“I hope I’m not intruding.” Jase Saunders stood in the doorway to The Cougar’s Den bar awaiting entrance. He was a tall male in his early thirties with coal black hair and pale amber eyes almost the same color as his Dire Wolf’s.

He’d been Alpha of his own pack for years now but he still had enough sense and courtesy to ask before entering another Alpha’s headquarters. Besides, the Cougars didn’t often interact with the Wolves, each keeping to their own small towns, on either end of the greater Ashville area.

“Not at all, Jase. Please come in.” Liam Keller motioned him in courteously with one hand. “We’re happy to have you.”

“Thanks.” Jase came over to the bar where several other Shifters were sitting.

Keller was there and so was Reese Cooper. With some surprise, Jase also recognized the gruff Buck Shifter, Mathis Blackwell. The guy was nearly a hermit, staying in his cabin and only coming out occasionally. He almost always had a scowl on his face.

Not now, though. He looked about as happy and relaxed as a male could be as he sipped an imported ale and sat at Keller’s bar. In fact, all of them looked relaxed.

Jase frowned. What the hell was going on here? Why were carnivores like Reese Cooper and Liam Keller so at home with an herbivore like Mathis Blackwell?

That question would have to wait, though—he had something more important to ask Reese.

“What happened the other night?” he demanded, frowning at the other man. “I’m sorry to be so blunt, but your mate—Is she . . . ?”

“She’s fine. Not only that—she’s pregnant.” To his surprise, the Fox Shifter suddenly got up and hugged him. “Thanks to you, Jase,” he said, his voice sounding a little husky. “If you hadn’t shown up when you did—”

“It was nothing.” Jase muttered, uncomfortable at being thanked. “Well, I mean, not nothing exactly . . .”

He trailed off uncertainly. He had, after all, taken a life at the Fox Shifter’s behest. The body had been found and labeled an animal attack, but Jase knew the truth—he had killed and he was here today to make certain that killing was justified.

“You saved my mate’s life,” Reese said seriously, perhaps sensing Jase’s unasked question. “If you hadn’t killed the witch who was draining her life-force, she’d be . . .” His jaw clenched and it seemed he had to force himself to go on. “If you hadn’t, Jo would be gone right now instead of helping Fiona in the pharmacy and picking out baby names.” He held out a hand to Jase. “I owe you a life-debt, Brother. Anything you need, just ask.”

“And if you don’t need help with any life or death situations, I’m sure Coop here will be glad to change your oil and rotate your tires for free for the rest of your life instead,” Keller said, lightening the mood.

Jase laughed and Reese grinned at him as they shook.

“Keller’s right. Anything you need. Anytime,” he swore.

“Well . . .” Jase frowned. “That’s actually one of the reasons I came. I’d like your help in tracking down a possible rogue Shifter.”

“A rogue Shifter?” Keller’s eyebrows shot up as he offered Jase a frosty glass bottle.

It was a serious problem when a Shifter went rogue and started killing people for the hell of it. They were a lot harder to catch than your average serial killer because their murders could be covered up as animal attacks. And the norms—people who didn’t know about the existence of Shifters—had no clue what they were up against.

“You have a rogue Shifter in your neck of the woods?” Mathis asked, frowning. “How do you know?”

“All the bodies showing up, for one thing.” Jase took the beer from Keller and took a swig before continuing. “The last victim was someone I knew—a lady in her late fifties named Michele Hannigan. She was my neighbor when I was growing up—used to bake cookies for all the kids. She was nice.” He shook his head. “I hated like hell to see her like that, all torn up. And calling her daughter who I grew up with, well . . . let’s just say I want this sonofabitch. Want him bad.” He clenched his jaw, remembering the bewildered sobbing on the other end of the phone when he’d had to call his old schoolmate out in Atlanta and tell her the bad news.

“A female in her late fifties?” Keller asked, frowning.

“Yes. Actually, all the victims have been females in their forties and fifties,” Jase said, nodding. “Hell of a thing. The whole town is up in arms about it. My department has been labeling them as animal attacks but I know better.”

“That must be pretty fucking uncomfortable for you,” Reese remarked, taking a drink of his own beer. “You being on the local PD down in Wolverton.”

“Just made Detective, actually.” Jase nodded as the others voiced their congratulations. “Thanks, but this is serious. We’ve had three victims already, all of them clawed to hell with their throats torn out. Almost looks like a grizzly attack, but the smell is wrong.” He shook his head. “Unfortunately, the Chief is a norm—doesn’t know anything about Shifters—and I can’t exactly tell him I think it’s the work of a serial killer instead of an animal attack because it smells funny.”

Reese was frowning. “What does it smell like? Is it a kind of sour, musky odor—not quite human and not quite Shifter?”

Jase frowned.

“Hell yes! That’s it exactly.”

“Did they find any hair or fibers?” Reese asked.

“Yeah, but it’s weird. The fur isn’t from any of our local Shifters. We sent it to a lab to have it analyzed and it came back inconclusive. They said the closest thing they could match it to was hyena, but the composition was wrong. And besides, why would a Hyena come here? They mostly stay in Vegas.”

“Yeah, that’s him all right.” Reese sighed. “I think I know who your rogue might be.”

“What? Who?” Jase demanded. “Tell me! I need to stop this sonofabitch before he goes for it again.”

“Well, that’s kind of a problem—I don’t actually have a name,” Reese said. “Bianca—the witch you killed, who was trying to drain Jo’s life force—just called him ‘Mr. X.’”

“Mr. X, huh?” Jase frowned. “That doesn’t exactly narrow it down much.”

“I can tell you one thing that might help,” Reese offered. “Supposedly he’s high up in one of the big pharmaceutical companies.”

“If he’s the same male who was bankrolling the hyena who attacked my mate, Samantha, that would be the Pfizer company,” Keller said grimly. “And if he’s that high up the corporate ladder, he’s going to be rich enough that getting to him will be extremely difficult.”

“I don’t care how fucking rich and famous he is, the fucker is going down,” Jase snarled. If he thinks he can walk into my town and get away with killing just because he’s a Shifter—”

“That’s the thing though,” Reese interrupted him. “He’s not a Shifter—he’s a Skin Walker.”

“A what?” Jase shook his head. “What the hell is a Skin Walker?”

“It’s a Native American legend—well, we thought it was a legend, anyway,” Keller said dryly. “A male who doesn’t have the Shifter Gene but is still able to take the form of an animal through dark magic.”

“Jo told me that the witch you killed—Bianca—worked a spell for this ‘Mr. X’,” Reese explained. “I saw him—he turned into some kind of fucked-up mutant hyena-hybrid looking thing. Not like a normal Shifter at all. I put out his eye when we fought but he got away.”

Jase frowned. “So I’m looking for a top pharmaceutical executive with a missing eye who can turn into a hyena-thing? Well, that’s a little more to go on.”

Reese shook his head. “I’m sorry as hell I never said anything about the bastard before. I didn’t know what was going on over in Wolverton. I’ve been so crazy these last three weeks while Jo was recovering . . .”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jase said grimly. “I know it now and I’m going to do everything in my power to catch this sonofabitch.”

“We’ll help in any way we can,” Keller said. “The Cougars—and other Shifters of Cougarville”—he nodded at the other two Alphas with him—“are with the Dire Wolves on this one. Any help or resources you need, just ask.”

“Thanks, but you’ve helped me plenty already,” Jase said. “I’m going to start following up on this Mr. X guy.”

“I might be able to help you—I have some contacts in the pharmaceuticals community,” Keller said.

“What I want to know is why he’s going after women in the Shifter community who probably have the Gene and are of Rejuvenation age,” Mathis remarked, frowning. “I thought you said he had that serum, Keller—the one that kick-starts even latent genes.”

Keller shook his head. “I don’t understand it either, Buck. Logically, if he wanted to find a female to mate with, you’d think he would just inject them with the serum—or slip it to them some other way—and wait for it to take effect.”

“Unless he’s looking for some very specific quality and none of those females he killed had it,” Jase said thoughtfully.

“Or maybe being turned into a Skin Walker made him crazy,” Reese said in a low voice. “You guys should have seen him—he was taller than a Kodiak bear but his body never really Shifted like ours do. It was fucked up.”

“You say your mate saw the spell cast on him and watched him Shift or change or whatever for the first time?” Jase asked.

Reese nodded. “By the time I came on the scene, he was already in his Skin Walker form. I never saw him looking normal.”

“Your mate is the place to start then,” Jase said. “If she heard the spell, she might know more about what makes him tick . . . or why he’s killing.”

“I’m sure Jo will be happy to talk to you,” Reese said. “But just . . . go easy on the crime scene descriptions okay? Don’t tell her about the ripped up victims—she’s kind of sensitive these days.”

“Sadie’s like that too, and from what Keller’s said, so is Samantha. It’s the Shifter pregnancy hormones,” Mathis growled knowingly. “She’ll be okay—you just have to be extra gentle with her.”

“I’d never be anything else with a female,” Jase said firmly. He looked at the three of them, sitting around the bar drinking so companionably and felt a surge of envy. “You’re all lucky sons of bitches, you know that? Every one of you has a mate and a baby on the way. I wish Lady Moon would bless me so generously.”

Keller cocked an eyebrow at him.

“You getting tired of playing the field, Wolf?”

“Yeah,” Reese chimed in. “Now that you’re a detective I would’ve thought you’d be getting all kinds of tail—literally.”

Jase shrugged uneasily.

“You know how the Dire Wolf community is—lots of arranged marriages and not many free females. I guess I could mate a norm or a Shifter-sympathizer but, well . . .” He shook his head. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

“Well, maybe somebody new will come along,” Mathis said consolingly. “I never thought there would be another female for me after my first mate died. But Lady Moon had other plans.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with her even if Miss Right did come along just now,” Jase said seriously. “I’ve got my hands full with this case—no time for romance.”

“Spoken like a male mated to his job,” Keller said grinning.

“Just telling the truth. I wouldn’t have time for a female now even if she ran right into my arms.” Jase held out his arms as though catching an invisible woman.

“Well, you never can tell what might happen.” Reese gave him a knowing smile. “Come on, let’s go down to the Cougarville Chemist and I’ll ask Jo to tell you what she knows.”

“Appreciate it.” Jase nodded to the other two Shifters. “Guess we’d better get going. Thanks for the hospitality and the help, Keller.”

“You’re more than welcome. Let me know if you need my contacts.”

“Will do.” Jase nodded gratefully. He was going to find this serial killing bastard and make him pay for Mrs. Hannigan and all the other females he’d killed so savagely . . . make him pay so hard he’d wish he was never born.

Somewhere out there, the Skin Walker was stalking another female, but Jase swore to himself there wasn’t going to be a fourth victim. Whoever Mr. X’s intended target was, Jase would find her and keep her safe, so help him Goddess.

No matter what he had to do, he would protect her—whoever she was.