Prey to the Heart

by Kristen Banet

  Antonio was Latino, with short, dark brown hair that was nearly black. To humans, they might have said it was, but Thomas wasn’t human. He could see the shades of deep bistre brown in there. He was still watching him as Antonio turned back to him in the swivel chair and those jade green eyes danced with light from the window.

  James was a good Southern boy with straight, medium brown hair that was too long. It swept over his eyes in a way that Thomas never could pull off and fell past his ears. James’ hazel eyes were barely open, and Thomas realized he’d woken them up from a midday nap.

  “I don’t know what to say,” he began, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I let Chris get us all captured and killed off, one by one. It’s hard to think about sometimes.”

  “You didn’t let anything happen,” James growled from his spot. Thomas looked over at him and saw James sitting up. “Chris did - all of us did. He put the vote in front of us. Four of us said no. Five of us, including your brother, said yes. We lost the vote. Unless we wanted to fight them, that was the decision.”

  “Yeah, take it from Jay,” Antonio groaned. “We did this to ourselves, man. We deserve where we’re at right now.”

  “And now we need to honor our brothers by living in their memory, as we would for any Packmate who falls in a fight,” James reminded him.

  Thomas nodded. It was the wolf way. James was the oldest of them and had experience with another Pack. He was always one to fall back on the wolf way of things.

  “Yeah, we’ve lost everything. But I trust you to lead us from here. Tony and I will handle any decision you make, and we’ll make do, Thomas.”

  “You’re right,” he chuckled, feeling thoroughly chastised by his Packmates - and better for it. They couldn’t get weighed down by grief now, not when they needed to do so much to get settled into a new life. “When we get our own place, we’ll hold a small memorial service…Chris should have kept his shit together until we could. Our brothers need someone to honor their memories.”

  “Amen, and at least we aren’t Alabama.” Antonio sighed. “They were wiped off the map and taken over by Georgia. No one is honoring their memories.”

  “And they also picked that fight, so they got what they deserved,” James pointed out. “You mentioned our own place, Thomas?”

  “Yeah, Brenton and I were just talking about it.” He let them in on the deal with the farmhouse - large property, lots of running space, and across town.

  “Sounds amazing,” Antonio sighed blissfully. “Quiet.”

  “Right?” Thomas acknowledged. “He’s giving it to us as a gift.”

  “You. He’s giving it to you as a gift.” James laughed softly. “Let’s take it and settle down, my man. We deserve it, I think. For Lochlan.”

  “Fuck,” Antonio grumbled. “Lochlan. He was on our side of the vote, remember? He was a Chris loyalist, and Chris had been pissed at him for finally disagreeing.”

  “I remember,” Thomas mumbled, looking down at his hands. The red wolf Lochlan had been a great guy. Happy and a bit carefree. He was loyal to Chris, but Thomas had always wondered if he was always a little in love with him too. Too late to get those answers now. Much too late. Thomas could still remember the unique red of the wolf’s pelt…

  Wolves grieved privately because of their lifestyle. They lost Packmates to fights constantly, which created a system in their communities: grow close and enjoy the time you have, because it’s likely that the friend you have might not be there one day. It was more dangerous the higher in the ranks a wolf was, but in the end, when someone challenged you for position, respect, or whatever else, it was oftentimes to the death - or near it.

  This was just another fight, one Thomas and his brothers had barely survived. One they had ultimately lost in the eyes of wolves across the world.

  Now he and his last friends would grieve privately and move forward.

  “Let’s talk about something nicer,” Antonio decided, looking between them. “Nothing we can do about what we just got out of. Tell me more about this doe Brenton brought in to be our mother hen therapist. I haven’t met her yet.”

  “Damn it,” Thomas chuckled, and smiled up at Antonio. “She’s pretty? I feel like I know her from somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “Right?” James scooted closer on the bed. “I swear I’ve seen her before, but I’m always drawing a blank.”

  “Tell me more,” Antonio demanded. “I keep just missing her when she’s here talking to the Pride guys.”

  “She’s intelligent,” Thomas conceded, giving Antonio the information he wanted. “You can see it in her eyes. She analyzes the people around her and I’m guessing, like many prey shifters, she keeps up with the chatter and news. They need to when they’re trying to stay out of it.”

  “She’s got a mouth,” James added. “I was rude to her and she called me out. Told me not to let it happen again.”

  “I want to meet her.” Antonio decided. “Let’s make that happen.”

  “Let’s…get a place to stay first,” Thomas groaned, grinning. “Plus, I do want us to sit down and talk to her.”

  “Really?” James frowned at him, shaking his head. “No, man. We’re wolves. We don’t need all of that. We know the way our world works and how to handle losing people.”

  “Right? I’m with Jay.” Antonio pointed at James with a nod.

  “And I’m a Marine with hundreds of hours of combat training and experience. I’ve been in and through hell before. You’ll talk to her at least once. Shit, I’ll go too if it makes you all happy.” Thomas laid down the law on them. “I haven’t made any promises to her yet about it, but Brenton’s hired her full-time for anyone who wants it. Remind me, James, that we need to get that fox to see her.”

  “That one needs it,” Antonio mumbled. “Poor kid.”

  “How old is he?” James asked, looking between them.

  Thomas shrugged and so did Antonio. None of them knew.

  “My guess? No older than Riley. She’s like twenty-four, and I would think Finn is somewhere in that range,” Thomas told him. “He’s a young kid. Too young to be getting caught by hunters and losing his twin like that.”

  “Seriously,” Antonio sighed.

  They quieted for a moment. Finn was a red fox, another survivor of the shifter hunters that had held them all. He’d lost his twin brother, Huck, during their mad dash towards freedom.

  “What are we going to do?” Antonio spoke up, ending the heavy silence. “Seriously, we can’t just move into a house and do nothing.”

  “This could be our time to follow our dreams, as cheesy as that sounds,” James offered.

  “I’ve always wanted to open a bar,” Thomas admitted.

  “I heard one get mentioned a couple of days ago, place called Rocker’s,” Antonio told him. “Rumor has it, like a lot of things in this town, owner wants to retire at the end of the tourist season.”

  “Can we do that?” James asked from his spot. “Is that a possibility?”

  “We’ll look into it,” Thomas promised. “Let’s wait for Brenton and this house thing to settle. Then we need to contact South Dakota’s new Alpha.”

  “Why?” Antonio asked, looking up from his fingernails.

  “She’ll want to verify we aren’t a threat to her,” Thomas answered honestly. Just another problem on the long list of things they needed to deal with: making sure their replacements didn’t think Thomas and the guys needed to be taken out. “And I want to call her first.”

  “Who is it?” James asked. “There’s only a few strong female Alphas in South Dakota who could have taken the position, and some were waiting for us to fall.”

  “Heather Davis,” Thomas groaned. “You know the one.”

  “She’s tough as fuck. What was it, like eight months ago, she was grumbling about challenging Chris for his position?” Antonio laughed. “Shit, I knew you were against us going back with Chris to fight. Thank God we listened to you this time, man. Plus, tak
ing her on would have pissed off North Dakota. Her brother or cousin or some shit is the Alpha up there. Gavin Davis.”

  “Brother,” Thomas sighed.

  Thank God the guys listened to him this time. Thomas just wished he’d trusted his instincts better before all of this. He’d never second-guessed himself before; his mistakes were catching up with him. Now he was nervous. He just couldn’t let the felines see it, since it would ruin any chance of strong allies and friends in them. They wouldn’t tolerate weak wolves who brought trouble in their town.

  He was clearing rooms with James, Antonio, and Chris behind him. They would follow his lead for this. They were doing well so far in their escape from the compound.

  Nightmares. They would never say it out loud, but this was always going to haunt them, even if they kept it private. Rooms lined with pelts of different shifters. This was what they had done to themselves and their other Packmates, the rest of the inner circle that was no longer with them. And so many others had fallen prey to these vile humans.

  They hit their fourth room, the foxes already outside with everyone’s belongings and more. And Thomas could barely contain the bile at the sight of a specific red pelt. Large enough to be a grown male wolf, it hung there on the wall next to a black jaguar or leopard pelt.

  “Lochlan,” Thomas whispered. He felt someone bump him and heard them gag. He didn’t turn back to see who.

  One of their brothers was on the wall.

  Thomas rolled out of bed in the early morning and decided to watch some television to clear his mind of the memories. Shit, he hadn’t dreamed about it yet - the compound, the escape. He should have realized it was coming, should have known mentioning Lochlan was going to remind him about the pelt on the wall. They had left it there. They couldn’t take it with them. Lochlan could still be on that wall, for all he knew.

  He didn’t want to wake up the guys, so he snuck out of the room and moved towards the den in the mansion. It was a cool little room with a massive television and some comfortable black leather couches he could hang out on while he tried to forget the red pelt.

  When he got there, he opened the door and stopped. He made eye contact with Brenton and quickly recognized that the entire feline Pride was in the room: Brenton, Zachary, Andrew, a cougar, Troy, a snow leopard, and Gabe, the black African leopard. Too many cats, and none of them looked happy.

  “Come back later,” Brenton snarled. “We’ve got Pride business to deal with at dawn. Tell everyone up there to stay in their rooms, including Finn.”

  “All right!” Thomas said quickly, closing the door. To himself he mumbled, “I guess I’ll be waking up everyone anyways.”

  He walked back up to the third floor and went to Finn’s room first. He didn’t bother knocking, since he could hear the fox was awake. Thomas wondered if the fox ever slept.

  “Finn?” Thomas called as he opened the door. Finn turned to him from his seat in the room’s couch. “The Pride has business going on. Brenton wants us all to lie low.”

  “Okay,” Finn mumbled.

  Thomas winced at the dead look in the young man’s eyes. He closed the door again and silently thanked his lucky stars that wolves didn’t grieve like that. They were used to losing people. Finn wasn’t, and Thomas didn’t know how to relate well enough to help him.

  He walked back to the room he was sharing with the guys and slipped inside. He would have said it was weird to share a bed with two other men, but wolves just didn’t care about that kind of thing. Bodies were bodies. Sleep was sleep.

  He plodded over to the bed and pushed Antonio into James a little. Both of them flew in sitting positions and glared at him the moment they realized it was incredibly early in the morning.

  “What?” Antonio snapped.

  “We’re locked to the room for a little while,” Thomas informed them. “Wanted you to know in case I pass back out. Don’t go wandering the house.”

  “What now?” James sighed.

  “Pride business. Guys look pissed,” Thomas sighed back. “Riley wasn’t there. And they smelled worried as shit.”

  “That little cheetah gone off and got into trouble?” James guessed, eyebrows going up behind his messy, long hair.

  “Probably,” he sighed. “I warned Brenton it was going to happen. She’s too fiery to sit back.”

  “Personally, I can’t blame her,” Antonio muttered, laying back down in the middle of the bed. He pulled a pillow over his head. “But she should just let the Shifter Special Task Force handle all of it, like we are.”

  “I agree,” Thomas groaned. “I’m going to be on the couch watching TV. I’ll keep it down.”

  As both his guys went back to sleep, Thomas padded over to the couch and began to strip. He was nude when he sat down on the couch and turned on the History Channel to some midnight alien feature. Those always made him chuckle.

  An hour later, he shifted into his wolf form and curled into a ball, trying to sleep again.

  It was past dawn when a knock on the door had him raising his head. He shifted back into his human form and didn’t bother getting dressed as he went to answer. He pulled the door open and saw Troy standing there, looking…Thomas couldn’t describe it.

  Troy was the oddest of the Pride. Obviously a snow leopard with his silver and grey hair and mercury eyes, Troy was normally a happy-go-lucky kitten, in Thomas’ opinion. At that moment, he looked like he’d been swatted into his place by his mom or a lover and liked it.

  Odd.

  “You guys can come down for breakfast,” Troy told him, with a grin. “All good now. Sorry about earlier.”

  “No worries,” Thomas answered, holding back a yawn. He never did get back to sleep. He would probably regret it later.

  He closed the door and woke the others up as he got dressed again. He was fine with other shifters seeing him nude, but he wasn’t going to wander their house in the nude if they didn’t.

  When he made it to the kitchen and breakfast bar on the first floor, Riley was there, giving him a smirk. All those gold curls and glowing amber eyes, she looked like the cat that caught the canary.

  Thomas had a certain appreciation for the cheetah. She’d been a kick in his ass he needed. He’d found her, passed out, bleeding, and in rough shape, just outside the fenced-in hunting grounds. He’d been trying to figure out what to do, then she woke up and decided to throw herself back into saving the men of her Pride. And hell, that made him feel like the smallest thing that had ever walked the earth. He hadn’t been willing to do it alone; with all his years of military experience, he considered himself too smart for that. And she’d nailed him to the wall for it.

  “I got mine,” she told him.

  Thomas slowed and stopped. He felt a trace of worry. What had she done now?

  Then he remembered. Right before he and Brenton had argued, she’d been out there on the Pride’s property alone. He’d followed her out, concerned, since she was supposed to still be in therapy with Abigail. He’d offered her the best advice he could: therapy wasn’t for everyone and sometimes revenge was called for.

  He had the sneaking suspicion that she’d gotten her revenge.

  “Was it enough?” he asked softly, treading with care.

  “It was enough,” Riley’s smirk spread further into a full grin. For a moment, she reminded Thomas of his sister. “It was more than enough.”

  He didn’t say anything else, just gave her a small nod. Everyone needed to do their own thing. Just like he needed to stay focused on helping his guys get new lives and settled into something before they were picked off by another Pack.

  “Abigail will be coming over later in the morning,” Brenton announced from his spot. “And Riley will be talking to her again once we’re done in Denver.”

  “Thanks,” he sighed. “I was hoping to get me and the guys to sit down with her soon.” Sooner rather than later. He’d laid down the law to them and he had to stick to it.

  “Let her in, will ya? She’ll get settl
ed in my office,” the Pride Alpha continued in that mild, controlled tone.

  “Will do.” Thomas chuckled. “What did you do, little cheetah?” He turned to Riley and raised his eyebrows as his wolves walked in.

  “I burned down a motherfucker’s house,” Riley answered, still grinning.

  Thomas ignored the groans and growls from the Pride and just shrugged. He also pushed down the small wave of fear. This chick was fucking bloodthirsty. He made a mental note to stay her friend instead of pissing her off.

  He was also a bit proud of her. Felines were notorious for their revenge schemes, and burning a guy’s house down was going to go into the record books.

  “Remind me to stay out of your way.” Thomas laughed, sitting down.

  4

  Abigail

  Abigail stomped up to the mansion with a determined fierceness.

  A week. She’d been in Wild Junction for all of a week and one of her new patients went out and set a damn house on fire.

  She had promised Brenton that she would talk to him if she felt anyone, especially Riley, was going to be dangerous. Abigail had thought that weekly meetings with Riley would be for the best, to give the young woman time to adjust and consider what happened.

  Instead, that fiery temper had gone out and done something crazy. Felines.

  Abigail banged on the door then jammed her finger on the doorbell, listening to it chime repeatedly at her insistence.

  She could not believe she had already screwed up this badly. She should have known Riley would act fast in her desire to even the score against the shifter that abused her in the hunter’s compound. Abigail should have known.

  The door opened, and Abigail stepped inside before noticing who did it. She ran straight into the chest of a male and tried to push him until she caught the scent. A wolf. Thomas.

  She stopped, looking up slowly into those light blue eyes, and swallowed. An instinctual shiver ran over her at the scent of wolf and the stare he was giving her.

  “Good morning, Abigail,” Thomas greeted her without moving. “How are you? You seem upset.”