Skinned Page 3

  "What the fuck was that?" I growled.

  He only shook his head, refusing to speak.

  "Tell me," I demanded impatiently.

  He shook his head again.

  "By God, I will wreck this vehicle if you do not tell me right now, Joshua."

  Lydia's eyes bugged out and Warren sat up for the first time in seven hours.

  "I. Will. Do it!" I swerved the wheel and the tires flirted with the precarious seam where blacktop met dirt. "I'm doing it!"

  "She's doing it!" Warren practically echoed, squeezing Lydia into his side.

  "Do it!" Gage goaded from the back, resting his forearms on the seat in front of him, a maniacal smile plastered across his face.

  "No more sugar for you," Lydia chided him as she tried not to yelp when the Pilot veered erratically off the road.

  "Stop!" Joshua screamed.

  "Tell me!"

  The melodic voice of the GPS told us to turn left onto a thin dirt road. "Hang on," I warned, jerking the wheel until our gray Pilot hopped the seam again and spilled across the two-lane road, cutting in front of a cherry smart car putzing along in the oncoming lane.

  Lydia screeched as Warren and Joshua rumbled their disapproval deep from within their throats. Gage sat back, visually upset by our anticlimactic break.

  The vehicle slid to a stop on the gravel as it coasted off the last few feet of paved road. I stared Joshua down. My refusal to break our gaze first was an outward threat.

  "Let me call Darien. He can tell you."

  Those words! They infuriated me to the core, lighting an invisible fuse. My foot stomped the pedal with the force of King Kong. The Pilot jolted forward, gaining speed, as I refused to tear my eyes from Joshua's pickled expression.

  "Tree!" Warren screamed. "Tree, tree, tree!" he reiterated, his arm extended in a rigid dead man's pose between our faces.

  I smoothly jerked the vehicle left, away from the patch of trees on the side of the country road. The change of fate found us fishtailing across the gravel.

  "Um..." Lydia tried to vocalize a warning, but nothing more escaped her thin lips.

  Warren flagged our attention. "Building in the road!"

  Joshua and I broke our gaze simultaneously as my foot found the brake. We skidded to a halt five feet in front of the south wall of the Knot's Landing Motel. Lydia vomited orange circus peanuts into Warren's lap.

  "Cool road trip," Gage praised, lifting the tab of his soda. An elongated hiss alerted us before the cool spray of sticky sweet soda saturated everything inside the vehicle.

  "You have reached your destination," the chipper voice of the GPS congratulated.

  Clicking free of his seatbelt, Joshua hopped out of the Pilot, damn certain he was out of arm's reach when he confessed, "Full disclosure, Linay will be here, too," before shutting the passenger door between us.

  A snarl roiled up from the bowels of my inner cat.

  Linay was the sister of Tomas, the leader of our local lion pride. Unlike her brother, Linay lacked any redeemable qualities that made me want to keep her alive. In fact, she checked every fucking box on my 'die, die, die!' list.

  "Shit," I heard Warren mutter under his breath. Was he reacting to being covered in sickening orange goo -hats off to Lydia for that one- or Joshua's news? Full disclosure: I gave zero fucks.

  "Awe, we're late to the asshole convention," I mused, noting people gathered in groups and walking to and from motel rooms.

  We got out of the Pilot, struggling to wipe off whatever coated our skin. I think Warren was the only one who got the two-for-one deal. Lydia bathed him in baby wipes after he slunk the sullied shirt to the ground, which had taken the brunt of the liquid. It laid on a deathbed of crushed walnuts, deformed cigarette butts, and a Frito wrapper.

  "Me, next." Gage tapped Lydia's shoulder, his eyebrows dancing.

  When he started to pull his shirt over his shoulder blades, Joshua baulked before tugging it back down for him. "Everybody keep your clothes on!"

  I smirked. "Did you really just say that to a bunch of shifters?"

  "Madison?" The baritone voice behind me was familiar, tugging at my emotions like a forgotten dream.

  Only family used my birth name. I turned, shouldering the impact the man's presence triggered.

  "Dad?"

  Chapter Five

  The mix of sweet aftershave and drugstore shampoo tickled my senses as he drew me into one of his invincible dad hugs. Buried under those surface aromas, something deeper, something less inviting, cocooned him. That smell displaced him from the lepe. He was a one-man island in a sea of fur.

  Regardless, part of me sympathized with the unmatched excitement of a giddy five-year-old running into her father's arms after his return from a long day at work.

  "Hi, Dad," I breathed into the top of his shoulder, allowing his extra tight squeeze to make up for the lost visits. No matter the amount of rage and disappointment I carried, I could never manage to stay angry when he hugged me.

  "Hi, baby."

  Gage walked by, whispering, "Not so tough now, are you?"

  I gave him the finger behind my dad's back. He grinned and kept walking.

  As we parted, I adjusted to our surroundings, noting there were thirteen motel doors with a few vehicles spotting the parking lot. The office was to the left. And I was parked on a patch of geranium bushes.

  "I didn't expect to see you right when we pulled up. Do you live close by?"

  In the noncommittal fashion I had become accustomed to, Dad's eyes darted to the doors before answering, "You know, I'm here and there on any given day. How could I pass up the chance to welcome my baby to town? I can't stay long, though." Reacting to my fallen expression, he added swiftly, "Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to catch up."

  "Will we?" My meek question flooded with expectation and doubt.

  "Of course. We've got important business to discuss."

  "We do?"

  He acted as though he wanted to hug me again, but settled on an awkward side embrace.

  I immediately sensed something was out of sorts. "What's wrong?" I pressed.

  "Oh..." Dad waved his hand away as if to say nothing.

  "What is it, Dad?" The lulling effect of his hug was wearing off as my irritation clawed its way to the surface.

  In an unsuspecting tone, he leaned closer. "I think you need a shower, baby. Something smells god awful."

  Lydia's vomit train had pulled into the station hot, and the residents, unlike us, had not spent the better part of the day disassociating the gnarly bouquet with the abomination that it was.

  I turned to find Lydia and half-naked Warren walking to the office, presumably for check-in and room keys. Our mighty ambassadors of puke.

  A thousand smartass replies came to mind, but all I managed was, "I plan to."

  "I'll see you before you leave. Maybe I'll bring your brother."

  It wasn't exactly a statement. He was concerned, and for good reason. My little brother, my half-brother, was somewhat of an anomaly. My father's wife was serpente. While it was possible for certain shifter species to procreate, it wasn't possible for a leopard and a snake to make a slithering ball of fuzz. Until now.

  Ask me how I felt about said ball of baby? Exactly. The selfishness and cruelty involved in creating such a mixed breed are beyond words. To know that my father was part of such a choice had been a silent burden since Darien broke the news.

  And while knowing all of this, I still had a hard time addressing my feelings with my dad. It had become much easier to simply ignore it. All of it. I had managed to erase the majority of my father's life through a series of omissions. His wife. Their child. His reasons for not visiting. My reasons for not picking up the phone.

  In that moment, looking into his eyes, feeling the unconditional love of his smile, I felt shame for the first time.

  "I'd really like for you to meet him. It's time."

  Unable to fake a smile or confess my dark thoughts, I nodded.
"Okay."

  Dad passed through a small crowd that had formed in front of the office before leaving in the passenger seat of a Honda. I strained my ears, trying to make out what was being said. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be voicing an opinion, whether it be on the accommodations or where to eat dinner. Suddenly, a grumbly voice beckoned attention when it questioned the entire pending ceremony.

  "I've never heard of no damn snake king ceremony. We all get dragged out to the middle of nowhere for something that hasn't supposedly happened in generations? It's suspect. That's all I'm saying."

  My interest had drawn me closer as he spoke, not completely disagreeing with his rhetoric.

  "Drey?"

  A skyscraper of a man turned to look in my direction. His ebony skin was so rich it looked velvet to the touch.

  "Well, now I know it's a goddamn trap!" Drey joked. "Damn, girl, did they call in all the big cats?"

  Drey was part of Tomas' pride. There was no denying that we had a bond, especially after we shared Jack's death walk. When a shifter dies, they're honored by walking or running their favorite corner of the earth as a pack. Jack's was a beautiful piece of forest outside of town, part of the two-hundred-acre conservation the pride owned.

  He diverged from the group.

  "They either called the best motherfuckers they know or the dumbest," I confided.

  "That's a worn truth, right there."

  We shifted our attention, scanning the parking lot for anyone who might be eavesdropping. Once we were confident our conversation was private, Drey's smile was replaced by tension lines around his eyes. Not an easy feat for a naturally jovial soul.

  "What do you know about these snakes?" I asked.

  "Not much," he admitted. "A king hasn't been prophesized in five-hundred years. The ritual should determine who will take the throne." He scoffed, "So we're stuck babysitting all the bozos they rounded up. This is gonna be the longest three-day nap."

  "Not if someone tries to kill them."

  "A cat can only dream."

  A white school bus pulled up, parking at the far edge of the lot. As we turned to inspect the desperate faces lining the windows, a twangy voice squawked from the doorway of a room, "Who invited this whore?"

  My head jerked in her direction, full well knowing who that prissy voice belonged to before my brain had a fighting chance to catch up.

  "Linay," I purred, "what a pleasure to have not seen you the first ten minutes I was here. I'll cherish that time."

  She strutted across the concrete walkway in her tight blue jeans, purposely gyrating her ass in some sort of attention-grabbing effort. Though, it was clear by the supernatural static in the air that the display was a show of power over feminine prowess.

  The edge of Drey's lip curled as a low growl matriculated up his throat. He tried to step between us, but I refused his protection. I had to. This was an unofficial challenge of authority.

  Her mouth was still moving as I channeled my energy. Rolling my shoulders backward and popping my neck, I released my own fury of prickly power, slamming unforgivingly into Linay's bony frame. She gasped, stopping in her tracks.

  "What's the matter?" I crooned, "Cat got your tongue?"

  Close to sixty people, shifters of all backgrounds, were watching our little outburst now. Some anticipated a larger fight between all of the leopards and lions in attendance. Their anticipation was palpable. Others -the serpentes most likely- could not have been more disassociated. They were neither excited nor bothered.

  The weasely woman in front of me was weighing her options. If she cowered in front of such a large audience, she would never live it down. If she pushed me further, we could see what she's made of. Every drop of bullshit and blood.

  Because I would gut her.

  Then I would free my leopard to eat her remains.

  The parking lot grew quiet as I locked eyes with her, daring her. I wanted her to descend. Something deep within had been seeking a challenge, a way to divert the guilt and hateful energy built up from the nightmares Jack's death had consumed me in. If Linay proved to be that angel of release, so be it.

  I winked at her.

  Joshua and Lydia rang out, "No!" in unison as Linay's foot left the ground. She was faster than I remembered. She snarled, leaping through the air in human form, but landing at my feet in full lioness glory.

  Her loud roar was met by the raspy yowl of my snow leopard. The change from human to cat felt magnificent, like stretching my limbs and wiggling my bare toes after being confined to one position for too long. I lost all consciousness of our mission, honing in purely on Linay's misfortune of being the object of my wrath.

  Our combined power played through the air, disrupting the calm of the other shifters. Everyone became restless, twitching and side-stepping, feeling our power crawl up their spines, whispering in their ears to free their beasts with us.

  It was a dangerous calling. There were too many different factions of shifters for the mass change to end without attacks or incidents of lasting consequence. We were precarious, at best, just as people. Our beasts would only magnify those pitfalls.

  I released another snarl as Linay refused to back down. She had been given plenty of warnings. More than anyone her caliber deserved. When her claws slashed through the air, threatening to strike my neck, I bounded around the massive paw. Low to the ground, I circled her like she was a blind little mole of a plaything.

  Without warning, she leapt on top of me. We became one large ball of fur, rolling and jolting through the parking lot, banging into vehicles as bodies sprang out of our way. Hissing and snarling filled the early evening air, along with the screeching of metal and shattering glass.

  We didn't stop until a massive roar lashed out, rattling the panes of glass in the old motel windows. Linay froze underneath my weight. After another roar from the behemoth of a lion standing on the hood of a Corolla in front of us, her body started to tremble, signaling the change. Instantly, I rolled off of her, not wanting to crush her human form. Curling my tail around my back legs, I laid on my furry side, ready to watch the show.

  Bones and squishier things slid unnaturally, moving in much faster succession than if Linay had used her own will. Within seconds, the lioness had retreated in humiliation. Whimpering, she lay naked against the asphalt of the parking lot. It is quite painful to force the change, which is exactly what Tomas did. He used his power as her alpha to shift her back into human form. She would be feeling that for days. Her ego, even longer.

  My leopard receded inside at her own pace, allowing my smooth flesh to blossom until I was purely human in appearance. Nothing as grotesque as Linay's forced shift. I stood up, ready and alert in case she tried something again. It was doubtful, though I would never expect less.

  Tomas shifted effortlessly, basking in his power. He looked magnificent, whether beast or man. Even naked and human, he demanded a notability that was hard won by any other in their best hour.

  "Brother..." Linay rasped weakly.

  "Get up." There was a quiet edge in his voice that even I would hate to tango with.

  "It was her," she blamed, pointing a shaky finger at me.

  Tomas looked doubtful. He turned to Drey, who was still angry as sin that he couldn't participate in the brawl.

  "Who started it?" Tomas asked.

  Drey lifted a knowing eyebrow and nudged his head towards Linay. "I saw it plainer than shit in an outhouse. She was the aggressor."

  "Get out of my sight," he growled under his breath to his sister.

  She scrambled to her feet and scurried across the parking lot. The budding pink gashes and cuts across her body looked as superficial as mine. It was silent enough to hear the door lock us out of her unruly little world after she reached the sanctity of her room.

  All eyes turned to me. Gage had come to stand just behind me. As I stood naked, unflinching, he held my arm in the air, licking the long gash down my right forearm from wrist to elbow. It helped our wounds heal faster
.

  Tomas hopped off of the car and approached us. He shoved his rugged golden hair out of his face, the disappointment in his eyes on full display.

  "I apologize," he said, shaking his head. "How can we make this right?"

  Thinking for a moment, I did the one thing no one expected from me. I forgave them.

  "Call it even. I needed a stress reliever." The satisfied grin on my face was enough to show Tomas that I was being utterly honest.

  "Allowing you to kick my sister's spoiled ass was payment enough for her attack in the first place, then?"

  "Yep."

  It didn't take him long to agree. He held a fist out and I met his with mine, holding it against his for a few seconds before we both withdrew. In shifter terms, it was a good deal and there were no take-backsies.

  "You might need to chase down the owner of that car you just squashed, though."

  "You're looking at him."

  I crinkled my nose. "Do you always get stuck paying for your sister's actions?"

  "More than you know." Tomas sauntered toward his room, which was set apart from the rest. Number thirteen was a suite, it seemed.

  Joshua approached me and Gage, handing us our room keys. "Seven," he said, handing me a flat keycard. "Six," he relayed to Gage, who had stopped licking my cuts to accept his key. "The future king is on that bus behind you, so go wash up while we figure out who's bunking with who."

  I panned across the bewildered eyes in the bus windows. They blended together before I landed on one face, in particular, at the very back. His eyes were curious, practically filled with wonder, as if he had arrived at a once in a lifetime fair with his best friend, Santa Clause. And he was staring directly at me.

  Chapter Six

  It turned out, Joshua had to room with Lydia and Warren. Part of me felt sorry for his predicament. Their cuddle capacity bordered between extreme and extreme. Separately, two valued members of our lepe. Together, the definition of karma.

  On the other hand, I had an adjoining room with Gage. Definitely karma! Like Lydia, he has no relative idea of what healthy boundaries are. Locking the door would do little good with a giant child banging on the other side.