“You always have to question me in front of others. Don’t you, cousin?” Kade’s voice held an equal amount of spite and frustration. “But when we needed a new pride leader, you didn’t step up. Nobody did. Not even after I practically begged you to take my place. You chose to join the Council instead. I was left with the job. So don’t get on your high and mighty horse now and tell me what I should and should not do as pride leader.”
Anton pinched the bridge of his nose. Arguing with his younger cousin never turned out well. Kade liked to fight. So did Anton. Neither of them should. They were supposed to be the calm, stable members of the pride, the ones others came to when there were issues.
“Aren’t you going to answer?” Kade lowered his voice to a threatening growl. “Or do you need to be reminded about your obligation to obey your pride leader?”
“I’m not questioning you. I’m worried about you.” Anton let the concern show in his expression. It was genuine. “Attacks on alphas have been increasing at an alarming rate. Those who bonded Molly’s soul to that of the Leon pride’s spirit will want to repeat their experiment now that they know they were able to successfully extend a Royal’s immortality to a single shifter.”
“And there’s only one way to do that.” Kade inclined his head, a blasé response to the fact he might be the next leader to die in order to supply the Royal spirit used in the next experiment. “I know this.”
“Then why aren’t you acting like it?” Anton pleaded. “Living with protection is not a reflection of your strength or ability to fight, it’s our reality. If we lose you to those who are willing to play God, the Alexander pride is lost too.”
That was the other dangerous aspect to the experiments. Every member of their pride shared a bond with Kade. If Kade died and the spirit of their pride he housed was trapped and prevented from merging with another Royal shifter, every Alexander pride member died. Once they did, the spirit could be forced into an unnatural bond with a single shifter chosen by those who ran these experiments.
“I can’t ignore my responsibility to my pride mates.” Kade walked to the sitting area near the bookshelves and stared at where Nyx’s purse and jacket had been tossed. “You need me. I felt the change in you. The quietness. The peace. The despair. Frankly, the misery clouding your soul disturbed me. It reminded me too much of my own.”
“I never expected to meet my true mate. I’m dealing with the consequences of doing so. It’s normal.” His situation was far from normal. Most sitting councilmen had joined the Council after their breeding partners died. The rest prayed never to meet their true mate for the exact reason Anton had. Love had no place in politics.
“What are you going to do about Nyx?”
Anton rubbed his eyes. They burned. He’d been up too long. Being a shifter didn’t erase his need for sleep. Crawling in bed with Nyx sounded like a good idea. They’d eventually fall asleep. After he loved her into exhaustion. “I already told you.”
“Right. You don’t know.” Kade held Nyx’s jacket to his nose for a moment, then dropped it on top of her purse. “But I do know you’ll be back to being miserable again once she’s gone. But, hey, we can start a club. Everyone tells me how miserable I am.”
“Nyx isn’t leaving me permanently. I’m only sending her to West Virginia for a short time.”
“Dead, Anton.” Kade made a slicing motion over his neck. “As a single shifter, she’s going to die whether you keep her as a lover or not. That’s a fact.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Anton fought the dark emotions swirling within him. The same ones had consumed him earlier when he’d realized what Nyx’s promised mate had planned for her. Anton had saved her from that fate. He couldn’t save her from death.
Unless he tied their souls together.
“Do you want another fact?” Kade fingered the edge of Nyx’s jacket. “Shifters who meet, then lose their true mate are more likely to take their own lives. They report feeling lost without the other half of their soul, and death becomes the only thing they look forward to. They crave it and will seek it out at any opportunity.”
Anton focused on the mechanics of breathing. He would not allow Kade’s words to push him over the edge. “Nyx is strong. Mentally. Emotionally. I sense it. She won’t be tempted to take her own life.”
“I’m not talking about Nyx. She’ll be mated and knocked up before those desolate feelings can ever consume her.” Kade smirked. “I’m talking about you. You’re going to crack without Nyx.”
“You don’t know that.”
“As your pride leader, I feel you, Anton. All I have to do is reach for your soul to know. You’ll crack without Nyx. Let her go. Now. Before your bond deepens more. And, if you want, I can find her a good single shifter mate. Then you’ll know exactly who’s sleeping with your woman.”
Rage surged at the notion of Nyx with another man. Red slid over his vision. Anton embraced the anger. Better Kade feel his wrath than Nyx.
“Screw you.” Anton charged his pride leader.
Kade sidestepped, avoiding the direct hit. His arrogant laugh echoed in the library. Nyx might even hear it from the tower. Anton would be damned if his true mate’s opinion of him dimmed any more.
A vulgar curse fell from Anton’s lips. He dropped, planting his hands on the floor, and swung his leg out, toppling his stockier pride mate. Muscles didn’t always make a man stronger. Speed and willpower counted too.
The second Kade’s back hit the floor, Anton landed on top of him and pummeled his face. His pride leader snarled, baring his deadly feline teeth, then flipped Anton. Punches connected with Anton’s cheek. An elbow rammed into his ribs, snapping bones. Pain exploded in his chest. Blood filled his mouth.
Anton drew his knees up and knocked his cousin off him. The arm of a high-back wooden chair crunched under the weight of Kade’s falling body.
Not giving Kade a chance to stand, Anton jumped on his back and yanked one of Kade’s arms, bending it at an odd angle.
The bone cracked.
Kade cursed, then hunched forward, flipping Anton over his back. Anton landed on his feet and grabbed for Kade’s other arm. Kade spun out of reach.
“Enough.” Kade held up his good hand. “Nice to see you haven’t grown soft living in this mansion.”
“The weak become fodder here.” Tingling warmth spread through Anton’s chest as his broken ribs mended. He rolled his shoulders and twisted his torso, easing the tightness in his chest. Quick healing hurt more than the injury itself. “I can’t allow myself to be preyed on that way. Too many shifters are relying on me to make things right for them.”
“That’s going to have to change.” Kade shook the arm Anton had broken, proving he too experienced the tingling pins-and-needles sensation of healing, then grabbed Anton’s bicep. “There’s only one shifter’s fate that should matter to you anymore. And she’s upstairs in your bed.”
Anton glanced at the closed door of the library. Every instinct demanded he follow Nyx upstairs and finish what they started. Their kiss left him hungry. He wanted to feast on his true mate. He couldn’t. “Nyx matters. That’s why I’m sending her to West Virginia. She’ll be safer on Alexander pride lands.”
“Safer, yes. Happier, no.”
“It’s only for a short time until I decide what’s best for us.”
“Doesn’t matter how long. Now that she’s met her true mate, she’ll never be content. You know that, right? Even a few weeks or months without you will be hard.”
He did know that. Neither of them would be complete anymore. They were pieces of a puzzle meant to fit together. The knowledge didn’t make this any easier. “I should never have met Nyx. The odds of us crossing paths when I never leave the Council grounds are astronomical. I thought I was safe from my instincts.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it. Our goddesses have decided to take a renewed interest in our species. The number of Royals and single shifters who’ve soul-bonded in recent months is unprecedented.”
“A chain of events has led to those matings. Don’t start attributing them to the handiwork of our goddesses.”
“A chain of events initiated by our goddesses. If—”
“If we hadn’t gotten a phone call from the human government about a shifter child living with a human, the events of the past year wouldn’t have happened.” Anton shook his head. The last time his pride leader had talked about the goddesses, Kade had denied their power, calling them weak and unimportant. Of course, that had been before Kade became pride leader and talked to one. “That phone call was the work of mortals, not the heavens.”
“I know what you’re doing. I made the same excuses for centuries. It doesn’t change anything. Our true mates were chosen for us before we were born, and so are the events leading to our matings. Denying our path is pointless.” Kade moved to the windows. With his arms crossed, he studied the darkened landscape. “And cruel. Look at Mira. She would’ve been miserable had I mated her. I would’ve too. I knew all along she wasn’t my true mate.”
Anton’s shoulders drooped. He stared at the floor as his chest grew heavy. Never before had the guilt over not interacting with his pride mates been as strong. “How is Mira?”
“Freaking huge.” Kade laughed. “But beautiful, happy. She says the babies are healthy and strong too. So is she. Her human mate is taking good care of her.”
The full impact of the prophecy surrounding Mira‘s children wasn’t completely understood, but it promised to change their world, exactly as the goddesses foretold. Already Mira’s pregnancy had rocked shifter beliefs.
Everyone knew humans and shifters couldn’t breed. That was a biological fact. Not once in the long history of shifters had half-breed babies ever been conceived. Until Josh mated Mira and rewrote the rules.
Anton joined Kade at the window. “And how are you now that you no longer feel obligated to mate a woman you don’t love?”
“I love Mira. Always have, always will. She was just never meant to be mine.” Kade braced against the glass and angled his head to look out the window. “My true mate is waiting for me. Somewhere. I just have to find her.”
“Do you expect to find her in the trees?” Anton matched Kade’s pose. The moon showed through a break in the clouds. “Or on the moon?”
“You never know.” Kade snorted. “Enough about me. We need to decide what you should do about Nyx.”
“We?” Anton leaned against the window. “Since when did you get a say in my life?”
“Since I accepted the spirit of the Alexander pride into my soul.” Kade laid a splayed hand against the glass. “The pride comes first. Always.”
Anton focused on Kade’s hand. “You’re also a member of the pride, Kade. Maybe you should focus on your own life for a change and let the rest of us deal with ours.”
“The pride is my life.” Kade righted the chair and dropped the broken pieces of wood on the seat. “I’m obligated to ensure my pride mates are happy, safe, and secure.”
“Then go do that. Take Nyx back with you to West Virginia. I’ll be in touch once I’ve had a chance to consider my options.”
“What options? As long as you’re on the Council, it’ll never be safe for the two of you. You said it yourself, you’ll never be able to keep your mating a secret. Best you can hope for is to disappear with Nyx and hope you’re not found.”
“That’s not possible. If I disappear, who will fight for our pride? For the other feline Royals I represent?” Anton paced, making a loop from the sitting area to his desk, then to the bar area in the rear section of the room near the atrium. “Who will make sure Molly’s safe?”
“As a councilman, you are endangering any mate you take. Have you forgotten that?”
“As soon as I’m eldest, I can lobby to change that rule.”
Kade stepped into his path. “That’s not a rule you can change. The founding fathers were very, very clear on that point. It’s not negotiable.”
“Yet. The first Alexander talked about the rights of true mates and women. There are letters that refer to his beliefs and accounts of conversations he’d had with his children. If I can use them, maybe I can pass a provision that’ll allow our mates to be protected by the same Code—”
“The first Alexander’s contribution to the founding laws is lost. Without our forefather’s book, you’ll never be able to pass a law that appears to contradict the one already in place.” Kade leaned close. A derisive glint showed in his eyes. “Or have you decided to betray all shifters and turn the Council into a dictatorship?”
“Not a dictatorship. The eldest has the right to overrule the Council. That is a law clearly written in the books.”
“For the good of the species.” Kade shoved him. “Not for the good of one man.”
Anton turned his back on Kade. Another fight wouldn’t help.
“You don’t have to mate her. Keep her as a lover.” Kade spoke the words softly, almost reluctantly.
“You don’t understand how powerful mating instincts are.” Anton grabbed fistfuls of his hair. “I’m insanely possessive of Nyx, and I’ve only known her a short time. In a few centuries, I’ll be crazed. I won’t be able to let her die.”
“Then you need to disappear.” Kade laid a hand on his shoulder. “I can help.”
“Hiding isn’t the answer. Eventually, we’d be found.”
“You could always go to the moon.”
Anton laughed despite the squeezing sensation in his chest at the thought of losing Nyx. “You’ve been watching too many television shows.”
“Have I?” Kade pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. A basic internet search screen popped up. “I never thought I’d have the world at my fingertips either, but I do now. Who knows what’ll be possible in the future?”
“True, but I don’t have the luxury of waiting for technological advancements. My future is upstairs.” Anton motioned to the ceiling.
“Changing the law isn’t the answer. The other Council members will kill you or Nyx, then change it back. Don’t even pretend like that’s not a possibility.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Disappear.”
Anton held his head in his hands. “I can’t. I have an obligation to our species, to Mira’s unborn babies, to Molly, to countless others who rely on me to fight for them.”
Kade’s sigh matched what Anton felt. He didn’t have any other options. It was change the law or fail all those shifters who needed him, because what he’d told Kade was the truth. If Anton spent much more time with Nyx, he’d end up mating her.
But how was he supposed to let her go? Just the thought of Nyx with another man left him enraged. And the notion of never seeing Nyx in his kitchen with flour on her cheek or in his library with a book in her hand or even walking next to him in a pair of high-heeled boots left him with an ache in his chest. They were such simple moments, but each one had made him feel alive.
If he lost Nyx, he’d never live again. He’d exist. Nothing more.
“Does Nyx know you’re true mates?” Kade asked.
“No.” Anton was fairly certain she didn’t. Her jaguar, on the other hand, likely did. If Nyx had been a little older or more in tune with her primitive side, she’d understand what the urges she was experiencing meant.
“Then let her go now before you get any more attached to her. If Boris has his way, she’ll be mated off soon. Once she is, you’ll be free to serve out your commitment to the Council, and Nyx will be safe. Maybe not happy, but safe. Once she has a kid, the lure of death won’t tempt her as much either. She’ll have her babies to live for.”
Hands fisted, Anton fought the anger twisting through him. He wanted to hurt Kade for suggesting he let Nyx go. Only knowing Kade meant well stopped Anton from picking up their fight where they’d left off.
“If you’re not willing to run with Nyx, it’s the best solution for both of you.” Kade rested his hand on Anton’s shoulder. “I’ll leave with her tonight. You won’t ever have to see her again.”
“No.” Anton growled the word. He closed his eyes and fought to stay calm. Kade meant well. If Anton kept repeating that, he might convince himself. “There’s a celebration tomorrow for Brock. Boris mentioned on his way out that he plans on introducing Nyx to the other Council members. Nyx leaving before then would seem suspicious.”
“And after that?”
Anton walked to where Nyx’s jacket had been tossed. He ran his fingers over the rough, woven material. His shoulders slumped. No matter how he looked at it, there was only one fate for Nyx. Anything else would cheat her out of the life she deserved. “I’ll make her hate me. She’ll run. Find another man. Make some babies. Then I’ll make sure she never gets near me again.”
The roar of his lion echoed in his mind. The snarl of his tiger came next. Anton slammed the metaphysical door, blocking him from his cats before his jaguar could attack him for threatening to send their mate away.
He exhaled roughly. He was in for a battle of wills, but he had no choice. Once Nyx left him, he’d throw himself into work. As long as someone needed him, he’d continue living. The Council came first. Always.