The Hunted Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection: Paranormal Women's Fiction, page 1
The Hunted Shifters
A Paranormal Romance Collection
~
J. S. Striker
The Hunter Shifters Collection © 2020 J. S. Striker
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Contents
Tempted Bodyguard
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Detective Jack
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Dark Magic
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Tiger’s Mate
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
More by J. S. Striker
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Author Bio
Tempted Bodyguard
Chapter 1
“We have a package for you in the mail, Solis. Do you have some time to check on it now?”
The words were said cheerfully, as if the package contained items made of rainbows and sunshine. Any bystander would think so, if they ever heard her.
Of course, Hunter Solis knew better.
“Are we talking about a big package or a small package?”
“Big one.”
“Hmm.” That meant a few paragraphs worth of details, target, and location—which also meant this wasn’t some last-minute thing but something that had been prepared for a while. “Sounds interesting. Thanks for the heads up.”
“No problem.”
“And Kit?”
“Yes?”
“What’s your last name?”
If anything, the voice only turned more cheerful.
“Just call me DJ Kit,” she replied, voice pleasant and oddly comfortable. Kit had always gone by that name, and it wasn’t a lie. She did DJ for the radio during odd hours, though no one really knew her location since she never visited the station. Of course, that was just a front for her real work: prowling the radio frequencies to check for trouble.
Oh, and being their resident messenger.
There was no telling how old Kit was, considering her tone was concealed very well: not too raspy, not too perky, not too high or low. Probably a grandma bored with her life and pretending to be younger.
Or maybe a young loner who just wanted to make the world a better place.
“Fine, fine. I’m on my way, DJ Kit.”
Hunter ended the call, his pace unchanging as he turned the street and joined the crowd. This early in the morning, Brooklyn was fast-paced. It was just the perfect size, too, making him wonder how people in bigger areas dealt with their lives. More threats? More targets?
More allies?
Ten minutes later, those musings halted as he turned another street and finally got to the generic mailbox-slash-locker that was kept inside one of the area’s posher apartment buildings. The doorman was an old guy working there for probably three decades now: full human, with a wife and three kids.
“Good morning, Mr. Solis. Did you bet on the lottery today?”
“Twice, and let’s hope it bears fruit, Jim,” Hunter replied with a grin. He nodded at the lobby attendant, Pam, and strode to the building’s back area, where he took out the contents of one of the lockers and sifted through it. Some magazine subscriptions, monthly billings for electricity he didn’t use…
The last envelope was huge enough to contain a folder, and he glanced around before slicing it open with a sharp nail.
Inside was some of the information he predicted, including a name and an address somewhere in Queens. He read the details, where it stated that he had to get to a woman before the enemies got a whiff of her. Apparently, she came from money, long-dead parents leaving a chunk enough to sustain her for a few years without work. That explained the odd online jobs. The woman was described to be on the slightly tall side, with fair skin, green eyes, and reddish-brown hair, though the black-and-white photos provided no such color distinction.
The woman also possessed something that every clan potentially wanted, which made her an open target—which meant Hunter had to move fast.
He dialed a number and got a hold of Kit instantly.
“Any chance you can get me a small van?”
“The train wouldn’t work?” Kit countered.
“Call it a backup plan,” Hunter declared.
“Fine. When do you need it?”
“Within fifteen minutes, hopefully.”
Kit sighed. “Give me half an hour.”
Hunter grinned. “You’re the best, DJ Kit.”
It took thirty minutes as promised, but the travel from Brooklyn to Queens swallowed up a bit more time as he searched for the perfect parking spot. He didn’t mind the drive, the traffic a constant flow of life in New York, and very different from the one he had at home. It gave him time to conjure up a plan of attack, though attack wasn’t necessarily what he was ordered to do for this particular task.
He parked the van and walked the next few minutes to the address indicated. It was a neat, gray brick box of an apartment, smaller than the ones in Brooklyn but not that bad in terms of aesthetic. He figured it would be on the high end for a blue-collar worker but would fit right into a simple white-collar worker’s financial budget. It would probably be cheap for the latter. Sure enough, that guess was confirmed in the form of men and women in business suits leaving out the front door, carrying bags and hurrying to catch transportation.
Before he could decide whether to enter or not, a woman slipped out with the rest: tall-ish, fair skin, green eyes turned up to the cloudy skies before she tightened her brown coat around her. There was a tiny smile on her lips before they turned serious, and her saunter indicated she was brisk, but not in as much of a rush as the others.
She wa s also much more vibrant than the grainy pictures portrayed, the reddish-brown hair description turning out to be a fully red hue. Sure, her braid and knitted, moss green cap muted it, but it was still her feature that caught the most attention.
As it was, she blended in with the walking crowd, navigating the streets like an expert before she stopped inside a coffee shop. He watched her through the front glass wall, taking in the way she chatted with the barista in an animated manner. A regular, then. He supposed he should check her routine first, find out the place where he could catch her alone. He had all day to spare.
Hunter’s phone vibrated in his jeans pocket, and he picked it up.
“DJ?”
“I got a call-in from a civilian to the cops that sounds like our territory, Solis.”
“You’re eavesdropping awfully early. What’s the call?”
“They call it some strange-looking young ones, I call it some shifters. Not from your clan.”
“Go on…”
“Harassing a young boy in an alley. Two blocks away from your target location.”
Well, shit. Two things were huge alarms in this scenario: that this harassment thing was being done in broad daylight, making those shifters idiots, and that these harassers were young ones, making them reckless idiots. Hunter was moving before he knew it, abandoning the stakeout position he had and quickening his steps. He donned a pair of sunglasses, patted his dagger in the holster under his coat. Autumn really was bringing the wind in, and it was sharp and fresh at the same time.
He looked around when he got to the specified alley entrance, relieved to note that whoever the caller had been had decided not to stay and watch. The cops would be here any minute now. He turned, stepping further inside—
Hunter ducked when a whizzing sound vibrated—just in time, too, as the knife flew past his ear and landed on the pavement behind him. He whirled around, incredulous, eyes squinting to take in the sight ahead. There were whispers, along with some punching sounds…along with some laughs, as if they were enjoying all of it.
Despite reckless idiots not being his responsibility, one thing was: keeping this violent, unchecked energy off the streets, where humans would become witnesses.
And cops.
His gaze zoned in on the two—definitely young-looking, like teenagers—boys surrounding a smaller one, who was huddled in the middle with his arms up over his head: a standard defensive move, to protect the skull from being cracked. They were kicking him, throwing random knives in the air, then laughing when they landed near the smaller boy. A claw glinted dully, ready to swipe.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
The sound of his voice had the claw stilling, followed by three heads whipping in almost perfect accord in his direction. Bodies tensed. Then…
“Who the hell are you?” one of the attackers snarled, baring sharp teeth at him.
Hunter thought about it before deciding to hell with it. He bared his sharp teeth back.
“Someone concerned about the cops on their way here, and your disgraceful ways exposing us. What clan are you from?”
“None of your damned business,” the second attacker snapped. But Hunter didn’t miss the way their eyes had grown wary at the mention of the word cops, and the way they discontinued any further attack on the smaller boy.
Two reasons came to mind: first, their group specifically avoided trouble with the law, as was the case for most of their kind…or second, one of the cops in the area wasn’t friendly with their group. He didn’t know the structure of the Queens police force, but it wasn’t uncommon practice for their kind to be double agents.
“It is my business, in a way,” Hunter said easily. “Now, I’m going to count to three. Either you leave, or this is seriously going to hurt. Your call.”
He braced himself when the two backed away from the smaller boy, stalking in his direction. Snarls came, then a growling that confirmed what Hunter had suspected already: predators. One of them came as close as two meters from his stance, and all it would take was a small burst of movement for fur to explode and sharp teeth to come tearing.
The nearby boy snarled again…glared for good measure.
Then the second boy tugged him—hard—and told him something that had Hunter confirming one more thing.
“Bryce, let’s go. The boss won’t like it if we shift in broad daylight.”
“Shut up, and don’t say my name,” the first boy hissed, transferring his glare towards his companion. Reluctance vibrated from his body, followed by a curt nod.
Hunter gave them both a baleful look when more glares were aimed at him.
“You’re a lucky old ass that we’re not attacking right now,” the first boy snapped.
“Oh, I’m shaking in my old-ass shoes right now,” Hunter returned.
He watched the two teenage boys go, their footsteps thudding softly in their hurry. Not very subtle, these kids. Still, Hunter didn’t let his guard down as he texted Kit to confirm the handling of the situation, followed by a request to contact Ovie and have the guy check out the cops and discovered clans in this particular neighborhood. That guard was still up when he tugged the small boy up, and the boy cowered and flashed him a look filled with nervous energy.
“Hey,” Hunter said, treading carefully. “Did you know those boys, by any chance?”
“N-no,” was the stammered response before the boy hiccupped. “Don’t hurt me, please. I swear I won’t bump into anyone without looking again.”
Ah. There the mystery went.
Hunter studied the kid closely, finally deciding he wasn’t seeing any traces of fear related to whatever exchange had happened earlier. Hell, the kid probably didn’t even see anything with how much he was cowering earlier. That was just as well.
“How old are you?”
“Ten…why do you need to know?”
“Just wondering.”
“Oh.”
Noting how the nerves were starting to fade, Hunter crouched down and leveled their gazes.
“I’m not going to ask your name, but I’m going to tell you one thing right now: leave this alley while you still can, and before the cops get here. Don’t go inside any other alley again. Scream if anyone tries to drag you. It’s broad daylight, and there are plenty of people around to hear you when you do. Got it, kid?”
“I’m Max,” the boy blurted out. “My name’s Max.”
Well, no shit.
“I don’t need to know that, but nice to meet you, Max.” Hunter didn’t give out his name. It wasn’t needed. “Now, did you follow everything I said?”
“Yes.”
“Go. Now. Don’t run. Just stroll out of here and get yourself lost in the crowd.”
Max didn’t need any further prompting, backing away with a terrified flash in his expression. Then he was turning around and gone the next second, after which Hunter followed and surveyed the scene ahead of him.
Multiple crowds walking around, and not a sight of Max. Perfect. The kid was a natural. He also didn’t spot the troublemakers, which made Hunter extra careful as he stepped out himself and got to walking.
Fights like these were what often got them in trouble: their kind just unable to help themselves when it came to being dominant and showing that dominance to this world. It was understandable, but also annoying. A part of him would have liked to stay on and see if those younglings would return to that spot, probably with reinforcements.
Probably to destroy him, and he wasn’t really in the mood to kill any creature right now unless necessary.
Not that they didn’t kill each other on sight already.
“DJ?”
“I’ve already informed Fitzpatrick. Anything else?”
“Yeah. This day is seriously making me need a cup of strong coffee, and it hasn’t even started yet.”
“If you’re in Queens, there’s a really good shop called Laundry Café. I’ve been there once or twice, and their Americano is the best.”
“Another clue about the DJ,” Hunter countered teasingly. “She’s been to Queens.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Also, guess what? Laundry Café is where I’m headed back to right now. In about five minutes, I’ll have that cup of coffee in my hand, and the day will be as smooth as ever.”
“Good for you.”
“Uh-huh.”
Hunter wasn’t one to scoff at alley fights, considering he’d been in a few himself. But the adrenaline just wasn’t worth the trouble, and he’d rather return to his old routine after this: day-to-day activities, being cooped up in his home where he could practice his combat skills. Waiting for the full moon.
Checking the stock market and hoping he could cash in this week.
