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Enrique squirmed, trying to speak but unable to while Luke held his tongue out. But the jaguar soon stilled when Tate aimed his claw just right, ready to slice through the appendage.
“No!” Gavin burst out. “Stop! You’ve hurt him enough!”
“We wouldn’t have had to hurt him at all if he’d just answered Tate’s question,” said Havana. “When you think about it, he did this to himself in a roundabout way. But there’s no reason for it to go on any longer. It can all stop right now. Providing somebody tells us where Gideon lives.”
Tate hummed. “I don’t hear anyone talking.” He signaled at Alex, who lifted his claw ready to slice right through Enrique’s tongue and—
“We don’t know!” Gavin shouted.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” asked Tate.
“No one knows where he lives,” Gavin swore. “He doesn’t trust anyone with the information. He’s paranoid that way.”
“You’re telling me Gideon is still underground? That he keeps himself secluded?”
“No, he isn’t in hiding anymore.”
Panting, Enrique shook his head. “Gavin, stop talk—” He slumped in his chair as Alex dealt him a knock-out blow to the temple.
Gavin’s head whipped around, and he gaped at his friend.
Tate clicked his fingers. “Don’t look at him, Gavin. You need to pay attention to me right now. I need you to focus. You can do that, can’t you?”
His chest heaving, Gavin raised his eyes to Tate, looking lost and dazed. “You … He …”
“I know, he’s a bit of a mess right now,” said Tate. “But things didn’t have to go down this way. All I want is answers. So let’s get back to what you were saying before. You said Gideon isn’t in hiding anymore.”
“N-no,” Gavin stuttered. “H-he doesn’t go out a lot in public, but he hasn’t isolated himself. He changed his appearance. No one who’s seen him at the auctions has ever guessed he’s Gideon York. Or if they did, they never said.”
Tate narrowed his eyes. “He attends the auctions?”
“He hosts them, just like the one tonight.”
Tate stilled, his pulse quickening. “There’s an auction happening tonight?”
“Yes.”
“And Gideon will be there?”
“Yes. He’s always the auctioneer.”
Anticipation once again pounded through Tate. “Where will it be held?”
“I …” Gavin snapped his mouth shut, his face strained. “If I tell you, you’ll go there and kill him.”
“Fuck, yeah, I will. And I’ll free all those loners who did nothing to deserve what’s happening to them. He deserves what’s coming, Gavin. He’s had it coming for a long time. How you can’t see he’s one sick puppy, I don’t know. I’ll just bet he gets off on the power that comes with taking bids and declaring who is sold to whom.”
Gavin frowned, shaking his head. “Gideon isn’t like that.”
Luke snorted. “Don’t kid yourself. Your Alpha is all about wielding that kind of dark power.”
“Gideon’s not our Alpha. Our group … it isn’t like a pack or clan. We’re a family. Gideon is head of our family. Our patriarch.”
“So, he’s your Alpha,” said Luke.
Gavin’s mouth tightened. “No. We’re not like all of you. We don’t want that cult-type life. Gideon guides us. Provides for us. Protects us.”
“So, he’s your Alpha,” Luke repeated.
“No,” Gavin bit out. “He just … gives us direction. Helps us fight our nature. Following his order to shift only twice a year is hard, and disallowing our animals to influence our actions can be even harder. Especially when the animals know we never intend to claim our mates.”
Havana shook her head. That had to be a fate worse than death for the guy’s inner jaguar—it would never co-exist with its human half, never bind with the other half of its soul, never find the peace that came with a mating bond. Skirting around Gavin so that she could meet his eyes, she asked, “Why fight who you really are? What did your cat ever do to you?”
“It’s his fault that my human family wouldn’t accept me,” replied Gavin. “His pride didn’t want me either—they don’t want hybrids polluting their gene pool.” He snorted. “I never fit in either world.”
Havana frowned. “And you think that makes you a special snowflake or something? The reason a lot of shifters become loners is that, like you, they had no one from either world who’d accept them. How are you any different from them? Why is your pain more important than theirs? Where was your empathy for them when your patriarch-who’s-basically-an-Alpha asked you to help him sell them?”
Gavin’s brow creased, as if he’d never before considered that his plight was similar to that of many loners. “But … they’re all doomed anyway. Loners never live long. That life is too dangerous for them to survive it.”
“I’m guessing it was Gideon who fed you that bullshit,” said Tate. “But, honestly, I don’t care. I have only one question on my mind right now. Where will the auction be held?”
