Hecht, Stephani

Chapter One


hat little shit would pay for this. Even if Vapor T had to breathe his last to make sure it happened.

Balanced on the beam near the ceiling, he had a good view of said little shit, too. He glared down at the thin, small figure walking through the empty warehouse. Even though the piss poor lighting didn’t allow for a good view, Vapor had the brat’s features painfully memorized. Brown hair, that almost looked blond from the natural highlights running through it. Large, amber eyes that held a false innocence in them. Thick, plump lips that seemed always curled up into a wicked grin. High, arched cheekbones that a added certain elegance to his otherwise youthful appearance.

In other words, Little Shit would have been the perfect fuck buddy, if not for three things.

Number one, he happened to be the younger brother of Mitchell, leader of the feline coalition that Vapor belonged to. Number two, Little Shit 1



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was way too young, having just turned twenty-four a week ago. Crap, it would come as a shock to Vapor to find out that the kid had even gone through his first shift yet. Which left reason number three and that one was a biggie. Little Shit happened to be a criminal. Not just any one either, but one who was wanted by the feline coalition and Vapor had orders to bring him in—by any means possible.

Vapor curled his lips as he continued to watch the younger man move silently around the darkened warehouse. Dressed in all black, Little Shit nearly faded into the background. It was only thanks to Vapor’s heightened shifter vision that he saw his prey at all.

A Jaguar shifter by birth, the brat moved with a fluid grace that did his heritage proud. Had circumstances been different, Vapor may have even been impressed and that wasn’t an easy task.

As one of the few Panther shifters in their coalition, he tended to stay to himself and not even talk to others, let alone hand out compliments.

Little Shit approached a crate and a sly smile curved across his face. Despite his sense of duty, Vapor’s body reacted to the pure wickedness on the other man’s face. It spoke of naughty desires and long nights of sweaty passion—two of Vapor’s favorite things. A moan slipped past his 2



Ruthless Pursuit





lips as his cock pressed against the fly of his fatigues. At that second, he would have given almost anything to be the one to have put that impish glint in the Jaguar’s eyes. If only for a few moments.

Of course, Little Shit had a proper name, Andrew, but Vapor was hard pressed to remember it after all the grief he’d gone through in tracking the jerk down. Before this mission, Vapor had the reputation of being the best tracker, the one who Mitchell always turned to when nobody else could complete the job. All the felines whispered about his skills while at the same time fearing him. It was how he got the nickname Vapor—his ability to stealthily sneak up on somebody. His targets never knew he was there until it was already too late. All of them that is except for one—Andrew.

In the span of three months, Andrew had taken Vapor’s tough-ass rep and shredded it like a puppy does a newspaper. That Jaguar…no that kid, had singlehandedly made Vapor the laughing stock of the whole coalition. Vapor was going to make him pay for that, too.

Vapor leaped down from the beam, his feet making the barest of sounds as they hit the ground. Andrew didn’t even turn his head, instead he continued to run his palm over the crate. Almost as if he found some lost treasure. It 3



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made no sense to Vapor since the warehouse stored mostly medical equipment.

He approached slowly, making sure his steps didn’t make even the slightest of noises. Already, more than once, Andrew had displayed that he missed nothing. A point that he proved yet again when he slightly turned and flashed the sweetest of smiles.

“I was wondering when you were going to come down and play with me,” he said flippantly, as if he had Panthers tracking his every move all the time.

Vapor paused for a second, unsettled by Andrew’s sudden interest in dialog. While they’d had many encounters in the past few months, not once had the Jaguar deigned to actually talk to Vapor.

“Wow, somebody is chatty today. Does this mean that you’re finally going to go in with me?” Vapor asked, even though he had a pretty damn good inkling what the answer would be.

Andrew didn’t disappoint. Tilting his head to the side, his gave a mischievous wink that made him look younger and way too good looking.

“Why in the fuck would I do that?”

“Because Mitchell and the rest of your siblings are worried about you. They want you home, safe with them.”

“Funny, and here I thought that maybe I had 4