Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.)

by Georgette St. Clair

  “We must see the children before either of us will sign anything,” Gwenneth said quickly. “You two are liars and thieves. We have no reason to trust that they’re alive and unharmed.”

  The queen nodded in agreement. “I demand to see my son, or I will sign nothing, and I will die fighting you. Try explaining my disappearance or death to the Island Council if you can; they will open up an investigation and all will be exposed.”

  “They can’t tell you what to do! Baby, let me hurt them.” Nadette leaned forward to nibble at the chief’s ear, but he moved away from her impatiently.

  “I cannot risk blood spatter getting on the confessions, foolish woman! Then the Island Council would know they were coerced!” At that, there was a flash of dark anger in Nadette’s eyes, which vanished quickly to be replaced by a manufactured look of pouty seductiveness.

  Then the chief shrugged, baring his teeth in a cruel smile that promised vicious retribution once he’d gotten what he wanted. “Very well,” he said to Gwenneth “We’ll go pay your little friends a visit.” He called out to the driver, “Take us to the factory.”

  Gwenneth leaned back in the seat.

  “And, I want to know what your part is in the theft of the Eye,” she added to the chief. Before he could argue, she added, “It’s my dying wish. And there’s no reason not to tell me. It’s not like I can escape, is it? Tell me about your brilliant plan.” Knowledge was power. Whatever information she gathered now, she might be able to use against him – if she survived, that was.

  “Don’t tell her anything!” Nadette commanded him.

  Mistake; Nadette had just done exactly what Gwenneth had hoped.

  The police chief was a macho pig, and Nadette was overestimating her charms. She thought that because she’d had sex with him, she now had power over him. The truth was quite the opposite; now that he’d gotten what he wanted, he was already getting bored and impatient with her. Also, a man like him would never allow a woman to give him orders.

  He addressed Gwenneth in a haughty, condescending tone, as if he were doing her an enormous favor by answering her question. “I was the one who arranged for the theft of the Eye, of course. You already figured that out, I assume. The Shadow Lord assured me that you were the best in the business, so I arranged for you to steal the crown, but you never showed up.”

  They still thought she was her sister. She saw no reason to inform them otherwise. At least if they killed her, Rhonwen might be safe – they’d have no reason to keep looking for her.

  Tyler. What will happen to Tyler? She forced that thought from her mind. She needed to focus on what was happening right now.

  “You planned on double-crossing me from the very beginning, didn’t you? You’d arrange for me to steal the Eye, have me caught and killed while resisting arrest, and the Eye would mysteriously disappear. Then nobody would know that it was a fake you replaced the real Eye with years ago.”

  His smug grin was all the answer she needed.

  Nadette sat with her arms folded across her chest, pouting.

  “If she escapes, she’s got all this information that she can use against us. Baby,” she added, stroking his arm.

  He shot her a look of disgust. “She will not escape me. Unlike you, I know how to handle her,” he said coldly.

  Nadette’s hand fell away, and she turned to glower out the window, pressing her lips together. It wasn’t that she cared about the police chief; she just didn’t take well to rejection. If she were able to, she’d gladly slit his throat right now, Gwenneth knew.

  “So what happened when I didn’t show?” Gwenneth pressed.

  “I called the Shadow Lord, and he assured me that everything would be put right. Then Nadette showed up on the island with you and your English friend. The plan was still the same; let you steal the crown, catch you in the act, and kill you when you attempted to escape.”

  “Brilliant.” Gwenneth did a bored slow clap.

  “Despicable. You will be punished for your treachery.” The queen raked him with a look of hatred and contempt, and he returned it with a scornful, “Pshaw.”

  Gwenneth shifted in her seat, turning her attention to Nadette.

  “So, Nadette, what’s it feel like to know that you won’t live to see the next sunset?” she asked idly, pretending to fiddle with her hair but actually touching the copper collar’s lock. Unlike the one designed by Tyler’s friends, this was a lock she knew she could pick. She just needed to wait until the time was right. Not that she thought she would survive an escape attempt, but she wanted to go down fighting.

  “Oh, I’m so very scared right now. You’re terrifying, Gwenneth.” Nadette sneered at her.

  “Not me, dumbass. The Shadow Lord. He’s here on the island, you know. He’s already met with Farruki.”

  At Nadette’s look of shock and dismay, she added, “Oh, you didn’t know? Farruki’s playing all of you against each other. That includes you,” she added to the police chief.

  The police chief jabbed Nadette in the arm with his finger. “Why is the Shadow Lord here?”

  “She’s bluffing,” Nadette said hurriedly. “And even if he’s here, it doesn’t matter. Once she signs the confession, he will be satisfied. And he certainly has no reason to pursue you; he doesn’t have any way of knowing your real plans.”

  The fear in Nadette’s voice said that she knew that wasn’t the case. She was nowhere near out of danger yet.

  “Keep telling yourself that.” Gwenneth gave her a lazy, satisfied smile.

  Nadette let out a bark of rage, partially shifted and lunged at her, jaws snapping. The police chief intercepted her, also partially shifting, and cuffed her with an enormous paw. Nadette cringed and yelped, then settled into the corner, whimpering as she shifted back into human form. As they drove, she shot bitter, wounded looks at the police chief, who ignored her.

  The limo had left the center of town and was heading towards the outskirts, and Gwenneth turned away from Nadette and the chief, staring out the window in silence. Wherever they were going, it was almost certainly the end of the line for her. Her only hope was that she could pick the lock on the collar, shift, and create enough of a distraction that the children could escape.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tyler sniffed around at the ground, his fur standing on end. Off in the distance, he could hear Corran huffing and puffing, his feet thudding on the ground as he ran to catch up.

  Pern had taken Tyler and Corran to the last place he’d seen Gwenneth and the queen, and Tyler had shifted and followed their scent from there, with Pern loping along at his heels.

  Their scents told a story. A story with an unhappy ending. Everything had been fine for Gwenneth and the queen until they’d reached this spot. Then dozens of male jaguars had closed in on them, and he recognized the scent of Police Chief Angara. He could smell anger and fear. He also smelled Nadette’s scent. To his great relief, he did not smell any blood.

  But he did pick up the lingering scent of exhaust, sweeping towards him on a stiff breeze. Gwenneth and the queen had been forced into a car, he was sure of it.

  “What happened?” Corran wheezed, skidding to a stop next to Tyler and Pern. He held Tyler’s backpack, which he tossed to the ground at Tyler’s feet as Tyler shifted back into human form.

  “You might want to renew your gym membership.” Tyler ignored his question and scowled in thought, debating his next move. Pern paced anxiously, tail twitching, sniffing the air.

  “Hey, I’m in tip-top shape, for a human.” He gasped for breath, bent over with his hands braced on his knees. “You’re a wolf, damn it, I can’t be expected to keep up. You could have slowed down and waited for me.”

  “I could have.” Tyler scowled fiercely, sniffing at the air again. Pern shifted back into human form, looking worried.

  “So what did you find?” Corran asked between heaving gulps of breath.

  “A bunch of male jaguar shifters abducted Gwenneth and a female jaguar who I’m as
suming is the queen. They left in a car.” He gritted the words out, struggling to quell the rising fury and panic inside him.

  The message that she’d sent to him through Pern– she’d been trying to save him. Trying to trick him into abandoning her.

  As ever, his fated mate wasn’t very good at lying. He knew she was his, and he knew she knew it. She was his heartbeat, his life, and he would not sleep until he found her.

  “So now what’s our next move?” Corran asked impatiently.

  As he spoke, the wind shifted, and he picked up another scent that made him freeze in his tracks.

  Lion shifter, and several bears, and the coppery tang of blood.

  “Corran, get out of here,” he said quickly. “Run. The Shadow Lord’s heading this way.”

  “Screw it,” Corran said wearily. “If he wants me dead, I’m dead. I’d rather face my death like a man.”

  “Don’t be an idiot. Leave so I can explain things to him,” Tyler snapped.

  “No explanation necessary.” A man’s voice rang out from behind a pile of broken chipboard furniture, and then he stepped out. Lion shifter. The Shadow Lord.

  A big man with a brutal face, thick brows, the burn of silver on one cheek – the one scar that would never heal or fade. He wore a leather coat, seemingly unbothered by the heat, looking as cool as a cucumber. Bear shifters flanked him on either side, and he was holding a severed head by the hair in his right hand.

  “Farruki,” Pern choked out.

  “He was, yes,” the Shadow Lord said, and tossed Farruki’s head onto a pile of garbage. “Do you work for him?”

  Pern cringed, and Tyler stepped forward in front of him, letting out a low growl. “Leave him alone,” he snapped. “He’s just a boy, and he didn’t work for him. He just paid protection money to him, the way you Thieves’ Guild leeches steal money from children everywhere.”

  The lion looked at him with eyes of ice blue. “I do not take money from children.”

  Tyler scoffed. “Forgive me if I don’t take the word of a criminal as the gospel truth.”

  The bears on either side of him growled, but the lion shifter appeared to be unfazed. “You’re the security contractor from California.”

  Tyler tried to place the man’s accent but couldn’t. It was American, but the Shadow Lord didn’t have any regional twang to his voice, or he’d made sure that he erased it.

  From what little Tyler knew about the Shadow Lord, he moved around the globe, never staying in one country for long. He was one of the underworld’s most powerful brokers; if you wanted to acquire an object that was impossible to steal, you went to him.

  The lion glanced at Corran. “Corran. Good to see you again.” Corran swallowed hard, and Tyler could have sworn he went a shade paler, but he didn’t say anything.

  “You understand that I’m not going to stand here and let you harm either one of them,” Tyler said, letting fur ripple on his face as he glanced at Corran and Pern.

  That seemed to amuse the lion. “Suicidally brave. An admirable quality. But you might want to wait before you leap into my jaws. You’re about to go and try to rescue your fated mate, I assume. I’m here to offer you my assistance.”

  “Me? Work with you?”

  “For the time being.” He glanced at Tyler. “Unless you have a small army at your immediate disposal…like I do.”

  “What exactly are you proposing?”

  Corran raised a hand. “Hello, I hate to interrupt, but does this mean you’re not actually going to kill me?”

  The lion shifter ignored him. “Can you scent where she was taken? That should lead me to some people I need to speak to. I’ve been betrayed, and that never ends well. For those foolish enough to betray me, that is.” He glanced over at Farruki’s head.

  “I don’t know how much you know about what really happened, but the woman who was supposed to steal the Eye is not the one who betrayed you.”

  “I know.” The lion shifter nodded, and the icy glitter of anger in his eyes grew even colder. “So will you take me to them? I can find them with or without you, but it will probably be faster with you. And there’s a certain police chief who’s going to be trying to get rid of any loose ends sooner rather than later. Your girlfriend is a loose end.”

  “So is the queen!” Pern said anxiously. The lion shifter shrugged, the picture of indifference.

  Make a deal with the devil, a notorious criminal and murderer, in order to save Gwenneth?

  In a heartbeat.

  “Let’s go,” Tyler said. “I’ll lead the way.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The old bottling factory was located on the outskirts of town. There were jaguar police officers already on guard there, and they snapped to attention when Chief Angara climbed out of his limo.

  They looked a little less sure when Queen Serena and Gwenneth climbed out.

  The Queen raked all of them with a look of loathing and contempt.

  “Traitors, all of you,” she said loudly. “Have you seen what is happening to our island because of this man? You are destroying your own people!” None of them would meet her eye.

  “Move along!” Chief Angara growled, prodding her hard with his finger. Several of the soldiers flinched at that, but nobody moved to help her.

  Gwenneth and the queen were herded inside by Chief Angara and six jaguar police officers, past rows and rows of rusting, idle machinery, through dusty rooms that made Gwenneth sneeze and reeked of bird droppings.

  The police officers and the chief had all dressed as they were being driven through town, and had donned their gun belts. Her nose twitched at the scent of their silver-coated bullets.

  Nadette stalked through the room with her head held high and her eyes blazing with wounded pride. She shot looks of murderous rage at Gwenneth, who ignored her. Nadette no longer mattered. One way or another, her days were numbered.

  “My God,” the queen exclaimed n horror as she looked around.

  Some of the children were sitting on old cardboard boxes. A few were wandering around barefoot on the dirty floor. Gwenneth gritted her teeth in fury. The bastards hadn’t even put mats down on the concrete for them to sleep on, and they’d put copper collars on all their necks.

  Tana was sitting cross-legged, drawing in the dust on the floor with a stick. She leaped to her feet when they walked in. “You came for me!” she cried. She ran over to Gwenneth, jumped into her arms and gave her an enormous hug. As she did, Gwenneth felt Tana picking the lock on her neck with a tiny twist of wire, and she hid a smile by burying her face in Tana’s hair.

  “All our collars are loose; we were just waiting for you, because we knew you would come for us,” Tana whispered in her ear. “Just give us the signal.”

  “The guards have silver bullets,” Gwenneth replied in a low murmur. “Just let me distract the police chief, and when I do, do your best to get everyone out of here.”

  She glanced over at the queen, who was looking frantically around the room. The queen’s eyes lit on Tam, or rather, Hiro, who was standing by a stack of boxes, staring at her uncertainly.

  “Tam! My son!” Serena rushed over and knelt down next to him. She swept the boy up in a hug, and he stared at her in confusion and put his hand on her face.

  “Who are you?” he asked her, looking into her eyes with wonder. “You look like a queen.”

  “I am a queen. You are my son, and you are a prince.”

  He giggled at that. “Me! A prince!” Then he hugged her and buried his face in her shoulder, and Gwenneth saw that he was picking her lock also. A proud smile spread across Serena’s face; she knew what he was doing.

  Gwenneth walked over to the police chief, who impatiently waved the confessions at her.

  “Just give her five minutes with him before you take us,” Gwenneth said to the police chief. “After all, it’s her last goodbye to her son.” She wanted time to assess the room and decide what her best options were.

  Nadette stamped her foot. “
No! You’ve stalled enough!” she snarled.

  She just didn’t learn. Her ego would be her undoing, Gwenneth thought.

  Chief Angara glared at her. “No woman tells me what to do. I give the orders here.” He cast a cold glance at Gwenneth. “Five minutes,” he snapped, glancing at his watch. He leaned against the wall, his arms folded across his chest, watching them. Nadette turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

  Good. One less person to fight. Seven armed cops, versus the queen and Gwenneth and fourteen children who could shift into jaguars…there was a good chance at least some of the gang would make it out alive.

  Gwenneth knelt down and whispered to Tana, “When I give the signal, be ready to move. Get the kids out of here, don’t look back, don’t stop for me.”

  She glanced around. There should have been fourteen little street urchins there. She saw only eight. Tana caught her eye and gave her a tiny nod.

  That was a good start.

  “They are up in the rafters,” Tana whispered back. “When I give the signal, they will jump down on the guards.”

  Several minutes later, the police chief keyed the microphone on his radio and spoke. Gwenneth couldn’t hear his words, but she saw the expression on his face. He looked unhappy. He spoke into the radio again, and apparently there was no answer, because he sent one of the guards out of the room.

  A minute went by, and the guard didn’t return. The chief pressed the button on his radio again. There was still no answer. Now he was starting to look panicked and angry. Hope rose inside of Gwenneth. Could Tyler have come for her? But Tyler alone, or even with Corran’s help, couldn’t have taken out all of those men outside.

  “You two! Get over here!” Chief Angara shouted at them from across the room.

  “Come get me,” Gwenneth taunted him.

  He pointed his gun at Tana, who stared back at him, unblinking.