Page 1 of Their Shared Mate
CHAPTER 1
Earth Controlled Space, Sector 39, Rydaria
2149
Frozen by fear and anguish, Claire Walker watched the scene before her unfold. Wolf shifters bounded out of the forest and began attacking every male in sight. Unlike the three shifter villages, the human encampment was little more than a collection of tents. Screams echoed through the night, sending chills down Claire’s spine. Not again. She did not want to watch this again.
But her subconscious wasn’t listening.
Armed hybrids joined the wolves, shouting orders and keeping the females from escaping. The hybrids’ faces seemed distorted. Their noses and mouths appeared elongated and pointed fangs hung down over their lips. One of the hybrids tossed his weapon to his companion and then transformed into a wolf. Claire knew that many of the hybrids could manifest their animal selves, but she had never seen it happen before.
Terrified humans ran, not caring that they had no destination in mind. The hybrids chased down and killed male after male, but the females were either ignored, or they were tossed over shoulders and carried off through the trees.
Joel, Claire’s younger brother, stood across the fire from her. His eyes were wide and bright with fear and confusion. A large, grizzled wolf charged out of the darkness. Its mouth opened and moonlight gleamed off its lethal-looking fangs.
Claire shook her head and tried to close her eyes, but her body refused to respond. Grief surged through her and a strangled cry tore from deep inside her. The wolf lunged and clamped its jaws around her brother’s throat. She screamed again, willing her eyes to shut before the wolf shook its head and ended her brother’s life.
Claire sprang up on her makeshift bed, heart thudding painfully in her chest. Shrill screams echoed through her mind, yet the darkened room surrounding her was quiet. The cries for mercy and screams of pain were part of her dream. She took a deep breath and tried to release the terror gripping her muscles and lingering in her mind. Her current situation was far from safe, but at least she wasn’t freezing, and hunger no longer gnawed at her belly.
“Are you okay?” Heather, one of eight human females assigned to this room asked in an urgent whisper.
Claire pivoted toward her friend. They huddled together on the bare wooden floor to conserve heat and provide a sense of security. Each female had been given two blankets: one to lie on; the other to cover their bodies. A wood-burning stove in one corner of the room warded off the bitter cold, but most of theheat was absorbed by the women closest to the corner. Claire and Heather had entered last, so they lay near the drafty door.
Heather was propped up on her elbow, head resting on her hand. “Another nightmare?” she guessed, voice filled with compassion.
Claire nodded. “I’ve had them every night since Joel died.”
The past tugged at Claire’s ravaged emotions, trying to drag her back to the massacre. No matter how many times she told herself that the wolves were to blame for the bloodshed, she couldn’t escape the guilt.
Claire had urged Joel to come work at Nuevo Biotech. She’d sworn that they were a fabulous company, and his future would be secure as one of their employees. Instead, three months after Joel was hired all hell broke loose. It came to light that Nuevo Biotech was conducting illegal experiments and had been for years. They combined the DNA of apex predators with human males, resulting in a race of aggressive shifter hybrids. The characteristics of lions, wolves, and birds of prey had all been incorporated into the hybrids. If gossip could be believed, there was a group with exotic combinations of the three, but most only incorporated one of the animals.
The division responsible for the experiments was known as the Griffin Project. Claire and her brother worked on the project, yet she knew nothing about the experiments. After his trial began, Joel admitted that he knew about the hybrids, but had never worked on them directly. The distinction hadn’t mattered in the end. Everyone associated with the Griffin Project, no matter how innocently, was exiled to Rydaria, a primitive planet on the very edge of Earth-controlled space.
The hybrids created by the project had been sent to Rydaria three and a half years before, so no one on Earth expected the scientists to survive. Most of the male scientists had been killed by the hybrids within a few months of arrival, but the females were too valuable to murder. With only a few exceptions, the hybrids were males in the prime of their lives. And males needed mates and eventually offspring. Without offspring there was no future on Rydaria, and the explosive tracker injected into each exile ensured that no one would ever leave the planet.
“I don’t understand what the wolves are waiting for,” Heather admitted in a choked whisper. “Dawn was claimed before we left the caves. There has been a constant stream of hybrid males since, but no one else has been touched.”
Claire was pretty sure that wasn’t true. They’d been locked in this room since they arrived at the mountain encampment three days ago, but Claire had heard female voices as well as the unmistakable cries of pleasure. She had no way of knowing if the women had been claimed or if they were just having sex with their captors. Claire had learned enough about the hybrids to know that sex didn’t always lead to a mating bond.
“You sound disappointed,” Claire whispered. She studied her friend, barely able to make out Heather’s features in the darkness. Wolf shifters were bloodthirsty savages. Why in the universe would Heather want one, or two, as her mates?
“I can’t stand waiting,” Heather admitted with a shiver. “If being claimed is inevitable, I’d rather it happens now.”
Claire understood Heather’s frustration. They were being kept alive for one reason and one reason only—the shifters wanted to breed with them. Even the feline shifters, who were less savage than the wolves, made their expectations clear fromthe beginning. Any female wanting the warmth, food, and protection of the feline village could only gain access to it by agreeing to mate with a group of shifter males.
Rather than bartering with the women, the wolves just took what they wanted. The massacre had been the first of three raids. Heather and Claire were captured during the second. The wolves kidnapped twenty-two females that night, and they’d been taken to an underground holding area. She wasn’t sure if it was an abandoned mine or a naturally occurring cave, but the main room had been massive.
The women were fed and guarded, but the wolves were forbidden from abusing them in any way. Claire was thrilled by the stipulation, though it quickly became apparent that trouble was brewing within the lupine village. Arguments and fistfights broke out daily, and the guards became less respectful as the days dragged by.
After two weeks of fear and boredom in the cave, the ripples of conflict Claire had sensed among the wolves boiled over. Riverside pack, led by an ambitious wolf named Alex, wrested control from the reining pack. The coup had been fast and bloody. Apparently, the wolves only knew one strategy for conflict resolution—murder.
Shortly after the rebellion, the women had been divided into smaller groups and taken to separate locations. Claire wasn’t sure how many had been brought to this mountain cabin. She’d only seen the eight women locked in this room and a rotation of lupine guards.
“I don’t think they can claim us unless they sense a potential mate,” Claire pointed out. “I know that was true with the lions.”
“Then the entire pack will just cycle through until all of us have been claimed?”
Heather sounded so desolate that Claire reached over and squeezed her hand. “We’re going to be okay. Tara told me that the lions were on their way. Alex just made his move before the feline team could arrive.” Claire had been shocked and thrilled when Tara, one of her original roommates, had connected with her telepathically. All three of Tara’s mates were Shadows. Not only could they shift into lions, they had also been cybernetically enhanced, giving them a variety of psychic abilities. Their soul bond with Tara gave her access to their magic, so she’d been able to communicate telepathically with Claire.
