Jennifer Ashley - Wild Cat

The dominance fights in this Shifter enclave must be horrific. And ferals were even worse at reproducing than Shifters who’d lived alone in the wild. Life was hard on a female Shifter, as was childbirth.

“This is how you introduce fresh blood, is it?” Cassidy asked, as though simply curious. “Kidnapping females and mate-claiming them?”

“We went out to defend our town against incomers,” the bear said. “You were an opportunity.”

Cassidy had been trying to save Xavier’s life. The last thing she’d wanted was for Diego to watch his brother die.

She glanced around surreptitiously, taking in the floor space, the exits. Windowless walls rose around them, with only one main doorway leading out into the night. The ceiling soared above her, pieces of it missing. It had to be a sixty-foot climb to the top. The light came from battery-operated lanterns, and the cooking fire was a gas camping grill. All stolen, she surmised.

A dark doorway stood beyond Miguel and his guards, the farthest point from Cassidy. The smell behind it was stuffy, enclosed, and it was also filled with pungent fear. Cassidy’s hackles rose, instincts telling her she did not want to go in there.

Miguel nudged Xavier with his foot. “Who’s the human?”

“My pet,” Cassidy said. Shifter females in the wild had sometimes taken human male lovers, referring to them as pets . She figured Xavier wouldn’t mind the lie if it kept him alive, if he were even awake to hear it. “You don’t get to have him.”

“Maybe I’ll just kill him,” Miguel said.

Cassidy coolly met his gaze. “If you let me keep him, I’ll consider the mate-claim.”

“You don’t consider anything, Feline. I mate-claim you, and that’s that.”

“But if I get to keep my human male, I might be nicer to you and not hurt you as much.”

Miguel chuckled. “I like you, Feline. We’ll see. You be good, and you can keep your pet.”

“How about some clothes?” Cassidy asked. “It’s getting cold.”

“I don’t have any to spare. I’ll have one of my females get you some tomorrow. If you’re cold, you’ll have to stay shifted.”

Cassidy didn’t want to shift. She could think more clearly as a human, and she knew that the way to win with Miguel would be to outthink him. The feral bear had the edge on her in terms of animal strength, plus Miguel was smart. How else would he have maintained dominance here, keeping three species of Shifters from killing each other? He’d have to be cunning and a quick thinker, even if things hadn’t turned out the way he’d hoped.

Cassidy sighed. She stretched, letting her cat take over, and ended up sitting on her furry haunches.

She tamped down her fighting instincts with great effort. Her wildcat wanted to attack, but the minute she did that, Miguel and his boys would be on her, and five against one wasn’t good odds. As much as these Shifters needed females, she sensed that they would kill her to stop her escaping. Even if they wouldn’t mean to kill her, she’d be just as dead.

Cassidy closed her throat to keep herself from growling, and she lay down next to Xavier. He was still out, his face pale, and she wanted to growl again in worry. She curled around Xavier to give him as much of her body heat as possible, but she remained awake, and watchful.

“Come on, Diego. Wake up.”

A huge hand batted Diego’s face, and Diego cracked open his eyes.

He found himself on a dark dirt road, a jeep on its side not far away, with two men in biker vests lying limply next to it. A naked and mud-streaked Shane stood above Diego, about to hit him again.

“Stop,” Diego said, voice hoarse. “I’m awake.”

“Those ferals took Cassidy.” Shane sounded like he wanted to cry. “And your brother. Cass could have gotten away, but she stayed with Xavier.”

Son of a bitch.

Diego got himself to his feet. His head hurt, badly, but he wasn’t dizzy. Yet. The shotgun lay not far from where he’d fallen, and Diego scooped it up as he walked toward the jeep.

He looked down at the drug runners he’d come to arrest. “Are they still alive?”

“Yeah. Bastards tried to leave us here.”

“They know all about running away,” Diego said. Adrenaline was flowing through him, dulling pain, honing Diego’s thoughts to focus on one goal.

Get Cassidy and Xavier back.

Diego checked the ammo in his pistol, then started pulling the ammo boxes from the back of the fallen jeep. The jeep was dead, no fear of fire, but still he wanted all that explosive potential away from the gas tank.

Shane started to help. The man was stark naked, but Diego scarcely noticed as they lugged out their gear and assessed what they had. Interestingly, Shane didn’t try to take over or demand that Diego obey him. Shane was waiting for Diego to tell him what to do.

“Call Marlo, tell him what happened,” Diego commanded as they unloaded the last of the ammo. “We’re going to need the plane ready to go.”

“What are you going to do?” Shane asked him.

“Tie up these guys, then find my brother and Cass.”

Shane stepped in front of him. “You can’t go up against Shifters alone, Diego. The alpha will have trackers, they’ll smell you coming, and they’ll be ready.”

Diego dragged his satellite phone out of the wreckage, relieved when he found the thing undamaged. He also found Cassidy’s earpiece on the ground where it had fallen when she’d shifted. He handed the earpiece to Shane.

“Good to know. Help me with these guys and then call Marlo.”

Together they pulled the drug runners away from the wreckage, and Diego handcuffed them. Shane walked away to get Marlo on the sat phone.

One biker swam to consciousness. “Are the Shifters dead?” he asked. “Are they gone?”

“Not yet,” Diego said. “But they have my girlfriend and my brother, thanks to you trying to leave us behind.”

The man lowered his head, pretending incomprehension. Asshole.

After Shane hung up, Diego and Shane marched the dealers back to the cantina where Cassidy had found them. Whatever patrons had been in there had vacated.

The bartender, who owned the place, protested. Diego answered him in Spanish. “If you want an end to your Shifter troubles, you’ll help me,” he said. “I’m going to get rid of them and your drug dealer problem.”

He and Shane set the two bikers on chairs and shackled them together.

“The Shifters came two years ago,” the bartender said as they worked. “Our own fault. The drug runners had taken over, fighting each other in our streets, ruining our lives. We put out the word that we needed help. The Shifters came down out of the hills, holed up in the factory that had never been finished, and took over. They got rid of the drug runners, all right.”

“Then you had a Shifter problem instead.” Diego checked both men’s bonds and approached the bar. “What did the Shifters do?”

The bartender looked sad. “We have to give them anything they want. Food, clothing-our daughters. Some of them wanted to kill our sons, but the alpha, he said no. Said it would attract too much attention.”

This was exactly what Reid had meant, Diego realized. They can look human, and they try to act human, but if you don’t treat them like the dangerous animals they are, you’ll pay for it. Humans had rounded up Shifters and slapped Collars on them, because they’d feared that something exactly like this might happen.

But these Shifters were different. Ferals , Cassidy and Shane had called them. Diego wasn’t sure what that meant, but he couldn’t imagine Eric or Nell or Lindsay doing things like this.