Page 40 of The Renegade Mate

“You questioning my information, darlin’?”

Shya shook her head. “It’s my parents, Ronnie. I need to be sure.”

He stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “I guess I’d be the same. I’m sure, Shya. Tristan is out for blood. He’s going to ambush them when they leave. He isn’t planning on leaving anyone alive.”

Mason reached out and placed his hand on Shya’s shoulder. “We’ll stop him.”

She looked around at him, her face pale, then she nodded.

We had less than forty-eight hours to prevent this.

“Thank you, Ronnie.” I locked eyes with him, making sure he saw the determination in mine. “We’ll be in touch.”

As we left Ronnie’s office and began making our way back to the car, I couldn’t help but wonder how Ronnie did it. How did he have access to this information? Ronnie was a man we were going to have to watch. If we got our Pack back, the last thing we needed was Ronnie knowing all our business.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Shya,” Ronnie called out as we walked away. His voice carried a tone of finality, a goodbye and a caution wrapped up in one.

Shya turned around, a small, almost challenging smile on her face. “Always do,” she shot back, her eyes twinkling with confidence.

“Well, you know where I am if you ever want to forget your troubles, Shya. I’ll make them all go away for you.” His voice was low and heated, full of promise.

Mason stiffened. “Hey,” he snapped, striding toward to Ronnie. “Back the fuck off.”

Shya placed a hand on Mason’s arm, pulling him back.

“I can handle myself, Mason,” she said, her voice calm but firm, as Ronnie laughed.

“We have to go,” Ryan said, stepping between Ronnie and Mason. Mason stared at Ronnie for a moment longer, then nodded. He placed a hand on Shya's back and steered her to the car, keeping between her and Ronnie. Man, he had it bad.

We all piled into the car. Ryan behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat, and Shya, Mason, and Sam huddled in the back.

"Well, this is awkward." Sam was sitting in the middle between Mason and Shya and was glancing between them.

I didn't envy him. I could smell the anger rolling off both Mason and Shya.

"Shut up, bro," growled Mason.

Undeterred, Sam replied, "I mean, I get it. You're all broody and protective, and Shya's rocking the whole 'I'm a strong, independent woman' vibe."

"Don't make me shut your mouth for you, Sam Shaw!" Shya threatened.

Sam grinned at her. "I can see why Mason likes you so much. You're fun!"

Haxton disappeared behind us as we drove, replaced by the dull monotony of a deserted highway. Night began to fall, a cloak of darkness seeping across the sky, the last streaks of the sunset bleeding into the horizon.

“Ronnie might be a useful contact to have,” I said.

“Are you kidding?” Ryan replied. “He’s a human who knows way too much about our Packs and our business. Once this is over, we need to shut him down.”

I turned to face Ryan. “You’re right; he is a human who knows too much. That tells me he’s resourceful, he has extensive contacts, and he knows how to leverage who and what he knows to find out things that we can’t. We’ll need to watch him closely, but he’s useful, Ryan. We’ll need people like him if we want to protect our Pack.”

“He’s human,” Ryan repeated.

“And that means?”

“It means we should never forget that he isn’t a werewolf. He doesn’t understand our kind and shouldn’t be involved in our business.”

“I’m not asking him to join our Pack, Ryan. I’m suggesting we get information from him. He obviously has contacts and resources that we don’t, and until we build those up, it would be stupid for us not to use him.”

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