The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,72

gun,” Walker said from the front. “One of the agents fired.”

Tiger pulled a dart out of his thigh. “Single dose,” he grunted.

Rhianne studied him in astonishment. “Doesn’t a tranquilizer knock a person out? Or am I translating wrong?”

“They do,” Walker said. “But one shot won’t take down Tiger. That tranq was meant for average everyday Shifters.”

Which Tiger was not—Rhianne had realized that the moment she’d met him. He’d jumped between her and the dart, taking it for her.

She wiped her eyes. “Thank you, Tiger.”

Tiger shrugged and tossed the tranq dart to the floor, crushing it with his boot.

“I can’t leave Ben,” Rhianne said. “We have to go back.” When Walker didn’t deviate from his course, Rhianne caught the seat back and pulled herself forward to him. “You don’t understand. He’s my mate.”

The stoic Walker glanced at her in amazement then quickly turned his gaze back to the street. The voice in Walker’s ear blurted, What the fuck did she just say?

“Who is that?” Rhianne asked.

Another startled glance from Walker, then he slowed the vehicle and made an abrupt turn onto a road that took them behind the compound. A spiked iron fence with coils of wire wound along its top flashed past.

Walker halted at a small gap in that fence, and a hand wrenched open the back door. Rhianne’s panic changed to relief and gladness as Ben launched himself into the seat beside her and slammed the door.

“Hit it, Jeeves,” he said to Walker and slid his arms around Rhianne. “Hey, baby, don’t cry. You didn’t think I’d abandon you to these two losers, did you?”

Ben couldn’t loosen his hold on Rhianne, no matter how fast Walker drove them away from the compound.

“I didn’t want those goons to think you were important to me,” he explained as he soothed her. “I’m not Shifter, so they can’t really hold me, but I’m a font of information, so they might have kept me if I’d let on that I cared about you. I bugged out and found a weak spot in the fence.”

“A weak spot,” Walker repeated. “In solid iron bars.”

“It’s weak now.” Ben snuggled closer to Rhianne. With Tiger taking up most of the seat, he had to sit tight against her, not that he minded. “Where are we going?”

Walker glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “Where I said I was taking you. Austin Shiftertown.”

“Into Dylan’s lair.”

“He’s the best protection she can have while we figure this shit out.”

Ben scowled. “Unless he keeps trying to recruit her to do his dirty work.”

“He does that to all of us,” Walker observed. “What makes you special?”

“He will not recruit her,” Tiger said in his low rumble. “I have explained to him.”

Ben glanced at him over Rhianne’s head. “Are you sure, big guy?”

“Yes.”

Ben relaxed a fraction. If Tiger ran interference with Dylan, Dylan wouldn’t insist. Much.

“Rhianne mentioned you told her that if she stuck with me, she’d be safe,” Ben said, fixing Tiger with a stern look. “Then the earth tried to swallow me, and Shifter Bureau nabbed us.”

Tiger regarded him steadily. “And we were alerted, and now she is safe.”

“Huh. Nice, convenient answer.”

Tiger remained impassive. “Not convenient. True.”

“If you say so.” He returned his attention to Rhianne, kissing her warm hair. “You all right, sweetheart? I could sense you barely controlling yourself in there.”

Rhianne stroked his chest, her touch drawing fire. “I didn’t want them hurting you.”

“No one was going to hurt me, love. I was being … diplomatic. Letting them think they were superior. It’s a tactic.”

Rhianne continued to skim her hand over his chest, fingers catching his shirt’s hem so she could stroke his bare skin beneath. “I couldn’t let them hurt you, because …” She swallowed and fell silent.

“She’s Shifter,” Tiger said beside her. “And she’s chosen you as mate.”

Ben blinked. “No, she’s not. She’s Tuil Erdannan. They have magic we don’t understand.”

Rhianne nestled into Ben’s shoulder and licked his neck. The fire crawled down Ben’s spine and found their way to his cock.

Tiger shook his head. “Shifter. I could not scent it when I first met her, because the Tuil Erdannan side of her blocked it very well. It is obvious now. Maybe because she’s found her mate.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.” Ben didn’t have the olfactory senses of a Shifter, but if Tiger scented the truth of Rhianne, Ben believed him. Tiger’s nose never failed him. “But if you’re Shifter, sweetheart, that means … Shit.”

Rhianne raised her head. “It means my father is not