by Selina Woods
I leaned my head back against the seat and shut my eyes. “Morgan?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Jae screamed with both shock and joy when I climbed from the truck, almost knocking me over in her haste to hug me. “Declan,” she sobbed. “I was so scared you were dead.”
“Hey, babe,” I muttered thickly against her neck. “It’s okay.”
She would have held me and cried all night except for Chad. “Jae, we have to go,” he told her. “You and Declan get into the plow with Morgan.”
Like a field marshal barking orders to his troops, Chad got families and children into the line of vehicles. Shifter males with the rifles got into passenger seats as women got behind the wheels. I urged Jae up into the plow’s cab first, then climbed stiffly up behind her. Morgan had already started the engine.
Leaning out the cab window, he yelled out, “We ready?”
“Go, go, go!”
Letting out the clutch, Morgan shifted the transmission into first and drove the snowplow down the street. I leaned out my window, and looked out, seeing the long line of cars and trucks following. Yet, thus far, there was no sign of Raphael’s goons.
“Tell me how you rescued me,” I said as Morgan shifted the big vehicle into a higher speed, Jae clasping my hand.
“We went to the bar,” he told me, glancing at the side mirrors as he pressed the accelerator. “Got Chad. He organized a bunch of the shifters as the families headed to Porter’s shop. We knew Raphael would have taken you to his house. We went to get the supplies and guns, loaded the trucks, then armed all the guys. Those boys took out a shit-load of goons, I’m telling you.”
“So, you went in to find me.”
Morgan grinned. “Only to find you standing there, ready to slit some throats.”
Though it hurt like hell, I chuckled. “You were right. Raphael’s arrogance worked against him. He didn’t think I was a threat to him at all.”
“How bad are you hurt?” Jae asked.
“I’ll be all right,” I told her.
Morgan left the city and drove fast onto the entrance to the freeway south. “There’s a rifle down on the floor there,” he said grimly. “You may want to pick it up, be ready.”
I did and awkwardly pointed the business end out the window. “What’s the plan?”
“It’s all ready to fire,” Morgan said, “just pull the trigger. We’re gonna ram the roadblock with this plow, bust right through those shits.”
Up ahead, lights gleamed in the absolute dark as we bore down on the enforcers. I half stood, socking the gun to my shoulder and taking aim at the cars blocking the road. Tiny flames broke the night as the goons fired their rifles, bullets pinging harmlessly off the heavy steel plow.
“Shoot those assholes!”
I fired the gun. The recoil hurt my shoulder something awful, but I kept on firing, seeing the goons duck down behind the protection of their cars. I glanced over at Morgan. “Don’t they see we’re gonna blast right into them?”
“Keep shooting,” he ordered.
I obeyed him, firing the rifle. One of my shots must have hit a fuel tank, for an explosion rocked the darkness, red and orange flames boiling upward. Morgan downshifted, speeding the plow up even as shadows fled the roadblock and the flames. Rifles spat bullets at us, striking the steel, the plow’s huge dump bed behind us.
“Here we go,” he yelled.
The plow struck the cars head-on, smashing them like toys, forcing the remains to the sides. Another gas tank exploded, splitting the night, the flames hot on my face as I drew my head back inside the cab. Dimly, I heard screams and shouts, but we were past them before they fully registered in my ears.
Sticking my head out again, I looked back, seeing the cars and trucks behind us all intact, still following us. Rifles barked out of windows, and whether they hit anyone, it didn’t matter. We had escaped Cheyenne and Raphael. Those enforcers we left behind would no doubt kill one another until another leader surfaced to take control.
I grinned at Jae, and she squeezed my hand. None of that mattered.
We were free.
Epilogue
Unerringly, my blood took me straight to her.
We rolled slowly down the street, a long column of cars and trucks following the plow, and me. I stared in astonishment at the clean city, the smiling people free from gang rule, the simple prosperity. There were no guns in sight, no enforcers shaking down the civilians.
“Look at this place,” Jae breathed. “Everyone looks so happy.”
“This is a big town,” Morgan muttered. “How in the hell do we find your mother? Ask for directions?”
“Keep going straight,” I answered. “Go down three blocks and take a right.”
He glanced at me but obeyed.
People and children stopped what they were doing to stare as we drove like a parade through the streets, me giving Morgan directions to a woman and a place I had never seen before. My guts tied in knots, I had him pull to the curb in front of a grocery store.
“How do you know this is it?” Morgan asked, cutting the engine.
My mouth dry, I replied, “I don’t know. But I’m right.”
Still in pain, but mostly healed from my torture, I jumped from the cab and helped Jae down. Chad and the other drivers also parked, the families emerging from cars, staring at the people who stared at them, a small crowd forming around us all.
Three people stepped out of the store, but my eyes looked only at the woman. I gulped, more afraid than I had ever been in my life. Perhaps in her forties, she was still slender and beautiful, a few strands of gray in her red-gold hair. A tall man with black hair streaked with gray held her hand and eyed me with bright blue eyes. The third guy was big, menacing even, and instantly I knew he was an enforcer. He had the same look they all did.
Not quite knowing what to say, I stepped toward them, afraid I was wrong and terrified I was right. “Mother?”
A tremulous smile crossed her face. “My son. You came home.”
The next thing I knew, I was in her arms. I breathed in her scent, the memory of her wafting across my mind. “Mom.”
Tears filled her eyes as she let me go, but held onto my hand. “This is Axel, my mate,” she said, gesturing toward the tall shifter. “And this is your brother, Ragnor.”
Brother?
The big dude suddenly grinned, and he didn’t look mean after all. “My little brother,” he said, laughing, and embracing me in a hard hug.
When Ragnor released me and stepped back, I gestured toward Jae, bringing her forward. “This is Jae. We’re going to be mated. This is Morgan, who protected me.”
My mother gazed from me to Jae and Morgan. “Welcome, Jae, Morgan.” Her stunning eyes turned to me again. “My son, my youngest child, welcome home.”
Shifter Challenge
(Shifters Hunt)
Book III
Story Description
Shifter Challenge: (Shifters Hunt) Book 3
by
Selina Woods
Lions might be the kings of the jungle, but in post-apocalyptic Miami few want to claim the bloodied throne. When Logan the lion shifter is forced to step up, he must leave his dreams of having a mate and family in the past. But Kiana is beautiful, kind and full of hope. Love could redeem them both, or form a dangerous dent in Logan’s armor.
Chapter One
I gazed calmly at the thug in front of me. He sneered back, his upper lip curling as he leaned toward me, threatening, as though I wasn’t three inches taller and almost a hundred pounds heavier. Kell, the thug, had the authority of the city’s gang lord behind him, and unless I tolerated his nasty attitude, I’d have more trouble than I wanted.
“This ain’t enough, Logan,” Kell snapped. “You owe more.”
“I have an agreement with Duke,” I replied, stopping my hands from clenching. “Half at the first of the month, half two weeks later. You know I
do.”
Kell twitched as though wanting to leap over the counter and go for my throat. But as he was a skinny wolf shifter and I was a lion, far bigger than he was; he didn’t quite dare. Not without backup. I lowered my voice and leaned forward until our noses almost touched.
“I’m guessing you plan to keep the extra, Kell,” I growled softly. “I think Duke might be very interested to hear of that.”
My partner in the grocery business stepped into Kell’s line of sight—also bigger than he was, also a lion. “Trouble, Logan?” Derek asked.
Kell recoiled, his sneer slipping, and he glanced around the store. A few shoppers had halted in their browsing of the produce and meats to stare, and while they’d never get involved in a fight, Kell knew he didn’t stand a chance against two lions. And if Derek and I proved he was trying to extort for himself, we could kill him, and Duke would shake our hands in thanks.
“No,” I replied easily. “Kell knows better than to start trouble with citizens who pay their dues. Right, Kell?”
Kell nodded in a jerking motion, clearly unnerved not just by our unvoiced physical threat, but also by the vague one in my words. Duke never tolerated his enforcers harming or killing the folks who paid promptly, and he’d kill any enforcer personally who tried to get above himself and steal to line their own pockets and not his own.
“Right,” Kell answered, licking his lips and taking a step back. “I’ll be going now.”
“Have a nice day,” I said politely as he turned and ran from our small market.
Derek shook his head as Kell departed through the front door. “What’s with these guys? They think the big guy won’t find out about their pilfering?”
“I think that’s exactly it,” I replied, keeping a watchful eye on a couple of kids who watched me just as closely as they pretended to peruse the rows of candy in front of them. “They know Duke has his hands full in a city this big. He can’t control everyone.”
Derek followed my gaze, observing the kids’ suspicious behavior, and replied, loudly, “Yeah, I’ll head to the back and stock the shelves.”
His hands in his pockets, Derek ambled away as I smiled at two matrons who came to pay for their small baskets of items. I took their cash and put their groceries in bags even as Derek peeked around an aisle, half-hidden, behind the kids.
They must have felt confident with me busy and Derek presumably gone, for I watched from the corner of my eye as they grabbed a few candy bars and stuck them in their pockets. Derek withdrew as the kids casually inspected another shelf of soda, then wandered toward the door.
Derek pounced just as they reached it.
Grabbing each of them by the backs of their necks, he lifted both easily and growled into their panicked expressions. “Thieves,” he snapped, his eyes flat. “You know what we do to kids who steal around here?”
The matrons, their groceries in their arms, walked toward the door and paused. “Are you going to gut them, young lion?” one of them inquired politely, and I smothered a grin.
“That was on my mind, yes, ma’am,” Derek replied with a straight face.
“Once you do,” the other went on, “hang them from a post with their entrails out. Their parents need to know what became of them.”
“What an excellent thought,” Derek told them, still not smiling. “Thank you, ladies.”
With identical sniffs of disdain directed at the little juvenile delinquents, who by now had grown quite pale, the two matrons glided from the store. “Don’t kill us,” pleaded one as I stepped around the counter to stride over.
“Please don’t,” cried the other, tears leaking from his eyes. “We’re sorry. We won’t do it again.”
“No,” Derek said sternly, “you won’t. You can’t steal if you’re dead.”
I yanked the candy from their pockets as they struggled and wept, clearly terrified we truly would slaughter them and hang them from a light post as an example. I glared into their streaming eyes.
“What are your names?” I demanded.
“T-tony,” said the dark-haired kid dangling from Derek’s left hand. “He’s my brother, Albert.”
“Now, why shouldn’t we kill you, Tony and Albert? Stealing is a terrible crime around here.”
The pair cried harder, unable to answer. Derek caught my gaze and rolled his eyes slightly with a small jerk of his chin toward the door. He opened his hands and dropped them to the floor, where they promptly scrambled to their feet. Escape was still impossible, as our large bodies blocked the way out.
“We’ll not kill you this time,” I growled, bending over with my hands on my knees to look them in their terrified faces. “But you are going to take me to your parents so I can inform them of your criminal behavior.”
Tony wiped his eyes on his sleeve and sniffled. “Our parents are dead,” he muttered. “We live with our sister, and we don’t have much money.”
Though I made certain it didn’t show on my face, sympathy stirred within me. I straightened and caught the same emotion in Derek’s dark brown eyes. “Come on,” I ordered them gruffly. “I’m going to have a chat with your sister, and you’ll take me to her.”
To make sure they couldn’t run off and escape down an alley or vanish into the mix of pedestrians on the sidewalk, I kept my hands on each of their shoulders. “What happened to your folks?” I asked as we walked.
“Our Pa was killed for fishing without permission,” Albert answered, his tone sullen.
“We needed to eat,” Tony added. “It wasn’t fair.
No, it certainly wasn’t. “And your Ma?”
“She got killed by the night hunters,” Tony told me, kicking at a rock. “Last month.”
As if Duke’s thugs weren’t dangerous enough, the packs of roaming shifters that ruled the streets after dark fell were far more deadly. Though the gang leader tried to stop them, had his enforcers patrol the night, and he hanged any he caught, the shifters continued to prey on anyone they could catch.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it. No doubt she was raped and tortured before they killed her.
“Yeah,” Tony answered. “But that won’t bring them back, will it?”
“No, kid,” I said slowly. “It won’t.”
The pair lived in a tiny house several blocks over from the main drag where the store was. It didn’t have too much damage from the old wars and had a cared-for appearance despite the sagging roof and the mold stains on the siding. Albert unlocked the front door with a key from his pocket and yelled, “Kiana!”
I shut the door with my foot, keeping my hands on both boys as a light, feminine voice called, “What?” from another room.
“Someone to see you,” Tony replied, trying to shrug out from under my grip.
Quick footsteps headed toward me, and the boys’ sister emerged into my sight. My breath caught in my throat, snagged there as though not knowing if it should go out or come back in. I know I stared, and couldn’t seem to shunt my eyes from her.
Tony and Albert’s sister was gorgeous.
Small, yet firmly muscled, she moved with the lithe grace that only a hunting lioness might achieve. Her sky-blue eyes stared back at me while her hand lifted to her coal-black hair to swipe a tendril from her perfect face. As she was clad in a short uniform that exposed her very pretty legs, I guessed she worked at a restaurant.
“Who are you?” she asked, her glance flicking from her brothers to me and back again.
“Logan,” I answered, my mouth dry. “From the L and D Market. I caught your brothers stealing.”
Kiana set her hands to her hips and scowled. “Why did you bother bringing them back?” she demanded. “You should have just gutted them.”
Both kids cringed, and I stifled a laugh. “As it was their first offense, I thought to bring them home and face your punishment.”
Still glaring, she snapped, “Isn’t there enough stealing in the world? We are supposed to be civilized, and good folks don’t steal from other good folks.”<
br />
“The bad guys steal from us,” Tony retorted, not looking up.
“And that makes them lower than us. Where would we be if we stooped to their level?”
Neither one of them answered or shuffled their feet. Kiana sighed. “We’ll continue this later. I have to get to work.”
“Will you bring home dinner?” Albert asked, finally looking up.
“Yeah. Neither of you are to leave this house. Got it?”
With more respect than I thought they’d accord her, Tony and Albert both murmured, “Yes, ma’am,” and walked past her to vanish into another room.
“I’m sorry about that,” Kiana told me, her beautiful eyes on me. “They were raised better, but with both our parents gone, they have been running a little wild.”
“I imagine raising them yourself hasn’t been easy.”
She smiled wryly, and my heart turned several somersaults in my chest. “No, it hasn’t. I barely make enough to feed us and rely on the diner’s leftovers to bring home to them. Speaking of, I have to get to work.”
“May I, uh, walk you there?” I asked, unwilling to be separated from her just yet.
Suspicion stared at me from her slightly narrowed eyes. “I know you are decent enough to bring the boys home like that,” she said slowly, “but I don’t know you.”
“True enough,” I replied with a smile. “I was simply hoping you might want to.”
Kiana glanced from me to where the kids vanished, clearly indecisive. Then her own shy smile emerged. “What the hell. If you intended harm, you’ve had many opportunities by now.”
I opened the door for her and made sure it would lock when I shut it. “I’m just an average guy,” I told her as I closed it behind us. “I work, and Duke takes what I have.”
She snorted, then glanced around the silent houses to make certain we weren’t being overheard. “I know how that goes,” she murmured as we strode toward the main avenue. “I could afford to feed them better if he didn’t take what little I earn.”