Wild Wolf Mate: League Of Gallize Shifters (The League Of Gallize Shifters Book 5)

by Dianna Love

“I’m like you in many ways.”

  “You mean kidnapped?” Jaz snapped, not in any mood for weird shit, which was saying something coming from a shifter. Jaz ran her hand through her filthy hair and paused. She pulled her hand back in sight.

  No cuffs. The other two shifters had no cuffs either, only this strange woman.

  Wait. A. Minute. Jaz’s arms shed a soft glow.

  Leaning forward, she whispered, “What are you, dammit?”

  Smiling insolently, the woman said, “What would you do with that information if you knew it?”

  “Argh!” Jaz sat back. “It might help us figure out how to escape unless you want to stay.”

  The woman popped off, “But I do.”

  Clamping a hand on her forehead, Jaz muttered, “Just my luck to be imprisoned with someone who doesn’t want to escape.”

  “You must be here for a reason, too,” the woman said.

  Was Jaz here because she’d been hunting Daisy? She lowered her hand and gave the psycho ward escapee a long look.

  “That’s not nice.” The woman didn’t appear insulted though.

  Besides, Jaz had thought those words. “What’s your name?”

  “Percee.”

  “I can’t scent you and I’m a wolf shifter.”

  “I know that.”

  “Which?” Jaz asked. “That I’m a shifter or that I can’t scent you?”

  “Both.”

  For once, Jaz was glad Tarski didn’t have to go through this. Her logical wolf would probably lose it when Tarski never lost her patience.

  Once again, Jaz asked, “Seriously. What are you?”

  The woman waved off the question and her damned chain didn’t make any noise. Percee said, “Answering that properly would require too much time. Besides, I’ve got enough to save who don’t have your benefits. You’ll figure your way through this.”

  Benefits? Where had this woman come up with that? Jaz frowned. She decided to take Tarski’s tact in a situation like this. “It sounds like you’re better informed than me—”

  “Took you this long to figure that out?”

  Damn woman. “Look, Miss Freaking Know It All. Do you have any idea how often the guards come by?”

  “I know exactly when they’ll return. I’ll make sure to alert you since you seem to be having a tough time adjusting. Is that a normal flaw or did you learn it on your own?”

  Jaz just stared at her. “Are you off your meds?”

  Percee waited a second, then burst out laughing.

  “I don’t care what you think,” Jaz grumbled.

  “Lie.”

  Well, hell, now Jaz couldn’t get a lie past some non-shifter stranger?

  “Not past me,” Percee boasted, once again replying to Jaz’s thought. Tapping her cheek, Percee said, “I’ll give you something fun to think about. If you knew what you are, you would know what I am.”

  Jaz wouldn’t even address that. What kind of bad luck did a person need to end up with a certifiable supernatural?

  “That’s uncalled for,” Percee criticized. “I haven’t called you a halfwit.”

  “Halfwit? What the hell is that?” Jaz demanded then realized what had happened again. “Okay, that’s enough. Are you reading my mind?”

  Percee stared down as if focusing on something. She looked up and snapped her fingers. “Not halfwit. Idiot. Sorry, I got that one wrong the first time.”

  Fisting her hands, Jaz lowered her voice to a lethal tone. “First, I’m not an idiot. Second, answer the damned question. Are your reading my thoughts?”

  “No.”

  Jaz pulled on her senses. Percee had not lied.

  Percee added, “I’m only listening to your really loud thoughts. You should tone that down some.”

  Shaking her head at all of this, Jaz said, “I give up. I’m here in some time warp. Do you know where we are?”

  “No time warp. You’re still in current day in the human world. Our actual location doesn’t matter.”

  “It does to me,” Jaz said and managed to do it without yelling. If her head didn’t already hurt so badly, she’d bang it against the wall.

  For arguing about their location being important to Jaz, she got a frown from Percee, who then criticize her. “It will change soon. Your generation lacks patience.”

  Even in this darkness, Jaz didn’t see a big age difference between her and this woman, who couldn’t be thirty yet.

  “Thanks for the compliment.” Percee lifted an eyebrow at her, grin stuck in place.

  Did this woman enjoy being captured?

  Percee shrugged. “Shit happens, especially when it’s part of the plan.”

  Jaz remained quiet rather than be criticized again or think something the nosy one across from her would hear.

  Percee sighed. “Okay, no drama. We are being held in a temporary place while our captors make plans to hand us over to the Blood King once the price is high enough.”

  “You know he exists?” Jaz whispered. The people who had told her about him avoided even saying his name, referencing him only as the wolf king.

  “Well, duh. I wouldn’t be here if the Blood King didn’t exist.”

  Laugher bubbled up Jaz’s throat, an insane sound.

  Percee asked, “What’s so funny?”

  Staring at the enigma driving her nuts, Jaz explained, “Just to be clear, I find nothing humorous about this situation. It’s more irony than anything. I’ve met only a few people who believe he’s real, but no one since I reached the Southeast. I’ve been hunting the Blood King for weeks.”

  “Well, hot damn. Look how things worked out,” Percee said, slapping her knee.

  “Forgive me if I’m having a hard time celebrating right now,” Jaz muttered. Her head ached and she’d kill for a glass of water.

  Percee observed her like a new discovery in the world of bugs for a few minutes. This time, her words sounded more like they came from a sage advisor and not a teacher admonishing a child. “Your hunt is near its end, but once he gives you what you need, you must escape.”

  If every part of her didn’t hurt so much, she’d laugh. “You think I should escape? Careful, Percee, or you’ll end up with a nickname like Captain Obvious.”

  Tapping one finger on her other hand, Percee wrinkled her forehead in a thoughtful way. “Nope. He’s boring. I’ll keep Percee.”

  At a loss for how to talk to her, Jaz returned to an earlier question now that they seemed to be conversing. “Are you a shifter?”

  “Yes.” Percee’s finger stayed busy tapping as if she needed to keep some part of her body moving.

  She offered no additional explanation.

  “What kind of shifter?”

  The woman cocked her head in an odd movement, one that didn’t remind Jaz of most animals. “What I shift into is not important.” Her tone amped up with authority. “Listen to me. When you escape, and you will, you must find your mate.”

  “Mate?” Jaz asked, incredulous at the topic. “Yep, that’s on the top of my list right now.”

  All appearance of Percee being relaxed and joking vanished. Not missing a beat, the woman’s voice gained power until Jaz felt the words vibrate her body.

  “Listen carefully. You’re special. You belong to only one mate. Get out of here and stay free. Don’t go racing into dangerous places alone. You have a destiny. Find him. He’ll eventually find you, but with no one to help him, it could take a while. Before you ask me how, because you’re more persistent than a talking doll stuck on replay, your energy will recognize his.”

  This bizarre conversation reminded Jaz of Adrian. He had a damaged wolf he might never heal and she had every law enforcement and bounty hunter after her.

  Neither of them had any hope of a mate in the near future.

  She told her annoying new friend, “I appreciate your concern over my love life, but I’ve got bigger problems right now. What can you tell me about the group who caught us and if you have any idea of how I can escape before
I’m handed to the Blood King?”

  Percee dropped her head to her hands and muttered something harsh. Then she lifted her head and tilted it back to look up. “I can’t believe I’m stuck dealing with this crap. I am not cut out for drama. Oh well, what the hell? I tried.”

  Jaz slapped a hand over her eyes, grumbling, “What did I do in a past lifetime to deserve this?”

  This time when Percee spoke, her voice sounded as if she sat right next to Jaz’s shoulder. “I didn’t ask to be here and I’m not talking about being captured. I’m stuck with my destiny, just as you are. I need to know more about you to be sure, but my senses are generally spot freaking on. I haven’t run into one like you for a long, long time. After today, I’d just as soon not run into another one for a long time. You can blow off what I say or heed my words and make the right decision. If you do find your mate, and he turns out to be a shifter unlike any others, come back for me if I don’t leave before you. If not, stay away. That’s why I’m not telling you any more about me. The less everyone knows about me until I’m free, the better. The guards are coming. Shut the hell up and pretend to be unconscious. Do it now.”

  Shocked, Jaz dropped her hand and looked to her left. No one was in the cage with her.

  She cut her eyes across the room where Percee had scooted to the back wall of her cage with her head down. She lifted her eyes one more time and Jaz frowned at the odd silver eyes right before the glow died.

  Racket banging around outside the double doors at the end of their room stole Jaz’s attention.

  Just before the guards appeared, the woman’s voice hissed in her head. Play possum! Use what I gave you later.

  Jaz dropped her body to the floor as she’d been originally before she came awake.

  What had Percee given her?

  Peeking through her lashes, she kept her breath steady as the rear doors opened and two pairs of boots walked down the center. The boots stopped at her feet.

  He kicked her.

  She kept her teeth clenched against the pain.

  She’d love to shift and take both of them down, but that would never happen while she wore this collar.

  He walked to the corner on the other side of the woman on her left and plopped down with a mobile phone.

  The rear doors closed with the distinct sound of being locked on the outside.

  Jaz kept very still.

  The diesel engine revved. They were moving the truck. That meant she was on the way to the Blood King.

  She needed a plan fast and had only one friend. Hey, Percee. Do you hear me? Percee?

  Chapter 19

  Adrian opened the heavy wooden door and stepped in quickly to avoid pissing off the shifters inside Twilight John’s bar. Even a human sitting in this dark interior would squint at the blast of late afternoon sunlight, but shifter eyesight was even more sensitive.

  Rain had been predicted. Bloated dark clouds were bunching in the west to roll in soon.

  While his eyes adjusted during the sudden silence, he kept his back to the door in case anyone decided to test his reflexes.

  Red showed up again. He snarled and bumped around inside Adrian, but made no fast press to break free.

  That was a new and welcome change.

  But would it last?

  When his vision cleared, he took in the groups of two, three, and four shifters around tables and at the bar. That burly bartender with a no-bullshit composure slowly dried a glass and set it aside before starting on another one.

  Scarlett had called him Big John the first, and only, time Adrian had stepped in this place.

  “Over here,” Scarlett called quietly from the far corner. She stood from her seat at a table in the corner where Gan sat next to her. That left two empty chairs across from them.

  Her acknowledgement that Adrian was there to see her must have been the all-clear signal.

  Every shifter returned to his or her conversation, but these predators would keep tabs on him.

  That was understood.

  Moving between tables, he took care not to bump anyone. He feared none of them, but with his wolf behaving, Adrian had to do his part not to set Red off.

  Red growled low and said, You start fights. Not me.

  I’m not the one who broke free in the woods yesterday and attacked the wolves, Adrian snapped in reply, then wanted to suck the words back in.

  How was that being patient on his part?

  This is where Adrian needed to avoid a knee jerk reaction. Before leaving that between them to start a new verbal battle, Adrian added, To be honest, that’s true. I’ve started a few fights in my life. I’ll probably jump into more, but only if we’re in agreement.

  Red said nothing and withdrew a bit.

  That was fine. In fact, he’d take it as encouraging since Red wasn’t yelling in his head.

  Adrian would keep reaching over the halfway mark in anticipation his wolf would take one step closer, then another. He may never see the day peace reigns between them, but with a new desire to not submit to the Guardian, Adrian embraced the hope he could repair the bond.

  He wanted to show his wolf he really wanted to live, for both of them to survive. To have his wolf back and maybe ... a woman who understood him. A woman with an iron backbone and an unbridled desire to be with him.

  Before any of that could happen, he needed Red to be happy to share this body with Adrian. He needed both of them to be whole again.

  Being with Jaz had made him take a hard look at who he’d been and how he’d lost that person.

  Red had made it clear that he’d chosen Tarski as his mate. How did his wolf think that worked unless Adrian and Jaz mated, or did Red even care? Adrian’s wolf had found a wolf important to him. A wolf Red made priority one.

  His wolf had it right.

  Adrian tried the words in his head. My mate Jaz. That sounded right. Sounded perfect.

  She could handle the power of bonding with Adrian without question. She might have more power than him. He’d never raced ahead to make an emotional decision, but this didn’t feel reckless.

  After living on the edge of death for so long, this idea settled in his mind and heart as if he’d been waiting his whole life for this moment.

  Would Red come back to him if a mate was on the line?

  Time for Adrian to make a choice and step off that precarious knife’s edge between dark and light to take a stand on the side of living.

  Jaz wouldn’t be ready yet. She cared for him. He felt it in everything she did, but she’d need time. She’d been through a lot. He could wait, and hope, for the day she’d pictured him worthy to be her mate.

  Nothing would happen until they cleared her of murder charges.

  She’d promised to contact Scarlett.

  After navigating a room clouded with aggression, Adrian took a chair across from where Scarlett had settled next to Gan. He noted how two tables separated theirs from the others sitting closer to the bar.

  He doubted the spacing had happened by accident.

  Add that to the low rumble of noise in a place with wood floors and they could speak privately. They’d have to keep their voices down and be careful not to mention Jaz’s name.

  A waitress delivered two mega-hamburgers, hot wings, a large plate of French fries and a raw fish filet.

  With a complicated pile of small braids pulled back in one thick ponytail that fell across her shoulder, Scarlett gazed at the food with dark-green eyes. She shared that taut body with a cougar and managed a pile of energy thanks to her Power Baron father, who she hoped to never face again.

  Adrian didn’t blame her. He’d almost died in her father’s maniacal scheme.

  Gan rubbed his hands together and grinned. “Not as good as catch fresh, but not so bad. Good to be here,” he said in his Slavic-influenced English. He looked at Scarlett as if she were the queen of his world.

  Which she was.

  Adrian felt a pinch of envy, but only to have what Gan had found. That tiger had ne
ver lived free or happy until the Guardian found him and allowed Gan to support Scarlett on one of her missions.

  This tiger shifter was a man of simple needs. Everything he required in life sat next to him.

  Adrian intended to take a note from Gan’s book.

  Scarlett leaned in and whispered, “I heard SC, uh ... Tess’s office called your boss for help. Are you hunting my friend?”

  She stopped short of referencing SCIS or calling his boss the Guardian.

  Adrian hesitated with his reply, but answered honestly since even Gan had learned how to detect a lie. “Yes.”

  Scarlett didn’t hide her flash of anger when she cursed.

  Gan sat forward and leaned his arms on the table. His English had improved since the last time they spoke, but black curly hair still had a wild look as did the blue eyes glaring at Adrian. Gan had no trouble making his disappointment clear.

  “Why, wolf? You should know friend is innocent. She stay with you to fight when we leave to protect Faith’s baby.”

  “Hold on,” Adrian said, pinching the bridge above his nose. Jaz hadn’t just stayed to fight with him, she’d saved his life when he lost touch with reality. “I’m not hunting her for who you think. I’m trying to help her, but I can’t find her. I thought you’d know where she is right now, Scarlett.”

  Gan frowned at Scarlett, who appeared just as confused. She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

  Now Adrian cursed. That was not what he’d hoped to hear.

  “Watch mouth,” Gan warned.

  Scarlett’s face relaxed with a sweet smile for her new mate. “It’s fine, Gan.”

  “No. Is not fine. He must show respect.”

  Adrian lifted an eyebrow at the possessive tiger shifter. It appeared that Gan had more control of his beast to be out in a public place, which he’d been unable to do a few weeks back when he’d been with Adrian in Wyoming. Good for Gan.

  Red piped up inside Adrian. Tiger is not me. I am better.

  Adrian managed to not smile at that, but his heart warmed at his wolf showing interest in Adrian’s surroundings. He told Red, We both know how there is no comparison between you and Gan’s tiger. I was being charitable to Gan and his animal with my thoughts.