A Prideless Man by Amber Kell Read Free Book Online

two of you would get along better.”
    “Since I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m an abomination I doubt we’re going to be best friends.”
    Andrew frowned at his girlfriend. “She doesn’t think that.”
    “Yes, I do. He’s everything we fight against and he’s gay.” She said the last as if it were the final nail in his coffin.
    James’ lunch churned in his stomach. He knew she disliked him but he didn’t know she hated him quite that much.
    His father frowned at Melinda. “I think it would be best if I talk to James alone.”
    “Where do you expect me to go?” she shrieked.
    The look his father turned on his girlfriend would have had James running. “Take a walk around or take my car and go for a drive. I need a few minutes alone with my son.”
    “Fine.” She grabbed his keys off the dresser and headed for the door. “I’ll be back when I’m ready.”
    After his girlfriend left, Andrew sat heavily down on the double bed. “I’m sorry, son. I had no idea she was against gays.”
    James laughed. “So it’s okay to hate me because I’m a shifter but not because I’m gay.” His father’s logic escaped him.
    “No! No, it’s not all right for her to hate you at all, but I thought she only had problems with your shifter half. I guess I was wrong about her.” His father suddenly looked older than he’d ever seen the vital man look before. For James his father had always seemed larger than life—to see the man look older and defeated broke his heart.
    He sat down beside his father. “I have to ask you something.”
    “If it’s about your mother, I don’t know where she is. She left us both once you were born. Because you were born as a human baby she decided you were too human to ever shift.
    She had no use for a non-shifting child. Two days after giving birth she left you.” His father blinked back tears.
    “But why give me the medication? It’s stopped me from shifting all this time.” A PRIDELESS MAN
    Amber Kell
    36
    “You shifted?” His father jumped to his feet. “Completely?” James nodded.
    The older man started to pace. “I need to recalculate your medicine. How have you been feeling?”
    James told him about his hospital visit and asked the one question weighing on his mind. “Why did you give me the medication if you didn’t mind me shifting?”
    “I didn’t know what else to do. You were in so much pain. Parts of your body kept shifting into lion and then going back to human. For a few days you were stuck between forms as if your body was trying to reject itself. I hated shifters for making you so miserable.
    I didn’t know your mother was a shifter until after we were married and expecting you. I didn’t believe her until she turned into a lion. She stayed that way until after your birth. Then she left and I had to raise a child by myself. At first I tried reaching out to other shifter communities but no one wanted anything to do with me. I grew to hate them. They were so confident of their superiority when they didn’t even have the compassion to take care of one of their own.”
    James didn’t know what to say. Nothing his father said matched his experiences with the man. All this time he’d thought his father hated him, while he’d really only wanted the best.
    “I—I’m sorry. I should’ve asked you a long time ago.” His father shook his head and sat beside him again. “No. I should’ve talked to you when you got older. There’s no reason to let it go on for so long. I was wrong to hide the truth from you.”
    “What about the People Against Werekin?”
    “What about them?”
    “You can’t keep it up, Dad. You can’t kidnap and kill people because you don’t like shifters.”
    “What are you talking about? I’ve never captured or killed anyone.”
    “PAW is capturing werekin and trying to kill them off.”
    “My organisation is an outreach programme created to get the werekin to pay attention to us. To know they are responsible for the messes