Chapter 1
Axtyn cracked his knuckles as he stared down at the fights from the glass-enclosed room where Wallace, his boss and the owner of the warehouse they were in, was watching the fights with bored disinterest. Axtyn wasn’t allowed to fight anymore. As a minotaur shifter, he was stronger and faster than most shifters and had won nearly every fight he’d ever been in. But then he’d reached age twenty-four, and his control over his shift had started to deteriorate. When he got enraged, especially during a fight, he’d suddenly shift into his minotaur and slaughter his opponent. Two males had brutally died at his hands and Wallace now refused to allow him to fight, giving him a job as his personal bodyguard instead.
He wished he could have a straight job somewhere, but because he was a rare shifter, he didn’t share what he was with anyone. Employers weren’t interested in hiring someone if they thought he was keeping secrets. Axtyn hadn’t told Wallace what he was, and Wallace hadn’t cared because he was a good fighter and made a lot of money for him. But when he’d shifted during a fight, the truth had come out. He’d never met another minotaur shifter outside of his own family, and he was the last one. His mother had died shortly after he was born, and his father was killed in a fighting ring when he was a teenager. So he’d kept to himself for a long time, honing his fighting skills and living off his savings until he had no choice but to find work.
He’d ended up with Wallace, first fighting in the illegal underground were-fights, and now simply a spectator.
There was a loud crack, followed by a howl, which brought his attention back to the ring. Two wolf shifters were trying to beat each other into submission. One’s arm had been broken so severely that Axtyn could see the white bone sticking out from his skin. The other male howled triumphantly and Wallace grunted.
“I knew that one was a beast.”
“Good thing you bet on him,” Axtyn said.
“Well, I always bet on a sure thing.”
“Is there such a thing?” he asked, glancing at his boss.
“I would’ve said there was with you, but you turned out to be very unpredictable. I’m sure you’d still win any fight, but you’d be killing opponents instead of just beating them, and that’s not good for business.”
Axtyn resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“Hey boss?” Stan, one of Wallace’s employees, said as he came into the booth. “That hyena isn’t here. No one’s seen him.”
Axtyn’s brows rose. There was only one hyena shifter who fought for Wallace, a male named Ian. He had a chip on his shoulder a mile wide, the sort of heavy weight a male carried when his past was too much to bear alone but he couldn’t risk sharing it. He’d never spoken to the male, but considered him honorable – he never tried to cheat in the fights or go too far with his opponents. And he was a big earner for Wallace, which would certainly be an issue if he didn’t show up to fight.
Not that Axtyn cared too much about the minutia of other peoples’ lives. He had a lot going on in his own life to worry about, the sort of stuff that kept him up at night and made him wonder at every new dawn if that would be the day that he’d shift and permanently become a monster.
He needed to find his truemate before that happened, but he didn’t even know where to begin to look for her. He hoped that they would cross paths soon, before he lost himself to the beast.
Permanently.
* * *
Brierley Pine woke up to the sound of voices in the family room of the cabin she shared with her human friend, Angel. Her bedroom door was shut, but since she was an owl shifter, she had excellent hearing and could pick up the muffled words through the door. Angel and her hyena mates were talking about were-fights, whatever those were.
She looked up at the ceiling, watching as the moonlight through the window made pale blue patterns on the surface. She and Angel had shared a cabin since they’d come to the Clear Water Campground in January.
Her bedroom was small, but she loved it. She hadn’t minded letting Angel have the largest bedroom; she’d just been happy to have a friend and a place to work and live. As an owl shifter, she’d grown up thoroughly sheltered and under the thumb of the king owl and their archaic beliefs and laws. Her body hadn’t really been her own, and when she was twenty-one, he’d arranged a mating for her – to a male who had beaten his first mate to death. When Bliss, a non-shifting wolf female, stumbled into the owl’s territory, she’d set Brierley free and brought her back to New Jersey to live. But the pack alpha hadn’t wanted Brierley there, and if it weren’t for Angel stepping in and offering to help her get to the campground for a job, she probably would’ve wound up homeless, jobless, and friendless.
But that hadn’t happened. She and Angel had come to the campground, and Ally and her family had welcomed them both with open arms. For the first time in her life, Brierley didn’t have to be afraid for her future, because she could make her own choices. It was a heady feeling.
She turned on her side and yawned, closing her eyes. As sleep claimed her, she became aware of a feeling of falling, wind rushing around her and cold rain splashing against her. Her feet hit solid ground, and she straightened and looked around, peering through murky darkness as the rain fell faster and blurred her vision. She could smell blood and sweat, and a weird combination of testosterone and fear that saturated the air. A door opened, lit from within, and she hurried to it to escape the rain. The scents were stronger here: More blood. More sweat. Much more fear. She found herself in a plain room. The light she’d seen from outside was coming from down a set of stairs.
A compulsion settled over her. She walked down the steps, aware that she was dreaming, but feeling as if something more important was going on than an average dream. As she walked down the steps, she inhaled and sorted through the scents, finding one that intrigued her. It was like leather and vanilla, manly but sweet, and wholly enticing. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she found herself in an enormous concrete room. There were boxing rings scattered around the space, and she wondered if she was in a building belonging to a fight club. Something moved in her peripheral vision. She turned, her owl ready if she should need to shift and fly away.
A male appeared. He was shirtless, with a darkly tanned body that was ripped with muscles. On the inside of his right forearm was a tattoo, a string of black symbols she didn’t recognize. Obsidian hair, eyes that glittered like rubies, and shining horns that curved above his ears made every fiber of her being seize in wonder. He towered over her, and the heady scent of leather and vanilla surrounded him and saturated her.
His large hand settled on the small of her back, and he drew her close, lowering his head until his lips were just a whisper from hers.
“Who are you?” she murmured.
“Yours,” he said, his gruff voice making her heart sing.
“Where are you?”
“I’ll find you, I promise.”
He sealed his lips over hers, and her owl hooted in happiness. Butterflies flew into a frenzy in her belly and her nerve endings snapped to life. This male was hers, and so help her she wanted every inch of him, in every possible way. Everything began to shimmer around them as the kiss broke, and she found herself grasping at him.
“No! Don’t leave me!” she cried out as he slowly faded.
“I’ll find you,” he said, his voice a low echo.
He disappeared, and she felt the rush of wind surround her as she came out of the dream and back to her bedroom. Her pillow was wet with tears, and her heart ached. She rolled to her back with a groan and rubbed her eyes to dispel the wetness. She didn’t even know his name, but she knew they’d meet. He promised he would find her, and she trusted him.
He was her mate, after all.