Page 12 of Brick

Caleb, in shock, stared at Brick for a quiet moment, then he wailed.

The team members rushed over, and Reba lifted Caleb into her arms after checking him for injury. “You’re okay, kiddo. Brick just took you for a ride.”

“I’ve got it!” Marcy, one of the recruits, said, holding a soaking wet stuffed rabbit in one hand. She wrung it out and gave it to Caleb, whose tears dried up immediately.

Solan offered his hand to Brick. “Quick thinking, man. That was a superhero-esque leap.”

Brick groaned as he stood, his bones feeling like they’d taken quite the jostling with the impact. But better him than the kid. “Just doing my job.”

“I texted Carl and he and Ben will meet us at Ben’s house.”

“Let’s get the kiddo home,” Brick said.

“Yeah, and maybe suggest they put a tracker on him,” Solan said.

“Or definitely never let him out of their sight.”

As they made their way back to the house, they saw where Caleb’s footprints started along the bank of the river. Brick suspected he was playing, and his bunny got caught in the creek’s current and he just walked away without realizing where he was going.

Julia was at the house when they arrived and rushed to take Caleb into her arms. She thanked everyone, and Ben, still in his wolf form, howled happily. “He must have climbed up the ledge to look for the bunny and then got scared,” Brick said. “Who knows how far he would have wandered if he hadn’t gotten stuck.”

“Thank you, guys, so much,” Julia said. “We’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again if we have to fence in the whole yard.”

“It’s our job,” Brick said, “And we’re always thankful for happy endings.”

He called the team and recruits away from the house and the rejoicing parents, and said, “Okay, that was a great way to show how our team just jumps right in to help in emergencies. For anyone who shifted, keep up your patrols with your team member, and the rest of you get back to it.”

Carl stood next to him as the others left. “That was damn exciting.”

“Yeah, it was,” he said. “It’s been a long time since something like that happened. Thankfully it had a good resolution. It could have been a lot worse.”

“For sure. So we’re going to get back to checking out the security cameras and motion detectors?”

“Yep. Then we’ll hit the perimeter and walk around the entire territory.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Brick glanced over his shoulder at the house where a young family could have experienced a terrible tragedy. He was thankful the child was being returned safely.

He saw Julia and Ben together with their son, and knew that in the future, his own family would be like that. He’d have his truemate by his side and they’d have children they would love and protect. His wolf felt an unshakable certainty about the future, that his mate would make him an even better protector than he already was because he’d be protecting the most precious thing in the world: his family.

His wolf let out a curious sound in his head as he and his uncle walked away, and Brick had the strangest feeling that something good was going to happen. And soon. He didn’t think his wolf was psychic, but Cinder’s prophecy yesterday had stayed with him, and he could definitely feel that a change was coming.

Maybe, just maybe, he’d be meeting his truemate soon, and then he could get the next chapter of his life going.

The chapter where he found the other half of his heart.

Chapter

Seven

Jade walked out of the bedroom three days after the full moon with an aching back and a grumpy disposition after spending another restless night tossing and turning. She found the seemingly always cheerful fallen angel in the kitchen washing blueberries before putting them into a bowl with other fruit.

“Morning, hon.”

Jade plastered a smile she didn’t feel on her face. “Morning.”

“You look like the dead. You didn’t sleep well?”

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