I hadn’t let my son out of the panic room until the Sheriff had come and gone, his investigator had come and taken pictures, and the coroner carted away the bodies. I had been forced to call a hazmat specialist about the bloodstains. And all that time, Nathan had been driving over from his team’s new headquarters outside Sedona, because I had called him first.
“No, you definitely called the right guy, Maddie,” he rasped as he moved forward to fill the doorway. I had to back up to let him through. I had been compared to a Valkyrie many times by my SCA buddies, and Nate still towered over me. “Like I said on the phone, me and my guys are ready to give this our undivided attention for as long as you need it.”
“Well, believe me, that makes me feel a lot better.”
I’d taken one look at the carnage in my yard and known I couldn’t screw around with any more normal, human security guys. As soon as I had gotten into the panic room and hugged Aidan, I immediately thought of Nate.
My late husband’s best friend for life, Nate was also a wolf shifter and a former Marine. He was built like he could bench-press me, but still managed to look pretty damn good in a suit, though I noticed he still refused to wear a tie. He had thick brown hair swept back from a high forehead, and the most intense green eyes I had ever seen.
“How have you been?”
I opened my mouth to answer, only to hear running feet as Aidan pounded down the stairs to join us. “Nate!” he yelled happily.
“Aidan!” Nathan bent down and scooped my son up, balancing him on his hip. “Oof, you got big. How did that happen?”
“It just happened! I wish it would happen faster. I want to be big like you so I can protect Mom.”
I swallowed hard, my heart breaking for my brave little kid who just wanted to make sure I was safe.
“Well, don’t you worry about that now, little man,” Nathan reassured Aidan. “My team and I are all going to be living here with you now, to keep you and your mom safe. And maybe while I’m here, I can teach you a thing or two.”
Aidan beamed. He had clung to me like a baby koala all night, even though I’d sheltered him from the details of what exactly had happened outside the panic room. But there he was, all sun and smiles again, thanks to Nathan.
He’s so good with my son, I thought wistfully as I watched them together. But that was a lot of what I’d felt toward Nathan ever since meeting him: wistful. Full of desire that could go nowhere, because I had been married, and to his best friend.
But now I wasn’t. And even with a sleepless night full of horrors sapping my energy and my mind bracing for a hard chat about what had happened, that fact stood out to me like a beacon.
I still wanted him. I could feel it, deep and primal, nagging at me again, just as strong as it had been before he’d gone off for a last tour of duty. But it was no longer forbidden.
And he and his Pack would be living with Aidan and me until Matthias and his mother were caught or killed. Weeks. Months maybe.
How in the world was I going to resist him? And did I want to?
TWO
NATHAN
God, she’s even more beautiful than ever.
About a decade ago, my best friend ever, Ben, got married, with me as his best man. And God help me, the moment I laid eyes on his fiancée, I knew I was in trouble.
Madelyne was the single hottest woman I had ever seen. On the tall side, curvy, and athletic, she looked like a fitness model and moved like a panther. Her hair was that particular shade of light honey blonde that you only got from bottles unless you had family from far northern Europe, and her eyes were a pale, steely blue.
She was a metal artist with a side gig forging swords for the Society for Creative Anachronisms and a growing list of private buyers. She could fight with those swords as well as make them. And she had a smile that could light up a room.
I had sworn to myself then that I wouldn't touch her, as much as I wanted to. Even if she was interested, neither one of us was the sort to betray Ben. So instead, I became the family's best friend for years, until I couldn't take it anymore and agreed to be deployed again just to get away.
But I never forgot her. How the Hell could I? She was completely human, without a drop of Wolf blood in her, but she matched me so well. She hadn't been nervous at all when she learned what I was.
Her response to having a rogue shifter running around her yard murdering people had been to grab her sword and go out to confront him. Maybe not the wisest course, but that was Madelyne. She had the heart of a warrior.
And now, just as then, I loved her for it.
"So, over the phone you said this guy has backup of some kind. His mother?"
"Yeah." Madelyne handed me an iced lemonade and then grabbed her own. Aidan was napping upstairs, post-lunch, and we could now talk about the ugly things that we couldn't possibly speak about in his presence.
"His mother and his mother's… driver. Bodyguard. Something. I think he's in the family too, but she always treats him like the help. He's this big, creepy bruiser. If anything, Matthias' mom is worse than he is. She's got all the crazy, narcissistic, manipulative crap going on, and all the grifts, but she's nasty too. Never liked me. Weird that someone as heartless as Matthias would be a mama's boy. I used to want to save him from her."