Tiger's Prey Read online

  TIGER'S PREY

  Northbane Shifters 3

  i s a b e l l a h u n t

  Copyright © 2018

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to events, businesses, companies, institutions, and real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Sierra

  Four and a half years earlier

  Stasis Bureau base outside Penticton

  A huge boom shook the spine of the building, as though every door and window had been blown out at the same time. Or something had slammed into it, something big and angry.

  Not as angry as I was, though.

  I lowered my eyes from the shaking ceiling and exhaled. “Tell me where they are.” My voice was cracked, my throat raw from repeating these words. “Tell me where they are, Vesker! Now.”

  The man tied up in front of me chuckled and shrugged. When he spoke, his voice was low and sibilant, with a smooth and soothing edge. A voice you wanted to listen to and had to constantly remind yourself not to. He was a liar, a murderer, and had happily traded in any saving grace for a long stint in hell. Bastard would probably enjoy it, too.

  “Tell me.”

  “No,” Vesker said, and a smirk played over his face. “Not today.”

  The lights flickered overhead, and I swung my fist up, the handle of the gun hot in my hand. One blow to the temple or chin, and he’d be out. I could escape, and use whatever mayhem had descended to find a different way to end this. But this bastard knew—the amused glint in his eyes said it all. And I’d rather be crushed by this concrete hell than run.

  I spun the gun around and pointed it between his eyes, trying not to tremble. “Tell me.”

  “You’ve never killed anyone, Ms. Silva. Don’t embarrass yourself.”

  My teeth clenched as I released the safety. The click was loud in the room, leaving a strange vacuum of sound in its wake. My breath rattled out of my lungs, and Vesker’s eyes flickered.

  “Who said anything about killing?”

  It took me a moment to realize I’d said those words. Bile rose up after them. Darkness gathered at the corners of my eyes as a yawning sensation went through me. I was sure that if I looked down, there’d be nothing but a void. And the person I’d been, tumbling in.

  Then again, I’d barely slept in the last week and had been shot up full of shifter-limiting drugs. It was a miracle I could hold the gun straight and speak English.

  Fale comigo.

  The Portuguese words bubbled up, and I clamped my lips shut.

  Soon enough, I’d speak them with the native speakers who’d taught me.

  I moved the gun away from Vesker’s eyes and to his hand, duct-taped to the sturdy legs of his heavy-ass worktable. Now I saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes, the dilation of his pupils, and heard an uneasy intake of breath.

  “Need both your hands, Ves?”

  He fidgeted, his fingers curling in, and I knew, for the first time, I’d perturbed him.

  There were shouts and yells in the hallways, nothing but chaos and hell raining down all around us. It was almost a given that no one would hear a stray gunshot. Steadying myself, offering up a prayer for sinking this low, I went to take the shot.

  Only then did the worm show his belly.

  “Wait,” Vesker shouted, sweat beading on his forehead and his teeth grinding together. Frantic eyes darted around the room and landed on a cabinet. My heart leaped. “There. Alphabetical. Third drawer from the bottom.”

  “Move, and I shoot off a foot,” I said, striding across the room and clicking the safety back into place. “And it had better be in here.”

  I yanked out the drawers, fingers shaking as I flicked through them. My head swam as I found a folder marked Silva. A small, choked gasp escaped me.

  “Building Block Seven,” I murmured. “But there are only six…”

  Vesker chuckled, and I spun around. “Ah, B7, yes. It’s another complex, about a half mile from here.” There was a nasty smile on his face. “I honestly wish you luck getting there, Ms. Silva.”

  “And I’m sure someone will be by for the trash,” I said and headed for the door to the hall.

  “You’ve heard of it before, you know,” Vesker called after me, and my steps slowed. “Building Seven only in documentation. Your half-breed co-patriots have a name for it, and we SB folks quite like it.” I turned slowly and saw that the glint in his eyes had gone dark with pleasure. “The Zoo.”

  I stumbled back, ribs caving as though a knife had slid between them. Vesker threw his head back, and his cold laughter echoed around the room.

  Before I could respond, before I could swing my arm up and end this monster, there was a crash in the hall. Suddenly, the door burst open, and I jumped out of the way with only moments to spare.

  “The snow leopard, you idiots!” Vesker shrieked. “She’s free, she’s—”

  I’d already forced myself to shift into said snow leopard, knocking over one of Vesker’s idiots and dodging the others by inches. One of them let out a frustrated roar as the gun clicked uselessly in his hands, and I ran away. As I rounded the corner, I heard him throw it against the wall and curse. Vesker was still barking orders.

  So convenient that the rumors about guns and shifters were true.

  I smiled to myself as I skidded around a corner and then staggered, tripping over my paws. Something that had never happened before. A shudder went over me, and I almost screamed as I shifted back, my two forms snapping at the seams.

  On my hands and knees, the world tilted, and sounds spiraled into nothing. The hallway stretched on forever, and I sat back against the wall, grasping after clarity.

  The Stasis Bureau’s shifter-inhibition drugs were no joke.

  “What the hell is going on out there?”

  Vesker’s voice sounded distant, but the echo was enough to get me to the surface. With a gasp, I came back to myself and stood up. Fingers scrabbled uselessly on the wall as I blinked at the wild-haired woman in white scrubs across from me. A woman mimicking my same movements.

  For a moment, I panicked, and then I let out a huff. Mirrored hallways, a sad attempt to discern whether shifters had suffered a depleted cognitive event after the Rift.

  In layman’s terms? To see if we recognized our reflections as our own.

  “Northbane,” came the terse answer, louder and closer.

  I watched my eyes go wide, and a huge breath exuded out of me.

  “How many?”

  Vesker and his goons were right there—I needed to move, and yet I stayed put, listening…

  Hoping.

  “Too many,” the other man choked out, sounding odd. No, terrified.

  I watched my lips curve up. Now I recognized myself.

  “There she is!”

  Vesker had rounded the hallway, and his goons already had tranq guns out, but I’d taken off. Darting down one hall, then another, trusting the month I’d spent memorizing blueprints to come to me in this hour of need.

  One, two, three, and there should be a door—

  I came to an abrupt halt. There was no door.

  Instead, the entire side of the Stasis Bureau building had been laid open to the bleak skies. Serrated edges, filled with metal shavings and loose beams, were the only thing left of the walls. A small chill went over me. From the looks of it, it was as though massive claws had made short work of them, and I almost wanted to retreat back inside.

  Outside was roiling smoke and dark skies, sleet slashing down and lightning flickering in the distance. The scents of mud, fire, and something sour filled my nose. Peering over the edge, I backtracked and took a breath. I was three floors up, and Vesker would be here any minute.

  Running, I leaped into the empty air, stomach seizing as I willed myself to shift.

  But the drugs were too potent even for survival instincts. I hit the ground, lucky to be alive, and rolled over, aching from head to toe. Well, at least I’d figured out that my human half seemed to have benefited from the Rift. When I got to my feet, I
heard Vesker shout again.

  Bastard does not quit!

  Running like hell, ignoring the pain jarring my leg, I heard yells and fighting coming from every which way. It was hard to make out friend from foe, or if the Northbane were here. If the latter was true, I could only hope the white scrubs marked me as a shifter, not a Stasis Bureau agent.

  The ground was slick under my feet, and I slipped and slid out of the smoke, onto a grassy plain with mountains rearing up in the distance. It took me a second to orient myself, as it had been weeks since I’d been outside. A river roared hollowly between them, and I could see shapes moving in the smoke. Building Seven was directly northwest of the compound, I thought.

  Most shifters were fleeing that way, some in their shifted forms, and others trying but not making it. Ahead of me, I saw a man fall to the ground and lie there. Cries and yells pierced the air, zapping along my skin and fanning my panic. I had to get to the Zoo.

  Weaving in and out of the crowd, I’d broken free, when suddenly I spotted a young girl in the distance. Tears streaked down her dirty face, and she was shouting for her mother. Then her eyes went wide, and she glanced left, petrified, before scrambling towards me. Before she could take a few steps, though, she fell to the ground and clutched her leg.

  A dart was sticking out of it. Our eyes met, and I saw the stark terror in her eyes before they rolled back into her head. She slumped onto the ground, as pitiful as a broken flower.

  “No,” I growled and ran towards her.

  All around, Stasis Bureau agents were bursting out of the fog, shooting off tranqs and arrows, shouting about taking down shifters as fast as they could.

  “If we can’t have ’em fresh, may as well have the meat,” came a grim shout over the din.

  I locked eyes with the man who’d said it, a savage asshole I recognized. He shot me a crooked grin as he waved his fellow SB agents on. They were making for the girl, too.

  “Dammit,” I muttered and ran faster.

  Everything was narrowing in my vision, even as my mind screamed to turn right and run for Building Seven, to get to those names before the SB decided they weren’t worth keeping “fresh.”

  “Come on,” I said, bending down and heaving the girl up into my arms. She was feather-light, but my knees still buckled. “I can do this.” I can do this. I’m not leaving her here for these monsters.

  “Stop right there!” another agent shouted.

  “Help!” I screamed at the sky. Maybe the Northbane were close. Weren’t they all about chivalry or some shit like that? “This girl, she needs help, please…”

  The ground shook, and I fell to my knees, hard, cradling the girl against me. Looking up, I saw light split across the sky, a burning glare that forced my eyes shut. Heat licked my skin, and, for a second, I thought a meteor had hit the earth.

  But then I opened my eyes, and the clouds above me were parting, blue sky visible.

  When’s the last time you watched the clouds, Sierra? You loved that as a little girl.

  She works too hard.

  I know. She’d forget the sky was blue if we didn’t remind her.

  Sunlight lanced across the grass, illuminating still bodies. Then I saw movement. A few of the Stasis Bureau were left, and they were still advancing.

  Maybe that had been them, that light.

  My parents.

  “Kill ’em!” came a bark. “I don’t care what our orders are—don’t—”

  The order was cut off, and my skin prickled. “Shit, now what?” I muttered and went to get up, but my legs wouldn’t support me. “Damn, girl, you must be a swimmer or something.”

  Footsteps sounded in the distance. “Right there. There’s two.”

  I refused to look up at the Stasis Bureau agents even as my heart went haywire. Instead, I looked down at the girl, her pale cheeks, closed eyes, and jagged breathing. Then I held her against me. Her hair was a pale blonde, almost white, and I would’ve bet anything her eyes were blue.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.” I looked up and saw a blur of figures, as though heat were rising from the earth in the teeth of a cold, mid-winter day. “At least you’re out cold for this.”

  I heard the whistle of air and closed my eyes, bending my head over this strange girl—waiting for the piercing pain, the void opening, and maybe familiar voices—

  A ripple of air burst on my left, and I tilted sideways, almost toppling to the ground. Heavy footfalls slammed into the earth, louder and stronger than those of the Stasis Bureau. And then they stopped. I blinked, lifting my head and staring. A jolt went through me, although I wasn’t sure what I was seeing or why the world seemed to have slowed down.

  Living color. Bright, burnt orange with threads of black. Intense, intelligent gold eyes.

  A tiger.

  A tiger had just saved my life.

  And not any tiger—the biggest I’d ever seen, maybe double or triple the size of a usual shifter. He let out a low growl that echoed and pressurized the inner ear, sending chills across my skin. Power radiated off of him, so bright he seemed to scorch away the mist and edge the sun out of the sky.

  I knew exactly who he was. I’d heard rumors, but I hadn’t believed…

  One of the Alphas of the Northbane.

  They did come.

  The tiger moved with terrifying speed, dodging arrows, blades, darts, and guns, sending SB agents flying. In mere moments, they were all knocked unconscious, and the tiger let out a satisfied snort. I was left stunned, wishing I could do that, and a small gasp escaped me. He lifted his head at the sound and fixed those gold eyes on me, then slowly began to walk toward me.

  “Oh my God,” I breathed. I couldn’t help myself.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Holy shit!” I squawked and fell backward, the girl lolling on top of me.

  A huge, dark, and intense-looking man had appeared out of nowhere, radiating his own dark Alpha power. I knew that in an instant. Two Northbane Alphas in a matter of minutes. As I gaped at him, quickly taking him in, I saw sorrow there, too. A deep hurt that lined his eyes and mouth.

  At my antics, though, a smile flickered across his face, and he crouched down, picking up the girl. “Sorry, didn't mean to startle you,” he said and glanced beyond me. “Llary, is that all of them?”

  I looked back in time to see the tiger shake itself and then shift into a man who sent a jolt right through my bones. Every heartbeat rang in my ears as I stared at him. Behind me, I thought I heard the dark man let out a soft cough or what might have been a laugh.

  I wasn’t sure. I was too busy trying to remember how to breathe.

  Almost as tall as his dark friend, the tiger was just as ripped, hard with muscle from head to toe. And just as handsome. So handsome it made my heart ache and stomach spin, even in the middle of this hell. But it was like a God of the Sun had fallen to earth.

  Rippling red-gold hair fell to his shoulders, looking badly in need of a cut. Everything about him was fiery and powerful, from his gaze to his broad shoulders. Plus, he looked a bit like a smartass. Weary as he had to be, there was still a mischievous light in those gold eyes. One that made me flush from head to toe. Unfamiliar, vexing, and comforting at the same time. And for a second, I had the strangest thought that I might be able to laugh again when this was over.

  “Tristan,” the dark man said, again with that small coughing laugh, and the Sun God jumped, pulling his gaze from mine. “Is that all of them?”

  “Damn, I hope so,” Tristan said, glancing at me and then averting his eyes. “All shifters are heading east.”

  Tristan Llary, I said over and over to myself, like a promise.

  The tall, dark man half-raised an eyebrow at his friend and flicked his eyes between us. “What Tristan means to say is that you’ll be safe there.” He let out a sharp whistle, and a lynx ran up, then shifted into a tall, blonde woman. “Fallon, can you take care of the girl and—”

  An ice bear, a wolf, and a black bear came running up after her, the wolf shifting back first and running up to us, running a hand through his dirty-blond hair.

  “Xander, we’ve got a problem,” he said bluntly and jerked his thumb back at the building. “They’ve got a sublevel in Building 1, and it’s not lookin’ good.”

  Whoa. Xander Bane? I wondered. I didn’t expect him to be so polite.

  Xander gritted his jaw as he passed the unconscious shifter to Fallon. “All right, we’ll go handle that, and Fallon, along with the Vixens and whoever else can be spared, will take care of the shifters. After all, they’re the reason we came here.”