Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 93(@200wpm)___ 74(@250wpm)___ 62(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 93(@200wpm)___ 74(@250wpm)___ 62(@300wpm)
“I love to cook.” Briella smiles at me, and my inner bear sighs in contentment. “Maybe I can cook some?”
“You don’t need to ask for anything.” I reach across the table and take her hand in mine. “I’ll give you anything you want. If you want to cook, just make a list of what you need, and we’ll go to the grocery store to grab it.”
“Great.” She practically vibrates with happiness.
The driveway sensors that alert me to someone approaching sound in the distance, and I stand up and reach for the gun tucked into the back of my waistband. “Stay here while I see who’s driving up.”
“Oh my.” Her gorgeous blue eyes widen as she stares down at the firearm in my hand. “I didn’t realize you carry a gun.”
“I keep it in case I run into an outlaw shifter.” As a grizzly bear shifter, I’m bigger and stronger than most shifters and nearly all humans, but outlaw shifters are different. They trade all the humanity in their souls for more strength and a greater body size. Too bad, it’s an uneven trade since they lose their ability to feel emotions. They can’t mate or have children, and their boundless strength and lack of emotions make them formidable adversaries with nothing to lose.
“Jared told Brenna and me all about outlaw shifters.” My mate’s eyes widen as she swallows. “Do you think that’s who’s here?”
“I don’t, but I refuse to take a chance with my mate,” I call over my shoulder as I turn on the television over the fireplace and pull up the security feed.
I breathe a sigh of relief and tuck the gun back into my waistband when I see Kol’s massive SUV slowly approaching.
“It’s one of my employees,” I reassure Briella. “Wait here and I’ll see what he wants.”
I step outside the house as Kol is parking in the circular drive in front of my cabin. “What are you doing here?” This fucker knows I was picking my mate up at the airport this afternoon.
“I need to talk to you, and I didn’t want to do it over the phone.” Fuck. This isn’t good.
“Come with me.” I lead him to the back of my garage where I have my home office. “Now, explain what the hell you mean.”
“Lorcan caught a strange scent outside the office. He went to investigate and is almost certain it’s a goddamn outlaw jackal.” Motherfucking son-of-a-bitch. Lorcan Cross is a dragon-wolf hybrid with an unbelievable sense of smell. Somehow, he received both the wolf and the dragon genes for smell. His nose can pick up scents that other shifters can’t. “That isn’t the worst of it.” Fucking hell. “Seth picked up on someone trying to hack into our server. I sent everyone home to work and told them to use the backup server to communicate until we figure out what the fuck is going on.”
“You think they’ve infiltrated our work server?” It’s never happened before. I don’t take my business reputation lightly. I’ve always run a tight ship and have the strictest hiring policy. Everyone who has access to my business files has gone through several levels of background checks.
“I haven’t seen any signs of it, but I want to be careful. I figure it’s too much of a coincidence that you picked up Briella on the same day we found issues.” That’s the same thoughts that were just running through my mind.
“Did the outside cameras pick up anything?”
“Silas and Lorcan are going through the footage now to see while Seth deep dives into the server to make sure no one got through.” I hired Silas Bates, a wolf shifter, and his best friend, Lorcan, to work as an investigative team. The former special forces members haven’t failed me yet.
“It sounds like you have it all under control.”
“We’re handling it while you protect your mate,” Kol reassures me before dropping his next bomb. “Jared and Brenna Linden were run off the road on their way back from the airport this morning.” Shit.
“Why didn’t I hear about this before now? And why didn’t Brenna call Briella?” The questions keep popping into my mind. “Are they okay?” This fucking stalker is becoming an even bigger pain in my ass.
“Jared called me and asked me to come out and tell you. They didn’t call Briella because they didn’t want to worry her. And, ultimately, they are fine. The car has some damage, but Jared managed to steer them off a ramp before the other car could make another try at them.” He sits on the edge of my large wooden desk and shrugs. “Jared thinks the reason the stalker did it was to get Briella to turn around and head back to New York.”
“It makes sense.” I rub my bottom lip as the severity of the situation slams into me. Up until now, there was a strong possibility of Briella’s stalker being dangerous, but we didn’t know for sure. “How the fuck did he run them off the road this morning in New York and get here to leave his scent around the office this afternoon?”