Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3) Read online

  Gibson and Mandy walked toward him, hand-in-hand. Mandy’s smile brightened when she caught sight of him, and Gibson gave him a little smirk.

  These two were his, there was no question. He’d had Mandy, and would have her in his life again, and soon he would have Gibson. And after that…it would be the three. They would find a way to make their world work, make what they needed, them as one, work.

  He just prayed he would have enough time to find that path.

  Oliver opened his arms as Mandy walked toward him and burrowed close. “I thought I was meeting you there.” He kissed the top of her head, inhaling her scent as he did.

  Gibson walked to his side and kissed his lips softly. Oliver’s bear reared up, needing more, but he pushed him back. For now.

  The wolf smiled at him. “We figured we’d pick you up instead,” Gibson said. “This way, we make sure you actually show up on time.”

  Mandy snorted and pulled back so she could push at Gibson. “That’s not true.” She looked up at Oliver and batted her eyelashes coyly. “I wanted to walk together.” She paused. “And maybe make sure you weren’t running late, but that’s because I’m a dork. A dork with a schedule, though.”

  Oliver chuckled and kissed her then, needing her taste. She moaned beneath him and he grinned as he pulled away. “As I’m running a bit late, I thank you.” His stomach rumbled. “And apparently, so does my stomach.”

  “Let’s get you fed, big boy,” Gibson said with a laugh.

  “Big boy is right,” Mandy whispered under her breath and blushed beet-red. “I, uh…didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

  Oliver grinned wide. “I’m not complaining.” He gripped her hip as they walked, a lightness coming over him, shattering the darkness that had overcome him in the dream. With these two, he could breathe, could think. This was what he’d been missing all this time, and he was damn glad he at least had this time with them.

  He cursed inwardly.

  He would change his vision.

  He would save them all.

  No matter what.

  A growl sounded behind them, and Gibson turned, shoving Mandy between him and Oliver. The hairs on the back of Oliver’s neck stood on end and he let his bear come forward.

  Though it was daylight and he could see through the tops of the trees, he knew this part of the path, knew these trees.

  He’d dreamt them before.

  Four lions prowled through the wooded area, one male and three females. The male’s black mane billowed in the wind, his body sleek muscle. The three females surrounding him had their heads down low, ready for attack.

  “What the hell?” Gibson spat. “Cats?” As he was best friends with a cat, it made sense to Oliver that Gibson was just as confused as he was.

  But as Oliver inhaled, he caught the…lack of scent that had been on Gibson after the attack, the same lack of scent that had covered Claire’s body.

  Before Oliver could contemplate the ramifications and think about why these cats would do such a thing, the lead female pounced. Gibson rolled out of the way, but not before she clawed the wolf right through his stomach.

  Oliver had seen that wound before.

  This would not happen exactly like in his dream.

  Oliver roared and swiped at another female, the closest shifter to him. “Get help!” he called to Mandy.

  “I can’t!” she called back.

  He risked a glance over his shoulder as she rolled to the ground to get out of the way of the third female. The male lion stood where he was, watching the women fight, but Oliver didn’t take his eyes off him fully. He knew how lions fought, and this male wouldn’t stand back for long.

  He was waiting for an opening.

  Oliver pushed at the female lion in front of him, raking his claws down her side. He was bigger, stronger, and would win in a fight when it was shifter against shifter. But he was in human form, and couldn’t strip down to change without bearing a weak side. He also couldn’t focus completely because Mandy was fighting someone much larger and stronger that she was while Gibson was bleeding out next to him, still fighting.

  And yet the male lion continued to watch.

  Waiting.

  Oliver ducked a bite that would have severed an artery on his leg and slammed the female lion to the ground. Gibson was winning against his enemy, but if he didn’t get someone to take care of his wound soon, it would be too late.

  Mandy was fighting hard as well, but she wouldn’t last long. She wasn’t a fighter, and though she was trained, her opponent was better.

  Oliver turned to help, then hit the ground hard, a fiery pain radiating down his back as the male lion pounced, clawing and biting Oliver’s flesh. He roared and turned, throwing the lion to the ground. He heard a sickening pop as the lion broke bones, but the bastard came back at him.

  Mandy screamed as the lion jumped on her, and Oliver turned his attention to her.

  Mistake.

  The male lion and the female one Oliver had fought at first attacked him as he turned toward Mandy’s scream.

  “Mandy!” he called out, but he was afraid it would be too late.

  Just as her opponent pinned her to the ground and opened his jaws to bite Mandy’s neck, a grey wolf bounded out of the trees, throwing his body into the lions. Mandy rolled to her feet and clawed at the lion, as well.

  He knew that wolf, knew that scent.

  Theo.

  Hell, thank God he’d been wrong about his dream.

  He turned his attention back to the two big cats in front of him, his rage at full peak. How dare these lions attack his mates? He roared, his hump rising on his back. His claws slashed out, and he gripped the female by her neck and squeezed. She rasped, clawing at his arm as he shook her, slamming her down to the ground before picking her up and slamming her again.

  He did it twice more before he was sure she was dead and then threw her body toward the trees. The resounding thump might have sickened him if these cats hadn’t threatened his mates.

  Gibson came to his side, bloody and pale, his opponent dead where she lay. “There’s something off about them,” he groaned. “I can feel it.” He put his fist over his heart. “It’s not over.”

  The male lion prowled toward him, and Gibson and Oliver risked a glance at Mandy, who fought the last female lion. Theo lay bloody on the ground in wolf form beside her, and Oliver cursed. He moved toward her to help when she bent, using her shoulder to hit the cat in the gut before rolling to the ground. She kicked out, taking the lion down by the legs and then moved once more to pin the shifter to the ground.

  “Don’t you dare fuck with my mates,” Mandy growled out.

  Oliver blinked. Well, then. He went to her side, making sure the lion couldn’t move. The shifter had passed out, but he didn’t trust it. He turned then to make sure Gibson was okay since the male lion was still alive and breathing, but he shouldn’t have been worried.

  Holden and the other Alphas burst through the trees, their claws out. “What the hell happened?”

  Jonah, the Feline Alpha narrowed his eyes at the carnage. “Xavior, shift.” The power in his voice slid over Oliver’s skin and he almost bowed his head. He didn’t know Jonah, but damn, that cat was Alpha for a reason.

  Others came out from the trees to help, pinning the other lion down so Oliver could take Mandy into his arms and make their way over to Gibson.

  Theo let out a breath beside them, and she went to her knees at the now prone Theo and Gibson at their feet. Oliver fell to his ass at her side, tired and confused as hell. With so many others around them, they were safe for the time being, but he had to make sure his mates were really okay.

  “Theo?” she whispered. She ran her hands through his fur, and Oliver didn’t feel any jealousy. This was her best friend, and he had saved her life. Oliver would always be grateful. “He needs a healer.”

  As soon as she said it, their doctor came forward, looked between Theo and Gibson, and shook his head. “Damn,” he
mumbled and went to work on Theo’s side where Oliver could see rib bones sticking out.

  Hell, it was worse than he’d thought.

  The bear medic came forward and started to work on Gibson, and Oliver was grateful. They’d fought as one Pack, not three, and now they would heal as one, as well. At least, he hoped.

  “Explain yourself, Xavior,” Jonah hissed.

  “Fuck you,” Xavior, the now naked male lion hissed.

  “They attacked us on the path,” Oliver answered for him. “I don’t know why, but they also have the same muted scent that was on Gibson and Claire. At least they did, I can scent them now.” He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something is off about this whole thing.”

  Xavior spit toward him, and Jonah let out more power. The male lion fell face down on the ground. Cowering. Shaking.

  “Answer,” Jonah ordered.

  “We should have been in power, should have been the Alphas,” Xavior finally answered, rising up on his knees once again. “The lions are the kings, and yet we let the tigers rule our Packs? It’s an abomination.”

  Oliver blinked at the admission. A dominance challenge? All of this for a backwards way of making a play for the Alpha position? Of the three types of shifters, it was the cats that had a different way of choosing who was Alpha. With wolves, since they were mostly all timber wolves, the Alpha was the strongest. With bears, it was always grizzlies because they were the most powerful unless they were far up north near the polars. But cats had multiple species, and that meant each Pack had to have a cat-on-cat battle to find out which kind would be the ruling family. Oliver honestly didn’t know how that battle had been fought, but he thought Cora’s family, the tiger family, was the strongest by far.

  And from the way the lion male in front of Jonah cowered, he hadn’t been wrong.

  “All of this? For a change in rule?” Jonah shook his head, disgust on his face. “You could never beat me in a fair fight, so you what? Attacked the Foreseer and Omega to prove a point?”

  Xavior raised his chin but kept his gaze down. Oliver hugged Mandy close as the doctors worked on Gibson and Theo beside them.

  “Answer me,” Jonah ordered.

  “If we took out the powers of the other Packs, we would have been able to rule. They would have blamed you and taken you out.”

  That didn’t make any sense, and from the way Jonah’s brows rose, he agreed with Oliver.

  “Hurt the other Packs and hurt me? I still would have taken you down.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have,” Xavior spat. “Not when we had the power of the Shaman after we killed her.”

  Oliver froze. “You…you killed your Shaman? I wasn’t aware you had one.” The Shaman was the cat’s third in power, like Oliver and Gibson were to their Packs. To kill a Shaman…that was a death sentence.

  A way to be sent to the farthest of hells.

  Shamans held power, magic, but they were weak. Innocent.

  “We didn’t have one,” Jonah said softly, horror in his voice. “Not yet…”

  “She wasn’t of age yet,” Xavior said with a shrug.

  Oliver’s stomach turned as Mandy gasped in his hold. He felt the heat of her tears on his chest and he knew she mourned for the little girl who had died because of the greed of one man and his followers.

  “Who?” Jonah asked, his voice pure rage.

  “The one you thought the SAU took,” he spat. “Just like they take so many of ours and we do nothing about it. Only it wasn’t them. It was us. We’re stronger than the SAU. And we’re stronger than you. We siphoned her powers and used them to bring out the Omega so we could kill him, and then we messed with the visions of the Foreseer. You see, we were the power. Not you. We deserve to be Alphas. And that bitch wolf, Claire, we killed her, too. She should have died long ago when she outed us to the humans, but you weren’t strong enough to do it. We took control because you couldn’t.”

  Jonah turned to someone behind Oliver and gave a slight nod. Oliver turned and brought Mandy’s face to his chest as the Feline Beta snapped the neck of the lion female who had attacked Mandy.

  “You broke our laws,” Jonah began, and Oliver turned his attention back to the Alpha. “You killed a child. You attacked those outside our Pack. You killed a woman to see if you could. You…you are not ours. You are nothing.” He smashed his fist into Xavior’s cheek, and the lion hit the ground, unconscious. The Alpha let out a long sigh. “His death isn’t mine,” he said softly. “But of the child’s parents if they so choose. If they can’t, I will take their burden. I’m sorry for the actions of my Pack.”

  Oliver stood on shaky legs and gripped Mandy’s hand. Gibson, now somewhat healed since he was a shifter and bandaged stood with them, gripping Oliver’s other hand.

  “It’s over,” Oliver said into the silence. “We can’t let this ruin what we were becoming, what we’ve become. The future is unclear, but we must stand as one, stand together if we are to find our freedom.”

  “It isn’t lost on me that the SAU hasn’t come into the compound to see why we’re fighting,” Gibson added. “Something is coming and we have to break through our pasts to ensure we have a future.”

  Mandy squeezed Oliver’s hand. “We’re Pack. All of us. I know they attacked us, but you didn’t. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

  And with that, the three Alphas of the Packs, Holden of the wolves, Jonah of the cats, and Andrew of the bears bowed their heads at the three of them.

  Mandy shook, no doubt exhausted from the fight and being in the presense of so many Alphas. Gibson also shook, and Oliver knew he had to get his mate home. He nodded back to the Alphas and squeezed his mates’ hands before leading them down the path, back to his house.

  They had fought their enemies and had found the true reason behind his dreams…at least for the moment. He prayed this would be the last of it within his Pack. His people, all shifters, weren’t supposed to fight within the Packs now, not with so much on the line. Their true enemy was the SAU.

  He just prayed they would be strong enough to do what needed to be done in the end.

  But for now, he had Gibson and Mandy.

  They were safe.

  And they were his.

  That had to be enough.

  And it would be.

  For now.

  Epilogue

  Mandy bit her lip, trying not to make a sound as she watched them go at it. But how could she stay silent as they sweated in front of her, moaned in front of her, did that in front of her.

  Gibson had Oliver bent over the bed, slowly making love to him and making sure their bear was comforted, loved, and oh so sated. When Gibson looked over at her in the chair and winked, she licked her lips and winked back. He smiled then and lowered his body over Oliver’s, his fangs out as he marked him as his own.

  Oliver growled softly, his head thrown back in ecstasy. When Gibson moved away, Oliver stood and fisted his hand in Gibson’s hair. He crushed his mouth to his before biting into their wolf’s shoulder to mark him as his own.

  Mandy let out a moan.

  Her men turned toward her, intent in their gazes. When they held out their arms to her, she stood up and walked slowly toward them.

  They made love—soft, sweet, and perfect. Everything she’d always imagined in a mating. And when they marked her, she knew she was adored, cared for, and treasured forever.

  And when they flipped her over onto her belly and went harder, she knew they’d found her strength. She’d fought for herself on the battlefield, though it had pained her, and yet these men would always cherish her, here and out in the world.

  After a long shower where they explored one another some more, they dressed and decided to walk around the perimeter of the compound for Gibson’s shift before they met with Ariel and Holden. In the two short days since the attack, they had fully healed, and the Packs were learning how to rely on one another once more. Theo was healed as well, though he’d been hurt far more than any
of them. From his act of sacrifice alone, she’d known he’d always be there for her, even if it wasn’t as he’d thought it would be.

  She had her best friend back and two mates she knew she’d cherish for the rest of her days.

  They were stronger because they had the health of who they were as Pack and would be able to find a peace within each other when it came time to end this battle, this war.

  When it became time to be free.

  Though she wasn’t sure the battles would be fought within the compound walls. The SAU had remained silent following the aftermath of the kidnappings and deaths on their watch. The Unseen were doing so much work for her people, yet she’d never met one of them.

  Things were about to change, and she had a feeling it wouldn’t be just because of those within these walls.

  She stood between Oliver and Gibson as they paused for a moment at the gates that locked them in. They were so tall, metal and wire creating a cage that told her she wasn’t worth the ground she stood on.

  But once again, that would change.

  Holden, Ariel, and some of the other Pack members walked down the path toward the gates. Mandy frowned.

  “Did I miss something?” she asked her men, who looked down at her and shook their heads.

  “Not that I know of,” Gibson said softly and rubbed his chest. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the scar the lion had given him, or the fact that there were so many people around him and he was still getting the hang of his new powers. Either way, she leaned into him, her wolf brushing against his.

  He lowered his arm slowly.

  “Good, you’re here,” Holden said when he came to their sides. “I got a note from the SAU taped to my door this morning, telling me to be here.”

  Mandy’s eyes widened.

  “And you didn’t scent them?” Oliver asked.

  Holden growled. “No one did since they took the trail they always do. Despite that they haven’t been here in a week, it still reeks of them.”