The Bengal let out another breath. Brett touched his nose, his green eyes full of interest.
“He’s not going to hurt them,” Addie said softly.
She didn’t know how she sensed that. A part of her knew that the Bengal could be playing possum in order to snap his mouth over the vulnerable cubs, but Addie for some reason didn’t believe that. The tiger had stopped his charge, had ceased fighting altogether, because he’d seen the cubs.
Kendrick very slowly eased himself from the Bengal’s back. The Bengal remained still, doing nothing even when Brett bit his ear. Zane, encouraged by his brother’s daring, tapped the Bengal’s front paw.
Kendrick shifted into his human form, standing up slowly. “Tiger,” he said, his voice gravelly rough. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
* * *
Jaycee, Kendrick saw when his trackers staggered to the porch, had only been winded—heavily so—but Dimitri had a broken wrist.
Kendrick remained standing over Tiger, his arms folded, while his cubs, growing evermore courageous, started crawling on him. Tiger raised his head and Kendrick tensed, but Tiger only met Kendrick’s gaze without hostility.
Won’t hurt them, Tiger was saying, in tiger. Protect the cubs.
“Get the hell away from them!” Jaycee came panting up, clutching her bare stomach. “Damn it, Kendrick, what are you doing?”
“Leave it alone,” Kendrick snapped.
Kendrick was an alpha Shifter, a massive tiger, for the Goddess’s sake, and neither he nor his crack team had been able to stop Tiger rushing for his cubs. Only Addison had managed to put herself in front of them, to try to keep the giant Bengal from the little ones.
A stupid move. Kendrick glared at Addison. Tiger could have killed her—easily.
Addison scowled right back at him. “This is the Shifter I saw, right? In San Antonio?”
Kendrick gave her a nod. Jaycee said angrily, “You mean she led him to us? He’s Collared, Kendrick. We’re screwed, because of her. What were you thinking? No humans are supposed to enter our territory until they’re thoroughly vetted. Who made that rule? Oh, yeah. You.”
While this was true, Kendrick’s temper frayed. “Addison is under my protection, and when the hell did you start questioning my judgment?”
“When you started thinking with your gonads,” Jaycee snapped. “This is another thing trackers are supposed to do—point out when you’re being an idiot.”
Kendrick snarled at her. If she’d kept her leopard form, he’d have swatted her across the weed-choked lawn. As it was, he kept his admonishment a very loud growl.
Addison let out an exasperated breath. “Screw this. Charlie, can I get that ride now? You come with us, Dimitri. You need a hospital.”
Dimitri hobbled toward them, cradling his arm, muttering in Russian. He never spoke Russian unless he was furiously angry or in serious pain. The man who conversed in fluent English without an accent couldn’t remember a word of English in extreme circumstances. He didn’t stammer when he spoke Russian either.
Charlie had come around the house to watch from a safe distance. Now he averted his eyes from Jaycee’s very full breasts and kept them on Dimitri’s broken arm.
“I’ll get you some pants,” he said to Dimitri.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Kendrick broke in. “I’ll treat him, and he’ll be fine. Shifters heal fast.” In fact, if Kendrick didn’t set the arm very quickly, it would heal wrong and have to be re-broken by the end of the day. “Dimitri, come here.”
Dimitri moved to him obediently, still cursing in Russian. Jaycee put her hands on her thighs, breathing hard.