The Shifter's Conspiracy (Paranormal BBW Werewolf Romance Novella) by Cassie Laurent

too risky to chance a fight in the very epicenter of New York civilization.
    No, for now he’d have to follow, unseen and unheard, waiting patiently to strike when the moment was right. He only hoped he wouldn’t be too late.

—Tess—
    I sat in the back seat of the limo, trembling as Mr. Cipriano ran his fingers across the back of my neck.
    “Take a right up here,” he said to the driver. He turned and gave me a slight smile, a menacing charm in his eyes.
    “Where are you taking me?”
    “I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Mr. Cipriano, averting his eyes and looking back out the front window.
    The driver took the right and continued down a long boulevard. A few minutes later Mr. Cipriano indicated that the driver was to take a left turn onto a far darker street.
    “It’s up ahead on the left,” said Mr. Cipriano. “Two blocks away.”
    The limo crawled down the street, and my mind reeled, wondering just what was in store for me. Where the hell was Elias? He said he’d protect me. Was he still at the club? I hoped he’d called off the mission and marshaled the entire police force. I was willing to risk myself in the sting, but I wasn’t ready to die a meaningless death. All they would have of Cipriano was a recording of him taking me into the back room. A solid lawyer would be able to get him off any conceivable charges they brought forward on that evidence. That would get us no closer to solving the abductions case.
    Suddenly, I was thrown to the front of the car. I heard the sound of crunching metal and smashing glass. Mr. Cipriano and I were both violently jostled and found ourselves sprawled on the floor of the limo.
    “What the fuck was that?” he yelled, struggling to get up as he once more rolled down the barrier between us and the driver.
    The driver gave no answer and upon closer inspection we saw that he was pinned to his seat by the bent metal of the car frame and the partially-deployed airbag. I gasped, surprised at the amount of blood that was splashed against the spider-webbed glass of the front window.
    Mr. Cipriano pulled out a gun, steadying himself with his other hand on the partition at the front of the car. With another jolt we were bounced back onto the floor and I looked up to see the door to the back of the window being torn right off its hinges, yielding a horrific, metallic shriek. In the shadows outside I caught a glimpse of what looked to be an animal, dark grey, its glowing blue eyes the most visible features of an otherwise hidden body.
    My nails dug into the leather of the car seats, my body stricken with fear, gone cold in the presence of a strange creature that, for all I knew, was here to kill me. I pulled myself up and the animal thrust its head inside the car, its eyes looking right at me. A gigantic wolf was staring at me face to face.
    Then I heard a loud noise ring out as Mr. Cipriano unloaded several shots at the wolf’s head. The wolf pulled his head back out of sight and I heard Mr. Cipriano curse as he started to reload his gun. Then all the sudden I was being pulled out of the car. The wolf had me in his clutches, his teeth clasped around the fabric of my dress.
    I tried to hold onto the leather of the seats, then the sides of the door, doing everything I could to keep myself inside the limo and away from this terrifying beast. My weak arms were no match for its limitless strength and I felt myself whisked out into the cold night air. But to my surprise this strange animal set me gently on the curb next to the car.
    Go , it said.
    Well, it didn’t really say it, but somehow I heard those words reverberating through my head. I’d had this sensation before, strange but reassuring. I hesitated, staring into its eyes, searching for some hidden meaning. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. There was something familiar in them. Had I seen these eyes before? But where? Perhaps in a dream, in a fantasy, maybe.
    Go .
    The words rang out in my head once more and I