by E A Price
His tiger grunted at them. Pathetic.
He snarled as the scent of sweat, and cheap cologne approached – it preceded one of the black-clad mercenaries. One of the men keeping him there. One of the men who delighted to sending volts of pain through him. Soon to be dead men added his beast.
The male in question banged on the bars. “Finally, it’s awake.”
“Fuck you.”
The mercenary spat and poked a cattle prod through the bars, tazing him. He barely flinched. Wouldn’t give the shit the satisfaction.
“Learn some fucking manners.”
“Fuck you.”
Another prod.
“If I had my way, you’d be out cold until the auction. But the boss wants you lucid, and needs photos of you looking half-alive.”
His eyes swiveled in the direction of the mercenary. His tiger preened as the man looked a little uneasy at being the focus of his gaze. “Fuck. You.”
The mercenary sneered and lumbered over to the penguin. “C’mon big bird, time for your pictures.”
She sobbed, and her wide, scared eyes sought the elephant guy. The mercenary opened the cage and lunged for her.
“Get away from her!” roared the elephant guy.
The mercenary tussled with the penguin shifter as the elephant guy howled. In the struggle, the keys to the cages clattered along the ground coming to a stop outside the sabre-tooth’s cage.
He grinned. Never hire a moron to do an asshole’s job.
*
Zane whistled as he wiped the blood off his knuckles. Hey, he was happy. So shoot him. Yeah, clobbering Ethan was great. Even better than paintballing. Although that probably wasn’t a good thing.
Fucking wolf shifter. Guy was getting drunk and high with a bunch of his wolf shifter buddies. They tried to take him down. Dumbasses. They didn’t have a chance sober, never mind off their asses drunk.
It went much like his confrontation with Erik, except with less crying and with more use of the word ‘bitch’. He pretty much thought Ethan would leave her alone now. In fact, given how their altercation ended, Ethan probably wouldn’t be able to do anything with any woman for a few weeks.
Zane picked up his phone as it rang without thinking, expecting either Wayne or Sky. He trusted Wayne to keep her safe, and he let it be known what would happen to the gator shifter’s balls if he tried anything with her.
“Hey, everything okay?”
“No, it’s not,” sniped Melissa. “You’ve been ignoring my calls!”
Fuck.
“Yeah, I’m busy. I’ll give you a call sometime…”
He hung up ignoring her squawks of protest. His bear grunted in approval.
Okay, so his pledge not to blow up with more ferocity than an active volcano hadn’t lasted very long, but starting from now, he was not going to lose his temper.
Yep, from now on, he was going to be calm. Cool. Collected. The man of Sky’s dreams. Yep, not even his bear had any problems with that.
He actually started singing – badly - but still singing.
*
Dr. James huddled under the desk. She’d foolishly dropped her phone when she saw the sabre-tooth escape, and now she had no way to call for help. But then, who the heck would she call? Did Fred Flintstone do housecalls?!
Roars shook the wood around her as screams and bullets flew. God, how on earth did he get out? Why the hell weren’t Booker’s men stopping him?
Her eyes filled with tears as the door to the office opened. Footsteps boomed through the small space. She bit her lip, trying to stop herself from shaking as huge, bare feet came into view. Her short, tedious life flashed before her eyes a moment before six gunshots echoed through the office. She clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.
Dr. James screamed as she was pulled out from her hiding place. She opened her eyes as she realized she wasn't actually being mauled.
“Mr. Hawk? Christian?” she gasped.
Her boss, sleek in a perfect suit grimaced at her and sheathed his gun. “What on earth happened?” he hissed.
“I don’t know,” she stammered. “He… he… he got free, and he started killing everyone.”
The sabre-tooth tiger groaned from the ground. Blood oozed from his wounds.
“He was going to kill me, too,” she whispered more to herself than anything else.
Christian ignored her and stalked out the room, yelling down the corridor to no one in particular. “We need medical assistance in here right now!”
“Will he be okay?” she whispered.
“He better,” Christian snapped. “Can’t believe I had to cut my date short for this,” he muttered.
Dr. James bent over the tiger before yelping and jumping away as he made a desultory swipe at her.
His eyes swiveled in Christian’s direction, and he sniffed before choking slightly. “Huh, you smell good, pretty boy.”
“Looks like he’ll be fine,” Christian said sourly, pretending he wasn’t worried by that statement. He glared at Dr. James. “Get on the phone. Get Booker. I want him back here now!”
Chapter Sixteen
“You don’t have to be here,” said Sky.
Mercy rolled a shapely shoulder. “I do, if I didn’t Zane would be here and we actually have a paying client. That fancy rat-infested office we work out of doesn’t pay for itself.”
“Yes I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Zane ignores me when I try to say anything about my fee.”
They had quite the argument about money earlier.
She awoke in the morning to find Wayne gone and Zane snoring on her couch looking like a giant, drooling angel. Unicorn sigh. Which was like a regular sigh but more mystical.
She cooked him tofu sausages and eggs, which he assured her he loved – a sentiment she didn’t believe for a second - and then they had a polite but long argument about her not going anywhere alone.
In truth it made her antsy – having people constantly hovering around her was the reason she left Montana. Having your older brother looming over you like giant bat as you try to buy tampons is super annoying. Although a part of her – particularly her unicorn – couldn’t deny that having Zane hover around her didn’t bother her at all. Plus, she didn’t want Zane to be unhappy so she allowed him to sic Mercy on her. It didn’t hurt that Mercy was easy to get along with. Having her in class wasn’t as fun as Zane being there, but then Mercy’s ass wasn’t as nice as his.
Nobody’s was.
*
Gunner and Cutter surveyed the dead bodies. Thirteen in total – lucky thirteen. All shifters of one variety or another, and all shredded. They were found in the harbor, weighted down. They dredged up after a boat took a wrong turn and managed to take out a small dock.
Rick was moving between one table and another as Lucie came in – a hedgehog shifter at the SEA and a nurse who helped Rick on occasion. Also Cutter’s put-upon yet insufferably chirpy mate.
“Lucie, don’t look,” growled Cutter, crowding her and trying to block her view.
Lucie tsked at him. “I’ve already seen everything. And I’ve seen worse than this before.”
“Think of the baby!” he blurted before turning bright red.
“What?” came the twin replies as Gunner and Rick looked up from the bodies.
Lucie blushed as she gently pushed past her mate. “I’m pregnant.”
“Congratulations,” cried Rick moving towards her.
“No hugs,” snarled Cutter.
Gunner chuckled at Cutter. “That why you’ve been practically catatonic the last week?”
Lucie beamed and stroked her mate’s chest. “It was a surprise for both of us.”
“We’ll celebrate later, but for now, doctor?” Gunner nodded at the corpses as Cutter tried to argue silently with Lucie. Given that she just stepped around him, he lost that one.
“Ripped apart by a large mammal.” Rick measured another couple of wounds. “Judging by the shape and size of th
e claw marks, I’d probably guess tiger. Really large tiger. Maybe liger - those guys get pretty big. Any DNA will have washed away so I can’t say for definite.”
“Lucky that tourist boat got stuck there, otherwise who knows how long they’d be down there. Although I can’t imagine it was much fun for the tourists seeing those bodies bobbing around.”
Rick snorted. “Are you kidding? They’ve all posted pics online, hashtag best vacation ever.”
“Freaks,” grumbled Cutter.
“We did manage to get most of the identities already,” said Lucie. “Most of them are ex-military – and their time in the military was very brief - they were court-martialed and kicked out. All of them have violent records.”
“What the fuck is happening in this city?” groused Cutter.
Lucie rubbed his arm. “Maybe it was a wild tiger.”
Gunner looked at the corpses. “Maybe.” But he doubted it. This looked like a shifter’s handiwork. A very dangerous shifter.
Chapter Seventeen
Zane picked Sky up after work. It was like having a boyfriend. A sexy, growly, angry boyfriend. Oh, she could feel herself slipping. Her unicorn was already half way there. What was that about not falling for that sort of guy again? Yet she was already picking out names for their kids – Lara, Peter, and Owen.
“Hey,” she trilled, almost leaning in for a kiss. She caught herself and cleared her throat.
“How was work?” His face tightened. “No problems?”
Sky beamed. “Nope, not unless a fart outbreak in my beginners’ class counted.” One did it while bending over and then they all started. Gross but funny.
As for Erik… He regarded her sullenly but kept his distance. She noticed he had fading bruises but did not say anything. She had no doubt where they came from and was a little surprised at how pleased it made her. She did not approve of violence. Nope, no way, nuh-uh. Well, unless it was totally justified and the guy in question was a complete tool.
Whatever ill will Erik had towards her was forgotten the moment he sighted Mercy. Curvy, perfect blondes will do that to some men. She was a hit at the classes, a natural talent, more so than Zane, finding that her years of pole dancing made her very lissome.
Erik almost tripped over his big, sloppy, wet tongue when he caught sight of her. Of course, he hit on her, trying to charm her in his charmless way, even going so far as to suggest she teach her own pole dancing class. In spite of Mercy’s disinterest in the man, she was intrigued by the idea of teaching a class. Sky told Zane as much.
“You told me you wanted to return to the SEA. What will Mercy do if you get your job back?”
A small amount of guilt entered his expression. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
She shrugged, doubting Mercy was the type to cry over anything for long. She’d land on her feet – you didn’t see birds falling on their asses… unless it was happy hour, and in which case go to the Red Moon Bar, and you will see dozens of birds falling on their asses.
“How was your day? You make any progress on your new case?”
Zane grunted. “No. Spent the day following this wife around to see if she was cheating. All she did was shop, lunch and get her nails done – tedious.”
“I take it we’re going back to my place?”
A disappointed look crossed his features. “Actually, I kind of need to work some more. My client, some manager at a snow globe factory is out of town tonight at some snow globe convention.”
“They exist?” asked Sky mildly. Although given that she may be guilty of attending a snuggle bear convention – or three – in her youth, she could hardly judge.
“Yeah, you find out some real scary stuff in my line of work. I didn’t get anything today, so I want to hang around her house tonight while he’s gone.”
“Creepy.”
Zane’s mouth hung open, and she playfully punched his shoulder. “You’re so easy.”
He grumbled and groused a little, but he couldn’t hide how his lips curled upwards at her teasing.
“I have some friends I can drop you off with – they’ll look after you.”
Sky arched an eyebrow. “Were all the daycares full?”
Zane blinked at her. “Well, technically it’s night time and…”
“My point is that I’m not actually a child.”
“No, but…”
“I don’t need looking after.”
“You need protecting,” he said as his voice took on a low, throaty quality and his chin set in a stubborn tilt.
That may be true; her unicorn definitely wouldn’t argue with that. She didn’t know what she was expecting when she turned up at Zane’s office the other day. But she knew she didn’t want to spend the evening with someone other than him hovering over her.
“Then why don’t I come with you?”
He looked at her blankly for a moment before his forehead creased. A myriad of emotions flitted across his face as he tried to think of a reason to say no. He was searching for an excuse not to let her.
“It might be dangerous,” he said slowly.
She fluttered her eyelashes, only cringing slightly. Her unicorn had no problem with flirting to get what she wanted – heck, the flighty beast encouraged it – but Sky didn’t like it. There were plenty of trainers at the gym who smiled and flashed their cleavages to get the better clients, but that wasn’t her. She just didn’t feel bad doing it to Zane because he had actually – sort of – been flirting with her too. At least, she could scent his arousal and damn was it sweet. Plus, there was the whole wrist kissing thing – wrists should not be that erotic.
“But won’t you protect me?”
Zane puffed out his chest, momentarily affronted. “Of course.”
“Well then.” Sky folded her hands in her lap like the matter was settled. Truthfully, she did want to see what he did for a living.
“It’ll be really boring,” he tried, still uncertain.
“Good job I’ll be there to keep you company then.”
“It may take all night.”
“I have no other plans.”
“There may not be time for bathroom breaks and…”
Sky held up a hand. “I’d like to come with you, but I won’t force the matter. I do feel safe with you, though. But if you’re sure I can’t, then I guess if your friend Wayne is free…”
“You can come!” he snapped as he violently started driving away.
Again, jealously was not a tactic she liked to use, but hell, it was effective!
*
Booker scowled as he listened to the police report – they’d already found the bodies of his dead men.
Fucking A. He should have incinerated them. But that meant driving thirteen bodies across town and knowing his luck, he’d be picked up for a faulty brake light. Not a risk he wanted to take. Dumping them in the harbor was easier, but not permanent. Though, he had thought he had at least a few months. Stupid tourist boat. Who the fuck wants to go dolphin watching? Visit one of the beachfront restaurants – they’re full of dolphin shifters!
Fucking sabre-tooth tiger. He’d been a nightmare since they caught him. He’d killed two of Booker’s men on his capture, another who made the mistake of getting too close to his cage at feeding time, and now thirteen more. Thirteen! They were all armed with weapons and body armor while the sabre-tooth was naked and groggy from the drugs they’d been pumping into him. Booker shook his head, still unable to believe it. Even on his tours, he’d never come across a shifter with half as much ferocity. The damn tiger took nine bullets to slow him down. Six of them at close range by Hawk. And he popped them out like they were nothing within an hour.
The guy was chained up twenty-four seven with silver chains from now on. Booker didn’t care whether the silver left a mark on his skin. He was running out of men! The tiger wasn’t allowed out of them even to take a piss. If the tiger wanted to do that one of his men could hold it for him.
Even worse than the thirteen men, one
of their specimens – a Cuban red macaw - was hit with some stray bullets during the escape attempt. They came from one of the men who died – so at least it spared Booker the aggravation of having to kill him for his rank stupidity. Behavior like that didn’t do unpunished, particularly as the macaw would have been a popular attraction. Quite a newly extinct species, but a pretty species always sold well. Now he had to find something to replace him.
Hawk assured him the SEA wasn’t overly concerned about the amount of people they’d abducted, but thirteen dead bodies were something else.
His gorilla rumbled. Shit.
Chapter Eighteen
“Didn’t I warn you it would be boring?”
Sky giggled at Zane as he huffed and puffed impatiently. They’d been camped out in front of Mrs. Snow Globe’s house for ten minutes. She was home and reading a book, and she had been for the past ten minutes, and probably would be for a while longer.
“I actually quite like it. It’s quiet, and it gives me a chance to meditate.”
Or at least it would, were it not for the fidgeting bear shifter next to her. He fiddled with the radio, finished his Slurpee with a long slurping sound, counted all the coins in the ashtray, checked his e-mails and…. It was fifty seconds later.
He started drumming his fingers on the wheel, and Sky showed him a little mercy.
“So, what’s been your most interesting case so far?”
He perked up at the question, and her unicorn neighed happily at the visible change in him. “Saw a lot of crazy shit at the SEA, but the funniest had to be a vampire who was eating all the local bats.”
“How bizarre.”
“Yeah, this animal conservation society hired me to figure out why all the bats were going missing. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d get anywhere, but it led me to Count Freakula. Course, they couldn’t actually afford to pay me, so I am now a lifelong member of the Los Lobos Animal Lovers Society.” He pulled out the card from his wallet and handed it to her with a scowl. It was a small card with a picture of a giraffe and a lion hugging, lots of hearts and his name in flourishing writing.
