Chapter Ten

She glanced over her shoulder, wondering if he’d sent one of his shifters to follow her. It wouldn’t have been the first time, but she saw no sign of his goons in the crowd of tourists behind her.

Joanna prowled the streets of Stonefall, eyeing every passing tourist in search of the new shifter Archer mentioned. Guilt weighed her heart down. She couldn’t help but hope Archer was wrong. Hopefully the woman he’d seen had only been scared and escaped before the feral shifters had the chance to hurt her.

She wouldn’t put it past them to change a pretty woman, though. If they thought they could have a toy the way they thought Joanna was Killian’s toy, they would jump at the chance. Her eyes danced along the heads of various people, her vision suffused with long, blonde or red hair. At last, she studied a young woman with the pixie cut sipping coffee outside the local coffee shop. There was no smell of shifter in the air, although the smell of coffee was oppressive and made her stomach grumble.

“Hey there, kitten,” Gage said from beside her.

She jumped, startled, and cursed herself. She really wasn’t doing well if she hadn’t been able to pick out bear in the air. Again, her eyes slid toward the coffee shop. As long as its door was open, there was no way she would be able to sniff out a potential new shifter.

“What are you doing?”

Gage shrugged uncomfortably. “Had to get out of the house. You know?”

She sighed. Joanna knew the feeling well. If she could, she would have gladly burnt her own house to the ground, Killian and all. Her gaze settled back on Gage and she noticed the wrench in his hand. He tried to slip it behind his back at the last moment, but it was already too late.

“Not much has changed, eh?”

“Just thought I’d say hello to an old friend,” Gage replied.

That hello probably involved putting his friend’s car on blocks. “What did you do with the poor guy’s tires? Please tell me you didn’t sell them.”

“Oh, not this time. I just made an art installation with them.”

Joanna wasn’t going to ask. She took the urge and shoved it down deep. All she could do was be thankful the poor guy could get his tires back. “Is this how you greet all your friends?”

“Only the ones I secretly hate. Cohen’s lucky his car still has tires.”

A long moment passed. Joanna wanted to dig into their lives, to know what they had gotten up to while they were out in the world. She wanted to know how Chicago was. She even found herself wondering if Archer had any girlfriends. Her own attempt at dating had clearly gone horribly wrong.

“If you’re wondering where the big boy is,” Gage said as he pointed across the street.

Archer emerged from the coffee shop with two paper cups in hand and a scowl on his lip. The massive and burly man looked at odds with the coffee shop’s crowd. His metal concert tee was faded and nearly see through beneath the open flannel shirt that strained over his biceps. The white cups were tiny in his big hands and it brought a laugh to Joanna’s lips. He laid eyes on her and stepped up to the crosswalk only to be brought short by a truck blaring its horn.

After the truck passed, Archer half jogged across the street. Joanna watched the way his muscles worked beneath his jeans and felt herself begin to grow warm. She fought the urge to fan herself when Archer caught up to her. There was a scowl on his face, furrowing his brows as he searched past her.

“Gage was just here. I swear I saw him,” Archer grumbled. He hefted the cup in his hand. “And that twat made me order some frill ass drink for him. I felt like a moron trying to say it all.”

Her stomach growled, and her eyes tracked the cup as he moved it. She would need to feed herself soon. She patted her pocket, but found only change. It’d been a while since the Pack had a steady source of income.

“It’s fair punishment if his frilly drink finds a new owner,” Archer suggested, handing the paper cup to her.

“Oh, no. I couldn’t…” But her fingers wrapped around the warm cup. “What is it, anyway?”

Archer groaned. “Don’t make me repeat it again, please. “If it’s trash, I’ll go back and buy you a normal coffee.”

“No, no, that isn’t necessary.” Despite the heat warming her hand, she took a small sip. Bitter-sweetness filled her mouth, satisfying as it warmed its way through her. “Oh, it’s fantastic.”

“Good. That monstrosity is in better hands now.”

“Had to get out of the house, too?”

Archer laughed, a sharp bark of a sound. “More like baby-sitting. I know I should be on the lookout for the woman, but I’m also in town to keep Gage from creating chaos.”

“You’re too late, then. He already took the tires off a friend’s car. I use the word friend lightly.” Joanna wondered if the youngest Vancourt brother hadn’t set them up. She couldn’t see the trickster drinking such a frilly coffee. He might have ordered it just to watch Archer suffer, but he might have meant for it to fall into her hands.

After standing awkwardly for a few long moments, Joanna asked him to accompany her. Two noses were better than one while they scoured the town. It was also nice to have company that didn’t make her skin crawl. Archer wasn’t circling her like a vulture over dead meat. He was simply… there.

It was comforting in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time. The thought made her bristle. She forced herself upright, forced her attention back to alert. She didn’t want to become complacent in his presence. He might be an ally, but that was tenuous at best. No one could look out for her and her Pack like she could. No one else needed it like she did.

She and Archer walked the main street before turning into the western neighborhood. The brick buildings gave way to tree lined streets, the roots of trees planted a century ago cracking the sidewalk. Houses in stages of repair or glory sat back from the street behind small lawns. Some held a menagerie of children’s toys while others were carefully tended and manicured into lush gardens. Her favorite was the house that attempted a combination of the two and ended up with a pint-sized car in the rose bush.

The crowds of tourists fell away and the streets grew empty, yet the sensation of being watched never went away. Joanna tried to distract herself by drinking her frilly coffee. She knew it was one of Killian’s feral shifters, sent to watch over her the way Archer had to watch over Gage. As long as she kept her mouth shut and her hands to herself, the shifter would have nothing to take back to Killian.

“You alright?”

“Hrm?” Her head snapped up. “Oh. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“For someone who had a lot to say the other day, you’re awfully quiet.”

“Can’t focus if I’m talking,” she said, keeping her explanation short as she scanned the houses behind her.

On the clear street, she should have been able to find the shifter, but there was no one on the streets. Her eyes dropped to the lawns. A coyote had no problem navigating the inner workings of a small town like Stonefall. In fact, it was common place, just not during the day.

“This isn’t about finding the shifter, is it?”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. She caught his gaze and glanced back to the hedges they’d just passed. The feeling still prickled along her neck. It sent shivers down her spine. She wanted to tell him to shut his mouth.

Perhaps it was time to call it a day. Joanna stepped aside, an apology on her lips before she slipped away, but Archer reached out and took her hand. Her heart stopped and she jerked back. She glanced behind her again.

This wasn’t the privacy of the Vancourt house’s back yard. He couldn’t steal small touches or kisses here on the streets of Stonefall where anyone might see it. No matter how badly her body wanted her to step closer.

“I belong to my Alpha,” she said, her voice a whisper. She moved to chuck the empty paper cup into a nearby trash bin when a shape darted out from behind it.

Archer lunged for it. His big hands caught the shape by the scruff of its neck. He came up with a shameful looking coyote, dangling from his grip. It looked like a decently sized dog, even if Archer hefted it up as though it were a kitten. Joanna’s heart lodged itself in her throat. The shifter’s eyes pinned her to the ground.

She recognized the markings as Patty, a particularly bitter female shifter. She was a chain smoker with a gravelly voice and a real love for the Whale Tail trend of the early 2000’s. If Archer put her down, she’d run back to Killian. If he… she didn’t want to think about the option that would save her. Joanna would rather face the punishment herself.

“Is this what was bothering you?” Archer gave the coyote a shake and she yelped in his hands.

Joanna said nothing. She’d already dug herself into a hole and anything she said would only make it worse. All she could do at that point was mitigate the punishment. If it was light enough, he would take it out on her and not her Pack.

But, Archer didn’t seem convinced. He gave a long, pondering look at the coyote shifter before he let out a hearty laugh.

“I think I have an idea.”

“Oh, no. You don’t have to…”

But he didn’t listen. Archer tossed her a wink that warmed her chest and made butterflies dance around her stomach. With the shifter in one hand, he used the other to pluck his phone from his pocket. A quick internet search brought him to whatever phone number he was looking for.

Finished, he pocketed the phone while the shifter squirmed and writhed in his hand. He cast the shifter a hard glare and she fell limp. Joanna scanned the street, hoping no one would see them. If Patty tried shifting…

Joanna wouldn’t put it past her. Killian’s Pack, the feral shifters he accumulated, cared little about the rules she had grown up with. Shifting in open view of humans was one of them.

“I should be getting back,” Joanna said. She turned to leave just as a truck rounded the corner. It slowed as it came toward her and came to a stop beside Archer.

“Grover!” Archer said with forced enthusiasm.

The man who got out of the truck had dark hair, a streak of silver on his temple, and an annoyed look pasted onto his face. Joanna could smell the musky scent of shifter from where she stood. It made the logo on his shirt all the more hilarious, loudly proclaiming his position in the local Animal Control department.

“I’ve got a rabid animal for you, sir.” Archer tossed the coyote shifter at Grover.

The shifter twisted in the air, poised to strike as if landed, but Graver snatched it out of the air before teeth could touch skin. Patty looked slightly dazed from it, actually. Her eyes glassed over for a moment before she shook her head.

“Great,” Grover grumbled. “Just what I needed today.”

They watched the man pack Patty away into a kennel in the back of the truck, both trying to suppress their laughter. Joanna had never seen someone send a shifter to Animal Control, but from the look on Grover’s face, it was a regular occurrence.

“We did it to Gage when he was still the size of a cub,” Archer said as they watched the truck drive away. The sound of metallic thumps echoed, Patty fighting to free herself of something that once held one of the Vancourt boys. The sound faded until it was just Joanna and Archer on the street.

She let out a long sigh, the prickling feeling now gone. Still, she knew what she was doing would be dangerous. Patty wouldn’t stay in Animal Control forever. Eventually, she would find her way back to Killian and reveal that she’d been hanging out with Archer. Hopefully, Patty hadn’t heard why.

If Killian knew there might be another shifter out there, changed by one of his shifters, then he would do whatever it took to lay claim to her. Joanna didn’t want to put that kind of life on anyone.

“If Killian finds out about her, about the shifter girl,” Archer began as he cast a sidelong glance at Joanna. “I’ll send him Cohen in a wig.”

Joanna let out a laugh. A bird burst from the tree above her, started by the sudden sound. Archer smiled, and it even reached his eyes. The idea of the brooding and silent brother in a blonde wig would brighten her mood for the rest of the day.

“Thanks for the coffee,” she said, turning away from him. Her body begged her to go back, to sink into his large frame and let the world melt away.

His presence changed nothing. Even if she listened to her body, it wouldn’t change the fact that her Pack was in danger. Without her, there was no one to stop Killian from culling them. He would flush the last of her family from the Pack and build his army atop of them.

Joanna looked to the sky. What happened when Archer and his brothers left? Could she do what needed to be done, or would she fail?

“It’s almost over,” Archer told her. His voice rumbled through her and settled in her core. When she looked up, he was standing before her. His body was only inches away from hers, his face hovering too close. She found herself caught in the clarity of his eyes, being pulled deeper and deeper.

Until she sucked in a breath and backed up. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

She spun on her heel and marched back toward her car.

***

Archer called Grover back and made sure the shifter would be kept for at least forty-eight hours. It would give Joanna the time she needed to get her story straight. Archer hoped it would be enough to get her out of Killian’s grasp.

Earlier, he watched her walk away with her shoulders slumped. She carried the weight of the world as if the burden were hers and hers alone. He understood why she felt that way and the part she had causing what was happening now, but he wanted to tell her she wasn’t alone in the blame.

He knew his choices, the one he’d made as a young man, were partly responsible, too. He could have stayed. He could have done his duty and stood beside the lynx at the altar. If he had, Killian never would never have found a way in. The two packs would have been bound in peace and no one in this town would have gotten hurt.

Behind the wheel of his rental he scanned the streets for signs of more coyotes. He was grateful the one he picked up wasn’t the shifter they’d been looking for once he called Animal Control. It was clear from the look on Joanna’s face that she’d been nervous. Once the coyote revealed itself, he understood why.

“Damn spies,” he growled to himself.

The phone in his pocket vibrated before connecting to the wireless system of the fancy SUV. All he had to do was punch the touchscreen and Gage’s voice blared over the speakers. Archer cringed at the volume of his brother’s voice.

“Dad’s coughing up a lung. If he kicks the bucket, the Pack will be upside down.”

Archer’s stomach clenched. He knew Grover was busy at work, but he wouldn’t put it past the others in the Pack to try taking the title of Alpha. If Sampson died, there would be bloodshed on their territory.

“Is it really our problem though?”

“While you have a point,” Archer said, “I’d rather be on the side of protecting people from themselves. Even if those people are assholes.”

Gage groaned. Distantly, coughing erupted in the background. The sound didn’t feel like his father. In his mind, the man he remembered would never have become the one bedridden in his bedroom. The bear they all knew wasn’t the sound of death hacking away in the background.

Then silence buzzed over the line. Gage said nothing, not once acknowledging what Archer said.

“He’s not going to die,” Archer said to quell Gage’s indecision. His mind prickled at the thought of his brother’s silence, the hesitation that’d breached the silence between them.

Was his brother more selfish than he’d thought? Archer believed he was the most selfish of them all, dragging them away from the Pack over the flights and fancies of his heart. But, Gage had changed while they lived outside the Pack. Archer couldn’t give his brother what he needed. Cohen couldn’t give anyone anything, every ounce of his energy spent schooling his own temper.

When Sampson Vancourt did die, Archer needed his brothers to stand tall. If Gage would fold when Cohen needed him, everything would fall apart. They needed to take over the Pack, to drive the feral shifters out of the territories once they enacted their revenge.

Archer wanted to bang his head against the steering wheel. One call had started this. One damned call he should never have listened to. Yet, if he hadn’t he wouldn’t have tasted Joanna again. He wouldn’t know what it felt like to have her pressed against his body. That was what he fought for.

“Just tell me you aren’t a douche nozzle,” Archer told the voice on his speakers.

“Rude,” Gage said, drawing out the word. Silence fell again. Hesitation stretched and dropped pins in Archer’s stomach. “I’m not a douche nozzle, dude. I just… this wasn’t our problem for a while and now that we’re back, we’ve got to pick up their pieces. I won’t say I’m not mad. I’m pissed at them for being hypocrites, but… I don’t know, man.”

“Then you stand tall and prove to them why they’re hypocrites. Karma has caught up with all of us. Let’s just hope karma brought something nice with it, too.”

Archer’s mind immediately flipped to Joanna. He wanted to hear her laugh again. It’d been such a pure and vibrant sound, lighting her face with emotion he hadn’t seen on her since he’d come home. He would fix her life and what he’d fucked up.

He turned the SUV into the muddy driveway, gliding past the bent and broken gate that was stuck open. It wasn’t like the damned gate would really keep anyone out, he thought.

He put it into park and kicked open the door. Gage appeared outside, a beer bottle in his hand that never would have held such a frilly coffee drink. He narrowed his eyes at his brother.

“Did you enjoy your date?”

Archer froze. Gage smiled over the mouth of his beer bottle, like the mom that bought the gift she said she’d never get you. Archer wanted to punch the smug smile off his face, but didn’t.

“It wasn’t a date.”

“Sure, it wasn’t. I didn’t look up Joanna’s favorite drink on social media and tell you to order it for me at all. I didn’t catch her outside the coffee shop by accident after all.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too, bro.”

Archer stormed past his brother. He stomped through the house. It hadn’t been a date. There was no reason to go on dates. His bear hungered for Joanna, for the taste of her, the feel of her. It begged for more. It begged to protect her, but that was the animal instinct talking. There was no affection attached to the attraction he felt.

Upstairs, the sound of coughing echoed down the stairs. It was a haunting sound, bringing unwanted emotions and thoughts to the surface. Archer didn’t have the time or energy to process it all. He reached for the bear inside of him and dragged it to the surface. The creature was sated, but it could see the struggle the human part of him was having. The bear took over and his body grew until a chocolate colored beast appeared.

Archer settled down on the cold ground and looked out over the woods beyond. The trees he’d wrecked on day one were still golden and raw. They lay like toppled soldiers. He hoped the battle between him and Killian would not look like that. The fight would be won if he and Killian were the only two casualties.