Page 54 of Defeated

“A special occasion?” The assistant smiles with a twinkle in his eye.

I think of the fun Zoe and I had at dinner last night, the laughter we shared this morning, and I return his smile. It had felt like the beginning of something exciting. Something special. “Yes, I supposed you could say it was.”

The assistant nods and bags up the buns to go along with the rest of my pastries. After paying for more food than Zoe and I will probably eat, I grab the large white paper bag he hands me, and I head out to the U-Haul I parked outside.

The streets are a little busier than when I left the house. It must be lunchtime for the people in suits and work wear hurrying up and down the shop-lined streets.

It’s a short drive back to the house. Only five minutes. I hadn’t wanted to leave Zoe for long when we haven’t dealt with the shifters in town. I should go after them, but Zoe would want to come with me and she’s been through enough.

Or she might decide to return to the mate who doesn’t deserve her.

If I knew where her old pack was in Washington, I don’t think I could stop myself from breaking his jaw. I don’t know what sort of person would treat their own mate like that, but it’s a person who doesn’t deserve to have any mate at all. Especially one as sweet and beautiful as Zoe.

Back outside Colton’s townhouse, I cut the engine and fling my door open. Before I can grab the breakfast from the passenger seat, my wolf is snarling a warning loud and clear in my head.

I sniff, inhaling two scents my wolf doesn’t like, and which, unless I’m mistaken, belong to the shifters who had been standing at the end of the street days before.

And then I spot it.

Colton’s front door open a wedge, and I didn’t leave it that way. I specifically made sure I locked it before I left, knowing Zoe was sleeping.

You left her sleeping. What if she is still sleeping?

She might not hear someone force the lock until they were standing over her.

I’m out of the truck and sprinting up the steps with the U-Haul door still wide open.

The unfamiliar scents lead down the hallway and toward the kitchen, and a T-shirt—my T-shirt—sits at the top of the staircase. My ears and my nose confirm whatever trouble blew into the house headed toward the kitchen.

I point my nose the same way.

The back door is wide open, and the scents—Zoe’s and the two shifters—lead that way.

I immediately fish my cell phone from my pocket and hit speed-dial.

Colton, thank fuck, answers on the second ring.

“Chris? What is it?”

A truck rumbles in the distance, and Penny stops laughing.

I get right to the point. “Please tell me you ignored me when I encouraged you to take Penny to a resort.”

“I ignored you. Penny and I are about an hour away. Warren and I were speaking, and we all agreed that it didn’t feel right to leave you there alone,” Colton says.

“What is it?” Penny asks.

“The shifters came after Zoe when I wasn’t here. I’m going after them.” She must have been awake to have had time to get the hell out of the house before they could trap her upstairs.

“We’ll be there in thirty minutes,” Colton says.

“You said an hour,” I remind him.

“Zoe is in trouble. We can make it in thirty. Maybe even less.” He guns the engine. “Wait for us.”

I can’t do that. Those shifters chased Zoe from the house. She must have been wearing my shirt to have dumped it at the top of the stairs, and she must have known her best chance to get away was to shift.

“She’s in trouble. I’m going after her.”

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