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Lucian Carnahan inhaled silently and focused his hearing. He stood in the shadows of an alley in the small town of Munroville, waiting for his target to finish whatever the hell he was doing in the massage parlor across the street. Although the exterior of the business appeared to be legitimate, it was a well-known front for the raven shifters, who were as dangerous as they were crazy.
And perhaps the most dangerous and crazy of them all was their leader, Antonio. Who, among other recent atrocities, had killed a human woman who’d rejected him on more than one occasion for a date. Lucian couldn’t imagine what unhinged a male like Antonio so much that he would kill an innocent for something so ridiculous. He was revered in his nest the way that some humans worshiped deities, but something about that human woman had made him go off the deep end.
The door to the massage parlor opened and two burly males stepped out, looked around, and gave the all-clear signal. Lucian tapped his throat mic twice, signaling to his teammates that Antonio was free of the building. He watched as the males ushered Antonio into a black sedan with darkly tinted windows. When the sedan pulled away from the curb, Lucian said, “Simon, they’re heading to you now.”
“Copy,” Simon said.
Melting back into the alley silently, Lucian turned and ran to the end, leaping for the bottom rung of a fire-escape ladder and hauling himself up. He scaled the side of the building swiftly, climbed over the edge of the roof, and raced across the concrete surface.
He could feel his nature bubbling under the surface, the beast he kept tightly controlled through magical tattoos and binding spells clawing to break through. Although there were aspects of his nature that he liked – extra strength and speed, enhanced hearing and smell – the beast itself was too dangerous to be set free. His father had killed his mother while under its thrall. That was why Lucian hadneverlet it out. And he never gave anyone a chance to get close to him, either. Even though the beast was kept under wraps, and had been since he’d first felt the stirrings of his nature when he was a teenager, he didn’t dare link himself romantically to anyone.
Not even sweet little she-wolves.
Banishing the image of his best friend’s sister from his thoughts, he focused on the hunt. Antonio was to be captured and brought to the hunters’ detention center. There he would be held until he was tried for his crimes. Most assuredly he’d be executed, but not until he’d confessed and implicated the members of his nest in unsolved crimes that the hunters were looking into.
He leaped from the roof of one building onto the next, rolling to his feet and racing to the far edge. He heard the sedan turn the corner at the building he was on. Looking over the edge at the three-story drop, he spied another, lower roof to the left and rushed to it. By the time the sedan had hit the next corner, Lucian was in a good place to get the drop on them. Literally.
“Cover me,” he said, and launched himself over the side of the roof, falling one story to the top of the sedan. He landed hard, the roof denting with his weight; the car swerved and angry, confused shouting could be heard inside.
Gripping the roof with one hand, he placed the barrel of his gun over the driver’s side and fired once. The car careened wildly, accompanied by more shouting, and he fired once more over the passenger side.
He heard the grunt of the second male being hit, and knew that Antonio was now unprotected. Job finished, he glanced up and saw the car was heading for a fire hydrant. Lucian jumped from the roof, rolled to the concrete, and came up, gun in hand, as the car impacted with the hydrant and water gushed from the ground.
“So much for being inconspicuous,” Simon said as he joined Lucian. Together they stalked to the car.
“As long as we’re gone by the time his people get here, we’ll be good,” Lucian answered.
The back door opened, and Lucian had just a moment to see the muzzle of a gun as Antonio swung it outward. He kicked the door shut, slamming Antonio’s hand and making him drop the gun, then jerked the door open and grabbed the male by the throat.
“Let me go!” Antonio shouted. “Do you know who I am?”
Lucian shoved him around and against the side of the car as Simon cuffed him.
“Of course we know who you are, Antonio. You’re under arrest by the authority of the Hunter Division of the United States Armed Forces,” Simon said.
An SUV pulled up, and Simon and Lucian pushed the furious and struggling raven shifter into the back, securing him to the side of the vehicle. As Simon slapped duct tape over his mouth, Lucian closed the back door and said, “We’re clear.”
“Just a sec,” Neil said as he made a U-turn in the street. He rolled down his window and tossed a grenade into the sedan, then stepped on the gas, racing away from the scene and the sound of sirens drawing near.
Isaac, their resident tech guy, sat in the passenger seat, his fingers flying on the laptop. “When we’re clear of downtown, I’ll turn the city cameras back on. The chatter from the cops is it’s a car accident.”
“They’ll see the bullets when they do the autopsy,” Lucian said, climbing from the back into the second row.
“Yeah, but they’ll most likely suspect rival shifters or drug gangs. These assholes have their hands in everything,” Simon replied as he joined Lucian. In the back, a furious Antonio kicked at the back door and rattled his handcuffs.
Lucian looked at the male, whose eyes had turned bright gold in his fury. They were glowing, the eerie color making Lucian’s beast want free. He couldn’t explain why his beast wanted to break out so badly lately, but he had a suspicion that it was because he’d agreed to go to Mal’s for dinner. Anytime he got close to Wilde Creek, the savage part of him would rise up, scraping at the bonds.
He was tempted to beg off dinner, but he’d already been gone overseas for several months on a hunting trip with his team, locating a group of rogue wolves who were terrorizing a peaceful town in Central America. Now he was back in the states, hunting dangerous shifters and trying not to think about Mia.
Which he was clearly failing at.
He settled back in the seat and closed his eyes. It would take four hours to get to their headquarters and secure Antonio. Then he could go home and rest. Andnotthink about Mia.
* * *
Lucian cracked his neck, holding Antonio’s arm and watching the elevator’s numbers drop as they moved underground. The hunters’ headquarters wasn’t just their base of operations, but also where they held prisoners, tried them, and often executed them. If a prisoner was given a life sentence, they were taken to another facility for dangerous shifters on the West Coast.
Lucian had been a hunter for ten years. He’d joined the military right out of high school, and was recruited to the hunters’ division. He loved his job. There had been room for advancement along the way, but he never wanted a desk job with the organization – he wanted to hunt rogue shifters and keep the populace safe.
