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  “Wait,” Elton held up a hand to stop Wray. “A cackle?”

  Wray nodded. “Yeah. That’s what a group of hyenas are called.”

  Even as he started laughing, Elton tried to stop himself, since he was sure Wray wouldn’t appreciate the irony.

  Sure enough, the man’s already stern demeanor only grew as his lips turned downward into a frown. Then there was the look in those chestnut eyes. It was a mix of displeasure and disappointment. Wray may not have said a word, but Elton could hear him chastising him like a child with that look.

  “What’s so funny?” Wray finally asked when Elton hadn’t been able to stop himself from finding the whole situation hilarious, especially the madder his mate got.

  “A cackle,” he got out between bouts of laughter. “You, Mr. Stick Up His Ass, who probably doesn’t even know how to smile much less laugh, came from a group named after a type of laughter.” He slapped his thigh. “That’s fucking funny.”

  The deepening frown and glare Wray was giving, told Elton his mate didn’t think it was the slightest bit amusing. Then again, Wray didn’t have much of a sense of humor, from what Elton had seen anyway. Was it too much that his mate at least smile?

  “Sorry,” Elton said when he was finally able to get control of himself. “I forgot you don’t know what fun is.”

  Okay, the snarky comment didn’t exactly help, but Elton hadn’t really thought it would. Nor was he going to pretend to be anyone he wasn’t. Not even for his mate.

  “Are you ready to listen?” Wray asked instead of commenting on Elton’s dig about not knowing how to have fun.

  Not trusting himself not to give another snarky comment, Elton nodded. He did want to hear what his mate had to say, he just didn’t understand why Wray couldn’t lighten up a little.

  “Hunts had always been a cause of celebration in our…” Wray glanced at Elton, clearly on edge as he said, “cackle.” He actually breathed a sigh of relief when Elton didn’t laugh this time.

  Elton wanted to tell him to get over himself. Life was too damn short to be so serious all the time, but, for now, he kept quiet.

  “We all shifted into our hyenas and took off across the grasslands until we came upon a small village filled with zebra shifters.” Wray’s voice broke on that last part. “I assumed we we’d continue on, but our cackle attacked, killing the weakest of the group without any remorse.”

  Elton’s stomach dropped. He’d heard of shifter predators attacking shifter prey, but it wasn’t exactly an accepted practice. Even with the old Council running things, they hadn’t approved of the practice. Then again, they’d never done anything to stop it.

  Still, having a five-year-old join in the hunt seemed… barbaric. He placed a hand on Wray’s in comfort. Surprised when his mate grabbed it, holding onto it like a lifeline, that ridiculous hope flared to life once more.

  “I’d cried the entire time and my parents warned me never to embarrass them like that again, or I’d find myself being roasted in the bonfire with the other weak shifters.” A tear slipped from Wray’s eye and tumbled down his cheek as he relived his childhood.

  “It wasn’t easy, but I faked participating whenever they forced me to go hunting.” Wray shuddered, attesting to how much he hated those hunts. “As I got older, I was brought into the discussions of when to hunt. Sometimes, I was even able to warn the shifter group we were about to attack in advance.”

  “Didn’t anyone ever figure out what you were doing?” Elton assumed someone would have realized there was a mole in their group if their prey was prepared for them.

  Wray nodded. “When I was seventeen.”

  “What happened?” Elton asked, assuming the worst.

  “I was left for dead as an example to anyone who crossed them.”

  CHAPTER 5

  It had been the most terrifying moment in Wray’s life. Yet, after meeting his mate, knowing he was more than just a possibility, Wray knew nothing would ever be more horrifying than if his cackle found out about Elton’s existence.

  “I had not only been warning the other shifter groups about upcoming raids when I could, I’d go back after my cackle attacked and help those who’d been injured.” Wray’s heart squeezed as he said, “I’d also helped them bury the dead my cackle left behind.”

  He closed his eyes as the images of the past he’d long ago tried to bury resurfaced. So many hurt or killed, many the old or children. His cackle didn’t care who they’d murdered. “That’s how they found out it was me. My parents had followed me back to a herd of antelope that they had just tried to slaughter.”

  The screams of that day still haunted him. “When they’d discovered my treachery, they’d gone back to our cackle and returned with the hunting party in tow.” He would never forgive himself for not hiding his tracks better. “They attacked the herd again. My parents held me down, forcing me to watch as more innocent shifters died that day.

  When they were done, the cackle formed a circle around me and my parents. The first punch came from my father, but the final blow, claws that ripped open my chest, was all my mother.” That had been the worst. That his own parents could beat him until they’d thought him dead.

  “Then they dragged me down to the watering hole and left me there, face down in the water, as a sign to others never to cross them.” It had been effective. Several shifter groups left after that, leaving the hyenas with few hunting options.

  Arms encircled his neck as his mate pushed against him in a hug that chased some of the chill he’d felt remembering what his parents had been willing to do to him. It was wrong to allow Elton to get this close to him, but Wray was too raw to shove him away.

  “How did you survive?” Elton’s voice shook, or maybe it was Wray who’d been shaking so badly it had cause Elton to sound unsteady.

  “There were several zebras and giraffes near the waterhole who had seen my parents dump me. They’d pulled me from the water and saved me. I was known to most of the surrounding shifter villages, so they knew me.” He’d been unconscious for over a week. “Three weeks after the attack, the cackle discovered I was still alive and came after me.”

  It hadn’t been easy being on the run, but Wray would prefer that to his life in the cackle. “They’ve been chasing me ever since. In the beginning they found me every few months. That’s when I learned to blend in and show no emotions that would cause me to stand out.”

  Wray turned to find those luminous light green eyes blinking at him in confusion. “If I don’t make anyone notice me, they have no easy way to trace my movements. It’s why I can’t risk being mated to you. You draw too much attention to yourself.”

  All the light in Elton’s stunning eyes left, as if Wray had snuffed out his mate’s inner joy. Gods, he really was an asshole. “I…” he started to say, but Elton didn’t let him finish as he once more jumped down from the rock.

  Like an ancient warrior, Elton slammed his fists onto his hips and glared at Wray, daring him to say another word. “Boo-fucking-hoo,” Elton told him.

  Stunned by his mate’s anger, Wray jerked back as if he’d been slapped. Talk about being insensitive. Maybe he wasn’t the only jerk in this mating.

  Those hands that had been curled into fists spread wide, so did Elton’s arms as he lifted them above his head. “Open your fucking eyes for once and maybe you’d notice that everyone in Miracle has faced challenges no one should have to deal with.”

  Those arms flailed around as if they were telling their own story while Elton continued to rant. “Okay, so, I haven’t exactly met everyone, but those I have met, and who shared their stories, all have one thing in common. Fear, hell, violence, and running. Lots and lots of running.”

  Then a finger pointed right at Wray as if in accusation. “What makes you so goddamned special that you get to use that as an excuse to be a dick?”

  But Elton didn’t stop long enough to let Wray answer, not that he would have known what to say.

  “I was fourteen when my
parents drove three hours from home to drop me off in the middle of the everglades the day my sister barged into my room and caught me kissing Robbie Shaw.” The slick ground didn’t appear to bother Elton this time as he started pacing, his arms and hands still wildly waving all around him as he spoke. “Bitch had been spying on me,” Elton grumbled. “It’s the only way she could have possibly caught me during my very first kiss.”

  Irrationally, Wray felt his fingers itching to wrap themselves around this Robbie person for daring to kiss what was Wray’s. It took every bit of control he had not to stomp over to Elton and kiss him, proving to both of them, he was Elton’s mate. Only him.

  “She ran straight to my parents, while Robbie took off through my window, the chicken shit.” Elton was harsh considering Robbie had most likely been in fear for his life. Until recently, when Saber had taken over the Paranormal Council, it had been illegal to be gay. The penalty – death.

  “Not even two minutes later, my father came in, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out to the car, where my mother was already waiting for us in the passenger seat. They drove me three hours away into the heart of the Florida Everglades and dropped me off without a word.” Elton waved a hand at his feet. “I hadn’t even had a chance to put my shoes on before leaving the house.”

  The need to wrap his mate up in his arms and never let go wasn’t easy to dismiss, but Wray forced himself to do exactly that. Elton may think his experience was horrible, and in many ways it was, but Wray was still being hunted and there was no way he was about to allow his mate to be added to that list.

  “When I finally made it out, I was half-dead, but I stupidly believed the worst was over when Greyson and the others found me and took me in.” Elton threw his head back and laughed, the sound hollow and fake. “Boy, was I ever wrong.”

  With each word his mate said, Wray felt nausea bubbling up in his stomach. “Since my parents left me to die, I’ve been beaten, stabbed twice, shot three times, oh,” he whirled in his frantic pacing and faced Wray once more. He pulled up his shirt sleeve to show the pink and red grooves still embedded in his upper arm. “And we can’t forget the last attempt to kill me by burning me alive in my own fucking bed.”

  Wray was going to be sick. He’d almost lost his mate before even meeting him.

  “No one in Miracle had the perfect life, Wray. It’s why they’re here to begin with, to start a new life, one where they hopefully don’t have to keep running just for the right to live.” Then Elton stopped. Stopped pacing. Stopped waving his arms around as if they wanted to take flight.

  Instead, he stood there in front of Wray. Those eyes that had a way of mesmerizing Wray, burning with so much determination and energy, nearly brought Wray to his knees in awe. “But what’s the point in surviving if they’ve changed who you are?”

  Elton shook his head slowly, that fire in his gaze dampening. “If I can’t be me, I might as well have died in that fire. I’ll be damned if I let them win by taking away the very part of me that makes life worth living.”

  Slim, soft hands cupped Wray’s face for several moments. Then Elton cocked his head as he said, “We only get this one life. If you’re too afraid to live it, then I guess you’re right, we shouldn’t mate. Because I would rather have one minute of happiness than an eternity of misery.”

  Words failed Wray as he watched his mate walk away from him. Tears soaked his face, but Wray hardly noticed as his heart broke into a million pieces.

  “I fucked up,” he whispered.

  “You sure did.”

  Wray turned to find Elton’s friend, Greyson standing there watching him. “How much of that did you hear?” Wray never talked about his past, in fear of someone telling his cackle where he was. Not that he thought Greyson would blab but being careful was too ingrained not to worry about the consequences of anyone finding out about him.

  “Your secret is safe,” Greyson told him, letting him know the man had heard Wray’s story. “As for Elton, I suggest you figure out what it is you want.” He nodded his head in Elton’s direction. “A chance for happiness with your mate, which, I can tell you from experience is worth a lifetime of being alone, or would you rather be alive and miserable, knowing you’re causing your mate the same existence?”

  Not waiting for Wray to respond, Greyson left him to wonder if they were right. No. He already knew that answer. What Wray wasn’t sure was, if he could live with himself if by accepting his sexy-as-fuck mate, he caused Elton to die.

  CHAPTER 6

  “Kylo,” Elton ran to the front stairs of the alpha’s house where one of his best friends, Kylo, was struggling to make it down the steps.

  He had only managed to get to the bottom step when he saw Kylo’s right hand held up, stopping him. “I appreciate you wanting to help, but I have to do this myself,” his friend said with conviction. Then those grey eyes softened as he said, “But if you’d like to walk next to me, I would love the company.”

  That was Kylo, sweet to a fault. Guilt flooded Elton as he watched Kylo struggle down each step, little beads of sweat popping up along his forehead from the exertion it took for the simple task. All because of Elton.

  When Kylo stood on the last step, his head lifted and those gray eyes met his, anger burning in their depths. “Stop it,” Kylo said more forcefully than Elton could ever remembering his friend speaking. “This wasn’t your fault.”

  But it was. “Wray is right, I draw too much attention to myself. It would be better if I toned it down.” He’d tried to deny it since he last saw his mate a week ago, but the pain he’d caused his friends with his ostentatious behavior was proof he needed to find a way to change.

  Kylo laughed and not just a chuckle, it was a fully belly laugh that had him wrapping an arm around his stomach and wincing in pain. “Ouch,” he complained. “Damn it, Elton, you know laughing hurts.”

  “See?” Elton waved a hand in his friend’s direction. “I keep hurting everyone around me.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Elton froze, his hand in mid-wave as he had been gearing up for another rant about his faults. “Did you just swear?” He had to have been hallucinating. Kylo didn’t swear. Like, ever.

  Those gray eyes narrowed on Elton. “When the occasion damn well calls for it, and I’d say now was the perfect time. Now get out of my way so I can get this stupid physical therapy in before I collapse right here on the steps.”

  His brain didn’t understand the two swear words he’d heard, but his body obeyed the order to step back. Kylo gently took the last step, a long sigh of relief passing his lips as he stood there, a smile on his face at having accomplished the first part of his exercise.

  “Walk with me,” Kylo told him.

  When had his friend grown a set to not only swear but order anyone, even his friends, around, Elton wasn’t sure. Nor was he positive it was a good thing. Oh, he’d teased Kylo to grow a spine in the past, but he hadn’t actually thought his friend would do it.

  “What’s going on?” Elton asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer. When Kylo only raised an eyebrow at him in askance, Elton elaborated. “You’re swearing and ordering me around. That isn’t like you, at all.”

  Kylo gave a mirthless laugh as he started to walk around the outside of the alpha’s house. “Nearly being burned alive can do that to a person.”

  Elton’s stomach dropped. “Do what?” he whispered, knowing whatever Kylo said was his fault because their previous alpha and his inner circle tried to kill them by burning their house down with them in it.

  Kylo had nearly died. Too much of his body had been engulfed in flames. If Greyson hadn’t gotten to him when he did, Kylo would have been gone. As it was, they’d been forced to flee without taking anything with them.

  With nowhere to go and unable to get Kylo medical help, his friend had almost succumbed to his wounds. If they hadn’t made it to Miracle and Noel, the alpha’s mate and resident doctor, Kylo… Elton choked on a sob.

  “Stop i
t,” Kylo said a little too forcefully and loudly to be something coming from his friend. “I won’t have you blaming yourself for something a bunch of bigoted assholes did.”

  “But I was the one who went to that medieval fair dressed up as a damsel in distress.” Not one of his smarter moves. But Elton had been celebrating the new Council’s recently changed laws that basically made it a crime to hurt others just because they were different.

  The law was expansive, as bigotry of all kinds were a problem within the shifter communities, but, for Elton and his friends, the most important point was those who were gay could no longer be hunted and killed. Filled with way too much confidence that that stupid law would actually protect him, Elton had dressed up in a medieval dress and wig, strutting in front of the entire town.

  Not that wearing a dress made him gay, but it still made him different, which, laws or not, was all the reason his alpha and inner circle needed to kill Elton and his friends.

  They had made it to the back of the house and Kylo led him to one of the picnic tables that had been set up under a grouping of trees. His friend moaned in relief when he sank onto the wood plank. “If Noel hadn’t spent days working to save my life, I would swear the man was trying to kill me by making me do this.”

  It had been a month since the fire. For a human, well, let’s face it, no human would have survived, but if they had, they’d still be in the hospital, probably hooked up to machines to keep him alive. As a shifter, Kylo was healing fairly quickly. But his wounds had been extensive, causing his recovery to take longer.

  Even Elton, who’s arm had been burned to the bone, still had a jagged scar along his flesh. Every day it healed a little more, but it was still there.

  “Do you remember when we lived in North Dakota?” Kylo asked him.