Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Out of Bounds: Taken by the Panther 5
    Out of Bounds: Taken by the Panther 5
    Out of Bounds: Taken by the Panther 5
    Ebook114 pages1 hour

    Out of Bounds: Taken by the Panther 5

    By V. M. Black

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    All the former SEAL shifter Chay wanted was to save Tara from the panther within that threatened to consume her. But the bargain he strikes sets off a chain of events that threatens the safety of the Earth itself.

    With the Army at the door of his precious facility and monsters from another world breaking through inside, Chay and Tara must face the challenge of their lives if they ever hope to find peace together.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXinXii
    Release dateMar 5, 2015
    ISBN9781681320212
    Out of Bounds: Taken by the Panther 5

    Read more from V. M. Black

    Related to Out of Bounds

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      'Strange Practice:' The Doctor Is In

      Jul 26, 2017

      In Strange Practice, Vivian Shaw kicks off a new series about Dr. Greta Helsing, descendant of the famous Professor Abraham Van Helsing and general practitioner to the ghouls and ghasts of London.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Defy the Stars

      May 11, 2017

      Count to five, Noemi decides. If she’s cracking up—if the terror of the past few minutes has scrambled her mind to the point where she’s hallucinating—then this will all go away in a couple of seconds. If this is for real, the mech will be standing h

      25 min read

    • Article

      Crescent City

      Dec 1, 2021

      Crescent City
      5 min read

    • Article

      TheBattle For Peace

      Nov 1, 2021

      Hi, I am Alice, welcome to my nightmare. Trouble always finds me. I was one of the one hundred people in this world who had magic running through my veins. I was placed in the school of magic. It was sick! You could learn to brew up good potions for

      4 min read

    • Article

      Remastering The Mythos: Questions For Ruthanna Emrys

      May 4, 2017

      When Ruthanna Emrys first read H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," her sympathies were squarely with the monsters — and that sympathy was the seed of her new book, Winter Tide.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Excerpt: 'The Last Thing You Surrender'

      Feb 10, 2019

      In this abridged excerpt from "The Last Thing You Surrender" by columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., elements of the all-black 761st Tank Battalion make a grisly discovery and Pvt. Luther Hayes, whose parents were murdered before his eyes by a white mob whe

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Orphan’s Dilemma

      Aug 10, 2021

      In a few minutes they’re going to say, “It’s your turn, Harold.” He will face Ms. Wickham with her thick black frames and smiling, slightly bugeyed look, the question more in her eyes than on her lips because he already knows what that question is. H

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Scars We Bare

      Apr 13, 2020

      The Scars We Bare
      11 min read

    • Article

      Being Human

      Jan 29, 2019

      Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be. We weep at what thwarts or exceeds our desires in serious matters; we laugh at what only di

      3 min read

    • Article

      What Sharp Teeth You Have

      Apr 23, 2018

      I know how to stay safe among lions in the wild. Around men of my own species, things feel more complicated. The post What Sharp Teeth You Have appeared first on Guernica.

      12 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Zoo

      Dec 9, 2021

      A Literary Zoo
      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Frankenstein’ And The Science Of Transitioning

      Apr 25, 2018

      Victor Frankenstein stands listening to his creation, the creature who he brought to life from the sewed-together remnants of the dead, who he abandoned at the height of his success, and who now asks his father to remedy his rejection buy building hi

      6 min read

    • Article

      Elegy for the Last Male Northern White Rhino

      Jun 1, 2019

      Poor Breton, still trying to installa burning murmur in our mindswhich causes of course problemsat security like what doesn’t? Fruitis explosive. So’s any kind of fluid,especially tears, especially amniotic,especially salamanders. In previous centuri

      1 min read

    • Article

      Gaia, the Scientist: What if the first woman scientist was simply the first woman?

      Dec 29, 2021

      Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our “Universality” issue in April, 2021. There exists a social hierarchy within science that strikes people who are not mi

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Symposium On The Mysterious

      Sep 1, 2023

      A Symposium On The Mysterious
      24 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      Why look at Beth Cavener's Animals?

      Nov 1, 2017

      Why look at Beth Cavener's Animals?
      12 min read

    • Article

      Morbidity & the Miniature

      May 11, 2018

      Morbidity & the Miniature
      14 min read

    • Article

      How My White Privilege Protected Me In Jail

      Jun 26, 2020

      Being locked up for a crime I didn’t commit was hard. But nothing compares to the humiliation and harassment that my elderly, disabled, Black cellmate experienced.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Detention

      Nov 7, 2019

      Detention
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Out of Bounds

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Out of Bounds - V. M. Black

      publisher.

      Book Description

      All the former SEAL shifter Chay wanted was to save Tara from the panther within that threatened to consume her.  But the bargain he strikes sets off a chain of events that threatens the safety of the Earth itself. 

      With the Army at the door of his precious facility and monsters from another world breaking through inside, Chay and Tara must face the challenge of their lives if they hope to ever find peace together.

      AetherealBonds.com

      Visit aetherealbonds.com to sign up for the Aethereal Bonds Insider newsletter, where you will get exclusive access to sneak peeks, first notification when a new book is released, series announcements, and more.

      At least one installment will be published every month, so don’t miss out!

      Aethereal Bonds Series

      Vampire Serials

      Cora’s Choice (100 to 200-page novellas)

      Start with Life Blood – FREE

      Cora’s Bond (100 to 200-page novellas)

      Start with For All Time

      Shifter Serials

      The Alpha’s Captive (60 to 85-page novelettes and novellas)

      Start with Taken – FREE

      Taken by the Panther (100 to 200-page novellas)

      Start with Out of the Darkness

      Chapter One

      We aren’t going to make it.

      The thought blasted through Chay’s head, louder than his team’s cries or even the blackened monster’s roar that drowned out the shouting.

      Annie had already reached the exit ahead of the lumbering beast, retreating in response to his barked order. Eddie Agosti grabbed the wounded Harveth by the collar and dragged him after them, leaving a wide smear of blood on the white tiles of the floor. But the portal monster now stood between the door and most of Chay’s team. Chay might reach the safety of the exit, and so might Tara—but much of the rest of his team was trapped. Some of his team carried rifles, but they had neither the time nor the space to use them. Everyone was too tightly packed in the room, with too many shifter bodies too close to the monster.

      Chay’s mind raced. Mere seconds had passed since the creature had ripped the portal wide, but everything seemed to be moving in slow motion: his team members, scrambling for the exit or out of the monster’s way; the monster itself, which freed its hind legs from the portal gate as more unspeakable things crowded after it; even the pool of blood where the slain shifter lay, which oozed outward with glacial slowness.

      Why couldn’t they move? He had to save his people, but how? Should he tell them to rush it in the hope that some of them might get through?

      As if it could read his mind, the creature unfolded to its full height, bellowing, its bristling antennae brushing the drop tiles of the ceiling. His eyes seemed not to want to focus on it somehow, as if there was somehow more of it than belonged in a single dimension. It seemed put together wrong, painfully so, with too many joints and too many appendages coming from its blackened body—whether armor or a carapace it was impossible to tell, but where the sections joined it oozed a stinking thick black liquid.

      It made a terrible scream with its inhuman mouth, possibly fury or possibly pain, and lashed out with its articulated tentacles. The closest shifters darted away from the limbs that whistled through the air, and Chay tensed. The body of the werewolf, split in two from shoulder to hip, showed too well what could happen when those whipping limbs struck flesh.

      Next to Chay, Tara reached for the suppressor behind her ear. He grabbed her and pushed her ahead of him toward the door. This was no time for meaningless sacrifices.

      Run! he ordered her—he ordered all of them. Maricela was next to him, and he grabbed her and shoved her after Tara before turning back to face the creature.

      He wasn’t the first. In wordless synchronicity, the brothers Liam, Seamus, and Niall were already running for the monster, shifting into their bear forms midstride. Chay flung off his belt and robe and leaped after them.

      The bears struck first, toppling the creature under their weight. They tore at its armored body, their claws scrabbling for purchase and their great jaws snapping at its flailing limbs, as Chay darted in. As it arched its strangely articulated spine, it exposed its throat to Chay’s teeth, and he ended its thrashing as its foul, sticky ichor filled his mouth.

      Or at least he thought he did. Even as its final death throes were stilled, it fell apart into the individual sections of its carapace, which began to move on their own, wriggling across the floor as they grew legs and mouths and even teeth.

      Chay slapped the nearest one away with his paw, sending it skittering across the floor just as the original monster’s breastplate—or rib cage or whatever it was—burst open and spawned a dozen more. Revolted by the unnatural things, the panther inside him wanted to charge in and shred them with its teeth and claws.

      But the rational side of Chay knew better. He forced himself to tear his predator’s gaze away from the creatures long enough to take stock of the rest of the room. He and the three bear shifters were alone—the others had escaped. And more creatures like the first were fighting at what remained of the portal, trying to force it open with hands and tentacles, claws and nightmarish limbs beyond description.

      It was time to get out of there. Chay let out a piercing panther scream, distracting the brothers from their individual battles. They turned and saw him retreating toward the door, and they did likewise, moving backward to fight or swipe at any of the bug-like creatures that came near.

      With his back to the door and the three bears around him, Chay shifted into his human form. He turned the handle and yanked it, grabbing the knob on the other side as he went out. Niall followed first, then Liam.

      But Seamus lunged forward with a deep growl, his jaws snapping shut around the slithering, many-jointed body of one of the creatures.

      Seamus! Chay ordered. Get out of there. Now!

      But the bear was too deep in the bloodlust of the animal’s mind now, blind and deaf to everything else. Chay reached out to grab a great fistful of brown fur to drag the bear shifter back. But the bear was far too massive to be budged.

      Still in his bear form, Liam shouldered back into the room and in front of Seamus and pushed him back toward the exit with his body weight. As if coming to himself, Seamus shook his shaggy head, dropped the creature’s mangled body, and turned to barrel out into the hallway, Liam on his heels.

      Chay slammed the door shut behind them, his last glimpse of the room burned upon his mind: the appendages at the edges of the portal, ripping and pulling it open to vomit out a mass of new monsters. Never had he been so glad to hear the clunk of the magnetic locks as when they engaged a second before the first sound of a hard, chitinous body striking the other side.

      He spun to face the three brothers, who were back in their human forms—even Seamus, though his eyes were still the bear’s, full of blood thirst and fury. Their bodies were whole but streaked with lines of blood—their blood, because what had come out of the monster was black and tarry. Even then, the corrupt taste lingered on his human tongue. A glance down at his own body showed that he, too, hadn’t escaped without injury.

      What did you think you were doing in there? he demanded of the brothers. You could’ve gotten killed.

      So could you, Liam pointed out reasonably.

      Chay shook his head. It was true enough. And there was no time for argument, especially since their stunt had worked.

      He scanned the corridor. Just beyond the bear shifters stood Tara, the sword and dagger on the belt clutched in her hand and her eyes wide with concern. Beside her was Maricela, with the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1