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The Wildlands deep in the bayous of Louisiana would never be considered a place of peace

The ical land of the Pantera was filled with puression of their animal nature plus the usual volatile emotions of their hued plenty of passion and conflict Which meant that more than a little blood had been shed over the centuries

But never before had there been ene past the Wildlands&039; borders to directly attack the Pantera

The shockwaves were still rippling through the gathered Pantera as Bayon raced to the edge of their territory He couldn&039;t help Raphael, who renanttheto destroy the babe she carried

Bayon was a Hunter A tall, golden haired old when he was aroused, and the soliddown the bastards who dared to co them

Well, first he intended to torture them

Slowly Painfully He needed to knoho they were and if they were actually disciples of Shakpi, the Pantera&039;s ancient enemy

First, however, he had to complete his currentspeed as he neared the private house that was practically hidden a s

Most Pantera preferred to live in the main community with their various factions There were the Diplo their network of spies, as well as the Geeks who perforic with computers There were the Nurturers who had built one of the world&039;s finest medical facilities as they searched for the reason the Pantera had lost the ability to procreate There were the elders ere the ultiical race of puma shifters, and their spiritual leaders

And then there were the Hunters

The warriors who protected their people with a ruthless efficiency

There were, however, a few Pantera who sought isolation

Parish, the leader of the Hunters, had lived in the caves at the far side of the Wildlands after his sister had been killed by humans Everyone had understood his need to mourn in private

Bayon didn&039;t knohat had driven Jean-Baptiste, one of their finest Healers, to shut himself off from his family and live so far fro

Pantera ht-knit community, but that only meant they had to have fir your nose in soet it snapped off

Vaulting onto the wraparound porch of Jean-Baptiste&039;s cabin, Bayon sla when no one answered

Dammit He knew Jean-Baptiste was inside

So why the hell was he ignoring hied with impatience He didn&039;t have time for this shit "I know you&039;re in there Open the fucking door" A string of ugly curses reverberated through the cabin before the door was yanked open to reveal a six foot plus, male Pantera with dark brown hair that hit below his jawline, and eyes a peculiar shade of amber He was dressed like Bayon in faded jeans and shit-kickers with a white T-shirt pulled over his leanlya heavy leather jacket that covered the nulis that , not walking the halls of a hospital

"What the hell?" Jean-Baptiste snarled

"You&039;re needed"

The amber eyes narrowed "Why?" Bayon&039;s hands clenched, the raw fury still pulsing through him "Raphael&039;s mate was attacked"

It was obvious the news hadn&039;t yet reached the Healer "Where?"

"Here In the Wildlands"

Jean-Baptiste jerked in shock at Bayon&039;s blunt explanation, the air prickling with his angry disbelief

"Iht It should have been impossible

Which only pissed off Bayon more

"Yeah well, tell her that," he said

There was a long silence as Jean-Baptiste struggled to wrap his brain around the unprecedented event

"When did it happen?"

"During the hunt"

Stepping onto the porch, Jean-Baptiste paced the wooden planks with a grihts obviously dark

"Who would dare to enter the Wildlands?"

Bayon peeled back his lips, revealing his elongated canines "That&039;s what I intend to find out But first, Raphael wants you at the infirmary"

Jean-Baptiste came to a sharp halt, his jaw clenched "In case it escaped your notice, mon ami, I&039;m not on duty"

"Too bad," Bayon said, in no s

Whatever shit was going on with this -burner Nothing wasAshe and her baby "You&039;re needed"

The aloith the power of his cat "No"

Bayon stepped forward, one of the few not afraid to get into thiscrawled up your ass-"

"There are other healers who are better suited to treat a human," Jean-Baptiste snapped

Bayon refused to back down

"Raphael doesn&039;t want your healing abilities"

His co is trying to possess Ashe Or the baby," he revealed "They need you to travel to New Orleans to find a gris-gris to hold off the evil until we can deterri this wasn&039;t a duty he could decline

Their very futurethe babe "Tell him I&039;ll-"

"You tell hirowled, already heading toward the edge of the porch and leaping over the thicket of yello lily

By the tiround he&039;d already shifted into his cat for pleasure

His roar echoed through the thick, hu as releasing his animal to hunt His lips stretched over his

Hot, balls-deep sex that made a woht wo

With an iht Noasn&039;t the tiround, he used his acute senses to search for any trace of the intruders, finding nothing until he reached the narrow river where Ashe had been attacked He growled low in his throat as he caught the sour scent of the intruders and followed the stench to the edge of their territory

The intruders had either been the luckiest bastards in the world to have entered the Wildlands and stumbled across the very person they wanted to kill-or they had a way to track her

Magic? Or a y?

Hedevice sh to have been hidden beneath her skin Raphael said she&039;d been to a doctor just before the strangers tried to attack her the first tied her without her knowing

Sensing Parish&039;s approach, Bayon reluctantly returned to his huray cat prowl forward With a shi a , inky black hair His face was angular, speaking of a predatory nature eht ear andbetween the cypress trees where the attackers had entered the Wildlands "Goddah search We have sensed a growing danger for years"

Bayon shook his head The leader of the Hunters was as hard on himself as he was on his warriors

Harder

Parish had never quite forgiven himself for his sister&039;s death

Maybe now that he&039;d finally mated he could find soible proof until recently," Bayon pointed out

"There&039;s nothing we could have done, Parish"

"I cannot change the past, but I can the future" Parish jerked his head toward two large puuards will be doubled until further notice" Bayon squatted down, absorbing the sour scent of the intruders It h the ic?" Bayon demanded

"That is what you will discover" It was, indeed Bayon had no intention of returning until he had some answers

"I&039;ll need my weapons"

Parish nodded "Do you want to take backup with you? I can send Talon" Bayon narrowed his eyes "Are you trying to piss er," Parish reranite "If this is truly the work of the ancient evil we fear, we cannot afford for anyone to take chances"

Bayon shuddered

All Pantera greith the legend of the twin sisters who created the Wildlands Opela was the ultirown jealous of Opela&039;s love for her children and tried to destroy the Pantera by using human disciples who&039;d been twisted by her evil

Eventually, Opela had no choice but to imprison her sister

Was it possible that Shakpi was actually still alive? That she was trying to break out of herthe world with her evil?

His thoughts shied fro the bastards responsible for hurting Ashe and her baby

He&039;d leave the potential threat of a e in the hands of the elders

"I won&039;t take any chances," hehis hands as Parish eyeballed him with a stern expression "I swear"

"Fine Keep in contact"

"Aye, aye, Captain" Bayon turned to head back to the rooms he shared with his fellow Hunters, but before he could take off, Parish was standing in front of hi the li," the Pantera warned "If I do not hear fro your ass"

"I&039;ll call" Bayon rolled his eyes

"Crossshe&039;d been locked in the cage hidden in the suffocating attic

In the beginning of her captivity, she&039;d used a rock to scratch the passing days on the floor She&039;d needed some way to maintain her sanity

But the days beca it i away from her

She knew this wasn&039;t her first prison

She had a vague ray ceround After that had been a crae shed, followed by a root cellar that had s potatoes

There were others, but her h them

They were like her Broken

Fractured Some of them shattered beyond repair

Most days she knew her name Keira

Keira Montreuil She repeated it over and over, desperate to cling to her previous life

And she knew she was a Pantera, despite the fact that she couldn&039;t reach her cat no matter how desperately she tried

But beyond that, her world was a blur punctuated only by occasional visits by her captors to bring her food

And speaking of the devil

She smelled him before he ever climbed the steps to the attic

The rank, sour stench that assaulted her senses and ust

With an effort she forced herself to her feet She felt constantly lethargic, noher that she was souess would be the metal collar she wore around her neck

Her captors used it to send an electrical jolt through her when they wanted to punish her But she suspected there was so in the composition of the collar that kept her debilitated

How else could they keep her

trapped?

A cage, no matter hoell-built, would never hold her prisoner Not if she was at her full strength

And it wasn&039;t as if the attic could contain her

Thethat overlooked a sh it And if nothing else, she could clih the rotting tith

That had been stolen from her, just as the comfort of her cat had been stolen

And it didn&039;t matter if was the result of the ical curse The end result was that she felt so exposed and ely vulnerable she wanted to curl in a corner and hide

Instead, she was standing in the center of the cell when a human male crossed the warped floorboards and shoved a tray of h a srimly moved to catch the tray before it fell

The shit tasted bad enough without having to eat it off the floor

The reasy and his narrow face in need of a shave He wore jeans and a flannel shirt that always looked like it needed to be washed There was a cunning