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Gavin

Jerking out of a deep sleep, Gavin gasped as a hand closed around his mouth.

“Shh,” his older brother hissed. “Don’t make a sound.”

Gavin nodded with Leo’s hand still covering his mouth.

“I need you to hide,” Leo whispered.

Immediately Gavin shook his head. He didn’t want to be alone. Not if they were coming.

“Dad already left. I need to catch up with him.”

“Mama,” Gavin murmured behind Leo’s hand.

“She went to check on Grandma and Grandpa. I told her you’d be good and hide for us. Please, Gavin.”

“Okay.” They had been practicing this for months. It could be another drill, only the terror on Leo’s face told Gavin otherwise.

“You have to hurry.” Leo pushed Gavin from his small, padded mat. “Don’t look back. Just go.”

Gavin was shaking with fear. This wasn’t like the other times.

Leo pulled Gavin into a rough hug. “Remember that no matter what you hear, you need to stay hidden.”

Clinging to his brother, Gavin nodded. “Okay.”

“Go now.” Leo pushed Gavin away.

Gavin quietly crept across the floor of their one-bedroom cabin. He and Leo shared the padded mat to sleep with his parents in the small bed against the wall. They used to have a house. A big house with lots of land to run across and swings and all kinds of stuff to play with. Gavin missed his toys. They’d had to leave them behind though. Leave everything behind. One bag to hold clothing and food had been all Gavin had been allowed to carry.

He glanced over his shoulder, but Leo had already disappeared into the darkness.

They didn’t use lights in the small cabin. Sometimes his mom would light candles, but she wasn’t there to do that for him. Gavin had gotten good at using his other senses. He was still too young to shift but Gavin could see really good.

Gavin easily found the floorboard that was loose and pulled it up. Making his body as small as possible, Gavin barely fit through the small hole his father had made for him. He quickly replaced the board above his head, sighing as it snapped into place.

The tunnel was dark but Gavin had crawled through it numerous times for practice. It had been fun betting his brother that Gavin could get through the tunnel that opened up into the dense forest on the other side of town. He was not having fun this time.

Huddled into a tight ball, Gavin could do nothing but wait.

Hopefully his brother or one of his parents would soon call out to him that it was safe to come up. Gavin threaded his fingers together and hoped with all his heart.

He jerked at the first loud boom. Covering his mouth with his hand, Gavin couldn’t make a sound. Leo had told him that sound was guns. Humans liked to use guns on their kind. It’ll be okay, he chanted in his head. Father is fast, Leo is feisty, Mom promised she would never leave me. Even as the big booms drew closer, Gavin told himself it would be okay.

There were screams.

Tears started to fall from his eyes, but Gavin still didn’t make a sound.

More big booms. More screams.

Gavin didn’t dare move.

Wood splintered above his head.

Jerking upright in bed, Gavin grasped at his heart. Nightmare. It was just a nightmare. He wasn’t that small child hidden away as his entire world was torn apart and burned.

He quickly scrambled from bed when his stomach rolled with nausea.

Standing naked, Gavin stared out of the bedroom window.

Home. Safe.

The big house was right in front of him. Dark but everyone inside was safely tucked into bed. Safe. His family wouldn’t be taken from him ever again.

The shaking didn’t stop though. Even as Gavin ran his hands roughly down his face, his entire body shook. He needed to get out. Fresh air. Gavin lumbered across the room but paused in front of the laptop that sat open facing his bed. It had become a little game between him and Stryker. Stryker loved to watch him and Gavin didn’t mind giving the boy a show. He prayed that with the late hour, Stryker was asleep and hadn’t noticed the nightmare or how shaken up Gavin was. No one knew about the terror-filled dreams that had started to plague him the last few months.

He almost closed the lid of the laptop but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, Gavin quickly strolled out of the bedroom and straight to the front door.

Gavin pulled the door open to step outside onto his front deck.

Sucking deep pulls of the night air into his lungs, Gavin pushed the fear from the dream down where it belonged. Anywhere but right there with him. Gavin didn’t think about that time. Ever. Refused to even talk about it. It was long ago. He’d hoped with the years that passed, he would forget, that the memories would fade. They did not. The nightmares had eased but the recent interaction with human hunters and evil mages had brought all those memories back to the surface.

Axel was allowing Gavin to read through the old journals and anything that they came across that dealt with the great hunt.

He snorted. There was nothing great about the humans that had hunted down innocent shifters because they’d been afraid. Entire species had been wiped out. As far as Gavin knew, he was the last of his kind.

Angrily, Gavin shook away his thoughts once again.

He wasn’t going to do this.

Wouldn’t allow those memories to haunt him.

Home. He was home. The only reason he was even reading over everything they could find was to make sure that his new family never faced the fate that had ripped Gavin’s blood relatives from his arms. Looking to the right, Gavin smiled at the cabin beside his. Levi and Mason had moved in as soon as it had been completed. The human was getting more comfortable being surrounded by the non-humans in the family but still struggled with the number of them there was. The solution was to keep them close but give Mason the space he needed. Mason’s old ranger cabin was now being utilized by his twin, Jason, who’d mated with the demon, Tristan.

Gavin had moved into the next cabin finished. He loved his family, but they were all mated. The number of times he stepped into a room to find a couple or two entwined was just too often. He sought out his own space for peace of mind.

He turned his head to the left. More cabins had been completed. To his left, the cabin belonged to Rainier, River, and Anton. They didn’t stay in the human realm often when they could just portal back and forth to the fae realm, but the cabin was there when they wanted it. With the work continuing on the property and River in charge of the construction crews, he often snuck away for an hour or two with his mates during the day.

Two more cabins stood finished. Beside Rainier, River, and Anton’s was Lucifer and his two mates’ place. Dean had taken Cary on as an apprentice learning magic, so the trio was often visiting. It only seemed right to offer them a place to settle when they wanted.

The final cabin remained unclaimed.

Axel and Bryce, Drake and Lawson, Nate, Craig, and Bo, along with Shawn, Sam, Trevor, Ansley, Logan, Dean and Noah all decided to stay in the big house. There was plenty of room for them.

Across the yard on the opposite side of the big house, the construction had already begun for their hell residents. Five more cabins were being worked on. Seb and Ash, Adam, and Mal, even Atom and Ari would all have homes in the human realm. The extra cabins could house Adam’s minions or any other friends that they invited.

Their small little group had grown over the years.

Real friendships, found family, love, and respect had made their pack stronger. That was why Gavin was so obsessed with keeping everyone safe. He’d lost everything once. Never again. He’d never allow anything like that to happen again.

Feeling steadier, Gavin stepped off his deck and onto the thick, lush yard. Still stark naked, he sauntered away from his cabin and out into the clearing behind. Standing in the middle of the clearing, Gavin called for the transformation.

Lightning arced across the black sky before a rumble shook the ground.

Holding his arms up, Gavin tilted his head back as the rain began to softly fall and calmness filled him. He stood like that for several moments then started to run, faster and faster until he leaped into the air.

His shift was fast. Gavin hadn’t even begun falling back to the earth before he transformed into his huge thunderbird.

More lightning streaked through the sky.

He’d spend the rest of the night circling over his home and watching over those he loved.

* * * * *

Stryker

It was raining. Again. When he first researched this area, and he always did research before everything he did, Stryker hadn’t seen anything about the constant and unusual sudden thunderstorms. Cursing behind his helmet, Stryker had to slow his bike down.

The gravel road that led through the state park wasn’t built for motorcycles.

He’d just run out to pick up a little snacky-snack. Cheeto puffs, a chocolate bar, and an energy drink. The same thing every night. Even the older woman that worked behind the counter had started to tease him about his nightly purchases. The little mom-and-pop convenience store was located outside the entrance of the state park and open twenty-four hours. Stryker was thankful for them. Not that he couldn’t buy groceries if he wanted—he just didn’t want to. As long as he had a snacky-snack and a freezer full of nuggies, Stryker was in heaven.

Hunching his shoulders, Stryker was thankful that the rain had at least waited until he was nearly home. If the RV that he’d acquired could be called home. It suited Stryker’s needs so he was happy enough with it and impressed with the size and modern features. He’d come across the RV by chance in one of the accounts that Stryker had found online. Okay, he’d broken into the secure server. It had just been there for the taking. Not that anyone would ever know it was him. He was that good. Unless you counted those damn witches that had caught him. Stryker didn’t count them. They’d totally cheated by using magic!

Of course, remembering the witches led him to reflect about meeting the mage and familiar who’d rescued him and introduced him to Stryker’s current obsession. Gavin. The hot older man that Stryker might be, was totally, stalking. He’d even stolen, borrowed, the RV so that he could set up at the state park not far from Gavin’s little town.

Thinking about Gavin had Stryker increasing his speed on the bike. When he’d left to make his nightly snack run, Gavin had been sound asleep in his big bed all naked and yummy. Gavin knew that Stryker was watching even if they both pretended that the other didn’t know.

Thank fuck Gavin was embracing this little game. He was so much fun!

Eventually Stryker would either grow bored and move on or he’d finally take the playing into real life. If there was anyone who could push Stryker from his self-imposed solitary life, it would be the hot Papi that Stryker craved.

Pulling up next to his RV, Stryker turned off the bike after parking it under the canopy he’d attached to the side of the large vehicle. He rushed inside, shaking off the rain from his body. He dumped the helmet then yanked his soaking T-shirt over his head.

He’d just tossed the plastic bag with his treats on the makeshift desk when he noticed that Gavin’s bed was empty.

“No!” Stryker wailed. Dropping down in his chair, Stryker began to type on his keyboard.

Where did he go? Damn it! Stryker growled in the back of his throat as he checked all the other cameras around the property.

Stryker wasn’t certain whether the rest of Gavin’s friend group knew that he’d hacked into their security system so he could utilize the cameras. The newer cabins he didn’t have access to, but Stryker doubted Gavin would be in any of them.

Nothing. Gavin wasn’t in the kitchen or in any of the common rooms of the big house.

“Where did you go, Papi?” Stryker murmured.

Not finding Gavin anywhere inside, Stryker switched to rewinding the feed to follow Gavin’s previous movements. Yes! Got him leaving the bed. Stryker sent the video back another ten seconds then hit Play. He was so good at this stalking game!

His delight immediately fled as he watched Gavin thrash on the bed.

Fuck! He’d been having a nightmare. Again. Stryker had no idea what bad dreams chased after Gavin, but Stryker wanted to make everything better. Not that he knew how to do that quite yet. Or how to even approach Gavin if he decided to. As far as Gavin knew, Stryker was still in the small apartment that he’d been squatting in when they’d first spoken.

Not that Stryker planned to share that little nugget of wisdom with anyone. What he did and when he did it was no one’s business but his own.

Stryker’s life mission was to fuck over everyone and anyone. Corporations? They had too much power and way too much money. If Stryker helped himself to a little of that money, who could blame him? He donated to every worthy, according to him, charity and cause that he found. Child cancer research, LBGTQIA support, whatever caught his attention. He was a prince like that! He cackled. Not sure Gavin or his family would think of him that way. They were a bunch of do-gooders. Wanting to protect the world and shit like that. Obviously, they didn’t know that the world was out to fuck all of them over.

Stryker tracked Gavin to the front of his cabin before losing him.

Damn it! Stryker was going to have to go back out into the forest and set up some game cameras or something. He hated missing out on anything. That was just unacceptable.

The rain started to fall harder against the windows of his RV and Stryker scowled. Fucking rain. Giving up until Gavin showed up on Stryker’s cameras again, Stryker rose to peel the wet jeans off.

He tossed the damp clothing onto the couch before stripping out of his underwear as well. Stryker was chilled to the bone. The spot he was currently paying a monthly fee for in the state park came with water and electricity so he could take a shower, but Stryker hated to miss Gavin’s return.

Just where had he disappeared to? Had he gone to one of the portals? Stryker hadn’t gone past the boundaries of the state park since he knew that Dean had placed a magical ward. The more he learned about magic, the more Stryker grew bitter that he was just a lowly human. Not that being human made him lowly. No, that was just how his life cards had been laid out for him.

Instead of attending college where he could learn to use his brilliance for good, Stryker was forced to use his natural talents in order to survive. Well, after the start he’d had at life, he deserved a little something-something extra. At least that was what Stryker told himself.

He never stole from anyone that would miss the money. If he ran across someone in trouble, then Stryker was the first to help. If they were people that Stryker deemed worthy. Which meant that they weren’t rich assholes.

Stryker pulled a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie from the pile of clean clothes close by. He didn’t bother with underwear this time. Hopefully when Gavin returned, he would be naked and feel like giving Stryker a show. Oh yeah, Stryker still needed to figure out if Gavin had used a portal to get away from him. That was a complication he hadn’t solved yet.

The portals were too close to the big house, making it difficult for Stryker to place his sneaky cameras. He didn’t want anyone to know he was in town yet. Dean probably wouldn’t help him either. Dean was all lovey-dovey with his new boyfriend. Not that Stryker could blame him. Dean’s partner was a shifter, so he often had to get naked as well. And Stryker might have caught sight of Logan’s tanned muscular frame a time or two. Innocently of course. Stryker only had eyes for one man but he sure the hell could admire hot male bodies when they were constantly flashing him.

He sighed. Best decision ever to follow Dean and Noah to town. At first Stryker had just wanted to repay the favor he owed for Dean literally saving his life. Stryker did not like owing anyone for any reason.

A ding sounded from his laptop before Stryker had worked out how to deal with his disappearing Papi issue. He shifted his mind from stalking to where an alert was blinking.

Stryker cackled. “Come on, man! You are not going to find me or my new home. What do you even need it for? You have plenty of money to buy a new RV.”

His fingers flew over the keyboard in an old familiar soothing rhythm. This was what he did. Someone got a little too close to finding him and Stryker led them in the opposite direction. He did have to give the guy credit. For some reason he really wanted to track down the RV that Stryker had stolen, uh, borrowed. He’d totally give it back when he was done with it!

Stryker had disabled the cameras from the storage center the RV had been sitting all alone in before he’d even gone near it. Once Stryker had seen the asset in the government agent’s intel, it had been too perfect to pass up. He’d needed a vehicle to drive down to where Dean and Noah were living, and with a state park close by, camping in luxury suited him well.

Besides, Stryker had seen this agent’s portfolio, and he didn’t even utilize the fun toys that he owned. Stryker had solely been tempted to take the guy’s motorcycle as well, but he did have his own that he’d had for over a decade and didn’t want to part with it. His bike along with his laptop were the only things that Stryker gave a damn about.

“Really, fucker? A private eye?” Stryker shook his head. A private detective wasn’t going to have any more luck than this man did. Stryker was not going to be found that easily. Still, if the asshole wanted to waste the money then Stryker could at least make the chase fun. Maybe a few well-placed false information tags would amuse him and help get the detective busy. The guy hadn’t even gone to the cops to report the RV stolen. What was wrong with him? Not that a report to the cops would do any good when Stryker was tucked far away and had already changed out the license plates. As long as no one looked too closely, he would be fine. If someone did start asking questions, Stryker would hit the road. There was nothing to keep him there but a debt and his own curiosity about the attractive man that Stryker was dying to learn more about.

At least he had a task to keep him busy until he spotted Gavin again.

With that happy thought in mind, Stryker started a game with a detective Aaron Johnson on behalf of one special agent Cunnings.

He dropped a few well-placed clues, making sure not to make things too complicated. Stryker didn’t know how smart this private dick was but didn’t have a lot of faith in him. He chuckled to himself. There were so many jokes to make about a private detective.

Working on the three monitors in front of him, Stryker hummed as he typed. He got his programs running before bouncing from his chair. He popped a handful of frozen chicken nuggets into the air fryer then grabbed his bag of snacks. Just another night of being awesome and fucking with the man!