I seem to be aching more than usual today.”
“One thing’s for sure, Doc,” Crank told him. “You won’t go hungry around here. Not the way Roadkill cooks. Of course, it might not look that appetizing….”
“Fuck you, Crank.” Roadkill gave him the finger from across the room.
Doc sat on the couch, his focus still on Dellan, who was lying on his side, eyes closed, paws crossed, his flank gently rising and falling as he slept. “I don’t suppose you know his mother’s first name.”
Horvan chuckled. “Rael will. His memory is amazing.”
Rael laughed. “Thanks for the accolade. And yes, her name was Miranda.”
Doc’s face lit up. “Oh. Oh, that is wonderful. They were childhood sweethearts. I’m so happy they stayed together. She was a tiger shifter too.”
“I wonder what happened to him,” Rael mused. “It must have broken her heart when he disappeared.” Not to mention Dellan’s. Losing a father at so tender an age had to be hard.
“How and when did she die?”
Even Rael had to consult his notes for that. He got out his phone and scrolled through. “About a month before Dellan was declared missing. As to how, I don’t know. It wasn’t in the records.”
Doc’s brow furrowed. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.”
“What do you mean?” Horvan asked.
“Too many coincidences.” Doc pursed his lips. “Think about it. His father goes missing. No one knows what happened to him. His mother dies a month before Dellan, too, is declared missing. Only we know exactly where he was. But her dying like that? Very convenient.”
Cold spread over Rael’s skin. “Why convenient?”
“Because if Dellan was drugged and unable to shift back, it’s very likely she would have known about it. The bond between shifter parents and their offspring can be incredibly strong. And I don’t think for one second that she would sit back and do nothing. Miranda was a fighter.”
Horvan’s eyes widened. “You think Anson had something to do with her death? But… she was his mother too. He may be a bastard with designs on his half brother’s company, but to resort to matricide?”
Doc blinked. “You’re right, of course. And it may be that I’m reading too much into these events. Ignore my paranoia.”
Except it was too late for that. Rael couldn’t get his mind off the doc’s propositions.
What if he’s right?
DELLAN LAY snuggled against the bear, sharing his warmth. The lion slept there too, and the thought gave him comfort. Safe. I am safe. He couldn’t see the other men, but he knew they were close by. The place was quiet, and the only sounds came from outside, the hoot of owls looking for mates and the scurrying of other night creatures. The nest of mice beneath the floorboards was active, and he could hear the patter of their tiny feet as they went on their nocturnal maneuvers.
Dellan should have been sleeping as well, but there was too much going on inside his head for that to happen. He had never wanted anything like he wanted to shift right that second.
Time was kind of a fuzzy concept and had been for a while. He had no idea how long he’d been in that cage, but since his mates had freed him, things seemed to have moved fast. His thinking seemed sharper, his reactions quicker. The arrival of the Good Man—Doc. His name is Doc—had set something in motion. It was nothing short of a revelation.
I am human too.
The key had been that remembered fragment from his dream. He remembered shouting at—the name eluded him for a moment, and then he had it—Anson. He’d shouted at Anson, something about the man Anson had brought to see him. He recalled the fear that raced through him when the man raised the odd-looking pistol and pointed it at him. Then there had been the sharp pain in his neck, followed by a burning sensation that had spread from the point of entry, and he knew no more. The next time he was conscious, Dellan had awoken to find himself in the cage, somehow locked into his tiger form.
I need to tell them. He had to warn his mates, but to do that required a conversation that wouldn’t be possible in his present state.
I need to shift.
He recalled what Horvan had said, something about concentrating, seeing himself as human. Dellan focused on the memory of that hand, imagining the body that it belonged to, and for one moment, he felt something ripple through him, a surge of energy.