by Olivia Gayle
Abby woke immediately, but blinked blearily at him. Her smile melted his heart. “Morning, beautiful.”
“Good morning.” And it was, it really was good. Perhaps it would have been better if he’d been allowed to stay in bed with her and wake up naturally, but… “I have to go take care of something. I’ll hopefully be back in an hour.”
“I can come with you.” Abby stirred, tugging at the blankets covering her body, but when Logan shook his head she subsided. Her eyes were barely open, but when she stretched and a small nipple popped free of the covers, Logan’s attention was immediately transfixed. There was a small red bite mark just above the areola - his handiwork from the previous night - and he felt pride in his claiming. She was his, nobody else’s now or ever again.
“Sleep,” he said, reluctantly covering her again. “This shouldn’t take long.”
Her breathing had already begun to slow before he finished his sentence, and just like that she was asleep again. Logan’s lips twitched into a smile before he stood back up and headed back to the door.
A moment later, he darted silently back into the bedroom and grabbed a pair of pants. Best to follow civilized etiquette while in town, even if he didn’t quite like it anymore.
* * *
Aidan seemed impatient when the trio finally arrived. “Davis found out all kinds of information on her,” he said, holding up a file folder. “Meghan Reed is a reporter like she claims; both her credentials and internet presence seem to check out. She was sent up here to cover Abby’s disappearance, but that’s where her story branches out. We have multiple emails between her and someone by the handle Sandman with a Seattle IP address detailing information about Shifters. It seems as though your mate was only a secondary story, and she’d been tapped to blow the lid on our entire society.”
Warren frowned. “Anyone else think that sounds almost too plausible and convenient?”
“I thought it wrapped up too nicely as well, so I had Davis expand the search to her associates. Her regular cameraman had gone missing, so she’d been assigned somebody new, a Mark Heron. It didn’t take much to discover that was a fake name; looking into any of the credentials or past the cameraman persona, and they were a non-entity.”
“And of course, he’s the one that gets away.”
“Hey, I tried.” Amelia crossed her arms and glared at the men. “I got you a description of the SUV, ran after that thing but I’m no cheetah.”
“The car turned out to be stolen locally, and was found abandoned outside of town, the driver having switched cars.” Aidan glanced at his watch, then again at the door. “I’m still waiting for Eleanor to arrive so we can…”
He cut off as Logan, having heard enough, moved around the small group and entered the room solo.
The reporter woman was in the same clothes that she’d been in when they’d left Alaska, but her arm was bound up in a sling. When she saw Logan, however, she leaped out of her seat, backing away against the wall and emanating fear.
Good.
“Oh shit, it’s you.” She pointed an accusing finger at him, eyes wide, as the others filed in after Logan. “I saw you turn into a bear, I saw him change!”
“Well, good for you.” Amelia’s voice was cheerful as she beamed at the frightened reporter. “And now you can tell the whole world about, what, a man changing into a bear?”
“I thought it was a joke, some kind of superstitious nonsense. Figured I’d look into it though while I was up there and…” Her gaze darted amongst the people all inside the room, and her accusing finger swept the lot of them. “You’re all…them, aren’t you? Oh God, this is really real, isn’t it?”
Aidan stepped forward, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Miss Reed, if you could please sit down.”
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you? Shit, ow, and you freaking bit me. I’m turning into one of you, aren’t I?”
That seemed to startle just about everyone in the room. Only Amelia seemed unfazed, and she turned a disbelieving stare at the other three men. “Are you freaking kidding me? Homeboy over there goes and bites through the shoulder of a human, and it never crossed any of your minds that it might change her?”
Only after it was spelled out for him did Logan see the possible signs: flushed cheeks, a racing heartbeat. The problem was, every one of those signs could also point to a scared human woman. He tried to do the math in his head; it had been, what, about twenty-four hours since he’d bitten her? It would take two days for any heightened senses to fully manifest within her, and two weeks before she could change form.
Shit.
“If you’d taken badly to his bite,” Aidan said, obviously measuring his words, “you would be nearly dead by now. But, you don’t seem to be ill, so…”
“Shit-fuck, I really am becoming one of you.” Meghan grabbed onto the chair for support and sat down heavily in it. “And here I thought only my love life so far could be the train wreck.”
“Ooh, I like this one.” Amelia looked at Warren. “Can I keep her?”
“You may not be changing,” the Enforcer said calmly, his eyes flashing blue. “But we’ll get to that later. I have a few questions for you.”
To Warren’s obvious consternation, the woman shook her head. “Get out of my mind,” she said angrily, heel of her good hand going to one temple. “I was told some of you could do, I don’t know, things, and I know this isn’t real.”
“Just relax,” he said, but Meghan grabbed her chair and chucked it at him. He dodged it easily, and it clattered against the far wall. The throw, Logan was relieved to see, was very human, lacking any preternatural strength behind it.
“Leave me alone,” she shrieked, “just leave me…”
A soothing wave descended over Logan’s mind. He fought it off by habit, and realized quickly that it wasn’t directed at him when Meghan’s face went slack. “This isn’t right,” she whimpered, but the last of her paranoia melted away by the end of the sentence.
“Lord, that’s just eerie as fuck,” Amelia muttered as Logan’s mother swept into the room, followed by her mate, Derek.
Eleanor looked at her oldest son, Warren. “I thought you were going to wait for me.”
Her voice was cool, but Logan could hear the censure there. Warren rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought we could handle it.”
“Obviously not, and now you’ve frightened the poor girl.” Dismissing him, she turned to the reporter, approaching her carefully. “Miss Reed, isn’t it? I’m Eleanor Landry, and I’d like to apologize in advance for the louts I call sons over there.”
Hey. Logan didn’t like being lumped in with Warren’s actions, and liked it even less when Amelia smirked at him. Meghan though looked at each of them in turn, then back at his mother. “Are you making me calm like this?”
“Yes I am, dear.” She picked up the chair and turned it back over, scooting it under the table beside the other woman. “Why don’t we sit down like civilized adults and have a chat?”
Meghan seemed to consider the idea but didn’t move, and Logan felt his mother turn up her charm a bit more. “I can ask the boys to leave if they’re too much for you,” Eleanor offered.
“No, it’s okay, I’m not scared of them anymore.” Meghan cocked her head to one side. “I should be, though, shouldn’t I?”
“That depends on how helpful you can be for us. Please, sit down and let’s talk a bit.”
Logan kept to the edges of the group, moving around behind the reporter-slash-prisoner as she sat back down at the table. He made himself undetectable and felt his mother’s power over him lessen but not go away. Even with nearly a century’s practice, he still couldn’t block her out completely.
Eleanor laced her hands together atop the table, and smiled at the younger woman. “Why don’t you tell me everything about why you were up in Alaska.”
“It started with emails a few weeks ago, claiming there was a whole sub-society of shapeshifters living amongst us, hid
den in plain sight. At first, I blew them off; people sometimes read my online reports and like to send me weird information. I figured this was another weirdo conspiracy theorist, but decided to take a look anyway since I had a free moment.”
“What did they say?”
“Nothing much. A few missing persons reports, a list of names that I couldn’t find on any web searches. Dossiers on a few others, along with one or two pictures.”
Eleanor’s chin rose slightly at the last part of that sentence. “Anyone in here show up in those files?”
Meghan blandly looked at each person individually, no emotion showing from her eyes. Finally, she pointed one finger at Derek. “He was listed on there, although I forget most of what I read. I do remember though…you turn into a polar bear, right?”
Just like that, everyone in the room was on high alert. Warren and Logan exchanged a look before the Enforcer turned to his partner. “Get Davis tracking those emails,” he said in a low voice. “I need to know everything that was in them, immediately. Names, places, everything he can find.”
Amelia disappeared swiftly out the door as Warren turned to Aidan. “Wake everyone in the town watch up and get them out patrolling. Have some of them stay human so we can keep communications open.”
“Already done.”
“Good.” He turned to Logan. “I need you out there too, you’re one of the best trackers we have besides Derek here. And Aidan, bring your mate to the mansion, I’m going to need eyes on those cameras and she’s lived around that technology more than we have. Yours too, Logan, they’ll be safest here in the center of town.”
“Agreed.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. Do you have my purse?”
Every eye turned to look at the human woman, who returned their heated stares with her own sleepy look. “Why is that, dear?” Eleanor asked, snagging the younger woman’s attention.
“Well, when I said I might be interested in following up on their information, they pointed me to Alaska and gave me a small GPS chip. Said it was a condition of them helping me find my story, along with taking Alfred instead of Barry, my usual camera guy. Said they’d be able to send in help if I got lost up there in the Arctic Circle.” She looked calmly between an enraged Warren and a horrified Eleanor. “You think they’ll come rescue me from here?”
Warren pointed at Aidan. “Find that purse and get it to Davis now. Maybe he can somehow fix this mess. The rest of you, get out and patrol. I’m locking this town down tighter than Fort Knox.” He sighed. “We might very well have incoming.”
Chapter 17
“Hell of a honeymoon for you, ain’t it? Must suck to be you, right?”
Why Aidan had saddled his brother with a smart-mouth asshole like Julian Murphy, Logan didn’t know. He and the banker-cum-deputy had never clashed before, but that didn’t mean Logan didn’t know the werepanther by reputation.
And Julian, while being above-board in his professional life as the town’s banker, was a scoundrel in every other way, shape, and form. Logan suspected that Aidan grouped them together because, having been gone from Arcadia for nearly three decades, Logan might have forgotten his dislike of the banker.
Sadly, he was fast being reminded why he’d never liked the other man.
“Heads up, we’ve got incoming.”
The normally flippant man’s suddenly serious tone put Logan on immediate alert. Looking behind them, he saw a line of cars heading their way from town. He exchanged a worried look with Julian, then stepped out in the middle of the street and put up a hand in a stopping gesture. The car in the front came to a halt, but honking began immediately behind, and others swerved to try and pass.
Julian moved into the other lane, blocking traffic there with his body. The driver of a red SUV inched closer and closer to the dark-haired shifter, as if to make him move, but the werepanther stood his ground. Finally, it stopped just inches from Julian, and an angry man climbed out of the driver’s side. “What’s the deal, asshole? We’re getting out of here before the shit really hits the fan.”
Logan tensed, certain that the volatile banker would respond to the insult and only escalate the situation. But Julian just shook his head. “You all need to stay in your homes until we get this figured out.”
“Fuck that,” the other man snarled, and Logan could smell the sudden rise of anger in the air. “We aren’t safe here anymore. Hell, you lot are offering us up on a platter, bringing that woman here and giving away our location.”
How did he know so much? Ethan Cowdry owned and ran Arcadia’s small mechanic shop, but wasn’t normally privy to information like that. “Where’d you hear that?” he asked sharply.
Ethan sneered at Logan. “Don’t think I’m afraid of you,” he said, indicating the people behind him who were also getting out of their cars. “Your father’s gone, and with it our biggest defense against anyone else. So we’re leaving here, now, and you’re not going to stop us.”
Beside him, Logan saw Julian tense, ready for a fight. People were congregating behind Ethan, shouting their agreement. Logan crossed his arms. “No, you aren’t.”
For a second, he thought that Ethan would Shift and start a fight to prove his point. Then he just rolled his eyes and shook his head in disgust, before turning around back to his car.
If Logan had thought that was the end of it, however, he was sorely mistaken.
The other man started up the car, then gunned the gas. Wheels spun against the asphalt, and Julian leaped out of the way as the large SUV sped towards them. Logan, however, didn’t budge, and right as the car swerved to the right to get past him, he stepped into the path and brought both fists down on the hood.
The momentum of the big vehicle sent him skidding backwards several feet, the rough road eating into the soles of his shoes. He didn’t let go of the SUV, however, and even as Ethan kept spinning the back wheels, Logan ripped off the hood of the Chevy, grabbed wires coming out the top, and pulled.
Immediately, the vehicle sputtered and died, but he wasn’t finished. Reaching deep into the engine bay, he grabbed the hot headers and, ignoring the burning pain in his hands, pulled up and back with all his strength. Metal screeched and groaned, rubber hoses ripping free and spraying him with hot coolant, but Logan didn’t stop until he heard the pop of engine mounts giving way.
Ethan’s mouth was agape as Logan, with a wrenching twist, pulled both the engine and the transmission from the large vehicle, moved back several steps, then chucked it to one side. It didn’t go far, maybe ten feet or so, but it cracked a curb and entire section of sidewalk, and gouged a huge rift in the grass.
Nobody was talking now as Logan wiped his hands on his pants. Beside him, Julian whistled. “Remind me to never bet against you in a fight.”
Logan offered him a deadpan look, to which the other man threw up his hands in surrender, then looked at the other residents huddled behind Ethan’s car. “Next?”
* * *
“Oh my god, you are my new hero. I totally want - no, need - to be you when I grow up!”
Ignoring the other man, Logan got out of his car and headed up toward the mansion. Unfortunately, Julian was right on his tail. “I mean, seriously, how did you come up with that whole ‘Next’ bit? It was freaking ingenious, and me using that to describe someone other than myself is a big compliment.”
“I see you didn’t kill him.” Aidan stood in the doorway of the mansion, smirking at the two other men as they came up the walkway.
“Why, hello Sheriff.” Julian gave the blond man a big shit-eating grin. “Your brother was really in true form today. Did you hear what he did this afternoon?”
“Hm, might have heard mention when Ethan came around demanding we pay the damages to his car.”
Aidan didn’t seem too angry about it, and for Logan the point was moot because he wasn’t going to pay for anything. “How did they know what’s going on in town?”
“Best guess is somebody either tipped off family and it spread like wil
dfire, or somebody listened to police scanners. Phone’s been ringing off the hook all day.”
“Where’s my mate?”
“In the camera room. I—hey!”
From the doorway he could still smell her presence and knew she wasn’t in any distress, but Logan needed to see Abby for himself, make sure she was okay. Ignoring his brother, he pushed his way into the house and headed straight for the heart of the building where his father had kept eyes on Arcadia for decades.
Davis almost ran into Logan as the latter entered the room, typing out something on a handheld computer he was reading. The younger man glanced up at him, startled, then moved aside and continued his perusal of the thin device in his hand. Logan didn’t think he’d ever pick up modern technology; hell, he still remembered when colored televisions were A Big Deal.
He hadn’t lied to Abby when he’d told her that Shifters lived forever, but it wasn’t the whole truth. He had no idea how old his father was, but the long-lived Brahm was the exception to the rule, not the norm. Logan, perhaps more than even his brothers, knew his father had, in recent decades, held onto sanity by a thin thread. That tenuous control had made many people nervous, but most residents of Arcadia didn’t realize just what a tightrope they were walking, being in such close proximity to Marshall Tucker.
They’d thought he made them feel safe, the big bad who could crush enemies. But the brutal truth was that it would only take one wrong move, one crucial misstep, and the Brahm would take out the entire town. Every living soul, dead.
If that day ever came, there’d be no escape.
The sight of Abby drove those dark thoughts out of Logan’s head. She turned at his soft knock, and her smile swept away the cobwebs gathering in his heart.
How had he survived this long without her? And, if something were to happen, could he bear to live without her?
“Well, you look more somber than normal.” Abby stood up and walked toward him, smiling up at him as she twined her arms around his waist. “I heard you had some issues out on the roads.”