Kian
We arrived at the old, abandoned warehouse standing above the Cage. Dad knocked on the heavy iron door in some secret code, then waited.
There was a scraping of metal, and then a strange pair of eyes appeared behind the open slit in the door.
"State your name and your business here," a male voice commanded in a blunt, gruff, Hispanic accent.
"Razor, and I brought my boy for the inauguration," Dad replied.
The viewing hole was slammed shut, and a moment later, the door was pulled open. "Go on through," the same guy spoke.
He was dark and exotic, and his eyes were like pools of molten amber with black vertical slits for pupils.
"Is he a . . .," I whispered to Dad.
"Shh, Kian; yes, he's a cat shifter," Dad answered, keeping his voice low. "Mind your manners," he reprimanded. "It's rude to point and stare."
"I've never seen one before," I chatted excitedly.
That was the truth; I hadn't. What I had learned at school about the cat community was that their numbers were few. They were highly religious, worshipping the Moon Goddess faith the same as a Christian devotes themselves to their God. Bears were more relaxed when it came to our beliefs. We were predominantly atheists, choosing to believe in what we could see and touch. Wolves worshipped the Goddess, too, but were not as fanatical as the cats. The fox shifter community worshipped money and not much else. I couldn't blame them. Given half a chance, I think I would too.
"What's a cat shifter doing in a place like this? I thought they were against gambling?" I questioned, looking up to my father with inquisitive eyes.
Dad answered me like any father feeding knowledge into the innocent mind of his young offspring, "Faith doesn't put food in your belly, son. A man's gotta eat. The cats have it worse than most. Sure, they pool their resources together and ration it out fairly. But where there's easy money to be made, men turn a blind eye to faith and focus on a fistful of green," he answered, patting my shoulder.
We walked down a dingy industrial staircase that spiraled down into Satan's asshole. That was how it looked from the top, peering down the center cavity, right down to the bottom level. The hazy red lighting from the room beneath filtered out through the doorway like the fiery pits of hell. Raised voices and laughter could be heard as well as the sickening sound of flesh colliding against flesh.
"You okay, son?" Dad inquired, probably noticing me stiffening.
"Yes, Dad," I stammered, a little unsure of myself. "I mean, I think so."
He ruffled my hair. "I got you, all right?" he reassured me. "You may not think so now, but you'll thank me for this someday. Times are changing, Kian. You gotta be prepared to defend yourself at all costs. I may not always be around to defend you. Hunters are coming into these parts thick and fast. You have to be prepared for a surprise attack," he forewarned.
We reached the lower level, the home of the Cage. The coppery smell of blood and sweat filled my nostrils, almost causing me to gag. Bodies stood around me as tall as my old man, obscuring my view. Dad muscled his way through, pushing past with his broad shoulders with me in hot pursuit. Finally, he stopped where he needed to be, shaking hands with a couple of guys I didn't recognize.
"Hey, Razor, I see you brought your boy," one of the shady-looking men spoke.
Right from the get-go, I pegged him as a hustler. The kind of guy who had the gift of gab and enough confidence to power a rocket ship to the moon. I bet if he told folks he had shaken hands with the Goddess herself, they'd believe him.
Dad pulled me in front of him, bringing his shovel-sized hands down on my shoulders. I felt my knees give way with the impact.
"Sure did, Chance," Dad answered with a distinct air of pride.
It figures a guy like him was named Chance. I could tell by the fickle look in his eyes that he was a walking probability. I waited for him to speak as his eyes flashed down to me in a twisted game of “what the fuck does he want? Roulette?”
He must've sensed the distrust seeping through my narrowed eyes, and he breathed out a chuckle. "The resemblance is uncanny, Razor," he remarked, grinning up at Dad.
Dad nudged my head from side to side as he affectionately ruffled my hair. "He's gonna be the best there ever was. Even greater than me and his grandpappy."
Metaphoric dollar signs lit up Chance's eyes. He clicked his tongue and some heavily made-up chick wearing the smallest pair of denim cutoff shorts, a glitzy bra top, and silver-heeled sandals strutted over and planted a kiss to his cheek.
"What do you want, Chance?" she asked in a voice that was sweet but far from innocent.
"Lexi, this is Razor's boy . . ." He paused, waiting for me to give my name.I scowled up at him. "Kian."
Chance flashed me a grin. "We'll have to change that, but it'll do for now." He turned to the woman whose blue eyes raked up and down me with something that resembled pity.
She shook whatever thoughts she had away, giving a prolonged blink before popping her gum, sucking it back inside her glossy red lips, and then smoothing down her peroxide-blonde hair.
"You want it cut short to the scalp like the others?" She cocked a questioning brow to Chance."Yeah, make it quick. We don't have all morning." He jerked his head, signaling for her to hurry her ass along.
She rolled her eyes, holding out her hand for me to grasp like I was some five-year-old. I ignored the gesture and walked alongside her instead.
"You're gonna be a handful around here, I can tell," she commented dryly.
My behavior was coming off as rude, but the truth was . . . I was scared shitless. It was a mask I wore like a suit of armor. This was Kian Jones shutting down and letting fuck knows what take over the driver's seat. Something dark manifesting inside me was scratching at the door and was itching to get out.
KianJaxton called around early, just like he said he would. He hadn’t been able to sleep a wink either. Gia had fallen asleep during the early hours after exhaustion won over and dragged her into the land of dreams. Kellen woke up the same time as I did and helped me to feed the twins. Jax made Blaze some pancakes using bottled water he brought from the Clubhouse. The Clan leaders urged the local businesses to chip in and lend a helping hand. It meant that water and food parcels went out to those who were in dire need of aid, and it surprised us all when the Forest Hills ranger Jeeps drove through the slums distributing handouts. The once forgotten people of the Hills had been remembered, and this united us all under one banner.“Thanks for breakfast, Uncle Jax,” Blaze said after swallowing the last bite.Jax ruffled Blaze’s hair. “You’re welcome, Squirt.”Blaze craned his head back with a huge grin on his face. Gia shuffled into the kitchen at that point and helped herself to some c
GiaWe were getting ready to leave the lakeside park when a warning siren echoed around the mountains. Blaze screamed, my heart stopped with terror, and Kian and Dad shielded the girls in their arms. The few couples and families that had come to enjoy the weather began to flee back to their cars.“Mommy!” Blaze wailed, trembling as I scooped him up to run.A ranger Jeep came hurtling down the trail, announcing through a speaker phone that there was no need for anyone to panic, but they needed to evacuate the lakeside due to a suspected water contamination. People panicked and were rushing to get out of the lagoon.Like any frantic mother, I checked Blaze all over, looking for skin rashes, burns, or anything that might indicate he had been injured. My heart was in my throat. I saw other parents doing the same with their kids. It was our worst nightmare.“He didn’t want to go into the water because he didn’t want to get cold,” my dad informed me. “He stayed on my shoulders the entire ti
KianGia had been acting weird since she last watched me fight. She kept fussing with the kids, telling them how much she loved them. Anyone would think she had only weeks left to live. I told Jaxton that we would give the cookout a miss this time. Gia didn’t have much to say about that, but I could sense when my woman needed some timeout. I called up her dad and arranged for us to have a picnic at the park. I did suggest the forest, but Gia snorted with laughter and mentioned something about teddy bears and how humans made up stories about them having picnics in the woods. So, I scrapped that idea and bought a camping stove and some burgers.“It’s still a picnic, babe,” Gia mentioned, grinning. “And you’re still a big fuzzy teddy bear.”Kellen helped us to put the kids in to the minivan I bought, securing the girls into their travel seats.“The only thing fuzzy about me is my beard and my balls,” I retorted, ignoring her playful teasing as I packed our things onto the backseat.Our n
Kian“Can I watch you fight, Dad?” Blaze asked as he watched me working on my bike.I flashed him a roguish grin. “One day, Fireball.” I ruffled his hair.“Will you teach me someday?” he mumbled innocently.“If that’s what you want,” I answered, switching my biker head for my fatherly one. “But don’t you want to be something else? You can be anything you want to be. It doesn’t have to involve fighting,” I told him, wanting him to find his own path and not to follow mine.We had the means to give our kids a better life than we had. If Blaze decided he wanted to go to college and study to be a scientist, then we could afford to send him to Whitevale. It was the best damn college around. Of course, Gia would have to step foot into wolf territory, and she was still a little dubious about the shifting process. I couldn’t say that I blamed her. It was bound to hurt like a son of a bitch. I was lucky to have shifted at a young age. At least then the pain was forgotten about. It hurt less and
GiaWe said we would never go through all that again. All those sleepless nights, two-hourly feeds, and diaper changes were soul destroying. But three years later, here we were, bringing home our twin girls we called Ava and Aimee. Kian was besotted, as was Blaze. Between them, they hogged the girls and resented anyone who dared to ask for a cuddle. My boys were protective. Even Lucifer hissed curse words at whoever came calling, yelling “Fuck off!” and “Man whore!” whenever Kian’s biker brothers showed up.“Who needs a fucking guard dog when you have a featherhead with stereotypical Tourette’s,” Ace muttered under his breath.Kian rolled his eyes at his brother’s comment, and Blaze high-fived Jaxton as he walked in. Lauren followed behind him, then Blade strode in a moment later, carrying their daughter, Millie-Mae. As he put her down, she dashed off to peer in the bassinette at the twins.Lucifer squawked as Jax twirled his cage around. “Man whore!” the bird screeched loudly.“Not t
KianGia’s belly grew bigger with each passing week, and she would stand before the full-length mirror in our bedroom, asking me the same question every single time.“Do you still find me attractive?” she would ask, patting her cute little baby bump.And I would reply, “Girl, you look more and more beautiful day by day.”She would turn to me and smile, blow me a kiss, then tell me she loved me. But the second she hit her eight-month milestone, and I wasn’t even kidding, at the stroke of midnight on that final four-week countdown, she turned into the she-bitch from hell. The baby bump expanded and had morphed into a mountain. I turned to my wife to tell her she looked like a million dollars, only for her to freeze, her head slowly rotate to glare at me like that girl from The Exorcist, and then spew a barrage full of profanities at me, calling me a lying bastard, and that I should go get my eyes checked. I played the most intense game of dodge the flying ornament as I scrambled from th