CHAPTER 5
For the second time in less than an hour, August had a tiger leaping at him.
Only this time, it was four hundred pounds of very angry male tiger.
He quickly released the female, fear he would hurt her by accident bolting through him, and had just pushed away from her when the male hit him.
Hard.
He wasn’t strong enough to fight the male, weighed barely the same as the female in his snow leopard form, and was far smaller than both tigers.
He was going to have to rely on speed rather than strength in this fight.
But he wasn’t going to back down.
He tried to gain some space, but the male was on him before he could move an inch, his teeth clamping down hard on the back of his neck. The male growled and shook his head, rattling August’s brain around in his skull and sending fiery pain shooting down his spine and over his shoulders.
Fuck.
He tried to hold his snow leopard form but the pain drove him to shift back. He grunted as he part shifted, managed to claw it back at the last second and revert back to his snow leopard form.
Just as the tiger tossed his head to the left and sent him flying through the air.
August grunted and hissed as he hit the wall of the gym and landed on a treadmill, the centre console hitting him in the stomach.
Talon snarled and came at him, huge paws raking through the air where August had been, and was now gone. The tiger hit the console instead, a frustrated growl rumbling from between his fangs as he stood on his back paws looking at it.
August kept low, sneaking around the side of the machine, his long tail twitching as he stalked the male. Stupid tiger.
Talon huffed, blowing his cheeks out, and August grinned inside.
Until Talon’s golden eyes snapped down to him and he realised the tiger had been aware of him the entire time, had been feigning confusion to draw him out into the open.
Son of a bitch.
A huge paw slammed right into his face, driving him nose first into the rubber belt of the machine. Pain splintered over his skull as Talon pushed his weight down on it. Fuck.
Someone growled.
The female.
He looked towards her, his instincts flaring again, a desire to fight and win, to show her that he was strong and able, could handle a tiger twice his weight and size.
Talon growled at him, as if he had heard his thoughts, a warning that it wasn’t going to happen.
That victory would go to him.
Not a fucking chance.
August pushed his paws into the floor and tried to wriggle backwards, out from under Talon’s paw. Claws pressed into his head, dug into his skin, snaring him. He hissed and stilled.
The female growled again.
Stalked towards them.
Either it was his imagination or there was a flicker of blue around her pupils.
It was gone when he blinked.
So was Talon’s paw.
The male turned towards her and chuffed, making a low coughing sound in his throat. She bared her fangs at him.
August eased back, trying to distance himself from the male while he was occupied.
Talon pounced on him.
“Enough!” Kyter’s voice cracked through the room like a whip.
Talon landed on August’s head.
Before the male could attack him, he was gone and Kyter stood before him instead, his gold eyes on fire with the fury August could scent on him.
Loose grey sweats rode low on his hips, his sandy hair sleep mussed.
Talon’s roar must have woken him.
The big tiger growled and Kyter swung to face him, bared short fangs and stared him down.
“You want to find a new fucking place to work?” Kyter said, his tone measured, calm but filled with a threat, one that Talon obviously felt the male would carry out because he backed off and shifted.
August followed him, gritting his teeth as his body transformed, bones adjusting beneath his skin as his fur disappeared. He knelt on the black rubber floor, hands planted against it, and blew out his breath and sucked down another, fighting to steady his pulse as it raced. When he tried to straighten, every muscle ached in protest, fire burning through his legs and across his shoulder. Damn.
He clutched it and grimaced as his hand slipped on the blood.
The little kitty had definitely left a mark on him.
He looked at her, and frowned.
She hadn’t shifted back.
Kyter’s eyes came to land on him.
August grabbed the console of the treadmill, pulled himself onto his feet and lifted his gaze towards Kyter. Fuck. Cavanaugh stood in the doorway beyond the jaguar, Talon’s brother beside him.
The look in his cousin’s grey eyes warned that Kyter wasn’t going to be the only one dealing out a little telling off where he was concerned.
“You want to explain what the fuck is happening here?” Kyter snapped, his words a thick growl.
“That’s my fucking line,” Talon barked and Kyter shot him a glare. August dished one out to the bastard too. Talon glared right back at him. “What the fuck was just happening?”
“We were blowing off steam.” It sounded reasonable and it was partly true.
He glanced at her.
She still sat near the corner, her head bent. Ice washed through him. Had he hurt her after all? He had tried to be gentle.
Talon growled at him. His brother echoed it.
“Look. I found her in the room fighting barrels and I figured maybe she wanted to fight someone for real. I can take it.” He risked another glance at her. “She’s such a little thing, she wasn’t exactly going to hurt me.”
That seemed like a stupid move for his mouth to make when both brothers glared daggers at him.
“Maya,” Talon growled.
She shrank back, and August wanted to rip the arsehole a new one for frightening her.
“Leave her alone.” August stepped closer to her, catching the shifter’s attention again. “I started the fight, so blame me if you want. Leave her out of it.”
“That isn’t going to happen. Grey.” Talon looked from him to his silver-haired brother. The male nodded and moved, heading towards Maya. Talon’s amber gaze dropped to her. “Have you changed your mind?”
Grey flanked her, approaching her slowly, stripping off his t-shirt as he neared her. She didn’t lash out at him, didn’t look at him either. She kept her head bent, even when she shifted back and Grey helped her put his t-shirt on to cover her nudity.
August didn’t even get a damn glimpse of her curves.
Maya drew down a slow breath, pushed her long tangled black hair from her face, and carefully rose onto her feet, coming to face Talon.
She tipped her chin up, her gaze steady and unwavering. “I have not.”
Changed her mind about what?
Talon’s amber gaze darkened, the black slashes of his eyebrows dropping low. “You don’t have to do it.”
Her soft voice was calm and even, strong and determined, as she said, “I do. My plans haven’t changed. This male was right and I just needed a fight. I feel fine now.”
That stung a little.
That was all he was to her?
Someone to fight?
A convenient male in the right place and the right time for her to work off some aggression?
Like hell he was.
He turned towards her.
Cavanaugh collared him, his grip firm on the back of August’s neck, and marched him towards the exit.
“I need a moment with my family alone,” Talon said, his expression so cold he made August’s homeland look positively tropical in comparison.
Kyter held the door open for him and Cavanaugh.
Just as it was about to close behind him, August glanced back into the room.
At her.
She lifted her chin and ice ran through his veins and down his spine as she spoke.
“I leave for the Altay pride as planned tomorrow night and nothing you do can change my mind, Brother.”