by Thorne, Elle
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Chapter One
Shit. Cy bit back the curse. Shifters had exceptional hearing, and he didn’t need to be found, so silence was his motto, silence and stealth, as he crossed through territories without permission. He glanced at the sliver of a moon, casting barely enough light for humans to see, but more than enough for a tiger.
Cyric Villa—Cy to those who knew him really well, which weren’t many at all—was out of hunter’s block, which was the reason for the word shit that he had to bite back and couldn’t even let out as a means to release some pressure. He threw the empty block container into a dumpster and stayed close to the alley’s wall, his shifter senses on high alert in case anyone out there should be hunting.
They wouldn’t be hunting him particularly, since no one should know he was in the area. But shifters patrolled their territory, always on the lookout for trespassing shifters. He felt confident the Tiero would do no less for their territory.
Whether he was ready or not, now that he’d run out of hunter’s block, as soon as the amount he’d just taken wore off, every damned shifter in a not-so-small radius would know he was here. They’d scent him out and hunt him the way dogs did foxes. Images of baying dogs ran through his mind.
Double shit. Running out of block would slow his mission big time because he’d have to be far more cautious and proceed much more slowly. The only thing that would be worse than slowing down would be getting caught. That would bring him to a complete halt.
That didn’t bode well for him at all. Or for Petra. Especially not for Petra. The last thing he needed was to be caught. By his estimation, he was now deep in the heart of Tiero territory. He didn’t know much about the Tiero tribe; they were too far south of his home for him to stay regularly updated. He’d spent more time avoiding shifters than looking into them or hanging out with them. If he hadn’t been a shifter, he’d hunt all of them down. He had a damned good reason to.
As for the Tiero, he’d heard they were decent—not ones to cause trouble and they kept their noses clean. He was Houston-bound, but since the last place his sister had been seen or heard from was Dallas, he had to check Dallas out first. Dallas—Tiero territory. Home of the American branch of the Tiero family.
Cy had heard rumors that made him wonder if Houston was where he’d find his sister. He pushed those rumors out of his mind because they gave rise to images of his sister, dead, mangled, and beaten. He clenched his jaw. He’d seen dead and mangled loved ones already. He had no interest in seeing that again.
His tiger growled a warning signal in Cy’s mind. Alarmed, concerned, and unwilling to be caught off-guard, he shifted into his tiger with an expedient and silent rush of adrenaline. He was close to his tiger. They were like two in the same skin. He knew some shifters didn’t do so well with theirs, but Cy had never had a problem, not since he was eighteen and he’d shifted so his tiger could help him save Petra’s life. His tiger was more than Cy’s alter ego. He was his best friend.
He leapt, taking them onto a low rooftop. He ran across that one and leapt to a taller building. For more than an hour, Cy traveled rooftop to rooftop across the Dallas Metroplex, scenting and listening, hunting for any sign of Petra.
Something. There should have been something here. Petra had called him from Dallas on the day she was supposed to return home. There should be a sign of her. He was close to the hotel her group had been in. Surely there should be something near here.
Thirty minutes later, after canvassing an even wider perimeter, he saw the large red lettering announcing the hotel she’d stayed at a city block away.
He leapt from one building to the next then padded across scaffolding.
He was brought up short when his tiger froze then snarled.
Cy paused, scented, listened, and looked about him. Going from one edge of the roof to another, he scanned the streets and buildings below. What had his tiger sensed? What was causing his alarms to go off and the fur on the back of his neck to stand up? He snarled.
Shifters. He scented shifters. He inhaled deeply, his tiger nostrils flaring. Damn. Cy surveyed escape routes. He could head in the other direction then double back to see if he could find Petra’s scent.
He slipped behind a large air conditioning unit then hunched low in the shadows. He scented again, trying to isolate and count the number of shifters he could find. He counted at least a half dozen. All males. All tigers. What the hell? Was he near Tiero headquarters? Why such a strong concentration of shifter scents in one area?
He crouched lower. So many shifters, and he’d be willing to bet none of them would be friendly. Why would they be? It wasn’t like he’d asked if he could cross into their territory. It wasn’t like he’d told them he was a friendly. Why should they trust him? For all they knew, he meant them harm.
He definitely needed to slip away, unseen and unheeded, and return when the area was a little less congested with shifters.
He rose from his hiding place behind the massive air conditioning unit.
Fuck!
He dropped back down. Oh, hell. They were on the rooftop with him. He was surrounded, and there were at least eight of them. All tigers. All large, and they carried themselves with a predatory military bearing.
He calmed his pulse, hoping they wouldn’t pick up the heartbeat of someone who had adrenaline rushing through his system with the force of a rocket booster.
He needed a plan, quick, and it needed to be a good one. Yeah, fat chance of that on such short notice. His instinct was to fight them off, but he was a realist. The odds were against his coming out of this alive. He threw something together in his mind and prayed there’d be an opening when he got to the other side of the roof. All he needed was one solid opening between the shifters and he could leap to the same roof he’d just come from.
His muscles tight, his legs ready, he sprang from behind the AC unit, leapt over the first shifter, his hind feet skimming the shifter’s head, then he pounced to the concrete, sprinted two quick strides and leapt again.
Except Cy hadn’t counted on the largest tiger he’d ever seen—almost as large as Cy—appearing out of nowhere and striking him midair, knocking him to the concrete with a force that shot the air out of his lungs.
Cy didn’t stay on the concrete long. Remaining in his tiger form, he jumped up and bared his teeth at the other shifters.
His options to leave unscathed and without hurting anyone had been taken away.
Only one plan remained.
Fight.
Chapter Two
Lila slipped out of Sanctuary, the tiger enclosure housing an assortment of tigers on view for club patrons. The thing the patrons didn’t know was all the tigers were shifters.
Sanctuary, a glass and metal bar enclosure, took up the whole forty-third floor of Tiero Tower One—one of two side-by-side high rises owned by Lila’s family, the Tieros. Five glass-covered walkways connected the buildings, allowing occupants to travel from building to building without venturing outside. The Tiero Towers ranked amongst the most extravagant and coveted buildings in Dallas. Partiers from far and wide made After Dark a must-see on their visits to the Dallas Metroplex.
She headed toward the door to After Dark, tugging on her green evening dress, smoothing wrinkles out. Whenever she shifted into her tigress skin then shifted back, her clothing was always a bit askew, as if she’d been getting it on in the backseat of someone’s car. She’d slip into the dressing room to make sure she didn’t look too rumpled.
I should be thankful. What if she ripped through her clothing and was naked when she shifted back into her human form? Okay, yeah, that would suck. Completely.
Almost nine. Almost opening time. She’d make it just in time for Veila to run the staff meeting. Vax normally ran the meetings, but he was in New Orleans with Callie. A smile drifted across Lila’s face as she thought of how happy her half-brother was now that he had Callie as a
mate. Not that he was ever sour; he’d just had a habit of brooding and keeping to himself.
Lila shrugged. It wasn’t like women didn’t like brooding, but Vax had been impervious to women—until Callie, a curvy human grad student, had come along. He’d fallen head over heels for her, and he’d risked infuriating the Tiero tribe. He’d broken the code, had taken her—a human—as a mate, and now he was out of town.
When word got back to their father and some of the elders in the tribe, she knew there’d be a flight or two headed toward the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The elders would have the Tiero Towers as their destination, and Vax’s ass as their target.
Vax was braced to do battle. He’d couple-bonded and marked Callie as his, and he’d defend that to the death. Or to his resignation. Whichever the elders thought was needed.
If there was a battle, Lila knew Veila would side with her brother. That was to be expected; they were full brother and sister. Lila and Sophie were Vax and Veila’s half-sisters and would be expected to side with their father.
I’d better ask Sophie how she feels about this. Lila was much more inclined to side with Vax. The Tiero Code that denied shifters the right to mate with humans was archaic, and she had no idea what premise it had been based on, anyway.
Her phone vibrated on her hip. She detached it.
Veila.
Lila engaged the call with a quick tap on the screen. “Hey, I’ll be there in a second. You ready for the meeting already? I thought I had a few minutes.”
“No. Something’s come up. Gavin called.”
Gavin, Lila’s ex. An ex who hadn’t lasted long, but she had to see him practically every day, since he was the head of Tiero security.
Veila’s tone made something in Lila’s stomach tighten and turn like a winch.
“I need you to do something,” Veila continued.
Lila wondered what it was. Had a hostess not shown up? Or a waitress? “No problem. Go ahead.”
“Gavin said there’s a stray shifter in our territory. He wasn’t too far from Tiero Towers.”
“Okayyyy.” So what’s that mean to me? Lila waited for Veila to tell her what she needed from her.
“With Vax out of town, I don’t want to leave After Dark. Can you take care of it?”
“Sure.” Well, it would be nice to get out of the club for a change. The idea of doing something totally different was cool. Though the idea of seeing Gavin didn’t really thrill Lila too much.
“He’s at the warehouse next to the recycling center.”
“I’ll go right now.” Lila looked down at her evening gown. She wasn’t exactly dressed for that part of town, but what the hell.
“Call Gavin for the deets.”
Hell no, she wasn’t going to call Gavin. She and Gavin barely got along. “I’ll take care of it.” Lila ended the call without actually agreeing to call Gavin. She wasn’t going to. Period.
Chapter Three
Cy groaned. He was in his human skin, and he was pretty sure he had a few broken ribs and some internal injuries. He tried to take a deep breath, but it felt like the world’s largest boa constrictor was wrapped around his upper body and squeezing the life out of him.
He opened his eyes a tiny bit, just a slit, knowing he wouldn’t like what he saw. He was right. Damn, was he ever. Large rods of metal all around him affirmed he was in a cage.
He was in a fucking cage. Like an animal. Rage raced through his body, and his tiger yearned to get out and inflict some serious damage. But what could either he or his tiger do against metal? Nothing. Not a damned thing.
He kept his eyes semi-closed while he tried to survey the area.
“Hey,” said a voice he didn’t recognize.
Cy strained to hear. Whoever spoke was definitely a shifter, and whoever it was not in the room. Cy listened for heartbeats nearby. None, unless they could fool him. He didn’t think they could.
He turned his head slightly, and almost grunted out loud from the pain in his neck and back. He needed time, so his shifter healing could happen. Except time wasn’t something he—or Petra—had the luxury of. He looked in the direction he’d turned.
No one there.
He turned the other way.
No one there, either.
He studied his surroundings. He was alone in an empty warehouse save for a few crates in one corner and some large, tarp-covered items in another.
“Gavin.” It was the same voice that had just spoken. “Is Vax on his way out?” The voice came from outside the warehouse, but not very far.
“No. I called Veila. She’s handling it.”
The one who had answered must be Gavin, though the name didn’t mean anything to Cy. He didn’t think the guy was a Tiero. Though, to be honest, he really didn’t know all the Tieros. He hadn’t bothered to learn their names. Why would he? He avoided shifters as a rule, and he’d never expected to be this far south, in their territory. He did know “Vax” was Vittorio Tiero, alpha of this territory.
Cy was in a cage in Tiero territory and had no way to find Petra and no way to help her.
A couple of shuffling noises, some footsteps, and the shifters were walking into the warehouse, heading for the cage Cy was in. Six of them. Great. Not so easy to outnumber. Where were the rest of the ones who had joined in his ass-kicking before they’d locked him up? Probably outside, as reinforcements.
The biggest shifter of all, the one who had intercepted Cy’s leap, stepped closest. “About time you woke up. Why are you in Tiero territory?”
Cy recognized his voice. He was the one the other shifter had called Gavin.
Cy didn’t answer, staring at the tall man with the broad shoulders.
“This can go down easy or hard. It’s up to you. We’ll get answers, or you’ll be dead. What’s your name?” Gavin crossed his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed.
Cy strained to sit up, keeping a grunt of pain buried deep in his chest. He sat, propped up against the cage, using the bars to keep himself from falling over. Once he was in a seated position, breathing was a bit more difficult, but at least he didn’t feel like a helpless victim, lying on the cage floor.
One of the other shifters stepped forward. “He’s not answering,” he told Gavin.
“Put a little bit of hurt on him,” Gavin said, and turned his back.
Three shifters, then a fourth, joined each other in front of his cage. Using the bars to pull himself to a stand, Cy rose, all six feet seven inches of him.
He didn’t care how hurt he was, he wasn’t going down easy, he wasn’t going down alone, and if he could just get an edge… just a little edge… he’d slip out of the cage and the warehouse and head south for Houston.
One of the shifters unlocked the cage. Cy walked to the other side. Maybe “walked” was the wrong word; with the pain he was in, he did a zombie shuffle to the other side.
All four came in. Tiger shifters, none of them under six foot. The tallest maybe six four. They squared their shoulders, but he sensed the tension in their bodies. He’d inflicted some pain on them, and they weren’t eager for more.
Bring it. He glared at them, angry at the disruption of his mission.
Cy’s hackles rose. His sensors flipped out. Another heartbeat approached, but…
Something was different about this one.
Chapter Four
Lila pulled into the parking lot. Yes, this was the warehouse. She recognized the Tiero SUV with its dark-tinted windows. Gavin’s SUV. A sour note struck her stomach.
Here we go. She got out and shut car the door as quietly as possible, hoping to gain a bit of an advantage on Gavin. She wished they could stop being so adversarial. It was time for him to get over it already. Maybe I contribute to it, too, she had to admit to herself.
Two of Gavin’s men stood partially hidden in the shadows near the SUV. They jumped to attention when she walked toward them.
“Lila. Hi, what—”
She held up a finger, putting it to her lips. Then she po
inted to the door, warning them to be silent and letting them know she was going in without an argument from them.
They nodded. They knew who was boss.
She slipped through the open door, and the first thing she saw was a large cage, large as a railroad car. There were several shifters inside, and Gavin and one of his men were outside. The door was shut.
The shifters inside were scuffling, fists were flying. Grunts of pain filled the air. She knew most of them; they were Gavin’s men. One she didn’t recognize was throwing punches, but, unfortunately, it seemed for every one he threw, he caught two or three, and in very painful-looking areas.
The shifter she didn’t recognize stopped and stared toward her, as if he knew her—recognized her. Gavin’s men paused for a second, as if confused that he’d stopped fighting. Then they went at him again, even though he was motionless, his eyes glued on her.
Gavin’s men were pummeling the stranger. Blow after blow struck his solid body, that wide chest, bare because his shirt was in shreds. She fought back a gasp when she noticed the wounds from claws and canines marring his body. What the hell did Gavin’s men do to him?
She walked to Gavin, stood next to him. He didn’t acknowledge her presence. He knew she was there, and yet he had to play this stupid game.
Fine.
In the background, the sounds of fists striking flesh were relentless.
“Tell them to stop.” She kept her voice level and her temper under control.
He didn’t look at her, didn’t tell his men anything.
She walked in front of Gavin and planted her high heels shoulder-width apart, facing him. She wasn’t a short woman, but even in heels she was still a few inches shorter than he was.
“Now.” She put her index finger on his chest, pressing on muscle that had no give.
He clenched his jaw, the muscles working in his chiseled, handsome face. “Stop.”