Claws out, I launched toward him. He jumped back. Eyes widening, he tripped over a stick, which probably saved him more than his pathetic jump. Skin gave way beneath my claws. Five bright red lines appeared across his chest as he fell. I darted in, intending to follow him to the ground, but he surprised me by rolling out of the fall to his feet. A leg swung at me. I let it hit the back of my knees, using it to help propel me into a backflip that carried me over him as he shot in for another attack that missed.
When I landed, I threw a roundhouse kick into his solar plexus. He doubled over, wheezing.
“Where is my brother?” I demanded.
He flinched, lips twitching as he fought the command of my power. I wasn’t his alpha, so I couldn’t make him tell me, but I was his better by far and I could at least make it hard to deny me. I dumped my power over him in a scalding rush that made him cry out.
“Idaho, last I knew,” he said between gasps. What do you know, turned out I could make him tell me.
My hand drew back for the swipe that would open his throat. The feel of another condemned’s energy slammed into me, halting my strike. Farm Boy drove a fist into my stomach. The second energy came up behind me, fast. I ducked and heard flesh hit flesh. The idiot hit Farm Boy instead of me. Suddenly two sets of arms were reaching for me, swinging at me. I ducked and dodged. The second man looked like he was related to the first. The stain on his soul was a match as well. Both condemned, and both killers.
While they had fighting skills, their rushed moves proved they weren’t disciplined. Still one raked claws across my forearm and the other struck me hard in the right shoulder. They worked together, using the terrain and each other to get the upper hand and wear me down. Out of breath and bleeding, I was left with no other option. I dropped my guard and sucked in a bit of their power. It hit me like a truck, both with horrible images and the taste of corruption. But it pumped adrenalin straight through my veins and into my power.
As I dodged the punch of one, I sliced the stomach of the other open. He fell to the ground, bloody hands trying to hold the wound together. I ducked beneath a kick from the second one. Before straightening, I raked my claws across the wounded man’s neck. They bit deep. Hot arterial blood shot into my palm. It wasn’t enough. After what he’d done, I wanted him to suffer. But I didn’t have time.
The feel of yet another’s energy washed over me as I turned to fight the second guy. When I swung for him, he wasn’t there. A moment before I saw her, I realized the third energy I felt wasn’t a werewolf. It was a shifter, for sure, but not a werewolf. Moonlight glinted off the orange and black coat of a tiger as she bore the second man to the ground. Fury erupted in me at the sight of her stealing my kill.
My thoughts scattered in the deluge of anger. Deep down, I knew it was the rage Vidar had warned me about. But even knowing that, I couldn’t fight it. I didn’t want to fight it. What I wanted was to claw, bite, and kill. The weretiger tore my prey’s throat out before I could stop her.
No, not my prey, the condemned. It shouldn’t matter how he died, only that he did so he couldn’t kill another innocent. That thought took the tiniest bit of the edge off my rage. Still, my control was threadbare.
Golden eyes fixed on me, she held tight until he stopped twitching. She wiped her paws on his clothes in a very untiger-like manner. Gaze still on me, she trotted straight toward me, striped tail flicking behind her. Claws out, I slid into a fighting stance. An effortless looking leap launched her straight up into the air and well out of my reach. Her body flowed like water into that of a woman. Her hands grabbed a large branch and she pulled herself up onto it. Naked as the day she was born, she sat staring at me with a familiar, inquisitive look. Long black and ginger braids swung down around her naked, chestnut-hued skin, teasing her hard nipples. An onyx pendant gleamed between her breasts.
The dancer from the bar. My anger washed out on a tide of confusion.
One of the bodies twitched on the ground near me. Before I could think, I was upon it, slashing and tearing. I couldn’t stop until it was no more than an unidentifiable bloody mess beneath my claws. Panting through my fangs, I stood over it, trying to grasp a thread of my control back. So much blood and gore everywhere; on the ground, on my clothes, my hands. Disgust and shame rose to the top of the fucked up cocktail of my emotions. I hadn’t even shifted to full wolf form to do it.
Bile burned the back of my throat. I darted to a bush and emptied my stomach, all the while keeping an eye on the woman. The worst part was, I couldn’t tell if it was the power of the condemned that had made me vomit, or having torn them apart. Blood covered my hands. It should have bothered me. It didn’t. Spitting several times, I moved into position to try and flank the woman. She watched with obvious interest.
“Come up. It will be smarter to leave the scene through the trees,” she invited, as if I hadn’t just lost my shit and gone all psycho. Though she spoke impeccable English, she had a decidedly Korean accent that took me a moment to place.
Her power exuded a sense of calm that puzzled me. In a way it reminded me of the Zen-like presence Vidar possessed. But this was different, dark in a way I couldn’t put my claw on. Regardless, I had to get away from these bodies. I glanced up, gauging the distance. It was at least fifteen feet straight up. I jumped, shifting in midair just as she had. The world swam in and out of focus. I cleared the branch she sat on, barely grabbing the one above her. Breathing hard, I dropped down beside her. My head pounded and my stomach lurched. Thankfully I had nothing left to throw up.
This whole sucking werewolves’ power thing was not all it was cracked up to be.
Up here the smell of death was much more subdued. Between that and her calm aura, I found I could breathe and think easier.
“This wasn’t your fight. That wasn’t your kill,” I said after a moment.
Her brows rose. “An interesting response.”
I took a deep breath, forced myself to focus. Part of me still wanted to fight. But she wasn’t my prey. She was a freaking weretiger and for that reason alone I had to control myself. Not to mention I didn’t know how I’d do with the way the condemned’s power had left me feeling. “Sorry, I just… Thank you for helping me. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know.”
Everything about her from the way she sat—poised, but ready to launch—to the way she kept scanning her surroundings, spoke of a predator. Or rather, of a killer. At the same time, she managed to look comfortable as could be, one leg gathered beneath her exposing more than I cared to see. How she could act so casual sitting next to me after what I’d just done, I had no idea. And she smelled…aroused. The last part disturbed me for more than one reason. I had not meant to give her the wrong impression about my intentions where she was concerned.
“I had to see more, I had to know more about you before I made my decision,” she continued.
Maybe I’d get that fight after all. I hated how that excited me. I leaned away a bit, turning toward her so I’d be in a better position to defend myself. Clearly she had no qualms against killing. It wouldn’t make much sense for her to attack me after helping me, but nothing about tonight’s encounter made sense.
“Your decision?” I asked.
“Whether or not to try and kill you,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone that made it sound like deciding what pair of shoes to wear.
My eyes widened. But that was the only reaction I allowed myself. Two hard beats of my heart were all it managed before I got it under control. The prospect of another fight so soon sent thrills through me that felt a bit like lightning. She would not be an easy opponent. But I didn’t want to fight her, or so I kept telling myself. It didn’t escape me that she’d said “try and kill you”. Only a confident woman could admit that it wouldn’t be a sure thing, confident and smart. It made it hard not to like her a little, even if she had come to kill me.
“You’ve come to kill me,” I said in a level tone that allowed only a touch of disappointme
nt come through.
It wasn’t her that I was disappointed in. I barely knew her. It was whoever had sent her. What I couldn’t figure out was, how did my brother know a weretiger?
She shook her head. “No. I came to decide if I would try.”
“And what did you decide?” I asked, resisting the urge to extend my claws. No sense in getting hostile if she didn’t. Or so I told the anger ready to boil just beneath the surface of my control.
A rumbling vibrated from her as she leaned in. She straddled the log and scooted closer to me. Her bright pink tongue wetted her lips as she slowly reached a hand out toward me. I held perfectly still as she wrapped a lock of my arrow-straight white-blond hair around her finger and lifted it to her nose. The rumbling in her chest deepened. By Odin, she was purring! Her eyes fluttered closed. One hard nipple as pink as her tongue brushed against my arm. I fought down the impulse to pull away.
A huge smile parted her full lips when her eyes opened. “I decided I’d rather fuck you than fight you. You’re far too intriguing to try to kill.”
Leaning back, I put my hands up, palms out—no claws. “Whoa. I seemed to have given you the wrong impression.” Would it offend her if I told her I didn’t play for her team?
Her hand trailed across my leg. “Are you sure about that?”
I moved slowly back so I didn’t provoke her. It took every ounce of control I had left not to give in to the rage. It would be so easy, but so wrong. Gaze trailing across her, I let her see me appreciate how beautiful she was. She had risked her life for me. I would not allow my unjustified anger to make me do something stupid.
“I’m sure. I’m supposed to marry another.”
She sighed long and deep as she stood. Brows rising, she brushed her braids over her shoulder and arched her back, poking her breasts out. She had at least a cup size on me. Running her hands up her body, she watched me closely. My reaction must not have been what she’d hoped for because her bottom lip stuck out in a pout. “The best ones are always taken. Shame, we would have had fun.”
I smiled. “Of that I have no doubt. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, gorgeous.”
“Who sent you?”
Her face smoothed out into a stoic expression that looked all business. “I can’t divulge the name of my clients, that’s confidential. But I can tell you they are probably not the only one sending assassins. And my client will probably send another when I tell them I’m refusing the job.”
The word “assassin” made me twitch. I couldn’t help it. An assassin sent after me, it fueled the rage almost as much as the presence of a condemned. “Why?”
“The Shifter Council met to discuss you. They’re scared you’ll unite the varúlfur under one leader, making them stronger than any of the other shifters. They’re afraid of what you’ll do with that strength,” she said.
The Shifter Council; elected officials from each territory that represented the shifters in that area. They were the closest thing we had to a democracy that oversaw us all.
Did that mean it wasn’t my brother that sent her? Lengthening claws forced me to open my hands. So what if the werewolves united? Like the forests all over the world, we’d been dwindling away long enough. Much longer and we could disappear altogether. Being from one of the races who was losing their natural habitat the fastest, the weretiger knew the fear that brought all too well. Which could be why she had come here to potentially kill me. With the steadily disappearing jungles, her kind had become so rare they were close to extinct.
Fury for the dying habitats filled me nearly to overflowing. But at the moment I had nowhere to direct it. My whole body shook with the effort of containing it. I couldn’t exactly take it out on her. She had decided not to try and kill me despite the threat I posed to her kind.
I thought back to my jacket, my affiliation with the AVV. An umbrella pack was already somewhat like what they feared, a uniting of my kind. But I didn’t lead them, no one person did. That was the whole point of the umbrella pack.
I held her golden gaze, and my tongue. There was so much I wanted to say in response, but not to her. She wasn’t the one judging me and my motives. With a head thrust, she gestured to the next tree over.
“We should jump to a few trees, try not to touch down with our human feet until we’re away from the kills,” she said.
Relief eased my shaking. Action would help the anger, even if it wasn’t fighting. The moment I nodded, she leaped. She cleared the twenty-five or so feet to the next tree with a limb big enough to support her and landed without even stumbling. While I could jump just as far, I was no weretiger, so I didn’t even attempt to follow suit. Instead, I went for a smaller branch just above hers, and grabbed it with my hands. Momentum swung me almost too far, but my iron grip held me in place. When I dropped down onto the branch she stood on, I could feel the imprint of the bark pattern in my hands.
Wide gold eyes regarded me with delight. “Pretty damn good for a varúlfur,” she said.
Using the excuse of scanning for the next tree, I looked away from her naked body. “Being the reaper has its benefits,” I said.
That purring sound came from her again. “Too bad I won’t get to find out the more interesting benefits,” she said.
Rather than answer, I jumped for the next tree. We continued until we ran out of trees large enough, or close enough, to jump to. It took us close to the backside of the bar. We dropped to the ground just outside of the glow of neon lights. Pine needles made for a soft, nearly silent landing. I listened hard and heard nothing but the distant sounds of music and patrons. The scent of blood hung in the air, or maybe it was just stuck in my nose. One look at my weretiger company and I realized others seeing us come from the direction of a crime wasn’t our only concern, or even the most pressing one. Her skin tone helped her blend well enough into the shadows of the trees, but the moment we stepped into the parking lot, someone was bound to notice she was naked. And covered in blood as I was, I wouldn’t be able to step out there at all. Maybe it was dark enough.
Before I could ask, she started walking off to the left, which was thankfully not the direction of the parking lot. The moment I followed the pressure of another werewolf washed over me. This one felt comfortable and familiar. The warmth of that power soothed my anger until all that remained of it was a fading mist. My power flared up, reaching out for it. Not realizing the weretiger had stopped, I nearly ran right into her.
It was all I could do not to growl. Damn this unpredictable temper! It made me feel like a teenager going through her first period again. Only times that by maybe a hundred.
A tall shadow moved out of the trees just ahead of us. The energy coming off that shadow soothed me like a balm. Green eyes with yellow flaring out from the pupils glinted with a predator’s shine. Again, I smelled blood.
“Vidar,” I said, a bit breathless in the wake of his effect on me.
Those eyes narrowed at the naked woman standing before me. His lips parted in a bit of a snarl. His power cracked and popped with anger. And if I didn’t know better, I’d swear it hid a good amount of jealousy beneath it. The fact that he glared at the naked woman in front of me rather than ogled her filled me with relief. The need to fight flowed right out of me.
“Ayra? What’s going on?” he demanded.
He sure sounded jealous. I shook the thought off and stepped out from behind the weretiger. “This is…” I looked back at her, cocking my head.
“Kali,” she said.
Cautious of his tense posture, I approached Vidar. Fangs bared, he stared past me at Kali. “What are you doing with her? And why does she smell like a cat?” he demanded.
Part of me thrilled at seeing his alpha side, something he usually kept hidden. It made him even sexier, if that was possible. Another part wanted to bare my fangs and challenge him for acting like that. Or better yet, throw him down on the forest floor and have my way with him. That thought stirred my desire into a raging fire that
sped up my breathing. Damn, I forgot about the survival instinct of mating that liked to sneak up on me after a kill.
“She’s a weretiger who helped me take down two condemned,” I said.
Blinking, his expression transformed from anger to shock. He met me in two great strides and took hold of my hands. Instantly, a soothing feeling washed over me. The last lingering effects of the condemned’s power faded like a poison leaving my system. Vidar’s desperate gaze flicked to her for only a second before it traveled over my bloody body.
“Two? Are you all right?” The tenderness in his voice did things to me down deep. It also softened the mortar in the walls around my heart. The concern radiating off him made me think maybe, just maybe, it was for me and not the reaper.
This close I realized, it wasn’t just the blood on me I smelled. He was bleeding. Panic reared up in me. Gripping his hands tight, I leaned back to get a better look at him. The darkness hid too much of him from me. The scent came from his leg.
“Not a scratch. But I smell blood on you. What happened?” I asked.
“It’s not bad. I’ll tell you about it in the truck,” he said in a soft voice.
At the approach of soft steps, I let go of his hands and turned. While we’d been talking Kali had found her dress and put it on. She nodded. “Now I see why.” She pressed a card into my hand. “If you ever need anyone killed, or want to tumble with the fairer sex, give me a call,” she said in that purring voice of hers.
Her gaze took a leisurely trip up and down my body, then she winked before turning and walking away. The need to call after her, to correct her for mistaking Vidar for my intended, rose in me. But I couldn’t get the words out.
“I’m not sure which of those proposals bothers me more. Leave it to you to find one of the races of cat shifters,” Vidar said when she disappeared into the thicker trees.
My phone buzzed. Cringing as blood smeared on my shorts, I dug my phone out of my pocket. Unlocking it left a swipe of crimson across the screen. I had two texts; one from Calder, and one from Raul. Dread filled me. I clicked on the one from Raul first.
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