Kurt chewed the end of his thumbnail and pushed one foot against the edge of the mattress rhythmically to move the rocking chair he sat in. Gunner was passed out cold after a big day, cuddled with his favorite little brown blanket with the monkey on it. He’d stopped sucking his thumb four years ago, but sometimes, like now, his little lips moved in the same motion.
Kurt had a million questions he couldn’t answer without Tenlee here to explain. Colt and Trig had only piled another heap of questions on top of his, but Kurt had searched everywhere and hadn’t been able to find Tenlee. He was a very good hunter, but she was ghost when she wanted to be.
He texted Trina. Do you know how to get ahold of the crows? Specifically, Ramsey?
The mountain lion shifter was a night owl, always had been, so her response came just a minute later. She was mad. He could tell because all she texted back was a telephone number.
Inhaling deeply, Kurt stood and made his way out the front door of the apartment, sat on the bale of hay against the nearest stall, and connected the call.
Three rings, and the Alpha of Red Dead Mayhem picked up. “I was waiting for your call.”
Kurt frowned at Harley, who had shoved his head as far out of his stall as possible and was wiggling his lips at Kurt like he couldn’t wait to taste him. Asshole.
“What do you mean?” he asked Ramsey. “How did you know I would call?”
“Because it’s Tenlee, and she has this ability to get people addicted to her. And I’ve been thinking…why would she latch onto Two Claws Ranch so hard? Not for Colt. He’s paired up with Karis. Not for Trig. He’s paired up with Ava. That leaves you. So…” he drawled out. “You will be the one I kill first.”
God, crows were psychotic.
“You can try. Won’t get you Tenlee, though. All that’ll do is get you and your Clan killed.”
Ramsey’s single, bellowing laugh lacked humor. “By who? You?”
“Me and some grizzlies and polar bears I know. Next time you come onto Two Claws territory scoping things out, I’ll pull that trigger and blow your fuckin’ brains all over these woods. Test me, bird.”
Ramsey’s voice went dark. “You could’ve left. You and your boy could’ve lived, but you came back to die for people who don’t give a shit about you. Look what you’ve done, Kurt. Look at the hole you’ve dug for yourself. It’s in the shape of a grave. You get that, right? You killed your own Alpha to protect the bears. You committed the biggest betrayal any shifter could, and look where it got you? How are you healing up, traitor?”
Just the mention of that fight with Chase made all his deep gashes throb.
“Chase was wrong,” he gritted out. “He was coming after an innocent female, a human who didn’t have protection. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”
“Your Alpha made a bad decision. You’re tellin’ me Hairpin Trigger never made a bad decision?”
“Oh, so you’re pure? You can sit on your Red Dead throne and judge what happens around you?”
“Ha! I never said I was perfect. My throne was built on blood and bone. There isn’t a number high enough for my sins, but look at my Clan, still backing my plays because they are loyal. You wouldn’t know anything about that, being a mountain lion and all. The whole lot of you turn on each other with any shift in the wind. You think you’ll keep Tenlee from me, but you won’t. I’ll show you just how deep my loyalty runs. She’s queen, Kurt. Queen of my Clan, and it’s a destiny she can’t escape. She was born for me.”
Kurt wanted to kill him. He wanted to reach through the phone for talking about Tenlee this way. For talking about her like she was an object made to sit there and look pretty for a monster to stare at. Verbal war wouldn’t get him any answers though, so he gritted his teeth and counted to three, and then asked, “What is she?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?”
“I know she is mostly animal. I know she’s a shifter.”
“No, Kurt. She isn’t just a shifter. She’s an Origin.”
“An Origin,” he murmured, shaking his head. “Never heard of one.”
“Where do you think we shifters come from? Do you think two humans had a genetic mutation and created an animal child? A hybrid? No. We’ve lost touch with our history. We don’t come from humans. We are animals first. There is an Origin for each species of shifter, one born to two animals. At first, they are just that—animals. They’re feral, untamable…free. But something in them awakens when they hit adulthood, and they Change. And even though they stay mostly animal, their offspring are shifters through and through. She is the start of a race of shifters. The beginning. Do you know how rare she is? Tenlee is the needle in the haystack. All of our offspring will be squirrels. She will be in our history books, the mother of a race.”
“And you think you’ll be the father?”
Ramsey huffed a humorless breath. “I’m not explaining why she’s mine. I’m only telling you of her importance, and why every last one of my people would kill to get her back. Bring her to me, Kurt, or the death oath on your friends stands.”
The line went dead, and Kurt gripped the phone in his hand almost to the point of crushing it.
Loyalty? Ramsey questioned his loyalty? What was he doing here? He’d killed his Alpha for the bears. He was here because a death oath had been burned against the bears. He’d risked everything to be here…for the bears. And now Tenlee was an important part of this. She was someone who soothed the fire in his soul, and he wasn’t giving that up just because some soulless crow shifter didn’t understand Kurt’s brand of loyalty.
He didn’t care what Tenlee was.
Over his dead fuckin’ body would Ramsey take her.