Thomas entered the packhouse he called home to be greeted by several combative strangers. They were able to fight their way down into the basement where the cells and armoury were. It was far from easy, and it was becoming a very bloody mess. It was all done with teeth and claws until finally they couldn’t move ahead any further because the witches needed to step up and take down several wards, preventing them from going further and regaining the basement level. Nothing was moving quickly, but they had to get both spaces under their control. Why Henry didn’t use the weapons in there to his advantage, Thomas didn’t know. But thankfully didn’t happen. Now he needed to wait for the witches to do their just and unravel the delicate mess left by the other two.
But there was more than enough to distract him as othe
“You take them down there and make sure James knows to show them the easier way into that area from the road. Thank you, Evan. You’re a saint for doing this. I’m so sorry about these officers, but with guests here and my adopted daughter unwell, I can’t take you myself. But Evan knows the way and can take you there.” Janine smiled as she put on a good act about how regretful she was. It was a relief when the police piled back into their vehicles and moved off again. She prayed to the gods that this wouldn’t blow up in their faces. She returned inside feeling as tired as she did when Evan woke her. For her, it was just old age creeping up on her. But she was worried about Emily. If her suspicions were correct, this was a tragedy in the making coming to them like a runaway freight train coming through a blocked tunnel. There were no
April missed the shelf with the book again for the third time. She glared at it, a little annoyed with it. Her attention was on her phone and the search she was doing to find Hayden. She didn’t even know what his last name was. But it would connect with the old Johannesson property, so why was it so hard to find it? What she found was the motorcycle shop. Though she wasn’t sure if he worked there being the Beta of the pack. But she could stop in there after work and see if they could pass a message to Hayden for her. The bell at the front desk dinged again, and she didn’t hear Lynn greeting the person. Wondering if Lynn went on break and she’d failed to hear her tell her. April moved to the front and helped a little old lady check out her weekend reading. Just a little light reading, the woman claimed. Fifteen large romance novels. But April would not judge her for
“Thomas, I will say that I’ve heard a few random rumours, but nothing I would have connected to this situation. I thought it was a more southern issue before you mentioned this. I don’t believe they’ve ever struck this far north.” Asia’s voice came through the phone. “Look, I’ll be in there in less than an hour. Why don’t we look at the facts then? Maybe we can put facts and rumours together, then see what makes sense. Right now, I’m not convinced it’s the same group. But that could be that I’m not looking at the right evidence or enough of it.” Thomas felt better that she’d not denied knowing anything. Only that she wasn’t sure this was the case or that she didn’t know enough to mention it before. “Alright, we’ll talk and see
Haden found Janine in her favourite room. He could hear James and Emily arguing clearly from here and for the life of him. He didn’t understand why she didn’t stop it. She knew Emily wasn’t feeling well. “What is going on? This is the last thing that poor girl needs right now.” “Oh, I agree, but it’s their business and they need to work it out together.” Janine appeared unhappy about it, but that baffled Haden all the more. What was going on here? “Care to enlighten me about why we aren’t stopping the argument and setting them straight? Because for the life of me, I don’t understand what’s going on here.” Haden didn’t know where he stood right now as a visitor to this pac
Eva stood outside of the tents and the healer’s cottage. It was grim. Several of the prisoners died over the evening. Not from their wounds, but from murder. Unlike the first attack, where the assassin killed themselves. The rest just disappeared into the night. Now they were watched by guards all the time. Eva’s skills weren’t needed right now and so she was getting some warranted time off. It was needed. She was tired and frustrated. No, not tired. She was on the verge of exhaustion. Damon was at the packhouse receiving a series of boxes containing the notes on weapons they owned or moved on to other packs for better protection. These were exotic weapons, and they enchanted many in one way or another. Specific to dealing with specific threats. Powerful and dangerous. Gods only knew what this group was looking for
“James, is this ridiculous? We’re taking up the time of a healer who could actually help someone. I feel stupid sitting here waiting for them to come here. What an inconvenience for them. I could have easily found my way over there later in the day or tomorrow.” Emily hated inconveniencing people with silly things, and this, to her, was one of those silly things. She’d just had a terrible night for sleeping, is all. “Emily, I’m not willing to take any chances with your health. We’ve gone through this before so many times before this. It’s something new, so we get it checked out. I’m not going through this again. It took so long for you to recover from the first time. It was bad enough not mated to you. I don’t want to have to deal with it now that we are mated. It would hur
Thomas looked over the lists on his phone of the reports about his people. He’d made an appearance at the healer’s cabin and received must of these lists. He’d sadly lost three people, Asia lost one. The injured prisoners weren’t dead at the of his people’s hands. His people were merciful to them. It was whoever they worked for that saw them as collateral and a danger to their plan if they talked. It frustrated him to no end. They needed more information on these people. No, they weren’t people. They were the creatures that made shifters into monsters in the eyes of humans in general. If what they’d worked out so far about their goals. These monsters wanted something to control the reaction of humans to them. That meant they weren’t as confident as they led their followers about opening up to humans. This wasn’t an open up to humans and live in peace with th
Janine found Haden quiet for quite some time. When she glanced up at him from her place, he appeared deep in thought. Did she want to ask? Or would they end up arguing again? Were they arguing early? She wasn’t even sure they’d fought earlier. All she knew was he’d questioned her decisions, and she hoped she explained her position appropriately. Gods, she’d forgotten how difficult it was getting to know and understand another person. Was it worth it? Janine’s mind automatically answered with a resounding yes because they were working together, if nothing else. Haden sat near Janine, watching the day pass from his seat. She’d given him a lot of food for thought. She showed him her loyalty and he could hold that against him. Nor could he fault her logic. She was stepping back from a situation that d