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“Benson,” Luke snapped when his cell phone rang. He was annoyed the call had interrupted his favorite song, “Comfortably Numb,” right in the middle of it. He’d been blasting it as he drove down Route 9 on his way home. He could have ignored the damn thing, but the call would have disrupted the song with its incessant ringing anyway, sounding loudly through the speaker system of his SUV. Besides, it was the station calling, and though he was technically off duty now, being the town sheriff, as well as alpha of the Waretown’s pack, meant there was really no such thing as off duty for him.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you, Sheriff Benson,” Deputy Garrett said in surround sound, “but Owen is here again. His brother beat him good. Owen thinks he’ll kill him next time.”

Luke rolled his eyes and huffed out an annoyed, harsh breath. “Where’s Lorenzo now?”

“You’re not going to like it, Sheriff.”

“Just spit it out, Garrett.” As if Luke needed another excuse to end Lorenzo, the self-proclaimed alpha of Ocean County.

The deranged Napoleonic panther had been challenging and winning town after town, gaining followers as he went, but none of the towns would acknowledge him as their ruling alpha. It wasn’t their way. The alphas governed smaller packs, shouldering responsibilities, and making decisions together for their counties and state. This system, successful in other states as well, helped to prevent such bullying tactics Lorenzo was inflicting. His own brother was trying to stop him, apparently almost losing his life in the process.

“There was a human,” Garrett began hesitantly. “Owen said he tried to help him, but Lorenzo and his gang went after him.”

“Goddammit!” Luke slammed his hands down on the steering wheel. Going after a human went way too far even for Lorenzo. “Call a meeting,” he ordered Garrett. “Looks like I’m going to have to challenge the fucker after all.” Luke knew he was one of the few who could stand against such a dominant alpha, he himself being more dominant than most, and he would have no choice but to kill him. He and his pack would then have to kill any of Lorenzo’s followers who didn’t submit to Luke’s rule. Once he gained back the county, he’d appoint the true successors of the alphas Lorenzo had killed.

Luke was about to pop a U-turn and head back to the station when he saw a black Mercedes abandoned on the shoulder. “I’ll check back with you later,” he told Garrett and then ended the call.

He pulled up behind the Mercedes and ran the New York State license plate. The car was registered to a Dr. Thomas Barrymore, Cardiovascular Surgeon at Mount General Hospital in New York City. Luke got out of his car just as the last rays of the sun were setting behind him, and he walked toward the good doctor’s vehicle. All four tires were slashed. Peering inside, he saw that the keys were still in the ignition, and a suit jacket, duffle bag, and a leather computer bag were in the back seat. He flared his nostrils and took in the smell of a lightly scented woodsy aftershave and immediately began to track its owner into the forest. About a mile in, he picked up Lorenzo’s scent as well as three of his usual companions, and blood … lots of it. The same aftershave he’d detected by the doctor’s car lingered in the air, as well as another underlying scent that drove his panther wild as he neared even closer to it. Already running, Luke picked up his pace, the man, not just the panther, frantic now.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he came upon the horrifying scene. The doctor had deep, large gashes all over his body, a few limbs were splayed out in odd directions indicating that they were broken, and his face, particularly near his eyes and lips, were swollen from being pounded in with a heavy force. The stench of the man’s blood, however, did not overshadow the now very pungent smell that had driven his panther wild. Luke kneeled over the form of the battered man on the ground who was undeniably his mate. He felt the pull of the mating bond completely now that he was so close to him. His skin tingled, like an itch that would only be scratched once he sealed the bond with his claiming mark.

He also felt something else—a fury running so deep in his soul that it may have embedded there until he ripped the men responsible to shreds. His rage was primal, lethal, and had it not been for the faint beating of Dr. Barrymore’s heart, Luke would have easily caught up to the fleeing panthers and obliterated them. The four of them were already dead anyway. They just didn’t know it yet.

Luke had minutes at most before the doctor’s heart would cease to beat at all. He couldn’t lose him, not now when he had just found him, and not when he had all but lost hope of ever finding his true mate.

A panther is either born into a pack or they join one, seldom ever leaving. Packs are stronger together and the stronger the pack, the less likely a tyrant like Lorenzo can infiltrate. And mates are sacred, a true mate even more so since there is no guarantee of ever finding one if your true mate isn’t in your pack, or someone you manage to come across. Some shifters, after falling in love, would choose to bestow a claiming mark, forming a mating bond, and ultimately forsaking ever finding a true mate. Luke had always refused that fate for himself. None of his past lovers could ever compel him to cast aside finding the one who would complete him and his panther, the one who would make the alpha side stronger, and the one who he would not close himself off from like he had done countless times in the past.

He pushed back the doctor’s bloodstained, golden-brown locks and rested his hand against his cheek. “Forgive me,” he whispered, nearly choking on his words. “This isn’t the way I imagined claiming my mate.” And then Luke bent his head forward and tenderly kissed the doctor’s neck before sinking his teeth deep into him.

When he was done, when he felt the mating bond snap into place, and the itching of his skin was replaced solely with longing, he cradled the doctor’s body in his arms and stood up.

Even with his face swollen, as he carried the approximately five-foot-ten man to his car, Luke could see that he was beautiful. His thin but surprisingly quite solid and muscular frame lay limply in his arms, but already the gashes began to heal and the heartbeat grew stronger by the minute. The puffiness on his mate’s face also lessened as he neared his vehicle, revealing prominent cheekbones and a square jaw with day-old stubble.

He gingerly laid his mate down in the back seat of his SUV and went over to the Mercedes to get the doctor’s things, placing them in his own car before calling Garrett. “I found the human,” he said into his cell, not elaborating on what the said human was to him. “Taking him to my place for protection now. Oh, and I need a tow truck.” He informed Garrett of the location of the Mercedes and then added, “Have it brought over to my house when it’s fixed.”

“What should I do with Owen?” Garrett asked.

“He needs round-the-clock protection until his brother is dead,” Luke said, the last part through gritted teeth. He had never craved vengeance as much as he did now and he’d deliver it with a force unlike any Lorenzo had ever seen. He was sure of it.

He heard a groan coming from the back seat just as he was about to start the car. When he turned to look behind him, he saw the doctor’s eyes fluttering open. Eyes the color of emeralds looked at him as if unseeing before they shut again.

A fierce protectiveness washed over Luke like a giant tidal wave. He only hoped his mate would forgive and accept him after what he had done.