Blood flowed hot down Iona’s fur, pain bit into her side, but she kept on fighting. She’d defeat him, rule him, bend him to her will.
Tiger Man had no intention of bending to anyone’s will. He’d been the only experiment to survive—all these cages were now empty except his. He’d thrived, which meant he was very strong.
He used that strength to raise Iona into the air and slam her to the cement floor. Iona’s breath crashed out of her, but she rolled and regained her feet, the panther quick.
She was hurt, gasping for breath, but she would not let him defeat her. To lose would give the tiger control over her, and she could not afford to do that.
Tiger didn’t wait for her to recover. He was on her even as she stood, his weight dragging her back to the floor. He rained down blows, but Iona fought back, ripping claws across his belly and drawing blood. Tiger roared his pain and smacked his paw across her head, making the world spin.
He drew back for another blow but something streamed across the room with terrible swiftness, and landed with all four feet against Tiger Man’s side. Iona saw a flash of white and black, then Eric was fighting the tiger, his leopard teeth and claws moving faster than Iona could see. Eric’s Collar sparked once, then went silent.
A human arm covered with flame tattoos reached down to help Iona to her feet. Iona shifted from her beast to her human form and let Graham help her up. She stood with her hands on hips, breathing heavily, her side bleeding, the claw wounds hurting like fury.
In the middle of the room, Eric and the tiger fought in a flurry of fur, claws, teeth, and snarls.
“Eric, don’t kill him!” Iona shouted.
“Are you crazy?” Graham asked. “That’s a feral—what’s he doing here?”
“I’m not sure. I think…I think humans created him.”
Graham stared at her, his gray white eyes luminous in the darkness. “Created him? What the f**k?”
“I don’t know.” Iona dragged in a breath. “We need to keep him alive and get him out of here. I promised him.”
Graham rolled his eyes. “Felines.” He shifted to his black wolf form and loped into the fight.
Graham at first tried to pull apart the two snarling balls of wildcat, but he got knocked into a wall for his trouble. His wolf howled, then he sprang into the fight again, swatting and biting both leopard and tiger.
A harsh scream rose from the tangle of Shifters, but it wasn’t the tiger. Iona heard the sound with her heart. The agony came from Eric, and she knew in that moment, without doubt, that her mate was going to die.
Iona shifted back to panther and raced across the room, her own pain forgotten. She grabbed the tiger with her claws, and Tiger Man fought her, completely wild now.
Graham went for Tiger Man’s throat and missed, the tiger landing Graham a spinning blow on the side of his head. Graham staggered, and Tiger Man went after him. But the distraction gave Iona enough time to drag Eric out of the middle of the fight.
Eric’s leopard was in deep pain, his lips pulled back from his teeth in silent agony. His Collar was dormant, but Iona knew the pain came from inside himself.
The humans here had been breeding Shifters to fight for them, Tiger Man had said. No Collars to stop them. But twenty years ago, they’d tried, with Eric, to find a way to control a Shifter with pain.
Iona wasn’t sure if the researchers would consider Eric a success or a failure, but she didn’t care. She knew only that her mate was in pain, and that she’d die if she lost him.
Iona, as her panther, lay down over Eric, desperately trying to warm him with her body. Eric’s eyes had clouded over, and she knew he couldn’t see or hear her. His fur was stifling hot and his heartbeat was way too fast.
A band of iron squeezed Iona’s heart, pain beyond anything she’d felt in her life. If Eric died, she’d die too. She knew that with every breath she took.
No.
She rose, her limbs stiff with fury. Tiger Man was beating down Graham, Graham’s wolf fighting desperately, his black fur covered in blood.
No.
This was what it had been like in the wild, long ago, when Shifters had fought each other to the death for territory, mates, dominance. They’d also fought tooth and claw to protect each other.
Eric was her mate. That meant Iona met any threat to him with violence, and didn’t stop fighting until that threat was dead.
Tiger Man saw that in her eyes. Iona saw in his that he’d been bred to fight until every enemy in his path was slain.
So be it, then. Iona attacked him. Tiger Man met her onslaught, as ready to kill as she was.
Iona would drink of his blood and feast on his bones. She’d scatter his remains throughout her territory as a reminder to all who crossed it what she did to those who threatened the ones she loved.
Iona fought, ripped, bit, pounded. She would kill, and it would feel so good.
“Iona!”
The voice was Graham’s, his harsh, hated wolf’s voice.
Graham would be next. He’d threatened Eric’s leadership, he’d hurt Eric, and he needed to be eliminated. Iona would finish with the tiger, then tear off Graham’s head and lap up his blood.
“Iona, stop!” Graham shouted. “Eric needs you.”
Iona hesitated a split second, and in that second, the tiger got in a blow that stunned her. Iona’s rage returned, and she shifted into her half-human, half-panther form. Kill these males first, help her mate second.
“He’s going to die.” Graham grabbed for her, but Iona spun out of reach. “He needs the touch of a mate. Shit.”
Graham took two rapid steps backward as Iona fixed him with her enraged stare, ready to kill. Then she spun around and drove her claws into the tiger.
“You’re going feral, woman!” Graham yelled at her. “Fight it!”
No. Iona wanted to be wild. Free.
No humans Collaring her, no Shifters telling her what to do. No following rituals and their rules—she’d kill everyone here and race away, no ties to any of them.
Except Eric. She’d take him with her and cure him, and then he’d be hers. No one else would ever touch him again. She’d sequester him in a cave somewhere and have him all to herself. She was an alpha female, and no one and nothing would come between her and her mate and her freedom.
“Holy Goddess, Iona.”
Graham’s voice was like the buzz of an annoying mosquito. She’d swat it down when she was done with the tiger.
Tiger was proving difficult to defeat, but she’d do it in the end. After that, Graham would be nothing.