Malcolm just got knee deep in the mess of the first site. He was speaking with the site manager and supervisor. Seeing the damage to himself when the call came through. The call he feared to get. The call he’d done everything possible to avoid. They had attacked Melody in broad daylight. An attempted kidnapping of his mate. Her security team could prevent it, but that wasn’t the point. It had happened. Two attacks in two days. Both are unrelated to each other. The police and media were having a heyday with it. First her partner and now her. What was so special about these women and their company? Was the connection between their husbands? Their money? This is what the police wanted to know. The media were no better when they latched onto the story. The police were now looking more closely at the incidents and questioning them as something other than random violence. It was a nightmare that pulled Malcolm away from his work and his mate. The two shifter

Ellie listened to Jordan as they made their way to the police station. The man was in full damage control. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight right now, and she witnessed the confusion of several pack members. Melody and Ellie weren’t tough shifters known for fighting. They were cute fluffy foxes, and they weren’t sure if they should worry or be relieved that this happened. It hurt Ellie’s feelings that some felt she and Melody didn’t measure up in their opinion. What were they supposed to do to earn their respect? Could they earn it? Or was it a losing battle? Jordan wasn’t paying all that much attention to the quiet comments. When he did, he growled at them and warned them that Malcolm wouldn’t put up with those words. But he didn’t waste his breath as he was passing through to get into the car to follow Malcolm. Ellie just wanted to know that Melody was okay. Two attacks in two days. That wasn’t normal and now she was afraid to go out alone.

“Okay, I feel like crap but let’s get this done.” Melody watched Ellie say this, but she’d been in her position with both accounts. Only not at the same time. She was feeling the side effects of the vaccines and morning sickness. She looked like death warmed over. “Now, what are we going to do? Do we close that shop? I don’t know if I want to risk ours or anyone else’s lives there. If they pull something publicly while the market is open there’s no way to get help fast enough in there. There’s just too many people in the way.” “Well, the floor most likely must be replaced as well as the lower half of all the walls. You were correct our base ingredients were fine, but the packaging did take a hit. We could back out. We have until Friday to get the request in for that. If we do choose to leave, I want the request in on Thursday so they can’t pull any stunts with it.” Melody watched Ellie making notes to herself from her seat across the table from her. “So, what ar

“Thank you, everyone, for coming to this meeting. I wish we had more time, but we don’t have the luxury right now. So, without further ado, we’ll get down to business then.” Melody stood at the front of the conference room. Ellie sat to her right beside her. “Now we have a pivotal decision to make about the Saint Lawrence Market shop. It’s our first shop. We were lucky when the draw happened to have our application drawn. If we leave, we’ll probably never get another shop there. That being said, the repairs are not as bad for us as some there.” Melody wrote her words on the whiteboard behind her as she spoke. “Now those are the pros. The cons, however, are that we don’t know whether the sewers leak was an accident or sabotage.” Melody paused to look at the faces of the wolves before her. But she only sensed curiosity and confusion between them. A couple though we’re here, but they didn’t want to be. She couldn’t blame them, either. “After the attack

Melody brought David back to the dining room and gave him his dinner. Only his attention quickly changed from his food to a little female pup at a nearby table. To keep him from hurting himself or falling, she had to take him out of his chair and let him run. David went straight to the little female pup and handed her a piece of pancake. Melody wanted to cry because pancakes were David’s favourite food and he hated to share them with anyone. “Well… I believe my son knows what he likes when he sees it, and I think that includes girls.” Malcolm laughed delightedly. “If that’s the case, we could be in for a tough time if we don’t teach him to respect women.” Melody said as watched her little guy fawn over a girl. It was surprising actually to see her baby think of someone else for the first time in his life. She felt it was all too soon. “Oh, don’t worry, I will work on that soon.” Malcolm promised as he watch his son become a flirt and enterta