Page 2 of Shifter Mates for the Single Mom

A few moments later, one of the guards hurried past, talking low into his earpiece. I stared after him, confused, worried, and a little hopeful. Had it finally happened? Had they caught Matthias?

I heard another of those low cries and set my lemonade glass down. Aidan looked up from his movie and saw my face. “What is it?”

“I don’t know yet. The guards are stirred up. They may have caught somebody.”

He jumped up off the couch and then blinked as I grabbed his arm. “We should go see! I want to make sure they got him!”

“No, sweetie, that’s not our job. Our job is to stay here and sit tight until the guards are finished doing their jobs. Just come sit with me right now.” I held myself as steady as I could and kept my face in a smile, but inside I was jumping out of my skin.

Something was wrong. There was way too much silence outside. Nobody was coming back to give the all-clear. I grabbed the radio the security team had left for me and switched it on to listen to their com chatter.

Silence.

“Hello?” I spoke into the mic.

Nothing. Just a little crackle that told me that the line was open, but no answer. Not even breathing.

My whole body had gone cold. What is happening out there?

Next to me, Aidan had gone quiet. He was watching me intently. I forced a smile, but his expression didn’t shift.

“Aidan,” I whispered, “I need you to go get into the panic room while I find out what’s going on with our guards.”

“Mommy, don’t go out there,” he pleaded, but I looked at him firmly.

“I have to, honey. We might have to leave for a while, and I have to make sure. Now, go on, go. Don’t open it up until I give you the code word.”

He nodded reluctantly and walked into the hall closet, which had the panic-room entrance inside of it. I heard the door in its rear open, close, and lock.

I should probably just call the Sheriff and hop in there with him, but he’s likely drunk by this time of night. Instead, all too aware of how dumb it would be to go out there unarmed, I took my broadsword down off its hooks above the hearth, limbered up my shoulders, and stepped outside, making sure I tucked my phone in my pocket.

It was way too quiet in my garden. My walled half-acre was supposed to be patrolled by a four-man team, plus their supervisor. Instead, I had dead comms and eerie silence. But I had heard no signs of a fight. Not one shot had been fired. It was like all five men had simply… vanished.

Then I went around the corner of the house and saw my side patio spattered with what looked like wet black paint in the moonlight. The whole area had a weird, metallic smell that grew stronger the further I walked onto the patio. The security lights were off. I looked over at them and saw the bulbs were missing. Oh crap.

I walked forward warily, eyeing the spatters, which were very long and thin–like someone riding in a fast car had dropped paint out of a window. Just streaks, really, leading off into the bushes. All except for the freshly painted letters right before the bushes started.

I can get to you whenever I want.

That was when the wind shifted and started blowing at me from the bushes. The coppery smell intensified… and with it came a foulness, like sewage.

I pulled out my flashlight and shone it around, everywhere I could think of, looking for Matthias, for the guards, for any sign of what the hell was going on. Then my light crossed the lettering and turned their blackness to redness.

It was written in blood. The whole patio was spattered with gore. Someone had been attacked by something moving very, very fast–and completely silently.

Then I shone my light into the bushes and immediately wished I hadn’t. A glazed blue eye stared back at me: one of the guards, or what was left of him. The others were there too, bodies mangled in ways I had never seen by something with claws.

I staggered backward, flicking off the light and readying my sword. My heart was pounding in my ears as I headed back toward the door, knowing I was hopelessly outmatched.

shifter, my brain yammered while I tried to look everywhere at once so that the thing that had done this couldn’t get the drop on me. Matthias is a shifter. He just killed five trained men with guns before they could get a shot off!

I had known shifters before, but I had never found out this last secret of Matthias’. Now, I knew what we were up against. And as I locked myself in and headed for the saferoom to hunker down with my son until dawn, I knew I couldn’t face this alone.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to.

* * *

“Thank you for coming on such short notice.” I opened the door wider to let Nathan Stone in. “I didn’t know who else to call.”

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