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Land tipped his head to the side and answered in a breathy voice, “Yes. Oh, yes, you did.”
Kontra sighed even as he beckoned Nathan forward. “Come on into the great room. It’ll be more comfortable.” The huge male began leading the way down the center hallway. “Can we get you something to drink?”
“No, thank you,” Nathan replied with a glance behind him. At some point, Sam had closed the front door, blocking out the cold. “Uh, so, what’s this all about?”
Even while asking the question, something Land had said niggled in his brain. The guy had found whatever a little odd.
Oddities.
Nathan wasn’t certain he wanted to know, and he really didn’t understand why these guys would suddenly decide to tell a complete stranger about their business.
“Let’s start with the basics,” Sam told him, falling into step beside him. “We’re not a cult, and we’re not doing anything illegal.”
A muscular, dirty-blond-haired male scoffed as he started down a staircase to the left of the hall. “Well, most of the time.”
“Ryan,” Sam scolded gently as he lifted a hand to welcome the other man. “That’s not illegal. That’s stopping those doing illegal shit.”
With a wide grin, Ryan stepped close, accepting Sam’s embrace. “Right. Blowing up the facilities isn’t illegal. My mistake.” As he spoke, he wrapped his own arm around Sam’s waist and peered up at him with mischief in his hazel eyes.
“Exactly,” Sam replied without missing a beat. Then he lowered his head and kissed the other man.
Ooookay. A lot of couples around here.
Nathan looked down the hall and saw a patiently waiting Kontra. Moving past the pair, he figured he should just get it over with. “You blow shit up?” Nathan questioned. “If you think I can get you explosives or something, I’d never do that.”
Kontra shook his head, a smirk teasing the corners of his lips. “We make our own, if it comes to that,” he claimed, not discounting Ryan’s claims in the least. “No, this is about something else.” Heading through an arch to the right, Kontra led the way into a large living room where one of the fireplaces roared happily. “Anthony said you’re perceptive, and he thinks you already have an inkling about what I’m going to share with you.”
With a grimace, Nathan rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension building there. He decided he’d just better get it out there. “Please tell me you’re not intending to use your wolf to hunt the werewolves in our woods.”
Yeah, I know there’s paranormal shit around here.
Nathan had just never discussed it with anyone. They’d never hurt anyone, and he respected the right to privacy.
Kontra’s dark brows shot up, his surprise obvious. A second later, he barked a laugh as he shook his head. “Nope. Definitely not that.”
“Well, then what?” Nathan demanded, not certain he believed the big man.
Continuing to grin at him, Kontra claimed, “Khan is one of those werewolves.” His dark eyes twinkled as he added, “Although we call ourselves shifters, and we’re not restricted to wolves.” Kontra rested his hands on his hips, eyeing him. “Oh, Fate gives us a soul mate that we recognize by scent, and Khan recognized you as his mate.”
Shifter. Fate. Mate.
Nathan swallowed hard. He’d heard many men who he’d suspected of hidingodditiescall their partner mate. He’d always thought it a term of endearment.
Could it be more?
What would it mean to me?
Sucking in a sharp breath, Nathan whispered, “I’ll have that drink now.”
Chapter Four
Khan lay on the floor of the kitchen in the cabin deep in the woods, watching as Ishmael met his older brother again for the first time. Both wolf shifters had been held captive and experimented on by scientists. While Kontra and his people had rescued Ishmael, Alpha Declan’s people had rescued Boaz.
The brothers had been taken to different facilities, which meant what had been done to them had varied. Both testings had started out trying to create a larger, more aggressive wolf shifter that they could dominate and control. The assumption was that the scientists wanted to use them to track down and help capture more shifters for testing. As Boaz’s tests had progressed, whatever they’d done to him had caused him to go nearly feral, losing himself in his wolf. Boaz was supposed to have been put down, but Declan’s people had saved him before that could happen.
Unfortunately, it had been too late to reverse the testing, leaving Boaz trapped as a huge aggressive wolf. Boaz had been kept in this remote cabin while Declan’s people had tried to figure out how to reverse what was done. Only Boaz meeting his mate in a large, dominant sungazer lizard shifter named Adisa had pulled Boaz out of his aggression... which the wolf still struggled with.
For that reason, Adisa and Boaz sat together on a sofa on the far side of the room. Adisa kept his arm around Boaz’s shoulders while Boaz sat with his hands clasped on his thighs. Boaz smiled tightly at Ishmael even as he seemed to vibrate with barely restrained nerves.
