Timber Valley Pack: Lynx On The Loose( A Paranormal Romance With Shifters) by Georgette St. Clair Read Free Book Online Page A

suspiciously, and glowered at her. “How did she even know I was here? She doesn’t look like a Hobo. Doesn’t smell like a Hobo. Too clean.”
                  “Hey, some of us like to bathe,” Isadora said, exasperated. “I need your help, Pyotr.  I found you because I put out the word to Hobo groups online, letting them know that I was looking for shifters from Korslovia.  There’s a good chance that we’re going to be able to capture the scientist known as Zador Horvath.”
                  Horvath had been the second in command at the illegal lab.  He was the last known person alive to have escaped from the lab.
                  He went pale at that. “How? Is he close to here? Is that why you came?” He looked around fearfully, as if expecting Zador to pop out from behind the nearest pine tree.
                  “I can’t reveal any more information than that, for security purposes.  However, I hear that you’ve told people that you were held in his laboratory. Is that true?” Apparently when Pyotr got drunk, he got more talkative. She should have brought some alcohol with her, because apparently he wasn’t feeling too talkative right now.
                  He was backing away slowly, the rifle trained on her.
                  “He’s a monster,” he said, his voice hoarse and fearful. “Do you see this? ” He gestured at his scarred face. “He laughed when he did that to me. All the time.”   His eyes were huge with fright now.
                  “If he sent me, the area would be crawling with soldiers already, wouldn’t it?” Isadora pointed out.
                  “Maybe.” He stopped backing up.  “Where is he? How did you find him?”
                  Isadora walked forward slowly, hands still up in the air. “I don’t know. They don’t tell me these things, I’m just a grunt,” she said. “Will you come with me to talk to my friends? I can arrange a meeting in an open area, if that makes you more comfortable. The information that you can give us could be vital to catching him.”
                  “I can’t talk about it. I’m sorry. You don’t know what it was like…” he lowered the rifle. He was starting to shake, and tears filled his eyes and ran down his scarred cheeks.
                  “You’re right, I don’t know. I’m really sorry,” she said soothingly. “Let me give you my cell phone number in case you change your mind.” She handed him a piece of paper with one of her numbers written on it. It was a burner cell phone that she’d purchased recently.  She’d ditched her old cell phone so that the Wardens and Pride Patrol wouldn’t be able to track her.
    He accepted the paper with trembling hands and  tucked it in his pocket.
                  “What do you need me for?” he asked gruffly.
    “There are very few pictures of him in existence, and they’re all blurry. There’s no fingerprints. We don’t have a lot to go on other than verbal accounts, and not many of his victims survived.  You’re the only person in this country who has seen him.  We’re going to need help identifying him.”
    The color drained from his face. “You don’t know what you’re up against. He’ll kill you,” he whispered.  “He’ll make you suffer in ways that you can’t imagine.  He’ll make your loved ones suffer. Let it go.”
                  She felt ice running through her veins, but she stood firm.  “My people can protect you,” Isadora protested.
                  He threw back his head and let out a long, hollow laugh. “Nobody can protect me against him! Nobody can protect you, either. Go back home, little girl.” And abruptly, he shifted, exploding out of his clothes, and before the rifle fell and hit the ground he’d grabbed it in his jaws. Then he turned and ran, jaws clamped firmly on