Page 32 of Hellcat

He ran with the tigress, and eventually they reached the small, dainty feline who was their alpha female. She was in front of a warehouse. Ace shifted back and stood naked, her hands and feet muddy.

"You know the plan. No improvisation."

The two animals bowed their heads. Their priority was to get Tania out of there unharmed.

Ace stepped in front of the building, hands in the air, and shouted.

"Hey, guys! I come in peace. I just want to talk, all right? No one needs to get hurt."

Someone peeked out a window, and the next instant, a gunshot came from inside.

"You have a woman in there. She's just a normal human, one of you. We want to make sure she isn't harmed."

"Fuck off, you vile animal!" someone shouted. Three gunshots now. Ian was relatively certain they were actually aiming at Ace. They were just terrible marksmen, and the alpha female made for a small target.

"Please. All we want is to live in peace, but if you do continue shooting at me, we will attack."

From the other side of the building, Daunte, who'd waited there for the last few hours, hidden from view behind a rusty car, held his hand up so that they could all see his thumb up. He'd been timing it all and filming the whole thing from a vantage point.

Three, two, one...

The next shot hit Ace in the leg.

She smirked. That was all they'd needed.

"Go."

Ian had never won a race against Jas until today, but he got to the warehouse before her, and he also was the first to sink his teeth deep inside the leg of a guy. Not one to be outdone, the female leaped on the man holding Tania down, and ripped out his throat, coating Tania in blood. Her wrists were bound, but she seemed unharmed. Ian's animal rushed to her, and checked her over before standing in front of her protectively, as if daring anyone to approach. The idiotic humans might have, were they not getting eaten by a panther, three tigers, and an eagle. Two or three of them would have been enough to take care of this sorry lot, but none of them had wanted to take chances with Tania's life. Vision or no vision, accidents did happen; guns were dangerous things, and someone could have shot her, had they not made quick work of their enemy.

There were body parts all over the warehouse within five minutes, and six shifters stood over them in their human forms. Ian hadn't shifted back; his animal was still too uneasy to risk it.

"Did you film everything we needed?" Rye asked Daunte.

"It's in the box. I'll load it online as soon as we get home. You okay, Tania?"

Daunte was no doubt asking because there was an eight-hundred-pound tiger standing up on its back legs, licking her face.

She held on to his rough fur and nodded. "I'm good."

“Let’s get out of here, then.”

“Yes. Let’s go home.”

She said it like Lakesides was her home, too.

Chapter 21

Daunte had left his truck hidden from view a short distance away. Clari and he rode in front, and Tania took the back seat with Ian's tiger. She couldn't stop herself from caressing his fur, finding his touch comforting.

She was still shaken up; not as much by seeing people torn to bits in front of her—they'd had it coming—but by her kidnapping. Expecting it didn't make the whole thing any less of an ordeal.

She'd felt helpless. She'd felt helpless and she'd fucking hated it.

"Do you think I could be a shifter, someday?" she asked, talking to Clari, but everyone in the car froze, tiger included. "Be changed like you, I mean."

"Is that what you want?"

She nodded, firm and definite.

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