Pride Mates (Shifters Unbound #1)(30)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

Her question jolted Connor out of his frozen terror. Good for Kim.

The Shifters parted to let Connor leave the room. Liam hoped it would take him hours to locate a chair, or that he’d think better of returning at all, but Connor came back almost at once with a stepstool.

“Good enough.” Kim told him to put it on the floor in front of her, and Liam released her long enough to let her climb on it. He kept his arms around her as she straightened up, both to steady her and to keep her in his protective hold.

“That’s better,” Kim said. The stool let her stand half a head taller than Liam, and now she could look across the crowd of Shifters.

“There doesn’t need to be any violence over this,” she said. “What y’all don’t understand is that I can be the best friend you’ve got. You have a Shifter in jail, and the world howling for his blood. If I can prove he didn’t kill his human girlfriend, think what terrific PR that would be for all of you. Shifters are viewed with suspicion and hostility. If I show the world that Brian was wronged, make him a sympathetic figure, even a hero, imagine what an amazing step forward that would be. They might let you integrate more, let your kids go to schools that aren’t held in abandoned warehouses.”

Silence. Not one expression changed.

“Hey, maybe they’d even let us have cable,” a Shifter in the back drawled. The room rumbled with male laughter.

“I’m serious. I’m good at my job. I can do this if you help me.”

Fergus’s mouth drew to a thin line. “Liam, shut her up.”

Liam wasn’t about to. Kim had Fergus baffled, and he liked that.

“You act like you don’t want Brian released.” Kim went on. “He didn’t kill Michelle. Why should he be executed for it? Why would you let him be?”

Fergus drew the cat-o’-nine-tails from his belt. “Liam.”

“He’s going to whip me?” Kim asked Liam in amazement.

Liam lifted Kim off the stool. “Time to stop talking, love. Fergus, if we’re doing this Challenge, let’s get on with it, man.”

“Not until I teach the bitch some manners.”

Connor stormed forward despite Sean’s attempts to restrain him. The young man’s face was red, his large hands in fists. “Leave her alone! She’s not doing anything to you. She’s just talking. How can that hurt you, you bastard?”

“Connor, shut it,” Dylan said fiercely.

Fergus’s gaze chilled the air as it rested on Connor. “Come here, boy.”

“He’s a cub,” Dylan tried. “He doesn’t understand.”

Connor wiped his eyes. “I understand, Grandda’.” He glared at Fergus, though he dropped his gaze almost immediately. “I meant it too.”

Fergus was livid. Cords stood out on his neck, and his eyes burned with the intensity of a feral’s.

Liam knew full well how Fergus had envisioned this cozy scenario: Liam and family would scurry down to San Antonio, hand Kim over in abject apology, then hurry away again, letting Fergus do whatever the hell he wanted.

Instead all four Morrisseys had defied him—twice. The first time by refusing to respond to his verbal summons, yesterday. Now, in Fergus’s own lair, Kim had lectured him, Liam had made the Challenge, and Connor had broken the rule of a cub not confronting an alpha before he was of age.

Cubs could get away with a lot on account of their youth—Goddess knew Liam had been a pain in the ass during puberty—but flouting Fergus in front of the whole clan could not go unpunished. Connor was too young to fight for dominance, so he’d have to be swatted, as a lion might bat aside a cub who’d gotten too rambunctious.

“Come here,” Fergus repeated.

The magic in the command propelled Connor toward him. Sean started after him, but Liam shook his head. “No, Sean, let me.”

Sean opened his mouth to argue, then nodded, his eyes bleak. He turned away, unhappy, but knowing why he had to stand down.

“Let you what?” Kim asked Liam.

Her eyes were wide in her white face. She was afraid and angry, and so damn beautiful she made his heart ache.

Liam cupped her face in his hands. “Kim, my love, stay here with Sean and Dylan. Don’t even think about coming after me, and please, stay quiet.”

Kim’s lips parted as though she wanted to protest. Then she closed her mouth and nodded. Good girl. Liam turned from her and swiftly followed Connor.

Liam was the same height as Fergus. He and the big man looked at each other eye to eye, Liam without flinching.

“If you do this,” Fergus said in vicious fury, “then when I answer your mate Challenge, I’ll wipe the floor with you.”

Gods, what an arrogant bastard. “Just get on with it.”

Connor’s eyes held tears, but his head was up, though he couldn’t meet Fergus’s gaze or even Liam’s. “No, Liam. Leave it.”

“It’s my right, nephew,” Liam said quietly.

Two of the thugs, the one with the shaved head and the black-haired one, divested Connor of his shirt. Connor couldn’t meet their eyes either.

Liam stripped off his own shirt and dropped it on the floor. The thugs ignored him. They turned Connor around and bent him forward at the waist, exposing his young, unblemished back.

Fergus raised his cat-o’-nine-tails. With a grunt, he brought it down. Before it could strike Connor, Liam leaned over his nephew and took the blow directly across his own back.

“What the hell?” Kim shrieked. “What is he doing?”

Horror filled her as Fergus, eyes fixed, mouth curled in vicious enjoyment, struck again. The sound of the leather swished through the silence, followed by the slap against Liam’s skin.

Dylan moved toward them, grim-faced, tugging off his shirt to reveal a back as broad and muscular as Liam’s. When he reached Connor and Liam, he leaned over Connor as well, father and son enclosing the boy in a protective Shifter embrace. Fergus continued to ply the whip as though he didn’t notice, lips pulling back from teeth that had become fangs.

Kim started forward, but Sean stepped in front of her, blocking her way. “Stay here. Let it finish.”

Sean’s eyes held anguish, but she saw he wasn’t about to try to stop Fergus. She also sensed that if Sean hadn’t felt the need to keep Kim bottled up here, he’d have joined the human shield around Connor.

“This is insane,” she said, heart in her throat. Barbaric, uncivilized.