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  In jeans and a T-shirt which strained against Red’s chest, he looked casual as he waited leaning against the driver’s door of Carran’s rental SUV. If an airport security guard stumbled upon him leaning against the rental car without proper identification and half hidden in the darkness, there was no doubt they’d find him suspicious. Red would have been hauled off for questioning, either because they thought he was there to steal a car off the lot or something more sinister.

  “What are you doing here?” Carran came to stand directly in front of Red. “I thought my backup was several hours behind me, still tying up loose ends of their mission.”

  “They are, but Jinx sent me with this.…” With a grin, Red unzipped the duffle bag that was resting on the hood of the SUV.

  Inside the black bag was a duplicate of Carran’s arsenal that he carried each day. Since he’d handed off his weapons to Ty before entering the airport in Alaska, he felt as though someone had cut off his arm. Yet another drawback of flying commercially and further proof that the Brown brothers had spoiled them by being there whenever any of the Alaskan Tigers needed a lift. Weapons were a key to their survival and to keeping others safe. In the human world, he couldn’t shift if there was a threat to him or someone else and being without weapons would narrow his options.

  “You look relieved.”

  Knowing there were plenty of security cameras around, Carran resisted the urge to strap the weapons on. “This is the best thing you could have brought me. Well, that and some good coffee would have been nice. You didn’t fly in, so where’s your car?”

  “It was a rental and I already turned it in. No use both of us having one when we’re going to the same place. You know your way around this city, not me.”

  Carran hit the unlock button and grabbed the bag from the hood. “Get in. Once we’re out of the airport complex I’ll gear up as I drive. Any idea where he’s heading?”

  “No, but there is something else we should deal with.” Red opened the passenger door and climbed in. “The officer who filed the report…”

  “Armstring, wasn’t it? What about him? Connor checked—I got a text from him. He’s human.”

  “Armstrong,” Red corrected. “Human, yes, but also a she.”

  Before Carran put the SUV in drive he checked his phone to read Connor’s message again: Armstrong is human. “Connor didn’t mentioned Armstrong was a woman. Ambrose shifted in front of her. If he’s thinking at all, he’s going to circle back and eliminate the witness.”

  “Not just Ambrose, but also her patrol partner Officer Donovick. He’s a wolf and belongs to a small family wolf pack on the outskirts of the city. The pack is searching for her and when they find her, she’ll be given an ultimatum—either change her story and get out of town or pay with her life. Donovick is in some hot water with the Alpha for not stopping her before she filed the report. She was unconscious from the attack and his commanding officer ordered him to the station for questioning about the incident. Instead of calling in one of the pack, he left her alone.”

  Carran tugged the wheel to the left, forcing the SUV to take a sharp left turn as he headed to the address Connor texted him earlier. At the time, he didn’t think he’d need the information but now he was glad the clan’s wolf geek was on his game. Officer Armstrong had no idea what she was up against and would end up getting herself killed if they didn’t find her before the wolves did. “We’ll have to get to her first.”

  Chapter Two

  With the officer’s apartment empty, Carran stood in the middle of the city, wanting to let his tiger out to follow her scent until they found her. Even as the time grew later, cars whizzed by. Unlike in Alaska, Pittsburgh never seemed to sleep. There were always a few cars on the road, and sirens wailing in the distance. His sense of smell was better than any human’s, but it wasn’t as powerful as it could be if he let his beast free. In his other form, he’d be able to locate her in half the time, but in a city it was out of the question. There was no way to explain a tiger strolling down the street. If he wasn’t shot, he’d be tranquilized and thrown into the zoo. On display at the zoo, his black tiger would draw people from around the world and not everyone would come just to see a live black tiger—some would come to study him. It was a kind way of defining what they’d do to him as they tried to determine what caused his rare coloring.

  He could hear the clans’ comments if he ended up in that predicament. After everything he overcame in the past, only to end up at the mercy of humans… He shook his head, unwilling to think about that because it came too close to what they were fighting for. Tabitha would eventually make their presence known, and ending up at the mercy of humans was just one of the possibilities. Though, it was just as likely they’d be exterminated.

  “You going to stand here all night long, or are we going to find this woman?” Red waited next to the door of the SUV, his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his jeans, looking at ease as he scanned the area. “The wolves have already been here, but I don’t smell any blood. It’s likely she was gone before they arrived and they’re following her scent. If we’re going to aid her, we need to get moving.”

  Knowing he was right, Carran tugged the keys to the SUV from his pocket with one hand and with his other he unhooked his phone from his belt. With the wolves having a head start on them, they needed to find an advantage. That was their very own wolf—Connor. He sent him a text and told him to find out everything he could on Officer Armstrong and run her credit card numbers. If she was out in the city somewhere, it was likely they’d get a hit. Most people used cards over cash and tonight that might give them another advantage. Otherwise, all he knew was that she’d headed toward downtown. Maybe a club, or restaurant. Hell, for all he knew she could be at a friend’s house and he wouldn’t be able to barge in on them. Their best chance was a public location where they could access her easier, but that also gave Donovick’s family access to her.

  “Leave the window down,” Carran told Red as he dropped his cell phone into the cup holder and started the engine. “I left Alaska in such a rush Ty didn’t have time to give me the full details. Who’s our backup?”

  “I’m not enough?” Red joked. “Theodore and whoever else is up will fly in for it. I believe from your clan the twins Jayden and Drew, along with Thomas, are coming. Hugo is part of the West Virginia Tigers, and he’ll fly in with Theodore. When this is all over we’ll drive back to Snowshoe together. Unless we run into issues, I don’t think any of the other Brown brothers will join them. Taber and Tad are both eager to get back to their mates.”

  “This should be an easy mission.” At least he hoped.

  This mission is important…it needs to be you…valuable member of the team…more so in the coming months. Ty’s words seemed to hold a hidden message, warning him it wouldn’t be easy. Something would happen here and if he understood what Ty was trying to say, it would make him more valuable to his Elders. How, he didn’t know. He would have to trust them and see it through to the end.

  Reaper’s appeared just as Brooklynn expected. The bar was full of criminals, bikers, and wannabes, and none of them would be happy if they knew she was a police officer. Not for the first time, she wondered why she was there. Not only did she stand out because she wasn’t one of them, but bars and clubs had never been her scene. She barely drank, not even when she turned twenty-one and her friends got plastered at her birthday dinner. She’d only had a single glass of wine. To her, that was letting loose. Her younger sister, Abagail, thought she was aging beyond her years. At twenty-three, Brooklynn had her life together whereas her sister—a little more than a year younger—didn’t have any idea what she was doing. She had changed majors three times before finally taking a break to bartend.

  It was no surprise there were only a few dim lights in the bar, offering privacy to anyone conducting illegal activity. In the time that she’d been with the department, she heard plenty about this bar and those who frequented it. Even if she hadn’t, her years a
s an officer would have been enough to know there were dangers lurking here, and the farther she ventured inside, the higher the danger. She didn’t have backup and no one even knew she was there. Despite her unease, the stares from bar patrons, or the little voice inside her telling her to leave, she continued on.

  She ordered a bottle of beer and sat down on one of the bar stools, giving her a view of the room without making it obvious she was watching anyone. She was here for answers. If she was going to find their suspect, she needed to come back to the place that had been at the root of it all. Internet searches about Reaper’s told her more than she wanted to know, but it also supplied rumors of shifters at this location. Shifters…as in multiple. Unbelievable. If I can only catch one…convince them to prove it to my bosses…

  Her thoughts were interrupted when a man dressed head to toe in leather stepped up next to her. He laid his hand on the bar counter and invaded her personal space, letting out a low whistle. His gaze traveled over her as though she was available for purchase. He let out a deep breath, sending the horrid scent of alcohol right at her face. “Sexy…take a ride with me. It’ll be one you won’t forget.”

  His long hair stuck out from the bandana tied around his head, and a glint in his eyes that told her if she’d been in uniform he’d have climbed back on his bike and headed away from this club. Her years on the force gave her a sixth sense and she knew he was trouble. Half of the tattoos that covered his arms were jailhouse tats. What he spent time for behind bars, she wasn’t sure, but she could take a couple of guesses.

  “I’m waiting for someone.” She pretended to glance behind him toward the door, as if expecting someone to walk in at any moment.

  The bartender moved away from them, his interest focused on clearing the counter—anything but what was happening with her and the mystery man. A clear sign he’d seen this happen before and it was anything but friendly. Mystery man’s offer for a ride sounded more like an order, but she tried to brush it off as paranoia. He was accustomed to bossing people around and when he saw a new woman come in, he thought she’d be easy prey, but he was messing with the wrong girl. She tried to tell herself she was overreacting. After the day she’d had, it was to be expected.

  “Listen here, bitch.” The smile was gone and anger vibrated in his voice as he took a step toward her. “We’re going to walk to the door, nice and quietly, and if you make the slightest move to run, I promise you’ll pay for it. Do you understand me?”

  Unable to stop herself, she slid off the stool and took a step back from him. The guy was imposing and nearly twice her size. She wasn’t going anywhere with him. She was off duty, but she still had a gun at the small of her back, tucked in the waistband of her jeans. If the situation slipped so far out of control that she needed her weapon, she couldn’t let the nagging thoughts stop her. She was already in enough trouble at the police department and this was the last thing she needed. With her evaluation in two days, she needed to keep her head low and worry about convincing them that what she reported had been the truth or that it was all part of her concussion. She didn’t need to be part of another incident, especially not at Reaper’s Bar, a known criminal establishment. She glanced around to see if anyone saw their interaction and would come to her aid.

  “Bitch, no one is going to rescue you. Not here. You should have considered whose bar you were walking into when you stepped through the door.” He closed the distance she had put between them, forcing her back against the wall, so they were almost hidden in the shadows. “Now, I said we’re leaving.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” Pressed against the wall, she couldn’t get to her gun and the only other weapon she had was a knife tucked safely between her calf and her boot, but she couldn’t get to that either. Her beer bottle was on the counter. She might be able to reach it if she pretended to go with him. Even if she did, and managed to crack it across the top of his head, she wasn’t sure it would bring him down. If it did, would she be able to get past the others without incident? Or would bashing the mystery man over the head only heat the already sizzling air and cause more problems?

  He wrapped his hand around her neck, cutting off her breathing. “You’re going with me of your own free will or I’ll knock you unconscious. The choice is yours.”

  His grasp was so tight she could hardly breathe, let alone answer him. Panic made her body tremble. She clawed at his hand as he pushed her up the wall until her toes barely touched the ground. As she struggled to breathe, his eyes glistened. He was enjoying watching her suffer. Don’t let me die like this. Darkness closed in around her, her fight stolen from her like the air from her lungs, and as she lost consciousness she swore she could hear a new voice.

  “Leave her the hell alone.”

  Chapter Three

  Carran’s tiger brushed along the inside of his skin, wanting to come out and teach the asshole how to treat a woman. If he was working with the Donovick pack, they’d have more problems to deal with before they left town. No matter what the pack thought of her crime against them, having a human deal with it was unacceptable. Especially when he was strangling her in front of human witnesses, which would only create more problems. There were other ways to deal with the police report and the officer who tried to expose their kind. The situation didn’t call for her death just because they couldn’t keep their town under control.

  “Leave her the hell alone!” He stalked through the bar, straight toward them, and as he did so he picked up the scents of the room, searching it for any shifters. There was one, but he wasn’t a wolf, just a drunk leopard. The Donovick pack wouldn’t work with a leopard, making him less likely to be a threat. Carran’s back would be to the leopard so he would have to keep his senses open and rely on Red to watch him. The wolf pack might work with humans, but they believed the leopards couldn’t be trusted, making the humans in the bar more of a threat.

  “Who the fuck are you? This is my bar.” He glanced back at Carran but didn’t take his hand from her neck. Instead he lifted her higher so that her toes were a foot off the ground. She was unconscious but alive.

  “Sir, please…” The bartender glanced around to see if anyone would help him but more than half of the customers were already making their way to the door. “We’ve just got the place put back together after the last time.”

  “Shut up, Dix. This is my bar and if I want to destroy it, that’s my right.” His gaze left the bartender and turned back to Carran. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not welcome here. Get out!”

  “We’ll leave with the woman.”

  The man loosened his grip on her neck and turned to Carran, swinging wide as he did. Carran took the opening and swung. His fist connected with the other man’s cheek, the sound of the bone cracking echoed through the bar a second before the man cried out in pain. Carran grabbed hold of his collar and threw him to the floor. “What part did you misunderstand? I thought leave her alone was fairly easy to comprehend. Even the simplest-minded assholes should understand that.”

  Blood splattered across the floor, and the man’s jaw was angled awkwardly, clearly broken. The fight seemed to drain from him while Carran ached to go a few more rounds. He forced himself to step around the man and let him lie curled up in a ball. The woman’s eyes had opened when the hand was removed from her neck and Red was having trouble controlling her.

  “Woman, stop that!” Red took her wrist in his hands to stop her from beating her fists against his chest.

  “Brooklynn.” Carran joined them.

  Her attacker was already rising off the floor. “She’s mine.”

  “I got him. You can deal with her.” Red dropped her wrists and spun around. “Jinx would kill me if I left a mark on her while I was trying to keep her safe.”

  Carran didn’t have a chance to reply as Brooklynn tried to slip past him. She made it back to the bar and knocked the stools over in her attempt to make a run for the door. The bar stools didn’t stop him. He hopped over them and
landed directly behind her. He wrapped his arm around her and pushed her against the wall, just as she made contact with the gun he felt in her waistband. “I wouldn’t.”

  “Back up or I’ll have you arrested.”

  “Arrested…” He chuckled and then tipped his head down so that his lips were next to her ear. “I know who you are, Officer Armstrong, but trust me when I say you don’t want that to become known to anyone who was in this bar before we arrived.” He kept his voice low, so low that even the leopard wouldn’t have been able to hear him over the sound of Red and the other man fighting.

  “What do you want?” Her body went stiff and she stopped fighting him but still had her hand on the gun.

  “You to leave the gun where it is and let me get you out of here uninjured.” He placed his hands on either side of her, leaving her nowhere to run. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “Really?” He leaned back so he could look her in the eye. “Because you didn’t seem to be doing a very good job when we arrived. He had you pressed up against the wall with his hands around your throat. Is that how you want to die, Brooklynn?”

  “I…”

  Carran sensed more than saw the leopard rising from the booth. “Trust me.” He let his gaze linger on her for a moment longer before checking whether the leopard had plans of his own. Red had the other man on the floor again, his boot pressed against the man’s chest. From the way he gasped for breath, Carran suspected he had a couple of broken ribs, if not more extensive damage.