“And now he is with the Rizer pack?”
Nicole couldn’t bring herself to tell him where Victor was. It would put him in danger. “I want the blood samples that I gave you back,” she said. “I am leaving.”
Rafi turned Sabre in his lap so she was facing him. “I’m going to teach you a lesson that you aren’t ever going to forget,” He said lifting a knife from the fire. The metal blade was white hot.
Nicole’s tiger roar tore through the air like a chainsaw through paper, causing everyone jump except for Rafi.
He smiled at Nicole. “You want to save her this lesson?”
“Yes.”
“Then come and take her,” he said lowering the knife toward Sabre’s thigh.
Nicole raced forward and snatched Sabre from his lap as something sharp sank into her back. It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t the knife.
Medley took Sabre from Nicole’s arms that were suddenly so weak. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to Sabre,” Medley said looking up at Nicole with sad eyes.
Rafi’s arms came around Nicole just before her legs gave out. She was still fully alert but her body wasn’t responding. “The Rizer pack has a very bad habit of getting in everyone else’s business, did you know that?” Rafi asked her as he pulled her back up against his chest.
Nicole tried to tell him to get off of her to let her go but her mouth didn’t move and her protest came out in frantic garbled noise.
“I raided the Herod camp after the Rizer pack came and killed most of them. They buried the bodies but didn’t bother to go through their things. Stupid, right? I got this paralyzing agent from Herod’s own personal stash.”
His hand slid up her stomach to her right breast. “Ah yes, I’ve been wanting to squeeze these for a while now,” he laughed with his mouth pressed against her neck.
“Rafi what are you doing?” one of the pack protested.
“You’ve all been told what to do. Go and guard the perimeter. You know what to do.” He waited until the pack started moving away before he spoke again. “You smell like someone popped your cherry. Too bad. I was looking forward to that too.”
How could I have given this creature samples of my blood? How could I have believed he was good?
“You are going to give me a child. She or he will have the same power you do. The blood that is the cure to shifting,” he laughed. “that’s what your people called it, right? It’s a weapon. You and your kind were just too stupid to know how to use it.” His hand tightened painfully on her breast. “Rizer pack dies first and all their stupid ideas of living in peace with humans. I’m going to rule the world with my weapon. So, you’re going to give it to me.”
He picked her up with her flaccid limbs dangling.
He’s going to kill Victor and my new family. I’ve made everything worse! I can’t even move to stop him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
VICTOR
Don’t trust the children and don’t kill anyone. Dammit, I forgot the gun.
Victor looked back over his shoulder at Onyx and Errol who were following. Onyx was in her black wolf form, Errol was carrying the gun and running in his human form.
At full speed and not having to carry a fighting tiger along with him, they were able to cross the distance in only a few hours’ time. From the scent of the trail Nicole left behind, Victor estimated that he was about fifteen minutes behind her.
He pushed hard trying to close that time gap.
When the scent of the Rafi pack began to permeate the air, Victor knew he was getting close and slowed down so he could figure how best to get into their camp without killing anyone.
Stupid freaking rules.
Onyx and Errol slowed behind him and the three of them listened carefully to the forest noise. A huge brown bison burst from the forest nearly knocking the gun from Ian’s hands.
The black she-wolf leapt up and clamped her huge jaws into the neck of the shifter taking him down so hard the ground shook.
Shit. Everyone heard that.
Victor rushed to the West. He gave the camp a wide berth in the hope he might find a way to get through unnoticed.
“What the hell is that thing,” Errol yelled from the same area where Victor let them.
“Dammit, Errol you dropped the gun,” Onyx said having shifted into her human form.
Victor kept going. He could smell Nicole, her scent getting stronger. He could hear a man talking but not what he was saying.
“Can you help us?” A small boy asked stepping out in front of Victor.
“No,” Victor said much more gruffly than he would have without the warning from Angeline not to trust the kids.
The little footsteps behind him made him turn back. A tiny toddler was following after him with her hands stretched out toward him. The boy following behind her.
“Get away from me, both of you,” Victor said feeling foolish. The little girl opened and closed her hands, silently pleading for him to pick her up. It was difficult to imagine how this tiny baby girl could hurt him.
With a sigh, he began to bend forward to pick up the baby. She fell forward onto her hands and the earth where her hands hit turned black and smelled of rot.
Victor leaped backward. “Shit. What the hell?”
Onyx rounded the thick oak tree. “What is it?”
“Don’t let the kids touch you.”
Onyx looked down at the earth and nodded. “He’s covered them in the poison Demitrus used. It will kill them eventually too if we don’t get it off of them.”
“I’m getting Nicole first.”
“Go,” she said nodding.
Victor raced into the camp. If Rafi was willing to kill the children to get to the Rizer pack coming than what would he be willing to do to Nicole?
The drag marks in the dirt to the large tent made his heart nearly stop beating. He was moving as fast as he could but it still felt too slow, like a bad dream.
Ripping the tent open he found Rafi preparing to rape Nicole.
Rafi shot through the roof of the tent when he saw the look on Victor’s face. He nearly leaped up through the torn ceiling after Rafi but Nicole wasn’t moving.
Dropping down beside her he pulled down the skirt of the white dress to cover her. Her heart beat was slow and her breathing calm. She was waking and blinking. “You look like you’ve been drugged with the same stuff I saw Demitrus use from the Herod pack.”
Her body tensed slightly and her gaze was behind him.
Rafi.
Victor spun catching an arrow by the shaft. Nicole’s blood was on the arrowhead. If he’d not caught the arrow by the shaft he would be human without any shifting power.
Rafi backed up while loading another arrow.
Victor started searching the tent for the cure to the paralytic Nicole was given. He couldn’t leave her vulnerable like this.
“He is trying to kill her,” Rafi told his pack. “Save Nicole from him.” Shifters ripped away the walls of the tent. He was surrounded. Victor wasn’t going to fight any of them until he helped Nicole.
“This is why I wasn’t supposed to forget the gun,” Victor told Nicole hoping he was helping her not to be afraid.
A shifter with long spiked horns charged at him. Victor took hold of his horns and tossed him up and over the wall of people surrounding them.
“You fucking misfits,” Rafi roared. “Kill him.”
Two shifters rushed forward, their eyes filled with fear and doubt. It was clear why he shouldn’t kill them. One touched his shoulder as he reached for the blue vial finally spotting it in a box under the makeshift table.
Electricity burned through his system. He yelled out in pain and when it stopped he crumbled to the floor.
“Again. Kill him,” Rafi commanded.
Victor snatched up the vial, uncorked it and crawled over to Nicole. Opening her mouth, he poured a few drops before the electric volts shot through his body again. Just before the world went black he thought he saw Nicole’s fin
ger twitch.
Thank the Lord. Give’em hell Nicki.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NICOLE
She could smell his body cooking. “Stop,” she screamed.
Verdun stopped looking at her wide eyed, his breathing fast and choppy. “He was going to kill you,” Verdun said.
“Rafi is the murderer.”
“She’s been brainwashed,” Rafi said approaching with another bloodied arrow. “I’ll kill him if you won’t.”
Nicole was slowly getting feeling back in her body but not fast enough to stop an arrow. “Rafi don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“You will anyway,” he laughed darkly.
Shit. I can’t lose him.
“No,” Nicole laid her body over Victor’s. “I won’t let you kill him.”
Rafi grabbed the front of her dress lifting her up and off of Victor. “You can’t do a damn thing to stop me.” He threw her like she was a bag of garbage across the campsite. The wind was knocked out of her but she didn’t even want air. She just wanted Victor.
No. She needed him.
Where the fuck are you tigress? I need you.
“It is time for you to take the lead. Save your mate.”
How?
No response came from her tigress as she crawled back toward the circle of people around Victor.
Medley stumbled out of the woods behind Nicole. She was holding Sabre and sobbing. “Nicole,” she cried. “He poisoned the children. I don’t know what to do.”
Nicole looked back at her to tell her to go and save Victor and that was when she saw it. The gun. “Give that to me,” Nicole commanded. Medley slid the gun strap from her shoulder and slid it over the ground to Nicole.
“Hey Rafi,” Nicole called out in a taunting disrespectful tone. “You forgot something.” As soon as he showed his face she pulled the trigger.
Now you pay.
The tranquilizer dart hit him in the eye. He fell backward screaming and dropping the arrow. When Victor stood up Nicole lost her composure and cried with relief.
He’s alive!
Victor stabbed the bloody arrow into Rafi, making him cry out again. He could have gone for the heart but he didn’t. Victor stabbed him in the shoulder.
Rafi’s pack appeared torn, not knowing what to do. If he’d killed Rafi, they would have attacked him. By sparing him they didn’t know what to do.
Thank you for sparing him, Nicole thought.
The scream that comes out of Rafi makes everyone jumps back except for Victor. Rafi is looking at his hands and screaming, over and over again. “Human,” he cries his hands fisted. “You should have killed me,” he bellowed at Victor. “I’m nothing. Nothing,” he screamed, veins bulging in his face and neck.
Rafi climbed to his feet and yanked a pitchfork out of the hands of one of the young shifters who had yet to shift and drove it through his own chest.
Victor turned the young boy away from the gruesome sight. Nicole’s heart ached even more that she’d ever been mad at Victor or blamed him for anything.
“Will they hurt us?” Medley asked Nicole.
“No. He’s a good man. The Rizers are good people. Rafi was not good.” Nicole tore her eyes from Victor even though it was the last thing she wanted to do.
“I know. He poisoned the children,” Medley cried. We have to save them.”
“It’s okay,” Onyx said as the wagon pulled into the camp. It was filled with soaking wet children. “We washed it off them. They’ll be okay.” Onyx was breathing hard. “I thought we came here to fight and rescue you. It was like everyone needed rescuing,” she said.
Nora stood up in the wagon. “They are scared though so will the parents please come collect your kids,” Nora said holding a small boy with long black hair that was still dripping.
Many of the Rafia pack come forward and started claiming their children. Medley stayed close to Nicole as she started to walk toward Victor. “What about the kids who don’t have parents?” Medley asked Nicole.
Nicole paused hearing the fear in Medley’s voice. “I’ll take care of any and all of the kids who don’t have parents. That includes you.”
Medley nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I’ll go gather up the kids who are coming with us.” She dashed away, too embarrassed for Nicole to see her cry.
“We’ll take care of her and the others. We’ll teach them to be strong.”
Yes, we will.
Turning back to go to Victor she ran right into his hard chest as his arms wrapped around her. He smelled like a barbecue. “I’m sorry,” Nicole said. “I’m so sorry.” Her hands ran over his body checking for injuries as he lifted her and kissed her.
“I am going to spank you till you can’t sit down for running out and trying to do this on your own,” he growled into her ear.
Nicole moaned as he kissed her again, picturing him bending her over his knee and giving her a sexy lesson. Her tiger purred. Victor nibbled at her lower lip and then her neck and ear. “You and I are together on everything from now on. I promise.”
“Good. Let’s go home, I need to come inside you and hear you screaming my name after seeing that fucker about rape you,” he told her taking her hand and pulling her toward the forest.
“Yes, okay but we kind of adopted some kids,” Nicole gestured to the wagon that was about half full of children ranging from babies to teens.
Nicole held her breath waiting for his response and afraid of what he’d say.
“We always said we’d have a big family,” he grinned. “You and I have been alone far too much. This is heaven sent. Don’t you think?”
I think you’re heaven sent.
Nicole leaped up into his arms kissing him with all that she had. When she did finally pull away, they were both breathless.
Victor smiled as he held her. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you either.”
EPILOUGE
TEN YEARS LATER
VICTOR
“I can’t believe how much it’s grown,” Victor said standing with Nicole and the original Rizer pack. “How big is Freebasin now?”
“It’s over three hundred thousand now,” Cara answered with a bright smile on her face. Her eleven-year-old daughter standing with her wearing the exact same smile. “I remember when it was a tiny town surrounded by a rock wall that was so high you could only see the sun when it was high in the sky,” she said looking at her three sons who were all ears for her stories.
Darian trotted up to the group from the incline of the mountain. “I’m sorry I’m late.” He kissed Cara and then ruffled the hair of his children. “Tell me how things are going with your pack in Houston, Killian.”
“It is going well. We are pleased,” Killian said with his arm around Angeline and their son, a ten-year-old with his father’s stoic manner and his mother’s fair hair and pale skin.
Angeline gasped shaking her head at her husband. “It’s going better than we expected. With the law enforcement team armed with the shifter neutralizer made from the white tiger blood sample, it’s been like a cake walk. I mean they’ve seen how all the other cities are run and most understand that they have to obey the laws of the Rizer pack. It’s peaceful.”
“Same with Sacramento,” Ian said.
“And Colorado City,” Errol reported.
Victor folded his arms trying to wait until he was called upon by the alpha to report how his pack was managing Portland. His daughter, Nicolette was bouncing in place in front of him just as excited as her parents. Her six sisters and eight brothers, many of them adults were just as bouncy.
“And Portland?”
“You tell him,” Nicole smiled up at Victor adoringly.
Nicolette, nodded her head enthusiastically as she hugged her dad’s thick thigh.
“With the size of the pack we have we’ve been successful in quadrupling the size of the city in the last year. Our population is at an all-time high since the people and shifters from the
northern unlawful territories are flooding in, ready to obey Rizer pack law. The last count was seven hundred thousand.”
Cara’s smile was so big, and the joyful tears that trailed down her face warmed them all. “I can’t believe it’s really happening,” she said wiping at her eyes with her fingertips. “We are returning law and order to the world that was nearly lost. The suffering and violence are finally fading away from everyday life and it’s because of all of you.”
“I predict that in the next ten years we’ll have reclaimed this country and everyone within it will be protected,” Nora said.
“It won’t take five years,” Angeline grinned. “It will happen in the next three. I’ve seen it. This may have started out as wishful thinking but, Cara, your dream of freedom and justice returning to this land. It’s a reality.”
Darian hugged Cara tightly in his arms. “It started when you climbed that wall, Cara. Your act of bravery changed the world.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the pack. They all crowded in around Cara hugging and crying. Not a single person there would ever take for granted that their actions no matter how imperfect they might be, have the power to bring about change.
The End
I hope you enjoyed reading the Rizer pack series, if so please remember to review. Thank you!
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Rizer Pack Shifter- Complete Series Page 47