by Selina Woods
Grabbing a rifle in my jaws, I leaped for the crates, then crouched low. Using my hindquarters, I jumped high and seized hold of the wooden rafter, then hauled myself up. Setting the weapon down, observing the others in their human forms spread out among the beams, I changed into my body that had opposable thumbs and picked up my gun. Stepping lightly out with the natural balance of a cat, I raised the rifle to my shoulder and sighted down it.
I had no sooner gotten myself into position when the door crashed open. Skyler gave a squeal of terror, and backed herself into a corner, her tail lashing in her agitation. The enforcers swaggered in, seeing nothing to alarm them save a half-sized lion with nowhere to run.
“Where’s the other dude?” shouted their leader, striding toward her. “Another lion ran in here.”
To answer, Skyler snarled, crouching low, prepared for battle as though she planned to take them all on.
“Ain’t nobody else here except her,” claimed another as they spread out, their semi-automatic weapons at their shoulders, ready.
“Hey, Kanata will be happy to see that shit,” said a shifter whom I knew but whose name I’d forgotten, pointing toward the crates and rifles. “I bet that’s food in those crates. And the guns. He’ll reward us for sure.”
I held my hand up to warn the others not to fire, waiting until they all came into sight. Counting swiftly, I tallied all nine but still waited until every one of them had their attention on Skyler. Once they lowered their guns, ideas of rape on their minds, I’d give the signal to fire.
“Ain’t you a purty little thang,” drawled the familiar shifter. “We ain’t gonna hurt you, baby. Not yet.”
He tittered as the rest of them lowered their rifles or put them on the cement in anticipation of catching her. Three of them shifted into lions, stalking her as they maneuvered themselves to her flanks and front. “Come on,” crooned one. “Surrender, and maybe we’ll let you live.”
My hand swept down.
Gunfire erupted from all around, bullets striking the enforcers down, my finger on the trigger and shooting at anything that threatened my lady love. At the first gunshot, Skyler leaped sideways and bolted fast to the far side of the garage, behind us and well out of range of getting accidentally hit. Below, the shifters screamed, trying to run in any direction that didn’t get them killed, but died anyway.
Light blue smoke filled the garage as we stopped firing, and I heard nothing from below save the dying gurgle of a wolf. “Skyler?”
“I’m fine,” she replied.
I put the safety on the rifle, then let it drop to the cement floor. Changing forms yet again, I leaped down from the rafters among the corpses, padding from one to the other to see if any remained alive. The gurgling wolf fell silent, blood seeping from his gaping jaws. Jonas, Barney, Nigel, and Gibson also hit the ground, inspecting them for any signs of life.
Skyler strolled to me, rubbing her body against mine, and I couldn’t tell from Jonas’s expression if he disapproved or not. “I wasn’t nearly as scared as I thought I’d be,” she said, sniffing the leader.
“Just don’t start thinking you’re invincible,” I replied. “Jonas and Barney, you know the neighborhood. Where can we store their SUV and the cache?”
The two exchanged glances. “How about that house two blocks over?” Barney suggested. “It’s got a garage, and no one lives there. No neighbors, either.”
Changed into my two-legged self, I started to pick up rifles. “We work fast, people. Get as much as we can into the vehicle, the rest we carry.”
Jonas drove the big SUV into the garage where we loaded crates, jerry cans, and the guns into it until it was full, then the excess went onto the roof. Leaving the corpses, Skyler, Barney, Gibson, and Nigel followed Jonas as he drove slowly out of the place and down the alley. My senses and instincts for danger on high alert, I saw nothing and no one as we loped in lion form behind the SUV.
After hiding our cache in the house’s garage, still seeing no one, I said, “We split up. We four will head to the southeast, you two go downtown. We’ll meet up at the hall three days from now at nightfall.”
Jonas rubbed his head against Skyler’s. “You be careful, girl,” he growled. “Anything happens to you and your mother—well, I don’t know what to think she’ll do.”
“I’ll be fine, Papa. You take care of yourself. Mama needs you, too.”
Hiding in the alley, we watched as Jonas and Barney slunk from building to building until they were lost from sight. I observed Skyler staring in the direction where her father vanished, a strange expression on her delicate face, then nudged her shoulder. “He’s a smart lion,” I muttered in her ear. “He’ll be fine.”
She sent me a warm, affectionate look from her golden eyes. “I know.”
“Stay behind me,” I told her. “Nigel, you look after her more than you guard my body.”
“You got it, Ragnor.”
New Orleans truly had become a ghost town. Virtually no one walked, rode a bike, or drove a vehicle through the streets. Only Kanata’s enforcers occasionally drove by, rifle muzzle protruding through open windows, and we always heard the engines in time to hide before they rolled slowly past, searching for us or the missing populace.
For two days and nights, we spoke to shifters and humans through closed doors or at windows, gaining many volunteers as well as listening to the fears of those hiding within who could not send a fighter. I reassured as best I could, calming terrors, promising victory while hoping my promises were not in vain. The people inside these walls were the ones I once preyed upon, yet not a single one condemned me.
“You bring them hope,” Nigel told me as we slunk from alley to alley, shadow to shadow. “They need hope if they are to hold on.”
“And if I fail?” I asked.
“You won’t,” Skyler informed me, her eyes shining. “You fight on the side of good, and good always wins out over evil.”
When she wasn’t looking, I shared a grimace with Nigel. “Naivete isn’t always a bad thing,” he muttered when she couldn’t hear.
“Hope not,” I replied. “Even so, her outlook is a bit contagious.”
He grinned. “I feel uplifted already.”
Despite the encouragement from Skyler’s confidence, the lack of sleep and constant travel under less-than-perfect conditions had me snappish and irritable. My side refused to heal, burning with an ache that never stopped. I constantly fretted over things I couldn’t control, watched for Kanata’s enforcers, and worried over Skyler’s safety. Eventually, by sundown of our second day, she had begun to avoid me, lurking toward our rear and hiding behind Nigel and Gibson.
“Look,” I finally said, “we need a break. We’re hungry and tired. Let’s find a place where we can catch some food and sleep.”
Skyler peeped out from behind Nigel’s huge rump. “There’s a restaurant not far from here,” she said, her voice low. “The people that run it are friendly to my family.”
“Will they let us in?” I asked, trying not to growl.
“If they recognize me, yeah.”
“Lead on then, baby.”
Trotting ahead, yet not forgetting to check for danger, Skyler led us to the back door of a largish restaurant. After she knocked several times, a voice softly called out from behind it. “Who’s there?”
“Skyler,” she replied. “I have some friends with me. We need help.”
The door edged open enough for all of us to slip inside, then it was closed and locked. The doorkeeper turned out to be an aged lion with gray in his hair, but an alert wariness in his and brown eyes. He embraced her with sincere affection.
“Skyler, dear, where is your father?” he asked.
“Gathering rebels, Constantine,” she answered. Then she gestured toward us. “This is Ragnor.”
Instantly, the older lion bowed. “My lord Ragnor.”
“What?” I growled. “I’m no lord and don’t bow, jeez. I’m just Ragnor.”
“You are not
‘just’ Ragnor,” he answered, straightening. “You are the one destined to lead us into the light. Into freedom.”
I stalked past him, my tail lashing. “Where’d you get that shit from?” I demanded, turning back. “There is no damn light, old man. Freedom, maybe, if we’re lucky.”
“Not luck, young Ragnor,” he replied, smiling as he gazed at me. “You are special. I can see it from here. You are destined for greatness.”
“Right now, I’m destined for food and a safe place to sleep,” I growled, knowing I was rude and unable to help it. “Can you provide that?”
Constantine grinned and dipped his chin, apparently unconcerned about my temper. “I certainly can. Come this way.”
This way turned out to be the kitchen where his family and an employee sat around a huge steel table, the odors of cooking roasts and frying chicken making my mouth water. “We were about to dine,” he said with a wide gesture. “We’d be honored if you joined us.”
After introductions were made, Constantine, his mate, Maggie, and the employee, Sergio, served food all around, and I relaxed for the first time in two days. He poured wine for everyone, and I sipped with reservations, knowing that if I got drunk, I’d be no good to anyone if we were attacked. Still, it relaxed me enough that Skyler nudged her way under my arm and snuggled close.
“So, what goes on outside?” Constantine asked as we devoured his excellent cooking.
Not quite willing to give him all the details, I offered up the watered-down version. “Gather as many soldiers as we can, then reclaim the city little by little until Kanata’s enforcers are dead and he is killed or taken.”
“I would like to volunteer my services as a soldier,” Constantine announced, setting his wineglass down. “I am old, I admit, but I can still fight.”
“You should stay here and protect Maggie,” I told him.
“Sergio is strong and loyal,” he replied with a glance at the employee in an old shirt and jeans. “He will protect her.”
I exchanged a sidelong glance with Nigel and received his almost imperceptible nod. “All right,” I agreed reluctantly. “We meet just after sunset tomorrow night at the concert hall on Third.”
He nodded. “Concert hall on Third. I’ll be there. I have an old hunting rifle I can bring.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Just arrive secretly in your lion form. We’ll supply the weapons.”
“Very well.”
I caught him watching Skyler with a small smile playing around his mouth. “I’m pleased for you, girl,” Constantine murmured. “You snagged a good one.”
She smirked as she glanced up to my face and back to Constantine. “I know.”
I yawned, unable to help it, blinking away the tears it wrung from my eyes. “Sorry,” I muttered, “been a tough couple of days.”
“It doesn’t help that your side won’t heal,” Skyler commented.
Constantine perked up, his brows furrowed. “You’re injured?”
“Yeah. My fight with Lawson opened an older wound, and nothing seems to help it.”
He stood up from the table. “I have some experience with treating injuries,” he said. “Mind if I have a look?”
“Not at all.”
Lifting my shirt, I let him, and Skyler unwrap the bandage from my waist, exposing my inflamed and swollen side, the torn edges only partly healed. Constantine bent close, examining it, his frown deepening. “It’s becoming infected,” he told me.
“I did what I could,” Skyler said, her tone defensive.
I squeezed my arms around her shoulders, grinning at her. “It’s not your fault, kiddo; it’s mine for not letting you do what you needed to.”
Constantine straightened. “We can’t afford to let that get any worse. If it does, you’ll be flat on your back and no good to anyone. I have a balm I created that should help.”
He vanished from the kitchen while his mate and the employee rose from the table to start clearing the dishes away. Skyler wiggled out from under my arm to go help, giggling with Maggie and shooting happy glances over her shoulder at me. Nigel gazed at my wound, then shook his head.
“I wish we had time to let you rest up and heal,” he commented.
“I’ll be fine.”
Constantine returned with a capped jar with a pale pink substance inside and a length of rolled-up cloth. I eyed the jar sidelong, wary. “What is it?”
Unscrewing the lid, he explained. “A mixture of herb oils and a thickening agent that will sink the medicine into the wound. It’ll soothe the pain and start killing the infection before it spreads further.”
Though it stung as he spread the stuff liberally over the jagged rip, the pain eased almost immediately. I breathed easier as he wrapped the clean bandage around my waist. “That will have to be changed every day,” he warned me. “I’ll create more balm and bring it and bandages with me to the hall.”
“Thanks,” I replied as he knotted the wrapping. “It feels better already.”
“Good. Now it’s about eight hours till dawn,” he said, heading to the sink to wash his hands. “I suggest you get as much sleep as possible. I have a spare room for you, and couches for Nigel and Gibson.”
The family’s living quarters lay across the dark and silent restaurant, a sitting room with sofas and armchairs, and three bedrooms beyond that. “The doors are reinforced with steel,” Constantine explained as he and Maggie showed Skyler and I to a small bedroom with a double bed inside, “the windows are all barred and shuttered. You can sleep without worry that Kanata’s enforcers can get in.”
Leaving us alone, he closed the door behind him. Skyler sat on the edge of the bed, gazing at me with a sly smile and hunger in her eyes. “Want to?” she asked.
I chuckled, ambling toward her. “I always want to,” I answered, brushing her hair from her shoulders. “But should we? I mean, we could get interrupted.”
Skyler unzipped my jeans and reached inside. “That makes it more challenging.”
Chapter Eight
Her small hand cupped my balls and brought a sharp hiss of pleasure through my teeth. I unbuttoned my jeans and pushed them partway down my legs, freeing my quickly growing shaft. Skyler stroked up and down its length, teasing its head, then took it into her warm mouth. Licking and sucking it, she forced a soft groan from my throat.
“That feels so good, baby,” I muttered thickly, my fingers in her hair.
My pulse pounded, searing heat flooding my lower body, my shaft throbbing with need. Her tongue licked, her teeth gently nibbled, and I thought I might explode right then and there into her mouth. “Where’d you learn how to do that?”
She broke from my erection to grin up at me. “Just listened to my friends talking about doing this.”
“As much as I like it,” I replied, removing my shirt and kicking off my boots and jeans, “I don’t want to explode in your mouth. I want to save it until I am inside you.”
“I’d let you,” she told me as she stood up to undress.
“But I want to bring you pleasure,” I told her, then kissed her sweet lips, my tongue dancing with hers.
I caressed her silken skin, tracing my fingers down her waist to her hips. She shivered in delight, pressing her breasts against my chest, her arms around my neck. I breathed in the scent of her growing arousal, the odor that was uniquely Skyler’s. Cupping her butt cheeks, I pulled her closer to me, my hard rod caught between us.
Pushing her backward, I lowered her to the bed, kissing her throat, her cheeks, her mouth. I knelt over her, toying with her nib, teasing her into greater heights of ecstasy. Moaning against my mouth, Skyler tried to pull me down on top of her, a silent invitation to take her. I resisted, still driving her crazy with lusty need, wanting her fully ready for what I had in mind.
“Roll over,” I whispered.
Obeying me, Skyler turned onto her belly. I lifted her hips and spread her knees wide, exposing her very wet and pink cave entrance. The sight excited me further, but I stille
d the urge to pounce on her and enter in a single thrust. Instead, I inserted two fingers inside her, arousing her with my hand.
“Give it to me,” she hissed, rising onto her hands. “I need it, damn you.”
I wasn’t able to wait anymore. Moving over her, my hands on the bed to either side, I mounted her in a single hard thrust. Skyler gave a low cry that I hoped wasn’t heard beyond the door. Her tight walls stimulated my rod’s every nerve ending, her slick wetness granting me the ability to slide in and out. I licked and nibbled her bare shoulder and neck as I pumped her body, taking her, possessing her. The throbbing in my shaft grew to an almost painful height, and I knew I was close to blasting my seed deep inside.
Gritting my teeth against the imminent explosion, I held on as long as I could. Skyler’s orgasm shook her body, her drawn-out moans and spasming told me I had brought her to her passion before I did. Her inner walls clamped down on my driving shaft, and my climax seized hold of me. Thrusting in deep, my rod spurted my jism as the wave of pleasure washed over me.
Slowing my thrusts as my shaft emptied and grew flaccid, I withdrew from her and flopped onto my uninjured side. Taking her with me, I held her close, hearing her heart thudding in her chest, her hard breathing. “I love you,” I murmured against her hair.
“You better,” she whispered, then turned her head enough to kiss me.
Lions, wolves, a few tigers, as well as humans trickled into the darkened concert hall. Flanked by Nigel and Gibson, Skyler behind me at my insistence, I gave them quick greetings before sending them on through where they were guided to the warehouse. Jonas and Barney slipped in among them.
“We have guards in place all around,” Jonas reported. “Some are hidden, and a few are not. But, Ragnor, I got a bad feeling about this.”
His anxiety mirrored my own. “I hear you,” I murmured. “I do, too.”
Skyler stepped up to my side. “What’s wrong?”
“I wish I knew,” I answered, putting my arm around her.
Ever since the sun set, my gut had been telling me that something was terribly wrong, but I could not put my mind on what it was. “What if we’re being watched?” I asked, my voice low. “Maybe Kanata’s people are seeing us slip ours out of here and into the warehouse?”