2. Nathan
God, she’s even more beautiful than ever.
About a decade ago, my best friend ever, Ben, got married, with me as his best man. And God help me, the moment I laid eyes on his fiancée, I knew I was in trouble.
Madelyne was the single hottest woman I had ever seen. On the tall side, curvy, and athletic, she looked like a fitness model and moved like a panther. Her hair was that particular shade of light honey blonde that you only got from bottles unless you had family from far northern Europe, and her eyes were a pale, steely blue.
She was a metal artist with a side gig forging swords for the Society for Creative Anachronisms and a growing list of private buyers. She could fight with those swords as well as make them. And she had a smile that could light up a room.
I had sworn to myself then that I wouldn”t touch her, as much as I wanted to. Even if she was interested, neither one of us was the sort to betray Ben. So instead, I became the family”s best friend for years, until I couldn”t take it anymore and agreed to be deployed again just to get away.
But I never forgot her. How the Hell could I? She was completely human, without a drop of Wolf blood in her, but she matched me so well. She hadn”t been nervous at all when she learned what I was.
Her response to having a rogue shifter running around her yard murdering people had been to grab her sword and go out to confront him. Maybe not the wisest course, but that was Madelyne. She had the heart of a warrior.
And now, just as then, I loved her for it.
”So, over the phone you said this guy has backup of some kind. His mother?”
”Yeah.” Madelyne handed me an iced lemonade and then grabbed her own. Aidan was napping upstairs, post-lunch, and we could now talk about the ugly things that we couldn”t possibly speak about in his presence.
”His mother and his mother”s… driver. Bodyguard. Something. I think he”s in the family too, but she always treats him like the help. He”s this big, creepy bruiser. If anything, Matthias” mom is worse than he is. She”s got all the crazy, narcissistic, manipulative crap going on, and all the grifts, but she”s nasty too. Never liked me. Weird that someone as heartless as Matthias would be a mama”s boy. I used to want to save him from her.”
Murders or no murders, stalking or no stalking, I still would have wanted to punch this asshole Matthias in the teeth. I was sure my Pack would feel the same once they showed up. ”Do you have any idea what kind of shifters they are?”
”I have no idea. I didn”t even know there were different kinds.”
”Wolves are the most common, but I kind of doubt that Matthias is one unless he and his mother have been kicked out of their Pack. Otherwise, he”d have a big team of people with him, not just one or two. Our strength is in numbers and unity. He”s not quite a loner, but his personality alone would have kept most Wolves from accepting him.”
She sat forward, taking a sip of her drink. I tried to keep my eyes out of her cleavage as she listened to me. ”What other kinds are there?”
She hadn”t acted this curious about shifters back when she was with Ben. My guess was that she hadn”t wanted to talk about something so personal with me. Not when I couldn”t really help the way I looked at her. Especially when Ben wasn”t in the room.
”Bear shifters often live in small family groups, but I never heard of one as urban as Matthias. They”re usually off in the woods somewhere, avoiding big cities. There are others. Rarer, but they exist. Coyotes, Foxes–most of them are Japanese–Seals, and Tigers.”
”Tigers.” She tapped her chin. ”Tell me more about them.”
”You sure you want me to?” I asked gently. ”Because most of them are really bad news.”
”I”m just thinking about the damage that was done last night. That wasn”t done by a Coyote a Fox, or a Seal. Maybe a Wolf, maybe a Bear, but the way it attacked wasn”t very Wolflike.”
”I can understand your wanting to know more. But uh… Tiger shifters are dangerous. They”re so dangerous that they”re one of the iconic monsters of India. And I do mean monsters. Tiger shifters are evil. They lie, manipulate, steal, kill, and worse, they like eating people.” Her jaw dropped, and she nodded grimly. ”Yeah. Most shifters avoid doing that, both because it”s horrible and because it can make us sick. Really sick. But Tigers? They seem to either be immune, or they kill their infected as soon as they show symptoms. And that”s not all.”
She took a shivery breath, like she was bracing herself, and nodded. “Okay. What is it?”
“Every kind of shifter has a special power that’s all ours. Wolves have the strength of our Pack, our loyalty to each other. We won’t betray each other, not even under torture. Bears can heal almost any wound, not only in themselves but in others. And Tigers? Tigers can look and sound like any human being they want.”
I hated doing this to her, but there were reasons why we’d waited until Aidan was asleep. I watched her mull this over, and the horror on her face grew. “You mean they can imitate people you know?”
“Yeah, they can. They might not be able to keep up the act long unless they know the person, but you could open your door one day and see your dead mother standing there talking to you in her voice. They like messing with people that way. Like cats playing with a mouse.” I couldn’t keep the disgust out of my voice.
“How did you learn all of this? I mean, there are some basic books that have been written since you guys all went public, but none of them go in-depth like this.” She remembered her lemonade and took another swallow.
“Pack elders from when I was young, mostly. And yeah, a lot of knowledge about shifters we only share with those close to us. Don’t want to give the Hunters too much ammunition.” The lemonade was crisp, cold, and just sweet enough to cut the acidity some.
“Matthias loves to play with people.” She sounded disgusted. “He’s a con man. He bilked and then robbed me out of a good ten thousand dollars in money and goods. He also targeted the artist’s colony in town. My friends. I warned them and dumped him, and boom, suddenly I have a vengeful stalker making my life hard. But I didn’t know he was a shifter at all until last night.”
“He never told you?” Yeah, even if it wasn’t my job to bring this guy down, I’d go out and do it. What a piece of shit.
“No. He uh… to be honest I have no idea how much of what he told me was true. His family is in on everything. His mother… she plays a sweet old lady as well as he plays a debonair arts patron. Just horrible people. I wonder if she’s a shifter too, or if it was just his dad.”
“Let’s just assume she’s one too, for safety’s sake.” I got out my phone and started texting details of our conversation to Jamie, my tech guy, to send to the others. Jamie was the only one who consistently paid attention to his phone. Bela, our security guy, did normally, but he was ignoring it a lot right now thanks to an annoying ex blowing it up. As for Ulf, I’d had to argue my Luddite of a Beta into carrying a phone at all.
Jamie responded quickly. “OK, got it so far. How’s she doing?”
I pressed my lips together before answering. “Not good. Her stalker’s a rogue shifter. Possibly his mom and their bodyguard, too. He’s done a number on her and means to do worse.”
I looked up at Madelyne. “Just updating the guys. They’ll be driving over in a few hours. Well before dark. You say that these people have always harassed you at night?”
“Like a couple of damn vampires, yeah.” She sounded so tired.
It made me sad that this amazing woman had gone from Ben, who had treated her like a queen, to this predatory, lying dumpster fire of a shifter. Matthias must have been a brilliant manipulator to pull that off. She was too smart and strong to break down like that unless a master was working on her.
But she had broken down. I knew that Ben’s death had hit both her and her son hard, and three years wasn’t that much time to get over it. Matthias must have swooped in while she was vulnerable. There was just no way outside of pure skill that he could have tricked her otherwise.
Ben would want to kill this guy. I want to kill him. And I knew that some of that was plain and simple jealousy. How dare this fucker be with her after Ben when I had held off so long, and how dare he hurt her in the process? How dare he be bothering her, threatening her, even now?
On the phone with me at dawn, explaining her terrible situation, she had nearly broken down in tears on me twice. Afterward, my Wolf had been so agitated by the news that I’d had to run it out, putting in ten miles before I could go home, tell the guys, and start making plans.
“Any idea where they are staying?” I asked her gently.
“They’re jet-setters. Fancy hotels are more their style than anything in a small town. Matthias drives a damn Bentley like an old-money millionaire. His mom has a matching one with that giant driving it.”
“Hmm. People like that do not like living rough.” I thought about it and chuckled. “I’ve never even heard of a shifter bothering with the private-jet lifestyle. Most of us don’t even like visiting big cities for too long. Too noisy… and smelly.” I wrinkled my nose, and she finally smiled a little.
“Well, if they’re targeting heiresses like me, most of them live in big cities. Maybe it’s camouflage. Another act. Though Matthias does seem to be too much of a neat freak and too vain for country life. He’s got a French manicure, for pity’s sake.”
I let out a laugh before I could stop myself, startling her. She blinked at me, and I smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. But if this city boy takes his beast form on me and his claws have nail polish on them, I will shit myself laughing.”
She thought about that, and her smile got a little stronger, her shoulders shaking just a touch. “I… wouldn’t put it past him. He did wear a white suit inside a damn art studio.”
That’s good, kiddo. More like that. Make fun of him. Laugh at him. Take your power back from him, damn it. “So, he’s a brilliant con man, but he’s also overconfident, plays sick games, and has a touch of ‘nouveau riche idiot’ to him. And his mommy has his back.”
“Yeah, she really does.” She tilted her head as she looked at me. “Look, I’m sleep-deprived and just saw a bloodbath, and I’m not a giant badass shapeshifter, so maybe I’m coming at this from a totally different angle, but you… You’re not scared of Matthias at all, are you?”
I reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, feeling the tightness of her muscles and the way they shook just a touch with exhaustion. “No. He’s a rogue shifter, and so may be his mother and their bodyguard. But I’m Alpha of a Pack of four highly trained shifters with decades of combined experience serving the US and foreign military, sweetheart.
“Yeah, the men he killed were experienced and tough, but they were used to fighting humans. They weren’t prepared to fight what’s probably multiple shifters of an unknown type. We are. We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again, and I’ve got no doubt we’re stronger together than Matthias and his family. We will put a stop to them and their bullshit.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“It boils down to something simple. That doesn’t mean it will be easy, I won’t lie to you. Matthias is clearly a tough customer, and smart. He’s also a coward and likes to sneak around and manipulate people. We’ll have to prepare you and Aidan for dealing with a threat like that. I’ll protect Aidan as much as I can from the uglier parts of the truth but I think you’ll need to teach him some passwords and things so he can make sure that you’re… you.”
She paled. “I hadn’t thought of that. Though we already have a password system in place for the panic room and when anyone besides me picks him up at summer camp.”
“Good, that’s a good start.” I still had my hand on her shoulder. It had settled there naturally, like touching her was a regular part of my day. But she hadn’t said anything, and it seemed to comfort her.
I got back on my phone to text Jamie. “If you have time to start some automated searches while you guys are packing up, I need everything that you can find about the Montrose family. Son, Matthias, 35. Mother, Amala, probably in her sixties or seventies. I also need you to check any high-ticket hotels, resorts, or glamping sites in this area for either of them. I will forward you photos of both once Maddy gives them to me so you can check against CCTV and traffic cameras in the area.”
The response came back in under a minute while Madelyne got up to refill our lemonades. I caught myself staring at the curves of her ass in her whitewashed jeans and pulled my gaze back to my phone to see the reply. “I’ll get that started. Ulf wants to know if the rogues are Wolves.”
“Unknown. If they are, they’re Pack rejects and probably criminals in someone else’s Territory. Their behavior isn”t very Wolflike, though. Urban, sneaky, cowardly, into luxury and wealth. But whoever they are, they turn into big, fast predators.”
“I guess I’d better thaw out more steaks if everyone’s coming,” Maddie said as she returned with our refilled drinks. “Though, uh… I think I’ll have to move the grill. The side patio freaks me out now.”
“Nothing like an unexpected pile of corpses to fuck up your enjoyment of a place.” My fingers were caressing her shoulder soothingly. I willed them to stop. “I’ll help you move it once we’re done here.”
“Not going back to talk to the others?” she asked softly, sounding more hopeful.
I squeezed her shoulder, feeling her relax a little under my hand. “Hell no. I’m briefing them by text and saving the rest for when they get here. Then we’ll review your security and start beefing it up for the night. None of that involves me leaving. I’ll be by your side until all this is over.”
Finally, she gave me a real smile, a soft-eyed one that left me tingling and wanting to pull her closer. “Thank you, Nathan,” she murmured. “I feel a lot safer hearing that.”
Her tired gaze had no more fear in it, and there was a spark in it that made my body respond instantly. “Good,” I said softly. “Now maybe you should take your son’s example and try and get some sleep until the guys get here.”
“I think I will once our drinks are done. I can, with you around.”
Her soft gaze had me hard as a rock and hungrier for her than ever. After she was done lingering over her drink and talking about how life had been outside the Matthias mess, she got up to go up to the master bedroom. And God, I loved watching her go.
But it was when she looked back over her shoulder with longing and invitation in her eyes that I found I could barely resist. The look in her eyes, the things she couldn’t bring herself to say, were unmistakable in everything from her body language to her sweet, musky scent.
If she had said at that moment, “Come up to bed with me”, I would have done it in a heartbeat without a thought to the shitty timing or the dangerous distraction it would cause. But my conscience and my self-control both held steady, and she didn’t speak.
But it hurt like Hell to let her walk up those stairs alone when she didn’t want to be.