Saved by Wolves (Shifters Meet Their Mate Book 1) Read Free Page A

jacket and made the wet jeans clinging to her thighs ice cold. She bit down on the collar of her jacket to keep her teeth from chattering.
    Hours crawled by. The sun finally broke the horizon, giving her a better view of the surrounding woods. She wasn’t as far from the path as she’d thought, and from her vantage point, she could see the four men sitting on the path, guns in their laps. Two were asleep.
    Slowly extending one cramped leg to work the knots out of it, she prepared to move.
    A tall, lean man with dreadlocked blond hair appeared on the path beside the soldiers, and she froze in place.
    “You’re trespassing in Cat territory,” he said, legs braced wide, radiating the confidence of someone who knew he was in the right.
    The soldiers scrambled to their feet.
    “I’m Captain Avery and these are my men,” the leader said, standing at ease. “We’re out of Weston, and we have an agreement with your alpha that we can cross your land when necessary. We’re on the trail of a dangerous criminal who’s hiding somewhere around here.” He looked the shifter up and down. “I hear you Cats are good trackers. There’s a reward in it if you help us find her.”
    Kirra gritted her teeth at being called a criminal. The plea for help was worse, though. A Cat would sniff her out in minutes. She eased to her feet and balanced on the branch, ready to jump.
    “Why should we help you? Humans have no rights here.”
    “As I said, your alpha has approved this. If you help us, it benefits us both. I doubt you want a murderer roaming around your land.”
    The Cat hissed out a laugh, crossing his arms over his bare chest. “Our alpha wouldn’t make a deal with humans. And even if he did, I think we can handle a female human ourselves. Now leave before we decide to deal with you too.”
    The captain shook his head. “I’m afraid we can’t do that.” He tilted his head, and the soldier to his left pulled out his gun and shot the Cat point-blank in the head. He dropped to the ground, landing in the mud with a sickening squelch. Kirra choked back a gasp and gripped the branch above her for support.
    The captain stepped over the dead Cat and picked up the pack he’d been using as a backrest during the night. “That’s the end of that. It’s too bad he wouldn’t track her, though. It would have been—Aggh.”
    A snarling panther took him down, powerful jaws clamping onto his neck. The other soldiers scattered, firing their weapons in all directions as shifted Cats encircled them, seeming to appear out of thin air.
    Kirra shook herself out of her shock. No Cats were below her, but that could change at any second. She dropped from the tree and hit the ground running, heading away from the fight.
    She couldn’t hear anything over her own noise, but she sensed someone behind her. The trees thinned out, and she was able to move faster, weaving from side to side to make herself a harder target.
    She stumbled out of the trees and teetered at the edge of a riverbank, throwing her arms out for balance. Ten feet below, fast-moving water flowed north-east. The far bank was at least thirty feet away. She was a good swimmer, but not that good. North along the riverbank was the best bet.
    Something hit her in the back, knocking her forward, and she pitched down the bank. Blinding pain radiated along her left leg, everything went dark, and then ice-cold water closed over her head.

Chapter Three
    M arcus padded along the boundary dividing the Wolves’ territory from the Cats’. It was an invisible barrier, but it was as effective as a three-foot-thick concrete wall. Four months earlier, the alphas of all the shifter packs had agreed to work together—to an extent—to deal with the problem of the humans. Keeping their people confined to their own territory was the primary part of the deal. Shifters raiding, fighting, or courting outside of their own pack risked expulsion.
    As a result, guard duty had become increasingly routine