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  His captor groaned as he kicked at him.

  “We got ourselves a fighter, boys,” said another voice from the van. Another pair of hands grabbed him. The darkness swallowed him up. Aiden remembered he could scream. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Someone put a wet washcloth over his mouth. He tasted chemicals. Chloroform?

  Oh God. These shifters didn’t look like they were from around town. They were the monsters living on Murder Mountain that parents warned their kids about. Some townies didn’t think they were real, but Aiden saw them a few times, like the cowboy who stole a kiss from him. Often, these shifters didn’t seem dangerous to Aiden at all because they mostly wanted to be left alone.

  He had a feeling these maniacs were different.

  Aiden sagged into his captor’s arms. He’d been tossed over one of the seats like a limp doll, his vision swaying. Aiden fought to remain conscious, terrified of the two ugly faces looking down at him, staring at him like he was free meat. His bladder felt uncomfortably full. They didn’t need ropes, not when his body was shutting down on its own.

  “What are you planning to do with me?” Aiden’s tongue felt locked to the roof of his mouth, but he managed to spit out the words sluggishly.

  The two shifters looked at each other, grinning. Aiden could make out the scars, the rake marks across their faces. His stomach felt queasy. These two bastards were twice, three times his size, almost as big as the cowboy who rejected him earlier tonight. Just one big difference. Around that cowboy, he felt safe. He knew that shifter wouldn’t hurt him, but these guys? They were different.

  One of the assholes slapped him on his thigh.

  “Our new Alpha wants to liven up our pride with some new toys.” The shifter’s touch felt repulsive as he moved his hand upward, right under Aiden’s shirt. He didn’t trust the look in the bastard’s eyes. He squirmed, tried to move away, but his body refused to obey his commands. That only earned him a punch to side of the face.

  Shock and pain ripped through his skull. Aiden had never been hit before. That hurt like hell. He bit his lip, refusing to give these psychos the pleasure of hearing him in pain. Aiden closed his eyes as his mind shut down completely. Maybe this was all just one bad dream. When he woke up, he’d be back in his lonely apartment and in his own bed.

  That was probably it.

  * * * *

  Someone threw icy cold water on Aiden’s face, abruptly waking him up. Aiden gasped, sitting up and looking wildly around. The side of his face stung. He touched it with a sinking heart. The bruise forming there was real. So, everything that had happened to him—wasn’t a nightmare at all.

  “You’re finally awake,” someone said drily. That voice sounded vaguely familiar.

  Aiden looked up, blinking. He recognized the golden-haired and buffed man. Joe Harris, ex-bully and football player, was the last face he expected to see. They went to high school together. Aiden tried his best to forget those hellish years, but for Joe, they were probably the best years of his life.

  “You look awful,” Joe said. “Here, have a drink.”

  Joe pulled out a flask from the inside of his jacket. Aiden looked at it distrustfully. Part of him wondered if this was some kind of cruel prank played by Joe and his friends. Couldn’t be. High school had been a long time ago and Joe looked banged up and dirty as well.

  Joe let out a dry laugh. “Come on, man. Take it. Look at where we are.”

  Aiden accepted the flask and took a long gulp. He finally took a good look around his surroundings. Joe and him, along with four others, were on the ground. The other frightened young men were about their age and they were quiet. No restraints, Aiden realized and soon understood why.

  They were in the middle of a forest clearing. Old and tall ash trees surrounded them. Christmas lights were strung up on the trees. They almost looked pretty, but the two muscle heads watching them ruined the mood. Noticing his stare, one of the shifters flashed him a nasty smile full of sharp teeth.

  They weren’t the only ones watching. More almond-shaped yellow eyes glowed up in the trees. Aiden could almost make out their graceful shapes. He glimpsed a tail, a pair of triangular ears. Whiskers. Big cats. Panthers. He gulped.

  Three groups fought each other all the time on Ashfall Mountain. One of them, he recalled, was a vicious panther pride. Aiden might not always pay attention to shifter politics, but it had been big news when one of the werewolf packs on the mountain killed the panther pride’s Alpha.

  Aiden remembered one of his kidnappers mentioning their Alpha. Either he and the townies were fed with wrong information or the panthers had gotten themselves a new Alpha. The odds weren’t good. Sweat coated his back and dripped down his forehead.

  “What’s going on? Where are we?” he whispered as his back hit Joe’s.

  “Don’t know. I was locking up the liquor store when they drove up to me and scooped me up,” Joe said. Joe had taken the same page and whispered to him.

  “We’re going to end up like those poor bastards there,” said the red-haired guy near them.

  He drew his knees to his chest and started rocking back and forth. Aiden looked to where he pointed and swallowed. What he initially mistook for a tiny mound of rocks were actually a pile of corpses. A tangle of broken limbs and torn flesh. They looked fresh. A few flies buzzed over them. One panther shifter dropped from the trees and started towards the pile, tongue out.

  “Back, Gary. We’re not allowed to feed until the Alpha says so,” said one of their guards, the one with the ugly facial tattoo said with a snarl. “Gary, trust me. You don’t want Price on your tail.”

  Gary kept on prowling towards the corpses. The panther shifter continued to slobber.

  “What does he mean by feed?” Aiden whispered, terrified.

  Only Ferals resorted to cannibalism. These crazy-ass panther shifters were sicker than Aiden thought. Shit. Aiden could do nothing but watch as Gary lowered his muzzle to a pale arm and bit down. He looked away as the crunch of teeth on flesh and bones filled the silence.

  “Oh God,” whispered the red-haired guy over and over again. One panther shifter walked up to him and kicked him in the ribs.

  “Shut the hell up, meat,” hissed the panther shifter, who looked at his partner. “Go shut Gary up before Price arrives.”

  The other panther shifter began to walk up to Gary, but he halted. An enormous muscled panther with white fur and a large scar running down one eye dropped from one of the trees. He was larger than any big cat Aiden had seen on the nature channel. He outweighed Gary by maybe fifty or sixty pounds. Aiden sucked in a breath as the newcomer pounced at Gary from the back while Gary was feeding.

  This must be Price. Their new Alpha. Price closed his sharp teeth on Gary’s neck and ripped it out with such force, blood sprayed over the soil and some on them. The human captives.

  The red-haired guy let out a shrill scream.

  “Shut your mouth. Don’t grab their attention,” Joe told the guy, furious.

  Price shifted to human form. Like his fur, he had white hair. Even his eyebrows were the same color as bone. Strange and mad red eyes peered from a scarred-up face. An albino. Aiden didn’t miss Price’s erection. The twisted bastard got off on violence. Price licked the blood off his pale lips and pointed a finger at Joe.

  “That human looks promising. Bring him to me,” Price said. One of the panther shifters hauled Joe roughly to his feet. He gripped the hem of Joe’s pants, unsure of what he was doing. Aiden was downright terrified for him. Joe might’ve made his life hell during their school days, but he didn’t want Joe to die. Joe shook his head at him.

  “I’ll be okay. Stay strong, Aiden,” Joe whispered. The panther shifter shoved him forward, towards Price. Joe resisted at every turn, earning him a punch to the ribs.

  “What are you going to do to me?” Joe asked Price. The panther Alpha pulled Joe into what almost seemed like an intimate embrace. Joe kicked and bucked, but Price held him firmly in place. Price open
ed his mouth, exposing a long row of sharp, yellowing fangs.

  “I’m going to give you a gift, worthless human. If you survive my Bite, you’ll become one of us.”

  “If I don’t?”

  “You’ll end up as food for my pride,” Price answered.

  Dread filled Aiden as he could only watch the crazy cat Alpha plunge those lethal fangs into the side of Joe’s neck, tearing out chunks of flesh in the process. Joe’s blood coated the entire front of his shirt crimson. Aiden watched, helpless and angry, as life flowed out of Joe’s eyes. Price dropped Joe’s corpse and looked at him, dick hard.

  Aiden was next.

  Chapter 3

  Ryder walked past the empty bar kitchen. A door led to the back alley. Probably where they accepted deliveries. He pushed open the door, found no one there. Ryder frowned, about to head back. Maybe Aiden was in the john or something, but something caught his eye. He exited the door and bent down to scoop up the two items on the ground.

  A cell phone and Aiden’s name tag. He stood up, took a whiff of his surroundings. Ryder growled softly under his breath. He picked up the smell of three awful things—wet fur, chloroform, and copper. The worst kind of shifter had been involved in whatever this was. Panthers.

  Ryder had clashed with those furry felines so many times that he could never forget their repulsive scent. The Black Claws, every single one of them, always smelled wrong to him. Sick. Ferals who devolved into cannibals gave off that awful stink.

  Ryder prayed to God he was wrong.

  “What did you get yourself involved in?” Ryder asked. He walked around the narrow alleyway. Maybe he could pick up more scents. Evidence. He noticed the camera positioned right above the door. A smidge of triumph filled him. Not all was lost after all.

  His wolf hovered closely, eager to break free, to hunt. Ryder might not be the strongest or the fastest in his pack, but he was a good tracker. No. He still needed to be in human form. He pushed the seething wolf back and returned to the bar.

  Ryder tucked Aiden’s phone and name tag in his pocket. He had to be smart about this. Quick. He confronted Tom, jumped right over the bar, and shoved the bartender against the shelves. Bottles rattled.

  “What the fuck is this?” Tom demanded. Props for the human for staring him in the eye.

  “Aiden’s gone. Taken.” The words rushed out of his mouth, accompanied by a growl. His wolf wanted to rip out Tom’s throat. To hurt every human in the bar shaking their heads and whispering. This was exactly how they expected him to act, didn’t they? Like a damn beast.

  Ryder reeled in his emotions and focused on Tom.

  “What do you mean? Did something happen to Aiden?” Genuine confusion, then fear crossed the old man’s face. This human, he realized, cared for his employees. Tom probably looked out for Aiden. He released Tom and told the human what he found. He showed Tom Aiden’s phone and name tag.

  “Linda, take over for me,” Tom yelled to a server. Tom pulled him towards the kitchen.

  “You believe he’s been taken?” Tom asked once they were in the quiet of the kitchen.

  “I smelled chloroform.” Ryder shook his head in disgust. “These fuckers are smart. Most shifters don’t think. They let their fists and claws do the talking. The panthers took Aiden from under our noses, thinking they wouldn’t be caught, but they didn’t see the security camera.”

  Tom nodded. “This way.”

  Tom led him to another room, a tiny office. There was a computer there. Tom sat down. Ryder leaned over, drummed his fingers impatiently on the desk as Tom looked through the security footage.

  “Can you not breathe so close to me?” Tom asked. “No offense, but your aura, or whatever it is you shifters call it, is kind of suffocating.”

  Ryder gritted his teeth and took a couple of steps back. Tom wasn’t insulting him, only trying to help. Speed up the process.

  “There,” Tom said, pausing the video, then playing it again.

  Ryder narrowed his eyes. He recognized Aiden on the screen, chatting to the driver of a van. A struggle occurred. Not much of a fight, considering those two fuckers overpowered a human easily.

  “Play it again.” Tom did as he asked. “Pause right there. Can you zoom in on those two shifters who dragged him in the van?”

  “I’ll try, but the video’s grainy,” Tom said. The human magnified the images. Those glowing eyes confirmed they were shifters, but Ryder swore he’d seen these two bastards before. The scars on their faces looked so familiar.

  “Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum,” he muttered.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Just thinking. Give me a moment.”

  Ryder’s own claws had made those marks. He clenched his jaw. “Fuck. I know where they’re taking Aiden.”

  “Where? Should I call the police?” Tom asked him, rising to his feet. The human already had his cell phone out, but Ryder touched his arm.

  “Don’t. The local police won’t be able to handle the Black Claws. They’ll be mauled down. Massacred.”

  Tom turned pale at his words. “The Black Claws, you say? I thought those cats were dead.”

  “My pack thought the same. When the Alpha of a pack or pride dies, the group becomes a disorganized mess. They eventually disband or the members get absorbed to a new group. These panthers aren’t like that.” Ryder blew out a breath. “Looks like there’s new leadership.”

  “What do we do? Sit around and do nothing?” Tom demanded. “That boy’s like a son to me. Aiden’s a good kid and he has a big heart.”

  Ryder knew all that. Hell. He’d only met Aiden tonight. Ryder didn’t have the right to make that kind of assessment but in his gut, Ryder understood what Tom was telling him. A certain kind of good-natured innocence clung to Aiden. Even if the world chewed him out, Aiden was the kind of guy who’d brush the dirt off his knees and keep on walking.

  He was good. Tasted like sunshine. Aiden was light, and Ryder was the kind of foul thing that would drag Aiden down to the dark with him. For now, Ryder’s number one priority was to retrieve him. Ryder would deal with his tumultuous heart, his beast later on.

  “I have a couple of guns. I can call up a couple of buddies,” Tom was saying.

  “Calm down. You’re not going anywhere. Humans are only going to get in the way. Trust me.”

  “What about you?” Tom asked with furrowed brows. “You look like a guy with a plan.”

  “Me? I’m going hunting.”

  “Alone?” Tom asked, skeptical. “Listen here, son. I know you’re one tough bastard, but I counted four feline shifters in that video. There’s probably more of them.”

  “Nope, not alone. I’m not stupid. I’m calling for back-up.”

  Tom looked up at him. “Then good hunting. Bring him back safely. I still don’t understand what’s Aiden to you, but I feel like I can trust you.”

  Ryder didn’t know how to answer Tom either, so he left. He called Dom on his way back to his truck. The Beta answered right away. Unlike their no-good Alpha, Dom could always be relied on in an emergency.

  “Problem?” Dom asked. “You still in town?

  “I think I know what the Black Claw panthers are up to. They’re taking humans, townies. Not sure why yet, but it’s definitely not to have a tea party,” Ryder paused, thinking. He was making this up all along, but a rough plan formed in his head. “Meet me on their territory. Bring the others. Also, Talon, if he’s around.”

  “Wait, Ryder. I need more details—”

  Ryder cut the call. He could almost imagine Dom cursing him. He chuckled, and then his laughter died out. Onto serious business.

  Ryder wasn’t a hundred percent sure about the lie he told Dom. The Black Claws definitely took Aiden, but he only added the other humans part so Dom would take action. Didn’t matter. Ryder would lie his ass off if it meant dragging his entire pack into a fight.

  He didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. Wild Manes were always up for a good brawl. They were all monsters like he was. B
lood and violence fueled their savage animals. It was the way they were built. Even the Paranormal Government counted on them to eventually kill each other off so they didn’t need to do a single thing. Ryder was doing his pack mates a favor by inviting them to this party.

  It would be glorious. Ryder wanted to pay these kitties back for taking his human away. His human. Ryder had no clue why he called Aiden that. Aiden didn’t even know his name.

  Ryder didn’t even understand why he was risking his neck for a human he just met. He could’ve just walked away, or maybe investigate more, but there wasn’t enough time for that bullshit.

  A bad feeling developed in his gut. Something was different. Wrong. The Black Claws had lied, cheated, and manipulated humans before. They used to run a debt-collecting business and collected family members or friends as collateral to play with. He knew of one human who’d been entangled with the Black Claws. Kris, a fellow packmate, had saved his human mate Sam from a deal gone wrong. Sam’s scummy father had offered him as payment for his debts to the Black Claws.

  Kidnapping humans outright was a new low for the Black Claws. They’d never done that before, broke the law so openly. At this rate, those bastards would get them all in trouble with the Paranormal Government.

  Ryder left town and drove for Ashfall Mountain. There weren’t any proper roads here, but his trusty truck could easily traverse through the rough terrain. Instead of heading uphill and back to the Wild Manes’ base, he took the turn which would take him to the foot of the mountain. Black Claws territory.

  Once the dirt road ended, Ryder killed the engine of his truck and got out. The forest in these parts grew denser. The trees looked tall and imposing in the dark of the night. Ryder peeled off his clothes. He set down his favorite hat, wallet, and other belongings, including Aiden’s name tag and phone, on the driver’s seat.

  His cell phone screen glowed. Numerous text messages from pack mates. Two missed calls from Dom. Ryder didn’t bother. His pack might be dysfunctional, at times downright crazy, but they had his back. Always. So, he hoped anyway.