Page 45 of Bad Blood Panther

The crew growled simultaneously. If there was one thing they couldn’t stand, it was anybody mistreating a kid.

Not that this one needed their help. He turned and bit Cindi on the wrist. She jerked back. “Ow! You little monster!”

He picked up his toy off the ground. “You pull my clo’es. Make Mrs. Ducking all dirty.” He hugged his stuffed toy. “Hate you.” He stomped over to Jenny, who swept him up in her arms.

Xander heard a snort of laughter from Flynn.

Jenny was shaking with anger. “Don’t you ever touch my son again, you hear me?” she snarled.

Cindi laughed. “Oh, so now you care about him? Too bad you didn’t think about that when you dumped him with your grandmother and took off to find your old fuck buddy Alex.”

Jenny gasped. “What did you do to Anthea?”

Cindi waved negligently. “She’s fine. Just a little bump on the head. She’s probably conscious by now.” She shook her head. “You never think, do you? All the magic in the world doesn’t help if you just let people walk in the front door.”

Xander found his voice. He knew Anthea—he’d met her once or twice when he and Jenny were friends. She was a good lady. “She trusted you,” he said to Cindi. “And you turned on her. Why am I not surprised?”

Cindi snorted. “You always were way too sentimental, Alex. I should never have bothered to Turn you. You don’t have the guts to be a warrior.”

The whole crew growled again, louder. That got past even Cindi’s oblivious self-centeredness. She backed up a step.

“Why did you do this?” Jenny said. “You had no right.”

“You know why.” Cindi sneered. “Alton’s seer told him that Broken Hill will be restored to its former glory, and his son is destined to be the next alpha. He was going to make that kid his little prince.”

“Over my dead body,” Jenny said.

“Well, lucky for you,” Cindi said, “I made it so it doesn’t come to that. Because my son is going to be the next alpha, not yours.”

Jenny stared. “Alton got you pregnant?”

Cindi put her hand on her still-flat stomach. “As far as he knows. And when my son is next in line, I’ll make sure I’m Alton’s chief consort. Something you didn’t manage to pull off, even with all your lies.”

Jenny said, “You’re deliberately going to pass off your cub as Alton’s? Are you crazy?”

“Why not?” Cindi said. “If you can do it, I can.”

Jenny’s eyes went wide with shock, and she glanced over at Xander.

Xander felt like he’d been slammed in the stomach.

“What?” Cindi said. “You think I didn’t know whose kid that was? That apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

She walked back to the truck. “I let you and your brat live, because we used to be friends. So stay here in your trailer park and be dysfunctional. Join this loser crew. Because if I see you back at Broken Hill, messing up my plans, I will kill you.”

Xander couldn’t stop himself. He lunged at her, claws coming out. Flynn’s voice cut across the clearing like a whip crack. “Xander!”

The alpha energy stopped him in his tracks. He crouched on the ground, still human, panting.

Flynn said to Cindi, “Get out. Leave the kid’s things and get the fuck out of my territory before I tear you apart personally, pregnant or not.”

The muscle/fuck toy growled, and all the Bad Bloods except Flynn took another step forward and growled back.

“Stand down, asshole,” Flynn said to the muscle. “If you’ve hooked up with her, you’ll have enough fights in your life. You don’t need this one. Now get the kid’s stuff.”

The guy pulled a small suitcase and a battered backpack out of the truck and set them down.

Cindi shook her head at Xander, still crouched on the ground, trying to pull himself together. “Pitiful.” She got back in the truck. “Better get your shit together, Alex. It’s time to welcome your son home.”

As they drove away, she called out the window, “Happy Father’s Day.”