Claws

**~~~**

Copyright 2012 by Karolyn
Cairns

Smashwords
Edition

This ebook is licensed for your
personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given
away to other people. If you would like to share this book with
another person, please purchase an additional copy for each
recipient. If you’re reading this book and didn’t purchase it, or
it wasn’t purchased for your use only, then please return to
Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting
the hard work of this author.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’d like thank Smashwords for their
effort in helping writers get their work to the people. With that
said; I’d like to thank the readers who inspired me to continue
this series and appreciate their clever incite and helpful
suggestions.

**~~~**

DEDICATIONS

This book is dedicated to my beloved
Glinda, my own good witch, and the cat that inspired these novels.
I’d like to think Glinda has the power of one of these cats in my
stories.

**~~~**

Jericho looked relieved when
the text message from Eli popped up.
We’re
back.
His yellow-green eyes narrowed.
They’d been gone a month. An extended honeymoon in Australia no
less. The duties of running the compound fell upon him with Gideon
and Derek in Florida with Ty.

Vivvie took their twin infant son and
daughter with them. Not much of a honeymoon in his experience. He
could imagine Vivvie spent most of her time chasing her young up
trees than enjoying the Outback.

What did he tell Eli?

Jericho knew he should have told his
leader their female elder awoke from her slumber. He couldn’t
intrude upon their happiness. Now that Tania was awake after forty
years he realized her mind had changed during that time. After
hundreds of years of keeping all three Alphas jumping to her tune;
she chose Eli for her mate.

And Eli fell in love, mated, and
married the Newbreed in their tribe, Vivvie Collins, while she was
sleeping. Tania was no longer confused of which of the three of
them she wanted. She woke up with Eli’s name on her lips and in her
heart. Finally, she chose among them. Gideon took the news poorly,
retreating to blow things up at the new compound in
Florida.

Jericho took it better, seeing
firsthand Tania changed in the years she slept. She wasn’t the same
woman who founded the compound two hundred years before when they
came here. Ty’s twin sister and the lone female elder was now a
self-serving bitch who manipulated all those around her.

Tania refused to acknowledge Eli’s
recent marriage to Vivvie and declared it a complication they would
soon rectify upon his return. Jericho thought of Vivvie’s reaction
and glared at the mountain of paperwork in front of him. He’d
rather be under the hood of his 1960 Chevelle right now.

Running the compound this last month
was easy compared to what lay ahead. He didn’t envy Eli when he
returned to discover Tania was awake. His leader believed she would
never wake up. They believed the overuse of her gift put her into a
deep, coma-like sleep.

Tania could invade their enemy’s dreams
and kill them while they slept. She’d done it for the betterment of
the tribe for years. Eli’s guilt was profound as he sent her in
that last time.

Tania was not the same. To look at her
was to acknowledge she was still radiantly beautiful with her dark
chocolate brown hair and startling golden eyes. Her personality was
altered. He no longer knew the woman who bore his twenty-seven
children.

Jericho refused to go to her bed when
she beckoned to him now. He watched instead as she made the rounds
among their younger brethren. She had few morals when it came to
scratching her own itch. After forty years of sleep, she was more
than a little frisky and refused to deny her own
pleasures.

Cat fights among the women were regular
and heated. The queen asserted her rights, uncaring if the males
were mated or not. As a result, many couples approached Jericho
with the desire to leave. It was approved by Eli before he left.
Shifting into their panther counterpart was controllable now that
their evolution progressed. They didn’t have to hide
anymore.

Jericho was sad to see many of the
tribe leave this last month. Eli believed them stuck in their ways.
Immortality proved too tempting to them. He would be shocked to see
how deserted the place was now.

After the war with Ryken’s army of
Halflings, the demon cursed them once more. They couldn’t die. The
nine souls they once had were now one. They were immortal. They
could live among the humans if they wanted and many did.

Only fifty or so remained within the
compound where there once was over two hundred before the war.
Families were the first to leave, desiring to live in suburbs now
instead of the restrictive community. The young ones left then too,
obvious they wanted more choices in mates than what was to be found
here.

Jericho warned them all before they
left. They healed instantly when wounded and immortality was
realized, but with a price that remained to be seen. The demon
never just gave anything to them. It remained to be seen what it
wanted now.

They could also still turn humans;
forbidden by their kind. Did they listen to him? He thought not and
grimaced to think of Eli’s reaction. Countless humans had been
turned the last month, all dumped in Jericho’s lap when their
makers bailed on them.

The Newbreeds were all terrified and
difficult to control. A handful went feral already and Gideon was
there to put them down. The condition was irreversible
unfortunately. When the Newbreeds turned and made their shift, they
needed guidance to control it. If not, the animal took over.
Several humans paid the price already. Several reports of animal
attacks and savage murders were all over the city.

Eli was going to have a
meltdown.

Gideon was clearing his schedule for
the next couple of months, looking forward to killing something.
Since they were immortal; the body had to be dismembered and
separated so the limbs and head couldn’t reattach and
regenerate.

Jericho felt sick to think of how
Gideon figured that out in such a short time. The general was
always looking for something to take out his frustrations on these
days. Learning Tania hadn’t chosen him hit him hard.

Since Eli’s marriage to Vivvie, their
leader allowed their people more freedoms. He realized they needed
to find some meaning to their existence. Jericho privately felt
they would run amok and was right. He predicted trouble.

Trouble arrived as Tania poked her head
into the conference room.

“Is my Elijah back yet?” she said in
that purring tone he despised. The hair on the back of his neck
stuck straight up. She smiled in feline pleasure at his disgusted
expression.

“They’re on their way from the
airport.”

“Jericho, you really should try to stay
out of this,” she advised as her golden eyes flashed a subtle
warning. “I mean to have Eli back. This little Newbreed will stand
aside, you will see.”

Jericho thought of Vivvie and grinned
widely. Somehow he didn’t see her bowing to Tania in anything. The
fur would fly, he knew. Tania would realize all too soon she lost
Eli. His leader adored Vivvie and their twin offspring. He wasn’t
about to give that up to defer to Tania’s wishes.

The female elder refused to choose
between them for years. She mated with all three of them to start
this community, viewed a martyr then. She made her choice and
seemed to ignore the obvious. Eli was no longer waiting for
her.

“Vivvie isn’t one to stand aside,
Tania,” he told her in amusement. “No, you will find our Newbreed
very much calls the shots with Eli. You should consider that before
you humiliate yourself.”

Her perfect features flushed at his
words, eyes narrowed to golden slits. “I will have him back! This
Newbreed might have her claws in him now, but Eli loved me
once!”

“Once, Tania!” Jericho bit back, his
yellow-green eyes glowing in fury. “Once we all loved you! You
couldn’t choose one of us, as I recall. You went to all of us then.
He tired of the wait! You should take my advice and join your
brother in Florida. Ty will be happy to have you there.”

She looked furious at his words. “I go
nowhere! This is my home! I won’t allow some upstart Newbreed take
what is mine!”

“He’s not yours, Tania,” Jericho
replied patiently, seeing she refused to face this one truth since
her resurrection. “He’s mated and he’s happy at last. He’s made his
choice. You should stand down.”

“You’re just jealous,” she fumed and a
soft hiss escaped her perfect lips, making her appear feral. “You
tell me this just so I’ll go back with you.”

Jericho chuckled and shook his head,
eyes devoid of amusement. “No, you’ve lost me too, Tania. I can see
you’re not the same woman I loved.”

Her face hardened at his words.
“Perhaps you should join Ty in Florida then, Jericho. The change
will do you good.”

“Ty and Gideon have things well in hand
there,” he informed her with a grin. “I’d rather stay here and
watch you make a fool out of yourself.”

Tania bristled under his amusement.
“Then you will be disappointed. Eli will come back to me, mark my
words. This little Newbreed can’t possibly hold his attention. My
Eli has unquenchable desires.”

Jericho rolled his eyes. “He loves her,
Tania. Eli has changed. He wants only her now. He no longer seeks
others.”

“We shall see,” Tania said as she
stalked into the conference room and leaned down to push aside the
mountain of paper and command his full attention. “I know you think
you know Eli’s mind. That was before I woke up. He won’t want her
now. I’ll seek him in his sleep as I always did, you will
see.”

“And she’ll be there to close the door
in your face,” Jericho replied with a knowing wink. “She does have
your gift, you recall? You might think twice before you try
undermining Eli’s marriage. Vivvie is a scrapper.”

Fury made her eyes glow molten to know
the Newbreed received her gift through her grandson Ryken. To know
her rival for Eli had that rare gift of their kind was a blow. It
was obvious to Jericho she didn’t like sharing her gift.

“We will see which way the wind blows
in this, Jericho. I mean to have him back.”

“Why?” he asked, annoyance flaring in
his gaze.

“What do you mean?” Tania asked with
equal irritation. “I love him; that’s why!”

“You don’t know its
meaning.”

“You’re just sour I chose him and not
you,” Tania observed and rolled her glowing gold eyes. “How
disappointed you must be, Jericho? What has it been? Two hundred
years? Or is it three now?”

“Two hundred and twelve,” he offered
with a tight smile. “Long enough to know a waste when I see one;
you weren’t worth the wait.”

Tania watched as Jericho got up from
the conference table and gathered up his papers. He left her
without another word. She smiled as she saw he left behind his
phone. She frowned as she picked it up. These modern treasures were
not available when she took her sleep.

Still, the message there made a thrill
of excitement course through her. We’re back, it said. She could
hardly wait to see the look on his face when he arrived to find her
awake and ready to start their life together.

The Newbreed had nothing on her. Even
if they shared the same gift; she refused to see Vivvie as a
threat. She would reclaim her true mate. Jericho was wrong. Eli
belonged to her. He might have strayed but he would be hers once
more.

Eli always had amazing
appetites, she recalled with a shiver of remembrance. Even more
than the others; he made her burn for him. They had all been her
eager lovers once.
Those were the good old
days
, she reflected with a delicious sigh
and purr of pleasure.

She would go from Gideon’s bed to
Jericho’s, ending the evening in Eli’s arms. Who would have wanted
to choose one of them? Eli grew tired of the challenges and battles
in those days between him, Gideon, and Jericho over her. All
handsome and raging Alpha; they fought over her constantly, some
losing souls in the process.