Hour of the Lion

* * *

“They’re monsters, Sergeant. However they’re created. You get me the information I need so we can hunt them down, and there’ll be a medal for you.” For the first time in his life, Alec cursed a shifter’s hearing as the blood in his veins turned to ice. His heart slowed, each thud painful. His chest was squeezed too tightly to inhale.

Surely he’d misunderstood what the man had said. Surely she’d been misleading the human. Alec looked at Vicki and his hope disintegrated. Guilt showed clearly in her shocked face, her horrified eyes as she stared at him and Calum. Her color drained away.

“Vicki?” He couldn’t feel his lips, but the word escaped anyway.

She’d lied to them, to him. Lied and lied and lied.

Knowing his brother had frozen, Calum stepped in front of him. Victoria’s face was white, her eyes wide, the scent of her anger mingling with…guilt.

Guilt. What kind of traitor had they harbored in their midst? The man’s words “hunt them down” hovered in the room like the vultures had hovered over his wife’s body. Demon. Monsters. “Hunt them down.”

Calum shook his head, trying to escape the images, as his fears and memories mingled into a terrifying brew: Thorson holding his bloody shoulder, Angie with open staring eyes, Lenora…so cold, all life fled, Alec torn apart like so much meat, Lachlan lifeless on a steel table, his Jamie… Calum choked, drowning in horror.

Burning with fury at this female he’d thought he knew, who he’d brought into his home, trusted with his daughter. Loved. And all the time, she’d been setting them up as prey for Lachlan’s killers.

“Calum-I-” the human female called Victoria held her hands out to him. She met his gaze and flinched, taking a step back. “I didn’t. I didn’t, Calum.”

Hunt them down. A medal. The growl boiled up from inside him and as it escaped, so did his control. Wildness filled his soul, pulling at him, trying to change him into the beast.

Alec’s hand closed on his arm. “Steady, brawd.”

She looked at his brother. “Alec? I never-I didn’t tell him.”

Alec raggedly asked, “You’re not a spy for the government?”

The question struck her like a blow, and she took a step back.

The sound Alec made was that of a mortally wounded animal.

As Calum scented his brother’s despair, the door in his mind burst open. The mountain seemed to shake under his feet. Claws sprouted from his fingers.

“Dammit, get out of here before he kills you.” Alec’s words were hoarse as he yanked Calum against his chest.

Everything blurred. As Calum fought the trawsfur, he barely heard Alec’s grief-threaded whisper, “And Herne help me, so will I.”

“No,” Vic whispered. This couldn’t be happening.

Calum’s face had distorted with anger, his eyes black as the pits of hell. Snarling…like a maddened animal. The tingle of shifting was strong in the air. He’d kill her. As furious as he was, he wouldn’t be able to stop, and he’d tear her to bits.

Alec struggled with his brother. His last look at her had held only anger-none of the love, the tenderness.

When someone grabbed her arm and spun her around, Vic barely pulled her punch in time.

Angie’s face was red and furious as she shoved Vic back a step. “Get out of here. I’d like to kill you myself, but if Calum does, he’ll never forgive himself.” When Vic couldn’t move, Angie slapped her, the cracking sound followed by fiery pain.

Vic shook her head. She hadn’t tried to block the blow and didn’t fight now as Angie pushed her toward the back. And out. The door slammed behind her.

Blackness surrounded her as she stood in the alley, trying to breathe, staring at the building. Her ears rang; her head swam with pain and guilt. Alec. Calum. God, no. She hugged herself. What can I do?

Somewhere close, a car started up and moved slowly away. Without lights. Wells.

Breaking into a run, she headed for the police station.

Chapter Twenty-six

“Easy, brawd, easy.” Alec held his brother tighter, impending trawsfur tingling against his hands. “Stay human, Calum. Hear me? This is no time to lose control.”

His words finally penetrated, and Calum stilled, his head bowing. The magic faded away.

“There you go. That’s good,” Alec soothed, not taking his gaze from the back door. The need to chase after her, yell, hold her, understand burned inside him, but he couldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

A spy. It was so plain he couldn’t believe they hadn’t put together the clues. Her fighting skills. That night she’d followed Calum through the tunnels to spy on him -they’d been suspicious until she drew them off the scent with her tale about Lachlan.

Those big brown eyes had sucked them right in, and, by Herne, he still couldn’t accept her behavior was all a lie.

Calum straightened to stand alone, then ran his hands over his face as if to reacquaint himself with human form. “Thank you.”

“You did it often enough for me.” But no one had ever had to help Calum regain control. Damn her!

“This is…not good,” Calum said, hoarse from snarling. “She knows everything about us.” The pain in his voice was as clear as that in his eyes.

And in Alec’s heart. He felt as if something essential, like an arm or leg, had been ripped away; he couldn’t seem to find his balance. “She fooled us completely. Agents will cover Cold Creek and Elder Village like flies on carrion.”

Calum’s eyes narrowed. “I wonder how much she told her boss. Did she share that she’s a shifter also?”

“Well, damn, I bet not.” The thought that followed hit Alec like a blow to the gut. “Brawd, if she doesn’t have us anymore, is-” he choked, managed to spit out the words, “is she going to go feral?”

“It’s…possible. Does that kind of person have friends?” Calum’s dusky skin had turned gray. “Whether she does or not is irrelevant. She is shifter and has betrayed our clan to the humans. She will have to be killed.”

Calum’s stomach turned over at the thought of sentencing Victoria to death, and he leaned against the wall for a moment. He hurt like an animal with one leg caught in a trap. But the only way to escape the steel teeth was to gnaw off his leg-to kill his love for her. He closed his eyes. How had he not seen what she was?

“Cosantir?”

Calum opened his eyes to a room edged with red and black. “Angie. Is Vic-the female gone?”

“Out the back door right after her boss.” Angie’s mouth tightened. “What do you require?”

Calum’s gaze met his brother’s, but the cahir tilted his head, deferring control. Calum inhaled slowly, trying to force his mind to function. “Those with children-this is an excellent time to visit relatives in other states. Remind them to watch for anyone following, to change cars when possible, to avoid using any ID or credit cards. You all know the drill.”

“We do, Cosantir. And the rest?”