Hard Mated Read Free

unashamed as the Shifters had done at the hay barn.
    The little boy lifted his arms over his head, closed his eyes, then gave a little squeak as his body changed shape.
    His legs bent and became haunches, his little feet morphed into awkwardly big paws. Jordan’s hands became paws before his arms did, the smooth spotted pelt sliding down to join the one that rose up his chest. His face elongated into a cat’s nose, ears popped up on his head, and his eyes became rounder, fuller, eyelashes and whiskers growing swiftly. The fur that covered him was dark yellow with the broken black bands of a jaguar.
    In only a few seconds, Jordan dropped to all fours and let out a tiny wildcat yowl.
    The suspicion on Spike’s face turned to amazement then a hungry longing. Before Myka could stop him, he bent down and scooped up the cub between his big hands.
    He lifted Jordan to his eye level, staring at the cub, who wriggled and squirmed but not in alarm.
    They studied each other, Shifter and cub, the big man’s eyes wide, the cub’s unworried. Jordan opened his mouth and emitted another little growl.
    “I named him Jordan,” Jillian said. “He’s yours. Take care of him for me, all right?”
    Spike didn’t take his eyes from Jordan. Myka saw the pulse in Spike’s neck, the hard beats pressing under the Collar.
    Sharon waited, her fingers playing with the clasp on her cigarette case. Myka waited too, for Spike to deny it, to tell Jillian to prove it, to bail the hell out of there. Men didn’t like suddenly to be told that they were fathers, didn’t want to be held accountable for whatever grew from their sperm.
    Spike lifted Jordan higher. Jordan’s paws and hung down from Spike’s giant hands, his tail snaking around Spike’s wrist.
    “My cub,” Spike said. “My cub.” His voice rose to a deep roar that shook the window across the room. “My cub .”
    “Yes,” Jillian whispered, then her eyes drifted closed, and she slid back into her morphine sleep.

Chapter Three
     
    Jillian never woke again. She slipped away around two in the morning. Spike didn’t see her go, because he’d been sent to the waiting room with Jordan while Myka and Sharon stayed with Jillian. Spike was alone with Jordan now, the other people who’d been waiting having gone home or to sleep elsewhere in the hospital.
    Jordan slept in Spike’s lap on top of Spike’s wadded-up sweat jacket, the boy back in human form and dressed again.
    Holy Mother Goddess, he had a cub.
    Made total sense for Spike to take the kid back to Shiftertown. Jillian’s mom would never be able to hide the fact that Jordan was Shifter, and she wouldn’t know how to raise a Shifter cub anyway. And if someone found out about Jordan being a Shifter, humans would step in and take him the Goddess knew where.
    No . He’s mine!
    Wherever this protectiveness had come from, Spike didn’t care. Jillian had been smart to send for him. Spike could take Jordan home, watch over him, raise him, and keep him from harm. Sean Morrissey, the second-in-command of Shiftertown and its Guardian, had access to a database he called the Guardian Network, and could futz birth certificates and paperwork and make everything seem legit. Sean was talented with that stuff. If humans thought to question where Jordan had gone, they’d see him as a registered Shifter with Spike as his father. Jillian, with her interest in Shifters, had probably known that could be done.
    He had a cub .
    In spite of the tragedy—Jillian had been a sweet little thing, and far too young to pass—Spike’s mouth kept wanting to spread into a smile.
    That is, until Myka walked in, a scowl on her face.
    “She’s gone,” Myka said curtly.
    Spike touched his chest, which had constricted with pain, then lifted his fingers to the sky. “The Goddess go with her.”
    Myka eyed Spike in complete distrust. Spike rested his hand on top of the sleeping Jordan’s back. Myka was not going to take Jordan away from him.
    “So you