by J. D. Light
"We'll be there." I again gave my mate a soft peck, when he looked up at me with love and admiration in his eyes.
"Thanks. I gotta go."
He hung up before we could say anything else, and my mate sighed. "I wonder what's goin' on."
"I don't know, sweet Sutton, but he sounded pretty bad when you answered."
Throwing his arms around me, Sutton squeezed me hard. "Thank you. You made him calm down and think about somethin' other than whatever it is freakin' him out."
"Of course."
"I know we haven't talked about the future besides the fact that we will be together for a really long time, but now that my brother is comin' and stayin' for however long, maybe we should talk about livin' arrangements. Do you think it's too soon to move in together?"
"If you think that I'm letting you sleep anywhere but this bed now that I have you, then you don't get just how crazy a shifter can get about his mate."
"Thank God. I didn't want to have to go back to stayin' in that house alone––well, once Burke goes back to Georgia––but I didn't want to freak ya out."
Laughing, I kissed my mating mark on his neck. "And here I was, trying to figure out how I was going to convince you to move in with me. As for Burke, he can either stay here with us, or stay in your house until he's ready to go back. Or, he can stay here forever. We'll just let him decide what he is ready for."
"How did I get so lucky?" The way he looked at me. I have never in my life been looked at like I was the most amazing thing walking this earth. But my sweet Sutton was looking at me in utter awe, and I couldn't help but be amazed by it.
"How did I?" I whispered reverently.
***
Burke was adorable. That was the first thing I thought, when he sprinted at his brother, and wrapped himself around my mate. He was everything I'd ever wanted in a brother. He was sweet and sassy, and even though there was obviously something weighing on his shoulders, his smirk was infectious.
"So," Sutton said when we were all finally back in his car. "I've decided to move in with Barron. We haven't decided anythin' beyond that, but ya can either stay with us at Barron's or in my house, and have the run of the place. Of course, Barron just lives next door, but It'd give ya all the privacy you could want."
"Uh…not to sound mean or rude, because ya really seem like a great guy, Barron…uh…Ronny, but isn't it a bit soon? I talked to you like a week ago, Sutt, and you didn't even have a boyfriend. Just a super sexy neighbor who looked like an Adonis walkin' around his backyard naked."
Dropping his face to his hands, Sutton moaned. "Can we not bring that up again? Foster will not stop makin' fun of me."
"Enough said. I can't be runnin' around soundin' like Foster."
I could hear the agitation in his voice, but if I wasn't mistaken, there was something a little more there too.
"Honestly, it probably is really soon, but I don't want to have to sleep without him, B. And he really does look like an Adonis naked."
We all three laughed, and Burke shrugged. "Hey, you're not gonna hear any complaints from me. If you're lucky enough to find somethin' like that, you should definitely jump at it. I'm just jealous because I don't have a snuggle buddy."
"Well, now that you're takin' a break from school, maybe you can actually get out and find someone to snuggle with."
Sutton had explained one night during one of our phone conversations, while I was away, that Burke had a tendency to shut out everything but school. Sutton hadn't said it outright, but I got the impression the boy had never had a boyfriend or even went on a date.
"I really need to email all my professors when I get settled. Maybe I can do somethin' to still get the hours for this semester." Burke's brow creased, and I felt like I was looking at the no nonsense kid that was all work and no play.
Maybe that was why I immediately liked this kid. We were kindred spirits.
By the time we got home, it was early Sunday morning and the sun was coming up. I needed to call my alpha and let him know what was happening with the cult in New Mexico, and Sutton needed to run to the shop to get some more delphinium because he'd stopped using it when he found out I was his mate. Apparently, he didn't want to hear it from Foster when the fox found out Burke was there, and wasn't protected.
I had an inkling there was more to Foster and Burke's weird feud than Foster had filled Sutton in on, but I figured the shit would hit the fan soon enough, so just wasn't going to worry about it yet.
Foster met me at Flynn's, and we debriefed the alpha on all that had happened at Cult-Fest. There were definitely members within our leap, because it was mentioned more than once, but if they showed up at the meeting, neither of us saw or scented them.
Foster had contacted his people about the poison, and explained what we knew. Turned out his boss was smack in the middle of a strange case in Kansas, that sounded and awful lot like a mass poisoning, but no sign of poison was showing up in autopsies.
It was a known pride. Completely wiped out.
Meanwhile, I finally sat down and read Green's email about Foster's old skulk. They were quite the group. A bunch of thieves and con artists. Foster left about twenty years ago, mysteriously right when the alpha was murdered in his sleep. There was no record of Foster for a few years, and then he got picked up for assault and battery, when a man driving a car, nearly ran over a woman holding a baby, as they made their way via crosswalk, across a busy street in Florida. From there he disappeared again, but Sutton had told me Foster was already involved with the FBI when they'd met five years earlier.
Turning toward me, Foster frowned at me when we were walking out of Flynn's house. "You smell…like something."
"Do I?" I was pretty sure I knew what was going on, but I wasn't going to mention anything. It would be a lot better to watch it unfold.
Still frowning, Foster walked away, disappearing into the woods.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Holding the delphinium to my chest as I ducked behind the cabinet, I tried to get my phone out of my back pocket with shaking fingers. There were four of them, and I recognized two from the diner the other day, as part of the group that was talking about Barron not even being gay.
I didn't know what they were doing in my store, but the broken front glass told me they weren't here to check out my arrangements.
"We know you're in here, flower boy. We watched you come in." The creepy, voice was coming from the other side of the register, but I felt pretty confident they wouldn't see me in this cubby. Thankfully I was small enough to fit.
"Why can't I smell him, Jake?"
"It's probably all these damn flowers. What self respecting man plays with flowers all day."
If I wasn't so scared for my life, I'd be pissed at that statement. At the moment, I hugged the delphinium closer, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to give Foster a great big kiss on his big fucking mouth.
I finally managed to slide the phone out in the awkward position I was in. I still couldn't get it around in front of me without bumping my elbow on the wall of the cubby, but since Burke and Barron were the last two numbers I'd called, I did my best to find the recent calls blind.
God only knows what I actually did, because when the song I'd programmed in as Barron's ringtone started, I became painfully aware that I hadn't managed to make a call.
I answered it quickly, managing to scream "BARRON!" just as I was jerked out of my hiding space by a big ugly fat dude, whose teeth were already getting longer and sharper as he held me up on my tippy-toes by the hair of my head.
"Look at that. A little china man."
"I'm Korean, you fucktard," I spat in his ugly face, hoping they'd forget about the phone if I kept them distracted.
"Like there's a fucking difference," another one––same fat, same ugly––said from across the room.
"We gotta get out of here, Pete. He answered a fucking phone call right before you grabbed 'im."
"They don't know where we are, Jake,"
the man holding me replied.
"Tim," Jake barked. "Did you at least hang up the fucking phone? Because you moron's have been calling out names like we're at a raffle."
"I think I did. I don't really know how to run this thing."
The man who'd been standing by the door completely quiet the whole time sighed. "This is the best this fucking leap had to offer? You three are astoundingly stupid. There is absolutely no way the Alpha Supreme is going to want any of you. Even as muscle, you'd have to have considerably more sense than you do."
As quick as can be, the tall, eerily thin man pulled a gun from his pants. There wasn't an ounce of remorse as he shot first Tim, then Jake. He turned the gun on Pete, causing the man to drop me. As my knees hit the ground, I watched, horrified as he nailed Pete in the back of the head before he even made it three steps toward the back of my shop.
My ears were ringing.
Sighing and clearly put out, he turned his cold black eyes on me. "Tell me, pet. Are you a chosen?" His voice sounded like it was coming from the other side of a window. He moved closer with a creepy grace that made me think of floating smoke. "I'd heard that the alpha had found his mate in a chosen. Stands to reason that all the new mates are going to be chosen for a while."
"I…uh…I don't know what that is," I tried to play dumb, but the knowing smile that slimed onto his face told me he knew I was lying.
"All this time, Linus was working toward his plan to make a new supreme shifter species and it was already in the works naturally." Stopping directly in front of where I was still kneeling on the ground, afraid to get up, he lowered himself down slowly in front of me. "We can't have that, can we? I'm quite content with the way things are going. I guess killing you and mailing your mate your mark, after I've carved it from your dead body, is as good a way to keep this information from getting back where I don't want it, huh?"
I managed to scramble backwards, just barely avoiding his claws as my heel connected with his knee and a vase toppled to the ground beside me, busting against the floor. He growled, showing me a terrifying set of bright white teeth.
Frantically, I looked for anything that resembled a weapon, and my eyes landed on the shards of glass from the vase. I grabbed the largest piece, barely feeling the sting, just as a very shifted cheetah head latched on to my calf. I screamed as his teeth ripped through my thin slacks and socks, sinking into my flesh. The glass dug in and cut my palm, but when he started to drag me across the floor, I reacted without thought, jamming the sharp in right into the eye of the beast.
He yowled, a sickening sound of pain and anger, and I clambered to my feet, hobbling as fast as I could, to the front of the shop, where the glass was already broken out from their less than stealthy entry.
My adrenaline carried me through the window, and onto the sidewalk out side with surprising speed, but I didn't fool myself into thinking I was in the clear. Immediately confirmed when I ran into yet another giant. I fought to pull away, but the grip I was in was entirely too strong.
Someone was yelling at me, but my own yells, and the ringing in my ears was making it difficult to tell what they were saying.
"Sutton! Sutton! Stop. It's me! Ronny!" The man shook me, forcing me to look up into the beautiful, panicked eyes of my mate.
"Barron!? Oh, thank God," I sobbed out, collapsing against his chest.
He held me close, practically breaking my ribs, and collapsing a lung with how tight he was holding me, but I really couldn't be bothered to care.
I was safe.
"He's gone," Bennett said somewhere behind me. "But I can have Thompsyn track him. He was leaving a pretty good blood trail. Plenty of olfactory information."
"Nah, call Foster. He needs to get his guys in here on it."
"I stabbed 'im in the eye with a piece of vase," I whispered, still in shock.
"You did good, sweet Sutton." Barron pulled back, looking me over. "Can I see your hand? Is it healing?"
"Yeah, I barley feel it. The bite on my leg either."
"I'm so sorry, sweet Sutton. I should have been here." Barron sounded close to tears. It was enough to bring me out of my stare off with nothing and everything.
I smacked his arm, hard. "Don't be stupid. You can't stay glued to my side all the time. Not that I'd mind, but it's just not practical. I just might need to learn a little self-defense."
"I'd say you already know some," Bennett said, smiling like an adorable idiot beside us.
"I've had to fight dirty a time or two. I wasn't bullied all the time. But there has been more than one person who found something about me to object to."
"Morons. I personally find you perfect." Barron's smile was beautiful, and clearly relieved. "Let's get you back to Burke. Even though, I doubt he's moved from where he fell asleep on your bed. I don't feel like anyone as young as him should be so damn tired."
I couldn't help but smile up at this man I loved. "You're super protective of my little brother. It's actually pretty cute."
"He feels like family already. But honestly, I think it's because of how he loved you. He loved you when both of your families failed you. For that, I will always be grateful to him."
Tipping my face up to my forever companion, my mate, I smiled. "I'm grateful for the guy who sold me the house next to the gorgeous mechanic that likes to walk around his backyard naked."
"I think I like that guy too."
EPILOGUE
Two days later.
"Damn Sutt. Your house smells really good," Foster practically groaned as he walked in the front door.
Sutton looked at the fox shifter like the man was speaking a completely different language and he was pretty sure he'd just been cussed at. "It smells the same."
I just smiled, crossing my arms.
For the last two days, we'd been sleeping at my place, and then coming over to Sutton's early enough to rouse Burke, and make sure he had breakfast. The kid was definitely dealing with something. It was there in the way he jumped at every little thing. But he'd stayed busy keeping in touch with his professors to see what all he could do to finish this semester's work.
He'd told them all he'd had a family emergency out of town, and because he was such a good student, they all seemed pretty content with him doing his work, and sending it in from here. He was going to have to go back for two days next week to get all his finals taken, but Sutton and I were both hoping he'd open up about what happened before then.
Either way, he wasn't going back without us.
"Seriously, what is that fucking smell?" Foster was starting to look a little crazed, walking around the living room, sniffing everything.
Sutton frowned at the quirk of my lip, as I watched his best friend. It turned into a full-blown smile when the guy tripped over the backpack sitting in the floor by the couch.
"I won't lie, Barron. You look really evil, right now," my mate whispered, still confused.
The fox bent to scoop the backpack off of the floor, taking a big whiff, and I actually laughed out loud, when his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he groaned.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Sutton demanded, looking back and forth between the two men in his living room, who probably looked crazy as fuck.
I know one did. Especially when his head snapped around to me, and he actually growled, the fox showing in his eyes. "Where is he?"
"Upstairs. Probably about to start tripping his way toward the kitchen, because he refuses to wear his glasses on his face, before he has coffee in his bloodstream."
"Fuck!" Foster groaned, letting his head fall back on his shoulders. "You knew, didn't you?"
"He knew what?" Sutton demanded to know.
I reached out, pulling a confused and agitated mate into my arms. "I put a few things together. It didn't help your case that you almost humped my leg the other day, when you caught his scent on me."
"He did what?!" Best friend or not, I had to restrain Sutton so he didn't go over, and kill a fox shifter.
"Wait!" Sutton tensed in shock against me. "Are you saying what I think you're saying? Is Burke your mate?"
At Foster's nod, Sutton giggled, relaxing. "It makes so much sense now. That's why you were so careful not to meet him. How long have you known."
"The first time I saw him on that damn computer," he whispered, looking sheepish. "If I didn't smell him, I could keep my fox at bay. Thanks for the warning, Ronny."
"Your secret keeping is really pissing me off."
"I'm a shifter, and your brother is my mate. Those are literally the only secrets I've ever kept from you." He paused, cringing. "They just happen to be big ones."
"I'm a little mad at you."
"I'm not," I said, chuckling. "I have been waiting for this since Sutton told me how pissed Burke got when you tried to tell him to stay away from frat parties. Possessive much, Foster?"
Foster opened his mouth to snark back, but Burke's voice interrupted from the kitchen. "Sutton?! Why the fuck do you keep moving the coffee cups."
Foster froze, smiling slightly.
"Put your glasses on, B. They're right where they've always been."
"I don't wanna."
Taking a deep breath, Foster squared his shoulders, and walked toward the kitchen like he was walking out in front of a firing squad, and wasn't about to show his fear. "I'll help him."
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