Stephani Hecht - Shanes Fury

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Shane's Fury

Copyright 2011 Stephani Hecht

ISBN: 978-1-55487- 826-0

Cover art by Angela Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by eXtasy Books

Look for us online at:

www.eXtasybooks.com

Lost Shifter Ten

By

Stephani Hecht

Dedication

To Nikole. You're the best friend anyone can ask for. Thanks for being there for him.

Funny how one could get used to fear. All they had to do was live with it every day.

Dalton curled his fingers around the bars of the tiny cage as he stared at his newest masters. Like his previous owners, they were snake shifters and, like his previous owners, this new batch was just as mean. It'd only taken a few jolts from their cattle prod for Dalton to reach that conclusion.

His slavers seemed to be part of the same nest covenbatch, whatever the hell a group of snakes were called. Unlike the previous gang, a mix of breeds and sexes, this bunch was all male Cottonmouths who were tall, muscular and horrific looking because their bodies were stuck halfway between shift. Not quite human, not quite snake, they were some kind of gross cross. It would seem like they had gathered only the bad features from both forms, too. So Dalton felt pretty certain none of them would be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon. Not even the makeup gurus from Toddlers and Tiaras could cover up that kind of ugly.

One of them glanced in his direction and Dalton felt a shiver slither down his spine as he caught himself locked into the creature's red-eyed gaze. A smiled curled the man's thin lips as his forked tongue darted out. His molted brown skin glistened under the poor lighting of the industrial garage. Dalton took in a deep breath and immediately regretted it when he got a nose full of reptile stink mixed with oil and rusted metal.

"The kitty looks tasty," the snake observed, his eyes glowing with hunger.

Damn if a whimper didn't bubble from Dalton's throat. Not exactly his proudest moment, but not even a full-grown Jaguar or Tiger shifter could have been brave when being stared at by a dozen Cottonmouths. What chance did a puny Lynx like him have?

"You can't eat him, Kirk," the biggest snake snarled. A mountain of a man, Dalton immediately pegged him as the leader within ten minutes of the bunch buying him. His assumption was later proven true that same day when the man had killed, then eaten one of the members of his own group. Dalton still had nightmares in which the soundtrack was that snake's final screams for mercy.

"Why not?" Kirk moved closed as that freaky tongue worked over his mouth.

Even in his human form, Dalton still felt small and defenseless. Add in the fact that he was trapped inside an overly large dog cage and he realized that if Kirk did attack, Dalton could do nothing but scream for help that would never come. He cowered to the back corner of the cage and tucked his knees to his chest.

Since they'd only given him one change of clothing since they'd first captured him eight months ago, his cheap jeans were crusted over with grime and they smelled nearly as bad as the garage. That still didn't stop him from lowering his face onto his knees and hiding his eyes.

Even though he was a mere Lynx, the act of submission made him want to growl in protest. He told his inner predator to get over it. When they'd first murdered his family and taken him to his new life, Dalton quickly learned that defiance only brought pain and humiliation.

"We bought him for breeding, not food," the leader reminded Kirk.

Even though that hadn't been the first time Dalton heard what his new purpose in life was to be, a wave of revulsion and despair still slammed into him. Tears built up in his eyes. Never had he felt so aloneso cold. He just wanted to curl up with his littermates so he could be warm and safe.

That would never happen though, because all his littermates had been killed, along with his parents. For some reason only known to the snakes, they'd spared Dalton and frankly he wondered if his family hadn't been the lucky ones.

He peered up from under his dark bangs only to see Kirk still eyeing him up. Now Dalton knew how all those rabbits suffered when he and his siblings used to hunt them down. All he was missing were the long ears, wiggling nose and fluffy tail and the picture would be frigging complete.

He lowered his head again and sucked in a breath as he spotted a shadow of movement from the corner of his eye. What in the hell is that? All of the members of the snake group are already here. Unless they invited company over, but somehow I don't see snakes as the social let's-get-together-for-Scrabble types. Careful to avoid alerting Kirk to what he was doing because some inner instinct screamed to Dalton to keep his discovery a secret, he tilted his head to the side for a better look.

All he saw were the same row of empty cages, the usual beat down couch and card table. That didn't fool him for a moment because he knew for certain that somebody was there. The only thing that remained unanswered was whether that somebody was friend or foe.

Then just as he was about to give up any hope of seeing the newcomer, a small figure slipped from the shadows. Not reaching six-feet and weighing less than two hundred pounds, the man was tiny compared to most shifter standards. No fear came from the man even though it didn't take a genius to figure the odds were seriously stacked against him. Either this guy was suicidal or he was.nah, just suicidal because there could be no other explanation for somebody willingly walking into a dencovennestdamn! Dalton vowed if he ever got free, the first thing he'd do is look that fact up because now it really started to bother him.

Dalton couldn't make out the strange man's features because the hood of the shifter's black hood covered his face, but the pair of short swords in his hands let it be known he didn't come for a coffee date. The way the weapons hung loose in his hands screamed that the weapons were a favored accessory used often.