Mating Instinct: A Moon Shifter Novel (15 page)

But these monsters had found his weakness. Every mated shifter had one, whether they were alpha, beta, or Alpha leader. One simple word explained Fletcher’s weakness.

Mate.

But there was nothing simple about his need to protect, to defend his sweet, pregnant mate. It didn’t matter that he was one of the weakest of the pack, physically speaking. In his wolf form he was still stronger than most humans. And most humans couldn’t defend themselves against him when he was in his animal form. Right now he had rage burning through him, a need to kill for his mate and their unborn young.

Shifters would give up anything for their mates, even defy their Alpha. As he’d had to do. His leader didn’t know he was currently in Connor Armstrong’s territory, being forced to carry out deeds that made him ill every second of every day.

And he hated it. As a beta his actions went against everything inside him. But he had no choice. These APL monsters held his mate captive somewhere and he had no way of tracking her. Didn’t even know where to start. If he escaped—which wouldn’t be hard—they would kill her instantly and he would never even find her body. Of that he had no doubt.

The blond-haired man next to him—the one wearing a badge and gun against his hip—was restless today. More than that, his captor seemed almost edgy as he slid another cigarette out of his half-empty pack.

The man’s wariness was rubbing off on Fletcher. “What are we doing here?” His captor had told him nothing. He’d just dragged him from his prison in the middle of the day and told him he had work to do. Like this was some fucking job.

Now they sat in his captor’s personal car on the side of a dirt road that led to five ramshackle trailers. The man had pulled into some weeds at least six feet tall, giving them decent enough cover from whatever it was they were hiding from.

“Waiting.” Typical clipped answer.

“For what?” He should probably keep his mouth shut, but it was the middle of the day and he was more than a little curious. Something big had to be going on, though he couldn’t imagine what in this nearly deserted place. The trailers all looked like throwaways. Not to mention the abandoned cars, washing machines, and other crap littering the giant field next to them.

No answer from his captor. He just took a drag on his cigarette and blew out the smoke, filling the interior of the vehicle.

Gritting his teeth, Fletcher rolled down his window. He didn’t like to show this guy any sort of weakness, but the smoke was disgusting.

“What are you doing?” the man snapped.

“Breathing.”

The man’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t make a move to roll the window back up.

After a few more minutes had crept by, Fletcher was starting to get antsy. He swiveled when he heard a vehicle behind them. He turned and saw nothing, but he could hear it in the distance. Dust rose in the air, leaving a trail as the vehicle drew closer.

The man next to him tensed, causing Fletcher to do the same. Just who were they waiting for?

Another minute later a rusted blue truck drove by, though the driver didn’t even glance in their direction on the west side of the road. The driver moved slowly enough that Fletcher got a decent look at him. Flannel shirt, dirty ball cap, and dirty blond hair that reached his shoulders.

“You’re going to kill him,” the man next to Fletcher said quietly, the edginess rolling off him in pungent waves.

The way his captor was acting today was different than he had acted with the last kill. The last one he’d been calm, sure of himself, and Fletcher knew he’d gotten orders from someone else to do it.

“Why?” He would do it, a fact they both knew, but Fletcher wanted to know why.

“We’ll kill your mate if you don’t,” he said absently as he put his vehicle in gear and pulled back onto the road.

Grinding his teeth at the reminder, Fletcher kept his gaze straight ahead as they steered down the trail where the truck had gone. The dust had settled as his captor pulled up next to the rusted truck. When the man made a move to get out, Fletcher couldn’t hide his surprise. The last time he’d gone into his victim’s house alone, but he didn’t bother with questioning the guy now. Instead he followed suit and slid from the vehicle.

His captor spoke in low tones as they headed for the front door. “This man’s a pedophile. Fucker’s out on parole and he’s just going to keep hurting kids until someone stops him.”

Fletcher let out a growl before he realized it, earning himself a sharp look from the man next to him, as if he was surprised by his reaction. Yes, he hated what he was being forced to do, but he also hated anyone who could hurt a child. His inner beast clawed at the surface as thoughts of protecting his mate and unborn young assaulted him.

When they reached the door, Fletcher was surprised when his captor slammed his booted heel against the door, smashing it open. He withdrew his gun but didn’t make a move to go inside.

There was a shout of alarm from somewhere in the trailer.

“Do it,” the other man ordered, his voice a mixture of anger and possibly relief.

Relief that this guy was going to die? Probably. Fletcher didn’t have the luxury of questioning the other man’s emotions or reasoning behind anything. His inner wolf took over in seconds, the rage flowing through him as he shifted.

When he bounded inside on all fours, his shredded clothes trailing behind him, he was bombarded with a variety of scents, but the pungent stench of fear rose above the mold and days-old food.

The man he’d seen driving the truck earlier stood next to a blue couch with a pink-flowered pattern. He hovered, as if he’d just jumped up and wasn’t sure what to do.

Running would be the most obvious move. Too bad the guy wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun Fletcher. With a loud growl, he shoved all human thoughts aside and gave in completely to his beast as he lunged for the human’s throat.

Chapter 9

“Y
ou don’t have to come with me into town—not that I don’t appreciate the company,” Kat said to Erin as they pulled down the long dirt driveway leaving the ranch, heading for the highway. After their five-mile run they’d showered, and Kat had had to borrow clothes from the petite woman. Knee-high boots covered the fact that the jeans she had on were just a little too short, but they were like a second skin.

“I want to see December too, especially after what happened last night. Plus I don’t trust anyone to drive my car.” The redhead shot her a sharp glance.

Kat resisted the urge to smile. The latter was probably the real reason she was going to town. Well, that and Jayce had likely said something to Erin about shadowing her. But Kat didn’t push it because she didn’t care. She liked Erin enough that it wasn’t annoying. “When did you get this baby?” she asked, referring to the new cherry red Challenger they were riding in.

“Couple weeks ago.” She smoothed a hand over the dash, and for the first time since Kat had met her, a true sense of happiness rolled off the other woman.

“It’s nice.”

Erin snorted. “Nice? It’s fucking awesome.”

Kat allowed herself to relax against the seat. “Okay, it’s awesome.”

“So why aren’t you and Jayce together anymore?”

The unexpected question caught her completely off guard. “Uh . . . I don’t know. Why aren’t you and Noah together?” Kat had seen the way the wolf with the jet-black hair looked at Erin. And vice versa.

“It’s complicated.” From Erin’s tone it was obvious she wasn’t going to divulge any more.

“Same here.” That was an understatement. Even if it wasn’t, she didn’t know the redhead well enough to open up to her anyway. Hell, December was her best friend and it had taken Kat a while to tell her everything.

“Okay, fair enough. That was a bad choice of topic. I was just curious what kind of woman made the only
enforcer
in North America so crazy.”

She made him crazy? Good. “From what I hear, there’s going to be two soon.”

“I guess.” Erin shrugged and Kat didn’t have to be a shifter to sense the other woman’s insecurity. It was a sharp, pungent sting to her nostrils.

Kat shot her a surprised look. “I’ve seen your moves and I know you guys were holding back on me today. You’re really fast and accurate from what I can tell.”

Another shrug, this one a little jerkier. “I still have a lot to learn, but Jayce is a good instructor. Something new every day.”

Kat nodded but didn’t respond. Nothing about his methods were particularly structured. Which made sense to her. Fighting for your life wasn’t structured and by forcing her to simply defend herself today he’d made sure she had to dig deep and use her instincts. Of course he’d stopped her a few times and shown her different techniques, which had helped a lot. But she’d still relied on her inner wolf today to guide her.

“We’ve never slept together, in case you were wondering.” Erin’s frank statement jerked Kat out of her thoughts.

“Who?”

“Me and Jayce. He’s just training me.”

“Okay.” She hadn’t thought they had, but there’d been a small part of her that had wondered. Seeing the easy camaraderie between the two had dug talons into her chest on occasion. Sharp, painful jabs that she could now dismiss.

At lunch Kat was almost embarrassed by how much she’d ordered until Erin ordered the same amount. December had been waiting for them at the restaurant and her meal was on the light side—because of her ever-present morning sickness.

“Think we should order something to go for Nikan?” Erin asked as the server brought them their meals.

Kat glanced out the window of the small diner. It was only a few blocks from December’s bookstore, but that didn’t matter. Nikan, a tall shifter with obvious Native American roots, was December’s shadow for the day. He was in his truck across the street. Thanks to the tinted windows she couldn’t see him clearly but his outline was visible enough. Kat had talked to him only a couple of times but he seemed nice. Quiet but kind. And there was a dangerous gleam in those eyes that didn’t surprise her. Each of the male warriors in the pack had a deadly edge that said he was no stranger to violence.

“Good idea,” December said. “I made Nikan a batch of cookies he was supposed to share with the guys tonight, but they’re almost all gone except for
two
.”

Kat couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “If you want to be really mean you should tell him they were meant for Esperanze and her sisters.” Kat might spend practically zero time at the ranch except to train, but even she’d seen the way the tall, intimidating shifter looked at the sweet beta female he’d recently mated with. The man was head over heels for her.

Erin laughed, the sound sharp and loud and completely unexpected. “You
have
to do it while I’m around. I want to see his face. Big, bad alpha is so smitten, and he does anything she or her sisters ask.”

December shook her head, her bright red hair swishing softly around her face as she chuckled. “You two are mean. . . . I swear I don’t know where either of you put the amount of food you eat. You all have such high metabolisms it’s disgusting.”

Kat had always had a high metabolism, but since being turned she’d found she ate more and burned it off much easier. One very good thing about her transformation. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘you all’ when you’re a shifter now too.”

December rolled her eyes and carefully stabbed a forkful of her Greek salad—one of the few things she could keep down without getting sick. “You know what I mean.”

The rest of the meal passed by too quickly, but once they were done they walked December back to her store and waited until Nikan had parked and joined her inside.

As they started to get into Erin’s car, Kat motioned toward a young girl, maybe sixteen years old, who was loitering in front of the empty store next to December’s place. She wore black thigh-high combat-style boots with purple laces and a short black-and-purple-checkered skirt—too short for her age as far as Kat was concerned. Only a small area of leg was visible between the bottom of her skirt and the top of her boots but she also had on black tights. At least she wasn’t showing a bunch of skin. The rest of her ensemble was black too. Long-sleeved top with a tank top layered over it, fingerless gloves with purple stitching. Her hair was black, with slashes of purple. That hair was thick, long, and straight, thanks to her Asian ancestry. She looked like a typical teenager, full of angst and anger at the world. Her eyes were a striking gray that stood out against her pale skin, but that wasn’t what drew Kat’s attention. It was the wolf underneath her skin that did.

Kat’s seer abilities had always allowed her to see the true nature of paranormal beings. And this girl was a lupine shifter. Her wolf was right at the surface, clawing and angry. The closeness of the girl’s inner animal reminded Kat of Jayce’s and Erin’s wolves. It was different from those of the other lupine shifters Kat saw on a daily basis. This girl’s animal was more prominent. Kat didn’t know if it was because she was young and hadn’t learned to control it yet or if there was another reason.

Without saying anything to Erin, Kat shut the car door and headed back toward the sidewalk. She knew without looking that Erin would follow.

The young girl straightened and crossed her arms over her chest in a clearly defensive gesture when she saw them. Even if she hadn’t been a seer Kat would have been able to scent that the girl was a shifter. She smelled of earth and animal. It was very distinctive.

“Hi,” Kat said. “What are you doing in Fontana? Are you with one of your pack members?” As far as Kat understood, shifters didn’t just traipse into another Alpha’s territory without calling and asking permission first. Pack rules.

She shook her head. For a moment Kat saw through the clothing the girl obviously wore as armor and found a scared young girl. Just as quickly, the fear bled from her eyes and she put her hands on her hips. “I want to be taken to see Jayce and I know he’s at the Armstrong-Cordona ranch.”

Kat’s eyebrows shot up.

“Why do you want to see Jayce?” Erin demanded.

She paused before answering and Kat guessed it was because she was gathering her courage. “Because I’m going to be an enforcer like him.”

Kat’s eyebrows rose higher. She looked at Erin, curious as to her reaction. The redhead was contemplative. Finally her gray eyes—similar to the young girl’s—narrowed. “What’s your name?”

“Leila Jeung.”

“Where are your parents?” Kat asked.

“Dead.” There was a wealth of sadness and anger in that one word.

Kat had the urge to hug the girl. Instead she took a tentative step closer. There were a lot of questions she wanted to ask her, but mainly she just wanted to get her off the sidewalk and back to the safety of the ranch. “How did you get here?”

Her eyes shifted behind Kat and Erin to an older-model sedan. It looked like the kind of car a mom would drive. Kat turned back to face the girl. “How long”—she tried to think of a way to phrase her question without stating anything about Leila’s deceased parents—“have you been on your own?”

A shrug and Leila wrapped her arms tighter around herself. “Couple months . . . well, a little longer.”

Something heavy settled on Kat’s chest. The thought of any young girl by herself in this world made Kat angry. “Why didn’t your pack take care of you?”

“We were packless.”

Packless?
Kat looked at Erin, who just gave a quick shake of her head. Kat took that to mean she would explain later. Instead of asking all the questions she had, she held out a hand. “Give me your car keys. I’m driving you back to the ranch. We’ll follow Erin.”

For a moment it looked as if the young girl might argue, but instead she dug into the black satchel she had slung across her chest and slapped the keys in Kat’s hand as she strode past her to the car. “You can drive but I’m not listening to old people music.”

Old people? Kat shook her head as she slid into the front seat. Before she got in, Erin cursed under her breath.

Kat followed her line of sight to see two teenagers sauntering down the sidewalk. They were about a block away, but the sidewalk wasn’t crowded and their cocky demeanor was obvious even from where she stood.

“What is it?” Kat asked.

“I think those are the two shitheads who tried to throw a rock through December’s store window.”

“How can you tell?” December had told Kat what happened, but she hadn’t thought they’d been close enough to see who’d done it.

“Gut instinct . . . Plus I can scent them.” Without waiting for a response, Erin took off at a brisk pace in their direction.

The two boys, probably the same age as Leila, froze for a moment as they stared at Erin. They looked at each other, then ducked into the nearest store. A high-end art gallery. Erin didn’t even break stride. She continued walking and then stormed through the front door of the place.

“What’s she going to do?” Leila asked quietly.

“I have no idea.” That scared Kat a little. Erin was very contained and seemed to be in control of herself, but she’d been pretty pissed about what happened. This was a public place, and even if the guys were punks, they were still teenagers.

Less than a minute later the two boys practically ran from the store, with Erin a second behind them. As they sprinted in the other direction, she didn’t even glance over her shoulder at them; she just headed toward Kat and Leila.

Erin nodded at Kat and palmed her car keys. “See you at the ranch.”

Kat guessed she wasn’t going to find out what had happened anytime soon. She wanted to push the subject, but Erin was already getting in her own car, so Kat slid into the driver’s seat of Leila’s car. The new hostile tone from many of the locals had happened practically overnight.

It stunned Kat a little. Today at lunch she’d tried to ignore some of the heavy stares she’d felt at her back—and some outright angry ones. She’d thought about saying something, but December had seemed almost relaxed and Kat hadn’t wanted to upset her.

After she’d been questioned by the police she’d known that there would be some people who figured the cops weren’t doing their job or were trying to cover up shifter wrongdoing or something else equally ludicrous. Still, she hadn’t been prepared for downright hostility.

* * *

After an hour of driving, Jayce and Connor had finally reached their destination. They were sitting in front of a run-down two-story building with peeling, indecipherable red lettering on the outside wall. It wasn’t completely dilapidated, but there were some random spray paint tags and some of the windows had been knocked out. It was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by overgrown grass and trees behind it. About a mile before they’d reached the place, they’d passed a couple of middle-class suburban neighborhoods, so it wasn’t that far from civilization.

They hadn’t quite reached the town that was the midpoint between Fontana and Winston-Salem, where they suspected someone was running vampire blood. This had probably been a factory of some type at one point that provided work for the neighboring town.

“I hear heartbeats,” Connor said quietly.

“Me too.” At least six. Before he could decide what their first move would be, a man wearing a down jacket, jeans, and boots walked out.

The man’s dark hair spiked with frosted blond tips and his swagger was cocky enough that it annoyed Jayce. Without hesitation, the man headed straight for Connor’s truck. Connor rolled down the window, and even though he looked relaxed, Jayce knew he was ready to strike if necessary.

“Who the hell are you?” the guy asked.

“We’re here to see Donny.” Jayce gave the name his friend Niko had given him.

The man—who looked more like a boy of eighteen or nineteen the closer Jayce inspected—stared at them for a long moment. “You two cops?”

“Do we look like fucking cops?” Jayce kept his voice bored but put some bite behind it.

He pointed at Jayce. “You can come in, but your friend stays.”

Jayce glanced at Connor and it looked like the Alpha was holding back a smile. As if keeping him outside would make him any less of a threat. Connor nodded once and Jayce got out.