Page 108 of Haze

Deacon opens the door, looking around. We nip and grab hold of his shirt, pulling him, and he nearly trips over us toward the stairs in the foyer.

“Woah, Lena, okay, going for Cade. Let go.” Deacon beats us up the stairs and darts down the hallway.

I wait at the stairs and whine loudly, calling for help.

The Leviathan’s red fur thunders down the stairs in a blur, running right past us. He’s out of sight before we can even cross the foyer.

Guess he’ll follow our scent and make a judgment call when he gets there.

Deacon walks over to us at the door. I turn back to him, and he runs his hands over the top of our head, pushing our ears down. Howls echo from outside the house. We skirt back behind Deacon, looking out.

Thalia’s footsteps approach from behind us. We look and wag our tail low. We hesitantly approach the outside world alongside her, crouched low to the floor.

For fuck’s sake, we have teeth and claws, go look out the door. I push my wolf and stand us up tall, head high, looking forward and taking our place next to the Luna.

Deacon opens the door wider for us, and we step out onto the porch to the side of the door. Looking out at the driveway, we see three sentries standing behind the two men who climbed the fence.

The Leviathan walks into the house past us. A moment passes, and he returns, in human form, wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

Where’s our mate? My wolf urges us to look for him. But I refuse to take our eyes off the men before us.

“Listen, man. Cade. Your Sovereign, sir. We’re really sorry. We were looking to get an exclusive story. Walk around, take some pictures. No one knows we were coming here; it’s not like anyone’s demanding pictures.” One of them starts talking. He’s the one who insisted it was a good idea.

The house door opens from the inside, drawing my attention. Finn walks out of the house barefoot, wearing his jeans and T-shirt from earlier. He crosses his arms in front of his chest and walks over to stand behind Cade like he would if he were Cade’s Second.

Cade’s letting the would-be intruders sweat it. He stands there staring at them on their knees in the driveway.

The one who didn’t want to be here, or at least he didn’t when he was climbing the fence, tries to beg for their lives. “We should have asked. It won’t happen again. Please let us out the gate. People will look for us. They know we were coming here. We won’t come back.”

“Did you hear that, Finn?” Cade barely turns his head over his shoulder.

“Aye,” Finn draws out. “Seems we can’t make up our minds if someone knows they’re here or not.”

Acidic and pungent, the scent of fear hangs heavy in the air. My wolf pushes, wanting us to duck behind Thalia, but I hold us steady at her side.

“Did we find their vehicle?” Cade addresses the sentries.

“Half mile down the road from where they tried to climb the wall.” One of the older sentries nods.

“You boys are stupid.” Finn laughs.

Cade looks at him. “Right? Who tries to climb the brick wall when they could go over the iron?”

The two idiots look between them.

“Sheriff is on his way, Sovereign.” One of the other sentries comes out of the darkness into the lit area of the driveway.

“Excellent.” Cade sighs, his shoulders rising and falling dramatically. “It’s a shame I haven’t gotten our entire property qualified for the castle doctrine.”

“Wh-what does that mean?” The hesitant-to-climb-the-wall one flounders to the idiot who encouraged him.

“God, do they teach nothing in your schools?” Finn asks with a joking little laugh. “If you break into a home, with occupants inside it, they have the right to use deadly force to remove you.”

“Fortunately for you, the state hasn’t accepted my petition that our home extends all the way to that fence.” Cade laughs. “Too bad, would have loved a good hunt.” Cade turns to Finn, tilting his chin toward the house. “No sense in both of us missing out on the evening with our mates. Please take them inside. Deacon and I can manage.”

Finn nods with a light bow of dismissal.

Once we’re inside with the door closed, we shake. Our whole body moves, trying to release the tension before we follow Finn up the stairs.

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