of torture if she opened the door. She opened the door anyway, and Prayer, and I both had to bite back on the smile and comments. Her hair was the worst case of sex hair I had ever seen, sticking out in every direction. The important part is that, once again, Kassie was smiling. Her cheeks were pink, and her eyes were that beautiful, sparkling blue. We outlined the issue for her as quickly and simply as we could, and Sebastian was up and dressed before we could finish speaking. Her eyes dimmed just a little from what we were telling her, but Sebastian came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her against him, and she lit right back up. He linked his fingers across her belly, and her smile doubled in size. I understand this need for respite with her mate and that this is what she needed to get back with us and focus on the team.
As happy as I am to let the girls have what they need from their mates, my fear and anxiety are still building inside of me the longer it takes us to get back. Once we have Kassie and Sebastian with us, Prayer, Kassie, and I sense a sort of summons from Xita. Xita wanted to send me back with a few doses of her blood in case we needed them. She and Leander believe that whatever it was that Oscar took contained the same poison that trapped the other shifters in their animal forms. Only this time, he was trapped in his human form. It would explain both mine and Kassie's inability to force his shift. She hoped that giving him a proper dosage of her blood would be enough to purge his system, and we'd have better control. He may lie to us all day with his human mouth, but Kassie can sort through his thoughts in his animal form with minimal prompting.
The moment I saw Cato, I saw his sadness, his anger, and his frustration. Seeing him like that, I also knew nothing between us would be resolved until he was calm. If he wanted to be done with me because I had cost the life of one of his own, I would try very hard to understand. Whether I was able to make myself understand or not, I would respect his decision and deal with it with as much grace as I could scrape up. The absolute joy that broke out in my heart when I saw the hopeful look on his face was indescribable.
When I got brave enough to try and touch him, and I saw his—what I like to call his "heart light"—begin to glow, I could have wept with relief. He is still mine. He loves me. I know that as long as he loves me, we can handle anything else that will come. It is time to get down to business because, as soon as we are done with this, I plan to try out the sex look on my own hair.
"Oscar, we know you took the toxin. For whatever reason, you decided to take it in your human form, whereas your mate took it in her cougar form. What I need to know right now is how you want to do this. We can cure you of the toxin and shift you to your cougar ourselves, or you can answer us with your own words and retain some of your dignity." There was no way the asshole who had spit in my face was going to opt for any dignified ending. He sure would not care about a "do the right thing" speech.
"I do not know who you are or why you monsters locked me in here, but you need to let me out. I need to get out of here." Oscar paces back and forth as though he really thinks we will just open the door and let him out.
"You might want to slow down there a moment, cougar boy. There is no way you are getting out of there. You and your mate have been working with Harley to poison other shifters and incite anger toward the alphas, and then your mate went and killed Aman. You know you are not getting out of this in one piece."
"I have a mate?"
"No, you had a mate. She killed Aman, so they killed her." Cato's voice is cold, and his expression is void of any sympathy for the man's loss. Oscar's eyes narrow as he looks at all of us.
"I have no mate. What are you doing? Why are you saying these things? Where am I?" There is a tone to Oscar's voice that causes a tingling in the back of my brain. I want to fight the feeling that something is really wrong here, but I cannot, and my mind sends out an emergency call to Prayer and Kassie.
"Are you going to pretend you do not remember me?" Kassie asks him as she steps up to the cage so she can get right up in his face.
"I do not know any of you, and I want out of this cage. Tell me where I am and why I am here! Right now."
"If you understood how many people in this room are waiting for any reason to kill you where you stand, rather than worrying about being kept in, you might be grateful for them keeping us out." Sebastian's voice took on a strange tone that I had not heard from him before. It almost resonated like Cato's, but then again, it was not at all like Cato's.
"Oh, you know I love it when you go all alpha on someone." Cato turned to Sebastian, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Of course, I know. That is why I do it, big guy, to make you love me." Sebastian flashed a grin at Cato.
"If you are done having your fun with me, let me the hell out. This joke isn't funny. I do not want to be in here. I do not know who you are. You have the wrong guy."
I take my turn right in front of Oscar. His hands are circling the bars like he could shake them free, and I wrap my fingers over his, holding them tight to the metal. "What if I were to tell you, Oscar, that you swallowed a poison that fucked your world up? That is why you woke up in there. Would you want me to give you the antidote?"
"Why would I intentionally take poison?" Oscar appears suspicious, and the doubt creeps higher in my mind.
"Why would I know that? Does it even matter? You ingested a poison, and now you are suffering the effects of it. Does it truly matter why?"
"No. I do not think it does. If you are telling me the truth—that I woke up here because I poisoned myself—I am not sure what to do with that because I do not know why I would do it. There is also the chance that you are mistaken and someone else did this to me, and because of that, I am going to say yes. I would like the antidote if there is one." I release his hands and narrow my eyes at him as he backs away to the center of the cage.
That feeling that has been nagging me that something is really wrong is now thundering in my head. Is this a trap for one of us to get into the cage with him? If he really is unable to shift, he would be as helpless as a baby against one of us. Xita said there was something new added to the poisonous concoction. Is it able to affect everyone, not just shifters? What if it can now be transmitted from person to person by a bite or a scratch? Just to be safe, I take the swab out and hold it in front of Cato.
"Just to be safe, My Treasure, you need to smell this and remember it. This came from Soraia, and we are fairly certain it is a strain of the toxin they have been using on the shifters. Due to the fact that neither Kassie nor I could shift Oscar, we think it has the same effect of not allowing a shifter to shift, but it contains a component that is, as of yet, unknown to Xita. She wants everyone to be aware that she has not had a chance to test it to see if her blood protects you from this as well. We are all unwilling to assume that it will. We need to make sure the whole team memorizes that scent."
I have the dose of Xita's blood ready to be delivered, but at this moment, I am not entirely sure about walking into that cage. Not because I am afraid of what will happen to me but because I know Cato, Kassie, and Sebastian will follow me. I pull the first syringe out of my pocket and stare hard at Oscar. I wonder what it was that turned a person like the one I see in front of me into someone willing to commit treason, acts of betrayal, and even murder. Then again, there is still the chance that the person I see in front of me is just another clever ruse. When did these people arrive at Swift Wind, Black River, or wherever they are currently causing trouble? Were they already residents here when they were indoctrinated into this belief, or were they already a part of it when they moved here? There are too many questions. I have had enough of this and hold my hands out to Oscar.
"Come over here. I want to see you shift. If you cannot, I want to help you try. If you cannot be shifted, I will give you the antidote that will allow you to shift again."
Oscar looks around the room, and perhaps he is nervous because everyone in the room is watching him. He doesn't have to like it, but this is our team, and it is just better for them to be able to witness some things up front and in person. That tingle of concern buzzes through my mind again as he begins to look agitated and uneasy. No matter all the reasons or excuses I thought he might give, I wasn't prepared for what came out of his mouth.
"What do you mean shift? Shift where?"
"Now I know you are fucking with us." Kassie comes back up in front of the cage. Without warning, her eyes blaze white, Oscar's body doubles over, and he is screaming in what looks like intense agony. "I have done this once before, you know, Oscar. It drove a man right out of his mind from the pain and torture of not being able to shift and having someone try to force it. It is what that poison you gave yourself does."
"Stop! What are you doing to me? Stop. I do not know anything, and you are killing me. Stop!" His screams are real, and I just do not think he could lie his way through that kind of pain.
Sebastian is watching him, his eyes narrowing. I can tell he isn't sure what to believe, either. Cato signals to Eshaq, who comes over and automatically pulls the keys out and hands them to him. Kassie doesn't let up on him as Cato unlocks the door. Sebastian and I follow Cato in, and once we are in front of him, Kassie joins us. I do not wait for him to have a chance to recover as I grab his arm and plunge the needle into his vein.
"How long did this take Alan the first time?" Sebastian asks, and I turn to look at the man in question.
"She didn't know the dose to give at the time, so it took me the longest. I think it was about an hour, but it was a strange time for me. Kassie?" Alan redirects the question to Kassie.
"It was about an hour. When she gave you your dose, I had time to introduce Xita to everyone here and then be with Ruthie for a bit. But if I recall, it was very shortly after the second dose that you started to feel something." Kassie looks over at Oscar. "Are you feeling more like you can shift now?"
"I do not know what you mean by shift! I keep telling you repeatedly. I think you have the wrong guy. I do not know any of you, and I do not know what you mean by shift!" He is downright terrified now, which, of course, is pushing his anger over the top.
"You owe me a new set of clothes, Frosty. I am tired of this bullshit. This is what we mean by "shift" asshole." Sebastian does the high-speed shift that apparently comes as a bonus when you are mated to one of our kind. It looks almost like he unfolds into a huge ass black wolf instead of reconstructing himself on a molecular level. The scream that comes from Oscar at the sight of Sebastian in his cage with him is so high-pitched and terrified that I have to cover my ears. Sebastian even responds with a whimper at the noise. I step up and slap Oscar across the face hard. His stunned expression remains on his face, but at least the noise is gone.
"Your turn. You shift. Either on your own or we are going to help you, but you are going to shift." I press my hand into his shoulder and keep his eyes on mine. "Kassie, it looks like it is going to be with help."
This time, when Kassie's eyes blaze up, so do mine. I would have been okay with waiting a while if it didn't feel like we were being jerked around and that this was someone's idea of either distracting us or trying to throw us off a scent. He did this to himself, but someone had to give him the dosage to be able to do it. Someone made this the default escape plan. The question is, did Soraia do it the right way, or did Oscar? Which way were they meant to take that poison? As experienced a liar as he is and as skilled an actor as he must be to have fooled so many into thinking they were family, I prefer at this point to have Kassie scan his animal self for the answers.
Oscar's eyes just about pop out of his head as his body twitches, and his bones and muscles start breaking and ripping. It is a brutal scene, especially since he doesn't have Sebastian's speed, and he is obviously still under some of the toxins' effects. The noise he is making as he finishes shifting is like a whimper. The sound of a wounded animal trapped in a cage. Fitting because he is a wounded animal trapped in a cage.
"Have at him, Kassie. We need everything he knows, no matter how small a detail."
Kassie focuses intently on the large cougar in front of us. Sebastian stands by, snarling and snapping his teeth, occasionally daring him to make a move against anyone. I feel Cato's body press against my back, and I know he is equally concerned about what might happen to me. Kassie rubs her forehead and waves away my concerned look as she fixes her gaze back on the cougar. After a few minutes, she takes a deep breath and turns a panic-stricken look our way.
"There is nothing there, Frosty. I do not mean he doesn't have answers to our questions. I mean, there is nothing there. He is currently trying to figure out what demon or witch did this to him. He has no memories of Soraia or a pack anywhere. I have no way to explain this." She rubs her hands through Sebastian's fur, her default tactic to calm herself. "It is not a clean slate in there. He has knowledge, just no memories. Like knowing how to drive a car but not being able to remember being taught to drive a car."
I link my fingers through Cato's. I cannot deal with any more of this today. It is been enough. My brain can no longer handle the information it is trying to process. Kassie gets my attention, and I stare at her.
"Frosty, his mind has been wiped, and I do not know how. I do not think anyone can know how."
"Prayer, I am sending Eshaq, David, and Alan with you, but you need to get this guy to Xita. You can tell her he is still the same man who spit in Frosty's face at the murder of Aman. She doesn't have to worry about what she needs to do to get answers. Just do not trust him. Find out what happened to him." Cato says, and David and Alan step into the cage to stand on either side of the cowering cougar. "Let's go, Vixen. You need a break."
It wasn't a question, as Cato bent down and tossed me over his shoulder. Break it is.
Cato
The sheer volume of insanity I have witnessed over the past few weeks is enough to send any sane person over the edge. I believe that only hundreds or thousands of years of being shaken by new and unexplained events outside our control are saving most of us. I was utterly fascinated by things like the invention of the telescope, penicillin, the space shuttle, and cell phones. I was horrified by the Crusades, the atomic bomb, chemical warfare, and global warming.
But the thought that these things didn't really affect me or those of my kind was always lurking in the back of my mind. It was happening on the planet I called home. It was happening all around me, but I wasn't particularly concerned about any of the changes brought on by humanity. The things that had a detrimental effect on both the planet's species and the earth itself have always left me feeling the way I do now. What the fuck were you thinking when you came up with this?
I am carrying Frosty over my shoulder to our room because we are finished for the day. There will be plenty to deal with tomorrow, but there has already been too much today. I need her. I need the reset to my mind that being with her alone can bring. I rub my hand across her ass, squeezing it just a little, and she giggles. Not the belly laugh that she gets when something strikes her as funny, but the little happy sound she makes when she is overwhelmed by pleasure and happiness. This is a good start.
I have had my mate several times already, but I intend to take her—and keep her—in our bed, in our room, in our home. As soon as we enter that room, Frosty wiggles and kicks to get down. I know exactly why she is freaking out, so I head straight for the bathroom. She is still covered in blood, and she looks like she came directly from a horror flick. These women have many things in common. Most of them are familiar to me because they talk to me as if we've been friends forever. Kassie and Prayer love a good shower. It is how they spoil themselves. Xita loves to soak in a bathtub, to the point that Leander starts to complain about his toes shriveling. It is the way they love to pamper themselves, and my Vixen is no different.
Reaching behind her, I push the buttons that will give her what I hope will be her best shower experience to date. When I see the lights turn green, I know the water is at the ideal temperature, and I start undressing my mate. Despite her bloodiness and the accompanying stench, I can still detect the sweet aroma of strawberries and cream, which has become my favorite scent. As soon as I have her completely naked, I strip off my clothes, shove her back inside, and close the door. When the door shuts, the water that was previously falling from the ceiling's center now also streams from several heads on the walls.
"Oh my stars! Cato, yes. This is amazing." She lifts her hands above her head and spins in the water.
I am relieved that she is enjoying it, taking a much-needed break, and letting go of the last few hours. Still, I am a man staring at a naked mate, and her breasts have captured my full attention. My hands follow my gaze, and they move freely, gliding up and down her waist and then turning to cup those lovely mounds. I have no intention of taking her in the shower as I wash the blood off her, but I am not against warming her up. My little Vixen, though, needs very little warming. Her hands come over mine as I touch her, and her eyes light up. I am going to have to speed this process along.
I grab the bottle and pour what is probably an incredibly wasteful amount of her shampoo into my palm. I love the scent, though. I run my fingers through her hair, playing with the soap as it bubbles through my fingers. Everything about Frosty fascinates me, but as I run the soap bubbles through her hair, I find that I enjoy watching the blue-tipped strands that appear and disappear between my fingers. It is so oddly satisfying to play with her wet hair that I have to shift my attention and remember that this is about her and relaxing her body and mind.
Wrapping my fingers around the back of her neck, her natural response is to relax into me, and the trust and surrender that she offers me sends another wave of heat through my body. Her head tilts back, and while holding her head in one hand, the fingers of my other hand weave in and out of her hair, rinsing the soap. Frosty's hands slide up my chest, and onto my shoulders, and with a simple touch like that, I almost slam her into the shower wall. Almost. Since the first time she gave in to our mating, it has been frenzied and frantic. As though we had to take from each other everything that we could as fast as we could. This time is going to be different. I gather my resolve and pick up the bottle of body wash and a scrap of fabric she calls a loofa. The soap foams up nicely, covering her body as I grit my teeth and wash every inch of her.
As I near the end of my patience, I rinse her off quickly, turn off the water, and wrap her in a towel before scooping her up and carrying her to our bed. I miss a step, and my heart misses a beat at finally having my mate in our bed. According to the stories in all those romance novels Sebastian likes to tease me about, a dragon's hoard is built and guarded until he finds his mate, at which point it is given to her. I understand the appeal of the concept, but in this world, my hoard, or any dragon's hoard, is their mate. She is my entire world, and nothing can ever take her away from me now that I have her. Although I still feel regret and guilt about the events of the day, I know that she loves me despite these emotions and whatever else we may face together. I want to explain some of this to her, but as I sit on the bed with her on my lap, she looks up at me with tears in her eyes and speaks quietly.
"I am more heartbroken than you can imagine over Aman. We are all grieving his senseless loss." Her fingers reach up and stroke gently across my chin and cheek as she speaks. "He intended to protect me and the others, and I know he made a choice and took action accordingly. I can also see the guilt in your eyes that it was him and not you. I am so sorry that he died, My Treasure, but if it had been you instead of him, I would have joined you in death. Cato, I am not being dramatic when I say that I can no longer survive without you. Do you understand?"
Her words are gentle, loving, and kind. I can tell she believes those words as much as I do. I do not believe anything would happen to end my life if she died. However, I believe that if she had died, my heart, body, mind, and soul would simply give up and have no desire to live another moment. Is it fair? No. Is it right? Probably not. Some things are just the way they are. I understand that living without Frosty is no longer an option. I smile gently at her because I know what she is saying, but she shakes her head at me, sitting up straighter in my lap and pulling my hand onto her chest.
"It is not a euphemism or a way of saying how much I love you, Cato. Do you feel my heart beating? Its rhythm is perfectly in time with yours. Did you not pay attention when Xita demonstrated how our base DNA changes with our mates at the molecular level? We are meant to be with one soul—the only one in the entire universe—to the degree of altering our biological forms. Do you believe that with that kind of transformation, my heart would beat even one more time without yours to resonate with?"
No more words. There are no more words I can say that would adequately convey how I feel right now. I pull her up to me and bring my mouth down on hers. She is the answer to everything. My pain subsides, my guilt fades, and my soul becomes content to simply be with her. The sweet taste of her mouth ignites my passions quickly, and I need to merge with her physically. Holding her against me, I lie back and stretch my arm out to reach the headboard. I pull myself up the length of the bed as I grasp it, her body still pressing against mine. She is moaning loudly, her body is wriggling against mine, and I am fighting hard to keep myself under control.
"It is not going to work, My Treasure," she whispers against my mouth.
"What will not?" I try to talk to her, but it is tough to find the right words when my mind is racing with all the things I want to do to her, and my body is aching for her.
She stays silent, which is fine for me because I can happily concentrate on her lips and the smooth flesh that I cannot stop caressing. Her towel is gone. When did that happen? As I run my hands along her ass, cupping and pinching, I savor the sensation of my palms filling with the combination of firm and soft flesh. Her nipples are tight and stiff against my chest as her breasts rub against me. My mouth salivates at the thought of getting another taste of them. Never having been a man to deny myself, I lift her body so I can bring one perfect nipple up to my mouth. She becomes my ideal dessert when her strawberry scent combines with the perfect pink coloring of her nipples. Her cries grow increasingly intense, and it is like music to my ears. My senses fill with her, and I am close to the edge.
Frosty slides back down my body and wraps her legs around me. The ache that I have been trying to ignore turns into a searing, painful need as she presses her heat against me. Her fingers play with the ends of my long hair, and she wraps it around her hands until she has two fistfuls of my hair. I do not know what my Vixen is thinking, but I do know that she is free to do anything to me that makes her happy. Frosty slides her hips back and away from me before coming back down on me at such an angle that she takes me all the way inside of her. Her head falls back, and she screams my name as her body incredibly shakes, and her muscles clamp down on me.
I would love to extend this time and pay more attention to her body and her needs, but the way she just took what she wanted from me sends me right back into the passionate frenzy I had tried to avoid. The instant she releases my hair, I push her body backward onto the bed between my spread legs. Using one hand, I lift myself so I can watch her body take me as I move in and out of her at faster speeds. Her head is twisting, and her hands are grabbing at my thighs as I see her stomach muscles start to jump again. Bringing my other hand down, I stroke that tiny button so she will explode onto me once more as I feel my release, not more than a heartbeat away. When she screams, I feel her muscles lock down on me, and I grab her up, pulling her against my body as I release inside of her with a force like never before.
Frosty's arms come around my neck, and I lean back so I can look at her, just to be sure I didn't mistake any pain for pleasure, as is sometimes possible. Her smile is small but sweet, and although her eyes are still glowing white, her eyelids are closing rapidly. She is content. She is exhausted, but she is satisfied and happy. This is all that matters to me, and I press her head into my shoulder as I lie back down to sleep with her against me. There is no way to know what tomorrow will bring, but tonight, in this bed, there is peace.