Chapter 12
Erick
Slipping my phone back in my pocket, I spin the dial on the small safe we have under the cash register and pull out my Glock, two extra mags, and a hip holster.
As a shifter, I rarely carry a pistol but as SpecOps I’ve trained on all firearms and I’m an excellent shot.
I don’t know what James is capable of, nor if he has a pack of his own at his back, but I’m not taking any chances.
“What does James look like? Does he have a big friend group? If so, how many of them are there and what do they look like? Build, stature, demeanor. Anything you can tell me helps.”
Kylian doesn’t respond.
“Babygirl?” I stand and catch her staring blankly at the space where a half hour ago I was feasting on her pussy. She came on my lips like a Goddess and next time she’ll remember every fucking second of her orgasm.
Moving around the counter, I cup her cheek and turn her to face me. I expect her eyes to be filled with unshed tears but there is a burning rage behind her gold-rimmed dark brown eyes instead.
Is her bear awake now?
Is she ready to fight?
“I just want to be like everyone else. Not special. Not different. Normal,” she spits through gritted teeth.
Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, I press a kiss to her forehead that is slightly warm again but nowhere near the inferno she was before climaxing. “Hate to tell you but you are special. You’re special to me and nothing is going to happen to you.”
“What about you?” She clutches my shirt. “He didn’t only threaten me.”
“It’s my job to protect you and if need be, I’ll die doing so. But I’m no average shifter, babygirl. I’m a member of a pack of skilled and deadly men—both in our human and animal forms. Don’t worry about me.” I lean down and press another kiss, this time to her lips.
She’s frozen and unresponsive, too far in her head as she stares back at me with her lips sealed shut.
I slip my hand into her hair and fist a handful, pulling her head back and causing her lips to part. “Open for me, Kylian. Stay open to me. I’ll take care of this, of James, and of you. Then we’ll coax your bear to come out and play with mine.”
Licking the fruit-flavored lip gloss off her lips, I claim her mouth and plunge my tongue deep until she moans and sags against me, her hands wrapping around my neck and wordlessly telling me she’s never going to let me go.
My phone pings with a series of texts and I know my pack is freaking out because we’re not at the diner yet.
Reluctantly, I pull back from her sweet taste. “Come on. We’ve got to get to the diner.”
“I’m not hungry.” Her eyes burn with lust, which at any other time would make me feral with need.
“Too bad. You need to eat and I need to feed my mate,” I say while holding her hand and pulling her behind me out of the store.
Locking the door, I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her into my side, my gaze tracing the woods around our property for any sign of movement.
We pass her truck, the stench potent now that I know what and who it is, and all I can think about is setting it on fire.
That’s the only way I’m going to eradicate what he’s done.
“Tell me about James. What’s he look like? ”
She drags in a shaky breath. “He’s tall like you, broad like you, with light brown hair and brown eyes. He has tattoos, but he’s clean cut and wears polo shirts and khakis most days. His house is nice.”
“Is he a college student? Does he have a lot of friends he hangs out with?”
“No, and yes. I don’t actually know what he does for work.
He said he was a day trader but I never actually saw him do it.
He has a small friend group we hung out with multiple times: Tim, Todd, and Marcus.
They are in college and live in a house known for its parties.
That’s where I met James. I mean, I didn’t meet him there.
I met him at Jimmy John’s grabbing a sandwich, but he told me he’d seen me at the party and was hoping to run into me again. ”
Motherfucker stalked her—that’s what I’m picking up from the story. He saw her at a party, probably scented her as not human but not exactly a shifter either, and then made bumping into her at Jimmy John’s happen.
“Tell me about the build of his friends.” We cross the street and walk down the sidewalk toward the diner’s entrance.
“They’re hockey players. Large and muscular, and celebrated for fighting on the ice. And they are bigger than James.”
I open the door and lead her inside, my hand on the small of her back. I don’t have to search for Wiley and Cricket because their eyes are on the door waiting for us.
“What the fuck is going on, Bossman?” Cricket projects.
Not answering, I lead Kylian to the table and direct her to take the seat between Geneva and Doralee against the wall.
Cricket and Wiley both stand as the server sets down platters of food.
I don’t look up and rattle off my order.
“Get my mate the breakfast plate, loaded, with juice and whatever else she wants.”
Carla sucks in her breath. “Mate?”
Ah, fuck me. I don’t have time for this.
Slowly I turn to face her, her green eyes wide and incredulous, as if I’ve betrayed her. “Yes, my mate. Gifted to me by the Fates themselves. She’s also Kade’s sister. Carla, this is Kylian.”
Then I turn to Kylian, who has one eyebrow raised in our direction.
She doesn’t have to be a shifter to pick up the scent—she’s a woman with a woman’s intuition.
It doesn’t help that both Geneva and Doralee are glancing between us like we're in a Telenovela episode. Geneva has seen Carla and I flirt at barbecues for sure and maybe Doralee saw something too but I don’t have time to explain this to any of them.
“Kylian, this is Carla. She’s Cricket’s cousin.” I add to tell her that Carla is a shifter without having to say it out loud while standing in a room full of humans.
Cricket’s, Wiley’s, and my phone ping in unison, no doubt receiving a text from Kade. “We have to take this. We’ll be right outside the windows. Don’t leave this table, not even to use the bathroom.”
Those words are enough to make both Cricket and Wiley stiffen, the intensity of that one statement telling them there is danger nearby. Otherwise, it’s not like me to tell a woman what she can and can’t do. I’m not that controlling of an asshole.
Cricket leans down and presses a kiss to his mate’s cheek, whispering in her ear, “Are you strapped?”
That’s right. Doralee is a trained field agent and often carries her 9mm.
“Yes.” She smiles, her eyes coming to me.
I nod my appreciation and head to the door, sparing Carla a quick glance before walking outside.
“Let’s sit in my truck so we don’t have to watch our conversation.” Cricket hits the alarm on his Ford Raptor, a carbon copy of the truck his twin let him borrow a few months ago.
I inhale deeply, testing the air for that asshole’s stench. I smell James everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Somehow his scent from her truck infused itself into my shirt, like being sprayed by a skunk.
“What’s up with Kylian’s scent?” Wiley asks. “She kind of smells like you but not exactly.”
“I pulled a Cricket,” I say, slamming the passenger truck door shut behind me.
“Ah.” Wiley nods. “The whole I’m going to mark-you-but-not-exactly-mark-you with my face between your legs game.”
When Cricket met Doralee, he lost control and his cougar marked her in a similar way before she knew he was a shifter and what that meant.
It was the only way he could keep his brother away from her but was also a violation of her consent.
He never gave her a choice but to be bonded to him and he had to pray she would accept him once the truth came out.
Our situations are not the same. Kylian knows exactly who and what I am and has already accepted me as her mate.
Cricket shrugs unapologetically. “It’s a classic move.”
My phone rings and I answer, placing it on speaker.
Kade barks, “Code Red? You call a Code Red and then don’t answer your phone for twenty fucking minutes while my sister is with you. What the fuck, Erick?”
“Sorry, I’m juggling a fucking lot here!
” I snap back as I stare out of the windshield and through the windows to the corner booth where all three of our mates sit.
Carla walks up and practically throws a plate of food on the table, triggering my instinct to rush inside and chew her ass for being rude to my mate.
“What’s going on?” Sly says with a lot more chill.
“Remember the door Kylian walked into Friday night? His name is James, he’s a bear shifter out of Great Falls, and he just threatened my mate.”
“The bear shifter you scented in my woods between the cabin and the house?” Kade’s voice drops an octave, his anger rising to meet my own.
“The same. He marked her truck inside and out, but I don’t know if he did it here or in Fortune Falls. You need to be on alert. We all do.” I lock eyes with Cricket and Wiley before purposely glancing towards the diner—my meaning well understood.
“Karter! Koran! Get your asses up here!” Kade bellows, no doubt shaking the windows with the volume of his voice.
“What threats did he make?” Wiley asks.
I shake my head, my fists clenched and my bear growling so loud that they have to hear him.
“Oh fuck,” Cricket murmurs, imagining the worst, which is still not as bad as what that fucker said he was going to do to her.
There is silence on the other end of line and I’m not sure if Kade is telling his brothers what’s going on telepathically or if they haven’t shown up.
“Let me know when your brothers are in the room. They need to hear this too,” I say.
“They’re here,” Kade says and then continues his conversation verbally. “Kason and Kit have eyes on Valery, Dinah, and Dad when Karter and I don’t. Go tell them.”
“Wait Koran,” I bark, waiting for him to acknowledge me.
“I’m here,” the Pack Alpha says.
“James has friends. At least three Kylian could tell me about. I don’t know shit about them. I don’t know if they’re shifters or not but according to her, they’re college students who play hockey. Big guys—bigger than James who is about my size—so I suspect they’re bear shifters.”
“Of course they are because bunny shifters would be too easy,” Cricket chirps from the driver’s seat.
“Do we know anything else?” Kash asks, much to my surprise. I wasn’t sure Kade and Sly would include him considering his physical and mental state.
“No, except this guy is overly confident he can best me and take what’s mine. She’s been casually dating him for a month and based upon the story she told me, I’m guessing he stalked her before arranging their first meeting. Also, he does not take rejection well.”
“Is Kylian okay?” Karter asks this question a lot more coolly, which makes sense. He’s thinking like a brother while the rest of us are thinking like soldiers.
Soldiers blessed with fated mates.
“She’s holding it together, but she’s shaken up. This guy is a sadistic motherfucker, a true psychopath. The things he said—” I shake my head, my body vibrating with rage.
“What’s this asshole look like?” Koran asks.
I rattle off what Kylian told me, distracted by two large men entering the diner.
One is light complexed and blond with his hair pulled back in a Viking braid, and the other has dark skin and short midnight black hair.
Not how she described James but also not two guys I’ve seen around here.
Someone else asks a question but I have no idea what they said, my gaze glued to the two men as they walk straight to my mate’s table.
“What the fuck?” I jump out of the truck, leaving my phone behind to sprint the quarter of a block to the door.
Yanking it open, I use enough force to make it bounce against the brick wall, shattering the glass panel.
I only have to see the horrified look on Kylian’s face to know these two are here to deliver a message.
The blond barely has time to turn toward me before I have my hands on him, picking him up and throwing him across a table full of diners.
Chaos erupts, patrons jumping up and running past Wiley and Cricket who tackle the second guy.
It’s a brawl. I pin down my guy with a knee to his chest, my fist slamming into his face until his nose, mouth, cheek, and eye bleed from deep cuts. I have no intention of stopping, no intention of allowing this man to threaten my mate again but shifters from my community have other ideas.
A big guy barrels into me, knocking me off of my target. I roar and flash my fangs, whipping my head up to see Tom—a bear shifter and Wiley’s neighbor—crouched down between me and my target with his hands in the air.
Wiley is standing over my target, his hand wrapped around the asshole’s throat.
No, it’s not wrapped around his throat, he’s checking his pulse. Sweet Fates, did I kill him?
Cricket projects into my head, “Not here, Bossman. There are way too many fucking witnesses. Do not shift, Sergeant Major Bjourne.”
My tongue instinctively goes to my fangs and I lower my head. Fucking Fates knows what I’ve revealed to a dozen or more of Broken Falls’ humans.
Kylian rushes to my side, throwing her arms around my neck. I pull her into my chest, instinctively sniffing her hair and roaming my hands all over her body. She wasn’t in the fight and yet I feel the need to check over every inch of her.
“All right everyone, show’s over. Lunch is on the house.
Get the fuck out of here and come back tomorrow if you didn’t eat.
” I open my eyes to see Milo, a cat shifter, shooing everybody out of the building.
There are a couple other motorcycle club members here as well—all shifters but none of whom are prior military.
We don’t share the same bonds that I do with my pack but we all understand a shifter’s need to protect his mate.
As the last human leaves the building, guys from the MC guard the door and Milo looks over at me while shaking his head. “Never a dull moment with you SpecOps guys.”