Page 281 of Secret Shifters Next Door

I looked over my shoulder at Jared, who was staring at the screen with a blank expression of horror. “What are you thinking, big guy?”

Jared blinked and looked over to me, then at the rest of us. Finally, he sighed and shook his head. “We’re gonna need help before my dad…er…Antonio comes. He's gonna send his best guys.”

“Hasn’t he already done that?” Steff asked.

Jared’s head moved slowly from side to side, terror sheening in his eyes. “You guys don’t get it. The people he’s sent haven’t been his best force. Ryland? Mariana? They were bottom barrel. He didn’t put his main force on us because your pack was small. Four guys? Easy pickings. All he’s ever done was send new or fresh recruits after you. His main force? The true fanatics? They're different.”

“How different?” Miles asked. He looked anxious, his shoulders tense as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Jared sagged back into his seat. “Antonio’s got a lot of money, and a lot of investigators. He’s made it his mission to find anyone and everyone who’s ever been wronged by shifters. He’s got at least two dozen people who served in the military or special operations. Guys whose wives left them for shifters or were raped by shifters. A drunk wolf shifter ran over your kid and killed them? Cool. Oh you were a Navy SEAL? Even better.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Steff said. “How could Antonio know all these things were done by shifters? A hit and run? There’s no way he could find that out.”

“You don’t get it, man. Grief fucks with your head. It doesn’t make you think right. All Antonio had to do was make thembelieve it was a shifter. Show them a video of a guy changing into a dragon or bear, explain that they are evil, and say, ‘this is the creature that ruined your life.’ After that, they fall right in. Guilty or not, they go for the throat.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Tate hissed.

“He’s got some guys who are…more extreme than others. They’re so far around the bend that it’s scary. Guys who’d mow down anyone. Men, women, children.” Jared shuddered involuntarily. “One of his teams came in and slaughtered my clan—I still have nightmares about it. The only reason I survived is that Antonio thought he could use me as a weapon. The screams?” Tears filled Jared’s eyes. “I still hear them. The babies? Their crying was silenced by gunfire. Fuck…oh fuck.” He buried his face in his hands and sobbed.

The muscles in my jaw jumped as I clenched my teeth. I could tell by the looks on the other guys' faces that none of us had expected Jared to open up like that. Seeing his reaction at remembering his family and friends dying ended any and all doubts I’d had about him. This was visceral for him. An exposed nerve that would never heal. My brother’s memory was the same for me. What Jared had said about grief fucking with your head hit a little too close to home, but I tried to bury that.

Tate walked over and put a hand on Jared’s shoulder. “You good? You don’t have to be a part of this if you don’t want to.”

Jared looked up, eyes red and watery. “No way. I’m in this. Antonio has to pay. Not just for my clan, but for everything else. As crazy as Mariana was, she was my sister. I loved her in my own way. Antonio twisted her mind and made her into what she was, just like he did with me. Mariana deserves justice. I’ll give you any information you need to take them down. This has to end.”

“Okay then,” Miles said as he pulled up a map on the big screen. He seemed more at ease when he could make a plan.“What do we need to know? We have to jump out ahead of this. We know about the training camp here.” He placed a dot on the map. “What other camps do we know of?”

Jared whipped his eyes and looked at the map. “Well, now that Antonio knows I’m with you, he may have shuffled things around to maintain security, but I’ll tell you what I know.” He pointed at a few different areas on the map. “There are threemainhunter groups in the country. Everything else sort of branches off them. One is on the West Coast, the second is on the East Coast. Antonio hasn’t managed to branch out to multiple countries yet. There’ve been some ops there, but he has no presence outside of the US. The third group is being trained to do that. That group works around the northern and southern borders, but soon they’ll make their way to either Canada or Mexico to start new branches. If we can take out the main teams, the entire organization will be thrown into chaos.”

“Fuck,” Steff said dryly. “Take out three heavily armed, highly trained militant groups? The four of us? Should be no problem.”

Miles glanced at him with narrowed eyes. He didn’t tell him to shut up, but the look said all it needed to. Steff rolled his eyes and kept quiet.

“First things first,” Tate said. “We need to send our mates and children somewhere safe. They can’t be here when shit goes down. We need to set up a safe house or something for them to hole up in until this is finished.”

The mention of mates sent another deep burning ache through my chest. Even in the midst of all this, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I’d lost the very thing my brothers were bound to—the very thing I’d wanted when they hadn’t. I tuned Tate and the others out as they discussed possible locations to send the mates and kids. It was bad enough without having to hear themtalking about it. My panther was nowhere near recovered from the rejection.

“We need to call all our allies,” Tate said. “Anyone we can think of who can help us. Even if they can’t help us, we need to warn them that a war is coming. They should be prepared.”

Jared did not look confident. “We need an army. Do you think there will be enough people to help?”

“Not sure. Won’t know until we make the calls,” Miles said. “I don’t think there’s anything else to talk about. Let’s all head home, grab some rest. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

Everyone got up and headed for the door, but Miles called to me before I was out. “Blayne, got a second?”

I stopped and waited until the others were out the door. “What’s up?”

Miles scrutinized me before he spoke. “Are you gonna be okay? Through all this, I mean?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” What was he asking?

“Have you been able to shift since Ava broke the bond?”

Tendrils of anxiety swirled in my stomach. I smiled sardonically. “Not yet, but my panther’s probably only licking his wounds. He doesn’t take rejection well, I guess. No need to worry. We’ll be ready when the time comes.”

Miles gripped my shoulder. “We’re all family, bro. If whatever happened with Ava was too much for you to bear, just say so. We’ll help. We won’t judge. It’s what we are here for. Why we’re a pack.”

A surge of burning heat ran up the back of my throat toward my eyes. I swallowed hard, desperate not to let any tears spill in front of Miles. I refused to let them see me as some weak kitten. I looked down at the floor. “Nah, I’m all right. Totally fine.” I turned to leave. “Thanks, though.”

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