Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(5)

Jag, come with me, Tighe said. The two cats possessed the ability to change the size and, to some extent, the forms of their animals at will. While Wulfe continued to fight the draden in his wolf form, Tighe and Jag shifted into what most humans would see as house cats, then circled behind the two boys.

“Where’d the tiger go?” a youthful voice asked.

“Dude, is this for real? I thought it was the weed.”

As Jag closed in on one, Tighe moved behind the other. As one, the two Ferals shifted into human form and rendered the youths briefly unconscious with a quick application of pressure beneath their ears.

As Tighe knew they would, the draden followed his and Jag’s now-Therian scent. He pulled the switchblades from his pockets and tossed them to Jag, then knelt on the ground beside one of the boys. Wulfe joined them, and as the draden swarmed, the two Ferals, one man, one wolf, covered Tighe as he called on the ability all Ferals possessed to some extent, though his was undeniably the strongest.

Tighe gripped the face of his captive. “Open your eyes.” When the boy did, Tighe looked deeply into those glazed irises. “You saw nothing in the woods tonight except a couple of dogs. When I tell you to, you’ll go home and never venture into these woods at night again. And you’ll flush the weed and swear off it for good, you little punk.”

As the battle raged around him, Tighe rose and moved to the second kid, performing the same bit of mind control. When both boys’ minds were successfully clouded, he told them to go, then shifted back into his animal and rejoined the fight.

Hours later, they were still destroying draden when the nocturnal fiends began to take off as they always did an hour before sunrise. In all that time, the Ferals had only managed to destroy half the swarm.

“This is bad,” Wulfe muttered, shifting back into human form and grabbing his clothes.

Tighe couldn’t deny it.

As they headed for home, Wulfe turned to him. “What happened to you as they descended, Stripes?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” But he was going to have to tell Lyon.

Goddess forbid he get loose and become that…thing.

“Bleed,” Lyon said, striding forward as Tighe walked into the dining room of Feral House a short while later.

Tighe glowered at the Chief of the Feral Warriors, but thrust out his left hand, palm up. Lyon made a short, shallow cut in the center of Tighe’s palm, nodding when the slice welled with blood as his clone’s would not have.

The thought that the draden-based fiend that wore his face could sneak into Feral House gave him chills.

Though it annoyed him to have to submit to someone’s knife every time he walked into a room, the alternative was worse. Much worse. The clone could potentially kill one of the Ferals. Or Kara, Lyon’s mate and their Radiant. No one was willing to take that chance.

But knowing what he was to become, he feared the clone might no longer be the greatest danger.

Lyon closed his switchblade and greeted Tighe properly, offering his right arm. The two men slapped forearms as they grasped one another just below the elbow in the traditional greeting of the Ferals.

“You’re going to have to lock me up, Roar.”

Lyon’s gaze narrowed. “Why?”

He told him about the premonition. “I’m not going to turn into that monster. And I will if you don’t lock me up.”

“You will if we don’t catch that clone in time.” Lyon’s amber gaze bored into his. “But we will, Stripes. We’re going to catch him. With your help.” He clasped Tighe’s shoulder. “We’re spread too thin right now to give you a vacation in the prisons.”

Tighe growled. “Vacation my ass.”

Kara entered the dining room and joined them, her pert, blond ponytail swinging as she slipped her arm around the waist of her much larger mate. As Lyon pulled her tight against him, she met Tighe’s gaze, a sweet smile lighting her blue eyes.

“Hi, Tighe.”

His own ready smile slid into place with an ease born of deep affection for this slip of a woman who’d shown more strength in the past days than all the Radiants who’d come before her over the centuries, combined.

“Hi, yourself.” Tighe held out his arms to her, pleased when Lyon released her, and she gave him a quick, badly needed hug. He closed his arms around her and held her tight, absorbing the closeness as much as her sweetness.

At any given time, there was one Radiant, one Therian woman through whom the Ferals reached the great stores of nature’s energy and the power they needed in order to shift into their animals. They’d nearly missed finding Kara. She’d been raised human, thousands of miles away. Their energy had been flagging, their ability to shift gone when Lyon finally managed to locate her. And thank the goddess he had. They’d never have defeated the witch Zaphene without Kara’s power, courage, and surprising talent with radiance.

He tightened his hold on her. Lyon was a lucky man to have been chosen her mate, an honor Tighe had secretly hoped would go to him. Kara was a sweet Therian beauty, as kind as she was courageous.

No man could do better.

As he looked down at her, his eyes began to tingle as they did whenever he was about to go feral. Or when he was in the presence of a beautiful woman.

He alone among the Ferals had that little problem. For the others, feral was feral. The eyes, the claws, the fangs came as a package deal. Not so, Tighe. His claws and fangs only sprouted when he was ready to fight, but his eyes were another matter. If his body stirred with interest, his eyes shifted, the pupils growing until they blocked out the white, their color changing from their natural green to the golden orange of his tiger’s.