Anton threw back his head and howled his rage. A hand gripped his shoulder from behind. He turned his head but it wasn’t Brand who gripped him. His youngest brother, Braden, stood behind him. Von had arrived as well. All three males had matching, furious expressions.

“They took her.” Anton snarled the words. “They kidnapped my Shannon.”

“We’ll get her back,” Rave swore softly. “There’s only one pride close to us. I’ve scoped their territory in the past. I sometimes have to hang out at a biker bar that borders their lands. There’s a lot of rogue activity there and I keep an eye on it for the pack to make sure they don’t cause us problems.”

Braden hesitated. “Are you sure they kidnapped her? Maybe she returned home with them willingly. What the hell were you doing with one of them?”

Von growled low. “Be quiet, Braden. I heard Rave say he found her blood on the bed.”

“That’s my fault,” Anton admitted. “She’s mine. I marked her. She wouldn’t leave with them if given a choice. She’s terrified of them.”

“They aren’t her pride?” Von calmly met his gaze.

“She’s alone. She’s mostly human, had been warned they’d kill her on sight for being as human as she is, and I’m the only shifter she’s ever spent time with.” Anton turned to study the apartment. He didn’t see any signs of a struggle or damage except the broken door. He sniffed, the scent of two pride males, something he memorized, and rage gripped him again. “I’m going to tear them apart if they’ve killed her.”

“Easy,” Rave spoke softly. “She’s pretty. They aren’t going to kill her.”

Brand shouldered a few of his cousins aside and sniffed near the bed. He softly cursed. “She’s in heat. I’d know that scent anywhere.”

“Oh f**k,” Rave groaned. “That’s worse. We have to find her fast.”

Anton closed the distance between them. “What would it matter to them? Why do you think her being pretty means they won’t kill her? They have this policy about killing the weak. Shannon said her father fled his pride because of his half-human blood. They wanted to kill him for it.”

Rave took a deep breath and met Anton’s gaze grimly. “I know a lot about the cat shifters. The good news is, they won’t kill her¯at least not on purpose. The bad news is, they only kill weak males. The females?” He paused. “I don’t want to tell you the rumors I’ve heard about that subject. You’ll go nuts.”

Anton crowded him, enraged, and demanded, “You need to tell me what you think they’ll do to her. Don’t make me ask again.”

* * * * *

Shannon really wished she had remained unconscious as she assessed the dire situation she’d woken to. Seven pride males stood around her in the woods. All of them were grim, scary guys ranging from their early twenties to early thirties. The two brothers who’d kidnapped her were there.

Mark appeared slightly older than his brother Adam. He spoke as though he were the one in charge as he argued with another male. “She’s too human for anyone to mate with.”

“I’d take her,” a blond twenty-something male offered again. “Our women are scarce.”

“They won’t be if we stop mating weak-blooded she-cats.” Mark shot a glare at Shannon where she’d been dumped on her ass in the grass with her hands secured behind her back. “We’re not diluting our bloodlines with another breed. But the fact that she’s partial puma is a bonus and a certainty for success. She’s a rare find.”

“Her scent trace isn’t known. Her blood parent wasn’t from our pride.” Adam moved next to his brother. “I’m with Mark on this. No mating this one. We know what needs to be done.”

“I agree,” a tall brunette sighed. “Besides, no male could harm his mate the way she’ll suffer. She has no family in our pride to protest her treatment. She is a rare find that we must use to full advantage.”

Shannon cleared her throat. “I’m no threat to you. Please just let me go. You’ll never see me again. I can promise you that. I’ve never told anyone what I am. You don’t have to kill me.”

They ignored her. “I can’t get past the stink of her though,” one of the males whined, his voice grating. “She reeks of wolf.”

“Hold your breath then.” Mark shot him a glare. “I’ve decided.”

The blond who’d offered to mate her cursed. “She doesn’t appear to be very sturdy.”

“She’s blooded enough to go into heat,” Mark stated.

“It’s very faint,” the whiner complained. “I can barely detect it over the horrible wolf stink.”

“I know.” Mark reached behind him and drew out what appeared to be a plastic glasses case. “I grabbed this on the way here.”

“That will do it,” the oldest-looking male sighed. “Those hormones will jumpstart her into full-blown heat. It takes about twenty minutes to work from the testing I’ve done.”

“Hormones will do it?” The whiner didn’t look convinced.

“They were taken straight from other she-cats in full heat. We’ve tested it a few times and it worked every time.”

“What are the chances of her dying?” Mark coldly glanced at Shannon. “I’d hate to take that risk. She’s partially in heat already.”

“The hormones won’t kill her,” the older male proclaimed. “We’re just going to have to remember to be careful. She’s going to suffer but no biting or clawing her up. Blood loss will kill her.”

Shannon started to tremble. “What are you talking about? What do you plan to do to me?”

Mark’s green eyes fixed on her and he sighed. “What do you know of us?”

“You plan to kill me for being mostly human.”

“Wrong.” He walked closer. “Here’s a little sex education for you. In skin, when we get females pregnant, they only have single births. One baby.”

Dread filled Shannon. They were talking about sex, hormones, and her being in heat. She had a really bad feeling where this conversation was headed.

“We can impregnate females with litters if we’re shifted when it happens. They can carry anywhere from three to five babies. The thing is, though, when the female shifts back to skin it aborts the pregnancy. Our women don’t enjoy staying in animal form for months while their pregnancies gestate to full term. Even the ones willing to attempt it have accidentally shifted while they slept, without meaning to. It has greatly decreased our numbers. After we decided it was safer to mostly live in skin than remain in animal form, our low live-birth rate has greatly decreased our population.”

Adam snorted. “Humans try to shoot us or give us to zoos when we run around as pumas.”

One of the men nodded. “I lost my first mate after humans killed her. Some f**king hunter shot her on private property. I killed him but she didn’t survive his bullet. They poach on our lands after hearing of sightings of us. Now we can only shift and run at night to avoid drawing more of them. We post guards to take out any trespassers. They are easy to sneak up on using our night vision.”

Mark took over the conversation again. “We can breed with you and create a litter. You can carry more babies than our females can.”

Shannon whimpered. “I can’t shift and I won’t do that. No!” Her frightened gaze darted among the seven men. She knew all the color drained from her face when she realized one of them planned to try to get her pregnant, and she pulled frantically at whatever held her wrists. “I won’t agree to it.”

The oldest guy drew her attention by walking closer to peer down at her. “We’re not asking your permission. You’re not pride and your wishes are irrelevant. The fact that you can’t shift is why you’re perfect for what we need.” He glanced at Mark. “Should you tell her or should I?”

“I will.” Mark’s green eyes seemed to gleam, his look of near amusement directed at Shannon. “Here’s how it is. You can’t shift, which means you can’t accidentally abort the litter you’ll carry.”

She recoiled in revulsion. “But you said, in skin, I’d only have one baby.”

“You’ll be in skin but we won’t.” A cold smile curved Mark’s lips. “We’re going to shift after our doctor there injects you with hormones to force you into full heat, your body will be primed to conceive, and between all of us, we’ll put a litter inside you.”

Adam rubbed his hands together. “It’s going to feel great for us but not for you. That’s why no male will f**k his mate the way we’re going to take you and we don’t share our mates. Females are able to carry different…babies from different fathers at the same time. Between the seven us, we’ll definitely make sure you have a litter for us. Human and puma bodies just don’t match up that well.” He smiled at the men around him. “We’ve all fantasized about it though.”

The doctor chuckled. “I’ve done it once to test the hormones. It’s amazing. They are much wetter in skin so you can f**k them deeper but we should gag her. She’ll scream. It’s very painful for the female when we barb up and withdraw from her. We can’t wait until we soften to pull out after ejaculation the way we do with our mates. We need to keep f**king her continuously because the hormones won’t last more than a few hours. It’s too risky to keep her in heat with her human blood for longer than that. Her heart probably couldn’t take the strain.”

Shannon wanted to scream then. She resisted the urge as she fought her restraints and tried to get to her feet, but with her arms behind her back, she couldn’t.

“Please don’t do this,” she begged.

Mark tossed the plastic case to the doctor. “Inject her. We’ll prepare her while it starts to take effect. I’m not worried about her screaming. No one will hear her and we’ve posted a few guards.”

The doctor caught the case, opened it, and withdrew a large syringe. Shannon threw her body to the side, tried to roll away, but he planted his loafer on her ass, pinned her to the ground, and tore up her shirt. Another male bent down to tear at the borrowed sweatpants she wore. He bared her left ass cheek.

Shannon screamed when the big needle pierced her skin. It hurt a lot and seemed to take a long time for the doctor to inject the contents. Tears ran down her face when she stopped screaming after the needle jerked out of her ass. Two men gripped her upper arms to haul her painfully off the ground. They didn’t even let her feet touch the grass when they carried her toward a large, fallen tree. Two other men rushed forward to help them.

She screamed and struggled but they forced her to her knees and bent her over the rough wood. Someone cut the restraints at her wrists but then her arms were yanked wide apart. She turned her head to see rope being tied to parts of the branches still attached to the log and then secured to her wrists to keep her arms spread open.

“Don’t do this. Oh god. Please?” She sobbed.

“Shut up.” Mark leapt over the log to face her from the other side of it. He picked up something that had been hidden from her view under the log—a chain with a thick leather collar. She tried to jerk away but the ropes held her chest and h*ps firmly against the log. “This is to keep you in place. The less you fight the less the risk of slicing you with our claws.”

She tossed her head, tried to avoid his hands, but he managed to clamp the collar around her neck. It nearly choked her until he adjusted it. He bent, pulled on the chain, and it forced her head down until her chin brushed the log. She heard a click and when she tried to lift her head, there wasn’t any give. Mark winked at her.