The Maverick Pride Tales - Chapter 20: Chapter 20

“What?”
“I said go on, explain yourself.”
“What? Your bitch Bear running his mouth off?”
Blake snarled and shook his head. Sweat dotted his forehead and Hunter’s Tiger chuffed angrily.
“Dammit, Hunter, he doesn’t belong here anymore than she does! She’s a human. A fucking chubby normal, for fuck’s sake. She can’t be the Nari.”
“Watch your fucking mouth, Blake!”
“What? You can’t seriously think she will bear the future of this Pride! I mean, you fucked her, fine. Chase all the chubby chicks you want. Hell, even I can see why you’d go for that, but that doesn’t make a mating⁠—”
Hunter let his rolling growl press deeper into the male, using a bit of his power as the most dominant of the Pride to press down on him. This fucker needed reminding why Hunter was in charge.
“Listen to me, Blake. You are here at my leisure and as long as you can be of use to the Pride. Elissa Phoenix is my fated mate. She is the Maverick pride Nari, which makes her far more important than you or anyone else. Now, I will slaughter anyone who threatens her or our mating without a second thought. Do you understand me?”
“Hunter, all due respect, the laws say you must be truly mated, that can only mean to another Shifter-”
“She is mine,” Hunter snarled.
He allowed a little more power to seep into his voice. The weight of it must have been grueling because Blake practically fell out of the chair. His beast was barely placated when Blake finally did slink down to his knees under the force of his Neta’s displeasure.
Hunter sniffed the air, licking his lips. He scented hostility, anger, and deceit. Wasn’t that something? Maybe Brayden would have his challenge after all. If Hunter allowed Blake to live that long.
He turned to the slimy male, meeting the crafty smile on his Beta’s lips before loosening his hold on him through his powers as Neta. The door separating the kitchen from the dining room swung open, revealing Elissa.
She looked good enough to eat in her tight jeans and white tank top. A sweater was tied around her hips, and he smiled, thinking she must have gotten warm while she cooked.
He noted the way her smile faltered when she saw Blake and not Brayden by his side. Something was definitely going on. Blake practically leapt from his position on the floor to take the tray from her. Hunter used the moment to try to get a grip on his emotions.
His mate was everything good and beautiful in the world. He could not wait to really start their lives together, and he didn’t need Blake causing any disruptions.
Just imagining the way Elissa would be with their cubs made his skin itch to find out. But she would need time, but could he help it if he was impatient?
She’d probably let them crawl all over her. He grinned at the thought. So lost in his own musings he’d not been prepared for her little yelp of pain. Snarling, he jumped out of his seat when he heard it to see his Beta standing far too fucking close.
Her eyes flashed to his. Hunter thought he saw fear there for a second, but it passed so quickly, he pushed the thought aside. Elissa’s gasp had sent him to her side, and Blake backed up.
Good thing too. Hunter’s beast was outraged. Had he scented her blood, Blake would have died before he took his next breath.
As it was, the Beta walked away with the tray and set down the coffee, cream, plates, and slices of pie on the table nonchalantly. Hunter’s Tiger urged him to grab his Beta by his scruff and pin him down for upsetting Elissa at all.
At the same time he wanted to take her upstairs, so he could taste her most secret, sweetest pie again and again. The cherry pie on the table smelled heavenly, but it was nothing compared to the one between his mate’s legs.
That thought brought on a ton of possessive snarling and growling inside his head. Shit. He was a mess.
Mine, growled the animal.
Hunter shook his head and watched Elissa standing before his Beta with strength and determination in her gaze until it turned to him. Then it changed. Power still wrapped around her like a protective blanket, but there was something more. Her usually dark brown eyes glittered at him, turning to gold right before she moaned aloud and doubled over in pain.
“Elissa!”
Hunter roared, catching her before she could collapse to the hard floor. She tensed in his arms and opened her mouth.
Fucking hell!
A set of long fangs protruded from her mouth, long and sharp. Next was a wave of pain and as it rolled through her, it nearly sent him to his knees.
The matebond, he thought as he gritted his teeth against a second, sharp stabbing pain. He was connected to her through their bond and feeling what she was.
Puspa.
The word popped into his head, and panic gripped him for a second. No wonder she was growling. His poor, beautiful mate was in the throes of something that was the stuff of legends.
The Puspa had started, and it was happening now. Like really happening.
His mate was going through something profound and extraordinary. Something that would leave the two of them vulnerable, and with Blake in the room. Not very fucking likely.
Hunter tore from the space, anxious to get his mate away from the threat of another male while she underwent the painful process that was Puspa.
With Elissa on his arms, he retreated to the larger, open living room. Throwing back his head, he roared a warning to everyone in the Pride House.
His mating bite had awakened something inside of her. Something wondrous and exceedingly rare. Something this fucker was not going to take from him.
Inside the large living room, Hunter spotted Brayden and Reg lounging on the sofa, waiting for him to finish his meeting, he assumed.
“Neta?” Brayden questioned.
The Bear stood and looked at Elissa’s prone form with raised eyebrows.
“It’s the Puspa,” he growled. “Call Mikey at the clinic and tell him what I said.”
Hunter placed Elissa gently on the sofa. Behind him, he felt his enemy, Blake, stalking him. When had this happened?
When had their friendship gone bad? Fuck. He heard the snap of bones, the tearing of muscles, as the man changed forms from human to beast.
“It is not right, Hunter. She should not be the Nari. You leave me no choice,” Blake grunted.
He was barely coherent beneath his fangs. Fur sprouted across his chest, more tawny than orange, and he became his animal with each breath.
“Elissa is the Nari, and you are no longer of the Maverick Pride. I banish you,” Hunter snarled.
His change was completely different from Blake’s painful process. Highly attuned to his beast, one moment was all it took for Hunter to go from skin to his own fur. Just one thought, and he was his animal.
As the Pride Neta, he was the strongest of the males, but that was not all. Hunter was also the largest.
His Tiger erupted from him, a bright orange and black beast twice the size of a normal Bengal Tiger. He stood in front of his Nari and roared to his entire Pride.
Those in their human forms understood he was in charge here. This was his domain. And Blake was his to kill.
He had no idea the man had gotten so twisted, but as the pieces fell into place, he saw he’d been blind to it the entire time.
It was you undermining me this whole time! He hurled the thought at Blake in his Tiger form.
I was right to do so. You are weak. An abomination. Taking a human as mate is weakness.
Hunter snarled. He had been aware that someone was undermining him, but he would never have looked at Blake as the culprit. Coming to terms with the fact his college friend was his secret enemy was going to be tough. Blake had been close to going rogue when they’d met. Hunter had felt for the lone Tiger. He had allowed his sympathies to bring him into the fold. He’d always assumed giving him a home and Pride would ensure the man’s loyalty.
Hell. How much of their so-called friendship had been faked and forced? How many memories, stories, and jokes told were all but lies? And now, the fucker thought to endanger his Nari?
Hell no.
Fury filled the Neta’s veins. Blake’s smaller Tiger hissed and spat as the rest of the men pushed the furniture out of the way, careful with Elissa. The two big cats circled each other, but his focus was split between the enemy and his mate.
Elissa’s whimpers and moans, not to mention the pain he felt through their bond, were calling his attention away. But even a momentary lapse could cost him his life, And worse, hers.
Hunter would not allow that. He would never let this sonovabitch to put his mate in harm’s way. And no, he didn’t trust the fucker to fight honorably. He snarled and chuffed, calling to the males in his Honor Guard to stand watch.