Page 5 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 3
I watchedTrinity lean against a nearby tree, muttering under her breath, but I did as she’d asked and gave her space. The last thing I wanted was to piss her off and have to chase her down again. Part of me argued I should just take her to the nearest town and be done with it, but the bear within me growled and snarled at the very thought.
Leaving her was not an option.
Instinct was driving me, no matter what I’d tried to tell myself. I would never be rid of her.
It wouldn’t be easy to explain or help her deal with the fact that she was a Protector.
The satellite phone in my back pocket went off, and I extracted it as Trinity turned to gaze at me. Turning away, I answered, “Sheenan.”
“Taggert on the line for you, sir. One moment,” a man on the other end replied.
Seconds later, Taggert came on. “Fergus, Taggert here. I have some information for you, but I’m only giving it to you on one condition.”
I rubbed my brow and tried not to growl. I’d known Taggert would eventually get smart and start withholding information from me. But his scheming was going to get him in trouble one of these days. Just not this one. I needed the information too much to argue.
“What do you want to know?”
There really wasn’t that much more to tell. He knew about the Hunt, but I was sure Taggert had already come up with fifty more questions to ask.
“Is there a reason you haven’t brought Price in yet?”
The question caught me off guard, and I glanced down at the snow covering my boots. “Why do you ask, sir?”
“This Hunt business sounds like something you don’t want me to be involved in.”
“Well, sir, to be honest with you, I have laws I have to abide by as leader of my clan.”
After a moment of silence, I heard ice clinking on the other end. It must have been a tough day if he’d already broken out the whiskey.
“What precisely do those laws mean, Fergus? I have a feeling I’ll not see Josh Price on my base soon.”
“What do you want me to tell you?”
“If I will not see him brought to justice, you swear to me right now you’ll kill him so he’ll never harm another soul on this damn earth.”
I glowered. “I swear it, sir. Can I ask what made you go against your own regulations?”
“Children, Fergus!” Taggert yelled. “We found the bodies of children.”
“Shit,” I whispered. “You have my word, sir. He will never leave my land alive.”
“Your land? He’s in your territory?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s trying to set off a shifter war. Might have something to do with Trinity. Can you tell me what you know, or do you want to know something else?” I asked, hoping Taggert heard the lack of patience in my voice.
I was the leader of my clan, and it always grated on my nerves to take orders from someone who wasn’t a part of my world. Maybe Taggert understood that, or at least maybe he would back off a bit after we stopped Price—if we stopped Price.
“Got it right here,” Taggert announced. “Her parents were murdered, brutally, three days after she’d been given up for adoption. They did not find the killer.”
Shit. I knew it.“Do you know how they were murdered?”
Taggert cursed. “Ripped to pieces by what looked like a wild dog attack. They dumped their bodies out in the country, only twenty miles from Price’s land.”
“That fucker,” I barked.
“Fergus, what’s going on?”
I glanced up to see Trinity heading over to me.
