Celia Kyle by He Ain't Lion Page B

and he winced at the troubling sound. Damn it to hell, his mate was not a happy she-cat.
    Then again, the rabbits facing him weren’t happy, either. Both Ian and his sister Carly, glared at him as he stood on the porch. As much as a rabbit could glare at a lion.
    Carly pounced first. “You turned her, Alex.” She stepped forward and poked him in the chest and he took it, overcome with the knowledge that he probably deserved every culpable word she threw his way. “She has no idea about us, other than what we’ve revealed to the general populace. You let her into Genesis during your fuck-like-bunnies moon. How dare you?”
    “Now, Miss Thomp—”
    Carly growled, little pink nose twitching. If he wasn’t mated and devoted to Maya, he’d likely find it to be cute.
    “Shut it.” She punched him in the chest and he flinched. “You knew what could happen to an unfamiliar human in your den during the moon, and you not only let her stay, but you bit her, and get mated. Argh!”
    Alex frowned. “I understand your concerns.” He then sighed, ran a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t my intention to let her go this morning, but one of my pride—”
    The small rabbit bristled, and he imagined that if she were shifted, her rabbit hair would be all puffed-up in anger.
    He wasn’t going to smile at the image.
    He just wasn’t.
    “Let her go? Let her go? ” She bared her little white teeth at him, which kinda reminded him of Chiclets, and then spun on her heel, curses trailing behind her as she stomped away from him. “You deal with the lion, Ian. I swear I’ll gnaw through his jugular if I have to talk to him another second! Rabbits can be carnivores, too!”
    Alex watched as Carly plodded in anger, then turned his attention to the buck. “I’m sorry if I, or my mate, have caused your warren any undue stress. If you’ll just take me to where you’re keeping her…” He let the sentence trail off, to see what type of response he’d receive.
    Ian huffed out a breath, not unlike a frustrated sigh, and dropped his shoulders. “You couldn’t have picked anyone other than my sister’s best friend? Really?”
    Normally, the leaders of the various shifter clans got along well, and they tried not to cause any unnecessary trouble amongst themselves. It seemed that turning Maya, his little she-cat, had caused a fuck-ton of grief. For everyone involved.
    Ian began, “Well, what’s done is done, I suppose. I’ll try to talk my sister’s anger down to a manageable level. I’m sure once she’s had time to think—” A loud, thundering crash, followed by a spine-shivering scraping of metal-on-metal, echoed from the basement. “Fuck!” Ian spun and ran toward the commotion, feet pounding on the solid wood floor, with Alex following closely on the buck’s heels.
    The deeper into the house they traveled the louder the roars became, until Maya’s hisses and growls surrounded them…
    His she-cat’s sounds of anger were echoed by another, but lower, softer one.
    “Oh, shit.” Alex recognized it. He’d chased his share of natural rabbits through the forest to know that his mate was about to make her best friend—dinner.
    Ian dove for the closed door, but Alex got there first. Pulling the man out of the way, he said, “I’ll get her, Buck. I’ll take care of this. The last thing you want to be is Maya’s next course.”
    The leader of the rabbits narrowed his eyes at him as he took a step back. “Calm her, and get my sister out alive, Prime, or—”
    Alex didn’t have the time to argue with the man, nor did he have the time to remind the rabbit about who was who on the food chain. With a quick nod Alex turned, yanked open the basement door, and delved into something he could only describe as a “furry” hell.
    A dim light enveloped him as he stormed in, shedding his shirt and undoing his belt as fast as his hands allowed. Partially into his shift his arrival did nothing to distract his mate. Not when the