by J. D. Light
"So, you're for sure staying in Purdy, then?" I asked, pulling him to the side of the wide sidewalk, right under a giant tree growing out of a squared off are in the concrete.
Shrugging, Burke said, "Depends, really."
"On what?" Would he want to live somewhere else? I hadn't really thought much about where we'd live. I'd spent most of this week concentrating on not taking what hadn't been offered, yet.
"You," he said, clearly thinking I was stupid. "Your job kinda takes ya everywhere. I don't even actually know where ya live. I know ya didn't live in the same town as Sutton when he moved out, because he always talked about hatin' to leave his old shop for multiple days, when he went to visit ya, because all of his organization would be messed up when he got back."
"I was living in Florida, but I moved all my stuff into a storage facility just across the Georgia line, about two months ago." I smiled, brushing my knuckles down the side of his face, before cupping his neck. "I've been trying to finish up this stupid cult case, and then I was going to come hunting you down.
"I've had an inkling you might be my mate since the first time I saw you, but I managed to keep my fox from hunting you down, because we hadn't smelled you yet. But I've been working toward the day when I could take jobs that I wouldn't always be worried was going to endanger you somehow.
"And of course, waiting for you to get a little bit older. Not to sound like a slightly younger than me, but a hundred times grumpier, bear, but I felt like eighteen might be pushing it to ask a guy to settle down forever."
"You know, the day before I picked up that call from my brother, and saw you slinking around in the background, I'd decided I was going to go out and lose my virginity, because I was sick of being the only person I knew that was." He bit his lip through a smile, and I'll be damned if he wasn't the cutest human I'd ever seen. "And then, suddenly, I literally could think of nothing else…but stealing my brother's boyfriend, because he was a beautiful, snarky bastard who made my heart skip."
My head snapped back, my eyebrows in the middle of my forehead. "What? Who? I didn't even know your brother had a boyfriend back then."
I knew it was illogical. We hadn't even known each other back then. But knowing that Burke had basically fallen in love, at first sight, with some douche, who clearly wasn't good enough for Sutton to keep around, so definitely wasn't good enough for my perfect mate, about made me lose control of my shift, right here on the sidewalk.
"You're a fucking moron sometimes." Burke was giving me the biggest you're-too-stupid-to-even-exist look, his eyebrows scrunched together in utter disgust to go along with that lip that was pilled back in a cringe. "I. Was. Talking. About. You. I thought you and Sutton were boyfriends."
Ooooh. Well, that made sense. Scrunching up my face, I gave my mate a self-deprecating grin. "Okay, I've had my stupid moment of the decade. We can proceed like nothing happened."
Burke scoffed, shaking his head. "Please. You've had at least three stupid moments today."
Rolling my eyes, I kissed him. Right there, under a big tree, on a wide sidewalk, in front of some of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
When we broke apart, both half drunk and breathing hard, I somehow had the wherewithal to pull him under my arm, and march us to his apartment. This need to be inside my baby again, was riding me hard. And he had a perfectly good apartment just another two blocks away.
As we reached the bottom of the beautiful, old staircase that would take us to his apartment on the second floor, my phone started ringing. It took a moment to dig it out of my pocket, because my damn jeans were entirely too tight. My dick was taking up what little room I'd had in these things to begin with, because my mate hadn't been more than a foot away the entire night, and my dick, my fox and I were about a staircase away from being back in that amazing body.
When I saw Bennett's name, I growled, knowing I needed to answer the damn thing, in case they had any questions. I watched my mate's delectable ass, as he continued up the stairs, swiping my finger over the screen to answer.
"What do you need?"
"Someone's grumpy. Did I interrupt nookie time?" Bennett sounded way too Bennetty for my patience at the moment.
"Never say nookie time to me again. Now. Why. Did you call?"
"Thompsyn's got the dude's scent, and we went and talked to the landlord. She said Grady came back two days ago, gathered some more of his stuff and left, giving the woman about two thousand dollars, and telling her to get rid of the rest of his shit. He wasn't coming back."
"So, he didn't go to Purdy right away. That means if he did go to the airport two days ago, his scent will be a little easier for Thompsyn to catch, when we go there." Sighing, because I knew it meant Burke and I were going to have to wait a few more hours to do all the things I'd been dreaming about all day, I said, "Come and get us. Let's get this over with. Then you and Thompsyn can fly back and check the airport back home, and see if he's been there."
"Back home? Does that mean you'll be staying, Todd?"
I hung up. That man was going to do his best to give me an aneurism.
Time to go not fuck my mate over the back of the couch. Taking a sexually frustrated breath, I jogged up the stairs, sniffing the hallway for my mate's delicious scent, so I could figure out which direction he took.
My stomach sank, when, as I got closer and closer to the apartment door where his scent was strongest, I also caught the scent of coyote shifter.
I reached for the handle with a shaking hand, not at all surprised to find it locked.
Growling, I rammed the door with my shoulder, splintering the thick wood with my adrenaline fueled shifter strength. Without the buffer of the door, I could clearly make out my mate's muffled yells and cries coming from down the short hallway.
The sprint down the hall took less than two seconds. When I shoved the already partially open door, the thing hit the wall behind it, sticking.
The man holding my mate down on the bed with a forearm to the back of his neck and his knees on the back of Burke's legs, looked on the verge of some kind of drug induced madness.
His teeth were lengthened and his eyes were shifted. He was drooling profusely, and I was a little concerned about the slightly greenish color of his skin, and smell of something sickly sweet in the air.
Shifter drugs.
Not many things could cause inebriation in shifters, but where there was a will, there was a way. Shifter drugs were hard to come by, but they were out there. And this man looked like he was smack dab in the middle of a binge.
My mate looked pissed, and I could almost make out the foul language he was spewing at the crazed shifter through the tape and the mattress his face was being smashed into.
Moving quickly, because I knew the guy was too messed up to have even noticed my less than quiet entry, I ran and dove at the man, spearing him.
We hit the floor hard, my head bouncing off the wood a couple times, as we skid across the floor a ways, only stopping when by back slammed into the corner of the dresser.
I managed to shake the loopiness away, just in time to move my arm back from the guys chomping teeth. He was enraged, and the drugs were making him strong, but he wasn't able to focus, and his movements were a little uncoordinated.
When he went for my face, I pulled back, sending my fist toward his nose. I felt the snap against my fist, but the man kept coming, blood pouring out of his nose.
My reason and emotions warred, as I flipped the man, straddling him, as I gripped his head with one clawed hand, and his throat with the other, pinning his wrists against the floor with my knees.
He had tried to force a mating on Burke. The man who had been mine since the first time I'd seen him, three years ago. Since the moment he was born.
He'd attacked my mate twice. Whom I could now hear, yelling angrily, what sounded like half of a phone conversation.
And I wasn't sure how long he'd been on the drugs, but he'd changed his name and started stalking my mate, months ago.
On the other hand, as an agent of the shifter unit of the FBI, I knew how important it was to get shifter drugs out of people's reach, and if I managed to keep this guy alive, he might be able to help us with some information.
Burke took the decision out of my hands when he slammed a heavy textbook against the guy's face, one, two, three times. Finally the man went silent, and his body went limp.
"Fuck!" he said, dropping the book from a standing position, directly onto the coyote shifter's face. "The manic growlin' was getting' on my last fuckin' nerve!
Smirking, I looked at my mate's beautiful, flushed face. "Who uses actual text books, anymore? Doesn't everyone just buy them on their phone these days?"
"No. Not everyone buys them on their phone these days." That last part in a high pitched mocking voice, as he scrunched his nose, and put his hands on his hips. "Aren't ya glad I like hard copies? How useless would it have been for me to beat him over the head with a tablet? My fuckin' arms woulda gotten tired before it woulda knocked him out."
"I'll show you a hard copy."
"Ya better not be getting' a hard copy while straddlin' that psycho."
Laughing, I rose to my feet, grabbing Burke and jerking him to me, while making sure to keep a foot planted firmly on the neck of the coyote shifter. "Gawd, baby. I love you, so damn much."
Burke's beautiful blue eyes widened, and then his delicious lips opened up into the most amazing smile I'd ever seen. "I love you too, Foxy." He leaned in, pressing his mouth to mine, so he could brush his lips against mine, as he spoke. "I have for a while."
"Me too, baby." And then I kissed him.
This man was my future. A happiness and acceptance I hadn't had in my whole life.
"No fucking on the dead body," Bennett said, strolling into the room.
Breaking the kiss, Burke snorted. "He's not dead. Is he?" My mate's wide eyes moved from Bennett, down to the beaten man on the floor. "I didn't kill 'im, did I?"
"Don't worry, Burke," Thompsyn said, grinning at his ridiculous mate. "Benny's a little confused when it comes to dead bodies." Pausing, he poked his mate in the side. "You should have known this one was still alive, Ben. His tongue isn't sticking out or anything."
"Oh, shut up." Bennett bent and latched a hand around the coyote's ankle. "I told you, I panicked. You looked like you were in maul mode, and I didn't have my bear spray."
Grabbing an arm, and lifting the downed shifter's upper body off the floor, when Bennett just took off walking, dragging the unconscious man toward the top of the stairs, Thompsyn growled. "If you ever spray me with that shit, I'm burning your comic books."
Bennett gasped, sounding shocked. "But they're my babies!"
"That man might actually reproduce someday," Burke said, blinking owlishly at the door.
"You know, I just realized, their children will be hybrids."
Frowning, Burke looked thoughtful. "What would ya call a leopard-grizzly hybrid? Leoplly? Grizzard?"
Laughing, I pecked my mate on the nose. "Definitely going with grizzard."
Thompsyn's head came back around the frame of the door. "You are not calling my children grizzards. And please don't let my mate hear that word. He'll fucking run with it."
"Too late," we heard from out in the hall. "I can't wait to see my little grumpy grizzards!"
Sighing, Thompsyn looked at me wearisomely. "You're boss just showed up. He grabbed Grady, threw him in the back of a creepy looking van, and said to have you call him later."
"Thanks. Are you and Bennett heading out tonight, or waiting until morning."
"Morning," Bennett said, leaning around his massive mate. "I'm about to take this sexy beast back to the hotel and take turns being cowboys."
Blinking, I nodded. "Yep. Didn't really need that visual, ever."
Thompsyn turned to his mate, grabbing the side of his face, and pecking a kiss to his ginning mouth. "What the hell am I going to do with you?"
Bouncing his eyebrows on his head, Bennett said, "All the naughty things."
As they disappeared back around the corner, Burke chuckled, turning back toward his bedroom, calling over his shoulder. "I bet you're glad they're on the other end of the hotel. That shifter hearin' would be a pain in the ass in situations like Bennett and Thompsyn takin' turns yellin', 'Yeehaw.'"
"So, we moving to Purdy?"
"I bet we can talk Sutton into lettin' us buy his house. It's not like he's ever gonna live in it now? What do you think? Wanna live next to my brother and your best friend?"
Coming up behind him, I wrapped my arms around his waist, nuzzling his neck. "At the risk of sounding mushy, I don't give a fuck where I live, as long as you live there too, baby."
Burke turned in my arms, looking up at me with the most beautiful, happiest smile I'd ever seen. "Have I told you that I love it when you call me baby?"
Epilogue
"Okay, here's what I found," Green said to Foster, as he slid his phone across the table, so my mate could see what was on it. "This is the first one. Thirteen people mysteriously dead in woods outside of a small town in Organ. Twenty-five wolves, also found dead, about a hundred yards from where they found the humans. No sign of mauling on any of the humans or animals.
"The next one is similar. Twenty people died mysteriously in wooded area outside of suburb. Six panthers found with them. No signs of attack." Reaching out, Green swiped the phone again, bringing up another newspaper like page. "The last one is the same story. Fifteen humans, twelve wild hogs dead, nothing to make the authorities think it was an attack."
"Damn." Foster slid the phone back to Green, leaning back in the booth. "Somebody is using some kind of undetectable poison, or nerve agent to take out entire packs. And it looks like they are doing it on nights when they're all gathered for a run."
"Yeah. The thing that made me think it might be related to your cult case is this." He pulled up another picture on his phone, again sliding it across the table. "It looks just like the creep fest you guys found a couple weeks ago."
I cringed at the picture of three blood filled bowls, surrounding a bloody handprint and a strip of what looked like a light colored leather, sitting on a large rock. I looked away quickly, knowing that leather was actually a strip of human skin.
"Shit." Foster frowned down at the phone, popping his jaw. "We've suspected for a while that this is the ritual they use when they recruit someone. One of our forensic psychologists thinks it's a way to prove the person wanting into the cult is prepared to spill blood for the cause. And give a piece of himself."
"So, do you think they recruited the one they wanted and killed the rest? Why?" Green sounded angry. "We've had several of these rituals done in leap woods. Why are we still thriving and all these packs are dead?"
When Abby started this whole thing, she was working on getting to be alpha-mate, so she could introduce the whole leap. From what we were able to piece together from all the stuff that came from her house, and the house where they kidnapped Ridley to, I think she thought there were enough strong members in your…uh…our leap to save most of them. She was recruiting, and then she planned to take out the week ones herself."
Foster and I were now officially members of the leap. The look on my mate's handsome face when Flynn offered was both heartbreaking and beautiful. I knew he respected Flynn a great deal, and after leaving his skulk the way he'd had to, Foster had said yes immediately.
Now, here it was, July, and we'd both moved fully into Sutton's old house. It would officially be ours in about two weeks, and then I'd start online courses, so I could work toward finishing my degree.
Green had called us, as we'd rolled out of our brand new bed, this morning, asking us to meet at Bunny's diner, because he'd needed to show us something.
"How did you find all this Green?" Foster leaned back again as the waitress nearly threw his coffee cup on the table in front of him.
I glared at the girl, when she did the same to mine and then Green's. Clearly, she was
doing it on purpose. When she met my eyes, there was nothing but unveiled hostility there.
When she flitted off, Green raised a black eyebrow, as he glanced at her, but then turned back to Foster. "I was hoping if I looked up weird sacrifices, I'd be able to see where else these things were being done, and maybe draw up a map of all the activity. But these were hard to ignore. I knew right away those were shifter communities."
"Yeah. Did you check for anymore of the same?"
"Yeah. I checked for multiple deaths with both, humans, and wild animals, but nothing came up. I still have quite a bit of ritual stuff to read through, but I thought these might be a little more important."
Nodding, Foster started texting, probably updating Kinsey.
The bell over the side door rang, announcing another patron, and Green glance up automatically. His gaze started to lower again, but then jerked back up, eyes wide and mouth falling open.
I turned to see what caught the big black man's eye, and was surprised to find his eyes trained on a thin young man, walking up to the counter. He looked really young, and definitely shy, keeping his head cast downward, letting his long brown hair fall forward to conceal his face in profile.
He was so delicate looking, one might think he was a girl, if it weren't for the long masculine hand that came up to tuck a silky strand behind his ear. The face revealed was beautiful. Absolutely stunning.
I definitely wasn't into effeminate men, but I was tempted to throw a hand over my mate's eyes, so he wouldn't see the gorgeous man.
Keeping his head, low, he slowly panned around the room, looking more than a little nervous.
When he fully faced our direction, even though his gaze was still scanning and hadn't actually landed on us, I gasped. Not just from the bright blue eyes, creamy complexion and delicate features, or from the way his mostly feminine face was somehow made even more attractive by the squared jaw.
It was the very distinct scars traveling straight down the side of his perfect face. Four claw type marks. Not unlike the ones I was unconsciously rubbing on my side.
They honestly didn't take away from the boy's beauty. They could in fact have been a decorative face paint, if it weren't for the way the one closest to the center of his face had sliced through his top and bottom lip, slightly distorting the otherwise pouty shape.
