Shifter Challenge

by Selina Woods

  “We got an army on the way,” I hollered as I jumped down, Caesar and Gray with me, Jordan and the driver climbing out from the cab. “Everyone inside. Lock the doors. Prepare for a fight.”

  Now was the time to realize whose side these guards would fight on—mine or the enforcers. If they chose the enforcers that headed toward us, the five of us were dead, as were Kiana and her brothers. I braced myself as they hesitated, glancing at one another as if to ask, do we really want to risk our lives for this guy?

  “Move!” I roared.

  Whether they were indecisive or not, my bellowed order worked. Too used to obeying the boss, they hustled the five of us inside with the twenty or so guards shoving through the doors behind us. I heard the locks snap closed as the five or six guards in the lobby snapped to their feet.

  “They’ll shoot the locks out,” I told them as they awaited my next order. “The doors are just heavy glass. There’s not enough cover here to protect you from a shootout. We’ll disable the elevator, and then the only way up is the stairwell.”

  I glanced around at the watching eyes, avid, on me. “Climb up to the upper floors and fire down on them as they come up. They don’t have a chance in hell of getting past you.”

  Pointing at a guard, I gestured toward the elevator. “Shoot that out.”

  He obeyed me and blasted several bullets into the mechanism. Outside, cars screeched to a halt, their headlights shining into the building. “Come on,” I yelled, running for the stairwell.

  I urged Caesar, Jordan, Gray, and the driver whom I finally recognized as Billy up ahead of me as we bolted up the stairs, story by story. Down below, gunfire and the breaking of the glass informed me the enforcers had shot their way inside.

  “Return fire,” I ordered the guards, seeing them turn back to shoot down at the enforcers who started the chase.

  Gray reached the penthouse and slammed his way through the door, then paused as we also ran through. “Logan,” he panted. “We’re dead if those guards decide to work with the enforcers.”

  “That’s why I’m gonna listen to what goes on.”

  Shifting forms to hear better, I stood in the stairwell and listened. Sure enough, I heard the enforcers yelling up to the guards, trying to convince them of a big payday if they helped kill me. I half turned to Gray. “How many weapons do we have?”

  “Just those two and their rifles,” he replied, gesturing toward Jordan and Billy.

  “No,” I heard Tony say, and I emerged from the stairwell to see him, pale and scared, but pointing to one of the suite’s spare bedrooms. “There’s a hidden closet back there. Albert and I found it. There’s a bunch of really big guns in it.”

  “Tony, I could kiss you.”

  “Eww.” He grinned as he said it.

  “Get them,” I told Gray and Caesar. “I’m staying here to listen.”

  They ran to the bedroom while I listened to the voices arguing below, then looked back at Tony. “How’s Kiana?”

  “She hurts. But she’s seems okay.”

  “Go back. Stay with her and your brother.”

  “No. I’m going to stay and fight.”

  I had no time to argue with him as the guards had decided to join up with the enforcers based on the sounds from below. I cursed under my breath, listening to the noise of feet running up the steps. Gray returned with not just a big rifle and extra rounds, but also several hand grenades.

  “We can’t use those,” I said, shifting into my human and taking the rifle. “We blow everything up. We’ll never escape here.”

  “We might,” he replied, setting them nearby. “Just in case.”

  Together, we stealthily headed down the stairs and aimed our guns over the railing. Within seconds, enforcers charged up them, stupidly not looking up for any potential threats. We fired simultaneously and sent them tumbling back into their fellows.

  “Now they’ll be more cautious,” Gray said with satisfaction.

  Except they weren’t. They had their own bag of surprises with them. We listened hard but heard little save clicks and whispers. Then something, a silver canister, came whizzing up to land nearly at my feet. “What the—”

  The thing exploded, but emitted smoke, not shrapnel. Stung by it, but basically uninjured, I fell back against Gray as thick, choking smoke filled the stairwell. “Back,” I gasped, coughing. “Inside.”

  Blinded with tears, hardly able to breathe, we ran back up the stairs and into the penthouse. I fell to my knees, retching, as someone slammed the door. I dropped my rifle on the carpet. My eyes burned, flooded with tears, and I could hardly breathe for the coughing. I felt someone try to lift me to my feet and half-saw Gray in the same condition.

  “What the fuck was that?” Caesar demanded.

  “Block the door,” I wheezed. “Stop them.”

  Someone washed my face and eyes with a wet rag as I knelt on the carpet, and when I could see, I discovered it was Tony. He splashed more water on my face, and the burning eased somewhat. Blinking, I found Albert did the same for Gray as Jordan, Billy, and Caesar started stacking furniture against the door.

  “The desk,” I gasped. “It must weigh a ton.”

  They dragged it over and wedged it solidly, then continued to pile mattresses, dressers, and the sideboard against it even as the first shots struck from behind the solid pile.

  “It’ll take them a while to shoot through that,” Caesar said, panting, slumping down beside me. “There’s only room enough for a couple of them outside the door. We have a few minutes to plan.”

  Able to wash my face and eyes now, I did so and asked, “We have help on the way?”

  “Yeah,” Jordan replied from the wall near the door, listening to the activities outside. “They should be here at any minute.”

  “Logan?”

  I glanced up to see Kiana framed in the doorway of the bedroom. “Shit, baby, you need to be lying down.”

  I staggered over to her and held her gingerly in my arms so as to not hurt her. Her hand reached up to stroke my cheek. “I won’t die on a bed,” she told me. “If I’m to die, it’ll be on my feet.”

  “We’re gonna get out of this, I promise you.”

  Kiana smiled. “If we don’t, then I’ll die at your side, fighting.”

  “Me, too,” yelled Tony.

  “Me, three,” shouted Albert.

  “Someone go out on the balcony and watch for reinforcements,” I said, helping Kiana to sit in a chair. “Albert, you watch.”

  He ran for the glass doors and slid them open. Within a few seconds, he yelled, “I see cars coming.”

  I grinned. “Our help is on the way.”

  Shots continued to strike the door and the wall, a few breaking through the wood and plaster. Shoulders also hit the door, the stacks of furniture wobbling precariously as Gray, Caesar, Jordan, and Billy stood shoulder to shoulder with me, our guns ready.

  “They’re here,” Albert yelled, excited. “They’re in the building.”

  “Let’s hope he hasn’t mistaken theirs for ours,” Caesar muttered in my ear.

  “I am,” I replied from the side of my mouth.

  Within moments, more gunfire sounded from far below us. I eyed Caesar sidelong, seeing his grin. “Reckon he wasn’t.”

  Shouts and yells accompanied the shots even as the pounding on the door grew more frantic. Soon, the furniture toppled inward, the door already blasted so full of holes, it was as thin as cheese. We fired back, shooting anything that moved. Screams met our bullets, yet the enforcers and guards were caught between two forces, trapped in a narrow stairwell.

  Desperate, they charged into the penthouse in a steady stream. We shot them down almost as fast as they got in, yet a few ran past us and our guns. Kiana! Tony! Albert! They were as helpless as bugs, and my rifle ran out of bullets. I reversed it, grabbing the hot barrel, and swung it as a bludgeon.

  Enforcers and guards went down under my onslaught, yet more got past the others. I dropped the gun, went li
on, hearing more than just my roar as I attacked the shifters who hadn’t thought to change into their stronger predators. I leaped upon shoulders, ripped through flesh and bone, my fangs tearing throats. The instant one went down, I was on another. Yet another. And another.

  To my shock, two small lions with just the barest of manes around their necks also leaped upon the weaker humans, despite their guns. Their claws were just as sharp, their fangs like needles. Shifters tried to aim guns at them, but they spun and leaped faster than the barrels could follow. Kiana, as weakened as she was, tore open a belly even as the enforcer tried to take aim at her brothers.

  The penthouse grew hazy with smoke as the guns blasted holes in the walls. I heard screams of agony, scented blood, piss, and death. I knew I’d been shot in the shoulder but felt no pain. Little by little, the gunfire ceased, and I stood panting, searching with my eyes for Kiana and her brothers.

  “Don’t shoot!” yelled a voice from the stairwell. “In the apartment, don’t shoot.”

  Kiana staggered through the murk toward me, limping, her muzzle smeared with blood. Tony and Albert also emerged, trying to see everywhere at once, their eyes wild. They all came to me, hovering near, shivering

  “Who are you?” I shouted back.

  “It’s Ramsey. Logan, that you?”

  I collapsed on the blood-soaked carpet, breathing raggedly. “Yeah, Ramsey.”

  As the smoke cleared a little, I saw Gray climb to his feet, blood soaking his shirt. Caesar, too, got up as Jordan and Billy stepped from the walls, their rifles lowered. Corpses littered the floor as the injured or dying called for help, and Ramsey led his force of civilians through the door. He stared around at the total devastation, at us, then back at the horror.

  “You all right?” he finally asked.

  I changed forms as I got to my knees, taking my family into my arms. They, too, changed into their human selves, and wrapped their arms around me, holding me tightly.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m good.”

  Epilogue

  The majestic Rocky Mountains grew closer and closer, and the more they loomed in my sight, the more nervous I got. Kiana, sitting next to me in the van, held my hand, her blue eyes watching me. “She’s your mother,” she whispered.

  I swallowed hard and nodded.

  We had left Miami after both healing from our wounds and seeing to it a new democracy emerged from the ashes of Duke’s legacy. Ramsey, with my encouragement, had been elected as the first president of the governing council. Four others, Jordan one of them, had become council members, and the rebuilding of the city began.

  I stood in front of a watching crowd and handed all of Duke’s hoarded wealth to Ramsey and the council. “Use it to begin again,” I said. “Rebuild this place into a safe city.”

  Ramsey hugged me in front of the entire crowd. “You come back and see us. You hear?”

  I grinned. “I will. Take good care of my people.”

  Suzanne, in the end, refused to come with us to Denver. After Derek’s funeral, she hugged and kissed me. “My family is here, Logan,” she said. “I need to stay. Derek would want me to.”

  Caesar, driving as usual, brought us into the clean, well-cared for and happy city of Denver, the first safe zone I had ever seen. People smiled at one another without a trace of fear, walked in and out of shops without an enforcer in sight. The old wreck and rubble had been cleared away, and buildings stood under construction.

  “It’s around here somewhere,” he muttered, turning corners as Gray barked directions at him impatiently. “Dammit, shut up, will you?”

  He finally pulled the van in front of a market, so similar to mine and Derek’s that I stared at it, stunned. Gray stepped out and slid the side door open, then waited, almost at attention, as I stepped out onto the sidewalk. I helped Kiana out, then Tony and Albert. The boys gazed around in awe as a woman with red-gold hair walked out of the store.

  My eyes riveted upon her and refused to leave. Tiny wrinkles lined the corners of her eyes and mouth, gray silvered her hair, yet her green eyes met mine, and I knew.

  The surge in my blood told me immediately who she was. “Mother. It’s me, Logan.”

  She smiled and opened her arms. “You came home at last. My son.”

  Awkward, I embraced her, seeing others emerge from the store behind her. I straightened and held my hand behind me for Kiana to take. I brought her forward to meet my mother. “This is Kiana, my future mate. These are her brothers, Tony and Albert.”

  My mother, still smiling, half-turned to the males who now flanked her. “This is Axel, my mate, Logan. And this is Declan, your brother.”

  My brother? I have a brother?

  The smallish fellow with hair and eyes exactly like Mother’s grinned, and he hugged me. “Welcome,” he said. “Logan.”

  I parted from him, chuckling into his face, and tousled his hair as much as I did Tony’s or Albert’s. “My little brother.”

  Mother’s voice broke into our reunion. “This is your older brother, Ragnor.”

  I stared into a face so much like mine that I swore I gaped into a mirror. He stared at me just as hard, then grinned. “Logan.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I ignored his extended hand and hugged him hard to me, my throat thick. “I never knew you existed.”

  He laughed. “I didn’t either until I found Mother. Come inside; we have so much to catch up on.”

  My hand in Kiana’s, I started toward the door and heard my mother say, “Your brother, another son, is on his way even now. We must plan to welcome him home.”

  NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES

  When Beast meets Beauty, light pierces through his dark, lonely world. But in this tale, our hero sits atop a bloodied throne and there is no magic spell to break him of his curse. Griffin, lion-shifter and king of post-apocalyptic Detroit, will stop at nothing to protect sweet Iliana. But will she love him in return, once she’s faced the truth of who he is?

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Selina Woods lives in Denver with her two cats. She began writing at a young age, and has continued to pursue her passion. Her imagination and creativity come to life on paper as she writes her Paranormal Romances from her home. She writes all types of paranormal romance stories but writing about sexy steamy alpha shifters is her passion. Her books are adventurous, from the heart and full of romance. On her downtime she enjoys an evening curled up buried in a good book or spending time with good friends.

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  Selina Woods