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“It must be hard planning a Thanksgiving meal so late in your pregnancy.” Madison sipped her coffee.

Connor watched as Rebecca froze and started to get an uneasy feeling.

“Thanksgiving?” Rebecca asked, staring at Madison.

“You don’t celebrate?” Madison asked, setting her coffee cup down.

Connor, behind Rebecca’s back, began to wave his arms and shake his head. He met Madison’s eyes and saw the dawning realization that she may have just messed up.

“Oh my god! I forgot about Thanksgiving! Aleks, what are we going to do? It’s our first Thanksgiving together, and I don’t even have the ingredients to make anything! How could I have forgotten one of my favorite holidays!” Rebecca burst into tears.

Madison looked over to Aleks and mouthed, I’m so sorry .

Aleks waved off her apology and scooped up his mate as her meltdown escalated.

“I’m the worst wife ever! Our children are going to starve!” Rebecca cried.

“Rebecca, it will be okay. Ma and I will help,” Connor said.

Rebecca shook her head. “I wanted to do it. It’s my first Thanksgiving as a married woman. I should have been prepared for this.” She wept. Rebecca’s phone rang and she answered.

“Hello,” she said sullenly.

“Rebecca, what’s wrong?” Connor heard Kate ask. He’d give it five minutes before the rest of the Inner Court called.

“I forgot about Thanksgiving!” Rebecca cried.

Kate inhaled sharply. “Shit! I forgot, too! We haven’t ordered anything for the pack! What in the hell are we going to do!” Kate yelled. In the background Connor could hear Caleb and Bran trying to calm Kate down.

Nic, Ashby, and Gabriel walked in. Ashby and Nic were holding frappe cups.

“It was just you, now it’s you and Kate. What’s going on?” Nic asked Rebecca.

“We forgot about Thanksgiving!” Rebecca cried.

Ashby went pale and turned to Gabriel. “I’ve been introducing the coven to new foods, how could I forget this holiday! They’ll be crushed. Now I know why David and Daniel asked if we were getting pumpkins.” Ashby and Nic sat at the table with Madison and Rebecca.

“I’ve been so busy at the shop I forgot to remind you,” Nic whispered.

Emmett and Duncan tried to cheer Rebecca up by offering to go shoot turkeys.

Connor watched Gabriel sit next to his mate. He whispered reassurances that the coven had gone hundreds of years without Thanksgiving, what was one more year. Which, of course, sent Ashby into a shame spiral.

Madison looked up at Connor tears in her eyes. He knew she felt terrible for even bringing Thanksgiving up.

Aleks phone began to ring. Aleks reached into his top pocket and answered it with one hand, soothing Rebecca with the other.

“Hey, asshole,” he said.

“Why is my mate hyperventilating? What’s going on?” Liam demanded.

“Rebecca is freaking out because she forgot to plan Thanksgiving,” Aleks said.

“What!” A loud screech came from the phone, causing Aleks to pull it away from his ear. Shaking his head, he put it on speaker and put it on the table.

“Ohmygod! Ohmygod! I completely forgot, too! There’s no way we’ll get enough food in time. Do you know how much these lions can eat?” Sebastian yelled.

“I know! Aleks and his brothers could take out a grocery store. You factor in that this is a holiday, which is all about eating, and we should have been trucking in food months ago.” Rebecca wiped her nose with a napkin.

“I have an entire pack to shop for!” Kate added.

Connor looked at his brother who looked at Kaden, Beau and Gabriel. Things were heading south fast.

“Hey people,” Rex said, walking in with Talon.

“What’s for lunch? We’re starved,” Talon asked.

Sebastian screeched wordlessly and Rebecca groaned.

Rex and Talon froze.

“We’re sorry?” Rex took in Rebecca and Ashby’s expressions.

“Bad time?” he asked, sitting at their usual table along the wall.

Rebecca, Ashby, and Nic nodded.

“We forgot about Thanksgiving,” Nic said.

“Anything we can do to help?” Talon offered.

“You two burned your cereal last week, there is no way I’m letting you cook for Thanksgiving.” Sebastian’s voice yelled over the phone.

Rex winced and looked to his friend. “I told you he was still pissed about that.”

Connor walked around the counter and placed a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. “Okay everyone, I have an idea…” Connor paused and looked over to Rex. “What the fuck did you do to cereal?” he asked.

“You don’t want to know.” Talon shuddered.

“We’ll tell you later,” Rex said.

Connor shook his head and turned back to the group.

“Rebecca, Kate, Sebastian. Y’all are pregnant and due in the next couple weeks. You’ve had a lot on your plates worrying about your babies, especially after the virus. I doubt anyone here will hold this against you,” Connor said soothingly.

“And if they do send them my way,” Rex said, cracking his knuckles.

“So hot,” Connor heard Kate say from Rebecca’s phone.

“Anyway,” Connor continued, ignoring the growls coming from Kate’s line.

“How about instead of three large groups going out and buying all the ingredients and cooking everything, we divide up the menu and each group will make a lot of certain items. We could have Thanksgiving at the school,” Connor suggested.

“I think that’s a great idea. Apartment buildings in New York do that, sometimes dividing up the cooking by floor,” she said encouragingly.

“Where can we get enough food?” Rebecca asked, looking at Connor hopefully.

“You kids leave that to me. I’ve been ordering food for years, we can get the food here,” Ma said, smiling at Connor.

“All right so, Caleb, you and Bran handle the turkeys. Ashby, take salads. Sebastian, side dishes. Rebecca, desserts. Nic, coffee. Ma and I will handle everything else,” Connor suggested.

“Connor saved Thanksgiving!!” Rebecca cheered.

“Saved? Was it in trouble?” David asked, walking in with Daniel and Mojo.

“Yup. We forgot the food,” Ashby admitted sheepishly.

“But, we have food now right? I haven’t had turkey in forever,” Daniel said, smacking his lips. Ashby glared at Gabriel.

“We will. I will also arrange for a selection of wines to be delivered,” Gabriel offered. Ashby smiled at his mate.

“I can’t wait to have Thanksgiving with everyone,” Sebastian said.

“Damian and I can do decorations,” Rian offered.

“A town Thanksgiving? Sounds fun. Maybe we can get Johnny, David, and Daniel to hook up some big screen TVs in the gym for football. I can order some kegs,” Mojo said.

Emmett and Duncan pounded fists.

“Now, you’re talking our language.” Emmet said and they laughed.

“It was under your windshield wiper on your truck,” Mojo said, handing another envelope to Connor. He turned and high-fived Duncan and Emmett before sitting down with Rex and Talon.

Connor frowned down at the envelope. “They must be sending me the stuff the Agency had,” he said to himself.

“Hey, Connor, we went over that footage like you asked,” David said, holding up a thumb drive.

“And?” Connor asked.

“Your killer is a twerp. A small guy. We don’t have a clear picture of his face, but this will give you his height, weight, and build.” David handed over the thumb drive to Connor before he and Daniel took a seat next to Ashby.

“Thanks, guys. I need to get this to Griffin,” he said, removing his apron.

“We also forwarded a copy to your email,” Daniel offered.

“Perfect.” Connor took out his phone and scrolled through his recent emails and forwarded the email to his commander. It wasn’t even twenty seconds later his phone rang.

“Good job getting the video, it isn’t much, but it’s more than we have been able to get in the past four months,” Griffin said.

“It was Gabriel’s men, sir. David and Daniel processed this for me. They do great work,” he said, winking at the twins.

“We’re at a standstill until this psycho finds his next target,” Griffin said grimly.

“The guys didn’t find anything going through the Agency photos?” Connor asked.

“What Agency photos?” Griffin asked.

“The ones you had someone drop off at my truck,” Connor said.

“Arkadion, listen carefully. I didn’t send anyone to Arkadia with pictures, and if I did they would have been hand delivered,” Griffin said lowly.

Connor put the phone down on the counter and put it on speaker. He took the envelope Mojo handed him and rushed behind the counter to his jacket to get the other envelope. He pulled out the first set of pictures.

Initially he had only looked at the first couple of photographs, which had shown the bodies at the crime scene. He kept flipping and what he saw sent chills down his spine. The last picture was of Stanton, alive, beaten, and looking at the camera, terrified.

With shaking hands, he opened the second envelope and pulled out the pictures.

They were of Rebecca, Kate and Sebastian with red Xs scrawled out over their midsections.

The next pictures had dead babies and the last picture had him seeing red.

It was a picture of Madison sitting in the diner last night.

Exactly where she sat now, looking at him with worry in her eyes.

“Son?” Ma asked. Connor shook his head and took deep breaths, unable to speak. Claws ripped through his fingertips and he dug into the counter. When he looked up he could hear gasps from around the diner. He opened his mouth and roared.

“Arkadion? Report!” Griffin barked. It was enough to break him free from his frozen moment of rage and terror.

He forced his claws to retract and reached into his jacket to pull out his gun.

He loaded the chamber and cocked it. He jumped the counter and went to the table that had the phones that were connected to Kate and Sebastian.

“Rex, Talon, Kaden, Beau. Head back to the pride house,” he yelled. All four men jumped up and without question left the diner at a run.