Lord of New York (Shifter Hunters Ltd. Book 3) Read online

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  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

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  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

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  Lord of New York

  Book Three of Shifter Hunters Ltd.

  Tori Knightwood

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Get a free story!

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  EPILOGUE

  Freebies

  Books by Tori Knightwood

  About Tori

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright page

  Get a free story!

  Join Tori Knightwood’s Reader’s Group and get a free short story!

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  In the Shifter Hunters Ltd. trilogy, Ryenne Cavanagh faces off against rogue shifters while trying to prove herself in a male-dominated field. As it becomes clear her recent cases are connected to a mysterious figure, she must fight her attraction to a competitor with a secret. In the end, she’ll only win love if she can overcome her inner demons.

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  ONE

  Tonight, eating dinner with Gavin was low on Ryenne’s priority list. As much as she loved her best friend, the wolf inside her was itching to get out. She needed to punch someone, fuck someone, or run. She couldn’t do either of the first two with Gavin. Maybe he could help her figure out how to do the third somewhere in this huge, densely populated city.

  The plane ride home from Paris had been uneventful except for this feeling of needing to jump out of her skin. She had prowled the aisles as much as the flight attendants allowed.

  Once home, she had exercised in her building’s gym. Running miles and miles on her treadmill and lifting weights had left her exhausted and sweating. Then she soaked in the tub to ease her muscles. But now, only a couple of hours later, the needs had returned.

  “Wow, Ry, you are sending out amazing amounts of pheromones. It’s too bad they have no effect on me,” Gavin said.

  She leaned closer to him over the restaurant table. She hadn’t wanted to come out at all, but he had convinced her that neither one of them was in a fit state to cook, and that she especially needed to eat and keep up her strength if she was going to learn to control her inner beast.

  “It’s like this itch I can’t scratch,” she explained to him. “Like every man in this room is attracting me, even ones I wouldn’t normally be attracted to.” She looked up and locked eyes with a man at the bar. His dark skin was ebony in the shadowy corner, his bald head reflecting the only light near him, a wall sconce several feet away.

  “Well, if I found lady bits the least enticing, and if you weren’t like a sister to me, I might help you out,” Gavin said with a smirk. “But lady bits? Ew.”

  Ryenne knew she should laugh at that. She knew she would have a week ago. But now, her entire world had changed. She was a shifter and she would always be a shifter. There was nothing she could do about it except learn to control these urges. Lucien told her she would, but right now it was hard to believe.

  A man at the next table caught her gaze. He had sandy brown hair flopping over one eye, a chiseled jawline, and his tight t-shirt showed off lots of muscles. But he was with a woman who was shooting daggers at Ryenne with her eyes.

  Not only was Ryenne happily in love with Lucien, but she thought she shouldn’t give in to some of these urges or she’d never learn to control them.

  The man quirked up one side of his mouth. There was cruelty in the lines of his face and in his icy blue eyes.

  With effort, Ryenne turned away from him and focused on her friend and her dinner. The rare steak was bleeding juices on her plate and the smell tantalized her. She dug into it with unusual exuberance.

  “Have you heard from Lucien?” Gavin asked. “When is he coming?”

  She swallowed a bite of steak. “Next week, sometime.”

  “That’s not too long.”

  She couldn’t wait for Lucien to arrive. Not just for the usual reasons that her heart and her body missed him. But he could help her get through this transition by allowing her to scratch all three of her overwhelming itches with him.

  “Excuse me,” a voice said from above and slightly behind Ryenne.

  She and Gavin glanced up and saw the guy from the next table. She looked over. The woman wasn’t there.

  “Sorry to interrupt your meal but I couldn’t help noticing you,” he said. “My girlfriend and I have an open relationship. I was hoping you might let me borrow your girl.”

  Ryenne’s eyebrows shot up. “His girl?”

  A huge smile broke across Gavin’s face.

  “This girl,” Ryenne said, “makes up her own mind. And this girl has no intention of doing anything with you, open relationship or not.”

  “Come on, baby, you might like it,” the man said.

  Ryenne gave Gavin a look that she hoped conveyed “Is this guy for real? What decade is this?”

  The smile on Gavin’s face grew wider and he sat back in his chair as if ready to watch a show.

  The guy put his hand on Ryenne’s shoulder and she smacked it away.

  “You like to play hard to get?” he asked.

  “I don’t play,” she said. “I am hard to get.”

  A timid female voice asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Your boyfriend here claims you have an open relationship,” Ryenne answered. “And he’s trying to get me to go home with him.”

  The woman turned furious eyes on her boyfriend. “Jake?”

  “What?” he said, all posturing male. If he’d had feathers, he would have puffed them out. “I have needs. You know that. You don’t always fulfill them.”

  The woman darted embarrassed glances around at the other restaurant patrons who had begun to take notice.

  “Then I suggest you take care of those needs all by yourself. Because you’re not getting this... girl,” Ryenne said.

  “Baby,” he cooed, stroking a strand of hair off Ryenne’s forehead. “Don’t be like that.”

  Ryenne pushed closer to him. Close enough to smell the body odor he’d tried to cover with Polo and to notice
the lipstick stain on his collar. “Call me baby one more time and I will break your arm.”

  The man didn’t flinch away. “Come on... baby.” He put emphasis on the word.

  Before the word had fully left his mouth, however, Ryenne had stomped on his instep and twisted his arm around to his back.

  “Ow,” he whined.

  “What are you doing?” the girlfriend asked.

  “I warned him,” Ryenne said in a reasonable tone of voice.

  “Let go of me,” the guy ground out between his clenched teeth.

  “Not until you apologize to me and to your girlfriend.”

  “For what?” he spat.

  “For disrespecting us.”

  “I wasn’t disrespecting you. I was paying you a compliment.”

  She twisted his arm up higher.

  “Ow!” He started struggling and kicking behind him.

  Ryenne felt her control slipping and her claws started to break through her fingers. “Apologize, I said.”

  “No,” he said, continuing to struggle against her.

  Gavin’s eyes grew wide. “Ry,” he said, his voice a warning.

  The girlfriend had her phone out. “I’ll... I’ll call the police if you don’t let him go.”

  With a huge effort, Ryenne let go of him, pushed him away, and retracted her claws. “You’re not worth it. Come on, Gavin, I’m not hungry anymore.” She stormed away from their table.

  “Hey, I’m not done with you,” the guy said, hunched on the floor, cradling his arm. “You dislocated my shoulder, you bitch.”

  “Oh yes, we’re done.” Ryenne continued striding out of the restaurant. Gavin threw some cash on the table and followed.

  Outside on the sidewalk, she gulped in huge lungfuls of air. “I’ve gotta run, Gav.”

  “Geez, Ryenne, are you okay?”

  “No,” she said, pushing down her wolf instincts. “I need to fight or run or something. Get me out of here before I hurt someone.”

  He hustled her down the street. “What if they call the cops?”

  “I don’t care. I can’t worry about that right now.”

  Gavin led her the couple of blocks to Central Park, Ryenne holding herself together by sheer force of will.

  TWO

  Ryenne woke on a couch. At least she was dressed. Squinting against the sun, she glanced around and recognized the office. Then she remembered sneaking into a heavily forested area in Central Park, leaving her clothes with Gavin, and shifting into a wolf to run free. She avoided people and lit areas and ran until her beast was sated.

  She had scratched one of her itches, but it had left her ashamed. How had she ended up like this?

  “It’s not your fault, Ry,” Gavin had said once she had put her clothes back on and they were walking to the office, which was closer than her apartment on the West Side.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m still a monster, the kind we hunt for a living. I feel like a hypocrite.”

  All those feelings of shame washed over her again as she sat on the couch in their office. She didn’t know how to reconcile what she had dedicated her life to and what she had become. And the constant urges. It was embarrassing and inconvenient and...

  “Hey, Ry. Coffee?”

  Gavin stood at the kitchen counter in his boxers, scooping coffee into the coffee maker. The smell of the coffee grounds tantalized her but what she really noticed were his legs. He had nice legs. And he filled his boxers out nicely. She’d never noticed before, maybe because he was her best friend and she didn’t think of him... sexually. But everything about Ryenne’s life had changed and now she could almost see herself having sex with her gay best friend. Then she’d hate herself and he’d hate her and her life would be ruined even more than it already was.

  “Ry?” Gavin had turned toward the main room, a measuring cup filled with water poised to spill into the tank of the coffee maker.

  She shook herself and stretched. “Sorry, I was zoning.”

  “You were picturing me naked, weren’t you?” He turned back to the coffee maker but not before Ryenne saw the wide grin on his handsome face. “Damn, you need your man.”

  Ryenne jumped off the couch and went to the tiny bathroom. When she came out, Gavin—now wearing a t-shirt and athletic shorts—handed her a mug of coffee and she breathed in the scented steam and immediately calmed.

  “Thanks for the couch,” she said. “And for not having a guy here last night. I might have stolen him away from you. I can’t believe how strong these urges are.”

  “Well, at least you no longer want to eat me.” He sipped his coffee and stared at her over the rim. “I haven’t dated anyone since Marco. I haven’t even slept with anyone since him. Damn Fangs.”

  The Fangs were responsible for much worse than killing Gavin’s sex life, but she gave him a sympathetic pout. “Is this your longest dry spell?”

  He twisted his lips while thinking. “Nah, it’s only been about a month. I’m not a shifter, I can handle a couple of months.”

  His words stabbed her. She hadn’t asked to become a shifter. In fact, she’d fought against it for most of her life.

  “I’m sorry,” Gavin said, standing. “That was bitchy. Will you want to eat me again if I give you a hug?” He didn’t wait for a response. He enveloped her in his long, muscular arms and she melted into his embrace. The scent of him was strong but it didn’t tempt her or anger her. She could do this. She could learn to live as a shifter.

  Besides, what choice did she have?

  A knock on the outer door interrupted them.

  “Are we expecting clients?” she asked.

  Striding to the door, coffee mug in hand, he shook his head.

  A police detective with dark hair, tan skin, and blue eyes filled the doorway.

  “Scotty!” Ryenne ran at him and gave him a bear hug. When she’d first met him, Scotty had been a beat cop in a uniform and carrying obvious weapons. Now he’d earned his gold shield and looked dapper in suits that hid his weapons. She stepped back and looked him up and down. “It’s been ages. What have you been up to?”

  Scotty entered the office and Ryenne now noticed another man with him. This one was of medium height with dark brown skin, close cropped black hair, and sparkling black eyes.

  Ryenne swallowed past immediate attraction. She’d always been a sucker for gorgeous eyes. “And who is this?”

  “Ryenne Cavanagh, meet my new partner, Detective Nick Walker.”

  Nick offered his hand and Ryenne took it, clenching all of her muscles to keep from jumping on this guy and licking him. His scent filled her nostrils and images of him naked, rolling around on the floor with her, made her flush. She dropped his hand and took several steps back.

  “Come in. Do you want coffee? Gavin just made some coffee. It’s good coffee.” She took a sip as if to punctuate the point but really she just hoped not to say the word coffee again.

  “No, that’s okay.” Scotty gave her a wide smile and a wink.

  Gavin stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. Which she had. Running and exercising apparently weren’t enough. Her body craved more. Lucien needed to get here soon before she couldn’t hold herself back any longer and she threw herself at Scotty or Nick. Either would do. She and Scotty had been together a time or two in the good old days. Until he’d wanted more and she’d wanted an occasional, no strings attached kind of a deal. So, she knew from experience he’d be a good lay. She didn’t know Nick, but boy did she want to find out.

  “Ry,” Gavin was saying, “do you want a refill?”

  She snapped back to their guests and saw they were all staring at her. Damn, how did shifters keep this secret?

  “Sorry, no, thanks. Have a seat.” She gestured to the couch.

  She watched them sit on the couch, their well-formed asses stretching their dark pants with the movement. She bit her lip and tore her gaze away.

  “So, what brings you here?” Gavin asked.

  “Well,” Scotty began,
“we saw a report about an incident last night. The description of the suspect and the suspect’s accessory sounded suspiciously like the two of you. Were you guys at Dante’s Restaurant on the East Side last night? And did you dislocate a guy’s shoulder?”

  A smirk played around Scotty’s lips but despite that, Gavin stood with wide eyes and his mouth agape.

  Nick sat forward on the couch, his arms on his legs and hands clasped between his knees, as if he really wanted to hear what Ryenne and Gavin had to say for themselves.

  “They sounded like us?” Ryenne asked, all innocence. “Scotty, is this merely a social call with a funny story or is this an official visit? Your partner looks ready to arrest someone. Am I a person of interest?”

  “Nah,” Scotty scoffed. “It’s not our case. And I bet I can convince the guy not to press charges. I’m sure he wouldn’t want it to be public knowledge that a little thing like you beat him up.”

  Little thing like Ryenne. Once upon a time that might have made her laugh because men usually underestimated her because of her size and her looks. But now, they didn’t know there was actually a beast inside her. A beast who had wanted to rip that obnoxious man limb from limb.

  “You think you can convince him not to press charges?” Gavin asked, forehead furrowed. “And Ryenne wouldn’t get arrested?”

  Scotty’s smirk took over his face and he turned to Nick. “See? I told you it was probably her.”

  “Not that I’m admitting guilt,” Ryenne said, “but that guy so had it coming.”

  The cops rose to leave, still smirking.

  “Leaving so soon?” she asked. She could stare at these men all day.

  “We’re on a case,” Nick said.

  “Anything we can help you with?” she asked.

  “I’ll let you know,” Scotty said. “A case of shifter on shifter violence. We’re running down some leads.”

  Such a thing wasn’t unheard of but it did ping Ryenne’s radar. Was it Fang-related?

  “One odd detail, though,” Scotty continued. “There was something resembling sap in some of the victim’s wounds. It seemed to keep the shifter from healing as quickly as he might have otherwise.”

  This definitely piqued Ryenne’s interest and she shot a glance at Gavin whose eyes widened even more.