Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Asher

"He what…?"

I'd told Imogen that I wouldn't go after Phil Jackson, but when I heard Bjorn's voice down the line, I was ready to go back on my word.

"Jesse fucked up." Bjorn said that in the long-suffering tone I sometimes used with Kyle. "I'm gonna make this right, Asher."

"No need." I didn't mean to bite the other shifter's head off, but I couldn't seem to stop myself. "You and your family have done enough." Bringing a fucking monster back to my city, providing the arsehole a target to aim at. "I'll take it from here."

"What's happened now?"

Lucas appeared at my shoulder, and I was grateful then that Kyle had Imogen upstairs unpacking her books. I thought all we needed to do was sit tight and let the foxes go to work. Rye and his team were heading to Mount Crawford…

Where the only person they'd find was the wounded brother of a bear shifter.

Not Phil. He now had a car, a phone, and money.

My number and the address for this place.

I turned towards Lucas, my throat working but the words wouldn't come out, because this was all my fault.

I should've ignored what everyone said and went to Coober Pedy. I could've dispatched Phil in one sweep of my claws, then tossed him down an old mine shaft for the vermin to find, and no one and nothing would get close to my mate. Instead, I'd listened to them and their concerns, allowing them to push my hard won instincts aside.

I'd been here before.

My heart thudded too hard and too fast as I remembered the way it felt in our foster home. The house seemed airless, like you could suck in all the breaths you liked and never really fill your lungs. The floor creaked and the doors slammed, and then there were the strange sounds at night. Like mice trying to hide their squeaks from the cats that roamed the halls, my ears had pricked up and been pulled from sleep because of them, but each time I was found roaming the halls, I was sternly told to get back to bed by my foster father.

But why was he always there to shoo me back to bed?

I found out why soon enough.

He was too… involved in what he was doing to stop me opening the door, scrambling back when I staggered inside, tears streaming down Ursula's face.

"Hey." My sister walked in then, tearing me away from my reverie and forcing me to face not the child she was, but the woman she'd become. "Bad news?"

I glanced at Lucas.

"Seems like you'd want your head of security involved," he replied.

"Phil is at large in the city," I replied, my voice like ashes. "He has a car?—"

"That's not the bad part," she said, staring me down. "He could be making for the border, getting the fuck out of Dodge?—"

As if in counterpoint to that, my phone started ringing, and the name on the notification had my blood running cold. ‘Jesse' it said. Except Jesse had lost his phone to Phil, so the fucking prick was the one who was actually calling. I stabbed my finger at the screen, answering the call and putting him on speakerphone.

"Hello?" I responded.

"Pretty fucking formal for a bloke who wanted me killed." Phil's voice was like a slimy hand sliding across my skin, leaving behind a sticky residue. "Didn't manage it, though, did ya? Must've been real disappointed to turn up to that forest and just find that pretty boy lying there. Or did you knock him off thinking it was me?"

"What do you want?"

Playing his game, getting caught up in his bullshit wouldn't help things. This was like negotiating with a gun man. I needed to get control of the situation, find out what his list of demands was.

"What do I want?" I heard the bravado there. Phil was winding himself up, trying to work himself back into a position of strength. "What do I want, Asher?"

The sound of my name had my heart sinking. Jesse had obviously put everything into his contacts.

Including the address here.

"Seems like you've got a real nice place. Close to the city and everything. People don't usually like women's shelters that close to the central business district, but I guess you pulled some strings with some friends." I stayed silent, knowing that an overblown ego like Phil's couldn't resist revealing all. "Be a real pity if something happened to that place." My response was choked off, but somehow he heard my hiss of breath. "Aw, don't want all of those little broken dollies getting hurt?" His chuckle was like nails on a chalkboard.

"What do you want?" I repeated, unwilling to be drawn into this shit.

"What do I want? What do I want, you piece of shit? What I've always fucking wanted." All amusement was lost from his voice. "My fucking wife and kids back. You've got ‘em, don't you? Them and that little bitch, Imogen." I heard the muffled sound of a man's voice in the background, making clear Phil wasn't just speaking for himself. "You've been there the whole fucking time, taking men's women from them for what? Some sick fucking scenario you've got in that place? Whore them out? Whore my children out?"

My claws stabbed into the conference room desk, shredding the wood, because it was the only way I could get through this.

"I'm coming for what's mine, you fuck, and there's not a lot you can do about it. See you soon."

"Fuck!" I roared as the phone went dead.

"We need to evacuate," my sister said, her face ghostly pale. "We need to get everyone out of here now."

"To go where?" Lucas snapped. "Mobilising that many people at the same time just leaves us vulnerable to attack. We don't even know what kind of threat this dickhead poses."

But I did. More than anyone else in my sleuth, I did. I was the one who did the background checks on the abusive partners of our clients. I was the one who tracked them silently, ensuring they no longer posed a threat. Most of my dealings were with the police, but sometimes…

I brought up a contact and put through a call.

"Rye."

The fox shifter's tone was dry as he answered the phone, noise in the background making clear he was out somewhere.

"I need eyes," I told him, my tone a bee's dick away from being a command. "Everywhere, all across the city."

He whistled.

"That'll cost you a pretty penny, and bear boy, you're running up quite the tab."

"I'm about to max that out," I replied. "I need bodies, fighters, strong shifters?—"

"Asher, it sounds like you're starting a war here."

"Not a war, defence. I need every single fucking shifter in this city who'll accept payment to mobilise around our headquarters."

"You're looking at a direct attack on the shelter?" All amusement was gone now as I finally got his attention. "Fuck, the women?—"

"I know." My voice broke then, because it felt like this place was just an elaborate pipe dream that I'd seduced a bunch of vulnerable people into believing in. I told them they would be safe, secure, protected and… "Whatever it takes. What does Mama Lisica want?"

"You don't want to know, mate," Rye replied.

"Yes, I do." I rubbed at my forehead, trying to ease the pain there, but it didn't stop throbbing. "What does she want?"

"Blood." He let out a sigh. "The old witch, she knew this was coming somehow and told me if you ever asked, you'd pay in blood."

I'd done so before and I would do so again, something I told the fox shifter, but he just snorted.

"Not all of it, dickhead, but a sample. You know she's gonna use it for magic, right? Magic you're not necessarily going to like."

Ursula and Lucas drew closer, their wary looks making clear what they thought about this idea, but it wasn't their blood that would be shed.

And I'd do anything to keep it that way.

"Tell her she'll have it, but if one drop of blood from any of the women in this place is shed, just one…"

"Enough said," Rye replied. "I need to get off the line and start making calls."

"Initiate lockdown protocols," I told Lucas and Ursula. "Let Mary know what's going on, quietly though. Don't let the kids find out what's happening."

"And the bears?" Lucas asked. "Are we going to contact the community?"

"My next call," I said. "Go and I'll activate the phone tree."

It was only when the room was empty that I could bring up my foster mother's number. With shaking hands, I scrolled through my contacts, finding her name.

"Asher?" she said. "What's up, darling? I shouldn't assume, but you never call?—"

"Gail." No, that name didn't feel right, not when this woman had spent so much time holding me close, stroking my hair when I had nightmares, listening to me even when I didn't want to talk. "Mum…"

She sucked a breath in

"Oh god, what is it? Are you alright? Is it Imogen? She accepted the bond, didn't she? Asher?"

"Imogen's fine and she wears my mark, but…" I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead against the wall, feeling that customary wave of shame that always drove me to do better. "The shelter is facing a threat, I don't know how big and?—"

"I'll contact the council." Her no-nonsense tone was exactly what I needed to hear right now. "You'll have every able bodied bear shifter at headquarters within the hour if I've got something to say about it. Nothing will happen to my babies. Nothing, you hear me?"

The call went dead and so did I, because for just a second, all I could do was suck in one breath, then another, but the sound of the shutters rattling into place had the bear moving even if I didn't. All he ever wanted to do was protect what was his and now he'd have his chance.