Shifters on Fire: A BBW Shifter Romance Boxed Set (48 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Winifred

The moment he left I started to pace. My bare feet padded against the plush rug covering the cold hardwood floor. Something was wrong. This was wrong. My skin itched with the need to keep moving. My muscles tensed and wouldn’t loosen no matter how much I moved. Deep in the back of my head, something told me to run. To hide. I slipped out of the bedroom. As hours passed, the feeling increased. I tried to put it off on nerves because I had just learned I was a latent shifter. I had an animal inside me and no idea what kind it even was. What if I wasn’t an animal that Quentin could be proud of? But if he cared for me at all, would it matter? Of course it would matter. Quentin grew up in a world where the one thing that mattered was status.

Quentin didn’t show me around before he left. I had kept him here longer than he intended as it was, I still didn’t regret it. It had been a good long while since I had been with someone, and even longer since I had been someone that made me feel as good as he did. He lusted after me while my ex had criticized me.

The living room had been decorated to look good. The brown leather couch had nothing on the suede couch I had at home. I missed my couch. The leather one here was stiff and felt unused. It creaked every time I moved. I wiggled in trying to get more comfortable but an anxious feeling crept up my spine, refusing to go away. I couldn’t focus on anything.

I rolled my shoulder but the tension didn’t ease. I stood up again and paced. It had been less than an hour since he left and I yearned to hear from him. I searched the living room then the kitchen and the bedroom, but I couldn’t find a phone anywhere. There were no laptops or tablets lying around. The TV connected to a DVD player next to a stack of more movies than I had ever seen in one place, including the movie selection at the local supermarket. I guess he liked movies. All kinds of them.

I picked a TV series and hoped I could binge watch myself into a stupor. Two episodes in, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I straightened in my seat, only to force my back down to a slouch. My spine curved, but my shoulders didn’t droop. My ears perked up, I listened, tilting my head.

There had been movement outside. I didn’t know I could hear that well. My heart pounded, and I thought about turning my head to look but decided against it, fearful of what I would see. My vision changed for a second, becoming sharper. Everything felt like it had gone into high-definition then returned back to normal.

The sound came again, like the crunch of shoes on dead leaves. While I knew it should have been impossible for me to hear it from outside at the back of the house, I know I did. Quentin had locked the door when he walked out. I was safe in here.

At least that’s what I told myself.

Another new noise came, but this time it had come from the front of the cabin. Hot adrenaline-ruled fear had my eyes flicking around the room looking for a hiding place. There were no hiding places in here. From the door came a scraping of metal on metal. I swallowed. My eyes went high-def again.

The doorknob started to rotate.

I raced into the bedroom and shut the door behind me, locking it with a click. Whoever had been trying to get the door open thundered across the wooden floors. I padded as softly as I could to the other side of the room to find a large bay window that had been covered by curtains. I hoped I could sneak out while they searched the house.

I made it halfway there when the floor under me creaked.

The creak silenced everything.

They spoke in hushed tones, coming closer to the bedroom door. My heart lodged in my throat and I stopped trying to be quiet. I made my way to the window, threw the curtains aside, and flipped the latches. Unlocking the window was simple enough, but the wood must have swollen over time and wouldn’t budge. I kept pulling, silently encouraging it to open. The wood slipped a little. The noise outside the door stopped.

“The window, go!” One pair of footsteps took off.

“Shit!” I continued my assault on the window, even adding a few slaps against the glass, hoping I could break it. They would have me cornered. Again my extra-sharp hearing caught movement coming from around the side of the house. Maybe I could trick them.

I got the window open enough to squeeze through. Stepping back I found my shoes by the bed and leaned out the window, using them to make a print facing away from the house. As quietly as I could, I pulled them back through the window, leaving it open and the curtains billowing. I slipped underneath the bed, thankful Quentin’s expensive tastes included a bed skirt. I gripped my shoes and hoped the kidnappers would fall for the trick. Once they ran into the woods, I would head in the opposite direction. I didn’t know if I would get away, but at least this way I had a chance.

The man who had run outside called out to his partner. His voice sounded so, so familiar.

“Where is the little bitch, Mac?”

I held in my gasp, placing my hand over my mouth.
No, no way.

“Dunno, Sammie. Her scent ain’t here.”

I held in my sob. It hadn’t worked. I didn’t know enough about shifters, but I should have remembered that Sammie said I smelled rare. Before, it hadn’t been on my radar how he might have known about me. But now that I had moments of ultra-sensitive hearing and seeing, I knew. Shifters had better senses. Which meant…

I lifted my gaze from the floor and tightened my hand over my mouth, holding in my scream.

“Hello, pussycat.” I met those dead brown eyes. The ones that haunted my nightmares. A hand wrapped around my ankle and dragged me backward. I clawed at the floor, trying to get some leverage. It was too late. The moment I was out from underneath the bed, Sammie sat on me.

I peeled back my lips and let out a sound I had never made before. It sounded like a hoarse, growling dog bark. Sammie didn’t even flinch.

“Glad that pussy is finally coming out to play. Too bad we won’t be able to play for long.”

Snarling at him, I didn’t notice until it was too late he had been distracting me on purpose. A sharp sting in my neck and hot liquid pressed in. Blinking hard to hold on to the consciousness that was being stolen from me, I felt the weight of Sammie lifting off me. I tried to roll to my stomach and crawl out of the room, but I couldn’t feel my muscles.

“Nighty-night, pussy.”

The world went black.

My head lolled forward. My neck strained awkwardly as it bobbed this way and that. I was sandwiched between two solid figures who stopped me from moving too harshly. I recognized the rolling of a vehicle. Squeezing my eyes open left my head swimming but I couldn’t see a thing. Nausea pooled in the bottom of my jaw, leaving it feeling hollow and disgusting. I shook my head trying to shake out the feeling, allowing my tears to flow free. Then I opened my eyes again only to see darkness.

“Awake, pussy. Good, we’re runnings late and you’s the main attraction.” Sammie’s broken cackle sent shivers down my spine.

“Wh…” my tongue felt heavy and swollen. I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. My head fell forward, the effects of the drugs still heavy in my blood.

The rest of the ride was quiet besides the sound of the car and the other vehicles on the road. I became aware of a tight string around my neck keeping the bag over my head in place. The stale air I breathed made the nausea worse. The skin around my wrists felt pinched and my fingers numb with lack of blood flow. I twisted my bound hands back and forth behind my back.

The car halted and I lifted my head, trying to get a general sense of anything. All I knew was that I lay on a bench seat. Wind gusted in before a door slammed and cut it off again. The sound of an unlocking door, followed by the handle being lifted, and someone gripped my arm, dragging me out. I fell to my side. Rough and cruel hands dragged me out of the car. My toes caught on the doorframe, and I tumbled to the ground. My arm scraped against the gravel beneath me.

I winced but bit my lip before an
ouch
flew past them. I refused to give them the satisfaction of my pain. I swung wildly just trying to hit something, anything. A cruel laugh sounded before I was pulled from the ground to an upright position. My head swam again at the sudden movement.

Someone marched me forward to whatever they had planned for me.

I didn’t know how long we walked or where we were. I knew when we made it inside a building because the wind stopped. I couldn’t smell anything, and my ultra-sensitive hearing had turned off. The result of whatever they injected me with?

The men who held me captive walked me to whatever fate they saw fit. Swallowing the hard lump in my throat, I thought of Quentin. His gorgeous eyes, sleek black hair, and powerful jaw. He would come for me. I thought of his powerful animal, the muscles rolling under beautiful fur. They wouldn’t let me go.

Sometime later, it didn’t seem too long, but I had been lost in thought so I couldn’t be sure, I was forced into a sitting position. My stomach plummeted as I waited. My backside landed a little too hard in the wooden chair.

A hand gripped the top of the bag, along with some of my hair, and ripped it from my head. I held back a growl-like noise. Hot moisture filled my eyes at the sharp pain. I had to blink a couple times in the bright light before I could see.

A woman sat in front of me. Her tawny hair disheveled, her eyes matching it with a gray quality in the light. The circles under her eyes had me sitting back and debating if the gaunt woman was me. What sort of drugs did they use on me? I looked terrible. And I felt terrible. The hot drug still swam inside me. I could feel its harsh sting.

“Special little concoction, that one. Stops the shift. Reals dangerous to stop a shift, but orders are orders.” Sammie gave me a sharp wink and left the small room. I thought I had been left alone until a small woman came forward with a brush clutched between her hands. Meeting her blank gaze in the mirror, I tried to plea with her.

“Please, I know some very strong people. They can help us.”

“No. I do what my master says.” She spoke barely above a whisper then yanked on my head. My wrists were handcuffed together in front of me, so there was nothing I could do to stop her. My body swayed in her direction with each sharp tug. My already-pounding head started to scream when she finished. Next she moved to the front, applying makeup. I never put makeup on. I found it a waste of time.

After she finished, my skin glowed. It terrified me that she made me look so much better than I felt. I knew what those men wanted. Cold fear wrapped its way around my heart. I needed to find a way out of here. I couldn’t hope Quentin would find me before something terrible happened. I couldn’t.

What felt like a couple minutes later, but could have been hours or seconds, I was so lost in trying to think of escape plans, two burly men came into the room. One unlocked my cuffs while the other stood close by.

The woman came forward. “Take your shirt off.”

I did not move.

“Take it off or we rip it off,” the one with the key said. He had a small nose, and his black eyes looked like voids. I tentatively pulled off my shirt. Small nose didn’t react. The other, though, his expression filled with a dark hunger.

“Pants.”

I complied because I worried Lusty Eyes would take too much pleasure tearing my clothes from me. The woman nodded and disappeared for a minute only to reappear.

“Dress in this.” She handed me a sheer sheath. “And take off your underthings.”

I could keep them on but, they were coming off or they would shred them off of me.

I changed, hating their stares. My skin crawled and a very distant part of me yowled. My body wasn’t meant for anyone but my mate.

Quentin.

The woman left me with the two men who escorted me out of the room. Small Nose led while Lusty Eyes followed, and I could feel his stare on my ass as it rolled with my movements. I felt sick for a whole new reason.

Small Nose opened a door as an announcer spoke.

“Now we have a real treat. A rarity! Ladies and gentlemen…a female lynx!”

Small Nose stepped aside, while Lusty pushed me forward into the middle of a half circle of men. The building was an old factory, emptied out and deserted. The small group was well dressed with expensive taste. A few eyebrows rose as they checked me out. I didn’t know why. My heart raced when my eyes made contact with one person though.

“Bidding starts at ten thousand dollars.”

“I will buy her outright.”

“That price is a million, sir.”

“Done.”

My heart dropped to my toes.

Anyone but him. I searched the room, but no beautiful glacier eyes met mine. I was alone in my own personal hell.

“Sold to Terrance McCullen for one million. Take your prize, sir, and pay at the door.”

“No,” I whispered.

His lips pulled back against shiny white teeth. “I told you you were mine, bitch.”

Chapter Fourteen

Quentin

Acquiring the invite had been more trouble than we expected. While I had wanted to get it from Winifred’s ex, we couldn’t find the dog. He had arrived in town the night before the auction and disappeared from the airport. I would just have to kill him at the auction. Instead, we had to find another bidder. That had been the difficult part. Getting the invite from them had been a piece of cake. The whimpering sod had practically shoved it at us.

Lucas had sent Mazy to stay with Eden and Dominic. I would have had him take care of Winifred as well, but Dominic’s attentions would have been split, plus they wouldn’t ever be able to find Winifred at my cabin. The night before the auction and the hours leading up to it, my tiger was restless. Nothing calmed the beast which was unlike him. My cat was relaxed, easy to deal with. Now he fought me at every step, demanding I hear him. I heard him yowling, growling, chirping, everything, and it gave me a headache.

Dressing in my old combats, I geared up and went to meet Lucas at our rendezvous point. The location had been sent to us by the phone we had stolen with the invite. Lucas drove. I was grateful, too, because my muscles wouldn’t stop rolling. My damn tiger wouldn’t stop trying to force the shift. I didn’t understand his apprehension, and I would follow his instincts but I had my own agenda. I was going to this auction, breaking it up, killing the men responsible and, for fun, killing the man who dare lay his hands on Winifred.

We pulled up to an old abandoned factory. A few other cars were already parked outside the building. Two rhino shifters blocked the doorway. One held out his hand for the invite which Lucas handed over. The rhino looked at his friend sideways before nodding us through. I didn’t relish the idea of taking those two beasts on. Rhinos had some thick hide, but if they got in the way, I would do what needed to be done.

My tiger slammed against the mental wall I had up to keep him from taking control. Missing a step, I made sure the rest of the steps were calculated. Lucas watched me. His gaze went to my arm where the muscles rolled in an unnatural way.

“What the hell is goin’ on?”

“I don’t know.” My teeth clenched as I tried to hold back the shift of my canines.

Then it hit me.

Rose. The fresh scent after rain.

Winifred
.

I roared and my tiger burst from my skin.

Blood dripped from my muzzle. I still shook in a blind rage. Lucas had finished torturing one who had Winifred’s scent all over him. He had given us the information we wanted.

Winifred had been brought here the night before. One of the benefactors, Terrance, had paid them off to bump up her sale. He wanted less competition, and promised the sellers exactly what they wanted. This second night was going to be sloppy leftovers. The bidders had fled the moment my beast burst from my skin. The workers had attacked. Lucas and I dispatched them. They had been unorganized street fighters. Terrance had put the whole thing together. We had tortured the information from one of his goons. Terrance had to keep his name
clean because of his family and acted as a participant under an alias.

The bastard was going to die. Slowly.

Lucas had tortured Terrance’s location from the last living worker. Lucas gave me the okay and I lunged forward. He was the last to die, and the freshest blood that wetted my muzzle.

Managing to get control of my tiger I shifted back. I had spare clothes in the car and cleaned off with one of the water bottles from Lucas’s stockpile. I had brought an extra set of clothing knowing there was a good chance I would be shifting. Lucas had extra sweatpants and plain shirts that came in a pack in the back as well. He had a twenty-four bottle case of water and a box of nonperishable foods. I eyed the food.

The shift had drained me and I needed the food, but it also looked unappetizing. I didn’t have any other choice. I grabbed a box of crackers and took it to the front seat with me. Lucas didn’t speak much once we got out to the car. He got behind the wheel and started to the location we’d received from the worker. I debated calling Dominic in for assistance, but he would come in guns blazing and potentially kill, my kill. No one was taking down the mutt but me.

The drive to Terrance’s hideout took too long. My teeth grew uncomfortably tight; my gums started to ache. Lucas drove as fast as he could, but my skin stretched thin and fur sprouted and retreated as I tried to control the shift. My nails curled and sharpened.

I arched my back, the muscles and bones changing and shifting back. My animal wouldn’t hold on much longer, and it became painful holding him back. I didn’t think I wanted to try to stop him anymore.

“Hold on, we’re almost there,” Lucas whispered. He might have been speaking to me or his car, I had no idea. Either way, it fell on deaf ears. My nose twitched as whiskers grew from my cheekbones. I gripped the door handle, ready to throw it and run as soon as the car stopped.

We traveled on a residential street, and it irritated me he would pick such a human residence. It would make our work harder. There were laws all shifters lived by. Like don’t expose ourselves. Terrance might have done this so none of his enemies would attack, but he didn’t know me. He didn’t realize how far I would go for my mate.

Lucas made a right turn into a small, partly developed subdivision. We were getting close. I could almost feel her now. My tiger wanted out more than anything, but I tried to remain in control until we knew what we would be walking into.

The other houses were in different stages of construction. Some had walls up, doors installed, and windows. Others were vacant lots. The only finished house was our destination. The McCullen Pack operated a construction company, and it wouldn’t have surprised me in the least if this was the model house he had borrowed from another pack. I’d read up on McCullen before the auction.

Terrance was a younger son of the great pack leader. He lived apart from the rest of the pack on the other side of the country. When Mazy had told Lucas about Winifred running, she never said where she had been running from. Made sense she tried to put as much distance between her and the wolf, but Terrance didn’t know when to let go.

Finding out that he had orchestrated the entire auction, I’d seen red. I didn’t know how far his reach went in Winifred’s abduction, but I believed he would have ensured that she was caught. I didn’t know why he chose to go this route. If he knew where she was, why not just snatch her up?

I would have to live without the answer to those questions. His death came first, and then I would worry about the whys. The house wasn’t lit up, but there were people in there. The moon was full tonight, brightening the darkened building. I could smell fear. I could smell her. The generic, one-story, basic human house. There wasn’t anything special about it. I took note of the different windows and visible doors.

The garage was shut. Lucas parked about a mile out, but my vision at night was incomparable. My muzzle started to shift getting longer than a human nose but not as narrow and long as a wolf’s. I couldn’t hold the shift for much longer.

“Luc…”

He turned to look at me and cursed. I opened the door, stumbling out. There was no stopping my tiger now. The rest of the shift overtook me. Muscles stretched, tightened, and reformed. Bones cracked, popped, and repositioned. My back elongated and my powerful legs bunched, ready to take off. My front legs gained more ground, while my back propelled me faster. My ears perked up, listening to the sounds of the house. Lucas turned the car off as soon as I climbed out. I didn’t have time to turn around to see what he decided to do.

If he shifted, it would only benefit me, but Lucas liked to fight in his human form for whatever reason. It was honorable for a shifter to fight in their animal form. After all, we were animals at our most basic level. My paws pressed hard into the concrete, and I couldn’t move fast enough.

Once I got into the driveway, I slowed. I took the scent of the area. It was perfumed with a mixture of wet dog, a few different shifters, and Winifred’s scent, tainted with her fear and pain. A low rumble started in my chest.

I crept around back, and, sure enough, there was a back door. My lips curled over my teeth. I stalked toward the front again, trying to get an idea of where they were keeping Winifred. The house was quiet for the most part. Then I caught the scent. A trail leading into the woods. Winifred’s scent and Terrance’s. I bolted after them. Something was different about her scent, though.

Once I made it into the woods that backed the house, I slowed and listened. My ears twitched. There was rustling, a sort of hoarse barking sound. I headed toward it. It didn’t take me long to find the intermingling scents of Winifred and Terrance again.

Terrance was tall but not nearly as tall as me. He towered over the animal he stood in front of, though. His teeth had lengthened to sharp canines, his nails black. My teeth ached with the need rip out his throat.

The strange hoarse, scraping sound again, and I looked to its source. I cocked my head.

Medium in stature with long, muscled legs, the back ones higher than the front. The fur held the familiar tawny color with faded spotting. It had a short tail, with long ears, and long tufts of hair extended their length. Then the scent floated to me and those eyes caught mine.

Winifred.

She was a lynx. A gorgeous, beautiful cat.

I stepped out of my hiding place and circled behind Terrance, releasing a loud roar. He turned to me then his eyes shot back to Winifred.

“You little bitch, have you been screwing this c
at
?” He spat the word out as he stared at me.

My muzzle parted and I hissed. He whirled and growled at me. His body began to shift into his wolf form. Winifred jumped backward. Her first shift and she was in the middle of a fight between me and a wolf.

I circled the wolf so I could better protect her. She stepped backward, awkward on four legs verses two. Her ears twitched as she listened to the other sounds of the forest. I didn’t have much time to focus on her before Terrance lunged forward, barking and showing off his teeth. I swatted my paw out, making sure he kept his distance from Winifred.

He dodged in close, nipping but never biting. He started to draw me away from Winifred for reasons I couldn’t understand. I would be faster than him in a sprint, so if he tried to run with her, it wouldn’t work. If he tried to hurt her at all, I would kill him in a second. I followed his movements, trying to understand his game plan.

Terrance lowered his head and launched onto my hind quarters, he dug his claws in to get a strong grip and locked his jaw on bone. I growled. I turned and snapped at his back legs, but the way he was positioned, I couldn’t get a good grip.

A blur of fur flew over me, knocking him off my back. Winifred chirped at him, goading Terrance to pay attention to her. Her mouth opened in a pant as she revealed smaller but just as deadly teeth. Her heavy paws moved with ease against the terrain.

She’d learned quickly.

Slowly, while he fought off Winifred, I made my way around him. Her wide grey eyes made contact with mine and she took a step back. I leapt forward slashing Terrance’s side wide open. He howled, turning his head, his muddy-brown eyes filled with pain, but he snapped his teeth. I roared as I clamped my teeth down onto his neck. He snarled and growled until he stopped moving.

Winifred watched closely, her facial expressions too hard to read while she still learned how her other body worked. I saw the sadness there, though, and the relief.

I released my hold on his neck and padded over to her. She wasn’t very long, body wise, but she almost matched my height. I pressed my forehead against hers and rubbed. A content purr rumbled through me. A soft purr came from her, moments later. I led her away from Terrance’s limp wolf body and back to the house.

Lucas stood in a new pair of sweatpants, sweat dotting his brow. I lifted my nose and smelt the blood of other shifters.

“They took off when they realized they couldn’t take me. No clothes in there but a little slip, so I brought more sweats and a couple of shirts inside.” He nodded and started the mile walk back to this car. I was grateful he had brought us clothes to change into, but the idea she had been dressed in only a slip before hadn’t left my mind. It wasn’t her fault though. It was mine for leaving her.

As I herded her into the house, she glanced back once more to the woods where I had left Terrance’s body. In the house, I shifted and grabbed a pair of the pants and pulled them on. Winifred sat waiting. She cocked her head, and I could see the worry starting to filter in. She stood only to sit again, probably unsure what to do in her new body.

I wanted to tell her to shift back but I knew she wouldn’t understand. I had never had to teach anyone how to shift. It had come naturally to me, to most shifters. She let out a little whine.

I walked over to her and pressed my hand against her head. She leaned into my touch, rubbing her head under my finger. Getting on my knees so I could be eye level with her, I cupped her cheeks.

“Come back to me,” I whispered.