Avery found her mother relaxing by the pool while her four mates lounged, sunbathing and sneering at one another.
She didn’t bother with niceties. “Mom, leave Aimee alone.”
Her mother looked up from her margarita to purse her lips. “She cannot leave the pride.”
“Why on earth not? Mom, you know Aimee is never going to be the next leo, she doesn’t fit in here – just let her go.”
The older lioness snorted. “I agree with you that she’s a complete disappointment.”
Her inner beast huffed in exasperation. “That’s not really what I said…”
“But I have a use for her now. A couple of males from a pride in Georgia wish to form an arranged mating with one of my daughters. I thought she’d be ideal.”
Avery and her animal glowered. “Does Aimee know about this?”
Her mom waved a hand dismissively. “I’m sure I mentioned it a few months back.”
That meant no. Aimee probably would have found out when she came home one day, and her bags were already packed, and two mates were waiting to whisk her away.
“Aimee doesn’t want that.”
Probably she added to herself. She wasn’t sure what Aimee wanted when it came to men. She had a bad feeling Aimee wanted a tall, gruff gator shifter.
Her mom put her margarita down and clapped her hands. Obediently, her four mates got to their feet and lumbered into the house, each throwing Avery a sour look. Yeah, she was ruining swim time. They only did this for about six hours every day – how on earth would they cope being out of the sun for ten minutes?!
She regarded Avery with a cold expression. Not that her mom had any other type of expression. She was as warm as an ice storm, about as welcome as one too.
“If I let her go,” she said slowly, “you have to return to the pride.”
“No.”
She hunched an elegant shoulder. “Then Aimee can’t leave.”
“Mom, this is a lion pride, not the mafia. Aimee is leaving, and that’s that. Just leave her alone – you already have three horrible daughters who would make great leos, forget about Aimee and me.”
Her lip curled in scorn. “Two of them came home shortly before you arrived, both sporting black eyes.”
“Yep, they scratched my car.”
They were lucky we stopped at the black eyes humphed her lion.
“Just…”
“Yes, yes, yes,” snapped her mom before her face took on an aggressive expression. “Leave you alone. Or else what?”
Avery sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ve got a few minutes.”
*
“What on earth is this?” complained a shrill voice.
Wolfman could feel each pointy syllable stabbing his ears. Ugh, that was one hell of a smack. His wolf started stirring, equally as woozy.
“Wolfman,” replied a second, deeper voice.
Things were fuzzy, but Wolfman thought the first voice was Gretchen and the second, Alfie.
“What is he doing here?” hissed Gretchen.
“Found him snooping around.”
Wolfman made an effort to open his eyes, only to be met with dazzling bright light. Ah, this is where all the electricity was going.
“You should have killed him.”
His wolf snarled in objection, and Wolfman felt the snarl rattle around his head, shaking a few necessary things loose. Take it easy, boy he soothed the animal. He could snarl later after Wolfman had ingested a few aspirin.
“Babe, we’re low on fighters,” said Alfie in what could also be called a crooning voice. It still sounded crotchety and unpleasant to Wolfman’s ears, but he seemed to be putting some effort into softening it.
“We should use him,” insisted Alfie.
“Hmmm, Los Lobos’ hero versus our fighters? Maybe that is a good idea.”
Wolfman tried to move, but his arms and legs were bound. Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. Things were not looking good for Wolfman.
*
Avery shifted back to her human form, ignoring the irritated growl from her mother. Her beast preened. She took no joy in smacking down her own mother. Well, not much anyway. But if violence was the only language she would listen to…
Her mom shuddered through her own shift. “Fine, whatever, keep Aimee – what do I care?!”
“The motherly love you have for your kids continues to astound me.”
Her mom fingered a scratch on her stomach, snarling softly. In the absence of listening to reason, the two of them had shifted to their beasts and worked it out as their animals. Avery had won, pouncing on her, holding her down until she submitted. She hadn’t really wanted to hurt her mother. Well, not much anyway. But beating her down as her lion was really the only way. They really did have a messed up relationship.
Avery started pulling on her clothes, but her mother didn’t bother. She was very comfortable in her nudity.
“What’s that?” asked Avery noticing something glistening on her mother’s coffee table.
The table was littered with dirty glasses and bottles of champagne that looked to have been there a few days. Nobody appeared to be cleaning the house anymore, and Avery considered that over the years, Aimee had virtually become her mother’s cook and cleaner. Probably one of the reasons her mom wanted her back. Though, she did at least have four mates to pick up the slack.
Avery pushed some of the detritus aside to pick up a glistening coin. “What is this?”
It looked familiar. It was a large gold coin with an etching of three animals howling – a wolf, a bear, and a lion.
“Nothing,” snarled her mom, leaping to her feet and making a grab for it.
Avery danced away from her with ease. She had seen this before, but… She grabbed her bag and pulled out the photos taken from the remains of Froggett’s condo, and yes, there was the image – etched into the remains of his table. A crime scene technician found it interesting – in his notes, he said that the coin was destroyed, but in the fire, it had melted the picture into the table. Avery had looked at it and dismissed it as irrelevant, but maybe there was something about it…
“Where did you get this?” she demanded. “What is it?”
Her mom bared her teeth, and Avery sighed while her lioness flexed her muscles. Time for round two…
*
“Uh, what’s happening?” murmured Wolfman.
His beast let out a worried yowl. He remembered waking and hearing Alfie and Gretchen, and then Alfie thumped him again and now…
He felt people grasping his arms; pulling him to his feet and then giving him a hard shove, making him stagger forward.
“Presenting Wolfman!” called a loud, obnoxious voice.
Outrageously loud cheers and jeers followed this announcement. Damn. People who were hollering and clapping and generally making enough noise to wake the dead surrounded him. Plus, they were at least twenty feet tall. He staggered in a circle until he realized that they were actually raised on some kind of platform… behind some kind of protective barrier… Huh.
“Tonight, Wolfman will face his deadliest foe yet.”
Will he? Wondered his beast, still a little nauseous.
“Tonight he will face the defeated champion of the ring.”
Hmmm?
“Tonight he will face the unbeatable tiger!”
A tiger? A wild tiger? Or just a tiger shifter because… ah…
A shockingly enormous creature slouched through an open hatch – which was hurriedly shut behind him. Neither tiger nor man, he was something in between. One of the creatures from the cages he found in the warehouse. Only this time, there weren’t some nice solid bars separating them.
Shit.