Page 36 of Crew

“I’m here, Crew.”

“Hey, baby.”

She grinned. “Hi yourself.”

“Can you watch the monitors while Avi patrols? I was thinking about it last night.”

“Avi and I were just talking about it,” she said. “I’d be happy to.”

“Stay safe, sweetheart. I’ll be back soon.”

“Youstay safe,” she said.

“I will.”

Avi twisted the knob and set the walkie back in the holster. “Let’s turn you into a security monitoring expert as fast as possible.”

“I’m up for the job,” she said. She’d do anything to help keep the herd—and her soulmate—safe.

Crew could count on one hand the times in his life he’d felt unsafe. Among them when he’d first shifted as a teen and got separated from the herd on a midnight run, and when he’d lost his father to his cousin’s schemes and been forced out on his own. And then most recently when Zara had been hurt, and he’d seen her holding that gardening knife while she’d been incapacitated with her injury.

He kept replaying in his head how close he’d come to possibly losing her, and it just made him even more determined to keep her safe. And the herd. He didn’t want Dexter and Khyle to worry about their mates, or for any of the herd to be injured.

His hand rested on the walkie that was attached to his belt. It was past midnight and he was halfway between the farmhouse and the main barn. The front gate was closed and locked and his phone was set to alert him if any of the security cameras or motion detectors around the territory were triggered. They had a couple hundred acres, which was far too much to patrol regularly, so they’d decided to patrol the main area and buildings and let the security tools do their job.

He'd said goodnight to Zara at ten and stepped outside for his shift.

Ford had the other walkie on his nightstand so Crew could alert him if he needed a hand or saw something suspicious.

While he hoped the night went by smoothly and he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he knew in his gut that Colton wasn’t done. After what Grey had witnessed at their makeshift camp, he knew they were going to keep coming after them. He didn’t like feeling like a sitting duck, but he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

He looked around slowly. The moonlight made everything look eerily silver and messed with his ability to see things clearly, so he left his post and walked to the fence at the road and followed along it, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

That truck hadn’t been back, thankfully. But he found the whole thing suspicious and it made him feel like they were being watched, and that put him on edge.

He checked the gate to make sure it was locked, then walked the entire front of the property, ensuring each motion detector and camera were functioning and where they should be.

After checking on the other buildings, he made his way to the farmhouse and saw movement. He tensed for a moment, but then he realized it was Zara stepping off the porch and heading his direction. She was holding something that had a soft glow to it in one hand, and as she came closer, he saw it was a tablet.

“Hi,” she whispered.

He gave her a kiss, inhaling her naturally sweet scent.

“Hi, sweetheart. What are you doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep without you.”

“Sorry,” he said, “I wish I was in bed with you too.”

“I brought you some coffee,” she said, holding up a metal travel mug with a lid. “And the tablet.”

He looked at the tablet; it was the one they’d set up to give them another way to monitor the security system without being stuck in the den.

Looking down at her, he saw her looking up at him expectantly, the moonlight making her look like an angel wearing one of his shirts that came to the middle of her thighs.

Hells bells, she looked good enough to eat.

“Thanks for the coffee, love,” he said.

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