Mate Bond

No use. Bowman’s instincts had taken over, and he was about to throw off Kenzie and turn on the vet.

Kenzie could think of only one thing to do. She shifted back to human.

Cade bellowed at her, “Kenz, are you crazy?”

Kenzie, a human woman once more, leaned to Bowman’s snarling mouth and started petting him, putting her vulnerable face close to his and nuzzling him.

The red-hot rage began to fade from Bowman’s eyes. He was still angry, and Kenzie would hear about this later, but, as she’d hoped, Bowman started curtailing his reaction so he wouldn’t hurt Kenzie in this form. When Kenzie was wolf, she was stronger and could take a lot from him. Her human form was more vulnerable, and Bowman understood that he could hurt her, or even kill her. He rumbled at her, annoyed at her ploy.

“Almost done,” the vet said from behind them. “Tell me you have some Ace bandages and that they’re clean.”

The bar’s owner handed her whatever he had from his first aid kit, and she started working again. At the same time, one of the younger Shifters, a cub really, though he was old enough to come to a human bar, came charging into the back.

“Kenzie,” he yelled. He stopped short, his scent betraying fear as he saw Bowman with a mangled leg, Cade holding him down, and Kenzie naked on top of him. Kenzie slid off Bowman, though she kept her hand firmly on his fur.

“It’s all right,” she said in a steady voice. “Bowman’s hurt, but he’s being helped. He’s fine.”

Bowman added his growl, trying to reassure, but the cub had stark fear in his eyes. “That thing out there,” he said. He couldn’t be more than twenty-one, a wolf Shifter who thought he’d be safe at this bar where his pack leader hung out. “It’s trying to get in.”

A loud bang sounded from the front of the bar, something huge pounding on the big metal door that was the club’s entrance.

Bowman rumbled at Kenzie, urgent, angry. She didn’t need to be wolf this time to know what he meant. Get out there and make sure everyone’s all right.

“Go,” Cade said to her. “I’ll join you as soon as she’s done.”

Kenzie hesitated, hating to leave Bowman, but she knew she had to. Cade was good in a fight, but the pack needed the leader’s mate right now to reassure them. She had to hold it together, in spite of her worry for Bowman, so the Shifters would fight alongside her and not scatter in panic.

She got to her feet, earning a startled look from the vet. The vet looked bizarre herself, wearing fake cat’s ears, whiskers penciled in across her cheeks. She was competently wrapping a bandage around Bowman’s leg, the two aspects of her incongruous.

Kenzie, stark naked, walked by her and into the bar proper. When the Shifters in there saw her coming, they started to relax.

The humans gaped at her nudity, men looking their fill, women blinking in surprise or giving her how-dare-she? looks. The only Shifter who gave her the once-over was Jamie, who was probably the highest-ranking Shifter in the place right now, besides Kenzie and Cade. He was the highest-ranking Feline, anyway.

Jamie was reputed to screw anything female, and he didn’t pretend not to look at Kenzie. He’d never touch her, though—he wasn’t that foolish—but he looked, and later he’d tease.

Tonight, Jamie’s expression also included fear. It took a lot to scare Jamie, who was a lithe cheetah and a mean fighter, but his golden eyes clouded as the beast outside threw itself at the solid front door once again, with hideous force.

Jamie reached Kenzie and spoke in a low voice. “What the fuck is that?”

“I don’t know.” Kenzie tried to match his soft tone, but she was in a room full of Shifters who were listening hard. “I’ll just say we can’t let it get in here.”

“Or we’re toast,” Jamie said, not bothering anymore to be quiet. “You, and you two—over there. You three on the right of the door.” Jamie arranged the strongest Shifters where they’d have the best fighting advantage. He was good at it, though Shifters rarely fought as a team. Shifter battle strategy was more like Don’t mess with me or my family, or I’ll kill you and walk away.

But tonight they’d have to fight together. One Shifter alone, even two, wouldn’t be enough to make a dent in something that could so easily take down Bowman.

Kenzie and Jamie got everyone organized, the Shifters moving into fighting positions. Jamie’s cousin Marcus, another cheetah, put himself in charge of herding the humans well back, and getting the women under and behind pool tables.

Kenzie’s battle plan, when she outlined it, brought swearing and protests, but Kenzie remained firm until the Shifters reluctantly agreed. Jamie backed her up. “She’s right. Suck it up.”

Another enormous boom sounded on the front door. The door was heavy steel, the kind that rolled back, and right now it was barred and locked. A Shifter with great strength could break through it, given time, and Kenzie already knew that whatever was out there had great strength.

She became wolf as Jamie shucked his clothes and shifted into a leggy cheetah about twice the size of a non-Shifter one. He snarled a big cat snarl, ready.

At a growled command from Kenzie, one of the bigger Shifters threw the bolt on the door and shoved it open.

Shouts and swearing sounded from Shifters and humans alike as the stench rolled in. But Kenzie had decided it would be better to rush out and attack the thing head-on than to wait to be trapped inside the roadhouse and picked off one by one. If they pushed the creature into the middle of the empty parking lot, together the Shifters could surround it and take it down.