by Selina Woods
Shifter Challenge
(Shifters Hunt)
Selina Woods
Copyright ©2020 by Selina Woods - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Contents
Story Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
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Story Description
Shifter Challenge: (Shifters Hunt) Book 3
by
Selina Woods
Lions might be the kings of the jungle, but in post-apocalyptic Miami few want to claim the bloodied throne. When Logan the lion shifter is forced to step up, he must leave his dreams of having a mate and family in the past. But Kiana is beautiful, kind and full of hope. Love could redeem them both, or form a dangerous dent in Logan’s armor.
Chapter One
I gazed calmly at the thug in front of me. He sneered back, his upper lip curling as he leaned toward me, threatening, as though I wasn’t three inches taller and almost a hundred pounds heavier. Kell, the thug, had the authority of the city’s gang lord behind him, and unless I tolerated his nasty attitude, I’d have more trouble than I wanted.
“This ain’t enough, Logan,” Kell snapped. “You owe more.”
“I have an agreement with Duke,” I replied, stopping my hands from clenching. “Half at the first of the month, half two weeks later. You know I do.”
Kell twitched as though wanting to leap over the counter and go for my throat. But as he was a skinny wolf shifter and I was a lion, far bigger than he was; he didn’t quite dare. Not without backup. I lowered my voice and leaned forward until our noses almost touched.
“I’m guessing you plan to keep the extra, Kell,” I growled softly. “I think Duke might be very interested to hear of that.”
My partner in the grocery business stepped into Kell’s line of sight—also bigger than he was, also a lion. “Trouble, Logan?” Derek asked.
Kell recoiled, his sneer slipping, and he glanced around the store. A few shoppers had halted in their browsing of the produce and meats to stare, and while they’d never get involved in a fight, Kell knew he didn’t stand a chance against two lions. And if Derek and I proved he was trying to extort for himself, we could kill him, and Duke would shake our hands in thanks.
“No,” I replied easily. “Kell knows better than to start trouble with citizens who pay their dues. Right, Kell?”
Kell nodded in a jerking motion, clearly unnerved not just by our unvoiced physical threat, but also by the vague one in my words. Duke never tolerated his enforcers harming or killing the folks who paid promptly, and he’d kill any enforcer personally who tried to get above himself and steal to line their own pockets and not his own.
“Right,” Kell answered, licking his lips and taking a step back. “I’ll be going now.”
“Have a nice day,” I said politely as he turned and ran from our small market.
Derek shook his head as Kell departed through the front door. “What’s with these guys? They think the big guy won’t find out about their pilfering?”
“I think that’s exactly it,” I replied, keeping a watchful eye on a couple of kids who watched me just as closely as they pretended to peruse the rows of candy in front of them. “They know Duke has his hands full in a city this big. He can’t control everyone.”
Derek followed my gaze, observing the kids’ suspicious behavior, and replied, loudly, “Yeah, I’ll head to the back and stock the shelves.”
His hands in his pockets, Derek ambled away as I smiled at two matrons who came to pay for their small baskets of items. I took their cash and put their groceries in bags even as Derek peeked around an aisle, half-hidden, behind the kids.
They must have felt confident with me busy and Derek presumably gone, for I watched from the corner of my eye as they grabbed a few candy bars and stuck them in their pockets. Derek withdrew as the kids casually inspected another shelf of soda, then wandered toward the door.
Derek pounced just as they reached it.
Grabbing each of them by the backs of their necks, he lifted both easily and growled into their panicked expressions. “Thieves,” he snapped, his eyes flat. “You know what we do to kids who steal around here?”
The matrons, their groceries in their arms, walked toward the door and paused. “Are you going to gut them, young lion?” one of them inquired politely, and I smothered a grin.
“That was on my mind, yes, ma’am,” Derek replied with a straight face.
“Once you do,” the other went on, “hang them from a post with their entrails out. Their parents need to know what became of them.”
“What an excellent thought,” Derek told them, still not smiling. “Thank you, ladies.”
With identical sniffs of disdain directed at the little juvenile delinquents, who by now had grown quite pale, the two matrons glided from the store. “Don’t kill us,” pleaded one as I stepped around the counter to stride over.
“Please don’t,” cried the other, tears leaking from his eyes. “We’re sorry. We won’t do it again.”
“No,” Derek said sternly, “you won’t. You can’t steal if you’re dead.”
I yanked the candy from their pockets as they struggled and wept, clearly terrified we truly would slaughter them and hang them from a light post as an example. I glared into their streaming eyes.
“What are your names?” I demanded.
“T-tony,” said the dark-haired kid dangling from Derek’s left hand. “He’s my brother, Albert.”
“Now, why shouldn’t we kill you, Tony and Albert? Stealing is a terrible crime around here.”
The pair cried harder, unable to answer. Derek caught my gaze and rolled his eyes slightly with a small jerk of his chin toward the door. He opened his hands and dropped them to the floor, where they promptly scrambled to their feet. Escape was still impossible, as our large bodies blocked the way out.
“We’ll not kill you this time,” I growled, bending over with my hands on my knees to look them in their terrified faces. “But you are going to take me to your parents so I can inform them of your criminal behavior.”
Tony wiped his eyes on his sleeve and sniffled. “Our parents are dead,” he muttered. “We live with our sister, and we don’t have much money.”
Though I made certain it didn’t show on my face, sympathy stirred within me. I straightened and caught the same emotion in Derek’s dark brown eyes. “Come on,” I ordered them gruffly. “I’m going to have a chat with your sister, and you’ll take me to her.”
To make sure they couldn’t run off and escape down an alley or vanish into the mix of pedestrians on the sidewalk, I kept my hands on each of their shoulders. “What happened to your folks?” I asked as we walked.
“Our Pa was killed for fishing without permission,” Albert answered, his tone sullen.
“We needed to eat,” Tony added. “It wasn’t fair.
No, it certainly wasn’t. “And your Ma?”
“She
got killed by the night hunters,” Tony told me, kicking at a rock. “Last month.”
As if Duke’s thugs weren’t dangerous enough, the packs of roaming shifters that ruled the streets after dark fell were far more deadly. Though the gang leader tried to stop them, had his enforcers patrol the night, and he hanged any he caught, the shifters continued to prey on anyone they could catch.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it. No doubt she was raped and tortured before they killed her.
“Yeah,” Tony answered. “But that won’t bring them back, will it?”
“No, kid,” I said slowly. “It won’t.”
The pair lived in a tiny house several blocks over from the main drag where the store was. It didn’t have too much damage from the old wars and had a cared-for appearance despite the sagging roof and the mold stains on the siding. Albert unlocked the front door with a key from his pocket and yelled, “Kiana!”
I shut the door with my foot, keeping my hands on both boys as a light, feminine voice called, “What?” from another room.
“Someone to see you,” Tony replied, trying to shrug out from under my grip.
Quick footsteps headed toward me, and the boys’ sister emerged into my sight. My breath caught in my throat, snagged there as though not knowing if it should go out or come back in. I know I stared, and couldn’t seem to shunt my eyes from her.
Tony and Albert’s sister was gorgeous.
Small, yet firmly muscled, she moved with the lithe grace that only a hunting lioness might achieve. Her sky-blue eyes stared back at me while her hand lifted to her coal-black hair to swipe a tendril from her perfect face. As she was clad in a short uniform that exposed her very pretty legs, I guessed she worked at a restaurant.
“Who are you?” she asked, her glance flicking from her brothers to me and back again.
“Logan,” I answered, my mouth dry. “From the L and D Market. I caught your brothers stealing.”
Kiana set her hands to her hips and scowled. “Why did you bother bringing them back?” she demanded. “You should have just gutted them.”
Both kids cringed, and I stifled a laugh. “As it was their first offense, I thought to bring them home and face your punishment.”
Still glaring, she snapped, “Isn’t there enough stealing in the world? We are supposed to be civilized, and good folks don’t steal from other good folks.”
“The bad guys steal from us,” Tony retorted, not looking up.
“And that makes them lower than us. Where would we be if we stooped to their level?”
Neither one of them answered or shuffled their feet. Kiana sighed. “We’ll continue this later. I have to get to work.”
“Will you bring home dinner?” Albert asked, finally looking up.
“Yeah. Neither of you are to leave this house. Got it?”
With more respect than I thought they’d accord her, Tony and Albert both murmured, “Yes, ma’am,” and walked past her to vanish into another room.
“I’m sorry about that,” Kiana told me, her beautiful eyes on me. “They were raised better, but with both our parents gone, they have been running a little wild.”
“I imagine raising them yourself hasn’t been easy.”
She smiled wryly, and my heart turned several somersaults in my chest. “No, it hasn’t. I barely make enough to feed us and rely on the diner’s leftovers to bring home to them. Speaking of, I have to get to work.”
“May I, uh, walk you there?” I asked, unwilling to be separated from her just yet.
Suspicion stared at me from her slightly narrowed eyes. “I know you are decent enough to bring the boys home like that,” she said slowly, “but I don’t know you.”
“True enough,” I replied with a smile. “I was simply hoping you might want to.”
Kiana glanced from me to where the kids vanished, clearly indecisive. Then her own shy smile emerged. “What the hell. If you intended harm, you’ve had many opportunities by now.”
I opened the door for her and made sure it would lock when I shut it. “I’m just an average guy,” I told her as I closed it behind us. “I work, and Duke takes what I have.”
She snorted, then glanced around the silent houses to make certain we weren’t being overheard. “I know how that goes,” she murmured as we strode toward the main avenue. “I could afford to feed them better if he didn’t take what little I earn.”
As we now ambled among people who could potentially hear what we said and report us, I made light conversation about her life and raising her brothers. “How old are they?” I asked.
“They’re both eleven,” she replied with a glance up at me that made the sun dance in her eyes. “Albert is younger by only a few minutes.”
“They seem like nice kids.”
“They are. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t steal. What did they try to take?”
“Candy.”
Kiana grimaced, then changed it to a grin. “They rarely get sweets, and they’re perpetually hungry. Growing boys and all.”
“I was young once,” I told her, answering her grin.
“You have folks here?”
“Nope.” I gazed around at the passing people, the cars and trucks on the street, mostly driven by enforcers. “I’m an orphan. Don’t have anyone.”
As usually happened when I thought of my past, and the family I never had, I felt the strange sensation again. As though there were strings on my heart pulling me to the northwest. I never understood why that happened, but acknowledged it as simply a part of me.
Kiana stayed silent for long moments. “I’d rather have been an orphan,” she said quietly, “than seen my parents die the way they did.”
Chapter Two
Not quite sure what to say, I said something that wouldn’t make it better but was the only thing I could muster. “I’m sorry.”
Kiana gazed around at the mixture of humans and shifters passing by. “It’s a very bad world we live in,” she murmured. “And none of us have the means to make it better.”
“There are, you know,” I began, then dropped my voice, “safe cities.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard. But we’d best not talk about those.” Kiana faked a smile. “My work is right there. Thank you for what you did, Logan.”
“My pleasure,” I replied, taking her hand briefly. “See you.”
“Bye.”
I watched her walk into the diner and then turned around to head back to the store. As I did, I wondered, not for the first time, how folks might escape this city and head for one that was ruled by an elected council. Militias kept the peace without preying upon others; they even drove out the night hunters.
People were safe, prosperous, and happy in those places.
Permitting myself to dwell on the near impossible, I daydreamed of escaping Miami, taking Derek and his family with me, as well as Kiana and her brothers. But with Duke’s enforcers guarding the roads, and the open areas of land filled with swamps that contained venomous snakes and alligators, leaving this place was difficult, if not a fatal prospect.
Derek eyed me sourly upon my return to the store. “What took you so long?”
Unable to halt my grin, I replied, “I met someone.”
His gaze sharpened on me. “I’m guessing this someone is young and female?”
“And beautiful. Those kids’ older sister.”
“Well,” Derek finally said, “maybe it’s time you settled down with a mate.”
I glanced around the store, seeing only a few shoppers. Like everywhere, business was never good, and we paid Duke’s thugs nearly half of our profits, which in turn, we split. Between Duke and too few with any money to buy our goods, he and I barely eked out a living. Still, we were better off than many.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “This isn’t exactly a place where I want to raise cubs.”
“Shh.” Derek also glanced around, his brows lowered. “We don’t talk like that here, in the open.”
“Sorry
. I know its doubly hard on you. You’ve got a mate and itty bitty Dereks at home.”
“Yeah. Even so, having them is worth it. You should reconsider a family.”
I shrugged and ambled around the counter to join him. “We’ll see if this goes anywhere first. But, damn.” I grinned. “She sure is a nice girl.”
“What’s her name?”
“Kiana.”
“With a name like that, she sure better be good looking. If you’ll watch the front, I’ll unload in the back.”
“You got it.”
Through the rest of the day, my mind never wandered far from Kiana. Not one to fall in love at first sight, nor become infatuated on sight, I still couldn’t stop thinking about her. Her eyes, her sleek body, her wealth of black hair. I’d had a few flings in my past, nothing serious, and hoped she wasn’t dangling a potential rival from the end of her fingers.
I suppose I should have asked. A lioness as beautiful as she would have the males lusting after her in droves.
At closing time, just as the sun faded from the sky and folks hurried to get out of work. They headed home before it became fully dark, and I locked the front doors. As Derek ambled from the rear storeroom, dusty and dirty, I loaded up a box of meat, produce, and some fruit, as well a couple of candy bars.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I pulled some cash from my pocket and held it up to him. “Put this in the till. I’m taking this to Kiana and her brothers.”
“Are they that bad off?”
“I think most of what they eat is the crap no one else wants from the diner.”
“Shit.” Derek shook his head and took the money. “This is just going back into your pocket, you know.”
