Southern Shifters: Purred Promises (Kindle Worlds Novella) (2 page)

“Over here, Jair,” Felix, the owner, called, gesturing to his side of the marked-off area that would eventually become a large patio with a low wall and an outdoor kitchen.

Dumping the stones by Felix, Jair said, “The pile up front is getting smaller.”

Felix looked up and grinned. “Thank the goddess for that. Remind me not to take jobs like this when it’s hot as fuck out.”

Jair pushed the empty wheelbarrow back to the front of the house, set it down next to the pile,
and began to toss the pavers into it. He’d been working for Felix ever since he came to
Deals Gap a year earlier
, when he’d been officially and irrevocably kicked out of his tiger pride. He tried not to think much about
his family, who had watched him leave without protest, but every time he glanced at the underside of his wrist and saw the witch’s symbol marking him as an exile, he couldn’t help but consider how fucked up his life was.

The tiger pride he’d grown up in
had been a haven. With only his mom and his brother Jenner, he’d had a small but loving family. He hadn’t been exactly like his older brother
; there had always been something a little different about Jair
that no one seemed to be interested in telling him about.
His mother had told him that after Jenner’s father died in a pride battle when Jenner
was a toddler, she’d had an affair with a male from another pride. Their mother’s fur was navy blue striped with black, so she was a sought-after female, and it hadn’t surprised Jair to know that males had been after her once she was single.
It wasn’t until he was old enough to shift that he learned
the truth.
Jair’s father was no tiger, but instead a shifter of an entirely different breed – a wolf.

The moment he shifted, he’d known something was wrong with him.
He was a huge wolf, with blue
-and-
black striped fur – a horrible medley of the two creatures that fought for dominance inside him. The tiger longed for fam
ily and pride, and the wolf
wanted to run with a pack. Jenner had taken over the pride by the time Jair was old enough to shift, and hadn
’
t exiled him. Instead
,
he’d moved Jair to a home on the outskirts of pride lands and allowed him to be an observer. He’d been part of the pride but also not part of the pride, which
was a strange and unsatisfying position to be in.

It wasn’t until Jenner mated with a female from another pride, who brought along her hybrid-hating family,
that things got difficult. After a year of pushing from his in-laws, Jenner gave in and exiled Jair.

“I’m fucking sorry,” Jenner said as the witch prepared to etch his skin with the magical symbol.

Jair hadn’t known what to say. He’d wanted to rail against his brother, to tell him to stand up for family, but instead he’d just stared at him in stoic silence. When
he’d been marked in exile
, he hadn’t even winced. His beasts raged within him, but he’d kept tight control over their
desire to tear Jenner to pieces.

Ignoring the urge
to punch Jenner in the mouth and knock a few teeth loose for good measure, Jair had grabbed his two bags and headed for his truck. He didn’t give anyone the satisfaction of knowing how despondent the whole damn thing made him. It wasn’t his fault that he was a hybrid.
Although it wasn’t really anyone’s fault, he blamed the male who had impregnated his mother, for abandoning her all those years ago, for getting her pregnant and then disappearing so she had to lie to everyone about who she’d been with.
Up until he’d shifted, he had been a normal tiger as far as anyone knew. Once he shifted and his multi-hued fur appeared on the wrong beast, his eyes in his human form had changed as well, marking him even more fully as something that shouldn’t exist.

His mother stopped him from getting in his truck by
putting her small hand on his arm. “Baby, I’m sorry.”

Jair tossed his things onto the seat and turned to hug her. “It’s just ancient pride bullshit. I’m still your son, exile or not.”

She sniffled. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“Jenner made his choice. He’s king and he’s allowed to do that.”

In reality, Jair didn’t fault his brother. If Jair was lucky enough to ever find a mate, he didn’t think there was anything he wouldn’t do to make her happy, although betraying blood was kind of over the top.

She pressed a piece of paper into his palm and said, “I never told you about him because I had hoped you might be enough like me to fool the pride. I have no regrets about
my time with him,
because he was there for me when I needed a shoulder to cry on.” She wiped
at her wet cheeks. “His name is Veron Smythe. He’ll know you by scent, and
he’ll help you.”

He said goodbye to her, knowing that he would likely never see her again. He would be killed if he returned to pride lands, and unless she chose exile herself, they wouldn’t cross paths.

Shaking himself from his dark thoughts, he put the memories of his mother out of his mind and turned his attention back to filling the wheelbarrow with pavers. His own house was on the other side of
Deals Gap, bordered by thick woods on all sides
. That
gave him plenty of privacy, which he appreciated. Even though
Deals Gap
was neutral, a haven for exiled hybrids and purebloods, he still didn’t like shifting in front of others. His entire adult life he’d had to stand on the outside, shifting and hunting alone because the core of what he was disgusted the purebreds.

Hefting the load of pavers, he headed back around to the others. Felix looked up at him. “Your dad called, asked if you’d stop by.”

Jair stifled his
grumbled sigh. Felix and Veron were friends and had lived in
Deals Gap
for years. When Jair
arrived in town, he hadn’t intended to meet his biological father or have anything to do with him, but his mother had somehow gotten word to Veron that Jair was on his way.

“Thanks for the info,” he said.

“Hey, whatever you think about the situation, he’s had your back for the last year and you keep ignoring him. Stop being an asshole.”

His gums tingled as his tiger pushed to
bare fangs and let Felix know that he needed to mind his own business. Grinding his teeth together and
pushing his cat away, he said, “Thanks for the heads-up.”

Felix growled in warning, but Jair wasn’t interested in hearing his boss sing Veron’s praises. All he wanted was to work and maybe go to the bar and try to numb the heartache that threatened every time his thoughts drifted to his mom.

Turning the empty wheelbarrow around, he headed back to the pile of pavers, throwing hi
mself into work. It was either that or wallow in the past, which wouldn’t do a
ny good.

Chapter 3

Genesis sat in the formal living room with Geraldine and her future mate’s sisters
.
Vonda and Mirabelle were typical haughty lynx females, uninterested in becoming friends with Marco’s new mate.
The males of both chains were taking part in the traditional mating hunt. In her chain
’s archaic customs
, the future mate had to prove his worth to his mate’s family by hunting and killing the largest game in the area. She wouldn’t have minded so much if she’d been able to
go with them. She liked to hunt in
the woods, but her favorite game – rabbit – wasn’t considered worth the trouble. She would have defied any of the males to be able to snag some of the
m, though
. The little buggers
were fast as hell, and slippery.

Geraldine cleared her throat.
“Can I offer anyone some more tea?”

Glancing at her, Genesis whispered, “You already have
. L
ike four times.”

“It’s polite.”

Vonda smiled in a way that reminded Genesis of a snake. “No thank you.”

Exhaling, Genesis tried to think of another conversation starter for her future in-laws. She’d already tried to
chat
about the weather, her future chain, Marco, and their family. The females weren
’
t interested in talking to her about anything. Genesis had the impression that they thought they were better than her, as if she were some backwoods hillbilly
, missing teeth, with her finger up her nose.

She opened her mouth to ask them another inane question, when she heard the distinct call of alarm from her chain.
Howls filled the air, growing successively louder and louder.
Her heart clenched. She hadn’t heard those sounds in years, not since one of her uncles had been trampled to death by a herd of deer.

Standing abruptly, Genesis ran to the front door and threw it open, worry for her father filling her mind. Geraldine joined her on
the front porch, slipping her arm over her shoulders.

“Your father is a fierce male, the best fighter in the chain,” Geraldine whispered.

“I know,” she said, rubbing her arms to stave off the chill that the sound of mourning cats gave her. “I just hate that freaking sound.”

She glanced over her shoulder and realized that the sisters hadn’t joined them.

“They assume it’s our chain’s loss, I’m sure,” Geraldine said.

As the sound grew closer, Genesis’s heart hammered in her chest. She was worried about everyone in her chain at once. This was her mating day, a day of celebration and joining
,
not loss. A single-file line of lynxes in their shifted form came padding through the trees. Their heads were hung low as they
keened
in mourning.
The line continued, past the mansion and around the back, heading to the chain’s sacred grove, which had been prepared for her mating ceremony.

As she opened her mouth to question Geraldine, she saw her father’s shifted form as he trotted past. He glanced at her only briefly.

“Who died?” she asked, looking up at Geraldine.

“Oh, no,” her aunt whispered, her hand covering her mouth.

Genesis turned her attention back to the line of lynxes and saw Marco’s father in his human form, carrying Marco. The male she’d been promised to was covered in blood
, which seemed to have
come from huge, gaping wounds in his neck and chest. Her whole world narrowed down to the significance of Marco’s death. As Levi, his father, carried him stoically past the mansion,
his sisters raced from the house wailing, following after their father.

“Holy shit,” Genesis said under her breath.

Geraldine put her hands on Genesis’s shoulders and faced her. “Your arranged mate is dead. You must publically grieve.”

She frowned. “I
’m sad for them, of course,
but I didn’t know the guy. He’s an utter stranger. How can I cry over someone I didn’t
know?”

“Because it’s expected. You see his sisters carrying on as if someone pulled their claws out by the roots. You must show at least that much grief
, or you will dishonor your father.”

Rolling her eyes, she said dryly, “I’m not one for theatrics.”

“If you want your father to find you another suitable mate in the future, you need to behave like a princess. Lynx princesses are devastated when their arranged mate dies, whether they knew him for a minute or a hundred years. Got it?”

Nodding, Genesis dug down into herself and thought about her own losses: Her mother, taken far to
o soon. Her grandmother
, who’
d always snuck her extra cookies after meals. Her childhood friend who had moved away to another chain. Tears welled in her eyes, and she let them come. Walking off the porch with Geraldine, she waited until she rounded the corner of the house to start crying loudly. The scent of blood was heavy on the air, and she followed the long line of lynxes to the sacred grove, wondering what the future held.

* * *

Four hours later, Genesis stood outside her father’s study, staring at her blood-
stained hands. After Levi set Marco down on the sacred altar, she
’
d placed her hands on Marco’s chest, the cooled blood seeping into her skin. It was for show and nothing more. Princesses were supposed to behave a certain way
– usually, the more dramatic the better
. She’d stared at his face,
its
features smoothed in death. He was handsome, with olive skin and black hair. She wondered briefly whether their children would have taken more after his features
, or her own
light brown hair and jade green eyes. Then she decided it didn’t really matter. Marco was dead, and she was still an unmated princess.

The door to her father’s study was opened suddenly by his second-in-command. “Come in, daughter,” her father called.

Genesis arched a brow at Geraldine,
who stood across the hallway from her.
Her aunt shook her head ever so
slightly. Stepping into the study, she walked across the wool rug to where her father sat behind his enormous mahogany desk.
She glanced around the room quickly and saw that many members of Marco’s chain were in the room
.
Levi was sitting in the chair across from the desk.

Nerves crept into her suddenly, but she knew better than to ask he
r father what was going on. He wouldn’t approve of her behaving in any way that would bring shame to him as a king.

“The body of your arranged mate is being taken back to his homeland for burial,” her father said. He paused, staring at her with an inscrutable expression on his face. After a long moment, he continued. “In the tradition of our people, you
r arranged mating will be transferred to the next eligible male in the clan.”