“Nah, Frankie. No need to tell them.” He waved his hand in the air. “I was just joking, Frankie. Your shit’s good, brother.” I rolled my eyes. I wasn't his “brother,” but I didn’t give a shit, joke or not. I wasn’t gonna be his source of amusement anymore. I was gonna tell the Reapers. Fuck him, I was over his games, and it would be best to teach him a lesson in respect.Don’t bite the hand that feeds. Or in his case,don’t mess with your dealer.
“Nah, man. If it was bad, I’ll tell them. It’s all good,brother. They would want to know. Quality control and all that. I got you,Aaron.”
I always remembered my clients’ names, and he had some white boy rich name like Aaron. His parents would be funding his drug habit—unknowingly, of course. And Aaron, he had a big habit.
He paled as he stumbled towards me, drunk and jacked up like always… The life of a rich college asshole. As he came closer, he reached out to touch me. I growled low and his hand hovered an inch from my arm.
“Don’t. Touch. Me,” I spoke between gritted teeth. My panther was close to the edge as it was. If he laid a hand on me, I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and that would be a huge problem.
“Sorry, I just… I was just messing around. I know the shit is good. Look, I’ll give you a tip, man. How does a hundred extra sound? No need for the Reapers to know I was just messing. Right?”
Well… if I knew that was how I could squeeze an extra hundred out of him, I would have done that weeks ago. Fuck, I might do that every week from now on.
“Just pay me so I can leave or they’ll be pissed I’m late and I’ll have to tell them why.” I cocked my head and raised my brow. I wasn’t bluffing and he could tell.
He opened his wallet, swaying on his feet, and pulled out two grand. I snatched it and jammed it in my pocket. I could see he had a lot more in there than just a hundred. I reached in and pulled out the wad of bills.
“Hey, man, that’s not what we agreed on.” He reached for it, but I backed up a few steps as he stumbled, clenching onto air.
I shrugged. “We didn’t agree on shit. But I feel like this is enough for me to forget what you said earlier.” I placed it in my back pocket as I watched his eyes widen.
“See you next week.” I didn’t wait around to hear what he said next. I turned on my heel and shovedmy way through the half-dressed girls and the drunk frat brothers who were all moving towards the douche to get their kick. They didn’t give a shit that I just rolled him, they only wanted their high. I made my way up the stairs and out of the frat house, into the cold night’s air, and took a deep breath.
My panther didn’t like being around all those people. He wanted to shift and rip their throats out. He liked to fight.A lot.
I took a few more deep breaths to calm my itching skin… When my panther wanted something, he usually got it. But I couldn’t fuck this up. Reapers… well, I wasn’t completely in their…club. They didn’t trust me, they only let me do these runs for them because my cousin Liam was now a member. Plus, they didn’t want their boys doing shitty runs like this.
Selling drugs to frat boys wasn’t the biggest thing on their agenda. They had bigger shit to take care of. The cash I had for them felt like it was burning a hole in my back pocket. I didn’t need to deliver it until I met up with them tomorrow. I hated that—it stressed me out having all this cash of theirs on me. But I also didn’t want to see what business they got up to at night while I was out peddling their stuff to jerks.
I started walking through the campus, taking the long way home. I didn’t want to be home any time soon, I wanted to be anywhere but there. Pretend for a few more moments that I wasn’t a kid of a panther shifter mother, or as my Shadow called her, a drugged up whore. It wasn’t a lie, she was. But she was still my mom. Or a kid to a father that didn't even know I existed. Mom couldn't remember his name or even what he looked like.
My Shadow didn’t accept my family. If they could have gotten rid of us, I was sure they would have done that years ago. They were supposed to be my family… like other shifters. Wolves had their Pack, bears had their Sleuths… panthers had their Shadow. But my family was on the bottom level of the ranks. They treated us like shit and never helped out when we were hungry and cold. They didn’t give a shit about us. If they did, I wouldn’t be out here trying to hustle to put food on the table.
Fuck it, as if this shitty night couldn’t get any worse, I needed to shift. I stripped down. The power I felt from the rush of shifting to my panther form was electric; it burned hot and bright. But the shift was always worth the pain, it was one of the things I loved about it. The pain reminded me I was alive, and I never felt more alive than I did on four paws. I picked up my discarded clothes in my mouth, careful to make sure I didn’t lose the cash for the Reapers, and started to run.
My paws hitting the ground were almost silent. I was a deadly creature, and my panther knew that. He lived for that… wanting to turn around and rip the throat out of Aaron.
I made my way through the campus, between trees and buildings. There were lights on in dorm windows, and I could smell humans around. Humans that shouldn’t see a panther running through the middle of campus. But I didn’t care. It was dark and I blended into the shadows. If anything, I was a blur in the corner of their eye.
It wasn’t until I smelled the flesh of vampires nearby that I slowed and stopped. I growled lowly. Fuckers weren’t supposed to be on campus. This was the Shadow’s territory and we were to run them off or kill them. Even though I hated my Shadow, I still abided by most of the rules. Especially when it came to fucking bloodsuckers.
“Puss, puss, puss,” a sweet female voice called out softly, and I froze. Had she seen me? It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t calling to me but a stray cat I could scent with her. But I heard the bloodsuckers. I knew what they were after now.
Those fuckers were going to feed on this college girl. And she was calling to my panther… at least my panther felt like she was. He needed to protect her and destroy the vamps. I moved in the shadows, wanting to get a jump on the bloodsuckers without them knowing I was here. My scent would alert them, but if they were distracted by a human…by dinner, they might not realize I was there until it was too late.
I heard her heart speed up when they made themselves known to her, the fur prickling along my back. I didn’t have time to put my clothes on. I shifted onto two feet and rushed to her. I couldn’t show her my panther form. The only rule I did follow to a T in the unwritten rules for shifters.
When I rounded the bushes, the scene in front of me was not what I thought I would see. The girl was crouched low, her bare arms and feet visible from where I was standing. Long dark hair—black as my panther—ran down her slender back.
“Aye, look what the cat dragged in,” one of the bloodsuckers hissed, and I knew who it was instantly. I was so distracted by the female, I forgot they were there.
It was Seamus, the redheaded Scottish vampire whom I had run into many times before. He laughed when he saw me standing there. His eyes roamed up and down my naked body, sizing me up or checking me out. I wasn’t sure, but either way, I didn’t care. I fucking hated this vamp. He seemed to always be where I was or where he shouldn’t be. I stood taller, my hands in fists by my side as a low growl came from my chest.
I heard a small gasp. I glanced a look at the girl who had now spun around to see me, and she was staring directly at my junk, her big blue eyes widening at the sight of my naked body. I shifted my weight on my feet and watched as she followed my body with her eyes. She was fucking beautiful. And by the way her cheeks flushed at my state of undress, I thought she liked what she saw.
I realized then, she wasn’t wearing pants… Her smooth, bare thighs peeked out, so soft and silky as I licked my lower lip. I willed my cock to not be turned on by her at this moment. I didn’t need the distraction of my cock hard with the vamps standing only feet away. One vampire I could take on, but two… I was outnumbered. Not that I stopped myself from roaming over her features one last time. If I was going to die tonight, at least the last thing I would see was this beautiful angel.
My panther purred, something it had never done before. I was taken aback at the sound. I was usually in control of it when I was in my human form, but it seemed my panther was still convinced that this female was calling to him and not the stray cat hiding in the bushes beside her.
