The Shifter Strikes Again
2171 Words
Dean’s POV
I never liked this kid.
Well, can you blame me? The first several interactions I had with him, he was a dog pretending to be my true mate’s pet. I’ll never forgive myself for not insisting to her that he was a shifter; I should have trusted my gut. If I had managed to convince her that he wasn’t really Balto, I probably could have spared her at least one or two indecent exposures.
I hate the thought of what he saw. More importantly, though, I hate the thought of what he did to her. I’ve never seen Quinn as hurt as she was in the moment that she finally found out what he'd been up to.
Okay—sadly, that isn’t true, either. I hurt her worse than him once, and only once.
To be fair, she hurt me, too.
It took me a long time to accept her relationship with Cooper. If I’m being honest, I probably didn’t fully accept it until right about the time that he conveniently dissolved out of our lives.
I did accept it, though. I remembered that normal people—everyone except wolves, I mean—sometimes feel unintentional desires and fleeting thoughts about people who aren't their partners. They’re allowed to feel confused, and even conflicted, as long as ultimately their loyalty and true love prevails.
And Quinn’s did prevail. She never cheated on me or betrayed me. It felt like betrayal at the time, as she put the livelihood of Cooper’s maker ahead of our pack, but it wasn’t. She was trying to keep her friend alive. She was doing what she does best: protecting the people she loves.
It’s been incredible seeing her become a mother. The childbirth wasn’t easy—Julia was kicking and screaming the whole time, fierce and strong even then, and Quinn was in so much pain, I was seeing red. I hated not being able to do anything for her.
But then Lucy cut the cord and put Julia in Quinn’s arms, and I stopped seeing red. I was sure, in that moment, that I would never feel anything but love again; that was how overwhelming it was.
I was wrong, of course. Staring back at Finn after he’s just delivered the worst news he could possibly deliver, I certainly don’t feel love.
I’m seeing red again.
“Jason,” Quinn says slowly. She seems to sense that I’m incapable of words. “Go and get Garrett, Lucy, and Marie. Don’t use the mind link—we don’t want everyone knowing what’s going on until we know what’s going on.”
Jason nods, eyes wide and panicked, as he darts back around the house.
“Come on inside,” Quinn says to Finn. She puts a gentle hand on his arm to guide him, and I can’t help noticing his girlfriend Maddy looking about as sour as I feel about the touch. Neither of us says anything, though; we just follow them wordlessly into the house.
Our house has changed a lot over the past three years, too. It’s messier, of course—having a two-year-old does that to you—but it’s cozier, too. It, along with so much else about my life these days, brings me a sense of peace and calm that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Lucy is the first to show up. Quinn asks her to take Julia back to her house, which Julia is positively overjoyed about. Of all her “relatives”—which, in a wolf compound, is pretty much everyone—Grandma Lucy has always been her favorite.
Garrett and Marie show up only a few minutes after Lucy, tailed by Jason. Quinn ushers them all inside, where she sits them—along with Finn and Maddy—down in the living room by the crackling fire.
“Okay,” she says, turning to face Finn. “Repeat what you told us, and explain.”
I’m glad she’s so good under pressure. I think at one point I must have been good at it, too, given the whole saving-our-pack-from-Aidan-f*****g-Roswell thing, but three years of peace really makes you put your guard down. I think I'm still in shock.
“Let me start at the beginning,” says Finn. “As you all know—at least, Quinn knows; the rest of you might not—Maddy had a really bad experience with Alaina Hayworth. Alaina killed her parents and forced her into servitude for years.”
“We all had a bad experience with Alaina Hayworth,” I remind him darkly. “Get to the point.”
Guess I'm not in too much shock to be an asshole to Finn. That's something.
Finn shoots me a quick glare before returning his gaze to my wife and continuing, “We’ve been checking up on her every so often. We said we’d do it at least biannually, but we’ve been doing it more like three or four times a year. We’ve been worried she’ll build up a following again, you know, and come back for vengeance.”
“And?” Garrett asks impatiently.
“Until now, she hadn’t been doing anything of particular note. She was working her way north—first Tallahassee, then Valdosta, then Atlanta, and finally Wilmington. We think she was trying to collect that following, but failing to do so. As you all know, most major cities already have their own covens with their own coven leaders.”
No one seems patient enough for the glacial pace at which Finn is telling this story. “And now?” Jason demands.
“Wilmington’s where things seem to have changed. She still didn’t have much of a following—fifteen or twenty vamps, I’d say—but she had a guardian.”
“That’s impossible,” Marie says immediately. “Guardians aren’t common enough for two to show up in the same region in the same generation.”
“It’s hardly impossible,” Quinn says with a frown. “Certainly unlikely, though. You’re sure she was a guardian?”
“He, and yes. He had the same bright purple eyes as yours, and I saw him shoot shadow beams out of his hands during their training—the same way you shoot moonbeams.”
I have to hand it to him—those are dead giveaways. Particularly the latter.
This is bad.
“What else did you hear?” I ask him urgently. “You said they were coming here?”
He nods. “They were discussing Quinn. The guy—the guardian—kept saying he needed to convince her of something. Alaina didn’t say as much, but she did give the order to the rest of the coven to start packing their things.”
“Wilmington isn’t far,” Jason says, glancing at me. “Six hours by car. How long ago was this?”
“We ran straight here,” Maddy tells him. It’s the first time she’s spoken up. “Pronghorns, mostly—best for endurance.”
“Well, gold star for you,” growls Marie. Like me, Marie never forgave Finn for what he did to Quinn—despite the fact that she didn’t actually befriend Quinn herself until much later—and she resents Maddy by association. “How long?”
“Seven or eight,” Finn admits. “But they weren’t going to come straight here. Alaina seemed concerned about how thin her numbers are. The guardian didn’t seem worried about that, but he agreed they could do a little campaigning on the trip down.”
“Campaigning?” Quinn repeats with a shudder. She glances at me. “So everyone in the region will know there’s a new guardian floating around.”
We’ve been approached several times over the past few years by nearby packs looking to gain allegiance with us. Several even offered to pledge subservience to us the way the Miami Pack did. I gave each offer the attention it deserved, but ultimately declined. We know that the rumors have spread about Quinn being our guardian, but we never confirmed or promoted them. After everything we went through with the Roswells, we just wanted things to quiet down.
“If they’re going to campaign, it’ll take them at least a few days,” says Garrett, crossing his arms. “I can’t imagine anyone slamming the door in the face of a coven who’s traveling with a guardian.”
“Probably,” I agree. “But we can’t bank on it. We need to make a plan for the worst-case scenario—them showing up any minute.”
“We can gather the whole pack up,” offers Jason. “Work out a beefed-up security plan.”
“They were twenty strong before any campaigning, with a guardian,” says Marie, frowning. “Not as strong as us, but certainly a threat.”
“You’ve got our help, of course,” says Finn. “We know a handful of shifters we can call in for backup, too, if you want.”
“No,” I say immediately. “No one we don’t know and trust.”
Quinn bites her lip. Without even reaching into her thoughts, I know what she’s thinking.
No, I tell her silently. It isn’t a good idea.
She meets my gaze. Moon God, she has the loveliest eyes. Eyes that make me want to forget all of this and pull her into our bedroom like I promised her I would after we put Julia down for the night.
Alaina Hayworth hates us, Dean. She wants revenge.
Her unspoken words scream the loudest in my head: I should have killed her when I had the chance.
I don’t think that’s true. I admired Quinn for her decision to let Alaina live. Enough blood had been shed that day, and we were all optimistic that she might just move on.
“We could send Julia to some sort of safe house with Lucy,” Marie offers. “I could go, too, of course, and whoever else you think is wise.”
“You know what Lucy would say,” warns Garrett. “She’s the prize. She could be what they’re after.”
Garrett’s right—that’s exactly what Lucy would say.
It’s bogus, of course. That isn’t how guardians work. Unless Quinn clips her wings, which she has no intention of doing, Julia will remain human—at least, as close to human as a half-wolf, half-guardian can be.
“I don’t like the thought of sending her away,” Quinn admits. Her eyes are still on mine. “She’s safest here. We just might need a little… backup.”
Like I said, I already know where she’s going with this.
“What about the Miami Pack?” I suggest.
“Too far. They’ll never make it in time.”
I groan, because I know she’s right. “We don’t even know that they’d say yes.” I’ve switched subjects, of course. I’m now addressing the elephant in the room: the Refugee Coven. Cooper’s coven. “We haven’t had any real diplomatic chats with them since they became a legitimate coven. We exist in a rocky peace at best.”
Marie stiffens. She’s just caught onto where we’re going with this, I can tell. And she doesn’t care for it.
“It’s not going to make it any rockier for us to ask the question,” Quinn points out. “It’s Coop we’re talking about here, Dean. I know we’ve all fallen out of touch, but he’s not going to say no.”
I can’t quite decide whether her confidence is naïve, concerning, or both. After all, if she’s right, doesn’t that mean exactly what Marie and I have both been fearing for years now—that even after all this time, Cooper is still in love with my wife?
No, Quinn tells me silently. It means that even after all this time, he still cares about us—all of us. Including Marie.
For Marie’s sake, I hope she’s right. Marie clearly never got over Cooper.
I don’t want to do this. It’s been really f*****g nice having neither the shifter or the bloodsucker in our lives, and I’m not relishing the thought of that changing.
But the lives of my pack, my wife, and my daughter are at stake.
“What do you two think?” I ask Garrett and Jason.
“I think it couldn’t hurt to ask,” Jason admits. “It sucks teaming up with bloodsuckers, but they aren’t all bad.”
Garrett nods in agreement. “Cooper’s a good guy. Worst he’ll do is say no; best he’ll do is give us the extra protection we need.”
I still hate it. I really f*****g hate it.
But I love her, and I love them, and I love my daughter.
So I nod. “Come on, then. Let’s pay a visit to my favorite estate.”
- Writer
