Read Online Nischal [leopard spots 9] by Bailey Bradford - Free Book Online Page B

lowered himself and rubbed his belly and chest over Preston’s, letting the man feel him.
    Preston grabbed handfuls of his fur and moaned softly. He lowered his lashes and began petting Nischal. Nischal gave him a little while to work out that this was real, that he was real, then he shifted again.
    “Oh my God,” Preston mumbled.
    “Don’t faint on me again, please.”
    Preston’s awe changed into irritation. “I have never fainted in my life!”
    Nischal couldn’t have hidden his doubt of that claim if he’d have tried, which he didn’t. “I would consider what you did in the shower and here when I first shifted fainting.”
    Preston glared, his red eyebrows pulling together over his nose. “That was because of the tranquiliser and the shit the doctor gave me to help me with the pain I was feeling. If I hadn’t had that shit, I wouldn’t have, um, I wouldn’t have blacked out.”
    Nischal kept from snorting somehow. He instead buried his face against the side of Preston’s head and hoped the man hadn’t seen him grinning. “I am sure you are right.”
    “Who’s that Kapuk guy you were talking about before?”
    Nischal considered his erection and Preston’s, but decided getting off again could wait. They needed to talk. “Does this mean you believe me now?” he asked as he rolled off Preston to lie beside him.
    Preston turned onto his side to face Nischal. “I think so. I don’t know. Tell me how it’s possible. Who’s Kapuk? How did you end up caged and here?”
    Fair questions that Nischal would happily answer even if his cock wasn’t happy about it. That part of him could wait. “My brother and I were raised by our mother. She was captured and, we believe, killed, as I mentioned.”
    “That’s awful,” Preston said before sucking his bottom lip in between his teeth. A coughing fit hit him and he touched his throat. “Ow.”
    “Do you have anything for the pain?” Nischal asked, looking at that bruised skin. It wasn’t as black with bruises, but it was darker, red and purple in spots. “A warm drink, perhaps?”
    “I just need some ibuprofen.” Preston got up and dug a bottle from a pair of pants lying on the dresser. “I don’t want anything narcotic.” He took a couple of pills out and popped them in his mouth, then he fetched a bottle of water from the small refrigerator in the room. He opened the water and chugged it, his Adam’s apple bobbing with every swallow.
    Nischal almost gave up on talking then and there. Focus. “Ah. We saw her get captured. We were only fifteen. We were born in the same litter. If we had any siblings, we never knew it. Our mother didn’t shift into human form often—”
    “You are a twin?” Preston asked as he glanced away.
    Nischal nodded. “Like you.”
    “How do you know that?” Preston snapped his gaze right up to Nischal’s. “How long were you with Suraj? Did you see Paul?”
    As much as he didn’t want to answer, Nischal couldn’t lie. “I did. Over a year ago, but he didn’t look like you.”
    Preston sat up. “Did you see what happened to him? Is he…is he dead?”
    “I honestly don’t know,” Nischal said as he sat up, too. “I wish I could tell you something definite, but I can’t. Sabin and I saw your brother. He was thinner, bleached blond hair and I don’t remember the freckles. Like other men before, he went with Suraj into his trailer. Sabin and I had been locked into our cages then. We heard screaming, but the drugs in our water—” He shook his head. “I just don’t know. I remember the yelling, then it was morning and we were being moved again. It wasn’t the first time, nor the last.”
    Preston’s eyes welled and he twisted around to pound a fist against the wall. “Fuck!”
    “I’m so sorry,” Nischal murmured, his heart aching for Preston. “I wish I knew more.”
    “How long did he have you?” Preston demanded. “Did he know what you and your brother were?”
    “I don’t think he did, or