Page 3 of Gavin

“I don’t know if he’s going to just keep you in the house for the weekend or if he’s going to put you in the cells, but I’m worried. I’m… genuinely worried.”

Sadie sat heavily on the kitchen chair.

The cells were a literal prison in the basement of the alpha’s home, where he kept people who didn’t toe the line with his rules. Sadie had never been put into one of the cells, but the threat had always been there.

“He wants to hide the freak away from his visiting alpha brother.”

“I believe so. It’s just a guess on my part, but the males were talking about what the alpha was going to do about the curse to make sure that his brother didn’t find out about it, and you’re the only one the alpha refers to as a curse. Sadie, I think you should leave here.”

“Like now? Where would I go?”

Her mom came over to the table and put her hand on Sadie’s shoulder. “I have a place for you to go. An old friend.”

“You have an old friend? Who?”

“Her name is Alli and she’s a fallen angel. She and I met long ago before I met your father and settled down. I reached out toher and she said you can stay with her. I packed a bag for you, but you need to get going. It’s a long drive.”

Sadie rose to her feet, nerves skating through her. “A long drive to where?”

“Cleveland, Ohio.”

Chapter

Two

Gavin Abrams stopped at the edge of the woods that surrounded Whisper Creek and stared into the afternoon sunshine. He’d traded his coveralls for the black shirt and pants of the pride’s security team for the week. Normally he’d be in downtown Cleveland working on the hotel for the vampire coven alongside the other tiger shifters from the pride who worked for Midas the tiger king’s construction company. But one of the mated security team members just had a baby and wanted to take time off so Gavin jumped at the chance to not have to drive an hour one-way to get downtown.

He didn’t mind patrolling although it could get boring at times. It was definitely necessary. A few months ago, they were on the receiving end of a lot of problems from an anti-shifter group called Humans Against Shifters, led by a fanatical human named Brent Foley. He’d abducted Midas’s mate Maya and also Ashley, who’d once worked for Brent as a spy but was now mated to Midas’s former number two, Romeo.

So no one took the safety of the tiger pride for granted, and security patrols ran around the clock. Today Gavin was assigned the town’s perimeter, so he traversed the town in one continuous circle, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

His phone buzzed and he saw it was Ryan, the head of the security team and Midas’s new number two.

“Hey,” he said, answering on the second ring.

“Anything going on?”

“Nah. All quiet.”

“Good. When your shift is over, stop in at the security office, I’ve got a job for you.”

“Sure thing.”

He glanced at the screen when the call ended and saw he had an hour left on his shift, which gave him enough time to make one more circuit around the town before he headed in.

Turning from the edge of the territory, he grabbed his phone when it buzzed again.

“Hey, Ma,” he said.

“Have you talked to your sister?”

Gavin’s younger sister Aeryn was mated to a vampire named Merrix, and they had an adorable little baby named Seraphina. Aeryn was now immortal, as she and Merrix were beloved mates. Little Seraphina was a Valkyrie and was immortal too.

“Um, not in a week or so. Why?”

“She said she was going to talk to you about staying at your place because you have a light-tight house. They’re going to come for the full moon this weekend, isn’t that exciting?”

Considering that his parents hadn’t been thrilled at first when Aeryn mated Merrix, they’d come to love the big male, and it didn’t hurt that Seraphina was the first grandchild and a cutie.

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