Page 34 of Waste (Legendary Shifters #4)

Drew/Ghoul

“S he was your mate,” Vladimir said as he approached Drew in the terrace gardens.

“Yes.”

“Feel a bit of an idiot?” Valdimir pushed as he seated himself beside Drew.

Drew was watching Shelley pester Frankie, who looked bemused by the constant questions.

After having suffered this once already with Willow, Drew thought everyone was more resigned than bothered.

Drew’s grin grew as he spotted his sister racing through the gardens below.

Ranson was hard on her heels, and he watched as she turned around and threw her hands in the air.

Drew chuckled as they exchanged words, and Ranson clearly had suffered enough of the cheek Drew had no doubt his sister was dishing out. Ranson reached out, swept her into his arms, and bent her backwards as he kissed her thoroughly.

“Damn!” Emmaline whispered. “That’s romantic!”

“Hey! I’m romantic!” Vladimir snapped, sitting up and appearing insulted.

“Sure, babe. But Ranson has it going on,” Emmaline drooled.

“Holy crap. That’s a kiss and a half. Oh, my!” Willow exclaimed, joining them with one of the triplets. It wore pink, so Drew guessed it was Raisa.

“Stop looking. You’ve got kids,” Jase snarled, and Drew laughed. Willow wouldn’t tear her eyes from the scene below.

Ranson righted their sister and ended the embrace. His sister stared at Ranson and then opened her mouth as a stubborn look crossed her face. Ranson didn’t bother letting her speak and snatched her close to his body and kissed her again.

“I remember when Jase used to grab my ass like that.” Willow sighed.

Jase nearly choked trying to reply. His infamous scowl descended, and he glared at Ranson murderously.

“Yup, spit a kid out and it all goes away. You’re no longer a sexy, desirable woman. You’re mum!” Emmaline huffed and glanced at Vladimir from under her eyelashes.

Valdimir took the bait. “I’ll romance the crap out of you!” he promised.

Emmaline pulled a tragic expression. “We’ll see!”

“Wow, he can sure as hell kiss,” Lanie stated from behind as she appeared with Mac and Manfred.

Mac grinned. “I gave him tips.”

“Sure you did,” Jase sneered. Shelley approached with Frankie, and they joined the peanut gallery.

“Drew kisses me like that,” Shelley murmured. Emmaline and Willow sent her dark stares.

“Yeah, don’t pop out a kid. That shit stops,” Willow cursed, glaring at Jase.

“We have triplets. By the time we fall into bed at night, you’re knackered!” Jase retorted.

“Whose fault was that? Because multiple births didn’t come from my side!” Willow snapped.

Drew laughed and tucked Shelley under his arm.

They’d been here three days, and she seemed to be settling.

Shelley would avoid anyone on the board, however.

Drew guessed she blamed them for what she’d overheard and didn’t trust any of them apart from Rhett/Dullahan.

Probably because whenever she asked Rhett to shift, he obliged.

Dullahan also let her ‘experiment’ with his head, much to Willow’s and Emmaline’s disgust.

Shelley had carried his away from his body and demanded that it speak to her as she did.

Dullahan indulged her whims as Shelley tried to work out how far she could carry his head before he lost connection.

To her astonishment, Dullahan didn’t, and Shelley immediately began imagining scenarios where he could leave his head somewhere.

Dullahan, instead of being insulted, found it entirely amusing.

Ranson released Drew’s sister, and they watched as she took to her heels and ran.

Literally ran. The peanut gallery above him broke into cheers and wolf whistles, and Ranson turned, looking surprised to see them.

True to his form, Ranson bowed, waved a hand in the air, and then chased after his target.

“Once she hits the lake, he’s lost her.” Jase chuckled.

“Ransom swims like a fish and can stay underwater for around six minutes. He’s a water baby,” Mac stated, and everyone looked at him.

“Seriously?” Emmaline asked.

“Yeah, there’s a deep pool in Refuge that all of us swam in. Ranson learned to hold his breath there,” Mac replied.

“I really want to see Refuge,” Willow muttered.

“It’s something magical,” Mac responded.

Drew noted that Mac didn’t offer any of them to visit. And as for that matter, neither had Tisiphone. Drew wondered what the reason was for that.

“Drew! Shelley!” Archere called, and they looked up at his window in the castle. Drew’s eyebrows raised as it was unusual for the quiet man to call for someone’s attention like that.

“Coming,” Drew shouted and, wrapping an arm around Shelley, headed back inside. It took them five minutes to reach Archere’s quarters. When they arrived, they discovered Dale sitting with him.

“We have some information,” Archere said.

Dale held out a photograph. “I broke into the cop shop. This is the image the police caught of the guy who’s been attacking you, Shelley. Does he look familiar?”

Shelley stared at the picture before shaking her head. “No, should he?”

Drew took the photo and studied it himself. It depicted a tall man with a medium build, a beard, and short hair. There was nothing remarkable about him, and Drew was confused about who he was.

“His name is Stanley Saville,” Archere stated, and Drew’s eyebrows met in the middle.

“John Saville’s brother?” Drew asked. Stanley couldn’t be anything else because of his age—well, maybe a cousin.

“Yes, older by a year and also ex-army. He was dishonourably discharged. He was thought to be behind the rape and murder of a young woman. But Saville was imprisoned and then dismissed for beating a fellow soldier half to death.”

“Why?” Drew asked.

“Because the guy refused to ask his girlfriend for a threesome,” Archere said.

“Holy crap. No way!” Shelley exclaimed.

“You were targeted,” Drew said, connecting the dots. “John was sent to lure you in and entrap you. Then he’d take you somewhere, and Stanley would be waiting for you both.” Drew turned to Archere and Dale. “They’ve done this before. It was too practised.”

“We’ve linked them to thirteen missing women.

With all the evidence we’ve collated, we’ve sent it to DI Wilson.

That video he had of you—Stanley forwarded it.

Shelley might be the target, but she’s a secondary one.

Stanley is gunning for you. We’ve no idea what he thinks you are, but we know he filmed that blurry mess.

Wilson has you down as an albino, not a creature.

He didn’t believe the Hunter’s story and believes the man was making fun of him,” Dale said.

“A serial killing team?” Shelley gasped.

“We believe so.”

“What will we do? I can’t stay here forever; my family will start worrying,” Shelley demanded.

“We’re going to go back to your parents with security in place.”

“After that, Drew? Then what?” Shelley pushed.

“I don’t know, Shelley; I just found this out like you. I need some time to formulate a plan. But we do need to let your parents and DI Wilson know you’re alive,” Drew said.

Shelley scowled at the mention of Wilson’s name, and Drew hid a grin. After Wilson had tried entrapping her, Shelley now held a grudge, and it was a whopper.

“Fine, but don’t expect me to be nice to him,” Shelley grumbled.

“God forbid!” Drew exclaimed, and Dale laughed. Even Archere managed a smile.

Shelley

We’d been home two days, and Shelley was on edge. She’d informed DI Wilson of where she was staying—the best hotel in their area—and he insisted they had to speak. Shelley had delayed him, but now Wilson was on his way up to their room.

Drew was relaxed as he spoke to Liadun, who’d arrived two hours ago.

They were chatting about the latest plot Ranson had enacted and how their sister had reacted.

It appeared everyone was taking bets, with the siblings split evenly down the middle.

The sticking point for half of them was she didn’t feel a bond, although Ranson had.

Drew was on the side of Ranson would nail her feet to the floor soon. He knew that the mating bond could be delayed. He and Shelley were proof of that. Hell, even Jase and Valdimir had tried denying theirs.

There was a sharp rap on the door, and Jon, their once again security guard, answered it. Moments later, DI Wilson appeared.

“Miss Evans, Mr Martin, and Miss O’Cleirigh,” he greeted, not seeming surprised at seeing Liadun or Drew present.

“DI Wilson,” they replied, and Shelley glared at him.

“I told you that when we next met, I’d have a solicitor with me,” she announced, and Wilson nodded his head. He set up a laptop and turned to them.

“It’s not a problem.”

“No, I imagine not. What can we do for you?”

“I need you to re-look at that footage. It’s been cleaned up since last time.”

“More photoshopped videos?” Shelley sneered.

“Please just watch, all of you,” Wilson asked and pressed play on his laptop.

Drew crowded in close as they watched the tail end of her attack. Shelley felt him stiffen and stroked his leg to comfort him. His hand rubbed her back when they saw Ghoul appear. But it wasn’t Ghoul.

Wilson paused the video and zoomed in.

“Do you recognise that man?” Wilson asked.

“No,” Shelley lied. She was becoming adept at that lately.

“His name is Stanley Saville. He is John Saville’s older brother,” Wilson said and continued to explain what they already knew.

“They were going to kidnap me?” Shelley demanded, aghast.

“Yes. You need to be careful. We don’t know why he killed his brother or painted himself white unless it was to throw us off track, but Saville is a very dangerous man.

We have evidence that puts him at your house before it blew up.

” “I can’t talk about that. It’s too upsetting,” Shelley muttered, and Wilson nodded in sympathy.

“I can only imagine. Please don’t go anywhere without taking security, and also try not to set plans that people can pick up on,” Wilson said.