Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Mira woke suddenly in the arms of the sexiest male she’d ever laid eyes on. She recognized him from when she’d locked eyes with him, and her brain shorted out. The only thing she knew when she woke up was that he was her truemate.
He had a strong jaw covered with stubble like he hadn’t shaved in a day or two, blue-gray eyes, and short dark hair.
She felt so safe in his arms.
So connected.
She’d never experienced it in her entire life.
“Hey, honey,” her mom said softly.
She managed to force herself to ease away from her mate to look at her mom. Behind her was her dad, and she remembered what he’d said about his vision.
“You were right. You said my destiny was here in Northern Ohio. First, the Wiccans and now finding my mate.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line and said nothing.
“Wiccans?” her mate asked.
She smiled at him. “I don’t know your name. You know mine, though.”
“Leo Hale,” he said.
Sexy name for a sexy guy. “Well, Leo Hale, you just landed yourself a truemate with one hell of a crazy backstory. I hope you don’t mind baggage, because I’ve got loads of it.”
His eyes danced with humor and honesty. “I’m strong, Mira. I’ll help you carry all the baggage.”
“Oh my freaking crap, that’s so sweet,” a female said. “I’m Cinder, the alpha female. And I have just one question.”
“What’s that?” Mira asked as she and Leo rose to their feet.
“Can someone teach me how to read playing cards? Because that looks like so much fun.”
* * *
Brent Foley sat in the office of his current headquarters, an abandoned office space, on Saturday afternoon, watching drone footage that his people had taken of the wolf pack in Thorn Hollow.
He took notes, looking for patterns in the security team’s patrols and the number of different people he saw.
The men were the ones who did the majority of the security work, but there was one woman.
He couldn’t tell anyone’s age because the beasts all aged slowly, so there was no telling if someone was actually young or just looked that way.
It was crazy unfair that shifters were allowed to live so much longer than humans.
There was a knock on the door, and he called out that it was open.
Freddie, his new number two, walked in.
He’d lost his last number two during an altercation with the wolf leader and a few high-ranked people in the pack.
The police had scooped up the survivors of Brent’s Humans Against Shifters group, and Brent had needed to kill them so they wouldn’t spill the beans about where he was holed up.
He hadn’t wanted to kill his own people, but sacrifices had to be made to keep the organization running.
“What do you have for me?” Brent asked.
He’d tasked Freddie with gathering intel on the pack using binoculars and long-range cameras to document the security features of the pack’s territory so Brent could plan his next move. He wanted the pack in ruins, as many wolves as possible dead, and the town of Thorn Hollow safe from shifters.
“So they blocked access to town except for one main road, which has a security booth that’s manned twenty-four-seven,” he said, showing Brent some glossy photos of the booth. “Security patrols to the edges of the territory all day and night.”
“What did you figure out about their businesses?”
“There are a few in the town—a deli, a gas station, a school—but outside of town is a car dealership and garage that’s manned by shifters. The town regularly gets deliveries, but now every truck leaves its things at the security booth, and the team delivers them.”
“Is the dealership and garage watched by security?” Brent asked, his mind spinning.
“Just a couple of guys during the day. They use cameras and motion detectors when it’s closed, though. No one watches it overnight. They’re so damn over the top with security for their territory, but not the car dealership.”
“Well, no one lives at the dealership,” Brent pointed out. “It just shows how worried they are.”
His mind strayed to Victor Hawthorne, legendary shifter hunter. They’d teamed up when Brent went after the tigers, but Hawthorne had lost a major catch when the albino wolf he’d tried to abduct had escaped, which caused Hawthorne to lose clients and Brent to lose a lot of men.
Hawthorne was off hunting some unique shifter and said he wouldn’t come back to help Brent unless there was another one for him to hunt. That was the problem with mercenaries and people who did shitty things for money. They didn’t have any rules to govern their actions.
Brent would do anything to see shifters erased from the world.
Hawthorne only cared about unique shifters that he could sell to the highest bidder.
But Brent knew that Hawthrone’s hunting instincts were superior to anyone he’d ever worked with, and he wanted him on his side to take down the wolf pack.
If only there were a special sort of shifter in their ranks that Brent could use to bring Hawthrone back to Ohio.
And not that damn witch-wolf leader, who was too powerful for anyone to be foolish enough to try to mess with.
Stifling a sigh that was born of a general tiredness at the whole situation, Brent turned his attention to his number two.
“Let’s gather the men,” Brent said, closing the lid of his laptop. “We’ve got some planning to do.”
“How are we going to take out the wolves?” Freddie asked. “They’re smart.”
“Maybe, but they’re also animals. We just need to disrupt them and make them panic, then they’ll be easy pickings.”
“If you say so.”
“I do,” he said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Let’s make a plan to strike. Soon.”
The pack didn’t know what was coming for it.
Soon enough, Brent would see Thorn Hollow entirely human, the wolves scattered to the wind, and as many dead bodies as he could manage.
* * *
Mira sat at a picnic table with Leo while his people had continued with their journey around the fairgrounds, and her people had gone back to dealing with patrons.
She’d been mid-argument with Lark, who’d told her to ease up on her parents for the decades of lies, and then she’d passed out when she saw Leo.
Talk about interrupting a serious conversation.
But for the best of reasons.
She rubbed the space over her heart as Leo told her about the pack and Thorn Hollow, and his job as a security guard and mechanic.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“You keep rubbing your heart.”
She paused, her fingers pressed against her skin.
Then she chuckled. “I guess I am.” She’d told him a bit about herself as they’d talked for the last hour, that she’d been raised by psychics but wasn’t actually one of them, and instead was a rare female gryphon.
“I never felt anything inside me that felt remotely supernatural. Until now. I can feel some kind of echo of something in my heart. It’s not just our connection as mates, it’s deeper than that. Primal, almost.”
“You’re feeling your beast for the first time because of me?”
“I guess. I’m sure nothing will come from it because of the Wiccan spell that suppressed my nature. But it’s a little weird.”
“I wish I could help you get past that spell,” he said.
“Me too. But I’ve never been able to shift, so I don’t really know what I’m missing, you know? I just know that right now, I feel different, and part of it is because I found you, but part of it is a tiny bit of me feels like it’s coming awake, and it’s odd.”
Someone approached, and she looked up and saw Tamsin.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Tamsin asked as she joined them. She introduced herself to Leo.
“I’m okay. I feel a little weird, though.”
“I’m sure you do. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry we kept things from you. Daphne and Gideon wanted to be the ones to tell you the truth and forbid us from telling you anything. I hope you don’t hate me.”
“I don’t,” she said. “I’m mad at them about it, because maybe if they’d told me earlier, that Wiccan would still have been alive and could have reversed the spell. It’s wild to me that a spell could be unbreakable like that, even with her death.”
“I agree,” Tamsin said. She hugged Mira. “So are you going home with this wolf or what? Your parents are freaking out a bit.”
“We haven’t talked about that.”
She looked at Leo, and he smiled softly at her. “I don’t want to leave you here. I would really like for you to come with me back to Thorn Hollow, but I know we just met.”
She gave his hand a squeeze, then linked their fingers.
“We’re mates, though. I feel like I finally belong somewhere, and that’s with you. Let’s go talk to my parents. I think it’s time to head to Thorn Hollow.”
She wanted to talk to Leo more.
And she wanted to be free to tell him her whole life story and to learn more about him. She knew that knowledge would come with time, but it could start now.
With her going home with him.
She wasn’t sure what would happen with her family and the psychic house. They were planning to continue to follow the star to the next festival, continuing their nomadic life. Mira already didn’t want to leave Ohio, let alone leave Leo.
“I understand,” Tamsin said. “You’re a lucky bitch. I hope to meet my truemate soon.”
“It’s amazing,” Mira said.
She smiled at Leo, and he returned it, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“Let’s go talk to your family and then find my pack,” he said.
They rose to their feet, hand in hand, and walked back to the tent.
She knew her family wouldn’t be thrilled that she wanted to leave with Leo, but she had no doubt her wolf could keep her safe.
He was her mate, after all.