Shifters Hunt: Shifters Hunt Romance Boxset Books 1-4

by Selina Woods

  Skyler must have felt my eyes on her, for she turned her head to meet my gaze, her fork suspended from her fingers in midair. “What?”

  “I’m dead,” I went on, thinking my way through this puzzle. “Her father is, too. She narrowly escaped getting caught in the fire. Who would she go to?”

  “Barney.”

  Jonas rubbed his face with his palms and stared blankly into space over his fingers. “She’d go to Barney. He has her family; she’d want to be with her mother. If we’re all dead, she doesn’t know he’s the traitor.”

  “How do we explain how she didn’t get killed in the fire?” Nigel asked. “Won’t he find that suspicious?”

  “Not necessarily,” I answered, still watching Skyler. “If she tells him I sent her on an errand.”

  “No-go.” Nigel shook his head firmly. “It’s clear to everyone you would never let her get far from your side, Ragnor. Yours either, Jonas. It’s also clear that Skyler has grown a backbone recently, and she would stand up to you sending her away for safety.”

  “Is that what I did?” Skyler asked, grinning. “Cool.”

  I munched fries, still speculating on how Skyler might have escaped the burning bar unscathed. “I sacrificed my life to get her out,” I said slowly. “It’s what I’d do anyway.”

  “But the doors were sealed shut,” Nigel pointed out. “Barney and Kanata would know that.”

  I eyed him closely. “Are all the windows at that place barred?”

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  Turning to Jonas, I asked, “Would Barney check her story if Skyler told him I busted out the bars on a window and shoved her out, but was unable to escape?”

  “With Kanata breathing down his neck, yeah, I think he just might.” Jonas glanced at Skyler. “But I don’t like sending her into this, Ragnor. She’s just—”

  “What?” Skyler demanded. “What am I?”

  He managed a tight smile. “My little girl.”

  “Oh.” Blushing furiously, Skyler returned to eating without looking up.

  “I can go there after dark and bust out the bars on a window,” I told them. “Hopefully the embers will have cooled and gone out. Then there’s the evidence to back up her story. Cover her with soot and ashes, maybe burn her hair a little—”

  “You are not burning my hair!”

  “—and send her to Barney. But we can’t tell the troops. They have to believe I’m dead and they’re on their own.”

  “So, yeah,” Nigel went on, sitting back against the seat, his beer bottle in his hand. “We set and bait the trap. Now what? How do we keep Skyler safe, how will we track her, how can we get enough people together to kill Kanata, Barney, and his bodyguards?”

  “That wolf, Jericho, can track her,” I suggested. “We follow on foot, in secrecy?”

  Jonas shook his head. “Not good enough. We have to have a place set and prepared with us and as many rebels as we can hide around the place. One sniff of trouble and Skyler is dead.”

  “I want my mother.”

  Skyler glanced at me, then at Jonas. “I’m grieving, and I have to tell my mother that my father is dead. I’m hysterical. I must be taken to her.”

  “But she and your siblings are at Barney’s house,” Jonas replied with a shake of his head. “That would put more hostages into his hands.”

  “Barney won’t risk the lives of his own family,” I told him. “And it’s what Skyler would do, and Barney would expect it.”

  “True,” Nigel went on, waggling his beer bottle. “We’d have Barney, but not Kanata.”

  “Okay,” I said, folding my arms on the table. “Right now Kanata believes us dead. What will he do?”

  “He still has an armed and organized force staring at him,” Nigel replied thoughtfully. “He can’t know that the army won’t choose a new leader and continue the rebellion, searching for his head. He will be cautious.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “But as it was Barney who enabled Kanata to kill us, Katana will keep him close. How am I doing? Won’t he want to gloat over Skyler? Maybe want to kill her for her crimes of rebelling against him?”

  “But Barney might take her to him, not Kanata going to his house,” Jonas pointed out.

  “And we’re there either way,” I said. “He takes Skyler out, we follow, grab them both. Kanata comes to him; then we kill them both as well as any guards he has with him.”

  Jonas slammed his hand onto the table. “No, dammit,” he snapped. “There are innocents in that house. My mate, my children. Barney may be guilty, but his mate and kids certainly aren’t.”

  “We know that,” I replied gently. “We aren’t going in there full throttle and shoot the place up, Jonas. We’ll come up with a way to get Kanata and Barney out of the house first, keep both families safe. Okay?”

  He blew out a sharp gust of breath and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.”

  “Hey, no worries, dude,” I told him, resting my hand on his shoulder. “It’s all good.”

  Jonas glanced past me to where Skyler nibbled her fries and watched us carefully. “I don’t like risking her, Ragnor,” he said, his voice low, strained. “But if I don’t let her do this, well, it’s like it’s our only chance to get Kanata.”

  “It’s not the only way,” I replied. “I don’t like it, either. I love her, Jonas, with all my heart and soul. But this could be the fastest way to get to him.”

  An hour or so later, well after darkness had fallen, Skyler and I slipped out of the restaurant in our lion forms. “Think you can act hysterical?” I asked as we headed toward the burned-out bar several blocks over.

  Keeping to the shadows, we kept our ears and noses as well as instincts on full alert but found no one around. We heard engines drive past in other parts of the city but saw no signs of life anywhere. Yet, folks huddled behind locked doors and windows, waiting for this particular storm to pass.

  “Yeah, I sure can.”

  She followed on my tail, freezing into place, invisible, at any sudden noise. I forced myself to admit that in her element, Skyler was a natural hunter. “Ragnor,” she murmured. “You know we may never see one another again.”

  I spun around, startling her. “Don’t say that. Not ever.”

  Not backing down an inch, Skyler gazed up into my eyes. “I’m saying that maybe, just because you never know, that we should make love one more time.”

  “I don’t do goodbye sex.”

  She growled low in her throat. “It’s not goodbye sex, stupid. It’s making love.”

  I calmed my anger and my superstitious fears, understood what she meant, but fearing that if I did, I’d never see her alive again. “Skyler,” I said, my voice trailing off.

  “I love you, Ragnor. And if I die in the next few days, I want that to be my last memory of you.”

  I caved in. Though it scared me that this meant I’d never see her again, I also realized she was right. I didn’t want seeing her off into danger as my last memory of her. As we were near some apartments, some occupied but many not, I led her into one. The place was musty and smelled of mouse turds, but we found a unit on the first floor that still held old furniture.

  Pulling the bed’s mattress to the floor, we knelt on it, kissing one another, pulling each other’s clothes off. For an act of making love, it wasn’t all that pleasurable. I was fearful, nervous, but poured all my heart and soul into it. Naked, we held each other, kissing, caressing, feeling our passion, our love, rise to the surface.

  Skyler lay on her back, her legs spread wide, her wet, mound inviting me in. Though she wasn’t fully aroused, I plunged in deep, filling her to the max, and heard her soft, breathy moans in my ear. As I kissed her mouth, her cheeks, her throat, I stroked in and out of her, feeling her nails dig into my back as her passionate excitement grew to consume her.

  I exploded too quickly, blasting my seed into her at the same instant she arched her back into me, her breasts against my chest, crying out my name as she spasmed around my hard, driving rod. I cont
inued to stroke until I had nothing left, then relaxed on her, panting, my fears unabated.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, nuzzling her throat.

  Skyler held me tight. “Sorry for what?”

  “That wasn’t the best loving I’ve ever done.”

  Kissing my throat, she giggled and said, “The best is yet to come.”

  After dressing ourselves, we returned to our lion bodies and continued our journey to the still-smoking bar. “I can’t go in there to push a set of bars out, so I reckon I’ll have to pull.”

  The bars on the window we selected proved stubborn, but in the end, it gave away and clattered to the ground in the alley. We both froze, listening for the sounds of voices or footsteps that might indicate we had been heard. When nothing happened, I broke the rest of the glass out, then took her hand with a small grin.

  “Now you have to get dirty.”

  “Just don’t burn my hair.”

  Picking up still warm ashes, I smeared them on her face, hair, clothes, and exposed skin. “All right,” I muttered, “you look like you just came through a fire and you stink of smoke. Now what are you going to do?”

  “Let him find me. Act dazed, very confused, get hysterical. I need my mother, I cry for you and Papa, filled with grief, act like I don’t have a brain in my head.”

  “Excellent, baby.” I stroked my hand down her filthy hair. “Now you can’t let yourself be seen by anyone except Barney. Head toward your house but get into the shadows if anyone else comes near. He will most likely go there to check on his family as well as yours, and if you’re close, he’ll find you.”

  “I know.”

  Skyler stood on tiptoe to kiss me. “It’s not goodbye, Ragnor,” she whispered. “It’s until I see you again.”

  “Until I see you again.”

  I watched as she shifted to all fours and vanished into the night. My heart ached to see her leave, fearless, my own terrors for her filling my soul. Though formal and structured religions had vanished alongside governments, I had some instruction when I was little that there was a higher power watching and guiding us. I shifted to my lion and headed back to the restaurant, trying to find the words to pray for her safety.

  Not sure if I said the words right, I nevertheless felt better for having said them. I prowled through the night, dodging passing cars that held Kanata’s enforcers, and returned to the restaurant. Nigel let me in, Jonas behind him, anxious, scared, gazing at me as though I brought him news of her death.

  “She’s off,” I told him, shifting into my human. “If anyone can pull this off convincingly, Skyler can.”

  Jonas sank to a cot, his head in his hands. “She’s just so damn little.”

  “She’s a little powerhouse of guts and brains,” I told him. “Let’s try to get some sleep and go out before dawn to round up some help.”

  Lying on the cot, I tried to fall asleep and rest, for the next few days were going to be rough. Yet, what little sleep I got was filled with nightmares of Skyler screaming in agony, which woke me instantly. Half sitting up on my cot, I saw Jonas sitting near the window, gazing out. “Trouble?” I whispered.

  Glancing at me, he shook his head. “Can’t sleep. But it’s close to dawn, anyway. Maybe we should get going.”

  It seemed that at that hour, even Kanata’s enforcers slept, for we heard and saw nothing of them. We crossed the city toward the neighborhood that encompassed The Den and Barney’s house, as well as Jonas’s. Rebels patrolled openly at that early hour, an armed human and a wolf shifter strolling along the sidewalk. I stood bold and in the open as the human aimed his rifle at me.

  “It’s Ragnor,” exclaimed the wolf. “Put it down, damn you.”

  The man quickly slung the rifle over his shoulder. “Sorry, Ragnor. We weren’t expecting you.”

  “Where’s your commander?” I asked. “It’s urgent that I talk to him now.”

  “He’s over this way,” the wolf said, turning and glancing over his shoulder in invitation for us to follow. “Should be getting up right about now.”

  The commander, a lion named Methias whom I remembered from that crazy night when he was selected, was indeed up. The house he had picked to occupy was still dark, but he brewed coffee for us all and listened as we told him what had happened, and that Barney was our traitor. He didn’t judge, but heard me through, then asked, “Tell me what you need, Ragnor.”

  “I need every shifter you’ve got,” I said. “Wolves, lions. Leave the humans to maintaining their patrol. Quietly, and I mean quietly, surround Barney’s house and get in as close as possible without being seen. We four will be with you.”

  He nodded briskly. “I have seventeen shifters, and that includes three tigers, and twelve humans after Casey’s recruits arrived. That’ll be twenty-two of us.”

  “More than I had hoped. Please, call them together right now and get them moving to this address.” I pushed the paper that held Barney’s address on it toward him. “We’ll head there now, as Skyler could arrive at any minute.”

  “You got it, Ragnor.”

  Dawn tinged the eastern skyline pink as I led Jonas, Nigel, and Gibson toward Barney’s house. For obvious reasons, no lights glowed through windows, but my keen hearing caught voices from within it. People were up and about, yet I could not discern Skyler’s among them. Nor did I hear Barney’s, either. With Jonas, I worked my way among the wild hedges that grew near the house even as Nigel and Gibson found places to hide behind a pile of rubble from the house’s collapse years before.

  Lying silent, still, I caught rapid glimpses of other lions, of wolves, the quick flash of stripes as Methias and his team found places among the trees, the undergrowth, the rubble, as well as behind neighboring houses. I half wondered if I’d made a mistake and that Barney’s sense of smell would root out the forces waiting to kill him, but it was too late to back out now or change the plan.

  I felt Jonas’s paw touch me lightly. I shot a glance toward him, then followed his gaze.

  Barney walked in the open toward his house, his arms comfortingly around a filthy, sobbing Skyler. She, in her human form, rested her head on his shoulder as she wept, and even I couldn’t tell they were faked. My heart leaped toward triumph, then I forced calmness into my galloping pulse, freezing into place amid the shadows and the branches. He passed us by without seeing or sensing our presence and entered his dark home.

  Chapter Twelve

  Counseling myself to patience, I waited, listening. Though I couldn’t hear specific words, I did hear Skyler’s weeping voice, listened to her mother’s wails, someone else trying to offer comfort. I caught Jonas’s eye, recognized his grief in being forced to cause his mate to mourn his alleged loss, and also a hint of malicious joy. We have that son of a bitch his eyes said.

  My own returned my response, on a slow blink: patience, we sit still. Fortunately, lions were created to wait long periods of time in concealment, and thus we did so with little hardship. I scented coffee and cooking emanating from the house, the sound of weeping lessened, and shortly after, Barney emerged. I stared Jonas down as he clearly wanted to leap from hiding and rip his friend to pieces, but in the end, he submitted to the alpha male within me and didn’t move.

  Barney, unaware his house was surrounded, strode quickly away to the street and his truck, and drove away. Daring to whisper, I said, “What’ll you bet he’s off fetching Kanata?”

  “Let’s hope so,” Jonas whispered back. “I have a cramp in my right hind leg.”

  I bared my teeth in an effort to not laugh. “Stretch it quick. He may not be gone long.”

  A soft rustling in the brush and a long sigh indicated Jonas had relieved the cramp. “Ah, better. I’m good now.”

  “Now that we have this chance,” I muttered, “what would make a handy distraction? Get Barney and Kanata out of the house?”

  “Anything loud,” Jonas hissed back. “A pair of wolves fighting might draw them out without alarming them.”

  Raisin
g my voice slightly higher, I called, “Nigel?”

  “What?”

  “Spread the word. If Kanata comes back with Barney, we’ll need a pair of wolves to fight, raise a ruckus, draw them out.”

  “One wolf fight coming up.”

  Returning to our silent waiting, I watched and listened, mentally planning a strategy. Obviously, Barney knew where Kanata was, and perhaps went there to inform him of their success in cutting off the rebel snake’s head. But would he bring Kanata back with him? Why didn’t he take Skyler? It struck me that if Skyler refused to go, forcing her in front of the families might be too much if he wanted to maintain the illusion of being a good guy.

  I wondered if he might even think himself able to insinuate himself into the rebellion’s higher-ups again, especially if there was no one alive to accuse him of working for the wrong side. From the corner of my eye, I caught Jonas in a yawn, and it nearly spread to me. The day warmed up uncomfortably, and even with being in the shade, not being able to move made me feel smothered by the humidity.

  Within an hour, Barney’s truck pulled up to the curb, and I involuntarily tensed, my adrenaline pumping. Jonas growled low in his throat, but I didn’t take my eyes off the other person getting out of the vehicle with Barney. Other vehicles also pulled up, four enforcers piling out with rifles in their hands.

  At Barney’s side, Kanata strolled toward the front door with an easy confidence that almost had me growling.

  The two went inside the house while the guards lounged, smoking cigarettes and talking in low voices. Inside the house, I listened for any sign that Kanata was planning to harm Skyler but heard only unagitated talk and more crying. I hope she can maintain the façade of a grieving, terrified girl, for if she can’t, Kanata will kill her.

  Minutes crawled by, and nothing happened, save the weeping and talk continued.

  The enforcers leaned against the car they came in, laughing. They had, either arrogantly or foolishly, set their guns at the front of the vehicle. The smoke in their noses prevented them from scenting the seven big lions and two tigers stalking them on four legs from behind the car. I doubted anyone from the house could see them, as the kitchen where Kanata and Barney stood in faced the back.