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Her laughter died in the face of his obvious disbelief. “I have four hundred and seven years. Are you disgusted with the idea of kissing one so much older than yourself?”
“I suddenly find the idea of doing it with an older chick quite appealing,” he said, an evil grin lightening the planes and angles of his face.
“An older chick? That cannot be an appropriate term, young man. Perhaps you should learn to respect your elders.” She tried for a stern voice, but the fact that she couldn’t seem to stop running her fingers through his hair may have ruined the effect.
He put his hands on the bottoms of her thighs and lifted her up off the table, still grinning. “Can I respect you while you’re naked?”
She heard the wildness in her laughter and realized she walked the edge of hysteria. “Ethan, please. We need to figure out what to do.”
He gently let her down, still holding her so close that she had to slide down the length of his body. Both of them were breathing hard by the time her feet touched the floor. But he stepped back from her, evidently agreeing with her assessment. “You’re right. We need to figure out our plans. The first thing we need to do is get you out of here.”
They both turned toward the kitchen doorway at the sound of pounding feet approaching. Ethan pushed Marie behind him and pulled a very lethal-looking dagger from a sheath at his side.
William burst into the room. “I’m sorry to disturb you, Ethan, but we’ve got trouble. Travis called for reinforcements. He sent a message that the representatives of all the prides in the western region are on hand to make sure we follow the ancient rules of alpha challenge. Nobody gets in or out of pride lands until only one of you is left alive.”
NINE
Ethan held the phone a good six inches away from his ear. “Kat. Kat. Kat!”
On the other end of the line, Kat finally quit yelling and took a breath. “Yeah. Sorry. But this ignorant fool says they aren’t going to let me back onto Big Cypress for two days! He actually had the nerve to knock me aside when I tried to get my Jeep past him. What exactly is going on?”
Deadly rage raced through Ethan at the thought of one of them harming Kat. “Are you hurt?”
“What? No. No, it was nothing. He just kept telling me to ‘phone home,’ for whatever that’s worth. What is going on, Ethan?”
He filled her in on the attack on Marie, the alpha challenge, and the rules about any of them leaving or entering pride lands. Kat started swearing. In spite of everything, he had to laugh. “Kat, those are words I didn’t even know you knew.”
There was a silence on the phone. “Do you really want to discuss my language right now?”
The brief flicker of amusement died, and the alpha in him took command. “No, I don’t. But here’s what I want you to do. Can those thugs hear my side of this conversation?”
“No,” she replied. “In fact, I’ve been walking back to my Jeep while we talk. What’s up?”
“I want you to find somebody impartial. Maybe Jack. We need a witness who doesn’t belong to any of the factions that have wanted to take over pride lands in the past.”
“Jack the weretiger? The one Bastien knows?” Her voice cracked on her mate’s name. “Oh, Gods. Bastien. When he finds out I allowed his sister to come to harm…”
Ethan snarled. “I’m the one to blame, and I’ll take any punishment he wants to dish out. I deserve it. But believe me when I say that no one else will lay so much as the tip of a claw on her skin and live.”
There was another silence on the line. “Ethan? I’ve known you since I was a child, and I’ve never heard that in your voice. What exactly is going on between you and Marie?”
He turned his gaze toward the chair where Marie sat wrapped in the blanket from his bed, and she looked up at him at that instant, as if his thoughts had called to her. She was so beautiful it almost hurt him to look at her—art made flesh and infused with grace.
He’d failed her.
He could never deserve her.
“Ethan?” Kat’s voice in his ear yanked him back to more pressing matters.
“Find Jack,” he repeated. “I want a neutral observer. They’ll be forced to let him in. You’ve got less than twenty-four hours, Kat. Do your best.”
“I’ll find him,” she promised. “If you hear from Bastien—”
“Marie hasn’t been able to establish contact with him or with their priest. When she does, I’ll get a message to him to contact you.”
He could almost hear through the phone lines her battle to focus on what needed to be done. “Fine. Call me if you can. I’ll get Jack here if he’s anywhere on the eastern seaboard, Ethan.”
“I know I can count on you. You’ve always been one of the strongest of the pride, even before you discovered your ability to shift, Kat Fiero.”
