Chapter Six
Shiloh
Usually, I was the first one on the ground when Lindon or True found a lead, but in this case, they’d opted to come along with me.
Maybe because there were others besides our quarry.
I wasn’t sure, but I chose not to take it personally.
It wasn’t because they didn’t think I could do my job.
And I didn’t mind the company. My childhood had been a lonely one with my mother’s cheating and my father’s grief over it.
They didn’t have a lot of time for more than the care required to keep their only child alive.
I’d listened to Father’s raving about how omegas were not to be trusted, how they were immoral creatures, subject to hormones.
Lots of information I should never have been forced to share as a young person.
But I spent more time with him, since he was home while she was running around, and it was probably logical for me to side with him.
His complicated excuses for Mother’s betrayals were far too confusing for a child, anyway, and it was easier to cling to the person who made my dino nuggets.
Which was about as homemade as dinner at our house got. Like everything else, the minimum to keep someone from swooping in and calling them neglectful parents.
Father swore me to secrecy on anything that happened behind the bright-green-painted door of our home.
He kept the yard immaculate, the siding power washed bright white, the rain gutters cleared, and the trees pruned.
To anyone passing by, we were the neatest, tidiest family in the pack.
No need to look further. Everything is all right here.
But once inside, our house reflected the chaos, anger, and moral decay that was our real existence.
No friends could be invited, no repair people even, and neither of my parents were good at fixing things like electrical or plumbing.
Or relationships. Only the outside that the rest of the pack could see.
By the time I left home at eighteen, I had such a twisted view of reality, I believed all omegas were like my mother, that it was their nature. As a big, muscular guy, a job as a bounty hunter seemed like a no-brainer, and hunting omegas?
Why not.
If my mother had been curtailed in some way, Father and I would have had a much better life together.
I believed that completely. Still believed it when my path crossed Lindon’s and True’s.
Without them, my heart would have hardened the final bit beyond fixing.
My friends were more family than they had ever been.
So, when True said they were changing our usual process and coming along with me to Belladonna Woods, I was fine with that. In most cases, they followed once I actually got eyes on the omega, but this time, we traveled together.
For the company, for the expertise, and because Belladonna Woods had a daunting reputation.
In many towns, we could flash a picture around and honestly say we were searching for omegas.
We could even admit to being bounty hunters in some circumstances, but this community was closemouthed.
They protected their residents, True had learned, closing ranks around them, no matter what they were accused of. Or so people claimed online.
Other claims were spookier. But many people also believed that shifters were some crazy unnatural phenomenon. Or that we didn’t exist at all. So, I knew better than to buy rumors or gossip. But I still appreciated not going in there alone.
Belladonna Woods lay several miles off the highway, down a two-lane road overhung by huge, dark old-growth trees. Little daylight managed to filter through the heavy boughs.
“I guess it is spooky,” True laughed from behind the wheel. “Anyone else terrified?”
“Uh, no.” Lindon leaned forward. “But we aren’t there yet.”
“I’ll protect you.” I tried to hide my discomfort when they were clearly laughing it off.
“How far is this place we’re staying, anyway?” Lindon asked. “I feel like we should be seeing some kind of buildings soon.”
“It’s the Hearth Inn,” True said. “And GPS says…nothing. It’s not registering anything anymore.”
“Comforting.” I popped a mint between my teeth and breathed around it, comforted by the wintergreen scent. Crunching it, I felt my nerves calm. Mint always had that effect on me. “The road curves up ahead. Maybe we’ll see something around the bend.”
We did. Right up ahead lay a large, old home with a sign swaying in the breeze, proclaiming it the Hearth Inn. After our long drive, I was ready to settle down and rest, but we had strategizing to do.
As if he read my mind, True said, “When we check in, we are just tourists. Passing through. Heard it’s an interesting town…”
“Got it.” Interesting, spooky…whatever. “I think someone is coming out to meet us.”
An older lady stood on the porch wearing a warm, welcoming smile.
“Here we go.” I plastered a matching smile on my lips. “Try not to look like bounty hunters.”