Her shout would have been good enough for civilized Shifters, but Miguel only smiled. “The claim is mine unless this puny human here wants to Challenge.”
Diego would have no idea what that meant, but apparently he didn’t care. Diego brought up his shotgun and aimed it at Miguel.
“Consider this a challenge,” he said.
He fired. What hit Miguel was not a bullet, but scattered shot that smelled and burned. Miguel got it full in the face.
While Miguel was howling, Diego charged forward and grabbed Cassidy.
At the same time, the room filled with still more light, blinding and hot. A tall, lean man appeared in the middle of it—Stuart Reid.
Before Cassidy could register shock, Reid bent over Xavier and came up with the man across his shoulders. Another white-hot flash, and both were gone.
“Run,” Diego said into Cassidy’s ear, but his voice was still very calm. “Marlo set explosives. This wreck is coming down.”
“No, wait.”
Cassidy had glimpsed something important on the other side of the darkened doorway when Miguel had tried to throw her through it. She shook off Diego and charged through to stairs that led down into cool earth. The stench came from below.
What she’d seen on the stairs in the one moment she’d had to glance at them had been a child.
The cub had been about five years old, just old enough to shift, and he’d been naked and filthy. As she neared the bottom of the stairs, the smell got worse, and Cassidy found what she’d feared she’d find.
A big room—large enough, thank the Goddess, or Cassidy would have found worse than she did—spread out before her. Frightened eyes turned her way as she charged in.
The females. They were sequestered and naked, surrounded by the children too small to be around the full-grown males. Shifter males would have the instinct to kill the offspring of rival males—as with the problem of Torey in Cassidy’s Shiftertown—but the ferals wouldn’t even try to suppress the instinct. Miguel had obviously gotten around that problem by sequestering all cubs until they were big enough to fight for themselves. Even worse, some of the women down here were human.
Only one person rose to meet Cassidy—the alpha female, Miguel’s mate, who’d looked at Cassidy in such worry.
“Get them out,” Cassidy shouted at her. “Now.”
No one moved.
Damn it, there was no time. Diego’s attack depended on surprise, chaos, swiftness. Miguel would figure out how to regroup, and then they’d lose the advantage.
“This building is going to blow,” Cassidy said. “You have to leave.”
The females still stared at her, every confidence they’d ever possessed having been beaten from them long ago.
“Miguel’s down,” Cassidy said. “He’s finished. You’re free.”
“No!” The alpha’s cry was anguished. “You bitch, what did you do to my mate?”
She launched herself at Cassidy, shifting along the way.
Cassidy shifted again, her bones aching, her Collar already slowing her down. But she knew how this had to end. She had to defeat the alpha, become alpha herself, before the rest of the women would follow her.
The female, an Ursine, was unhampered by a Collar, but she’d been weakened by living down here in the darkness. In the real world, she wouldn’t have had the dominance Miguel had given her here.
The fight was swift. Cassidy’s Collar snapped and sparked, pain biting deep. Cassidy tried to close her mind to it and pinned the female with her paw. She fought the instinct that made her want to snap the woman’s neck, telling herself that whatever this woman had become, it wasn’t her fault.
Cassidy knocked the female’s head on the stone floor, and the woman groaned, the fight going out of her. Cassidy rose to her full height and shifted, pretending that the change wasn’t agony.
“Miguel mate-claimed me,” she said. “I just defeated your alpha, and unless someone else wants to challenge me, I’m alpha. And we’re going. Now.”
Animal instinct was amazing. The females sat for a stunned moment, then the idea made it through their brains that Cassidy had strength and power and, most of all, could protect them. Even the human females figured that out.
They got up, gathered their cubs, and started for the stairs.
“Diego,” Cassidy shouted upward. “We’re coming!”
“Hurry it up, mi ja,” Diego said, still sounding amazingly calm. “Marlo’s a pyromaniac.”
Cassidy herded the seven females and dozen cubs up the stairs. She’d have to come last, she knew, letting them know no one was getting left behind.
Cassidy caught the last, slow, crying little boy and sent him up the stairs after his mother. She grabbed the fallen alpha, who’d shifted back to human, slung her over her shoulder, and started up the stairs.
The Shifters were regrouping, looking for Miguel. Diego was propelling the women out of the gloom, Shane returning to help.
“Cass!” Diego shouted at her. “Hurry!”
Miguel was coming around. He saw Cassidy dash by with his mate over her shoulder, and came up with a roar.
Cassidy ran past Diego, who was walking through the big room as though he had all the time in the world. She emerged from the factory into sunlight and heat. Shane charged by her, crying cubs clinging to his back. Xavier was already out by the jeep, leaning heavily against it, Reid next to him. Some men from the village were there as well.
The bartender from the cantina saw the females coming toward them, gave a cry of joy, and launched himself at a dark-haired young human woman carrying a small boy. Father and daughter. Arms went around each other, the two crying and hugging.
Cassidy laid the alpha female on the ground next to the jeep then started back to the building. Diego hadn’t come out yet. She hurt too much to shift, but fear kept her running on her cut and bleeding human feet.
Before she made it halfway back, Diego emerged. He was dirty and bloody, his clothes ripped by claws, but he walked steadily toward her.
Behind him, the factory blew. Marlo’s charges, one after the other, sent the remaining walls of the factory heaving outward, and an orange ball of flame rose high into the hot sky.
Diego shouldered his shotgun as he reached Cassidy, then he put one arm around her shoulders and gave her a swift kiss on her lips.
“Hey, mi ja,” he said, his smile warm. “Need a ride?”
Diego didn’t get a chance to speak to Reid until they reached the airstrip.
“How did you do that?” Diego asked Reid. Reid stood with him and Xavier under a corrugated tin shelter as Diego checked Xavier over. “How did you know exactly where we were and how to get in?”
“GPS,” Reid answered. The man looked none the worse for wear, not even scratched or dirty. “Your pilot gave Eric the coordinates of the factory. I landed myself on the roof, looked things over, and figured out the fighting was worst in the main room. Got in there, saw your brother wounded, and pulled him out.”
“Thanks, Reid,” Xavier croaked. “I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing,” Reid said, and walked away.
Xavier groaned a little as he propped himself against the big water cooler Marlo had provided. “Reid is weird, but I’m grateful to him. Stop worrying about me, hermano, and go find out who those other guys Eric brought are.”
A second, smaller plane sat on the end of the dirt runway. This one had contained Reid, Eric, a couple of Eric’s trackers, and some Shifters Diego hadn’t met.
The Shifter that seemed to be the leader had dark hair going gray at the temples, blue eyes, and the hardest stare Diego had ever seen.
“This is Dylan Morrissey,” Eric said when Diego reached them. “From Austin. His son’s the Shiftertown leader there. I asked him here to check out this feral problem.”
Dylan looked Diego up and down, nostrils widening as he inhaled Diego’s scent. He obviously tried to make Diego look away, but Diego was getting a little tired of this game. He met Dylan’s gaze squar
ely and stayed put.
Dylan held out his hand, conceding. “Well met.”
Diego took his hand. Dylan pulled him forward and slid one strong arm around Diego’s back. A hug, but not quite. More an I’ll-trust-you-for-now-but-don’t-fuck-with-me kind of greeting.
“Diego blew up the ferals,” Shane said. The bear had put a T-shirt on over jeans of the right size, and he grinned, showing all his teeth. “It was awesome.”
“He blew up their base,” Dylan said, sounding less impressed. “Whichever ones survived will try to regroup and start again, especially if the leader survived. I’ve come to prevent that.”
“You by yourself?” Diego asked.
Dylan nodded, the man radiating self-assurance. “With a few of my trackers. I’ll have my mate join me if I have to come down on the Lupines. They won’t want to deal with her.”
“I believe you,” Eric said. “I’ve met Glory.”
“Plus I brought Collars,” Dylan said. “They’ll take them.”
“What about the females?” Cassidy moved to stand beside Diego. Someone had given her a dress decorated with bright red flowers, and her tall, sexy curves made the shapeless garment look good.
“They’ll go back with us,” Eric said. “I claimed them.”
Diego gave him a sharp look. “Wait, what? What does that mean?”
“Their males are defeated, and I’m a clan leader,” Eric said. “As leader and alpha, I can claim as many mates as I want. Don’t worry—it’s just a technicality to take them back safely to our Shiftertown. They’re now off-limits to other males, and once I get them back home and put Collars on them, I’ll release my claim. I promised them I wouldn’t kill their cubs, so they’re fine with me so far.”
He’d promised not to kill their cubs. Dios mio.
“How do you plan to explain to the humans in Las Vegas that five new women and all those kids are suddenly living in your Shiftertown?” Diego asked.
Eric smiled, but there was no humor in it. “You let me worry about that.”
“That lead feral, Miguel,” Diego said. “He said he mate-claimed Cassidy.”
Both Eric and Dylan turned intense gazes to Diego. “Did he?” Eric switched his stare to Cassidy. “Did Miguel survive? We haven’t looked at the casualties yet.”
“Diego Challenged him,” Cassidy said.
Again, both Eric and Dylan looked at Diego.
Cassidy laid her hand on Diego’s shoulder. “In front of witnesses, including Xavier. And I’d say he defeated Miguel, whether Miguel survived or not.”
Eric wasn’t smiling anymore. Dylan watched with keen interest.
“Anyone want to tell me exactly what you’re talking about?” Diego asked.
Eric shrugged. “It’s a little unorthodox. But Shifter law is Shifter law. Miguel made the mate-claim. You Challenged, you won. That means the mate-claim for Cassidy transfers from Miguel to you. Cassidy is yours to take as mate, if you still want her.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Diego didn’t understand, Cassidy saw as they flew back north. She was exhausted, sick from the pain of her Collar, and worried about the females and cubs.
Five of the seven females had been Shifter, the other two, human women from the village. The cantina owner’s daughter she’d seen welcomed with open arms back to her father, but the other woman had been shunned by her family. They claimed she’d been defiled by Miguel, and they didn’t want her back. Cassidy saw the heartbreak in the poor woman’s eyes, and she burned with anger for her.
Dylan, however, said the woman could go back to his Shiftertown—his son’s mate was human, and that son was Shiftertown leader. The woman would be protected. Cassidy saw that the young woman was miserable, but she accepted the offer. She didn’t have much choice. Diego asked the question about papers for her, and Dylan quietly said he’d take care of it. Cassidy believed him. Dylan was a take-care of it kind of male.
Eric would help the Shifter females, but Cassidy felt responsibility for them too. Her fighting and defeating their alpha meant something, even though Cassidy had done it to expedite the situation. She’d have to help Eric find them places to live and make sure they didn’t have too much trouble adapting to Collars and to Shiftertown—and Shiftertown adapting to them.
For now, Cassidy let out her breath and snuggled a little closer to Diego. She so needed a nap…
Diego closed his arms around her. She turned sleepily to him, rewarded with his warm mouth on hers.
He stroked her hair—which had to be filthy—and kissed her lips again. “I almost lost you,” he whispered. “I almost lost you, Cass. And Xavier, and it would have been my fault.”
Cassidy sat up, his hurt winding around her. “It’s not your fault the feral asshole Miguel decided to take over a human town. You didn’t know he was down here.”
“Enrique must have set me up—I’m betting he knew those Shifters were there.”
“Possibly. But look at it this way. You saved the town.” Cassidy batted her eyelashes at him and put on a sugary voice. “My hero.”
Diego didn’t smile. “You let your vengeance go when you had the chance to kill Reid. I hung on to mine, and you nearly died for it.”
Cassidy snuggled into his shoulder again. “I let it go because Reid was so pitiable. In your case, the guys who shot your partner terrorized a town, and then were terrorized by the Shifters, who were even worse. You solved both problems, and it’s finished.”
“I know.”
Diego didn’t sound elated, but Cassidy understood. He’d held on to wanting to bring Jobe’s killers to justice for a long time; he’d let it drive his life. The obsession of it kept him from seeing anything else. Now Diego’s tunnel vision was gone, and he didn’t know where to look.
Cassidy knew how he felt. The hunters who’d actually shot Donovan were still out there, but they were pathetic excuses who had been coerced by Reid, who himself had been driven by desperation. Life was more complicated than simply a kill for a kill.
Diego didn’t speak much the rest of the trip, and he and Cassidy were both too busy to talk during the unloading. Cassidy had to help look after the females and their cubs—the cubs were both excited and terrified.
Diego left them at the airstrip to take Xavier to the hospital and the drug runners he’d arrested to jail, while Cassidy and Eric faced the task of getting the women and cubs back to Shiftertown undetected. Marlo helped with that too. The man had amazing resources.
Nell came out to meet them when they reached Shiftertown. She didn’t even wait for Eric’s explanation but waded in to the women and cubs with her no-nonsense attitude. The women had been so beaten down by Miguel that they were pitifully grateful for someone to tell them what to do.
It was late—actually early in the morning—by the time Diego arrived in Shiftertown. Cassidy had been able to grab a shower, but she ached all over, the aftereffects of her Collar making themselves felt.
“You should sleep,” Diego said, after kissing her.
“There’s still a lot to do.”
Diego caught Cassidy as she sagged. “Cass. Bed. Now.”
She stopped protesting when he lifted her and carried her into the bedroom. Relaxing in Diego’s arms wasn’t a bad thing.
Diego set her on her feet in her bedroom and started stripping her clothes from her. She’d already given the flowered dress to Nell, who’d admired it, and now Cassidy wriggled out of jeans and a sleeveless shirt.
Diego caught her in a long kiss. He’d showered too, sometime in the chaos, and smelled like soap and aftershave.
Why did remembering Diego walking away from that factory while it blew behind him, his face streaked with sweat and soot, excite her even more? The Shifter in her liked it. Battle was an aphrodisiac, Diego a warrior.
Cassidy tugged at his T-shirt until it came off, then she skimmed fingers over his hot skin. She was still sick and dizzy from her Collar, but touching Diego made her feel better. Cassidy leaned into him and rub
bed her cheek on his chest. She heard his heartbeat beneath her ear, the even thrum that meant he was alive and hers.
She liked the wiry, dark hair on his chest. She rubbed her fingers through it, watching the curls wind around her fingertips. Her questing fingers found his flat, male nipple; she smiled to see it draw to a tight point under her touch.
Cassidy licked the hollow of his throat. Diego gripped her elbows with his warm hands, and his openmouthed kisses landed on her cheek, her neck, her breasts.
Outside her window, Cassidy could hear Nell explaining to some of the cubs that, yes, they were allowed to play outside now.
“That’s why you went down to Mexico,” Cassidy whispered to Diego. “So these cubs can now be kids without fear.”
“They’re out playing at four in the morning?” Diego asked. “Mamita would have my guts on a plate if she caught me out at four in the morning.”
Cassidy chuckled. “They’ll adjust.” Her Collar hangover was starting to fade. She tugged the waistband of Diego’s jeans. “Take these off.”
Diego unbuttoned, unzipped, and let his pants drop. Cassidy slid her hands to firm buttocks under silk boxers.
“I love you with your pants around your ankles,” she said.
Diego kicked out of them plus his boxers, and at the same time tugged down Cassidy’s bikinis. As he came up, he skimmed her camisole up and off her.
There he was, naked, facing her. Soft lamplight kissed Diego’s skin, muscles moving as he brought up his hands to cup her face. “I almost lost you,” he said, eyes darkening.
“You keep rescuing me. It’s embarrassing. Next time, I rescue you.”
Diego kissed her again. Body to body, his hardness came tight against her abdomen, and his kisses opened her mouth. He cupped her breasts, and his kisses turned rough, teeth scraping her lips, hands so warm.
Diego lifted her and laid her on the bed, then came down to her. No seduction, no whispered endearments. Just a man who needed a woman. Cassidy welcomed him.
Diego’s eyes widened as he moved inside her, all the way in. “Amada mia, you are so tight.”
Cassidy smiled back. “You take up much space.” He was stretching her, easing the Collar’s pain, and making her ache a different way. “Don’t stop doing that.”