Shifter Wars Complete Series

by Sarah J. Stone

  "Sophia!" I shouted. A primal scream bursting from my lungs, I raised my gun and opened fire wildly on the three guards, hitting one square in the face and sending the other two into cover. Soon after, my gun clicked dry and before I could even think about reloading, I felt the firm grip of fingers around my wrist. I turned, and started right into the beautiful, haughty face of Aubrey Carver.

  "I think it's time you realize you've lost," he said.

  My heart pounding, my eyes snapped onto Sophia. The round had hit her right in the upper shoulder.

  "Jerrod," she said weakly as the guards surrounded us.

  "Bring them to the floor," Aubrey said.

  The guards knocked the guns out of our hands and dragged us to the center of the warehouse floor where Aubrey and the other lion had only moments before been speaking. The guards forced us to our knees as Aubrey took his place in front of us. He let several long moments pass as he strolled back and forth, his long-fingered hands clasped behind his back.

  "How many of ours dead is that?" he asked.

  "Three," one of the guards said. "And another's not looking so good."

  "Too bad," Aubrey said. "I was hoping for a smooth evening. Oh well."

  "Let her go, now," I said, my voice gripped with panic as I looked over at Sophia.

  "I'd say that you're not really in a position to make such demands, my friend," Aubrey said.

  "I'd say I am," I said. "We're Sapiens, and you don't want to know what kind of shit we'll bring down on you if you don't let us go right this fucking instant."

  Aubrey raised his eyebrows.

  "What, and have you toddle off to your bosses and let them know about everything that you've heard here tonight?" he asked.

  Then, he reached into his suit and pulled out a pistol, the chrome glinting under the light. "I think I've got a much better idea. One that allows me to go ahead and do what I was planning on doing."

  "Aubrey," the lion clan leader said. "What the hell are you doing? You kill a Sapien and you'll bring down the entire city on us!"

  "That's only if anyone finds out that I killed a Sapien," he said. "And this is actually a fortuitous arrangement; now that you've seen what you've seen, I can count on your discretion and cooperation."

  "This is your last goddamn chance, Aubrey," I said. "Let us go. Now."

  Sophia wasn't looking good. Her expression was distant and blank, and blood continued to seep through her clothes.

  "Okay," Aubrey said. "You've caught me on a charitable day. Give me one good reason to let you both go, and I just might consider it."

  I took a deep breath and scanned my thoughts for anything that I could say that might convince him to let us out of her. Finally, I opened my mouth to speak.

  "You let us go a—"

  A gunshot stopped me mid-sentence. Turning to Aubrey, I saw that he was standing in front of Sophia, his pistol raised to her, the barrel letting out a thin coil of smoke. And in front of him was Sophia, my love, slumped to the floor lifelessly, shot square in the forehead.

  "Well, look at that," he said. "Looks like I didn't feel like listening to you beg for your life after all."

  I struggled. I screamed. I did everything I could to break free from the guards’ grips.

  "Don't you even think about shifting," he said. "I see a single hair sprout from your skin and it's curtains for you, bucko."

  "I'll kill you, you fucker!" I shouted. "You're dead, you hear me! Fucking dead!"

  His eyebrows raised slightly. Then, a small chortle escaped his lips. "Do I suspect that there was something a little more going on here than a mere partnership?" He gestured to Sophia's body with his gun hand. "Why, I do believe so."

  He then strode right in front of me and raised his gun once again. "In that case, allow me to do you the mercy of putting you out of your suffering. Better luck in the next life, friend."

  Next was a crack, then a flash. And then darkness.

  CHAPTER 2

  HARPER

  One year later…

  "Agent Dupree, come in."

  The voice of my partner, Katie Thomas, came in through my ear implant.

  "You can just call me Harper, Katie. We've only been partners for what, a year and a half?"

  "I know, but it just sounds way too casual to call you by your first name over the comms. Like we're sending texts or something."

  "Well, you have my permission, if that helps."

  "Maybe a little."

  "Will you ladies keep the chatter to a minimum?" the stern, annoyed voice of Hunter Cawlins, a fox shifter and one of the fellow members of this task force, came through the comm.

  "I don't mind," Jacob Martin, the tiger said. "Breaks up the monotony of the job a little bit."

  "Go ahead and get distracted," Hunter said. "That'll be the moment shit goes down. Trust me; I've bee I this kind of shit before. A year or so ago, back when I was on the Penrose fox detail, I—"

  "So, that's your solution to keep us in check," I said, a little smile forming on my lips, "to distract us with another one of your stories where you're the hero and conveniently, no one's here to dispute what you're telling us?"

  "They're all true, damn it," Hunter said.

  "As true as that straight flush you tried to sell us on during cards last night," Jacob said. "And you're doing just as convincing of a job bullshitting."

  "Would've liked to see that," I said.

  "Hey, come out past bedtime some night and you can see it for yourself," Katie said. "Hunter's about the worst bluffer I've ever seen."

  "Can we just focus on the goddamn job already?" Hunter asked, his voice lined with irritation.

  "Fine, fine," Jacob said.

  The mission was simple- one of the members of the lion Three, the group of elected elders that made the big decisions for each of the city's shifter species, was feeling extra paranoid about the meeting she was having tonight with a few leaders of the lion clans. So, she asked the Sapiens if we wouldn't mind providing a little extra security in addition to the pack of lions she'd already planned bringing. Normally, Sapiens wouldn't get involved in escort jobs like this –we weren't mercs, after all- but the unsolved murder of one of the lion Three last year had been haunting the Sapiens like a ghost. The case seemed about as cold as a polar bear eating a bowl of ice cream in Greenland, but if the least we could do was prevent it from happening again, then it was the least we could do. And I had some hope in the back of my mind that we'd eventually draw the killer out for another try on the Three members who he or she'd left alive.

  But as the four of us paced our sectors of the fortieth floor of the high-rise office building in Midtown Manhattan where the meeting was taking place, it didn't seem that anything so exciting was in the cards. Strolling down the sterile, modern hall of the lion office, my eyes tracked along the skyscrapers visible outside past the floor-to-ceiling windows, their lights arranged in neat, illuminated squares. Passing one of the suited lion guards who stood stone still posted at one of the office doors, I gave him a nod. But he only snorted in response. Lions were real snooty pricks like that.

  "What do you think, Harper?" Katie asked. "Another dud op?"

  "Who knows?" I dragged my fingertip along the window as I walked, leaving a curving smear. "But that's what I'm hoping for. Maybe we can get out of here and get a drink if it isn't ungodly late by the time we're done."

  "Little Miss Perfect wants to go out for a drink?" Jacob asked. "Must be a full moon."

  "Nah," I said. "I mean, it is Saturday night."

  Hunter chuckled. "This is what they call the ‘slippery slope.' First, she's having a glass of merlot past her bedtime, next thing you know she's buried face-first in a pile of coke on some fox stripper's tits."

  "Real classy, Hunter," Katie said.

  "Are you forgetting I'm the ranking agent here?" I said, deciding to turn the screws a bit. "That sounds a little like insubordination."

  "Oh, come on," Hunter said. "Just busting your balls."
<
br />   "I like my balls just the way they are," I said. "Nice and unbusted."

  Jacob and Katie chuckled through the comms.

  "Seriously, though," Katie said, "I'm about to die of boredom here."

  I opened my mouth to speak, but before a single word came out, I noticed one of the service stairwell doors was opened just a crack. Probably nothing, but I figured I'd take a look.

  "Quiet nights are good nights," Jacob said. "They mean I get to have my regularly scheduled brunch with the wife in the morning."

  "Who the hell eats brunch?" Hunter asked. "That shit's for chicks."

  "You got a problem with eggs benedict?" Jacob asked. "I know this place in Carroll Gardens that does it ju—"

  "Okay, guys," I said, "when the conversation turns to brunch, that's when I have to step in."

  Chuckles sounded through the comms again. I continued toward the service door, a tingling feeling creeping up and my stomach. Something seemed off about this; the lion security escort should've had this place locked down tight without a door left unchecked.

  "Guys, I'm gonna head down to the floor below; one of the service doors was open and I'm gonna check it out."

  "Go down and catch a nap is more like it," Hunter said.

  "When the hell have you ever known the boss to nap?" Katie asked. "I'm half-convinced she doesn't even sleep."

  I turned the comms down and stepped into the stairwell.

  "Keep the chatter down while I check this out," I said.

  The team gave their affirmatives. Scanning the stairwell, nothing seemed all that out of place. No signs of the door being forced open, and the stairwell was the standard stark, industrial-looking sort of thing one would expect from an entry used only by service crew. I took a slow sniff of the air, trying to detect the smell of any shifters who might've been in here. I caught a whiff of…something coming from downstairs. I hurried down to the next floor down and entered. Just like the floor above, it was a sleek office space, though the lights were turned off; not even cleaning crew was around. The nighttime sweep of the city was visible through the windows around me.

  "Anything down there, boss?" Jacob asked.

  "I'll let you know if I see anything. Just stay frosty for the time being."

  "Copy that."

  I stepped out into one of the main hallways, a little pleased to have some solitude. Taking another draw of the air, I smelled that same strange scent that I'd smelled in the main office. And just like before, I couldn't place it. It had to be a shifter—that much was clear. But it was an unfamiliar animal, or something like a mixture of several different animal scents. I detected fox, bear, and wolf, all in a strange musky mélange.

  "Something's not right," I said.

  "Huh?" Katie asked. "You see something down there?"

  "No," I said. "I smell something. Or, don't smell something."

  "Shifters?" Jacob asked.

  "It's a combination of smells; it's odd," I said. "It's like I'm smelling every species, but no species."

  "Maybe a party we weren't invited to?" Katie asked.

  "Keep the chatter down," I said, turning my comms back down. "I'm gonna sweep the area."

  I continued through the office, the tight feeling in my stomach growing by the second. My paranoid side considered the idea that someone was masking their scent somehow, throwing the smells of different shifters species into the air and hoping to make it unclear just who was here. But something was definitely up.

  I went down hallway after hallway, looking into the windows of offices, each room as quiet and empty as the last. But that scent…it grew stronger the further I moved into the office. And when I arrived at the main floor of the space, the scent hit me like a sandbag to the face.

  There was something here. Or someone. I knew it.

  My gaze settled on the door to a supply closet.

  "Guys?" Katie asked, "is it just me or has some of the lion security staff gone AWOL?"

  "Not just you," Jacob said. "Feelin' really lonely over here."

  I approached the door, the smell growing stronger with each step.

  "Check in on the meeting," I said. "And get a visual on the crew. I want them all accounted for."

  "Copy that."

  The door handle within reach, I wrapped my hand it, my heart now beating at a steady, fast tempo.

  "Hey, who the hell are you?" Kevin asked, speaking to someone not on comms.

  My eyes focused on the door, I pulled it open slowly. And what I saw when I opened it caused my stomach to drop through the floor like a steel ball.

  It was three members of the lion security detail, each with the same twisted expression of horror on their face, each with the same single gunshot to the center of the forehead.

  "This is a secure area," Kevin demanded. "Identify yourself right now or-"

  The sound of gunshots cut him off. Then his line went dead.

  "What the hell was that?" Katie asked. "Kevin?"

  The thin pop of gunshots sounded through Katie's comms.

  "Boss!" she shouted. "I'm hearing gunfire!"

  "We got members of the lion team down!" I shouted, shutting the door and running as fast as I could back to the stairwell. "Kevin, report!"

  No sound came from the comms.

  "Kevin, I said report it!"

  Again nothing. I knew what had happened.

  More pops sounded through the comms.

  "Boss!" Jacob shouted. "It's the exterior lion team! They're opening fire!"

  "Then shoot back!"

  My heart pounded as I pulled the door to the stairwell so hard I thought I might rip it off of the hinges.

  "Freeze!" Jacob shouted. "Freeze or I'll—"

  Next came a deafening, animal roar, followed by the pounding of something huge coming closer to Jacob. Then silence.

  "What the hell was that roar, boss?" Katie shouted as I ran up the stairs."

  I’d recognize that horrible roar anywhere.

  "Gorillas!" I yelled, pulling my gun out as I grabbed the door handle to the operation floor and pulled it open.

  "Fuck!" Katie shouted. "Jacob! Jacob, come in!"

  But there was nothing. Stepping back onto the main office floor, I pulled out my sidearm, though I knew pistol would be all but useless in a fight with one or more gorillas. Through the ground, I could hear the stomping of several large beasts, followed by the chattering of gunfire. I knew that this meant they'd gotten to the VIPs.

  "Katie, stay right where you are!" I yelled, running past the mangled bodies of the lion staff who hadn't been already compromised. "I'm coming!"

  "Copy!" she shouted, her voice heavy with fear.

  I turned the corner, spotting Katie's slender frame and dark bobbed hair.

  "Boss!" she shouted, her gun in her hands, her body pointed toward the perpendicular hallway that I couldn't see down.

  "Katie!" I yelled.

  But before either of us could say anything else, a steady pounding of something approaching down the hallway that I couldn't see grew louder and louder, followed by the deafening roar of a great beast.

  "Stay back!" Katie shouted, raising her gun.

  "Shoot it!" I yelled.

  Katie popped off a few rounds, but it did no good. The massive shape of a gorilla crashed into her, sending her hurtling through the window separating the office from the hallway, then through the window overlooking the city. My heart dropped as I watched Katie hurl through the air from the force of the impact, through the glass and down to the streets below.

  Then the beast turned its attention toward me, it's horrible face twisted in animal rage, plumes of moisture shooting out if its nose as it sized me up.

  Katie was dead, and I was next.

  The beast squared its body toward me and prepared for a charge. In an instant, I considered my options. I could shift, but my panther form wouldn't do much good against a beast like that. My only chance was to empty my gun and hope for the best.

  Rolling its shoulders one la
st time, the gorilla started off into a run, the pictures on the wall shaking and dropping from the impact of its steps. Calming myself as best I could, I raised my gun, pointed it toward the animal and fired.

  Nothing.

  I fired again.

  Still nothing, and now it was nearly on me.

  I pulled the trigger one last time, knowing that this was it.

  This time, the round hit home. The gorilla's run wavered into a stumble, and the beast toppled and fell onto its side, landing only a few feet from me with an impact so hard that I could feel my bones shake. Taking a quick look, I saw that I'd put a round right through the gorilla's right eye- the lucky shot to end all lucky shots.

  But I didn't have time to consider my good fortune. Taking a breath, I rushed to the conference room. On the way there, I encountered the mangled body of Jacob, a man-shaped smash in the wall near him where one of the beasts had thrown him. No time to even think about it.

  On the other side of the conference room double doors, I could hear more roaring, and more shouting. My gun in hand, I pulled the door opened and prepared for the worst.

  And the worst is exactly what I found.

  I'd arrived too late. The three lion VIPs were already dead, brought down with some combination of gunfire and severe physical trauma. Only one had a chance to shift, and it didn't appear to have done much good. The grand meeting room, the glittering lights of the city visible through the towering windows at the far end of the room, was the scene of slaughter.

  "We gotta go, now!" one of the gorillas shouted, shifting back into human form. "Carlos punched one of those fucking Sapiens through a goddamn window; it's only a matter of time before the fuckin' cops show up!"

  There were two gorillas, their backs to me. Neither of them had appeared to notice me yet. Both spoke in rough, Brooklyn accents.

  "Where the fuck is Carlos, anyway?" the other gorilla said. "He should've taken out the rest of the Sapiens and been back by now.

  "Call him on comms," said the first gorilla. "Get his ass in here; we got a real small fuckin' window before our flight takes off."

  "Heli's on the roof, right?' the second asked. ”Nice way outta here."

  "Yup," the first said. "Perks of working with lions."

  Lions! I moved closer and closer to the gorillas. That's who's behind this!