26. Finley
Finley
In the back of the SUV with Elias, I snuggled into his side as he ran his hand up and down my back, lulling me into a nap.
I didn’t think I was all that tired but feeling safe, cuddled, and my wolf soaking up the attention, I couldn’t help but drift in and out.
The hum of conversation as the guys talked along with the soft music on the radio made it all but impossible to stay awake, but I didn’t feel it was wise to sleep and lose focus on what we were about to do.
“My heart, just let go. The rest of us are here to deal with whatever might come up and I doubt anything will happen to us on the drive. It would involve too many people and situations they can’t control,” Elias whispered, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“You are tired and we are going into an unknown situation. The nap might help.”
He had a point and this wasn’t anything more than retrieving the promised laptop for me to start working on gathering data.
I wasn’t going after a target. I didn’t need to be physically ready to take someone down.
If that did end up being the case, then I had six men to be able to come to my defense.
I wasn’t doing this on my own anymore. I was part of a team and that’s the way I wanted to think of it.
The work of retraining my brain to accept working with others was going to be challenging, but I could do it.
Taking the first step in trusting others would be to just take a nap right here and now.
“Wake me when we get into the city. I want to make sure I say goodbye when we drop Zander off,” I requested as I got more comfortable.
“Of course, I’m pretty sure he would wake you up regardless to make sure that happened,” Elias answered with a huff. I let myself drift off to sleep with a smile on my face, enjoying the fact that all my men were starting to look out for each other in a deeper way than just being pack.
“Little dove,” Zander called, a finger tracing the outline of my jaw. “We’ve arrived at the studio.”
My eyes slowly opened and I had to blink a few times to clear the fogginess to see Zander clearly. I smiled at him, catching his hand and pulling it from my face to kiss the palm. “I’m sorry you can’t come with us.”
“It’s alright, little dove. There will be other things we can do together on a real date,” Zander said, brushing off my worry. “Try to have a little fun while you’re there, so the trip isn’t wasted.”
I nodded and sat up so I could throw my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. “I love you,” I whispered in his ear, keeping it low enough that he should be the only one that heard it.
When I sat back, the grin on his face made taking the risk of saying it so early worth it. “And I, you,” he responded, keeping our moment just for us. “I’ll call you guys when I’m done here and maybe if you’re done with the exchange, I can join you.”
“Go be amazing,” I said, encouraging him to step out of the vehicle when I sensed he wasn’t going to do it on his own. With a groan, he hopped out and waved to us as we pulled back out onto the road and headed for the zoo.
Lane had managed to buy tickets online, so it was simple and easy for us to walk right up to the gate and into the zoo itself.
We had about forty-five minutes until the meet, so we looked over the map to see what side of the zoo the reptile building was.
The most interesting part of all of this was the guys’ reactions.
My mates were so excited to spend time here looking at all the information plaques and talking about the different shifters species they knew.
“Remember that tiger shifter we guarded who refused to do anything in the afternoon because that’s when he scheduled his naps?” Mason asked Noah. “Man, that was the best and worst bodyguard job ever.”
“All bodyguard jobs are strange in their own way, especially since Zander was always the one recommending us to his famous friends,” Noah added.
Mason nodded as we wandered down the path, taking in the red panda enclosure.
The small red creature was climbing around in the bamboo trees, keeping a careful eye on us as we approached.
I’d noticed that many of the animals in the zoo seemed far more aware of us than I’d ever seen previous times I’d been to a zoo.
“Do they know we’re shifters?” I asked, leaning on the railing and looking up at the panda.
Lane leaned his back against the fencing next to me, keeping an eye on the people around us more than the animal.
“There isn’t any real proof, but I think they know we’re different than normal humans.
We carry the scent of a predator, and it can set off instincts in other animals, even in our human bodies.
The worst are other dogs or wolves since we scent more like them, which confuses them on how they should interact with us.
It would be interesting to see what happens with you being an omega since Colt and me being alphas typically upset them. ”
“It’s time,” Elias interjected, running a hand down my back in reassurance for himself or me, I wasn’t sure.
When I tried to check in on him, I could tell he was keeping his thoughts to himself and wasn’t giving me much to work with.
I’d thought having this connection to him would give me a deeper insight into who he was, but it seems that it had become his default over the years of avoiding emotion.
Helping me do this wasn’t something they supported, but they understood what we would get from it outweighed the possible risk.
I’d done these kinds of drops many times over the years and not once had there been any issues.
There was no reason to suspect there would be this time.
I reached out and took Elias’s hand as we walked to the reptile building, trying to reassure him. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye while giving my hand a squeeze before letting it go.
“You might not be worried about this, Finley, but as your Sentinel, I can’t help but be ready for the worst-case situation.” He explained to help soften the rejection as he picked up the pace to be a few paces ahead of me.
Rath was right at my elbow, offering me support while the others fell into an easy formation around me without drawing attention to the fact they were ignoring everything else but the people around them.
Lane opened the door only after Elias went in first and sounded the all-clear through our connection.
Thankfully, those I had one with were keeping the lines open between all parties, leaving Colt to be the only one on the outside.
That didn’t matter since he took up the rear, making sure no one could sneak up on us.
A blast of humid air hit me in the face as we entered the building, along with a scent that seemed to be the same no matter what reptile exhibit you went to.
The instructions were to look for a maintenance person at the poisons lizards section.
Per our code, I would have no idea what this person looked like, but they would be able to pick me out.
This made it easier for us assets to act normally, knowing we could get called out or approached and not have to scan the space for someone.
Spotting the plaque pointing to the area we were looking for, I drifted that way, pausing to take in a few other snakes or spiders as I went.
The room wasn’t all that big when I turned into the right area, and sure enough, there was a man working on a railing that had fallen down.
Ignoring him, I started on the end furthest from him and headed in that direction.
When I made it through the whole exhibit, I was going to leave when Rath grabbed my elbow, his face confused as he flicked his eyes at the man.
Smiling, I leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “Trust me,” I whispered.
“Ma’am!” someone called after me as I left the room.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the maintenance man holding out a cloth bag to me. “Yes?”
“Didn’t want you to leave your purse behind. You women always carry important things in them.” He chuckled.
Stepping back towards the man, I took the purse and slipped it over my shoulder. “Thank you. I can’t believe I almost left it. Hun, why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, turning on Rath with a scowl.
“I’m sorry, dear. It’s so dark in this area, I didn’t see you set it down,” Rath answered, playing along, holding out a hand to me and nodded to the man. “Thank you, sir. I would have never heard the end of it if she left it here.”
“Happy to help. Enjoy the rest of your day.” The man waved and went back to fixing the railing.
Clutching the bag tight to my side, I felt the shape of a laptop in it along with a few other things, but my guess was they would be props. They wouldn’t risk this laptop ending up in anyone else’s hands. It would risk revealing far too many secrets to the world.
None of us spoke as we finished looking at all the other reptiles in the building before exiting back out into the zoo. There was a café a little ways down, giving us the perfect excuse to rest for a moment and take stock of what else might be in this bag.
“Can we stop for a snack?” I asked, pointing, and as if on cue, my stomach rumbled.
Mason’s head whipped to look at me with a frown. He hated it when I didn’t eat enough throughout the day to keep up with my new shifter metabolism. “Snuggles, what are we going to do with you? Do I need to start carrying food with us wherever we go?”
“That’s a tad bit drastic since there are plenty of places for us to eat around here. Let’s just grab a bite and rest for a bit before we head to the other side of the zoo?” I suggest, trying not to roll my eyes at my mate.