Page 170 of Secret Shifters Next Door

My voice echoed through the dark warehouse. After a moment of silence, both Tate and Blayne stepped out of the shadows. I could see the wary looks in their eyes, but they glared at Ryland as they stepped up next to me.

“Did you kill all my men?” Ryland asked.

Tate shook his head. “We aren’t cold-blooded murderers like some people. They’ll all have some pretty severe headaches when they wake up.” He shrugged. “Some broken bones, but they’ll be fine.”

“Morals don’t matter when you’re damned to Hell for existing.”

I had to fight not to roll my eyes. This guy was deep down the rabbit hole. I wondered what it took for someone to get this crazy, this driven. Something had to have happened to cause the guy to crack like this. That, or he was mentally weak and whoever this leader was had twisted Ryland into this weapon.

Ryland frowned. “Where’s the fourth one? The wolf?”

“Not here,” Blayne said.

“Shit,” Ryland kicked a box in anger. “No matter. The boss will find a way to finish him off.” He pointed at Tate. “He’ll beupset if I take you out, Mr. Mills. Very upset indeed. The very last Alpha dragon in North America.”

Tate stiffened, and Ryland grinned, seeing his reaction. “Oh, yes. That’s right. He’s been busy. He likes taking down the dragons himself. It seems you didn’t realize there were so few of you left. This new iteration of the hunter brotherhood started with dragons. My leader had a beautiful, loving wife. A dragon Alpha corrupted her. Poisoned her mind into thinking she wanted to lie with a beast. Forced her to leave her husband, forced her to spread her legs for him. He filled her with his putrid seed. So, we wiped them all out. The wife, too. For her betrayal.”

Tate stared at him but didn’t react. His jaw was set, fists clenched, but other than that, he showed no emotion. That seemed to piss Ryland off more.

“Did you hear what I said? I’ve killed your kind. Butchered them like cattle. You have nothing to say to that?” Getting no response, he turned to Blayne next. “And you? One of the few panther shifters left in the whole world. It must burn to be so alone. Would you like me to tell you how many I’ve killed with my own hands?”

Blayne crossed his arms and glared back at him. Ryland looked frantic. He kept talking, throwing insults at us, telling us all the awful things he’d done to shifters and the few people who protected our kind. I saw what he was doing. He wanted us angry, wanted us to attack. For all his bravado about not being afraid to die, he didn’t have the guts to push the button. Not without fear fueling him. He wanted us to attack to give him a reason to end his own life. It looked like he was both psychotic and a coward.

He was so consumed with trying to goad us into a fight that he had totally forgotten April. I watched her inching toward a massive breaker panel behind us. I could barely see hersilhouette moving in the periphery of my vision. I didn’t know what her plan was, but I hoped to fuck she’d seen a way to escape. If I had to die, that was fine, as long as she made it out alive.

Then I heard her speak. April whispered so low that only a shifter could hear. “I’m going to shut the power off. Before he pushes the button. It might give you a chance.”

Tate and Blayne tilted their heads, letting me know they’d heard. We had to keep Ryland busy and preoccupied to give her enough time to get to the panel. We only had one chance for this to work.

“Okay, Ryland,” I said. “You keep talking about this big boss man. Who is he?”

Almost like a flip had been switched, Ryland’s face broke into a smile. “He is a great man. A visionary, a genius, a warrior of God. The Lord has blessed him with many gifts. He owns businesses all over the country. He has billions of dollars to invest in the cause. One of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the country.”

“Who is he, then? What’s his name?”

“His name? We only call him the Master. Nothing more.”

I sighed in frustration. “If he’s that rich and famous, then you must know his name.”

Ryland shook his head. “The name he uses in public is the name his earthly parents gave him. God revealed his true name. I’m not worthy to utter that name to filth such as you.”

This guy was not going to give me the information I wanted. That was obvious. April was still inching closer to the panel. Ryland must have seen a bit of movement, because his eyes flicked in her direction. Panicked, I tried to get him to focus on us again.

“What evidence do you have on us? You said if anything happened to you, the cops would find out that we’d killed all thepeople you and your hunters killed. What evidence do you have on us?”

His eyes refocused on me. “Oh, that? I have a whole file. It’s in my office at home in a hidden safe in the basement. The cops searched my house, but they never found that stash. It’s got doctored photos, fake text records—I even fabricated emails from Steff to the rest of you about how he was going to kidnap, rape, and murder April. All of it was done perfectly. A billion dollars can make any evidence look legitimate. If I die, the other hunters know to retrieve it and release it to the press. So you see, even though your friend Miles isn’t here, he’s done one way or another. Either we get him, or the cops get him.”

Tate surprised me by pulling his cell phone out of his front pocket. He held it up and grinned. “Did you get all that, Miles?”

My eyes widened when my friend’s voice came through the phone’s speaker. “Got it. On the way to the house now. I should have those files in less than thirty minutes.”

Ryland’s jaw fell open. “What? No. No, goddamn it.”

Before any of us knew what was happening, April slammed the massive breaker off. The warehouse descended into pitch black. Ryland gasped. Our night vision gave us the upper hand. Ryland was startled and glanced around for an instant, trying to figure out what had happened. It was the opening we needed. Blayne shifted, and in one massive twenty-foot leap, he sprung at Ryland. His panther jaws clamped onto Ryland’s wrist. Blayne bit down with all the strength of his powerful jaws. There was a crackling sound that reverberated through the warehouse. The box flew from Ryland’s fingers and a howl of agony erupted from the hunter’s throat.

I sprinted to the man. Death and vengeance the only thing on my mind. Ryland fell to his knees, cradling his mangled hand to his chest. He swept his hand across the floor, looking for the detonator. The moment his fingers brushed it, Tate’s talonedclaws snatched it from the floor and his dragon flew deeper into the warehouse, carrying it away. Ryland bellowed in rage.

Ryland was seething when I stood above him. April hit the breaker and flooded the room with light again. The hunter flinched, seeing me towering above him. He smiled grimly. “When… when one head is severed, another will take its place.”

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