Samantha

I slowed the car down only when I was clear of the diner's parking lot and was certain the two shifters weren't following me.

I was tempted to speed all the way to my apartment just in case, but with my bad luck today I would probably get pulled over. And a fine was the last thing I needed when I was jobless and barely covering my rent.

I'd been so sure I would get the kitchen assistant position at the Shifter Bar and Grill, with my previous experience and great recommendations. But nope. The owner's wife hadn't liked how her husband had looked at me during the job interview. Though human, she'd gotten the territoriality of a shifter down to a T.

Disgruntled, lost in thought over my future, and in a hurry to leave, I hadn't seen it coming. The moment when my day would turn from bad to worse.

Face-planting into an ordinary male shifter's chest would have been fine. Could have pissed him off or turned him on; still, he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it in a crowded diner. But I'd smashed my nose into the broad, hard chests of pride enforcers. Guys at the top of the food chain in this town's shifter community.

Sebastian Tucker and Dean Miller. A tiger and a jaguar with the power and training to find me after I left the diner, if they so wished. And, boy, did they wish... Had they not been visibly recovering from a fight, they would have run after me at full speed. Pounced on me like predators on prey and then...

I didn't want to think about what would have happened to me afterwards. There was a reason why I didn't stay too long in one place. Did my research on local shifter groups before moving to their town. Stuck to the neighborhoods with more human than shifter residents. Looked for a job where the chances of running into my kind were slimmer.

But the Shifter Bar and Grill had been hiring, and I had been desperate only a month after moving here. I should have been fine hidden away in the kitchen, I'd thought. So smart of me... Not.

Now I was on the radar of male shifters to whom a single female without a pride like me was fair game. I had no choice but to skip town.

The question was, how far from here would be far enough? Because I wasn't just a lone tigress to these enforcers. I was their fated mate as well.

Or so my inner animal had felt upon the males' touch. Which was fucked-up. Two mates? Like hell. I'd barely survived my relationship with Bruce, and now Mother Nature wanted to pair me with two shifters? This polygamous crap might be evolution's way of preventing my kind's extinction, but I wasn't having any of it. Perfect match for my body and my dual soul or not, I wanted nothing to do with Sebastian and Dean. No man at all for this tigress, thank you very much.

Having done this so many times over the last couple of years, I packed in no time once I made it home. Got all my belongings – some clothes, my laptop and a knick-knack or two – into a single travel bag in just under 30 minutes. Then I changed into a black t-shirt and my comfy yoga pants and left my small but cozy apartment for good.

It sucked that I had to leave like this, disappearing without a word on my best landlord thus far. Marcie would keep my security deposit, I knew, but I still would have liked to say goodbye and thank her for all the help in getting me settled. Alas, I couldn't take the risk of staying until morning when she would be home.

As I got to my car in the underground parking lot, I had a moment of hesitation. Where would I go? I barely had any savings left. I hadn't done the usual research on a destination for an emergency relocation, because I'd gotten complacent. I'd started to believe this town might just be the place where I could settle permanently without having to constantly watch my back for female-starved shifters.

The joke was on me. Guess I'd simply have to suck it up. Get to a cheap motel for the night and figure it out from there. Yep, that was a good plan.

I was about to turn the ignition key when the squeal of tires echoed in the underground parking lot.

I stopped breathing and gripped the wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white. They'd found me!

But a look in the direction of the sound proved me wrong. To my left, a delivery truck had parked abruptly, a supermarket chain logo on it. No way were pride enforcers driving such a vehicle.

Just in case, I lowered myself in my seat and waited to see who would come out of the truck.

A well-built man in his early 30s, with short black hair and a clean-shaven face, jumped out of the vehicle with the tell-tale fluidity of a shifter. I hadn't seen him among the photos of local shifters I'd found necessary to avoid, so he was either a low-ranking member of a local shifter group or a lone shifter. Just a driver in a hurry to make a delivery, nothing to concern myself with.

My gaze stayed on him regardless, as if unable to look away. I watched him move with speed and feline grace to the back of the truck, where he opened the storage compartment. Out came two men – humans, judging by their ungainly movements - and headed straight for the four motorbikes parked nearby.

The humans were wearing balaclavas and gloves.

The only thing missing from the scene was a sign Crime in Progress.

And the robbers' target was the motorbikes that my landlord's husband traded in for a living.

The only source of income for Marcie's family in addition to my apartment's rent was about to be stolen.

Unless I did something about it.

I could call the police but as terribly understaffed as they were, they wouldn't get here fact enough to stop the robbers. The criminals were already loading the first motorbike on the truck, and the shifter was back behind the wheel, ready to step on the gas.

Which left me with only one option: vigilante tigress to the rescue.

The two humans I could handle, no doubt about it. They were no match for my preternatural speed and strength. Plus, I had undergone basic training by my birth pride's enforcers at 18, and had used that knowledge on more than one occasion in the ten years since.

But could I overpower the shifter?

And what would happen to me if I failed?