Wild Cat (Shifters Unbound #3)(36)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

Eric gave him a hard green stare. “I can help you find him, Diego. I have resources you don’t.”

“I know that, and I appreciate it. I don’t mind some assistance, Eric, but you have to let me take him down.”

“Fair.” Eric’s voice was mild, but Diego knew better. He’d have to watch him.

Cassidy growled, a throaty rumble, gave Diego’s hand a lick with a rough tongue, then languidly climbed off him.

Her cat was beautiful. Diego thought about the cow crack Reid had made and decided to break one of Reid’s limbs for that.

Cassidy made her way down the hall to her bedroom. Eric suddenly slammed his bottle to the coffee table and climbed to his feet. “I’m grilling outside,” he said. “Stay for supper.”

Shifters couldn’t do something as simple as cook out. The whole family got involved—Jace grilling buns and putting together the extras, neighbors drifting in to lend a hand or contribute food, and earning themselves an unspoken invitation.

Shane’s mother, Nell, came over with a luscious-looking pie. “Blackberry,” she said as she passed Diego. “Bears’ favorite.”

Diego planted himself at the cooker and watched Eric spreading steaks across the grill along with burger patties. Expensive steaks, if Diego were any judge.

Eric had sent his trackers to Reid’s apartment as promised, but he’d instructed them, with Diego standing next to him, to let Xavier take point. Brody and company already liked Xavier—most people did—and agreed. Xav told Diego on the phone that he also didn’t think Reid would show his face at the apartment again, but said he’d work with the trackers and keep them cool.

Diego picked up a spatula and flipped a burger Eric didn’t reach in time. “Next time I’ll bring you some of my mom’s adobada. You’ll sweat into next winter.”

“Sure, human. We need that in this climate from hell.”

“Spicy foods cool you down. Scientific fact.”

“Right.” Eric poked at the meat. “I bet you thought we ate everything raw.”

Diego shrugged. “I figured you hunted it down and dragged it home.”

“I’ve done it. Back in the wild, when there was nothing else.” He gave Diego a serious look. “Then we discovered barbeque sauce.”

Diego chuckled as he took a drink of beer. Then Cassidy walked out of the house, and all coherent thought left him.

She’d changed back to her human form and now wore a white sleeveless blouse, ass-hugging jeans, and sandals with a hint of heel. She’d brushed out her hair, and now it hung past her shoulders, parted simply in front.

Cassidy’s tall body swayed as she walked. She didn’t parade herself; she simply moved without hurry, as she walked to the cooler on the back patio, and all her curves moved in perfect harmony.

Diego wasn’t the only one watching her. Every male within range stopped and stared as Cassidy extracted a beer from the cooler, opened it, lifted the bottle to her lips, and took a long, slow drink. It was like watching heaven. Diego followed the beer spilling down her lucky throat, imagined the sweat on the bottle’s neck as her mouth slid around it.

“Mating need,” Eric said without looking up from the grill.

Diego jumped. “What?”

Eric gestured with his fork at the males whose gazes riveted to Cassidy. “Cassidy is of cub-bearing age, and she’s no longer mated. Males outnumber females around here five to one. Whenever Cassidy walks outside, every unmated male around zeros in on her.”

Diego saw that. Blatantly or subtly, the men watched Cassidy. “And you let them?”

“They can look all they want, but it’s Cassidy’s choice. The males can claim her and fight each other to the death for her, but she can still turn down the mate-claim. The high ratio of males to females means that the females get to be choosy.”

Diego frowned at the hungry stares trained on Cassidy. “What if they don’t wait for her to be choosy?”

Eric flipped a steak. “Cassidy’s my second, plenty dominant enough to make anyone she doesn’t like back off. Plus, she’s my sister. Anyone touches her against her will, they know they’ll answer to me. And, trust me, they don’t want to.”

Diego didn’t have to be Shifter to understand. Eric wouldn’t need to threaten or even look belligerent. Just as in the neighborhood that had spawned Diego, the people here knew who ruled, who could do what, and what would happen if they disobeyed the unspoken rules.

The difference between Diego’s world and Eric’s was that Eric implied he’d respect his sister’s choice. The man who had ruled Diego’s neighborhood had pretty much kept his sister away from all comers, whether she liked it or not. She’d tried to kill her brother one day, just to get away from him.

Cassidy smiled over at Eric and Diego, oblivious that she was the topic of conversation. She came to them and clicked her beer bottle against Diego’s. Diego had a hard time breathing.

Cassidy slipped her hand under Diego’s arm. “Take a walk with me.”

Eric turned back to his burgers and steaks, and Diego let Cassidy move with him to the edge of the party. A few more steps, and they were in darkness.

“I know you and Eric are talking about tracking down Reid,” Cassidy said. “I also know that Eric will try to keep me out of it. But I want to find him.”

Cassidy’s voice held an edge. Diego recognized that edge, having heard it many times from himself.

“I’m going to kick his ass for touching you, Cass,” he said. “I want to, and I can. And if he had anything to do with Donovan’s death, I’ll get him for that too. I promise you.”

Her eyes glittered in the darkness. “Are you going to shut me out too?”

“No. But you were ready to kill Reid tonight. If he hadn’t gotten away, you’d be in deep shit—so deep I wouldn’t be able to get you out of it. You have to let me do this my way. I’ll gather evidence against him to make the charges stick. If I’m careful, I can get Reid convicted for murder, not just assault and abduction. Trust me, I want him to go down.”

“We have to find him first.”

“I’ll find him,” Diego said with conviction. “Xavier and I are good at what we do, we have your brother’s trackers, and Eric seems to be good at what he does too. Between all of us, Reid doesn’t stand a chance.”

Cassidy’s face softened, but he saw the sadness in her eyes. “Diego…”