Freeing the Feline (10 page)

“Not going to last.” Logan grunted, mirroring her exact thoughts.

“Then fuck me. Fuck me hard,” she commanded.

She muffled her screams of pleasure in the bedding as he went about following her order. He slammed into her again and again, until they were nothing more than a blur of motion and shared ecstasy. She heard a loud snap and only realized it was the cuffs breaking when she no longer had to wish for the ability to reach back and touch him. Instead, her nails were sinking into the backs of his thighs, urging him even faster.

“Ahh, fuck!” Logan yelled. “I’m coming, baby. I’m coming.”

She cried out as another orgasm rocked through her. He pressed his cock impossibly deeper and held it there while he filled her ass with his cum.

“Mine,” he whispered at her ear. “Every inch of you belongs to me.”

He might not be a shifter, but he was pure alpha male. He was perfectly matched to her.

“Mine,” she declared, turning her head and gripping his jaw with her teeth. “You are mine and mine alone. I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you from me.”

He moved his head, sliding from her grip easily and kissing her softly on the lips. “We belong, Clara. With each other.”

She nodded her head.

He eased out of her and collapsed on the bed beside her. He lifted one of her hands where the cuff was still attached and chuckled softly. “I guess you won’t be using these on me.”

“We’ll buy a new pair,” she vowed and dozed off with his warm laughter in her ear.

Chapter Eight

The house was quiet as Logan led Clara down the stairs early the next morning. He could feel the tremble she tried to hide and felt an answering anger inside him. This was his home, his family, damn it! His mate should never have to feel unwelcomed, or worse, unwanted here. He heard voices coming from the office and tugged Clara with him.

“I’m with you,” he reminded her softly just outside the door.

She nodded, but he could see the unease, the uncertainty in her eyes. He pushed open the door and stepped in with his arm wrapped around Clara. He knew his stance was aggressive and didn’t give a fuck. His gaze swept the room. Tah and Abby were there along with Diane and the Professor. No Reno. No Amia.

“If anyone has anything to say, you can say it now.” He grunted.

Abby turned her head and zeroed in on them. Christ the changes in her! It was like seeing the Abby who’d walked into the bar so long ago, only pregnant. She looked healthy and so happy, her grin was practically lighting up the room. She charged across the room toward them and wrapped Clara up in a hug.

“Thank you,” she said over and over again. “You saved my life. I know you did so don’t shake your head at me,” she admonished when Clara started doing just that. “You did, and everyone in this room knows it.”

She released Clara only to wrap Logan up in her embrace. “Logan. You’ve mated. A lioness, no less. I’m so happy for you two.” She tugged both their hands and backed toward the couch. “Come. Sit down. I have a million questions.”

“Good to see you’re feeling better,” Logan said and meant it. This wasn’t the greeting he’d been bracing for.

An arm snaked around Abby’s waist and Logan watched Tah pull his mate against him. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, but you still need to take it easy.”

“Hell, no. I feel like I can do anything. If I’d known getting a dose of your blood would be like this, I might have become a vampire.”

Tah chuckled.

“One vampire is enough,” Logan whispered.

“I heard that, young man,” the Professor said. “And you’re right. When we’re finished up here, I’ll want both you and your mate in the lab for some tests. I’ll need blood and some of your saliva.” He nodded his head toward Clara on the last remark.

“Fuck,” Logan muttered under his breath.

“I heard that, too,” the Professor informed him. “Ears like a bat,” he said when Logan lifted a brow at him.

Diane snorted as she tried to hide a laugh at the Professor’s play on Logan’s nickname for him.

“I’m Diane,” she said, taking Clara’s hand. “I can’t tell you how lucky we are that you arrived when you did. You really did save Abby. I’d love to talk to you. See what else you might know that could help us out. I’m floundering my way through all this. It would be nice to feel like I was ahead for a change.”

“Diane is a genius,” Abby countered. “She doesn’t flounder through anything.”

“I’m sorry,” Clara spoke up. “I didn’t think about you not knowing what to do during a pregnancy. I just didn’t think.”

“No reason to be sorry,” Diane assured her. “You told us when you did realize, and that’s all that matters.”

“We’re going to have to talk about this need of yours to apologize for everything,” Logan said.

“I’m guessing that there are a lot of things you’ve learned that we could really use,” Diane said.

Clara nodded. “I take it Orsai hasn’t found you yet then?”

“Who’s Orsai?” Tah asked.

“A panther shifter. I just assumed…” She waved it off. “Never mind. He’s been a fountain of wisdom for us, and I imagine for other shifters he’s happened upon, as well. He knows more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“How can we get in touch with him?” Tah asked.

Clara shrugged. “You don’t get in touch with him. He gets in touch with you.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait then,” Tah said with a sigh.

“I’m going to apologize one more time,” Clara said and Logan sent her a fierce look, which she ignored as she faced Abby. “I shouldn’t have said what I did to you. It was wrong, and—”

“No, it wasn’t,” Abby interrupted. “Amia told me what you saw when you were just a child. It scares me.” She placed both hands on her burgeoning belly. “That our son might see similar things some day.”

“Never,” Tah swore, and Logan seconded him.

“We won’t let anything happen to you or your son,” Logan vowed. He pulled Clara close to him. He’d never been one for ignoring the elephant in the room. “How is Amia today? I know yesterday was a shock.”

“I’d say,” Abby said, sitting and patting the couch next to her.

Clara looked at Logan as if to see what he thought. It brought home once more just how unsure she was. He shrugged, leaving it up to her as to what she did. She eased away from him and sat gingerly beside Abby on the sofa.

“Tah told me all about it. Amia’s mom, alive and living with you and your uncle this whole time.”

“I wanted to tell her,” Clara admitted.

“I’m gathering you weren’t allowed to,” Abby said and Clara nodded.

Logan felt his heart swell with tenderness when Abby took both of Clara’s hands in hers and squeezed.

“It’s not your fault any more than anything has been Amia’s. You both have been little more than pawns in a game neither of you realized you were even playing.”

“Still, I don’t want to be the cause of any trouble for anyone.” She glanced at Logan as if he hadn’t known exactly what she was referring to.

“Nonsense,” Abby admonished. “If you’re talking about Tah, Reno and Logan, they’ll work it out.”

Logan almost felt sorry for Tah when Abby sent a pointed look his way. Tah just sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.

“Won’t you?” The point was loud and clear to everyone in the room. They’d work it out or else.

Logan did chuckle then.

“The same goes for you, Logan,” Abby stated, cutting his chuckle off. “You will work it out.”

Tah was the one who snickered now.

“We are a family,” Abby said loudly, and Logan figured it was for all their benefit. “Families squabble, but they make up.”

“I hope so,” Clara said.

“This Lydia, Amia’s mother,” Tah said. “You think she might have been tracking the call?”

Clara nodded. “I… She knew where I was. She told me to come home from Colorado. I didn’t tell anyone but my uncle where I was headed, and he didn’t know I was following Amia here.”

“So your uncle knew you were following Amia?” Tah questioned.

Logan moved to stand behind where Clara sat on the couch. He leaned his hip against the back and laid a hand on his mate’s shoulder. She would face nothing alone ever again.

“Yes. He was the one who encouraged it after I found her the first time, and she rescued me.”

“Then why wouldn’t he want you to bring Amia back with you?” Abby asked.

“He was afraid for her.”

“But he could have protected her from the Blanes. They might have never gotten their hands on her,” Diane countered.

“It wasn’t the Blanes he was worried about, or at least not the ones you’re referring to.”

“Lydia?” Abby asked.

Clara nodded. “He was afraid of what Lydia might do. My uncle travels, and he wouldn’t have been able to take Amia and me with him all the time. There would have been times when Lydia could have gotten to her.”

“Why would Lydia harm her own daughter?” Tah questioned.

Clara shrugged. “I don’t know. She was broken when she arrived. We didn’t even know she had a daughter. She told us her family was gone. She…she tried to rescue my dad from the Blanes but wasn’t able to. He died.”

“I’m so sorry, Clara,” Abby said.

Logan squeezed her shoulder, offering comfort and support.

“He sent Lydia to us. I thought he must have seen something good in her. Uncle Thomas thought the same. When she first arrived, we’d find her crying. She’d wake from nightmares, screaming Amia’s name. It’s how I learned Amia even existed. It’s how Lydia finally confessed who she was. But as the years passed, Lydia became withdrawn and angry. She hated hunters, especially the Blanes. She wasn’t the same woman who first came to us by the time I found Amia when we were sixteen,” Clara told them. “I guess I’ve known for a long time that Lydia was bitter. Uncle Thomas said he was watching her. She’s all about vengeance, trying to convince some of the younger shifters to attack first, to capture the hunters and subject them to the same treatment.”

Logan met Tah’s eyes and wondered if Tah was thinking the same thing he was. When Reno had been sent to get information about the Blanes, they’d planned for the possibility of him capturing one and bringing them back. Hell, Amia had even been thrown into one of the small storage rooms downstairs. Would they have tortured her if she hadn’t been Reno’s mate? Would they have tortured a man if that had been who Reno had brought back with him?

“I can’t say I haven’t had similar thoughts myself,” Abby admitted.

Logan had to agree he had, as well. Hell, after what they’d been through with Harlan Jones, they all would have jumped at the opportunity for a little payback.

“I’m betting it’s not the same as Lydia. Her rationality is skewed,” Clara said. “If she had her way, she’d hunt down every Blane and kill them. Man, woman, child, infant. It doesn’t matter to her. How is that right? How is that just? How many like Amia would have been killed at Lydia’s word? I can’t believe that the only way to defeat the beast is to become the beast. I have to hold onto the belief there’s a better way. There has to be.”

“Maybe there’s not,” Amia said from the doorway. She and Reno stepped into the room. “Maybe death is the only answer.”

“No.” Clara shook her head, and Logan knew what she was going to do before she rose from the couch. “I’m so sorry, Amia.”

“You knew my mother was alive. All this time.” There was a world of hurt on Amia’s face, and anger—a lot of anger. “You should have told me as soon as Reno confronted you and brought you here,” Amia said.

“I wanted to, but there was never the right time to.”

“Then you make a right time,” Amia gritted out, her voice hard. “You should have found the time to tell me.”

“I should have,” Clara whispered, and Logan felt his mate hurting for Amia when all Amia seemed focused on was anger.

“When?” Logan challenged. He’d be damned if he sat back and let them railroad Clara into feeling as if she was the bad guy in all this. “When we all stood against her in that room? Or when you went to her room to pretend to be her friend and instead set her up?”

Reno growled, but Logan didn’t care.

“Not to mention the fact that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t her secret to tell. Still, what you did… You shouldn’t ask for information you’re not ready to handle,” he said to Amia then looked straight at Reno. “And you should never pretend a friendship just to get what you want.”

“Logan.” Clara turned to glance back at him.

“It’s not okay,” he said before she could say anything else. “I don’t care what reason they had. It’s not okay to treat people this way. And it’s got to stop.”

“You’re right,” Amia said. “We should be straight up and honest. Tell people how we feel. Hold nothing back.” Each sentence was filled with more anger, as if she was spiraling and couldn’t control it.

Logan didn’t like the look in Amia’s eyes as she spoke. He moved around the couch and headed toward Clara. He didn’t get there in time, and Clara did nothing to defend herself. Amia swung her fist and hit Clara on the cheekbone. He heard his mate give a cry of surprise then she was falling back. He caught her and swung her behind him to face Amia.

“What the fuck?” he yelled.

Reno stepped in front of Amia and bared his teeth at Logan.

“Bring it on,” Logan challenged. “At least I’m watching and will see it coming.”

“Back down, pup,” Reno uttered.

“I’m not your fucking pup, pussy.”

“Enough,” Tah roared, but it was Abby and the Professor who stepped forward.

“That’s enough,” Abby said quietly. “Diane, check Clara’s cheek. Amia, in that chair.” She pointed to where she expected Amia to go. “Not a word,” she ordered Logan and Reno. “I’m ashamed of you, all of you.”

Logan felt like a kid getting chastised.

“I want the three of you out of this office. Now.”

“Abby.” Tah stepped forward, but his mate was having none of it.

“You take them and get this worked out before something else like this happens.”

Logan moved to squat in front of Clara. Her cheek was going to bruise, and he felt the anger building in him.

“I’m fine, Logan,” Clara said, and it pissed him off to know she felt as if she’d deserved Amia’s punch.