Hounded (Shifter Town Enforcement)
Hounded
Lion-shifters Kanon Reyes and Tegan Sharpe aren’t sure what Kanon’s done to earn himself a frame-up for murder, but they’re determined to keep him from a silver bullet and a shallow grave. To do that, though, they’ll have to rely on the sexy Hound sent to arrest him.
As a Hound for Shifter Town Enforcement, Lennox Donnelly is one of the best. But when one of her arrest warrants turns out to be for an innocent man, she’s determined to get to the truth. What she finds are dead witnesses and an untraceable magick–with a killer far more powerful than her.
Now, to survive, Lennox will have to learn to rely on more than just herself if she’s to make it back to the men she’s come to love.
Kindle Edition
Copyright 2012 Sadie Hart
Cover Art Designed by Sadie Hart
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Author’s Note: This is a work of fiction. The names, places, characters, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved.
Hounded
By Sadie Hart
Table of Contents
Excerpt: Bonedust by Xoe Xanders
The muscles in her thighs quivered as Lennox Donnelly crouched behind a yellow bush in the middle of the desert. She’d crawled the quarter mile from the bulletin board she’d stuffed her car behind to the wooden fence she eased under now. A soft groan slipped from her as her belly scraped the rough grass and then she was under, safely in the Bayrock Pridelands.
Well, about as safe as a Hound from Shifter Town Enforcement could get.
The lion-shifters here would hardly welcome the shifter equivalent of a cop on their lands, especially when she’d come to tag and bag one of their resident pride males. If anything that tended to get their tails in a twist. Her lips twisted in a wry grin as she lay there, breathing in the thick scent of dirt and dried grass. He shouldn’t have attacked a dog if he hadn’t wanted to get caught.
Hounds didn’t take kindly to one of their own getting clawed up by a kitty cat. Lennox slowly righted herself into another crouch, her hands stained with the desert-red dirt all around her. A quick scan of the area revealed barren, yellowed rock that stretched out for miles. Broken only by tufts of weed and the occasional boulder. Well that, and small cluster of ranch houses sitting several hundred yards to the south.
With the sun still clinging to its perch in the sky, more than a few of the pride members still lolled about outside and Lennox licked her dirt chapped lips, waiting. Having to hunt a pride male in his own territory wasn’t her favorite way to spend the evening. She wouldn’t exactly be able to march in there without drawing the attention of the whole pride, and Enforcement liked its takedowns cut and dry. No fuss, minimal mess.
Meaning her boss would shit sticks if she botched the takedown and he had to send the rest of the pack out to save her ass. The media always loved it when STE had to come out and pump a whole community with silver like they were nothing more than animals. Then again, lion-shifters weren’t much better than their kitty cat brethren. They were violent, edgy, and always riding that fine line between aggression and brutality.
Visitors more often than not equated to snacks.
Keeping low, Lennox crept closer to the small ranch. Six houses in total. It wasn’t the biggest pride around and once everyone settled in for the night she could make her move. A car rattled up the road and Lennox froze. The only cars that would be heading up this drive would be other pride members. She blended in easily to red dirt ground and the wiry brush that dotted the landscape. She’d dressed for a romp along a country dirt road, her khaki camos dusted thoroughly with prairie dirt and her tan tank top was nearly skin color. To a car racing down the road, she’d be invisible.
The car drove on past, exhaust billowing out in dark, angry plumes and Lennox waited, breath held. Watching. Taillights flashed in the dim evening light as the car pulled to a stop in front of a two-story house with a wraparound porch. She watched the towering form of a man get out, black hair flipped back in the wind. Had to be her man. The Bayrock Pride only had two coalition males, and one of her pack mates was supposed to have eyes on Tegan Sharpe, to make sure he didn’t make it home in time to come running to his partner’s aid.
One pissed male lion-shifter was going to be bad enough. She licked the dirt off her teeth and stretched out, crawling over the dry, cracked grass. All this would have been easier if she’d just shifted into her dog-half and trotted the distance in a low crouch, but she kept the Rhodesian ridgeback clamped down. The trip to the ranch would have been easier, but it was a waste of energy and magick that only a stupid Hound would make.
She needed hands to put cuffs on Kanon Reyes when she got to him. Hands to slip a gag in his mouth if she needed one. Hands to tranq him enough to make him cooperative. Human logic won out and Lennox crawled over the ground. Lean muscles bunched as she hung low, scanning the road for any other cars heading this way. Her shoulder holster chafed against the back of her arm as she rolled to get a good view.
All clear.
Lennox gave a toothy grin. About damn time. She loved a good hunt.
Dirty work as it was, Lennox worked her way closer to the ranch, flinching as a roar filled the slowly darkening sky. A tremor ran down her back, raising gooseflesh down her arms in a rush. It sounded again, deeper this time. Throatier. The roar had a physical punch to it, loud enough it rattled through her lungs, grabbed hold of her bones and shook her out like a ragdoll.
With nothing more than sound, Kanon Reyes left her frozen on the dirt a quarter mile outside of his ranch, staring as the pride scurried into their homes. A lion cub pounced on a human sibling before darting in a front door; an impatient woman tapped her foot against the white-washed porch step before she too disappeared inside. Kanon stood on the tan steps of the two-story house in the center, his face tilted back against the dying sun.
Gold ember light highlighted the rich tan of his skin, drawing out the profile of his face in sharp contrast to the shadow of his jaw. It made him look hard, fierce. His tongue darted out over pale, pink lips and then his mouth opened again. A shudder stole up his spine and his whole body swayed with the force of the sound ripping out of him. Another roar thundered across the savannah sky leaving Lennox to sway under the force of it, grubby fingertips curling into dirt.
Mine
, it screamed.
Mine.
A stark claim settled on the land and with a final glance across the now silent string of houses, Kanon let out a snort and turned on his heels, disappearing inside. Lennox watched him go, strength coiled in every step. Like most lion-shifters, Kanon Reyes was built like a tank—sheer power and brutality stamped across every inch of his skin. He’d hurt one of her Hounds, left the poor man hospitalized. He’d pay for that. Her jaw tightened.
She was going to take the violent bastard down.
Hard.
***
Kanon stretched out across the leather sofa, a bowl of popcorn balanced on his stomach as he flicked through the channels. There was nothing on. A few hundred channels and he’d have thought he could find one decent thing to watch. Frustrated, he settled on a rerun of Halloween. Maybe watching Michael Meyers kill people would make him feel more at ease.
The night felt...off and it bugged the hell out of him.
The house was too damn quiet.
One finger slipped over the volume button until the sound rattled through the walls. Nights without Tegan home were long, dull affairs that put his teeth on edge. But it had been a night home with the pride without Tegan or a night negotiating territory with the Idaho Basin Pride’s coalition.
He’d passed on the latter.
Kanon didn’t have the temperament for it. They’d trespassed. In Kanon’s book it was simple: A quick slice of claws and they wouldn’t be an issue anymore. Tegan had more patience, more finesse. And then, when all else failed, Tegan would kick their asses as cleanly as Kanon would have.
The new shifter laws demanded that all shifters belong in easily catalogued groups, and for lions that meant being classified as part of a pride. There was still the occasional rogue, but they had to report a permanent address and suffer the random check-ins. After Kanon had almost ate the last Hound to show up on make-out night, they’d opted to give pride life a shot.
The woman on screen screamed as the man in the mask jumped out at her and Kanon tossed another kernel of popcorn in his mouth. Stupid woman. They were all too stupid to live in movies like this. Didn’t anyone know when to look behind them?
A soft creak sounded from the porch and Kanon gave an irritated huff. He couldn’t even watch a movie in peace. He waited for the tentative knock of one of the pride females. Needy little things they were. No doubt wondering if he was lonely. He wasn’t.
The floorboard creaked again, the soft whisper of it almost lost completely under the wail of the dying woman on screen. But it’d moved around the wraparound porch to the side of the house. Someone sneaking in then. It wouldn’t be the first time one of the pride females had snuck in. Lionesses in heat didn’t tend to think much beyond their current cycle.
Soft footfalls and the quiet groan of the aging floorboards let Kanon track her progress to the window he’d left open in the dining room to let in the breeze. Smart. Kanon munched on a handful of popcorn and pondered the movie.
Kanon knew the moment the soft sole of a shoe touched the hardwood floor in his dining room. Whoever it was, she was soft and easy on her feet, like a huntress stalking a zebra. Definitely female. No male lion moved that lightly on his feet.
The steps paused, just a brief hesitation creeping closer in his direction but she didn’t rush. She was clever enough not to risk that he might not be watching the movie. A small smile twisted his lips. This was almost fun.