Cat's Wolf (A Shifter Romance Novella) (12 page)

She didn’t question the shout and
quickly crouched. A loud crunch sounded above her and she quickly glanced up to
see a guy go flying backwards from the force of the hit. He didn’t get back up
or twitch and she hoped he was only unconscious and not dead.

“Thanks.” She surveyed the rest of
the car park. Almost all the group of would-be bounty hunters were out cold.

A body flew past them and they
turned to see a heavily-breathing Rhys, fangs bared as he fought to bring
himself under control. He was bleeding from a cut under his eye. “You okay?” He
asked, the words garbled by the large incisors on display.

Kaitlin nodded and then spun as she
heard the sound of an engine pulling up behind them. It was a large, sleek,
silver Chevrolet SUV. The back door opened and an elegant heeled boot stepped
out, followed by its counterpart.

Frowning she waited for the owner
to appear and her jaw dropped a little when she saw Li emerge in an expensive
looking evening dress. It was a strapless nude colour dress with a black
swirling pattern that covered the bust and flowed down the body stopping at
about knee height where the dress fell in slinky waves to the floor.

“Kaitlin,” she greeted. Her gaze
then dropped to the bodies on the floor. “I see you’ve had some visitors this
evening. Unwelcome ones, I assume?” Her lip curled in distaste as she glanced
around before returning to Kaitlin. “I believe we have business to discuss?”

Snapping her mouth closed, she
nodded. “Of course.” Her gaze dropped to the bodies at their feet and she bit
her lip wondering what to do.

“My men will remove any evidence of
this little battle. Shall we?”

Not for the first time, Kaitlin
wondered if she was doing the right thing.

Rhys caught her gaze and smiled
softly. The cut on his face began to bleed again and she frowned. Her father
had caused that by putting a bounty on her lover’s head; her mate’s head. It
was unforgivable.

Yes, she
was
doing the right
thing.

Chapter 17

They
escorted Li and her entourage up to the penthouse and she sat on one of the
chocolate coloured sofas while the men took places behind her and at covert
points around the room.

Kaitlin
remained standing, her nerves beginning to jangle again. Rhys had disappeared
somewhere further into the suite to sort his men out and she missed his calming
influence. Brent had stayed with her at his Alpha’s request but not before
going and retrieving the transcript from the bedroom she’d used not too long
ago. He was currently holding it in his hand waiting for the right time to
offer it.

“Can
we get you anything, Li?” She asked, playing the part of hostess.

She
waved away the offer. “No thanks. Why don’t we get down to business and you
explain what you meant when you said you knew who killed my father? Do you?”

Feeling
like she needed to sit for this talk, she dropped down onto the sofa facing Li.
“Yes, I know who did it. It…It was my father.”

“Paul
Mahone? Head of the Council?” Her voice was devoid of any emotion, not giving
anything away.

“Yes.
It seems he made a deal with the rogues. He’d let them stay in the area if they
would kill your father. Obviously they accepted.” She hesitated for a second
before continuing, “It seems he instructed them to do what they did to him.”

There
was a long stretch of silence as the words were absorbed by everyone in the
room.

“You
have proof?”

Kaitlin
swivelled to face Brent and he offered her the printed transcript. She took it
with a small smile and ran her gaze over the page before solemnly handing it to
Li. The other woman took it and read it silently, her already pale skin going
ashen as she took in what she was reading. When she was finished she passed it
over her shoulder to one of the men behind her and stared at a point on the
floor.

Moving
her gaze up to the man behind, Kaitlin realised she knew him. He had been
second to Li’s father and Li had admitted to having feelings for him when she’d
been younger and they’d been closer friends. When he put his hand on her
shoulder in a comforting gesture she briefly wondered if they were more than
just pack mates.

“You
realise we can't just ignore this, right, Kaitlin?”

She
nodded, firmly pushing her thoughts aside, and met Li’s eyes. “Yes. You’re not
the first person my father has done wrong by and it needs to stop. He can't
remain in power if all he’s going to do is abuse it.”

A
small smile lifted the corners of the other woman’s lips, “You have a good
heart. I forgot that about you.”

Kaitlin
returned the smile.

Then
it was back to business. “It looks like I need to set up a meeting with your
father. I’ll tell him it’s for something else. I want you to be there with me,
you don’t mind do you?”

After
the slightest hesitation, she shook her head. “Of course I don’t mind. I’m not
exactly his biggest fan right now anyway.”

Li
nodded once and then rose to her feet. She walked around to the guy who used to
be her father’s second and who Kaitlin guessed served as Li’s second now too, and
watched as he offered her his mobile.

“Excuse
us for a moment,” she said politely and at Kaitlin’s nod, walked across the
room to make the call.

She
tried not to listen to the conversation taking place across the room; it was
hard though with her enhanced hearing.

“So
what do you think your dad’s going to do when this goes down?” Brent asked,
garnering her attention.

Her
shoulders rose in a shrug, “I have no idea.” A long sigh left her, “I mean, I
never thought he’d be capable of half of the stuff Malachi has evidence about,
so who knows?”

She
caught a hint of a scent she knew by heart so wasn’t surprised when Rhys asked,
“Everything alright?” and placed his palms on her shoulders and ran them down
the top of her arms as he bent to press a light kiss to her crown.

Smiling
up at him, she nodded, “Yeah. Li’s just making the call to my dad.”

“Well
I’ve got the guys set up in the master bedroom. It’s a bit cramped but we can't
do anything about it until Li goes.”

“Speaking
of,” Brent muttered.

Li
was watching them with a small smile on her face. “I am sorry for disrupting
your pack, Rhys. We’ll be leaving shortly to get everyone ready for tomorrow.”
Her attention shifted to Kaitlin, “We’ve agreed to meet on neutral territory; a
park a mile or so from here, at nightfall. Hopefully no humans will come traipsing
through or they may just see something they wish they hadn't. I’ll message you the
details later on when I’ve worked them out, if that’s alright?”

“Sure,
sounds good.”

Li’s
dark head dipped in a respectful bow and the three of them copied the action and
then watched as she left the room, her pack members leaving with her.

The
door shut with a loud snick in the now silent room and Kaitlin collapsed back
into the cushions with a sigh.
“I can't believe I’m doing this,” she
said quietly. “I’m actually going against my father; he’s head of the goddamn
council! What am I thinking? This is going to cause all sorts of problems and
not just for us, either.”

Brent and Rhys shared a meaningful
look and then Brent turned on his heel and disappeared off somewhere in the
suite.

Rhys moved around the sofa to sit
beside her. Grabbing her hand in his he brought it to his lips. “You’re doing
what you believe is right, that’s not a crime, Cat.”

Kaitlin glanced heavenwards, almost
ready to ask for His guidance and then snorted. She wasn’t even religious so
that was just stupid. “What happens to my mum when we do this? What if it all
goes pear shaped and my mum gets the brunt of his anger because of something I
did; something I instigated?” Tears burned her throat at the thought.

Large
palms cupped her cheeks and his thumbs brushed away the tears. “Then we make
her come with us tomorrow. I won't let anything happen to her; that’s a
promise, Kaitlin.” Leaning forward Rhys kissed her softly on the lips and then
rested his forehead against hers. “Nothing is going to go wrong tomorrow, I
won't let it.”

She
nodded slowly and glanced into his earnest golden amber eyes. Kaitlin trusted
him with her life so why not with her mother’s too?

Twining
their fingers together, he rose to his feet and pulled her up with him. “Let’s
go to bed. We’ll need all the rest we can for this showdown tomorrow.”

Kaitlin
nodded and followed him down the hallway to a different bedroom to the one
they’d used the previous night. It was decorated almost the same, just on a
slightly smaller scale.

Tugging
her over to the bed he undressed her slowly, occasionally running a hand over
her body appreciatively though he didn’t try anything overtly sexual. When she
was naked she began undressing him too, inhaling his scent like he was her
favourite drug. Removing his trousers she became aware of how turned on he was
by her nakedness and made a small sound. She started to reach for him but he
grabbed her wrist gently and shook his head, no.

Rhys
flung the covers aside and they climbed into the bed. He tugged her back
against his chest; his erection cushioned between her buttocks, and nuzzled his
face in her hair.

Sleep
overtook them both quickly.

Soft voices woke her the next
morning and she rolled over to see Rhys stood at the bedroom door talking to
someone outside. He took something small and then closed the door, his gaze
going to the bed to see if he’d disturbed her.

“Hey,” he greeted softly.

“Hey,” she returned with a smile.

He held something up. “Seems Li
text you sometime during the night,” he tossed the phone to her and she caught
it easily.

Unlocking the phone she opened the
message and read it. “She wants us to meet her at the park half an hour before
we’re supposed to meet my father to talk tactics. She also wants us to fetch
all your men because she doesn’t trust him to come with only his personal
guard.” Kaitlin snorted, “Me neither.”

“So that gives us,” he glanced at
the clock on the bedside cabinet, “what? Twelve hours? Not that long to pull an
army together.”

Going up on her knees she shuffled
over to the foot of the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Looks like
you’ll have to work a few miracles.”

Raising his brows he grinned, “Oh,
I think I can manage that.”

Kaitlin’s laugh turned into a soft
moan of pleasure.

Chapter 18

Watching from a few steps back,
Kaitlin was mesmerised by the power that was emanating from Li. She looked
formidable with her black hair pulled into a ponytail high on her head and the red
and black leather all-in-one with the black and gold handle of the samurai
sword visible over her right shoulder.

Flicking her gaze across to her
father she noted the strain around his eyes and the bulge of his clenched jaw.
He wasn’t happy.

Good.

They’d decided earlier that she
should only make herself visible after the two party leaders had greeted each
other.

She scanned the faces on her
father’s side of the field; she recognised many but didn’t know most of them.
Raoul wasn’t with them, she noticed.

Paul’s eyes flicked in her
direction, “What’s going on here? Is my own daughter plotting against me? I am
very disappointed in you, Kaitlin,” he then returned his attention to Li. “What
lies has she told you to bring you here?”

Kaitlin snorted and rolled her
eyes—trust him to try and pin the blame on her!

Rhys’ palm briefly touched her
waist, though whether he was hoping to comfort her or get her to calm down she
had no idea. Kaitlin shot him a sideways glance and then forced herself to
relax. If she lost her cool things could go wrong real quick.

Her gaze darted to her mum who was
stood a little behind and to the left of her father. She looked nervous.

“Kaitlin has given me a file with
proof of your involvement in my father’s murder.”

“That’s impossible,” he denied. “You
know it was some rogues working together.”

One of Li’s men stepped forward out
of the line they’d created, and handed her the photocopied page Kaitlin had
shown her yesterday when they’d met. She waved it in the air mockingly.