***
Driving back from Ashlynn, Ryder, and Wayne’s house, Hannah felt an odd mix of having been helpful and useless while there. Earlier, she’d asked Ashlynn’s mates if she could spend time in her workshop, to feel closer to her friend who she was sick with worry over. She’d been pleasantly surprised when Wayne told her how often Ashlynn spoke of her and then grateful when the two busy agents gave her a key to the house, informing her the workshop was located in the basement. Pleased with how much the agents trusted her, she was glad her friend had found such amazing mates, even as it drove home what a contrast Adam was. Ashlynn seemed to enjoy a perfect union while Hannah had yet to speak to Adam today as he didn’t answer the phone when she tried twice to reach him.
While in the workshop, she’d felt invasive but also closer to her missing friend and she cursed herself for not keeping in closer contact with Ashlynn. They exchanged periodic phone calls, the last one placed by Ashlynn to inform Hannah of her pregnancy, but she hadn’t returned that call. Always tired by the long hours she worked, she continually put off calling Ashlynn despite how much she missed her and how often she thought of her.
As she’d run her hands over the handmade personal care products that Ashlynn crafted, a thought had struck her. When Ashlynn came home, she’d undoubted have orders backed up and would struggle to fill them. A few moments of snooping yielded the location of packaging supplies and, when the laptop wasn’t password protected, Hannah quickly found a few outstanding orders. It seemed silly, but she felt as if she was helping Ashlynn, and so she packaged up the orders, labeled the boxes, and left a note to inform her friend of her actions.
Almost home now, thoughts of what Ashlynn and the others might be going through filled her, and she couldn’t help but worry for Nathan’s safety in particular. She’d always had a soft spot for the shifter, and had even had a crush on him when she was younger. As she’d grown to adulthood, the attraction to Nathan had waned although she’d always considered all three Tremblay brothers to be extremely attractive. However, they seemed more like family after growing up with their parents enjoying such a close friendship and she just couldn’t look at any of them in a sexual way. Not that it mattered now, considering they were mated. That thought brought Emily to mind and then Nathan’s predicament all over again.
Desperate to think of anything else, the only other thoughts her muddled brain would allow were thoughts of her failing relationship. She’d already decided to break up with Adam upon her return home and supposed she shouldn’t be upset at his lack of support now. It stung though, badly, for things had once been amazing between the pair and his current coldness was hard to endure.
The distant sounds of screeching sirens reached her ears and she worried about some tragic accident having occurred. Both Willow Creek and Moon Valley were small, peaceful towns that were rarely jarred by the sounds of emergency vehicles. As she realized the sounds were coming from the direction the Joe K. Corral resided in, she relaxed somewhat, hoping it was merely a bar fight that commanded police attention and not something more serious.
With a sudden thought that it might be a nice idea to bring a late dessert home to her family, she turned her car at the next intersection, intent on heading for the grocery store, thoughts of pound cake and ice cream filling her head. After all, sweets always seemed to soothe a wounded heart. Her mother’s warnings of overindulgence in carbs rang through her mind, but she pushed them aside. Let her mom eschew the dessert. She, her father and her brothers would love it and, smiling slightly to herself, looked forward to spending time with them.
***
Negotiating the dark and winding small highway with caution, Ryder kept Grayson’s vehicle in sight. He could hardly believe the shifter was fleeing. Running would only lead to more charges and the Alpha was too intelligent to believe he could make a clean getaway, not when SASS agents across the country searched for fugitives. So what the hell was he doing? As the thought Grayson could be contemplating suicide struck him, Ryder increased his speed slightly, not wanting to scare the shifter but also wanting to arrive as quickly as possible should Grayson cause an accident.
The Alpha’s next act confused Ryder further. Grayson turned off the road into the parking lot of the Joe K. Corral, a strange destination to be sure. As Ryder parked the SUV, he caught sight of Grayson rushing around the building to its rear. In pursuit, he ran around the corner of the building, drawing his weapon, and then he, Levi, and Hank slowly approached the corner to draw around the back. Hair stood up on the nape of his neck at the sound of raised voices, one Grayson’s, the other two ones he didn’t recognize. Julian was no longer alone and the possibility of his takedown turning dangerous had just raised exponentially. He heard Jason, Brady, Wayne, and, unfortunately, Jack approaching behind him. With any luck, Jack would keep his head down. The last thing the packs needed was to lose a second Alpha tonight.
Inching around the corner, drawing closer to the now-raised voices, he clearly heard Julian tell someone to back off and abandon their plan. A man’s snide response followed, informing Julian that he didn’t call the shots, they did. As Ryder cleared the corner, training his pistol on the three men before him, Levi and Hank flanked him, their weapons at the ready.
“SASS! Hands where I can see them now!”
Both men drew weapons and one leapt behind Julian. Holding him roughly by the nape of his neck, the man pushed his pistol into Julian’s side.
“You can’t get away,” Ryder shouted gruffly, “so put your weapons down and surrender.”
The men held their ground and Ryder fought the tension in his muscles, not wanting to be too stiff to move quickly if he needed too, and he suspected he’d have to soon. These shifters wouldn’t surrender. Their posture made that clear.
“Hold your fire,” Hank growled out beside him, no doubt addressing all the shifters on their side, “we need them alive.”
As he hoped that would be the outcome, knowing they needed information from not just the shifters but also still from Julian, Ryder sensed Jack drawing closer. He wished the Alpha would stay back from this volatile situation.
“Jack,” Grayson called out as he looked past Ryder, to where Jack stood. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I’m so sorry about Sylvia and your pups. I never thought that could happen. They made me do it. They threatened my family. I’m so sorry.”
“Shut up,” the shifter holding Julian spat.
Ryder knew this standoff would end badly. The determination on Julian’s face promised he wouldn’t comply with his captors and, undoubtedly still staring at Jack, he ignored the command as he continued speaking. “I didn’t want you lot to follow me here. They demanded a woman from my pack and, the Universe help me, I told them to take Jess. I tried to stop them.”
“Stop talking!” the shifter yelled. It was evident to Ryder that he’d tightened his grip on Julian’s neck when Grayson winced.
“Jack,” Julian called, his voice sounding strained, “please forgive me. Tell my family I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for everything I did.”
“I will,” Jack promised, “and I forgive you, Julian.”
Julian’s eyes filled with tears and Ryder couldn’t help the tense of his muscles. He knew what would happen. So did Hank, evidenced when Hank repeated his command for the team to hold their fire.
“Bossman’s true identity is Logan—”
A gunshot cut off his words. Julian’s eyes widened and, when the shifter released him, he crumpled to the ground.
“No!” Jack cried out.
“Hold your fire!” Hank commanded loudly.
The two men exchanged a glance and then dropped their weapons. In unison they shifted, their clothes shredding to reveal their wolf-forms. Both silver, the wolves dipped their heads and growled lowly. As they drew apart from one another, Ryder knew what their plan was, to flank the group of shifters before them and attack from two sides. It was a suicide mission, with the amount of men and weapons tra
ined on them, but he’d known the rogue shifters wouldn’t surrender.
“Don’t do it,” Hank warned. “We will put you down if you attack. Surrender, it’s your only option.”
The wolves continued slowly drawing apart, causing Ryder to shuffle to follow one, Hank and Levi following his movements. He heard Jason, Wayne, and Brady moving to track the second wolf. They were going to attack, forcing the men to shoot them. Ryder’s gut twisted. They needed information from these shifters but he knew it wouldn’t come. Like the one who’d taken his own life in custody months ago, these wolves wouldn’t talk.
With a snarl, the wolf leapt. Ryder pulled the trigger and heard several shots ring out beside and behind him, confirming his knowledge the wolves had attacked in unison. The shifter he, Levi, and Hank had shot was in human-form, with several bullet wounds in his torso. As Levi moved forward to check him, Ryder knew it was a move born of protocol only for the shifter was visibly dead.
He turned to see Jason checking the other shifter. Jack rushed past them all to the place where Julian Grayson lay. Drawing closer to the site, Ryder could detect no life in Grayson. Seeing the devastation on Jack’s face, he backed off, allowing the Alpha privacy to mourn his friend.
Hank shook his head. “Fuck, just fuck.”
Levi rejoined them. “Back to square one,” he announced in a disappointed voice.
Ryder nodded to the giant shifter but didn’t agree with his statement. They weren’t where they’d started. After receiving a little information and vague clues from Grayson, they’d then lost him, maybe their best shot yet at some true clarity. He felt as if they’d taken one step forward and then been sucker-punched, forcing them to stagger back two steps.
***
Brady sucked in a deep breath, rattled by the gunfire around him. He, too, had shot the shifter who attacked him, Wayne, and Jason, and knew his round had pierced the wolf’s heart. His marksmanship had won him his position on a SASS team far faster than most shifters would have accomplished. Unfortunately, his shooting skills hadn’t prepared him for events like this. Taking a life, even that of a heinous shifter like this one, shook him to his core. The fact it had happened twice in the few months since he’d first joined the team wasn’t helping. It hadn’t hardened him. Not one bit.
“You okay?” Wayne’s voice sounded.
“Yeah, I’m good,” he replied as he met Wayne’s eyes, hoping his teammate wouldn’t see the uncertainty in his.
Wayne seemed to buy his lie and turned his attention to Jason who stood from his kneeling position by the fallen shifter.
“He’s dead,” Jason announced.
Brady had known as much, and knew Jason and Wayne had too. Forcing his eyes away from the shifter he’d slain, he discretely drew in another huge breath, unwilling to let the others see how shaken he was. He turned his thoughts to all that needed to be accomplished tonight still, before this group could even think of heading to Saskatoon to question Mark again. Grayson’s family needed to be notified of his death. His body needed to be returned to the family for the funeral and the bodies of the rogue shifters needed to be transported to Edmonton where a team would work to identify them. Witness statements needed to be taken and each SASS agent here needed to submit a written account of the events. Although only just past nine, he suspected he’d get precious little sleep tonight and he needed rest.
Ever since his team had rescued Naomi, his duties, and life, had changed considerably. Presently stationed in Saskatoon, he missed Wayne and Ryder as he found it difficult to get to know the Saskatoon unit. Whether because they’d been under the command of the less-than-pleasant Commander Morrow for so long, or if they were just aloof, he couldn’t know. He thought they resented Ryder’s temporary appointment as commander of their unit and resented Brady more, perhaps seeing him as a spy that would report any tiny indiscretion to Ryder. It had been challenging and he’d often wished he could have spoken to Ryder about the situation. However, at first he hesitated approaching Ryder as he and Wayne were dealing with the fallout of Mark’s actions on both their unit and their mating to Ashlynn. Then the kidnappings occurred and Brady didn’t dare add anything to Ryder’s overflowing plate.
Therefore, reminding himself he was a SASS agent as he’d always dreamed of being, he trudged through the duties he detested, ignored the hateful glares of the Saskatoon agents, and continued to wish the entire process would end soon. Perhaps Mark would talk finally and offer them something to go on, a way to find the missing shifters.
Ryder’s voice calling him broke through his thoughts and he turned his attention to his commander. “Keep those witnesses back.”
Focusing on the small group of approaching forms, he figured they’d been in the bar and heard the gunfire. As he walked toward them, Wayne on his heels, he appreciated Wayne accompanying him. He could handle the crowd himself but had always enjoyed spending time with Wayne and missed him as much as he missed Ryder, although for different reasons. Wayne was boisterous, gregarious, and fun to be with, always telling jokes and lightening the mood. While he was a competent agent, he lacked the leadership skills Ryder possessed, the ones Brady missed and wanted to embody someday.
“Fuck of a night,” Wayne commented.
“It was,” he agreed.
Drawing closer to the group, he could see a pair of identical twin men standing amongst the crowd of shifters, a blonde woman with them. Another few steps revealed her beauty and, as he drew closer still, her enchanting scent filled his nostrils, quickly dampening all the other scents around him. She was the most beautiful shifter he’d ever laid eyes on and she smelled so damn good. Two more steps, and he stopped dead. She stared at him, her eyes widening, and he knew she’d comprehended what he just had, impossible as it was.
“What’s wrong?” He heard the concern in Wayne’s voice but he couldn’t turn to his friend.
“She’s my mate,” he managed to squeak out. She couldn’t be, but she was, and he couldn’t tear his eyes from her.
“What?” Wayne asked, his voice raising an octave, obviously unsure he’d heard Brady correctly. “But she can’t be. She’s a wolf-shifter.”
That she was, and yet Brady knew she was his mate. She took a tentative step forward. It spawned movement in him and he closed the rest of the distance, his peripheral vision picking up the shocked looks on the faces of the twins that stood beside her. He should be telling the crowd to stay back but he couldn’t function. None of them were moving anyway, all seemed focused on him and the gorgeous shifter before him. Wolf-shifter. He should have cared, but he didn’t.
“You’re not a wolf,” she said in a small voice.
While her voice sounded hesitant, it was also the most enchanting sound he’d ever heard. Her large blue eyes held swirling emotions, awe, arousal, confusion, and, he was certain, love. His muscles hummed with the effort of holding himself back as he longed to kiss her. Her lips were as inviting as her eyes and, clad in a short skirt and T-shirt, her body promised to be sensational.
“I’m a cat-shifter,” he confirmed.
Her mouth fell open a little. He could only assume she’d never encountered a shifter who wasn’t a wolf. Moon Valley was only slightly larger than Willow Creek and, as both towns housed wolf packs, the likelihood of other shifters residing in either place was minimal.
“Then how can ...?” Her voice faded and she looked to the shifters beside her.
The twins shrugged in unison. “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” one said.
“Neither have I,” Wayne broke in as he stepped to Brady’s side, no doubt to get his attention. “Brady, are you sure? Are you certain she’s your mate?” He bobbed his head, still staring at her, and heard Wayne’s sigh. “Shit. I mean, no, it’s great, good for you, but, well, how is that going to work?”
He didn’t have a clue and couldn’t focus on anything but her. Holding a hand out, he smiled. “What’s your name?”
“Jess,” she answered as she placed her hand in
his.
As their hands connected a jolt of pure bliss shot through him. Jess smiled and he knew she’d felt it too. They were mates, destined to be together. When her smile faltered, he frowned.
“How is this possible?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but I feel it. You’re my mate. I know you are. Don’t you feel it?”
His heart strummed. Was he wrong? Did he feel the connection but she didn’t? When she nodded, a surge of relief almost buckled his knees. “I do feel it. I don’t understand it, but I know you’re my mate.”
Wayne pulled his cellphone out and Brady was certain he was calling Ryder but he could focus on nothing but Jess. She shivered and he came to his senses. It was freezing out and she, having rushed out from the bar, wasn’t dressed for the frigid temperature. Quickly, he slipped out of his heavy jacket, wrapped it around her shoulders, and then pulled her toward him, desperate to warm her up, more desperate to feel her in his arms. She leaned against him and he thought he’d never been as happy as he was at this moment. This felt too right to be anything but meant to be.
“Jess?”
She pulled back from him and he followed her sightline to see a man standing a distance away. Dressed in a chef’s uniform, he assumed the man was another employee of the bar.
“Are you okay?” the man questioned.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Uh, Joe, well, I don’t know how to say this but this is my mate, Brady.”
Joe’s eyes scanned him as he drew closer. “But you’re a cat-shifter,” he said with a scowl.
“Yes, I am.”
“Then how...?” Joe looked to Jess. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. Well, congratulations on finding your mate. I just ... wow, how is that going to work?”
It seemed everyone had the same question. Jess shook her head. “I don’t know but he’s my mate. I can feel it.”
Saved by Her Wolves Page 7
