Shifter Wars Complete Series

by Sarah J. Stone

CARTER

  Standing over Alice's still-nude form as she lay on the couch, her eyes closed, I couldn't help but think about what a stupid decision it was to sleep with her. Don't get me wrong—the sex was killer, and she was so fucking hot that I wanted to hop right on top of her and take her for round two. But I knew that getting involved with…assets, like this was about as stupid as it got.

  I knew from experience.

  Alice rolled over onto her side and my eyes moved along the curves of her hip. Glancing down, I saw that my cock was already twitching to life, eager to plunge deep into one more time.

  Down, boy, I thought, hoping I could somehow talk myself out of my erection.

  On top of everything, there just wasn't time for this sort of shit. We had a job to do and here I was indulging in getting my dick wet.

  "What's going on?" Alice asked, opening her eyes slightly. "What's the plan?"

  "The plan is that you get some rest. We'll talk about what needs to get done tomorrow."

  "Fine," she said, her voice sleepy. She closed her eyes once again, this time sticking out her arm and beckoning me to come join her. But my mind was racing with just how we were gonna crack this fucking case wide open. I turned away from Alice and poured myself a glass of whiskey. Pressing a small button on a nearby console I lowered the covering of one of the windows. I took a sip of my drink and walked up to it, letting my eyes drift over the sight of the city at night

  She's bait, I tried to tell myself. Not the nicest fucking thing in the world to do, but that's how we're gonna play this.

  But now not only was it my job to bring down Salt and Castille and all the rest, I had to keep Alice out of trouble. If I screwed this up, then there was a good chance that I'd lose her. And blow the case. Neither one of these options appealed to me in the slightest.

  I killed my whiskey and heard the sound of Alice's arm fall onto her side. As much as I didn't want to admit it, sleeping next to a warm body didn't sound like the worst thing in the world. The booze already swimming in my head, I set down my glass and laid down on the couch next to her.

  "There we go," she said, her voice low and sensual, a smile forming on those sexy lips of hers.

  I slipped my hand around her hips and pressed her body against mine. A pleasured little sigh slipped from her mouth and tickled the skin of my arm.

  That's when I knew I'd gotten myself into some serious trouble.

  ***

  I was up bright and early getting the day planned out, and Alice slept like a damn rock. This was fine with me—she'd just be a…distraction, and there wasn't anything she could be doing at the moment anyhow. What I needed her for would come later.

  Calling a few of my contacts in the shifter elite, I tried to piece together Castille's daily routine as best I could. He was going to be the key to getting to Salt, and knowing just where to find him was going to be essential.

  "Madigan's," Carl Mallory, a fellow bear shifter and one of my contacts uptown, said. "He's there every Friday. Usually got some girl on his arm. Or ‘girls.'"

  "Man might be flying solo after what I pulled with him last night," I said, switching the phone from one hand to the other.

  "No fucking kidding," he said. "You should hear what people are saying about that little stunt. Shifters are wondering if you Sapien assholes went too far with that one."

  "You kidding me?" I asked, surprised. "There's evidence of shifters running a goddamn human trafficking operation and people are wondering if I went too far?"

  "Well, first of all," Carl started, "Salt and the rest of ‘em are doing their best to make sure that the truth of the matter doesn't get out. This auction was their little secret, and the fact that it exists even being a rumor among us unwashed fuckin' masses isn't making them very happy."

  "I can't put into words how sorry I am," I said, shaking my head in disgust.

  "Oh, I'll bet. And Castille's already got the spin crew working on it, claiming that those girls were there on their own free will, that you shifters were doing nothing more than taking a moral stance on what was basically an escort service."

  "What the hell?" I shot out.

  "Yep," Carl said. "And if there's one thing that makes rich guys nervous, it's thinking they're gonna be under to gun for having a little pay-to-play fun. So, all and all, it's looking like you kids are getting the rep as some kind of morality police."

  I shook my head. Should've known that Castille and the rest would be working overtime to cover this up. And getting the girls we'd save to make some kind of statement wouldn't do a damn bit of good—whatever they said would just get twisted along with all the other facts.

  "Then it looks like the only option is just to blow all of this shit wide open," I said.

  "And that's why you're a damn Sapien," Carl said, a little playful sarcasm on his tone. "Cause of that big brain of yours."

  "Always can count on you for the sass," I said, noticing Alice shifting on the couch out of the corner of my eye.

  "That's what I'm here for."

  I said my goodbyes and hung up.

  Alice sat up and wrapped the blanket that I'd put on her around her shoulders. She looked around, taking a moment to remember just where she was and what had happened to her.

  "Ah, fuck," she said, the reality of the situation dawning on her.

  "Cheer up, kid," I said, walking over to where she sat and plopping down onto the easy chair across from the couch, "if it's any consolation, you're gonna have plenty to do today to take your mind off of all this."

  "What are you talking about?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  Alice's hair was lightly tussled in a just-been-fucked kind of way, and her eyes were big and sleepy. The blanket was wrapped around her, but not tight enough to cover up all of her ample cleavage. Part of me wanted to give her a little wake-up right then and there. But we had too much work to do, too much shit to plan.

  "You still want to help get these assholes off the streets? Still want to get your friend back?"

  "Of course," she said.

  "Then we've got work to do."

  "What kind of work?" I stepped into the small kitchen area of the safe house and poured a couple of cups of coffee from the pot I'd brewed. Alice eagerly took her cup and held it up to her face, letting the hot liquid wake her up just a bit. "Remember when I said I was gonna use you as bait?"

  "How could I forget?"

  "Well, that happens tonight."

  Alice said nothing, her throat bobbing up and down as she gulped in fear.

  "Castille's a regular at a club called Madigan's down in the village. He's there every Friday, and you and I are gonna make a little appearance."

  "Why? To catch him out in the open?"

  "Exactly. We're thinking that if he spots you out and about then he won't be able to resist making a move. Right now, Salt and the rest are trying to spin this as some kind of high-profile prostitution scandal."

  "Unbelievable," Alice said, shaking her head.

  "They've got the resources to push whatever kind of reality they want, unfortunately. And they're gonna get away with it unless we can catch Salt and the rest dead-to-rights. And that's not gonna happen unless we can make one of them do something very, very stupid."

  "Like trying to get one of his girls back in public," Alice said.

  "Look at the big brain on this girl," I said, tapping my temple. "That's right. We make him lose his cool and try to pluck you right out in public like that and it'll be very, very clear that what's going on with the girls isn't entirely consensual."

  "Got it." Alice nodded slowly. "So, how're we gonna play this?"

  "First, we're gonna hit up Sapien HQ, make sure that everyone's on the level. Then, we're gonna get you good and dolled-up; you want to look like you fit in. And then come evening we make our move."

  "But…what if he does manage to get me back?" Alice asked, fear creeping into her voice.

  My tone turned grave. "That's not going to happen," I
said.

  "You're…going to protect me, right?" she asked. "Because I can't go back to that. I can't."

  She was beginning to panic. Taking a seat next to her on the couch, I slipped my arm around her shoulders and held her tight. "You won't," I said. "I'll make sure of that."

  Alice looked down and nodded slowly.

  "And that's why we're going to Sapien HQ."

  "Huh?" she asked.

  "Just get dressed and come with me."

  A half-hour later, Alice was showered and dressed. She was wearing some spare women's clothes. Nothing fancy, just a pair of slim, dark jeans, a gray fitted shirt and some white sneakers. But, damn, did she look good. Alice was the type of girl who could throw on a bathrobe and still look like a million bucks,

  "Let's hit it," I said, trying to ignore just how horny I was becoming.

  We drove through the city, making our way back to Midtown, where the Sapien HQ was located.

  "So," she asked after we'd made our way through security, "what's the plan?"

  "I'm gonna teach you to shoot."

  "What?" she said.

  "You heard me," I said. "You managed to do it last night, remember?"

  "Sure," she said, "but that was, like, in the heat of the moment. You give me a gun again and I'm probably gonna end up shooting my damn eye out or something."

  "Have a little more faith in yourself than that," I said as we weaved through the other agents in the hallway leading to the firing range. "I bet with a little practice you'd be the next Annie Oakley."

  "But instead of shooting ten cans from fifty paces I'd be taking aim at gorillas or something."

  "That's right." I flashed her a smirk.

  We stepped into the shooting range. The soft pop of gunfire could be heard as I made my way to the counter.

  "New agent?" Marcus the reedy tiger shifter who worked the counter at the range, asked, his eyes narrowed on Alice.

  "New asset," I said, my choice of words making it clear that she was a human, though her scent would've long given that away.

  Marcus nodded, picking up what I was putting down.

  "And she's a newbie to all of this," I said.

  "I could tell that from the look of fear on her face," said Marcus. "So, we're looking at something light enough for a little lady like her to handle, but something big enough to do some damage to a charging ape?"

  "That's what I'm thinking," I said.

  Marcus nodded and reached under the counter. He pulled out a small pistol with a top silver half and a black bottom half.

  "This is the Kahr Arms P380. Nice and small, but shoots a .308 caliber bullet."

  "None of those words mean anything to me in the slightest," Alice said, clearly still a little overwhelmed by everything.

  "It means that you can put a hole in something big without breaking your wrist when you fire it," Marcus said.

  "Oh."

  Marcus handed her the gun and she took it, looking it over like it was some kind of strange, alien artifact.

  "This should work," I said.

  "Then let me get you all set up."

  A few minutes later, we were in one of the ranges. I couldn't help but chuckle a little at the sight of Alice in her big earmuffs and googles.

  "What?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

  "Nothing," I said. "Let's do this."

  I went through the basics of how to handle a gun, how to reload, how to make sure the safety was off. Once I thought she'd had a handle on the basics, I pressed the red button on the side of the range and brought down a paper target of a large, pissed-off looking gorilla. It was even to-scale.

  "Now," I said, “with a charging gorilla like that you'd ideally want something a little bigger than what you've got. Like, uh, a rocket launcher or something. But that doesn't mean you can't do some damage."

  I pointed toward the paper target. "Aim for the head and the throat. You put a round in a gorilla's eye it doesn't matter how mad he is, he's going down."

  Alice nodded nervously, raised the gun, and took aim. Wincing, she fired a few shots, letting out a shriek each time she did.

  When she was done, I took a look at the target and, sure enough, not a single round had hit.

  "What the hell?" she said. "I was aiming right at it."

  "You were jerking up the gun when you shot. Rookie mistake. Here."

  I took my place behind Alice, wrapped my arms around her shoulders and put my hands on hers. A tingle ran through my body as I held her, my cock twitching at the feeling of her ass pressed against me. Focus, dumbass.

  "Now, just breath in slowly. Let all of the air out of your lungs as you pull the trigger. And don't strangle the thing; let it just rest in your hands as you shoot."

  "okay," she said.

  And I could've been imagining things, but I swore that at that moment she'd pressed her ass against my dick.

  I felt all of the air exit her lungs as she pulled the trigger. The gun sounded, and I squinted at the paper when she'd fired. The shot hit home, a small hole through the gorilla's leg.

  "I got it!" she said triumphantly.

  "You did, but you hit a gorilla in the leg like that and you've about guaranteed the next thing he's gonna do is stomp you into putty."

  "Aw, can't you just let me have this one?" she asked, stomping her foot.

  "Try again."

  We repeated the process—my hands on hers, her ass against my dick, the air out of her lungs— and she fired a few more shots. This time, she managed to put one of the rounds through the target's head.

  "Now you can celebrate," I said.

  Alice threw her hands up in victory.

  "Now," I said as we left the range, Alice holding the now-empty gun in her hands as she looked it over like a new toy, "that thing might mean the difference between life and death. Don't you forget it."

  "I won't," she said. "I'll put a cap in any gorilla who tries to step up."

  I sighed at her attempt at gangster talk—she was just too cute to get away with shit like that.

  After doing the rest of my check-ins at HQ, we stopped at the nearby boutique so she could pick out something for the evening. She ended up settling on a skin-tight, dark red cocktail dress that left very little to the imagination.

  "What?" she asked, clearly picking up on the fact that I thought it might be a little much. "I want to get his attention, right?"

  "Something tells me that you're not going to need a dress like that to accomplish that particular task."

  We headed back to the safe house and, before too long, it was time to go. I threw on one of my dark suits and Alice headed to one of the rooms to get ready. A little while later she stepped out and my jaw nearly hit the floor.

  She was rocking that dress, that was for damn sure. The look was finished with some matching pumps and her hair put up in a style that framed her lovely face perfectly. And her cleavage...well, let's just say that it took all the damn restraint I had not to shove my face right into it.

  "Look good?" she asked.

  "Very, very good," I said. "Worth every bit of that five million."

  "I'll take that as some sort of compliment."

  And with that, we were off. I'd hired a ride to the club, wanting to look the part of the sort of rich asshole who'd go to a place like Madigan's. The ride over was spent with me trying to suppress the tight anxiety that'd been forming in my gut since we'd gotten in the back of the car. It was one thing to put myself in harm's way, but using Alice as bait like this was something that didn't sit right with me. Still, I knew it was the only way.

  I sipped the whiskey I'd poured for myself as we made our way through the city.

  "You packing?" I asked Alice, who was currently wringing her hands in similar nervousness.

  "Yep," she said, tapping her clutch with her fingers. "No one better mess with me."

  "Just don't get cocky," I said. "That gun won't make you invincible."

  Just then, we pulled up to the club.


  Here we go, I thought as we stepped out into the cool night air.

  CHAPTER 8

  ALICE

  By the time we stepped out of the overly fancy half-limo that Carter had ordered for the night, I felt like I was going to pass out from the stress. The club was one of those quasi-upscale affairs, a bass-thumping joint with dark windows and a crowd of people out front who all looked like new-money dorks eager to show off just how rich they were. It was the kind of place where I'd never be caught dead if I didn't have to be.

  Yet, here I was, getting ready to put my freedom, if not my life, on the line in order to draw out some psycho who wanted to make me into her personal fuck-slave.

  "Just stay close," Carter said. "I pulled some strings to get us on the list. Shouldn't be a problem getting past."

  We approached the pair of beefy, suit-clad bouncers who looked over us skeptically. Carter said something to them that I couldn't make out and their eyes went wide. They hurried aside and gestured for Carter and me to head in.

  "That was easy," I said, raising my voice to speak over the now-deafening music.

  "Sapiens have a lot of pull."

  "Does that mean that this is some kind of shifter club?" I asked.

  "More or less," he said. "Just about every here's one species or another. And it's meant to be as a kind of safe haven, where any rivalries are left at the door."

  "And how does that work out?" I asked.

  "Usually, it doesn't."

  We stepped into the club. The place was a massive, wide open area dimly lit, with flashing lights here and there and a huge dance floor packed with people. A DJ booth was elevated in the center, and dozens of tables were along the walls. There were two floors to the place, and I wondered if Castille was seated above us, his eyes locked on me right at that moment.

  "This is a bad idea," I said. "What if I lose you in the crowd? What if they take me?"

  Carter grabbed my arm and looked deep into my eyes.

  "That's not gonna happen," he said, his voice stern. "You're gonna be safe."

  I said nothing. There seemed to be something more to his words, as if he were making the promise to himself as well as to me.

  "Now, let's get something to drink," he said, stepping toward the bar. "We're gonna need to fit in."