CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Angus was out the door, but before he reached the stairs, Tiger came back up them with a struggling, hissing Feline. The man was in his human form, but his pupils were slitted with rage, his hands sprouting claws.
Tiger dragged him inside the room, threw the Feline to the floor, and put his foot on him. The Feline squirmed, but it was clear he would not throw off Tiger anytime soon.
Tamsin had bounced off the bed as soon as Tiger came through the door. “Dion!”
Angus snarled, but he’d had the feeling that was who Tiger had captured. “The Shifter who killed the two Bureau agents?”
Dion hissed again, sounding like a leaky tire. Felines. “You should be thanking me,” he snapped, his voice guttural. “They were dirtbags, hunting down Shifters.”
Tamsin came to stand over him, her face flushed, her hands shaking. “They were people. With families. We’re not murderers. Not only that, but you risked bringing the wrath of Shifter Bureau down on all Shifters. Fortunately, they’re only after one suspect for the killings. Me.”
“So?” Dion’s claws receded, and his eyes became human. They were green, his hair lanky and brown. “You took off. You were out of it—what the hell are you doing back here? I was riding by and swore I caught your scent.” He took a loud sniff. “It’s distinctive. Who are these assholes?”
Angus stepped between the Shifter on the floor and Tamsin. “This asshole is her mate.”
The Feline opened his mouth to snarl, and then worry crept into his eyes and he shut it again. He’d know that under Shifter law Angus could kill him for putting Tamsin under threat. Killing Dion would break human law, of course, but no humans stood in this room.
Dion switched his gaze to Ben. “What is that? Stinks of Fae.”
Ben heaved an aggrieved sigh. “I get so tired of this shit.” He tapped his chest. “Not Fae. If you want to know what kind of being I am and what I can do, here you go.”
He made a tossing motion with his hand. Instantly Dion was pinned to the floor, as though a thousand invisible tethers held him down. He struggled for a moment, eyes wide with fear, and then he passed out. His head lolled on the floor, though the rest of his body remained rigid.
Tiger nudged Dion with his foot. “Did you do that?” he asked Ben.
“Knock him out? No. He fainted. Good, because I was already tired of listening to his voice. What do you want to do with him, Tamsin?”
Tamsin gazed down at Dion in worry. “I don’t know. We could tie him up and take him to Shifter Bureau, maybe leave a note pinned to him that he killed the Bureau agents, but he might get chatty about us. We could kill him, but then we’d be no better than he is.”
“We could give him to Dylan,” Tiger suggested. “He knows how to deal with out-of-control Shifters.”
Tamsin’s face lit, her moroseness vanishing. “Oh, that sounds interesting.”
“Meanwhile,” Angus broke in, “Ben, can you make sure he stays here and doesn’t make noise? While you contact Jaycee?”
“Sure thing.”
“Good,” Tamsin said, straightening up. “Then we can go try that pizza.”
Angus shook his head. “Not going anywhere if Shifter Bureau is still investigating what this guy did and is looking for you.”
“We have to eat something. I’m starving, and there’s no room service.”
“Tamsin . . .”
She laughed. “Someday, I’m going to teach you to live for the moment. But I see your point. Ben, can you—?”
“Talk to Jaycee, contain the bad guy, bring home the pizza? Yes. Ben can do it all. Even if he doesn’t get the girl.” He made poor-me eyes at Tamsin.
Tamsin sent him a smile. “One day, you’ll get the girl too. I’ll put money on it.”
“Huh. She’ll have to be pretty old. And fearless. Sassy. And cute—I gotta wish for cute.”
“Sure you do.” Tamsin enclosed him in a brief hug. “I’ll take extra pepperoni.”
Ben returned the hug enthusiastically but backed off under Angus’s glare and glanced at Dion. “He shouldn’t be able to move under that spell, even when I’m not here. But keep an eye on him, Tiger.”
Tiger gave him a grave nod. Tamsin turned back to look at Dion and wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure I want to sleep here with him on the floor.”
Ben let out another long sigh. “Take my room.” He tossed Tamsin the key. “I don’t mind terrorizing him a little. Tiger can stay and help me. My room’s next door.”
Tamsin caught the key, took up her backpack, kissed Ben on the cheek, and walked out.
Angus had to admit the pizza was good. Tamsin ate it with vast enjoyment, washing it down with an oversized soft drink. Foxes could put the food away as much as goblins could, Angus decided.
Ben had contacted Jaycee. She couldn’t leave for an unscheduled trip to Shreveport, she said, without Kendrick and other trackers knowing about it. Ben had asked her for strict secrecy—they couldn’t risk Dylan getting wind of where they were. Dimitri would know—he and Jaycee never kept anything from each other—but Jaycee promised to get the talisman Lady Aisling had given her to Ben without anyone finding out. She hadn’t been specific about how.
Dimitri had asked about his truck. Ben had replied evasively as Angus instructed him, leaving Dimitri growling on the other end.
“I’ll get it back to him in one piece,” Angus promised. “Not sure what color it will be, but it will be in one piece.”
That night, Angus lay down with Tamsin on the lumpy mattress and kissed her lips, which were a little sweet from the soda. “Remember what you said about living for the moment?”
Tamsin stretched against him, pulling him closer. “I remember,” she murmured, her eyes closing as he deepened the kiss.
Angus slid inside her, every hurt from his past fleeing as he sank into her. He loved everything about this woman—her taste, her scent, the soft noises she made as he pleasured her.
My mate. My life. I will protect you forever.
Tamsin smiled up at him, then lost the smile as the two of them dissolved into desire. Angus silenced her cries with kisses, letting out a groan as he released at the same time she did.
“See?” Tamsin whispered as they drowsed together in the darkness. “Spontaneity isn’t such a bad thing.”
Tamsin woke in the gray light of dawn to a heavy knocking on the door. The sound jerked her out of marvelous dreams where she and Angus made hot love on a cushion of air, surrounded by whipped cream, to find herself on a lumpy mattress in a dingy motel room, traffic roaring by on the highway.
Her fears rushed back at her as Angus got to his feet and cautiously peered out the door’s peephole. He inhaled at the same time, taking in the scent of the intruder before he opened the door a foot, darted out his hand, and hauled a man into the room.
Tamsin sat up, pulling the covers to her chin. Zander Moncrieff wore the long black coat Tamsin remembered over jeans and a T-shirt, his beaded white-blond braids swinging. He carried paper bags that smelled of bready things, and Tamsin’s stomach growled.
Zander took in the naked Angus and then Tamsin in the bed. “Oops. Am I interrupting something?”
“Nice to see you again, Zander,” Tamsin said. “Would you like to sit down? What are you doing here at five thirty in the morning?”
“Bringing Ben a present from Jaycee.” Zander glanced at Angus again, who stood tall next to him and didn’t move. “Ben told me this was his room number.”
“We switched,” Angus rumbled. “He must have forgotten.”
Or not, Tamsin thought. Ben might have thought it funny to send Zander to their mate-frenzied room at dawn. She and Angus had practiced their spontaneity most of the night and hadn’t been quiet about it.
“Well, anyway.” Zander turned to go, then looked Angus up and down. “You might want to put on clothes before you join us. Don’t scare the natives.”
He opened and closed the door so quickly, Tamsin barely felt the draft. She heard Zander move to the next door and begin banging on it.
Tamsin was anxious to learn what Zander had to say, but she took a shower first, a quick one, knowing Angus’s scent would be all over her. She didn’t mind so much, but the teasing would be unbearable. Shifters saw nothing wrong with sex, and lots of it, and could discuss it at length and in detail, but she didn’t want to embarrass Angus.
Angus had already dressed and gone by the time she emerged. Tamsin threw on clean clothes and went next door, shaking water from her hair.
Zander had brought breakfast in the bags—pastries, donuts, and bagels. They feasted while Dion remained tethered. Dion was afraid, the scent of his fear cloying, but he’d returned to growling and cursing.
“Should we feed him?” Angus asked.
“Nah,” Ben said. “Don’t want him to choke. We’ll fix him up later. Ready to go?”
“You’re going to leave me here?” Dion asked, incredulous.
Ben turned to him, and Dion blenched as soon as those very black eyes were on him. “Yep. I’ll deal with you when we get back.”
Dion snorted a laugh. “When the maids come in, they’ll find me. Or I’ll yell, and someone will rescue me.”
“Sure you will.” Ben approached him, something in his hand, and Dion sucked in a terrified breath. “But, one, no one will hear. Two, you really want them to call the cops? You’re wanted for murder, my friend. Keep quiet, and we won’t give you to Shifter Bureau. Here’s the remote.” Ben laid it by his side. “Enjoy yourself.”
Tiger took a mug that rested next to the coffee maker in the corner, filled it with water from the sink, and stuck in an extra bendy straw from last night’s feast. He set the mug where Dion could turn his head to drink and then nodded for Zander to lead the way out.
Ben closed the door once they were outside then gestured to it and muttered a few words Tamsin didn’t understand.
“What did you just do?” she whispered to him as they walked to the stairs.
Ben looked modest. “Nothing too difficult. A glam to keep people from noticing the door or hearing what’s inside. I’ll have to make my own bed when I come back, but oh well.”
Ben must have cast the don’t-notice-me glam on himself before they drove out, because Tamsin kept losing sight of him on the road, even when she’d been looking right at him the moment before. Tiger rode in the truck with Angus and Tamsin, while Zander brought up the rear on his motorcycle.
Angus drove sedately as usual, winding down the highway toward the location of the trailer and the stash.
As they turned down the lane that led to the clearing with the trailer, Tamsin heard Ben shout and gun his bike. Zander, on his motorcycle, swerved around Angus and raced to see what was wrong.
Angus rattled to a halt near the tree where they’d parked the day before. He and Tiger boiled out of the truck, running down the path after Ben and Zander.
Tamsin scrambled out and followed. She saw what had alarmed Ben when she reached the grassy field that opened out around the trailer.
The door Ben had padlocked was wide-open. About half a dozen men—humans—were climbing into and out of the trailer, all of them carrying the weapons from the cache.
They weren’t Shifter Bureau—they were ordinary guys in jeans and T-shirts. When they saw Ben and the three Shifter males racing toward them, they froze, shouted, and then turned the weapons on them.