Hidden Passions (Hidden, #7)(22)

"You really should not have said that," he murmured from the weight bench.

Recognizing he needed to make a few things clear, Chris set down his paper and got up from the couch. "You think you have no one to answer to when 'the big boss' is gone?"

He didn't put a growl in it, but Liam was just smart enough to perceive one.

"Um," he said, rubbing one flushing Irish cheek. "No?"

In his unsureness, he'd paused beside their lime green and black tiger-striped pumper. Chris prowled out, giving the other man a taste of his heightening beta energy. He stopped an arm's length away.

"Freda is your alpha's friend. You think it's appropriate to be bragging to your buddies about what she did with you in private?"

"Freda doesn't care," Liam said stupidly. "She sleeps with everyone."

Chris wasn't an ordinary person, and sometimes he couldn't afford to act like one. He didn't fight his tiger's instincts on how he should respond, though his beast was probably more ticked by Liam questioning its authority than by the slur to a member of tigress-kind.

Powered by sureness and dominance, his arm lashed out in a split second, moving too quickly for even Liam's shifter perceptions to see it coming. He cuffed the omega across the face the way a grown tiger would a cub, knocking Liam off one foot and causing his body to swing around. He didn't break Liam's cheekbone, but it was close.

"Shit," Liam gasped, hand to the place his superior had walloped.

"Freda is a tigress," Chris bit out. "Not some prostitute you met on a corner. She risks her life every day the same as you. You will not speak of her with disrespect."

Liam was the bottom man, but he wasn't short on pride. If Chris had punched him, it would have been man to man. To swat at him like he had was an insult. Embarrassment and anger fought for control of his expression. In the end, foolishly, he tried humorous wheedling. "Come on, boss. Just because you couldn't hold Freda's attention--"

He didn't finish. He lost his nerve when the men behind Chris sucked in matching breaths of shock. Chris's gift for astral projection expressed itself in different ways. Now his energy swelled with anger, expanding to such a height that for a second he could have been looking down at an ant. His eyes flared bright in the monstrous feline form, claws jutting from the spirit shape like talons. Liam quailed and fell to his knees, finally doing what Chris's tiger believed he ought.

When Liam covered his head to shield against a strike, all Chris felt was satisfied.

He pushed down the emotion, settling for long warning growl. Understanding it, Liam cowered lower.

"Boss," Jonah said. He had a hard time seeing his buddy scared, however much Liam deserved it.

Without moving his gaze from Liam, Chris pulled his energy almost completely in.

"Check the hoses," he ordered the cowering cat, his vocal chords still projecting an animal threat. "Every inch of every length." Liam drew breath, but whatever he meant to say Chris cut off. "Not another word. When you finish, scrub the bathroom. While you're at it, consider how lightly you're getting off. You were late and insubordinate. Tigers have been fired from this crew for less."

He turned away before he saw Liam's inevitable resentment. Chris didn't need more triggers to force the man to submit. He'd already come too close to seriously hurting him. Within tiger clans, betas were enforcers. Sometimes they had to use physical force. For better or worse, that was the language their beast halves understood. If, however, a beta used force to settle every damn argument, he'd lose a bigger battle than the one for obedience.

Maintaining his men's respect meant his human side had to rule his animal.

He strode from the truck bay into the kitchen. His hands tried to shake, but he controlled them. He wasn't like the man who'd killed his brothers. He understood Liam was just a temporarily stupid kid and not a threat to him. Both sides of Chris's nature wanted to keep the omega safe more than they wanted to put him in his place. Liam was shaping up to be a good fireman. Making sure he became one was Chris's priority.


He'd calmed a bit by the time Syd slid him a plate of food. The caramel-skinned, dreadlocked tiger was mellow to the nth degree. In addition to this, he was mid-rank on the power scale and not short on confidence. All the same, he offered Chris the steaming meat and eggs as if needing to placate him.

"I'm all right," Chris said. "Storm over."

Syd nodded soberly. The kitchen's concrete prep table was between them. Syd made no move to change that. He visibly squared his shoulders before he spoke. "You sure you don't need a day off? You came straight back to work after your accident."

He meant after Chris was burned so badly he'd been in too much pain to change and heal. This was the official explanation anyway. Chris knew his issues were more complex.

"I wanted to come back to work. I'd have been bored to death at home."

Chris had never met a fireman who didn't feel that way. Seeming to accept his claim, Syd leaned more sociably on the countertop. "Are you interested in Freda?" he inquired cautiously.

Chris rolled his eyes. "I'm not jealous of her and Liam."

"But if you were," Syd said, "I or one of the other tigers could warn him off."

Chris rubbed his forehead, unable to explain how many different ways this was wrong. "No," he said. "Freda is a free agent."