Gavin (Northern Ohio Shifters #3)

Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

The next day, Gavin left Midas’s house after lunch to meet with Ryan and check out the newly installed perimeter alarms. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his friends to handle things, but he knew he wouldn’t feel right until he saw them for himself.

“You sure I can’t come?” Sadie asked as she leaned against the front door’s frame.

“It’s not safe for you out in the open,” he said, quickly adding, “I’d love you to come with me, but I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

She twisted her fingers in his shirt and tugged, and he closed the distance between them and hugged her.

“I don’t mind this house arrest stuff when you’re with me and we have sexy time,” she said, her voice low and filled with promises that made him want to toss her over his shoulder and head to the bedroom.

“It’s not house arrest,” he said with a laugh.

“So I can leave?” she asked, her brow arched in challenge.

“No.”

She made a ta-dah motion.

He kissed her nose. “You’re so freaking adorable. We’re at this house for now because there’s safety in numbers. It’s only been two days.” And he’d been thinking about taking her to his parents’ house and getting that kitted out with all kinds of safety equipment, but there weren’t round-the-clock patrols at his parents, which made him feel like they were too vulnerable. The reality was that until Victor and Brent were dealt with, they were going to have to stay where it was safe.

“I am adorable,” she said. She tilted her face for a kiss. “But so are you. I love how protective you are.”

“Just for you.”

He lingered for a while longer, holding her and thinking wicked things, when Ryan cleared his throat loudly behind them.

Gavin stifled a growl and kissed Sadie. “Gotta go. We’ll probably be a couple hours.”

“Have fun.”

He stepped off the front porch and met Ryan on the grass. “Thanks for showing me everything.”

“You bet. I needed to do a perimeter sweep and check the new stuff, so it’ll be nice to have company. I totally understand you wanting to see them for yourself. Here.” He handed him a tablet that showed a map of Whisper Creek. “You can press the buttons on the side of the screen and toggle the views to show which security features are where, like the perimeter alarms, the motion detectors, and the cameras. We have some cameras that are triggered by the motion detectors and some that run twenty-four-seven and we have people watching them in the security office. If a motion detector or alarm goes off, it alerts me, Midas, and whoever is on patrol at the time through their walkie with the location. We can trigger an alarm so you can see what it looks like on the video feed. Let’s start from here and we’ll circle around.”

As they walked away from Midas’s house to head into the forest that made up a large portion of Whisper Creek, the front door opened and he turned around to see if Sadie decided to try to come along anyway. Instead, it was Lila and her mate Hans. Lila had little Benjamin in a sling on her back.

“Hey, guys,” Hans said. He was young, only nineteen plus one, and he and Lila had grown up in the pride together.

“Where are you three off to?” Ryan asked.

“The wild blackberry bushes,” Lila said. “Maya mentioned she loved blackberry cobbler. When I told Hans I wanted to run out today, he said I couldn’t go alone because of the safety issues.”

“He’s right,” Gavin said. “Everyone needs a buddy.”

“We won’t be long,” Hans said.

“Good luck,” Ryan said.

The young couple headed off a few yards in the other direction. Gavin used to pick blackberries with his mom and Aeryn when he was a kid. It wasn’t his favorite thing to do because of the thorns, but the sweet fruit was worth the pricks and pokes.

As they walked, Ryan explained more about the security features.

There was suddenly a loud crack like thunder followed by a feminine scream.

Gavin and Ryan looked at each other and took off toward the sound.

“What the hell was that?” Ryan asked as they skirted around trees and made their way to the blackberry bushes.

“I don’t know, loud as hell though.”

They found Hans holding Lila, who was holding a wailing Benjamin near the blackberry bushes.

“Are you guys okay?” Ryan asked.

“Hold on!” Hans shouted. “Stop!”

Gavin and Ryan skidded to a halt. “What happened?” Gavin asked.

“There was a bear trap buried under some brush. Lila dropped her basket and it went off. It…was so close to getting her.” Hans shook his head and hugged his mate tighter. “I don’t know if there are others around. We’re too freaked out to move.”

Gavin recalled hearing that Victor had bought bear traps from a hunting supply store. Now they knew what he’d planned to do with them, but how the hell did he get past the security measures?

Ryan lifted his walkie and used the security team channel to alert the patrol to be on the lookout for traps. Midas got on the channel.

“Damn it, is everyone okay?”

“They’re good,” Ryan said. “Gavin and I will walk them carefully back to the house.”

“Call in everyone. We’ll do a grid search through the territory. No telling how many he set.”

“Got it.” Ryan sent an alert to everyone on the security team, including the new members who had been drafted to help with patrols during this crazy time. Then he and Gavin moved to the couple and formed a line in front of them after Gavin picked up the tripped bear trap. “We’ll walk slowly. Everyone keep your eyes peeled.”

Gavin had never been so careful where he put his damn feet in his entire life. It was a terrible thing to do to a person, and could even kill them if they were in their shift and the trap closed on an artery.

“I’ve seen some intel about this Victor asshole,” Ryan said with a low voice. “There isn’t anything he won’t do to hunt and capture unique shifters. I think he’s the best because he’s got a lot of tricks up his sleeve.”

“You think this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to him trying to get to Sadie?”

“I hate to say it, but yes.”

Gavin rubbed his stomach as he let his gaze roam slowly in front of them. “I’ve had a bad feeling since yesterday that something was going to happen. But Sadie hasn’t left the house since those people infiltrated our territory the first time.”

“But you have,” Ryan said. “It would make sense that you getting hurt would bring her out of the house. Or maybe they just want to wreak havoc where they can, like when they set the bomb at the vampire bank.”

“Good point.”

It took them twenty minutes to get to the house. After dropping off the couple and their cub, Gavin took a few minutes to tell Sadie what was going on, and then he left with the others to look for more traps.

“I know you’ll be careful,” Sadie said as they said goodbye on the porch once more.

“I will. You be careful too. Don’t step foot outside this house for any reason.”

She nodded.

He gave her a quick kiss. “I’m sorry, baby. We’ll figure out how to stop this. I don’t know how, but we will.”

“I know.”

He pulled the door shut, leaving the security team to watch over his precious mate, and stormed off into the woods to catch up to his team and find the other traps. Because he was certain there were more traps, he just wasn’t sure why they’d been set. To get to him? To take out security personnel? Just to be an asshole?

Anything was possible, and he hated not knowing what to do to keep his mate safe.

Several hours later, Gavin was back at Midas’s house and the grid search had turned up a dozen more traps. After much discussion with the elders and high ranked males on the security team, which included Gavin, it was decided that they’d add vehicle patrols around the outside of Whisper Creek, including back roads and trails, because while it seemed impossible that the poacher or the people working with him had gotten close enough to set traps, there was no mistake that they’d been set.

Midas walked out of the conference room with Gavin. “How’s Sadie doing?”

“She feels bad that this is disrupting everyone’s lives.”

“She shouldn’t,” Midas said. “She’s your mate and that makes her part of the pride, and no one fucks with my people, period.” He lowered his voice. “We’ve got hackers working on finding where this Victor guy is, or at the least Brent and his anti-shifter jerkwads, since we know they’re working together.”

“More than our people?”

“Yes, Alpha Adam put some of his best guys on it at your friend Brick’s request. They were already searching for Brent, but they’re laser-focused on it now because of what’s happening.”

“That’s great news.”

Midas nodded. Romeo, who had been Midas’s right-hand male before he mated Ashley, strode up to them. “I’ve got vehicles ready. We’ll run two at a time around the clock. I wish to hell we knew when the traps were set or how they got by our security systems.”

“I want to know that too,” Midas said with a growl.

“I’ll take a shift in a vehicle,” Gavin said.

“Are you sure you don’t want to be with your mate?” Romeo asked.

“I want to be part of whatever safety measures we’re putting in place.”

“Of course. Let’s head over to the garage. I’ll start North and you can start South.”

Gavin checked in with Sadie, who was helping Maya and a few of the females make dinner for everyone in the house.

“This is the third time today I’ve had to say goodbye,” she said with a chuckle. “You be careful, I need you to come back in one piece.”

“I promise.”

Romeo met him on the porch. “When our mates aren’t safe, nothing feels right in our world, you know?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel.”

“One way or another, we’ll find this poacher and put a stop to his plans to harm Sadie.”

Gavin appreciated Romeo’s words and the sentiment behind them. Gavin wouldn’t feel at peace until Sadie was safe and the threat to her was gone. For good.