A Prideless Man Read online

  “You know the doctor said he thinks you’re a feline of some kind. It would be easier if you called your father and asked.”

  “Trust me when I tell you that would be far from the easiest thing. If what Dr Henrickson said is true, my father would rather I was in crippling pain for the rest of my life than a shifter. Does that sound like the actions of a sane man to you?”

  Silence ruled the vehicle for the next several miles. The mountain road was bumpy and shook James around like a broken doll.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “No problem, you didn’t make the road.”

  Not completely sure of the sheriff’s role in this entire thing, James felt guilty for taking so much of the other man’s time. They hadn’t even had a date and Lou still made James his responsibility. Lou’s behaviour was taking community responsibility a step too far.

  He let out a gasp when they pulled up in front of an enormous mansion. It wasn’t the size or the beauty of the house that stunned him—it was the dozen or so lions sunning on the veranda.

  “Holy crap, how many of them are there?”

  Lou laughed, a deep booming sound, immediately calming James’ nerves. The sheriff wouldn’t laugh if the lions were dangerous to him.

  “Come on. Grab your bag. I already talked to Talan and got permission for you to stay.”

  James slid out of the cab, grabbing the small rucksack Lou had packed for him. He didn’t know what was inside but he trusted the sheriff to know what he needed.

  Taking a deep breath, he slipped the bag over his shoulder and followed the big form of the bear shifter as he marched up to a porch covered with lions like it was an everyday occurrence. Hell, it might be for all James knew. A low growling started and became louder the closer they came.

  To James’ relief Talan came out of the house in his human form.

  “Hush now,” the alpha said to the intimidating felines. “James is going to stay with us a while.”

  He saw the smaller form of Talan’s mate following him as they approached. “Nice to see you again, James,” the pretty wolf said with a smile.

  “Same here.” He tried to return the smile but knew it fell short of the real thing. His body ached, his head pounded and if he didn’t lie down soon, collapsing was a real possibility.

  Lou frowned at him. “Let’s get you to bed.”

  “Yeah, you don’t look so good,” Adrian agreed. He flashed a quick look towards Lou.

  “You’ll have to leave James with us. I can’t let you into the house,” Talan said with an apologetic look at his friend.

  “I understand,” the sheriff responded. “Take good care of him.”

  “Of course.”

  “I don’t understand why can’t you come with me?” Damn, he sounded whiny but he hurt and he didn’t want the bear shifter to go. It was selfish of him but he didn’t want to be left alone with the lions when the man he wanted walked away.

  Lou gave him an apologetic smile. “I make the lions nervous around their cubs.”

  “I guess I’ll see you later then.” What did you say to a man trying to save your life and why did it hurt so much to say goodbye?

  Lou’s eyes bored into James. “You will definitely see me later. I’ll call you every day. You owe me a lunch date.”

  Relief rushed through James. The bear wasn’t dumping him and running. Lou still planned to see him later. Somehow staying with the cats no longer seemed so bad.

  Lou cupped his face, tilting James’ head back until their eyes met. “Tomorrow. We will have lunch tomorrow in town. Two o’clock.”

  “I’ll give him a ride,” Adrian offered. “I have to go into town anyway.”

  Lou didn’t acknowledge the other man’s offer. Instead he leant down and kissed James.

  Kissed him.

  James’ mind blanked the moment their lips touched. Large hands slid from his face to his back, wrapping around him in a firm hold, stabilising his balance, protecting him from harm.

  A tingling spread across his spine. Not the tingle from desire—different, stranger.

  James’ head snapped back. Frowning, he examined his hands. A trace of white hair covered the back of them—he blinked and it vanished.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  “That happens sometimes,” Adrian said with such calm James felt the odd urge to bare his teeth.

  Lou shook him gently by the nape of the neck. “Resist. If you attack the wolf no one can save you from Talan.”

  “True,” the alpha lion growled.

  James closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm his jangling nerves. “I’m all right. Sorry, Adrian.”

  The wolf gave him a friendly smile. “That’s all right. Wanna come inside and I’ll get you a brownie?”

  James shook his head. “I’m not a big chocolate fan.”

  To his surprise Talan laughed. “Good, because Adrian is entering the lemon bar stage and needs a taster. This way you don’t have to fight the she lions for the chocolate, they get vicious.”

  Lou gave James a careful hug before moving him forward with a gentle push. “Go on. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  The ache he felt at the other man’s departure was almost physical. He refused to watch the sheriff leave. He kept his gaze on the porch of lions instead of on the car he could hear backing away.

  “Come on, I’ll take you to your room.” He didn’t need to meet Adrian’s sympathetic gaze. He could hear it in his voice.

  “Sure.” Clutching his bag in one hand and his cane in the other he followed the wolf back towards the house.

  He resisted the urge to run after the sheriff. His sheriff. Besides the fact he couldn’t run, he needed to find out who he was, what he was, before he could be a proper partner for the sweet bear.

  If Lou really wanted to pursue a relationship, despite their rocky start, he wanted to be worthy. He needed to be whole and find out if he really could shift into a completely different animal. His longing to be with other shifters made sense now. Angry at his father’s betrayal, James limped after Adrian.

  As he entered the pride house a feeling of welcome enveloped him. Lemon cleaning oil, the scent of something baking and the scratches on the stairs proclaimed this as someone’s home.

  There was the thunder of sound on the stairs and two small children raced down the steps and into the hall.

  “Quinn, Chase, stop running,” Talan roared.

  The little lion shifters came to a sliding halt.

  “Sorry, Unca Talan,” the smaller shifter said. James wanted to pick up the boy and cuddle him, he was so freaking cute.

  “Sorry, Alpha.” The older boy stood at attention aware of Talan’s authority while the younger one gave the alpha a gap-toothed grin, confidant he’d be forgiven any trespass.

  Talan’s mouth twitched but he clung to his frown. “Say hello to our guest. This is James Everett, he’s going to be with us for a while. James, this is Quinn”—he pointed to the older boy—“and Chase, sons of Kevin and my sister Tia.”

  “Hello, Sir,” Quinn said.

  Chase lifted his arms to be picked up.

  “Sorry, little guy, I can’t pick you up.” He waved his cane at the small lion.

  “Were you hurt?” Chase asked, tilting his head to look him over.

  “A long time ago.” He didn’t know how to explain what his father had done to him.

  “But you’ll get better?”

  “I hope so.”

  “Go check on your mom. I hear she found the brownies,” the alpha urged the little boy.

  “Yeah!” Chase ran down the hall.

  His brother gave a short bow to his alpha and politely took his leave.

  “That one will be an alpha one day,” Talan said, watching the boy.

  James’ hand shook on the cane, his strength fading fast.

  “Damn, let’s get you settled.” Adrian snagged his bag and led him down the hall. “We cleared a room on the main level so you don’t have to climb th
e stairs.”

  “Thank you.” He tried to bury his resentment. The lions were working hard to accommodate him. He shouldn’t dislike the fact he was here instead of with the sheriff. He should be grateful the lions were happy to let him stay at least until he figured out what freak of nature his parents created.

  They led him to a nice room, bigger than the bedroom of the little place he currently leased—or at least he thought he still leased. His landlady might not be willing to rent to a drug addict anymore. He’d call her tomorrow. Right now he was too exhausted to do much more than sleep.

  “Why don’t you take a nap before dinner,” Adrian offered. “I’ll call you when it’s ready.” From the little wolf’s frown he knew he looked worse than he thought.

  “Thanks.” After the couple left, he tentatively sat on the big four-poster bed.

  Kicking off his shoes he propped his cane against the table and lay down. Now that he was horizontal he couldn’t sleep. Resting his body left his mind free to wander, to fixate over all his problems. How could his father hide this from him? Where was his mother? Was she even really dead? All his life his father told him his mother died in a car accident when he was young. Now he wondered if she was dead after all. A man who hid the fact his son had shifter blood could do anything.

  James woke up to a gentle nudge. Blinking, he found Adrian standing over him.

  “I thought it would be easier than one of the lions. They tend to pounce and ask questions later.”

  There was something endearing about the wolf shifter. His eyes reflected the look of someone completely happy with his place in the world. “Thanks.” He mustered a smile for the friendly man. “I’ll be along in a minute.”

  Adrian nodded. “Just follow the hall and you’ll run right into it. The noise should tell you where to go.”

  “Got it.”

  With a final smile from the wolf, the other man left him in peace.

  James crawled out of bed. A cry ripped from his throat as the familiar pain returned with a vengeance. Gasping, he opened the door to reveal the tiny lion waiting for him.

  “Are you okay?”

  What was the kid’s name?

  “I’m fine.”

  Well, as fine as he was going to get until they figured out what was going on with him.

  The boy continued to look at him, worry on his face.

  “Come on, you can show me to the dining room.”

  “I’m Chase.”

  “Of course you are.” The little guy obviously picked up on James’ confusion. He wrapped on hand round the cane and one arm around the little boy. Together they were able transverse the hall and make it to the dining room.

  As soon as they got close, James knew what Adrian was talking about. Those lions were loud! The males were seated while the females placed large platters of food on the table, but there wasn’t anything subservient about the lady lions. They joked, gave the men a hard time and slapped away hands that grabbed at their food too early. They appeared exactly like a large boisterous family of people who really appreciated each other’s company. Lots of laughs and smiles around the house except for one man who looked sadder than the rest. Blue eyes and shaggy hair, he didn’t look like any of the lions and he stayed a good distance from the head of the table, glancing from time to time at Adrian with a sad hangdog expression.

  Adrian pointedly didn’t look at him.

  “James, come sit,” Talan ordered, waving at a chair a few places from his left. The man probably didn’t know how to put anything as a request. The rumours around town claimed the big shifter became alpha when he turned fifteen and the only person who got away with telling the man ‘no’ was his mate.

  With a self-conscious smile, James settled in the chair indicated and soon faced a plate of food piled high enough to feed an entire football league.

  “I can’t eat all this,” he told the smiling feline piling on the plate.

  “Sure you can, honey.” The girl ruffled his hair. “You’re gonna need it for your first shift.”

  “What if I can’t shift?”

  “You almost shifted with a kiss.” Talan’s deep voice broke into the conversation. “I don’t think the question is whether you can shift. The question is what will you turn into.”

  James sadly reflected that it didn’t matter what he shifted into. To his father he would always be an abomination.

  “Dennis, how is the hunt for your sister going?”

  The sad man shook his head, swallowing the food in his mouth before replying. “No luck. Adrian can’t find any sign of her.” His sad voice tugged at James’ heartstrings.

  “Adrian?” There was a hidden question in the alpha’s voice.

  “I did try, Talan. I don’t want anyone in the hands of those PAW creeps, but I’m not an investigator and I can’t find anything. They cover their tracks well.”

  Cold filled James’ veins as he cleared his throat. “What about the People Against Werekin?”

  Dennis’ eyes snapped to him. “They kidnapped my sister. She’s been missing for months. I—I don’t know what they’ve done to her but they’re monsters.”

  Betrayal stabbed him deep. When had his father turned into a monster? The man who loved and cared for James since birth wasn’t the man he thought he was. Behind that caring façade was a man willing to drug his son and capture innocent werekin.

  Denial burned through his system. He couldn’t accept this new knowledge—it was too much. Agony ripped up his spine as adrenaline spiked his body. With a scream he fell to the floor.

  “James!”

  His name rang through the room as multiple people shouted. The rush in his ears blurred their individual sounds until it was one blur of noise as a backdrop to his pain.

  A loud popping sound ricocheted within his head louder than gunfire.

  “Ahh,” he screamed, writhing on the ground. His bones burned like a bonfire, melting and reshaping until finally the pain was gone. All the pain was gone. For the first time in his known memory James was pain free.

  His sigh rumbled loudly in his chest, like a purr. Shaking his head he looked up to see everyone staring at him with wonder. Seeing Adrian’s friendly face, he padded over to him.

  Wait.

  He had four legs. Looking down he saw white fur covering his body and paws in the place of hands and feet.

  “A white lion.” Talan’s voice held awe as the big man crouched to see him. “Hi there, guy. Do you want to change back?”

  Hell, no. There was no pain. He was never changing back again.

  Lou.

  Memories of the handsome sheriff flashed in his head. He needed to go and show Lou. James made it as far as the hall before pain struck again. A roar of screaming shifted to the shouts of a man in pain.

  “Shit, get his pills.” Adrian’s voice sounded loud to his overly sensitive ears.

  The cold air brought chills across his body. The temperate felt like an arctic breeze across his naked skin.

  “Here.” A soft blanket was draped across him.

  “Thanks.”

  “You know about my sister, don’t you?” Dennis crouched beside him, blue eyes filled with accusation.

  James gasped for breath, riding the tide of convulsions as pain racked his system.

  “Back off, Dennis.” Adrian’s voice held an unfamiliar hard edge. Although he didn’t know the wolf well, he doubted the other man talked to many people like that.

  “Easy for you to say,” Dennis said bitterly. “You know where your loved ones are.”

  “We are working to find your sister. You should be grateful Talan refused to let me kill you. Now get away. You can interrogate him when he feels better.”

  The hard look in the wolf’s eyes had the other man backing away. Fear filled the air, an acrid stench. “Let me know when he’s ready to talk.” Dennis rushed off.

  “Thanks,” he told Adrian.

  “You’re welcome. Here, take your pill.” He gave James the pill and supp
orted him as he drank his water. “If you learn to control your change you’ll be a kick-ass lion. I’ve never seen a white lion before, it was really cool.”

  James laughed. “Unfortunately I couldn’t control the change.”

  Adrian shrugged. “It’s not easy the first time and with your drugs it should’ve been impossible. What set you off? There’s usually a trigger.”

  “Dennis talking about his sister. My father started PAW. I didn’t realise how deep his hate went until I heard he was kidnapping shifters. I don’t always agree with him but he was a good father growing up. It’s hard to learn he’s turned into a monster.”

  Adrian helped James to his feet. “Things aren’t always how they appear. Why don’t we wait until after you talk to your dad before you start making accusations?”

  James sighed. “Maybe you’re right. Can you help me back to my bedroom? I think I’m ready to go to bed. Tonight was a little more excitement than I need.”

  “You need to come eat some more. It will help your bones ache less in the morning. We’ll get you some sweats to wear while you eat.”

  James sighed. “All right.” The rush of changing into another animal was drowned out by the return of his pain. The idea of remaining a cat forever called to him, but not only couldn’t he hold his shift, he doubted Lou was interested in keeping a white lion as a pet. Thoughts of the other man’s disapproval made him return to the dining room. The lions were suspiciously quiet as he ate a few bites from his plate before excusing himself. He needed time alone. Time to figure out what the hell to do now.

  He was a freaking white lion.

  Chapter Three

  Lou paced back and forth in front of the diner. He could wait inside, but the anticipation was killing him. He needed to see James. Talan and Adrian would treat him well, but did they make him comfortable or make him fend for himself? He should’ve asked more questions before trusting them with his mate.

  Damn. What if James decided he’d rather date a lion? Every last one of the bastards was golden and gorgeous. For a moment he gleefully played with the idea of barging into the pride house and maiming any male lions who might see his James as a potential mate. Lou didn’t share and, dammit, he saw the man first.