Why didn’t you get us out of this? I ask my leopard.
Nothing.
Silence.
Um, yo, wench, where ya at?
The total lack of response has me pacing. I’ve never not had her voice in my head, even when I was too young to realize exactly what was happening!
C’mon, wake up, you flea-bitten cat!
A muffled...snore? What the ever-loving hell is wrong with her? I’m fighting the rising panic because it won’t do me any good and when those attacks hit, I end up looking like a hot mess; hair sweat slickened, nose all runny and snotty. Yeah, since I don’t know what the hell is going on, I need to have my game face on, at least.
Wake up! I scream.
A snuffling chuff is her response, then I hear a loud, jaw-cracking yawn. Good, the wench is awake.
What do you want? she asks.
Do you know what happened? Where we’re at? What’s going on? I fire question after question, not giving her a chance to respond.
Ryde driver snatched us, she replies.
Wait, what? I whisper. The Ryde driver? But why?
Before I fell asleep, he mentioned that they knew you were a shifter and your pelt would make a great addition to their collection. How did he know I was a shifter? We do what we can to stay under the radar when it comes to humans knowing about us to prevent hunters from tracking us down.
Let’s shift and get the fuck out of here, I plead. I don’t like the sound of what my animal is telling me and quite frankly, I like my skin right where it’s at, on my damn body!
I can’t, she says. They put something on you and while I’m here, I can’t shift. Believe me, I tried. I wanted to rip their eyes out and shred them.
Them?
Yeah, our driver met up with someone else and they brought us here. There are others down here too; we’re not the only ones. I can smell otters, other cats, and two bears.
Fuck. Me.
Are you serious? This is just bullshit! How can they get away with snatching people off the street?
Well, technically, we were in his vehicle, so he didn’t exactly ‘snatch’ us.
Now’s not the time to be a snarky wench, I state.
Just pointing out the obvious is all, she replies.
So basically, we’re stuck here. This just sucks.
Until they force you to shift and skin me, she says.
Not fucking happening! I kind of like our unique coloring. My animal is an albino leopard; our spots are there, just very subtle. Call me vain, but that and my mismatched blue and green eyes sets me significantly apart from others.
So it’s about our fur, not me?
Shut it, wench, and let me think. There’s got to be a way out of here.
I see her going to the back of my mind and plopping down; a heavy chuffing sound escapes as she pouts. Great, now I have to figure out how to get us out of this mess.
Knox
I sigh as I look at the files on my desk. Countless women have been abducted from the local bars and watering holes in our city, and there’s no rhyme or reason to be found. All are young, pretty, seemingly intelligent, yet all disappeared after a night out with friends. Hell, Gray’s mate was stalked for her pelt, but this is something bigger. Darker. We wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for Snow’s sister being kidnapped. We used our expertise as bounty hunters to track the fucker down and take him out so she could be rescued. I smile when I think of my men; several have found their mates and while I’m genuinely happy for them, there’s a feeling of loneliness that pervades my soul. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t found mine.
“What’s got you looking like you’re constipated?” Gray asks, walking into my office.
I glare at my VP and wave my hand over the files. “This. How in the fuck are these women being taken without anyone raising an alarm except the families? There’s something we’re missing, only I don’t know what that piece could possibly be.” He sits and starts sifting through the files, not saying anything. I see the frown on his forehead and grin. Looks like I’m not the only one who is ‘constipated’ right now.
“Jesus H. Christ! All of these?” he finally asks, looking at me.
“Yeah, every single one. What are we missing, brother?”
“Don’t know. Think we need to bring this to the table though.” I nod and scoop up the files.
“Send out a text. Church in thirty,” I advise. If I can find something of one of the victims, maybe I can shift into them and find out what the fuck is going on, but I’ll need my brothers at my back.
He leaves and I slump back against the leather of my chair as I run everything in my head again. Fifteen women so far. Fifteen.
Must find. Why my leopard wants to talk now is beyond me, but I don’t have the time.
Why? I question.
Mate.
Well fuck me sideways.
399
Knox
Walking into the room we use for church, I see that I’m the last one in, so I close the door and stride to my seat at the head of the table. When the Dark Leopards MC started, we were based in Texas, but with the businesses that we’re involved in, we found that having a northern state that was near the border would be helpful for us to set up transportation routes. So a bunch of us relocated to the frozen tundra that is otherwise known as Michigan.
“Jesus, it’s cold out,” Manic states. He’s new to our chapter and hasn’t totally acclimated. He’s an otter shifter, so he’ll never hold an officer’s position, but he’s been invaluable at finding routes
