by Olivia Arran
“Call me Grant. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Barone,” Grant replied in the most respectful voice I’d ever heard from him, before reaching out and lifting her hand to his mouth, planting the softest kiss on the back before releasing it with a smile. His momma had brought him up right, that’s for sure.
Mrs. Barone clucked her tongue with obvious approval, reaching up and pinching his cheek. “Yes, a good Italian boy. Hmmmm, maybe you will keep him, Officer Evans?” She looked at me, as if expecting an answer. When it didn’t come fast enough, she nodded, as if her mind was made up. “You will come eat with us tonight. Eight o’clock. I’ll save you a table.” With a flounce of skirts, she spun on her heel and marched right on back into the restaurant, the door shutting behind her with a fragrant waft of garlic and herbs.
Grant and I stared at each other, until eventually he shrugged. “There’s nothing more we can do here about the shifter, but I need to report back to the others and see what they want to do.” He glanced at the restaurant doorway. “We’ll come back tonight.”
Tonight? As in, a date?
Chapter Five
Grant
The room was crowded, but at least the coffee was surprisingly good. Draining my cup, I wiggled it at Mandy in silent question.
“I’m good,” she called back, before going back to her not so quiet conversation with Daryl. Okay, the humans probably couldn’t overhear, but the rest of us were privy to the pair’s mischief.
After filling my cup, I made my way over to Kel, who was regarding the troublesome duo through hooded eyes, his posture that of a man contemplating running. Pulling up a chair next to him, I set my cup down. “Hey there, Lieutenant.”
Kel flinched, as if jerked from a daydream, his expression carefully blank. “Sorry, what was that?” He looked like a man who’d been put through the wringer.
I winced. “Let me guess, Daryl’s been giving you a hard time?”
“Daryl?” A flash of panic flared in his eyes, but it was gone in an instant. Or maybe I’d been seeing things, who knew. He reached for the mug of coffee, then shook his head when he realized it wasn’t his, settling back in his seat and rubbing his chin. “Daryl’s been…”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my teammate perk up. If he’d been in wolf form, his ears would have been twitching.
“A pain in the ass?” I supplied, my lips twitching when the object of our conversation had to smother a laugh with his hand.
Kel followed the direction of my gaze, his eyebrows scrunching together. “Oh, no, I definitely wouldn’t say a pain in my ass. He’d have to work a lot harder to crack this tough old nut.” His gaze stayed fixed on my friend, a smile of satisfaction curving his lips when Daryl’s laughter morphed into a choking sound.
“As long as you can put up with him for the week—”
Kel coughed, then laughed. “We’ll get along just fine, don’t you worry.”
Daryl turned in his seat, fixing us both with a deadpan look. “I’m a big boy, Grant, I don’t need you supervising my playdates.” He turned his full attention to me. “Talking about dates…” His eyebrows danced the conga as he tilted his head in Mandy’s direction, who cuffed him around the head.
“Quit it, hot dog.”
“Ow!” Daryl rubbed his head, giving her puppy dog eyes.
Meanwhile, I almost spat out my mouthful of coffee. “Hot dog?”
She shrugged. “It was either that or corn dog.”
“Should have been horn dog.”
We all turned and looked at Kel, who was making his way over to the coffee machine. For once, Daryl appeared to be speechless.
The door opened, and Dante and Sarah walked in, the last of our group we were waiting on. Sarah marched over to Mandy and threw herself into a chair, yanking the tie out of her hair and dragging her fingers through the honey-blonde strands. “That man is insufferable.” She prodded Mandy in the shoulder. “I can’t believe you let me be paired with him!”
Mandy took the prodding in stride, proving that women were, apparently, immune. Must be all the practice. “Who would you have preferred?”
The women’s eyes trawled the room, pausing on each guy, before Sarah nodded. “Any of them. Even the muscle-bound twins. Wait, I’ll take Daryl, at least he has a sense of humor.” She lowered her voice to a whisper, “And I know Grant is—”
“Sarah!” Mandy prodded her friend, which earned her an eye roll. See? Immune.
Daryl leaned back in his chair, lacing his hands behind his head. “I’m in high demand.”
“We’re not changing the teams around.” Kel had returned to his seat clutching one of the biggest mugs I’d ever seen. I had goddamn mug envy.
I snuck a glance at Dante, but he was ignoring everyone, playing with his phone. Which wasn’t like the dragon shifter, who usually had a snarky comeback for everyone who he deemed inferior. Which was everyone in his eyes.
He must be enjoying himself annoying Sarah.
I briefly thought about interfering, but Sarah solved my dilemma, by throwing Dante a look that informed him that she’d like to detach his balls from his body. With a spoon.
Okay. She’d also verbalized the threat under her breath, complete with jabbing hand motions that had every male in the room cupping their balls, and Mandy roaring with laughter, tears streaming down her face.
“Damn, girl,” Mandy huffed out, swiping her hands over her cheeks. “He’s really got you going.”
“Something’s going to go, alright.”
Glares clashed, dragon vs. human, and metaphorical sparks crackled in the air.
“Egotistical … elderly … caveman,” Sarah muttered.
“Hey, that’s my cutesy nickname for Grant.” Mandy wriggled her fingers at me.
Only pride kept me from covering my face with my hands.
Sarah cackled. “Oh, don’t you worry, I can come up with something else for lizard lips over there.”
A huff of smoke puffed through the air, the only sign that Dante was actually listening.
Mandy’s look of amusement creased into a frown. “Is he pissing you off that bad?” She squeezed her friend’s hand. “I can switch if you—”
It was on the tip of my tongue to bark out a refusal, but someone beat me to it.
“No. The human woman is mine for the week.” Everyone’s heads swung in Dante’s direction.
“Excuse me?” Sarah popped out of her chair, hands on hips and temper high.
Dante unfolded himself from where he’d been propping up the wall, rolling back his shoulders, his face settling into impassive lines. “You will not discard me as if I am worthless. I am an alpha dragon, head of my bloodline and worth a hundred of these wolves or bears.”
“Hey!” Daryl’s protest was drowned out by Sarah’s scoff.
“Bloodline, smoodline. You’d better learn some manners, boy, or I’ll be selling your ass to the highest bidder on eBay.” She sat back down with a satisfied thump, folding her hands over her chest and giving her friend a sharp nod.
Dante frowned. “eBay?”
I couldn’t decide if Dante was confused, annoyed, or didn’t have a clue what eBay was.
“eBay,” Sarah drawled out, popping her lips at the end of the word and swiping Daryl’s coffee.
Yeah, I was leaving that one the hell alone. Looked like the woman could look after herself.
Time to get this party started. Grabbing everyone’s attention, I filled them in on what had happened this afternoon. “Thoughts?”
Talon rubbed a hand over his head before replying, “Has to be Purists, right?”
To my knowledge, the Hunters had been brought up to speed, but there was always a chance they were ahead of the curve, given their close proximity to the Shifter Council. “Any news on reverse engineering the scent suppressor?” When Tom, one of our wolves had been kidnapped, he’d been held in a small lab, which we’d confiscated while rescuing him.
“The samples degrade too fast when exposed to oxygen. We on
ly have a small sample left, so it’s slow going.”
I accepted the information with a nod, waiting for someone else to pipe up.
“Could you tell what kind of shifter he was?” Kel’s question was a good one.
“Bear. Though, with the fact that the trail was weak and without personal contact, it could very well have been a woman. Can’t rule it out.”
“Yep, women can be dangerous, too.” A quick check confirmed Mandy wasn’t kidding around, her eyes deadly serious. “Statistics actually say we’re less emotional, more strategic, and a whole lot colder when it comes to killing.”
You could almost hear the whole room scratching their heads, wondering what to say to that.
Clearing my throat, I flashed her a weak smile. “Of course, this sighting could be completely unrelated.”
“Don’t you mean sniffing?” Don queried, speaking up for the first time. He’d been a little subdued since coming off patrol with Ridge.
“And what do you mean unrelated?”
Internally, I winced at Kel’s question. “While we might be out here smoothing the way for the amendments to the Registration Act, we’re still acting as enforcers for our town, which was recently under attack from the Purists. Any shifter not registered is a credible threat. One using scent suppressor is a confirmed threat, whether they’re actively attacking or not.”
Kel didn’t flinch away at my clipped tone, instead giving me a considering look. “Two birds, one stone?”
If only he knew. “Yep.”
The lieutenant appeared to gather his thoughts, pinching the bridge of his nose before rubbing a hand over his head. “Okay. The target shifter is unknown. His or her motives and target are unclear, but he or she was last seen on the east side of the city. I want patrols focused in that area. I’ll advise that any perps brought in over the next week are held for—” he broke off, turning my way, “—how long does this suppressor last?”
“Last known info recommended up to 24 hours for it to wear off, depending on when the dose was given.”
“Okay, they’ll be held for 24 hours then, until one of you guys can check them out and sign them off as okay.”
Talon scoffed. “He won’t let himself be caught and he’ll be too strong for you humans to take down.”
Kel didn’t flinch. “If he’s trying to blend in with the humans, who knows. Better to be safe, than sorry.”
“And what’s the harm, right?” Chris chimed in. Poor guy had been teamed up with Talon today, which had obviously gone well, going by the freaked out look on his face. “We can hold them under possible domestic terrorism threat.”
Daryl looked unconvinced. “That’s a stretch.”
“It’s my city to protect.” Kel looked ready to butt heads with my friend.
Choosing to diffuse the situation, I herded the conversation around to the subject of training, which lightened the mood considerably. Smack talk bounced around the room, enticing even the new members of our team to break out of their shells and enter the scuffle for dominance. “Okay, enough talk. Time to hit the gym and put your money where your mouth is.” This was directed at Daryl, who’d spent the last ten minutes goading Kel into a fit of simmering fury.
Turning to the Lieutenant, I winked. “We’ve got the ring booked, right?”
“Hell, yeah,” he grunted, giving my friend the stink eye. “I call first round. You and me, sunshine,” He made a hand gesture at Daryl, who threw his head back in a fit of laughter, clutching at his stomach.
“Ten on the Lieutenant.”
“Put me down for ten on the wolf.”
“Shit, man. I don’t know.” Mandy scrunched her nose up. Kel glared at her and she winced. “Sorry, boss. Don’t worry, I’ve got you, boo.” Turning to Don, she shrugged. “Fifty on the boss.”
“I’ll take it. Fifty on the wolf.” Dante growled when Daryl blew him a kiss. His top lip curled up, flashing a fang. “Watch it, furball.”
“Aw, fang face, you care!”
“Daryl,” I muttered, reaching across and squeezing his shoulder. “Save it for the ring.”
My teammate rolled his shoulders, brushing my hand off, but flashed me a lazy grin. “Damn straight. Cocksucker’s going down, baby.”
“Exactly which one are you referring to?” I asked, since he’d so far managed to challenge nearly everyone in the room. When his eyes flashed to Kel, then narrowed, I bit back a groan of frustration, shaking my head. Well, maybe it would give him a chance to get whatever the hell was going on with him out of his system.
Sarah bounced to her feet, dragging Mandy up with her. “Shifters vs. humans. We’re going to talk strategy.” She flicked her fingers at the other cops, ushering them out of the room. “See you there in twenty.”
“Twenty,” I agreed, waiting until the door shut behind them and their footsteps had faded away, before turning to address the room. “Updates?”
“Nothing.” Talon’s short reply was echoed around the room.
Dante dragged a chair over, arranging himself in an elegant slouch. “I don’t know what the lion was hoping to achieve by sending us on this wild goose chase. The dirty cop isn’t going to reveal themselves.”
“Agreed.” Ridge cocked an eyebrow, as if to punctuate his answer. “We need to be proactive.”
I scratched at the stubble on my chin; they were just saying what I’d already been thinking. “The first step was to infiltrate their team and get the lay of the land. Another day and we’ll have a good idea of their normal routine, then we can engineer a situation to try and flush the traitor out into the open.”
Dante inclined his head in agreement. “The sooner the better.”
Daryl smirked. “Not enjoying your time here in the human world, dragon?”
“No.” Dante’s tone left no room for misinterpretation, his unbridled grimace of disgust backing it up.
I cleared my throat, gathering their attention. “Nita and Jake are ready to feed the traitor whatever information we tell them to.”
Talon and Ridge both nodded, Talon stretching in his chair until it balanced on two legs, defying gravity. “It’ll be good to get a little action around here. All this waiting around and pretending to be civilized is killing me.”
“Truth.” Ridge nodded, a look of eager anticipation curling at the corner of his lips.
Those of us from Heartsridge blinked at them.
“You two are seriously fucked up.” Daryl took the words right out of my mouth.
“What exactly do you do for the Council?” At my question, Dante scoffed. I swung around to him. “What?”
The dragon sighed, as if answering my question was a colossal hardship. “They are assassins. Ghosts. Hunters are chosen as children to serve and obey, they know no other life.”
Exactly as I thought, then, but I’d not known about the whole ‘life’ in service thing. Shit, that was a rough deal. Kinda made me feel sorry for the guys.
“Watch it, dragon,” Talon growled, easing up from his chair, large body bristling and eyes flashing gold.
“Do not think that for one second you are better than me in any way, hunter. I am a dragon and an ancient. I could end you, if I wanted to.” With that little speech, Dante stalked from the room, letting the door slam behind him.
“Well, shiiiit,” Daryl drawled out, sniggering. “Looks like I’d better say welcome to the gang, guys.” When both hunters stared at him with blank expressions, he rolled his eyes. “That asshole annoys the shit out of us, too.”
Chapter Six
Mandy
I hit the mat with a thud, immediately rolling into a crouch, peeling my heated sweat slicked skin off the cracked plastic and ignoring the fact that it smelled of old socks. In my periphery, I could hear bodies hitting the mats, grunts and thuds echoing as my squad sparred with their partners. We’d started with the ring and a one-on-one fight, between Daryl and Kel. Of course, Daryl had wiped the floor with my boss, but only after taunting him for what seemed like foreve
r. I don’t think I’d ever seen the boss quite so wound up and on edge; he wasn’t one to lose his cool, but the wolf shifter could get him going with just a look.
Grant had postponed Daryl and Dante’s fight indefinitely, reminding them that they were here to instruct the humans, not tease each other. Personally, I think he’d been worried about them demolishing the gym with us in it.
Getting my mind back on track, I pushed up from my knees and swung out, keeping my head low and my left arm braced across my face while I jabbed with my right, aiming for the gleaming six pack directly in front of my face.
“Fuck!” Grant curled in on himself, his eyes almost crossing as he stumbled back.
“Ah, crap, you moved!” Wincing, I offered him a hand, which he waved away, instead choosing to cup his groin. His bruised groin.
“S’kay, sweetheart,” he whimpered, trying to flash me a reassuring smile.
Damn. I’d hit him hard. “Seriously, I’m so—”
His foot hooked me behind the knee, his arms cradling me as he took me down to the ground, his hard form pressing me into the mat from hip to shoulder. Gray eyes met mine, smug and satisfied. “Never lose focus.”
I wriggled, trying to roll him, which only resulted in grinding up against him in the most distracting way. “Ass,” I grunted, digging in with my elbows. “That’s cheating, and you know it.”
He peered at me, cocky in his self-assurance. “An assailant wouldn’t hesitate to take you down.”
“I wouldn’t give a shit if I’d accidentally almost maimed an assailant. In fact, I would have followed that move up with an uppercut or a knee to the face.” I wriggled again, then froze when the hard lines of his body became a little … harder. Okay, that wasn’t really fair. Not so little.