Ridden by Darkness Read online

  It didn’t seem as though I was in danger in this place, wherever I had been taken. Thankfully, I wasn’t being pulled apart in some nasty back alley. My legs still ached, but the tug and pull of the bandages that had been applied let me know someone had treated my wounds. There was no time to think about that though, fear and worry would spike my heart rate and the men in the room would certainly notice I had woken up, if they hadn’t already. Maybe, I was safe. Hopefully, a mate was also in the works for me. If he denied me, I was in for one hell of a lonely existence. Honestly, it may have turned out to be a worse fate than the one that awaited me in that filthy alley at the hands of a vulture and leopard.

  4

  “What the hell are we supposed to do with a stray?” Knox asked me. I glared at him, knowing he was only doing his job by asking the question.

  “She’s mine,” I growled despite knowing he meant no harm.

  Knox held his hands out in front of him, a gesture of surrender. “Hey now, you know I didn’t…”

  “She’s mine!” I repeated, cutting off whatever bullshit he had been about to spew at me.

  “Wait. You mean, yours, as in your mate?”

  I tipped my head up and down in a quick nod, but refused to tear my gaze away from the woman who was trying hard to heal from her attack. “Smelled her blood, and it sung to me before I even got near her.”

  “That changes things. I’m calling church. You want me to pass along your claim or you going to leave her side long enough to do it yourself?” His words seemed like a challenge, even as I knew they weren’t. The only thing I could figure was that having my mate lie before me, injured and unclaimed in a clubhouse full of shifter males, was fucking with my head. Sure, I had claimed her in words, but that didn’t amount to fuck all in our world. A true claiming had to take place for it to mean anything. A mutual exchange of bites, and fuck… What was I doing? My thoughts were all over the place.

  “I can’t leave her,” I finally managed to bark out at the man who had been my friend for years. Knox must have understood, because he left the room without another word, leaving behind a prospect in case I needed anything. He truly understood I couldn’t leave my woman. “My father once told me about the bond,” the prospect, a newer kid whose name I hadn’t bothered learning yet, mentioned. “He said, even when unclaimed, you feel your mate and their pain. You trust it to no one else.”

  I nodded my agreement because the kid was right, or at least his father had been. “Your dad suffered through his mate being hurt?”

  “He did. Suffered even more through her death. Found a way to get dead not long after her.”

  “That how you ended up here with us instead of your own leap?”

  “Our alpha helped my father meet his fate. Told me he was only half alive and useless as he was. Also told me he wouldn’t be opposed to dispatching the weak link my parents left behind.”

  “Fuck!” Knox hissed out from the door, apparently he hadn’t gone far just yet. “You know that was bullshit, right?” Knox laughed at the boy’s surprised look. “I smelled the alpha on you the moment you came sniffing around here. That stupid fuck didn’t want you sticking around long enough to offer a challenge.” The prospect appeared completely taken aback. “Think on it, kid. You’ll come to understand. Hell, just glance around the men of this club. I’m sure every single one of them would have taken your old alpha out in a matter of seconds.” The kid nodded, as did Knox. “You’ll be fine here. We’ll grow you into your potential. For now, stick close, do what he needs until I can get back here.” Knox tipped his head in my direction, gave me and the injured woman lying on the bed one last look, and then he was gone.

  “I will,” the prospect called out, but Knox was already gone by then.

  I turned my attention away from the kid and leaned in to sniff my mate, still unable to determine if she was leopard or what. Frustrated, I huffed out, “Why can’t I tell?”

  The kid shrugged, as if I’d been asking for his answers. Wet behind the ears about life as he was, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do so. Still, the kids spoke anyway. “She’s one of the hidden.”

  “What?” I laughed at him and turned to look at the shaggy brown hair that hung loosely around ears too large for his baby face. Hell, now that I got a better look at him, I realized there was no way the kid could even be 18 yet. His brown eyes grew hard and determined, not appreciating my mocking laughter. I toned it down a bit to preserve his ego. “That can’t be, it’s an old legend, nothing more,” I informed him.

  He shrugged his shoulders as if he couldn’t care less that I was wrong. “Legends are often facts passed down. Just because they’re rare doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.”

  “A shadow cat though?” I asked on another laugh, unable to help myself. Shadow cats, also known as ‘the hidden’, were always female and never belonged to any one species until after they met their mate. They were either pure silver or pure black of coat and appeared ghost-like or shadowy in their feline form because they had yet to choose a mate. Once chosen, they would assume the female counterpart to their mate’s animal.

  “There’s one way to find out.”

  “Yeah, kid? How’s that?”

  “Get Knox to force her change.” The prospect grew nervous then. “Just be sure no one else knows until after you claim her. The hidden can be claimed by anyone if they are found in their shadow cat state.”

  Part of me wanted to laugh, but I had seen the little bits of shimmery silver pelt near her skinned calves. “What’s to stop Knox from claiming her after she shifts then?” I asked.

  “Nothing. So you better trust him.”

  “Saying you don’t trust our Prez, Prospect?”

  “Saying that ain’t my mate lying there, but if it was, there wouldn’t be a man on Earth to force her change before I claimed her.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” a beautiful feminine voice said, pulling my attention from the prospect to her. “We shadow cats get to choose for ourselves.”

  “What does that mean, exactly?” I did my best to hide my unease at her admission. What if she didn’t choose me?

  “You wouldn’t have felt the call if I hadn’t wanted you to,” she explained with a slight blush on her cheeks. “I needed your help,” she admitted.

  “Are you saying you made me think you were my mate when I wasn’t just so I’d help you?”

  “No. I’m saying I am your mate now if you’ll have me. I chose you because I needed help, but when you answered the call, you made the potential mate bond real.”

  “Are you going to take it back now?” I asked, feeling like a complete idiot.

  “It doesn’t work that way. Once it’s given, it can’t be taken back.”

  “My father said that too. Once the hidden ones pick, it can’t be undone, even if you don’t follow through.”

  “If I don’t fulfill the bond?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

  “It will be as though I was rejected by my true mate and I will lead a half-life as a shadow cat until my death.”

  “What about the one who may have been my mate before you did this?” Suddenly, it hit me that there could be another woman out there who would be just as affected by this decision as I was.

  “She becomes a second chance for someone else, a potential mate for one of her choosing.”

  I didn’t know how I felt about that. Somewhere out there was a female meant to be mine, and yet this woman was asking me to choose her instead. Wrapping my brain around that choice was proving difficult. I must have looked as completely fucked in the head as I felt, because a small hand reached out and grabbed hold of my own.

  “I don’t know how it all works, but I know the one who was originally meant for you will never know. She’ll just know she has a choice in who she has for a mate.”

  “How the fuck does that work? For every person who gets to choose, it seems someone else will lose out?” The woman slowly shook her head.

  “No,
I meant it when I said it would be a second chance. The man she will be able to choose won’t have a mate.” She hung her head low. “As you know, some have died before they were claimed. Some were gone unclaimed, unfound, or whatever the case may have been, and death took the ability for them to match. She will be a second chance for someone who lost what was to be theirs.” She shook her head. “Don’t try to wrap your mind around it. It’s not for us to understand. I’m here. You might never find the other, but it is your choice to accept me or leave me. Either way, my fate is now sealed, and I will thank you for saving my life and my hide.”

  “Am I able to see you in your shadow cat form?”

  “Of course, but,” she chewed on her bottom lip as a stray strand of white-blond hair fell into her face. “Any other cats here will feel my presence the moment I do. They will know I am unclaimed, and they won’t recognize the fact that I’ve already given myself. Most don’t know that’s possible. It may cause,” she paused, “problems.”

  The prospect laughed. I had damn near forgotten he was still there. “That’s the understatement of a lifetime,” he managed to choke out. I turned narrowed eyes on him then.

  “How the hell do you know so much?”

  “My dad told me about it,” he shrugged. I turned to see the woman on the bed regarding him with interest. “Your mother was of the hidden,” she told him. “You will have daughters, three to be exact, and they will all be shadow cats.”

  “What the fuck?” The man hissed.

  “You have the gene. It will pass along.”

  “I forgot how creepy that could be.”

  “What?” I asked, again feeling so far out of my element it wasn’t funny.

  “That freaky knowing thing they have. That ability to see the future at the weirdest times.”

  I turned back to stare at the woman I had rescued, and realized for the first time that I didn’t even have a name for her. “Leave the room,” I told the prospect without turning back to him. Once I heard the snick of the door shutting, I asked my questions. “You have a name?”

  “Chantal,” she whispered to me. “Chantal Piper,” she managed as a blush stole across her cheeks.

  “I’m Gray Brewer.” She nodded her head as if she already knew that. I shook off the weird feeling and continued to watch her as I asked the tougher questions. “Can you tell me what happened? What led you to that alley? Who had you?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know any of those answers. I can tell you I smelled leopard, panther, and vulture before I blacked out. I’m not sure how I got in that alley. I was leaving my condo in Caledonia. I teach at Duncan Middle School near there. I was leaving my place to head to the grocery store, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in that alley where you found me because the pain in my legs felt like I was being ripped to pieces and burned all at once.”

  “You didn’t see anyone?”

  “No, I could probably identify them by scent, but I didn’t see anyone. Just as I was coming around, they realized. I had just enough time. I sensed you nearby and called out to you, as a mate would. I hoped you would hear my call, and that I wouldn’t be so weak already that it wouldn’t work. I didn’t know, because whatever they did to knock me out the first time, they did it again and everything went black once more. There was only the leopard and vulture in the alley though. The panther who had been there outside my house wasn’t with us when they stopped to try to… to…” She couldn’t get the words out and just glanced down her long, slender legs that were currently wrapped to the knees in bandages. “Did they really try to take my pelt? I feel it. I feel pieces of me missing.”

  I didn’t even think beyond offering her comfort. “Come on, Moonbeam,” I cooed to her as I pulled her in.

  “Moonbeam?” The whispered question in my ear made me chuckle.

  “Yeah, that’s all I could compare you to. I saw bits of your fur, it looked like moonbeams made solid.” She shook in my arms as I held onto her.

  “It’s okay if you don’t want me because I’m no longer whole,” she managed to get out between whimpers.

  “Shh, none of that. If you think I’m not claiming you, you weren’t paying attention when you were feigning sleep.” I heard footsteps approaching from down the hallway. “We’re going to focus on getting you healed up, and even if your pelt is,” I swallowed thickly, wondering what the ramifications were of a partially removed pelt. “It doesn’t matter,” I shook it off. “It won’t matter,” I told her more firmly just as the door opened and Knox stepped inside with Bomber and Brace.

  “Sent Wooly and Mammoth to the scene to check it out,” Knox explained before noticing Chantal was awake and clinging to me.

  “Holy hot damn! Knox said you got a pretty one, but he was kind of underwhelming in the description,” Brace called out, only to be smacked in the back of the head by Bomber’s over-jeweled hand. The man wore more bling than a heavy-handed pimp in Grand Rapids. I shook my head at him as his purple-hued eyes twinkled at me. His long, chestnut-colored locks flowed over his shoulders and down his back, looking like a fucking woman’s shampoo commercial as he approached.

  “Well, well, well darling, looks like you’re a special little thing,” he hummed. “So precious.” The gleam in his strangely-hued eyes twinkled a bit brighter upon seeing Chantal. I didn’t like that one fucking bit. The other men in the room were cued into that as a low-level growl emitted from my throat, getting louder the longer Bomber stared at my woman.

  Brace walked up and smacked the dragon shifter in the back of his head that time. “We get it, she’s bright and shiny to you, but you can’t have her for your hoard, you purple-eyed freak of nature.”

  “Jesus Christ, you two knock it the fuck off.”

  “She’s a shadow cat,” Bomber said as he appeared miffed and stepped backwards to put more space between himself and the bed where Chantal still clung tightly to my arms.

  “Why do you have a dragon in your house?” Chantal asked while peeking around my shoulder at the asshole who winked at her while grinning like the fucking idiot he was.

  “We like to take in strays here, sweetheart,” Knox told her. “Now, you want to fill us in on your adventures so we can maybe get something done about it?”

  I relayed what Chantal had already told me. There was at least one panther, leopard, and vulture involved in the attempt to steal her pelt. “She said they snatched her from Caledonia. That’s almost an hour from here. Why would they snatch her an hour away only to attempt to skin her in an alley in Kalamazoo? It makes no sense.”

  “That does beg a few questions. Were they transporting her somewhere here and something happened, or was Kalamazoo just a stop along the way, and they got surprised?”

  “Surprised into skinning someone in an alleyway instead of taking it private or moving on to wherever they originally intended?” Bomber asked.

  “What if the third went to secure the location they were taking her to? Maybe it was close by, but she started waking and whatever they had done to keep her out of it involved the third guy who wasn’t there?” Brace surmised, much to everyone’s astonishment. He simply shrugged his shoulders. “I watch a lot of crime drama in my down time,” he admitted sheepishly.

  “Jesus,” I huffed. Chantal giggled quietly. I pulled her a little closer, not at all missing the way her tits jiggled against my chest and arm with her movements. My inner cat was ready to come out and claim what he thought of as his, and these guys just continued to talk about what might have happened. “Heard anything from Wooly yet?” I asked.

  “I know you’re a little impatient on this one, but cool that shit. They probably only just got there.” Knox turned to the rest of the men, “Let’s get out of here and give them some time.” He turned to me, then glanced at Chantal. “If you can think of anything that might be helpful, let us know right away. Anyone been following you around, suspicious behavior, the feeling of being watched? Anyone who knows what you are?” He quirked up an eyebrow at that. It s
eemed he was still a bit resistant to the idea that my woman might be one of the legendary shadow cats.

  “I never noticed anyone following me or anything,” Chantal told him. “My family was lost to me years ago, and I don’t tell anyone. My mother always warned me to protect what I am from everyone.”

  “Was she one too?”

  Chantal shook her head and smiled at Knox. “It doesn’t work that way. We inherit this from our dads, who inherit the latent gene from their mothers. We are always a generation removed from the last. My father’s mother was of the hidden. My mother knew, my grandmother had prepared her for my eventuality.”

  “I see.”

  “Is that why you told the prospect he would have girls who would also be shadow cats?” I asked.

  “That’s why I told him he would, yes.”

  “You’re going to fill me in on that later,” Knox told me before leaving the room. I was finally, once again, alone with the woman who would become my mate.

  5

  My first real impressions of the men who had me were not alarming. For that, I was grateful. Still, I worried over what might happen to me. It was obvious that this wasn’t a normal Leap despite being predominantly leopard. I could smell others here as well. There were at least a few other species including bear, panther, and an elusive dragon as well. It made me curious if the group were headed up by a collector or something. It was unusual, to say the least, that so many different breeds of shifters would willingly work in such close quarters with one another.

  It reminded me of a group that I had been exposed to years ago while moving around with my grandparents. I had been just shy of eighteen-years-old at the time, and we had been on the run for a few weeks by the time we came across what appeared to be a band of gypsies. They were living out of recreational vehicles, old busses converted into living quarters, and even trucks that carried cargo trailers that doubled as sleeping arrangements for some of the less fortunate in the group.

  “Your group, what do you call yourselves?” I asked before I could become completely immersed in the memories of my past.