BODY TO BARTER
Half-breed Shifter Series : Book 4
By
Miranda Stowe
Body to Barter
Copyright 2013 by Miranda Stowe
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses or establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.dpgroup
All rights reserved. No part of this book—except in the case of brief quotations in reviews—may be used or reproduced without written permission of the author.
Contact Information : [email protected]
Cover Art : Elaina kat – For the Muse Designs
Proofread : Sizzling PR Services
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
About the Author
Prologue
“If Daddy knew we were doing this, he’d ground us forever.”
“Oh, stop being such a sissy, Rhea,” Dane called, as he scampered through the trees ahead of both of his sisters. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“I’m not a sissy.” But even as she glowered at his back, Rhea reached out and snagged Brynn’s hand as if seeking moral support.
“Are too,” nine-year-old Dane retorted.
Brynn sighed and rolled her eyes. “How much farther?” she asked, to break up their banter. If she had to put up with her bickering siblings much longer, she’d probably bash their heads together.
“Not much.” Slowing in front of her, Dane peered through the leaves of a fern, scouting the area. “I found their camp down by the river.”
“And you’re sure they were wolves from the Mahlikari Pack?” Their father had told them stories about the Mahlikari, a group of absolute pure-blooded wolves who were stronger, faster, and more savage than any other shape-shifter on earth.
“I think so,” Dane answered, hesitating before he nodded. “They were definitely pure bloods.”
Both Rhea and Brynn groaned. Their brother was leading them on another one of his wild goose chases.
Rhea tugged on Brynn’s arm. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
“Wait.” Dane held up his hand. “We’re close.”
Rhea didn’t seem to care. She tried to urge Brynn to follow her, but Brynn was as curious as Dane was to catch a glimpse of this infamous pack. Hunkering her shoulders, she crouched down with him and kept her tread quiet.
“Don’t forget to mask your smell,” he warned on a whisper as they moved in close enough to hear water flowing from the river. “Remember, Dad said they don’t like half-breeds. No matter what happens, we can’t let them catch us watching them.”
Though she rolled her eyes again, Brynn still heeded the warning and cloaked her scent. But seriously, sometimes it was so annoying to let her brother order her around. She’d been born fifteen minutes before him; he was so not the boss of her. Rhea had been the youngest of their triplet-litter, refusing to leave Mom’s belly until an hour after Dane had emerged. If he wanted to show his superiority, he should show it over Rhea. Not Brynn.
The three cubs crept along until Brynn could detect the scent of canine in the air. She shivered with anticipation. How cool would it be if she could walk into school tomorrow and tell her classmates she’d actually seen a Mahlikari wolf? Dane must’ve felt that same eagerness. He picked up his pace, Brynn and Rhea scurrying after him.
When a scream rent the still, quiet air, Rhea yelped and dove against Brynn. Brynn wrapped her arms around her sister and pulled Rhea’s face against her shoulder to muffle the sound.
“Shh,” Dane hissed, sending both girls a frightened glower.
Brynn shot him a dirty look and patted Rhea’s hair. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Father, no! Please,” a woman’s voice wept, so muffled it barely reached the cubs’ hiding spot. “You can’t kill him. I love him.”
In front of Brynn, Dane slowed to a stop and hovered behind a mesh of concealing brush, glancing back, he set his fingers to his lips, telling his sisters to keep absolutely silent. Brynn nodded and tugged Rhea after her as she kneeled beside him. Peering through the tangled leaves and twigs, she caught movement and had to swallow back a gasp.
There they were.
About half a dozen shifter wolves stood in their human form half-circled around a kneeling woman who cowered above a gasping man on the ground. Brynn’s nose twitched as she took in their fragrances. They were definitely full-blooded wolves, except the one stretched on the banks of the river and twitching as if he were in great pain. Focusing on him, she noticed someone had slashed his side open. It bled from one ribcage to the opposite hip.
He was a half-breed bear shifter, she realized. And he had more human in him than animal, otherwise he would still be in his fur right now if he was experiencing that much pain.
“He’s my mate,” the female sobbed. “You can’t...you can’t just kill my mate. P-p-please.”
“He’s a half-breed,” the man in the center of the wolves boomed. “That’s worse than one of those humans. All half-breeds deserve to die. You know our code.”
“Daddy, please.” Crawling to him on her knees, the female wolf clutched his legs, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t help what he is. I can’t help being his mate. Just let us go. We’ll run away. You’ll never have to see or hear from us again. I’m begging you.”
No doubt the alpha of his pack, the girl’s father stared down at her with dispassion, until he lifted his hand and set it gently on the crown of her dark hair as if he was going to comfort her. She sobbed harder. “Please.”
His fingers sank into her hair. Then his lip curled into a sneer. “You disgust me,” he said, right before he gave a savage twist, snapping her neck.
As he let go of her and she slumped lifelessly to the ground, all three jaguar cubs hiding in the brush, spying on them, gasped and crowded close together. But no one heard their shocked sounds of horror over the screams of the half-breed bear on the ground.
“No! Glimmer!” The agony that bellowed from his lungs made tears sprout in Brynn’s eyes. “You killed her.” Rolling onto his stomach, the bear clutched his side with one arm as he crawled with the other toward his dead mate. “How could you kill her? She was your daughter.”
“She was a traitor,” the leader of the pack growled. “The Mahlikari don’t fuck eyesores like you. We...kill...you.”
Stepping over his fallen daughter, he moved toward the half-breed. But the bear didn’t try to escape him. He was too busy pulling himself toward his fallen female, desperate to reach her. But he never did.
“Don’t look.” Dane turned to wrap his arms around both Brynn and Rhea. His young body covered theirs and shuddered as the bear’s screams of torture rose up and then were swiftly cut short.
Brynn hiccupped a soft sob and couldn’t help herself. She lifted her face and peered over Dane’s shoulder. When she saw that the bear’s limbs and neck were bent at odd angles, she gulped and glanced at the monster who’d killed the two lovers. He commanded his betas to get rid of the bodies, motioning them to throw his dead daughter into the river before he lifted his nose to the air to let a soft breeze caress his cheeks—as if he were out and about to
simply enjoy the lovely weather.
That’s when Brynn saw his face perfectly. Three deep gashes had been slashed across his left cheek. Since shape-shifters had amazing healing powers, they barely ever bore scars. Only something life-threatening and inhuman could leave such a gruesome mark.
Realizing this was a wolf never to be messed with, she squeezed her siblings close. “We need to get out of here, right now, and warn Daddy the Mahlikari are close to Locks Hollow. If he could do that so easily to his own daughter, just think what he could do to us.”
Dane stiffened. “Ari,” he gasped, naming the two-year-old Roland girl he’d claimed as his mate. Baby Ari had wanted to follow them on this adventure today, but Dane had made her stay back with her mother at the half-breed community where they all lived. Spinning away from his sisters, Dane dashed back in the direction of the Roland’s house.
Rhea and Brynn glanced at each other and hurried after him. The girls were so distraught by the time they reached their own home, their mother couldn’t even understand what they were sobbing about. It took Shaw Griffin, their beloved Daddy, to realize they had seen a small troop of Mahlikari wolves nearby who’d just killed two shape-shifters.
Their entire community was put on alert, and the triplet cubs went underground to hide in a compound with their mother and the Roland family while their fathers scouted the area for the threat of an approaching invasion.
But, even though the lovers’ bodies were recovered from the river, the Mahlikari never came to Locks Hollow that day or any day after. Brynn never saw an absolute pure-blooded shape-shifter wolf again.
Not for another twenty-three years, anyway.
Chapter One
Twenty-three years later
A single howl broke the calm tepid night. When another followed in its wake, Gannon felt the urge to respond tickle the inside of his throat. Throwing back his head, he pointed his muzzle toward the full moon he could see through the branches of the trees and answered the call, letting the others in his pack know his location.
Haze, his beta, howled next, telling him he was just shy of two-hundred meters away. After his call came Nedron’s howl a good hundred meters behind Haze’s. That was perfect; they were going into the small community with a nice, even spread between them.
As the next in line to lead the Mahlikari Pack, Gannon had been trained for attack strategies since birth. And his father, the current alpha, was letting Gannon lead his first raid tonight.
His wolf body taut with anticipation, he moved in front of the initial lookout, who was usually sent in ahead to scout the area for traps or other obstacles. But tonight, Gannon wanted to be the first in. As they rushed closer to their target, he smelled the half-breed community, the stink of human damn near nauseating him.
Reaching the edge of the tree line, he leapt, easily jumping high enough to clear a couple of Paper Birch. Adrenaline roared through him. He was pumped and ready for this, prepared to show his paterfamilias that he could lead.
When he landed in the middle of a road, he spotted the half-breeds about ten blocks down, gathered together like a herd. Cattle, prepared and waiting for their slaughter.
One female screamed, spotting him immediately as his glowing eyes targeted her. He pounced, cutting the sound short. But she’d already alerted the others.
“They’re here!” came a loud holler, and the cattle panicked, fanning out in different directions, scattering like ants. It didn’t matter where they ran though. None of these diluted abominations to animal-kind were a match for a pure blood like him or any member of his pack. He zeroed in on another fleeing half-breed and stubbed out its life as easily as blowing out a candle.
His boys charged into the fray, slaughtering without reservation. To Gannon’s pack, they were simply performing a mercy killing, putting the poor atrocities out of their misery. Honestly, though, how could half-breeds stand to live? They’d probably been clustered together because they’d wanted to die, were begging the Mahlikari to eradicate them.
So, Gannon granted them their wishes.
He dove after what smelled like a freaky half-bear, half-lion thing and latched his jaws around the throat of the screaming male. Blood soaked his fangs, the coppery tang flooding his tongue. As he leached the life source from the thrashing body under him, he used his heavy paw to keep his prey immobile.
Seconds before the man’s last breath left him, a stray scent fluttered by in the breeze. It roused Gannon’s nostrils and sent his body into a hyper sense of awareness.
Never before had anything affected him so powerfully. It nearly knocked him on his ass. The intense punch of longing was so surreal, he almost convinced himself it wasn’t happening. But he knew it was.
He’d just caught a whiff of his mate.
Feminine. Feline. Fascinating.
Immediately loosening his grip on the unresisting half-breed clamped between his jaws, he dropped the body at his feet so he could lift his nose, needing to smell her again. When a faint flutter of her sweet nectar reached his nostrils, he shuddered. She smelled so good.
His elders had told him he’d know her instantly. No creature on earth was as finely tuned to his senses as an absolute pure blood Mahlikari wolf. They’d told him he’d be able to sense her from a mile away. As soon as he took a whiff of her into his body, he would know she was his.
And Gannon knew. His woman was here.
Holy fuck. His woman was here, right now, amidst this carnage and bloody warfare. He needed to find her before she got hurt.
Scrambling from the half-breed he left dying on the ground, he raced in the direction from which the initial smell had come. If one of his pack mates accidently hurt her, he’d be forced to kill one of his own. No one touched his mate and survived.
As her scent grew stronger and the pull in him grew heavier, he increased his pace, eager to finally be with her. Nothing else matter. He had to reach her.
He blew into a small break in the trees, the clearing barely large enough to contain two animals, but two animals battled in it regardless. And one of the animals was from his pack. The other was his mate.
Shit.
Berick, one his father’s younger omegas, had engaged her in a deadly duel, snapping his jaws at her sleek black coat as he circled her threateningly. She gave a ferocious cat cry and swiped her claws at Berick, defending herself with a mighty, courageous effort.
Startled that his mate was a jaguar, Gannon skidded to a halt on his hind legs and gawked. Initially, he rejected the idea, shaking his head, hoping to clear it, praying the vision in front of him would change. But it didn’t. She was a cat shifter and human mixed into a half-breed jaguar.
He’d smelled feline on her from the beginning, but he’d been so focused on finding her that this detail hadn’t resonated with him until now. Jesus, why hadn’t that struck him earlier? No amount of worry for her safety should’ve clouded something this big.
Denial roared through him. His body went cold and hot, shocked by the realization. His woman was a jaguar. And not just a jaguar, but a half-breed jaguar. One of them.
Oh, Christ. What would his father do if he knew?
Gannon was so stunned by his discovery, it momentarily distracted him from the fact that her life was truly in danger. Berick lunged at her, catching her with his paw.
She screamed out a very human sound and her animal coat flashed away, leaving a naked, defenseless, wounded woman cowering in front of the snarling wolf. About to be killed.
Shock and denial over her species be damned, Gannon instantly stopped worrying about what she was, and his protective instincts kicked in. Someone had just fucking touched his mate. And hurt her. Un-fucking-acceptable.
He didn’t think. He simply roared out a furious growl and charged, head-butting Berick in the ribs.
Berick whirled around, teeth snapping before he realized it was one of his own attacking him. His prince. When he looked into Gannon’s eyes and recognized him, he faltered. And Gannon took that seco
nd of hesitation to lunge for the kill. Completely out of control, he didn’t worry about the rights and wrongs of his actions. Taking out one of his own pack members was treasonous. But this bastard had injured his mate. He must die.
The omega went down easily. Too easily. Filled with the insane, overpowering urge to murder him again and again for what he’d done to her, Gannon snarled over the dead carcass, ripping it with his claws to teach it a lesson. No one messed with what was his.
But then he glanced at his mate. And his rage dissolved.
She wasn’t moving.
He rushed to her and nudged her hand with his wet nose. When she still didn’t stir, his wolf whimpered. A six-inch long gash split open her skin along the side of her ribcage. Blood filled the incision, welling quickly. He tried to lick it closed, using the healing powers in his wolf’s salvia to fix her. But that didn’t work. Her injury was too severe. His animal began to dance impatiently, panicking because it needed her better, now.
Why wasn’t she healing already?
Thrashing in the trees made him jerk his face up. Another brawl had started nearby, and it was growing closer. He had to get her to safety. With no time to think his decisions through, he reacted.
His wolf couldn’t do a lot with a prone woman, so he flashed into his human form and quickly hefted her into his arms. He rarely morphed into his human, and his skin actually felt uncomfortably stretched around his taut flesh. Ignoring the pull and tug of his readjusting muscles, he curled the female close, shivering with desire when silky strands of her midnight black hair fluttered over his forearm. She was so soft, warm. Too vulnerable and delicate for war.
Lifting his face toward the moon, he let his muzzle grow long enough into his wolf form that he could call out a message to Haze, telling him to take over for the rest of the battle.
His father would probably skin him alive and hang his pelt over the fire pit along with the rest of his kills for abandoning the first battle he led, but Gannon couldn’t summon the willpower to care. With his injured mate in his arms, everything else was a non-issue.
Body to Barter (Half-breed Shifter Series) Page 1