Chapter 3
Erick
I’m not sure what we’ve witnessed but the electrical charge in the air has an effect on all the shifters in the clearing. In the distance wolves howl and I wonder what they are feeling and if it’s as potent as it is for us.
And yet, it’s not Kash affecting me.
It’s her.
Kylian.
My potential mate.
That any other males are also feeling her emotions sets my bear on edge, and a desperate need to gather her in my embrace and shield her from their eyes forces me to cross my arms over my chest to hide my clenched fists.
What’s her story? Kade never talks much about his family, except last winter when she had a meltdown over Karter’s human mate.
The way he told the story, she acted like a petulant teenager who wasn’t the focus of everyone’s attention, but one look and I know she’s no teenager.
I saw her the moment she rounded the house, my senses attuned to her arrival the minute she jumped out of her vehicle.
I swear I felt her approach the property, my bear instantly agitated by the task at hand, which caused me to lose my grip on the large cage when my attention shifted to her.
Of course we have more than enough bodies with shifter strength holding up the thousand plus pounds of steel and bear, so no one noticed me stepping away to hold myself back from rushing to her the moment she threw herself down on her knees and wailed at Kash’s limp form.
Fuck me but the only thing I’ve ever heard as soul shredding as her anguished cry was the pained howl ripped from my mother the moment my uncle killed her mate in front of her.
A shiver runs through me as Sly barks orders at the shocked family, dismissing our Army brethren as Kade lifts Kash’s too frail form into his arms.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Lieutenant Crash Pumarston—Cricket’s twin brother—stands beside me as the other guys return the dismantled cage to the helicopter.
Months ago I planned on disemboweling the cat shifter and leaving him in the high desert for the birds to feed on.
I never knew he existed—which is crazy considering he was our XO for a couple of years while we were on active duty—but when I found out he was trying to keep Cricket from his fated mate, death was the only viable option.
I’ve known Cricket for years. He was a kid when they recruited him into the unit.
I quickly took him under my wing, but in the eight years I’ve known him, he never mentioned a twin brother.
Then Colonel Packard threw them together for a mission and the whole story came out.
If Crash and Cricket hadn’t worked through some of their shit, we wouldn’t have Kash home with his family today.
Funny how family comes through when you least expect it. Even though none of these men are blood, they are the only family I have and I can’t fathom losing one of them.
“This whole thing is wrong,” I say without looking at him, my eyes glued to the female my bear thinks is ours.
If he’s right, I’m fucked. This is the wrong time, wrong place—wrong girl.
Why would the Fates do this to me?
“You’re growling,” Crash says as I watch the family run back to the house with my mate in tow.
“What?” I rip my eyes from her retreating form to look at him.
He snorts and shakes his head. “Your bear is growling and you’re secreting a pungent stench but I didn’t know you were mated.”
“I’m not,” I snap a bit too harshly.
He quirks his brow and surveys the snow-packed field where only men remain. “Are you sure about that?”
Frowning, I shove my hands in my pockets as Junta, a wolf shifter, approaches us. “Ready when you are, LT.”
Crash nods and offers me his hand. “Thanks for the assist, Sergeant Major Bjourne. Tell my brother and his mate I said hey the next time you see them.”
“I will but shouldn’t you stick around and debrief Sergeant Barrington?”
Crash glances across the field at the house. “Kash isn’t going anywhere and I think he could use a break. I’ll call him in a few weeks. Colonel Packard might send a doctor—” he presses his lips together “—if Kade promises not to kill them.”
They’ve tried shit I’m not happy about. Kade’s words from yesterday float through my brain.
What could doctors do that would make Kade murderous?
Probably some inhumane tests, as I suspect Colonel Packard and the military doctors were desperate to get Kash to shift into his human form and would’ve tried anything to make it happen.
As the blades on the helicopter whirl to life, I slap my hands over my ears to shield my super sensitive hearing from the high-pitched squeal.
I’m sure the intrusion irritates the Fortune Falls’ shifters considering there is no airfield here and my understanding is most of them have never flown in a plane, much less a helicopter.
Once the SpecOps guys are gone, I glance around the empty field and realize that with Kash back in human form I have no reason to stay. Not that I can leave. Even though I’m not convinced Kylian is my mate, my bear isn’t willing to leave the question unanswered.
Shit. I can’t believe Crash could hear him. I didn’t realize I was growling or secreting my mating pheromone. Lifting my arm, I sniff but smell nothing foul. Not like when Kade met Dinah. Or Wiley met Geneva.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Jimmy walking alone past the triplet’s three tiny homes. Hollering, I jog in his direction. “Wait up.”
Jimmy lets out a sigh of relief. “I thought everyone was in the house.”
“Nope. Aren’t you supposed to be chaperoned while in Fortune Falls?”
He glances to the woods at my back and shrugs, acting like he doesn’t have a care in the world. But unlike my pheromones, I can smell the anxiety rolling off of him. “That’s what Kade says, but I have work to do and I think they’re going to be distracted for a while.”
Kash has been trapped in his bear's form for almost a year. Kade and Karter have been visiting him for months, trying to get him to communicate telepathically or shift back, but sixty seconds with Kylian and he shifts without issue?
Maybe she’s a witch.
She’s certainly bewitched my bear, and I haven’t spoken one word to her.
“You’ve got me. What are we working on?” I place my big hand on his shoulder and squeeze, turning him toward his truck parked thirty feet away.
Jimmy’s face brightens as a full smile spreads his lips. “We’re building a gazebo for Kade and Dinah’s handfasting ceremony.”
“That sounds beautiful. Let’s get started.”
Two hours later, three near-identical bear shifters and I lift the arches while Jimmy and Kevin, the Barrington patriarch, direct from a few feet away.
Because Jimmy is a surgeon wielding a scalpel when he uses a skill saw, it takes very little maneuvering to get everything perfectly aligned.
The notches slide into each other like Lincoln Logs and hold the arches upright while we quickly screw the beams into the base mounts.
“Dinner!” Dinah yells across the field, the triplets dropping their tools almost instantly.
“Thank god. I’m starving,” Kit says while Kason nods in agreement.
I hold up my hands knowing that I have dirt smudged across my face too. “Got anywhere I can wash up?”
Koran waves his hand and says, “Follow me.”
I walk beside him to the main house while the other two terrorists—a moniker they proudly refer to themselves as—head toward the three tiny homes set side by side on the edge of the field.
Something Kade never mentioned about his family was how chatty his baby brothers are.
For the last few hours they’ve been bickering, teasing, and completing each other’s sentences while filling me in on pack drama and their social media empires.
Although they speak like they don’t have secrets, not once did they mention their sister or the miraculous way their injured brother shifted once she was within reach.
Aren’t they curious why that happened?
I know I am.
“You have any brothers, Erick?” Koran, the least talkative of the three, glances over at me.
“No.” I don’t explain further, seeing no reason to dive into my deep dark past on our short walk to the house that I fear will be thick with Kylian’s scent. Honestly, it’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last thirty minutes as we got closer to finishing the gazebo.
“I bet you need some aspirin after the last few hours, huh?” He chuckles.
“Why is that?” I arch one eyebrow.
“Kason and Kit never shut up. I’m immune to their runaway mouths and learned to tune them out years ago.
I think Karter did too. But considering how quiet you’ve been, I figure their rambling short-circuited your brain.
Either that, or you’re holding on to the edge of your bear’s sanity out of some misguided need to be polite. ”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about Kash and I’m confused why he wasn’t the topic of discussion. Aren’t you curious about who, what, or why?”
Koran hangs his head, his eyes on the ground.
It reminds me how young this Pack Alpha is despite his large body.
He’s barely an adult by human standards but old enough to join the SpecOps Sierra ranks if he were interested.
I’m a little surprised Colonel Packard hasn’t come sniffing around to recruit one or all of them.
I guess having one injured Barrington held him at bay, but now?
I wonder how long he’ll hold himself back.
“Curious, yes, but we’re not in a position to ask questions—not really.
Kash and Kade have always been tightlipped about their jobs and I only learned Kash had a TBI a few days ago.
Not how or when it happened, just that they might bring him home. ”
“If it helps, I don’t know much more.”
Koran raises his head and pins me with a look that says it doesn’t help one bit.
“What about your sister?” I ask casually, hoping he won’t pick up on my desire to know more about her.
“What about our sister?” He returns his gaze to the front of the house, seemingly unaware or unconcerned about my interest.