Page 40 of Gavin

Gavin recalled hearing that Victor had bought bear traps from a hunting supply store. Now they knew what he’d planned to do with them, but how the hell did he get past the security measures?

Ryan lifted his walkie and used the security team channel to alert the patrol to be on the lookout for traps. Midas got on the channel.

“Damn it, is everyone okay?”

“They’re good,” Ryan said. “Gavin and I will walk them carefully back to the house.”

“Call in everyone. We’ll do a grid search through the territory. No telling how many he set.”

“Got it.” Ryan sent an alert to everyone on the security team, including the new members who had been drafted to help with patrols during this crazy time. Then he and Gavin moved to the couple and formed a line in front of them after Gavin picked up the tripped bear trap. “We’ll walk slowly. Everyone keep your eyes peeled.”

Gavin had never been so careful where he put his damn feet in his entire life. It was a terrible thing to do to a person, and could even kill them if they were in their shift and the trap closed on an artery.

“I’ve seen some intel about this Victor asshole,” Ryan said with a low voice. “There isn’t anything he won’t do to hunt and capture unique shifters. I think he’s the best because he’s got a lot of tricks up his sleeve.”

“You think this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to him trying to get to Sadie?”

“I hate to say it, but yes.”

Gavin rubbed his stomach as he let his gaze roam slowly in front of them. “I’ve had a bad feeling since yesterday that something was going to happen. But Sadie hasn’t left the house since those people infiltrated our territory the first time.”

“But you have,” Ryan said. “It would make sense that you getting hurt would bring her out of the house. Or maybe they just want to wreak havoc where they can, like when they set the bomb at the vampire bank.”

“Good point.”

It took them twenty minutes to get to the house. After dropping off the couple and their cub, Gavin took a few minutes to tell Sadie what was going on, and then he left with the others to look for more traps.

“I know you’ll be careful,” Sadie said as they said goodbye on the porch once more.

“I will. You be careful too. Don’t step foot outside this house for any reason.”

She nodded.

He gave her a quick kiss. “I’m sorry, baby. We’ll figure out how to stop this. I don’t know how, but we will.”

“I know.”

He pulled the door shut, leaving the security team to watch over his precious mate, and stormed off into the woods to catch up to his team and find the other traps. Because he was certain there were more traps, he just wasn’t sure why they’d been set. To get to him? To take out security personnel? Just to be an asshole?

Anything was possible, and he hated not knowing what to do to keep his mate safe.

Several hours later,Gavin was back at Midas’s house and the grid search had turned up a dozen more traps. After much discussion with the elders and high ranked males on the security team, which included Gavin, it was decided that they’d add vehicle patrols around the outside of Whisper Creek, including back roads and trails, because while it seemed impossible that the poacher or the people working with him had gotten close enough to set traps, there was no mistake that they’d been set.

Midas walked out of the conference room with Gavin. “How’s Sadie doing?”

“She feels bad that this is disrupting everyone’s lives.”

“She shouldn’t,” Midas said. “She’s your mate and that makes her part of the pride, and no one fucks with my people, period.” He lowered his voice. “We’ve got hackers working on finding where this Victor guy is, or at the least Brent and his anti-shifter jerkwads, since we know they’re working together.”

“More than our people?”

“Yes, Alpha Adam put some of his best guys on it at your friend Brick’s request. They were already searching for Brent, but they’re laser-focused on it now because of what’s happening.”

“That’s great news.”

Midas nodded. Romeo, who had been Midas’s right-hand male before he mated Ashley, strode up to them. “I’ve got vehicles ready. We’ll run two at a time around the clock. I wish to hell we knew when the traps were set or how they got by our security systems.”

“I want to know that too,” Midas said with a growl.

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