Page 28 of Bearing Secrets
Kirell raised a scathing eyebrow at the last standing shifter—the one he’d slammed into the concrete wall was still conscious, but had slid down into a sitting position, looking around without realizing where he was. “Do you realize the hypocrisy in your statement? You came at me with three of you, like the cowards you are, but you wantmeto stand and fight you like a moron? Christ, how dumb are you people?”
The leader charged, swinging before he even came into range, looking more like a windmill than a fighter. Kirell watched the arms, judging, stepped to his right and struck a solid blow right to his temple. The silver-haired male dropped like a sack of stones, eyes rolling up into the back of his head. Wincing at the noise the skull made when it impacted the concrete, Kirell tried not to retch. That was going to leave a mark, if not worse.
Shifters were resilient and healed quickly, but head injuries were still nothing to be trifled with. Brain hemorrhaging could kill a shifter just as easily as a human, if too much damage occurred before the system could heal itself.
“Are we done here?”
The Canis he’d knocked on his ass was back on his feet, but after Kirell spoke, he took a more careful look at his friends, both of whom were in no condition to fight. He hesitated, then; with a glare that promised it wasn’t over between them he went to check on his barely conscious friend.
“That’s what I thought.”
Forcing the pain down, Kirell walked around to his door.
“Kirell!’ Natalia gasped as he slid into his seat.
Leaning over the center, she started fussing over him. “Your eye!”
“It’ll be fine,” he assured her, firing up the engine. Despite his bruised state and the pain from his ribs, the purr still brought a smile to his face.
“Shall we get out of here?”
He glanced over at her, watching the way the gold in her eyes flickered in the lamplight, noting the concern in her expression. She was worried about him. That was sweet of her. He almost told her that he would be healed in a couple of hours but decided that he wasn’t up to explaining thewhybehind that.
It was time to go home.
12
“This is where youlive?” She was staring, completely agog as they pulled off the road, approaching a thick gate with the emblem of a huge bear worked into the wrought iron.
“Welcome to my House,” he said as the gate swung open swiftly and silently.
Natalia took it all in with growing incredulity. The drive out into the country had been fun, the car taking the turns smoothly, accelerating out of the bends at a rapid rate and much to her delight. Kirell had offered to let her take the wheel, but she’d turned him down. She didn’t have three and a half million dollars in case she wrecked it. Maybe next time, she’d said.
The driveway dipped immediately, heading downward through a large valley before rising again and disappearing into a forest. A stone wall that the gate was worked into extended out to the left and right as far as she could see, standing easily ten feet high. Between that and the start of the forest was wild grass, flowers and small shrubs, looking like a meadow out of some sort of animated movie.
“It’s beautiful,” she remarked, awed by it all.
“Thank you. We work hard to keep it looking so pristine.”
She fell silent as the car made its way up the driveway toward what she assumed was a house waiting somewhere ahead. The size of the property led her to believe it would be big, but she wasn’t ready for what awaited her after nearly a mile of winding road.
“Hol-y shit.”
It wasn’t ahouse. Even the wordmansiondidn’t do justice to the size of the building that spread out ahead of her.Palace, she decided. It was a palace indeed; that was the only word that seemed even remotely applicable to this vast structure.
Four stories tall, it should have looked boxy, but the peaked roof sections, curving exterior and sections that were only one or two stories broke up any sense of squareness, giving it a grand stature she was sure the inside lived up to. Stained glass was visible in most of the larger windows, and any corner in the roof was broken up with a stone gargoyle of various shapes and sizes, designed to pull the eye to it, instead of the change in architecture.
She’d never seen anything like it; it was completely, and totally, unique.
“You live inthere?” Her words were dulled, her senses overwhelmed by the sprawling house.
“Yes. Welcome to Ursidae Manor.”
“Right. Of course, it has a name. Um. Just who do you live with? An army?”
Kirell laughed with genuine humor. “I’m sure some see it that way.”
The road forked, the left-hand side making a big looping circle under an awning the size of an Olympic swimming pool, which she assumed was the main entryway. Kirell took the car to the left, down a ramp that curved to the side and then opened up into an underground garage, spreading out as far as she could see in either direction.
