Page 38 of Feral

“Fine, if you don’t want to tell me about the shipments, then tell me about clan MacDonald.”

He tried to hold the answer back and the cuffs now let out a hissing sound like cooking meat. He screeched and shook.

“They talked about your clan!” he screamed. “Said that you were a good experiment for what came next. “

James frowned at me and I could only stare back.

So the artifact was given to someone in my clan on purpose. But why?

James beat me to that question.

“It was an accident,” the Orc said. “I heard them talking. Something went wrong. Your clan was shipping artifacts and someone stole one. But they were going to let it go, see what happened before getting it back. That’s all I know, I swear it!”

My stomach dropped and I turned wide eyes to James.

“We would never ship artifacts,” I said.

“I know that. Either the manifests were doctored to hide the fact, or someone in your company is dirty. But no matter the reason, your clan is now square in the cross hairs of this mess. I’m sorry, Fraser.”

“Yer mission intersects with this. Now will ya talk to Director Dearborne about replacin’ the agent she chose?”

“You may be right Fraser, but no, I won’t do that.”

I turned away from him, biting back a curse.

“I don’t know what has your fur in a bunch,” James said, putting a heavy hand on my shoulder, “but you need to let it go. We are stretched very thin and I can’t just abandon my mission.”

“She’s too green for this!” I hissed out. “She’ll get hurt if these other agents are involved.”

“The director will see that she’s outfitted properly to compensate for that.”

It was the best I was going to get and it wasn’t enough.

I’ll just have to figure out a way to resist her.

It was a fool’s hope, I knew that. But it was also the only thing I could do to refrain from crossing all the lines that an honorable Were would never cross. No one but the lowest kind of being would ever force themselves on anyone just because they were…

Stop, don’t even think it!

“I’ve got to wait for the team to get here and search the place,“ James said. “It’s going to be a while. You can stick around if you’d like.”

“Naw, thanks.”

“Fraser,” he stopped me with a hand on my chest as I was heading for the door. “I believe this will all turn out for the best.”

I snorted.

“Well, that makes one of us,” I clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a halfhearted smile. “Ya still owe me a pint.”

James returned my smile with a hard one of his.

“And maybe a rematch?”

My grin widened.

“Deal.”

Chapter Nine

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