Hunter(Zeus's Pack 5)(28)

Quinn twisted his fingers together and laid them on top of his head, staring at the ceiling. “I understand, but both of you need to understand how much of an outsider I feel like.”

“Why?” Hunter closed the distance between them, cupping Quinn’s face. “Talk to us.”

“You’re both shifters. I’m not. How would that make you feel?”

“I never thought of us like that. I don’t see you as human and us as shifters. I see us as mates, friends, a team fighting against an evil after our mate, being there for each other, not shutting anyone out.”

Quinn began to chuckle. “So now we are superheroes?”

“We could be, but you’re wearing the tights.” Hunter loved hearing that laugh once more. He missed it. Having discord between them wasn’t something any of them should go through.

“I need both of you to promise me that you’ll never hide anything from me again,” Quinn stated with conviction, his voice brooking no argument. “If I’m your mate—”

“You are. There is no if about it,” Tristan corrected Quinn.

“Fine, since I’m your mate then you are the two people in this world I shouldn’t have to worry about keeping secrets from me.”

All three turned when someone knocked on the door. Zeus stood there with Eagle and Torem. This couldn’t be good.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but the fire department is at your house, Quinn. Someone just burned it to the ground.”





Chapter Seven



Quinn watched as the fireman finished putting out the fire. The house was completely ruined. Whoever had done this meant business. “It was a rental. I’ll have to get in touch with the owner. I hope he had insurance,” Quinn said to Hunter and the fire chief. Thank goodness they had taken all their personal items to Zeus’s.

“They used an accelerant. Gasoline is the predominant scent here. Whoever did this,” the chief said, looking at the house and then at the pair, “wanted the occupants dead.”

So the chief was a shifter as well. He just used the word scent. Quinn kicked at a chard piece of wood with the tip of his boot. He hated feeling like the odd man out. It wasn’t so much that Hunter and Tristan had kept the news of being mates from him, it was more of the fact that they automatically knew and Quinn hadn’t. He was already attracted to them and couldn’t imagine being without them, so the revelation of being mates wasn’t what ticked him off.

Dino had said that the way they were acting with each other was the same way he, Torem, and Sidney were, as mates. It was like Hunter and Tristan shared a secret he wasn’t privy to.

“Do you have any idea who may have started this?” the chief asked.

“No.” Quinn wanted to talk this over with his mates and the Alpha before divulging any information. He didn’t want to lie, but he wasn’t ready to divulge his suspicions just yet.

Quinn took one last look at the charred ruins before turning away and walking to the truck. This was no idle threat against Tristan. If this was indeed Xavier, then he upped the antes, making this a death threat.

He and Hunter rode back to the house in relative silence. Quinn knew he was being childish and needed to get over his “I want what you guys have” fit. It wasn’t fair to Hunter or his jellybean. Quinn pushed the sunglasses up from his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. This had been one hell of a day.

Quinn walked exhaustedly into the house and up the stairs once they got back to Zeus’s. He dropped his keys on the dresser and noticed Tristan’s drawings. “Hey, Hunter, come look at these.” Quinn picked up a few drawings that were lying on the dresser. It appeared Tristan was using the dresser as his table for now.

“Tristan drew those?” Hunter asked as he looked over Quinn’s shoulder.

Quinn picked up one drawing after the next. Most were of the new house being built. The details and design were exemplary. “When he said he liked to draw, I had no idea he was an artist.” Quinn shuffled through a few more, one sketch catching his attention.

A grin spread across his face as he looked at a rendering of all three of them. Tristan was standing in the middle, wearing one of his outrageous outfits, including his fedora hat. But he had drawn Hunter and Quinn as Roman warriors, complete with studded collars, adjustable waist wraps, and lace-up cuffs. “Is this how he sees us?”

“His protectors.” Hunter took the sketch from Quinn’s hand and studied it. “Wow, the depiction of me is so detailed,” Hunter said in an impressed tone.

“I think Dino and Zeus would like to see the additions Tristan added on in these drawings. They’re incredible.” The rendering was better than their blueprints. The elevations were sharp, and the angles were irregular and stood out. Tristan missed his calling. “He used a thirty-degree angle instead of a standard ninety degree.”