Sunset Glade Panthers: The Original Trilogy and Epilogue

by Sennah Tate

  First Tucker, now Hailey, he was losing his touch. He felt his hold on town slipping, the awesome respect waning. If he wanted to stay in charge, he would have to find his mate and regain his strength. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

  There was only one person that could help him. He didn’t like it, but damned if he’d lose control of this town without trying everything.

  The shocks of his truck squeaked and groaned as it bounced down rutted mud roads. Only the main streets in town were maintained; back roads and driveways were the responsibility of their owners.

  Dr. Fairway’s tiny home came into view through the dense foliage and Brock pulled his vehicle to a stop only a few feet away from the old man tending his garden.

  Richard Fairway turned and started, instinctively taking a step back from Silvanus.

  Good. He should be afraid.

  Brock hopped out of the truck, overgrown grass reaching halfway up his calves as he slammed the rusty door shut.

  Dr. Fairway didn’t move. He held a pair of pruning shears in front of him as a silent warning. Brock didn’t pay him any mind. The old man wasn’t his main concern anymore.

  “Is your daughter around?” Brock asked nonchalantly, ascending the creaky stairs to the front porch, settling onto the Doctor’s rocking chair without ceremony.

  The old man stiffened, his shoulders tightening along with his thin lips. He was barely able to hold his tongue; Brock found it endlessly amusing.

  “No,” the Doctor answered tersely.

  “I can wait.”

  “What’s this about?” Dr. Fairway asked, his voice high and tight despite his stony glare.

  Brock shrugged and folded his arms across his chest.

  “Personal. So, what are your thoughts on the latest attacks?” He held in a grin; the good doctor had been hunting bigfoot for decades and suffered greatly for it. Now he knew the truth and still had to hold it in. It must be driving him crazy.

  Richard Fairway regarded the intruder with a long appraising look.

  “I think that Parks and Wildlife is handling the situation appropriately,” he said finally.

  What a diplomatic answer, Brock thought.

  He was spared from having to make any more idle chit chat by the appearance of Gabi’s old jalopy rounding the corner.

  The Doctor had never looked so disappointed to see his daughter.

  “If you lay a finger on her…” he hissed under his breath.

  Brock waved him off, “Go back to your daisies, old man.” He stood, canting his hips to the side to stretch as Gabi climbed out of her car, shooting daggers in his direction.

  Her angry glare spoke the volumes she daren’t say out loud. Brock reveled in the hint of fear he saw lurking behind her eyes as she approached.

  “What are you doing here?” she spat without any of the normal dance Brock had come to expect from others.

  His panther snarled at her impudence. Gabi climbed the steps and stood nose-to-nose — or rather nose-to-chest — with him, unflinching.

  “May we have a word, Ms. Fairway?” he replied innocently, refusing to be baited. He couldn’t afford a challenge from Tucker for slighting his mate. He was on eggshells, even if Gabi didn’t know it.

  The door barely closed behind them before Gabi whirled on him, “I thought we had an understanding, Silvanus.”

  This wasn’t the same meek girl he’d threatened in the parking lot a month ago. Tucker’s influence was all too evident in the steel set of her spine and the determined furrow of her brow.

  He didn’t answer. Brock had long ago learned to let others show their cards first. Anger got in the way of mystery. If he kept quiet, she’d tell him everything he wanted to know.

  “You leave my father alone or everyone will hear the story about how Brock ‘Shifter Pride’ Silvanus saved two little human girls at Falcon’s Crest Lake.”

  His jaw clenched. Now this bitch was standing up to him, too? This shit had to change ASAP.

  “I’m not here for your father. I need information. I want to know who the other girl was.”

  Gabrielle frowned, her face scrunching with obvious distrust.

  “Why?”

  He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck ruefully. He couldn’t tell her the truth, so he did the next best thing.

  “Look, I don’t want to hurt her or anything. I just want to see her.”

  She wasn’t buying it. Her hands settled on her hips and her eyes narrowed. Brock didn’t exactly appreciate being under such close scrutiny, but he needed her answer.

  A small voice in the back of his mind told him he already knew the answer. He ignored it.

  Brock rested his shoulder against the clapboard wall, letting his gaze linger on the window for a few moments.

  Gabi followed his eyes to her father. He watched her swallow a lump in her throat. Noticed the quickening of her pulse.

  Silence never failed him.

  She sighed, dragging her eyes back to him.

  “You swear you’re not trying to hurt her?”

  He tensed at the accusation, but Gabi had no way of knowing what she was saying. Brock rolled his shoulders back before nodding.

  “I swear no harm will come to her if I can help it.”

  That seemed to work better than his silence had. She visibly relaxed, her lips parting on a hesitant word before she finally whispered, “Hailey.”

  Ice water shot through his veins and his heart stuttered to a stop.

  Hailey, he thought again, the name resonating with him on a primal level. The image of the woman flashed unbidden through his mind and the panther stirred in recognition.

  Damn it.

  The screen door slammed behind him, leaving Gabrielle Fairway open-mouthed and confused in his wake.

  He didn’t owe her any explanations. He had a big fucking mess to clean up. A mess he’d made himself.

  He’d already made it down the Fairway’s driveway to the main road when the enormity of his fuck-up finally hit him.

  “Son of a bitch,” he growled under his breath. He’d probably already destroyed any chance of claiming Hailey. How was he supposed to know she was the same girl. Those unruly red curls, the big aqua eyes and dusting of freckles across her nose. How the fuck hadn’t he realized it?

  Denial, he thought and the panther rumbled in agreement.

  “You shut the hell up,” he grumbled at the beast lurking just beneath the surface. “I’ll fix this,” he murmured to himself, knuckles white on the steering wheel, “I don’t know how, but I’ll fucking fix this.”

  He’d never been so determined as he was to regain his position at the top of the heap. If that required seducing Hailey…

  Well, he thought with a wry turn of his lips, re-imagining the delicious flush of anger as it crept up her neck, it could be worse.

  Chapter Five

  Hailey

  A week’s worth of overnight shifts was a week too long in Hailey’s book. Her grandfather had always kept the diner open 24/7 for truckers, fishermen and anyone else that might occupy the wee hours of the morning.

  Hailey was beginning to think a change in hours was necessary. The lack of customers was only made worse when cheery breakfasters came in at the end of a ten hour shift and she had to manage to find a smile.

  Then there was going home with the sunrise. The birds chirped merrily, starting their day just as she clawed her way to the end of hers.

  To make matters worse, she hadn’t been sleeping much. Or at all. Every night when sleep finally wrapped her in its embrace, something dark and sinister invaded. Dreams.

  If they could be called dreams. They were only flashes. Fractions of memories maybe. A flickering slideshow, weathered with age and neglect that always left her with more questions — and more fear.

  The monster towered over her and the world slowed to a standstill. The next part always seemed like it was in fast-forward, blurs of colors, unidentifiable shapes and blood.

  She’d never forget the bloo
d.

  Even her therapist couldn’t come up with an explanation for how they’d turned up covered in blood without a scratch on them. Her therapist had come up with plenty of theories to explain away every other part of her supposedly fictitious memory, but Hailey always held onto that single kernel of truth.

  Maybe her brain hadn’t betrayed her.

  But that was ridiculous.

  Being back in Sunset Glade was just dredging up old wounds, she told herself. Furry monsters weren’t real. Neither were panthers that turned into boys. If she was ever going to move past that terrible day, she needed to accept it once and for all.

  Sinking into the mattress felt like lounging on a cloud. She’d never quite felt this level of exhaustion. Still, as sleep weighed heavily on her eyelids, she couldn’t stop her thoughts from wandering.

  Bzzzzzz

  “Ugh,” Hailey groaned, smacking her phone to silence its vibrating.

  The phone was non-compliant.

  Bzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzz.

  “Fine,” she grumbled, “I didn’t really want to sleep anyway.”

  As she brought the cell up to her ear, she saw Shirlene’s name on the caller ID.

  “What’s up, Shirle?”

  In her short time in town, Hailey had been made to feel welcome and cared for by Shirlene. She was the mother that Hailey always wished for rather than the chilly distant woman that actually birthed her.

  Shirlene was clearly distressed because she took an extra moment to respond.

  “I hate to do this to you, but the walk-in’s out. It’s defrosting all over the place.”

  “What should I do?” Hailey asked, sleep still pulling her back to her pillows with magnetic force. “Can we move things to the reach-in?” She’d never worked in the restaurant business before taking over her grandfather’s diner, but she learned fast. Losing their inventory would be a crippling blow to Elle’s.

  “We just filled it with wild game,” Shirlene said with an apologetic tone.

  Hailey sighed. If she wanted to run this place, she’d need to think on her feet. She was finally out of the nest, maybe it was time to try spreading her wings.

  “Okay, let me try to find a repair guy. Close down for now, try to keep the water mopped up. I’ll figure something out.”

  She hung up the phone, a dull throb starting behind her eyes as she searched for the right repair service.

  Scene Break

  Hours later, the pungent bouquet of charcoal and roasting meat flooded the center of town. With the help of her loyal staff and the welcoming townsfolk, she’d managed to salvage a horrible situation. After calling half a dozen repair men, all with excuses ranging from business hours to missing parts, Hailey decided to get creative.

  ‘Everything Must Go - All You Can Eat’ was the solution to her rapidly melting problem. They shut down the center of town and charged ten bucks a head to get into the barbecue. Before too long someone broke out music, another brought beer and suddenly they had a real honest-to-goodness block party on their hands.

  Adrenaline and constant movement had managed to sustain Hailey for the first half of the day, but her job at the register was coming to a close. The smell of barbecue drew a crowd, mouth-watering smoke blanketing most of town, but it wasn’t enough to keep her eyes from drooping.

  “You look like you could use a coffee,” said a woman behind her.

  Hailey turned and found herself face-to-face with a blast from the past.

  She took the offered mug and brought it to her mouth to cool it with her breath.

  “Gabi?” she asked, hardly believing she recognized her childhood friend all these years later.

  Gabi nodded, “I heard you were running this place now. I wanted to say hi sooner but…” her eyes dropped and Hailey could finish the sentence for her ‘everything is too weird now.’

  The attack that had led to Hailey’s countless years of therapy also upended her life. Her family moved away, leaving friends and relatives behind. Her parents never let her out of their sight again until she was an adult. Had Gabi’s life been similarly destroyed by that day?

  Of course she wouldn’t want to talk about it. Hailey didn’t want to talk about it either. Avoiding the topic seemed to make it more present than ever.

  “Oh! This is Tucker!” Gabi exclaimed brightly, grabbing a handsome man in a khaki uniform by his sleeve, tugging him into their conversation.

  “Tucker, this is Hailey. We were best friends when we were kids.”

  They exchanged pleasantries. Tucker seemed nice enough — he doted on Gabi, at least.

  Gabi sent him off for a drink and suddenly looked apprehensive.

  “Hey, listen,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear nervously, “has anyone been… bothering you? Since you got back to town?”

  Hailey frowned and could nearly feel gravity tugging on her. Only a few more hours and I can sleep as long as I want… she told herself, disregarding that her nightmares probably wouldn’t allow it.

  Had anyone bothered her?

  Her mind instantly brought her encounter with Silvanus to the forefront. He was just trying to throw his weight around. He wasn’t really bothering her, she argued.

  She shook her head, “What do you mean? Who would bother me?”

  Gabi’s eyes widened at something over Hailey’s shoulder. She shrugged, “Just wondering. Good seeing you! We should catch up sometime.”

  Before Hailey could answer, Gabi made herself scarce, presumably off to search for her boyfriend in the crowd.

  “What’s the occasion?” It was a male voice that startled her this time. An all too familiar voice. Husky. Rough as sandpaper with a silky caramel finish. Her flesh prickled with awareness and Hailey didn’t have to turn to know who spoke.

  “No occasion. I’m trying to make lemonade out of lemons,” she answered, giving him only the briefest glance over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the revelers.

  “Must have been a hell of a lemon…”

  She resisted the urge to grit her teeth. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. So he’d been an asshole before. Maybe it was just a bad day. She was too tired to get annoyed anyway.

  “My freezer bit the dust and it’s going to be at least two days before it’s fixed,” she held out her arms gesturing to the impromptu celebration at her back, “lemonade.”

  He nodded, looking pensive for a moment. She hated that she wanted to know what he was thinking. Wanted to hear him whisper her name. To trace the jagged scar along his face with soft kisses…

  She shook her head. Exhaustion was hitting her harder than she thought.

  “I may be able to help,” he offered.

  That caught her off-guard.

  “What?” Maybe she hadn’t heard him right. Surely this wasn’t the same man that told her she was making a mistake by not fearing him?

  That arrogant ass surely wouldn’t be offering to help her.

  She must be hallucinating. Sleep deprivation could do that. She’d read it somewhere. Where had that been?

  “I’ll fix your freezer,” he said, pulling her from her meandering thoughts.

  No, he’d definitely said it that time. What was he playing at? He switched from cold to hot faster than a Floridian winter.

  “For free,” he added while she stared at him in stunned silence.

  “I don’t understand,” she muttered, still not completely convinced this wasn’t all a figment of her imagination. “Why are you trying to help me, Silvanus? I thought coming here was a big mistake…”

  Her front teeth latched onto her bottom lip in an attempt to snatch back that last sentence before it reached his ears. If he was trying to be nice, she shouldn’t screw it up with snark. That was probably social rule Number One.

  Then he was in her space. The smell of rich soil engulfed her as his body heat rolled off of him in waves, seeping past her personal bubble straight to her bones. A breath stuck in her throat and he leaned forward. Close
enough that she felt his warm breath kissing her skin.

  “I think,” he said, licking his lips as if he were presented with a hot meal, “that we got off on the wrong foot. I’d like to remedy that.”

  Her mouth fell open on a silent ‘o’ and he grew impossibly closer, making her head swim with his nearness. Or was that fatigue? She blinked, her vision swimming for a moment.

  “And it’s Brock,” he whispered. So close to her now. A gentle breeze could push them together. His arms would wrap around her. She’d inhale his deep piney scent and…

  “Brock,” she repeated, not trusting herself to say anything more. It was a much nicer name than ‘Silvanus’.

  He hovered over her, waiting for something else… what? Did he feel this magnetism too? Or was he trying to unsteady her? It was certainly working.

  Hailey retreated a step, taking a deep breath of muggy air to clear the fog of arousal that cloaked her thoughts.

  “You really think you can fix my walk-in?”

  His lips twisted upwards and he extended his hands toward her.

  “See these hands? Never met a machine I couldn’t make purr with these hands,” he waggled his brows at her and Hailey finished the rest of his sentence in her mind, ‘or a woman’.

  Her body responded to the thought of those hands making her purr. She’d never had the opportunity or desire to explore her sexuality past a couple of grope-y make-outs. These thoughts were new for her. Unfamiliar and unsettling.

  “Purr?” she repeated, her line of thinking plastered all over her face, if his answering grin was any indication.

  “Like a kitten,” he said under his breath.

  Hailey swallowed. Hard. Did he know what effect he had on her? She didn’t even know what this was.

  Finally, she nodded.

  “Free I can afford. We’re going to be cleaning this up for a while. You’re free to take a whack at it.”

  She couldn’t let him rattle her. That was his goal wasn’t it? But what if it wasn’t?

  You’re making yourself crazy, one voice said in her head.

  Too late for that, another answered mockingly. Even the voices in her head thought she was crazy. That’s what everyone had been telling her all of these years.