It wasn’t until the next evening that Raoulf sensed a presence outside of Nina’s townhouse. It was well past midnight and the neighborhood was so silent, it was almost eerie. In the countryside of Aspen Valley, at night, everything seemed to come alive. The community thrived on togetherness and usually came together at night for runs or just good conversation. If it hadn’t been for the quiet streets and lack of tree leaves rustling in the wind, he might not have heard someone moving around outside trying to break in.

Raoulf grabbed the knife he kept on the end table and held the hilt tightly in his fist. He moved quietly about the room and turned off all the lamps in the home. As he planned to do, he waited, allowing the intruder to break into the home.

There was only one man—a shifter.

Raoulf caught the shifter’s scent as he hid in the coat closet near the door. The distinct aura he expected to smell was too faint to have belonged to Warren, but it was damn near close. This scent belonged to a blood relative of Warren.

The man started tapping the butt of what sounded like a gun on the furniture pieces as he walked through the home.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” he called out. “I know you’re in here, little bitch.”

Raoulf’s blood began to boil in agitation. He kept his wolf at bay…or at least he tried to. He slipped his phone out of pocket and sent a text message to his reinforcements.

“Oh…where are you? You lying little bitch. You told us you’d sign our shit and we’ve been waiting for days.”

Something crashed to the floor.

“I smell you, cunt! You’ve been living in this little dipshit townhouse a while. We should have known you would move to a swanky shit town like this.”

He thought Nina was in the home. Hiding. Good. That’s what Raoulf wanted him to think. The idiot.

A door slapped against the wall. More objects crashed to the floor. “Alright, bitch. I ain’t got time for this shit. Come on out!”

A gunshot was fired and a mirrored shattered. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you ten seconds to come out. It’ll be much easier on you if you just cooperate. If you don’t, I’ll rape your sweet little cunt for everything you have.”

Raoulf barged out of the closet and it only took him seconds to find the man in Nina’s bedroom. Before he could turn around, Raoulf pulled him back, grabbing him by the neck in a chokehold. He slapped the gun from the man’s hand down to the floor and pressed the blade of the knife firmly against his throat.

“Do I look like a motherfuckin’ bitch to you?” Raoulf demanded.

“Who the fuck are you?” he spat.

“I’m the motherfucker who’s going to ruin your life.”

“Look, I ain’t here for you, man. This cunt—Ahh.”

Raoulf dug the knife into his throat drawing blood. “You just threatened my mate, so you might as well be threatening me.”

“I’m a Chestnut, man. I’ve got money. Let me go! I’ll leave.”

Raoulf shoved him forward and bashed his head hard against the wall. Before he could slump to the floor from the blunt force, Raoulf shouldered him against the wall and shook him conscious again.

“Your name is…?”

“R-ronald Chestnut.”

“You’re Warren’s cowardly little brother.”

Ronald struggled against his hold but failed. Blood seeped from his nose down on the front of his chest.

“I don’t believe Warren was clear about who the fuck you were dealing with. I want to make sure we’re clear about you leaving Nina Moore alone.”

Ronald didn’t say anything.

Raoulf took the knife and speared Ronald’s hand so that it was impaled to the wall. Ronald hollered in agony.

“What’s that? I couldn’t fucking hear you.”

“Yeah…yeah…okay,” Ronald panted. “Man, just let me go. I’ll leave the bitch alone. I just didn’t want her to talk. If she talks, our whole family is fucked.”

Raoulf jerked the knife out. “Why are you chasing her? She wasn’t talking. Your family—you and your brother were the one’s hunting her down. You started this mess and then your dumb assess did cowardly shit to threaten a woman who was trying to move past this mess.”

“Humans aren’t supposed to know—”

“Do you think I give a fuck about your family’s pact to keep your shifter gene a secret? I don’t give a rat’s ass. It’s the twentieth fucking century. Get with the program!”

“You’re a Justice bastard. You wouldn’t understand a goddamned thing about keeping the bloodlines and old codes intact.”

“You think so? A bastard I may be, but I know a few things about gutting a coward.”

“Put yourself in my position. This is a family matter.”

“Likewise. You're messing with the wrong woman.”

Ronald laughed. “Now I get it. This is where you eat, sleep, and fuck. What did you do? Hide her?”

“I did what any civilized person would have done?”

“Civilized? You are far from the definition of civilized as a man who once hunted and killed for a living.”

“Once?” Raoulf sneered.

Heavy footsteps could be heard not even fifty feet away trudging through the house. When Raoulf’s reinforcements filed through the room, Ronald’s eyes widened. “You mean you…you d-didn’t leave t-the Outlaws.”

“Once an outlaw. Always an outlaw,” Raoulf told him.

An outlawed shifter by the name of Danny Dino stepped forward. He was the vice president of the shifter outlaw group that Raoulf still had ties to.

“You thought we’d never catch up with you, boy.”

Dino punched Ronald clear across the face. The force sent him careening to the floor.

“Please…” Ronald pleaded for his life as Dino assaulted him. “I didn’t know she was your daughter.”

Ronald was on the Outlaws’ most wanted list after he raped Dino’s youngest daughter.

Seeing the damage that had already been inflicted in Nina’s home, he caught Dino’s arm before he could deliver another blood splattering blow.

“Not in here,” he told Dino. “Take that outside. You wanted him. You got him. Do what you will with him. If I see him again, he’ll be dead.”

“I owe you one, Raoulf,” Dino said, giving Raoulf a handshake.

“No, we’re even. This freak needs to be put in his place.”

Dino’s backup hog-tied Ronald, who was too beaten and battered to protest or even speak and hauled him out of the room. They took the back door outside as Raoulf walked Dino to the front entrance.

“His brother might be expecting him to come back,” Raoulf said.

“Good,” Dino said. “If his brother wants some, he can come get some too. He’s too ashamed to align with his own kind. I’ll knock the shifting gene right outta him.”

“If you’ve got other news, you know where to find me.”

“Aspen Valley, eh?” Dino replied on his way down the sidewalk.

“That town will always be my home.”

“See ya when I see you, Rebel.”

During his active in the shifter outlaw group, the members referred to Raoulf as a rebel without a cause. That wasn’t the case anymore. He now had a cause. Protecting and loving the woman he would not live without.