Her Wolf: A Why Choose Urban Fantasy Romance (Silver Shifter Book 1) Read online

  Silver Shifter Book One

  Her Wolf

  Alexa B. James & Katherine Bogle

  Copyright © 2019 by Alexa B. James and Katherine Bogle

  Cover Design by Katzilla Designs

  First Edition — 2019

  No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information browsing, storage, or retrieval system, without permission in writing from Alexa B. James or Katherine Bogle.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Ariana

  2. Maximus

  3. Ariana

  4. Ariana

  5. Ariana

  6. Owen

  7. Ariana

  8. Ariana

  9. Ariana

  10. Ariana

  11. Maximus

  12. Ariana

  13. Ariana

  14. Cash

  15. Ariana

  16. Ariana

  17. Ariana

  18. Ariana

  19. Ariana

  20. Ariana

  21. Owen

  A Note from the Authors

  Chapter One

  About Katherine Bogle

  About Alexa B. James

  1

  Ariana

  In the stands above my cell, the air crackled with excitement. The constant hum of voices and the familiar vibration of impatient feet pounding the bleachers had woken me from a dream I didn’t let myself remember.

  “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

  The chant filtered down through the few cracks in the ceiling. I stood and shook off the last vestiges of the dream—flashes of blood and teeth—and stretched my limbs.

  “Wakey, wakey,” taunted a cruel voice. A figure strolled through the dimness outside my cell, running his club along the vertical bars. Each time it hit a bar, a loud bang echoed through the darkness.

  Somewhere in another cell, a wolf whimpered pathetically. I didn’t whimper. I bared my teeth and growled at the vampire.

  He laughed harder, shoving the club through the bars to poke my protruding ribs. I snapped at the weapon, imagining what it’d be like to break his bones with my powerful jaws. Once his laughter died, I moved out of his reach and across the dirt floor of my small cage. My silver paws shone white against the packed earth on either side of my bowl as I leaned down to smell it, already knowing it was empty. The only way to get fed was to win.

  As if to emphasize that truth, the crowd overhead erupted into cheers. Dust poured through the cracks in the ceiling as spectators stomped their feet. A few seconds later, my master’s voice boomed in the ring. My heartbeat sped, anticipation charging my limbs when I heard my name.

  It was my turn to fight.

  “For tonight’s entertainment, we have Ariana and Benjamin... in a fight to the death,” Dante announced like the grand showman he was.

  The crowd cheered.

  I paced my cage, a growl building in my throat.

  The vampire gave me one last sharp-toothed grin before unlocking my cell.

  “Don’t get your head ripped off,” he said with a sneer.

  He swung the cage door open and stepped back, keeping the bars between us. I snarled at him just for kicks, but I couldn’t waste energy on a vampire. He may have been the one who had collected on my parents debt by taking our freedom, but killing him wouldn’t let me live another day. Winning would.

  I trotted down the short tunnel and emerged on the floor of the pit. The frenzy increased—spectators pounding the floor and screaming with bloodthirsty excitement. They’d soon get what they came for.

  I trotted up to Dante like a trained dog, though he had long ago stopped treating me like a pet. I wasn’t his dog anymore. I was his weapon.

  “Please enjoy the fight, and don’t forget to pay your debts, or you might end up here next.” Dante winked at the crowd as if he were kidding. He wasn’t.

  The bloodstained concrete floor of the pit told the truth of the matter. Dante wasn’t above throwing a human into the pit if they owed him. He called it a bonus for the spectators—a little something extra after the fight. At first, I hadn’t wanted to kill a defenseless human, but I’d learned quickly. There were only two options in the pit: kill or die.

  Without a word to me, Dante took his place in the spectator’s box, a special enclosed seating area that extended over the edge of the pit.

  My attention snapped away from my master and back to the tunnel I’d emerged from moments before. A clang alerted me to another cage opening. My cell was one of many, each filled with a beast unfortunate enough to owe Dante a debt. Tonight, a shifter would pay.

  The bobcat that emerged from the tunnel brought cheers, but I barely heard them. The moment I laid eyes on him, all thoughts turned to the kill. Cats were twistier than wolves, with sharper claws. But I was faster and stronger and had years of experience.

  I leapt in before he could get his bearings, snapping at his throat. But he was surprisingly quick, and he leapt away. With a loud hiss, he bared his long fangs.

  Somewhere in the stands, I heard shouts, but I couldn’t look away for a second. A second was all it took to lose focus and lose a fight.

  Benjamin didn’t look away, either, not even when footsteps pounded on the walkway leading to the spectator’s box overhead.

  Renewing my focus, I leapt, sinking my teeth into the cat’s side. He screamed in pain, spitting and raking his claws down my hip as he rolled under me. I sprang free, dropping the chunk of flesh I’d torn from his shoulder. We circled each other as shouts rang out overhead, a different kind of yelling than the rabid fans cheering for us to rip each other to shreds. That was what put food in my bowl, so I focused on that as I darted in for another attack.

  Before I could make the next move, the cat leapt onto my back and sank his teeth into the scruff of my neck. A spear of panic shot through me. I rolled, crushing him beneath me long enough shake loose before darting away.

  Behind me, I heard a man shouting.

  “Stop, Ariana! You don’t have to do this.”

  A man was foolish enough to jump into the pits? Or had Dante provided the distraction, hoping to amp up the excitement of the fight? I would deal with the man later, but I couldn’t afford to lose focus on the bobcat. The man leapt in front of me as I dove for my opponent, but I swerved around him. Swiping at me with one hand, he just missed me as I gathered all my strength and leapt onto the bobcat. With my powerful jaws ready, I caught the cat by the throat, and before he could tear himself free, I braced my silver paws on his shoulders and wrenched with all my strength.

  I heard his skull hit the floor behind me as his head rolled free. I dropped his body, blood spurting onto the cement.

  Turning, I focused on the man. He must owe my master a debt. It was my job to collect.

  He’d already stripped off his shirt, and now he quickly dropped his pants. To my horror, he dropped to all fours, and a wolf emerged from his body.

  Two fights in one night? Two fair fights?

  This was no bonus fight, no helpless human whose life I had to take if I wanted to keep my own. This was a big, strong, healthy wolf—one who outmatched me even when I wasn’t leaking blood from a half dozen scratches and puncture wounds. This wolf had a thick, glossy coat and the rippling muscles of a well-fed animal.

  Had Dante decided to get rid of me even though I’d won dozens of fights and brought in more money than any other shifter he owned? He had to know this wasn’t a fair fight.

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nbsp; My claws dug into the cement and my nostrils flared as the flames of anger burned through my entire body. With a roar of rage at the injustice, I leapt at the wolf.

  2

  Maximus

  The stench of blood wafted through the walls even outside the fighting pits. I wrinkled my nose and resisted the urge to cover my nose and mouth. It had taken me three weeks to find the pits and get an invitation. Three weeks of agony knowing someone was stealing wolves from my territory and using them for their sick games.

  A growl rose in my throat and I quickly squashed it. Though I wasn’t the only shifter here tonight, I had to keep a low profile.

  “The last fight starts in five minutes, everyone!” a voice called from up ahead.

  I squinted through the darkness. If I didn’t want those around me to see the yellow shift of my wolf eyes, I couldn’t use them to peer through the darkness right now. With dozens of upper class supernaturals weaving through the dank stone corridor, I held back my urge to unleash the wolf inside.

  The crowd shifted out of the corridor and through a steel door with a grated window in the top half. Beyond, bright fluorescent light illuminated rows of stands and a special viewing booth on the edge of a dark pit carved from stone.

  I joined the flow of the crowd, exchanging a quick glance with one of my pack up ahead. Shira, my second-in-command, dipped her chin in a barely discernible nod before she slipped inside. I was quick to join the rest of the supernaturals here for the fight.

  Once the first death match began, my team would make their move, closing in from the outside while Shira and a few others took over from within. No one was getting away tonight. The pit masters would pay for what they were doing to shifters.

  The burn of anger blazed inside my chest, and I ground my teeth together.

  Kill, my wolf urged. If it was possible, he was more pissed off than I was. Though I could be reasoned with and spend time forming a plan, my wolf wanted nothing but blood. Someone was in his territory, and he’d kill without a second’s pause.

  The crowd took their seats around the pit, shifting into the rows of stands ascending from the floor to a few rows high.

  A man with black hair and a smug grin chatted with Shira beside the expensive viewing booth dipping just over the edge of the pit. From her strained smile, it was clear she wanted to tear his head off as much as I did. The mic in his hand indicated his status as a pitmaster or at least an announcer. Either way, he knew what went on here, and he allowed it.

  I strolled around the opposite side of the pit, my fists clenched as I took a few calming breaths. It didn’t help. Not with the copper tang in the air and the faint whimpers from somewhere below.

  So many had died here. From the blood staining the concrete ten feet below, it had to have been dozens, maybe hundreds.

  A clang from below had me leaning over the chain railing surrounding the dark chasm. A light flashed on from above, and I looked up just in time to see the announcer disappear from Shira’s side and reappear in the bottom of the pit.

  Warlock.

  My nostrils flared, and I couldn’t hold back my growl this time. Magic stained the air with a floral scent that turned my stomach.

  “For tonight’s entertainment, we have Ariana and Benjamin, in a fight to the death.” The man grinned and tossed his arms out at his grand announcement.

  I barely resisted the urge to shift into wolf form as the crowd roared around me.

  From a dark tunnel in the side of the pit, a flash of silver fur made my blood run cold. My heartbeat sped, and my fingers closed around the chain railing.

  No. It couldn’t be.

  A wolf, not gray, or white, but silver walked from the narrow passage, her head low and her eyes lit with bloodlust. She trotted to the center of the pit, stopping beside what I had to assume was her master.

  The frenzy around me increased, and shoulders banged against mine as the crowd lurched forward to peer at the one creature I’d spent my entire life waiting for.

  The Silver Shifter.

  She was a creature of legend, one that only came around every hundred years. The last Silver Shifter, a dragon, had the gift of an oracle. She had left behind a string of prophecies about the next Silver Shifter—the one supposed to be the last.

  But I didn’t care about the prophecies and legends. I cared about the emaciated she-wolf below, because in that moment my wolf finally quieted, and one word came through the silence inside.

  Mate.

  Each Silver Shifter was meant to mate with the alpha of their pack, whichever shifter clan they were born to. This Silver Shifter, this beautiful wolf with a coat like liquid silver...she was mine.

  The announcer teased the crowd a bit more, but I was hardly paying attention anymore.

  A whine of worry came through the pack bond, and I glanced up to meet Shira’s gaze. Her brown eyes were wide, and she gripped the railing with white knuckles. Shira could feel everything I felt. All the confusion, the concern, and the overwhelming need to claim and protect Ariana as my own.

  I took a deep breath. I had to calm down and think rationally, but with my wolf suddenly howling for action, I was tempted to give in.

  A loud clang made me freeze. I looked below in time to see a mangy bobcat slink out of the tunnel into the pit. I hadn’t seen the announcer leave, but he was back in the spectator’s box, a grin on his face as Ariana turned to face her opponent.

  Shit.

  The urge to protect my mate surged through my every muscle with an intensity I’d never known. It snatched my breath away and sent whines of concern flaring through my head. The pack needed orders.

  Everyone move in, I commanded. The whines quieted, replaced with relief.

  I pushed back the thoughts of my pack as shouts burst from below. Somewhere a door crashed in, and then my pack was inside.

  Chaos erupted around me, replacing the frenzied bloodlust of the crowd with fear as they turned to run in every direction.

  While my pack took care of the others, it was time for me to save my mate. Gripping the railing, I swung over. Wind rushed against my ears for a moment before I landed hard on the ground.

  Ariana was already fighting the bobcat, her powerful muscles bunching and tensing below her fur. Part of me was tempted to stop and watch, to see how strong my future mate really was, but the protective side of me won out as the bobcat launched itself onto my mate’s back.

  A growl rumbled in my chest and I took a step forward to throw that damn cat away from her, but in the next moment she had freed herself. Relief filled me until I saw the murder in her eyes. She was going to kill that cat.

  My chest squeezed with panic as I dove between them both. I reached for Ariana, moving to grab her scruff and pull her away, but she was fast, and she leapt around me before I could get my hands on her.

  I turned in time to see this small, emaciated wolf rip the head of the bobcat from its shoulders and toss it across the cement floor. I winced as it thunked against the ground and rolled into the shadows. Blood drowned the floor in a sea of red, but Ariana wasn’t looking at her kill anymore.

  Dappled in red spots and growling like a beast, Ariana met my his gaze, her silver eyes flashing with murder.

  Well, fuck.

  Before I realized what I was doing, I’d stripped off my dress shirt and tossed it onto the floor. Cold air licked my warm skin as I dropped my pants next. There was no fighting a wolf in human form. I had to shift, and quick.

  Pulling my wolf to the forefront of my mind, I let him take control, shifting my body with a series of searing hot shots through my muscles and bones. The agony was gone in a second as I embraced my wolf form.

  The scent of blood was even thicker, and my acute hearing picked up the rapid thump of Ariana’s heart. I took a step forward, my claws clicking against the cement.

  Ariana’s nostrils flared, and her rage shimmered through the air with her snarl. I could nearly feel the heat of it as she bared her teeth and braced to leap.
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  My mind raced as I calculated her movements and tried to come up with a plan. Ariana was beyond listening, and she certainly wasn’t getting any calmer with me in the pit.

  Perhaps I should have waited, but there was no going back now.

  Ariana leapt, and my wolf dove to the side. I felt the tremble of his half growl, half whine. He didn’t want to fight her anymore than I did.

  The silver wolf dove again, but I was quicker, leaping out of her way before her paws hit the floor. She turned another snarl on me, but I was already stalking away.

  Did she not see that I didn’t want to fight her? Could she not tell I was no threat?

  A growl of frustration echoed in my mind, but I refused to unleash it or show any other kind of hostility toward Ariana. Hostility would only make her more wary.

  We continued our dance, Ariana leaping, jaw snapping at my throat, while I dove out of reach. Each time, her nostrils flared and she pawed at the ground angrily. She wanted a fight. She wanted a kill.

  My heart sank and my ears flattened back against my head as a terrible thought flitted through my mind. Had she gone feral? Was I too late? What if she’d been outside a pack for too long?

  Every shifter knew that a lone wolf wasn’t long for this world. Without a pack, a wolf slowly lost their mind until they were more beast than human. Only alphas could survive on their own, but an alpha without a pack would never feel whole, never be satisfied.

  Ariana jumped again, and I matched the movement. Before I landed, she shifted her body in midair and tore off the ground, slamming her shoulder into my chest.