Midnight Wolf (A Shifters Unbound Novel)

by Jennifer Ashley

  What had he expected—a meek, terrified little Shifter falling at Dylan’s feet and begging him to be gentle with her?

  Maybe not, but Dylan obviously had expected Tamsin to be cowed and nervous. Tamsin was nervous, Angus could tell from the way she clutched the bottle, but she wasn’t about to let Dylan and Sean see that.

  “What do you want?” Angus asked without preliminary. “We’re tired, and Ciaran needs to sleep.”

  “I want to talk.” Dylan gestured to one of the beds. “Ciaran can lie down if he needs to.”

  “I’m not tired.” Ciaran’s sagging body contradicted the statement, but he lifted his chin in defiance.

  Tamsin walked past Sean and then gave a sudden twisting leap to land on one of the beds, her back to the headboard. “Come and sit with me, Ciaran,” she said, patting the covers. “We’ll let the big bad Shifters talk.”

  Ciaran went readily to the bed, setting his bottle on the nightstand, and climbed up to settle in next to Tamsin, his back to the headboard. Tamsin smiled down at him as Ciaran snuggled into her, and slid her arm around him.

  Sean took a chair from the desk and straddled it wrong way around, resting his arms on its back. Dylan remained standing, and so did Angus.

  “Just a chat, lad.” Dylan’s voice was deceptively quiet. He could sound like the most reasonable man alive, living only to throw back a pint with his sons and friends. Then he’d look you in the eye and tell you what he really wanted. “I heard through the grapevine that you were helping an un-Collared Shifter woman run from the Bureau.”

  “That would be me,” Tamsin said, lifting her hand.

  Sean sent her an amused look. “We figured. By the grapevine, he means Ben, who mentioned it to me. Ben’s motive wasn’t to get you into any trouble,” he said quickly to Tamsin. “He was worried about you. So this Bureau shit took Ciaran?”

  Ciaran answered. “Yep. Locked me in a crypt. I didn’t even know what a crypt was until I was in one. At least it had a TV. But they mostly used the TV for a computer feed. Weird place for a hideout.”

  “Clever place,” Dylan said. “Humans don’t mind looking at monuments to the dead, but they don’t like going inside the tombs, especially at night. The agents knew they’d be relatively undisturbed.”

  He switched his stare to Tamsin. Tamsin looked boldly back at him, not dropping her gaze like a good submissive. Tamsin had either learned to suppress the instincts that all Shifters had to not make eye contact with one more dominant, or else she was dominant herself. Or maybe fox Shifters had a different view of the hierarchy.

  “So you ran with Gavan?” Dylan asked her.

  Angus jumped. He didn’t remember talking to anyone but Tamsin and Haider about that.

  “Ran a little bit with Gavan, a long time ago,” Tamsin said. “Why?”

  Dylan glanced at Angus. “Gavan was, you could say, a bit extreme. I checked you out, Angus, pretty thoroughly before I talked to you, because of what I heard about your brother. He had good intentions but bad tactics.”

  “He didn’t have any tactics at all,” Angus said impatiently. “Except to have his own way or kill everyone else trying to get it. He ended up dead in the end, didn’t he?”

  Dylan acknowledged this with a nod. Neither of them mentioned the other person who’d ended up dead because of Gavan—Angus’s mate, April. Angus didn’t like to bring that up in front of Ciaran.

  “You didn’t know much about Gavan’s activities,” Dylan said. “You told me that right away, and I believed you. But she knows.”

  He turned his body so he could take in Tamsin without giving Angus any attack advantage. Dylan had spent his entire life making sure he held the best position in the room.

  Tamsin gave him a bright look. “You want to know Gavan’s favorite color and what movies made him cry? I hate to disappoint you all, but I wasn’t as close to Gavan as everyone thinks. I was idealistic and naïve when I joined him, and I left when my idealism faded. I wasn’t his bestie, or his lover, or even his dreamy-eyed admirer.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Dylan said, pinning her with his blue gaze. “You, lass, are one of the few left who knew him and what he did. Tell me what you remember.”

  Tamsin touched her chin. “Let’s see. His favorite color was puce, and he really liked The Sound of Music. Wept every time the kids stood on the stairs and sang before going up to bed.”

  “Oh, hey, I saw that movie,” Ciaran said. “I liked when the nuns sabotaged the cars so the family could get away from the Nazis.”

  “Yeah, I liked that too,” Tamsin said. “The song is how I learned to say Auf Wiedersehen. It’s German for until we see each other again. Such a nice, succinct phrase.”

  “Is that what that means?” Ciaran tried it a couple of times, and Tamsin helped with his pronunciation.

  Dylan, who must have met and dealt with Shifters from every type of personality in his long life, waited patiently until she and Ciaran finished.

  “Anything you can tell me will be a help,” he said, his voice calm.

  “Goddess, does no one believe me when I say I don’t know anything? Gavan never confided in me.” Tamsin sat up straight and tapped her chest. “I. Don’t. Know. Anything.”

  Dylan only gave her a quiet look. “I’m an old Shifter, as my sons like to remind me. That means to me, you’re little more than a cub, and I have several hundred years of experience on you. I also have a finely developed sense of smell, even in my human form. I can scent a lie at a hundred paces. You know more than you admit, Tamsin Calloway.”

  She didn’t blink. “I lie about tons of things. Which one are you scenting?”

  Ciaran gave a gleeful chuckle. Angus could see him storing up the line to use himself one day.

  Angus took a deliberate step and put himself between Dylan and the bed. “Enough. She knew my brother but he didn’t confide in her. She told me all this—you could have asked me instead of bringing her in for an interrogation. Ciaran’s tired, and it’s time to go.”

  Dylan didn’t move. “I agree—you should take your son home, or at least somewhere to sleep. The house I share with Sean is open to you, and I’ll keep Shifter Bureau off your back so you can take us up on our offer of hospitality.”

  “Or we could stay here,” Angus said. “I can come up with the price of a motel room.”

  “If you’ll take advice from a father who raised three sons from hell, best you get your cub indoors in a real house. He’ll be safer in a Shiftertown and have a home-cooked meal. Sean and his mate will see to that.”

  Angus noted several things about this speech. First, that Dylan mentioned three sons—Sean, Liam, and Kenny. Kenny had been killed by feral Shifters years ago, and Dylan rarely spoke of him. Dylan was noticeably conferring trust on Angus by this oblique reference.

  Second, that Dylan didn’t say his mate would see to the home-cooked meal. His mate, Glory, was a powerful Lupine, a clan leader, and didn’t do anything so tame as cooking. Sean was the chef at the house he and his mate shared with Dylan, Glory, and now Sean’s cub.

  The third thing Angus noted was that Dylan made no mention of Tamsin. Dylan clearly wanted Angus to take Ciaran far from this motel, possibly having Sean accompany them, while he and Tamsin remained.

  Angus folded his arms. “This seems like a nice place. I haven’t noticed Shifter Bureau running around outside, it’s quiet, and it’s off the beaten path.”

  “Dylan means he wants to interrogate me without you breathing down his neck,” Tamsin said, not sounding worried. “So—if we stay here, Angus, are we sharing a room? I don’t mind, but other people might get the wrong idea.”

  The thought of curling up next to Tamsin in bed, body to body, her warmth against his skin, licked sudden heat through him. Angus felt himself flush.

  Tamsin grinned. “Isn’t he adorable when he blushes? Excuse me, I need to us
e the bathroom. Talking about my interrogation is making me have to pee.”

  Sean rose from the chair and made a gallant gesture to the open door of the dark bathroom. Dylan’s eyes narrowed.

  Angus scowled at him. “Let her, Dylan. What is she going to do, flush herself?”

  “The bathroom has a window,” Dylan said.

  Sean snorted a laugh. “A little tiny one by the ceiling, for ventilation. Even the smallest Feline cub couldn’t get through it, and Tamsin’s not Feline.” He gave a sniff in her direction. “I’ve been Feline all my life and recognize one when I smell one. There aren’t any giant ducts in the ceiling for her to crawl through either—I checked.”

  Sean, a good tracker himself, would have located every way into and out of this room before he’d let them in.

  Tamsin swung her legs off the bed and landed gracefully on her feet. “I don’t think you should prevent me, gentlemen. It’s been a long drive, and Angus wouldn’t stop at any gas stations.”

  So speaking, Tamsin sauntered past Sean and into the bathroom, turning on the light and pointedly closing the door.

  “Sean,” Dylan ordered. “Stand there and make sure.”

  Tamsin’s voice rose from within the bathroom. “Only if he sings!”

  Sean folded his arms, leaned on the doorframe, and began to croon. “She was a bonny red-haired lass, from where we do not know . . .”

  Tamsin’s laughter floated to them. Sean was making up the song, but behind the door, Tamsin began to sing a similar one, a true Irish ballad. Sean switched to that, singing along with her.

  Ciaran left the bed now that Tamsin wasn’t on it and came to Angus. He stood tightly by Angus’s side, though he didn’t wrap his arms around Angus’s leg as he would have a few years ago.

  Tamsin and Sean continued to sing the ballad of a lady who’d lost her love and turned into a ghost. Dylan waited in silence.

  The toilet flushed, and the water in the sink began to run, Tamsin continuing the song.

  “I’m not leaving her here with you,” Angus told Dylan. “Whether we take you up on your hospitality or not, Tamsin stays with me.”

  “What do you know about her?” Dylan asked, his blue eyes expressionless.

  “The same as you do. Her name is Tamsin Calloway, and my brother fooled her into joining his freedom-for-Shifters club. She grew wise to his idiocy and left the group before Gavan was stupid enough to get caught.”

  “Convenient that she was already gone when that happened.”

  “You’re saying you think she betrayed them?” Angus asked in surprise. “Doubt it. Gavan was careless enough to get caught without outside help. It’s out of character for her anyway.”

  “Even though you met her last night and know as much about her as I do,” Dylan stated calmly.

  “Yes.” Angus hardened his voice. “If you don’t—”

  “Dad,” Sean said in alarm. He rattled the handle of the bathroom door.

  The sink water was still running, but Tamsin had stopped singing, and all was quiet.

  Dylan strode to Sean. “Get the door open.”

  Ciaran closed his hand around Angus’s, looking up fearfully at him as Sean slammed his shoulder into the flimsy door and quickly broke it open.

  The light was off. Sean snapped it on to reveal the faucet pouring water into the sink.

  The window above the shower, about four inches high, was wide open, a few moths drifting in, attracted by the light. Tamsin’s clothes were on the floor, and Tamsin was gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Angus smothered a chuckle. The look on Dylan’s face was priceless. So few Shifters ever put one over on him.

  Ciaran didn’t hold back his jubilation. He punched the air. “She got away! Tamsin got away!”

  “How did she get away?” Sean sounded less angry than amazed. “What’s her Shifter? A bird?”

  “No such thing as bird Shifters,” Dylan snapped. He glared at Angus. “What is she?”

  “Good at getting away.” Angus moved past Sean and picked up Tamsin’s clothes. They held her warmth—she couldn’t have been gone long.

  “I swore she wasn’t Feline,” Sean said. “But no way a Lupine and most especially a bear slithered out that window. Oh, wait—a snake.” His eyes sparkled with mirth. “She’s a snake Shifter, isn’t she? She’ll fit right in, in Texas.”

  “Her mother is a bobcat, she said.” Angus carried Tamsin’s jeans, shirt, and silky underwear to the bed she’d been sitting on and began to fold everything neatly. He felt weird touching her underwear, but he sure wasn’t going to let Sean or Dylan near it.

  “Aha,” Sean said. “That might be it. I’ve never met a bobcat Feline. But still.” He shook his head. “Scent is wrong, even for an unusual Feline.”

  Dylan’s eyes had gone hard. “Find her, Angus. Bring her to Shiftertown.”

  “You’re not my leader.” Angus smoothed Tamsin’s folded jeans. He’d tucked the underwear between the folds, out of sight. “Spence is. I answer to him.”

  Dylan’s growls had Ciaran backing behind Angus, and this time Ciaran did hold on to Angus’s legs.

  “What she knows could help us,” Dylan said, his voice barely controlled. “Gavan was into something big—my intel is full of it. But I don’t know what. We need to know what it was before Shifter Bureau gets hold of it, do you understand? It could assist what I’m putting together. Make her tell you, anyway.”

  “I’m not interrogating her.” Angus met Dylan’s stare, even if it wasn’t easy. Dylan was far above Angus in any hierarchy, but the fact that Angus wasn’t required to answer directly to him helped. “Since I’ve met her, people have wanted to catch her, trap her, and grill her—including me. Leave the poor woman alone.”

  “She’s not a poor woman. She’s trouble. I know that when I scent it. I agree that Gavan had faulty judgment, which is all the more reason we should know what that bad judgment led to.”

  “You want to put her under your power,” Angus said flatly. “You want me out of the way so you can bring her in and set her up as part of the Austin Shiftertown, am I right? That way she answers to you and to Liam. You assure Shifter Bureau you have her under control, and they relinquish the keeping of her to you. I go home and never see her again. Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”

  Dylan was a big man, broad of shoulder. He stood a half inch taller than Angus and used every micrometer of that height. “Partly. I can smooth the way for you to take your son home and make sure you aren’t punished for what she’s done. You’ll be out of it completely, your cub safe. I can guarantee that. And if you want to see Tamsin again, you’re welcome to visit. Though I am not sure why you would. She’s sure led you on a merry chase.”

  Angus’s fingers twitched. He believed Dylan when he said he could get Shifter Bureau off Angus’s back. The leader of the military attachment of the South Texas Shifter Bureau had mated with a bear Shifter from Austin, and Dylan used him to influence the agents in that Bureau office.

  “You might have a lot of power in Texas, but I’m based in Louisiana, and it’s a whole different ball game there,” Angus said. “This Haider guy—wherever he’s from—doesn’t look like he’ll give up the chase that easily. While we’re arguing, she’s out there alone, and Haider will be scouring every direction we could have taken from where we left him, probably has alerted Bureau agents everywhere to be on the lookout for her.”

  “All the more reason to find her and bring her to me. I’ll protect her from this man. I can, Angus.”

  But would Dylan be better for her than Haider? Maybe Dylan would stop short of terminating Tamsin, but Angus wouldn’t put it past Dylan to use tranqs or heavy intimidation to scare her into telling him what he wanted to know.

  Thinking of Tamsin quivering, drugged to the gills, under Dylan’s sharp stare made growls vibrate his body.
/>   “I’ll find her, but I’ll protect her,” Angus said. “From Haider, and from you.”

  Sean watched, concerned and ready to back up his father, but also with interest, as though curious to see who would win the debate.

  “Would it help if I said please?” The dry tone in Dylan’s voice meant he wouldn’t say please if it killed him.

  “Nope.”

  “All right, then.” Dylan turned to Sean. “Get on the phone. I need trackers, as many as you can round up. The best. Spike, Ronan . . . Tiger.”

  Sean’s brows rose, but he slid his phone from his pocket and flipped it open.

  Angus’s blood chilled. Dylan could lay his hands on the best trackers in Shifterdom, especially Tiger, who could locate anyone with uncanny precision. If Tiger was on Tamsin’s trail, she’d never get away.

  Angus snapped around to Sean. “Sean—don’t call. No one is going after Tamsin, because if they do, they’ll have to go through me first.” He took a deep breath, the conviction of what he was about to do filling him with strength. “I claim Tamsin Calloway as mate.”

  The words rang through the room. Sean, in surprise, lowered the phone, and then quietly folded it closed. Dylan only gave Angus a level stare.

  Ciaran, on the other hand, let go of Angus to turn a cartwheel, his long legs nearly smacking into a chair. “Sweet!” he shouted. “I love Tamsin. She’ll make the perfect mom.”

  “She isn’t here.” Dylan’s clipped words were barely audible over Ciaran’s triumphant shouts. “She can’t answer.”

  “But I can still make the claim, in front of witnesses.” Angus’s heart thumped, but he held himself steady. “So if you want Tamsin, you have to go through me.”

  “Fine.” Dylan struck fast, like the cat he was, his fist catching Angus on the side of the head even as Angus ducked out of the way.

  Ciaran shrieked. Angus blocked Dylan’s next punch and came up swinging.

  Dylan was one of the best in the Austin fight club. Not the top, but not far from it. Except this wasn’t the fight club, with its rules, as minimal as they were.