Chapter Four
On the way to his truck, Grayson kept one hand at the small of Ryan’s back as they descended the apartment stairs.
The contact was light, barely there, but it helped him track Ryan’s position without looking.
His senses were already spreading outward into the parking lot, scanning for threats.
The air smelled like cooling asphalt and someone's dryer sheets, ordinary evening scents that did nothing to ease the tension coiling through his muscles.
Ryan walked close enough that their arms brushed with each step.
The tremor running through his smaller frame was barely perceptible, but Grayson caught it.
His mate was terrified, trying to hide it behind jokes and sarcasm, and Grayson wanted to find whoever had sent that text and make them understand what happened when you threatened what belonged to him.
He couldn’t think like that. Not yet. Not when Ryan was this close, this vulnerable.
The lion prowling under his skin wanted blood, wanted to hunt down the hyena shifters and tear them apart for daring to target someone under his protection.
But Ryan didn’t know what he was, didn’t know about the world that existed alongside his normal human life, and Grayson needed to keep it that way for as long as possible.
The parking lot was empty except for the usual vehicles.
Grayson scanned each shadow, each dark corner where someone might wait.
Nothing moved. No unfamiliar scents lay beyond the normal human smells of this apartment complex.
The hyenas hadn’t tracked Ryan here yet, but they would.
They had his number, which meant they had ways of finding him.
Grayson unlocked his truck and tossed Ryan’s duffel into the back seat. Ryan climbed into the passenger side, pulling the door shut with more force than necessary. The sound echoed across the parking lot. Grayson slid behind the wheel and started the engine then pulled out his phone.
He needed to text Reese before they got on the road. His thumb moved across the screen quickly: Got a situation. Hyenas from the fighting ring are threatening the vet tech who treated the dogs. Taking him to the house. Need you and the others there.
The response came before he’d even pulled out of the parking space: How bad?
Death threats. They know where he works. Grayson typed with one hand while steering with the other, his attention split between the phone and the road ahead. Won't involve police. Too dangerous. We handle this ourselves.
On it, Reese replied. Malik and Colton are already here. We'll be ready.
Grayson pocketed his phone and continued driving.
The streets were quiet, most people already home for the evening.
Streetlights flickered on as darkness settled over the town.
He took a route that avoided main roads, keeping to residential areas where he could watch for tails.
The truck's mirrors showed nothing suspicious, but that didn’t mean they weren't being followed.
Hyenas were cunning, patient when they needed to be.
“So…” Ryan said, breaking the silence. His voice came out higher than normal, strained around the edges. “Is your apartment far? Because I’m realizing I didn’t eat dinner and my blood sugar is probably tanking, which would explain why everything feels like a weird dream right now.”
“Twenty minutes.” Grayson glanced at him. Ryan had pulled his legs up onto the seat, knees drawn toward his body, making himself smaller. The position made him look younger, more fragile than he actually was. “There's food at the house. We'll get you something to eat.”
“The house.” Ryan turned to look at him, hair falling across his forehead. “Not apartment. You said house.”
Grayson had slipped. He kept his expression neutral as he turned onto another side street. “I rent a house with some roommates. It’s bigger than an apartment. More secure.”
“Roommates.” Ryan’s fingers picked at a loose thread on his jeans. “That’s going to be fun. 'Hey, everyone, meet Ryan. He's hiding from violent criminals. Pass the chips.'“
“They know about the rescue work. They won't ask questions.” That was true enough.
Reese, Malik, and Colton knew exactly what they were walking into.
They'd helped with the raid on the fighting ring and had been there when Grayson pulled those dogs out of hell.
They understood what hyena shifters were capable of.
Ryan went quiet again. Grayson could hear his breathing, slightly too fast, slightly too shallow.
The fear was rolling off him in invisible currents, and Grayson’s lion responded to it with a protective fury that made his hands tighten on the steering wheel.
He forced himself to relax his grip. Breaking the steering wheel wouldn’t help anyone.
“Can I ask you something?” Ryan’s voice was small in the darkness of the truck cab.
“Yeah.”
“How do you do this? The rescue work, the danger, all of it. How do you just... handle it like it’s normal?”
Grayson considered his answer carefully. The truth was that he’d been dealing with dangerous situations his entire life.
“You learn to compartmentalize,” he said instead. “Focus on what needs to be done instead of what could go wrong. Fear is useful when it keeps you alert, but it’s useless when it paralyzes you.”
“Right. Cool. I’ll just compartmentalize the death threats.” Ryan’s laugh sounded wrong, brittle. “Totally normal thing to compartmentalize.”
“You’re doing better than you think.” Grayson took another turn, watching the mirrors. Still nothing following them. “Most people would have fallen apart by now.”
“Give me time. I’m a slow-motion disaster.”
They drove through a neighborhood Grayson had chosen specifically for its isolation.
Large lots, houses set back from the road, plenty of space between properties.
The kind of place where neighbors minded their own business and strange sounds at night didn’t prompt calls to the police.
His house sat at the end of a long driveway, a two-story structure that had seen better days but served their purposes perfectly.
Lights were on in the front windows. Reese's truck was parked near the garage, along with Malik's motorcycle and Colton's sedan. Everyone was here, waiting. Grayson pulled up beside Reese's truck and killed the engine.
“This is your place?” Ryan was staring at the house through the windshield. “It’s huge.”
“Like I said, roommates.” Grayson grabbed Ryan’s duffel from the back seat and came around to open his door. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
Ryan climbed out slowly, looking around at the property. The yard was mostly dirt and scrub grass, nothing decorative. Trees lined the edges of the lot, providing natural cover.
Perfect for what they needed.
The front door opened before they reached it.
Reese stood in the doorway, his massive frame filling the space.
He was six-five and built like he could uproot trees for fun, which wasn't far from the truth.
His pale hair was pulled back from his face, and his ice-blue eyes assessed Ryan in one quick glance before moving to Grayson.
“This him?” Reese asked.
“Ryan, this is Reese.” Grayson kept his hand at Ryan’s back, guiding him forward. “Reese works with me on the rescue operations.”
“Hi.” Ryan’s voice came out small. He tilted his head back to look up at Reese. “Wow. You’re really tall. Like, really tall. Do you have to duck through doorways?”
“Sometimes.” Reese stepped back to let them in. The corner of his mouth twitched, almost a smile. “You can come in. We don't bite.”
Grayson shot him a look. Reese's expression remained carefully neutral, but Grayson caught the amusement in his eyes. Not helpful.
The interior of the house was sparse but functional.
Furniture that served its purpose without being decorative.
The living room opened to the left, where Malik sat on the couch with a laptop balanced on his knees.
He looked up as they entered, dark eyes taking in Ryan with predatory focus before he schooled his expression into something more human.
Colton leaned against the kitchen doorway, arms crossed. He was the smallest of them at just over six feet, but he moved with a fluid power that made people instinctively step back. His dark skin and darker eyes gave nothing away as he studied Ryan.
“Guys, this is Ryan.” Grayson set the duffel down near the stairs. “Ryan, that’s Malik and Colton.”
“Hey.” Ryan lifted one hand in an awkward wave. “Sorry to crash your Saturday night. I promise I’m usually less of a disaster.”
“Don't worry about it.” Malik closed his laptop and set it aside. His voice was rough, like he didn’t use it often. “Grayson told us what happened. You’re safe here.”
Ryan looked around at the three men then back at Grayson. “So you all do the rescue work together?”
“Something like that.” Colton pushed off from the doorway. “You hungry? There's leftover pizza in the kitchen.”
“I could eat.” Ryan’s stomach chose that moment to growl loudly. He pressed a hand to it, his face flushing. “Apparently my body agrees.”
Grayson watched Colton lead Ryan toward the kitchen then turned to Reese and Malik. He kept his voice low. “We need to talk. Now.”
Reese jerked his head toward the back door.
The three of them moved outside onto the deck, leaving Ryan in the kitchen with Colton.
Grayson could still hear him through the open window, his voice carrying in the quiet evening air as he made some comment about cold pizza being better than warm pizza.
“Hyenas?” Reese asked once they were alone.
“Yeah.” Grayson leaned against the railing, facing the house so he could keep Ryan in his peripheral vision through the kitchen window. “Same pack we raided. They sent him a text threatening to hurt him if he doesn’t return the dogs.”
“Which he can’t do.” Malik moved to stand beside him. “Those dogs are evidence. And they’re too damaged to go back into fighting.”
“They don't care about that.” Grayson’s hands curled into fists against the railing. “They want their property back, and they’ll go through anyone to get it. Including a human vet tech who was just trying to help.”
“Does he know?” Reese's question was quiet but pointed. “About us?”
“No.” Grayson kept his eyes on the kitchen window.
Ryan was leaning against the counter, eating pizza, and Colton said something that made him laugh.
The sound carried across the yard, easing some of the tension in Grayson’s shoulders.
“He doesn’t know about shifters at all. And it needs to stay that way. ”
“That’s going to be difficult if we’re protecting him.” Malik crossed his arms. “Hyenas won't play nice. They’ll come at him hard and fast, and we'll have to respond. He's going to see things.”
“Then we make sure he doesn’t.” Grayson turned to face them both. “We handle this quietly. No shifting where he can see. No displays of strength that can’t be explained. We’re just roommates who happen to be good at security.”
“And when the hyenas show up?” Reese asked. “Because they will. They’re not going to let this go.”