Chapter 5

Dean

Bailey. Pretty name for a pretty girl. But if she was with Westin Force, the odds of her being a raven were pretty slim. Too bad. There was just something about her. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it felt like she was drawing me in. Maybe she was a witch.

That had to be it.

She was a witch for sure and she was drawing me in with whatever her power was.

She stood there staring at me in confusion with a look of disappointment on her face. I hated it. It made me feel terrible, like I was letting her down, only I didn't understand why.

"Well, I guess I should go. I need to report back to Archie."

"Yeah. I guess you should."

I didn't actually mean that. For some reason, I didn't want her to go.

"Hey, what were you looking for out here, anyway?"

"Satellite showed a trail. I was making sure it wasn't a vulnerability or like a human path up this cliff. It's not though. Just an animal trail."

"Show me."

She hesitated, but finally began walking to the edge of the cliff. She seemed to turn an odd shade of green the closer she got.

Peering quickly over the side, she took a giant step back and pointed down. I walked over and looked.

"Definitely animal. You can see the tracks if you look close enough."

"No thank you," she muttered.

I grinned. She was cute.

"Don't tell me you're scared of heights."

"Terrified," she admitted.

I shook my head. Of course she was. It was just another blaring example of how very different we were.

I walked a few steps down the little path she pointed out, impressed that she'd even noticed it.

"How'd you find this? Even I've never noticed it before and I spend a lot of time out here."

"Could you please just get back up here before you fall?"

I snorted. "I'm a raven, Bailey. If I start to fall, I'll just shift and fly back up."

"I don't care. You're freaking me out."

Her voice was laced in terror and I hated that I was scaring her. Like really hated it. Even my bird was uneasy about it which was really weird because he rarely stirred for anything.

"Okay," I said. "I'm coming back up. Really, this is no big deal."

But as I took the last step back to the top, my foot slipped, and I lunged forward.

Bailey screamed and clutched her chest as I recovered.

Not my smoothest move. That much, I'd admit.

She was furious.

Punching me in the arm, she flipped her hair and stormed off.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," she yelled just before she got her in car and slammed the door. She kicked dust up in her wake as she sped off.

Maybe I should have gone after her and let her know I was really okay, or even make sure she was all right. But I didn't. I just stood there and watched her leave as an odd emptiness filled my chest.

I'd come out here for a bit of peace and quiet to go over everything Patrick and his team had shared with me. I knew I wasn't going to get that now.

This particular cliff had been my escape from life for as long as I could remember. It was filled with a lifetime of memories. Yet now, when I looked around, all I saw was her.

Confused and irritated, I knew I wasn't going to get the peace out here that I came for, so I got back into my car and drove to the office. Maybe if I dove into work, I would stop thinking about the mysterious Westin Force girl.

If only it had been that easy.

All afternoon I thought of nothing but her.

Janice had called, asking to hook up for the night and I'd said yes on impulse. No sooner had I hung up the phone my raven began crowing in my head like never before. It gave me a massive headache bordering on migraine. So I called her back and canceled.

I was just packing up to call it quits early when Bernice knocked on my door.

"Dean, Patrick O'Connell is here to see you."

Sighing, I nodded. "Let him in."

When she opened the door, a breeze blew in. I sniffed the air. It was a weird thing to do and not normal for a raven shifter, but for some reason I caught her scent and I knew Patrick wasn't alone.

Seconds later, it was confirmed. I wasn't going crazy. Well, maybe I was, but I was right about this.

Patrick was staring at me.

"Sorry. Please, come in. Take a seat."

"If this is a bad time, we can come back later."

"No. Everything's fine."

"Okay then. Dean, this is Bailey. She's one of our most promising interns this semester."

I couldn't help but notice how cute she looked as she blushed at the compliment.

"Bailey, this is Dean Davenport."

"Head of Ravenden security. I read all about him in the briefing."

Why did it bother me that she didn't tell him we'd already met? There was no reason I knew of that it should be a secret.

"We've met," I blurted out, and then glared at her as she shot me a look of exasperation.

I didn't like that look one bit, and neither did my raven. I was still nursing a headache, only this time it was much worse because it felt like he was pecking the inside of my brain, trying to get free.

I'd never had an issue controlling my raven before, so why now? Other species, like wolf shifters, were infamously known for this sort of behavior, but not my kind. Patrick was a wolf shifter. Maybe being around him was rubbing off on me. Did that happen in real life? Could another shifter type affect my own animal?

I was going to have to ask my brothers about this theory, because it felt too dumb to ask Patrick.

"When did the two of you meet?" Patrick asked.

There was that look again from Bailey. It literally made me squirm in my seat.

"Archie asked me to check something out by the cliffs and he showed up there," she said honestly.

"Pretty much," I agreed.

Bailey wouldn't even look my way, and it was pissing me off. What the hell had I done to deserve this?

I thought back to our brief meeting and there was nothing that I could come up with to warrant this.

More than anything, it pissed me off that I even cared.

"Okay, well, good. Let's get down to business then."

I'd already been briefed on the latest Collector intel. And I already knew that Archie had a team searching for any weaknesses. I wasn't convinced they would find any. I was very good at what I did. Though, Bailey spotting that animal trail up the cliff face was the first time I had seen it. If she hadn't pointed out exactly where it was, I would have sworn she was bullshitting me.

I certainly never wanted my own ego to result in putting my town at risk, so I would humbly listen to all their findings.

"Basically, there's not much to report from today's findings. We sent people out to check small possible concerns, like that area you met Bailey in, but nothing was found to be overly concerning."

"Great. That's the best news all day."

Bailey growled at me. "Yet," she said through gritted teeth. "We haven't found any breech concerns—yet."

"And I highly doubt you will."

"We'll see," she said in challenge.

"Calm down. I don't know what's going on here, but I really don't want to play referee. Bailey, are we going to have a problem?"

"No, sir."

I hadn't meant to get her in trouble. She was just so easy to get riled up and she was adorable when she was aggravated.

"Is there anything I need to know about?"

She looked into my eyes, but there was nothing to see there. I was sorry I'd pushed back at her. I just couldn't seem to help myself. I knew I was being an ass, and that wasn't really me. I was the fun-loving guy, nothing serious. Yet somehow her mere existence seemed to get under my skin in a way no one else ever had.

"No, there's nothing going on here. Just a fun little rivalry," I said.

But this wasn't fun.

And the look of surprise mixed with hurt and maybe a tinge of anger felt like I'd just sent a spark of lightning straight through my own chest.

We wrapped up the meeting quickly, and I was ready to call it a night. Before I finished clearing my office, Ryan and Elias walked in.

"Knock, knock, baby brother," Elias said.

"Stop calling me that."

"Uh-oh. Someone is not in a very good mood this evening."

"Did they find something concerning?" Ryan asked.

I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was worry them. Ryan was the mayor of Ravenden and someday Elias would step up into our father's shoes to sit on the Congress Counsel as head of the Davenport Flock.

"Nothing concerning."

"Then why the bad mood?" he asked.

"I wasn't in a bad mood until you two barged in. I was just packing up to leave."

"Hot date?" Elias asked.

"Who this time?" Ryan added.

Bailey's face popped into my mind and it made me even angrier.

"None of your goddamn business," I snapped.

I had to get out of here and blow off some steam.

Without saying anything more to them or even asking what they swung by to see me about, I left. They didn't try to stop me from leaving, but a few others did try to talk to me on the way out. I simply ignored them and walked on, right out of the building, and all the way to my car.

Once safely inside, I turned over the engine and cranked up the music as I sped out of town. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to fix my attitude either.

"Dean? Is that you?" Mom yelled as I walked inside.

I wasn't exactly being discreet about it, but I'd also hoped I wouldn't run into anyone. I was not fit for company and the worst part was I didn't even know why.

Overall, it had been a good day. They hadn't found any serious concerns for perimeter breeches, aside from the obvious, with the highway running right through the middle of town. But I'd already setup cameras tracking every vehicle that drove through and I'd personally created an algorithm that searched the motor vehicle registry. I received an alert when any missing tag hit, or if it was a rental, or any other possible concern. But if it was a valid licensed vehicle with no red flags, there was no alert to give.

If I tracked every single car that passed through Ravenden, I'd need an entire team just devoted to that. This was about the best I could do with my current resources.

"Oh, there you are," Mom said. "Why didn't you answer me?"

"Sorry. Long day."

"We have the dinner party tonight at Ginny's," she reminded me.

"Mom, there's always a dinner party at Aunt Ginny's. I'm going to pass tonight."

"Dean," she said in that exclusive mom voice.

"Not tonight," I snapped.

"What's wrong? Something's wrong?"

I groaned. "Nothing is wrong. I just had a long day at the office. Westin Force is in town running some routine checks," I lied.

"Routine? I don't remember your father mentioning them coming into town?"

"It was last minute. I'm sure he's aware of it."

"Aware of what?" my father asked.

"Westin Force is in town?" Mom asked him like I hadn't just told her that.

"Ah, yes. I had lunch with Patrick O'Connell today. Good man, for a wolf shifter."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"Slipped my mind, I guess. It's nothing to worry about, sweetheart."

He gave her a quick kiss and then a hug, while shooting me a look of warning over her shoulder. That look told me that we did not to involve my mother with any unnecessary possibilities. Stick to the absolute truth and only fill her in when the situation was dire. Otherwise, she would be crying our imminent doom all over town.

She overly worried about things and wanted to let everyone know about everything.

Right now, that was the last thing I needed.

I nodded and excused myself.

Upstairs in my room, I stripped down to my boxers and signed on for a round of Chaos.

JH and wolfhunter found me almost immediately.

"Hey guys."

"Bird, what's up?" JH asked.

"Long day. Just need to blow off some steam and then call it an early night."

"Understood man. Good to see you back."

We played for two hours before I called it a night.

I hadn't thought of Bailey even once, but the second I turned out the lights and laid my head on the pillow, her face popped back into my mind and then after I finally fell asleep; she haunted my dreams too.