random with their viciousness, or at least they had been. Rome had a feeling the rules to the game were changing and he was a little late getting the memo.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t still claim victory.
In a split second he heard a ferocious cry. It was a warning: Whatever shifter was in the area had scented them and wanted them gone. That wasn’t going to happen.
He and Nick took the next steps simultaneously, moving toward the sound, their bodies already alert, cats ready to pounce. There was already a cat out there, on the open streets hiding under the cloak of night. The Etica prohibited them from revealing themselves to humans. It was the only way to preserve their species. Humans hated what they feared and they would definitely fear a part-man, part-jaguar shifter. Hate would lead to extermination and the end of the Shadow Shifters. They’d kept their secret for hundreds of years, the Assembly liked to believe they could go hundreds more. Rome didn’t necessarily agree but he’d be damned if the exposure would come from his Zone.
The moment they stepped off the sidewalk there was another challenging roar.
“It’s coming from the alley,” Nick said.
“It figures.”
Another male voice joined them and they both looked up to see X standing beside them, his cat already struggling to break free as they could see by the claws pressing through his fingernails.
“Whoa, X, hold on, we don’t know what’s down there.”
“We know it’s not good,” X said with a growl of his own matching the one in the darkness calling out to them.
Rome thought of using caution, but the next roar seemed closer to the building. The building where Kalina lived. Caution was forgotten in that second as the change began to take over. His heart, his mind, everything was shifting to the cat.
Tearing the jacket off came next, fur already rippling along his skin. Toeing off his shoes, he caught a quick glance of Nick and X stripping out of their clothes as well. In seconds he was free, the cat bursting to the surface in a series of crackling bones that gave way to the sinewy skeletal build of a full-grown jaguar.
His paws hit the damp cement as the cat shook its large head, lips tearing back to reveal sharp canines. This time he was the one to roar first, the only warning the other cat would get that he was coming.
With slow, deliberate movements Rome moved deeper into the alley, not coming to a stop when the first eerie green eyes came into view. This jaguar was large, stepping to the edge of an old fire escape baring its teeth in challenge. It had been waiting, watching them from the moment they’d entered the alleyway, judging its prey, body tensed for action.
A different scent had Rome’s attention moving to the other side: another cat. Another full-grown jaguar stepping from behind a Dumpster, its whiskers twitching to pick up the scent of Rome, Nick, and X.
From behind Rome heard a weaker growl, scented fear, and knew instinctively what would happen next.
X roared and Nick leapt into the air just as the jaguar from behind the Dumpster charged. Rome came up on his hind legs the second the jaguar from above pounced, their huge bodies meeting in midair as their bodies shifted in almost impossible positions. It was a brief battle, three on three, paws smacking against muscled flanks, canines nipping at fur-covered skin.
It was a gruesome sound, ferocious roars and grunts echoing off the buildings surrounding them, lifting into the city atmosphere with an eerie deranged resonance.
In the distance, but coming closer, was the sound of sirens.
Rome’s ears lifted at the sound, his body bunching as the other jaguar took a swipe at him with a large paw. With his own paw Rome blocked just in time, hitting the other cat’s body with a fierce swipe of his own. The other cat stumbled back and Rome turned to see Nick and X both overtaking their opponents. He gave a low roar, sending the warning, and watched as they both delivered dispatching blows.
They were first to exit the alley, preservation of the species more imperative than killing the cats that had dared attack them on a city street. The other cats stood together, growling and issuing warnings of their own on the other side of the alley.
It was like a gang fight dispersing unwillingly. Only these weren’t normal humans. They were animals, deadly animals who had just seen the first acts of a war long coming.
As Rome, Nick, and X hit the mouth of the alley, they weren’t surprised to see Ezra and Eli holding their clothes. The two men were half out of their tuxedos as well, most likely having been ready to shift themselves and join the battle until they heard the police sirens.
His mind registered the change back, his cat protesting while the man tried to focus on the here and now. They were on the streets, he was in charge. They needed to get away from this area, now. Slipping into his pants, Rome grabbed the rest of his clothes from Eli and yelled to the others, “Let’s go. Take both vehicles and meet at my place.”
Eli and Ezra nodded. Nick and X had donned their pants and were holding the remainder of their clothes as they moved quickly to the vehicles.
When Rome was in the car, the cool leather of the seats rubbing against his bare back, he breathed out a sigh.
This wasn’t over. He would see those cats again, he was certain.
The war the Assembly had been trying to avoid for hundreds of years was just beginning.
Chapter 8
In the den of Rome’s house three restless, angry jaguars paced. It probably made an interesting sight to see these particular three men with cats lurking just beneath the surface of their skin. Professional men with animalistic traits driving their thoughts and actions. The space was filled with tension as they moved within its small confines. In the wild, pure jaguars lived solitary lives; the only time they were together was as mother and cub for the first two years of a cub’s life.
The Shadow Shifters were different in that they remained together. Each tribe created its own little community. This was both for protection and preservation. Even as they migrated to the States, most of the shifters lived in close proximity to at least two other shifters of the same tribe. There was safety in numbers to their way of thinking.
Tonight had been one shock after another. Rome knew that each piece was connected, from the bug in his tuxedo to the attack in the alley. They’d broken major Etica rules tonight, but there’d been no other choice. The Rogues were coming at them with nothing but attack on their agenda.
“They weren’t all Topetenia,” Nick said finally.
After arriving at Rome’s house, each of them had showered. Because Rome was the only one with a house and not an apartment or condo, they spent a lot of time here playing in his huge game room, watching sports, or running in the secluded wooded area behind the house. Both Nick and X kept clothes at his place for occasions like tonight.
Nick now wore sweats, tennis shoes, and a black shirt after his shower. He’d stopped pacing long enough to reach down to the coffee table and pick up one of the stress balls shaped like fruit from the large glass bowl to work vigorously in his left palm.
Rome stopped at the row of windows that made up almost the entire left wall of the room. His own loose- fitting jeans and T-shirt scraped against his skin as the cat inside pressed harder for release. He could see out over the vast lawn to the line of trees that were also his property about fifty feet away. The dark, desolate place called to him, beckoned the cat inside to break out once more, to come to the one place it could be free.
“How do you know?” he asked, his throat tight with the words. He’d sensed something different about the trio, but the one who’d been stupid enough to attack him was definitely a jaguar. One of the wilder ones, probably lost from its mother early in the forest and left to fend for itself. He wasn’t built like the rest of them—he seemed to be bulkier, but naturally so. And he was sloppy in his fighting, probably hadn’t been trained as precisely as the others had. No matter, he was still a killer at heart and some things were just instinct. “We were taken by