by Fel Fern
“A new shifter’s first few days are critical. Those new panthers spent theirs in the company of bloodthirsty psychopaths like Price and his other cats. Price’s madness and bloodthirstiness would’ve rubbed off on them.”
“I understand.” This was all too much too soon, but Aiden refused to break down. He breathed in and out. Before his attack, he never imagined getting in the middle of a fight like this. Gone were his uneventful and monotonous days. Aiden the human had died, and he was Aiden the shifter. Hell, he was mated to Ryder. His life would never be boring.
Ryder lowered his mouth to his and kissed Aiden softly, tenderly. The gesture took Aiden slightly aback. Sometimes he forgot the fact his mate could be rough one moment, sweet the next.
“You okay?” Ryder asked him.
“I will be. When it comes down to it, I’ll do what needs to be done, even if the thought of facing Price again scares the shit out of me,” he admitted.
“That’s only normal. You sure there’s no convincing you to change the plan?”
Aiden liked the fact that Ryder asked him that, because usually, a dominant shifter didn’t make comprises. “No. This is Tom we’re talking about. Price wants me. He won’t negotiate with anyone else.”
“All right. I won’t ask again. You’re so tense, baby. You should relax a little. Everything’s going to be fine.”
He let Ryder lead him back to the bed.
“How are you sure?” He asked.
Ryder reached for the hem of his shirt. Aiden lifted his hands so Ryder could pull it off. They shredded the rest of their clothes. Aiden climbed into bed, settled right on the edge. Ryder got between his legs, lube in his hand. He must’ve retrieved it from the table next to the bed while Aiden was deep in thought.
“Roll with the punches,” Ryder said. His powerful mate lifted Aiden’s legs over his shoulders. His breathing spiked. He soon forgot about Tom, about needing to confront Price again as Ryder pushed one slicked up finger in him and added two more.
Ryder finger banged him, made sure his ass was ready. He groaned in anticipation, clawing at the sheets above him as Ryder put his hand aside and nudged his cock head into his asshole. Aiden noticed the tip was already leaking pre-cum.
Aiden moaned as Ryder slid his meaty cock deep in him, in one sure thrust. He gasped, feeling incredibly full as Ryder went balls deep. His mate rode him, slow and sweet at first. Aiden whimpered. He pleaded his mate to take him harder. Ryder pounded him against the mattress, each merciless stroke a reminder that Aiden was no longer alone.
He had his mate by his side and the support of the rest of the Wild Manes. Everything would be okay. Aiden looked deep into Ryder’s eyes and smiled up at him. He loved his man with everything he was. Ryder’s next thrust was enough to push him over the edge. His vision hazed over. A scream tore out of his mouth as he came, painting Ryder’s six-pack abs and ribs with his jizz. Several thrusts later, Ryder climaxed, his triumphant growl filling the entire bedroom.
Chapter 12
Aiden cut the engine of Ryder’s truck. He gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. He looked out the opened windows. It was late afternoon. Two hours until opening time. No cars were parked on the side road yet. The Red Canary, Tom’s bar, was probably still empty at this time of the day. He sometimes came in early to help Tom set up the tables, especially when Tom couldn’t afford to hire any temps that month.
“I can do this,” he whispered.
He lowered his shaking hands to his lap and clenched them to fists. It was important he appeared alone while driving into town. No doubt Price sent out some of his panthers to watch him. He could sense them. Eyes watching him. It made the hairs behind his neck stand up.
Aiden got out of the truck in case his nerves got the better of him. His inner panther hissed. He looked up, spotted a pair of yellow eyes staring down at him from the tree next to the bar. Aiden took a slow turn around. Barely any humans walked the sidewalk. An elderly woman quickly hurried past him, avoiding his gaze completely. The cafe next to the bar was closed. So were the two other restaurants on the street.
They know, Aiden realized. Price had scared off an entire street. He wasn’t surprised. You’re not on our own, Aiden reminded himself. He couldn’t see Ryder or the others, but they were close by. They all came to town separately, so the panthers wouldn’t.
His palms started to sweat. Aiden rubbed them over his jeans. He exhaled and walked up to the Canary’s door. It wasn’t locked. He opened it. Immediately, his inner animal rebelled. It didn’t like feeling trapped. His pulse raced. Sweat rolled down the back and front of his shirt. Panthers everywhere. They lined the edges of the bar. The lights were off, but their eyes glowed yellow in the dark. Creepy as hell.
Someone gave him a push forward. Aiden nearly tasted the floor, but he caught himself at the last second. Hearing the lock click behind him only made him swallow. Gagging noises made him turn his attention to the two men by the bar.
He noticed Tom first, sitting on the floor next to Price, who sat at the bar, drinking a beer. The bartender was in bad shape, all bruised up and bloody. There was a gag over his mouth and his wrists were tied. Tom looked exhausted, but he widened his eyes, seeing Aiden. Tom tried to speak, but only muffled noises came from his mouth.
“I think your human friend here is telling you to leave, not that you can,” Price said, laughter echoing through the bar. The other panther shifters joined in. The cackle in their voices grated on Aiden’s nerves, reminded him of the noises hyenas made.
Price got off the stool, beer in hand. The Alpha looked Aiden up and down. Revulsion crept inside him. Old fears rose up. His mind took him back to their awful first encounter, the taste of fear in his mouth, the utter helplessness he’d felt. Aiden nearly fell into the sea of despair, but something else held him back. A familiar pulse from the mate bond he shared with Ryder.
Back then, Aiden had been human and alone. That was no longer the case.
“I didn’t think you’d come. I had my panthers watching the whole town. They said you didn’t have anyone else tailing you. Good kitten,” Price said.
“You promised to let Tom go once I’m here,” he stated.
One moment Price stood a few feet from him, the next, Price was in his face, growling at him. The flash of those sharp fangs made him draw back. He let out a little scream, but his back only bumped into another wall of muscle. Another panther shifter.
The scent coming off Price, out of all of them, was awful. Bad sick. The pride bonds between these panthers didn’t feel right or healthy, but toxic.
“Haven’t you learned your lesson, kitten? You don’t make demands out of your Alpha.”
“You’re not my Alpha.” The defiant words came out of his mouth unthinkingly. They earned him a swift punch to the gut. He bowled over, gasping for air. Aiden fell to his knees and stared at Tom, still trying to talk him out of this.
“Try again,” Price told him in a cold voice.
He looked up at Price and slowly, got back to his feet. “Please. We had a bargain, Alpha. Me in exchange for him. Show the humans here that you’re fair.”
Aiden wasn’t sure how Price would react to those words. He prepared himself for the worst. Price snapped his fingers at someone, another muscle-bound panther shifter. “Release the human bartender,” Price ordered.
“Alpha, you sure?” The shifter didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t, because the next moment, Price’s partially shifted claws stuck out of his throat. Blood pooled from the wound. The shifter made choking noises, before falling to the ground.
“Anyone else want to question me today?” Price asked loudly. No one else did. The next shifter, a big and inked guy in his thirties, Price told to free Tom did as he asked.
“Get up, human,” the cat shifter said, hauling Tom to his feet. The shifter bodily dragged Tom out the door. Tom’s desperate eyes met his.
“I’ll be okay,” he mouthed to Tom, who looked miserable. The shifter opene
d the bar door and threw Tom outside. Aiden could breathe a little easier now.
“You think the hard part’s over, kitten?” Price asked, walking up to him again. He cringed as Price wiped his bloody claws on his shirt. “You’re wrong.”
“What’s going to happen to me now?” he whispered.
“Now that I’ve gotten what I came here for, we’re heading back to our mountain,” Price said. The Alpha grabbed the back of his shirt and shoved him, not to the front door but to the kitchen. Aiden had no other choice but to follow.
Did Ryder and the others get Tom to safety? Where were they? Their group was in the kitchen now. Price shoved him towards the back door.
“Open it. Don’t think of running, kitten. I love a good chase, but I don’t want to break you in so soon.”
Those words chilled Aiden to the bone. He unlocked the door, stepped out to feel the chilly autumn air on his face. Aiden stared at the narrow alleyway. He’d been taken by Price’s men right here.
“I thought a walk down memory lane would be good, don’t you?” Price asked.
“No,” he whispered. Aside from the familiar graffiti on the walls and the garbage bins, he noticed a new detail. There were a couple of motorcycles parked down the alley. So this was how they’d arrived in town.
A howl rippled through the air, making him and the other panther shifters freeze in their steps. Price snarled and shoved him against the nearest wall. Price fisted the front of his shirt.
In the background, he heard more snarls. The werewolves were coming. He heard the sound of clothing ripping. Price’s panthers were pouring out of the back door, some of them shifting. The alley was too narrow, he saw, and they were having a hard time. They kept jostling and pushing each other.
“What did you do?” Price demanded, then narrowed his eyes. Aiden swallowed as Price jerked the collar of Aiden’s shirt down. Price slammed him hard against the wall, his skull coming in contact with hard concrete. For a second, Aiden saw stars.
“You fucking traitor. You let out of those mutts mate you?” Price sneered. Price began to shake him. Aiden tried to punch him in the face, but Price moved too fast. Price grabbed him by the shoulder, slammed his face into the wall. Bone broke. Pain seared from his shattered nose to his skull. Aiden cried out softly as Price twisted his arm behind his back.
“You’re my toy, you understand?” Price hissed in his ear.
The sound of fighting reached his ears. The shifters roared and hissed. Aiden tried to ignore the pain and twisted his head, seeing a clash of wolves and cats in the narrow alleyway. He locked his gaze on one particularly large and muscled wolf with dark brown fur and whiskey-colored eyes shot with gold. His heart leapt in his throat.
Ryder mowed down any panther shifter that went after him, seemingly intent on reaching his prize. Him.
Price laughed softly behind him. “I get it. Is that him? Your mutt prince?”
Aiden groaned as Price peeled him from the wall and gathered him close, into a twisted intimate embrace. It struck him that this was exactly how Price had killed Joe. He twisted in Price’s grip. Aiden tried to kick at his captor, but it proved futile.
Ryder froze a few feet from them as Price licked the side of his neck with his long tongue, right over the bite. Price’s bite. The one that had turned Aiden’s entire world around.
“You’re not going to win. My cats outnumber your wolf friends,” Price told him. Ryder began to approach them, but Price suddenly yelled, “Stay where you are, or I’ll rip out his throat.”
“You won’t,” Aiden whispered. Blood still gushed from his nose. He must’ve looked bad, because Ryder snarled, his eyes glowing bright gold. Aiden felt nothing but rage from the mate bond they shared.
“Dare me, kitten,” Price said. He licked Aiden’s neck again, and he swallowed.
“I’m sure. You went through all this trouble to retrieve your toy. You’re saying you’ll kill me now?” he whispered. A panther went for Ryder’s back. He cried out, but Ryder must’ve sensed his attacker, because he turned at the right second, avoiding the lethal attack. Ryder and the panther shifter began to tangle.
“Well, little traitor. You sold your body to a wolf. You disguised your scent, washed it off earlier, didn’t you? Smart kitten, but I don’t have any use for you now. Might as well I break your little neck.”
Ryder put his teeth to his attacker’s neck just as Price put his fingers around Aiden’s throat. Price began to squeeze hard. Aiden’s lungs burned. He kicked at Price, tried to push him off. No use. It was like fighting a brick wall.
Ryder finished off his kill and looked to Aiden a millisecond too late.
His vision began to blur. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes. After everything he’d been through, he wasn’t even going to see what the future held for him and his mate? God. Life was so unfair.
A shadow fell over Price and him. He heard a growl from the wall above him. Price stopped. Both of them looked up only to see red death descending on them.
Chapter 13
As Talon jumped from the wall, Ryder rushed in and shoved Aiden to the side. He knocked Aiden off his feet. Using his teeth, he grasped a handful of Aiden’s shirt and pulled him to the side. Talon closed his massive teeth right over Price’s head and ripped it off his shoulders. Literally. Ryder didn’t even know how Talon got up that wall.
Talon tossed Price’s head towards the fighting panther shifters. They stopped, not immediately but slowly, like mechanical toys with their batteries plucked out. The panther shifters looked dazed, uncertain. They looked from Price’s body to Price’s head. Most of them smartly took off, tail tucked between their legs.
Ryder wasn’t worried they’d get far. The other werewolves would give chase, and the Wild Manes, along with Caden and his wolves, would make short work out of all of them. Ryder backed his mate to the wall, protecting him. It wasn’t over yet. Talon padded towards him, his golden eyes bloodshot.
Ryder growled in warning. Talon let out a roar that shook the walls of the alleyway. Ryder stood his ground. Right now, he had a feeling their crazy Alpha couldn’t tell friend from foe. Well, Talon wouldn’t hurt his pack mates, but right now, Aiden smelled like panther to Talon.
“Talon, thank you for coming.” Aiden spoke up. “If you didn’t go after Price, I’d be dead. Ryder wouldn’t be far behind because we’re mates.”
When he looked at Talon again, the Alpha was gone, slipping out of the alley, probably to look for more prey. Aiden reminding Talon they were mates was a smart move. Huh. Talon might not be too far gone after all. Ryder filed that information in his head.
“Ryder? You can move a little? I don’t like being pressed against the wall.”
Ryder gave his mate space and looked out for threats. Only dead bodies littered the alleyway. This was a hell of a mess they created, but it was Price who started all this. That bastard should’ve never messed with the locals. The police were on board when Aiden and he phoned them yesterday.
Aiden knelt in front of him. Ryder licked at Aiden’s face. His mate looked awful. Broken nose. Bruises all over but no serious injuries as far as Ryder could tell. Ryder looked at Price’s corpse. Thank God the psychopath was dead.
“Is it all over?” asked a new voice.
Ryder snarled low in his throat, but Aiden closed his fingers on his fur. A tired-looking, pretty beaten up Tom leaned against the doorway. Ryder relaxed.
“It is. I’m really sorry for getting you involved in this,” Aiden said.
“What’s done is done. Why don’t you guys come in and have a drink? It’s on me.”
Aiden looked at him. Ryder would’ve shrugged if he were in human form, but he couldn’t chance shifting yet, just in case there were still panther shifters lying in wait somewhere. He doubted it. Once Price went down, the pride bonds between the panther shifters collapsed. If the panthers rose up again, the Wild Manes were always ready to take them down.
“We’ll take that drink,” Aiden said, enteri
ng the kitchen again. Ryder followed his mate inside, glad everything was finally over. He’d been worried the entire day about Aiden. How Price would react. Ryder had been against Aiden going to Price alone but eventually conceded it was for the best.
Still, just now had been a close call. Ryder shifted back to human form once they were inside the bar.
“Hey, Tom, you think I can borrow some pants? Or you don’t mind a naked shifter walking around your place?” Ryder asked.
“No!” Aiden immediately blurted. “My mate’s yum-yum are only for my eyes.”
Ryder chuckled. “What was that?”
Aiden came up to him and touched the rake mark across his chest with a grimace. “You look like shit. Do I need to take you to the hospital?”
“Look who’s talking. No, baby. I’m fine. Right as rain.” To prove his point, Ryder leaned in close to kiss Aiden.
“I don’t need to see this,” Tom grumbled. “Ryder, jeans.”
Ryder snatched the pants Tom tossed at him just as he parted from the kiss. He put them on and grinned at Aiden, who was blushing furiously.
“What about the bodies outside?” Tom asked as he and Aiden took seats at the bar.
“Nothing to worry about. My guys and a few friends will clean it up. The police will help.”
Tom raised his eyebrows at that. “How’d you managed to convince the local coppers to pitch in?”
Aiden and he shared a glance.
“We had a very long phone call with Sheriff Miles. We all want the Black Claws gone,” Ryder supplied. The door to the bar opened, revealing Kris and Alec. Kris was in wolf form while Alec was human. Alec must’ve scored a pair of jeans from somewhere or someone. Hopefully not a dead body. Well, Ryder could make a joke out of that. It was always fun to harass Alec in situations like these.
“We’re cleaning up outside, and you’re here, drinking a cold one?” Alec demanded. Alec stomped up to him and growled.
“Easy, bestie. Tom, two more beers, please,” he said.
