Page 1 of A Cougar's Kiss
Prologue
He was an animal. There was no doubt about that. His chest heaving with each new breath the cat took as it crossed the mossy surface. How long had he been running? How far had he gone? It didn’t matter. He wasn’t there yet. The cat wouldn’t stop until it was there.
Death followed him like a heavy dark cloud with its booming voice of doom echoing in his ear day after day. He’d done its bidding, fed the darkness that had been growing in him for years. But he wasn’t done.
There was more. He could feel it in the strength pouring through his veins, the burn that raced through his flanks, and he smelled it in the tangy scent of the wind. His lips pulled back from his sharp teeth and those teeth dripped with anticipation of feeding the hunger once more.
Destruction was the animal. Fear was the people. Death was the only answer.
His paws sank deep into the damp forest floor and he pushed further, ignoring signs in his peripheral, warning lights flashing, tires screeching. Adrenaline pulsed through his two-hundred-pound body as it burst from the trees onto the asphalt. He didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.
The blare of car horns ripped through the air, the scent of rubber tires burning against the rain-slicked roads as they skidded, tickled his nose. He kept going, opening his mouth to let loose a ferocious growl for those who didn’t know he was coming. Then he leapt into the air, landing on top of a wet car hood. Human eyes stared wide with fear at the cat through the windshield. He roared again, this time pressing his face closer to the window. The car door opened and the human bolted out, running, stumbling to his knees, then jumping up to continue his trek as far away from the cat as possible.
Good. They should all fear him. Not just tonight, but forever, because that’s how long he was going to keep running.
That’s how long he was going to keep killing.
* * *
Oasis
“He’s still not up yet. It’s been three months.” Bas sat down heavily in one of the mesh-back chairs in Rome’s private office and ran a hand over his full beard.
Nick was already sitting in the matching chair closest to Rome’s desk. “Ary says there’s nothing medically wrong with him.”
“Then why isn’t he up?” Bas’s tone was clearly agitated and matched that of each of the shifters sitting in this room.
They all wanted something to happen. For Cole to wake up and tell them where he’d been for the last twenty years. For Ewen Mackey to end his vow of silence. For the humans in the world above to stop freaking the hell out and accept that the shifters belonged on this earth just as much as them. For this nightmare that they’d been living since that fateful night in D.C. to finally be over.
But they were out of luck, it didn’t seem like any of that was going to happen.
“He’s breathing and he’s here safe with us. Maybe we just need to be thankful for that.” Jace tried to keep things positive.
Nick, Bas and X each gave him sour looks. Rome’s face remained impassive. Correction, it remained in that pissed-off frown it had been in since they’d discovered Cole was missing. The Assembly Leader carried that look like a badge and the only thing Jace had seen to change it in all these years was the First Female Kalina or Nisa.
“We need him to wake up,” Bas countered.
“Why? He’s not going to get up from that bed and be ready to face the Ruling Cabinet and whatever they have waiting for us above ground,” Jace fired back.
Of all the shifters in this room, he had been closest to Cole. While Bas had been close in proximity and the three of them did have a bond separate from Rome and his crew, there were things that he and Cole had been through that none of them knew about. Did that mean he should miss the guy the most? Maybe. Did it also mean that he was more than ready to find whatever it was that reportedly dropped Cole in the street like an orphan? Hell yeah.
But it also meant he knew how important it was to not rush this and to make sure that every step they took next was the right step. There was no more margin for error. In the time that Ewen had been with them, the Ruling Cabinet had increased its bounty for Shadows, dead or alive. Mercenaries, hitmen, international assassins and even local law enforcement were hunting shifters above ground. And the rogues were on a feeding spree. The Shadows who were still living in secret, stayed hidden. Just like they did down here. It was the worst-case scenario personified.
“We need him to wake up because it’s time to go back.” Rome’s words were spoken in his deep, level tone. He was sitting back in his chair, one elbow propped on the leather-covered arm, a finger moving over his recently clean-shaved chin.
X nodded at the Assembly Leader and stepped forward from where he stood beside Rome’s desk. Twenty years had passed and none of them looked old, but they were stronger, wiser and with physical changes they’d made themselves perhaps, but because of their shifter blood their aging process kicked into gear at different times—when they had their Awakening as a teenager, and not again until they reached eighty or ninety years old. So, X still looked like a pro-wrestler in his prime with his bulky frame and meaty fists.
“We’ve completed new safety protocols, synced mobile transmitters and comlinks with the Holodeck and assembled the top members of the Shifter Tactical Team across all tribes and zones. The plan we’ve been tweaking since first building Oasis is now ready for implementation.” X spoke like one of the computer systems he worked with so frequently. “In short, we’re ready to reclaim our time and space above ground and kick the asses of anyone who gets in our way.”
The corner of Jace’s mouth began lifting in a smile because the latter was said in that don’t-fuck-with-me tone that was all X, the Topétenia shifter that would rip the throat out of anyone or anything daring to get in his way.
“Tactical teams are assembled and ready to ascend above ground on command. Briefings have been sent to each of your boards on a secure link that only those in this room can access. We’re not sitting still any longer,” Nick spoke in his much smoother, former attorney, tone.
Bas stood, the worried look still in his gray eyes, but his shoulders were squared, fists clenched at his sides. “Who’s staying with Cole while we take back what belongs to us?”
“I’ve got that under control,” Rome answered with a pointed glare at Bas. “He’ll be watched and protected at all costs. And when he wakes up, we’ll have what we lost. We’ll have it all back or we’ll burn it all down.”
