Chapter 3

Lydia and Cailín had been in Alaska for a couple of weeks. When they first arrived, they found a lodge to stay in close to the coordinates Carleigh gave them, but without something more specific, there wasn't much they could do besides walk around town, visiting stores, shops, and restaurants, using their shifter senses to search for other species. They also drove on all the roads to familiarize themselves with the area. Cailín had been bored and wanted to see somewhere different, so they drove two hours to a harbor town for brunch.

Once Cailín parked their rental, they headed to where the restaurants were located. Lydia inhaled deeply. The air in West Virginia was crisp and clean, but it had nothing on Seward. The town was idyllic with its glaciers and ice fields. Boats and seaplanes filled the slips at the dock. Lydia didn't know if the crowded sidewalks were due to it being Saturday, or if it was always busy.

They found a restaurant that offered fresh seafood, and the view of the mountains was spectacular. Lydia wondered if there were shifters living out in the wild, but then thought better of it. Who would want to subject themselves to all that snow when they could stay in a warm house? Maybe there were cabins out there like… Nope. No thinking about the Bridgewater pack and Tinsley no longer getting to go to her cabin.

"Lydia? Are you okay?" Cailín asked, her mouth downturned. She knew Lydia almost as well as anyone.

Not wanting to get into it again, Lydia lied. "Just thinking that Tabitha should be here instead of me. She's an actual investigator. I'm an archivist and graphic designer. What do I know about… you know?"

Cailín snorted. "I don't think her teeny bikinis would cut it in the cold."

Lydia couldn't help but grin. "Nah, she'd be strolling along the harbor in her six-inch heels wearing a long coat with fur around the neckline." Lydia admired her fiery cousin. Tabby and Anthony were both private investigators who also took on security jobs when their boss, Mason Steele, needed them to.

"You have all the skills necessary." Cailín tapped her nose. If they were only searching for shifters, then she might agree. What if the cryptic messages were sent by humans set to destroy their kind?

Their food arrived, and Lydia tried to forget all her shortcomings and focus on her meal. It wasn't hard to do with Cailín's running commentary about each flavor she picked out, and how it was the best seafood she'd ever had. Lydia had to agree.

With their bellies full of halibut tacos and chipotle aioli salmon burgers, they took off walking along the waterfront, enjoying both the fresh air and scenery. The temperature was in the mid-thirties, but the sun was shining, warming Lydia's skin. She removed her knit cap and shoved it in the pocket of her puffy coat. As she fluffed her hair, she scanned the area. Sterling wasn't that far from Seward, and if there were shifters in Sterling, who's to say there weren't any in Seward too?

An angry voice shouted, "Boyd!" Pedestrians scrambled out of the way as a tall man raced toward them. Cailín tried to pull Lydia out of the man's path, but she was too late. Lydia was knocked on her ass, but the culprit didn't bother to stop and check on her. The man doing the chasing did, and when he knelt beside her, Lydia was mesmerized. Even on bent knee, she could tell he was tall. His hair was so blond it was almost white, and his blue eyes reminded her of a cloudless sky.

"Are you okay?" His voice was hypnotic. "Miss, are you hurt?" She opened her mouth to tell him she was fine, but her stomach roiled, and Lydia clamped her lips together to keep her lunch from coming back up.

"Lydia?" Cailín snapped her fingers in front of Lydia's eyes. "Stone! Snap out of it."

Lydia swallowed hard before admitting, "I think the fish was bad."

The man leaned forward and scooped her into his arms, standing easily. As he carried her through a crowd of onlookers, she couldn't help but inhale his scent. It was fresh yet masculine, like snow on the trees. As he gently lowered her onto a bench next to a garbage can, her Goyle woke up. It had been keeping its distance since she'd returned from West Virginia, but it was interested in the male. He scanned the area, no doubt searching for the one he'd been chasing. Lydia leaned her head back, and when his eyes locked on hers, she smiled. "You can go after him. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? I'm sorry you were injured."

"I'm not hurt, I promise, but thank you…?"

The large man opened and closed his fists. "Beck. I hate to leave you, but I do need to find him."

Lydia waved a hand in front of her. "Then go. And I hope you catch him." She inclined her head in the direction the culprit had gone, and Beck ran a finger down her cheek before sprinting away. She leaned over with her arms wrapped around her middle and took several deep breaths, trying to staunch the nausea.

"Hubba, hubba." Cailín stood, staring after Beck. "That male is F.I.N.E. fine."

That was no lie. And the way he lifted her without breaking a sweat? It had been impressive considering Lydia wasn't a small female. When the threat of puking passed, she sat back against the bench. "You ready to head back to Sterling?"

Cailín narrowed her eyes at Lydia. "Not if you're going to upchuck as soon as we get in the car."

Lydia pushed to her feet and waited for the nausea to return. Thank the gods it didn't. She'd never thrown up, but her mom had often in the early days of her pregnancy, and Lydia wanted no part of it. "I think getting knocked down jostled my stomach, but I'm fine."

Cailín stared at her for a few seconds. "Do you want to hang out here and wait for Mr. Hottie?"

"No. We have a job to do." Lydia gestured toward the walkway, and they headed to the rental car.

You need to find Beck.

We are here to find those looking for shifters, not hunt after males, no matter how hot they are.

But he's—

Stop. We can come back here after we take care of business in Sterling.

Her Goyle slunk to the background but only after it roared inside her head. Lydia stumbled in shock. Cailín stopped and grabbed her arm.

"You sure you're okay?"

Lydia lowered her voice. "Just my Goyle acting like a toddler." She took a deep breath, but she didn't apologize to her other half. She did keep her eyes peeled for Beck as she and Cailín strolled away from the harbor. Lydia hated being out of sorts with her beast, but like she said, they had a job to do, and that didn't include a fine specimen of the male variety.

She and Cailín spent the two-hour trip as they always did when they were together, singing to their favorite songs. Having rock icon Desmond Rothchild as a Clanmate, she along with most of their friends listened to Cyanide Sweetness, even though their songs were now considered classics. Desi's son, Jacoby, had his own band, so Jupiter Madness was also on rotation. Lydia wondered what type of music Beck listened to. Then she wondered why she was wondering about that.

Because he's—

Lydia's phone rang, cutting off whatever her Goyle was going to say. Seeing it was Carleigh, she tapped the answer icon, putting it on speaker. "Hey, C. What's up?"

"That's what I want to know. Your locator shows you and Cailín are in Seward. Did you find something?"

"Oh, sorry. I should have let you know we were leaving the area. We were bored and decided to check out a seafood restaurant by the harbor. We're headed back to Sterling now."

"Son of a goat fucker!" Cailín swerved onto the shoulder, gravel flying, and Lydia grabbed the "oh shit" bar as an SUV passed them over the double yellow line with a car coming the other direction. It barely got back over before hitting them and the oncoming vehicle. Carleigh snorted, not knowing why Cailín was cursing. The female was infamous in their family for her colorful expletives.

Cailín pointed at the speeding car. "That looked like the bastard who knocked you down." She pulled back onto the road and pressed the accelerator.

"Wait. What? Who knocked you down?" Carleigh demanded.

"Some asshole being chased along the waterfront." Lydia let go of the handle and propped her elbow on the door, not worried about Cailín's speeding. Like the rest of their younger Clan members, the redhead was a pro at driving, defensive and otherwise.

"But then she was rescued like a damsel in distress by the hottest bear you've ever seen. Picked her up like she weighed nothing and deposited her on a bench beside a trash can in case she puked." Cailín fanned herself with one hand even though Carleigh couldn't see her.

"Puked? We don't get sick. Are you okay? And a bear?"

"My gut might have rumbled for a second, but I'm fine. And the guy doing the chasing was six and a half feet tall with the bluest eyes you've ever seen. He smelled like snow on pine trees." Lydia sighed. "But no, he didn't look like a bear."

Cailín snorted. "The hell he didn't. Have you never seen a polar bear? Pfft. That man is a beast. Carleigh, his name is Beck, and he works for Sagan Adventures, so if you have time to do some digging, that'd be great."

Lydia glared at her friend. "How do you know where he works, and why should Carleigh look into him?"

"While you were sniffing the snowy trees, I was checking out his chest, and the name of the company was embroidered on his jacket. Carleigh needs to do a little digging into the bear in case you decide to go back and check out his other attributes that caused you to feel nauseated."

Carleigh was already typing away in the background, and Lydia sat up straighter when she realized Cailín had almost caught up to the SUV.

"C, run this license plate." Cailín rattled off the letter and number sequence.

"On it, but maybe don't get put in jail for murder before you accomplish the task you're there for."

"Do you have any more information on the cryptic messages?" Lydia asked, trusting her cousin to multitask.

"I pinpointed the area in Sterling where one of the messages originated. I've sent it to your phones. Also, there is a new player in the game. It took a while to determine their location because they're good at covering their tracks, but this keyboard warrior is in Kodiak, which is about two hundred miles southwest from where you are. Oh, look at that. If you end up needing to visit Kodiak, Sagan Adventures has seaplanes that fly there almost daily." See? Multitasking at its finest.

"Just because the company offers flights doesn't mean Beck is the pilot," Lydia argued.

" Au contraire ." More typing. "The company is owned by Amara Sagan, and her two daughters, Chloe and Delaney. Sawyer Beckett – your Beck – and Chloe are the pilots of both the seaplanes and a helicopter. Delaney is the office manager. Doesn't say what the mother does."

"He's not my Beck." Lydia's Goyle rumbled, Cailín snorted, but she ignored them both.

"The vehicle you're tailing is a rental. The name on the contract is Valerie Weathers out of British Columbia. Huh. Seems the Sagan females and Beck are also from BC."

It never ceased to amaze Lydia how Carleigh could pull together information so quickly. She had sat with her cousin more than once as her fingers flew across the keyboard and images flashed on multiple screens. Lydia had learned alongside her cousin, but she didn't understand coding nearly as well.

"C, can you find out how this Boyd character is connected to Valerie? He must be since he's the one driving."

" If it's him." Lydia hadn't gotten a good look at the driver.

"Oh, it's him. Slimy bastard." Cailín eased off the gas, putting some distance between them and the male. Having shifter eyesight, they could let him get farther ahead and not lose him.

Lydia swapped over to her email and opened the message containing the address. She tapped into the car's GPS and entered the information. Since they still had several miles to go before getting to Sterling, there was little recalculating.

"Nothing comes up connecting them, but I'll keep digging. Why are you interested in him other than he's an ass?"

"Call it a gut feeling," Cailín admitted. She didn't have visions like Connor or see snippets of premonitions the way Sebastian did, but Cailín's intuition was never wrong.

"Then I won't stop searching until I find something. While I have you on the line, Harlow found Agent Stallings. He has relocated to the field office in Marietta."

Cailín slapped the steering wheel. "That fucker. Does Connor know?"

"Yes. We've put everyone on high alert, and since you're in Alaska, Gannon is officially taking over security for Connor and Alyssa."

"Good. Alyssa is like a daughter to Gannon, so there's no one better suited for the job. Connor can concentrate on his paintings without worrying about their safety. Speaking of his paintings, what do you think of getting a group together to go to the showing in New York?"

"Isn't that a few days before Christmas?" Lydia asked. "What's Trevor going to say about you missing his week-long making the house look like the North Pole threw up extravaganza?"

Carleigh snorted again, then cleared her throat. Cailín's papa was over the top when it came to the holidays. "Yeah. There's no way you're getting out of that."

"I love my dads and my sister. You guys know I do, but at what point do I get to be an adult and do things I want to do? Haylee's young enough to still enjoy all the tinsel and cookies and hot chocolate and movies. I was over it before she even came along."

Lydia reached over and squeezed Cailín's arm. "Maybe suggest a change of scenery for this year? But I doubt I'll get to go. Mom's due date is January third, and there's no way Dad will let her travel if she's still pregnant."

"I'd rather you come with me, but I understand you staying close to home. I'll toss the idea to Dad and see what he thinks. Anyway, we're getting close to the turnoff, so… Sonofabitch."

Lydia hadn't been paying attention to the SUV, but Cailín's curse had her focusing on the road ahead. Sure enough, Boyd took a right turn. Lydia told Carleigh what was going on, and her cousin was silent while they followed. Boyd made every turn the GPS instructed them to take, and when they arrived at their destination, the car disappeared down a long, gravel driveway. Cailín drove past the house until she found a good spot to pull over.

"And the plot thickens." Cailín shut the motor off. "Carleigh—"

"I'm on it. I would say keep your distance until I can research this Boyd character further, but I know you."

Cailín huffed. "I'm not going to do anything stupid."

Lydia and Carleigh both laughed, and Cailín narrowed her eyes. Then she rolled them. "You tackle the wrong person one time. Geeze."

"She was the mayor's wife!" Lydia reminded her.

"And I still say she shouldn't have been at a strip club dressed like a hooker."

"It was her niece's bachelorette party. It's not like the woman was stuffing dollar bills into G-strings."

Cailín wiggled her eyebrows. "They were some nice G-strings."

Her friend wasn't wrong. Cailín had convinced Lydia to tag along on her stakeout when she didn't want to look suspicious sitting alone in a strip club. That was a night Lydia would never forget.

Carleigh sighed. "I miss all the fun sitting behind a desk. Okay, I'm signing off. I'll call when I find anything. Love you guys."

"Love you too," Lydia and Cailín replied in unison.

Cailín started the car. "Let's check the surrounding area and find a good place to park the car later."

"You mean we aren't stalking Boyd in broad daylight?" Lydia joked. She jerked back when Cailín pretended to slap her.

"No, we're stalking him in broad moonlight. Or… Shit. You know what I mean."

Lydia did, but she still took the opportunity to give her friend some shit. In that moment, she was glad Cailín was with her. This trip was just getting started, but it was already proving to be good for her soul.