Page 33 of Destined Predator
“Hey. Back off.” Casey was there, between his brother and the advancing agent. “I don’t know who you think you are or what your ‘department’ does—?”
“That’s classified,” both agents replied.
“Or who you think we are…?”
“Coywolf shifters,” Agent Rand answered, as though Casey had asked him what year it was, or who the president was.
“What? Why on earth would you think that?” Rhett threw in, lacing his tone with incredulity.
Casey stepped half a pace closer without thinking. The movement was small enough no one else noticed, but it put his body between Rhett and the nearest weapon. Instinct overruled strategy every damn time.
“Erm, I think you should have gone with, ‘what on earth is that?’” his brother told him.
Both agents remained impassive, and Casey sighed, deciding to bite the bullet and hoping that was only a figure of speech. He shot a quick look at his family and destined mate. “Whatever you might be thinking about us Akers—”
“That you’re coywolf shifters.” Agent Perez was the one to answer this time, making him and his partner the perfect double act.
“Whatever. But you gotta know that the Tuckers ain’t a part of that,” Casey argued.
“But they know of their existence.Yourexistence.” Agent Rand’s ice-blue eyes were on Casey, but he was keeping everyone else in his sight.
Casey remained silent, hoping it would force the agent to show his hand.
“They more thanknow—theyconsortwith.Matewith. Which shouldn’t be possible. Do you know how valuable that is? How much we want to study you?”
The wordvaluablemade Casey’s hackles rise. People valued cattle. People studied specimens. He flexed his hands under the table until his claws almost pushed through.
And Agent Rand had afullhand.Damn.Casey might have answered then if he hadn’t been hit with a wave of fear, not his but Rhett’s. And not Rhett’s for himself, but for Jack, his little brother, because he was mate to Ben. That Rhett wasn’t nervous about himself, because he was destined mate to a shifter too, told Casey everything he didn’t need to ask about Rhett’s feelings, his lack of acceptance of his own state.
“Relax.” Agent Perez surprised Casey by speaking and addressing Jack and Ben where they stood close together. “No one’s suggesting you’ll be kidnapped and taken away to be probed in a government lab.”
“You just fucking did!” Jack pointed out.
“Yeah, why do I get the feeling it’s like when there’s some scandal in politics or showbiz and some star or politician all of a sudden announces he’s never met ‘those girls’ and never been to ‘those parties’?” Ben asked.
Jack laughed. “Yeah, it does kinda tip you off that his name’s coming up next, right?”
Casey envied them their closeness and understanding of the other. He caught Rhett looking at them and wondered if he did, too. “Rhett?” he asked, continuing when Rhett turned to him, “We’re on your property. What do you want to do about this?”
“Right. You’re right. And I haven’t offered anyone refreshments yet.” Rhett pressed the back of his hand to his mouth in a gesture Casey was getting familiar with, although hehad no idea what Rhett was doing right then. “So let’s all go into the kitchen, huh?”
Once in there, everyone took seats at the long table—the agents on one side, next to each other. Rhett and Jack bustled around, pulling sodas and juice from the refrigerator and opening cupboards for glassware and coasters. Rhett was even poking in a locked cupboard, talking about ‘decent tableware’ but Jack put a pile of ordinary-looking plates on the table.
Emil hummed a nursery tune that Casey recognized asThe Farmer Wants A Wife, and he scowled at his brother, then at Robin when he wouldn’t sit, preferring to lean against the dresser along one side of the room. Casey gave in and sat next to Rhett, dragging another chair to the head of the table to do so, just as Jack and Ben were together at the foot.
“So?” he demanded of the agents.
“We can’t tell you much, only what you need to know.” Agent Rand accepted a glass of iced water from the pitcher. “But things have been happening here—reason why we were called in.”
“Here as in the town?” Casey asked, trying to divert attention from the slaughter that had taken place…here. “So why come to the ranch and not go into Britton? To the autoshop or to our house?”
“Oh, we’ll be calling in at all the locations we need to,” Agent Perez assured him. “Now, as to the nature of the activity that we were alerted to—”
“Ernesto.” Robin pushed himself upright so he was no longer leaning against the dresser. Rand glanced at Perez. “Where is he?” Robin demanded.
“Interesting.” Rand’s expression looked more like he found it disgusting. “Most…people, using the term to include shifters, ask ‘what is he?’ rather thanwhereis he. So I’m guessing you know the first piece of information.”
“You didn’t answer the question.” Ignoring what the agent had asked, Robin took a step nearer. For a young man, one who was relatively inexperienced and who hadn’t quite filled out yet, he seemed self-possessed and focused. Intense, even. Casey always thought of him as his baby brother, who liked cartoons and drawing pictures, but he was old enough to go after what he wanted, Casey was learning.
