Page 4

Chapter

Four

Brent Foley waited for the call to connect as he stared out the window of the new headquarters for Humans Against Shifters. He’d never had to find so many new headquarters like he had since he’d come to Northern Ohio, but his secret locations kept getting found out.

He’d been focusing on the tiger shifters when he first arrived, spying on Whisper Creek and the animals who pretended to be humans. He’d lost a lot of people in the battles that had followed, and even teaming up with Victor Hawthorne, a world-renowned shifter hunter, hadn’t staved off the losses.

In fact, the idiot probably cost him more people than if he’d gone it on his own.

“Hawthorne.”

“Where are you?” Brent demanded, turning in the chair as the man’s voice came across the phone’s speaker.

“Not in Ohio.”

“What? You were supposed to meet with me today.”

“Change of plans,” he said.

“What sort of change of plans?”

“I’ve got a line on a unique shifter in Canada. I won’t be back in Ohio for a while.”

“Are you serious? The deal was we were supposed to help each other.”

There was a long enough pause that Brent had to look at the screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

“I’m very serious,” Victor said. “I know what our deal is, and I will keep up my end of the bargain. But I need a successful hunt for a unique shifter to keep my clients. Losing that albino wolf nearly cost me my entire livelihood.”

Brent rolled his eyes. Hawthorne was obsessed with the albino wolf who’d come to the wolf pack and hooked up with a tiger, which was why Brent had been willing to use his personal resources and personnel to help Victor get to her.

Victor had promised to help him eradicate the tigers so long as Brent helped him secure the white wolf, but in the end, Victor ran off, and Brent lost a dozen men in the fight with the tigers.

And now, apparently, Victor had left the country.

“You’ve put me in a bad position,” Brent said.

“I’m not that far away. I tell you what, if you get a line on a unique shifter in Ohio, I’ll come back and then I’ll help you take out everyone else.”

“So you only want to help me when it benefits you?” Brent couldn’t keep the sneer out of his voice. He was so fucking fed up with people not keeping up their end of things.

“You only agreed to help me so that I would help you,” Victor said. “It’s what quid pro quo means. You said you were going to focus on the wolf pack. All you need to do is figure out their weakness and exploit it.”

As if Brent didn’t know that.

The problem was that the wolf pack had a special protector.

The alpha female was some kind of mix of witch and wolf and kept the borders of the pack’s territory safe.

It meant that Brent couldn’t get to them while they were in Thorn Hollow, and the wolves were nothing if not careful with their own kind.

“Fine,” Brent said. “If I see anything unique, I’ll reach out.”

“And if I can quickly capture this unique shifter up here in the wilds of Canada, I’ll come back and help you get to the wolf pack. You might find a warlock who’s powerful enough to go against whatever that witch-wolf is who protects the pack, but I don’t know one who could do that.”

“I’m not working with a damn warlock again.”

“Suit yourself. Until our paths cross.”

The call ended and Brent stared at the dark screen. The man was an absolute dick.

“Paul!” he bellowed for his second-in-command.

He hurried into the room. “What’s up, boss?”

“Get everyone together. We need to brainstorm how to take out the wolves. We fucked around too much with the tigers helping Hawthorne when I knew it was a fool’s errand. It’s time to get serious.”

Paul nodded and strode off. Brent gathered his things and left the small room in the abandoned office space he’d taken over as his new headquarters in a town called Cedar Mills, twenty minutes south of the wolf pack.

He was certain they’d be able to come up with a way to take out the witch-wolf creature who used magic to keep the pack’s hunting territory safe and destroy the pack.

Those animals’ days were numbered.

Brick yawned as he made his way from the second floor of the alphas’ home to the kitchen.

Like several other high ranked males, he lived in the alphas’ home along with Adam’s parents, Craig and Lucy.

Adam’s sister, Angie, had lived in the house once, but she was now mated to two vampires and lived at the vampire-owned club in downtown Cleveland.

He missed his artistic, sweet cousin and hadn’t seen her in a few weeks.

He was surprised to see his aunt and uncle as well as Adam and Cinder sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in.

“I didn’t miss a family meeting, did I?” he asked. He patted his jeans pocket and realized he’d left his phone upstairs.

“No, I was about to call you though,” Adam said.

“Do I have time to get coffee first?”

Adam nodded.

Brick filled a mug from the pot on the counter and picked up a breakfast sandwich that his Aunt Lucy had made.

He pulled out a chair and sat down at the large kitchen table. “What’s up?”

Adam took Cinder’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Cinder’s pregnant.”

“Hey, congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Cinder said, smiling gently.

Brick frowned as he caught the concern in her eyes. “What’s going on? This seems like something you’d all be happy about.”

“We’re deliriously happy,” Cinder said. “But I had trouble shifting last night and my magic was wonky. I was still able to cast the protection spell, but I don’t think I’ll be able to shift again. Not until after the baby is born.”

Adam pressed his lips into a thin line, then said, “I don’t have to tell you that our pack has relied on Cinder’s magical protections since she and I mated, along with our security team and the technology we use, such as the motion cameras in the woods to alert us to intruders.”

“How far along are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Six weeks,” she said. “So we’re looking at somewhere around eight months of needing to figure out how to keep the pack safe without my magic.”

“You don’t have access to it at all?”

“Not like I do in my shift.” She looked at her hands and then at Adam. “I can feel my magic and my wolf, but it’s muted.”

“We’ll recruit more pack members to join the security team,” Brick said.

“We can also add more motion detectors and cameras in the territory, and I had an idea about closing off the access roads and making it one way in and one way out of town, setting up a security booth to help keep track of who comes and goes in town.”

“But we let anyone come into town,” Craig said. “If we close off the roads and use a security booth, our businesses may suffer.”

“It’s not a bad idea though,” Adam said. “Even if it is just for eight months. We can convene a meeting with the high ranked and elders and get everyone’s take on it. Maybe we can do it in the future if we need to. For now, recruit whoever you need to and let me know what the schedule looks like.”

“I’m going to reach out to the Wiccans and see what Lorene and the Corners can do for us. They may be able to set up some protection wards around the territory that will help keep everyone safe,” Cinder said.

“I want a pack-wide bulletin sent out that no one goes anywhere outside of town alone, period. Don’t share the news about Cinder’s pregnancy yet.

We’ll share it with the pack once we have everything in order to keep our people safe.

We don’t want anyone panicking unnecessarily because they’re worried about their safety. ”

“Of course,” Brick said. “Hey, I’m really happy for you guys and don’t worry. No one has seen or heard from that shifter poacher asshole or Foley and his merry band of anti-shifter dickheads.”

Cinder grimaced. “Brick, honestly, do you have to curse every other word?”

“Sorry.”

“Thankfully the baby doesn’t have ears yet. I don’t want his or her first word to be dickhead.”

Brick snorted a laugh. “I promise I’ll watch my language. Calling them you-know-what-heads is a really good description though.”

“Indeed,” Adam said. He brought Cinder’s hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’m going to meet with Brick in my office and get the meeting in the works.”

“Do you need me?” she asked. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Go rest, sweetheart. I’ll get you if I need you.”

She smiled sweetly at him and excused herself.

“I’m going to clean up the kitchen. Brick, do you want to eat the other two breakfast sandwiches?” Aunt Lucy asked.

“Hell yes.”

She arched a brow.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, accepting the sandwiches. “I just learned I have to curb my language. It’s going to take some getting used to.”

“Try harder,” Adam said. “I don’t want to hear Cinder complaining that the baby comes out talking like a pirate because you don’t know how to say frick or darn.”

Brick tried to imagine his powerful alpha-cousin saying frick.

But he adored his alpha female and cousin-in-law and would do anything to help the alpha couple.

Except say frick.

He didn’t think he’d ever want to say that.