"If I knew who he was, he wouldn’t still be out there, hunting," Niol muttered. "The bastard would be dead."
Colin believed him, and he also believed that Niol would have made the killer suffer, for a very long time, before he got the release of death.
A grim, humorless smile curved Niol’s lips. "Wonder which of us will find him first?" He leaned closer. "And wonder which of us will make the bastard scream the loudest for mercy?"
The animal within howled at the challenge. The man spoke through gritted teeth, "This isn’t just an Other matter. Humans have died. The law will punish him. The law will-"
"Then the law had better get to him before I do." Niol inclined his head. "Enjoy your beer, Detective. And good hunting."
Colin growled a response as Niol was swallowed by the crowd.
Good hunting.
If only it were that easy. If he could just catch the bastard’s scent…
Broodingly, his gaze once again scanned the crowd. Searched the nameless faces, saw-
Emily. His heart began to race in a hard, fast rhythm. She shouldn’t be there. He’d told her to stay away from Paradise Found. And here she was, walking beside some blond guy, her hand on his arm, stroking him.
What the fuck?
A musky, familiar scent flooded his nostrils. Colin surged to his feet.
Emily and her mystery guy walked through the back door of the bar.
Without a second thought, he followed them, claws bared.
"Thomas! No, don’t!"
Colin ran forward at Emily’s shout, took in the scene before him in one horror-filled glance.
The man was gone. In his place stood a huge, black panther. A panther with fangs open, glistening, with a body tensed to spring.
A shifter. He’d known the instant he caught the bastard’s stench in the air.
Emily stood before the beast, her right hand raised, fear on her face. She stumbled back, whispering something he couldn’t hear.
The panther growled, stepped toward her, mouth ready to rip and tear-
No! Not Emily. Not his mate.
Colin snarled, and the panther’s head whipped toward him. The animal’s back legs bunched as it prepared to leap through the air.
Shit.
There was no time to move. To draw his weapon. The panther lunged and knocked him to the ground. The animal’s hot breath blew against his throat and its saliva dripped onto him as the beast lowered its mouth for the kill.
He hadn’t wanted it to be this way. Hadn’t wanted her to know…
Emily was screaming, running toward them.
The panther paused, its nostrils flaring, its head turning slowly, slowly toward her.
Human. Weak. Prey. It was the way of the beast. To hunt, to destroy the weak.
Not. Emily.
Razor-sharp claws dug into his chest, burned a path of fire over his skin.
And he knew there was no choice.
His teeth clenched as he opened the door of the cage inside…and let his own beast out.
Time to hunt. Time to kill.
Kill.
OhGodohGodohGod…"Thomas! No! Stop!" The panther was on top of Colin. Even in the dim light, she could see the blood streaming down Colin’s chest.
Thomas was going to kill him. She had to do something. Emily ran forward.
A long, angry howl filled the night. The hair on her nape rose. That howl…
The crunch and snapping of bones reached her ears. Colin’s hands lengthened, fur sprang from his flesh.
Shifting, he was shifting…
One powerful forearm caught the panther, sent it hurtling through the air.
Colin pushed to his knees, crouched. Went to all fours. His eyes were glowing. Bright, bright blue that shone in the night.
His face was changing. The cheeks becoming sharper, the jaw longer.
The teeth much, much sharper.
"Don’t…fear…me." Not Colin’s voice. A rumble, a grating demand.
The panther growled, surged to its feet, glanced at her.
Danger. Run. Kill.
Thomas’s thoughts blasted her, and she could only shake her head. Who was more dangerous to her? The panther, her lover…or-
Colin tossed back his head and howled.
A wolf’s howl.
"No," she whispered.
His clothes ripped, the fabric split apart. His body shifted, changing before her eyes from man to beast.
In seconds, Colin was gone. In his place stood a large, muscled, fangs wide-open wolf.
A fucking wolf. Colin wasn’t just any shifter. He was a wolf.
The black wolf’s bright stare centered on the panther. He growled.
And she knew that both she and Thomas were in serious danger. The wolf shifters are the strongest, the deadliest. By far, the most dangerous of their kind. She tried to touch Colin’s mind. Found only a tangle of animal rage and primitive instincts demanding a kill.
Oh God. She had to try and reach him. Emily lifted her hand, palm out. "Colin. Colin, no."
The wolf’s head turned toward her. Stared at her with eyes bright with blood hunger.
The wolf padded toward her, head low to the ground. The panther didn’t move from the corner, the creature sensing the deadly threat before it.
Emily found she couldn’t move either. Fear held her immobile. If she fled, he’d just chase her. Wolves were notorious in their lust for the hunt.
The wolf stopped less than a foot away from her. Watched her with his fangs glinting. Then he leaped forward, driving his head into her thighs.
Emily cried out, stumbling back.
This can’t be happening. Not Colin. I never thought he’d hurt me. Never thought-
Her back was against the wall of the alley. The wolf was in front of her.
Thomas snarled, advancing.
"No! Stay back!"
The wolf spun around, hackles rising. His claws dug into the ground as he faced the panther.
As he faced the panther.
He wasn’t attacking, not yet. He’d pushed her into the corner, put himself before her and-
He was protecting her.
Emily shook her head. If he’d wanted to kill her, she’d have been dead already, she realized. But he wasn’t hurting her, he was placing his body between her and the panther.
I control the beast. He doesn’t control me.
The panther swiped out with his claws, trying to catch the wolf in the throat. But the wolf was ready. He jerked to the side and snapped his teeth down on the panther’s front leg.
The panther cried out in pain. Jerked back, limping slightly. The panther was bigger than the wolf, but only by a slim margin. Both were heavily muscled with powerful claws and razor-sharp teeth.
But the wolf-there was no creature on earth stronger than a wolf shifter, and while the panther might be able to fight him for a time, in the end he would lose.
He would die.
"No," she whispered. Dammit, she couldn’t reach Colin’s mind. The red haze of bloodlust was too strong. But maybe she could stop Thomas, send him away. "Thomas…" The panther’s head jerked toward her. "Go, Thomas, go. I’ll be all right."
The panther’s eyes slit and his body pressed tightly to the ground as he prepared for another attack.
The wolf growled, raking the ground with his claws, leaving deep grooves in the pavement.
"Thomas, go!" She screamed the command with her voice and her mind. Used every bit of her psychic strength to push the order at the panther.
The beast whimpered, then sprang toward the street, disappearing easily into the blackness of the night.
Thank God. One beast down. One to go.
Thomas would be okay. The panther shifter had been unable to transform since the death of his mate, and he’d feared an uncontrolled change in public, before human eyes.
But he’d managed to hold onto his human form until she’d arrived and then he’d shifted easily under her watchful eye in the alley. Yes, Thomas would be fine now. But, well, she might not be.
All alone with a wolf shifter. What, was she insane? Emily gulped as the wolf swung to face her, blood dripping from his mouth.