Shifters Hunt: Shifters Hunt Romance Boxset Books 1-4

by Selina Woods

  The two strode back into the crowd. A large force from the crowd joined them as they all vanished into Casey’s shop.

  “Those of you, right here, who cannot actually fight, go now,” I said, turning about to face my new rebels. “Start gathering what food, medicines, and water you can, and hide. Barricade yourselves and your offspring in your homes, spread the word to your neighbors to do the same.”

  “We can’t leave them unprotected, Ragnor,” said a lion standing beside Jonas. “Doors can be broken down.”

  “I know,” I replied. “But Kanata has only a few hundred enforcers while we number in the thousands. We will be keeping him far too busy to be attacking our mates and babies. Jonas, where have you been meeting?”

  “At an old garage six blocks from my bar.”

  “Okay,” I answered, “we need to meet there double time.” To the massed folks, I went on, “Those of you who don’t have mates to protect or get into hiding, jump in the back of the truck there; you’ll come with us. The rest of you, get your loved ones secure and keep your heads down until you hear from me.”

  The mob melted away, rushing down the street, across it, running into shops and houses to vanish. About ten lions and wolves shifted forms and climbed into the back of Barney’s truck as I leaped down from the car. Jonas and Skyler also changed, trotting to the cab, Skyler pausing to glance back at me, waiting.

  Two lions in their human forms approached me, and I observed the odd lightning tattoos on their cheeks. “We’re not from around here,” said the one on the right, a big fellow with thick reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes, “but we’d like to help out. I’m Nigel, and this is Gibson.”

  Watching them warily, I studied them, noting the hard toughness in their eyes, their faces, and suspected these two were no strangers to battle. “Might I ask why?”

  They glanced at one another. “Let’s just say we’re opposed to gang rule, and the violence that comes with it,” Nigel replied evenly.

  “We have come from cities that have overthrown the gangsters,” Gibson added. “Turned them into safe zones.”

  Shifting from four legs to two, I nodded with a small grin. “Then I reckon we can use your help. Get in the truck.”

  Jonas started the engine as we piled in, then spun the wheel to turn around in the now-empty street. “Let’s pick up Barney,” Jonas suggested as he raced the vehicle back the way we came. “We will need him.”

  Obviously, word spread faster than a grassfire in a high dry wind, for even as we drove, the citizenry ran into structures and slammed doors behind them, disappearing like rabbits into holes. The road emptied of cars, side streets appeared vacant as we passed them, pedestrians rushing to safety. “Are we going to get the thousands I spoke about?” I asked Jonas.

  “You bet your ass, Ragnor,” he replied, slowing down just enough to round a corner without throwing the passengers from the truck bed out onto the asphalt. “We’ve been preparing for this, waiting for the spark to ignite us.”

  “We’ll need to get organized fast,” I went on. “Kanata will know I’m involved, and he’ll waste no time in coming after me.”

  Skyler gripped my hand. “He’ll have to go through us to get to you.”

  I smiled down at her, trying to convey reassurance and not the worry I felt. “I appreciate that. But I’m not so worried about me as much as I am about you. If you’re with me when he comes, you might get hurt or killed.”

  “He’s right, Skyler,” Jonas added. “I want you to join your mother and siblings in hiding.”

  “No way,” she declared, pulling her hand from mine and crossing her arms over her chest. “I will not leave either of you, and I will help fight.”

  “What if I order you to go?” I asked, my brow lifted.

  “Order all you want.” She shrugged. “Unless you chain me up, I will stay right here.”

  I fetched a deep sigh, wondering how in the hell I could lead this war when not even Skyler would do what I said. Jonas pulled into the curb in front of Barney’s home and parked. “I’ll get him and be right back,” he said, opening the door and getting out.

  He ran to the door and burst in, yelling for Barney. After a few minutes, he and Barney ran out as his mate shut the door behind them. Barney jumped into the back as Jonas got behind the wheel again. “His family will go to our house,” Jonas said as he floored the accelerator. “My house is more easily barricaded, and I’ve been storing food and water for months.”

  “Just how long have you been planning this?” I asked as he drove through the eerily empty roads.

  “Almost a year now,” he replied with a grin. “We have weapons stashed all over the city, caches of food. Why do you think New Orleans became a ghost town so fast?’

  “Then what do you need me to lead for?” I demanded. “You already have it in hand.”

  “No, I don’t.” He shot me a quick glance before staring out the windshield again. “Until you came along, none of us could get behind a single leader. That’s why it’s taken as long as it has to get it off the ground. We’re loosely organized, yes, but none of us can inspire the others to actually lead us into the fire.”

  “And you think I can?”

  “You already have.”

  Jonas slowed the truck as he drove to a large dilapidated structure with a line of roll-up doors and stopped. Barney jumped down from the bed with a set of keys and unlocked a side door. Then one of the doors rolled up, and Jonas drove inside the garage to park. Barney closed it as the rest of us piled out of the truck in the echoing building.

  Getting out of the cab, a sharp flash of pain reminded me of my newly opened wound. During the fight and its aftermath, my adrenaline had prevented me from feeling it, and now it made its presence known. “Shit,” I muttered, lifting my bloody shirt to inspect the jagged tear in my side, still oozing blood.

  “Ragnor,” Skyler exclaimed, pushing me toward the light where she could see it better. “I need to care for that right now.”

  “We don’t have time,” I protested.

  “Take time,” Jonas told me. “Skyler, there’s a first aid kit in the office over there.”

  She trotted toward it. I noticed the windows had bars on them and had been blacked out; metal folding chairs were stacked against one of the walls. Against another were boxes and crates, while semi-automatic rifles had been piled near them. “We will have to take Kanata out quickly,” I said as the group gathered near me. “That won’t be easy, as he’ll know he’s a target. He’ll be on the move, never staying in one place for very long”

  “So while we’re trying to find him, he’ll be trying to find us.” Barney went to the pile of rifles and picked one up to sling over his shoulder. “I didn’t have time to spread the word to the others to join us here, as I thought I’d be running with my family. I can go inform them now.”

  Skyler returned, and, without speaking, took my shirt from me. As I tried to continue, she ordered, “Lift your arm.”

  Thus with my arm in the air, and Skyler industriously cleaning my wound, I went on.

  “I don’t think you’ll have to,” I told him. “They’ll know what has happened and they’ll come here. Now we need to plan our next move. Kanata will keep his bodyguards with him while he sends his enforcers out to kill us. Do you have a map of the city by chance?”

  “We do.”

  Barney darted to an office across from the garage and rummaged around in it. He returned with a folded paper and tacks, then, with Jonas’s help, put it up on a wall. Skyler trailed after me, still dabbing something onto my slash, as I went to it. After studying it for a few minutes, I tapped it, gazing around at the watching faces.

  “This is where we are, almost in the center of town. What we’re going to do is seize each neighborhood one by one. We need to organize a core fighting force broken down into units working together, clean out Kanata’s rats, then leave behind a token guard in each one.”

  Barney slapped Jonas on the back with a laugh. �
��You were right, brother,” he gloated. “He’s a natural.”

  Jonas grinned at me. “The minute you stood up for Johnson, Ragnor, I had you tagged as the best one for the leadership job.”

  “Everyone will rally behind you,” Gibson commented with a small smile. “You have magnetism, charisma, Ragnor.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Look, we have to organize, and our people are scattered all over the city. It will take time to create our army and get it together while Kanata already has his in place. He’ll begin striking at our vulnerable spots.”

  “Both arms up,” Skyler demanded, wrapping my waist with a wide bandage after I lifted both my arms high.

  “You don’t think he’ll cut the head off the snake first?” Nigel asked. “As in, find and kill you and the other leaders? Without that, the rebellion would unravel fast.”

  I shook my head. “Kanata is a tiger, and he will seek out what hurts us most, keep us running around to defend our flanks.”

  “That would be the families, the children,” Skyler said quickly, still wrapping. “But they aren’t all in one place.”

  “That won’t matter,” I replied, “he’ll seek to murder the innocent, make us angry enough to strike back when we’re enraged and unprepared.”

  “So how do we protect them?” Jonas asked, clearly worried about his own family.

  “In order to outsmart him,” I went on, finding Skyler handing me my bloody shirt to put back on, “we have to think like he does. Once he sees the corpses of Lawson and the others, he’ll catch my scent there, the only one he’ll recognize. He knows I hang out at The Den; he may even know I’m attached to Skyler.”

  “So he’ll go after my family.” Jonas’s expression was bleak.

  “Yeah. But I need you here. Barney, run now to Jonas’s house; your family is there as well. Get them into hiding and cover your scent so his wolves can’t track you or where you take them.”

  “Got it.”

  Unslinging the rifle from his shoulder, he handed it to Jonas, then ran to the door and out. One of the other shifters locked it behind him and returned. I placed my hand on Jonas’s shoulder. “Barney will get to them in time. It will take Kanata longer to find where you live.”

  He nodded. “I hope you’re right.”

  “We dare not wait for much longer to get our forces together.” I stared at the map, looking for a place that could hold a large number of people. The old stadium was out, as it was far too open and obvious. I searched for and found the old concert hall, and recalled it was still mostly intact after the wars. I tapped it, gathering eyes on me as well as the paper map.

  “We should meet here,” I told them. “It has enough space for us all, and we can get organized into units with leaders.”

  Jonas nodded thoughtfully. “I think that’s a good idea. What kind of timeline are you thinking of?”

  “There are only a handful of us here,” I replied, gazing at the map. “And an entire city to go through. Until I came along, what sort of plans did you have for uniting everyone who wants to overthrow Kanata?”

  Jonas spread his hands. “We didn’t. We gathered food, water, weapons, but we hadn’t planned for our war to start this morning.”

  “Caught me flat-footed, that’s for certain,” I said, rubbing the side of my nose with my thumb. “Now that most of the city has gone underground, it’ll be more difficult to talk to potential soldiers.”

  “I believe that there is your answer,” Nigel commented. “If everyone is underground, start informing the citizens that every able-bodied lion, wolf, tiger, and human should meet at that location at a time you designate.”

  I frowned. “And if word of it gets to Kanata?”

  Nigel shrugged with a grin. “Then we kill him if he arrives with any hope to kill you or anyone. We’ll outnumber him, and posted guards will give warning of his approach.”

  Nodding thoughtfully, I gazed at the map. “Having us all together under one roof and Kanata knowing about it makes my gut nauseous,” I said. “There are still explosives lying around if you hunt hard enough. If he were to lob a few of them inside the hall, then our little war is over before it can begin.”

  “Then how do we get the troops we’re going to need?” Jonas asked. “Safely.”

  I studied the map before I answered. “A little misdirection,” I replied. “We spread out, talk to those we can, get volunteers, and tell them to meet at the concert hall. Once they arrive, we send them out the back door to here.”

  I pointed to a spot a half a mile away. “There’s an old warehouse at this intersection that is a mess, but structurally sound. If Kanata thinks we’re meeting in the hall, he’ll wait until most everyone arrives, then attack it.”

  “And if he blows it up, we’re not there,” Jonas cried, laughing.

  “And if nothing happens, then all we did was make folks walk a little more,” I finished.

  Nigel grinned. “I suggest we post a few guards around the hall, make it look like we’re in there.”

  “But no one is to become a sacrificial lamb,” I replied sharply. “I don’t want them killed as a lure for Kanata.”

  “They don’t have to be,” Nigel answered. “They duck inside if they see Kanata or his enforcers. To the enemy, they’re running in as though to warn us, but they go straight out the back.”

  “Wolves would be the fastest,” Jonas added. “They’ll be on four legs already, as we would need their noses and ears to watch for anything anyway.”

  “All right.” I gazed around at the assembled group. “We split up, each take a section of the city. We go out on four legs as we’ll need not just speed but our ability to remain unseen and use our heightened senses. We go in pairs to watch each other’s backs.”

  “I’m going with you, Ragnor,” Skyler said, her tone defiant.

  “I want you to stay here,” Jonas snapped, angrily. “You’re not built to fight, Skyler.”

  “I’m going with Ragnor, and you’re not going to tell me what to do, Papa. I’m an adult, not a cub.”

  Before I could step in and settle the argument, and I had no idea what I would decide, Nigel cleared his throat. “As Gibson and I don’t know the city, and since Ragnor is our beloved leader, we will be his bodyguards.”

  “Wait a minute,” I grumbled, “what makes you think I need bodyguards?”

  “I think it’s a handy idea,” Jonas replied, still scowling at Skyler. “If they’re along with you, Ragnor, then I won’t demand Skyler stay behind.”

  “Not that I would anyway,” she growled.

  “As secret as this place is,” Gibson said, his tone calm, “it’s not safe for anyone to remain alone. Even a tough little lioness, as Skyler is.”

  “Don’t forget the packs that don’t work for Kanata,” Nigel added. “One sniff of her alone and they will get in here.”

  That decided me. “Skyler, you’re with me. We will take the southeast section of town. It’s the furthest away, but it is also the poorest. Those folks took the worst beatings from Kanata and may be the most inspired to join.”

  “When Barney gets back,” Jonas said, pointing toward the downtown area, “we’ll go here.”

  I quickly divvied up the remaining wolves and lions based on portions of the city, and then said, “We are to meet at the concert hall three nights from tonight, just after sundown. Good luck and stay alive.”

  I saw them out the door to begin their work, leaving me with Skyler, Jonas, Nigel, and Gibson. I had no sooner turned away after locking it, my mouth open to speak, when Barney, in his lion form, yelled from the other side.

  “Open up,” he roared, “a carload of enforcers is on my tail.”

  Chapter Seven

  I unlocked the door, permitting Barney in, then shut it again, locking it. “Are we trapped?” I demanded, shifting into my lion.

  “Yes, and no,” he replied, gasping for breath, his tail lashing. “We can escape that way, but it means leaving our stash of food, water, and weap
ons behind.”

  He jerked his head toward the jerry cans, crates, and rifles in the pile. “We can’t let them have those,” I growled, pacing as I thought.

  Outside, the screech of tires and raised voices informed me the enforcers had arrived and knew that Barney had come in here. Some fool jiggled the doorknob, then yelled for whoever was inside to open up. As though we would instantly obey such an order.

  Nigel picked up a rifle, his expression tight and grim. “How about we let them in?” he said, his eyes on Skyler. “Bring them to their deaths.”

  “Are you nuts?” I hissed, glancing from him to the door that would not soon last under the pressure from those outside. “I’m not about to let you use her as bait.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” Skyler replied. “Hide yourselves, and when they see only me, they’ll believe I’m alone.”

  “We fire at them from two sides,” Gibson said quickly, picking up another rifle. “Cut them down before they realize she ain’t.”

  I glanced at Barney. “Are we outnumbered?”

  He nodded. “They are in an SUV, about eight or nine of them. All armed with rifles.”

  “Go.” Skyler switched forms into her trim, dainty lioness less than half my size. “They’ll think I’m helpless and an easy take.”

  “There’s nothing for us to hide behind,” I snapped, growling, seeing little that might conceal us.

  “The rafters,” Nigel answered, pointing. “We cats climb up there with our guns in our jaws, then switch forms. They’ll never look up.”

  The door shuddered under the impact of bodies striking it, trying to break it down. “Let’s go then.”

  Before I grabbed a rifle and as the others scrambled up to the rafters using the crates, I took a moment to rub my muzzle against Skyler’s. “Be careful, baby,” I rumbled. “If you have to, run.”

  “I will.”

  Her rough tongue caressed my whiskers for a long moment before she said, “Go. Another blow will cave that door in.”