“You’re not even trying to help,” Max admonished Mads.
Max wasn’t wrong. Mads was known for being a bit of a Negative Nancy when it came to Max’s “Let’s kill everyone now and worry about ramifications later”-type plans. Though in truth, Mads often preferred Nelle’s “In, out, no one knew we were there until they realized their shit was missing” plans a little better because Nelle’s plans meant that Mads never had to limp onto the basketball court at the beginning of a game. Or have bullets removed from her back and neck.
When it came to Max’s plans, Mads never knew how she’d end up when the night was over. Simply black and blue? Or riddled with bullet holes that required some backroom shifter doc to yank the fragments out of her ass?
“Well, they’re coming,” Streep said, dropping to one knee and aiming her weapon. “So whatever we’re going to do . . .”
With a shrug, they all took positions behind trees or an abandoned boat. Nelle, their best sniper, climbed a tree and hid among the leaves so she could take out the best shooters first.
“Get ready!” Tock called out. “They’ll be here in five, four, three—”
The sound of an outboard motor had them all turning, their weapons still raised. The speedboat made a wide arc and pulled to a stop near the shore.
“Get in!” ordered one of the big cats, now in his human form and wearing black sweatpants.
“Huh,” Max observed softly next to Mads. “They didn’t run.”
“Why are you staring?” the cat snarled. “Move those asses!”
“Go!” Mads pushed her teammates, her gaze still locked on the men she could see moving through the trees toward them.
Nelle scrambled down the tree and ran toward the speedboat. Tock and Streep had begun to follow her when the gunfire started.
Mads heard a muffled roar and knew one of her teammates had been hit. And knew it was Streep when that muffled roar was followed by, “Dear God! I’m dying! I’m dying!”
“Get that ass up, drama queen!” Max bellowed.
Mads returned fire, mowing down a few men who weren’t fast enough to take cover.
“Mads, let’s go!”
She knew better than to turn away, so she started to walk backward, shooting as she went. Hoping to keep the men off her until she could at least reach the shore. If nothing else, she could dive under the water and come up on the other side of the boat. Or meet the others out in the middle of the water somewhere. Moving backward, however, was not easy and she started to stumble in the sand. She caught herself before hitting the ground, steadied her weapon, and was about to unleash more bullets, when screaming from the men stopped her. Two of the tigers had attacked from opposite sides, ripping into the men. They tore off arms and legs, tossing bodies and body parts through the air.
Mads was so fascinated by it all, she froze and simply watched until Max grabbed her from behind and dragged her to the boat by her collar. They were moving so fast that when they jumped into the boat, they landed on their backs and were unable to scramble out of the way before the two cats leaped in moments later. The tigers’ big, black tails slapped both Max and Mads in the face.
As the boat powered off across the water, Mads let out three loud sneezes, and one of the cats turned to glare at her with his wide gold eyes.
“What do you expect?” she snapped at him, again vainly pushing away his tail. “It’s your cat dander!”
* * *
While the rest of the team scoured the island, he stared down at the full-humans dead at his feet.
“Where are they?” the team leader who’d been hired to handle this asked.
“Not here, which is a problem.”
“This should have worked.”
“But it didn’t.”
The team leader looked around. “Let me pull everyone together, sir, and re-evaluate our—”
He had the one who had failed him by the throat, dragging him close so he could clearly understand every word. “Stop talking to me.”
When he felt the message had been properly received, he shoved the fool away and pulled his phone from his back pocket, speed-dialing a number.
“Pronto?”
“They’re still breathing,” he told his eldest brother and quickly lowered the phone from his ear when the rage-filled roaring began.
chapter TWO
Nat slipped through the open window but she wasn’t as graceful as she’d hoped to be and ended up flipping head over ass and landing in a pile of her brother Dale’s dirty clothes, which was beyond disgusting but at least muffled any noise she might have made.
It was extremely late but her family was made up of tigers. They were nocturnal. Her brothers were probably out, but her mother was undoubtedly in the kitchen now, watching old episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Twilight Zone.
She tried to be as quiet as possible as she pulled her brother’s disgusting dirty clothes off her body but, as she stood, she was faced with The Wall.
That’s what she called them when she got caught like this. The Wall. With a capital T and a capital W, punctuation being all important at this particular moment.
What else could she possibly call them when they stood there like that? All three of them standing side by side with their long, tree-trunk legs braced apart. Their big arms crossed over their massive chests. Their big heads aimed right at her so it seemed as if their gold eyes were part of a targeting system that had locked on her and was waiting to fire directly at her.
She knew she had to act fast, so she quickly produced tears and began to speak in ASL. American Sign Language was her go-to when she wanted to get the most sympathy from her big, caring, and loving bro—
“Don’t even try it,” Keane shot back. He didn’t even uncross his arms so he could respond in ASL. To a family outsider it might seem like a form of punishment, but it wasn’t. She could read her brothers’ lips because she’d grown up with them.
And when she’d lost her hearing, it was Keane who’d begun learning ASL before anyone else. He’d never allowed anyone to think of Nat’s deafness as a problem. A disability. It wasn’t to her or to him. It was simply the way she was. Like being born honey badger or growing up to be five-nine rather than five-six. Not having to be overwhelmed by the noises of the world always seemed like a blessing to Nat. It allowed her to focus, and the rest of her senses kept her safe.
Besides, what her senses didn’t do for her, her giant, scary brothers did. They’d been protecting her since the day her mother had brought her home from the hospital. After she’d pulled Nat off the nurse who’d been trying to change her diaper. At least that’s how the story went every Christmas day. Apparently, Nat had latched onto the cheetah’s hand with her baby fangs and wouldn’t let go, the entire time growling and staring coldly into the nurse’s eyes.
From that moment on, her mother had felt that the only protection her daughter would ever need was from herself. Nat’s elder brothers, however, had other opinions.
How could she ever be mad at them, really? They not only took care of her when her mother was out working full time, but they’d gone to afterschool classes to learn ASL. They wound up speaking it so well, many thought they were deaf, too.