these shifters to meet that end.
Still, they had to be punished. If there was one thing Sabar could not stomach, it was failure. These three should know this by now—they’d been with him long enough. Well, two of them had. The other one had only been with his group a few years, but he’d come highly recommended. Now Sabar wondered if that was a mistake.
“Get up!” he yelled, following the order with a kick to the shifter’s stomach with the tip of his steel-toed boot. “Get your sniveling sissy ass up!”
He was a sissy because he wasn’t a jaguar. In the forest the tribes were separated according to the feline family each cat was born into. That was the way of the Elders and the Assembly. Sabar had long since cursed their doctrine and their ways. So he’d accepted any and all members from any and all tribes. It didn’t matter which tribe they were from, or even if their tribe didn’t live in the Gungi; they were all shifters, all powerful in ways humans could never fathom being. But this one, this sniveling cheetah who’d been brought to him by one of the female shifters one night, could very well have been the weakest link tonight. The one that caused them to lose a key component to Sabar’s success as a ruler.
“Tell me again why she’s not here right now?”
He could hear the other two behind him, smell the relief that he’d backed off them for the time being.
“Sh … she got away,” Chavez, the freckle-faced man, answered. With blood gushing from the wound at his neck where Sabar had first swiped at him, it was a bit hard to see the freckles that marred his face and neck. But Sabar didn’t give a rat’s ass about how he looked when this was over. He wanted answers.
“He came in and took her. We were going to get her but he took her,” Chavez managed without stuttering this time.
“Who took her, Darel? And why didn’t you stop them?”
From behind him Darel struggled to stand, then pushed out his chest, put his shoulders back, and spoke clearly. “Faction Leader Reynolds took her, sir. They disappeared in the crowd and probably left through some secret exit. We decided to go to her house hoping Reynolds would drop her off and we could get her when he left. But he didn’t. When we approached he wasn’t alone. They’d already shifted and were waiting for us. We were fighting them off when the cops arrived.”
Sabar growled, blood dripping from his fingers where his claws tore the skin. “Where are Reynolds and his flunkies now? More important, where’s the female?”
Sharpened teeth pricked at his lips. That’s all he could allow of the change right now. Taking cat form at this moment would only cause the others to shift as well, and that would definitely lead to bloodshed and death. Beasts did not rationalize who they fought and why, they just fought to survive. In this Sabar reluctantly embraced the human half of himself, worked with the intelligence bred into human brains and adjusted accordingly.
“We all left before the cops could get to the alley to see us,” Chi offered. He, too, was now standing at attention as Darel did.
Chavez was just pushing himself up, using the wall for leverage. “They ran first,” he stated, as if that made a difference.
“You should have run after them. Your kind’s supposed to be faster, right?” To his own ears Sabar sounded prejudiced—against his own kind, at that. The thought didn’t sit right in his mind, the human part. But the animal in him prowled close, ready to snap the other cat’s neck at a moment’s notice. He didn’t trust this one, had thought about killing him just days ago. But as an old saying went, it was best to keep your enemies close.
“I don’t care what you have to do, who you have to kill to get it done, but I want her and I want her now!” His words ended with a deafening roar that rattled the windows of the warehouse and shook each man/beast standing near him.
None of them spoke another word, but the trio filed out, walking along the cement floors to the back door they used to keep anyone riding on the highway from seeing them.
Rome ran as if his life depended on it. Through the forest that bordered a dense mountainous region in Virginia he ran and ran until his flanks were damp with sweat. Only then did he stop, realizing he was in a favored spot. Pacing around the two large trees, he padded along the softened foliage-covered ground. Lips drew back over large sharp teeth, and he panted air in and out. Through the slits of his gold-green eyes he saw the dark of the forest, loved the feel of the night air against his furred body. Leaping up he balanced on his hind legs, gripping the tree trunk with the paws of his front ones. With quick ragged strokes the cat scored the tree just as he had in the past.
This was his land—the human had purchased it and held the deed. But animal had marked it, claimed this territory so that any who dared walk on it knew. This tree in particular wore the claw marks of the cat that ran through this forest on a daily basis. Tonight’s run was fueled by so much—anger, anticipation, hunger, lust. All these things ran through the human, pushing at Rome until he wasn’t quite sure what needed to be done first. They clawed at the animal viciously, making him impatient and irritable.
Even in this form he couldn’t outrun his demons. The dark parts of his past continued to haunt him years later. He was thirty-five and he was a successful attorney. He should be thinking of finding a wife, settling down to start a family—that’s what his mother would have wanted him to do. His father, too, for that matter, was a man about family and heritage. Both his parents instilled a great love of their heritage in Rome so that now his loyalty to the shifters and their home in South America was as big a part of his life as his career. And with that came one of Rome’s biggest burdens: finding out who murdered his parents.
The night of their murder was still fresh in his mind even though he’d been so young. He’d stayed in that closet because Baxter told him to and he’d been taught to listen to his elders. But he’d known something was wrong. Deep in his chest he’d felt a rising heat, then he heard the screams, his mother’s screams. He’d stood then put his small palm on the knob of the door, ready to turn it.
“Sit tight, Mr. Roman. Do not move until I come back for you,” Baxter had said.
Rome had already disobeyed because he’d moved from the sitting position. What harm would it do if he left the closet? His mother needed him. But he didn’t leave and with each sob he inhaled the tangy scent of blood. It consumed him until he sat in the closet close to vomiting. Then it was quiet for what seemed like forever, and Baxter did not come. He had to go to the bathroom and his stomach growled from hunger. But he stayed where he was told. And his parents had died at the hands of another shifter.
Opening his mouth the cat growled in pain, for the loss, for the memory, for the time he could not shift and protect those he loved.
But now he could. Rome was as powerful as a cat as he was in the human world. When he found his parents’ killer he would most certainly make him pay.
And now there was another for him to protect. Kalina.
He hadn’t known who she was two years ago, and even now he didn’t know her all that well—or at least his human self didn’t. Yet his cat felt a connection, yearned to break free each time he was with her. Of course he fought it, even wondered why the animal wanted to be free with her. He’d never felt that urge with another woman before. The attraction was strong, so much so that just thinking of her made Rome hard and the cat hunger for more.
When he’d touched her tonight, felt the clench of her inner muscles around his fingers, the man wanted to roar with pleasure. In her eyes he saw a banked fire, hidden for whatever reason. Beneath his touch she melted, her response as eager as if she’d known what to expect. But she wouldn’t have, just as he hadn’t known. Until he touched her. And now he wanted more.
Wanted her with a fierceness he’d never experienced before, which made this yet another issue for him to try and resolve. That was his job as Faction Leader—to resolve the issues of the stateside shifters. As an attorney he resolved the issues of his clients. Now the man had an issue. A woman who both perplexed and aroused him, and who also needed his protection.
Running again Rome remained still while the cat took what it needed, fed from the elements in the only possible way.
Moonlight could now easily be seen; that meant he was nearing the edge of his forest. Rome always made sure to unleash his cat only in the deepest depth of the forest so no human passerby could sneak a peek. Even though this was his own private land and the perimeter was gated, he left nothing to chance.
Just as the last line of trees displayed themselves the cat slowed, falling to its side still breathing quickly, sensitive nostrils flaring and lifting scents from the air. As the heart rate slowed, the beast calmed, opening itself
