ZACHARY
“Fuck!” Zachary snarled at the phone. All the guys were looking at him, wide-eyed, with the exception of Brenton, who just looked furious.
“Outed?” He hissed. “What did she send?”
Zachary pulled the picture up and the phone dinged. He growled at the second picture. Two hunters, she’d said. And she took them both out, good.
He threw his phone at Brenton and stood up.
“We need to get to the diner and deal with cops. This is bad. It was in a public place.”
“Call Sheriff Johnson,” Brenton snapped to Andrew, who’s phone was already out and typing the number. “The bear. He’ll help us out. Gabe, get these pictures off the phones. She knows better than to send them through the phones like that.”
Zachary had seen the patch on the hunter’s back. The SHS, the Shifter Hunting Society, was a bunch of pricks who wanted to hunt the most dangerous game they could find. What about animals with human intelligence? Yeah, they didn’t give a fuck if shifters had human forms and human lives. If it turned into an animal, it was an animal in their mind.
It wasn’t a big organization, but it was a rowdy one. If they had been outed to the SHS, then the hunters would probably never stop coming, hoping to nail a big prize. They normally found shifters living on the fringes of society, but a pride? That was gold in their minds, if they were brave enough to take on the challenge. That was without taking into consideration the press of a famous pride being murdered or kidnapped.
“He’ll meet us there. Said there’s been no reports of gunshots from anyone in the area.”
They moved out silently. Troy and Gabe were both on laptops and cellphones looking to see what they could find. Sometimes a shifter was exposed online, and they could pull down the listing information before anyone got hurt. It would take a couple months, but eventually the hunters would forget about that shifter and find other game.
“I’ve got nothing,” Gabe hissed. “Let’s go get her.”
It took all of five minutes for them to leave the mansion. It took only ten for them to pull up to the diner where Sheriff Johnson waited patiently in the parking lot with his personal pick up. He didn’t bring anyone with him since all his deputies were human and couldn’t be trusted with this.
“Sheriff,” Brenton shook his hand and Johnson grinned at him.
Zachary knew a bit about Sheriff. He had lived in this town since before they were all born. He didn’t care about the felines that lived around here, and the felines had realized he was a good asset in situations like this. His name made Zachary laugh, always had. He was Sheriff Johnson, the sheriff of Wild Junction. So, he was Sheriff Sheriff Johnson. Ah, he must have loved his name so much he got the job.
Bears were fairly solitary, other than family units that included mates and young children. Once the kids grew up, they were expected to move out and find their own place in the world, away from their parents. Sheriff had a human wife and that was it, all his kids were off doing their own thing in the world.
“She won’t let me in, not that I blame her.” Sheriff grinned. Zachary sighed and walked directly for the diner’s front door. She was standing behind the counter, Glock pointed at the door. When she realized it was him, she put it on the counter and ran to open the door, throwing her arms around him. He held her tight.
“How are you?” He growled softly down to her as the others passed them and went inside.
“Been better but also have been worse,” she smiled up to him. “Plus, this was just-- they were fucking arrogant about it. I never had the chance to get scared.”
They walked inside, and he felt a wave of pride at her words. He didn’t like that she’d been targeted, but she handled it with ease.
“Two bullet holes in the wall?” Sheriff looked over to her.
“He got two off as I was ducking behind the counter. Those were the only two shots either of them had the chance to make,” she sighed. “This one came in through the front door. I figured he was one of those people who was too tired to realize we were closed and I was only a minute away from locking it. He made it clear he was here for me, so I grabbed my purse and stayed behind the counter until he came to me. I put two in his chest. They were dumb enough to not wear Kevlar.”
“Good, and the second one?” Sheriff stepped over the body and looked through the door to the kitchen. “I don’t see him.”
“He came in from the back, which I had stupidly forgotten to lock up,” Riley waved to them, so they would follow her. Zachary stepped over the corpse and avoided the blood pooling on the floor.
He saw where Riley stopped and looked down at the second body, standing in a tight group of all of them. Sheriff knelt and frowned.
“Did you move this one?” He seemed concerned.
“A little, I took their wallets.” Riley shrugged. “I had to make sure they were SHS and not just guys breaking in to fuck with me.”
“Alright,” Sheriff sighed. “Can’t be helped now. This never happened. I’ll stop anyone from pressing charges and bury any evidence. If their families come looking, these guys are missing in the woods and this never happened. You have never seen these two men.”
“That easy, Sheriff?” Riley looked to him and Zachary groaned internally.
Riley and Sheriff had a strange relationship. She had known him for two years before they came back to town and he’d never told her that she was a half-breed shifter. Or that he was a Kodiak bear. She had been mad at him when she finally realized what he was, and the guys did their best to keep them apart after that.
Sheriff was overprotective of her (and every other young woman in Wild Junction) and mad about Isabella being her mother and not knowing. He claimed to be able to protect her as well, since he was technically the peace-keeper in town. They had been close, but it had been strained for a little while.
“That easy, Riley. I’ll bury them on my property. You all will help, of course.” Sheriff looked at Brenton, who nodded. “Now, kitten, let’s go look at their wallets.”
“Don’t call me that!” Riley’s exasperated voice echoed in the kitchen. Zachary held back a snort. Sheriff was teasing her, and she hated it. “I told you to stop months ago!”
“You have always been a kitten and will always be a kitten,” Sheriff just turned and walked back towards the front.
“Oh?” Zachary finally snorted in laughter. Zachary already knew about the nickname, but he wanted to know why she didn’t like it anymore.
“He called me that every time he saw me, before I found out. It was cute then.” Riley stomped off to follow Sheriff and Zachary looked to the guys. “It’s not now.”
“He still calls her a fucking kitten,” Troy howled with laughter. “Oh, no wonder she’s mad at him!”
Gabe was trying his best to hold it back, but Zachary knew that wouldn’t last. Brenton and Andrew were the only ones on track.
“Can we clean up my diner please?” Andrew sighed.
“Yes. We need to wrap the bodies and get them loaded into Sheriff’s pickup. But, you are going to be closed for at least a couple of days while we figure out if this is a single attack or if we have a Chapter gunning for us.” Brenton toed the body on the floor as he spoke.
Zachary hadn’t thought about that. Sometimes a Chapter of the SHS all focused their sights on a single target. Normally it was a shifter who had escaped them too often when they tried to hunt or screwed with them because they were hunters.
Having a Chapter come after them would make this into a bloodbath. If they won, the entire SHS would be looking at them as enemies, and a war would break out all over the country. If they lost… well, they would all be dead. They could run, create new identities, and hide, but then the pride would lose everything, and they couldn’t have that. It also wouldn’t work, since they were who they were.
“Let’s hope this was an isolated incident, “Zachary snarled.
“Sheriff! Give it back!” Riley’s voice called out. Zachary groaned and followed Brenton back to the front. Andrew, Troy, and Gabe got to work with the bodies, using trash bags to cover the one in the back.
A table cloth had been thrown over the one in the front, and Zachary chuckled at the scene in front of him.
Sheriff, who was nearly seven feet tall, was holding her little handgun over her head, and she was trying her best to reach it.
“Do you have the proper documentation for this, kitten?” Sheriff was smiling, and Zachary saw a glint in the older man’s eyes.
“Yes! It’s in my purse!” Riley hissed “And the safety is on, since I wasn’t actively using it! It wasn’t going to fire off a round at random while sitting on the counter.”
“When did you decide to start carrying a weapon, kitten?” Sheriff wagged a finger at her and then looked to Brenton and Zachary. “Something you all need to tell me? None of you have ever carried weapons.”
“We’ll talk on the way to your place, Sheriff.” Brenton was trying to avoid this talk. They never told Sheriff about the kidnapping, the attempt on Riley’s life, or Cameron’s dead body on their property. Sheriff didn’t like to meddle in feline-only affairs. He did want to know when bodies started dropping, though, and they didn’t want that conversation.
“No…” Sheriff growled. A bear growling is much different than a cat, and Sheriff was big enough to take on even Brenton and Zachary. Zachary was suddenly wary of Riley being right next to the over-protective bear. “I think it should happen right now, boys.”
They all looked at each other as Troy and Gabe carried the body from the back and out the front door. The brothers looked a bit worried and kept their mouths shut. Andrew was in the back, still, and the smell of bleach was filling all their noses. Andrew wouldn’t let blood stain his precious diner.
“Cameron Slater tried to kill Riley about six months ago,” Brenton hissed.
“And I fucking owned his dumb ass with a kitchen knife,” Riley growled, “but I decided that if people were going to try and shoot me, I needed to be able to shoot back.”
Sheriff growled louder.
“You nearly got killed and nobody told me!” He ended that in a roar. “There was a dead body in my town and you didn’t inform me?”
“It was in our kitchen,” Riley mumbled, looking a bit terrified. Zachary took a few steps to her and pulled her to him. “Which is, technically, outside the city limits.”
“She has a point, Sheriff,” Brenton’s hands were out, trying to be nonthreatening.
“I don’t care!” Sheriff was glaring at them. “You at least inform me you had a problem. People in this town could get hurt from the messes you fucking cats make. I am not telling you to bring me into your problems, but you let me know.”
“We know, we just were a bit… taken off guard by it. We handled it. The corpse is buried deep in the property and no one will ever find it.” Brenton held one hand out. “Can I have Riley’s gun? She gets a bit anxious without it.”
Sheriff was quiet for a long time before he handed the handgun over. Brenton immediately passed it over to Riley, who stuffed it into her purse.
“Get a proper holster,” Sheriff muttered. “If you get separated from your purse, you’ll still have your weapon on you. I can’t fucking believe this.”
Riley nodded and lowered her head in defeat. Zachary rubbed her back as she was chastised by the old bear.
Troy and Gabe came back in, silently wrapping the second body in trash bags.
“Gabe, wipe all the security tapes and make a physical copy that we’ll keep in the Riley safe.” Brenton looked over to the leopard, who nodded and left to the back office where he could get that done. Troy groaned as Brenton started helping him with the corpse.
Zachary rolled his eyes. The ‘Riley’ safe. Since there was so much going on with her, they had an entire safe in the basement dedicated to keeping her secrets. She knew about it, but only Brenton could open it. None of the rest of them knew the code for it, and there was a reason for that.
Sheriff raised an eyebrow.
“You have a safe dedicated to you?” He looked at Riley, who blushed as she nodded.
“Yeah, it seems having a sociopathic mother and needing to kill a crazy guy in our kitchen has gotten me my own safe.” She tried to smile it off. Brenton and Troy lifted the body and walked out with it. Zachary stayed glued to Riley’s side. He had promised her a long time ago that he would keep her safe, and he was going to do that.
“How wonderful,” Sheriff sighed. “Of all the things I had hoped for you living here in Wild Junction, this was not one of them.” He ran a hand through his coppery brown hair. “Do you at least have a nice boyfriend outside of this? Someone I need to meet and give a talking to? Something normal I can handle?”
Oh shit. Zachary looked away from Sheriff. They definitely never told him about that. And they had zero plans to. The bear would lose his shit. He had been happy to see Riley in the pride with her own kind, but he wasn’t going to be okay with them all sleeping with her.
“Oh, no. No one you need to talk to,” Riley smiled. Zachary snorted. He couldn’t stop himself. It wasn’t technically a lie that Sheriff would be able to smell. And it evaded the line of questioning.
Sheriff looked between them and glowered.
“I hear rumors,” he pointed a finger at her. “Like you and Andrew,” who picked that moment to walk in the room, “being a little thing.” Andrew jerked to a stop and looked at the bear.”
“Sheriff,” Brenton called from the door, “leave her be. She’s twenty-four and we will keep her safe from any… bad guys. Pride problems, you know?”
Zachary snorted again. Yeah, they would keep her safe, since she wasn’t going outside the pride for any of those types of affections. She had everything she needed, and they all knew it. Andrew and Riley were just the most public, since they were always at the diner. Thank God, the other rumors were completely unsubstantiated, and no one listened to them. Those rumors were dirty and truer than anyone would have realized. They weren’t going to respond to those rumors because they couldn’t just come out and say, ‘Why yes, we are all in a relationship with Riley Stern. The sex is fantastic.’
“Fine! But the rumors…” Sheriff watched Andrew clean the floor. Andrew’s ears turned red. Riley smacked Sheriff on the arm.
“Are stupid rumors! You know better, Sheriff!” She gave him a pretty little glare and growl. Zachary left the diner before he got hard at the sight.
He took a deep breath of fresh air and patted Troy on the shoulder.
“How’s it going?”
“Fuck, Zachary, we can’t do this every six months.” Troy put his head on Sheriff’s pick up.
“I know, but it looks like we’ve got work to do. And we’ll make it work. This isn’t Riley’s fault.”
“I didn’t say it was but the body count… nine when she was kidnapped. Ten with Cameron. Now two more?” Troy sighed. “We’re making a mess, and it’s going to catch up with us.”
“I know,” Zachary threw an arm around his friend’s shoulder. Troy was sensitive. Both the leopard brothers were. They felt deeply, even if they didn’t show it. Gabe covered his emotions in drugs, and they were just getting past that when they came back to Wild Junction. Troy would just go wild. Parties, drinking, whores. “But we also can’t let anything happen to her.”
“Fuck. Yeah, I know, and shit, she’s handled herself so well through all this. The nightmares are going to come back now, though. I know it.” Troy leaned down, putting his hands on his knees.
“Later. We need to look through the hunters’ truck,” Zachary pulled Troy along. They had to figure out what to do with it. Dumping it in the middle of nowhere seemed like the best plan, maybe crash it into a tree so it worked with the ‘lost in the woods’ story.
Zachary yanked the driver’s side door open. They had left it unlocked, so they weren’t planning on failing. Riley was right, they were arrogant, thinking they chose an easy target. Hitting her in public, at a popular place.
He grabbed papers off the seat as Troy went to bed of the truck and climbed in.
“They have camping gear and cameras and shit back here. Hunting rifles, tranquilizers, all of it.” Troy hissed. “They came prepared. Even have Kevlar back here though they fucked up and forgot to put it on.”
“They didn’t think they would need it,” Zachary growled. The papers told him the entire story.
Dossiers on all of them. Riley’s was on top. She was described as a skittish little thing that hid behind the rest of them. Getting her alone would make her an easy target. Pictures of her from the last month all over town, but none near the mansion, meaning they weren’t brave enough to get close to the pride’s property. They didn’t know her type of cat, but they assumed she wasn’t a fighter due to her size. Most shifters reflect their animals in size, look and temperament, so they had gotten that a little right. Cheetahs weren’t really a brawling cat, too skinny and lightweight to hold their own against other big cats.
It noted that they never saw her with a weapon, but that was because she was smart enough to keep it in her purse and only practiced at home with it. None of them, like Sheriff had noted, had ever publicly carried around firearms.
He gave a quick glance to all the guys’ dossiers and shook his head. It wasn’t good. They knew full names, their positions in the pride. Pictures from all over town when they had errands to run. These guys had done research and Zachary felt there might be more than just the two of them.
The pride had been targeted. The entire pride.
Everyone was leaving the diner now, and Zachary hissed at the files again. He shoved them at Brenton, who glanced over them and cursed. Then they were with Gabe, who sighed.
“Well, this is bad.” Gabe groaned.
“They don’t know about Sheriff,” Brenton pointed out, “so, you’re covered, old man.”
Riley was trying to look, but Gabe wouldn’t let her. Zachary just grabbed her and pulled her away.
“We’ll show you later,” he mumbled in her ear. “We have more important stuff to take care of. Wait until we get back to the house.” When she nodded, he released her, and she wrapped an arm around his waist. It made him purr.
“I’m generally ignored by hunters since I hold an important position in town,” Sheriff shrugged. “Even if they did know about me, it would be a nightmare for them to kill me. An officer of the law is a bit different than the runaways they normally go after.”
“They ignored us to for a long time since we’re powerful,” Brenton growled. “Taking someone like me on for a hunt would set the entire feline shifter population on the planet into a rage. Not because I’m Brenton Kingson but be-”
“Because you’re a high ranking and very rich Alpha. Your death would bring attention to everyone.” Sheriff nodded. “It’s why this town has never had a hunter problem before. All the targets here are just too risky.”
“Then why come after me?” Riley asked angrily. “It’s a known and public fact that I’m in the pride!”
“It’s not just you,” Gabe said. “It’s all of us. They have dossiers on all of us, and, once we get home, we’re going to look through them. But first, like Zachary said, we need to figure out the rest of this.”
“Andrew, hook up the truck, get it out of here. You know all the best spots to drop it. Troy, take out all the memory cards in those cameras and make sure nothing about us is left behind. Gabe, keep those files handy. The diner’s locked up and secure with a sign saying it will be closed for the next three days.” Brenton ran a hand through his hair, and Zachary knew he was stressed out. “Once Andrew is gone with the truck, we have to head out.”
Andrew was gone ten minutes after Troy was done. He ended up just throwing all the cameras in a bag, along with any other electronics that weren’t physically attached to the hunters’ truck, and keeping them for Gabe. The bag was then thrown into Brenton’s SUV. They decided to leave Riley’s Porsche for the night.
“So now we nee-” Sheriff stopped and looked out to the road. Another truck was pulling in and Zachary shoved Riley into the SUV and shut her in. She knew to get down between the seats and already had her gun out and ready.
The truck stopped across the parking lot and two guys were sitting in the bed. Two more were in the cab.
“I’m Sheriff Johnson, can I help you boys?” Sheriff angled himself in front of the rest of them, the biggest and most intimidating. He was also the fucking sheriff, so he was a statement in his uniform for the guys not to cause trouble.
“Maybe, sir!” One called back. “We were supposed to meet a couple friends here. You seen ‘em?” Zachary forced back a growl. Oh yeah, they saw their friends alright. “They were in an old blue pickup.”
“Nope,” Sheriff called back. “Have any of you?” He looked to all of the felines and Zachary put on a confused face, shaking his head.
“Nah, Sheriff. Andrew didn’t say anything before heading home either,” Brenton did his best good ‘ole boy act and Zachary stopped a smile. They could play the game just as well as the hunters.
“Sorry boys. I’m going to need to ask you to leave. The diner is closed, and this is technically private property.” Sheriff smiled.
“Y’all are here,” one of them sounded a bit indignant and Zachary could smell the anger.
“We own it,” Brenton smiled back. “Sorry but you need to leave.”
“If we see your guys, where should we say they can find you?” Sheriff inquired. If this were any other night, it would have been an innocent gesture. The hunters looked between each other and then at the pride. They didn’t know about the Sheriff, but they were uncomfortable giving away their hiding place in front of the cats. The hunters knew exactly who was telling them to get gone.
“They know where we’ll be,” and with that, the truck drove off.
Once it was out of sight, Zachary still wouldn’t let Riley out. He had to make sure there was no one coming back. They all stared at each other for a long moment, and Sheriff shook his head.
“Well. Two dead hunters, six more in town. This could get ugly.” Sheriff looked between them until his eyes landed on Brenton.
“Sheriff,” Brenton hissed, “I’m putting my pride on lockdown.”
“Yup. I’ll handle the bodies from here. No worries. You get home and get secure.”
They parted, and Zachary climbed in with his… girlfriend? In the months that they’d had this arrangement, none of them had put a word to it. It was a lot of sex and hanging out, but other than the close ties of pride, it was also fairly casual. Pride made them family, and they kept it in the family. Maybe they didn’t need labels, Zachary thought, as Riley curled into him. He knew how he felt about her and was secure in it.
But damn, he would love to hear her say how she felt.