“You can see then?”
The lion made a low moan in his throat. Assent probably. His heavy breathing came slow, pained, but she waited as he gathered the strength to speak again. “Her bonds though. She might be able to...”
The words broke off and Lennox didn’t push him. They had a shot with Mel then. A damn good one, Lennox decided, scenting the air again. The place smelled of hay and the faint, lingering touch of horses. Old, rotting wood tinged the air and beyond that, she could smell a forest. Leaf litter, pines, open flatlands of grass.
If they had to run through woods to get out of here, Mel was the best shot in a race with Torres, the lion coming in last. Mel could turn into a four-legged Ferrari of the dog-shifter world. Her saluki form was sleek and built for speed and endurance. Rhodesian ridgebacks were fast, but they weren’t designed for coursing like a saluki.
The lion was going to be the tricky part. As injured as he was, Lennox wasn’t even sure he’d be able to walk. “What’s your name?”
He grunted again, his breath wheezing out of him. “Best not to get attached. I won’t be going with you.”
Screw that. She wasn’t leaving him either. “Your name.”
“Rulon Reyes.”
Lennox couldn’t help her surprise. Kanon’s brother. Half brother, whatever. He was also one of the top lions in the Boulder Pride, as well known as the mega-sire of them all—Gaston Reyes. How the hell had he ended up here?
“How’d a ridgeback end up trussed up over here?”
She was surprised he couldn’t already tell. A smile tipped her lips. “Your nose damaged?”
Rulon gave a strangled laugh. “A little, yeah. A little hard to breathe much through it.”
Oh. Lennox winced and he gave that low, chuckling sound again. “It’s all right, am I supposed to smell something?”
She swallowed. “It’s a long story, but I guess the short version is well...” Lennox shivered a little. It felt odd to say it aloud. As if she was admitting to a crime. Then again, in ridgeback society, wasn’t it? She didn’t know what it meant for her job, her life. “I’m kinda sleeping with a lion. Lions. Two of them, actually.”
The barn fell silent other than the heavy rise and fall of his breathing. Lennox felt her heart speed up. Her stomach knotted. A low huff of breath sounded, kind of like a snort and then he said softly, “Sleeping with a pair of lions. Damn.”
She grimaced.
“Never thought I’d hear that.”
“Guess it explains me being all trussed up though.”
“You think?” Rulon gave a low, pained hiss, maybe a laugh. Something hard slid over the wooden floor. The scent of fresh blood spiked in the air. The sickening scent of silver rotting in his flesh ripened. He didn’t have long. A day or two maybe. A week max.
She opened her mouth to say something and froze. Footsteps approached outside. A twig snapped under the weight of someone who didn’t care if anyone heard. Torres. Her nose picked him up the moment the barn door opened, the creak on the hinges the only sound to let her know he was inside before his shoes slapped against the wood.
Rulon gave a muffled cry, the wet, slick sound of blood followed by the thud of a body hitting the wood. Lennox stiffened, fear sliding straight down her spine like hackles lifting. “Torres.”
He didn’t answer. Just moved around her, the slap-slap of his tennis shoes over the barn floor allowing her to track him. He moved towards Mel and Lennox thrashed, nearly knocking herself over as a growl slipped out of her. Low with warning. Dangerous. “Caesar, you leave her alone.”
The footsteps paused and she could picture him, rust red hair cut short, cropped so close to his skull it looked almost military. He was big, bulky. Nowhere near the size of a lion-shifter male, but the weight of his muscles made him thicker than a normal man.
He would also smell the fear on her in an instant. Lennox forced herself to breathe easy, her heartbeat to calm. The muscle in her jaw flexed as she stifled back a growl. “Caesar, I know you’re there. Answer me. What is Bree going to think when she finds out?”
“She’s not going to find out.” His voice came out a rasp, furious. She almost didn’t recognize it. He’d always been a hard ass, but this? He sounded crazy.
“You’ve killed people; you really think she’s not going to find out when you get a silver bullet between your eyes? This is going to destroy her.”
Hot breath washed over her face and it took everything inside her not to flinch. Shit. She hadn’t realized he was that close. “She’s not going to find out. Everyone is going to think the lions killed all these people.”
Lennox held her tongue. She didn’t know what he had planned for her, but she couldn’t risk pissing him off. Not until she’d gotten Mel free.
“Why?” she said softly.
He pulled away, but she could feel him staring at her, watching. When Torres went silent it was never a good thing, at least not for whoever he was targeting. It meant he was planning and right now she was a sitting duck in front of him.
They all were.
***
Caesar stared down at her, long red hair framing her face. She had a dirt smudge high over her right cheekbone, another across her temple. He could smell the monsters on her, so thick they’d damn near slathered their shit in her pores. She’d lost it, lost her damn mind. Hounds didn’t
fuck
lions. He fisted his hands and debated punching her. Knocking her head so far back her teeth would click and her head would bounce on her shoulders like a child’s toy. She deserved that.
He started to pull back, rage coiling in his chest as it locked around his heart but he forced himself to stop. No. He’d spent so long training her. She was good. His best. If he could just get Lennox to
see
then maybe he could still salvage her.
Caesar glanced at the monster on the floor. He’d loved ripping that beast up. Cutting him, making him hurt. It was payback. Payback for what they’d down to Arianna. This time, he’d left the Hounds clues. Sprinkled enough of Rulon’s fur and blood over the dead Hound’s body on Boulder Pride territory that even the newest rookie in Shifter Town Enforcement would be able to know a lion did it. And anyone who knew Gaston’s pride...
A grin split his face. He’d worked so hard to pin it all on Kanon, but Rulon? Rulon had been so simple. He’d pumped him full of silver, knocked him under with a little magick and dragged him out here, covering his tracks. Caesar held up his hands, watching as they shook. He was tired.
Exhausted.
But it had all been worth it and now he was nearing the endgame.
The kids would have enraged the Colorado Shifter Town Enforcement, and with the MO being the same, he knew they’d be putting the pieces together with the Utah murders. And soon, the Hound they’d sent into Boulder Pride would miss his report, wouldn’t pick up his phone and they’d find him too. And this time, they’d have a suspect.
He just needed more lions to break. Which meant he needed to hold it together a little while longer. Eat something to settle the shakes and go nab himself another monster. Kill someone else. Soon, so soon, it would look like the whole Reyes family had lost it.
As if lion-shifters in general were losing it.
By the time he was done with them, they’d be shot on sight.
And Arianna would have her revenge.
Caesar looked down at Lennox. Having her on his side would help. She was good enough to cover her tracks—hell, he’d seen her tampering with one of his crime scenes. She’d erased the link to Kanon in that one. Caesar shook his head, an admiring smile tugging at his lips. He knelt in front of her, his jeans pulled tight over his thighs as he leaned in to breathe the words across her face.
“They’re monsters, Lennox, you know this.” Her lips tightened but she didn’t say a word. She
knew
. Caesar touched her cheek, gentle. Soft. He loved her. Like a daughter to him. The daughter Arianna could have been. “You know this.”
She said nothing. Her face titled away, her jaw set. Damn her. She’d see. Another Reyes would turn bad soon and the Hounds would start getting nervous. Then maybe he’d have a go at a rogue. There was one south of Boulder Pride by about an hour. It wouldn’t be that long of a drive, and that would really start making everyone edgy.
But first... Caesar stood, his hand falling away as his gaze fell on Rulon again, the lion watching him through hooded eyes, lips so pale they were almost white now. He’d be dead soon and Caesar would have to figure out what to do with the body. But first, he knew what he had to do. A smile spread over his face as he headed out of the old abandoned barn, thirty miles north of Boulder Pride, and headed up the field towards his car.
And his phone.
He had a pack to call in. He licked his lips as anticipation rode through his veins like a high. An anonymous tip to give. About a pair of lions staying at Melody Knight’s address. The same pair that had kidnapped a Hound in Idaho and used her to erase the three murders they’d committed in Utah.
Caesar whistled to himself. At least he wouldn’t have to do all the hard work. They’d snap under the presence of Hounds and do his dirty work for him. A few more Hounds would probably die, but in the end, the pair of them would be put down like the monsters they were.
Fuck
. Tegan felt the air whoosh out of his lungs as if he’d taken a good kick to the gut. The reporter on the news stood inside Boulder Pride territory, a grim twist to her lips, blonde hair whipping in the wind. The prairie grass and the blue-ish gray tint of mountains in the distance were marred by crime scene tape and enough Hounds from Shifter Town Enforcement to fill half the state. The microphone was steady in her hand, her voice didn’t waver, but the world around her seemed off kilter.
Her lips moved but Tegan no longer heard the words. He kept replaying her last statement; over and over again A Hound had been killed. A lion-shifter’s blood was all over the scene. A lion had killed the Hound. They had a lead on the suspect.
They couldn’t name names, but the reporter stood in Boulder Pride, one of the largest lion prides in the country. But what really kept tripping him up was the last part. There were very few details left at the scene, the Hounds couldn’t track the killer, but he’d left enough blood behind. He frowned. A lion wouldn’t have been able to hide their tracks, but the witch after Kanon could plant all the evidence in the world. And this time, the witch had killed a Hound.
Tegan shook his head and forced himself to breathe, fresh chills raising goose bumps over his skin as the reporter continued. “Shifter Town Enforcement Alpha, Brandt Lawrence, has linked the attack with several murders in Utah. The deaths of Aibileen Walters, and Tristan and Carolyn Hale.”
The floorboard creaked behind him as Kanon stepped around the couch, his calloused hand finding Tegan’s. Tegan gave it a gentle squeeze. He could feel Kanon trembling beside him, fear and adrenaline making them both weak. Where was Lennox? “Whether or not they were killed by same lion-shifter is unknown. Enforcement Alphas refuse to yield details.”
Lennox’s picture flashed in the corner of the screen and Tegan’s grip went tight, squeezing Kanon for all he was worth. Panic seized him like a cold vice clamp, bearing down on his heart hard enough he was certain it would break. Please don’t let her be dead. He couldn’t take if she’d died.
He and Kanon clung together, lost in a silent prayer as the reporter continued, her voice steady, the lack of emotion haunting. “A Lennox Donnelly, another Hound for Shifter Town Enforcement, this time out of Idaho, has been reported missing this afternoon.”
A car door shut outside and Tegan closed his eyes. Thank God. She was alive. They were alive. According to the reporter she was missing, but at least they knew where she was. Home. The knowledge heaved out between them on relieved sighs.
They’d have to figure out how to survive this mess, but with Lennox alive and back with them, they could do that. With her they could do anything. Kanon’s grip turned painful a second later and Tegan opened his eyes to stare at the TV, his heart beating wildly again. Fresh panic replacing the old. An image of Kanon had replaced Lennox’s face on the screen, Tegan’s next to his. Their names in bold text underneath each picture.
They looked like mug shots, which was close enough. Driver’s license pictures, the same ones on file in Shifter Town Enforcement when they’d gone in under the new laws to apply for pride status. It had seemed easier than staying rogues. Odd, it hadn’t saved them at all.
“She was last seen trying to arrest Kanon Reyes for an unprovoked attack on a Hound. These two men are wanted for questioning. If you have any tips please call the number below. They are to be considered dangerous and may be involved in the murders in both Utah and Colorado. Do not engage. Execute extreme caution if seen and contact Shifter Town Enforcement immediately.”
“Fuck,” Kanon breathed softly. Tegan swayed.
Another car door clicked shut and Tegan turned, a frown touching his lips, eyebrows drawing down in confusion. He glanced at the window. Through the slats on the blinds he could see a pair of black cars on the curb, a black SUV parked across the street. A man leaned over Lennox’s car and Tegan watched as his nostrils swelled as he scented the vehicle. Hound. Three more were getting out of the vehicles, two with hair as rust-red as Lennox’s.