Mate Claimed

And there were many Shifters, Eric though silently, who didn’t care what happened to humans. Humans walked a knife-edge, and they didn’t even know it.

“What do you think?” Eric asked Graham. “Burn the place to the ground before we go?”

“Sounds good to me. Lots of acetylene and gas around here. Make a nice little inferno.”

Kellerman looked at the faces surrounding him. Eric saw him realize that they weren’t joking—Eric, for one, did not intend to let this building or anything in it remain.

“You f**king bastards,” Kellerman said hotly. “This is years of work. Science. And money. My money.”

“Can we stop talking?” Graham asked. “And start torching?”

“Wait.” Iona stepped forward. “What about Eric? What did your files on Shifter research tell you was done to him?”

“I’m not a scientist,” Kellerman said testily. “I don’t have all the details. But he was part of this—he and some others. They were messing around with chemical cocktails, bioengineering, trying to see if they could turn regular Shifters into killing machines, but under their direct control. Those experiments didn’t work.” He gave Eric a small smile. “They said you were too old. Their notes said they were annoyed that they had to work on you, not your son.”

Eric went cold. Twenty years ago, Jace had been a true cub, a little over ten years old, and scared about the move to Shiftertown and taking the Collar. And these people had wanted to change Jace into something like Tiger Man, who was standing motionlessly behind Kellerman, the rage in his eyes mirroring what Eric felt.

“And then they were ordered to cease,” Kellerman went on, oblivious of his danger.

He was counting too much on his backup, who were taking their time. Eric remembered Diego’s grim enthusiasm about causing a diversion at the front gate if necessary, and he wondered if Diego was taking care of that.

“I imagined it pissed them off,” Eric said. “But not as much as it pissed me off.”

Something in Eric’s voice made Kellerman take a step back. Iona growled, with her panther’s anger, and Kellerman’s eyes widened suddenly. “Son of a bitch. You’re one of them! Ms. Duncan, you’re a Shifter.”

Instinctively, Eric stepped in front of Iona. “A fact that you’ll forget.”

“The hell I will.” Kellerman looked both disgusted and gleeful. “You’re going down, woman. You’ve been Collarless all this time, which is against about fifteen laws. Your pretty little mom is going down too, for not reporting that a Shifter got her pregnant—or is she a Shifter too? What about your sister?”

Iona tried to get around Eric. “You leave them the hell alone.”

“Control her, ass**le,” Kellerman snarled.

His words were drowned by a long, low growl, one of terrible menace that rattled the broken glass all over the room.

Tiger Man had come to life, the big man’s stance radiating that he did not like Kellerman threatening Iona. At all.

Kellerman blanched. He came out of his daze and tried to get to Graham, reaching for the tranq rifle Graham still held.

Graham back-stepped out of the way, but before he could bring the rifle around to shoot Kellerman with it, Tiger, with a roar that filled the room, slammed himself into Kellerman.

“Graham!” Eric shouted.

Graham aimed the rifle, but the tiger had Kellerman pinned beneath him, Kellerman screaming as they grappled. Tiger shifted to his cat, a Bengal twice the size of a regular tiger. He’d been bred to be stronger than other Shifters—a killer, Kellerman had said.

Eric changed to his half beast and sprang into the fray—he saw Graham shove the tranq gun at Iona and shift to half wolf.

He and Graham tried to pull the tiger off Kellerman, but the tiger was far gone in rage, taking out his long life of fear, pain, and loneliness on Kellerman. Tiger fought for himself, for his dead cub, and for Iona, the first person to try to give him his freedom.

Kellerman screamed as claws ripped into him, peeling flesh from his bones and bloodying the floor. The tiger slashed in hard, rapid strokes, then dove to latch his teeth around Kellerman’s throat.

Eric heard the thunk of the tranq rifle, and Tiger Man shuddered. He let go of Kellerman, and Kellerman fell in a limp heap, his head bloody and lolling.

Iona stood over them, holding the tranq rifle ready. Eric and Graham together grabbed the tiger and hauled him off Kellerman. The tiger landed on his side, still awake, his black and orange sides heaving.

Kellerman was a mess. The smug face that Eric had often wanted to punch was now a bloody pulp, the man’s breath coming in bubbling gasps.

“I can get him to an emergency room,” Reid said.

Eric nodded and moved aside to let him, but Kellerman raised his head and glared at Eric. “Fucking Shifter bastards,” he whispered, then the life went out of his eyes, and he slumped back to the floor.

“Shit,” Graham said.

Eric studied Kellerman, the Shifter in him feeling glee, the man in him relieved that Kellerman would not now be able to expose Iona. He reached down and closed Kellerman’s eyes.

“The Goddess go with you,” he said quietly.

From outside, they heard the wail of sirens, security police, Kellerman’s backup finally arriving.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

“This can blow up on us, Warden,” Graham said.

Eric got to his feet. He took the rifle from Iona, who still stood where she’d fired the bolt into the tiger, her face too pale.