The Predator and His Prey

Chapter One

The streets were as busy as they always were at this time of the day. People hurrying along the city sidewalks trying to get home. Or in the case of Dominik trying to get to work. He moved carefully among them, avoiding people in his space as much as he could. He was never one to enjoy people in his space. It probably had a lot to do with his obsession with organization and cleanliness. He wasn't OCD, just simply obsessed.

He had lived in the city for well over ten years now, and he somehow never got tired of it. It was hard to do when there was always something going on and the energy was never ending. It was also one reason he loved his job. The constant energy.

He had bought the club from its previous owner when the owners had filed for bankruptcy. He had worked at the club since he was 18 as a bouncer. At first, they weren't inclined to give him the position because of his age, but they changed their mind when they saw his skills and his mere size. He was a big fellow, there was no denying that. He was about 6'3" in height, 1% body fat, and rock hard muscles everywhere.

Through the years of working at the club he had moved up the ranks until by the time he was 21 he was head of security. When the owners were going to sell the place off he stepped up and asked to sell to him instead. He had a good nest egg saved up from the small bit of money he inherited, working since he was 16, and simple living. It was enough to impress the owners and have them agree to it. But what was left on the balance he had to pay on monthly until it was his place outright.

It had been two years since the place was deeded over to him and he didn't owe anyone anything. It was a good feeling. Since he had taken over the place, it had grown in popularity and income. It had always been a hot joint, which was one reason he wanted the place. But with his management it doubled its monthly income.

His eyes shifted through the crowds around him as the slight wind blew a scent to him. It was a faint scent and one that unless you knew what to look for you would have ignored. That is if you could even smell it. But so many people couldn't. But he could. The scent of Earth and fur. The scent of a shifter.

Shifters were things of legends to humans. Things people wrote books on and made movies about. Things that were of folklore. But like all works of fiction, humans forgot one simple thing. That all works of fiction there is always some truth to it. No matter how small.

The small truth was that shifters were real. He was proof of that much. He was a nomad shifter choosing to live among humans instead of in the pack life like so many of his kind. He enjoyed the way he could get lost in the city, while in pack life your whole world was watched. He enjoyed the freedom to make his own choices for his life while in pack life there were so many rules and laws.

Oh, he still had to follow the laws. Both human and shifter. But unlike pack life where everything was about the collective, his life was just about him. Selfish maybe, but then again, he never said he wasn't a selfish prick. But he wasn't alone in his choice. There were nomads all over the world.

They walked among the humans who never even believed them to be real. They were the kids you taught in classrooms, the bankers who helped you, the doctors who stitched you up, the lawyers who defended you, the waitress who gave you your food. They were everywhere. But humans just didn't know it.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement of the other shifter as he passed by Dominik. It was a simple gesture. It was one of respect and acknowledgment to allow both parties to know they weren't there to harm the other. They weren't there to get in each other's way, they were just two ships passing in the night.

He continued his way to his club, that was just a few blocks in the heart of the city. But before he could get to work, there was one stop he had to make. He turned into the old mom and pop coffee shop and smiled as all the scents hit him. It was a nightly routine for him to stop into the place before they closed for the night and before he started his.