Everything hurt. Even his damn toes felt like they had been crushed and broken. That annoyed Zachary.

What pissed him off was the fact that someone had shot him and tried to kill Brenton in broad daylight.

Zachary held Riley while the Pride got back to work. Brenton caught him up quietly as Riley fell back to sleep, curled into Zachary’s side. She barely fit on the bed. Hell, he barely fit, but it was okay. He wanted her there. He needed her there.

“What’s the game plan?” Zachary asked quietly.

“Find out who is doing this and then crush them.” Brenton made a frustrated noise. “But…”

“We’re losing,” Zachary grunted. “Let’s admit it. We’re losing.”

“Between you, her, and those two,” Brenton nodded towards the brothers, “I am pretty fucking tired of being told we are down.”

“Brenton, someone tried to assassinate us. I’m not sure how I’m alive,” Zachary snorted. “We’re losing.”

“I know,” Brenton sighed. “Fuck, I know. Gabe could know who is doing this any minute, though, and then we can make our plans.”

“There’s only four of you who can do anything,” Zachary reminded him. “And, I’ll be real, only three I’m willing to put in harm’s way.”

“You couldn’t stop her if you tried,” Brenton chuckled. “If she wants to fight, we need to let her and make sure she is prepared for it… but I have an idea on that.”

“I’ll trust your judgement,” Zachary growled softly. “But if she gets hurt…”

“Kill me, please. I will welcome it. I’m pretty tired of any of you getting hurt, to be honest.”

“It was me or you, Brenton. It had to be me,” Zachary whispered.

“No, it didn’t,” Brenton mumbled sadly. “Zachary, I told you that it never had to be you.”

“And, at the time, I believed you,” Zachary sighed. “I know better now.”

“I have never asked you to die for me,” Brenton snarled softly. Zachary saw a flash of something dangerous in those gold eyes and realized what he’d missed in the last day.

Brenton was hanging on by a thread. Their Alpha was about to snap, lose all his control and hurt someone.

“No, and I know you never will, but I’ll do it anyway,” Zachary reminded him carefully. “I’ll do it because it’s the best thing I could ever give you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“I did not do anything that important…” Brenton looked away from him, and Zachary reached out to touch Brenton’s arm.

“You taught me how to live, how to trust. You gave me a foundation of real family that later helped me realize I could love. Brenton, if dying in your place is something I can do for you, I will. Every time. And not only you.” Zachary took a deep breath as Brenton gave him a pained look. “Between your pride and good heart, Andrew’s guidance, and the brothers teaching me how to smile… and her… Brenton, I would gladly die for any of you. Don’t ever think I regret that.”

“I hate you, you fucking prick,” Brenton mumbled.

“I love you,” Zachary whispered. Brenton’s head lowered onto Zachary’s shoulder.

“I’m falling apart,” Brenton murmured so quietly that Zachary nearly didn’t hear him over the incessant beeping of the machines around them. “It’s never been this hard. Having her, having a taste of a normal life and freedom, has made this all so much harder.”

“I know,” Zachary comforted him. “Brenton… I think maybe you should… You should fall apart, let go.”

“Excuse me?” Brenton looked back up sharply. Zachary met his brother’s gaze.

“I think it’s time for you to let the lion out of its cage. I would do it for you, as I have for years. I would be the hardness, but I’m bedridden.” Zachary poked Brenton’s chest. “You hide it, the beast, the thing that makes you so dangerous. It’s been… years since you went there. I know what it does to you, but I think it’s time for you to let him out one more time. He knows how to play the game and win it.”

“I…”

“You’ve lost faith in yourself,” Zachary hissed. “It’s been written all over your face and your posture for weeks. We failed to handle Cameron appropriately and almost lost Riley. You made a mistake in how to handle things after we escaped the hunters in Texas and got home. You need to get back on track and remember what made us great. We’ve made mistakes before, but we never let it get to us. We picked up the pieces, and we hit back harder.”

“Yeah…” Brenton sighed, looking down at his hands. Zachary watched him run one of those hands through his hair as he stood up.

“Go watch those two,” Zachary grunted at him, hoping he could set his Alpha to a task to keep him occupied.

“Do not tell me what to do,” Brenton snorted.

Zachary threw his idea out the window. Fine. Brenton would need someone else to push him over the edge if he wouldn’t listen to Zachary.

He pulled Riley in a little closer, ignoring the pain in his back and the rest of his body. He had holes in him, and he knew better than to try and ignore them. He grabbed the little button that would knock him out. He needed to heal. He needed to trust those smart leopards to do what they did best.

He needed a fucking nap.

He hit the button, and it didn’t take long for the morphine to kick in and take him down into dreams of their past. Of his past.

* * *

Someone shook him awake, and he snarled, trying to grab the hand that was touching him. No one was allowed to fucking touch him, not after what he’d gone through. He caught it and hated that the hand was strong enough he couldn’t break it.

He’d been caught in a shitty dream about cages. Instead of the hunters, it was his parents, calling him an uncontrollable monster. A wild thing that they could never tame or teach. A thing they would need to hide or give away. Unworthy of them. Unintelligent, dangerous, and crazy.

He’d only been eight.

They had never tried to teach him how to read or write. They had made their judgment based on his form and had given up on him from there.

Tigers had problems, and Zachary dealt with them every day. Some days were worse than others. No matter what, another tiger shifter, normally dark skinned, what humans might call “exotic”, would always judge his pale cast and his ink-black hair. His ice blue eyes. His parents had just been the first.

The last time he’d been truly bedridden was when his father had caned him. Zachary had been eight and had snarled at him. Zachary was looked down on because he was a white tiger, he always had been. He had also been looked down upon, like Brenton, for being too dominant as a child.

He squeezed the hand harder, making someone whimper.

“Zachary,” Troy whispered, obviously in pain, “don’t hurt us. We need to move Riley.” Zachary released the hand quickly.

“Then move her,” he growled, coming out of the nightmare. He was still pissed off, though. He didn’t know why being a white tiger irked him in that moment. He couldn’t remember for a moment why his back hurt so fucking bad.

“We can’t,” Brenton growled back. “You have got her completely curled up into you. Let her go. A nurse is here to check your injuries.”

Zachary cracked his eyes open and hissed at the light in the room. Why couldn’t they keep it dark? As he took in the hospital room, he remembered where he was and what had happened. His anger slowly receded as he took in the scent of Riley curled up with him, and Brenton who was leaning close to him. He could see Troy rubbing his hand with a grimace.

“How long have I been out?” He asked, realizing he did have Riley completely trapped. She was still sleeping peacefully, but his arms here locked around her, and his legs were tangled into hers. He slowly worked himself out of the mess, one of his IVs nearly getting tugged out in the process. “Fuck, that hurts.”

“Thank you,” Troy mumbled, picking up Riley slowly. Zachary watched him put their girl on the couch and tuck a blanket over her.

“Only two or three hours,” Brenton sighed. “After this, I want you back asleep though. I will get them to drug you if I must. We are still working on it.”

“Fine,” Zachary snarled. “Sorry for maybe getting a little violent there.”

“You were not sleeping easy,” Brenton told him. “We knew what we were getting into. A nightmare?”

“Something from when I lived with my parents,” Zachary grunted. “I’m fine.”

“Alright,” Brenton sighed.

Zachary let the nurse roll him to his side and change his bandages. A second nurse did the exit wound on his abdomen. They mumbled about how well he was doing and that there were no signs of infection or bleeding at the sutures. He didn’t pay attention, knowing Troy was going to memorize all of it and bother him about it later.

“Would you like a mild sedative to help continue resting?” The male human nurse asked, holding a small syringe.

“Lay it on me,” Zachary mumbled.

He was, once again, out in minutes.