Chapter 20
“Would you like my piece?” Avi asked as he noticed Fallon eyeing the wedge of cornbread on his plate.
She reached for it, then hesitated. “Are you sure? There isn’t any left and I already had two pieces.”
“Make it three,” he said, lifting the plate toward her.
She smiled so sweetly that he wanted to learn how to make cornbread just so she could have as much as she wanted.
“I don’t know why,” she said, laying the piece on her plate and grabbing her knife. “But I can’t get enough of this stuff tonight.”
“Cravings already?” Zara asked.
“Maybe,” she said. She slathered it with butter and took a bite, groaning happily. “Heck yeah. I love this stuff.”
“I’ll make a double batch for dinner tomorrow night,” Zara said. “I didn’t know you liked it so much.”
“I didn’t, either. It’s really good, though.”
Zara had made a feast for dinner of pot roast with potatoes and carrots, piping hot cornbread, and chocolate pie for dessert. Tris had been off for the day, so Zara and Fallon had taken over the kitchen.
“I was thinking,” Fallon said as she polished off the last piece of cornbread, “that maybe we could do the shift and run tonight? It’s a beautiful night, and I hate that Avi and I didn’t get a chance to shift.”
He smiled. “I hated the interruption too.”
“My jaguar is feeling kind of cooped up. Not in a bad way, just that I feel like I need to get out and run. And I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to shift. My mom said at least a month or two, but every pregnancy is different.”
“I didn’t know you were feeling cooped up,” Avi said with a frown.
She shook her head. “It’s not a huge deal, it’s just kind of an achy feeling. I think I just want to commune in my jaguar form with my sexy stallion mate.”
He loved that she thought he was sexy. He sure as hell thought she was sexy.
Crew laced his fingers together on the table.
“I think it’s a fine idea, but I’m going to suggest that only you two do the shift and run.
We’ll have a couple of our people out with rifles to stand guard, but I don’t think having all of us in our shifts is a good idea right now.
Not when we don’t know if Colton might strike again. ”
“That works for us,” Avi said.
“I’ll stand guard,” Ford said.
“Me too,” Grey said.
“Thanks, guys,” Fallon said.
The males cleared the table and cleaned up the kitchen while the females chatted about Tatum and Grey’s suite that was being remodeled by Dexter, and the suite that he and Fallon were going to work on.
The worst part of both remodels was that the rooms were full of junk, and that took time to go through.
Before dinner, Avi had found two boxes of old tools that Ford had stashed in the room and forgotten about.
He’d carried them out to the barn and helped sort and store them on the workbenches.
Slowly but surely the room would come together—his and Fallon’s and their baby’s. He couldn’t wait.
Once night fell, he and Fallon went to the barn to shift while Ford and Grey stood with rifles just outside. They were going to use the pasture and fields to run but stay relatively close to the farmhouse as a precaution.
He and Fallon stripped slowly, watching each other, and it was far too sexy seeing her wiggle from her jeans and wink at him. He was so tempted to toss her into one of the stalls and see how fast he could make her shout in pleasure, but she reminded him they had plans.
“Sexy stuff later,” she promised.
“You know it,” he said.
When they were fully stripped, she shifted first into a beautiful, sleek jaguar. She had the prettiest golden and white fur with black rosettes. She sat on her haunches and purred loudly, her whiskers twitching as she snuffled his skin and licked his neck.
“Gorgeous, sweetheart. I hope some of our kids can shift into jaguars. It would be so cool to have stallions and jaguars in our family.”
She let out a yowl of agreement.
“My turn. Stay close, don’t go chasing any bunnies.”
She wrinkled her nose but nodded, her tail swishing.
He stepped back and let himself go into his shift, taking on his golden-coated stallion form.
When he’d shifted fully, he stood still and let her explore him, sniffing along his legs and then rising onto her hind legs and reaching a paw up to touch him.
She purred happily, nuzzling him before lowering back to the ground.
The door swung open and Ford smiled. “Ready, you two? It’s all quiet here. The night is yours.”
He and Fallon left the barn, and she kept pace next to him as he trotted into the pasture.
The night was cool, and the clouds covered most of the starlight, but he could still see his beautiful mate as she explored the pasture, occasionally darting by him with a playful growl.
They romped around the pasture, free and wild, for hours until they were both relieved of their shifts and could return to human.
He’d never had more fun in his stallion form than he did with his mate. They loved each other, they took care of each other, and they were on the way to starting a family. It was the perfect, sweet ending to the last couple days that had been stressful and scary.
He was one lucky stallion.
* * *
Ford Anderson took the opportunity of Avi and Fallon being back in the barn to shift back to human, to head into the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee before he took his night shift on patrol.
The park was sending two shifters to help patrol in the morning, but someone needed to keep things safe overnight.
Since Ford was the only one who didn’t have a mate, he didn’t mind being up at night. Once he’d filled his travel mug, he headed back outside, passing Avi and Fallon as they made their way into the house.
“Thanks for standing watch for us,” Avi said. “I really appreciate it.”
“Of course,” he said. “You’d do it for me.”
“In a heartbeat.”
“What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?” Fallon asked.
He stopped on the bottom step of the porch. “French toast. One of my aunts used to make stuffed French toast and it had some kind of sweet cream cheese mixture in the middle.”
“That sounds lovely,” Fallon said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Oh hey, that’s cool, thanks. Rest well, you two. See you tomorrow.”
He nodded at them and walked off to where Grey stood in the pasture, staring out into the darkness, the rifle loosely at his side.
“Hope the night is quiet,” Grey said.
“Me too.”
“I overheard Crew talking to Jupiter at the park, and they’re only going to send security people for the next day or two. They’re a little concerned about Otto coming for Sera, even though she’s very safe underground.”
“Makes sense,” Ford said. “I like the extra eyes on the farm, but honestly, it’s our duty to keep our people safe and we shouldn’t need reinforcements constantly.”
“It was good to have the help, but you’re right. It’s on us to keep our people safe. Good luck tonight. See you tomorrow.”
“Night.”
Ford went into the maintenance barn and took the tablet off the charging station so he could keep an eye on the perimeter alarms and security cameras. They continued to add to the security of the farm, but it wasn’t foolproof. All they could do was be vigilant.
What he really hoped, though, was that Colton would get a clue and disappear with his two males and find somewhere to call home. He wasn’t going to take over the farm, and the sooner he got that through his thick skull, the better.
Out in the yard, he checked the security features on the tablet, then set it down on a bench so he could patrol. He kept the rifle at his side and walked around the fence line from the front yard to the back field, circling the farmhouse and barns.
Just as he was about to make another circuit, an alarm beeped on the tablet and he rushed to it. Something had disturbed one of the motion cameras at the far edge of their territory.
All he could see on the footage was a shadowy figure and then something small hanging from a tree branch and swaying slightly.
His walkie beeped. “An alarm tripped?” Crew asked.
“Yeah, out at the edge of the territory.”
“On my way. Don’t go alone.”
In minutes, Crew and Ford made their way through the woods to the tripped motion detector while Grey and Avi watched the farmhouse in case it was a way to lure them away from the farmhouse.
They didn’t sense anyone around as they reached the object hanging from the tree.
It was a rolled-up piece of paper and a torn photograph.
The photo was of two young boys, and one looked a hell of a lot like Colton. Scrawled on the piece of paper were the words, “Blood doesn’t forgive or forget.”
“Shit,” Crew said. “Why can’t that fucker just take a hint and find a home of his own?”
“He’s batshit crazy.”
Crew grumbled out a snarl. “Let’s tell the herd. It’s a warning, but we did expect he’d come at us again. The male likes to be dramatic.”
“Right? Smoke bombs, starting fires, tripping motion detectors with cryptic notes.”
Crew shook his head as they turned to head back to the farmhouse. “I’ve got more cameras and motion detectors coming, and I’ve got an idea for some other ways to keep us safe.”
“Good. It’s too bad we can’t wall off the farm like the park did.”
“I know, right? We’re doing the best we can and we’ve managed to be victorious. Colton can come against us again, and we’ll keep fighting. This is our farm, our territory. The Little River Herd will not be forced out.”
“Hell no.”
They shared the photo and message with Avi and Grey in the farmhouse and over text with Khyle and Dexter. Avi confirmed it was a photo of Colton and Weston. There wasn’t anything they could do at the moment except do their best to have the farm as secure as possible.
And that meant Ford needed to get back on patrol.
As he walked out of the farmhouse, he saw Avi and Fallon hugging in the hall, him assuring her that he was going to keep her safe no matter what, and Ford’s chest went tight.
He wanted what they had. He wanted to find his soulmate and start a family. He was happy for his friends, but he was bummed to be the last single male in the herd.
He knew it would happen.
He just hoped it was sooner rather than later.
Maybe she was already on the way to Little River.
Whenever she showed up, he’d be ready.
To take care of her, protect her, and love her with every fiber of his being.