Lyndon saw the expectation in the man’s eyes. He took a deep breath, as did everyone else standing out back. The cougar’s scent was the same as the one who’d been following him.
Was that what Cheryl meant?
“It’s the same shifter whose been hunting me,” he offered, but Cheryl only arched a brow at him. “What? What am I missing?” He sniffed again, as did everyone but Cheryl. Then Levi stiffened beside him.
Lyndon glanced at him, hoping for a clue.
“Shift,” Levi suggested.
“All right.” Lyndon only hesitated a few seconds before stripping. Cheryl turned away and everyone else was male. No need to be embarrassed, he reasoned. No one objected, so Lyndon didn’t have a problem with it, plus it might be good for them to see how quickly he shifted in comparison to them.
Lyndon dropped to his hands and knees, transforming almost instantly. He saw the stunned expressions on Oscar, Drake and Henry’s faces, then Cheryl’s when she faced him. He wasn’t certain he could smile in this form, but he was sure trying.
Then Cheryl walked over and touched his nose. Lyndon inhaled and the offensive scent of the other cougar made him want to kill the trespasser. He hissed and found the tracks left on the ground, covering each one up, clawing the earth to help cover the other’s scent. The trees he marked, rising up on his haunches and finding his reach surpassed the trespasser’s, which made him purr happily.
The urine scent he covered after an almost apologetic glance at the others, who merely urged him to get it done. But the scat? He wasn’t going to leave his mess on top of that one. He glared at the offensive stuff and snarled.
“Drake’s going to get a shovel,” Levi said, and Lyndon felt a little less pissed, but not much. “Lyndon, pay close attention to the actual scent of the other cougar. Can’t you
smell—”
“Levi, let him have a minute to think about it.”
Levi didn’t look happy about it but he followed his mom’s advice—or order. Lyndon suspected it wasn’t really advice at all. Lyndon closed his eyes and drew the other’s odour into his lungs, past his nasal tissues still burning from the foul aroma. The smell was familiar, he’d caught whiffs of it off and on for months, so what was it Henry and Levi expected him to figure out now? He smelt the cougar even though he’d marked over the other’s offensive leavings. But there was something—Lyndon opened his eyes and shifted, freaked out by the recognition once it slammed into him.
The scent was familiar, yes, and he’d never paid close enough attention before. Always he’d thought he was picking up his own scent—and why wouldn’t he?—along with his stalker’s. And he was, to an extent, but the familiarity was not all just his own odour he was catching, but the link he’d so blindly ignored, and he wasn’t sure it wasn’t on purpose.
He turned to Levi and stumbled to his lover, shock coursing in his veins. “How could I not have known?”
Levi stroked his back, his sides, placing soft kisses on his temple and cheek. “Because he smells sort of like you. Maybe you didn’t want to admit it, either. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it, knowing one of my brother’s was trying to hunt me down.”
Just hearing it said made Lyndon ache all the way down to his feet. “I didn’t even know I had a brother. I mean, I thought my father had probably knocked up other women, I knew there was a chance, of course. But I didn’t
know
!”
The similarity in his scent and the other shifter’s was definitely there, so why hadn’t he noticed it before? Was it because the cougar shifter smelt enough like Lyndon’s own scent, that he’d just assumed he was mixing their scents? He hadn’t thought to concentrate on the odour, he hadn’t thought—and now, the idea was right there in front of him. He had a sibling, at
least
one, and that his mystery brother was hunting him? It was like being ripped open all over again. It fucking hurt, and Lyndon didn’t know how to deal with it.
“Let’s go inside,” Levi murmured, slipping an arm around Lyndon’s waist.
Lyndon leaned heavily on him, his mind racing and his heart aching as he wondered why his family was so screwed up. His mother had been unstable more often than not, and his father had hated him. Now, apparently, he had a half-brother who hated him enough to stalk and terrorise him across the damn country.
Lyndon tried to pull away but Levi held on tight so he couldn’t break the hold without possibly hurting one or both of them. “I need to see if he’s still out here somewhere—”
Henry placed a hand on his back, startling Lyndon to silence. As Lyndon looked into Henry’s eyes, eyes almost the same shade of pale green as Levi’s, he saw so much affection and concern there it made his throat ache.
“No, you two go on inside and let Cheryl and my other boys handle it. The scent is hours old, and I doubt the jackass who did this is still around, but, you need to understand something.” Henry smiled and gripped the back of Lyndon’s neck firmly, in a way that brought comfort rather than panic. “You’re family now, unless you were planning on leaving Levi?”
“No,” Lyndon blurted out, almost shouting the word. “I won’t, but—”
Henry held up his other hand. “Then no arguing. You let us help. Cheryl, Drake, Orion and Oscar can check out the woods behind here. I’ll do what I can at home, which is probably going to be researching Cole Tavares online. We’ll come back after we’re done and tell you what we found, if we find anything. Then we’re gonna sit down and figure out, together, what we need to do, okay?”
Lyndon didn’t think he could get a word out around the lump in his throat, so he settled for a nod and blinked away the burning in his eyes. Henry let go of his neck and patted him on the back a few times.
“Let me just get out dishes and such out of the kitchen,” Henry said as he strode past them, his other sons right behind him. Cheryl started to follow but paused at the door. She winked at Lyndon. “It’ll be all right.” She then kissed his cheek before going inside.
Lyndon didn’t think anyone besides Grady had ever been so kind to him, and it touched him and thawed a small piece of his heart he’d thought had died long ago. The idea that he could truly have all of this, Levi and a family too, was almost unbelievable. But it was very real, and he vowed to himself no to do anything to fuck it up or let any of these incredible people get hurt.
After a minute or two of Levi murmuring soothing words in his ear, Lyndon and Levi made their way inside. Oscar hovered in the kitchen, his hands clamped together as he watched them. Lyndon found it hard to look at Levi’s brother, even though he kind of liked the little blond. It might have been petty of him, but the bond between Levi and Oscar made Lyndon want to break down and cry for his own fucked-up family.
“Can I do anything to help?”
“I thought you were going out with Dad and the others.”
“I am, I just wanted to make sure you know I’d help in any way I can. And I needed to stop by my place first. I have to feed my fish.” Oscar appeared to be so earnest Lyndon didn’t doubt the man at all.
Lyndon almost snickered at that, a leopard having fish, but he didn’t quite have the energy to do so. He was tired, and there were so many conflicting emotions zipping through him. The way he felt about his genetic family—except his mother, he’d loved her even though she hadn’t always been able to take care of him—and the way he felt for his possibly new family were overwhelming him at the moment.
Levi stopped by the table, bringing his other arm around Lyndon as he stepped in front of him. “We’re good, Oscar. Just be careful when you go back to your cabin. We don’t know where the other cougar is.”
“Okay, but you’ll call me if you need anything, right?”
Lyndon could feel Oscar’s gaze on him, and he wanted to squirm. He wasn’t used to so many people giving a shit about him. He wished he could say something let Oscar know he’d be okay, but Lyndon ached inside, like he was raw and bleeding in a way he hadn’t experienced since his mother’s death and his father’s attack.
“Of course we will,” Levi told his brother. “We’re just going to lie down for a while.” He hesitated a second before adding, “Maybe you should stay here, watch TV in the living room or something.”
Even as wrecked as Lyndon was, he knew Oscar wasn’t going to handle the suggestion well. Oscar proved him right when the younger man stomped—Lyndon couldn’t see him since Oscar was behind him, but each of Oscar’s footsteps made the wood floors vibrate—over to their sides.
“I am
not
a helpless little twink,” Oscar snapped.
Lyndon turned his head and was impressed by the furious expression twisting Oscar’s cute features.
Then Oscar raised his hand and wiggled his damaged fingers at Levi. “And
this
doesn’t make me helpless! It just makes me freaking gross! But that doesn’t mean I can’t walk a whole two hundred yards to my cabin, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean I can’t go out with my father and brothers to see if we can find the asshole who stank up your back yard!”
Levi had gone taut against Lyndon, and now he was wound so tight Lyndon half expected him to snap in two.
“I never said you were helpless or any of the other crap you’re going on about,” Levi gritted out. “I just want you to be careful! In the wild, cougars are very aggressive and territorial—”
“I know what they’re like! I researched them right after you told me about Lyndon! But we aren’t in the wild, and we aren’t wild cats! And besides,” Oscar turned his fierce gaze on Lyndon before going on, “has this dude hurt anyone? Or is he just chasing you? Maybe he only wanted your attention.”
“He got it, and no, he hasn’t hurt anyone, as far as I know. But that doesn’t mean anything. There was never anyone I cared about before, once my mom and Grady died.” Lyndon wasn’t going to explain the threat he felt. Oscar was a smart guy, he had to know all the shit out back hadn’t been a cry for attention. It’d been a threat, a promise. “He’s telling me he’s tired of playing. I don’t think he’s intending to come say hello to his long-lost brother. He could have done so any time over the past months. You
know
that, Oscar, so give Levi a break. He’s right to be concerned about
all
of us.”
“But—” Oscar began.
Lyndon straightened his spine and stepped away from Levi. “But nothing! If this cougar,” he couldn’t quite bring himself to call the man his brother, half-brother,
whatever,
“if he decides to attack, it won’t be like anything you’ve ever known. It won’t be a playful tussle or a bit of roughhousing where he stops when you cry uncle.” Lyndon took another step closer to Oscar, willing the younger man to understand and believe him.
“He won’t take it easier on you because you’re smaller, or because of this—” Lyndon touched Oscar’s damaged hand. “He will use everything he has to take you down, and I don’t know—I’m afraid nothing will stop him until you’ve bled out or he’s snapped your neck from behind like cougars are apt to do. So don’t…don’t blow off Levi’s concern. Don’t get all pissed because he loves you. Be fucking glad he
does
, because I can tell you, it sucks beyond all words and hurts like you wouldn’t believe to be the recipient of the exact opposite of a brother’s love. Because that out there? That was hate, pure and simple.”
Oscar’s expression had changed from angry to remorseful during Lyndon’s rant, and now he closed the distance between them and hugged Lyndon, his embrace surprisingly strong. “You can be my brother. I won’t ever treat you like I hate you.”
Lyndon smiled for the first time since he’d stepped outside. “Guess I don’t have to worry about the taxidermist, then.”
Chapter Nineteen
Oscar left and Levi watched, Lyndon at his side as they stood on the front porch. It was a straight shot from Levi’s to Oscar’s, and once his brother made it safely inside his house, and texted Levi letting him know all was well there, Levi relaxed. He also saw three snow leopards coming from the woods in front of Oscar’s, which reassured him even more.
Assured Oscar was safe, Levi led Lyndon into the bedroom. He’d wanted to comfort Lyndon, wanted to love away all the pain he could feel rolling off him. Levi walked to the bathroom, his hand in Lyndon’s. Once he got the shower started, he stripped then undressed Lyndon as well. He framed Lyndon’s face with his hands and kissed him, a tender melding of lips and tongues, and it set Levi’s heart to soaring with a soft, comforting joy.
“It will be okay,” he promised, believing it in every bit of his being. “We will be okay, we’ll be fine.”
Before Lyndon could answer, Levi kissed him again. He ran his hands down the broad planes of Lyndon’s chest then kissed a trail to his neck. Levi lapped at the thin skin covering Lyndon’s pulse, then nibbled it just to make Lyndon shiver. Although, he did enjoy it too.