Mate Bond

“Not going to argue with you about that.”

She looked seriously good too, sitting up and smiling at him, the clinging sheet falling from her. Kenzie had borne a cub, and her breasts were full and mature, her belly marked where it had stretched to carry his son. Bowman traced one of the stretch marks to where it disappeared on her side, then cupped her heavy breast in his hand.

He’d gone through the mating ceremonies with her to keep her unruly clan from battling with his, but he’d have gone to her anyway, no matter what. Bowman couldn’t imagine having any mate but her.

The ends of her silky hair brushed his fingers as he cupped her, Kenzie’s breath lifting her breast into his palm. Her eyes were half closed, gleaming gold beneath her dark lashes. Her nipple tightened, responding to Bowman’s thumb as he rubbed the smooth point.

A knock on the door made Kenzie jump. Bowman slowly let her go and tucked his hand behind his head. “What?” he called.

The door remained closed, but they both knew who it was. Ryan’s scent came to them, wrapping them both, completing them.

Ryan was impatient, not distressed, so they waited to see what he needed. Being a Shifter cub, he’d never open the door without their invitation, knowing exactly what his parents were getting up to in the bedroom. He also had zero interest. The fact that his parents—and all adult Shifters—loved sex was to Ryan a character flaw he would put off acquiring as long as he could.

“Dad,” he called through the door. “Can I go with my friends to Cade’s? He’s got the zip line done, and he says we can start riding it today.”

CHAPTER TEN

Zip line? Goddess give him strength.

Bowman started out of bed, was brought up short by his splint, let out a frustrated groan, and said loudly, “No!”

“Aw, come on. Everyone’s going. Cade’s careful. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt us little cubs.”

No, he wouldn’t. Cade was good with cubs, and all Shifters knew it. Bowman also knew that Ryan was playing up the cute cub angle to get his way. At age twelve, he was a master manipulator.

“You’re leader’s son,” Bowman said, dropping back to the mattress. “No one will think less of you if you don’t go. They’ll think you’re smart for not doing something stupidly dangerous.”

“No, they won’t.” Ryan’s voice came firmly through the door. “They’ll say I’m a coward. Leader’s son should be the first one on.”

“Leader’s son shouldn’t be pushed around by a bunch of cubs,” Bowman called back.

Kenzie was up, her naked body touched by winter sunshine. Bowman fell silent as he watched her lean over to sweep up her clothes. A stretch of her arms, and her shirt skimmed down her body, Kenzie glancing at him as she settled it over her breasts. Another bend, and her jeans slid up her thighs, over her smooth ass, hiding herself from him.

“I’ll walk him over,” she said. “He’s right—leader’s son shouldn’t hold back from new things.”

“Leader’s son shouldn’t break his bloody neck on a stupid idea of Cade’s.”

“You’ll be all right by yourself, won’t you?” Kenzie asked. She was good at ignoring him. “I can have my grandmother look in on you.”

Kenzie’s grandmother, Afina, was a clan matriarch, and didn’t have a high opinion of Bowman. She let her disapproval of everything he did, said, wore, and thought come loudly out of her mouth. Afina could insult him in Romanian and also Russian, or in English with a heavy accent, every word barbed.

“No.” Bowman growled. “I’ll be fine.”

Kenzie winked at him as she opened the door. Bowman was grateful the sheet had settled back over him, because that wink had him harder than the headboard behind him.

“Of course you will,” she said. “Besides, I want to try the zip line too.”

Another smile, and she and Ryan were gone, leaving the room empty, Bowman alone and feeling it.

* * *

Kenzie and Ryan walked through Shiftertown, which was a widespread neighborhood of small houses. The roads that wound through it were narrow, climbing up and down hills. Clusters of houses, families of clans clumped together, were scattered throughout, with woods and space between the clusters.

Around this bend, it was Felines, Jamie’s family. The next, another Lupine clan. Down the hill, the roofs visible from where Kenzie and Ryan walked, Kenzie’s clan’s homes. The bears lived on the far side of Shiftertown, their houses the largest. Bear clans tended to be small—making up the lowest percentage of Shifters overall—but bears took up a lot of room.

“Kenzie.” A muscular man in sweats came jogging up out of the woods to fall into step with her. “Hello, Ryan.”

“Uncle,” Kenzie said cautiously around Ryan’s more friendly “Hey, Uncle Cris.”

Cristian Dimitru was Kenzie’s mother’s much older brother. Kenzie’s father had been a lone wolf, clanless, his small pack and clan having been killed during the war the humans called World War II. Kenzie’s dad had been in a human army fighting the Nazi regime—the humans had not known they’d had Shifters join them.

All that had proved, Cristian had said, was that bullets hurt Shifters as much as they did humans. Cristian had come across Kenzie’s father, wounded and alone, and Cristian had carried him home, his clan taking him in.

Kenzie’s father had mated with Cristian’s sister, and died just after Kenzie had been born. His injuries and exposure to chemicals used in wartime had sickened him, and he’d never fully recovered. Kenzie’s mother, grieving from the broken mate bond and exhausted from bringing in Kenzie, had not lived much longer.