Nearby, someone who’d seen it happen gasped.
But all Dallas could see was red.
“H-h-hey, you can’t shift here. There are humans watching,” said one of the cougars dressed in black as they watched Dallas advance on them.
“How did he do that?” another one asked.
There was no easy way to take care of this situation. Either Dallas shifted right here in public, took care of these bastards, and ran for his mate, or he could protect his and his family’s secret and not shift but lose his mate.
If he did this, he’d be even more of an outlaw than he already was. Not just a freak of nature, but a criminal who broke the one rule of shifters.
Mate!
Compared to the thought of any harm coming to Mel, the choice was easy.
Love was more important than what the rest of the world thought. He’d burn everything down just to save her.
The men in front of him backed away in fear, even though Dallas knew they’d had a lifetime of training.
Across the street, Jasper was starting to pick himself up, groaning.
“Don’t let him shift. He’ll ruin everything!” Jasper shouted to his men.
But it was too late.
Dallas’s animal exploded out of him, his body lengthening, his talons and teeth extending and sharpening until he was the shape of his tiger, tall enough to tower over the mercenaries in front of him.
In unison, they reached for guns holstered on their belts, which were probably loaded with anti-shifter poison.
Dallas leaped forward, and with a swipe of one paw, two of the men went flying to the side, squealing in terror.
The other three began to fire, but Dallas jumped to the left, flying through the air as popping sounds filled the area.
Even as several bullets hit their mark, Dallas turned and leaped at the nearest man who’d run for cover behind a parked car. As easy as a house cat batting a ball of yarn, Dallas flipped the car over with a single push, sending it rolling and the man behind with it.
Around him, Dallas could see several humans on the street. Some were screaming in terror. Others stood, watching agape, while others were yanking their phones out to record the sudden bedlam taking place in the middle of their sleepy town.
But Dallas didn’t have time to worry about that as the other two men on his right shifted into their cougar forms, realizing they were as good as dead trying to take on a tiger big enough to make a snack of anything human-sized.
With feral growls, they leaped toward Dallas, their talons glinting in the late-morning light.
Dallas slashed one cougar in midair as it careened toward him, and he felt his claws dig deep as he threw the other big cat off balance. The other attacked low and from the side, snapping with razor-sharp fangs that had probably been filed down to be even deadlier, but Dallas spun and bit down faster, grabbing the cougar by the neck and tossing it aside.
And not a moment too soon, as another cougar, this one bigger than the others, with pale-green eyes, appeared from across the street, charging toward Dallas.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. You’re not allowed to shift around humans,” Jasper snarled.
Ironic, given that the Blackheart Assassins had amassed their wealth and power by doing dirty deeds and breaking all sorts of rules so long as the pay was good enough and they remained a secret.
Maybe some secrets needed to come to light.
Dallas leaped toward Jasper, who barely dodged his attack.
Jasper cackled, then looked over at a man not far from them who was idiotically standing there with his phone out, recording the fight instead of getting to safety.
He turned to another cougar that had appeared at his side. “Kill anyone who’s seeing this. I don’t want them spoiling the surprise.”
The cougar beside him sneered and advanced on the man, pouncing on top of him easily and raising a deadly paw in the air.
Ignoring a slash of Jasper’s claws, Dallas jumped past him and landed on top of the other cougar just as it was about to strike.
Its back exposed, the cougar was easy prey as Dallas’s claws dug deep into its back. Then he tossed the cougar aside, ripping it away from the man who’d been screaming at the top of his lungs on his back.
“Run, dumbass,” Dallas growled at the man, and he scuttled away toward the nearest store he could hide inside.
In the same moment, Dallas felt talons dig into his side, and he spun to face Jasper, who’d attacked while Dallas had instinctively jumped in to save the human.
“Stupid tiger,” he said, smiling.
With a roar, Dallas unleashed on Jasper, not holding back as his left paw raked across Jasper’s face, wiping away the evil grin.
Thankfully, there seemed to be only one other cougar left, who attacked Dallas from behind just as he was about to tear off the rest of Jasper’s face.
With one powerful slash, the other cougar was knocked out cold.
Leaving just Dallas and Jasper.
Jasper cowered backward, confidence suddenly running dry as blood oozed from the marks across his face. “You’re just a tiger. You’re not supposed to be this strong!”
“I’m a lot of things I wasn’t supposed to be,” he said.
Protective. Kind. Gentle.
In love.
“Call off the operation, and I might let you live.”
Jasper frowned. “I can’t. Madsen is here. He’s running the whole thing.”
Madsen? The leader of the Blackheart Assassins? Here?
Dallas had never even met the elusive cougar before, only heard about him.
Whatever was going on, the operation was even bigger than Dallas could have previously thought.
He needed to get to Mel.
In the split second Dallas hesitated, wondering what all of this meant, Jasper leaped, claws extended, throwing himself entirely into one final attack.
With no other choice but to fight, Dallas raised both paws and caught Jasper midair, talons digging into his former mentor’s shoulders and throwing him onto the ground with a thunderous crash that split the asphalt beneath them.
Jasper hissed, writhing and yowling and scratching at Dallas. Before he could get away and hurt anyone else, though, Dallas’s teeth sank into Jasper’s neck, and after a few moments, the big cougar stopped moving.
Dallas looked around, satisfied to see most of the humans had run and that there were no more cougars left wandering Main Street. Just as Dallas let Jasper’s lifeless body slip from his teeth, Reno appeared around the corner of the street in human form, holding his Stetson as he ran faster than any human possibly could.
“I heard the commotion all the way over at the auto parts store! What the hell’s going on?” Reno said, bright-blue eyes full of readiness to fight.
“No time. Going after Mel.”
Reno appraised the situation quickly and saw Jasper’s unmoving body on the ground, shifted back to his human form. “Got it. I’ll round these guys up and tell Harrison. I’m right behind you, buddy.”
Dallas wanted to thank his friend, but he was already leaping up onto the rooftop of the nearest store, jumping from roof to roof until he reached the end of town, hoping to avoid being seen more than he’d already been. Then, as his paws hit the earth, he bolted for the place he knew they were keeping Mel.
For what reason, he could only guess.
But no matter how many mercenaries tried to stop him, no matter how big this was, no matter if it led to shifters being exposed, his only thought was Mel.
His tiger would rip apart anything caught between him and his mate.
21
The instant Mel had arrived at the outskirts of town, she knew something was up.
Sally had greeted her at the door, and then a handful of tall, scary men and women clad in black had appeared from inside the house, grabbing Mel and throwing her into one of several unmarked black SUVs that had been hidden behind the house. Without telling her anything, they’d driven
out into the desert, past where the monster sighting had been, until they’d joined an even larger group of vehicles that were all black, fanned out in a huge semicircle.
Unceremoniously, she’d been dragged into the middle of this… operation and taken directly to the man who seemed to be in charge.
There were dozens, maybe even more than a hundred, of these mercenary-looking people standing at attention, holding weapons that made them look like a private army ready for war out in the middle of nowhere in Texas.
What were they all even here for?
Her thoughts were still on Dallas, though. Worried about what he was doing right now. Worried that, in her hurt at feeling betrayed and lied to by Dallas and his friends, she’d acted impulsively instead of acting with her heart.
After all, she didn’t care that Dallas was a shifter, whatever the implications between her and him were for that. She’d just been so focused on her story, then caught up in the whirlwind romance of being in his arms, just to feel like the rug had been pulled out from beneath her.
If she got out of this alive, she’d tell him she was sorry. Sorry for jumping to conclusions and running away at the first sign of trouble when she should have stayed and figured things out first.
“This is the reporter,” a tall, burly woman with sunglasses said to a nearby associate standing guard as Mel was pushed toward the center of all the hubbub, a black RV that was lined with antennas and other high-tech-looking things.
A tall man with sharp, cruel features who looked to be in his fifties or sixties emerged from the van, wearing a black leather jacket over a black shirt and black pants.
What was with all these people and wearing black?
“Splendid. Our bait has arrived,” the charismatic man said as everyone around him stood at attention in his presence. Whoever he was, he was definitely in charge of all this.
“Should we commence our operation, sir?” asked a man wearing glasses, a digital tablet in his hand.
“Immediately. And get ahold of Jasper. He was supposed to be back by now,” he said with a wave of his hand.
“Right away, sir,” Glasses replied, and several people around him saluted before leaving.
Leaving Mel alone with…
“Pardon my manners. Madsen.” The tall man extended a hand cordially.
Mel felt her insides curl up in fear as his pale-blue irises settled on her, giving her the sense of a predator looking down at prey.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” she asked, not taking his hand.
Nearby, guards were positioned at even intervals.
Madsen chuckled, the sound sending a shiver down to her toes.
Dallas had said there were other shifters after her.
But aside from these people being unnaturally tall and ripped, she hadn’t expected something out of an action movie to show up out here.
And what the heck were they after?
“To the point. I like that. Foolish but direct.” Madsen turned away from her to look out toward the dry prairie in front of them, hands clasped behind his back as he surveyed the scene.
Aside from some funny-looking metal posts that were placed a hundred yards or so away, she could see small drones flying around that looked high-tech. In fact, everything about them seemed high-tech.
“What do you know about basilisks?” Madsen appraised her coolly over his shoulder.
“Basilisks?” She’d heard the word thrown around once or twice, along with dragons and wolves and other things.
“The creatures you seek. Fascinating specimens by all accounts. Utterly unheard of in the shifter world at large, though that’s about to change very soon.”
Mel just listened and kept her eyes peeled for any chance at escaping.
“Interesting to think they’ve been hiding out here for so long. That only those peasants at Dragonclaw even knew they existed, keeping their presence hidden. Do you know what makes basilisks rise from the earth, reporter? Or are your deductive skills as poor as your self-preservation instincts?” His eyes were cold as he watched her.
Out in front, people were running up to the funny, ten-foot posts in the ground, fiddling with them before running back to the circle of black vehicles.
“The rain.” At least that had seemed to be the only common thread she’d heard amongst the locals.
He grinned. “Tell me, how much has it rained the past few weeks?”
She thought about it. There hadn’t been a single drop since she’d been in town. And based on her research, only a few summer storms had passed in the recent months leading up to her arrival.
His gaze lit with superiority that made Mel hate this guy even more than she already did. “Precisely. It isn’t rain but the seismic disturbance that brings the basilisks forth. That and something they’re looking for. After all, who first reported these sightings?”
Mel thought back. She’d heard about it from farmers, but the people who’d actually seen them up close or had even been close enough to take a video were all women in their twenties and thirties.
Madsen just continued. “If my research is correct, which it is, basilisks crave one thing more than anything else. A mate. They sense the presence of nearby beings and emerge from their underground solitude to either challenge potential threats or to seek out their mate. And my data shows they’ve been emerging at record rates. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world knows.” He turned to fully face her, and the excitement in his eyes made him look half-crazy. “There are people willing to pay a lot of money for something like that, which is why I’m here. And you’re going to help me.”
“So you’re just hired muscle?”
“Oh, no, we are professionals. We take our work very seriously. In fact, Dallas was one of us a long time ago. He should’ve been here participating as my right-hand man, not wasting all the money I spent on that dragon blood wallowing in cow shit.”
She bristled at that, both protective of the fact that Dallas worked hard and lived an honest life and realizing suddenly that these people must have been the “family” that Dallas had spoken about.
With family like this, who needed enemies?
“What do you want a basilisk for?” After all, they were huge, mindless, dinosaur-size beasts, by all reports.
“Oh, it’s not for me. I’m just being paid to catch one.” He thought for a moment. “Oh well, since you’re about to be eaten or disposed of by my men, either way, it won’t matter if I tell you. The war is coming.”
“War?”
“Between shifters and humans, of course. After all, shifter sightings are becoming more and more frequent these days. Even you have certainly heard about these. And as much as the people who oversee shifter dealings want this all to remain a secret, there are very rich, very powerful people that believe shifters are superior to humans and that we should no longer have to hide ourselves.”
“And you?”
“I only care how good the pay is. But yes, I think humans deserve to be put in their place. So when we catch this basilisk and unleash it on the largest nearby city, just imagine the horror when the world stage witnesses the absolute, destructive dominance of shifters. The humans won’t even know how to respond except with fealty, I imagine.”
“So you were the ones trying to stop my story?” It was all coming together faster than even her thoughts could keep up.
He scoffed. “No, the double dragons did that. Weak. Hoping their manipulation from the shadows can save the humans under their protection from a conflict that’s already reached the boiling point. I did have that cameraman of yours paid off, though it appears his efforts were fruitless. And then yesterday I realized we could use that pesky little reporter as bait. Two birds with one stone. I just knew it was a matter of time before you did something stupid like leaving the tiger’s side, not that we couldn’t have handled him easily.”
Even Madsen, who seemed to be scared of nothing, had a slight rise in his pitch talking about Dallas.
It made sense. Dallas was a beast in every way, though she wasn’t sure what anyone could do against a small army of mercenaries like this.
She’d been a fool to run away in the first place.
The man with the glasses reappeared suddenly at Madsen’s side. “Everything’s ready, sir.”
“Splendid. Start the agitators,” he replied.
“The agi-whats?” Mel asked, more to herself than anything.
In that moment, while Madsen was occupied talking to his assistant, she saw an opening between two guards behind her that were looking away.
Without waiting, she bolted, hoping she could jump into an unoccupied SUV and make a run for it.
But before she even crossed five steps, Madsen was in front of her, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and restraining her with utter effortlessness as though his hand were an iron vise or something.
The more she learned about shifters, the more they scared her.
“You still have a part to play in this, bait. And though you are… sumptuous, I have a basilisk to catch.” He yanked her backward, and it was all she could do to keep her feet beneath her as he brought her unceremoniously toward the center of it all before shoving her onto the ground. “Walk. Or my men shoot.”
A dozen weapons trained on her, and she looked toward the field with the metal posts. She could see now that they were humming, throbbing with a low pound, pound, pound like the sound of a far-off train or excavation work. Beneath her toes, the hard soil seemed to tremble slightly.
She picked herself up, dusted herself off, and turned toward the field, walking in the direction Madsen was staring.
Her heart was racing, still only half sure what was even going on.
She’d only walked a few dozen steps, all eyes on her, when suddenly, the ground beneath her feet began to rumble.
And then it happened.
A gigantic head the size of a small house exploded from the earth in front of her only fifty or so yards away, throwing dirt and rocks all around the ground beside it. Then a huge claw attached to a stout, scaled leg pushed upward, crashing into the earth as the gigantic thing emerged from the soil.
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