Page 23 of Red and Her Dragons (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 4)

“I have to find the people hunting shifters before it’s too late,” I said, hoping he would take the hint.

Bret grabbed me by the arm, forcing me to stop. I turned around and faced him, settling my glare on him.

“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.

I took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of my nose. I understood better than most that he needed to know. Both him and Jax did. But I wanted nothing more to do with him for the night. Still, he needed to know. The best thing I could do was to put my feelings aside for the moment and tackle the growing problem that was rapidly getting out of hand.

Although, ideally, I would have done it with Jax present as well. Repeating myself wasn’t something I was fond of. But I supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers in this instance.

“Come on, man,” he said. “What did you find out?”

“I went to see my friend, Chase, and his roommates. Emily had told me she stumbled upon some sort of meeting and found out the wolves were working with some humans. They mentioned Kai. He is one of my friends. The wolves are the ones setting the traps throughout the region.”

“The friends with that one woman who found herself caught in a bear trap?” he asked.

I nodded. “The same.”

“And?” he asked.

“Turns out he lost control over his shift and his girlfriend was too close. She died. Whoever the wolves are working for, it’s got something to do with the girl’s death.”

“Where did she live?” he asked. “How far does this really go?”

“The family reside on other side,” I said. “Kai came here on his own. As a way to start making amends for the girl’s death. As far as I’m aware, whoever it is followed him here.”

Bret whistled. “Man… talk about revenge.”

“And years later,” I added.

Bret leveled his gaze on me. His eyes were filled with shock. “You’re kidding.”

“No. I’m not,” I said.

Bret shook his head. “So, what’s the plan? Why wait all this time before coming after him? Especially if it was an accident?”

I shrugged. “That is the million-dollar question. My best guess is it has nothing to do with the parents but someone else who was close to the girl. I just don’t know who. But I need to figure it out.”

“What do you need me to do?” Bret asked, ready to jump to action.

I nodded. “Initially, I thought I would send you to the other side to speak with the family. But it occurred to me that they may not know anything about this. Our best bet is to find the humans responsible and get to the bottom of this before anyone else gets hurt. Maybe even confront the wolves as well.”

Bret nodded. “Consider it done.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s get started then.”

Bret smiled. “Where to first?”

“The wolves. If we can convince them to give us the information we need, we just might be able to stop a war before it starts.”

“Yes, sir,” he said.

We headed for the front door.

I arrived at the door first and pulled it open. I got no more than a step outside of the thing before my intuition prickled along my senses. We weren’t alone.

“What is it?” Bret asked.

I held up my hand to silence him and peered into the darkness just outside of the gate. Shadows moved low to the ground. I sniffed the air and nearly sneezed out the offending odor of wet dog.

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