“Mmm, this is delicious Nathaniel.” She slid a baked potato onto her plate and put a dollop of sour cream and some grated cheese on top too.
“There is plenty more, eat up.” he took the chair opposite and filled his plate until it was overflowing. On a human, it would have looked glutenous but it was a regular meal for a shifter and Nathaniel always ate before he met human clients for dinner so that he could order less and take his time with his food.
He filled both of their glasses with a generous amount of sparkling wine and toasted her before lifting it to his lips.
“To you, Bree, thank the gods I found you again.”
She lifted hers and clinked it with his but she didn’t trust herself to speak at his sweet gesture so she just smiled instead and blinked away the silly tears threatening to spill over.
They talked about the progress of the move as they finished dinner and when she sat back in her chair, full and satisfied, he had already finished and was watching her through his lashes. She could sense his arousal and her heart banged against her chest as he fixed his intense steely gaze on her. She could spend all of her waking time in bed with this man but they still had responsibilities and she shook her head and stood up to clear the table.
At her insistence, Nate went to take a shower and Bree stacked the dishwasher and turned it on. She wiped down the countertops and the table and made coffee for them both.
She was on the rug surrounded by the drawings and notes he had made when he came back into the room in clean shorts and a t-shirt, his hair still wet from his shower.
“I thought I could help you organize some of this stuff while we were here.”
He added the two cabins to the list of available property and Kandis had sent him names of people who would like to buy and what type of homes they were looking for.
“I think we need to invite the first group out here this weekend and let them look around the town and the houses available so that we can start making offers,” he said as he showed her the first list of people who were ready to take the leap.
“Are there any dissenters that you know of yet?” she asked.
“A few of the teenagers in the community don’t want to leave the compound, they think it will be boring way up here in the mountains, but Kandis has a plan. If her Mom buys the café, she wants to have a couple of nights each week just for the teenagers. They can hang out, eat and listen to music. Artie Green is also going to start a youth club where they can hike, canoe and camp. He is also a master archer and wants to teach some of the kids how to handle a bow too. Hopefully, we can have some of the other parents step up too and add their skills to the mix.” Nate added.
“Rylee is a talented artist, maybe she would be willing to do a class and I can think of a few others off the top of my head that may be willing to pitch in too.”
“That’s what I miss the most about belonging to a pack, being part of a community.” he smiled as she packed up all the papers and put them back in their folders.
He picked up his phone when it chirped and felt the color drain from his face as he read the message. He turned away from her to hide his shock and said he had to get something from his office. He hoped she wouldn’t notice his abrupt departure as he hurried down the hallway and unlocked his office door.
As soon as the office door closed behind him he called Seann and willed his heart to slow down as he waited for him to answer. They were in deep shit!
CHAPTER SEVEN
Bree
Bree’s heart was pounding in her chest. Whatever the message was that he had just received, she knew it was serious. She wanted to follow him and find out what he was trying to shield her from, but she was loath to encroach on his privacy like that. She would simply ask him what the hell was going on when he came back.
She made tea while she waited and added a little honey to soothe her ragged nerves. Twenty minutes passed and unwilling to wait any longer she stood up to go and find him when she heard him coming back down the corridor.
“Darlin’, we have a huge problem,” he stated as soon as he came through the door.
Frustrated and angry he rubbed his hands along his jawline and gestured for her to sit down on the sofa and he sat beside her.
He handed her his phone and she saw a series of photographs of them taken earlier today. Of them stripping off, shifting and also in wolf form.
Bree thought her heart might stop as she scrolled through the images. There was also a message from the sender asking for a meeting with them the next day.
“Oh my god, what are we going to do? Seann will hit the roof when he sees these!”
“I called him already, he is pissed. Jay is already on his way out here and he wants us to warn Hope and Rylee not to shift until we know what we are going to do with this. I already messaged them and they are coming down here to spend the night. He stood up and paced the room and Bree felt awful.
She was an excellent tracker and she should have taken the scent she detected more seriously, but she was caught up in the moment with Nathaniel and it could potentially cost them everything, the entire pack’s plans were in jeopardy. She wasn’t a child, she should have known better.
“I am going to agree to meet him here in the morning, give Jay time to get here and for us to formulate a plan of action. I feel so damn stupid I could kick myself, a rookie mistake to ignore the scent of a human all around us.”
“I knew someone had been there too, Nathaniel. I could smell him all over the place and I’m supposed to be a good tracker, if this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine.”
“Don’t play the blame game, Bree. We can fix this, we have to.”
“Seann won’t submit to a blackmailer, Nathaniel. I know him, he won’t take the chance that others will find out. Our blackmailer just bought himself a death sentence. I am so angry at myself for not being more aware of our surroundings. The compound is safe but I knew there were humans all around us here and I got sloppy. I don’t want someone to die because I wasn’t careful.”
“This is as much my fault as it is yours, darlin’. Stop beating yourself up.”
She scrolled through the photographs again and each time she looked they seemed more damning. Stripping off her clothes, shifting while Nathaniel watched, still in human form and then Nathaniel stripping off and the next one they were both in wolf form and running in the opposite direction of the camera.
“I wonder how much he wants?” Nathaniel said.
“It won’t matter, Seann will never pay a blackmailer, he always says they will just keep coming back for more.”
“And he’s right.” he sighed rubbing his hands over the light stubble on his face.
Bree twitched as the doorbell rang even though she knew Hope and Rylee were coming into town to stay with them.
She ran to the door and opened it and her sister's arms were around her before she could speak. They all went into the living room and Nathaniel showed them the message and the photographs while Bree made coffee. It could be a very long night and she needed to be alert.
“It was completely irresponsible, I know better than to shift in an unsecured location without thoroughly checking it out first. I could smell him all over the place, I should have checked.” Bree berated herself.
“I was there, Bree, I could have checked too, but I didn’t.” Nathaniel was angry at himself.
“What are we going to do?” Rylee asked.
“Seann won’t pay him off.” Hope repeated what her sister had said earlier.
“Let’s wait and see what Jay has to say when he gets here.” Nathaniel added taking Bree’s hand in his but she took little comfort from it.
“I love your house,” Rylee said and Bree offered to show her around just for something to keep her mind occupied.
“It’s a little too modern for my taste but it’s a great space with lots of potential,” she said as they walked from room to room.
“I love the kitchen and bathrooms and the other rooms just n
eed to be softened up a little with rugs and large soft chairs and sofas. It’s a little too angular and ‘Bachelor pad’ but I think it could be easily fixed. A little paint, flowers and some art would finish it off nicely,” Rylee said with a smile.
“Nathaniel bought it because it was right next door to his office and he hasn’t changed anything since he moved in. It’s not our taste either, but we are going to build somewhere on the mountain or at the farm so we won’t be living here for too long anyway.” Bree closed the bathroom door and they made their way to the office so that she could show Rylee where she would be working too.
“This is perfect.” she said peering into the small empty space next door to Nathaniel's office. “A desk and a laptop is all anyone needs these days to function.”
Bree closed the doors and put the lights out and Rylee put her hand on her arm and stopped her before they went back to join the others.
“I would like to buy this place when you are ready to move out.” Rylee said.
“Seriously? That would be perfect Rylee, but you need to talk to Nathaniel about that, it’s really his house to sell, I’m just the lodger for now.
“I will. In the meantime, Hope has already offered for me to stay with her until I found somewhere to buy or rent of my own so this would be perfect.”
“Let’s go talk to Nathaniel and see what he says.”
Hope was scrolling through her phone and Nathaniel was talking on the phone and pacing up and down when they joined them again.
“That was Jay, he should be here in about an hour and Kandis and Liam are coming with him. They are going to catch a few hours’ sleep at Liam and Kandis’ cabin before coming here. Garrett and India will be here early in the morning too.”
“Makes sense,” Hope said. “Liam is head of security and Jay will once again be police chief. Between them, they will know what to do. India is also an accurate lie detector and can rival Bree’s tracking skills.”
“I know what they will do, they are going to kill him, it’s the only way to guarantee his silence,” Bree said and felt the tears welling up in her eyes.
Nathaniel pulled her into her arms and soothed her but nothing was going to help. She felt responsible for this stranger's fate, his life. He was in all likelihood going to try and extort money from them, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die. None of them knew his circumstances, maybe he desperately needed the money.
“Let’s wait and see what he wants before we jump to all sorts of wrong conclusions.” Nathaniel said and Hope nodded her agreement but her chest ached for her sisters’ pain. Hope was an empath and attuned to the feelings of everyone around her but no-one’s feelings affected her more than Bree’s.
“Let’s all get some sleep. We have a guest room and there is also a daybed in my study there.” Nathaniel gestured to the arch behind the kitchen and scooped Bree easily into his arms and carried her toward their bedroom.
“We’ll figure it out,” Hope said. Bree, try and get some sleep, worrying about it won’t change anything, love.”
She curled up into a ball on the huge bed and Nathaniel pulled her against him so that his large body was wrapped around her. His warmth comforted her and she closed her eyes.
“Rylee wants to buy the townhome when we move out,” she said with a yawn.
“We can talk about that tomorrow, darlin’. Get some sleep.”
She barely had time to register what he said before she was sleeping soundly, her breathing even and her face calm once more. He could lie awake and watch her sleeping all night but he knew his body needed to replenish and forced himself to close his eyes and join her in the land of nod.
The next thing she remembered, Nathaniel was shaking her awake. A few hours had passed and she could see that it was still barely light outside. She yawned and stretched, she had been dead to the world.
“Everyone will be here in half an hour, Bree. I am going to make us all some breakfast.” He kissed the tip of her nose and went into the kitchen to prepare food for nine hungry shifters while she dragged herself into the shower to prepare for the long, stressful day ahead.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nate
Hope was awake and dressed first and set the table with plates and silverware while Nate cooked a mountain of pancakes and sausages, enough to feed a small army. It still surprised him that she and Bree were identical twins and although they looked alike, he felt nothing for her but sisterly affection. Even without the ever-changing hair colors, he could tell them apart quite easily too, something that he knew others still struggled with.
Rylee emerged from the bathroom fully dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, a go-to shifter outfit. Her dark hair piled haphazardly on top of her head and Nate saw the resemblance to Garrett every time she fixed her pale green gaze on him.
She made two pots of coffee ready for their guests' arrival and added a plate of raspberry and orange pastries to the middle of the extended table. He could hear the hair dryer upstairs and knew Bree would also be down in a few minutes. She rarely spent more than five minutes in front of the mirror, she didn’t need to, she was beautiful without a scrap of makeup.
He hated that she was blaming herself for the situation they were in, it was just as much his fault, probably more because this was his stomping ground and he should have known better than to let down his guard in a mainly human population. Bree spent most of her life sheltered in a shifter compound where they didn’t have to worry about humans seeing them and the place was guarded. Even on their park runs they would scope out the park beforehand and make sure there were no humans camping or hiking in the area and they tended to run late in the evening when most would be tucked up in their tents anyway.
The doorbell chimed and he heard Bree’s footsteps running down the stairs as she called out that she would get it. India had her arms around Bree as they all came into the kitchen and Nate told them all to have a seat at the table while he and Hope put plates of food in the middle.
“Hey kiddo,” Garrett said to his sister and Rylee lit up when she hugged him.
“We have a ton of things to talk about, big brother, but let’s deal with this little problem first,” Rylee said with a smile and Nate knew he had made a good choice offering her a job. She was calm and collected and would be an asset to him and to the pack.
Nate had sent the photos of him and Bree in various stages of human, changing to wolf on to Jay and Liam already and they in turn had shared them with the others.
“I’m so sorry everyone, this is all my fault,” Bree said.
“No, honey, it’s not. It’s the rotten bastard trying to blackmail you, that’s whose fault it is.” Kandis’ face was a mask of fury and Nate knew she was holding her infamous temper in check. She was always a champion of the underdog or in this case the victim and he once again thought he wouldn’t like to be on the wrong side of the angelic-looking blonde.
“We will sort it out together, that’s how things work in the pack,” Garrett added with a smile and he could tell Bree was blinking back her tears.
“Eat up and we can get started,” Liam said.
“What time are you meeting …this guy ... does he have a name?” Jay asked as he helped himself to another stack of pancakes and covered them with a stream of warm maple syrup.
“He said his name is Leo and I told him ten o’clock. We are meeting here as he obviously followed us and now he knows who I am. I am also guessing that’s how he got my number, it’s even on a flyer on the front window of my office.”
“I think you and Bree should meet him alone but we will be upstairs or in the back listening to every word. No point in alerting him to the rest of us for now, we will hear what he has to say first and then decide how we are going to handle him.
“Agreed.” Liam nodded.
“Are you going to kill him?” Bree asked softly.
“Not if we can help it. Seann made it clear that was only a last resort, Bree.” Kandis put an arm around her.
She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, there had to be another way to keep him quiet, there just had to be.
“Maybe he has been watching the house and saw everyone arriving here,” Bree added.
“Liam and I swept the entire area before coming here this morning. There was no-one around except a delivery driver at the grocery store and the person opening up the paper shop, who was a woman.”
When everyone was finished, India and Kandis cleared the table and Bree and Hope stacked the dishwasher and wiped down the countertops. The rest of them split up and went upstairs and outside to scout out the best vantage point to listen in from.
“We can wait in here with the door open.” Jay glanced around the guest room at the top of the stairs. “Open one of the kitchen windows and we can post someone outside too and when he leaves, I want one of the women to track him, less likely to look for a woman following him.” He is unlikely to give too much away and we need to know what we are dealing with and if there are others involved with him.” he said as they made their way back downstairs.
“I can follow him,” India said. “He has already seen Bree so she can’t do it, or Hope.” India knew she was a good tracker and it made sense for her to volunteer.
“I will go with you, in case there are others,” Kandis added and Nate saw Garrett relax a little that India wouldn’t be in the line of fire without backup. Kandis was as fierce as any shifter male he had come across but had the advantage of looking as sweet as apple pie.
They had an hour before he was due to arrive so they caught up on plans for the pack's mass exodus to the mountain. Kandis made some notes before closing her notebook again, she had everything under control with the move, this problem might be a little trickier to navigate.
“Garrett and I are going to have a look at the farmhouse and the newer build on the farm that we are buying, sometime this afternoon before we go home again. The photos are great, Bree and I can’t wait to get inside, when did you get the keys?”
Children of the Moon: Book Four Page 5