Cameron

C arly beamed at me. “Fantastic.” The woman swung a small leather backpack with metal studs off her shoulders.

I cast a wary glance at Leonard. How had these two gotten together? They looked worlds apart.

“Here,” Carly said, pulling what looked like a dead animal from the backpack and handing it to me.

“What’s this?” I said, but as I took the item, I realized exactly what it was. A bright blond wig.

“That’s to change your appearance a bit. Ollie thought it would be a good idea,” Leonard said.

“Uh… okay.” I shook my hair back and pulled the wig on.

Thankfully, it wasn’t one of those polyester wigs. I tugged it down and ran my fingers through it until Carly nodded and smiled.

“Good,” she said. “A whole new person. This should help as well.”

She pulled a small perfume bottle from her bag and spritzed me a few times. The scent assaulted my nose with its power and familiarity. I pulled my head back, confusion warring inside my head. I glanced from Carly to her granddaughter.

“What the hell?” I said, putting a hand to my nose.

“Sorry,” Annie said with an exaggerated shake of her head. “It was all she had available.”

The spray was a more powerful version of Annie’s scent. I’d caught it the moment she stepped into my hotel room.

“It’s the concentrated essence of Annie’s scent,” Carly said. “It’ll mask yours if anyone is trying to track or find you. It’ll make it safer to travel.”

“Did you make this before coming to pick me up?” I asked.

“No,” Carly said. “I usually carry it.”

Seeing my confused look, Leonard interjected. “She’s retired, but not really. She works at the library, and she also helps abused shifter women escape their mates. And she helps human women escape their husbands and boyfriends.”

“It’s her ‘calling,’” Annie said, making air quotes with her fingers, then gave her grandmother a lopsided grin. “It is a pretty cool calling, I guess.”

“Enough,” Carly said, but she gave a sweet smile. “Obviously, I don’t need the spray for the humans, but it works really well for shifters. Anyone following us will only be able to scent out the three of us and not you. It’ll fade fairly quickly, though.”

“Sounds great,” I said, my head spinning from this new world I was a part of. “Let’s go.”

The library had a good selection of old local magazines and newspapers on microfiche.

Within ten minutes of arriving, I was deep into more research.

My eyes strained to focus on old articles.

I’d actually found a story about Lincoln Masters.

A picture showed him standing in a tuxedo, smiling and shaking hands with a senator.

Lincoln had attended a political rally and donated money to the campaign.

I glanced at the date. It was about four months before he vanished from town.

I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my eyes.

Most of the people milling about in the library were older folks like Carly and Leonard.

From what I saw, this was more of a hub for older shifters to socialize.

Though, there were a few younger ones like Annie around.

She was studying at a table a few feet away.

Leonard sat beside her, relaxing with a book and a cup of coffee.

On the ride over, Carly and Leonard told me they’d met at a punk-rock show back in the early ’80s.

Carly had been there to see The Clash, and Leonard had worked the door as a part-time job in college.

He’d had zero interest in staying for the show, until he saw Carly.

It was love at first sight, and they’d been bonded mates ever since.

Though, he’d never grown to love punk music the way Carly did.

“I’m more of a Christopher Cross fan myself,” he’d said.

Annie had rolled her eyes at that. “Ugh. You and all that yacht-rock stuff. Gross.”

“He’s a talented musician,” Leonard had replied sternly, turning around in his seat to frown at his granddaughter.

I rolled my neck from side to side and stared at Lincoln Masters’s face on the screen. After a few seconds, I unspooled the microfilm and carefully slid it back into the container. I’d done enough research on the Masters family for now.

A new thought occurred to me. If my research on Lincoln and Rick had hit a dead end for now, there was still someone else I could research. A person I might or might not be falling in love with.

Nate.

Carly had given me free rein to search through what I wanted as long as I put everything back the way I’d found it.

I grabbed several trays of microfiche for newspapers around the time I thought Nate might have appeared at that store when he was a little boy.

Perhaps someone had written a news story on it, and I could find more information from there.

Tiny threads I could pull and possibly trace back to his origins.

Maybe I could even find his real parents.

Before diving back into research, I checked my phone. Still no text from Nate. I told myself I’d work for another half hour before asking Carly or Leonard to take me back to the hotel. I wanted to be there before Nate returned.

Those intentions vanished as I got lost in page after page of past news articles.

I scrolled through the entire tray, making notes on anything I thought might be a lead, then went to get more microfilm.

I recalled Nate saying it was cold and rainy when he was walking the road to Zane’s Bait and Tackle shop.

Cold and rainy in Canada meant that December, January, and February were probably out.

It would have snowed then. I grabbed a tray that covered the months of March and April.

If those turned up nothing, I’d try October and November.

I set the trays down next to the microfiche machine, then loaded a roll into the machine and checked my phone again.

Two things struck me like a hammer to the chest. First, I’d spent over an hour researching Nate instead of the thirty minutes I’d budgeted.

Second, I had multiple missed calls from Nate, all of which had come through in the few minutes I was gone from the desk.

Since I was in a library, I’d put my phone on vibrate. Fear burned like acid in my chest.

Trying not to panic, I called Nate back. He was probably just calling to tell me he was on his way back to the hotel.

“Cameron?” Nate’s panicked voice shredded any hope that nothing was wrong.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“Get out of the hotel! Now . I was spotted at the garage. The guy may be trying to trace my scent trail back the way I’d come. If he does, he’ll know where you are. Run, Cameron!”

Goosebumps crept up along my arms as he spoke. Was nowhere safe?

“I’m, uh, I’m already out,” I stammered. “I’m not there. Ollie had some friends bring me to a local library.”

“ What? ” Nate barked. “When did that happen?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I probably should have texted him to let him know I was leaving.

It was stupid, but I hadn’t wanted to bother him while he was working.

In hindsight, it was the very least I could have done.

Christ, what if he’d returned to the hotel without calling and found me missing?

Dumbass.

“You know what?” Nate said, relief creeping into his voice. “It’s fine. At least you aren’t at the hotel. Send me the address, and I’ll come pick you up. I’ve got to make sure I don’t have any tails first. Twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen if we’re lucky.”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting at the back door,” I said.

After ending the call, I quickly shared my location with Nate, then stuffed my computer and notebook into my backpack.

As I did, I glanced up at the last file roll I’d loaded into the reader.

An article about a car wreck on a bridge caught my eye.

I scrolled up to the photo of the bridge.

In the background, almost too small to see, was a roadside sign with the words “Zane’s Bait and Tackle” painted on it.

“Huh,” I muttered. That was the shop Nate had been found at as a child.

With no time to dig in, I took a quick photo of the two pages, then put the microfilm away. I could read it later once things had calmed down.

I found my new librarian friend at the check-out desk, scanning returned books.

“Hey, Carly?” I said.

“Yes, dear?” Several of her earrings jingled as she looked up.

“I’m going to head out. My friend is coming to pick me up.”

Carly’s brow furrowed. “Is everything all right? Do you want me or someone to go with you?”

Annie walked up to the counter. “Yeah. I’ll go with you, if you want.”

“It’s fine. Really,” I said. “Honestly, I can’t thank you all enough.

This was much more relaxing than stressing out alone in that hotel room.

You’ve been wonderful.” I glanced around and saw several groups of people chatting on chairs with cups of coffee in hand.

“I never asked, but is everyone here, like, an insomniac or something?”

Carly laughed. When she’d gotten herself under control, she shook her head.

“Oh, no. Nothing like that. It’s mostly that the human world is active during the day.

It’s nice to get together and be with each other like this.

It’s easier for packs in more rural areas to do stuff like that.

Things and places like this”—she swept her hand around—“helps fulfill that innate need shifters have to be together.”

“That’s actually kind of beautiful,” I said. “I like it.”

The smile she gave me was more heartfelt and open than any I’d seen so far, and she put a hand to her chest. “That means a lot. Thank you. I’ve tried to make these evenings special for our kind.”

“I think you’ve done that. Hopefully, I can stop by again sometime.”

“Whenever you’re in Detroit, you come on down. Okay?”

“Deal.” As I turned to go, I noticed Annie giving her grandmother a sidelong stare that was full of admiration. Perhaps the young girl was seeing how cool her grandmother really was.

I waited by the window at the back door, searching for any sign of Nate. After ten minutes, a gnawing worry crept into my chest. Had something happened? Could he have been intercepted? Was he hurt?

Just as I was about to call him, I spotted a flash of gray at the edge of the parking lot.

A lithe yet muscular wolf trotted out of the shadows.

In an instant, the wolf shifted into Nate.

A sudden, almost blinding urge to be with him filled me, and I rushed out the door.

Seeing me, Nate’s face broke into a relieved smile.

Leaping into his arms, I let him catch me.

He pulled me close and held me tight. The thing that had been screaming out for him relaxed, and a blissful contentedness trickled down my spine, spreading through my whole body.

“Are you all right?” I asked. “You smell like… wait, what is that?”

Nate sighed, giving me a sarcastic grin. “Lion. Long story. I’m fine, but it’s been a long night. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“This sounds like a good story,” I remarked.

It turned out it was a good story. Good, but terrifying.

He relayed everything that had happened as we walked back to the hotel.

The car was still there, so walking was really our only option.

We could have tried using my rideshare app, but Nate wanted to make completely sure we weren’t being followed.

His story made me sick. He’d come so close to being killed.

“You really stared down a lion?” I gaped at him while we waited in the shadows to cross the road.

“I did. Not the safest thing I’ve ever done, or my most brilliant moment, but I felt pretty badass afterward.”

Back at the hotel, we walked the full border three times. Nate sniffed the air and peeked in the window of every car in the parking lot. Finally, assured that no one was lying in wait, he took my hand, and we went inside.

“If they were going to track me back here, they’d be here already. Looks like we’re safe,” he said, though his eyes still roved around, checking for danger.

“Good evening.” The front desk clerk smiled at us. “Late night?”

“Something like that,” Nate grunted. He tugged me to the small snack-and-drink selection they had for sale. “Want something? I’m starving.”

I nodded.

After grabbing snacks and drinks, we headed upstairs, eating on the way.

My body ached, and my eyes burned with exhaustion.

It felt like someone had poured sand into my eyes.

It was well past one in the morning by the time we were safely back in the room.

Even though we were exhausted, Nate still had to shower. He smelled like the zoo.

“Are you ready for bed?” I asked as he strode out of the bathroom, dressed in fresh boxers and drying his hair with a towel.

“Absolutely. I’m beyond exhausted.”

He wedged a chair beneath the door handle, then joined me in bed. He snuggled next to me, and I sighed as my body relaxed. I could get used to a life like this—not the danger and running, but falling asleep with Nate’s arm around me and his breath cascading across the back of my neck.

A faint smile formed on my lips as I slipped into unconsciousness.