by Jenny Tia
“Sure.” I moved to open the front door, but he beat me to it and dramatically held the door open for me.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Stefan.” He extended his hand, and I shook it tentatively.
“Nice to meet you… I’m sorry, I forgot your name.”
“Robert. Robert Cunningham.”
“Robert. Sorry.”
He chuckled. “No problem. It’s on the card I gave you. In case you forget again.”
I would forget. On purpose. I ducked through the doorway and disappeared down the hall as I heard him call out a goodbye.
The next place was a small house on a quiet street with only three other houses on it. The serenity was palpable as soon as I stepped out of the car. As I walked up to the door, a bunch of yellow flowers in a large ceramic planter swayed in the gentle breeze. But once I was inside, I could tell the house was old and hadn’t been maintained. The gutters were overflowing with leaves, some of the windows wouldn’t open, and holes and scratches pockmarked the wooden floors. I could hear a bunch of roosters crowing loudly from just down the block.
The third place was an apartment in a newly constructed complex. There was a large courtyard garden with thoughtfully landscaped trees and a pond with fish and water lilies. But it was too sterile and manicured for my tastes.
I returned back to Casius and Julian’s to mull over my decision, only to find an empty house. Not once had I ever thought that was a bad thing, but right then, it didn’t feel right. I sighed and checked my watch. Judging by the time, I imagined Casius and Julian would be home soon, so I decided to go for a run after all.
By the time I had dashed up and down the incline of the woods in the guarded area, I was feeling a little better, but only marginally. I trotted down the hill toward the lake when a flash of movement caught my eye. I tilted my head to look up, and with my wolf vision, I could see a bird sitting on a high branch. I didn’t think anything of it, but a few minutes later I saw the same bird, sitting on another branch.
Is it watching me? No, that’s paranoid. God, I’m almost as bad as Julian these days.
Still, a sliver of cold crawled up my back and the hairs on my nape stood on end. I picked up my pace and ran toward the house where I would be decidedly safe.
I heard rustling in the leaves above me and looked up. There it was again, swooping amongst the branches in hot pursuit. Now I was certain it was following me. My heart started to pound frighteningly hard. I had never seen anything like this happen before. There were always plenty of birds in the woods around Goldleaf, but this one was on a mission. Was it a shifter? It was possible, but even if it was, what the hell was it doing following me?
When I reached the lake, I shifted back to my human form and glanced sidelong into the still waters. I saw the reflection of the hawk, its wings spread out wide and dark against the light blue sky. I gathered my clothes, jogged up the steps to the deck, and quickly hid in the locked house.
I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my pants and almost called Nic, but then I reconsidered. I didn’t want it to seem like I felt insecure enough to need protection. I didn’t need him. But there was no way I could call Julian, or even Casius. They didn’t need to worry about me or the strange hawk. Swallowing my pride, I dialed Nic’s cell.
“Stefan?” He evidently wasn’t expecting me to call either.
“Hey, Nic. Listen, I think we’re being spied on. Well, either Casius and Julian or me. I’m not sure really.” My voice came out rushed and shaken. I realized my hands were trembling.
“What do you mean? Did something happen?”
“A hawk was following me in the woods. Except I think it was a shifter. But I don’t know anything about wolf shifter and hawk shifter relations. Are Everglow wolf shifters in cahoots with any other shifters?” My heart was still pounding, and I could hear my pulse rushing in my ears.
“Shit,” Nic said softly. “Make sure all the doors are locked. I’ll be over soon.”
“Am I in danger?”
“Just do as I said, and don’t go outside until I get there.”
“Nic!”
“It’s fine. You’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”
“God…” I grabbed one of my shawls and dragged it across my shoulders, hugging it close for comfort.
“I’ll be there soon. Don’t move.”
Suddenly, for the first time in years, I wasn’t okay with being alone. I put my hand to my chest as a sob threatened to break free. I was being stupid, but that didn’t stop tears from slipping down my cheeks. Wiping them away, I chastised myself again. It was just all the changes I’d endured. First the attacks, then Julian moving to Everglow, me finding my mate—
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to think about Nic. Not like that. I just needed someone to help me, and he was the only one available. I sank onto the couch and pulled my knees up to my chest. I rested my chin on my knees and wrapped my shawl around myself as I wondered what the hell was happening in this city.
15
Nicolas
I had a heavy heart when I got home from the hospital, and it was a mood I couldn’t seem to shake. After doing some shopping and putting it away, I was halfway through building a sandwich that was more like a work of art than a snack, when I heard my ringtone. I licked mustard off my fingers and fished my phone out of my pocket.
I glanced at my phone and my stomach flipped.
“Stefan?” I was surprised to hear my voice shaking, but the minute Stefan asked for my help, my wolf was on high alert, and its focus kept me calm. If it hadn’t been for its sharp instincts, I would have been running around in circles, looking for someone to fight. Stefan had sounded so scared on the phone as he told me what happened with the hawk, and his tone had instantly put me into protector mode.
“I’ll be there soon. Don’t move.”
After I ended the call, I stared at my phone and thought tactically. Casius was still at the hospital, and I sure wasn’t going to pull him away from his newborn baby to check up on Stef. Besides, there was one other person I could call on. I dialed the official number and shook my head as I did. Normally, I’d be full of nerves doing it, but doing something to protect my mate gave me a level of confidence I’d never known.
“Supreme Mansion. I’m screening all incoming calls, who is this?” A snarky voice asked on the other end of the line. It was not who I was expecting.
“Nicolas Black. Who is this? Can I speak to Alpha Hughes, please?”
“Oh, Nicky!” The grating, sing-song voice gave it away. It was Alpha Hughes’s obnoxious son. He was around my age, but he acted like a fifteen-year-old having his first heat pretty much twenty-four seven.
“Oh. Hello, Sloan.”
“What are you doing today, Nic-nak? Heard you also found a Goldleaf piece. You and Casius have such similar taste, huh?”
I growled. “Put me through to Alpha Hughes right now!”
“Ugh, fine. You’re so boring.”
The phone clicked and then purred out the official ringtone of the Supreme Mansion.
“Nicolas?” Alpha Hughes sounded confused as he answered his office phone.
“Alpha Hughes, I know I’m jumping rank by calling you directly, but Casius just had a baby and—”
“He did? Great moon, I have to get to the hospital—”
“No! Alpha Hughes, listen—” To my surprise, he did. He stayed silent while I explained the situation to him, and he let out a heavy breath when I finished.
“Understood. I’ll meet you there with some guards. We’ll scout the area.”
“Thank you, Alpha Hughes.” I sighed and felt some stress leave my shoulders.
“No problem. And Nic, thank you for calling me directly. You’re not jumping rank. You can speak directly to me anytime. You’ve earned my respect, ten times over.”
“Th-thank you, sir. Wow. Thank you.” I ran a hand over my face and looked up at the ceiling, feeling completely overwhelmed.
“I’ll mee
t you there.”
Alpha Hughes ended the call and I stood, frozen in place. Should I shift and run to Casius’s? No, we might need a quick escape and I’d want my truck with me. I grabbed my keys.
The drive around the Supreme Mansion to Casius’s house took just as long as the run straight across would have, but I did feel more confident as I pulled up in my truck than I would have if I’d have run here. Thinking about hawks spying on me from above sent a shudder down my back. When I pulled into Casius’s driveway and glanced in the rearview mirror, four trucks with blacked-out windows were closing in behind me. My stomach dropped. I clutched the wheel tighter and started looking for escape routes. But I was almost at Casius’s house, and there was nowhere to turn off. Shit. Had I led the humans straight to Stefan?
I fumbled with the glove compartment but managed to get it open, and then I grabbed the revolver I kept there and skidded to a stop. Tires crunched and skidded on gravel behind me. I crouched down, put in the clip, and peered into the side-view mirror.
Bright silver flashed in my eyes.
Everglow uniforms scrambled out of the trucks behind me.
I sighed in relief and slipped the gun in my pocket as I jumped out of the truck.
A lanky Inner Guard trotted over, crossed one arm over his chest, and lowered his head in salute. He was young, probably only twenty or so, but he was older than the teenagers milling around behind him doing their best to stay still and stand up straight in their well-starched uniforms.
Most of the group was male, but there were two girls who looked like they’d just finished school. It was good to see our female shifters wanting to join what was predominately a male role.
“Sir!” The young guard stood at attention and waited for my orders. I’d never been particularly good at bossing around younger protectors, but there was no one else here to tell them what to do.
“Scouts?” I looked over his shoulder at the group.
“Yes, sir! Sent by Supreme Alpha Hughes, sir!”
There was no sign of Alpha Hughes coming up the driveway, so I guessed it was up to me to direct them in their search. I gave them a quick rundown of what to look for—hawks, strange markings in trees, anything suspicious, strange or new scents. They shifted and took off in two well-organized packs, each toward the woods on either side of Casius’s house. I hurried up the gravel path to the porch. No sign of hawks overhead, but my wolf whined in worry. Stefan had sounded really frightened. I thumbed in the code for the door.
The lock beeped at me but the door didn’t open.
Wrong code.
Maybe my fingers had slipped. I tried again. Nope… Wrong code.
“What the hell?” I tried again and got beeped at again. It was the same number I’d put in thousands of times. Frustrated, I tried once more, and then I remembered the new security measures Casius had told me about—the code got changed every three days.
“Shit.”
I stepped back and sized up the door. I wondered how the thick wood would stand up against my shoulder… Or more appropriately, how my shoulder would stand up against the wood if I threw myself against it in an attempt to bust through and protect my mate. My shoulders were muscled and strong, but the door was solid and reinforced with steel hinges. Still, I backed up ready to try and smash it in, when the door opened.
Stef poked his head out through the crack and peered at me with a frown. He squinted, his eyes red. “What are you doing out here?”
“Trying to get it open. Are you okay? Are you alright? Get inside, we need to get inside.” I hurried through the doorway and pushed him back into the entrance. I shut the door firmly behind us. My heart pounded. But Stef was safe.
I turned to him and looked him over with concern. He’d wrapped himself in a bright gold shawl and was trembling like a leaf, but a grateful smile pulled at his lips.
“Are you okay?” I ran my hands over his arms and checked him for injuries. Nothing obvious. But the fact that he was shaking worried me.
“I’m fine. I’m… I’m just scared. What’s going on?”
I cupped his cheeks and pressed my forehead against his. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. We’ve got scouts in the woods. We’ll figure out what’s going on.”
Stefan nodded. He didn’t pull away. In fact, he pushed his cheek into my hand.
The door buzzed. I jumped and spun around, on full alert. My wolf snarled.
“Whoa, stand down, soldier.” Alpha Hughes held up his hands in surrender, and my wolf instantly fell silent in obedience. I sighed heavily as the weight of responsibility lifted from my shoulders. The Supreme Alpha was here.
And so was the Alpha Select, right behind him. I raised my eyebrows in surprise as Casius pushed past Alpha Hughes.
“What the hell is going on? Any updates?” His voice was gruff and held a hint of anger.
Alpha Hughes looked at me as if I’d have any information about the situation.
“The uh, the scouts just got here, I sent them into the woods.” I hated how my voice came out strained and showed how over my head I was. I wondered if Stefan hated it too. Maybe his hesitation toward me was because I was a beta, and he wanted to hold out for an alpha even though I was his mate. I swallowed my insecurity and pressed on with what was important.
“Casius, I thought you were at the hospital?”
“I need to secure my home if I’m going to bring my baby girl here.”
“Let’s discuss it together.” Alpha Hughes closed the door and motioned for us to all move into the living area.
Stefan hugged his shawl tighter around his shoulders and stood at the tall glass doors, looking out at the woods. Wolves darted back and forth through the tree line, running a scouting pattern that zigzagged through the brush.
I stood next to Stef, and he leaned in close to me. We didn’t touch, but I could feel the cold of fear radiating off him.
Alpha Hughes cleared his throat from the middle of the room. “Stefan. I understand from Nicolas’s report that you saw something in the woods. Could you tell Casius and me what happened?”
Stef nodded. “I was running. Not far from here. I even stayed in the patrolled area. Something caught my eye, and I didn’t think much of it but then…” He took a breath and glanced back out the glass doors. “Then as I ran, the hawk followed me. I just knew right away that something was wrong. Something is wrong. It followed me like it was watching me, really closely. Closer than any hawk I’d ever seen before. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it’s normal for Everglow, maybe this is all stupid—”
“No.” I put a hand on Stef’s shoulder. “You were right. That is strange.”
Alpha Hughes and Casius shared a look. I knew what they were thinking. Was one of our hawk shifter allies feeding information to the humans?
“Dominic?” Alpha Hughes frowned.
Casius shook his head. “He checked in a few days ago, and he’s keeping an eye on the human camp. Other shifters have confirmed the intel he’s been giving us. And the human camp is too far from here for it to have been him.”
Alpha Hughes nodded. “It’s time we speak with the other Alphas and find out if this is happening elsewhere.”
Casius nodded and turned toward his office when a sudden flash of fur passed by the windows. Cas immediately opened the glass doors and whistled loudly. A pattering of paws thundered across the yard as the group of scouting wolves rushed from the woods to the porch. The oldest of the young guards ran to the front of the group. He carried something in his jaws and dropped it at Casius’s feet.
“What is it?” I peered over Cas’s shoulder.
“Feathers,” he whispered.
The guard shifted into his human form and saluted to Casius and Alpha Hughes. “No sign of the hawk, sirs.”
“No sign? These look like hawk feathers.” Casius raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. We found these feathers, and we all caught a scent. But we couldn’t find any hawk. It might be gone.”
Ca
sius grunted. “Mm. It might be. Or it might still be nearby. Good work but get back out there and see what else you can find.”
“Half of you scout, the other half will stay posted for extra security for this home,” Alpha Hughes added.
The protector nodded, shifted, and led the rest of his pack back into the woods.
Stefan sat on the couch with his shawl tight around his shoulders, staring out at the forest. I hovered by him as Casius and Alpha Hughes made their way to Cas’s office.
“You want a cup of tea? Maybe Julian has some mushrooms that will help your nerves?”
Stefan scrunched up his nose, but he didn’t look at me.
Cas cleared his throat, and I met his eyes. “Coming?”
“Me?”
“Obviously. You’re my second in command, I need you in here.”
I’d almost forgotten. I nodded and followed him. His home office was like a miniature version of Alpha Hughes’s, except there were no creepy family portraits or ancient books littering the walls. But it did have a big desk, some comfortable chairs, and hardly any space to move around. I’d been there countless times before, but that day felt different. The room seemed more official. I felt like I was part of something that would go down in history forever. It felt important, but it also made me nervous as hell.
I sat beside Alpha Hughes, and Casius took his seat behind the desk. He grabbed a phone to call the Supreme Mansion and got a conference call set up with the Alphas of the closest packs to Everglow—Alpha De León of the Glendale pack and Alpha James Rowan of the Southlake pack.
“Any updates on your end, Alpha De León?” Alpha Hughes leaned close to the phone and raised his voice, even though the microphone was definitely sensitive enough to pick up his normal speaking volume.
“An attack yesterday. No one was injured, but two supply trucks from farmlands were destroyed.”
“What were the trucks carrying?”
“Sorry, Alpha Hughes, I couldn’t hear you, there was feedback through the phone?”
Cas placed a gentle hand on Alpha Hughes’s shoulder and eased him back in his chair.
