Lion Shifter

by Lucia Ashta

  I expected Ky to bite back with another snarky comment, but instead he studied the three men in the room. He scanned the man cave that enclosed us and finally examined my own bindings, identical to his. When he trained his attention back on Rage, his tone was calm—too calm. “If your plan is to take our powers, you don’t need to kill us. We could live on without our shifter powers.”

  “You’re right. I don’t need to. Play your cards right and maybe I won’t.”

  Ky’s nostrils flared again as he stared at the muscled shifter. He didn’t say anything, I imagined because he didn’t believe him, and the two stared at each other until Fury shifted on his feet next to them.

  Jevan cleared his throat. “If you want to get this done before the Enforcers find them, then we’d better get a move on. The sun will rise in a few hours, and then we won’t have the vamps’ help anymore.”

  Fury placed a hand on Rage’s shoulder. “Come on, brother. If you’re set on doing this, then let’s do it.”

  Rage growled at his prisoner in a show of dominance, but Ky growled back loudly enough to send chills racing across my bare skin, pebbling it with goosebumps. Ky hadn’t said it in words, but he’d just threatened to tear Rage apart. I dearly hoped Ky would have the chance.

  Rage stood and faced Fury. “Go tell the men we’re moving out. Make sure they grab Jevan’s ingredients. You can carry the girl, I’ll deal with this one.”

  Fury glanced at me before nodding at his brother and disappearing through the doorway.

  “You go with him too,” Rage told Jevan.

  The sorcerer turned so that his profile faced me. Fully in shadow, its lines were sinister, capped by a slightly upturned nose that was a bit too small for his face. “Don’t think for a second that you command me. I’m not one of your men. You called me here because you need my skills. We aren’t friends, and I’m not your minion. Be sure to mind the respect you owe me.”

  Rage stalked toward the short sorcerer until he towered over him. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” he said with a thick mocking tone that indicated he didn’t respect the sorcerer an ounce.

  “You’re lucky to have me, since the other sorcerer you used to work with … conveniently left town.”

  I wasn’t sure if that meant the other sorcerer had fled to avoid working with Rage, or if Rage had done something to make the other sorcerer disappear. Either proposition was ominous. I didn’t imagine dark sorcerers were known for their high standards in working partners.

  “I do feel lucky,” Rage added while I wondered if the leader of the Shifter Alliance might have a screw loose. He looked down at the sorcerer and smiled tightly at him. “Are you ready to move now, respected sorcerer?”

  Jevan bunched his fists at his sides, hesitated, but finally turned on his heel and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him.

  “The bloody man has an ego the size of this house,” Rage said as if forgetting that his only audience was his prisoners. “It’s lucky indeed that I need him, if not I’d have strangled that scrawny little neck of his twice over by now.”

  He stalked over to me and Ky yelled, “Don’t you hurt her!”

  Hot tears stung my eyes that my big brother should care so much about me, then I told my eyes to stop being so wimpy and woman up. Thankfully, they obeyed, and by the time Rage settled into a menacing crouch above me, I had a death glare firmly in place. If my eyes could kill, the man would be a smoking, crispy pile of shifter.

  “A fiery one, I see,” Rage said. “That should make things more fun.”

  Ky growled, sounding like his lion, and I injected every scrap of hate I had into my gaze. How dare this asshole kidnap my brother and me? How dare he intend to kill us just because he could? How dare he believe that his brother’s power was more important than our lives? I narrowed my eyes and pictured the heat of my gaze searing through his face, his cranium, and into his head, where it’d make his brain sizzle.

  Rage yelped and flinched, and rocketed to his feet while backpedaling from me. When he brought both palms to either side of his skull, I didn’t manage to hide my shock. Had I actually managed to do what I’d thought? I scrambled not to let my shock show.

  “What the...? What’d you do to me, bitch?”

  I smiled sweetly. “I didn’t do a thing, asswipe. How could I? My hands and feet are bound, and you put this pretty collar on me.”

  He wasn’t fully buying my spiel. Whatever I’d managed to do to him had been tangible enough that he couldn’t dismiss it. Shit. I didn’t want to go revealing that I was possibly a dual mage-shifter.

  “You did something to me,” Rage accused. “What did you do? How’d you do it?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a shifter, and you’ve blocked my powers. There’s nothing I can do.” I was big on honesty, but in circumstances like these I’d lie up a storm if it had any chance of freeing Ky and me. “Maybe you have a headache. You know, from all the stress of kidnapping and trying to kill us.”

  He snarled at me as Fury returned with a small entourage of big, burly, grisly men. No doubt, they were all shifters. “We’re ready,” Fury said, and I silently thanked him for the interruption. Rage was still squeezing his head, and Ky was studying me curiously. “You okay?” Fury asked his brother.

  “Fine. But change of plans. I’m going to carry the girl. You get the boy.”

  Fury arched dark questioning eyebrows, but didn’t ask, nodding instead. He appeared to be his brother’s lackey, nearly as much as everyone else. I’d never met an alpha of a shifter pack before, but from what Boone had told me over the summer, no one questioned or talked back to their alphas, not even their seconds. I supposed with Rage and Fury it’d be no different. Even if they were brothers, pack hierarchy would still rule.

  Rage stomped toward me, dropping his hands from his head to his waist … from where he pulled a sharp blade as long as my forearm.

  I scooted back against the column and drew my legs to my chest, unconcerned that it meant I was giving every man in the room a crotch shot of my panties. Better to be a flasher than dead. I pressed my head against the painted concrete column and shot a look at Ky. His eyes were wider than I’d ever seen them, his head jerking left and right as he searched fruitlessly for an avenue of escape.

  “Ky,” I called out, thinking I should say goodbye before it was too late. “I … I love you.” I’d never told him that before; I’d never told anyone that before, not even Dad. “Tell Dad I love him too.” Assuming Ky got out of here if I didn’t.

  “Don’t say goodbye,” Ky ground out. “Don’t you do it.”

  “Neither of you two idiots do it. Enough with the melodrama,” Rage grumbled. “I’m not going to kill anyone—yet. I need you alive for the spell.”

  He circled behind me and sliced through the zip tie binding me to the column. I pulled my hands to me, rubbing at my sore wrists. But when Rage appeared in front of me again, he already had a fresh tie in his hands. “Stand up,” he ordered.

  I debated whether I should fight him on this, but the other men in the room were huge. They could take me down in one blow. I wriggled awkwardly to my feet; the binding at the ankles was tight enough to prevent any wiggle room. But I managed it, of course, and the moment I did, Rage yanked one of my arms behind my back, and as he reached for the other, I passed it to him. My shoulders were already screaming at the angle he held them at. He fastened the zip tie around my wrists, and I swear the binding was even tighter than the first time.

  “Just in case you get any fancy ideas,” he murmured as he leaned next to my ear.

  I shivered and wiped my ear against my bare shoulder. Yuck. The moist heat of his breath lingered.

  He shoved me in front of him, and of course I pitched straight forward. He caught me and pressed me far too close to him.

  “You bound my feet,” I sneered. “Or have you forgotten? Maybe you treat all the ladies who come into your house this way.”

  “Rina,”
Ky warned as I sensed Rage go rigid behind me. Ky didn’t have to say more. I needed to keep my mouth shut to keep things from escalating faster than necessary. I nodded my acquiescence to my brother and clamped my teeth shut. It was going to be tough not to tell this asshole exactly what I thought of him.

  “That’s a good girl,” Rage said. “Listen to your brother. No girl can get the one-up on me, and I’ll punish you for trying.”

  “Great. Thanks for the memo.”

  One of Rage’s men bent behind Ky’s hands, a glint of shiny blade marking his movements as he sliced through the zip tie that bound my brother to the column.

  In a move that shouldn’t have been possible with his ankles still bound, Ky shot to his feet, shaking his arms and hands out. “You’ll take your hands off my sister right this second.”

  “Or what, Tough Stuff?” Rage asked.

  “Or I’ll make you.”

  Rage waved a bored hand at the man who’d cut Ky’s ties. “Grab ‘im.”

  The shifter sheathed his blade and circled around Ky’s back, arms outstretched as he prepared to grab him from behind. But when the shifter’s arms started to close around Ky’s chest, Ky slammed his butt out, ramming into the other guy’s crotch and shifting him a few steps back. Ky hopped to face the opposite direction and rammed the heel of his hand into the guy’s chin, snapping his head back.

  While the dude groaned and pinned murderous eyes on Ky, Fury and another of the hulky guys converged on my brother, who quickly punched the hulk in the temple, sending him tumbling like a towering tree. By the time the shifter crashed to the floor in an unconscious heap, the other two had formed a solid wall behind him and two more were coming at Ky from either side to attack from the front.

  Ky hopped another time to face me, keeping his attackers in sight from both sides. But I could tell from the wild desperation that widened his eyes and how his brows converged that he realized he couldn’t win this one. Not bound the way he was. Not outnumbered by so many huge guys.

  When Fury lunged for him, my brother latched onto his arm and yanked him forward, pulling them both off balance. Rage rumbled and shoved me roughly behind him as he prepared to intervene.

  But as I lost my balance and hurried to sit on the floor before I could fall, Fury proved he didn’t need his brother’s help. He yanked Ky back with as much ferocity as Ky had pulled him, snapped a lightning-fast hand to his belt, and emerged with a knife.

  “No!” I screamed while my heart took off like a wild stallion making a getaway.

  Fury spun the blade so he held it upside-down, and slammed the hilt into the base of Ky’s skull with a thud that made my scream strangle to a stop in my throat.

  I’d thought he was going to slit Ky’s throat—but of course they still needed us alive. Thank God.

  As Ky slumped to the ground next to the man he’d knocked out, I couldn’t help but be grateful things weren’t worse. Yes, my standards were appallingly low. However, the longer we remained alive, the longer Sadie or Damon or the trolls or someone else had the chance to find us. Damon’s semi-automatic rifle sure would come in handy right about now.

  Rage heaved me up and across his back like a sack of flour. With my ass in the air, he stomped across the room, barking orders as he went. In seconds, Fury had slung my newly zip-tied brother across his back and stalked out after his alpha. The entourage of muscled, enraged shifters marched through the house, which might have seemed ordinary, even pleasant looking, if not for the fact that it was the scene of a dual kidnapping.

  17

  Rage deposited me on the red rock of Thunder Mountain without preamble or care, more or less tossing me from his shoulder to the ground. Given that he was taller than Ky, the ride down was far from fun, especially since I couldn’t do a thing to brace myself for the fall beyond twist my head up so it wouldn’t hit. The impact rocked through my body as my arms and legs whined in complaint at their poor positioning. I’d never take freedom of movement for granted again, assuming I lived through the night to do so. My arms and shoulders were one mass of painful tingles, and my legs weren’t much better. I blinked away tears that pricked from the sudden jolts of discomfort.

  “Are you sure we have to be out here to do this?” Rage asked Jevan, who was already unpacking a large leather satchel that he’d slung across his chest, removing a series of small leather pouches and spreading them out on the ground in front of him.

  “I’m sure,” Jevan said distractedly, greedily taking in his pouches. “I told you, the magic will be strongest here because of all the spells being performed within the mountain. It’d be better to do this inside the mountain, where the levels of power will be even stronger, but I take it you’d prefer to be out here.”

  Fury joined us and tossed Ky from his back to the ground with a bit more care than his brother had thrown me, but not by much. I winced as Ky’s unconscious body slammed against hard dirt, his head clunking against the rock beneath it.

  “You guys are real assholes, you know that?” I bit out. “You’ve decided your lives are more important than ours, but do you have to go out of your way to hurt us without need? What if you gave my brother a concussion throwing him like that?”

  Fury almost looked apologetic for a moment, the planes of his face scrunching up into a grimacing wince beneath the silver light of the moon, low in the sky. But Rage? He went in the opposite direction. He looked pissed, as if I were the one in the wrong here instead of them.

  “Your life and your brother’s are now forfeit,” Rage said. “Accept it and stop your whining before I decide to gag you.”

  One look at his cold eyes had me pressing my lips shut. He wouldn’t hesitate to gag me. He probably wouldn’t hesitate to beat the crap out of me if I said much more. Because he was a lunatic—in a leadership role. The shifter world had really gone to shit.

  “Your brother probably already has a concussion,” he continued. “He got hit on the back of the head at the house, or did you forget?”

  I waggled my jaw as I forced myself to swallow the biting remark swirling around in my head. I never imagined I’d be capable of killing anyone, but now … if I had the chance, I’d kill the bastard, and I wouldn’t even feel bad about it.

  “Oh good, she figured out how to keep her trap shut,” he remarked to his audience of hulky shifters as they settled into a circle around us. When he crouched next to me, I flinched before wishing I’d had more control of my reaction. I was scared out of my mind, for Ky and me, but I didn’t have to broadcast that. I needed to find a way to make things better for us, not worse.

  “Do what I tell you and I’ll make sure you don’t suffer any more than the transference spell requires. Got it?”

  I tried to stare a hole through his head, but I sensed his anger building like a tangible wave, and I finally nodded, the back of my head scraping against the rock beneath me, my long hair trapped uncomfortably under my back.

  Rolling to my side, I winced as the shifting of my weight sharpened the pain in my arms, but I needed to better see what was happening. I was relatively certain that we were on a different side of the mountain than where we usually arrived to enter the school. Rage, Fury, Jevan, and the handful of oversized minions had crammed us into three SUVs to get here, but I hadn’t recognized where they’d parked. It wasn’t the usual trailhead.

  The circumference of Thunder Mountain was vast enough that even if someone were looking for us, they very well could miss us if they looked in the wrong place. Assuming they had any reason to search for us here. If I were on the other end of this, at the school trying to figure out where my friends had been taken, the mountain was the last place I’d look. Most kidnappers avoid exposed areas, especially those in close proximity to the site of the disappearances.

  I tried not to lose hope entirely. Sadie was scrappy, and if she’d woken from whatever that traitor Wendi had done to her, then surely she was out looking for me. She would have roused Damon to join her. Hell, she probably would’ve put u
p the alarm all over the school, which would mean that Sir Lancelot would be directing the small army at his control.

  But this assumed that Sadie had woken up. I knew little of spells, but I understood enough to realize they were incredibly powerful, and when under the control of one, you were unable to operate in the usual ways. My stomach sank. Wendi would have been certain to knock everyone of importance out for long enough to ensure she wasn’t discovered, and apparently she was working with the vampire students. Between Paige’s crew and Anton’s, there were enough of them to knock out everyone who might want to look for us. I couldn’t be sure Anton was involved, but I’d bet big money on it. And even though the vamps and the shifter Wendi wouldn’t have the magic of a magician, spells and magical objects could be purchased—for the right price. The magical black market was alive and thriving, from what Jas had told me.

  Ky and I were well and truly screwed.

  Rage paced across the flat patch of rock that was apart from any evident trail. No one would come across us here by accident. Though Sedona was known for its many amazing trails, and hikers flocked to the area, no one in their right mind would be hiking in the middle of the night, and off trail to boot.

  As much as I wanted to hope we’d be discovered and saved, the odds were terrifyingly low. If Ky and I were to survive this, it was all on me. And I was the least qualified of everyone here to save a thing.

  Shit.

  “All right,” Jevan said. “I’m ready to start.”

  My blood chilled. So soon?

  Rage spun to face the sorcerer, and Fury advanced closer too, neither one of them paying attention to Ky or me for the moment. Rage’s underlings stood at attention, waiting for a command, but none of them watched me either. This was my opportunity, but for what? My brain fired off in a dozen different directions, but my thoughts were scattered, latching on to nothing useful.