Page 122 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“Probably,” Logan said, chuckling as he made his way to the bureau and grabbed some clothes and quickly changed. When he was done, Logan made his way back to the bed and scooped up Shane and carefully threw him over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Shane asked only to follow that up with a groan when he was forced to grab hold of the back of Logan’s shirt.

“Pack land,” Logan said, carefully shifting Shane over his shoulder as he headed for the door. “I had everything set up months ago.”

“Wait. Why are they getting glitter?” came the panicked demand that had Logan’s lips twitching as he paused outside the playroom to find Tomas standing there, struggling not to panicas he watched the twins tear through the craft box with Jill’s help.

“Shane has fleas,” Caleb said, nodding solemnly as he grabbed the bottle of black glitter while Jill helped Emma pick out construction paper.

He felt Shane go still against his back before he bit out, “I don’t have fleas!”

“I’m taking him to the Pack land,” Logan said, watching as Tomas opened his mouth only to close it and swallow hard as he watched Caleb grab a large bottle of glue and another bottle of glitter with an unholy smile on his face.

“Please don’t do this to me,” Tomas said hollowly as Logan carried Shane into the room.

“You’ll be fine,” Logan promised him, biting back a wince when Caleb grabbed a bottle of red glitter.

“Logan?” Jill said, putting everything into that one word as her gaze shot to Shane.

“I’ll keep him safe, Angel,” Logan promised as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Promise?” Jill asked, reaching up to run her fingertips over his jaw.

“Always,” Logan said against her forehead before he stepped back and gave Emma’s cheek a gentle caress. “Be good for Mommy.”

Nodding, Emma grabbed the bottle of green glitter and joined Caleb at the table as Logan reluctantly turned around and headed for the door. With a pointed look at Tomas, Logan said, “Keep my family safe.”

“Who’s going to keep me safe?” Tomas asked as his gaze shifted back to Caleb and muttered, “Oh, God, no…” when Caleb’s gaze shifted to the fingerpaint. Chuckling, Logan headed for the door. A moment later, he was carrying Shane downstairs and made his way into the living room.

“Please hurry, Dad,” Shane mumbled weakly.

“It’s going to be okay,” Logan promised, quickly making his way across the library, all while telling himself that everything was going to be okay. He-

“Dad?” Shane said when Logan went still, his gaze locking on the bookshelf hiding the passageway.

Swallowing hard, Logan pulled his phone out of his pocket and swiped it open. He pressed his fingertip against the app that had been blockingTattletalefrom finding him and turned it off before scrolling through his contacts. In seconds, he found the number that he knew would save his family and hit “send” as the sounds of boots hitting the stone stairs on the other side of the door reached him and-

“Come and fucking get me.”

CHAPTER 59

“It was an accident,” Caleb said while Jill stood there, struggling not to smile as more glue dripped onto the floor.

“Lies,” Tomas bit out, visibly seething as his eyes flashed silver, which only made Caleb smile. That glare quickly died on a grumble when Emma held her arms up, silently demanding that he pick her up. Grumbling something about glue and shifters, Tomas obediently picked her up and kissed her forehead as he glared down at Caleb.

Clearing her throat, Jill said, “I’ll get a facecloth.”

That was followed by more grumbling as Jill made her way to her room to grab a facecloth from the bathroom. She took her time selecting everything that she was going to need to get the glue and glitter out of Tomas’ hair while she told herself that everything was going to be fine. Logan would make sure that Shane made it through his first transition and…

Something was wrong.

A sense of unease trickled down her spine, followed by a trickle of fear before it was completely destroyed by a surge of anger followed by pure rage, making her stumble back and-

“Shane,” Jill said, struggling not to panic as she quickly made her way around the bed to grab her phone off the nightstand, praying that it wasn’t too late. She quickly dialed Logan’s number as she made her way back around the bed only to feel her stomach drop when she heard Logan’s phone ringing from the hallway. Telling herself that Shane was okay, Jill quickly made her way into the hallway only to find several armed men waiting for her as the sounds of their heartbeats reached her. Slowly exhaling, Jill counted six men, human and shifters, and all of them were heavily armed, before her gaze shifted to Tomas to find him on his knees, bleeding from his mouth and his ear with a gun pressed against the back of his head.

Knowing that wouldn’t be enough to stop him, Jill followed his glare to the right to the large man holding a dagger against Emma’s chest and she didn’t have to ask to know that it was silver.

Her gaze shot to Caleb and-

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