Shifter Untamed

by Ambrielle Kirk

  The gunman fired two more shots at the fleeing crowd. Her heart jumped each time a shot was fired.

  On the last shot, a man dropped to the ground and his body stopped moving.

  Her breath tripped up in her throat and on instinct she jerked, trying to loosen his hold, but the gunman jerked back, preventing her from going anywhere.

  The gun had been so close to her ear when he expelled the bullets that she could barely hear the panicked screams as the crowd trampled over each other to get to the exit. Instead she heard a consistent ringing that sounded like the whistle of a water kettle. It rang for longer than she could stand until it felt like her eardrums would burst.

  The gunman nudged the barrel of the gun in the center of her back, and her body became rigid.

  “Walk backward now,” he ordered.

  “Please…” Her voice quaked as she spoke. “Don’t shoot me. I have a parent waiting at home…I take care of him.”

  “Shut up!” His answer was solid and uncaring. “Say another word or attempt to escape and I’ll kill you.”

  Trina bit her bottom lip, holding her next protest. It was either be a sassy-mouthed woman and potentially lead this fool to shoot her or keep her cool and avoid being his next victim.

  The gunman shuffled backward toward what appeared to be the only exit in sight. In the process, about a dozen people got stuck inside at the mercy of this crazed individual. Those who did remain shuffled back behind the bar as the gunman waved his gun to taunt them.

  “Leo…let me speak to Leo,” the gunman ordered.

  Leo was the guy she’d spoken to about the position.

  A guy rose from behind the bar slowly. “Leo’s gone. He ran an errand. What the hell do you want with him?”

  The shooter lifted the gun and fired the weapon. The guy ducked back, crashing into a display of top shelf liquor. There were more screams as the bottles crashed to the floor and on people’s heads.

  “Don’t tell me he’s gone! Get him now. I want my money.”

  “Hold on a minute.” This voice came from darkened corner of the room. A man emerged from the shadows behind a curtain, holding up his palms.

  Trina instantly recognized the stranger with the smoky gray eyes. A tiny spring of hope rushed through her, but her body was still cold with panic.

  The gunman swung them around to face the man. Although Trina was relieved that the gun was no longer on her back, she felt concern for the man who now stood in the line of a bullet.

  “Get me Leo and tell him to bring my money.”

  “All right.” The stranger nodded. “I’m a friend of Leo’s. What’s the problem?”

  The gunman’s finger shook on the trigger. “Fifty thousand he promised me for work I did here. I ain’t seen a dime of it.”

  The stranger edged closer. “Okay. Okay. Fifty thousand.”

  “Stay back, wolf!” The gunman’s gripped tightened on her forearm. “You are all a bunch of lying dogs. Stay back!”

  The stranger’s eyes darkened and thinned into slits. “Let the woman go. She has nothing to do with this.”

  “Show me my money and I’ll let her go.”

  “We can fix this, but only if you release her and put down your weapon. The woman for the money.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” the gunman raged. “I want my money for the work I did.” He thrust the gun into her spine. “Make another move toward me, animal, and I shoot.”

  “You’d kill your own kind?”

  The gunman’s breath was hot and putrid on her ear as he breathed heavily.

  “This human did nothing to you,” the stranger continued. “Do you think Leo would care if you shot a bystander with no connections to him whatsoever?”

  Trina felt the gunman’s hands go slack on her arm.

  “What are you saying, wolf?”

  “Let’s make a trade-off. You take Leo’s nephew—myself—as hostage, then you get Leo’s attention. Isn’t that what you want? Leo’s attention?”

  “Prove it? Get him in here! Get him on the phone!”

  “All right…” The stranger slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He punched several buttons and held the phone to his ear. “Leo…we’ve got a situation here…a hostage situation.” There was a long pause. “Club is being held up and Mr. Gunman here is asking for his money.” He lifted his eyes and carefully held the phone out toward the gunman.

  “Who are you?” Apparently, the phone was switched to speaker mode.

  “You know who I am. We had a deal. I brought you all this new furniture for this run-down club and my money never came.”

  “I don’t owe debts. I owe no one.”

  The gunman tightened his grip and she flinched and jerked her arm to no avail.

  “I got your club held up. I will burn this bitch down if you don’t deliver my cash now.”

  “How much are you talking?” Leo asked.

  “Sixty grand.”

  A moment ago, the gunman had said fifty thousand, now he’d just raised the amount. It was further evidence that the dude was either lying or a crazy crook.

  “Bullshit!”

  The gunman aimed the gun at the ceiling and shot at one of the disco balls. It shattered to pieces, causing another outbreak of screams from behind the bar. The dark stranger ducked out of the way just in time to dodge a piece of thick glass hitting him over the head.

  “What the hell was that?” Leo’s voice sounded scratchy on the other end as the stranger regained his composure.

  “He’s fucking your club up. Do you owe this idiot any money?” the stranger barked into the phone.

  “Hell no! Fuck, I don’t know! That fucking no-name creep is lying.”

  “No name?” The gunman drove her forward to get closer to the phone. “Call me Renovation Man. You better have my money here in fifteen minutes or I will burn this whole place down. And when you collect the insurance money, you will pay me for my work.”

  “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again,” Leo stated, gruffly over the phone. “I owe nothing. We settled this a month ago.”

  “Look, man…”

  Spittle flew from the gunman’s mouth and some of it landed on the side of Trina’s face. She cringed and gritted her teeth. Bile rose in her throat as the remnants of lunch began to creep upward.

  The gunman raised the barrel of the gun, extending it outward until it was pointed at the dark stranger. “I will shoot your nephew if you don’t comply.”

  “Listen, you idiot. I will track you down. I will hunt—”

  Like a flash of lightning before her eyes, a thick lash whipped in front of her face. The gun slipped from the gunman’s hand as the rope tightened instantly around his wrist like a lasso. It misfired and a bullet ricocheted off the wall and splintered through a table.

  The gunman fell backward but not before he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her down with him. She landed in a thud against his burly chest. Before she could catch her breath, he wrapped his arm around her throat and squeezed tightly. She elbowed him in the gut, but he grunted and only pushed tighter against her larynx. Her blood rushed hot to her face as all oxygen escaped her.

  The dark stranger tumbled toward her. Where his lips had been stretched taut only moments early, his canines were extended. His face and entire body distorted and shifted as he advanced toward them.

  Clothes and skin disappeared in a haze. Gray eyes turned into coal. She could no longer see the stranger, only the white underbelly of a wolf as it leapt into the air.

  The gunman screamed, but she could not…

  The sound of teeth ripping into the meaty flesh of the arm that held her immobilized was the last thing she heard before she passed out.

  Chapter Four

  Trina was surprised and rendered speechless when a woman answered the phone, but she looked back down at the slip of paper again to confirm.

  “Bachelor Looking for Temporary Wife,” it said. “Call to inquire…” She scanned
the number displayed on her phone again.

  “Hello,” the woman said once again on the other end. “Anyone there?”

  “Yes.” Trina cleared her throat. “I’m responding to an ad I saw.”

  “Can you be more specific?”

  “There’s a guy looking for a temporary wife. I need more information.”

  “That’s about all the information I can lend. If you’re not serious, I suggest you hang up now,” the woman spoke in a chastising manner.

  Or at least Trina found it off-putting.

  “When I called, I expected to get the man who placed the ad. I’d like to speak with him directly to get more information.”

  “I’m his secretary and I’m the one doing the screening,” the woman replied, curtly.

  “Screening?”

  “Yes…if you are serious, I just have a few questions for you.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Are you a shifter?”

  Trina wondered why that would matter. The ad didn’t say anything about her needing to have shifter blood. “No.”

  “Bachelor is a shifter. Do you have any problems with that?”

  Trina swallowed. The ad hadn’t said anything about the man being of shifter blood either. She had friends and did business dealings with shifters and she’d even had a few shifters on her team when she worked as the lead marketing executive at the New York firm. But…she’d never dated one. Her only problem was whether she could relate. For six weeks…

  “I don’t have any problems with that,” she replied.

  “Do you have children?”

  “No.”

  “Pets?”

  “No.”

  “How old are you?”

  Everyone she’d never met personally took her seriously until they found out what her real age was. For some crazy reason, some measured abilities, smarts, and business-savvy expertise with age. She supposed they were right half of the time, but her accomplishments to date had always proved them wrong. She thought maybe she should fib about her age, but then decided against it.

  “Twenty-eight.”

  “Ever been married?”

  This was a tricky question. She’d almost been married. It took a tragedy to reveal her fiancé’s true side.

  “No.”

  This bachelor’s secretary seemed to have dozens of questions, but she needed cash fast and her other chance had almost led her to be murdered by a crazed gunman. The memories from that dreadful night just five days ago still haunted her. It would take more than a few days to get over it. Never in a hundred years would she have anticipated a gun being held to her back and her life threatened. On the other hand, she’d never thought her desperation to help a parent would lead her out of her comfort zone and into a nightclub.

  A nightclub owned by a shifter…just like the one who’d saved her from a death sentence.

  Chapter Five

  At any point, Trina could have backed out of this meeting, requested the private driver to turn around, and take her back home. Instead she sat in the back seat of the fancy Rolls Royce as the driver took her farther into the other side of the town. They had already passed over the set of train tracks that marked the end of the city and the beginning of the countryside. Farther beyond the countryside sat the mountains and dark valleys. Only the most adventurous of residents in the surrounding area ventured out into the mountains. Other than that, the rugged landscape and intricate paths of the valley was like a maze to tourists and, from what she heard, the sunset at mountain’s peak was a view that even expert climbers had died to see. Except for the occasional visit to the market with her parents as a child, she’d pretty much kept to the city.

  She glanced out of the tinted window at the fields of sunflowers. When Trina was just a young girl, her parent’s would plan picnics—family time was what Mom had called it. Those times had been all about devoting time to each other, telling stories, enjoying food, and capturing moments. Tiffany Daniels was a pro at capturing those memories through her love of photography. Her late mother had been talented in many other ways, but the photos she took in the years prior to the car accident displayed only one of her many skills. Venturing to the countryside again brought back vivid memories from Trina’s carefree youth.

  The car veered right down a paved, wooded path. Much like the rest of this town the neighborhood was secluded between thickets of leafy cedar trees with murky gray moss overhanging the branches. Brick mailboxes lined the narrow road, spaced hundreds of yards apart. Back in her little homely subdivision, she was used to homes being only dozens of feet apart and instead of sitting on acres and acres of land they sat on mere lots. Where she grew up, everyone was literally in each other’s backyards. Her time in Manhattan following graduation had been no different, except she lived in a high-rise condo instead. So Trina was used to her city roots, not the rich seclusion afforded by the town of Aspen Valley.

  The driver turned on a cobblestone path and stopped right in front of wrought iron gates and a stone wall. The gates swung open only moments after the car came to a complete stop.

  A massive two-story brick home came into view as the driver maneuvered through the gates. The landscaping and lavish center garden caught her attention first. Red rose vines trailed along the brick encasing and up the trellis in the center.

  The car came to a halt beside a silver motorcycle with a helmet lying atop the leather seat. There was a three-car garage attached to the home, but no other cars outside. From what she understood, the bachelor lived almost entirely by himself.

  After what seemed like one hundred questions, the woman had taken her number and promised to call her back if the bachelor seeking a temporary wife was interested. Apparently she’d answered the questions to his liking, because no more than a few hours had passed before Trina received the return phone call asking her to come out to his home that evening. Now it was her turn to do some evaluating—in person.

  The back door opened before she could collect any more thoughts and she was led up the brick path. The driver gave a curt nod and rang the doorbell. “It was my pleasure. Enjoy your evening.” Without further words, he started back off toward the Rolls Royce.

  The locked turned on the other side of the door. The hinges creaked slightly as it was pulled open slowly.

  Trina gasped when a darkened figured filled the doorframe. She clutched her purse to her side and trailed her gaze up to meet smoky gray eyes. Eyes that belonged to the same dark stranger who’d rescued her from being held at gunpoint. Her breath caught in her chest and her belly rolled with instant recognition. Although they were standing a good two feet apart from each other with only the threshold separating them, she could smell his spicy cologne. Like the other night, he didn’t wear a smile but he had the most perfect set of lips and a hardened jaw line.

  “Trina Angelique Daniels.” His eyes seemed to shift back and forth across her, assessing her. “Finally, I’ve got your name.”

  “You?” The word barely escaped her lips, and it was all she could manage in her state of shock.

  “Third time’s a charm, huh?”

  He grinned, showing two rows of pearly whites.

  Most of her apprehension left her as the corners of his eyes turned up and gold danced around his irises. It was too bad that all she could remember about the night he’d saved her from the gunman was his last act of bravery to help her get away. That same night when she finally came to in a small ambulance, her savior had been gone. No one would give his name and the authorities had only referred to him as the male wolf shifter who tackled to the gunman to the ground and held him captive until authorities arrived to cart him off to jail.

  She shook her head. “Third?”

  “Let’s see.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “You brought me a drink then slapped me when I tried to come talk to you. You attracted a crazed gunman to take you hostage. You responded to my ad and…now you’re here.”

  From the looks of things, this ma
n had some clout in this community. The size and workmanship of the home, his bachelor status, how he’d arranged the impromptu meeting after having his secretary grill her like a criminal prosecutor, and the circumstances under which she was here confirmed that he had more money than what he knew what to do with. But all she could think about was his candid attitude, but if it hadn’t been for him she might have been dead. How could she honestly call this man some kind of sexual pervert when she really was aroused that night?

  “Your secretary wouldn’t give your name,” she said.

  “Dane Magnus.” He held out his hand palm up. “Come inside.”

  “Dane…?” Trina crinkled her nose as she contemplated why his name rang a bell. The medics and authorities hadn’t given her any leads about the man who saved her life even when she made them aware that it was only to thank him for his bravery.

  “Speaking of…thank you.” She still hadn’t accepted his hand and invite into his home.

  “I’m glad you’re all right. Why don’t you come inside?”

  She smoothed her palms down the sides of her skirt. “I’m still thinking about this.”

  “Shouldn’t you have thought about this hours earlier…before coming out?” He tossed his chin outward. “The driver’s gone. And he won’t be returning anytime soon.”

  “There’s always a cab.”

  “You’ve come out this far and you’re nearly thirty miles away from your hometown of Cross City. Why turn back now? Are you having second thoughts because I’m a shifter…a wolf to be exact?”

  “You being a shifter doesn’t bother me. I have shifter friends.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You and your affiliation with Leo bothers me.”

  “I don’t see what Leo has anything to do with this. But I wonder what a nice girl like yourself would be doing working as a call girl at Live nightclub.”

  Trina bit the insides of her bottom lip. He thought she was a call girl. He certainly did look like the type to have a few—a lot—of women up his sleeve to choose from. Why would he even need to place an ad? With his good looks couldn’t he have scored a woman right off the street? After all, she had found the ad stuck on a billboard inside a nightclub filled with call girls. Her focus roamed uneasily over him. Well then…he really thought she was a call girl.