by Cecilia Lane
Callum needed to take him out to the woods and put him down. It’d solve the problem before he got out of hand. Before he truly hurt someone, instead of just using some asshole’s face as a punching bag.
The firehouse was solemn as Callum lead him through the living quarters and out the front bay. The rest of the clan on duty wouldn’t look him in the eye. They focused instead on making their engine shine after the fire.
But instead of taking him into the woods behind the firehouse, Callum turned down the street toward town hall. Cole exhaled a silent curse and followed his brother and alpha. He didn’t know which he needed at that moment. He didn’t know which stalked down the street.
Callum led him into the quiet building. It was the weekend for most of the town, and the civil servants were playing house with their perfect families. Everyone except Mayor Olivia Gale, it seemed. One side of the mayor’s double doors stood wide open.
“You will sit here and wait,” Callum said tightly. He disappeared into the office without even looking at him.
Cole took a seat on the bench outside the office and rested his head against the wall. He felt empty. Drained. He couldn’t even manage to feel dread or anger about what it meant to be called to a meeting with the new mayor.
“He’s suspended,” Mayor Olivia Gale chirped before the door closed fully.
Bearden Town Hall was built to withstand just about anything thrown at it. It had to be when their guardians slept underneath the building. The Broken touched an orb given to them by powerful fae generations ago and that magic kept Bearden, and enclaves like it, hidden from the human world.
Only, humans had been let in on the secret and they weren’t happy.
And Mayor Gale couldn’t hide her displeasure even through thick walls. Cole could hear every word like he sat inside with them.
“Cole will not be taken off my team,” Callum countered. “He is an integral part of the clan, and you have no right to tell me how to run my people.”
“Clan business is your business,” Olivia snapped. “When he’s working as a firefighter, he is my business. We cannot afford to have anyone lose control. Those men on our borders are just waiting for an excuse to roll in here and take over. We have to keep the peace.”
“We can. We are. Today’s fight was just—”
“Needing to blow off some steam? Cole isn’t the only one to poke at the military’s patrols. I have reports of our people raiding the civilian camps, too. He’s just the first one to come to blows, and he did it in front of an audience. He’s out.” There was a dull thud, and Cole suspected it was a fist hitting the desk. Olivia’s or Callum’s he didn’t know.
Silence reigned for a long moment before Olivia spoke again, softer than before. “I was brought here because of my qualifications. I spent most of my time among humans. I’m serving Bearden in the best way possible. That means oversight, the kind of which humans are familiar. He has to be suspended. Temporarily. Until this blows over.”
The outer door opened again. Cole thought briefly of escape before he saw Leah entering. Her eyes flashed silver and held him in his place. There would be no slipping away when she had a monster bear waiting to slice him up, likely on Callum’s orders. Defeated, he let his head fall back and his eyes slip closed.
Leah took a seat next to Cole. “Never thought I’d be called to the principal’s office again,” she joked.
He opened his eyes and barely moved his head to focus on her. “Just... not now, okay? Can we just sit here?”
He expected her to get up and leave, but she only pat him on his knee and studied the ceiling tiles above them. His bear rumbled in his chest, but it wasn’t nearly as hateful as before.
Leah had slipped into her role as alpha’s mate with surprising ease for someone forcefully given an inner animal. He almost envied her. She knew where she belonged and it soothed those who got near her, even if she struggled with harnessing that power.
He thought he had his life figured out. Party and fuck around during his time off. Work like the devil was on his heels when he drew a shift in the firehouse. Everything was in balance and he operated just fine in the shadows. He plucked strings and moved people into the positions they needed to best help his father, and then Callum, for the good of the clan.
And then Pop got sick and Callum had to step up for Bearden. He got promoted to running the firehouse while Callum went to work as interim mayor. That was when everything went up in flames. He couldn’t keep the clan steady outside of the firehouse, and he couldn’t keep them focused as a crew at work.
He was glad for Callum to be back, truly. He was happiest working in the shadows. But nothing felt right anymore. His bear still wanted to fuck up anyone that moved.
He slid his eyes to Leah again. Maybe he needed to find a woman. Callum seemed happier than ever after taking the woman as his mate. But the idea of going out and trying to get laid didn’t do shit for his dick anymore.
The other side of that coin wouldn’t work for him, either. He didn’t want a mate or a long-term whatever. He saw firsthand how that could fuck a man right up. He lived the aftermath of his mother leaving his father. No happy ending waited at the end of a rainbow for him.
He needed to find his place in the clan, in Bearden, and in the world. And it looked like the one place he still loved was about to be snatched away.
Callum poked his head out into the waiting area. He threw Leah a vomit-inducing smile, then focused a scowl on Cole. “Inside,” he growled.
Swallowing his sigh, Cole pushed to his feet and entered the office.
Mayor Gale put her touches on the office as soon as she took the position. Gone were his father’s heavy desk and masculine decor. She’d even had the walls repainted to a lighter color. Tiny, delicate statues were mixed in with the books she’d added to the shelves. It was all different from the utilitarian look he remembered.
Cole expected Callum to leave as soon as he entered, but his brother remained. He almost laughed when both Callum and Olivia stared him down. Callum looked like he was ready to chew on rocks, while Olivia remained unimpressed. He wanted to call Leah inside and tell her it wasn’t the principal’s office at all. Mommy and Daddy were about to ground him.
Olivia herself was an impressive woman for such a small package. He thought it had something to do with her shifter nature. She was a bird of some sort, and that translated into her human appearance. She was thin all over and looked like she’d snap under the weight of her clothes. Her big eyes were something else, though. She had a way of looking straight into a person.
Cole tongued his teeth and directed a scowl her way. He did not need anyone peering into his darkness. His bear clawed at his insides, raking large agreements into his mind.
“So what’s it going to be? I’m fired from the firehouse? I can’t handle the pressure so you’re forcing me out?”
Olivia didn’t blink. “Do you think you can’t handle the pressure?”
Cole narrowed his eyes. “I can handle myself. I can do a better job than those humans out there. I found that family. I saved the mother and her kids. All four of them would be dead if I hadn’t been there.”
Olivia folded her hands on top of the desk and continued to look right through his rage. “I’m assigning you elsewhere for the time being.”
“Taking orders from the military now, are you?” he spat. If he could get that asshole Delano alone, he’d do more than break his nose and scratch up his face.
She went on as if he hadn’t rudely interrupted. “You’ll be guarding a scientist. She’s here to research us and the Broken. I have hopes she will—”
“Babysitting duty!” Cole exploded. “You’re pulling me from the firehouse to babysit some government broad?”
“Cole, you’re out of control,” Callum said thickly. A wave of power washed over him like he’d been tossed into cold water. It did little to cool him off.
He pointed to Callum. “I held the clan together while you were playing ma
yor and this is how I get repaid? This is fucked up.”
Olivia stood, though it barely made any difference from her height while seated. Her hand came down hard on the desk. “You are disgraced after your actions today. I can do whatever I want to you at this moment. I am choosing to have faith in your clan leader’s judgment because frankly, I don’t see your value.”
She slid a folder across the desk to him. “This is the request that I’ve signed off. One scientist, with access to our town on condition that she accepts one of our citizens as her guard at all times.
“You’ll watch her, make sure she isn’t harassed by any of our citizens. But you will also watch her. I want to know exactly why the government is sending in their scientist after weeks of the military on our border. I want to know who she talks to, what about, anything she does that doesn’t seem like it’s in our best interests. Bearden and the entire supernatural world took a blow with the fae attack. I won’t have something like that repeated again.” Olivia shrugged, making even that seem graceful. “And if you’re caught, you’ve already proven yourself to be unstable. How could we possibly know you’d spy on this poor woman?”
Cole paged open the folder. He thought there was an entire book inside. The font was tiny, and the pages went on and on, some with watermarks declaring the contents confidential. “Do I get a say in this?”
Callum shook his head. “This is the only way you’ll be allowed back in the firehouse.”
His bear roared in his head, but Cole ignored him. The beast was loud enough even when happy. What was a little extra noise when he wanted to let loose and rip into everything?
He pasted on the fakest smile he could manage. “When does she arrive?”
Chapter 3
Rylee hid her yawn behind her fist and flipped another page in her research binder. She’d been up since the crack of dawn, even though her flight didn’t leave Nevada until the afternoon. She’d been too excited for sleep, and she was paying for it dearly.
“Almost there, Ms. Garland,” her driver said quietly.
She nodded silent thanks without bothering to correct her title and shoved her glasses up her nose. Another turned page revealed a simple overview of the equipment sent to the clinic inside Bearden. Or rather, sent to the military camp, then kindly delivered to the edge of the enclave’s territory. One person had been given permission to enter Bearden, and that was her. She’d need to triple check everything was still sealed when she arrived to piece it all together.
Her driver made a sharp turn and the first camp appeared.
She’d been told about the civilian camps. Her binder even had an entry dedicated to them. They were wild, maddening places full of camp side debauchery. Even as her driver carefully picked his way up the mountain, she could see the revelers crossing the road in front and behind them. Hula hoops and beer cans were as common as signs proclaiming the end of the world or a person’s willingness to procreate with the supernatural.
It was a shame all new discoveries weren’t met with such enthusiasm.
The camps were spaced haphazardly up and down the side of the road. Some seemed to run into one another. There was little organization, as far as she could tell.
“Numbers keep growing every day. When one group leaves, three more are ready to fill their spot. The surrounding towns are having difficulty handling the overflow,” the driver explained.
“Have any made it into the enclave?” The car jerked to a sudden stop, and the driver blared on the horn while a man on stilts crossed behind a news van. Rylee recognized the logo on the side as the one of the station that first reported the existence of the hidden town.
“No one is allowed inside. Surprisingly, that’s one thing the enclave and military can agree on.” The car moved again, and they eased past the news crew.
What came after surprised her. She expected to see more of the civilian camps, with their crazy colors and even wilder signs. But the ground was burnt and broken wreckage lay in piles of ash. “What happened here?”
“Fire in one of the civilian camps. The shifters insisted on enacting regulations to avoid it happening again. Major Delano is in a huff about them ordering anything.”
“There’s nothing wrong with preventing fires,” she murmured.
One of her reasons for leaving the Nevada facility went up in smoke. Major Delano didn’t sound like a reasonable man. She’d hoped to run her new lab without any interference or ridiculous backstabbing like the kind she experienced at her previous assignment. But, she mused, working with the military meant dealing with bullheaded soldiers more often than not. She just wouldn’t have the cover of a supervisor to mollify any wounded egos.
She never expected her research career to take her deep into secret labs on hidden military bases, but she enjoyed her job. She was doing good for the world.
Recruited fresh out of university, she was set down into a world of security clearances and nondisclosure agreements longer than War and Peace. While other labs were trying to create new weapons, she worked to keep everyone healthy and whole. She’d taken on minor roles within larger teams working to undo the damages of chemical weapons and even speeding healing in battlefield conditions. It was a great honor to be selected to run the research lab in Bearden and report on the supernatural forces at work.
Being plucked out of her lab and thrown into the middle of nowhere Montana was a relief, actually. There was nothing significantly wrong with her life. She was paid well. She had good relationships with her family. But there was something lacking. Something she hadn’t quite been able to pinpoint. She hoped that time away from everyone and everything, with utter control over her research, would help her figure out what she was missing. And she wasn’t going to find it with Peter Glasser roaming the halls and breathing down her neck.
She’d been shocked to see him after so many years. Then that shock gave way to panic, and she spent her lunch hour desperately trying to stop shaking and get herself under control. She went home that night and submitted applications to transfer to every lab with an opening. Longshot promotion or downsizing her position didn’t matter as long as she stayed away from Peter.
The driver rounded another curve and the military camp sprawled in front of them. Both sides of the road were occupied, with a station near the entrance, similar to the checkpoint they passed through when they left the nearest human town. That one was to control the civilians making camp. This one ensured access solely to military personnel.
Her driver rolled down his window as he slowed to a stop, then held out his ID. “Delivering Rylee Garland to the base.”
The guard on duty took a look at the ID, then leaned into the car to confirm it was just her in the backseat. “Welcome to Bearden, Ms. Garland,” he said politely and waved them on.
Rylee closed her binder and slipped it into her carry on bag. The camp brought no big surprises. While she’d primarily stayed on the Nevada base, she and some of her colleagues had taken short trips to other bases and camps.
What the civilian camps lacked in organization, the military camp had in spades. Tents were erected in long rows, all wide enough to fit a vehicle down should the need arise. Her driver pulled up to the center of the camp, dipped inside for a brief moment, then drove her just a little further.
Rylee stepped out into the late spring evening, thankful for the door service. She stretched her back and reached for her bag, then eyed the surrounding activity.
There were few women that she could see. Most of the men were beefy giants. She could stand shoulder to shoulder with herself and still not span some of their widths.
Her first set of alarm bells started to ring. She was assured she’d be safe, both on base and off, though she never thought she’d feel safe again. One night in college was enough to fix terror firmly in her mind. Thinking of Peter made her freeze up, just like the night he used that against her.
Her driver opened up the trunk and pulled out her suitcase, then motioned to the nearest tent.
The alarms in her head rose to a clamor, but she still stepped inside. Surely there’d been a mistake.
There were no solid walls, no doors to lock. No privacy to be found. No safety. No security.
Rylee spun on her heel and bumped right into a large man entering the tent behind her.
“Ms. Garland,” the mountain rumbled, cigar bouncing between his lips with every word. Ugly slashes like claws ran across his face. “I’m Major Brant Delano. I assume everything is to your satisfaction?”
Rylee swallowed the heavy dose of panic that rose in her throat. The man took up far too much space in the little tent. She could barely stretch out inside, and now he was filling the entire thing with the stench of his cologne and cigar.
She staggered back one step, then another, until her back brushed against the canvas wall. Her breath heaved in her chest. It was like Peter all over again.
She tried to focus on his words. He wouldn’t hurt her. Not in the middle of the camp. Not with others right outside the flaps.
“... excited for you to get started on the shifter problem,” Delano was saying.
Rylee scrunched up her nose and shoved past the man. Her panic began fading as soon as she was in open air. She took several deep breaths and rounded on the man emerging from her tent, shifting her panic into anger and focusing it elsewhere.
Problem? What an insult to those poor people. They were simply living their lives in the safest way possible before their cover was blown. She saw no difference between them and herself. Their lives existed in one state, then suddenly, everything changed. Sure, they likely had something extra going on inside them, which was why she was there to study them, but they were still intelligent people. They deserved to be treated as such.
Major Brant Delano already made a horrible impression on her for not listening to common sense with fire hazards. His flippant reference to the people of Bearden sealed her dislike for the man.
“It just occurred to me, Major. I should probably be within the borders to keep an eye on my lab and properly work the problem, as you call it.” She pointed up the winding mountain road. “I trust someone is on their side of the border to walk me through? I’d like to get started immediately.”
