Page 10 of Shadow Spirit

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The young, recent recruit jumped backwards. “My apologies, Captain, but the alpha has requested to see you. He said it was an urgent security matter.”

“Fuck,” said Decker rubbing his face. “Any idea what it is?”

Decker left the door open and stepped back into his room, shucking off his sweatpants, ignoring his massive hard-on which he desperately wanted to sink into the Irish witch before tearing Eoghan O’Shea’s claiming mark from her throat and bestowing his own. Oh god—he really needed a woman. It had been far too long, and the witch was far too tempting and way out of his league.

“Apparently the witch…”

“Her name is Adriana. Spread the word through the ranks that I’m tired of hearing her called ‘the witch.’ She has a name and is a member of this clan.”

“My apologies, Captain. I’ll see the rest of the men get the message. Apparently, Adriana went into the village…”

“With who?”

“Uh, no one as far as I can tell.”

Decker swung around as he pulled up his jeans and tucked himself inside before buttoning the fly. “The girl has been kidnapped and taken prisoner at least three times as far as I know, and she’s just allowed to wander about on her own?” He shook his head. “From here on out she doesn’t leave the abbey without my permission or that of the alpha or beta. Clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, has she managed to get herself taken prisoner again?” Decker pulled on a loose V-neck sweater.

“No, sir. But she did come back from the village with a black SUV in hot pursuit. The tower guard saw them coming so we were able to open the gate let them in and then block the gates with a line of armed men. The men in the SUV decided they didn’t want to try us.”

“Good thinking both on your part and theirs.”

The young man grinned at him. “Yes, sir. I don’t much like their chance for having survived if they’d opened fire. After they drove off, we got the gates closed. Adriana—should we call her Ms. Mulroney or Beta?”

“This clan is pretty informal. I think Adriana will do. And she isn’t beta here. She is one of two betas that the Shadow Sisters have. Anything else I need to know?” He said sitting on the edge of his bed and pulling on his boots.

“Uh, yeah, sorry. She had a young girl with her. She was scared and her clothes looked like they had blood on them. She headed up to the alpha’s office. I followed and Colby told me to come get you.”

Decker nodded. “Good job. Return to your post. Pass my compliments on to all of those involved in keeping Adriana and the girl safe. You did your jobs well.”

He walked briskly down the corridor to head towards Colby’s office. Normally, as captain of the guard he would either sleep in a building attached to the barracks or up in the main house if the clan didn’t use a separate barracks system. The abbey had a kind of combined system where bachelors had a kind of barracks with semi-private rooms and married members of the guard had small houses. Colby had wanted him in the main house upstairs in what would normally have been the beta’s quarters. As the clan’s beta was also Colby’s mate, those rooms had been available.

Decker had declined the beta’s chambers, taking for himself a large room on the ground floor, which had an attached bath. He’d wanted to be closer to the action if someone managed to get inside the main building of the keep. The room was enormous and had beautiful stained glass windows as well as French doors leading out into a private courtyard that ended at the edge of the precipice that fell to the sea.

He knocked and then opened the door to Colby’s office without waiting for a response. The sense of buzzing bees and dizziness assaulted him immediately upon entering. His thoughts wandered back to Greg’s announcement that he, too, was experiencing the same sensations in Adriana’s presence. Instead of discussing it with the amiable doctor like any civilized man might have done, he’d allowed his feral wolf to take control and had almost beaten Greg to a pulp before choosing to ignore the issue and leave. The fact was he hadn’t trusted himself enough to remain in close proximity to Greg.

He'd meant to do some research to try and get to the bottom of things, but his mind had been too chaotic to focus on dry texts long enough to come up with any answers. Between the nagging headache that had remained and having to read the same thing three or four times, Decker had decided to go get some rest and try again later. Only sleep and rest had been elusive and then Colby had summoned him.

Reality intruded upon his musings, and he realized Colby had been talking; only Decker hadn’t been listening. He’d need to see if he couldn’t fake it until he figured it out. He had to focus. Colby’s lips were moving, but Decker couldn’t seem to comprehend what was going on. Something about a kid. Adriana had stolen a kid? What the hell was she thinking? He looked at Adriana in horrified fascination. The witch not only needed a mate, but she also needed a keeper. Luckily for all of them, Decker was certain he could do both. He had to shut down that line of thought, though. He needed to focus on what his alpha wanted, not what his cock wanted.

His eyes traveled down the voluptuous body of the woman he was now convinced was his fated mate. Wrapped around her and using Adriana to shield her from the others in the room was a child. The little girl was terrified, and his man had been right. The jacket she wore was covered with large splotches of blood.

“I was sitting in the church in the village…” Adriana started.

“She took one of the vehicles and went into the village without permission,” Decker informed Colby.

Adriana turned on him. “Last time I checked, Captain, I was free to come and go as I pleased. And it’s my understanding that the vehicles were available to all members of this clan, of which I am a member.”

“As much fun as it might be to watch you two spar, I think you’re frightening our guest,” drawled Colby.

Adriana turned back to Colby, ignoring Decker. “Of course, you’re right, Colby. In any event, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted—” Colby chuckled softly “—my friend here came running into the church, covered in blood and obviously afraid. My only thought was to get her to safety. I haven’t had a chance to find out much as the guards outside hustled me inside. I do know her name is Erin.”

“I understand the instinct,” said Colby, “but you can’t just go around stealing children.”

“I didn’t steal her. It was obvious she needed help.”