“She’s a what?”

Cazador held his mobile phone out from his ear, pissed at the wolf shifter’s shout.  He spoke at the phone. “Just so you know, Mateo, my wolf hearing is possibly better than yours. Don’t do that again.”

“Sorry,” Mateo, his contact at the Black River Pack headquarters in South America, muttered. “I’m just ... hell.  An ursid hybrid is like ...”

“Finding the impossible,” Cazador filled in calmly.  Unlike his South American client, Cazador didn’t speak with a Spanish accent. He’d been born in Florida, where natives had no accent.  He said, “While natural ursid hybrids definitely exist, ursid hybrid shifters are perhaps the rarest form of shifter imaginable. That makes this one extremely unique and adds significant value to the contract on her.”

Cazador had pulled off the hunt tonight and returned to his truck, parked at the trailhead, for one reason—to cut a better deal. Those two bears didn’t have his wolf vision, which normally drove him to hunt relentlessly at night.

His guess? They would be bedded down until first light. 

“Decide soon, Mateo,” Cazador warned.

Mateo had to be careful or Cazador would keep this ursid hybrid.  Cazador had been brought in to do what the Black River pack wolves operating in the US could not—capture one female bear shifter.

For that he had demanded his usual high sum, but this new development ... deserved a fitting price tag. 

“Do you have pictures?” Mateo asked.

“That is not the kind of shooting I do. When I deliver her, you force her to shift and you will have proof of purchase.  Which brings me to the point for this call.  This is no usual job.”

Mateo’s tone switched gears from surprised to annoyed.  “You’re getting paid five times what anyone else would be paid, plus expenses.”

“True, but I’m ten times better than anyone you could send after them, which means you’re getting a hell of a deal just for a pair of bear shifters.  She is a jewel worthy of high price. Before you stroke out on me, keep in mind the reason I’m paid so well is because I have the patience to always deliver the goods. When dealing with deadly or unusual shifters, not many hunters can say that,” Cazador finished with a smile.

He wasn’t bragging, only stating his value. 

His moniker, El Cazador, translated to The Hunter.  He’d earned it in South America when he tracked down a huge Andean condor shifter. 

Natural vultures had a ten-foot wingspan.

This one could carry off a full-grown man.

The condor shifter had been attacking Black River pack wolves, because one had killed his sister. 

Sixteen dangerous wolves had died before that condor shifter picked Cazador off the ground. The condor shifter was never seen again.

But Cazador didn’t have to argue the point of his value. Mateo already knew it.

If this pack didn’t pay him, Cazador would send them the money they’d wired in advance, plus the outstanding balance they had not yet paid. He’d include a note to consider the contract canceled and the money as payment in full for the ursid hybrid.

Any mercenary contractor would do the same in his shoes.

Many would do far worse to walk away with Elianna, when a Power Baron would hand over an insane amount for this bear shifter.

Myths regarding ursid hybrids might all be hogwash, but myths usually grew from some grain of truth.

“How much?” Mateo asked in a guarded voice.

Cazador gave him a figure and smothered a grin at the wolf’s intake of air. 

Mateo said, “We will pay that, but this may adversely affect your opportunity to do business with the Black River pack in the future.”

“No, it won’t. You run drugs that target our kind and kidnap shifters to use as experiments.  Your pack will always need contract shifter help. What you’ve just done is ensure that I continue to offer my services to your pack.”

Silence followed. Not an uncomfortable kind, at least not on Cazador’s end.  He had preparations to make, so he moved to the next item on his list.  “I need a magic spell.”

“I do not have magic to hand over.”

Sighing, Cazador said, “My time is very valuable and you’re wasting it by lying. Your headquarters in South America provided me with a spell in the past.” He rattled off the name of this man’s superior within the Black River pack. “If you can’t supply it, I’ll contact your upper management directly.”

“You’re a fucker to deal with.”

“There’s no need to get vulgar,” Cazador said in his usual congenial voice. 

“You should have negotiated that in your contract. It will cost extra.”

“I will trade the bodyguard grizzly for the magic spell.  See? I’m saving you money.”

“What if you are unable to deliver him alive?”

“Then I will pay for the spell. I know what they cost. You just get the spell to me in the next six hours or the entire contract will be null and void.”

Cazador would ideally deliver the male bear shifter in trade for the magic, but he would not tolerate a headache to do so. 

Not when the ursid hybrid had just tripled his take.