Page 33 of The Tiger's Secret Baby (Savage Shifters Special Ops 4)

He led the sheriff and all the deputies into the wooded area where the pit was. Elise, Rainey, and I followed.

There were fourteen men in the pit. They were babbling about wild animals running around the forest trying to attack and eat them. The sheriff looked at Gage and raised one of his eyebrows.

Gage shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what kind of drugs that they are on, but I think I would like to try some. Who knows, I might get to see little green space aliens.”

I spoke up. “I don’t think that there are any animals that would eat you guys. Y’all are nasty, and even vultures would have better taste than you.”

The men were hauled out of the pit one by one. They were asked their names and what business they had on my farm. There were a couple of holdouts, but most of them were babbling, spilling everything. Some of them were talking over the others.

“Talk about loyalty,” I said. “Duggers really should hire people who are more loyal to him. These guys would give away their mother for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

Each of the men were hauled up out of the pit. They were read their rights and were handcuffed, and led to a waiting police car.

“Cuff ’em and stuff ’em,” Rose said, delightedly, quoting Rosco P. Coltrane fromThe Dukes of Hazzard,a popular television show from the 1980s.

“Guessing how these guys are babbling, I’m going to guess we’ll get all the information we need from them to issue an arrest warrant from Duggers,” Sheriff Davenport said.

“He’ll be gone before you can ever arrest him,” I said, dejectedly. I was glad that my farm was safe from him, but I wanted him to pay for what he has done.

Rainey laid a hand on my arm. “No worries, My Friend. I have some good friends in the FBI who work racketeering. They are almost as good as I am at getting my man. They’ll find him, and they’ll look into all of his other crimes. He’ll be spending a long time in the pen.”

Sheriff Davenport looked at me with a serious look in his face. “Make sure that all of your dragons, tigers, bears, and other animal friends are out of sight for a while. Once word gets out, and it will, there will be all kinds of people coming out here at night trying to spy something. You don’t want them finding anything other than regular critters.”

“Roger that,” I said.

Sheriff Davenport did a double take when I said that, grinned, and then walked away, taking his crowd of prisoners to jail.

The kids were laughing and dancing around. They were sharing their stories, talking over each other, describing what they did and how they scared the men. They thought that it was the greatest event in the world.

The men praised everyone and told each person individually that they did a great job. The compliments were sincere, and each kid ate it up. It was one thing when I praised them, because I was mama. I was supposed to think they were great. These guys praised the kids because they performed phenomenally in the face of danger tonight, and they knew it.

Finally, everyone started to settle down. The adrenaline wore off, and before I knew it, the kids were dropping like flies, falling asleep on their feet.

We managed to get them all to their rooms, tucked in, and a kiss on their foreheads. They didn’t need a bedtime story tonight, because they had created their own. It is a story that they will remember, and tell their children and grandchildren about.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, my family was safe. Now, I just had to find a way to take care of the other issue that I’ve been struggling with.

16

Ember

The next day, the kids decided that they want a huge party. I decided that they deserved one. Not only did they capture the bad guys and save their home, but they discovered a lot about their shifter nature and learned about who they were. To me that was most worthy of celebrating.

“I’ll by the pizzas and beer,” Gage announced and headed out in his brand new SUV. When he came back, it was with his wife, Luka, their three cubs, pizza, and a ton of root beer. That was perfect, because I still had a ton of ice cream.

The kids laughed and played all day.

Elise was there, of course. I got to know Luka, who was married to Jared. I got reacquainted with Rainey who brought her and Lucian’s two adopted kids and their niece. It really felt like a family reunion.

I would have loved to say that I was able to completely relax and enjoy the party without feeling any stress, but I would be lying. I still had a huge secret that I had to share. I was dreading that moment, because I was certain that he would be livid. I would be too, regardless of whether the other person had good reasons for making that kind of a decision.

After a while, of course, the day ended and it was time for bed. We had our ritual of bed time stories. All the kids had to go down the line to hug the four men, their wives, and children.

Four of my kids would be talking to Gage and the crew again soon, learning more about the military, the security team, and other options that would fit the kids’ futures.

The had had a phenomenal influence on Magnar. He had matured so much in the last few weeks, and had learned to control his emotions, especially his temper.

Everyone but Damian left. He would stay one more night and leave in the morning.

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