A Tiger's Bounty by Terry Bolryder Page B

was different. Jace was outnumbered, and all the men in Egan’s posse looked large, tough, and more than willing to fight at the drop of a pin.
    “Jace, you have to get out of here. Run!” Amber begged. The last thing she wanted was for the only man who had ever truly given her pleasure to get caught by the same people that had her now.
    Jace didn’t back down, just stepped into the apartment, muscles tensed and brows lowered, like an apex predator surveying its choices for lunch.
    “Jace, so that’s your name. What can I say? I really am the luckiest guy around. I get free merchandise that I can sell at top dollar, and I get to avenge my buddy Brenner all in the same day,” Billy said jovially, though Amber could hear the malice in his voice as he spoke. “Sorry, but the only way you’re getting out of here is in pieces,” he directed to Jace, then gave a nod to the men at his sides.
    “Funny. I was just thinking the same thing about you,” Jace replied, the air almost crackling around him with rage as his amber eyes seemed to glow brighter.
    Two men rushed at Jace, and instantly, he became a flurry of motion almost too fast to be seen. The first man, he threw an elbow into their jaw, then let out a long kick that sent him flying backward and rolling across the polished hardwood floor. The second threw a punch at Jace, which he sidestepped effortlessly while he grabbed the man’s wrist, twisted it behind his body, and wrenched with one quick flick of his hand.
    A loud crack reverberated off the walls, and the man groaned for mercy, which Jace responded to by bringing an elbow down hard on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.
    For a moment, the room was quiet as Jace pushed the motionless man away from him with his black boot, then stared down at Egan again, eyes even brighter than before.
    “So who’s trying to run from who now?” Jace snarled.
    From her spot on the couch, Amber could see the rage light in Egan’s eyes as he surveyed the situation and the tall, raging man before him. Some of the men murmured in shock, and Amber could hear things like, “How in the hell?” and, “This guy’s just a human, right? He doesn’t smell like anything.”
    It was clear they were all discussing something they understood, but Amber had no clue what it meant.
    “Freddie, give this little pipsqueak a taste of wolf,” Billy said to the scruffy man at his side.
    “But, boss, the girl. She’s a human. She’ll see,” the man said indecisively.
    “I don’t give a damn about what you think. Just tear that guy limb from limb,” Egan ordered.
    Then, before her very own eyes, the man changed from a human being to a large, oversized wolf, right there in the middle of the room. Not changed, though, more like shifted, his upright human body melting away into a four-legged predator.
    Amber’s mind was so blown she was left speechless, until the wolf snarled at Jace and she realized this wasn’t a fantasy.
    It was all real, somehow.
    Amber looked at Jace, who only smiled cockily at the wolf as it began to circle him. Completely calm, he pulled off his leather jacket and tossed it to the side, matching the wolf’s pace.
    “Not so tough now, are you?” the wolf spoke to Jace in words that were clearly understandable.
    They could talk too, it appeared.
    What the hell was going on? Why wasn’t Jace flipping out? Was Amber just crazy and she didn’t know it?
    To her utter surprise, the same thing happened to Jace next. His body shifted, extending outward and turning into a huge, striped tiger. It was far larger than any she’d ever seen in a zoo and a great deal superior to the wolf in front of him by comparison. Amber could see the wolf’s ears tuck back and his tail curl down between its legs as it backed down from the huge, ferocious cat.
    If Josie’s apartment hadn’t been so incredibly opulent and grand in the first place, there wouldn’t have been space for the oversized animals now facing off in the