Page 51 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“What happened?” Logan asked as he finished his imaginary tea, knowing that the mutt wouldn’t have come back here without a good reason.

“There’s movement at the brownstone,” Gray said after a slight hesitation.

“You’re sure about that?” Logan asked as he shifted his attention to his laptop and pulled up the security feed.

“Positive,” Gray said as Logan swiped through the security feed, absently noting that Caleb was cuddling on the couch with his teddy bear and the plate of the brownies that Jill baked for the children earlier until he found the live feed of the back bedroom.

“What happened?” Logan asked, dutifully accepting the green crayon that Emma handed him as a sense of dread washed over him before it suddenly disappeared.

The connection to her was just strong enough to tease him and he fucking hated it. He wanted more. He wanted this connection to her, wanted the peace that she brought to wash over him and swallow him whole. He wanted to know that she was safe and he was fucking terrified of doing anything that would make this connection stronger.

She…

Christ, she was slowly destroying him, Logan thought, grinding his jaw as he forced himself to ignore the surge of sadness that swept over him.

For more than eight hundred years, he’d searched for Pierce, tearing this fucking world apart looking for any-fucking clue that would lead him to the man that took Elizabeth from him only to finally track him down with the help of an adorable Sentinel and now…

He was breaking his promise.

“They’re preparing the brownstone,” Gray said, grabbing his attention in a big fucking way.

“When?” Logan demanded as his gaze turned silver.

“Sometime in the past week,” Gray said with a pointed look at the little girl refilling Logan’s teacup.

“Go keep your brother company for me, min smael,” Logan said, taking a sip of the imaginary tea as his little shadow hugged her coloring book and box of crayons against her chest and quickly made her way to the door, making sure to put as much space between her and the large shifter as she could.

Once she was gone, Logan asked, “Has Pierce been spotted at the brownstone?”

There was a slight hesitation before Gray said, “Only humans have been spotted so far.”

Nodding slowly, Logan absently drummed his fingertips against the freshly polished table as he watched the shifter’s gaze follow the move, pausing on the patch of red skin on the back of his hand that refused to heal. “What about the New York Packs?”

“They’re not talking,” Gray said as he glanced over his shoulder before releasing a heavy sigh. “They’re too busy trying to figure out where you are so that they can claim the bounty.”

“Any thoughts on helping them with that?” Logan asked, watching the shifter closely.

“No,” Gray bit out between clenched teeth as his eyes flashed silver, which was understandable considering what the New York Packs did to him when he was a boy before they sold him to Pierce. “But I think it’s time that we used the bounty on the children to lure Pierce out.”

It would be the smart thing to do and would end this faster, but…

“There’s been a change of plans. We’re keeping the children out of this,” Logan said, deciding that he was going to have to come up with another plan because there was no way that he was going to risk Pierce getting his hands on them.

“We can end this now,” Gray reminded him.

“The children are under my protection,” Logan said as he glanced at the pink teacup that his little shadow dutifully kept full for him with imaginary tea.

“They’re marked,” Gray said after a slight hesitation, drawing his attention back to the shifter as he allowed his eyes to flash silver and-

“They’re mine.”

CHAPTER 26

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jill demanded as soon as Logan walked into the bedroom.

“About…” Logan asked as he made his way to his bureau and took his time pulling everything out of his pockets and placing them neatly on top of the freshly polished surface.

“You called them bait,” Jill said hollowly as she remembered the first conversation they had about the children.

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