Page 60 of Claimed

I can scent the faint aromas of three male shifter scents in this room. One alpha, two betas, I suspect. One of those scents matches the faint beta scent I can now smell in the library – the dead shifter they brought to the basement.

Most shifters wouldn’t smell it since he’s in the freezer, but I do. And it’s been making it difficult to be there.

Riley killed that dude for abducting Erica. And now the air is filled with Riley’s claiming scent. And though the whole thing is upsetting and concerning, the scent of Riley’s mating brings relief. While peoplein the knowinitially thought she might bethe wicked witch of the westfor what she did to Rye, I quickly saw it’s not the case. And that’s part of why I haven’t jumped to conclusions about my brother’s mate either.

We’re seeing that this council’s pairings are unique. Last council had six of our seven alphas mate with female shifters, the only anomaly being my dad’s first mating to Greyson’s bio mom, awitch. But this time we’ve so far got two humans, a witch, and finally a she-shifter.

With three left to go I have to wonder how it’ll go. I know how I hope it goes for at least one of them. Well, two. Because I know that though Cicely won’t admit it, she hopes Linc wakes up one day soon and knows it’s her.

Buzz among unmated women in the pack is that at least we’ve finally got one female shifter in the mix, even though she did what she did. Even though she’s not local. We were beginning to wonder if there would be any of our kind at all and this was concerning to some because of what it might do to our bloodlines going forward.

This irked me, of course, because I’m not full-blooded shifter so I can’t give birth to a full-blooded shifter and if I do wind up with the shifter I want I don’t know if my being the dame who sires them will affect that child’s ability to shift or be on a future council, but talk like this is nothing new… I’ve heard biased opinions (and been the butt of jokes) on mixed race pack members my whole life. Nobody teases Grey for being half witch because he’s a council super-alpha so clearly even though he’s only half wolf shifter genetically speaking, he’s morealphathan most of our male population.

The other reason I came to town today was sparked by an idea I got while visiting with Erica Young in her cool van the other day. To pick up my online order at the Drowsy Hollow shipping store. I didn’t want it to come to our village where there could be questions, especially questions from Cicely who might catch the fragrance. I wouldn’t be prepared to lie to her and certainly wouldn’t want to admit the truth – that I placed a rush order for a pheromone perfume on the internet to see if I could catch Jase’s attention with it.

I saw a shadow box apothecary decoration in Erica’s van and though she told me it was a gag gift, on one of the jars it said love potion number ninety-six. I figure it’s a lot safer to use a pheromone perfume than to have a witch cast a spell, particularly since Erica can’t use her magic and would likely refuse anyway.

Of course I want Jason Creed to want me because he really wants me, not because of a fake spell, but I couldn’t resist buying the perfume just as a little experiment to see if it catches his attention at all. To see if he even realizes I’m an adult female. Because he doesn’t act like it.

As I’m pulling into my driveway back at home with Stacy’s battered suitcase and the bag of gifts, I send my brother a text message.

Need me soon or ???

He messages back.

20 minutes?

I send a thumbs up.

I leave Stacy’s suitcase in my car, zip up to my bedroom, flinging my closet doors open to grab extra clothes for her. After I have about a dozen outfits on the bed, I pack them up and hit Mom and Dad’s liquor cabinet on the way out.

***

“Later,” Grey says and ruffles my hair on his way out the door.

The way he is with her is really, really sweet. And I’d have expected nothing less from my brother.

She’s timid. Nervous. She’s definitely grappling with some stuff. Grey is perfect for her.

“Be right back,” I tell her and follow my brother out.

He looks over his shoulder curiously at me.

“Talk to you for a minute?” I ask.

We get to my car and I open the back door. “Her stuff from the HoJo.”

He gives me a look, the look he gives me when I’m sticking my nose into someone else’s business. Which is kind of often.

“I’m friendly with one of the maids there. She said her room was paid up until yesterday so by tonight they’d have moved her belongings out into a storage area. She quit her job at the diner for a family emergency. I scented three shifter scents beyond your mate’s on those things. Not fresh, but also not all that old. One of the scents matches the guy in the freezer. Nadia said someone was banging on the door yesterday.”

“Fuck, Bailey,” he clips. “You realize what coulda happened, don’t you?”

“Huh?”

“If any of them were hangin’ around there they’d have caught your scent, known you’re one of us and took you.”

“Oh,” I whisper. “I was careful.” I point to my nose. “I didn’t catch any scents there before I approached Nadia.”

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