“Stupid tiger,” he said, smiling.
With a roar, Dallas unleashed on Jasper, not holding back as his left paw raked across Jasper’s face, wiping away the evil grin.
Thankfully, there seemed to be only one other cougar left, who attacked Dallas from behind just as he was about to tear off the rest of Jasper’s face.
With one powerful slash, the other cougar was knocked out cold.
Leaving just Dallas and Jasper.
Jasper cowered backward, confidence suddenly running dry as blood oozed from the marks across his face. “You’re just a tiger. You’re not supposed to be this strong!”
“I’m a lot of things I wasn’t supposed to be,” he said.
Protective. Kind. Gentle.
In love.
“Call off the operation, and I might let you live.”
Jasper frowned. “I can’t. Madsen is here. He’s running the whole thing.”
Madsen? The leader of the Blackheart Assassins? Here?
Dallas had never even met the elusive cougar before, only heard about him.
Whatever was going on, the operation was even bigger than Dallas could have previously thought.
He needed to get to Mel.
In the split second Dallas hesitated, wondering what all of this meant, Jasper leaped, claws extended, throwing himself entirely into one final attack.
With no other choice but to fight, Dallas raised both paws and caught Jasper midair, talons digging into his former mentor’s shoulders and throwing him onto the ground with a thunderous crash that split the asphalt beneath them.
Jasper hissed, writhing and yowling and scratching at Dallas. Before he could get away and hurt anyone else, though, Dallas’s teeth sank into Jasper’s neck, and after a few moments, the big cougar stopped moving.
Dallas looked around, satisfied to see most of the humans had run and that there were no more cougars left wandering Main Street. Just as Dallas let Jasper’s lifeless body slip from his teeth, Reno appeared around the corner of the street in human form, holding his Stetson as he ran faster than any human possibly could.
“I heard the commotion all the way over at the auto parts store! What the hell’s going on?” Reno said, bright-blue eyes full of readiness to fight.
“No time. Going after Mel.”
Reno appraised the situation quickly and saw Jasper’s unmoving body on the ground, shifted back to his human form. “Got it. I’ll round these guys up and tell Harrison. I’m right behind you, buddy.”
Dallas wanted to thank his friend, but he was already leaping up onto the rooftop of the nearest store, jumping from roof to roof until he reached the end of town, hoping to avoid being seen more than he’d already been. Then, as his paws hit the earth, he bolted for the place he knew they were keeping Mel.
For what reason, he could only guess.
But no matter how many mercenaries tried to stop him, no matter how big this was, no matter if it led to shifters being exposed, his only thought was Mel.
His tiger would rip apart anything caught between him and his mate.
21
The instant Mel had arrived at the outskirts of town, she knew something was up.
Sally had greeted her at the door, and then a handful of tall, scary men and women clad in black had appeared from inside the house, grabbing Mel and throwing her into one of several unmarked black SUVs that had been hidden behind the house. Without telling her anything, they’d driven out into the desert, past where the monster sighting had been, until they’d joined an even larger group of vehicles that were all black, fanned out in a huge semicircle.
Unceremoniously, she’d been dragged into the middle of this… operation and taken directly to the man who seemed to be in charge.
There were dozens, maybe even more than a hundred, of these mercenary-looking people standing at attention, holding weapons that made them look like a private army ready for war out in the middle of nowhere in Texas.
What were they all even here for?
Her thoughts were still on Dallas, though. Worried about what he was doing right now. Worried that, in her hurt at feeling betrayed and lied to by Dallas and his friends, she’d acted impulsively instead of acting with her heart.
After all, she didn’t care that Dallas was a shifter, whatever the implications between her and him were for that. She’d just been so focused on her story, then caught up in the whirlwind romance of being in his arms, just to feel like the rug had been pulled out from beneath her.
If she got out of this alive, she’d tell him she was sorry. Sorry for jumping to conclusions and running away at the first sign of trouble when she should have stayed and figured things out first.
“This is the reporter,” a tall, burly woman with sunglasses said to a nearby associate standing guard as Mel was pushed toward the center of all the hubbub, a black RV that was lined with antennas and other high-tech-looking things.
A tall man with sharp, cruel features who looked to be in his fifties or sixties emerged from the van, wearing a black leather jacket over a black shirt and black pants.
What was with all these people and wearing black?
“Splendid. Our bait has arrived,” the charismatic man said as everyone around him stood at attention in his presence. Whoever he was, he was definitely in charge of all this.
“Should we commence our operation, sir?” asked a man wearing glasses, a digital tablet in his hand.
“Immediately. And get ahold of Jasper. He was supposed to be back by now,” he said with a wave of his hand.
“Right away, sir,” Glasses replied, and several people around him saluted before leaving.
Leaving Mel alone with…
“Pardon my manners. Madsen.” The tall man extended a hand cordially.
Mel felt her insides curl up in fear as his pale-blue irises settled on her, giving her the sense of a predator looking down at prey.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” she asked, not taking his hand.
Nearby, guards were positioned at even intervals.
Madsen chuckled, the sound sending a shiver down to her
