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CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
     
QUINN
“Let’s talk,” I say as I sit down at the table.
Rowan glances over at me as he enters the kitchen. “About how using you as a pillow was the best I’ve slept since I arrived here? Maybe the best I’ve ever slept. I was dead to the world. I didn’t even hear your screams.”
I shake my head as I grin. “I wasn’t screaming. There was just one point where you were suffocating me, and I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or not.”
Rowan, wearing Graham’s clothes and with freshly washed hair, just shrugs before sitting down at the table. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Us. This…” I say, even though I honestly don’t want to talk about it at all. I want to just live in a world of bliss, pretending like everything is perfect.
Rowan seems to feel the same from his expression, but he still nods. “I don’t… get what this is. It’s clear I’m attracted to you and my leopard won’t let me forget that, but I just… it’s weird, you know? It’s not you or liking you that feels weird, but this rush of unexplainable emotions I feel for you. This… desire to be with you and being driven mad when I’m away. I always feel like I’m not sure I’m learning who you really are because my brain is pure chaos. I have a whole world back at home. I own a house. When I’m not out tracking, I do some part-time work giving guided trail rides at the stable Maze is boarded at. I don’t know what this is and if this is real or if this is a side effect of the drugs and my other side coming out full force.”
I nod, anxious and uncertain. Last night, wrapped up in Rowan’s arms, everything felt so clear, but this morning, it’s muddy again and confusing. I don’t know if I want to order him to stay, if I want to beg him to not leave me, or if I want to just walk away from it because it’ll be easier to just step back and go with the easier route now.
Is there an easy route?
“Do you have to make everything as difficult as possible?” I ask curiously.
He raises an eyebrow. “Me? I’m telling you how you’ve twisted my life around into pure chaos and I’m the one making it difficult?”
“Do you really want to ask this question?”
He smiles at me from across the table. “Maybe not. So? What do we do?”
“I guess we don’t have to make it as difficult as we’re trying to,” I say, although my brain is trying really hard to tell me it’s not difficult at all if I just make him mine. “I mean… it’s not like we have to get married this weekend or we’ll never see each other ever again. We can just… coexist.”
“Yeah, but coexisting with you makes me want to maul you and rub all over you and see what you look like without clothes on. And I might have to say you look best naked.”
I give him a grin, strangely flattered. “Okay, so hopefully we’ve both been sated and now we’ll just work together. And sometimes we’ll work together while naked. We’re both adults. We can control ourselves.” What a joke.
“Yep. I controlled myself really well last night when I ran at least a hundred miles here.”
“Not even ten.”
“My muscles say it was at least two hundred.”
I can’t help but laugh. “That’s because you’re used to walking on two feet, not four. Are you going to stay on the drugs?” I ask, scared to know his answer.
His own smile dissolves into something more serious. “They don’t help. I mean, I was on them yesterday when I ran all the way here with my fluffy ass.”
I can’t keep my grin at bay. “I’ve always wanted a cat,” I say as I pull out my phone and open an app I’d heard about online. I slide it over to him while watching him closely.
His eyes flicker down to the screen of my phone. “What the hell is this?”
“Just a game,” I say as I watch with great pleasure while he pokes one of the fish on the screen.
“This is a weird game,” he says as he taps another fish before freezing. “Is this an app for cats?”
I’m beaming at him as I nod. “It is. You like it, don’t you? The colors and the way the fish move are supposed to draw in cats. I’ll write them a review right now,” I say as I snatch up the phone.
“I am not a cat.”
“Five stars. Floofy cat shifter approved—”
“Dammit, Quinn, no! Don’t degrade me like this,” he cries as he lunges across the table for me.
I skirt back, leaping out of the chair as he races after me and grabs me. “And… submit.”
“No! Delete it!” he says.
“I wonder if you’d like a laser pointer toy. Do you like catnip?”
“You are not cute or funny or any of that. I’m not a lowly house cat,” he growls as I try to go to my Amazon account to order some catnip, even as he tries his best to pin me to him.
That’s when the door opens and Graham steps in before freezing and staring at Rowan like he’d enjoy eating him. I get why my brother is defensive over me, but he doesn’t need to worry so much.
“I didn’t know you had company.” Graham says the word like it’s poison. “Generally, the only one who spends the night is Ari,” he says, fully aware of what he’s saying.
Rowan’s body tenses up like he’s about to fight Graham over this extremely mundane fact. And then probably fight Ari, and then he’ll have to fight Logan because no one is fighting Ari without having to fight Logan first.
“Graham, knock it off,” I say as I pull back from Rowan. “Why are you so pissed at him?”
Graham tears his narrowed eyes off Rowan. “I… don’t want you getting caught up in something that he doesn’t even want from you. He’s just going to use you, throw you to the side, and go back to his world of lies.”
“He might, but that’s something for me to deal with,” I say as I walk up to my brother and pat his shoulder. “Is something wrong?”
Graham side-eyes Rowan. “Besides that man wearing my clothes?”
“He can be naked if you’d prefer.”
Graham’s scowl deepens. “Nah, send him over to my place next time, I have a ton of stuff he can wear. Like blood.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Did you need something or is it just Sassy Sunday?”
“It’s not even Sunday!” He sighs. “No, I wanted to know if you were interested in meeting for lunch, but I see you’re busy.”
While I’d love to spend the day with Rowan, I know he’s going to run off before long anyway. “I’ll see you at lunch. Diner or your place? I’m not cooking.”
“Which is a blessing for all of us,” he says with a grin. “Meet me at the diner. Noon?”
“Sounds good.”
I watch him go before turning back to Rowan.
“He really doesn’t like me,” Rowan says, looking almost disappointed in this fact.
“My brother really doesn’t like humans for the most part and thinks it’s insane you’d choose to live as one. We didn’t necessarily have a five-star childhood. From a young age, the two of us only really had each other, and we weren’t treated the best by humans. So I can see exactly why you’d never want to give up your life as a human. If anyone in my pack was able to pick that lifestyle, I’d be more than happy to let them go. I think embracing your life as a shifter is important, but I also see these people I’m surrounded by being suffocated.”
“There are many acts going into place to make life for shifters fairer and to give them equal rights, but it’s slow going,” Rowan says.
I nod. “Those girls you met? Well, Sophia wants to be a vet, Addie wants to teach at a university, and Layla wants to be a doctor. They’re all smart enough the world would be stupid not to accept them with open arms. Maybe life in the next few years will be better for them and they’ll get their wish.”
“I hope,” he says.
“But what I was getting at is that my brother is protective. He doesn’t dislike you, he dislikes what you believe in.”
“Sometimes I dislike what I believe in too. Life wasn’t easy for me either, but in a different way.” Rowan shakes his head and forces a smile. “Let’s not get into that. I’d prefer to talk about something else.”
“Like the catnip I just ordered?”
He reaches for the phone in my hand that I quickly pull back. “No,” he says.
I grin at him as I slowly back away. “Do you like balls with little jingle bells in them? Do you like the little jingle jingle?”
“I will destroy them all.”
“So a scratching post, then?”
He rushes for me, but I slip around him and grab him from behind.
“Shift for me,” I say as I hug him tightly.
“No!”
“Please? It’s all I’m asking.”
He looks back at me suspiciously. “Why do you want me to shift?”
“Please? Pretty please? I’ll… I’ll forgive you for being an ass to me.”
He looks amused, probably because I’m so adamant. “I was… never… fuck. Fine. Just this once.”
I grin as I let go of him and step back.
“It’s hard for me to shift… what if I shift, and I can’t shift back?”
“You shifted back just fine last night when you decided you wanted to fondle me. Just think of me naked again,” I say.
He sighs and takes his shirt off and tosses it before sliding his pants down. “This is so strange. My body is like ‘Is this a striptease or is this torture?’”
I happen to enjoy the striptease part as well. “Tell it that it’s a little bit of both.”
He sighs before he shifts. It’s very messy, but thankfully, his instincts take over and he ends up on all four paws—even if he’s a bit jittery.
“So what did you want me to shift for?”
I drop to my knees in front of him and grab his face in my hands. “Oh my god, you’re so adorable.”
His tail flicks back and forth. “You’re kidding. This is why?”
“I thought it’d be a bit creepy to start petting you when we barely knew each other but now? Now that you’ve fondled me, fuck that shit, I’m petting you,” I say as I stroke his head. “Your hair is so thick.”
“This is ridiculous. I hate this,” he says as he starts purring. Full-on purring. He clearly “hates it so much.”
“You’re purring again,” I say, in case he’s not aware of how much he’s enjoying my pets.
“I am not. I hate this. Despise it.”
“What? I can barely hear you over all the purring,” I say as I smoosh his face. “How do you even feel anything through this thick fluff?” I grab his tail and pull it forward. “Your tail is so long you can touch your nose with it,” I say as I poke him in the nose with his tail.
He huffs, acting like he’s not loving it. “This isn’t sexy or majestic.”
“I’m sorry? What’s that, purrmaster?” I ask.
He flops onto his side, turning into a drama leopard again. “I can’t control this body. It hates me.”
“You’re mad because you can’t stop purring?” I ask as I lie on top of him. It’s like lying on a cloud of heaven. I just melt into him and love every moment of it.
“You don’t find this strange? You rolling around on me?” he asks.
I grin at him as I watch my fingers sink into his fur. “You forget that I’m a wolf. Wolves are pack animals and I want to be with my pack. And I want to make you a part of my pack. I bet you’d be fun to lie on naked.”
“I’m not sure if that’s sexy or weird.”
“You’d only find it weird because you’re associating yourself with an animal. You’re not,” I say as I hug him to me. “Look at your paws. Look at those claws! And your teeth are huge! What an adorable kitty kitty.”
He rolls onto his back, pushing me off, and jumps onto me. He’s smaller as a leopard than a man, but still quite lethal as he holds me down. “I will eat you,” he threatens.
I grin up at him before scratching under his chin. He leans into me and begins purring away, his eyes closing with pleasure. “What was that?” I ask with a huge grin.
“Fuck!” he cries as he jerks back. “How do you do that to me?”
“Do what?” I ask as I grab my phone, switch on the cat app, and slide it over to him. His eyes are instantly on it and he begins smacking at it with his paw. And even though he might crush my phone with his paw, watching him smack those little fish is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.
It jingles, telling him he won the round, and he stops, paw held up high. “How dare you?”
I laugh as I scramble to my feet. “It was an accident. I swear, it was just an innocent little accident.”
He lunges at me, large paws wrapping around my legs and yanking them out from under me. He pummels me to the ground.
“It’s like being tossed around by a cotton ball.”
His tail is flicking back and forth. “I’m vicious, I am not a cotton ball.”
Rowan grabs my wrist in his mouth and gnaws on it gently. Then he shifts and slowly rolls onto his side. “You’re exhausting and ridiculous and I do not purr.”
“You purr so loudly,” I say from where I’m still lying on the ground.
“No.”
“So loud.”
“Nope.”
“Deafeningly loud.”
He slides over the top of me, pinning me to the ground. “I should get going,” he says.
I run a finger under his chin like I did when he was in his other form. He leans into me, eyeing me like he can’t figure out what to say or do.
Slowly, Rowan leans down and sets his forehead against mine. “I’m sorry. I tell you one thing, and then I’m doing another. I should get back and you have to get ready for lunch. Can I call you later?”
“Yeah, come back whenever you want,” I say, not wanting him to leave, but knowing I need to let him go. He rises up and I grab his wrist.
“Yes?” Rowan asks.
“While you’re here and in this area, you’re mine, don’t let anyone touch you,” I say.
He gives me a grin. “And who do you think I’m going to run off with? Scott?”
“I saw you eyeing that fine ass yesterday,” I joke.
He snorts as he stands up. “Every time I see it my body just spikes right up. What a damn fine man and that personality? Fuck me,” he says with enough sarcasm to fill the room.
I start laughing as I watch him get dressed. I don’t bother looking away and he doesn’t bother saying anything about my blatant peeping.
He hesitates before saying, “Well, I’m going to check on my horse then head out.”
“Are you going to run the whole way home? I can get someone to drive you,” I say.
“You can’t do it?” he asks curiously. “Not that I need you to run me around like some taxi… I was just…” He looks flustered and I can’t help but wonder if he was wanting more time with me but refuses to admit it.
“Not immediately. I’m supposed to meet with someone about getting a security system set up that’s more than just cameras, but Ari or my brother can probably run you.”
Rowan looks a bit reluctant as he gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Thank you. That’s very kind. I wonder how long it’d take to walk.”
I laugh as I reach out and pet Talon’s fur. His tail smacks the ground quickly. “According to you it took five years and a hundred thousand miles. That can’t possibly be better than riding in a car with my brother for twenty minutes, right?”
The way he stares at me tells me he’s positive it’s better.
      
Once I’ve shipped a reluctant Rowan off with my brother and Ari, I get a phone call. It looks to be from the security team, so I answer.
“Hello?”
“Is this Quinn Elston?”
“It is.”
“Good morning, Quinn. I’m Ronda with SafeMatters Security. There’s been an issue that we were not formerly made aware of. We’ve been alerted that you are a shifter and without the proper documentation or a human co-sign we can’t make it to the meeting today.”
I hesitate as her words slowly sink in. It takes a lot to keep from raising my voice. “Made aware of? Who made you aware of this exactly? And I seriously can’t have security because I’m a shifter?”
She’s quiet for a moment. “I’m… really sorry, sir. I’m just the receptionist. I have no say in the matter.”
“Then can I talk to your boss?”
“He’s out for the day… I can leave him a note and have him call as soon as he can?”
There’s no use screaming at her or crying about it, it’ll get me nowhere, so I’m stuck agreeing and waiting on a reply that’ll probably never come. I suppose I could have taken Rowan after all, instead of letting my brother and closest friend torture him.
      
ROWAN
“What are you getting up to?” Ari asks as he pushes his face between the two front seats and eyes me. It’s not the malevolent eyeing I get from Graham, but a much more toying one.
“What?” I ask warily. I feel like he’s going to push me into a trap and Graham is going to shove me the rest of the way off the cliff. They’d both just smile as they watched me fall.
Ari stuffs his face right into mine and sniffs me. “I can smell Quinn on you.”
“I… did… stay at his place. I’m sure there are a lot of Quinn smells around his house,” I say, wondering if Graham is close to murdering me. I feel like I’m on ridiculously thin ice but Quinn is a grown man, he doesn’t need these two… protecting him… or whatever they’re doing.
“Nooooo. He marked you. He claimed you,” Ari says.
Graham, who hasn’t said anything yet, just growls and tightens his grip on the steering wheel.
“First off… that’s just… strange. Second… why don’t you ask him, then? I didn’t… mark him,” I say.
Ari grins at me. “But you want to, don’t you?”
God, I want to. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“So… what’s so good about you?” Ari asks. “You’re handsome, but you’re kind of a mess, if I’m honest. Like a sexy mess which weirdly makes you sexier. Huh…”
I’m oddly flattered by that but also weirdly annoyed. Like I only want Quinn to look at me or something. “I am well aware my life is currently a mess. My hands hurt because I ran to his house… on four feet… and I’m not used to running anywhere on four feet. So yes, if anyone wants to know, my life is indeed a mess.”
“That’s kind of romantic,” Ari says dreamily. “I wonder if Logan would run around on all four feet for me.”
“Isn’t he a human?” I ask.
“Yes, so it’d be a bit creepy and not as romantic as you were.”
Graham growls again before turning his attention away from the horribly winding road to glower at me. I’m positive he’s going to drive off a cliff and I’m also positive he doesn’t care as long as his displeasure is noted. We’ll be plummeting off the face of the mountain and that’ll be fine as long as his glare doesn’t get disrupted.
“Did you sleep with him?” Ari asks.
Dear god, what is wrong with this man? Does he want Graham to kill me? He’s little and cute but I’m positive there’s a demon lurking inside.
Slowly, I look over at him. “What? We didn’t… just… no. I slept in the living room.” Which is a fact… I just don’t admit I slept on top of a very naked Quinn in the living room.
“And where did Quinn sleep?” Ari’s grin lights up his entire face as he stares at me.
My death is imminent. This little demon is ensuring my death is coming. “I didn’t ask,” I say.
Graham’s hand swings out and Ari ducks back a moment before his hand could make contact. But Graham, not noticing this—or not caring—slams his hand into the side of my head.
“Ow. What the hell?” I ask.
He doesn’t seem at all concerned that he smacked me instead of Ari. “Whoops,” he says so dryly that I’m positive he’s disappointed he didn’t draw blood.
I lean away from both of them. “I don’t know what you guys think I’m doing, but Quinn can quite clearly handle himself. He’s proven it again and again. I’m sorry you think I’m doing something else that could… harm… hinder… upset… whatever you think I’m doing to Quinn, but I’m not.”
Ari pokes me in the face with a finger. “I think you’re a sexy undercover spy who was sent on a secret mission to spy on our pack and then the moment your eyes fell upon our exquisite alpha, you fell head over heels, unable to contain the love ejaculating out of you.”
“Ari, who invited you?” Graham asks, quite irritated.
“You know you love me,” Ari says as he grabs Talon in a hug and drags him onto his lap. The dog is ecstatic and wiggles around. “You two would have probably murdered each other if I hadn’t come along to brighten up your days and make your lives worth living. What else can I ask you, Rowan?”
“Nothing, please.” This comes out like I’m begging.
“What color was Quinn’s underwear? Or was he naked when he opened the door?”
Graham reaches into the back seat, trying to smack Ari who gleefully avoids it while petting Talon who’s on his back on Ari’s lap, enjoying a tummy rub.
“Ah, it’s like Graham is playing the jealous lover, but in this case it’s a bit different because Quinn’s his brother,” Ari says.
“No! Stop!” Graham begs. “Please think before you speak.”
Ari does not strike me as someone who would figure that out. “I’m too cute to have to think.”
“And who the hell told you that?” Graham asks.
When I look back at Ari he seems quite pleased with himself. “Logan, of course. Are… Are you saying I’m not cute?”
Graham pulls into the parking lot outside the motel.
“Well… thank you for driving me,” I tell Graham.
“You don’t want to thank me?” Ari asks, like he did something beyond causing chaos.
“Thank you for riding along and keeping my dog company,” I say to Ari.
Ari’s smiling again as he waves to me. I get out of the car and fetch Talon. Knowing I’ll have to get someone from the front desk to get me a key since mine is locked inside my room, I turn toward it before noticing my door is cracked. I walk over to it before pushing it open. When I smell a strange cologne, I hesitate.
Was someone in here? Are they still here?
“What’s going on?”
I jump about a foot in the air, not having noticed Ari and Graham sidling up behind me. “Fuck, you two are quiet!”
“Did you forget to lock the door like an idiot?” Graham asks. “That’s my bet. I bet you forgot to lock it… like an idiot.” He really emphasizes that last part.
“No, I know I pulled it shut and it locks automatically.”
“Like an idiot,” Graham adds.
I glare at him. “You’re not helping. No, I know I locked it. Maybe the cleaning crew forgot to pull it shut.”
Ari yanks the door open and trots on in before sniffing the air. “I smell cologne, a much nicer cologne than you wear.”
“More expensive than you can afford, clearly,” Graham says, and I watch as the two of them wander around the room sniffing and snorting the air.
I pray that I never become like them. Or at least have some dignity to sniff privately or something instead of dashing around sniffing everything as a human.
“Ooh! It’s a sex cam!” Ari says as he rips something off the desk.
“What?” Graham growls.
“Either it’s a tiny camera set up for recording him doing the nasty or someone’s bugged your room,” Ari says.
“My room?” I ask as I go over to see the tiny camera eye. “Can you track who put this in here?”
“Like… with our noses or with technology? Because I’m pretty bad at technology. Logan says I have no patience, which is a huge lie. I have a ton of patience… what is this stuck on?” Ari growls as he tugs and tugs until he snaps the cord. “Whoops.”
“You broke it,” Graham says in disbelief. “We could’ve had a lead and you broke it.”
Ari innocently shrugs. “That was obviously the plan. How could I ever find the culprit without breaking it? Ever think of that?” he asks as he sniffs it then presses it against Graham’s nose so he can sniff it too. “You smell that?”
“All I smell are your fingers and they smell like onions.”
“Logan had me cut onions this morning for the soup tonight! No, not that. It smells like…” Ari pauses and I’m not sure if he doesn’t know what it smells like or is doing a whole dramatic pause thing. The only issue is that this is the longest dramatic pause I’ve ever heard in my life.
“Like?” Graham urges.
Ari shrugs. “Something… I can’t pinpoint it. Well, that’s a wrap. Rowan, someone is clearly watching you. They probably have a fetish or they want to wear your skin. You do have really nice skin. Not like this. But you know… fluffy you. Would make a nice jacket or booties. I’m going to call Quinn!”
And off he goes.
“I can never tell if he’s smart or dumb,” Graham says. “No matter how much it pains me to help you from a very imminent demise, I will because Quinn likes you. So do you have any idea what this is?”
“No. Do you think it’s new? Or do you think someone’s been watching me for a while?”
“I can’t tell. Quinn might have a better idea. He’s always been better at tracking than me,” Graham says.
I don’t have to wait long to see what Quinn thinks because he shows up within twenty minutes. “Everything okay?” he asks as he rushes in. “Ari calls and tells me someone broke into your place to either collect ‘dick pics’ of you or they’re trying to ‘murder you.’”
“I pride myself on how helpful I am,” Ari explains as he follows Quinn inside. Quinn sniffs the room as he wanders in deeper.
“So helpful,” Quinn says before turning to me. “You alright? Did they steal anything?”
“I’m fine, and not that I’ve noticed.”
“Good! I’m glad. Let’s look into this.”
“So… not your kinky cam, then, Quinn?” Ari asks as he watches him.
“Trust me, Ari, if it was my kinky cam, you wouldn’t have been able to find it,” Quinn says, which makes Ari laugh and Graham growl.
I try to pull the conversation back to something more serious. “While we were waiting for you, I gave the scent to Talon, but he lost it right outside the door,” I say. “They must have had their car parked right outside.”
“Let me see,” Quinn says as he strips before shifting. Ari whistles which makes Graham glare at him. I do my best to not even look in the same area as Quinn in case Graham mistakes it for me checking him out and pops my head clean off my body. I would prefer to keep my head if given the choice.
Quinn sniffs around then sniffs the camera in my hand before wandering a bit. Then he heads toward the door, which Graham opens up, and walks in the same direction Talon had gone before stopping outside the door to Scott’s motel room. He sniffs around the door for a moment as I realize that it wasn’t that Talon had lost the scent, it was that he couldn’t continue following the scent into Scott’s room. But that can’t be right. Why would Scott put a camera in my room?
“You really think it’s Scott’s scent?” I ask.
“There’s a thick layer of cologne, like he’s wanting to keep the trail mixed up. Talon was right, he did get into a vehicle that was parked down farther. He probably took off the clothes with the cologne and you’ll find them in his car when he returns. But then once he thought he lost all scent, he went into his room.”
“But why?” I ask. “Could it be someone else having put something in his room too?”
He shifts into his human form. “I think it was Scott.”
“You two can… communicate?” Graham asks. “Like that?”
“Yes. We can worry about it later. Right now, Scott isn’t inside. Let’s break in,” Quinn decides as Ari hands him his clothes.
“Wait, what?” I ask. “You’re just going to break in? Do you know how illegal that is?”
“If he breaks into your room, that automatically gives us permission to break into his room. It’s common knowledge.” Quinn seems very confident about this “common knowledge.”
“Is it?” I ask curiously. “That’s like saying if this guy killed a person you should be allowed to kill them without any consequences.”
Quinn nods. “Correct. It’s a good rule, am I right?”
“Definitely right,” Graham says.
“You’re always right.” Ari looks at me. “Do you think he’s not right?”
Suddenly, Graham and Ari are staring at me like they’re ready to challenge me.
“Ignore them,” Quinn says. “They take the whole ‘Protect your alpha’ thing to a whole new and ridiculous level. That or Graham is just jealous I can get you to look at me and he can’t get Kaiya to even remember his name.”
“She knows my name!”
“GramGram. Isn’t that what she called him the other day?” Ari asks.
They have a good snicker over that and I stare at these crazy men who think they are leagues above the law. But when Quinn heads into my room and climbs out the back window, I’m right there beside him, mystified. Talon is quite sad we leave him behind, but I don’t want to drag him into the crime as well.
Once I join Quinn, he starts jimmying and pushing the window to Scott’s room around until he basically breaks it into opening.
“Whoops,” he says, like it’s no big deal as he climbs inside. “We’ll just put that on his tab. Ooh, yes, he has the cologne sitting right on the counter. What a shitty, shitty con man.”
Graham and Ari clamber through without hesitation, making me wonder if the man my leopard side is so enamored with is actually a criminal who is running a criminal syndicate. But instead, I find myself in awe over his window-opening abilities and amazed at his sniffing abilities and all around realize that Quinn could do just about anything and I’d be like “Wow, look at him go!”
Quinn pops his head out the window and grins at me. “Are you coming?”
“Is that what you asked him last night?” Ari asks a moment before I see Graham smack the back of his head.
Ari gives him a look like he’s being unjustly treated. “Ow, dammit! It was an innocentish question. Stop being jealous, you love hater.”
Quinn watches me with his vibrant amber eyes. “Come on. Join the wild side.”
“I’m going to regret this,” I say before climbing in through the window.
“Now let’s be careful not to disrupt anything—” Quinn stares right at Ari who is rooting around in the man’s suitcase. Ari freezes and tries to gently pat everything back into place. “Ari, go wait with the dog.”
Ari’s shoulders sink. “It was an accident.”
“We have to assume that maybe Scott figured out about Rowan’s shifter side and is trying to get documented proof,” Quinn says, and a sense of panic hits me as I realize he’s right.
“I didn’t even think about that,” I say in horror. “Oh my god, you’re right. He could have even seen me last night. I’m not sure I gave two shits who saw me. I was in a hurry. He will ruin me. He’ll end me. Do you know how illegal this is?”
Quinn reaches out and squeezes my wrist, trying to reassure me. “Stop panicking,” he says. “We’ll figure out what’s going on.” He sees a picture of a woman that he picks up and stares at.
“What’s this?” Graham asks as he points at a paper sitting on the desk. We all go over to look at what he’s staring at. It’s a notebook filled with handwritten notes.
Drone coordinates night one. Section one is cleared.
Then there’s a list of dates and coordinates that seem to span the forest, all from the day we arrived.
“Looks like he’s searching for the people using a drone? The forest is so dense you wouldn’t be able to see anyone with a drone,” Quinn says.
“Unless it’s not a someone he’s looking for but a something,” I say.
“As in?”
“A facility or something. What he was threatening you about looking for the other night. He’s under the impression that something more is going on. He even questioned whether or not they were from a different facility than the prison.”
“Then where?” Ari asks.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe asshole Scott isn’t as stupid and annoying as I thought he was,” Quinn says as he turns to the computer and wakes it up. It requires a passcode but what I notice about the screen is that it’s a picture of him and the woman from the photograph Quinn had picked up.
“Isn’t this his wife?” Ari asks as he trots over to the suitcase and pulls out an ID that’d been tucked somewhere in it. It’s an ID card belonging to a Gina Scott for SCI Tech Pharmaceuticals.
Quinn perks up. “There’s a car pulling into the parking lot, it might be him. Let’s go.”
They try to put everything back where they got it, then rush out the window before shutting it. Talon is grateful to have us back as we climb back in through my window. Before I even get my window closed, there’s a knock on my door.
“Go into the bathroom, I want to see what he says if you guys aren’t here,” I say as I shoo them all away. Then I walk up to the door and pull it open before looking out at Scott. “Morning.”
“Good morning. Where’d you go last night?”
I clear my throat, hoping to play it off like I’m just so relaxed nothing could possibly have happened. I super didn’t shift into a hairy monstrosity and run across the city and fondle the nearby alpha. “What do you mean?”
“I knocked on your door last night and again this morning and you didn’t answer.”
I feel like instead of me being suspicious, this man is. What the hell is he hiding? I just assumed he was an asshole, but maybe he’s a calculating asshole.
“You been hanging out with those shifters again?” he asks before I can make up something.
“Nope, haven’t seen them.”
“That’s weird since the alpha’s vehicle is in front of your door,” he says with narrowed eyes.
I look past the man and see Quinn’s car directly behind him. Oh my god. Could we be any stupider?
“What? Is it? Oh wow… crazy—” Clearly, I was never meant to be an actor.
That’s when Quinn comes barreling out of the bathroom, knocking Ari out of the way who spills face-first onto the floor. Why such a dramatic entrance, I’ll never know. Why Ari is holding one of my bags, I’ll also never know. Was that little shit nosing in my stuff?
Quinn zips across the room and by the look on his face, he’s pissed, though I’m not quite sure why. But he grabs Scott’s throat in his hand, and just his mere presence makes me wary… and oh so thrilled.
“What are you trying to do with what is mine?” Quinn growls.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Get off me!” he yells. “I’ll have you arrested.”
“Rowan belongs to me and you dare watch him through some fucking camera like a pervert. Are you a pervert? Is that what this is?” he asks. “Did you also break into his truck? Were you the one who broke the window?”
“No! I didn’t break into his truck. I don’t know who did that.”
“Are you lying?” Quinn asks.
I set my hands on Quinn’s shoulders although I’m definitely enjoying the show. Why is everything sexier when Quinn does it? “Hey, calm down. Let’s hear Scott out.”
“But… but I was going to castrate him for being a pervert who has a fetish for putting cameras in your room,” Quinn says, sounding horribly disappointed by the fact that I won’t “allow” this.
“Is that what this is?” Scott asks. “So Rowan over here is actually a shifter and you’ve got this whole mate thing going on, don’t you? That’s what this is, isn’t it? I was always warned how shifters with new mates are a bit fucking crazy, but I’ve never seen it.”
“I will pop your head off,” Quinn reminds him until I pull his hand free.
“Scott, come into my room. We’re going to have a talk,” I say.
He eyes Graham, who looks menacing enough to terrify the buffest of men, and Ari, who is just smiling, but in this horribly evil way—like even though you know he’s little, you also know he’d stab you in the back just for fun.
We cram into my room and Quinn folds his arms over his chest and glowers at Scott. “So you’re looking for a building in the middle of the forest, you’re lying to us, and your wife is somehow involved.”
Scott looks startled and I’m also startled why he thinks his wife is involved. Was that just a lucky guess?
“Well… yes, but… how the hell did you know that?” he asks.
“After seeing that you broke into Rowan’s room, we broke into yours,” Quinn says, like he thinks it’s a good idea just to tell him right off the bat.
Scott’s look of surprise shifts into one of anger. “Hold on, you broke into my room?” he asks, clearly annoyed.
“You broke into mine!” I say.
He’s quiet for a moment. “Touché. Continue.” He waves Quinn on.
“You don’t strike me as a man with much… let’s say motivation,” Quinn says as he eyes him. “So whatever is driving you has to be something extremely important to you. The one thing that you have all over your room is pictures of your wife, telling me it’s likely her that’s driving you to do something. That or she left you and you’re just sad because she’s way too pretty for you.”
Scott grumbles as his eyes narrow. “She did not leave me and our daughter. She was taken.”
“Taken?” I ask. “You think the people running this thing took her?”
“I don’t think, I know. My wife is a scientist. She was doing a study on shifter DNA to help get a better understanding of it so they could progress in shifter medications. She was dedicated to figuring out what human medications worked on which shifters. She would go on and on, but basically the difference between just each individual shifter is drastic, which makes medications and so on difficult. She thought she had a breakthrough, and then suddenly, they were needing her at a different facility. We had a toddler at home and she told them she couldn’t until our child was a bit older or we could move the family somewhere closer… next thing I know, she gives me a call, tells me she took the job and headed down that day because of an emergency.”
Scott sighs as he rubs at his face. “She said it’d just be a few days and she’d be back and we’d figure something else out. But then her calls were further and further apart. And then a few days turned into a few weeks. And a few weeks turned into a few months. I wouldn’t stop harassing her and her company until she told me she was filing for divorce. And no matter what you say about whether or not the divorce is real, she would never have left her daughter. She spent five years trying to have a child. There’s no way she’d just decide to leave her. It’s been over six months since I’ve seen her. I’ve managed to narrow the location to this area and when I heard rumors of… shifter testing going on, I started watching the area. I got transferred to the West County Tracking Tactical Team because it allowed me to move around and focus on the areas I thought she might have been taken to. And that’s when I heard about the shifters escaping the prison.”
Scott’s shoulders sag as he continues. “I thought getting involved could lead me to some clues. But I never imagined that monster you would find. The DNA of that thing can’t be natural. My wife spent her entire career studying shifter DNA. You can’t tell me that’s not a coincidence.”
“So is she working at the prison then?” Quinn asks.
Scott slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know. Digging deeper into this ‘prison break,’ I learned it was an off-duty guard who saw the prisoners loose and informed authorities. The prison, built to set off alarms if anyone breaches it, doesn’t show any alarms or any breach at all. I’ve also been allowed extremely little contact with the prison and I began to question if it was an outside source hiring me for this job.”
“You think they didn’t escape the prison but somewhere else?” I ask in surprise.
“I don’t know what I think,” Scott admits. “But I know I want to find my wife more than anything.”
“Then why are you such a dick to everyone?” Ari asks curiously. “I mean, we’d all be more likely to help you if you weren’t a massive dick.”
While I agree, I don’t say anything. Quinn and Graham, though, eye him, like they’re waiting for a good answer.
“I’m not a… dick,” Scott says like the word puts a bad taste in his mouth. “Maybe I just don’t want to deal with your shit?”
Quinn cocks his head, and I can already tell whatever he has to say is going to annoy Scott. “Oh, but you want us to deal with your shit. When things are convenient for you, that’s when you care?”
Scott is silent.
Quinn is not. “Why should we care? Why should I put my pack at risk for a man who thinks we are abnormalities? For a man who doesn’t care about us and I doubt he ever will. Please tell me why I should put my people at risk for your wife?”
Scott steps forward, like he wants to get into Quinn’s personal space. “Because those people who picked up that woman who came to your village for help? They’ve been pulling the strings. They were the ones who had me do an intake of your village. I think they were looking for someone or something.”
“Yeah, the escaped convicts or whatever they are,” Quinn says.
“No, they asked a lot of questions and none had anything to do with the escaped shifters. It was like he was inquiring about what kind of shifters you had. He wanted to know details about anything carnivora, especially the larger ones.”
I can almost feel Quinn bristling next to me as he stares at Scott. “They’re looking into my pack?” he growls.
Graham is right beside him, ready to pop skulls. He looks like he’d be good at it. I almost feel bad for Scott who seems a tiny bit timid with the two brothers looming over him. Scott’s not a small man either. Quinn’s a little shorter than him, but it’s just the way Quinn holds himself that makes him terrifying and sexy. Really fucking sexy. Really fucking terrifying (if I was on the other side—but since I’m on this side, it just adds to the sexy).
“I don’t know and killing me solves nothing,” Scott says.
“I wasn’t going to kill you. I was going to just pluck your arm off your body. Beat you with it a tiny bit and just roll around in your blood before facing my enemy so they know I will destroy anyone and anything that looks at my pack funny,” Quinn says, miming the arm plucking.
“This one time, a man just looked at him funny and he tore his head clean off,” Graham says.
Quinn quickly looks over at me. “That didn’t happen,” he whispers. “He’s just trying to make me look tough in front of Scott.”
I give him a thumbs up, not really sure what else to do. All the while there’s this little part inside of me that’s swooning, finding this display of dominance thrilling. Or maybe that’s just my brain short-circuiting.
“I’ve told you all I know. I think they’re watching your pack, but I don’t know why. I also think they have my wife, but I have no proof to offer you about any of this. I feel like if I can just find the building they escaped from, then maybe I can find some answers. Would you help me out?”
Quinn sighs. “I’ll need to talk with my pack and see what they want to do. I can’t make any promises when I don’t know myself. If these people are capable of what you say they are, there’s no guarantee they won’t destroy us. If we start looking into something, we have no rights. They are one hundred percent allowed to just ruin us and that’d be the end of it, understand? Shifters don’t have the same rights as humans.”
Scott sighs. “I get it. But you have to understand, they’ve called off my team. They don’t want us here any longer. We’ve done something they don’t like and they want us gone.”
Quinn seems to think about it for a moment. “So clearly, we’re close to something they don’t want us to be close to.”
“Maybe,” Scott says.
I reach for Scott before he can leave. “Why were you in my room, though? What were you wanting?”
“I thought that if I got a video of you shifting, I could use it against you,” Scott says, not at all abashed. “Force you to help.”
Quinn’s eyes narrow at that. “Rowan’s going with me. If you need more… assistance from him, you contact me,” he says. “I’ll think about your issue and see if there’s an alternative way to help where you won’t put my pack in danger. Rowan, grab your things. You’re not safe here.”
I do as he says, more than fine with going off with Quinn and his pack. We get into our vehicles and head out, back toward the pack. Quinn follows the vehicle his brother and Ari are in as his hands tighten on the steering wheel. When I turn to Quinn, I see him biting at his lip. “You okay?”
“Yes, fine. Nervous for my pack, but fine.”
I wish I could comfort him and having him upset makes me upset, but he gives me a reassuring smile.
“Everything will be fine,” he says, determined.
“What if it’s not?” I ask. “Scott has a lot on me. They might have a lot on your pack. What if it’s not? You can’t get the police involved?”
Quinn shakes his head and even though I assumed that, I still feel upset about it. “Shifters’ rights aren’t the same. And all this group has to do is claim not to know anything about it. That they were just looking for the escaped people and we’re making shit up. Anyway… sorry I got a bit… snippy back there and came barging out of the bathroom. It’s like when you’re involved my brain stops working.”
“Mine does too. Maybe being together isn’t the answer to this?” I say.
He hesitates then looks at me. “You want to be apart?”
My body immediately rejects the idea and I hate that I even said it. “No… I don’t know what I want. I don’t like being rash and out of control. Although… it’s better since yesterday. It’s like I feel pleased whenever you’re around and it makes me feel weird.”
“Being happy makes you feel weird?” Quinn asks with a grin. “Man, I hate happiness and feeling pleased. Gross. Yuck.”
I grin at him. “Oh, shut it. I’m just confused.”
“Nothing worse than being happy. It’s like the days I wake up and I’m happy, I’m just so mad, you know? Why couldn’t I have woken up on the wrong side of the bed?”
“You’re not funny.”
He seems overly pleased with himself. “You don’t actually have to go with me. I was just kind of in the heat of the moment, ya know? Kind of like ‘Hey, fucker, this is mine, I’m taking it with me.’”
“It?”
“It. This thing. This ‘it’ thing is mine.”
“You’re very territorial.”
Quinn gives me a crooked grin. “I’m a wolf.”
“I suppose. Also, your brother is terrifying.”
He waves me off. “He’s a snuggle bug once you get to know him.”
I think about the tall and broad man whose eyes spell murder every time he looks at me. “I think you’re full of shit and he wants to eat me.”
“Good thing you can run faster than him, then,” Quinn says with a grin.
“And Ari? I’m positive he just wants to start things and watch it burn.”
He shakes his head. “Ari? Ari’s a sweetheart. He’s so tiny and cute.”
“Like a tiny instigating demon. I feel like you’re blind to their craziness.”
A laugh escapes him as he turns onto a winding road that leads toward his village. “Do I get to make fun of your friends when I meet them?”
The thought of my friends makes me hesitate. What would they think of Quinn? “You don’t want to meet my friends. They all fall into my father’s circle of hating shifters.”
Quinn’s smile falls. “I’m sorry.”
I shrug. “I don’t know why you’re apologizing.”
“You can’t tell me it didn’t hurt growing up and constantly being judged for who you are even if you were keeping it a secret. Making you feel like you weren’t right or good enough or what others expected you to be.”
He’s right. It did bother me, but I think that’s why my father pushed me toward my “friends.” It reminded me again and again how “awful” shifters were. “Let’s talk about something else.”
He reaches out to me as though he’s going to try to comfort me before pulling his hand back, like he’s not sure what to do. “I’m sorry. Of course. Like… um… oh. How about we talk about how we’re already almost to my house but according to you it was five thousand miles.”
I smile. “Yes. That.”
“I’m sure Donna would be more than happy to let you stay in her cabin again. Does that work for you?”
I hesitate because my leopard is telling me that it would rather stay in his bed and only leave when he does, but I know I told him I wasn’t rushing into this life and he doesn’t want to waste time with someone who’s just going to up and leave him. “Yes, that sounds great.”
When we arrive, I see the three teen girls look over at us. They seem to rush over every time they see Talon who loves them just as much. The moment I open the door he trots over to them. “I forgot their names again,” I whisper to Quinn.
“The one closest to us with the brown hair is Addie, Trenton’s sister. She’s super sweet. Nothing like her brother. Then we have Sophia and Layla. All good kids but they’re supposed to be with an adult and I sure as hell don’t see any adult with them,” he says before storming over. “Where’s your adult?”
“Addie turns eighteen tomorrow!” Sophia says, like if she says it cheerfully enough Quinn will let them go.
“No. That’s not how this works,” Quinn says. “I’m not joking about this. Adult with you at all times, got it?”
They bow their heads. “I told you we’d get in trouble,” Addie whispers. “Sorry, alpha.”
They all apologize, and he sends them off with Ari and Graham before turning to me. “It’s never ending.”
“I can imagine,” I say. “But it’s their own decision as well whether or not to be safe and listen, right?”
Quinn shrugs and I know that he would do anything to keep his pack safe. And cracking the whip is one of those things. “Yes and no. In a pack, you listen to the alpha. If they don’t listen, it could lead to issues for everyone. But I don’t consider what they were doing insubordination. That’s just kids being kids. If you need anything, let me know. I’ll see you at dinner.”
I hesitate, but I have nothing else left to say, so I head inside the cabin with Talon by my side. He looks up at me before pressing his face against my leg. I rub his head and push all other thoughts to the side.