“We can’t all be Shifters.”
Joshua could heal from any wound, never got sick, and would live for the rest of eternity, but he couldn’t Change into a wolf or coyote during the full moon, and the rest of the Alpha Pack never let him forget it. Not that it bothered him. After a lifetime of being on his own, Joshua had found a place to belong. Shifters and Seers might not be the same as Immortals, but they knew what it was like to live apart and different from the rest of society. They knew who and what he was, and no one wanted to dissect him or burn him at the stake.
Well, there was a chance Scout wanted to dissect him, but he figured she’d be wrapped up in that whole where-do-Shifters-come-from research for at least the next quarter century or so.
“So, tell me Immortal,” the mad scientist in question said, “why is it you can’t play personal servant… I mean bodyguard to the munchkin?”
Joshua pulled himself up onto his elbows. The movement didn’t make his shoulder happy, but he’d been in worse pain before, so he soldiered on.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I got shot tonight.”
“Nope, didn’t notice how I’ve been trying to smooth things over with the police for the past two hours at all,” Scout said. “Thanks for that, by the way. Nothing I love more than a good cover-up mission in the hours before dawn. It’s an extra-special way to get you up and moving in the morning.”
“I do what I can to liven things up around here. All this wedding planning stuff was getting boring, so I thought, ‘Hey, why not go out and get yourself shot?’ Worked out rather nicely, don’t you think?”
His words hit their mark. Nothing shut the Alpha Female up faster than reminding her they were all back in Timber and chilling at its most illustrious resort for her pending nuptials. For the most powerful Shifter on the planet, she was surprisingly cowardly when it came to what some enterprising Seer had termed The Wedding of the Millennium.
Her mate/fiancé, however, didn’t have the same hang up.
“Hanging out with Angel seems like the ideal assignment,” Liam said. “All you have to do is drive her around and keep her out of Scout’s hair. You don’t need your shoulder for that, do you?”
“Any other time I would agree, but…” Joshua tried to think of how he could word what he needed to say without saying too much in front of Rebecca. “In light of recent events, I think someone who is at full capacity should be with Angel.”
The fine lines around Rebecca’s eyes got deeper, but she said, “They already burned my house to the ground. What more do you think they’re going to do?”
The members of the Alpha Pack all shared a look, one they hoped Rebecca didn’t see. The truth was, there was much more that could be done. There was much more they were threatening to do.
The Society for Human Preservation, or as they liked to sign their loving correspondence, SHP, made their first strike against the Alpha Pack a little over two years ago. They’d recruited a pair of students at the college Scout attended. The two managed to kill a Shifter, deface an Alpha Pack vehicle, and burn down a building with a future Alpha Pack member inside before they were caught. The week the two students stood in front of a judge and pled guilty, the first letter arrived. In it, the writers identified themselves as The Society for Human Preservation, a group formed to protect the humans of the world from the unnatural, and then they declared war on the Shifters and Seers.
As far as wars went, this one was pretty low key and hadn’t really required much time and attention from the Alpha Pack. Other than the effort they’d put into tracking down who exactly these zealots were, there hadn’t been much in the way of battle until recently.
The first report came from a small pack in Wales. The Pack Leader called to inform his Alphas someone had set up traps on private land where his pack ran during the full moon. One of his sons had been caught, the damage so severe the Change couldn’t heal him. In the end, they had to amputate the boy’s leg. He was only fifteen.
Two days later, a letter came to the Den boasting about de-pawing one of hell’s hounds. It was signed SHP.
The following week a Seer went missing in Dubai. She turned up four days later, pumped so full of drugs she couldn’t remember her name. She had no idea where she’d been or what had happened to her. The only thing she was certain of was the new SHP tattoo on her shoulder.
The biggest blow had come last week. The Donovan home, where Scout and Jase’s parents and little sister lived, went up in flames. Luckily, the Donovans were out that night, so no one was hurt, but the house had been reduced to ashes. Again, a letter was delivered to the Alpha Pack. This one said, “We do not accept responsibility for the humans who have chosen to align themselves with the abominations of earth. All will perish. All will burn.”
It was signed SHP.
“Mom, you look beat,” Scout said. “Why don’t you go ahead and go to bed? We’ll clean up in here and keep an eye on Joshua.”
Some mothers would have protested. They would have demanded to be a part of the conversation and know what was going on. Rebecca Donovan wasn’t one of those women, at least not when it came to anything dealing with Shifters. If she could, Rebecca would happily go through her life pretending her children were completely normal and Shifters were simply a thing from fairytales. Unfortunately, her daughter went out and made herself the queen of the Shifters, so turning a blind eye wasn’t really an option anymore, but that didn’t stop Rebecca from trying. She would paste on a smile and shake hands with the Pack Leaders from around the world who came to witness the union between the Alpha Male and Alpha Female, and she would dig bullets out of Joshua’s shoulder and sew up the wounds, but she refused to do any more than necessary. The more she could distance herself from the supernatural world, the better in her opinion.
So, instead of sticking around and demanding to know what potential threats remained, she said her goodnights and went up to bed.
“No, it’s okay, Mom. We’ll handle this by ourselves just like we have everything else over the past five years. No big. We’re fine, but thanks for your concern.” Jase’s sarcastic words hinted at an old hurt, one Joshua knew wouldn’t be easily healed. Still, he had to give it a try.
“She found out Shifters existed the night your father was shot in his coyote form,” Joshua reminded his friend. “And then, seventeen years later, her adopted daughter Changed and everyone and their brother tried to kill her because of it. You can’t really blame the woman for not running toward Shifter culture with open arms.”
Jase grabbed Joshua’s bloodied shirt from the table and tossed it into the unlit fireplace. “She’s my mother. I can blame her for whatever emotional damage I choose. It’s the American way.”
Joshua wanted to push the subject, but didn’t. They had more urgent matters to deal with at the moment. He would say something to Jase’s mate and let her talk to him. Talley was better at that sort of thing anyway.
“I can’t guard Angel,” he said instead. “I heal faster than a human, but it will still be a few days before this arm is fully functional. We can’t risk it.”
“What we can’t do is let out the word she’s a target,” Liam said, cutting his apple into strips with the fancy ceremonial knife a Pack Leader from Africa had gifted him with the day before. “If the letter is legit, then our good friends at the SHP have a mole, and I don’t want to run the risk of letting them know by obviously beefing up Angel’s security.”
Scout’s jaw clenched. “And I don’t want my little sister to die.”
Just two days ago another letter arrived at the Den. It didn’t look like any of the other SHP letters, which is what made them think it was an SHP letter. So far, none of them had arrived in the same kind of envelope, had the same style of handwriting, or had even been mailed from the same country. This one was printed in tiny, neat letters on a letter sent from Scotland.
They will kill me if they know I’m telling you this, but I cannot let them take another young girl. I do not know
who she is, only that she is yours and they will stop at nothing to have her. They say she is special to you. If she is truly special, then you will guard her and keep her safe. Don’t let them take her. There are fates worse than death.
It hadn’t been signed. Scout had put it in the hands of several trusted Seers. Their best bet had been Heather, a Seer from the Chicago area who could See the past of any object she held in her hand. They’d given her every other correspondence they’d received from SHP, but she was never able to get anything useful from them. Each of the letters had traveled too far and passed through too many hands and machines for her to get a clear read on who wrote it. With the newest one she could only See a woman’s hand quickly writing the words and then sliding it across a worn wooden counter.
Angel Donovan was the very definition of “innocent bystander” in all of this. Sure, her half-sister was the Alpha Female and one of the first surviving female Shifters in centuries, and her half-brother was one of the most dominant coyote Shifters in recent history, but Angel was as human as they came. She barely knew about the secret world her siblings inhabited, and unlike Ada, she was literally twelve years old. The entire Alpha Pack was ready to claw out the throat of anyone who thought of harming her, which Scout knew.
Instead of snapping back, Liam turned and grazed his thumb down Scout’s jawline.
“We will keep her safe. I promise.”
“I know. It’s just…” Scout took a deep breath. “She’s my little sister.” The words sounded as if they’d been wrung out of her, and Joshua knew exactly what she meant. He couldn’t even think about something happening to the little monster without an acute sense of panic setting in.
“Which is why we need someone at their full strength on her,” Joshua said. “How about Charlie? He and Maggie can tag team. She likes them.”
Liam shook his head. “No, they’re running the Den and won’t be in Lake County until next Friday.”
“Robby?”
Jase snorted. “She hates Robby.”
“Then how about you?” Joshua asked. “You’re her brother. It would make sense for you to be seen with her constantly.” But Joshua could tell that suggestion was going to get shot down before he even finished saying it.
“One, Angel would much rather harass you than me. And two, I’m on Talley detail.”
“Funny. I thought Talley was on Talley detail.” Jase’s mate was like Dirty Harry with a gun and one of the most talented Seers alive. Even the people who were just sitting around waiting for the day Scout and Liam fell flat on their faces and quit being Alphas treated Talley with respect and reverence. There was nowhere safer for her than in the middle of a huge gathering of Shifters and Seers, even if she couldn’t shoot the smirk off a Jack of Clubs. “You just don’t want to be stuck painting fingernails and listening to Radio Disney.”
“We need Jase to play diplomat with the other packs,” Liam said, shooting Joshua down yet again. Normally Joshua liked the Alpha Male, but Liam was becoming more of a pain than the bullet wound in his shoulder.
Bracing both hands on the table, Joshua pushed himself up. The pain was white hot, and it radiated into his brain and stomach. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he balanced himself on his knees and then carefully moved himself around until he was sitting on the edge of the table. The edges of his vision started closing in on him, but he fought it off.
“It’s my right shoulder,” he said more to the floor than his friends. He didn’t like admitting weakness, not even to those he knew would never judge him for it. Warriors weren’t supposed to be weak. He was a protector, and admitting he couldn’t keep someone he loved safe hurt him more than any bullet ever could. “I’m not Inigo Montoya or the Dread Pirate Roberts. It’s right-handed or nothing, and I won’t be swinging a sword with this shoulder for at least three or four days. I won’t leave Angel at risk like that. I can’t.” He met Scout’s eyes. “We might not share blood, but she’s still my family.”
The corner of Scout’s mouth tilted up. “Which is why I trust you, and only you, to protect her.”
“My shoulder—”
Scout slid off the counter and walked over until she stood in front of Joshua’s knees. Her eyes, which were a piercing blue so light they almost appeared as colorless as her skin and hair, met his with a challenge.
“Hit me,” she said.
“What?”
“Take your left hand, squeeze it into a fist, and then punch me as hard as you can in the face.”
Joshua thought Liam would step in, but the Alpha Male seemed unfazed by his bride-to-be’s request.
“I’m not going to hit you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m an Immortal.”
“So?”
“So I don’t care if you can Change and fix the damage, I’m not going to break half the bones in your face.”
The same corner of Scout’s mouth jerked upwards again. “Are you saying you’re so freakishly strong you could shatter my face with one punch? With one punch from your left hand?”
“Scout—”
“And tell me, old man, how long before you can aim and fire a gun?”
Joshua could feel the muscle near his left eye twitching. “You know I don’t like guns any more than you do.”
“More or less than you like the idea of someone hurting Angel?”
Joshua glared at her for a full two minutes, but Scout just stood there with that stupid smirk on her face. “Fine,” he finally said, “but you will all keep your phones on you always.” He turned to Jase. “And you will keep the volume turned on. If I get so much as a gas pain that doesn’t feel quite right, I’m calling in backup.”
“And we’ll be there before you can get your Tums chewed up and swallowed,” Scout said.
Chapter 4
“Where are you going?”
Ada jumped a good three inches in the air and let out a very unbecoming squeak.
“What are you doing here?” she gasped out over the pounding of her heart. “Were you just waiting outside my door to try to scare me to death?”
Hanging out on front porches in hopes of giving someone a heart attack wasn’t normally Marsden’s idea of a good time, but he’d been acting weird since she’d left him in the hotel room one of her friends at Lake’s Edge had snuck them into the day before. Like the dutiful boyfriend he was, he’d shown up at the hospital last night and said all the comforting and concerned words her parents expected him to say, but Ada couldn’t shake the feeling he wasn’t really speaking to her, but instead reciting words from a script. Instead of sitting next to her bed and holding her hand while she endured an extra treatment for the day, he’d stood against the wall, paying more attention to the Big Bang Theory rerun silently playing on the television.
“I was coming to see you,” he said as though she was one of the little old ladies from church they went to visit every Sunday afternoon at the nursing home. “I thought we could… you know…” His gaze dropped to her very modest breasts, which were successfully hidden by a burgundy Serenity Shores polo. “Talk.”
Talk? Talking wasn’t really what she and Marsden did. They went out with friends or hung out and watched TV together. They made out. Sometimes, they texted each other, but that was about it. The thought of spending hours struggling to come up with conversation topics was completely unappealing.
“My parents are in Nashville for the rest of the day,” he said. “They won’t be back until midnight or so. You can come over. It’ll be nice and quiet. Private.”
Oh.
Wait.
That kind of talking. The kind where you didn’t wear clothes.
In her head, Ada was back in the motel room. The mauve and teal bedspread. The Monet prints hanging on the wall.
The disappointment.
“I’m on my way to work,” Ada said, suddenly unable to meet his gaze. “Maybe tomorrow we could… I don’t know… find a place…” Although the absolute last thing she wanted to do was f
ind a place. She didn’t realize how much she didn’t want to until she said it. Surely this wasn’t the normal reaction to losing your virginity.
Ada tried to step around him, but he caught her arm. “Your dad said you weren’t working today. And we need to talk. I’ve been thinking about yesterday, and—”
“Sorry, but I’m on the schedule,” Ada cut in, stopping the conversation before it had a chance to happen.
“Ada, babe, they can’t expect you to work after what happened last night.” His hand slid down her arm until he could twine his fingers with hers. “You need to rest. You don’t want to end up back in the hospital. Come on.” He tugged her back toward the door, but she wouldn’t budge.
“I’m fine,” she said for perhaps the hundredth time since getting into the ambulance last night. “Really. Couldn’t feel better.” She tried again to slip out of his grasp, but he held on tight. She wanted to snap at him, but he had that look on his face, the one that made her feel like she was the most important thing in his world. Interestingly, it was also the one that made her feel like a worm. A worm made entirely out of guilt. A guilt worm. “Marsden—”
“I almost lost you last year,” he said, tracing her bottom lip with his thumb. “And last night, when your dad called to tell me you’d been in the middle of a shootout—”
“It was hardly a shootout. One jacked up crackhead fired one bullet.”
“It was like I was back in that hospital room watching you fight for every breath. I can’t go through that again, Ada.”
“And I can’t sit in a glass bubble watching life happen around me.”
This argument was one she’d had so many times, she could switch over to autopilot. She would argue a life wasn’t really a life unless you were living it, and whoever she was arguing with - her mother, her father, or Marsden - would argue she wasn’t like other people. They would tell her how much they loved her and how much it would hurt when she was gone. Sometimes she let the guilt win and relented.
Infinite Harmony Page 3
