Kotara paused outside of her cousin’s suite. Derria Sozi-Pryde and her two mates were like bunnies when it came to sexing. Once she was sure that there was no moaning, screaming or pleading, she knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Derria called.
No way in hell. There were way too many sex hormones in there. The last thing she needed was yet another cold shower from all the “gimme some” those three gave off.
It still amazed Kotara that Derria had gone on a typical hunt for the Shifter and Were Armed Tactics agency, S.W.A.T., and come home with not one, but two mates.
Lucky bitch.
Moments later, Lakota Phillips opened the door. Kotara breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was dressed this time. Shifters were the most immodest of creatures when it came to nudity. She was glad that they had a healthy sense of self, but for a single female in a house full of mated shifters, life in the horny department could be a bit...trying.
“Didn’t you hear Derria say it was okay for you to come in?” he asked, with that typical twinkle of mischief in his eye.
“Yep. And for the millionth time, I am not coming in there.”
“I know, I know. Too many pheromones.”
“Damn right. Now if you guys don’t mind, you, Kerr and Derria are wanted downstairs. Library in ten minutes.”
She did a smart about-face and left him standing there looking all gorgeous and puzzled. She almost chuckled, but the reason they were being summoned was no laughing matter.
Kotara hit the staircase at a brisk walk. The chalet-style mansion was a luxurious but homey place. She ran her fingers over the thick swirls carved into the highly polished bannisters. Her gaze was drawn to the Persian-style design woven into the rugs as she moved, her combat boots making no noise on the plush wool carpets.
From the fourth floor down to the first, the beautiful paintings of various cultures and their animal spirit guides called to her. Her thoughts fell back to when she and her sisters were building this place. It was important that they be good stewards of their lands. It was the reason the research laboratories, lovingly called the Labyrinth, were all underground with rolling prairies covering their existence. Each log for the chalet, every tree in the orchard, the plants in the gardens, and the water features—everything had been chosen with care because the design of the estate was meant to fit with the surrounding acreage of the ranch.
Down on the first floor, Kotara headed straight for the library. In the center of the brightly lit room was her favorite piece of equipment—a table made of highly polished aspen. With one tap of the remote embedded in the center, the thing transformed into a literal King Arthur-style Round Table. Thanks to Niah Pryde, it had all the electronic bells and whistles that allowed them to coordinate missions out of this room.
Kotara took a seat closest to the wall of windows that looked out onto the vast snow-covered prairie. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and simply bathed in the sun, appreciating and loathing this place all at once. Moments later, her family began to stroll in—all hunters, the lot of them.
But they were so much more.
Neesia and Niah Pryde were the oldest twins. Neesia was the matriarch and Niah was the technical genius. Pryde Industries’ security division existed solely because of Niah. Their scientific division was all on Kotara and Koreas, who were nicknamed the mad scientist wonder twins. Neesia and Niah sat near Kotara while their mates, Jason DiCaplis and Emmitt Lee Lewis—Lou for short—settled in next to each other.
Derria and Lakota strolled in with their graceful feline steps in sync. Next came their mate, Kerr, the only non-feline, non-hunter in the pride. Koreas entered last, minus her mate. But Kory brought just the slightest hint of him with her, given he was imprinted on her skin.
“Where’s Austin?” Kotara whispered into her twin’s mind.
“Fishing down at the river. You know he hates these briefings because it usually means we’re headed out to chase bad guys. I think he’s becoming more of a mother hen than Neesia.”
Kotara smiled. “You and I both know that’s impossible.”
Looking around the table, Kotara smiled. She loved her family, loved this place—all seventy-seven thousand acres of it. And for the first time in her life, Kotara Pryde wanted to be anywhere but home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Every person in the room was an agent for S.W.A.T., with the exception of Kerr Blackwood, Derria’s second mate. He wasn’t an agent, but his entire pack—or rather, former pack—were expert hunters. In fact, it’s what they, the most ruthless pack of wolves that hailed from the North Carolina mountains, were known for.
Kotara braced herself for the coming conference call. In front of the video screen sat Jason, Neesia, Derria, Lakota and herself. Everyone else remained off-screen for their own safety. The Shifter and Were Armed Tactics agency might make the safety of shifters their top priority, but it was still a bureaucracy. And everyone, shifter or not, knew such organizations eventually became corrupted. So the Pryde’s kept their secrets and their family close at all costs.
Jason jumped right in. “Johns called this meeting. I don’t know why but I believe it has to do with Derria and her mates.”
Kotara cut him a hard glance. Well, she hadn’t seen that coming, but there was very little that eased by either Jason or Neesia. Ever.
“Okay, let’s get down to business,” Jason said as he hit the speakerphone button and the tone of the speed dial filled the large, bright space. The small talk ended and the room went quiet. They all knew the drill, but that didn’t make the instant anxiety dissipate one bit.
On the video screen appeared a stern-faced woman. Dark hair was pulled back into a French braid so tight, Kotara often wondered how her eyes weren’t stretched to mere slits, especially when the woman wore a perpetual scowl.
This was Captain Lola Johns, the crankiest badass director S.W.A.T. ever had, who luckily believed that the Prydes were capable of reeling in the worst of the worst of the shifter world’s offenders.
And she wasn’t wrong. The Pryde’s were very good at their jobs. Very good indeed.
“Captain,” Jason greeted.
With a slight nod, she gave her typical response. “DiCaplis.”
“So what’s going on?” Jason asked. “It’s been months since Derria chased Kerr all the way to the mountains of North Carolina. Surely the trail is completely cold by now. We’ve researched everything we could get our hands on and come up empty on finding whoever set up Kerr.”
“Until now,” Johns replied dryly.
Kotara looked from Neesia to Jason, glad to see their eyes were as wide as her own. Johns spoke into the silence.
“We have a lead, though a rather reluctant one,” she said.
“Reluctant? Why?” Derria’s words were pressed through gritted teeth. Kotara didn’t blame her at all. Someone had done a hell of a job putting her on the trail of her mate in hopes that she’d kill him. And she almost had. Thank the universe for mating pheromones, otherwise her cousin’s hunt would have turned out quite differently. Derria would have executed an innocent man.
“He’ll be reluctant because he’s human and has no idea he’s about to become the focus of a S.W.A.T. investigation,” Johns said.
An eruption of questions, queries and outrage followed the good Captain’s declaration.
“What the hell do you mean?” growled Derria.
“Human? Are you serious?” Jason.
Kotara sucked in a breath, while Neesia glared daggers at the screen.
Johns, ever unflappable, waited. Finally, she dropped the real bomb.
“We occasionally work with the human military when it furthers our own cause. No different than Pryde Industries managing several contracts to provide superior technology to the military and world-class solutions to global biotechnology manufacturers. The only difference is that the assets we manage wear skin—namely our shifters and their military humans.”
So while S.W.A.T.’s job was to keep humans in the dark and safe from rogue Weres, they were working with the humans on the down low? Holy hell, what a bombshell.
“So, what exactly do you mean by ‘the assets you manage wear skin’? You all just check us out like library books or something?” Kotara flinched when Neesia’s foot made contact with her shin. After all, Kotara hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud.
Ignoring her snarky-assed question, Johns continued.
“The military somehow failed to mention that one of their own happened to see Kerr in Idaho. Saw him ride in. Saw him ride out. This human is the one who reported a murder by a rogue Were. He was the one that found the body that was supposedly left to rot by Kerr. But the story around how that body was found doesn’t add up now that we’ve heard Kerr’s side of things, and the evidence doesn’t seem to point to him at all.”
“Dammit, Johns, this just makes it worse,” Derria fumed. “So someone unknown to S.W.A.T. dropped Kerr’s name and we didn’t bother to investigate whether the lead was credible or not? What kind of shoddy police work is that? Someone can accuse a person of murder and they can be declared the perpetrator without any evidence at all? Just shoot first and ask questions later? Or worse, don’t ask questions at all? This is some foul-assed bullshit!”
Kotara looked over at her cousin and wondered if Dare’s head was about to pop off. The natural hue of her skin combined with the blush of anger made the woman look like a caramel apple ready to blow.
“I agree. I admit we dropped the ball on this one—”
“Dropped the ball? I almost killed my fucking mate, and that’s a hell of a ball to drop! And now you’re dropping a bowling ball of a bomb on us just weeks before Christmas?”
Ignoring Derria’s outburst, Captain Johns tossed out another grenade. “I’m going to do something I’ve never done before in my history at S.W.A.T. I’m putting this in your hands to investigate in whatever way you deem best. My only order,” said Johns, “is that neither Derria nor Lakota be allowed on this hunt simply because they might be recognized. And of course Kerr can’t go as he is not part of the agency and is the center of this mess. The rest, you can decide on your own. The human is a man named Harrison Blue. The details have already been transmitted to your comm units. Johns out.”
The screen went black and Johns was gone.
Neesia Pryde looked around the table. “Well, holy fucking hell.”
Yep. That summed it up pretty well.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two days later, Kotara pulled off the main road and onto the trail to Alice Lake in Idaho. The sky was crystal blue and the day super bright, due to the reflection of the sun’s rays off of the thick pristine snow. The stark beauty of the Sawtooth Mountains struck a chord in her soul. To her surprise, the energy of the place reminded her of home.
She cranked up the heat and then tapped her password into her portable comm device. Within moments a familiar voice filled the cab.
“Hey, how are you doing up there? Niah had to duck out so I’m your liaison on this hunt,” Derria said.
“I’m fine. I’m at the coordinates Niah sent to my comm unit.”
“Uh, Tara, I’m showing you’re on a hiking trail,” Derria replied. Sounded like the woman was trying really hard not to laugh.
“Well, it is a hiking trail, Dare.”
“Kotara Ann Pryde!”
“What? You’re acting like normal people don’t take their four-wheel drives on hiking trails or something.”
“Tara?!”
“Oh, pipe down. The weather is crazy right now, so this particular spot is closed anyway.” After a few more minutes of friendly bickering, Kotara slowed the monster she called a truck down to a crawl. “Dare, I can’t go any further in this ride. The drifts are so ridiculous, I can’t tell what’s trail and what’s going to take me off into a ravine or something. I’ll have to pick my way on foot.”
“That’s probably the best option anyway. Captain Johns said that we occasionally work with the military, but she made it pretty clear this mark doesn’t count. We don’t want the guy to get wind of the fact that you’re near. If he knew enough about our kind to call in a hit to S.W.A.T. and blame it on Kerr, who knows what else he’s aware of.”
She knew Derria was right. They didn’t know if they were dealing with a matter of a little espionage or simple stupidity. Regardless of the current conundrum, she still didn’t want to leave the warmth of the oversized cab of her ride to romp around in the freezing cold.
But there was no help for it. According to their calculations, she’d have to head into the Sawtooth Mountains and make her way around to the spot where the protected forest bumped up against private property. It might look close on a map, but it was at least ten miles away.
Luckily, that was nothing for a lioness. Her chilled paws wouldn’t thank her, but she’d get the job done anyway. She pulled completely off the trail and eased into a small stand of trees to hide her vehicle. Snow was falling again in earnest so she wasn’t worried about covering tire tracks.
Kotara hopped down to the ground and turned slow circles. The terrain was amazing. Sure, she was familiar with snow. After all, she lived on the plains of Wyoming where they received plenty of the white stuff every winter, but this took the concept of snow to a whole new level. In fact, this was damn ridiculous.
“Whoa! Is that a glacier?” she wondered aloud. “Holy shit!”
She really was in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of winter, in the middle of icicle hell, barely a week before the holidays. Had she really signed up for this crap? Just how was she going to find a human way out here anyway? Surely the guy had more sense than to camp out among nothing but trees and glaciers, right?
Well, only one way to find out.
She yanked her gear bag out of the back seat, walked a short distance and dropped it on the snow-covered ground. Off came one boot, followed by a thick wool sock. She forced herself not to hop around on one foot as she removed the remaining one. Shoes and socks were carefully placed into her bag on top of her weapons, electronics and gloves. Next, off went snow pants, silk thermals, jacket and heat-regulating top that she would need to protect her from the cold after she got to her destination.
Kotara strapped her gear bag loosely to her back and fell to her knees. With the power of the change rippling through her being, she ceased to feel the acute cold that had snapped through her body when she’d removed her clothes.
A powerful shifter, as all Pryde’s were, Kotara relished the flash of unexplainable magical energy that lit the blood in her veins. As her body lengthened and reshaped itself, the muscles burned with an ecstasy that was just short of an intense high. She loved who she was, what she was. And right now, she would do what she did best.
Hunt.
Moments after stripping naked in the mountains of Idaho, a three-hundred-pound lioness loped off, headed toward the asshole that made it necessary for her to be out here in the first place. In her mind’s eye, she imagined what she would do when she caught up to him. Yep, a bite in the ass was definitely in order.