Lynx Northern Shifters 3

wanted you to kidnap and drug me.” Jonah thought he sounded quite reasonable given the situation, but Horton appeared annoyed by his logic.
The man proceeded to speak to Jonah as if he were a simpleton. Just as well. Best to be underestimated. “What you don’t understand, Jonah, is that Trey is a dangerous man.”
So Trey lived, or Horton believed he did, and despite all his anger, this idea made something within Jonah rise, become alive. While he could never be with Trey again, he wanted to see him one last time, a kind of goodbye.
“If you lie to me, there’s not much point in us talking. It’s a problem for me,” Jonah said.
Horton rolled his eyes. “Do you want to get food or not, Jonah? That’s what you should be most concerned about, not my lying .” He smiled, an ugly expression. “I’m not the one who’s chained to the bed here, Jonah.”
He gritted his teeth at the way Horton kept repeating his name. “Problem is, I can’t trust you to give food to me one way or the other. Also? I don’t have much information to give you.”
“Trey was looking for you, Jonah.”
He couldn’t help himself. He glanced at Horton and sensed truth.
“And you care about that.” Horton bent forward, clearly satisfied by Jonah’s reaction. “So you are lucky today. You will be useful to me. This means you have a future.”
Jonah was supposed to be cowed by Horton holding his life in his hands. And two years ago, he would have been. But now something had broken and all Jonah cared about was stalking Horton to the bitter end. It had been this way with Aaron too. The stalking and killing of that man had, for better or worse, blunted his grief at losing his mother. Now he’d lost Trey and Horton’s death would be his way of saying goodbye. Trey would be safer with Horton dead. Despite everything, Jonah wanted to keep Trey safe.
Jonah wondered if he could convince Horton to come close enough for him to grab the man’s throat. He’d been weakened by the past week, yes, but he was still stronger than the normal human.
“A few rules, Jonah. If you make any move to harm me at any point you will be restrained again, and indefinitely. Also, if I decide you are actually useless to me and have no useful knowledge of Trey, you will regret it.” Here Horton smiled. “And you will die.”
“You’re a killer then.” Jonah bared his teeth, but didn’t add, Like me .
Horton was taken aback by this bald statement or perhaps by Jonah’s lack of fear. “It’s never my first choice.”
Jonah wasn’t going to feel bad when he killed this man. But he was also not going to do anything precipitous. He wanted to learn more about Trey before this was over. Also, and this was probably a bit warped, but he’d been isolated in a lot of ways during his life, and this situation was a new one. More onerous than before, with fewer freedoms, but the threat and the danger and general assholery of Horton had managed to dispel a little of the depressive feelings he’d been carrying with him for too long. There was challenge here, even if he failed to meet it.
“Are you understanding anything I’m telling you, Jonah?”
“I believe so.”
“Your lack of affect is a bit…odd.”
“I’ve been told that before.” Only in the last two years actually, but Jonah thought of it as growing up and learning about the wider world.
With that, Horton unshackled Jonah completely and Jonah didn’t attack. Horton wasn’t a big man, but he was clearly in good physical shape and probably expected that in a physical match he could overpower a weakened Jonah. Well, the lynx in him could wait. One thing he’d discovered during his time with humans was how patient his lynx could be. He could be grateful he wasn’t a wolf who needed to run during the full moon.
“I have one request.” Jonah cleared his throat because this was important to him and his sanity, though Horton acceding to his request was unlikely. “I’d like to study math.”
Incomprehension gave way to wariness. “Is that a joke?”
“No. I’ve always wanted to study math at the university level but didn’t get the opportunity.”
“Uh-huh.” Horton had no interest in this revelation. Well, Jonah could ask again later. He hadn’t expected an immediate yes.
“Trey was impressed by my interest in math,” Jonah offered, a reward of sorts that couldn’t hurt Trey, he didn’t think.
“Really. Trey is never impressed by anything so I find that hard to