Chapter 7
“Sienna, what are you doing?” her mother called through the door. “You’ll be late.”
Sienna opened the door, still thinking about her conversation with Liam the night before. He’d guessed their entire relationship was a lie, yet he’d stayed. Even now, he was out with her brothers investigating the flash they’d seen.
“My hair wouldn’t go right,” she said.
Her mother’s expression said she saw through the flimsy excuse. “I’m coming with you. I want to grab fresh bread and supplies. If Hedrek and the boys must retreat to their camp, they’ll need stores.”
Sienna picked up her bag, knowing nothing would dissuade her mother. The village wasn’t the welcoming place it’d been yesterday, but they needed more information to make the best decisions for their family.
“I like Liam,” Mama said after they’d locked the cottage door and started walking.
“He’s a good man.” Sienna meant every word, although her conscience tweaked.
“You should tell him everything you know.”
Sienna didn’t reply immediately. She should’ve known her mother would suspect there was more.
“His loved ones will be concerned about his absence.”
“We talked last night. He knows—or at least suspects—that something is off. The thing is, I like him. He’s kind and caring and accepts Papa and the boys without a flinch. He treats them as equals, and no one else has ever done that. I-I can’t regret having him in our lives.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” her mother said.
“You don’t approve.” The realization unaccountably hurt Sienna.
“It’s deceit, and not the Teague way.”
Sienna’s eyes stung at the rebuke. “I-I know. We couldn’t afford the money we spent to send me to the gathering, but I tried.
The moment the Devon shifters saw me, I knew they’d start rumors.
They looked at me the same way they do Papa and the boys.
It was sobering. I thought I understood, but it’s different when you’re the one being judged.
” She drew a breath. “That’s why it’s hard to understand their positivity.
But they were so excited when Liam suggested they try making hearts. ”
“It’s your Papa. He’s the steadying influence.” A shadow crossed her mother’s face. “But the boys are at an age when they want to take a mate. No one here will accept them. Look what happened to Kitto.”
“So what do we do? Things might be even harder in a new town. At least here, we’re familiar with the rules.”
Her mother shrugged as they left the winding hill path and crossed the gravel road to walk along the cobblestones at the village entrance. “It’s clear some people here want us gone. We can’t stop them, but we can control how we respond. The less attention we draw, the better.”
Her mother was a wise woman.
They reached a fork in the path and embraced.
“Have a good day, Sienna. Take care, but gather as much information as you can.”
“I will. You be safe, too.”
The office was busy when she arrived. Busier than normal. Sienna stowed her bag and hung her coat on a hook in the staff room before she walked to her desk.
“You’re late,” Molly snapped, frazzled, as the phone began ringing the second she set it down.
“I’m sorry. I’ll work late to make up the time. Should I take charge of the phones?”
“Yes, please,” Molly said, sounding calmer now.
Sienna took over the switchboard, answering and transferring calls across departments. Most callers wanted to speak with the mayor and complained about the hunters, though two angry men also brought up the mall project.
During her lunch break, Sienna ate her cheese sandwich before heading to the library. She didn’t know his surname, which didn’t help, but she had eavesdropped on his conversation with his friend. The town of Middlemarch in New Zealand was the logical starting place.
She keyed in a search and studied the results with trepidation. Middlemarch appeared to be a small farming community. She tried adding “Liam” to her search terms, then “leopard shifter,” but came up empty.
Frustrated, she tried “Scott Middlemarch New Zealand” instead—maybe she could find information about Liam’s friend that would lead her to him. The third result made her stomach drop.
A local newspaper photo showed a handsome man with wavy black hair—Scott—with his arm around a pretty blonde woman. The caption read: “Local farmer Scott Baxter announces engagement to Wellington teacher Harley Evans-Wilson.”
Sienna studied the screen, guilt crystallizing into something sharper.
If Scott had someone he loved, what about Liam?
They’d been close—Liam could easily have someone waiting for him, worrying, planning a future together.
She’d been so focused on her family’s desperation, she’d never truly considered his life before the gathering.
The thought that she might’ve destroyed not just his autonomy, but his happiness, settled like a stone in her chest.
On her way back to work, the streets appeared noticeably empty and lacked their usual bustle.
The coffee shop, with its usual enticing coffee and pastry scents, had closed early.
The locals she encountered wore grim expressions.
A mother with two young children hustled them past the playground, keeping her kids close.
A tall, bulky man rounded the corner and deliberately slammed into her elbow with force. Seconds later, she struck the ground with a shocked shout. Pain shredded her knee. The man didn’t stop, didn’t look back, didn’t say sorry.
Sienna muttered under her breath and rose.
Her right knee stung, a trickle of blood sliding down her shin.
She froze as the weight of a stare had her head snapping to her left.
The man who’d knocked her down stood watching, gaze narrowed with predatory interest. Another man stood beside him, speaking quietly while also observing her.
The way they catalogued her every movement—the clinical detachment in their gazes—made her skin crawl. This wasn’t random intimidation. They were studying her.
She limped past them, fighting the urge to look back. The pair’s quiet laughter followed her, but beneath it, she caught fragments of their conversation: “…definitely responds like…” and “…should report back…”
Whatever they were looking for, she had a sinking feeling they’d tested her, and that did not bode well.
“What happened to you?” Molly asked, her gaze drawn to Sienna’s knee. Like most employees, Molly was a feline shifter, and she’d smelled blood.
“A man knocked me over in the street. He came around a corner and plowed into me.”
Molly’s eyes narrowed. “A stranger?”
“Yes.”
Molly bit back a curse, which was unusual for her. “They’re causing trouble around town, hassling the local women, especially the younger, prettier ones. They got cut off at the pub last night.”
That made Sienna wonder because if the hunters had been searching for shifters last night, they couldn’t have also been getting tossed from the pub. “How many hunt—I mean, visitors—are in town?”
“Three booked into the local hotel. Word is they told everyone there could be more coming.”
More! “How long are they staying?”
“At least a month.” Molly lowered her voice. “The mayor doesn’t know who is backing them. Clean up your knee before you start work again.”
“Okay,” Sienna said.
The mayor kept his finger on the pulse, and nothing escaped his notice. He had allowed Molly to hire her, despite the protests from the senior advisers on his team. If he knew nothing, the person responsible had been careful to remain in the shadows.
Filing and the phone engrossed her for the afternoon. At five, when she exited the side door of the council offices, she found Liam waiting for her.
“You didn’t have to walk me home.”
“Tamsin was worried.” Liam took her arm. “Things aren’t normal at present. The visitors are stirring up trouble.”
“So I heard. Did Papa and the boys get away okay?”
“They left late morning and none too soon,” Liam said, his tone grim. “The visitors are going house to house to ask if anyone has seen the black cat of Bodmin Moor. I saw Tony, and he told me.”
“Crap,” she said in an understatement. “Molly, the office manager, told me they’re staying at least a month. The mayor doesn’t know much and is worried.”
“If they’re staying a month, someone with deep pockets is financing them. It can’t be cheap to employ people for the search.”
“There are three men at the hotel.”
“I saw two of them earlier. They’re loitering and watching everyone,” Liam said. “It’s like they know about shifters and are waiting for someone to break.”
Liam had summed up the situation concisely.
“I hate this,” Sienna said. “We’ve never had trouble in town.”
They ceased chatting when they passed one of the town’s two pubs.
Two strangers stood outside, talking with a group of locals and smoking.
They openly watched her and Liam as they passed.
It was creepy and vaguely threatening. Sienna’s shoulders didn’t relax until they rounded the corner and left the cobblestone path.
“How well hidden is your father’s camp? If the hunters search, will they easily discover it? I asked Tamsin. She assured me they wouldn’t, but what if a local informs on them?”
“They camp in a valley and are very careful when they come and go. Once they’re at their camp, it would be difficult to find them. Some of their pottery competitors have tried, because the clay they use for our products is superior. No one has discovered them yet.”
“What about you and Tamsin? If those men grabbed either of you and tortured you?”
Sienna gasped, shock reverberating through her. “Surely, that wouldn’t happen?”
“We’re best to plan for the worst.”
“I don’t know the location, but Mama does. We could pack up and join Papa.”
“Someone would need to leave to get food,” Liam said. “Also, the visitors already know the town’s residents. I got the sense someone had given them a list. Tony said they were aggressive when questioning his wife.”