Hard Mated Read Online Free PDF Page A

he put something on. Alarmed, Jordan grabbed those and hoisted them over his bare legs.
    Ella turned the sandwiches out on a plate, each sandwich piled high with beef, turkey, chicken, tuna, or a combination. Spike didn’t know what cubs ate—did they need milk? Or was that only when they were first born? Jordan announced he was hungry and proceeded to down four sandwiches before he sat back on the kitchen floor and burped.
    He’d fall asleep now, Spike thought. Worn out from the night, his mother’s death, being brought to Shiftertown, and now with his belly full of food, he’d curl up and sleep it off.
    No such luck. Spike and Ella ended up chasing him all over the house, from cellar to attic and back again. Jordan threw off the pants and shifted back and forth from wildcat to boy depending on what he wanted to get into or where he wanted to get into. And he was damned fast.
    When he ended up way in the back of the pantry, a wildcat cub now, wedged between shelves and refusing to come out, Ella got out a broom and tried to pry him out. Jordan leapt away, dodging her, and scampered around the kitchen, loving the game, Ella chasing him with her newfound tool.
    “Grandma!” Spike shouted. “Don’t you dare hit my kid with a broom!”
    “It never did you any harm,” Ella yelled back.
    Jordan laughed, evaded them, and ran on.
    Spike finally tackled him in the living room. Father and son were both wildcats now, and Spike pinned the squirming boy under his body. Ella had given up and gone upstairs, the night aging.
    Jordan started to quiet, soothed by Spike’s warm body, his adrenaline finally running down. Spike’s eyes drifted closed, the slowing staccato of Jordan’s heartbeat somehow comforting.
    He woke up to sun pouring in the windows. Spike had shifted to human sometime in the night, and so had Jordan. Spike had slid the pants back on the sleeping little boy, and now Spike found his arms wrapped protectively around his son.
    With his eyes closed, his mouth slack, one fist on the carpet, Jordan was innocence itself. And helpless.
    Spike started to move his body and stifled a groan. He ached all over. The fight coupled with the shock of finding out he had a cub made his muscles stiff and his head pound. He needed water, to hydrate, or else he needed a beer. A lot of beer.
    But he couldn’t get drunk while he had to take care of this little guy. Drowning himself in hops was for when his cub was safe and didn’t need Spike standing guard. Which would be never. Cubs had to be protected at all times.
    All times. Damn it, how could he? How any Shifter do it?
    They had mates, that’s how. They had help. Liam had his mate Kim—a human woman, sure, but she’d proved capable. The two of them watched over their new cub with unceasing vigilance. And yet, Liam still had time to run Shiftertown, Kim to conduct her business of being a lawyer to Shifters. How the hell did they do that?
    How had Spike’s grandma done it? Ella had raised him alone—and in the wild—after his parents and grandfather had been slaughtered by Shifter hunters down in Mexico. Spike had been a cub, ten years old. Ella had been so huddled in grief, she’d wanted to die herself, but she’d said over and over, If I die, who’s going to take care of you? and she’d soldiered on.
    His grandmother’s expression last night as she’d quit and gone to bed told him that she expected him to soldier on too.
    He brushed back a strand of Jordan’s hair. Cub of my pride. Now that I’ve met you, how can I let you go?
    Spike very gently pressed a kiss to the top of the little boy’s head.
    Jordan’s eyes popped open. He stared up at Spike in sleepy confusion, then his eyes cleared.
    “I’m hungry,” Jordan said. “Can I have breakfast?”
    Goddess, what was he supposed to feed a cub for breakfast? Based on the number of sandwiches Jordan had consumed last night—a lot.
    Jordan wriggled out of Spike’s grasp and spread his arms. “I’m dressed.