Hard Mated by Jennifer Ashley

hands around his mouth and called up. “Come down out of there, son.”
    Jordan didn’t bother with an answer. He swayed with the treetops, his little wildcat growls proclaiming he was having a great time.
    The Shifters minding Spike’s business gave him all kinds of advice. Try a saucer of milk. Call the fire department. Let him stay up there. Build him a tree house.
    Glad they were finding this so hilarious. Jordan could fall and kill himself—cubs were agile, but still awkward when young. Jordan might get scared and shift back to human on the way down, and the kid was only four years old, for the Goddess’s sake.
    “What you let him get up a tree for?” Spike growled at Myka.
    Myka’s eyes widened. “ Let him? You have a lot to learn about kids.”
    He was getting that. “Grandma, come down out of there.”
    Ella huffed, reversed herself in the careful way of cats, and scampered to the bottom of the tree. She remained in wildcat form, sitting on her haunches and growling.
    Her body language and the rumbling told Spike she was vastly irritated, and hadn’t been this irritated since Spike had been a cub. Like father, like son.
    Spike stripped off his shirt, pulled off his boots, and stripped out of his pants. One of his neighbors sent out a wolf whistle. Lupines were assholes.
    Naked, Spike sauntered past Myka, who looked everywhere but at him, her eyes shining as they avoided his gaze.
    Spike gave Myka another look, shifted until he was in a state between human and wildcat, and scrambled up the tree.
    *** *** ***
     
    Myka stepped back in shock as the nightmare monster moved past her and started climbing.
    Spike’s body remained human-ish in form, but with muscles that would have split open his clothes if he hadn’t shed them. The tattoos were gone, his skin now the pelt of a wildcat, jaguar patterns all over his body. His face had the flatness of a human, the fangs of a wildcat, and the jaguar’s golden eyes.
    If she’d seen that beast in a dark alley, Myka would have screamed herself crazy and run like hell. Even knowing it was Spike didn’t stop her heart’s double-time pounding or her jolt of terror when he turned those yellow-gold eyes on her.
    Spike scrambled up the tree with a grace that belied his size. He moved like a dancer—one who could pull your arms off and beat you with them.
    He quickly reached Jordan, but the cub danced out of reach, playing, moving to the highest branches.
    There was no way someone as big as Spike could follow him without breaking the thinning limbs and plummeting both himself and the cub to the ground. Spike flowed onto the next large branch, flattening himself on it and reaching for Jordan.
    Jordan leapt again, his little wildcat body twisting away from Spike’s outstretched hand. The branch on which the cub landed broke in a sudden flutter of leaves, and Jordan and the branch fell.
    The cub screamed. Myka screamed. The Shifters stopped laughing and scrambled to try to catch him.
    Spike reached out one long arm, snagged Jordan out of the air, and pulled him in against his chest.
    Myka let out a long breath, air scraping her throat. Ella had gone completely still, her gaze fixed upward.
    Spike wrapped his arm around Jordan and started descending, one branch at a time.
    Myka had her hands steepled over her mouth, watching tensely as Spike came down little by little, Jordan peering over his arm. The downward journey took maybe a minute, but to Myka’s clenched body, it was a lifetime.
    Spike jumped down the last ten feet, landing on thickly muscled legs, his long tail whipping around to balance him. Jordan shifted back to little boy in Spike’s arms and squirmed to get down.
    “Aunt Myka, did you see me? I was way up there! I fell, but Dad caught me.”
    “Yes, I saw you.” Myka lifted Jordan as Spike set him on his feet. She gave him a brief, tight hug. “Don’t you ever do that again. You scared me.”
    Jordan gave her a puzzled look. “I was all right. Dad