9. Bela
There wasn’t a single whiff of shifter inside the complex aside from us. That was another stroke of luck to go with Madelyne”s cute and very well-connected bestie. Before we”d even left the building to take our hot, thirst-inducing tour of the grounds, she was already texting away on her phone to spread the news. We passed a few people hurrying for the main building with worried looks on their faces and phones in their hands before we”d even really started.
Good. Getting things sewn up tighter would help us a lot, and we could then spend more time focused on Madelyne and her kid.
I could already tell that Nathan was in love with her. The tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a claw, and I wondered how many years this had been going on without either one making a move. Jamie had already told me about it while we”d been doing the install, and we were both of the opinion that the two should just fuck already.
But of course, there were complications. Shitloads to do, three psychopathic shifters to locate and defend against, and nobody wanted to confuse her kid. Though I doubted that last one would take that much to fix. Kids could often handle weird situations better than adults, after all. They didn”t have as much ”normal” shit to compare it to.
And if he could handle her having one Wolf boyfriend, maybe he could even handle her having four. Because once Nathan had finally broken that dam, I definitely wanted a shot with her as badly as Jamie did.
I wasn”t desperate with longing for her like Nathan looked whenever he watched her when she didn”t know it. But goddamn, she was cute, brave, and interesting. I had no doubt she would be spectacular–in the sack and out of it. And I really didn”t want to wait too long to find out for sure.
Once we”d made our rounds, I noticed Madelyne looking increasingly exhausted and spoke up at once. ”Okay, well, I don”t know about you guys, but this Russian guy is not built for the heat. Let”s get back to the SUV and get the hell home.”
”Steaks,” Madelyne reminded, always thinking of others.
”Damn, yeah, we should stop. That was a good idea, though we”ll have to do it after dark in this heat.” Nathan sighed, looking down at his now-drained water bottle. ”Think we should get some more drinks while we”re there. Rehydrate.”
”Cold beer it is!”
”And some bottled soda for Aidan. He”s been feeling left out.” Madelyne sighed with relief as we reached the car. Nathan immediately opened it up, started the ignition, and got the air conditioner running. Even parked in the scant shade, a blast of hot air that actually stung the insides of my nostrils escaped from the car as the doors opened.
As soon as it was cool enough to bear, Madelyne slipped inside, flopping exhaustedly into the passenger seat. ”This weather is insane.”
Nathan snortedas he slipped into the driver”s seat, and I jumped in the back. ”Hoping it won”t be quite as nasty away from all this concrete,” he mused. ”But meanwhile, let”s hit the store.”
We were back on the road in half an hour, me sipping a beer along with Nathan while Madelyne slowly worked on a ginger ale. She was starting to look better, but I could see a faint sunburn across her cheeks. Poor baby, I thought. wanting to offer to put cold cream on it for her. But I wasn”t about to piss Nathan off by looking like I was getting between them. No.
I could be patient. For a while, anyway.
We had steaks and drinks, along with mushrooms, onions, and squash to grill on skewers, and butter, garlic, and steak sauce to round things out. Madelyne had picked up a pint of ice cream for her and Aidan to split since none of us were that into sweets. I was eager to get back home and start prepping everything.
”So, this Matthias guy. He”s in his prime. What about the other two?” I asked our hot hostess as we headed home.
”His mom”s aging, but I don”t know how that translates when she”s in Tiger form. If anything, she”s sneakier than he is, and a better manipulator. Then there”s Mr. Kumar. He”s their bodyguard and driver and about the same size as Ulf. So, three Tigers, one of whom is more like a Tiger and a half.”
”We”ve never seen them shift, so we don”t know their capabilities in a fight for certain,” Nathan mused. ”But it”s safe to say that it”ll be a hard fight if we have to take on all three at once.”
“Last time it was just Matthias,” Madelyne started, but then hesitated, doubt creeping into her eyes.
“We don’t know that. Tigers are not as fast as you described. It would have been very difficult for him to wreak that much carnage that fast without help.” Nathan’s face still held that grimly thoughtful look. I wanted to make a joke to break the mood, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea. Not now.
“Maybe that’s good. I was worried we’d be facing down three times that.”
“‘We’ does not include you, cutie,” I said, and Nathan gave an insistent nod. “Too dangerous. He’s got shifter powers and a head full of crazy, and if he zeroes in on you, he might get to you before we can. When he comes around, and he will, you need to be inside protecting your son.”
Nathan nodded again. Madelyne looked conflicted. Finally, she said, “I just don’t want him to see me hiding from him.”
“I know. But the more layers of security between him and you, the better,” Nathan said. “You must understand why that’s practical.”
“I do. I guess this is just my heavy-fighter’s pride coming through. Not that I could armor up in this heat, anyway.” Which was frustrating. I would have felt even safer with layers of padding, leather, and steel between myself and Matthias.
“If you wouldn’t boil alive inside of it, I’d suggest you walk around in that shit right now,” I admitted. “But we’ve gotta work with what we have.”
We went mostly quiet for the remainder of the ride. Madelyne finished her drink and dozed, worn out by the heat. I finished my beer and watched the scenery as we drove along.
As we got near Madelyne’s home, however, Nathan suddenly stiffened. “Bela. Do you smell that?”
I took a big whiff and frowned. The scent of a strange shifter was trickling through the SUV’s vents. “That’s not a good sign.” I quickly texted a warning to Jamie, telling him to have them ready themselves and get Aidan into the panic room.
Madelyne blinked awake and looked at us. “What is it?” she asked in a muzzy voice.
“Picked up a stranger’s scent,” Nathan muttered as I pulled my pistol out from under my shirt. I didn’t want to shift quite yet. Not when I had a clip full of silver I could empty into the prick as soon as I had him in sight.
“Oh, God.” She and I both looked everywhere at once, especially at the trees outside the wall, but even in the bright, blinding daylight, I couldn’t make out anyone around. “What do we do?”
“Hit the gate remote and I’ll pull us in fast. Then I want you inside and down with your son.” Nathan’s grimness was back in force. I could see the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
“Got it.” Madelyne pulled out her keyring and hit the button. The gate started to swing open. Nathan sped through the opening as quickly as he could, and she cycled the gate closed again.
Nathan practically pulled the SUV up onto the porch just as Ulf and Jamie came outside, both with their rifles. “Go,” he told Madelyne, who nodded, opened her door, and darted up the porch steps and inside. Then Nathan and I were out and joining the others.
“It’s broad fucking daylight. How is he stalking around right now without us seeing him?” I wondered aloud as Nathan pulled out his pistol as well.
“Fucker must be in Tiger form. They can hide in brush and tall grass easily.” Nathan exchanged looks with the others. “Any visual on the cameras?”
“Nothing. He must be lurking outside the walls,” Jamie said. “But he can definitely jump them.”
Nathan nodded and went to hand signs, pointing out the rear of the property. Ulf and Jamie went off that way mutely to patrol their half while we took the front half by the gate.
I sniffed intensely, trying to pick up a trail, but the enemy’s musk came and went on the shifting wind. Fuck.
This was what a lone Tiger could do that a Pack of Wolves couldn’t; sneak around effectively enough that even fellow shifters couldn’t quite pick him up. But I knew he was there. The scent was steady, not fading. Soon, he was going to make an appearance–if he didn’t slink away like a fucking coward.
Long minutes passed as we searched. Nothing, nothing… and then the scent started fading. “He’s run for it,” Nathan said, his eyes flashing with disgust and frustration. “Coward took off once he realized he was going to face some actual resistance this time.”
“I’ve got something!” Ulf called.
Nathan nodded to me. “Go,” he said. “I don’t quite trust this. It might be a trick.”
I jogged out to see what Ulf was yelling about. He was outside the back gate, inspecting one of the dry, stunted trees that dotted the property. “He left us a little calling card,” he rumbled, looking just as disgusted as I felt.
The bark on one side of the tree was completely clawed away, and deep grooves from his scratching marred the wood beneath. His stink was heavy in the air. I guessed he’d sprayed the tree, as well. “Ugh, nasty,” I muttered, irritated by his audacity. “Like having a giant evil tomcat around.”
Ulf snorted and Jamie chuckled. “He’s playing fucking games,” Ulf grumbled. “Showing us that he can get close without us catching him. But I don’t think he expected a whole Pack to show up.”
“Nope,” I agreed. “Big bad Tiger turned into a scared rabbit. Guessing he showed without backup.”
Jamie nodded and quickly sent Nathan a message. “So, what happened in town?”
”It all went pretty good,” I reassured. ”Madelyne”s friends over at the colony are smart enough. They listened, and they”re acting. And we brought home steaks for after the sun goes down.”
Ulf”s eyes lit up at the prospect of steak. ”Why wait that long?”
”You want to barbecue in this heat, big guy?” I asked as we came in through the gate, locked it, and started heading back. ”Our poor hostess almost fainted just walking around.”
Ulf grunted. ”Not good then. I”ll wait.” His stomach rumbled, though. I could hardly blame him.
Once we got back around to the front, we told Nathan what we”d found and showed him a photo. He nodded distractedly and then went to get a couple of grocery bags out of the SUV. When he got back, he said, ”I want to go back over the camera recordings. See if we can catch a glimpse of him, suss out how he approached and got away.”
”Sounds good,” Jamie said. ”I didn”t catch him in real-time, but then again, my brain”s playback function won”t be as thorough as the security system.”
We came back in, and Nathan went to knock on the door to the panic room. After a few moments, Madelyne and Aidan emerged, both looking a mix of relieved, scared and pissed off.
”What happened?” Madelyne asked, sticking close to her son as she looked around at us. He was staring at our guns in fascination as we holstered them. ”Was he there?”
”He was, but the fucker didn”t stick around when he caught our scent. We”re going to check the camera footage to see how he snuck so close and got away without being seen.” Nathan put a hand on her arm, a comforting gesture that seemed a little possessive, too. I couldn”t really blame him for that, not at the moment.
”God. Glad you scared him off, but that freaks me out even more. It”s the middle of the day. How did he get so close?”
”That”s what we”re going to find out,” I told her.
We sipped cool drinks of various kinds while going back through the camera footage on the monitors. It took a while, but finally, I glimpsed a set of stripes in the underbrush in one shot. ”Got him!” I said immediately, pointing it out on the screen.
”Fuck,” Jamie muttered. ”He was right outside the front gate. If he”d jumped it with half our team gone––”
”You would have handled it,” Nathan finished for him. ”Don”t worry about what might have happened. What did happen is much more important.”
”Fair enough.” Jamie sighed as we watched the faint silhouette of a massive Tiger move from camera range to camera range, looking for a spot to jump over the wall without being seen. ”Bastard”s good at this.”
”I”ve never actually seen him in Tiger form before. He”s huge,” Madelyne said with a tremble to her voice.
”He”s not that big,” Ulf replied, unimpressed. I scoffed.
”Ulf, an elephant”s not big compared to you. Us shorties have a different point of view down here.” My tone was a little snarky, but he snorted and gave a lopsided grin anyway.
”All right, folks. Let”s copy the relevant footage over and then take a break.” Nathan turned to Madelyne. ”I”ll help you put the groceries away.”
We spent the hours before sunset maintaining equipment, doing research online, and making phone calls. I had a line on an Interpol file with information on Matthias’ activities overseas. Nellie texted Madelyne letting her know that she had met with the colony admins and they were tripling their security.
By the time the sun dipped toward the horizon and the light outside took on a red-orange tinge, we were all getting hungry, and snacks and beers weren’t cutting it. Madelyne got up to chop and skewer veggies and marinate steaks, and I followed her into the kitchen. “Need some help?”
“Sure. How are you with a knife?”
I grinned. “That’s a story for after your son goes to bed.”
“I didn’t mean like that,” she grumbled good-naturedly. “The veggies need to be cut into chunks and skewered.”
She used the steak sauce as a base for the marinade, along with olive oil, wine vinegar, and more spices. The steaks ended up soaking in it in the fridge while we dealt with the vegetables. “So, you think you can eat after all this crazy shit?” I checked in with her.
“I’ll manage. I’m not letting Matthias mess up my dinner, too.”
In the other room, I heard the front door open and shut. Probably moving the grill and getting the coals going. “Good for you. You’re tough as hell. I like that.”
She smiled a little flirtatiously. “You should see me in armor.”
“You’d even look great in a sack,” I told her. “But I’ll take you up on that once the weather’s not crazy anymore.”
She nodded, whisking up a small bowl of the marinade for the vegetables. “I used to fight heavy in the SCA. These days, I mostly just make stuff.”
“SCA?”
“Society for Creative Anachronisms. They do medieval reenactments, tourneys, stuff like that.” I handed her the first few skewers, and she started lining them up inside a shallow casserole. “It’s a lot of work, but a whole lot of fun, too.”
“No shit? Heh. Can you make me a shaksha?” I couldn’t help but test her a little. Jamie and Ulf were more into swords than I was, but their enthusiasm and Madelyne’s were infectious.
“A Cossack sword? Sure. I’d have to alter the hilt and scabbard decorations, though. Trade silver for different colors of gold.” She considered me. “Which type?”
I laughed, pleased and even more intrigued with her. “Don Cossack, the big straighter ones. You really know your shit, eh?”
“I don’t do things halfway. No more than you guys do.” Her smile had a hint of wickedness in it. “I’ve studied swords from all over the world. I can’t quite do Damascus yet, and it’ll take years more study before I can do traditional Japanese, but I have most of my European swords down.”
“Heh-heh-heh. You know, between us three sword fans and Nathan, you’re gonna have trouble getting rid of us once this is all over.” I kept chopping, trying to ignore the tempting scent of raw meat. My Wolf was quietly reminding me that we hadn’t been out hunting in far too long.
Her smile became a brief and delightfully naughty grin. “What makes you think I want to get rid of any of you?”
“Oh, well then!” I said, brightening. Our eyes met for a moment, and I saw a gleam in hers that gave me hope and the beginnings of a serious boner. “I’ll just have to keep that in mind.”
“You do that,” she told me, and we went back to prepping supper.