Page 86 of Rhett
Clancy snorted. “Unprovoked? That’s bullshit. Before they attacked the female, I heard the disgusting things they planned to do to her. And these men were her peers. Trackers like her.”
“They worked for the Shifter Council?” I asked. “How do you know this?”
“Because I didn’t immediately leave the scene after the attack,” Clancy replied. “I camouflaged myself in the forest, far enough away not to be seen, but close enough to see and hear everything. I needed to make sure the female would be taken care of. Eventually, the female awoke, and some guy showed up. According to his conversation with the female, he was a Tracker too. Quinn, what the Shifter Council told you about that night was a lie, and the video they showed you had to have been altered.”
Quinn sighed heavily. “Well, this puts everything in a different perspective.”
“Yep,” Jasper chimed in. “Quinn, we can’t turn him in to the Shifter Council.”
“Turn me in?” Clancy asked. “I was defending her.”
“That’s not what the Council believes,” Quinn said. “You’re now on their most wanted list. And I’m under a lot of scrutiny from the Council. They blame me for your attack.”
“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Clancy said.
“I told them that you weren’t in the Ridge,” Quinn said. “And that I’d turn you in if you ever showed back up. Clearly, now that I know the real story, I have no intention of doing that. But you should know that their Trackers are looking for you in the human world.”
“I’m former Special Ops like you,” Clancy said. “They won’t find me unless I want to be found.”
“Good,” Quinn replied. “Because I’m not telling them where you’re at.”
“But what about all those townsfolk at the town hall?” Clancy asked. “They saw me.”
“But they don’t know you’re a fugitive,” I replied. “Quinn only told the pack and a few trusted friends.”
“Yep.” Quinn nodded. “I already had enough trouble with the feral sickness problem in the Ridge. I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire by telling residents about what you did.”
Finally we made it to one of the many spots that we considered the edge of the forest.
“Stop here,” Clancy ordered.
I parked, and we all hopped out. Opening the trunk, I handed out backpacks filled with supplies to Quinn and Jasper, then tugged my own pack onto my back.
Clancy pointed to the left of the forest. “Straight through there. You should find him easily with that Tracker”—he looked at Jasper—“you have there.” He glared at the three of us. “Clear Sam from the edge. He’s getting too close to my territory.”
Now it made sense. Clancy came to the town hall to snitch about Sam’s whereabouts because he wanted to ensure Sam didn’t encroach on the piece of the edge that he now called home.
Without another word, Clancy lumbered off in the other direction.
“Wait,” Quinn called out.
Clancy stopped but didn’t turn around to face us.
Quinn continued. “Freya’s found a solution for unmated males. She’s cast a mating spell that called all fated mates of the unmated males to the Ridge. One of them that might show up could be yours.”
“It’s too late for me!” Clancy shouted. “I’m too far gone.”
“Freya thinks that not only can fated mates stop unmated males from going feral but cure feral shifters like you of your feral sickness.”
“I already know who she is,” Clancy responded. “And she deserves a hell of a lot better than me. It’s for the best that I stay away from her.” Then he strode into the forest.
The three of us stared at his retreating back.
“I ain’t trying to be insensitive, but I’m one lucky bastard,” I said with clenched fingers. “If Nova hadn’t come along when she did, in a year or sooner, I probably would have suffered the same fate as Clancy.”
Along with most unmated males in the Ridge, all the men in our pack—except mated Quinn—had been spending more and more time in our animal form. Days would go by without us shifting back to our human. Our animals were going insane without our fated mates. It was a fucked-up and sad situation. And since I’d relocated to the Ridge, I’d heard of several perfectly good men going feral—or, as some old-timers called it, getting the feral sickness—and then wandering off into the vast land called the outer edges of the Ridge, never to be seen again.
Quinn nodded. “I would have for sure if I hadn’t been blessed with the love of my life, Imani.”
