Chapter Twelve
Taggart
Outside there was a hive of activity that didn’t bother Taggart, or wouldn’t usually, today was different because the wallow was being dug out.
The wall had been started at the beginning of the week, and they were making significant progress on that.
He had no actual interest in, not really.
The wallow—now that was a different thing altogether because when it was finished, he was going to get to play in it with both Arlo’s rhino and Soren’s bird.
He'd spent days imagining exactly what it would be like to lie on Arlo’s big body floating in the water.
He’d projected those thoughts to both mates, driving them nuts with positions because he wanted to find the perfect place to lounge.
Soren had subsequently blocked him because he advised he couldn’t concentrate ‘for toffee’.
Not that Taggart got that, but he smiled and tried to reel back his overenthusiastic thoughts.
Had it worked? Well, not really, but he had tried.
Those excited feelings were what he had used to keep grounded, as he’d continued on with mining information to keep himself occupied while all the busy work happened outside.
There was so much data that even the keyword searches he was using had to be refined constantly with each relevant piece of information that Arlo thought pertinent to the investigation.
In his line of work, progress could be small or monumental.
Right now, it was the latter, though Taggart’s gut suggested there was monumental shit inside the files, he just hadn’t found it yet.
He’d started a search on the name of the remaining evading council member, who seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
Someone was hiding him, and that frightened Taggart more than he could voice to his mates.
He’d dialed back his worries with concerted effort when it upset Soren so much that Arlo had to go all Daddy on him once more.
It wasn’t a bad thing when it showed how much Arlo cared about him and Soren.
It was just that he felt so bad when he got into trouble.
No matter how much he told himself his mate—his Daddy—would forgive him, he didn’t like being naughty after he’d gotten rejected so much in the past. Then his brain would spiral, and the sass would happen.
He'd gotten to sit in the corner for twenty minutes, not allowed to talk or listen to music. Daddy had pegged him right on the punishment. It was torture when he knew Soren was getting cuddles and Daddy's time in another room.
The door opened, and Taggart realized too late he’d zoned out of what he was doing and had to quickly blank the screens when it wasn’t either Arlo or Soren standing in the doorway.
A shifter Taggart couldn’t remember meeting, that smelled weird, gaze swept the room with way too much interest. Dressed in dirty jeans and a ripped T-shirt smeared with something gray that could have been concrete, his boots looked odd when they were shiny.
Taggart rose from his seat, grateful Arlo had reminded him to pull on shorts so he wasn’t naked, frowning at the stranger. “Are you lost?” he asked, uncertain why someone would be back in this part of the house when he couldn’t get a read off the other man.
Daddy, can you come to my office, like now?
Whatsup?
“I was looking for a bathroom to use. The one”—he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder towards the front of the house—“is got someone in and I’m desperate to go.
” Before he’d finished speaking, he was fully in the room, looking at the blank screens and at Taggart’s equipment and scattered files.
Taggart moved around in front of his desk trying to shield some of the information.
Taggart, what is it?
There’s a stranger in my office, he just walked in and—
I’m coming, have you got anything to use to protect yourself?
The guy was closer now, and Taggart couldn’t concentrate on giving Arlo an answer when the man smelled even worse up close.
“No, I don’t. You’ll need to go outside.
” He worked to keep the tremor out of his voice.
He didn’t look at the bathroom door to his left, unable to remember if he’d shut the door the last time he’d been in there and possibly making a liar of him.
But Taggart’s senses were now fully on alert.
He might be big, but Taggart was not a fighter, never had been.
All he could do was shift and run. In his meerkat form, he was fast.
Debating for a second longer when the guy's eyes narrowed on him, Taggart didn’t have time to shift as Arlo charged down the hall so fast, he was more a blur.
“Who the fuck told you it was alright to walk in the house without an invite?” he demanded before he’d even come to a full stop, stepping in front of Taggart.
He reached a hand back, and Taggart took it and gave it a squeeze.
I’m alright, Daddy. But there’s something off with this guy, and he smells funky.
His heart was beating twice as fast as normal as the guy made an ugly snorting sound.
“Can’t a person even take a fucking leak on the job? What kind of setup is this?”
Taggart couldn’t see the guy's face past Arlo’s broad back, so he wasn’t sure what he was referring to. It could have been the work or Taggart’s computers. No one got to come in here because he didn’t like to answer questions about what he did. Was the guy spying?
“There’s a portable toilet block set up outside,” Arlo answered in a tone that chilled Taggart’s bare skin. “You’d know that if you were working this job. Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my mate's home?”
Taggart found his hand released, and then all hell broke loose.
Soren
Seeing Arlington crash through the house in a blur of speed was scary, but feeling his mate’s fear in his head was downright terrifying.
Every fight or flight instinct Soren had screamed, ‘fly high and look for a place to hide’.
Only he couldn’t, because the last time he’d done that he’d emerged to discover that he’d lost everything.
Instead, he shifted and flew down the hall, one wing got clipped when a whirling mass of fists and fury caught him when he failed to dodge properly, so hell-bent on getting to Taggart.
He had no clue what he was going to do when he did and the tip of his wing throbbed with every flap, but he kept flapping until he saw Taggart and landed right on his mates’ shoulder, chirping up a storm while forgetting that Taggart wouldn’t be able to understand him.
When Taggart’s trembling hand reached up to touch him, he all but fell off his mate’s shoulders and into his hands, his tiny body quivering as they listened to the sound of Arlington and the other person wrestling around.
Fear.
All he felt was fear.
His fear, Taggart’s fear, they ramped up into a raging ball of sheer and utter panic and dread as he pressed his little beak to Taggart’s chest when Arlo bellowed so loud it shook the room.
He couldn’t do this, couldn’t be here.
But he couldn’t leave his mate either.
Wouldn’t.
So scared.
This is my safe space!
This isn’t supposed to happen in my safe space.
Taggart’s voice in his head sounded as panicked as he felt, and Soren twittered once again, then took a breath and focused.
Daddy, Daddy will make it all okay. Soren aimed at Taggart with his first moment of focus since he’d flown past the fight taking place in the hall. He has to, right?
He could hear the sounds moving further away, but there were still crashes and shattering, like things being broken.
Not another home.
Was it him?
Had this person followed him here?
Oh Goddess.
No. No. No.
He’d been so careful to get lost. He’d watched and checked the cars in each parking lot to make sure he’d never seen them before.
Yet he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d caused this when his past was so fresh in his memory. A memory he’d not shared.
Ducking his head beneath his wing, he remained huddled against Taggart’s chest, his mate shaking as hard as he was, until Taggart’s knees buckled and they crashed to the floor, Soren tumbling out of Taggart’s hands when they landed, just as a shadow shape appeared in the doorway.
The scent was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Nasty.
Filthy.
He knew it well. From home and all the horrors that had taken place there.
With all the courage he could muster in his tiny, fragile body, he hurled himself at the door, trying to slam it in the stranger’s face to keep them from coming in there.
Only they were way too strong, and the hardwood flew back at him, smashing him into the wall behind it, stunning him as he tumbled to the floor.
In a daze, he tweeted once, trying to focus, watching so that this time he could report everything that happened if he survived.
That’s when he saw the meerkat rushing up the smelly man’s leg and heard the man’s cries.
Tiny sharp teeth and clawed paws hit at the swirling mass of motion.
The thing batted, slapped at Taggart, but his meerkat was too fast and kept eluding the nasty thing.
A trumpeting roar, like a freight train, smashed into the room, followed by a second, massive form.
Daddy!
Daddy is here!
Daddy and his big friend Bash will protect them.
The smelly man turned to smoke and started wrapping around Arlington, but Bash had something red in his hands. Bright. A different kind of smoke came out of it, blotting out Soren’s view of the room.
Everything grew hazier then, bent and warped and wavering around the edges. The last thing he truly saw before the world went gray was his meerkat mate racing to his side and wrapping around him.
Arlo