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“Really? He’ll listen to Tanner.” Lily’s eyes brightened, and she looked thoughtful. “Maybe we can start our own shifter fight club, a legit one. I reckon I could make some serious moolah. All those idiots saw was a kid. It was so much fun beating them up!” She cackled, and I smiled at her enthusiasm.
“It’s not a bad idea, you know,” I said. Lily rewarded me with a huge smile while Silas scowled again, unimpressed we were all siding against him.
“Maybe give your dad a bit of time to get over you being kidnapped first, yeah,” I suggested. Silas nodded in agreement.
“Cole’s right. Your dad was in bits, Lily. He needs a moment.”
Lily’s face dropped, but a determined glint remained in her eye that told me she wasn’t letting this idea rest. And to be honest, it was a good one. Plenty of shifters enjoyed fighting, and if we publicized it well, I was sure loads of human guys would sign up to take us on, especially against the females, who, of course, they’d underestimate.
With the right precautions in place, it could be a safe space to let off steam for kids like Lily. And we could also run shifter adult fights, with penalties for shifting before your opponent tapped out.
Cilla stuck her head around the door. “The healer is here. Lily, leave these guys alone. I have food ready for you girls.”
“Yay! I’m starving! I could legit eat a cow. I’m so hungry!” She pressed a quick kiss to Eva’s bruised cheek and then scampered off, throwing a cheeky wink at Silas on the way out. “Bye, grandpa!”
“Jesus, Lily is why I don’t want kids,” Silas muttered.
“You don’t want kids?” Eva looked crestfallen.
I glared at him and he realized immediately he’d put his foot in it. Apologize!
“No…I mean YES! I want kids! Just not a little brat like Lily.”
Eva’s relief was palpable.
“Do you want kids?” I asked. She was only 18, so it wasn’t a conversation we’d had yet, but it made sense that she would want children. She had so much love to give, I could picture her with a whole brood of babies, all of them beautiful like her.
“Yeah.” She smiled softly. “I love kids. I always dreamed of being a teacher. But then dad died and…” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t need to say anything else. We all knew what, or rather who, happened next.
“Maybe you still can,” I suggested. “Once you feel well enough, you could get your high school certificate, go to college, study, and become a teacher. The pack kids are pretty bad at attending school, so having a teacher around would help them a lot.”
“Really?” The way her eyes lit up with excitement made me determined to make it happen. Whatever it took, Eva’s dream would come true. The only possible fly in the ointment was Tanner. I wasn’t sure he’d be willing to let her out of his sight for the next 100 years.
Tanner
My smile brimmed with grim satisfaction as I surveyed the carnage. Blood, bodies, and a few severed limbs. The makeshift fight rings Carlos’s men had erected were slippery with gore. Once we removed all the bodies, we’d burn the fight rings to remove DNA evidence.
If I had my way, the whole place would soon be a raging inferno, but Rufus was reluctant to do that because it would likely attract too much attention. Right now, it was merely a spooky landmark, notable only for the fact the local kids sometimes broke in during warmer weather. If it burned down, the cops would soon be all over the place, which none of us wanted.
Lily, Jessa, and the two other shifter females were safe, on their way back to the pack house with Rufus and the Misty Falls Alpha. The rest of us were busy cleaning up the trash. And by trash, I meant Carlos’s guards and any other idiot who thought it was a good idea to fight back against us.
We’d taken them all by surprise. The guards at the exit had run the moment we shifted, most of them not even bothering to fire their weapons. Those that fought back didn’t last long.
Once we got inside the old winery, all hell broke loose. Humans fled like rabbits, inadvertently triggering our powerful prey response. Not gonna lie. Some of them died because they were too stupid to stop running.
Frankly, I had no sympathy for the idiots. If they were happy to pay money to watch kids get beaten up by grown-ass men, they deserved it.
It didn’t take long for most of Carlos’s men to surrender. The few that didn’t, died. The guards still alive were in a locked room, all tied up and waiting to be moved. I wasn’t about to murder men in cold blood.
Rufus knew a guy who worked for the FBI. He was on his way with a team to assist with the mess, off the books. The guy was a shifter. He understood the circumstances and had promised to deal with all the assholes we’d found.
He mentioned something about a drugs bust in the works, where a load of extra suspects wouldn’t look amiss if found at the scene, all wrapped up tidily like cute little Christmas gifts. The fact they’d be mixed in with a bunch of cartel members would be enough to see them thrown into prison for a while.
I’d been here long enough. Most of the guys who’d come with us were preparing to leave. In truth, there was nothing stopping me from doing the same. Rufus had things all sorted. He’d told me to go already, but as much as I wanted to see Eva, part of me was worried she’d blame me for everything.
We hadn’t spoken since the Full Moon Party, when I’d stupidly stormed off in a rage. I knew deep down she didn’t think I was a murderer. Not the kind of guy who killed his girlfriend in a fit of rage, anyway.
Both Silas and Cole had encouraged me to make things right, to talk to her like an adult, but I was no good at expressing my feelings. Never had been. I preferred actions, not words. The thought of seeing Eva, feeling her hurt, slayed me.
