Wild Cat (31 page)

C
assidy didn’t sleep. Xavier woke up, saw Cassidy next to him in leopard form, raised his head, and opened his mouth to speak.

Cassidy put a heavy paw on his chest and fixed him with a stern look. Whether Xavier understood her signals or simply was smart enough to realize that keeping quiet was best, he lay back down and said nothing.

The night dragged on. The Shifters were restless, going in and out of the building, fading in and out of the darkness. A female bear came in to see Miguel. She glanced over at Cassidy lying quietly with Xavier, and quickly looked away, but Cassidy smelled her fear. The female was worried that Cassidy would displace her.

Don’t worry, honey. I am so out of here.

Diego would have contacted Eric by now. Help would be on the way.

Cassidy held on to that hope as night slid into day. The sun came up and things began to warm.

Miguel came to her as a sunbeam sliced down on her from a crack in the ceiling. “About time I made good on the mate-claim,” he said.

Cassidy didn’t bother shifting back to human. She gave Miguel a disdainful look from her cat’s eyes and lowered her head to lick one paw.

Miguel laughed. “I like them with sass. Tastier when they go down.”

Dangerous games. Forcing the mate-claim was against Shifter rules, but rules didn’t always stop a Shifter in a mating frenzy, and Cassidy knew that in this place, Miguel made his own rules. However, making Miguel focus on the mate-claim would distract him from Xavier. If Miguel fixed on his frustration with Cassidy, Xavier might have a chance to run. Tricky, but it might work.

Cassidy yawned, putting every bit of nonchalance into it she possibly could. A female not very impressed with a male. She started grooming her paw again, and Miguel chuckled.

“Oh, it’s going to be so good with you, sweetheart. So damn good.” Still chuckling, Miguel walked away. Only when he was all the way across the room again did Cassidy let herself shudder.

Never with you, asshole. Not only are you an idiot, but, Goddess, you stink.

* * *

D
iego managed to get the jeep running by dawn. He gave the drug runners their greatest wish when he and Shane loaded them into the jeep, and Diego drove back to the airstrip.

He shackled the bikers under a wooden awning just off the dirt runway and left them to be looked after by Marlo’s friend. Marlo cheerfully got the plane running and he, Shane, and Diego took off, heading north and west.

They located the half-finished factory west of the village, right where the bartender had said it would be. A couple of walls had been built and part of a roof, but the rest of the building looked skeletal or had started to fall apart. No Shifters were in sight, but Diego knew they’d hear the plane.

After a few passes, Diego directed Marlo to take them back to the airstrip.

Shane was gloomy as they disembarked. “There’s no cover at all,” he said. “We can’t sneak up on them, and even if we wait for dark, they’ll smell us and hear us. Plus Shifters can see in the dark way better than you can.”

“We’re not waiting,” Diego said. “The hottest part of the day will be what—at three or four this afternoon?”

“About that,” Marlo said.

“We go in then. During siesta time, when the Shifters are napping.”

“They’ll still have the trackers guarding,” Shane said. “And there’s only two of us against who knows how many?”

“As you said, darkness won’t give us any advantage,” Diego said. “Daylight puts us on even sight footing, and as for the Shifters’ superior sense of smell…” He grinned. “I bet the local market has a great selection of chiles.”

Shane laughed and slapped Diego on the shoulder so hard that Diego nearly went to his knees. “I like the way you think, human.”

“No stealth, just chaos and confusion,” Diego said. “We don’t have an army, but we can make as much trouble as we can without one.”

Shane laughed again, but this time Diego ducked before the hearty swat could land.

Diego left Marlo with instructions of what he wanted the man to do and when, and also to keep trying to get hold of Eric. Diego could do this without an army, but having one would be even better.

C
assidy watched the Shifters quiet as the temperature rose. The guards changed, the ones watching Cassidy and protecting Miguel yawning as they left.

That’s the problem with letting yourself go feral
, Cassidy thought. These Shifters had become nocturnal, snoozing in the light of day, prowling at night. Even Miguel was groggy.

If Cassidy were to make her move, it should be soon. Xavier was alert, but his wounds weren’t good—the cuts looked deep, and his left arm was broken. Cassidy would be carrying him out.

From what she’d been able to ascertain, they were being kept in the heart of the structure, behind the stoutest walls. Daylight showed through the doorways and the high windows, revealing half walls and completely missing walls beyond.

This room was the most heavily guarded, of course. Miguel had shifted and dozed off, a huge brown bear snoring on the floor. Two trackers sat on either side of him—Lupines—eyes open, fully alert. Two Felines guarded the door leading to daylight, two more standing guard at the door leading to the darkness that Cassidy didn’t like.

The smell from that opening bothered her. Too much fear. She had the feeling that the dark room beyond was where Miguel would stash her next.

Marlo’s airplane had flown over earlier, not too low. The Shifters had watched the plane, but because it hadn’t circled or returned, let it go. Cassidy had made herself not look up, remaining inert, uncaring.

She couldn’t help her slight jolt when she heard it again.

Cassidy masked her interest with a yawn, but the guards came alert. One leaned down and spoke into Miguel’s ear.

To Miguel’s credit, he didn’t wake up trying to tear his guard’s head off. He opened his eyes, listened, and shifted back to human, fully awake.

“Your friends?” he asked Cassidy. “You think that the human and the Collared bear are coming to rescue you?”

Cassidy stayed wildcat and didn’t answer.

Miguel got up and started for her. “I think it’s time to make the mate-claim stick.”

Damn.
If he started on her, Cassidy would have to fight him. Fighting him would tax her strength and energy, which meant she might not have enough left for the dash out with Xavier. Plus her Collar would go off.

She drew a breath, trying to stay calm, and tried to draw on the techniques Jace had been teaching her to override her Collar. Cassidy knew she wasn’t anywhere close to mastering it yet—the Morrisseys in Austin had been working on this for years, Cassidy only a few weeks.

Still, she closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and tried to clear her mind.

“Bring her,” Miguel’s voice grated through her thoughts. “And kill the human.”

C
assidy opened her eyes and snarled. No time for meditation. She’d just have to fight through the pain.

She struck at the bear and the wolf that closed in on her. Her paw ripped across the bear’s face before she felt the tingle of her Collar. But she couldn’t stop for that. She had to protect Xavier.

The wolf went for her throat. Cassidy gave up and let herself go. She became a ball of snarling teeth and claws. She struck and bit, swiped and ducked, using her Feline reflexes to out-jump, out-smack, out-leap her opponents.

Idiots. Miguel should have sent a Feline to take down a Feline. Bears and wolves outweighed her and had more brute strength, but Cassidy’s agility kept them from pinning her.

She fought hard until Miguel’s paw caught her on the side of her head. His bear was huge, almost as big as Shane. Cassidy stumbled, stunned, and her Collar bit pain deep into her.

Still she fought him. She couldn’t let Miguel kill Xavier.

Miguel roared. He was finished playing. Cassidy struggled on against him and the wolf, her claws leaving deep gouges. The second bear had retreated, his face a bloody mess.

Miguel clamped his giant maw on the back of Cassidy’s neck, huge teeth breaking through her fur. He started dragging Cassidy toward the dark doorway, from which issued a stench of fear and sweat.

The wolf was joined by a second, both of them circling on huge paws around Xavier. They were going to kill him.

Cassidy struggled, snarled, lashed, bit. Miguel held her fast. Damn him.

She did not want to go through that doorway. Despair and fear reigned there.
Not that door, not that door…

Bright, blinding light. The
whump
of an explosion. More light. Cassidy’s eyes screwed shut, and Miguel grunted and dropped her. Cassidy tried to scramble away, only to be stopped by a paw whacking her down to her side.

More light. A flash of brightness so intense it blinded her even though Cassidy had instinctively shut her eyes.

And then the stench. Not Shifters. Sharp raw smells—ammonia, gasoline, and pepper. So much pepper. Not pepper spray, but an explosion of nose-assaulting chiles, the kind that could burn your skin and make your eyes and nose run for hours.

To throw that over a Shifter…

She heard yowls and snarls, howls. Confusion.

Over it came another explosion of light, and in the middle of the light—as well as her streaming eyes could see—a man.

Not a Shifter. He was an upright man with black hair and eyes like midnight. He held a shotgun in competent hands, and he blasted Shifters left and right. Behind him came a very, very angry grizzly.

The Shifters weren’t dying. They were falling, groaning, weeping, howling. Whatever Diego was hitting them with was making them insane with pain.

Two large paws locked over Cassidy. Miguel. Still up, still fighting.

He dragged Cassidy to the darkened doorway, caught her by the scruff of her neck, and tossed her inside. Cassidy shifted at the last second, the change painful this time, and caught the doorframe with both hands. Miguel shifted at the same time, rising tall to face Diego.

Diego just looked at him, no emotion, no fear, nothing in his face. He’d come to do a job, and he’d finish it. No questions.

“The woman is
mine
,” Miguel shouted at him. “No matter what you do to my Shifters, she’s my
mate
. I claim her.”

“
I reject the claim!
” Cassidy yelled.

Her shout would have been good enough for civilized Shifters, but Miguel only smiled. “The claim is mine unless this puny human here wants to Challenge.”

Diego would have no idea what that meant, but apparently he didn’t care. Diego brought up his shotgun and aimed it at Miguel.

“Consider this a challenge,” he said.

He fired. What hit Miguel was not a bullet, but scattered shot that smelled and burned. Miguel got it full in the face.

While Miguel was howling, Diego charged forward and grabbed Cassidy.

At the same time, the room filled with still more light, blinding and hot. A tall, lean man appeared in the middle of it—Stuart Reid.

Before Cassidy could register shock, Reid bent over Xavier and came up with the man across his shoulders. Another white-hot flash, and both were gone.

“Run,” Diego said into Cassidy’s ear, but his voice was still very calm. “Marlo set explosives. This wreck is coming down.”

“No, wait.”

Cassidy had glimpsed something important on the other side of the darkened doorway when Miguel had tried to throw her through it. She shook off Diego and charged through to stairs that led down into cool earth. The stench came from below.

What she’d seen on the stairs in the one moment she’d had to glance at them had been a child.

The cub had been about five years old, just old enough to shift, and he’d been naked and filthy. As she neared the bottom of the stairs, the smell got worse, and Cassidy found what she’d feared she’d find.

A big room—large enough, thank the Goddess, or Cassidy would have found worse than she did—spread out before her. Frightened eyes turned her way as she charged in.

The females. They were sequestered and naked, surrounded by the children too small to be around the full-grown males. Shifter males would have the instinct to kill the offspring of rival males—as with the problem of Torey in Cassidy’s Shiftertown—but the ferals wouldn’t even try to suppress the instinct. Miguel had obviously gotten around that problem by sequestering all cubs until they were big enough to fight for themselves. Even worse, some of the women down here were human.

Only one person rose to meet Cassidy—the alpha female, Miguel’s mate, who’d looked at Cassidy in such worry.

“Get them out,” Cassidy shouted at her. “Now.”

No one moved.

Damn it, there was no time. Diego’s attack depended on surprise, chaos, swiftness. Miguel would figure out how to regroup, and then they’d lose the advantage.

“This building is going to blow,” Cassidy said. “You have to leave.”

The females still stared at her, every confidence they’d ever possessed having been beaten from them long ago.