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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
     
ROWAN
“That’s when we decided we’d use the scoop shovel for a sled,” I say to Brennan.
The first day I tried telling him stories, he refused to even look at me. He was clearly a bit put off about Emery’s fight with him because he was even more anxious than normal, pacing the room and making growling noises any time anyone came near. The only thing he’s sort of taken a liking to is Talon, who he’ll sneak a pet through the bars every now and then when he thinks I’m not looking.
But now, five days in, I at least get a glance.
“The neighbor’s shovel?” he asks.
I look at him, startled he’d bother to talk to me. “Yes! It was. He was the one who ran over our sled—of course, he should have noticed we left it under the tire of his car. So we had this bright idea that we were going to hook the shovel to the back of our four-wheeler. Of course you decide that since you’re the ‘big brother’ you get to ride first and I’ll have to test out the shovel to see if it even works—you know, because the big brother should always make the little brother do the more dangerous thing. And so you’re sliding around just a little, testing it out as I dumbly sit on the shovel, and it’s going well and then you just take off and I swear you never look back again because you’re having the time of your life. The whole time the snow was kicking up from the tires absolutely coating me, but I was too scared to let go, so I either had the choice to get blasted in the face or let go and then have to walk the whole way home because it was clear you weren’t noticing any of my pain.”
“Maybe I was noticing and didn’t care,” he says while nodding, like he’s sure that was it.
I grin at him because, while it might not have been a joke, it’s still more engagement than I’m used to getting out of him. “Might have been. Alright, I need to get going. Quinn’s wanting to do something special tonight with it being the full moon. Wolf thing, I guess. Who knows.”
“You’re finally leaving?” he asks, and I can’t tell if he’s actually happy about this or not.
“I am. I can stop bugging you and you can go back to missing me.”
“If you cared about me, you’d let me go,” he says, and I find that it hurts when he says things like that.
I press my head against the bars of the cell. “The reason I keep you here is because I care about you. I care so much about you, Brennan. I’ve risked a lot to keep you here, but I just hope I can help you in the end.”
Brennan weaves back and forth and I can only imagine how much he wants out of this cell, but I can’t let him go just yet.
“I don’t need help. You’re the one that needs help,” he says.
“Please, Brennan, just… give it some time and I promise things will get better.”
I push away from the cell and walk through the door, hoping for a day that I don’t have to visit my brother behind bars. I would love to have a day where I could see him free and he’s like he used to be, even if he’s not completely back to his old self.
I walk toward the front of the house, wondering where Quinn is since I haven’t seen him in a couple of hours. It’s not quite night yet, and I guess they like doing this thing at dark so they can see the moon better… because going out after dark when people already want to murder you is always ideal. But it’s something Quinn wants to do, and if Quinn wants to do it, it somehow becomes the best idea in the entire world.
That’s when I see Katalina sitting on the armrest of Harper’s chair, her legs draped over Harper’s as they both read while squeezed together. I head toward them, wondering if either of them happen to know of Quinn’s whereabouts.
Harper looks up when she hears me and smiles. “Hey. How are things going with your brother?”
“Maybe a little better. Like a minuscule bit,” I say as I hold up my index finger and thumb but keep them very close together. Someone could maybe slide a piece of paper between them.
“Better than nothing,” Katalina says.
“Very true. Have either of you seen Quinn?”
“No, not lately. He must be upstairs,” Harper says.
“Thanks.” I head upstairs and wander around until I finally find Quinn scouting around in a room I haven’t been in before. Part of Quinn’s original pack has moved into housing outside the mansion, but a good handful are still here, staying in one of the many free rooms. Since it’s late in the day, most of them are off doing something, so it’s easy to follow the noise to the office space where I find Quinn.
“What are you digging into?” I ask curiously.
“That’s just it… I don’t know,” Quinn says as he looks around the office space that was clearly Apollo’s. “I thought if I could find something about the land and who owns it, it could help. I guess until someone comes crawling out and tells us we’ve fucked up, we’re going to have to keep guessing. It’s so strange that no one will get back to us about ownership of the land, you know? Like everyone who was supposed to help us, like Officer Shaw and Deke, have been MIA. Do you think Mercer put an end to it? Like… is his reach that much further than we ever imagined? It can’t be, right?” He looks extremely hopeful it’s not and I don’t blame him. There’s no way what Mercer’s doing is legal. There’s no way someone would allow this.
“We should see what Logan thinks,” I say, and Quinn nods. After we’d talked to Deke, Logan’s friend, Quinn told me that Logan was once in law enforcement. He said he didn’t have much else detail-wise for me because Logan wasn’t a fan of sharing information and Quinn wasn’t nosy enough to dig into his past. He just let Logan be and told him not to drag anything back to the pack without talking to Quinn first. But Logan hasn’t been able to get ahold of his friend either, even after multiple days of calling.
“I feel so frustrated,” Quinn says with a loud sigh as he sits down in Apollo’s chair and starts yanking at drawers. “The only one I can’t get in is the one locked at the bottom, which I’m positive has all the secrets.”
“Did you ask Harper?” I ask as I round the table to get into the drawer.
“I did, and she didn’t know either.”
“So, back in the army I was known for being a magician,” I inform him as I eye the stubborn object.
“Oh?” Quinn asks, already looking suspicious.
“I… had some really sick moves. Like everyone was jealous of me. They’d whisper behind my back, ‘Is he really a magician? Is magic real?’”
Quinn’s eyebrows are just getting higher. “Uh-huh… I’m… extremely curious where this is going,” he says as I pick up a metal ruler. “Ooh, or were you talking about like sexy wizard? Stripper wizard? Oh! Were you a stripper wizard?”
My face scrunches up, hopefully conveying my confusion. “What? No! Anyway, all I needed was my magic wand.” I wave around the ruler in an attempt to drag his mind out of the gutter.
“Is that what you called it back in the day?” he asks with a grin as his eyes drop to groin level. “I’m excited for stripper wizard Rowan and his ‘wand.’ Show me that wand.”
It’s quite clear the gutter is all that’s left for his mind. I snort before quickly shaking my head. I can’t let him distract me. “Anyway. So all I had to do was wave my little magic wand around,” I say as I ram the metal ruler in the small space between the drawer and the desk and start prying.
“Ooh. Did you have to say a magic word to make it work? Make it something dirty.”
“I did! Alright… you ready for this?”
“Am I ever,” he purrs.
“It’s… Alakazopenthefuckup.”
The ruler bends, the drawer stays firmly shut, and Quinn lets out a bark of laughter.
“Oh. My. God. You can bend metal with your mind,” Quinn says, sounding mystified. “That’s so sexy.”
“It’s all part of my magic,” I tease as I grab the chair he’s in and roll him to me until his body smacks into mine. I tip his chin up before climbing onto his lap. “This is part of the spell.”
“Ah, makes sense,” he says, wrapping his arms around me as I lean into him and press my lips against his.
“Ooh, I can feel your magic wand,” he teases.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s literally jabbing me in the side,” he says as I realize that I’m seriously stabbing him in the side with the ruler.
“Whoops,” I say as I toss it back on the desk and turn my attention to him. “Sorry, I’ll keep my ‘wand’ tucked away for now.”
“Hmm… show me some more magic,” he says as he pulls me in for a kiss. His lips draw me in as they move against mine. The moment he touches me or kisses me or even looks at me, it’s like I turn to putty. I want him to mold me into anything he wants as long as I always fit perfectly against him.
I draw my fingers up his neck and he shivers against the gentle touch before I cup his face and kiss him again.
“Wow, you are quite good at magic,” he says with a sexy grin that makes me kiss him again.
“I know, I told you I was a magician.”
“Did you do this with your friends too? The ones asking about your magic powers?”
“Nope. This is reserved just for you… besides that one time at magic camp,” I joke.
“Ah, now we hear the truth of the matter,” Quinn says as he pokes the tip of my nose. “I feel like you’re just trying to make me jealous and possessive.”
“Are you?” I ask. Maybe it’ll put us on a little more equal footing.
“I’m so jealous of younger you back at magic camp. I’m not even sure I can function. I’m pretty sure the only thing that will reinvigorate me will be your magic wand opening the drawer.”
I grin at him, unsure how I’m supposed to open anything when he has his arms locked around my neck, keeping me held down tight. “Am I supposed to carry you over to it?”
“Maybe,” he says as he pulls me down for one more kiss before letting go. “Now let me watch you work that magic wand.”
I grab the ruler and slide it back into the slot between the desk and the drawer. “You like that?”
“Ooh, I do.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask as I jab at the drawer a bit. “What about that?”
“Fuck, when did you get so dirty?” he asks.
I start yanking on the drawer while also still trying to pry it with the ruler.
“Ooh, look at those muscles at work. Fuck me, you’re sexy,” he says as he slides his hand under his shirt. “Is it just me or did it get hot in here?”
“What if I… roll my sleeves up first?” I ask as I do so before jerking around on the drawer some more. There’s not a whole lot of success either way until I hear the distinct clatter of a key hitting the ground. It must have been tucked somewhere on the desk and my persistent yanking made it drop. Quinn scoops it up and gives me a look of awe.
“You are a magician. That’s so sexy.”
“Thanks. It just took a crooked wand and a bit of pounding,” I say.
“Maybe you can show me just what your wand can do tonight.”
I’m grinning at the ridiculousness of the situation as Quinn slides the key into the drawer only to have it not fit.
“You’re still sexy,” he assures me before giving my ass a squeeze while examining the key.
“Maybe it’s a key to my heart,” I say.
“Nah, I already have that. It must be for something else.”
“Use your dog senses to sniff something out.”
His eyebrow rises as he pokes me in the chest with the key. “I have no dog senses.”
“I’ll get you a bone if you can sniff it out.”
Quinn gives me a playful glare before hunting around the room until we find a locked box that the key does fit into. He opens it up and looks inside. At first it looks to be all papers that he starts shuffling through. From what I can see it’s nothing more than supplier information for sales and shipments, but most are older and nothing of note, since it’s all stuff Harper already knows.
“What is this?” Quinn asks as he sets down a piece of paper with handwritten names on it. The last one added is Apollo’s own name, but there are plenty before that, including Donny’s and Raylon’s.
That’s when the door opens and Harper and Katalina look in, and I find myself glad they didn’t let themselves in, back when we were talking about magic wands. I feel like I’d be horrified over someone else hearing that, yet I was weirdly fine with my mate, who I’m trying my best to impress, hearing it.
“It’s about time,” Katalina says. “Ooh, whatcha nosing through?” She hurries over and starts poking at the open box.
“Do you know what this list is?” Quinn asks.
Harper takes it and looks it over. “Yeah, it’s his list of people who have left the compound. Apollo liked to keep track of those who came and went because he was anal as hell. I got so used to it that I added him in when he left… Maybe… I was a bit smug adding him to his own list of people he’s run off.” Harper kneels next to us and pulls another paper out. “This is a contact sheet for our supplies… do you need something in here? I can go through it, if you do.”
Quinn shakes his head. “No, we were just looking for more details on the ownership of the place. For example, with my village, I had to sign a document that said that the man who owned it gave permission for us to be there… I would hate for us to lose permission and have to relocate everyone,” he says. “It would be a disaster. I mean, we could go back to Winsford, but we’d have to build a lot or acquire more land or something. I mean, there’s a field nearby that’d be good for building, but we’d still have to build it.”
Harper’s fingers tighten on the paper as she looks up at Quinn. “Yeah, that’d be awful. I’ll keep tearing the place apart and see if I can find anything. If not, I can guarantee you Apollo will be back to harass us, and we can pick his brain or kick his ass. One or the other,” she teases. “Maybe both at the same time.”
I’m surprised to see Harper opening up enough that she’s teasing with us. She always seemed very reserved or maybe she was just a little shy.
“Perfect,” Quinn says.
“Now let’s go. I bet they’re waiting for us,” she says.
We walk downstairs together and head out to the dining hall where everyone happens to be waiting. Some look like they’ve been waiting a while, even though Quinn told them we weren’t meeting until dusk.
Quinn looks out at his large pack before glancing at me and smiling and I find myself feeling proud of my mate.
Then he takes a deep breath and faces them. “I know the shift from one alpha to another can be scary and you might feel like you’re unsure of what’s next, but I do want you to know we’re in this together. Apollo has been alpha for many years… what, about fifteen or so? So things are going to be different, they’re already different, but all of you have been working extremely hard to keep things running smoothly. I had a lot on my mind before coming here, what with trying to keep my pack safe, and those things haven’t changed a whole lot, but now I have all of you as well. Because of this, I will have Graham, Harper, Rowan, and Katalina directly under me to help keep things running smoothly and safely. Some of you have reached out to me about the members who have left and whether or not they have a home here.
“So I’m here to tell you that any shifter who is willing to become part of the pack and respect each and every one of you as pack is welcome here. I ask that you respect me and the others, and so far, you guys have been doing a fantastic job.”
I love watching Quinn up there. He might not have the overwhelming stature that Apollo did, but there’s something about his presence that leaves the whole pack entranced with what he has to say. He doesn’t need to be tall, muscular, or cruel to keep people in line and respecting him. I’m pretty sure that right now, they’re all prepared to follow him to the ends of the earth.
“Times might get tough as things transition, so I need all of us to work together as a unit to keep this pack running strong. Now something fun we’d do in my pack is on a full moon we’d go for a run, no matter what day it landed on. It’s sort of a tradition, but only join us if you really want to. I’m a little hesitant to take us all outside with everything going on, but with nearly two hundred of us, I think we should be safe.”
The expressions of people instantly change from excitement to unease and Quinn immediately picks up on it.
“Unless you guys don’t want to go outside the walls?” he asks as he looks around for guidance.
Katalina steps up to Quinn. “I think they’re just nervous. A lot of us haven’t been outside the walls since we got here. If we didn’t have a reason to, Apollo wouldn’t let us.” She looks over at Harper, like she’s curious about her thoughts on it, but all I can think about is how horrible it must have been to never be allowed to leave. To feel like your whole life was confined just to these walls.
Harper shrugs. “It’s just a run. It should be fine. Maybe just run a lap or so around the perimeter?” she says. “Those who don’t want to run outside can run inside. I know this is a lot to get used to.”
“Let’s do that,” Quinn says.
He sends his pack members out to group the shifters together by speed before he takes my hand in his and leads me toward the gate. I look down at it in surprise while also feeling oddly pleased that the pack knows he’s mine. Alll mine. Mine and mine and only mine, and oh my god, why am I so possessive?
When we reach the gate, it’s immediately opened and about three-quarters of the pack follows us out. The rest anxiously hover around the gate, but Quinn doesn’t pressure them into following. I notice Harper stays behind with them before sending Katalina off. Maybe they’ll do their own run inside the walls led by Harper?
Once everyone has shifted and paired off with Quinn’s original pack members, Quinn trots to the lead as I follow after him with Talon by my side. This poor dog has to be confused as hell, yet he’s more than happy joining in every step of the way.
Quinn glances over at me as I step up next to him so I can feel the brush of his shoulder against mine. “In old wolf tradition, we’d send a wish to the moon. I have little hope the moon can do a whole lot, but it’s still fun to do. For me, my wish is for a better year with my new family,” he says before howling at the moon. Graham instantly joins him and then a few others jump in too. I just watch, not really possessing the desire to howl at anything unless Ari comes to annoy me. “And then my selfish wish is to get to spend all my free time with you.”
“Now that’s a wish that could make me howl.”
“Or purr.”
Quinn takes off at a run and I race after him, quickly gaining the lead until he puts his all into it. Then we’re neck and neck. But when I look back, there are a few shifters who are clearly faster than us, holding back.
“Go on,” Quinn tells them. “No need to wait for the fluffy white slowpoke.”
“Are you talking about me?” I ask as I bump into him, pushing him down into a ditch before surging ahead.
The thrill of the night leaves us up well past midnight, all of us running and jumping and just enjoying a freedom I’d started to wonder if we’d ever have again. A lot of the shifters clearly aren’t used to it, but with Quinn’s original pack there to lighten the mood, it’s clear the pack ends up loving every moment of it. And when we finish, everyone walks back to their homes, clear exhaustion showing on their faces.
Once back in our room, Quinn and I shower together before climbing into bed and sinking beneath the covers. As I slide my body against his bare side, I press a kiss to his shoulder. “If you’d have told me a year ago that I’d be running around on all fours with a herd of animals, I would have called you crazy.”
Quinn snorts. “Herd? Of animals?”
“Led by a scrawny black wolf.”
“Scrawny?” He grabs me in a headlock before kissing my forehead. “You’re awfully evil tonight.”
“Nah, that’s how I always am, you just haven’t seen my true colors yet,” I tease as I roll him on top of me.
“I saw a lot of your colors when you fell off my roof. Flash of white. Flash of floof.”
I pretend he didn’t speak and instead, rub my fingers down his back while squeezing him tightly to me. I give him one more kiss before rolling him onto his side so I can press my body up against his and close my eyes. I keep him held down tight, fully aware my arm is already going numb but not caring enough to move it. The freedom to touch and hug and kiss him is all worth it.
Even though I was extremely tired moments ago and my limbs feel weak from the vigorous run, my mind starts to wander to everything chaotic in my life. My brother, my father, Quinn as alpha, all of it.
I can only imagine all Quinn’s going through. But as his fingers caress my arm that’s draped over his side, it makes me feel lucky to be here beside him to help him get through it.
“Why wasn’t your name on that list?” I ask as the thought hits me out of nowhere.
“Hmm?” Quinn mumbles.
I push up on my elbow so I can look over his shoulder at him. “The list of people Harper said had left. She said Apollo kept a list of people who left the city. Why weren’t you and Graham on it?”
His fingers slide between mine, squeezing them gently. “Oh… I don’t know. Maybe he started it after we’d left? It was over ten years ago.”
“Oh… right,” I say. I push the thought aside because I really don’t need to be focusing on random things when I’m trying to sleep.
“But…” Quinn says, just as I’d gotten my mind to settle back down. “I want to look at it and make sure because there was a name on there I recognized, but maybe they left after us? I can’t remember.” He tosses the covers back.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I want to go look at it,” he says as he grabs his clothes and yanks them on.
I quickly dress and follow him, but as the cool air attacks me, I question why I couldn’t have waited until morning to think this up.
“You can stay here, if you want,” Quinn says, probably noticing my hesitation.
“No, it’s fine. I’m the one who pestered you,” I say as we head across the mansion to the other side where Apollo’s study waits.
The door’s closed, but Quinn pushes it open and we head over to where the box had been but it’s apparently been put away, probably by Harper who seems to clean up any mess, even if you’re not yet done with it yet.
Quinn scavenges around for the box before finding it tucked into the corner, key missing. Then we have to search the room again for the key that we find ten minutes later innocently sitting on the edge of the desk… you know, the only place we didn’t look. Once it’s open, Quinn pushes Apollo’s computer to the side that wakes up because of the movement. I notice it’s been left on a security camera, like someone had been watching it not that long ago. Maybe Harper had been eyeing it while we did our run to make sure she’d see if anyone was coming.
“Hmm,” Quinn says as he grabs the paper off the top. “Maybe he started it after we left, but I do remember some turmoil with this Nicole lady. Maybe she left after we did and he didn’t create the list until then, so that’s why we’re not on it?”
“Yeah, or maybe these people did something? Or could it be because they were adults? Maybe they had to count the adults who come and go for the state. You know the state loves keeping an eye on where shifters are,” I say.
Quinn points a finger at me. “Ahh… I bet you’re right. That’d make sense. I’ll have to ask Katalina or Harper tomorrow if they were all adults. I’m not even sure why this matters,” he says as my attention shifts over to the screen as it rotates through the security cameras. When it hits the main gate, I’m surprised to see a car parked out in front of it.
“Quinn, look,” I say, but by the time he looks at it, it’s onto the next camera.
“What was it?” he asks.
“A car pulled up to the front gate. Is anyone currently outside the city getting supplies or visiting someone?”
“Not that I know of,” Quinn says thoughtfully. When the screen flashes back to the main gate we both get a better look at the man who is standing outside his car, clearly wanting in. “Wait… that’s Officer Shaw, isn’t it?”
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
     
QUINN
Why would Officer Shaw turn up here, hours away from where he lives, instead of just replying to one of my calls or emails?
“I… think it is. It was hard to tell. What’s he doing here?” Rowan asks as he messes with the keyboard to try to get it to go back again.
I shake my head as I hurry for the door, knowing I need to catch Shaw before they potentially turn him away. I would assume they’d reach out to me first, but just in case they’re still falling into Apollo’s hard rules about not letting any humans inside, I want to get down there. “I… don’t know. Come on.”
I race down the stairs and stick my feet in my shoes as Rowan follows suit. Once outside, I run for the gate, realizing I really need a better way to be able to contact whoever is on gate duty. I need a phone as well, but I’ve just been using Katalina’s since getting a phone seemed to be a struggle until recently.
When we reach the gate, I have to knock on the door of the booth where Endo is. He pulls it open and looks out at me before giving me a respectful bow of his head. “Evening, alpha.”
“Evening. I need to go outside to meet with the man who just pulled up,” I say.
He hesitates as his eyes go wide, already telling me what he’s going to say. “Oh… um… I was told to turn him away, so I did. He left like a minute ago.”
“Shit,” I say. “Let me through the gate and I’ll see if I can catch up to him. Do you have a set of keys I can use for any of the vehicles?”
He nods while looking anxious. “I’m sorry. We were always just told to turn anyone away after dark and have them come back in the morning. And since I didn’t recognize the man and when I consulted with Harper, she agreed… I didn’t know,” he says as he hands me some keys. “These ones are to the blue car parked closest to us.”
“Thank you,” I say as I hear Endo unlock the door so I can rush out with Rowan.
“What’s going on?” a voice says from behind us as I see Katalina and Harper run to catch up.
“That guy that was here is the officer helping us. We need to stop him before he heads back.”
“Oh my god. I… I didn’t know. We get people who just stop by trying to harass us and I just… I was going off Apollo’s rules, and I’m sorry,” Harper says.
“Can you tell Graham what’s going on?” I ask as I get into the driver’s seat and start the car without waiting for a reply.
The moment Rowan’s inside, I gun the car and take off down the road. While we could wait and see if he comes back or try to contact him, I know there’s only one road away from this place, and he’ll be on it. So as long as he’s not hauling ass out of here, we’ll eventually catch up. Hopefully, one of the others thinks to call him and tell him we’re following close behind. The issue is, none of us have been able to get through to him for quite a long time. He never called back and never answered any of the calls, so for him to show up here? Something’s wrong and I need to know what it is.
“Why would Harper have them send him away?” Rowan asks.
“Hell if I know. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have asked me, but maybe they’re so used to whatever Apollo’s rules were that they didn’t even think before deciding. It is late at night but still…”
“That’s true,” he says.
The road is dark with no streetlights; instead, it winds through a thick wooded area and fields. There’s no one out this far, but within thirty minutes we’ll be in a much bigger city where we’d never find him. I wouldn’t care this much if it hadn’t been impossible to reach him lately.
As I slow to round a sharp bend hidden by trees, Rowan yells, “STOP!”
Suddenly, I see what he saw and slam on the brakes as the vehicle in front of me comes into view. The tires squeal as I jerk the wheel, but I still clip the side of the car that was lying upside down in the middle of the road. It spins our car, flinging us off the road and into the ditch where we come to a stop.
I feel like my stomach is in my throat as my heartbeat pounds loudly in my ears. I hadn’t even been going that fast, but the turn was a blind one in the dark and I never expected there to be a stationary vehicle on the other side. “Are you alright?” I anxiously ask Rowan.
He takes a deep breath then slowly nods. “Yeah… my god… that could have been bad. Was that his car? Shaw’s?”
“I… don’t know, I didn’t get a good look at it, but the probability of it being someone else’s would be next to none, especially with him coming this same way,” I say as I undo my seat belt and push against the door. My door is wedged up against the incline of the ditch and won’t budge, so I look over at Rowan who manages to push his open. He crawls out of the car before looking back at me.
“I really wish we’d have thought to grab someone’s phone. If he’s hurt, I’m not sure we could drive him back in this car,” I say as I climb over his seat and out his door. Rowan reaches in to grab me and help me out. Together we hurry across the road to the car that’s lying on its roof.
“Shaw?” I call as we near it. The lights are off, and the engine isn’t running anymore, but I can smell gasoline. “Be careful. I think there’s gas on the road.”
Rowan nods and as we get closer, I realize I’m not sure I want to look in the vehicle. If Shaw is still inside and alive, I think I’d have heard him moving, but the only thing I can hear is the silence of the trees around me. When we round the side of the car, I see that the door is closed but as I look in, Shaw doesn’t appear to be in the front seat. I kneel down and peer through the shattered glass. There’s blood in the front seat, but not an excessive amount, and I can’t see anything in the back seat.
“Look at this,” Rowan says, and I stand up to see what he’s looking at.
When I see that the side of the car facing away from us has marks clawed into it, my stomach sinks.
“Is that… did he scrape something during the crash or are those… claw marks?” Rowan asks.
“Fuck,” I whisper, recognizing all too easily the space between the marks. Clearly it was from claws trying to tear the door open. “I can’t imagine they were trying to help him.”
“They’re out here… and we’re out here with them,” Rowan says as I realize the mistake we’ve made. We’re out here alone, with no vehicle and no way to contact anyone from the pack. How could I have been such a fool? I got so caught up in the idea of quickly catching Shaw that I didn’t even think about it. Thankfully, at least three of the pack members know where we’ve gone, but I don’t want them coming out here where they could get hurt.
“Okay. We don’t know that the claw marks are from one of Mercer’s shifters. It could have been a different shifter or even an actual animal,” I say as I see that the front window has been broken. “I think we need to shift so we can run if we have to.” I quickly start tugging my clothes off and Rowan does the same. Once I’ve shifted, I sniff the hole in the window and smell blood on it. If the blood on the road is anything to go by, it looks like someone dragged Shaw out through a hole they’d created in the window.
“What do we do?” Rowan asks as I question that very thing myself.
“I couldn’t… in good conscience go home knowing Shaw came out here to help us and got attacked. So I’m going to need you to run back—”
Rowan’s look alone cuts me off. “Absolutely not. Are you insane? You already told Katalina and Harper to contact Graham, so they know we’re out here, and you know Graham is so damn nosy he’ll be here shortly. I’m going to go turn the flashers on so when he comes this way he doesn’t hit Shaw’s car like we did.”
“Okay… I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Same here,” he says as he rushes back to the car. As he does that, I put my nose to the ground, trying my best to track Shaw. I slowly follow his scent as Rowan catches up.
“From the shoe marks, it looks like he was on foot. Do you think he got away from them?” Rowan asks.
“He might have. It’s hard to tell, but they definitely weren’t dragging him any longer through here. In fact, I smell blood that I don’t think is Shaw’s. He might have hurt his attacker somehow,” I say as Rowan follows the footprints, keeping up a steady pace.
I follow close behind him as he moves deeper into the woods and farther from the road. As the smell of blood grows thicker, we’re able to pick up speed, having more to go by.
A sudden rustle of movement stops me as I block Rowan from continuing on. We stand perfectly still and listen as I try to decipher where it came from. At first, I can’t tell if it was just an animal in the woods or if it’s something else out here with us since it’s grown deathly quiet. But we can’t wait here all night, we have to keep moving, so I quietly push forward as Rowan falls in line behind me this time. The only issue is he’s not as good at the stealth walk as I am while getting used to his leopard body, and I swear his foot beelines for a brittle branch every time it lands. He might be an amazing tracker as a human, but he still doesn’t have it perfected as a leopard.
I glance back at him and he gives me a sheepish look while holding up his paw. I take another step forward and he steps with me, clearly finding the absolute loudest thing in the forest to step on.
There’s a flash of movement to the left, allowing me to see exactly who I’m facing as the monster rises up. It’s hovering over what looks like another of Mercer’s shifters but from this distance I can’t tell if I recognize them or not. Instead, I can see it flashing fangs at me before sinking back down, like it’s covering the first shifter with its body. Is he trying to protect the other from us?
For a long moment, I wait, afraid to take a step forward, unsure if it’s waiting for me to move to attack or if it’ll just let us go. I stare, uncertain, but I take a chance going forward, hoping to put as much distance between us as possible. After a few calculated steps where neither shifter rushes to kill me or Rowan, I question if they’re waiting until I let my guard down to attack.
“Quinn, I’m nervous this is a trap. Why else aren’t they attacking or following us?” Rowan asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit because I really don’t. It could be a setup. It could be a trap or maybe they’re hurt and not up for the fight.
Either way, I watch everything as closely as I can, hoping to catch something before it happens because I have to keep Rowan safe. That’s all that matters.
That’s when I see Shaw sitting on the ground, back leaning against a tree. I rush forward to go to him, even with the anxious noise that escapes Rowan. He’s worried it’s a trap and I can’t blame him because as we grow near, I see that the whole front of Officer Shaw’s shirt is coated in blood and his eyes aren’t open. Unable to sense any shifters around us, I shift and reach out to him.
“Shaw?” I ask as Rowan stays on watch. When I touch him, he doesn’t respond and when I press my fingers against his neck, I can’t feel anything. “Fuck… I think he’s dead.”
“We need to get out of here,” Rowan says, voice anxious.
I see in Shaw’s hand he has a gun. He must have shot the shifter who’d attacked him, so maybe they were too hurt to follow us? “Fuck… he knew something, Rowan. He came out here because he knew something, and of course, Mercer had him killed. Why can’t we have a single fucking thing go right for us?”
I question whether he had a phone on him, so I carefully pat down his pockets. I’m not sure who I’ll even call if he does. I clearly don’t need to worry about it because his pockets are relatively flat, phone and wallet probably in his car. The only thing in his pocket is a keycard for a hotel. Maybe he got a room on his way here?
“Quinn, we’re sitting ducks out here. There’s nothing more you can do for him.”
Even though I agree, I feel horrible leaving him here. If only he’d been allowed inside the walls, he would’ve been safe.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to the man before turning to Rowan. “We’ll run back and see if we can find his phone in case there’s information on it, and we can also call the accident in.”
“Okay,” he says, so I shift and gather the keycard in my mouth before racing after him. We make a wide berth around the area the shifters had been and run back for the car. The forest is oddly quiet as we move, but it allows me to hear if anyone is following us. It’s like even nature knows what’s going on and to stay clear of it.
An odd glow of light begins to flicker as we near the vehicles, making Rowan hesitate. We really should head back for the safety of our walls, but as we draw in closer, I realize that there’s a fire, a large one. Flames lick up into the sky as it eats away at the car Shaw had driven in. The gasoline must have ignited at some point… unless someone helped it along.
“Quinn,” Rowan says, and I still at the inflection in his voice. I look across the road to the other side, where our car rests in the ditch. Past it, at the edge of the trees, I can see the glowing eyes of multiple shifters. There are at least six of them, their mutated shapes looking even more monstrous in the flickering light of the flames as heat penetrates my fur, even from here.
When none of them step forward, I take my own step forward to push Rowan behind me, to protect him.
Their eyes follow me, but none move; instead, they just watch me… and wait. I take another step, questioning if they’re waiting for us to turn our backs so they can follow and attack. It’s clear we can’t get anything out of the car now, so the only thing left to do is rush back to the safety of the pack.
“Rowan, come on,” I say softly as I watch the shifters. They slowly begin to move toward us as I contemplate what to do. “We have to run.”
There’s no way I can fight them alone and Rowan isn’t in tune enough with his shifter side to fight with me, so I’d have to protect him. Rowan stays beside me as I glance back at the shifters who seem to be following us, but not chasing us. They have to know where the pride is, so it’s not like they’re trying to follow us back to them, right?
What if I’m leading them straight to my pack?
I stop moving and Rowan skids to a stop to see what I’m doing. When I turn back to face the eyes glowing in the dark, I find them the exact same distance from me as before.
“What are they doing?” Rowan asks.
“I don’t know. I’m nervous about leading them straight to the pack. What if that’s what they’re wanting?” I ask. “I can’t let them hurt my family. Rowan, please, run back to the pack, and I’ll distract them.”
He turns back to me and brushes his face against mine. “I’m not leaving you. Nothing could make me leave you.”
I press into him before turning and running deeper into the trees, leading us farther from the pack just to see if we could get some distance between us before returning. As we pick up speed, they stay with us, steadily keeping about a fifteen-foot distance between us no matter how fast or slow we go. They could be waiting for more to join them to kill us, or they could be trying to drive us away.
“They’re leaving,” Rowan says.
I turn to look and see that they’re falling farther and farther behind until the glow of their eyes disappears into the thicket. “I don’t like this.”
“I at least like it better than them attacking us.”
“True.”
I stand and watch, listening to every noise as I question if they’re gathering around us or have something else in mind that’s much worse than trailing us.
“What’s this?” Rowan asks and I turn to see what he’s looking at. He’s pawing at the ground, and when I walk over to see what he’s found, I only find a rut in the mud.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Tire tracks. The size of the tire and distance between tires tell me it’s a car. Why would a car be out here?”
I eye it, not quite sure if I see tire tracks, but Rowan is a tracker. He knows how to track with his eyes and picking apart pieces of the environment, where I only know how to track with my nose.
“Out here?” I ask as I look at the area where the field meets the wooded area. “Maybe the farmer?” Time must have passed since the vehicle came through because I don’t pick up any smell.
“Maybe,” he says, but he starts following it and I find myself joining him until I hear a rustling sound in front of us. We draw to a stop as the shifters that’d been behind us step out in front of us, blocking our path.
“They’re trying to drive us somewhere,” I realize.
“Yes, away from the tire tracks.”
“Maybe they have a camp set up?” I ask.
“Maybe. Let’s go. We can scout it later.”
We let them drive us away and find that when we get far enough from them, they let us go. How long have they been out here watching us? Waiting for us to leave the safety of our pack? How long have they been breathing down our necks?
When we reach the gate, the door automatically opens for us and I find that there’s no one there to greet us besides Endo, who had opened the gate for us. Did Graham already go out? Did we miss him? Could he be out with them?
I shift and snatch up the keycard I’d spit out before rushing over to Endo, knowing if my brother is out there, I need to find him quickly. “Did my brother already leave?”
He shakes his head. “No, you two were the last to go. Did something happen?”
I’m so relieved he hadn’t left that I take a deep breath I’d obviously been holding. “Yeah, I need to… don’t let anyone else out through the gate. There were people out there watching us; do not let them come close. I need you to get everyone on your team up and watching the perimeter. Rowan, can you get Graham while I help out here?”
“Of course,” he says before shifting back into his leopard form and racing across the town.
Graham is the first to meet us, telling us he’d just learned what had happened from Katalina and apologizing for not being there to help us.
“They killed someone from law enforcement?” Katalina asks in disbelief.
“I don’t think they care who they kill,” I tell her.
“Yeah but…” She quickly glances over at Harper. “I just… this feels endless… worthless fighting… I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. It goes to show you how insignificant we are against this man, you know?”
“We have to keep trying,” I say as I reach out and give her arm a squeeze. She gives me a slow nod and a forced smile.
We alert those closest to me what’s going on and I plan to let the rest of the pack know as soon as morning hits. It’s clear I’ll have to put in some restrictions to limit who comes and goes.
But the question remains:
What did Shaw know that was worth dying for?