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Chasing Cindy Pt. 01

By: shirleyann



My name is Cindy, and I'm a female shape shifter. This is my story. Mating customs and the way the cosmic forces of the universe designed us non humans just flat out sucks for women. It doesn't matter what kind of shifter you are. 

Female shifters can't sense others of our kind unless we're in our animal forms. And that means that we can be in a room full of people who appear to be human, but aren't. 

Males, on the other hand...as fate would have it, can tell immediately if someone is a shifter. And when a female is in her animal form, they can tell if she's their fated mate. 

Most male shifters are man whores who enjoy their ability to be able to have sex with as many women as possible. 

The fact that they become impotent with any female that isn't their mate once they meet 'the one'...is the only bit of justice that I can see in the way our world works. 

Females don't actually get the mating call. Only men. And once our true mate forms a bond with us by biting us and drinking our blood at the height of sex, we become slaves to that connection. 

That's why female shifters like me rarely take our animal forms. We like our freedom, especially since the males outnumber us significantly. No one knows why so few females are born. 

Contrary to what a lot of movies and books say, humans can't be the fated mates of shifters. Which means that they can't have children together. 

In her infinite wisdom or stupidity, mother nature decided that shifters could only produce offspring with other shifters. 

The elders of our species think that's why humans can't be transformed into shifters, which is another myth that has been romanticized by endless works of erotic fiction. 

I could fall in love with a human man, but I could never have kids with him. And let's not forget that my true mate could come along some day and claim me, whether I like it or not. 

It wouldn't matter if I was a happily married woman and was madly in love with my husband. My mate would most likely kill the man I was with, and I wouldn't even be able to hate him for it once the mating bond was formed between us. 

I hate the fact that a perfect stranger could basically erase any feelings that I could have for another man with one, life changing bite. So...I don't date. I have sex. Often. 

My human friend, Rachel, who is a bigger slut than I am...tells me that the key to happiness is to keep my heart closed and my legs open. Words to live by, huh? 

I could never accuse Rachel of being a romantic. She was married. But her husband cheated on her with her sister on their first anniversary. 

That killed any notions she had of happily ever after or of men being capable of being faithful. I couldn't blame her. 

I couldn't even find it within my own heart of stone to feel sorry for the genuinely nice guys who were drawn to her like moths to flames. Rachel insisted that men always cheat...sooner or later. 

And I didn't have enough experience with having any sincere affection for any of the men I had been with to care what or who they did when we weren't together. 

All I could hope to do was avoid coming across my mate as long as possible, because life as I knew it would be over once he claimed me. No more one night stands. 

No more independence. I would be compelled by the bond to obey my mate. And I'd rather be dead than get turned into a slave. 

Rachel didn't know what I was. Telling humans what we are is frowned upon. We're told all of our lives to blend in and keep our secrets. 

Hiding in plain sight is a way of life for shifters. It isn't as if we go around wreaking havoc on humans in our animal forms. Except for the rogues. 

Rogues are shifters without families or packs who roam the world doing exactly as they please. They are always being hunted for being too violent. And for letting humans see them in the midst of a partial shift. 

A partial shift is when one of us is half human and half animal. Needless to say, it upsets people. And it gives the more fanatic ones far too much proof of our existence. Yep. Rogues are a pain in the ass for all of us. 

~∞~ 

I left my little apartment to go to the bar where I worked as a waitress. Logan would be there tonight. I had the biggest crush on him. 

Tall, muscular, and blonde...he was the whole package. We had been flirting with each other ever since I started working there. 

"Hi, baby." He said when I walked up to him at the door. Logan was one of the club's bouncers. Most of the time, his looks alone were enough to intimidate people. 

But he was never anything but gentle and kind to me. I couldn't imagine being afraid of the big guy. I had only been working at the bar for a month. 

The chemistry between the two of us had been instant. As usual, it took a few weeks for me to get past my initial apprehension at being attracted to a new man. 

Male shifters almost always told me what they were pretty quickly when I met them, bragging about their prowess and trying to get me to sleep with them. But I knew the truth. 

Shifters are much stronger than humans. And we tend to be...enthusiastic when it comes to sex. That means that when we're fucking a human, we have to be more careful. It's never a good thing to break one of them. 

For all of our shameless flirting, Logan had yet to ask me out on a date. I had made sure that he didn't have a girlfriend or a wife. I might be easy, but I'm no home wrecker. 

As scary as Logan looked, there was a shyness about him that lured me in. I figured that I was going to have to be the one to make the first move. And I wasn't used to that. I had been blessed with great genetics. 

My soft curves were an asset that I fully embraced. I had no desire to be rail thin. And thanks to my full breasts, I had no need for the surgical enhancements that so many human women indulged in. 

Logan was always complimenting me. He liked my blonde hair and hazel eyes. And the fact that my uniform consisted of barely there clothes wasn't lost on him. He made me feel sexy without making me feel dirty. 

"Hi, handsome." I answered, smiling up at him. "How's the crowd so far tonight?" I asked. 

Logan shrugged his shoulders. "Not too busy yet. But it's still early." 

I decided then and there to make my interest in taking our relationship past harmless flirting known. I just hoped he wouldn't turn me down. Surely, a man that good looking had a different woman in his bed every night. 

"Hey, Logan..." I began nervously. He noticed the anxious look in my eyes, and I suddenly had his undivided attention. "Would you go out on a date with me?" There. I did it! 

He was clearly surprised at first, but he quickly smiled at me and put his hands on my shoulders. I couldn't tell what he was thinking as he looked at me. 

"I don't think a woman has ever asked me out before." He answered. 

Was that a good thing? I didn't know how to reply to his statement, so I just stood there awkwardly waiting for him to say yes or no. 

When he leaned down and kissed me on the cheek, I was sure he was about to turn me down. "I'd love to go on a date with you." He finally said. 

I was so relieved that I let out a long breath I hadn't realized I was holding. He laughed, and I couldn't help but join him. 

He took a business card for the bar out of his pocket and wrote his phone number on the back of it. "You can reach me after about 2 pm most days." He said as he gave it to me. "I'm a late sleeper." He added when I tucked the card into my purse. 

"I guess I better get inside before the boss thinks I came late." I said. Feeling bold, I reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips. 

His eyes lit up with delight and mischief for a moment before his attention was taken away from me by the line that was starting to form behind me. 

My boss was scowling at me as I hurried to put my purse in my locker. I was too new to risk pissing him off, but I wasn't technically late. I gave him a weak smile as I passed him on my way back out to the bar. 

I knew my night wasn't going to go well when I saw that my first customer was a woman who had been making a pest of herself almost since I started my job. 

I sighed as I approached her table, having no choice but to talk to her because she made damn sure she was sitting in my section. I plastered on a fake smile and asked to take her order. 

"Hello Cindy. It's so nice to see you again." The woman said. What a crock. There was nothing nice about having to deal with this woman. She was the only shifter I ever met who was a hooker. 

Of course, the woman preferred to be called an escort. Whatever. If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...then it's probably a duck. Or a tramp, in this case. I had no right to judge her. I didn't exactly have a moral leg to stand on. 

But this chick had somehow found out that I was also a shifter, and she had been pestering me relentlessly to come work for her. 

She was showing up more and more often, despite my refusal to consider what she called a generous financial offer. 

She had told me that most of her clientele were male shifters, because females of our kind were so hard to come by. The woman insisted that her customers understood that biting the escorts was strictly forbidden. 

She didn't want to fall into the lap of her mate any more than the men who paid her for sex wanted to get tied down to one woman. 

She assured me that it was an easily arrived at understanding, and that the money was vastly better than what I was making working at the bar. 

It isn't as if I've never entertained the thought of being a call girl. I love sex. And under the right circumstances, the money was probably great. 

But I had promised myself that even if I got that desperate...that I would never have a pimp. Or in this case, a madam. 

This time, the woman had brought a man with her. He was standing behind her chair, looking like the incredible hulk without the green skin and constant scowl. He was staring at me with barely contained lust. 

When the woman saw the two of us make eye contact, she smiled wickedly and clearly thought I might be interested in him. I could almost see the dollar signs flashing in her eyes. Stupid bitch. I only had eyes for one bouncer. 

"This is Ricardo." The woman said, gesturing to the man behind her. He gave me a lecherous grin and nodded his head in my direction. Was that supposed to be a greeting? Yuck. 

"Can I get you a drink?" I asked him, refusing to be anything but professional. 

What I really wanted to do was tell them both to leave. But I couldn't do that if I wanted to keep my meager job. And the woman knew it. 

Ricardo ordered a whiskey on the rocks, and the woman ordered a dry martini. I scurried away from their table as fast as I could without making it too obvious that I was desperate to put some distance between us. 

When I came back with their drinks, Ricardo was sitting at the table with the woman. But he was quickly scanning their surroundings every few seconds. It wasn't something that humans would probably notice. But my sharp senses saw it. 

"Veronica told me that you've been asking her how she knew you weren't human." Ricardo said without making the slightest effort to keep his voice down. 

But the bar was loud enough that no one else paid any attention to what he was saying. I had asked Veronica several times how she knew that I was a shifter, since I knew damn well that she couldn't tell on her own. 

"I was here the first night you started working." He continued, looking less like a simple bodyguard and more like a smug pimp by the second. I could feel panic starting to set in, but I stood my ground and didn't let my fear show. 

"Do you know how rare female shifters are?" He asked me with a menacing smile. 

I nodded my head, and I knew I was in trouble. Veronica wasn't a madam. She was just one of this guy's working girls. 

And the reality of the amount of danger I was in almost had me screaming bloody murder for Logan. But I didn't know if Logan was human or not. 

It wasn't the kind of thing I could just ask him. He'd think I was nuts if he wasn't a shifter. And I didn't want to involve him in this. 

"I tried to let Veronica work her magic with you." Ricardo said. "To get you to come to me on your own." Veronica was practically cowering in her seat, not even daring to make eye contact with the man. 

"When I saw you that night and sensed that you were a shifter, I just had to have you in my stable." He added. His stable? What did this fucker think I was? A horse?! 

My anger rose up in me and I glared at him. If this scum bag thought for one second that I was going to just come along quietly and be his docile little slut, then he had another thing coming. 

"You have spirit!" Ricardo bellowed, amused at my obvious defiance. Clearly, he was used to women bowing at his feet in fear. He didn't know who he was dealing with. 

He suddenly stood up and came around the table until he was right in front of me. It took every ounce of courage I possessed to resist running away from him. I didn't even break eye contact with the prick. 

He was the one glaring then. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you." 

When he grabbed my arm, my fragile composure finally crumbled and I screamed at the top of my lungs. That got the attention of some of the people in the bar, despite the noise. 

My boss came rushing over, and Ricardo let go of me. "What's the problem here Cindy?" My boss asked. 

He was kind of an ass, but I understood why his mood was always so black. He was a mated shifter whose wife had died in a fire. 

Shifters only ever got one fated mate. So, when Mr. Jameson's wife passed away...he fell apart. The only thing that kept him going was his kids and his bar. 

He said I was the first female shifter that he had met in ten years, and he promised to try to look out for me. 

But that didn't mean that he had a sunny disposition. It only meant that he wouldn't try to get in my pants. 

"Did you get their drinks wrong or something?" Mr. Jameson asked me angrily. "Speak up, girl!" 

Ricardo was grinning like the Cheshire cat and Veronica looked like she might crawl under the table at any moment. Tears were filling my eyes, and I knew then that my jerk of a boss wasn't going to be of any help. 

"This man is propositioning me, Mr. Jameson." I said, hoping that honesty might get me some help. "I said no, and he grabbed me." 

Ricardo didn't bother denying it. It was clear that he wasn't concerned about anything that my boss might do. 

And that's where he made a mistake. Mr. Jameson was a bit of a jerk, but he was also a male shifter who had promised to look after me. 

The look of dismissal that Ricardo was giving him was the match that lit a fuse in my boss. He was the alpha in his establishment. 

And he wasn't about to let another man step on his toes. Even if that man was obviously younger and stronger than he was. 

"Is that true?" Mr. Jameson asked in an icy tone of voice. 

The fact that my boss was even giving Ricardo a chance to deny my accusation had me just about ready to quit my job on the spot. 

Why the fuck would I lie? I was instantly reminded by their little pissing contest of why I kept to myself so much. 

"It's true." Ricardo said with pride. "I offered her another job. And she's going to take it. She won't be working for you anymore." 

That had Mr. Jameson seeing red. I could almost see steam coming out of his ears. He turned his furious gaze on me, which only served to piss me off even more. I don't know why I was surprised that he was so quick to take a stranger's side over mine. 

"You're quitting?!" He yelled in my face. 

Ricardo burst into laughter, thrilled with his ability to fuck up my life without even trying. And without me giving in to his demands. If I thought I could have kicked him in the balls without getting beaten up, I would have done it. 

"No!" I yelled right back at him. He was surprised at my outburst. "This piece of shit is a shifter pimp. And he's trying to get me to be one of his hookers. I said no." I said as calmly as I could before I turned my hostility on Ricardo. 

I could see by the look on his face that Ricardo was restraining his rage by the skin of his teeth. I wasn't giving him the respect and fear that he obviously thought he deserved. And that wasn't going to change any time soon. 

Finally, Mr. Jameson came to his senses and called Logan over. I wasn't so sure that was such a good idea. Could Logan take on Ricardo? They were similar in size. But Ricardo was a pimp. 

And that meant that he had other men working for him, as well as money and connections if he was turning out shifter women. Fuck. I didn't want to cause problems for my boss or for Logan. 

Logan was by my side in an instant. His protective instincts and his more than professional interest in me were obvious when he placed a hand on my lower back. Both Ricardo and Mr. Jameson noticed his possessive display. 

"Is there a problem, sir?" He asked my boss. 

"This man is leaving." Mr. Jameson said, pointing at Ricardo. "He's not to return. Ever." The older man practically growled. 

Victoria jumped out of her chair like it was on fire when Ricardo snapped his fingers at her as if she was a dog. 

She rushed to his side, lowering her eyes to the ground in a clear sign of submission. It disgusted me to see another woman so broken. 

"I'll see you around Cindy." Ricardo said. "Soon." 

His words sent his ice through my veins. I saw his statement for the warning that it was. His point was clear. I could be a willing participant, or I would be a prisoner. Shit. 

At least he couldn't tell what kind of shifter I was in my human form. It was one of the few advantages that females had. Other shifters couldn't tell what our animal halves were until we actually took that form. 

And I was one of the rarest breeds...a panther. I had never met anyone like me outside of my own family. 

I longed for the protection and comfort of my parents and my brother. But a cage forged by love was still a cage. So, I had left my home to make a life for myself. 

Logan left me with Mr. Jameson to escort Ricardo and Veronica out of the bar. He didn't seem thrilled with leaving me. 

But at least he'd be removing the immediate threat to me. And, I guess...that was enough for the moment. 

~∞~ 

"I wasn't about to give that cocky son of a bitch the satisfaction of seeing me quit in front of him." I said sadly. I hung my head in defeat, knowing that I would still have to leave. 

Mr. Jameson knew it too. The bar was a public, busy place. And even if he could keep Ricardo out, that didn't meant that he wouldn't catch me sooner or later. I was no longer safe. 

Logan found me in Mr. Jameson's office. I was in the middle of having an emotional breakdown once my boss and I were behind closed doors. I was taken aback when Logan pulled me into his arms and held me while I cried a river. 

I don't think I had ever seen Mr. Jameson look so uncomfortable. He had never been very nice to me. But he hadn't been a total jerk either. Clearly he didn't know what to do with a blubbering woman. 

"I'm sorry." I said as my sobs finally subsided. 

Mr. Jameson went to his desk and used a key to unlock one of the drawers. He took a thick stack of money out and handed it to me. I just stood there trying to compose myself while I stared at the money with my mouth open. 

"Mr. Jameson?" I asked while I dried my tears. I'm sure my expression showed the total confusion I was feeling. 

"I'm so sorry Cindy." He replied with a grimace. "I didn't know there was another male shifter in the area staking his territory." He physically put the money he was holding in my hand. 


Chasing Cindy Pt. 01



It occurred to me then that my boss just spoke about another shifter in the same room as Logan. Did that mean that he was one of us? Shit. My senses never seemed to be right about this. I was hoping he was human. 

"The sneaky bastard must be pretty new in the area, or I would have known about him by now. And the fact that I haven't heard a peep means that he must have some powerful connections." He added. 

I was getting more confused by the minute. I knew that male shifters tended to be territorial. But Mr. Jameson? He had never seemed like the alpha type to me. 

I knew that male shifters would be drawn to me wherever I was. But that was true wherever a female of my kind lived. There was no getting around it. It was a fact of life if I didn't want to live under a rock. 

Mr. Jameson seemed to be reading my mind as he ran his fingers through his gray hair. He became more agitated as he paced his small office. Anxiety was rolling off of him in waves, and I felt bad for being the cause of him being so upset. 

"I'm not an alpha." He finally told me. "Which means that I can only keep you safe in my own bar. My territory ends at the door." That fact seemed to piss him off immensely. 

"I understand, Mr. Jameson. But I don't think it's right for me take your money. It's not your fault that I became a target for a pimp." I said. 

I finally looked up at Logan, who had been silently listening to our conversation as he held me. He let go of me and took several steps away from me to lean against the closed door of the office. I had never felt threatened by him, until then. 

"I called in Logan to work here as security after I hired you. He started the day before you did." Mr. Jameson said. 

"Why?" I asked him, not bothering to hide the suspicion in my voice. 

I was in full on defense mode. All female shifters possessed a strong flight or fight instinct, and I was ready to bolt. 

But I was stuck in what was starting to feel like a shot glass. And my only way out was being blocked by the very man that I had asked out only an hour earlier. 

"Logan is a shifter." My boss explained. "I needed to be sure you would be safe, and I knew that things were too busy here for me to look after you properly myself." 

I looked at Logan then with a combination of hurt feelings and raw female rage in my eyes. "So, all the flirting? You were only being nice to me because it was your job?" 

Logan frowned and shook his head. "No, baby. I really do like you. I wasn't being paid to get close to you. I swear it. Your boss hired me to look out for you, but the connection that we've developed over the past few weeks is real." 

I didn't know if I could believe him. We hadn't had the chance to have any deep conversations yet. I liked him. 

I was attracted to him. But the fact of the matter was that I didn't know him well enough to decide if he was being sincere. 

"None of this matters now." I said, turning back to face Mr. Jameson. "I'll pay you back as soon as I can." 

I was about to ask Logan to get out of my way, when something occurred to me. "Will that man follow me out of the city? How far do I have to go to get off his radar?" 

Mr. Jameson leaned heavily against his desk. He looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. When he looked at me, I wasn't sure I wanted him to answer me anymore. 

"I honestly don't know. I didn't know that anyone was recruiting female shifters to be prostitutes. Like I told you...you're the first one I've met in years. The thought of our women being forced into such a life turns my stomach." 

I believed him. I knew he had a daughter, which was such a rarity that I was surprised he wasn't off living in a cave somewhere. But he had told me once that he didn't want to turn his kids into prisoners in their own home. 

So, he and his son were allowing his daughter to think that she was living a normal life, while they made sure that she was being watched over and protected at all times. 

The poor, naive girl had no idea that she was being sheltered so completely from all of the horrors of being a shifter female. I knew that would change if she ever came across her mate. 

"I would have assumed that the women working for Ricardo were doing it willingly, but the look on the face of the woman he was with once I figured out that he was her pimp blew that theory out of the water." I said. 

Shit. Now I had no idea how far Ricardo's reach extended. But I understood that there must be big money for a pimp who could offer shifter women. 

We could handle much harsher treatment than humans, and I had no doubt that there were plenty of shifter males who had no qualms about paying for sex with one of us. 

And even if I managed to outrun Ricardo, there would be others like him wherever I went. I hadn't been away from home for very long, and I wondered for a moment if I should just go back to my parents. 

No shifter in his right mind would try to steal an unmated female away from her father. Such a crime would put a price on their heads so high that every bounty hunter in the world would be drooling. And any hunters who had daughters of their own would do the job for free. 

"Can you go home to your family?" Logan asked. I had almost forgotten he was there. Except for the fact that he was still standing in front of the door like a damn pit bull. I glared at him. 

"My father is a little...over protective. No. I have no intention of going home. I knew I was going to be targeted my males eventually. I just didn't expect to be hunted by a pimp so that he could charge men by the hour to ravage me." I answered him angrily. 

I don't know why I was taking out my frustration on him. The scowl that crossed his face told me that I had hit a nerve with my words. 

He hadn't told me he was a shifter when we first met, but he had never been anything but kind to me. He clearly wasn't like other men. 

Unlike just about every other male of our kind that I had ever met, he hadn't tried to seduce me. I couldn't very well fault him for that, or punish him for the fact that almost all unmated males were absolute horn dogs. 

"I'll just be on my way now." I said, raising my eyebrow at him. When Logan looked at Mr. Jameson instead of getting away from the door, I struggled to remain calm. 

"I think Logan should go with you. Until you get yourself settled somewhere." My boss said. "I'll keep paying his salary." 

That had me seeing red. So much for keeping my temper under wraps. There was no way in hell I was going to agree to letting Logan travel with me. He was too much of a temptation. 

I had wanted to tear his clothes off when I was hoping he was human. Now that I knew he wasn't...I knew I wouldn't be able to resist throwing myself at him the minute we were alone. And that would only complicate things. Anything more than a one night stand was foreign to me. 

"Do you have a mate?" I asked Logan. He shook his head in obvious confusion. I turned to look at my boss then, and my limited verbal filter just slipped right off. 

"With all due respect, Mr. Jameson, Logan can't go with me. If things had gone as I planned tonight, I would have been riding him like a bull before the night was over." 

Mr. Jameson blushed like a teenager at my words. But his stunned and confused expression told me that he still didn't understand why I didn't want Logan to accompany me. 

"If he comes with me, I'm going to want to have sex with him. If he doesn't want that, then things will get awkward between us. And if he says yes, then I'll just end up getting attached to him. And I don't get emotionally involved with men. Ever." 

I almost cringed at the knowledge that I had said all that right in front of Logan. Now he knew how badly I wanted to get into his pants. He also knew that I wasn't interested in anything more than sex. 

I had acknowledged that I was afraid of developing feelings for him that went past lust if I spent any amount of time with him. 

I took a deep breath and finally turned away from Mr. Jameson to face a grinning Logan. I narrowed my eyes at him and got right in his face. He looked amused and turned on, licking his lips as he stared down at me. 

"Do you mind?" I asked him sarcastically through gritted teeth. I would bite my own tongue off before I actually asked him to let me leave. 

If he looked to my boss for permission to let me out, I wasn't going to be held responsible for my actions. Lucky for both of them, he moved to the side. He even opened the door for me. 

I was half expecting him to follow me as I left the bar, but he was nowhere in sight when I reached my apartment. 

I was quietly scolding myself for being disappointed that he hadn't come after me by the time I got inside and dropped my purse on the couch. What the hell was I thinking? 

I had peeled all of my clothes off as I walked to my bathroom. As I was reaching up to turn on the light, a strong hand wrapped around my mouth. 

I was terrified until someone else's hand turned on the light, and I was left staring at Logan's face behind me in the mirror. 

The relief I felt at seeing that it was him only lasted about three seconds. I glared at his reflection and started to struggle in his arms. He was still holding his hand over my mouth, and his other arm was now wrapped around my waist. 

"Stop." He growled in my ear. 

Part of me wanted to kick myself for admitting my desire for him in Mr. Jameson's office. I should never have put my foot in my mouth like that. But how else was I going to keep my boss from sending him on the run with me? 

It was obvious that he was much stronger than me, so I slowly stopped fighting his hold on me. Defeat had never tasted so sweet as I slowly melted into his embrace. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against his hard chest. 

His erection was poking me in the back as he took his hand away from my mouth and eased it down until he was grabbing my breast. 

I moaned and writhed in his arms. His other hand moved from my waist until he was cupping me between my legs. 

"You're so wet for me already." He purred. His voice was husky with need. Logan turned me around and picked me up. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he carried me to my bedroom. 

I was horny as hell. And the drama of the day was catching up to me. At that moment, I just wanted to feel safe in his arms. He laid me on my bed and slowly took off his clothes. God, he was a big man. 

He was covered in tattoos under his clothes, and there was a light dusting of hair on his chest that led down to a cock that I knew would leave me sore for days. I couldn't wait to feel him inside me. But it seemed that he wasn't in any hurry. 

Logan finally crawled over me, and that first kiss curled my toes. Where was the harmless, gentle guy from the bar? His kiss was anything but gentle. 

My tongue dueled with his as I wrapped myself around him like a vine. I raised my hips shamelessly in an attempt to coax him into me. He stopped kissing me and smiled so widely that our teeth ended up scraping against each other. 

"What are you waiting for?" I whispered. Was that pleading voice really mine? Yep. I wanted him. 

He chuckled softly before he answered me. "All good things come to those who wait." 

I growled at him playfully, letting the nature of my beast come through. Two could play at this game. I purposely released my pheromones into the air as I purred seductively, rubbing my scent into his cheek. 

That wiped the smile off his face as his eyes turned red. He inhaled deeply, taking in the intoxicating fragrance of my desire for him. I allowed my own eyes to change to yellow. I felt my panther trying to break through my skin. 

I had never called on my animal during sex. It was probably my number one rule. But something about Logan made my blood boil in my veins, and I found myself embracing my panther's needs. But not enough to actually shift. 

I had never had sex in my animal form. In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I had allowed anyone to be around when I shifted. Logan brought out the primal side of me, and my patience ran out. 

"We have all night to explore each other's bodies." I told him, rolling us until I was straddling him. I knew he was letting me have my way with him. 

"For now, I want to ride you like a bull." I teased, reminding him of what I had said in my boss's office. I raised my body up enough to line his shaft up with my soaking wet entrance. 

We both groaned loudly as I slowly lowered myself onto him, sheathing him to the hilt. I loved feeling him as deeply as he could go. 

My last couple of lovers had been human. I think. I had never met a male shifter who had the ability to keep his animal side completely under wraps during sex. 

Logan's big hands grasped my hips as I began to ride him. But it wasn't long before one of them was drifting back up to one of my breasts. 

He rolled the nipple between his fingers. I writhed on top of him and bit my lip until I almost broke the skin. 

"You're so damn beautiful." He growled at me. When I saw his fangs poke out of his mouth as he spoke, a shiver of fear crept down my spine. 

I hoped he didn't have any plans to bite me, because that was absolutely not going to happen...no matter how good the sex was. 

He saw the change in my expression and seemed to get himself under control. Then he threw me completely off guard, swinging his legs to the floor and standing up without breaking our connection. 

Holy shit. When he got to his feet, my body bounced on his cock...sending lightning bolts of pleasure through me. 

He slid his hands under my legs and really started to show me what he was made of. Logan effortlessly lifted me away from him, only to slam my body back onto him with a force that would have injured any human woman. 

He was like a jack hammer, and I forgot all about my fear of him biting me as I screamed in delight. I was sure I was going to wake up every neighbor on the block, and I couldn't have cared less. 

Logan roared his approval at my shrieking, and the sounds that were coming out of him were bordering on sounding like the animal that he was underneath his skin. 

We were sweating bullets and grinding against each other's slick bodies for another twenty minutes before we climaxed together. 

I almost had to crawl to my shower when we were done. Logan was going to have wait to get clean, because my tiny efficiency apartment didn't have a shower big enough for two people. He laid on my bed in an exhausted heap. 

He had nodded off by the time I came out of the bathroom in my silk pajamas. Hmm...some things were universal. 

Shifter men couldn't stay awake after sex any longer than humans could. What a shame. I was ready for another round. 

When I heard my front door rattling, I knew we were in trouble. I should have known better than to go home after Ricardo had made it pretty damn clear that he'd be coming after me. I didn't bother second guessing whether it was an intruder at my door. 

"Logan!" I yelled, jumping on him as he startled awake. He was instantly on alert, and when he saw my panicked expression he threw on his pants and ran toward the front door just as someone broke it down. 

I had no idea how many men were coming into my apartment, but I knew that a scum bag like Ricardo would definitely send more than one. 

When two men who were only slightly smaller than Logan barreled into him, I did the only thing I could think of. I shifted. 

In that one terrifying moment, I broke my biggest rule. Never give away what kind of animal I was. And never shift in front of men. Fuck! But I knew that I wouldn't be able to help Logan in my human form. 

I dropped to my hands and knees as my features morphed into that of a black panther. I lunged at one of the men who was holding a knife, sinking my razor sharp fangs into his wrist. 

He howled in agony and tried to get away from me as I bit down hard, hearing the sound of crunching bones and tearing flesh. 

Logan had gained the upper hand with the other man, and he was beating him to a bloody pulp on my floor as the man I was fighting with punched the side of my head. He was strong. But I was stronger in my panther form. 

I assumed he was under orders not to kill me, which was most likely the reason for him staying in his human form. I shook his arm in my mouth until I felt his hand come off between my fangs. 

Blood sprayed out of his arm like a fountain, and he scrambled out of the apartment...abandoning his friend in an effort to save his own worthless life. 

Logan had beaten the other man unconscious, and he was staring at me wide eyed as I dropped the hand on the floor. 

I shifted back into my human form in the blink of an eye. I was covered in my attacker's blood, looking like a naked serial killer. 

I returned Logan's wild stare before I ran into my bathroom. I knew the police would be there soon. And I didn't plan on being around to answer any questions. 

Logan followed me, quickly throwing on the rest of his clothes as I got in the shower again and washed away the evidence of what I had done. It was self defense...I kept telling myself. And it wasn't as if I had killed the man. He would live. Probably. 

By the time I had finished my hasty shower and gotten dressed, Logan wasn't in my room. I figured he was making sure the unconscious man stayed that way. 

I packed a bag with the essentials as fast as I could and ran out to find Logan checking the pulse of the man who was still out cold on my floor. 

"Please tell me you didn't kill him." I practically whispered. 

"He's alive." Logan replied, pulling me by the hand out of the apartment. We could hear sirens when we snuck out of the building using the emergency exit. 

There was a motorcycle parked next to my car. It was Logan's. He told me to follow him back to his place so that he could pack a bag, and then we would leave town. I was too unraveled to say no, so I threw my duffel bag in my trunk and did as I was told. 

His apartment was a studio, just as small as my place. It just screamed bachelor pad. I sat on his well used couch while he hurried to stuff some clothes into a bag. 

"We'll have to take your car." He told me. "I have a friend who can look after my apartment and my bike." 

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this." I said. He stopped what he was doing and came over to me. Logan crouched down in front of me until he was on his knees. I felt genuinely bad for possibly ruining his life. 

"I'm not sorry." He whispered as he pressed his forehead against mine. It was such an intimate gesture. We really didn't know each other very well. 

And now he was going to be on the run with me. I wished I could get him off the hook with Ricardo. But I knew that wasn't going to happen. 

"I'll keep you safe, baby." He said before he kissed me. It was a tender kiss, full of emotion. I almost didn't know how to react. Emotion and relationships were things I didn't do. 

I felt like a newborn trying to run a marathon. But I let him kiss me. And I returned his quiet passion as I embraced him. 

He eventually pulled away from me and called someone on his phone. Logan made arrangements for his apartment and his motorcycle, and we were on our way to places unknown. 

Thank God my car was in good condition. When Logan asked me where I wanted to go, I didn't have a clue how to answer him. 

I didn't have any idea how far Ricardo would pursue me, especially now that I had injured one of his men so badly. 

"Let's go to L.A." I said after much deliberation. "It'll take us a couple of days to drive there. And hopefully going that far will take us out of the pimp's territory." I added. 




Chasing Cindy Pt. 01



Logan nodded his head in agreement, but I could tell that he was deep in thought. My insecurities started to raise their ugly heads, making me wonder if he was mad about being stuck with me. He had a life before he met me. And now he was a fugitive just as much as I was. 

"We can go to Disneyland." I said. "I've never been there, and I've always wanted to go. My parents said they couldn't take me when I was a kid because I had a bad temper. And they were afraid I would get angry at someone and shift in front of a bunch of humans." 

That brought a smile to his face. He seemed to be in a better mood as we drove, and he told me about the different rides at Disneyland. 

He had been to the one in Florida when he was a teenager. And he said it was the most fun he had ever had. 

After a couple of hours of driving, I pulled into a rest stop, and we went into the all night diner. We were starving. There weren't many people in the diner, and the waitress got our orders of burgers and fries quickly. 

"If that guy has any cops in his pocket, he's going to have them looking for your car by morning." Logan said, taking a big bite of his cheeseburger. 

Damn. I hadn't thought of that. I was used to keeping a reasonably low profile in order to avoid shifter men whenever possible, but actually being hunted was something I hadn't experienced before. 

"There's a motel here." I observed. "We should get some sleep and then start fresh in the morning. But I don't want to use Mr. Jameson's money on a new car. Who knows how long it's going to have to last us?" 

We finished our meal and I paid the bill. Within the next hour, we had checked into the hotel, had a long, adventurous shower, and slipped into an exhausted sleep in each other's arms. 

TO BE CONTINUED...



Chasing Cindy Pt. 02



(Chapter One - Logan) 

My name is Logan. I'm a tiger shifter. I work as a bouncer, a hit man, or a driver...whatever is needed of me. I'm not a good man. I take dangerous jobs that nobody else wants to do, and those risky jobs pay the bills. I'm also a bit of a ladies man, if I do say so myself. Or at least I was a man whore, until my latest job. Some old fart hired me to come to his shitty bar and look out for a shifter woman that he had taken under his wing. 

She was cute. Curvy and pretty, just the way I like my women to be. She didn't know I was there to be her babysitter. I started flirting with her right off the bat. Couldn't help myself! Those sexy hazel eyes just drew me in. She had a great rack, and hips that begged to be grabbed. 

Her long blonde hair was the cincher though. I'm a sucker for blondes. I would have had the little temptress bent over my Harley screaming my name that first week if my employer hadn't made keeping my dick in my pants part of the arrangement. Asshole. 

The woman's name is Cindy. And since I couldn't fuck her, I talked to her instead. It was a foreign concept to me. I didn't usually pay much attention to the words that came out of a beautiful woman's mouth, as long as the first word was, yes. 

But she was into me. She gave as good as she got, flirting with me all the time...batting her eyelashes at me and shaking that spankable ass in my direction whenever she walked by me to go into the bar. I found out over a few weeks that she wasn't just a pretty face. She was as smart as a whip too. And brave. I had rarely needed to come to the little spit fire's rescue whenever a customer got handsy with her. 

That little chick could hold her own. Which only made me want her even more. And she was interesting in a way that I had only ever experienced with my buddies. I wasn't going to last long though. I needed to get in her pants. Shifter females were few and far between. The few I had ever met were too conceited to be bothered with the likes of a thug like me. 

I had started to think that things would be pretty mellow with this job until the night that Cindy's boss hollered for me. I rushed over to where he and Cindy were to see what was wrong. When I saw that some smug looking fucker was eyeing my future sexual conquest like she was a hot meal, my instincts took over and I put my hand on the small of her back. The tiger side of me was on the same page as my human half, needing to physically stake a claim on what we considered to be ours. Or at least, potentially ours. 

Cindy's boss, Mr. Jameson, told me to escort my competition and the arm candy he had brought with him out of the bar. I didn't like leaving my woman, but I was more than happy to rid her of another shifter's presence. By the time I came back and walked into the boss's office, Cindy was a mess. I didn't really know how to deal with crying women, but I took her in my arms and offered her the only comfort a guy like me could. 

Things went south pretty quick when Mr. Jameson told her he had hired me to shadow her. Right away, she thought my affections for her were bullshit. That I had been paid to act interested in her. I assured her that I really did like her, but I could tell she was going to take some convincing. 

I found out that the creep I had thrown out of the bar was actually a shifter pimp who was trying to lure my Cindy into his little harem of harlots. There wasn't a fucking chance in hell of that shit happening on my watch. 

When the old man who hired me offered to keep paying me while I escorted Cindy out of the city, I was more than ready to go. She, on the other hand, was less than thrilled. But when she said that the reason for her wanting to go alone was the fact that she wouldn't be able to keep her hands off of me was like ringing the dinner bell for a starving man. 

It was all I could do not to throw her on her boss's desk and take her right then and there. And the way she glared at me for being amused at her confession was adorable. Such a temper on that girl. I didn't know if I wanted to arm wrestle her or kiss her. 

In the end, I let her out of the office when she looked at me like she'd kick my balls up into my neck if I didn't get out of her way. Of course, I followed her from a distance. I wondered if she realized that she was almost sulking all the way back to her apartment. 

She had wanted me to pursue her. We were half beast, after all. And that part of us thrilled in the chase. She was just too scared or too proud to admit it. Maybe even to herself. That was alright, though. I didn't need any pursuading. 

I beat her to the building where she lived, and I didn't have any problem getting into her apartment before she got up the stairs. Any male shifter would have smelled me, but the females of our kind didn't have that advantage. 

My dick got as hard as steel when she walked into the bathroom without a stitch of clothes on. She hadn't seen me skulking around in the shadows of her tiny hallway. When I put my hand over her mouth, she just about had a heart attack on me. 

I knew I had her when I saw how relieved she was to see that I wanted her as much as she wanted me. I almost laughed when she started struggling in my arms. Her resistance only made my cock harder, and I used a hint of my animal side when I growled in her ear and told her to stop fighting me. 

I understood what was going through her mind. Female shifters were compelled by every fiber of their being to make a male work for sex with them. It wasn't in their nature to just give in. But, she did. Her animal was calling to mine. We just didn't know it yet. 

**** 

When I woke up in a cheap motel next to Cindy the next day, I felt like I could have slept for a week. We had gone through hell and back. After I had fucked her in her bed and in the shower, I had passed out for a few minutes. 

She woke me up screaming my name, which would have been great if she had still been under me...and I had barely managed to get to the front door of the apartment before two men came crashing through it and into me. 

One of the goons had a knife. I didn't have a chance to worry about him before Cindy morphed into a sleek, black panther. She was gorgeous and fearless. And to my surprise, in that instant...I sensed that she was also my mate. Fuck. There go my bed hopping days. 

Cindy was busy ripping the hand off of the guy who was holding the knife while I beat the other man senseless. Neither man was much of a fighter. Clearly, the pimp had thought my woman would be alone when he sent tweedle dumb and tweedle dee to get her. 

We had cleared out of her apartment in a hurry after the man she had maimed ran away and left his partner behind. He wasn't going to be a problem in the future with only one hand. But he had seen that Cindy was a panther shifter. They were one of the rarest of our species. And I knew that things were going to get a lot worse before they got any better. I hadn't told Cindy that she was my mate, and it had been next to impossible to resist biting her when I was fucking her to within an inch of her life in the motel's shower. Who knew I had such incredible self control? I sure as hell didn't know. 

**** 

I was in a down right ugly mood by the time we had breakfast at the diner and got back on the road to L.A. If Cindy noticed, she didn't say anything about it. I was stewing about the fact that my days of fucking anything in a skirt were over, whether I wanted them to be or not. 

Shifter men are impotent with any woman who isn't their fated mate once we recognize a female as ours. Fuck! And I wasn't even in love with Cindy. She was hot. And I had grown to like her over the weeks that we had known each other. And the sex was the best I had ever had. But mated for life?! 

After an hour of strained silence between us, Cindy finally spoke up. I guess she had noticed that I was sulking after all. She probably just figured I was pissed about getting saddled with her. Luckily, I was the one driving, so I didn't have to look her in the eye. 

"Are you ok?" She asked me. "You've been awfully quiet this morning. Did I do something wrong?" She added, sounding more fragile and emotional than I had ever heard her before. I felt like shit for making her feel bad. 

I knew I needed to tell her that she was my mate. But I was afraid she would bolt, and I needed to keep her safe. We weren't out of the woods with the pimp who was chasing her. Not by a long shot. It would only be a matter of time before he caught up with us. 

"No, baby." I finally answered her as I pulled her across the seat until she was snuggled up next to me. Shit. I had no idea how to be supportive of a woman's emotional needs. Where the fuck was Oprah or Dr. Phil when I needed them? 

"I just want to get us to L.A. where we can get new jobs and try to blend in. I'll call your boss when we get there and find out how long he intends on paying me. He isn't going to support us financially forever." 

I felt Cindy stiffen a little under my arm. She looked at me with an expression that was somewhere between fear and anxiety. "How long do you plan on staying with me?" She asked nervously. "I mean...being with you has been great, with the exception of us being hunted. But I'll be fine once I get settled somewhere." 

I could tell she didn't believe her own bullshit. She knew she wasn't going to be fine. I just figured that she didn't want me staying in harm's way because of her. But I couldn't leave her then even if I wanted too. My tiger wanted me to pull over to the side of the road and claim her. My skin felt too tight, and my temper was kicking in. I needed to tell her. 

"I need to tell you something." I said as I pulled over to the side of the road. We were on a lonely, forested road...which meant that she had plenty of room to run away from me if she wanted too. 

Cindy looked at me with wide, frightened eyes when I finally turned toward her. She scooted away from me and plastered herself against the passenger side door. She already had one hand on the door handle before I could say another word. Fuck. This wasn't going to go well. But she needed to understand that she was stuck with me. 

"When you took your panther form," I began. But she raised her hand in front of me and I closed my mouth. I'd never seen such panic on another person's face. Not even when they knew I was about to kill them. 

"Don't say it." She practically whispered. When she bolted out of the car and into the woods, I ran after her. She didn't get very far. I tackled her to the ground without hurting her, but being on top of her like that had my treacherous cock hardening. I could smell her fear, but her body was also betraying her. She was aroused by my aggression. 

"You're my mate." I growled, grabbing her hands and holding them above her head. Cindy shook her head and started crying. She squirmed underneath me, which only made my dick harder. I knew she could feel it poking at her, because she started grinding her pelvis against me. Did she even realize she was doing it? 

"Please." She begged. "Don't claim me. I don't want a mate." 

I couldn't blame her. I didn't want a mate either. I had always been a free spirit. Now I would be responsible for the safety of another person for the rest of my life. And I knew how female shifters felt about being mated, especially when they weren't in love with the man. She would be compelled to obey me once I bit her, and that was clearly something she wasn't happy about. 

Her eyes changed to yellow then. I loved her panther's eyes. Cindy's human half might not have wanted a mate, but her animal side was on board. And she was fighting Cindy for control of her body. She released her pheromones into the air, and my tiger snarled with approval. 

I let go of Cindy's hands to see what she would do. I was sure she would push me away from her, but instead she reached down between us and stroked my cock through my pants. The look on her face was so torn that I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. There was lust for me in her eyes, but also the fear of being mated. Anxiety and a little happiness...it was all there. 

I could read her feelings like a book. I stood up then and tore off my clothes. When she stood up and did the same, my tiger practically clawed right through my skin. I knew my eyes had changed color, just as hers had. Our animals were drawn to each other, and our human halves were helpless against the pull of our mate. 

"I'm sorry, Logan. It's not that I haven't grown to care about you." She said as she walked up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I just thought I'd have more time before I met my mate. Or that maybe I'd actually be in love with the man I'm meant to spend the rest of my life with." She kissed me then and climbed my body until her legs were around my waist. 

I nuzzled her neck and held her tightly as I thrust into her. She gasped and hissed with pleasure. I wrapped her hair around my wrist and pulled until her neck was fully exposed to my mouth. Cindy was expecting the bite that would bind her to me forever, but I wanted her to ask for it. 

So, I licked her neck and walked to a nearby tree. When I pushed her body against it and really started to pump into her, she whimpered in my arms and held onto me so tightly that I could barely breathe. I kissed her then. It was a gesture of passion, of commitment, and of ownership. 

She was mine. Cindy returned the kiss, tangling her tongue with mine as we both neared our climaxes. But I needed her submission while she still had a choice. Every fiber of my being wanted her to choose me before fate stepped in and forced her compliance. 

"Say it." I said. My voice was barely human. Her expression was priceless. Such a mixture of dueling emotions. 

"I'm yours." She said through gritted teeth. Even in the midst of such passion, she was still a little spit fire. I knew then that claiming her would come at a price. She wasn't going to make things easy for me. 

"Take me." She demanded when my dick hit her g-spot. It was all I needed to hear. My fangs exploded in my mouth, and I bit down on her neck. She screamed out her orgasm as her blood coated my mouth. I came in her harder than I ever had, and when I finally let go of her throat...my tiger roared with joy. 

My legs felt like jello when I put her down. Her strength seemed just as drained as mine was. Forming the mating bond took a lot out of us. But there wasn't any time for basking in the after glow. I hadn't even reached for my clothes when I sensed other shifters approaching us. I didn't have any weapons with me. And the fact that my woman was still nude had my tiger fighting tooth and nail to take over my body. 

Before I could figure out where the threat was coming from, Cindy screamed and fell to her knees. There was a dart sticking out of her back, and I pulled it out as I crouched over her body. The damage was done. She was losing consciousness quickly, and my tiger finally won the fight for control of my body. 

The transformation was fast. Bones shifted and fur shot through my skin as the tiger emerged. I roared with rage and frustration at the fact that our attackers weren't showing themselves. Cowards. They must have been snipers. 

I didn't dare move from my position over Cindy's now sleeping body. She was already too vulnerable, so I waited for them to make their next move. I didn't need to wait long. The pain that shot through me in the next second wasn't a tranquilizer dart. It was a bullet. 

(Chapter Two - Cindy) 

I was in a cage when I woke up. It was every shifter's worst nightmare. I rubbed my temples, feeling like I had the mother of all hang overs. When I scanned the room I was in to try to figure out where I was, I saw Logan in another cage. I gasped when I saw blood on his chest. He was unconscious. I hoped desperately that he wasn't dead. The last thing I remembered was Logan claiming me as his mate in the woods. 

It looked like we were in a basement. There wasn't anything or anyone else in the room. We were both still naked, and all I wanted in that moment was to be able to cover my body. I was pretty certain that Ricardo had caught up with us, and the last thing I wanted was to be nude in front of that man. I tried to calm down and think straight, but I was terrified. 

"Logan!" I yelled. He moved a little, and I saw a bullet on the floor next to him. I was instantly grateful for our healing abilities. His body had already pushed the bullet out and had begun the brief healing process. He'd be as good as new in a matter of minutes. I yelled his name again, not caring if anyone heard me. He slowly opened eyes, wincing in pain when he was finally able to stand up. 

"Cindy." He said. "Are you alright?" 

I nodded my head and tried to reach for him through the bars of my cage. But he was too far away. "I'm scared." I admitted. Usually, I was a pretty tough cookie. But I knew we were in a situation that would be difficult to get out of. Logan yanked at the door of his cage. He was a lot stronger than me, but those damned bars didn't move an inch. He kept trying, but he wore out quickly because of his wound. 

I heard someone opening the door of the room we were in, and I locked eyes with Logan in a desperate attempt to gain some strength and courage from our mating bond. He told me to try to be brave and stand tall. I took a deep breath and clenched my fists by my sides, willing myself to stay composed no matter what happened. 

Ricardo walked into the room, and I wished more than ever that I had clothes. But I fought the instinct to use my hands to cover myself. I stared at him defiantly as his gaze roamed over by body. He licked his lips and grinned at me as he casually strolled over to Logan's cage. 

"You didn't really think you could keep her from me, did you?" Ricardo asked. Logan was enraged, and Ricardo had to step back when he reached his hands through the bars and tried to grab him. "Temper, temper...tiger boy." Ricardo taunted. He came over to my cage then. 

"Don't you touch her!" Logan yelled, renewing his efforts to break out of his cage. 

"I see that you've mated with the tiger shifter." Ricardo said. "I've never had a mated female in my little harem. I'm going to have all kinds of fun with this." He added with a twisted grin that almost had me shaking like a leaf. 

Logan had stopped trying to escape from his cage. He looked so exhausted and defeated that my heart broke for him. I could definitely grow to love him. I knew that I needed to stay calm and try to figure out a way for us to get out. But Ricardo's close proximity made me nervous, and I just wanted to know what he was going to do next. 

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to work for me without a fight, would you?" Ricardo asked me. My hate filled glare gave him my answer. "I didn't think so." He said, laughing at me. "Then, it looks like I'll have to break your spirit, just like I told you I would." 

Two more men came into the room then. One was holding some clothes that he tossed into Logan's cage. It looked like I was to remain nude. No surprise there. Logan put on the pants and shirt. They hadn't given him any shoes. Ricardo unlocked my cage and grabbed me. He pulled me out and kept a firm grip on my wrist as one of his men opened Logan's cage. 

"Don't bother struggling." Ricardo told Logan angrily. "You're outnumbered, and there are more of my men outside of this room." 

Despite getting a stern warning, it took both of Ricardo's henchmen to restrain Logan when Ricardo started running his filthy hands all over my body. From the look of the men who were holding back Logan, they wanted to have their turns with me. Bile rose in my throat, and my composure evaporated. I screamed and struggled against Ricardo, but he was too strong. I didn't have a chance against him. 




Chasing Cindy Pt. 02



I probably could have shifted into my panther form and had a much better chance at killing Ricardo, but I was just as outnumbered as Logan was. And I had no idea what kind of shifters we were dealing with. Still...I wasn't going to be raped or even fondled against my will without one hell of a fight. I felt bad that Logan was being forced to witness another man putting his hands on me. It was the ultimate torture for a mated male. It was a direct insult to a man's pride as his woman's protector. 

Ricardo knew exactly what he was doing...that fucker. He was deliberately taunting Logan. Warning him not to put up a fight in one moment, and making sure he wanted to struggle against his bonds in the next. He was just looking for a reason to kill my mate for the fun of it. When Ricardo shoved my legs open and thrust a finger inside of me, he made the mistake of getting close enough that I could bite him. And I wasn't about to use my human teeth to do it. 

When Ricardo went to nuzzle my neck as he was violating me with his fingers, I let out my fangs and bit into his ear lobe. He screamed like a girl and shoved me to the ground, but not before I could take a hunk of skin with me. I spat the bottom of his ear lobe at him, my mouth filled with his blood as I laughed in his face. I should have been thinking about what he might do to me, or to Logan for that matter. But my rage had taken over, and I had acted on instinct. 

"Let's see if you can grow that back, asshole." I hissed. Shifters healed within minutes from most wounds, but we couldn't grow back severed parts of our bodies. "I won't make a very good hooker for you if I bite the dicks off of any man you give me to." I added sarcastically. 

The bleeding on Ricardo's ear stopped almost immediately, and he yanked me up off the floor and threw me over his shoulder. He stormed out of the room with Logan being pulled along by his men. When I pounded my fists on his back, Ricardo spanked me hard enough to leave bruises. By the time we reached our destination, I was exhausted from fighting his hold on me, and I was terrified of what he was going to do to me. 

We were in a large bedroom. There was a St. Andrews cross in the middle of the room, and a huge bed against the wall. One entire wall was covered with all manner of painful looking instruments. There were whips, and floggers, and even a row of canes. I saw a dozen hooks that held collars, leather cuffs, and even a few leashes. I didn't even want to think of what was in the dresser that was sitting in the corner of the room. 

My level of fear went into orbit when Ricardo started to secure me to the cross as Logan fought tooth and nail against his handlers to get to me. I fought like a feral cat, but once he had my wrists tied, there wasn't much I could do to get away from him. He made quick work of my ankles, and within moments...I was helpless. 

"Secure her mate to the bed." Ricardo told his men. The odds might have been against Logan, but by the time he had been restrained on the bed, both of Ricardo's men had suffered bloody injuries. When two naked women came into the room, my outrage made me want to shift. But it was impossible in the position I was in. And Ricardo knew it. 

When the women crawled onto the bed with my mate and began caressing his body, I roared with the rage I was feeling. My panther wanted out, and I was powerless to let her do her worst to the women who were touching my man. 

Logan clenched his eyes shut and struggled in his bonds, but he couldn't get out of them. The women were licking and sucking his cock right in front of me, but we all knew that he wouldn't be able to get an erection for anyone but me. We were mated, and he wouldn't be capable of fucking anyone else. 

But just seeing other women with their hands and mouths all over him had me seeing red. I snarled with rage and wiggled in my restraints to no avail. Ricardo went over to the wall and chose a heavy looking flogger. He returned to stand in front of me, momentarily blocking my view of Logan. 

I flinched when he started running the handle of the flogger over my breasts and down to my stomach. When he reached my pussy, I snapped at him with my fangs. He immediately stepped back in a moment of fear before regaining his composure, and I saw the anger in his eyes at my continued defiance. I cried out in pain when he smacked the flogger against my exposed sex. Logan's eyes popped open and saw what Ricardo was doing to me. 

"You sick fucker! I'll kill you!" He bellowed, squirming as best he could in an effort to get away from the women who were still touching him. He saw the hurt in my eyes, and I knew he understood that seeing him in such a compromising position was killing me inside. 

"I'm making you watch as other women touch your mate to hurt you emotionally." Ricardo told me. He was completely ignoring Logan's threats as he moved behind me and leaned down to speak in my ear. "Now I'm going to use the flogger on you to hurt him. To show him that you belong to me now. And there isn't a damn thing he can do about it." 

When Ricardo snapped his fingers, the women on the bed stopped what they were doing and left the room. He wanted my mate's undivided attention. Logan watched as Ricardo took a few steps back, giving himself the room he needed to wield the flogger. I had never been hit like this before. A little spank here and there in the heat of a playful moment with a lover, but this was going to be different. 

I hissed loudly from the pain when I felt the first strike. Logan's face surely mirrored the agony on mine as he kept eye contact me, offering me the only support he could. The second strike was even harder than the first, and I knew I would be left with marks when it was over. But I refused to scream. I wasn't going to give Ricardo the satisfaction of knowing how successful his efforts at breaking my spirit were. 

He hit me a total of ten times, and I was sagging against the cross in misery when he was finally done. I was surprised when I saw tears on Logan's cheeks. I had closed my eyes for the last two blows, not wanting my mate to see just how much I was hurting. It seemed that Ricardo had been using all of his strength as he rained down one strike after another on my back and ass. 

My head was hanging from exhaustion when Ricardo came around to stand in front of me again. He grabbed my hair and pulled my head up so that I had to look at him. I had cried, and I knew how defeated I must have looked to him. But I was holding on to my defiance by the skin of my rattling teeth as I glared at him, letting him know that I wasn't as broken as he thought I was. 

"Are you going to behave now?" He asked me menacingly. "You see that your mate can't protect you." He added, glancing over his shoulder to smile at Logan. "Or do I have to use the whip on you?" 

I shook in my restraints at his threatening words. The flogger had been bad enough on my virgin skin. But I knew he would break that fragile skin with a whip just to show his dominance over me. And, because I would heal from it quickly...I knew he'd be especially brutal. 

"Don't hurt her anymore. Please." Logan begged. I couldn't believe my ears. He had always seemed so strong. I guess seeing me like that broke something in him. I remembered my father telling me that there was nothing more important to a male shifter than being able to protect his woman, especially from rivals. A man would sacrifice anything, even his pride...to keep his mate safe from harm. 

Ricardo walked over to him then. He looked so smug that I wished I could shift into my panther form and show him what I was capable of. Ricardo's men had left the room. But I was afraid he would give me to them once he had finished torturing me. He hadn't raped me, but I was terrified that he was going to do exactly that, and I knew that Logan might not be able to recover from witnessing something like that. 

"I don't need to hurt her anymore." He said. "You're her mate." He added with a wicked smile in my direction. "You can simply tell her to obey me, and she'll do it." 

My panic instantly made my heart beat so hard that I was afraid I'd have a heart attack on the spot. That probably would have been preferable to what Ricardo had in mind. As Logan's mate, I had no choice but to obey his commands. If he told me to be obedient to Ricardo, I would do it whether I liked it or not. My inner animal would force my compliance. 

"Don't you even think about it, Logan!" I yelled at him. "I'd rather be dead!" I screached at the top of my lungs. Ricardo laughed at my hysterics...that twisted fucker. I knew that once Logan spoke the words, I'd be screwed. But I also knew that he'd let me go...even give me to another man, if it meant keeping me alive. It was the way of mated shifters. 

"I mean it! I'll never forgive you if you do this." 

Ricardo was clearly enjoying seeing us both suffer. He had never been given the opportunity to have a shifter woman in his harem who simply didn't have any choice on a cellular level but to obey his demands. His other women had probably been seduced into working for him, or threatened into it. But I was going to be a willing, docile whore for him if Logan said the words that would bind me to him. 

I could tell that Logan was about to give in, no matter how much it killed him. In fact, it wouldn't have surprised me if he had given me to Ricardo and then slit his wrists over betraying me. After all, shifters only ever got one fated mate in their lives. He'd never be able to have sex with anyone else, and he'd never fall in love with another woman. His heart, his soul, his love, and his body, belonged to me...forever. 

When Logan locked eyes with me again, his pained expression broke my heart into a million tiny pieces. He was filled with regret and anger for what he was about to do. But the compulsion to keep me safe was too strong. I had resisted developing feelings for him before he had claimed me because I didn't want to be a slave to him if it turned out we were mates. Now...that's all I wanted. 

"He won't need to give me to you." I said flatly, giving Ricardo a look of pure anguish. "I don't want my free will taken away from me. Please. I'll cooperate." 

The look of triumph on Ricardo's face turned my stomach. And the look of relief on Logan's face was evident. He was going to lose me, but he wouldn't be giving me away. It was a subtle difference that wouldn't have made a bit of sense to humans. But for mated shifters, it meant everything. It meant that he'd still have a chance at getting me back, if he could just figure out how to do it. 

"But you have to let Logan go." I added. That's my only condition. You want my compliance? My submission? Then let my mate go." 

Ricardo came over to me and gently stroked the side of my face. His expression was almost euphoric. He had won. And we all knew it. I was almost surprised when he released me from the cross. He even rubbed my wrists and ankles to relieve the numbness in my limbs. 

"I accept your conditions." He said happily. "I've never had a panther before. You're going to make me a very rich man." He added. "But I want you to see that I'm not the heartless prick you think I am. I'll give you an hour alone with your mate before I send him on his way. You have my word that no harm will come to him." 

His word? What was that worth? I had no idea. What choice did I really have but to believe him? I waited for him to release Logan from his restraints, but he didn't. Instead, he showed me the key to the cuffs that had been used to shackle him to the bed before he put it back in his pocket. 

"I think I'll keep your mate locked up for the moment. You'll just have to be the one in charge for your last time together." He said, making one last jab at Logan's masculinity. I don't think I had ever hated anyone more in my whole life than I did at that moment. 

He was laughing as he left us in the room after telling me that he'd return in an hour to release Logan. I ran over to the bed and tried to get the cuffs open. But they were indeed locked with a key. I couldn't get them off, and I sobbed into Logan's chest. He rubbed his chin along the top of my head. 

"I'm so sorry I failed you." He barely whispered. I couldn't stand to see him so emotionally wounded. I didn't blame him for the predicament I was in. He had done his best to be a good mate, and I shushed him as I straddled his waist. Logan didn't stay soft for long as I moved my body against his, rubbing my breasts along his torso and nibbling on his neck. 

"I'll find you." He growled as I impaled myself on his cock. "No matter where he takes you." He said, the strength and conviction of his words increasing with each moment that he was inside me. I rode him gently, wanting it to last. I didn't respond to his promise, because...deep down, I didn't believe him. I knew what was going to happen to me the minute Logan was let go. 

I was going to be turned into a prostitute. And as long as Ricardo kept his word not to hurt my mate, I would keep my word as well. I'd obey on my own terms, while keeping my free will intact. But I had no idea what it would be like having sex with other men now that I was mated. I didn't want to find out either. But my fate was sealed. 

And I didn't know if the woman that Logan would find later would be a person he even wanted anymore. I shuddered and burst into uncontrollable tears when I finally found my release. Logan came a few moments later, sending his seed into me one final time. 

We made love twice more before the hour was up. He apologized more times that I could count, and he swore on everything he held dear that he would rescue me. He would find a way. And he was just stubborn enough to do it. But I knew in my heart that what he would find would be an empty shell of the woman he had claimed as his mate. 

Logan was almost too numb to walk from being restrained for so long when Ricardo came in and released him. He had two men with him, just to make sure that Logan didn't try to take me with him. He was given clothes and shoes, and Ricardo even let me say good bye to my mate outside the building. I clung to him and kissed him with all the passion I held inside of me. He returned my tender passion with the unspoken promise of revenge. 

"How much do you know about the connection between fated mates?" Ricardo asked us. I was surprised by his question. I didn't really know much about it, so I only looked at him in confusion. 

"If one of you dies, the other will feel it. No matter where in the world you are. Your souls will know it if their other half perishes." He explained, ignoring Logan and looking at me. "That's how you'll know I've kept my word about not killing your mate. As long as he lives, you'll obey me. Say it." 

I was actually relieved that I'd have the comfort of knowing if Ricardo broke his word. "As long as my mate lives, I'll obey." I promised him, selling my soul to the devil as I watched Logan walk away from me before I was led back into the building. 

TO BE CONTINUED...



Chasing Cindy Pt. 03



(Chapter One - Logan)

Life as I knew it was over. In the last two days, I had claimed my fated mated and had almost immediately lost her. I was working as a bouncer at the bar where my mate, Cindy, was working. 

But I had really been hired by her boss to look out for her, because she was a shape shifter like me. Well...not the same animal as me. I'm a tiger. And she's a panther, which is extremely rare among our kind. Hell...females in general are rare.

We had hit it off right away, and she had just asked me out on a date when all hell broke loose in our lives. A shifter pimp had made it clear that he wanted her to come work for him, and she had said no. 

So, her boss gave her some money and suggested I act as a bodyguard of sorts and escort her out of the city. Cindy wasn't too keen on the idea of me going with her at first. But I changed her mind about that. We got hot and heavy that same night. 

Our post fucking bliss was short lived, however...when two of the pimp's goons busted down the door in an attempt to capture my woman. She had shifted into her animal form, which is the only time a male shifter can sense if a female is his mate. In that moment, I knew she was meant to be mine forever. I didn't really have time to think about it though, since we were both fighting for our lives.

I couldn't believe it when Cindy bit one of the goon's hands off. I kicked the ever living shit out of the other guy. We were a good team. After spending the night at a shitty motel, I told her she was my mate.

She didn't handle it well at first, jumping out of the parked car we were sitting in and high tailing it into the woods along the side of the road. Female shifters were incapable of disobeying their mates once they were claimed. So, it was understandable that most of them avoided being in their animal forms around males as much as possible.

I had tackled her, convinced her to stay with me...and claimed her in the way of our people. I fucked her, bit her neck and drank her blood as we were climaxing. I couldn't call what we were doing making love yet. Nah...it was still fucking. We hadn't been together long enough to fall in love. But I cared about her. And she felt the same way about me.

I knew we were fucked when she got shot with a tranquilizer dart after I had claimed her, before we could even get our clothes back on. I had shifted into my tiger form in a protective rage, but the pimp who was chasing Cindy was using snipers to hunt us down. One of them shot me moments later, and I woke up in a cage to Cindy calling my name. 

Luckily, shifters heal quickly. I was almost as good as new. Cindy was in a cage in the same room as me, and I could smell her fear and anxiety. We both knew what the pimp, Ricardo, wanted her for. And I was helpless to save her. There's nothing worse for a mated male shifter than being unable to protect their woman, especially from other men.

When Ricardo came into the room and taunted me with my inability to keep Cindy safe, I wanted to rip the man limb from limb. Two of his men came in a moment later, and one of them tossed me some clothes. The fact that these fuckers were seeing my woman naked was enough to drive me crazy with the need to kill them.

When we were yanked out of the cages, it took both of Ricardo's men to hold me when that asshole started groping my mate. I fought tooth and nail to get to her, but I was outnumbered. 

When Ricardo shoved his fingers into Cindy's pussy, I almost shifted into my tiger form. Screw the fact that I wouldn't be able to win if Ricardo and his men shifted and ganged up on me. That was my woman he was touching!

As usual, Cindy showed me that she could hold her own. She ripped a chunk of Ricardo's ear off with her fangs. He would heal, but that little piece of his body would never grow back. I was afraid in that moment that he might kill her in his rage. But, he didn't. Not even when she told him that she'd bite the dick off of any man he tried to give her too.

Instead, he took us into another room. There was a big bed, a bunch of paddles and canes and other sex toy stuff on the walls, and a huge cross of some kind in the middle of the room. I wasn't really into the whole bdsm scene. I could take it or leave it. It just depended on what a woman wanted at any given time. But if the pimp was going to use any of that shit on Cindy, I was going to lose my fucking mind.

When Ricardo started binding her to the cross, I did everything I could to get to her. By the time his men had shackled me spread eagled to the bed, I had done some serious damage to them. They didn't leave that room unscathed. And I made sure to memorize their faces. I'd be seeing those fuckers again. When two naked women came in and started trying to arouse me, I saw the hurt look on Cindy's face.

All shifters knew that a mated male couldn't get it up for anyone but his woman, but that didn't mean that Cindy's feelings wouldn't be crushed by seeing other women put their hands on me. And that was exactly what that sicko wanted. He had said as much, and then he grabbed a flogger and ran it down the front of her body. I screamed and thrashed, telling him that I'd kill him.

Ricardo snapped his fingers and the women on the bed left. He wanted my undivided attention as he used the flogger on Cindy with all of his strength. She didn't scream. My mate was so brave. She did cry though, and my heart broke for her. I could have broken my wrists and ankles on that damn bed trying to get loose, and it wouldn't have done me any good.

When Ricardo was done hitting her with the heavy flogger, he asked her if she'd be his willing whore... threatening to use the whip on her next if she refused. I couldn't let that happen to her. Above all else, it was my job to keep her alive. Swallowing my mangled pride, I begged him not to hurt her anymore. 

He said that I could basically avoid seeing my mate tortured if I told her to obey him. She would hate it, and she would probably hate me for it...but she would have no choice but to do what I told her now that we were bonded to each other. I'd be turning her into his sex slave. The compulsion to obey one's fated mate was the reason she had spent her life avoiding shifter men.

I was so desperate to save her life that I was ready to give in to his demands, even after she begged me not too. She said she'd rather be dead. But her death was something that I couldn't deal with. 

Before I could open my mouth to condemn her with my words, she offered to stay with him willingly. As long as he let me go. I had never felt so weak and incompetent in my life. I was a tiger shifter. A killer. And I couldn't even save my woman.

Ricardo agreed immediately. He was practically jumping up and down with joy. I would have sold my soul at that moment to get my hands around his throat. He gave us a parting gift of sorts.

One hour together. But he left me chained to the bed, knowing that I would have tried to get her out of there if I had been freed. It was also his way of making damn sure I knew he was still in charge of things. 

As soon as Ricardo left the room, Cindy rushed over to me and tried to get the shackles off. It didn't work. We were doomed. I apologized to her over and over, swearing that I would find her and get her out. I don't think she believed me. 

I couldn't blame her for losing faith in me. She straddled my waist then, and my body responded to her the way it always did. I think it was the first time we actually made love. It was sweet and tender, two things that I had never been.

One hour felt like one minute. Ricardo and his goons came back into the room. I was given clothes and closely guarded as I was taken outside. Cindy clung to me, and we kissed with all of the unspoken love in our hearts. I tried to let her know through my eyes and my kiss that I would be back for her. I'd search the ends of the earth for her.

Ricardo told us that mated shifters could feel it if the other one died. It was his way of letting Cindy know that she could be assured he kept his word about not killing me, because she'd feel it if something happened to me. Then he insisted that she say out loud that she'd keep her word too. She did. My woman promised that as long as Ricardo didn't kill me, that she would obey him.

****

I don't know how I managed to walk away from my mate, leaving her in the hands of a pimp who was no doubt going to rape her the minute he got her behind closed doors. I was in a rage the likes of which I had never experienced before. Not when I was fighting...or even when I was killing. A street thug like me didn't stay out of jail and out of the morgue by falling apart at the seams when things got dicey.

I had always been a man who held my emotions in check, because doing anything else would have gotten me killed a hundred times over. Over time, I had noticed that I didn't have much in the way of emotions at all anymore. And that was fine by me. I didn't have any family. There hadn't been anyone in my life that potential enemies could use against me. Until now.

I needed help. I was a cocky son of a bitch when it came to my skills as a hit man, but I wasn't a one man army. And I had no idea how many men Ricardo had at his disposal in that building. Hell...I didn't even know where the fuck I was yet. I wasn't surprised to see that someone was following me as I walked down the street to a store. 

It's what I would have done in Ricardo's position. I was still a threat to them. But the fucker behind me couldn't try to kill me if they wanted Cindy to cooperate. A quick glance around the neighborhood told me that we were in Bakersfield. Damn.

We had gotten so close to that trip to Disneyland that Cindy wanted. Every fiber of my being wanted to grab the guy who was following me and kill him. But I knew that Ricardo would be expecting him to check in regularly.

He hung back about half a block, and I walked into the store and asked to use the phone. I had people in the area who could help me. But I knew it would take some time to get together a hit squad.

I wouldn't be able to save my mate from spending at least one day with Ricardo and his men. I didn't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out what he'd be doing to her. And I hated myself for failing her even more.

(Chapter Two - Cindy)

Ricardo had given me someone's dress shirt to wear when we had taken Logan outside. A naked woman would have been noticed. I was grateful that my body was no longer on full display as he took me to a large room in the warehouse where Logan and I had been taken after we'd been captured.

Until then, I had only seen two of his men. I was shaking like a leaf when I saw that there were at least six other men in the room. They were all armed, and they had been playing cards and drinking. 

But they noticed me as soon as I entered the room, and they all stopped what they were doing and stood up. The look of raw lust on all of their faces made me stop walking. I was scared to death. Suddenly, I was wishing that Ricardo would just keep me to himself.

Ricardo kept a firm grip on me. He was clearly enjoying my fear. I kept my eyes on the ground. If I looked at these men, I would start crying. Or screaming. Or shifting. None of which were going to be of any help to me. I knew that what I was doing was a clear sign of submission. But I couldn't help it. I felt like a rabbit that was about to be devoured by wolves.

"This is Cindy, boys." Ricardo announced. "She's my new girl." He added proudly. "We're going to welcome her to the family before we head back to New York."

My terror increased tenfold as the men quickly crowded around me. Within seconds, the shirt I was wearing was on the floor again. I felt hands groping me from every direction, and I fought hard not to struggle against them. Even though I knew I would heal from a beating, I wasn't about to sign up for one.

But when one of the men started opening his pants, Ricardo put up his hand and told them to back off. "You know the drill, Mario." He told the man sternly. "I get her first. Then the rest of you will have your turns."

Oh, god. I wanted to die right then and there. Most of the men went back to playing cards, but one of them had something to say to his boss first. "We should really get out of here now, boss. That mate of hers is still around. There's no way he's just going to go away and let you have her."

Ricardo glared at the man. "Are you questioning me, Antonio?" He growled. "Would you like to be the one who skips fucking her so that we can leave a little sooner? I'm sure it'll shave at least 30 seconds off our stay here if you don't get your turn."

The other men roared with laughter at their boss's insult. The man who had wanted to leave immediately threw up his hands in defeat and backed away from us. Ricardo dragged me back to the room with the bed and threw me on it. I scrambled backward until my back hit the head board.

"Let me tell you something else about fated mates that you might not know, little girl." He said as he quickly removed his clothes. Ricardo wasn't an unattractive man. He had dark hair and tanned skin. He even had a handsome face and a chiseled, muscular body. If only he wasn't somebody I hated.

"This is going to hurt." He told me with a wide grin as he climbed onto the bed.

"I'm not exactly aroused. I know it's going to hurt." I replied sarcastically. I had promised to obey him. Which meant that I wouldn't fight his advances. But I wasn't going to fake enjoying it either. Not unless he made it a command. I was absolutely determined to lay there like a dead fish. I wasn't going to give him one ounce of genuine surrender.

"You don't understand." He added as he spread my legs and put his weight on top of me. "Now that you're mated, sex with anyone but him will be painful for you. Whether you actually want to have sex with that man or not."

My eyes grew as wide as saucers as I took in his words. I had been hoping that I'd at least be able to fantasize about being with Logan when I was being ravaged in order to get through the experience with my sanity intact. 

But...no. Mother Nature was fucking with me, yet again. I'd be a hooker who was going to suffer in terrible pain every time a man put his dick in me. I didn't think things could get any worse. I was wrong.

When Ricardo suddenly thrust into me, I screamed. It felt like I was being torn in half. It made the pain of losing my virginity seem like a walk in the park in comparison. The bastard looked so pleased with himself. I knew then that he wasn't done torturing me.

"And the best part is that your mate will feel your pain. Every time someone fucks you, he'll share your agony. I'm sure he's feeling like his dick is going to fall off right about now, and he won't even know why until someone breaks the news to him." He added gleefully as he continued to slam into me repeatedly. "What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."

I closed my eyes and bit my lip to keep from crying out anymore. But I couldn't keep the tears from flowing. I sobbed openly as he continued, and my suffering seemed to get him off more than the act of fucking me. Sicko. When he was finally done, he rolled off of me. I curled up into a ball with my back to him as he stood up and put his clothes back on.

I didn't acknowledge his presence. Didn't move when he walked out of the room and locked the door. He would be the first of many. I knew that. And the thought of killing myself crossed my mind. 

But some miniscule part of my mind told me that I needed to give Logan a chance to rescue me. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he hadn't just walked away from me. He'd be back. We'd get our revenge.

And Ricardo would get what was coming to him. But my hopes were put on the back burner of my mind when the door opened and another man came into the room. My ordeal was only beginning, no matter how fast my mate got to me. 

(Chapter Three – Logan)

I didn't need to walk for more than six blocks before I found the corner where a local gang hung out. I was betting that Ricardo and his men weren't on their own turf. He had probably just rented the building where I had been held. And I knew he'd be in a hurry to get the hell out of dodge.

My back up wouldn't arrive until night fall, and I needed eyes on the warehouse to make sure Ricardo didn't make a run for it with my girl before I could get the reinforcements I needed to save her. 

One of the perks of being a low life like me was having shady contacts in just about every city in the state. I had travelled a lot over the years, and I was relieved when I saw a man I was reasonably friendly with in the crowd of gang bangers.

"Logan!" The man yelled, reaching out to shake my hand. Miguel was the second in command of the gang he was in, and he was also a bear shifter. The guy was huge, towering over just about every man in the group. I immediately sensed that a few of the other men were shifters too, but most of them were human.

Miguel pulled me in for a man hug after we shook hands. But before I could get one word out of mouth, I dropped to my knees. I clutched my dick and howled in pain. What the fuck?! It felt like somebody was putting my balls through a grinder, and I didn't have a clue why.

The humans in the gang looked at me like I was nuts. Nobody had touched me, and yet I was acting like I'd been castrated. I was also an outsider to everybody but Miguel. And that alone probably set their teeth on edge as I struggled to compose myself. It was impossible. There was no recovering from the pain until it mysteriously just stopped several agonizing minutes later.

Miguel had put his arm around me in a gesture of support that I would have appreciated if I hadn't felt like I was dying. The angry look on his face told me that he understood what was happening, and I made a mental note to ask him about it just as soon as I could breathe again.

I was embarrassed when I was finally able to stand up again with a little help from Miguel. The humans were keeping their distance from me. They probably thought I was about to go postal on them or something.

"Sorry, man." I said. "I don't know what just happened." 

Miguel patted me on the back and shook his head in anger and frustration. "There's only one reason that could have happened to you, bro." He said. 

I wanted to hear his explanation, but I needed his help more. "Tell me in a minute." I said. "First, I need to ask a favor."

I didn't know Miguel very well. I had dealt with him enough times to think that he was a decent enough guy in a world of cut throat killers. At least, I figured I could trust him and his guys enough to do the job of watching the warehouse for me until I was ready to storm the place.

"There's a warehouse about six blocks away from here. It's red. You can't miss it. I need some of your guys to watch it and make sure that no one leaves. My men will be here by tonight, so I'm hoping to get the drop on them." I told him. "I want your men to stay hidden unless anybody tries to leave with a woman. If that happens, I want them to make themselves known."

"How many men are in the warehouse?" Miguel asked. 

"I don't know." I admitted. 

"The woman. Is she yours?" He asked.

I nodded my head. Miguel's men had been listening to our conversation. I was asking them to do surveillance on a building that had an unknown number of assailants in it. And they all knew I wouldn't be coming to them for help if we weren't dealing with armed men who were at least as dangerous as the gang members were.

A pregnant woman came out of the little house that we were all standing in front of. She smiled at me and Miguel put a protective arm around her waist. The woman was holding a tray of beers, and she offered one to me. I took it and thanked her. Some of the other men took the remaining drinks. Miguel kissed the woman on the cheek and she went back inside the house.




Chasing Cindy Pt. 03



"You're mated?" I asked him. I figured that I didn't need to guard my choice of words. If Miguel was in a gang with humans, then there was good chance they knew about our kind.

Miguel nodded his head. "Yep. Been with her a year now. She's going to have my cub in a few months." 

I was afraid that Miguel was going to have to get the ok for my request from the leader of the gang. He didn't have the final say so in what they did, after all. I understood the chain of command, but my anxiety made me impatient. 

I needed eyes on that warehouse yesterday. So, I was surprised when he told half a dozen of his men to get their asses over to the warehouse and watch it like hawks. He gave them instructions to do exactly as I had asked.

"How much do you want for this job? Your boys are going to be in harm's way if those fuckers try to leave with my woman. Name your price for your help." I said.

I wanted him to know that I understood what I was asking his friends to do. I couldn't offer anything but money for their assistance, but I needed them to know that they also had my appreciation...and my loyalty if they were ever in a jam.

"Let's talk about what happened to you earlier." He replied, ignoring my question altogether. That made the hair on my neck stand up. Men like Miguel and his gang were all about making money. As a mated shifter himself, he knew he could pretty much ask me for any amount, and I'd find a way to come up with it. 

"The only reason for you to have that kind of...episode..." Miguel began uncomfortably. "Would be if another man was fucking your mate." 

I was suddenly on my knees again, wishing I was dead before he could say anything else. The implications of what he had already told me were pretty self-explanatory. And my fury was almost strong enough to cancel out the pain I was in. Almost.

But I still didn't quite understand why I felt like my crotch was exploding. I breathed through the excruciating pain as much as I could while I implored Miguel with my eyes to continue. I needed to know what was happening to Cindy.

"It's the mating bond, bro." He added. "Now that you're mated to her, it will be painful for her to have sex with anyone else. And you'll share that pain every time it happens. That's part of the connection you have now."

Holy Fuck. My Cindy was going through the same agony I was at that very moment? Well...that shot my plans all to hell. There was no way I was going to wait for my back up to get there. Once I could stand up again, I asked Miguel for all the guns and ammo I could carry. I was going to get my girl back on my own if I had to, or die trying.

"Call your men back, Miguel." I said. "After what you just told me, I can't wait for my crew to get here. And there's no way that this isn't going to get bloody if I don't have my reinforcements to stand with your men. I don't want to get your people killed needlessly. The only one who has to take a bullet in the end is me."

Miguel got on the phone and called back all but one of his men from the warehouse. I assumed he wanted to leave a lookout until I get back there. I was grateful for that. But I was surprised and a little irritated when he told me not to leave yet before he went into his house. Five minutes later, he came back out with a small arsenal in his arms. He gave them to me, and I was ready to leave when he stopped me.

"I have a pregnant mate. So I know what you're going through. If anybody was holding my woman, there'd be hell to pay. Six of my men will meet you at the warehouse. They all know what's up. And they're all single. They won't be leaving behind any mates or family if they get hurt or killed."

Whoa. I didn't see that coming. "Thanks, man." I said, getting a little choked up at what was being offered to me. The men I'd be meeting didn't even know me. They were simply following orders. "If I get out of this alive, I owe you." I added before I took the weapons and ran back to the warehouse.

Ricardo knew what was going down by the time I got there. I had met up with Miguel's men, and one of them told me that a sentry that had been posted on the roof of the warehouse had spotted us just as I got there. 

Fuck it. I was ready to fight. Ready to kill. All six of the men I was with were shifters. And they didn't bother to say more than hello to me before we spread out. Luckily, there were only two ways out of the building. I took two of the men to the front door with me, and the other three went around the back in case Ricardo tried to sneak out with Cindy that way.

I kicked in the front door and immediately jumped back as the doorway was barraged with bullets. I had expected that to happen. The second I knew Ricardo's men were reloading, I signaled my men to open fire. I don't think I would have trusted human men to have the keen eye sight and razor sharp reflexes that it would take to avoid hitting Cindy in a gun battle.

We were quickly able to get inside the warehouse and take out four of Ricardo's men. I didn't see Ricardo, Cindy, or the two fuckers I had roughed up when they had shackled me to the bed. 

I'd recognize their mugs anywhere. That's when I heard Cindy's scream coming from the back of the building. It figures that fucker would try to sneak out the back with her like the snake he was.

My woman was naked and beaten up. The only ones left in Ricardo's crew were the two I had already been planning on killing. The tables had turned on them, and this time they were the ones who were outnumbered. Ricardo was holding a knife to Cindy's throat. She was crying and shaking so badly that he could barely keep a grip on her.

"Let my mate go. And I'll give you the mercy of a quick death." I snarled. Cindy wasn't even looking at me. It was clear she had been terribly abused in the short amount of time that she had been with those fuckers. 

"A quick death?!" Ricardo bellowed. "Do you know who the fuck you're talking too? I'm the most deadly rogue in the country, you piece of shit! Nobody tells me what to do! Now get out of my way or I'll slit the bitch's throat!"

Cindy looked into my eyes then. I could see that she had meant it when she told me she'd rather be dead than live as a sex slave. The desperate, terrified, pleading look in her eyes made me feel like shit for letting this happen to her. 

I knew I couldn't rush Ricardo while he had a knife to my woman's throat. And I also realized in that panic filled moment that Cindy would need to have a part in taking down Ricardo if she was ever going to recover from her ordeal. I did the first thing that came to my mind, and hoped that I was making the right choice.

I locked eyes with Cindy and said one word. "Shift."

I knew that if I had done anything but commanded her to shift, that maybe she would have frozen and been unable to shed her human skin. She had been brutalized, and she was weak from everything that had happened to her. The mating bond made sure that she would do whatever I told her to, no matter what the circumstances were.

Her body immediately began to change, and in that split second when Ricardo lost his grip on her, I shot him in the shoulder and he dropped the knife. I could have killed him outright, but Cindy deserved to take his life herself. I didn't know if she had ever killed before, and I would have taken over if it proved to be something that she couldn't stomach.

By the time Ricardo had stumbled a few feet away from her, Cindy had completed her transformation and had pounced on him. She didn't waste any time, raking her claws across his back. He screamed and tried to crawl out from under her. 

But she was much bigger and stronger than he was in her panther form. He never had a chance when she used her fangs to rip out his jugular. Ricardo's death was far too quick for my liking. I would have made him suffer a lot longer.

Cindy didn't change back to her human form. She clearly felt safer as a panther. I could understand that. But there were still two more men to deal with. They had dropped their guns, knowing that they were doomed. My tiger was itching to come out and rip them apart. But I didn't know if Cindy could handle any more bloodshed.

"Do you want me to kill them?" I asked Cindy as she rubbed her long, sleek body against my legs. "Or should I let our new friends have some fun?" I added, pointing to Miguel's men. 

I was glad none of them had gotten killed. There were six of them, and only two of Ricardo's goons. It was hardly fair odds. But those assholes were going to die. Whether it was by the hands of one of us, or all of us.

Cindy pushed against my legs until I got the point that she wanted me to sit down. I did, and she climbed onto my lap and got comfortable before she looked at Miguel's men and let out a long, low, growl. It looked like Ricardo's men were going to piss themselves when my new allies surrounded them.

"Boys," I said with a smile while I petted my mate's head. "You heard the lady."

THE END