Wild Cat (30 page)

These Shifters had probably found each other after humans started forcing Shifters to take Collars. They’d have escaped before Shifters were put into Shiftertowns, choosing to stay wild, thinking they could beat the humans at their own game.

Nice idea to try to make it together. Shifters taking the Collars had found, to their surprise, that living in communities, even restricted ones like Shiftertowns, let them stop fighting for survival and learn to
live
. Shifters together had gotten stronger, their fertility rates higher, the incidence of losing females in childbirth much lower. Cubs had safe places to grow up now.

These Shifters had tried the same idea, but without Collars to keep the fighting down. Different species instinctively fought each other, but Collars, Shifters had found, let them live side by side in some kind of peace. That way Shane and Brody and their mother could be friends next door instead of Eric and Cassidy having to fight them every time they walked out the door.

The dominance fights in this Shifter enclave must be horrific. And ferals were even worse at reproducing than Shifters who’d lived alone in the wild. Life was hard on a female Shifter, as was childbirth.

“This is how you introduce fresh blood, is it?” Cassidy asked, as though simply curious. “Kidnapping females and mate-claiming them?”

“We went out to defend our town against incomers,” the bear said. “You were an opportunity.”

Cassidy had been trying to save Xavier’s life. The last thing she’d wanted was for Diego to watch his brother die.

She glanced around surreptitiously, taking in the floor space, the exits. Windowless walls rose around them, with only one main doorway leading out into the night. The ceiling soared above her, pieces of it missing. It had to be a sixty-foot climb to the top. The light came from battery-operated lanterns, and the cooking fire was a gas camping grill. All stolen, she surmised.

A dark doorway stood beyond Miguel and his guards, the farthest point from Cassidy. The smell behind it was stuffy, enclosed, and it was also filled with pungent fear. Cassidy’s hackles rose, instincts telling her she did
not
want to go in there.

Miguel nudged Xavier with his foot. “Who’s the human?”

“My pet,” Cassidy said. Shifter females in the wild had sometimes taken human male lovers, referring to them as
pets
. She figured Xavier wouldn’t mind the lie if it kept him alive, if he were even awake to hear it. “You don’t get to have him.”

“Maybe I’ll just kill him,” Miguel said.

Cassidy coolly met his gaze. “If you let me keep him, I’ll consider the mate-claim.”

“You don’t consider anything, Feline. I mate-claim you, and that’s that.”

“But if I get to keep my human male, I might be nicer to you and not hurt you as much.”

Miguel chuckled. “I like you, Feline. We’ll see. You be good, and you can keep your pet.”

“How about some clothes?” Cassidy asked. “It’s getting cold.”

“I don’t have any to spare. I’ll have one of my females get you some tomorrow. If you’re cold, you’ll have to stay shifted.”

Cassidy didn’t want to shift. She could think more clearly as a human, and she knew that the way to win with Miguel would be to outthink him. The feral bear had the edge on her in terms of animal strength, plus Miguel was smart. How else would he have maintained dominance here, keeping three species of Shifters from killing each other? He’d have to be cunning and a quick thinker, even if things hadn’t turned out the way he’d hoped.

Cassidy sighed. She stretched, letting her cat take over, and ended up sitting on her furry haunches.

She tamped down her fighting instincts with great effort. Her wildcat wanted to attack, but the minute she did that, Miguel and his boys would be on her, and five against one wasn’t good odds. As much as these Shifters needed females, she sensed that they would kill her to stop her escaping. Even if they wouldn’t mean to kill her, she’d be just as dead.

Cassidy closed her throat to keep herself from growling, and she lay down next to Xavier. He was still out, his face pale, and she wanted to growl again in worry. She curled around Xavier to give him as much of her body heat as possible, but she remained awake, and watchful.

“C
ome on, Diego. Wake up.”

A huge hand batted Diego’s face, and Diego cracked open his eyes.

He found himself on a dark dirt road, a jeep on its side not far away, with two men in biker vests lying limply next to it. A naked and mud-streaked Shane stood above Diego, about to hit him again.

“Stop,” Diego said, voice hoarse. “I’m awake.”

“Those ferals took Cassidy.” Shane sounded like he wanted to cry. “And your brother. Cass could have gotten away, but she stayed with Xavier.”

Son of a bitch.

Diego got himself to his feet. His head hurt, badly, but he wasn’t dizzy. Yet. The shotgun lay not far from where he’d fallen, and Diego scooped it up as he walked toward the jeep.

He looked down at the drug runners he’d come to arrest. “Are they still alive?”

“Yeah. Bastards tried to leave us here.”

“They know all about running away,” Diego said. Adrenaline was flowing through him, dulling pain, honing Diego’s thoughts to focus on one goal.

Get Cassidy and Xavier back.

Diego checked the ammo in his pistol, then started pulling the ammo boxes from the back of the fallen jeep. The jeep was dead, no fear of fire, but still he wanted all that explosive potential away from the gas tank.

Shane started to help. The man was stark naked, but Diego scarcely noticed as they lugged out their gear and assessed what they had. Interestingly, Shane didn’t try to take over or demand that Diego obey him. Shane was waiting for Diego to tell him what to do.

“Call Marlo, tell him what happened,” Diego commanded as they unloaded the last of the ammo. “We’re going to need the plane ready to go.”

“What are you going to do?” Shane asked him.

“Tie up these guys, then find my brother and Cass.”

Shane stepped in front of him. “You can’t go up against Shifters alone, Diego. The alpha will have trackers, they’ll smell you coming, and they’ll be ready.”

Diego dragged his satellite phone out of the wreckage, relieved when he found the thing undamaged. He also found Cassidy’s earpiece on the ground where it had fallen when she’d shifted. He handed the earpiece to Shane.

“Good to know. Help me with these guys and then call Marlo.”

Together they pulled the drug runners away from the wreckage, and Diego handcuffed them. Shane walked away to get Marlo on the sat phone.

One biker swam to consciousness. “Are the Shifters dead?” he asked. “Are they gone?”

“Not yet,” Diego said. “But they have my girlfriend and my brother, thanks to you trying to leave us behind.”

The man lowered his head, pretending incomprehension. Asshole.

After Shane hung up, Diego and Shane marched the dealers back to the cantina where Cassidy had found them. Whatever patrons had been in there had vacated.

The bartender, who owned the place, protested. Diego answered him in Spanish. “If you want an end to your Shifter troubles, you’ll help me,” he said. “I’m going to get rid of them
and
your drug dealer problem.”

He and Shane set the two bikers on chairs and shackled them together.

“The Shifters came two years ago,” the bartender said as they worked. “Our own fault. The drug runners had taken over, fighting each other in our streets, ruining our lives. We put out the word that we needed help. The Shifters came down out of the hills, holed up in the factory that had never been finished, and took over. They got rid of the drug runners, all right.”

“Then you had a Shifter problem instead.” Diego checked both men’s bonds and approached the bar. “What did the Shifters do?”

The bartender looked sad. “We have to give them anything they want. Food, clothing—our daughters. Some of them wanted to kill our sons, but the alpha, he said no. Said it would attract too much attention.”

This was exactly what Reid had meant, Diego realized.
They can look human, and they try to act human, but if you don’t treat them like the dangerous animals they are, you’ll pay for it.
Humans had rounded up Shifters and slapped Collars on them, because they’d feared that something exactly like this might happen.

But these Shifters were different.
Ferals
, Cassidy and Shane had called them. Diego wasn’t sure what that meant, but he couldn’t imagine Eric or Nell or Lindsay doing things like this.

“What’s this alpha’s name?” Diego asked. “And what kind of Shifter is he?”

“He’s a bear. Calls himself Miguel. He said he chose the name of one of the humans’ archangels. Thought it was funny.”

“Sounds like a smart-ass. Where is this factory?”

“Five miles west of here. There’s only one road that goes there. Hard to miss.”

“You’re being very open about it.”

The bartender shrugged. “What have I got to lose? The dealers used my place as a base, and then the Shifters laid siege to them here. They killed my brother and took my daughter.”

“Did you all try to fight back?”

“Sure. The dealers left a pile of weapons. But the Shifters were too fast, too strong. We held out for a while, then…” He shrugged, a man defeated. “If you’re thinking of fighting them, you won’t last long. Get out while you can—just some friendly advice. Go back to America where you can be rich and safe.”

Diego had never considered himself rich, and he knew just how “safe” the streets of his city were. Everything was relative, he supposed.

Diego walked outside in the night to make another phone call, but he couldn’t get through to Eric. Shifters were allowed to have cell phones, but they had old models without much power. Or maybe Diego’s sat phone wouldn’t connect with them for some reason.

Shane came out after him. He wore a pair of jeans that looked too small—a gift from the bartender. “You should get out of here, Diego, and let me take care of this. Have Marlo fly you back home.”

“And leave Cassidy and my brother? No way in hell.”

“I understand how you feel, Diego, but these are ferals. You have no idea what you’re fucking with. One, you might be able to handle. A group of them, you can’t.”

“What does
feral
mean exactly—they didn’t take Collars?”

“More than that. Even a Collared Shifter can go feral, but it’s rare. The Collar usually stops the violence. Feral means a Shifter living by his animal instincts, suppressing the human ones. It usually starts with giving up bathing.”

“Yeah, I smelled them.”

Shane rubbed his lip. “But these are different from other ferals I’ve seen. Most of them run off on their own and eventually die. This is a
group
of ferals, different species living together. That’s weird. We hated each other in the wild, couldn’t get along. We barely get along now.”

“Whatever they are, I’m not leaving. Cassidy went with them to protect Xavier. I’m not abandoning either of them.”

Shane regarded Diego quietly for a moment, then nodded. “I see that. I’m glad.”

Diego assessed the dark street. Aside from the few lights in the cantina behind him, the town was unnaturally silent and dark. He imagined it had been lively at one time, with the townspeople emerging from their houses at night, enjoying the cool evenings before having to face the heat of the day once more.

He slung the shotgun on its strap over his shoulder and loaded his pistol with a fresh magazine. The Shifters would know he was coming—Shane was right about that.

But like hell he’d let these Shifters do to Xavier and Cassidy what the drug runners had done to Jobe. Same situation, different place.

“What now?” Shane asked.

“We go find them.”

Shane looked surprised. “You’re not going to wait for Eric?”

“I can’t reach Eric. I’ll have Marlo start trying to get him, but we need to scout, find Cassidy and Xavier’s exact positions, and figure out a way to extract them.”

“I get that. But, like I said, we can’t sneak up on them. This Miguel will have trackers everywhere, and these Shifters are going to be more animal than human.”

“If they’ll see us coming, we can use that. Do you want to shoot or shift? I need you in the best shape, so which one will least likely set off your Collar?”

Shane shrugged. “I’ve never shot anyone, so I don’t know. I can only fight a few minutes with the Collar, and the hangover is a bitch.” Shane already looked pretty green now.

Diego handed him the extra shotgun. “Then you shoot. Aim for the chest—think of it as a triangle from shoulders to groin, and aim for the middle. Doesn’t really matter if you’re a dead shot. We just need to take them down long enough to get Cassidy and Xav out of there.”

Shane took the shotgun, holding it gingerly. “I’ll try.”

“If you think it’s better you ditch it and shift, you do it.”

Shane eyed the weapon. “Got it.” Diego suspected he’d be ditching and shifting.

“We’re getting her free, Shane,” he said.

Shane nodded, giving Diego a look of new respect. “Damn right we are.”