Page 20 of Shifter Mates for the Single Mom

I hesitated. I didn't want her to know that Matthias and his people were maneaters on top of everything else. That was too horrible to share. "Tell, no. Ask, yes."

"Okay, shoot." She kept looking over at Nathan and Bela, practically wiggling with curiosity. I guessed she'd never actually met a shifter before. Not knowingly, anyway.

"We need to find Matthias and his family. We've been able to narrow it down some, but we need to know if he or his mother let any information drop about where he was staying during his visits. Even as little as a city or town name would help." Nathan's tone was solemn and a touch apologetic.

"Okay. I'll personally go around and start asking people. It'll be a while before I can get to some of them. Some of our people sleep days during heat like this, but I'll get them all and come back to you with what I find."

I nodded and unscrewed the cap of my drink, taking a tiny sip. My throat was tight, my stomach unsettled, and my anger had risen to new, bitter levels.

It was one thing for Matthias to target me. But my friends? My family? Aidan? I wanted to kill him. I wanted to personally shove a bar of silver down his throat and make him choke on it.

Instead, I was making blades tonight, and coating them in silver so that they could actually kill him for good. If he actually managed to get close enough to me or Aidan to make physical contact, he was in for one Hell of a surprise.

NINE

BELA

There wasn’t a single whiff of shifter inside the complex aside from us. That was another stroke of luck to go with Madelyne's cute and very well-connected bestie. Before we'd even left the building to take our hot, thirst-inducing tour of the grounds, she was already texting away on her phone to spread the news. We passed a few people hurrying for the main building with worried looks on their faces and phones in their hands before we'd even really started.

Good. Getting things sewn up tighter would help us a lot, and we could then spend more time focused on Madelyne and her kid.

I could already tell that Nathan was in love with her. The tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a claw, and I wondered how many years this had been going on without either one making a move. Jamie had already told me about it while we'd been doing the install, and we were both of the opinion that the two should just fuck already.

But of course, there were complications. Shitloads to do, three psychopathic shifters to locate and defend against, and nobody wanted to confuse her kid. Though I doubted that last one would take that much to fix. Kids could often handle weird situations better than adults, after all. They didn't have as much "normal" shit to compare it to.

And if he could handle her having one Wolf boyfriend, maybe he could even handle her having four. Because once Nathan had finally broken that dam, I definitely wanted a shot with her as badly as Jamie did.

I wasn't desperate with longing for her like Nathan looked whenever he watched her when she didn't know it. But goddamn, she was cute, brave, and interesting. I had no doubt she would be spectacular–in the sack and out of it. And I really didn't want to wait too long to find out for sure.

Once we'd made our rounds, I noticed Madelyne looking increasingly exhausted and spoke up at once. "Okay, well, I don't know about you guys, but this Russian guy is not built for the heat. Let's get back to the SUV and get the hell home."

"Steaks," Madelyne reminded, always thinking of others.

"Damn, yeah, we should stop. That was a good idea, though we'll have to do it after dark in this heat." Nathan sighed, looking down at his now-drained water bottle. "Think we should get some more drinks while we're there. Rehydrate."

"Cold beer it is!"

"And some bottled soda for Aidan. He's been feeling left out." Madelyne sighed with relief as we reached the car. Nathan immediately opened it up, started the ignition, and got the air conditioner running. Even parked in the scant shade, a blast of hot air that actually stung the insides of my nostrils escaped from the car as the doors opened.

As soon as it was cool enough to bear, Madelyne slipped inside, flopping exhaustedly into the passenger seat. "This weather is insane."

Nathan snorted as he slipped into the driver's seat, and I jumped in the back. "Hoping it won't be quite as nasty away from all this concrete," he mused. "But meanwhile, let's hit the store."

We were back on the road in half an hour, me sipping a beer along with Nathan while Madelyne slowly worked on a ginger ale. She was starting to look better, but I could see a faint sunburn across her cheeks. Poor baby, I thought. wanting to offer to put cold cream on it for her. But I wasn't about to piss Nathan off by looking like I was getting between them. No.

I could be patient. For a while, anyway.

We had steaks and drinks, along with mushrooms, onions, and squash to grill on skewers, and butter, garlic, and steak sauce to round things out. Madelyne had picked up a pint of ice cream for her and Aidan to split since none of us were that into sweets. I was eager to get back home and start prepping everything.

"So, this Matthias guy. He's in his prime. What about the other two?" I asked our hot hostess as we headed home.

"His mom's aging, but I don't know how that translates when she's in Tiger form. If anything, she's sneakier than he is, and a better manipulator. Then there's Mr. Kumar. He's their bodyguard and driver and about the same size as Ulf. So, three Tigers, one of whom is more like a Tiger and a half."

"We've never seen them shift, so we don't know their capabilities in a fight for certain," Nathan mused. "But it's safe to say that it'll be a hard fight if we have to take on all three at once."

“Last time it was just Matthias,” Madelyne started, but then hesitated, doubt creeping into her eyes.

“We don’t know that. Tigers are not as fast as you described. It would have been very difficult for him to wreak that much carnage that fast without help.” Nathan’s face still held that grimly thoughtful look. I wanted to make a joke to break the mood, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea. Not now.

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