The One We Answer To: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 3) by May Ellis Daniels Read Free Book Online

the water is gone and the room is dead quiet except for Pim’s panicked, too-fast breathing.
    Someone whistles, long and sharp, and for a moment I think it’s Connor being a smart-ass, but then I turn to the far door and see Wes standing there, wide-eyed, staring at Lily’s naked body.  
    “That’s it!” Wes says, his eyes blazing bright from whatever pills he’s popped. “I was right about you bunch. I knew you was strong! And damn fine, if I—”
    “Shut the fuck up, Moth,” Trish says.  
    Wes clamps his hand over his mouth, then looks straight at Lily and says, “What’s it gunna be, boss? Water or land?”
    “What?” Connor says while Trish wraps a pale blue lab coat around Lily.
    “Water or land? You want out ‘a here, I know that. And I know you don’t want to be on the streets. I can get you out of the city. Told you I know things. Now. Which way you want to go?”
    “I’ve had enough of water,” Trish says.
    “Me too,” I say, rising to a stand and helping Pim to her feet.  
    Shiori’s returned to standing in a shadowed corner, staring at me, her eyes wide and pure black, her skin glowing slightly red in the hospital’s emergency lights, and for a moment I want to run to her, sweep her into my arms and kiss her and tell her how much she means to me, tell her that I…but instead I simply give her a nod.  
    She ignores me, leans against the wall, studies her fingernails.
    “Land,” Lily says, her voice weak. “North.”
    “North to where?” Wes asks.  
    “Why should we trust you?” Connor says.
    “Why should we trust anyone ?” Trish says, casting Connor a vicious glare.  
    I smile.  
    Lily’s friend is quick-tempered and blunt, but I’m beginning to like her.
    Wes shrugs, motions at the backpack Pim’s holding and says, “Because you have the drugs. And where they go I go.”
     

C HAPTER F OUR
A ARON  

    T HE BERSERK BOBCAT whirls to face me, its hackles high, claws digging into the rocky dirt.  
    “C’mere, pretty kitty,” I say, raising the rock in my hand. “C’mere and let me brain you. You’re skinny…but I’m fucking starving.”
    The cat paces to the side, glances at the hole it was scratching at, then up at me.  
    I lower my gaze for an instant, faster than a blink—just to check the ground between us for shit I might trip over when it charges—and in that moment the cat vanishes.  
    “Fuck,” I whisper, every nerve buzzing. I scan the sandy riverbed behind me. Nothing. The steeply banked ravine walls. No sign of the cat. Plenty of places even a large cat like that could hide, though. Behind clumps of juniper and sage. In a depression in the earth, invisible until I’m only a step or two away.
    “Fuck sakes.”
    I reach inside for my animal. Rattle his cage a bit. He’s there, but he’s not answering. He feels…weak. Distant. Then I remember the Senator. Fat Gladys. The beetle-bitch that killed my brother. How strong she was. How she mentioned the Purebloods will grow weaker as the First Fallen rises.
    My stomach twists in a painful knot.
    The bobcat doesn’t scent like a black-blooded Stricken. But who knows? Maybe I can’t scent anymore. Or maybe now their scent has changed like everything else.  
    I realize I’m naked, soaked in cold sweat and shivering.
    The higher you go the further you fall.  
    And I’m getting the feeling I’ve barely begun falling—
    The cabin’s up ahead. Through the shadowed aspen grove. That’s where the cat is. Smart motherfucker. It knows I’ll head for the cabin. It’s lying in wait, like I was for those panicked deer on the ridge.  
    “Figures,” I say out loud to my wolf. “You’ve fucked with me my entire life, and now when I really need you, you’re gone.”
    I could turn around and retrace my steps.  
    But I’m curious about what’s in that cabin. And besides…it’s only a fucking bobcat.  
    Thing’s probably as scared of me as I am of it.  
    I take a few steps up the riverbed, then