(Chapter One - Logan)
Life as I knew it was over. In the last two days, I had claimed my fated mated and had almost immediately lost her. I was working as a bouncer at the bar where my mate, Cindy, was working.
But I had really been hired by her boss to look out for her, because she was a shape shifter like me. Well...not the same animal as me. I'm a tiger. And she's a panther, which is extremely rare among our kind. Hell...females in general are rare.
We had hit it off right away, and she had just asked me out on a date when all hell broke loose in our lives. A shifter pimp had made it clear that he wanted her to come work for him, and she had said no.
So, her boss gave her some money and suggested I act as a bodyguard of sorts and escort her out of the city. Cindy wasn't too keen on the idea of me going with her at first. But I changed her mind about that. We got hot and heavy that same night.
Our post fucking bliss was short lived, however...when two of the pimp's goons busted down the door in an attempt to capture my woman. She had shifted into her animal form, which is the only time a male shifter can sense if a female is his mate. In that moment, I knew she was meant to be mine forever. I didn't really have time to think about it though, since we were both fighting for our lives.
I couldn't believe it when Cindy bit one of the goon's hands off. I kicked the ever living shit out of the other guy. We were a good team. After spending the night at a shitty motel, I told her she was my mate.
She didn't handle it well at first, jumping out of the parked car we were sitting in and high tailing it into the woods along the side of the road. Female shifters were incapable of disobeying their mates once they were claimed. So, it was understandable that most of them avoided being in their animal forms around males as much as possible.
I had tackled her, convinced her to stay with me...and claimed her in the way of our people. I fucked her, bit her neck and drank her blood as we were climaxing. I couldn't call what we were doing making love yet. Nah...it was still fucking. We hadn't been together long enough to fall in love. But I cared about her. And she felt the same way about me.
I knew we were fucked when she got shot with a tranquilizer dart after I had claimed her, before we could even get our clothes back on. I had shifted into my tiger form in a protective rage, but the pimp who was chasing Cindy was using snipers to hunt us down. One of them shot me moments later, and I woke up in a cage to Cindy calling my name.
Luckily, shifters heal quickly. I was almost as good as new. Cindy was in a cage in the same room as me, and I could smell her fear and anxiety. We both knew what the pimp, Ricardo, wanted her for. And I was helpless to save her. There's nothing worse for a mated male shifter than being unable to protect their woman, especially from other men.
When Ricardo came into the room and taunted me with my inability to keep Cindy safe, I wanted to rip the man limb from limb. Two of his men came in a moment later, and one of them tossed me some clothes. The fact that these fuckers were seeing my woman naked was enough to drive me crazy with the need to kill them.
When we were yanked out of the cages, it took both of Ricardo's men to hold me when that asshole started groping my mate. I fought tooth and nail to get to her, but I was outnumbered.
When Ricardo shoved his fingers into Cindy's pussy, I almost shifted into my tiger form. Screw the fact that I wouldn't be able to win if Ricardo and his men shifted and ganged up on me. That was
my
woman he was touching!
As usual, Cindy showed me that she could hold her own. She ripped a chunk of Ricardo's ear off with her fangs. He would heal, but that little piece of his body would never grow back. I was afraid in that moment that he might kill her in his rage. But, he didn't. Not even when she told him that she'd bite the dick off of any man he tried to give her too.
Instead, he took us into another room. There was a big bed, a bunch of paddles and canes and other sex toy stuff on the walls, and a huge cross of some kind in the middle of the room. I wasn't really into the whole bdsm scene. I could take it or leave it. It just depended on what a woman wanted at any given time. But if the pimp was going to use any of that shit on Cindy, I was going to lose my fucking mind.
When Ricardo started binding her to the cross, I did everything I could to get to her. By the time his men had shackled me spread eagled to the bed, I had done some serious damage to them. They didn't leave that room unscathed. And I made sure to memorize their faces. I'd be seeing those fuckers again. When two naked women came in and started trying to arouse me, I saw the hurt look on Cindy's face.
All shifters knew that a mated male couldn't get it up for anyone but his woman, but that didn't mean that Cindy's feelings wouldn't be crushed by seeing other women put their hands on me. And that was exactly what that sicko wanted. He had said as much, and then he grabbed a flogger and ran it down the front of her body. I screamed and thrashed, telling him that I'd kill him.
Ricardo snapped his fingers and the women on the bed left. He wanted my undivided attention as he used the flogger on Cindy with all of his strength. She didn't scream. My mate was so brave. She did cry though, and my heart broke for her. I could have broken my wrists and ankles on that damn bed trying to get loose, and it wouldn't have done me any good.
When Ricardo was done hitting her with the heavy flogger, he asked her if she'd be his willing whore... threatening to use the whip on her next if she refused. I couldn't let that happen to her. Above all else, it was my job to keep her alive. Swallowing my mangled pride, I begged him not to hurt her anymore.
He said that I could basically avoid seeing my mate tortured if I told her to obey him. She would hate it, and she would probably hate
me
for it...but she would have no choice but to do what I told her now that we were bonded to each other. I'd be turning her into his sex slave. The compulsion to obey one's fated mate was the reason she had spent her life avoiding shifter men.
I was so desperate to save her life that I was ready to give in to his demands, even after she begged me not too. She said she'd rather be dead. But her death was something that I couldn't deal with.
Before I could open my mouth to condemn her with my words, she offered to stay with him willingly. As long as he let me go. I had never felt so weak and incompetent in my life. I was a tiger shifter. A killer. And I couldn't even save my woman.
Ricardo agreed immediately. He was practically jumping up and down with joy. I would have sold my soul at that moment to get my hands around his throat. He gave us a parting gift of sorts.
One hour together. But he left me chained to the bed, knowing that I would have tried to get her out of there if I had been freed. It was also his way of making damn sure I knew he was still in charge of things.
