Visions, Paws, and Claws (Lions & Tigers & Bears)

Prologue

Six Months Ago

“HE’S COMING, I know he is.”

Aric Townsend loved Seth’s confidence, his unshakable belief, but right then his words didn’t perform their usual feat of magic.

They couldn’t take away the chill that had settled in around Aric’s heart.

“You keep saying that, but if he was coming, he’d have been here by now.” Aric shivered. “Admit it, why don’t you? We’re going to die in here.” And here was such a terrifying place, robbed of all joy, all hope….

And yet I found love in the middle of a nightmare situation.

“No!” Seth glared at him. “We will be getting out of here, I swear it. But you need to have faith.” He lifted the thin sheet. “Come under here. Let me keep you warm.”

Aric slipped into bed and sighed when Seth wrapped a slender arm around him.

“I’m not like you. I don’t have your optimism, your strength. I mean it. I’m afraid we’re gonna die in here,” Aric admitted.

“And I promised you we wouldn’t.” Seth cupped Aric’s chin and gazed into his eyes. “Don’t you trust me?”

Aric let out another deep, shuddering sigh. “Only with everything in me.” He clung to Seth’s promise on an hourly basis, whenever his spirits were at their lowest.

It was all he had left to cling to. His old life had been ripped away from him. He’d been torn from his mother’s arms, forced to go to this godforsaken hellhole along with all the other young shifters who’d been similarly taken. And it had soon become obvious why they were there. To be examined. Experimented on. Sifted. The wheat separated from the chaff.

Aric knew he was chaff right from the start. He’d always been delicate, with no special talents except the gift of curling up in someone’s lap and soothing them with the rumble of his purr. A house kitty was never going to be of use to them, not like the tigers, the lions, the panthers, all those sinewed, lithe, heart-stoppingly fast cats. No, Aric was like the vast majority of shifters in the camp. Not entirely useless, however.

They were cannon fodder.

Target practice.

Expendable.

Disposable.

Aric had resigned himself to an early death, caught up in a battle that wasn’t his in a struggle he didn’t believe in.

Until he met Seth Miles, and it was as if someone had turned the light on, illuminating his dark prison.

For the first time in his life, Aric fell head over heels in love.

What made it perfect?

Seth Miles loved him back.

Their love was the only positive to come out of their capture, but it was a secret. Being physical was out of the question. Staying safe was paramount.

So Aric made do with cuddles hidden by the dead of night, the squeeze of Seth’s hand around his when no one could see.

And then a miracle occurred.

They’d been in the camp a month when a batch of new inmates arrived, and one of them captured Seth’s attention from the moment he walked toward them. Aric could understand Seth’s reaction. Whoever this shifter was, he was Someone.

Not only that, he was Seth’s father, Jake Carson, a man Seth had never met—and they shared a staggering gift, one that caught the attention of the camp authorities.

One individual in particular, a man who made Aric’s blood run cold.

Aric knew about Seth’s gift, and now it seemed to be an inherited trait, one that could be exploited.

Seth stroked Aric’s jaw. “Our mate is coming. He doesn’t know about us yet, but once he does?” He smiled, and the sight eased the terror bubbling up through Aric. “We will be the center of his world.” Then the smile faded, replaced by an expression Aric recognized instantly.

Grim determination.

“Aric, listen to me. We’re getting out of here.”

He said nothing. He’d heard the words before.

“Aric, we don’t have much time. You’ve heard the rumors going around, haven’t you? They’re going to take us to a new camp.”

“Then let’s hope it’s better than this one.”

Seth frowned. “You don’t understand. I… I don’t think they’re going to take all of us.”

Panic flooded through him in an icy wave. “You mean they might―”

Seth stopped his words with a kiss. “You’ve already helped me try to reach him. Well… I’m going to need you to help him find me . Because they’re not about to leave me here.”

Aric’s throat seized, and for a moment he struggled to breathe.

“They’re going to split us up. Either you’ll be taken someplace different or I will. Right now I can’t see which way it will go.”

“What about Jake?”

Seth bit his lip. “I think they’ll keep us together, at least until they work out how they can use us.” He stroked Aric’s cheek. “Listen, baby. You and me, we have a connection. And there is nothing that can break that, you hear?”

Except if they kill you. Or me.

No way would Aric say those words aloud.

“And that connection is what will help bring our mate to me. To us.” Seth locked gazes with him. “So you have to make me a promise too.”

“Anything.” Aric gulped.

“You have to stay alive, even if you need to kill to do that.” Seth gripped his chin. “ Can you do that?”

Aric swallowed. “It doesn’t seem as if I have a choice, does it?”

“You have to live. Our mate will come here—that much I can see—and when he does, you have to tell him about me. About us. Because then the two of you can rescue me.”

“So you already know you’ll need rescuing?” Aric fixed him with a hard stare. “There’s stuff you haven’t told me, isn’t there?”

Seth kissed his forehead. “Only because I don’t want you to worry.”

Aric wanted to be angry—to protest that he could cope—but he couldn’t, not when Seth held him so close, sharing his warmth.

“Want to try again before we get some sleep?”

Aric nodded. He closed his eyes and opened his mind. He could already sense Seth there, waiting for him. He had no clue how Seth was able to project his thoughts, but then again, he had a feeling most of Seth’s psychic abilities lay untapped.

Together they sent out their distress call for a man neither of them had ever seen but believed would come for them—if he only knew they existed.

Save us.

Save us.

Save us.