We’d crossed the border in Laredo all right, but that was no surprise. Border security wasn’t really the issue; what happened to the convoy on the four-hour ride up to Austin was.

I’d been working security for Cooper’s for a few months now. Their trucks had been being raided by gangs after coming up from Mexico, which was really the opposite of what most people would think would happen, but the biker gangs in Southern Texas were getting brazen and had taken to new methods of earning a quick buck. Now, that meant robbing liquor trucks.

An ex-biker myself, I was taken on by Burt, the owner, to watch over the merchandise and handle any potential trouble that might crop up. Most of the time, having a big guy on a big bike with a big gun was enough to discourage any wanna-be Robin Hoods, but there had been a couple of occasions when I’d had to get rough with a few boys.

One of our drivers had insisted on pulling over for a piss and a group of assholes had tried to jump us. They either hadn’t seen me or they’d figured they could take me three-on-one, but I’d taken them to pieces pretty easily. I’d spared their lives and told them to bring my warning back to the rest of whatever Podunk club they belonged to, and let them know that Cooper’s was off limits. We hadn’t seen them again.

It was a risky job that paid shit and most people wouldn’t take, especially at twenty-five, but something had shifted in me last year and I’d started living on the edge—not in a romantic way, but in a way that really had me doubting my own personal sanity.

I never knew my parents and had bounced around in foster care until the age of twelve when I finally ran off. I was big for my age and that let me get work, but it also exposed me to the world a lot faster than I should have been. I grew up quick, got hard, and as a result, kept myself locked away from the world.

I let myself love, once, had my heart broken, and almost lost everything. A nice sweet boy who convinced me to let my guard down, and we both paid dearly. After that, it was Gabriel first and the rest of the world second. But living that way eventually takes its toll on you, and as I rode hard across the dusty Texan savannah, I felt empty—like a shell of a person with a tiny, shriveled-up heart locked away in an old vault, its original purpose gone, just waiting for the day when it would fade from existence. Part of me still believed true love was out there, but that part of me didn’t do much talking these days.

I was hoping the ride home would be uneventful today. Not that I was afraid of trouble—I just didn’t feel like dealing with it. All I wanted was a cold brew and my mattress and a long night of undisturbed sleep. But when I saw the line of kicked-up dust coming up over the horizon, I knew that dream wasn’t going to be realized.

Two bikes, black, with a couple of dickheads on the back in all-black leather were headed towards us. I gave my Harley gas, pulled up beside the truck and hollered.

“Tony! We got incoming!”

Tony caught my reflection in the mirror and glanced out at me. I pointed in the direction of the two goons and he quickly glanced over and saw them too. He looked back and nodded as I braked and pulled back around the other side of the truck. The two guys were getting closer, and by the looks of them, this wasn’t their first rodeo.

Well, it ain’t mine either, I thought as I grabbed Sasha, my double-barrel 12-gauge, from the sling on my back. A lot of bears would look down on the use of weapons when it came to combat, but in my line of work, it wasn’t about pride or machismo, it was about getting the damn job done, and that meant protecting our shipment at all costs.

“Come and get it, assholes!” I shouted as they hit the blacktop. I took aim and fired at the one in the lead. My buck shot chewed open his tire, driving his front forks into the ground and sending him tumbling forward like an out-of-control gymnast.

His bike crashed to the side and I had to swerve around it to keep from going over myself. I thought his buddy might wise up, having seen what had just happened to his partner, but no such luck. I guess he was as brain-dead as the first guy.

He swerved at me like a maniac—I guess thinking he’d knock my front tire out of control and send me over the handlebars, but I hit the brakes and he flew right past me, almost driving straight into the truck. If he went under the wheels, he’d be a goner.

I pulled around the side of him and aimed my shotgun straight at his head. His face went white as a ghost as he stared down both barrels, and I flashed him my most winning smile.

“Leave,” I shouted. It wasn’t clear if he heard me or not, but Sasha did all the talking that was needed. He nodded and eased up off the throttle, drifted back behind me and pulled over to the side of the road. Far, far in the distance, I could see his partner get to his feet, nursing a pretty heavy limp.

Sons of bitches, I thought as I slid Sasha back into her sling behind my back and pulled up beside Tony and flashed him a thumbs up. He was all smiles—as well he should have been.

The rest of the drive back to Austin’s city limits was nice and uneventful. The sun took its time going down over the long, flat horizon, and the air cooled down considerably as we came into town.

Delivery wasn’t part of my job description, so I threw Tony a wave as he pulled into the parking lot of his warehouse and kept going. I got paid up front on jobs like this. I’d been burned once and learned my lesson, and with a nice fat wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket, I gave my bike some gas and sped towards town.

Let’s try someplace new tonight, I thought as I took a turn I’d never taken before. I wasn’t in the mood for the downtown crowd, and drove for a while before coming upon a dive bar on the side of the road.

Bottoms Up, the sign read in flickering red neon.

Real nice, I thought as I approached. An old van and a couple of bikes were pulling away down the road as I turned in and parked, and I couldn’t help but feel like I recognized one of them, but they were already off around the corner before I could get a good look at them. Stowing Sasha in my saddlebag, I switched off my bike and got off. And then it hit me.

“Goddamn!” I gasped out loud as I sniffed the air. It was like Heaven itself had crawled into my nose and set up shop. The most mind-numbingly intense scent I’d ever smelled hit me like a knockout punch from a heavyweight boxer. It was like warm banana nut bread that made my dick instantly grow a couple inches inside my jeans.

And it was everywhere, swimming around the parking lot and tracing a line into the parking lot and straight into the bar. I knew instantly what it was—it was the scent of my fated mate. There was no mistaking it. It was just one of those things that shifters knew—and you couldn’t know until you ran into it, which I’d just done.

Fuck me sideways, I thought as I raced towards the dive bar. I practically shoved the door off its hinges as I barged inside and looked around. My mouth was watering as I searched for the source of the scent, but the bar was empty. Not a single soul in sight.

“Hey!” I shouted, walking quickly to the bar. “Hey, where is everybody?”

And then I saw him, a beta, probably somewhere in his twenties, with short brown hair, lying behind the bar with a bloody nose and a big ol’ shiner on his left eye.

“You’re looking at us,” he grumbled, dabbing at his split lip with a bloody napkin. I sniffed the air, but he wasn’t the owner of the scent.

“The fuck happened here?” I asked him.

“The Jackals happened,” he replied, spitting blood onto the mat.

I froze. “What? The Galloping Jackals?”

“The same,” he nodded. “You know ‘em?”

Know ‘em, I thought. I should say so. I used to be one!

“That scent,” I continued. “The banana nut bread. Who is that?”

“That’s Percy,” he groaned as he struggled to his feet. I went around the bar and gave him a hand to help him up.

“And where is Percy?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.

“They took him,” he replied, waving to the door as he leaned on the bar.

“Let me guess. Three of them?”

The boy nodded. “How’d you know?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I told him, heading for the door.

“Hey! What are you going to do?”

“I’m going after them,” I replied as I stepped back outside and slung my leg over my bike. “And they have no idea what they’ve just gotten themselves into.”