“Wait a goddamn second,” Gash interrupted. “Are you telling me you three took down seven full grown shifters by yourselves?”
Adira seemed to think about it. “I wish to be honest, and so I must tell you we do nothing by ourselves. The power we draw from the light enables us to succeed at many things.”
“The light?”
“The moon, the stars, and the light within us. The soul.”
Mason scoffed, crossing his arms angrily over his chest. “Lit this place up like fucking daytime. We’ll be damn lucky if none of our guests saw it. Layna will be doing damage control all week. So, you know. Thanks for that, on her behalf.”
Layna narrowed her gaze at him. “I can speak for myself.”
Mason flipped her his middle finger, and Ryan gave him a murderous look. “Watch it, nut sack.” To which Mason rotated his finger to aim it at Ryan.
Gash turned back to Adira. “How does this help me cut ties with my old clan? How does it help me keep my mate safe? And Ouachita?”
Smiling, she reached behind her to pick up a small suitcase. “Well now, that’s where we come in. The thing is, this is a game of cat and mouse. And you’ve been mistaken for the mouse. You need to be the cat.”
She marched forward, right past Magic and Layna, the other two witches following close behind.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Magic called after them.
“We’re moving in of course. And you all must be tired after what we put you through, so we’ll work out the details in the morning.”
“Goddamn it,” he muttered. “Layna, show them rooms. Thames and Theo, you watch them.”
Theron nodded. “Yeah, boss.”
“Mason, you tell that bobcat she’s in trouble.”
Mason gave a blink that lasted several breaths, then in a dull voice he said, “She heard you, and she says to tell you neener neener. And that you’ll be thanking her one day, possibly even worshipping her. And that if you come near her, her mate will use you as a chew toy. The end.”
Magic hung his head, pressing his lips together for patience. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Okay, like the witch said, we’ll deal with this shit in the morning.” He looked up, catching Gash’s gaze. “Gash, you do your thing. Keep an eye out tonight. Stay alert.”
“Will do.”
Magic shivered. “And by god, those females better be telling the truth about this spell being temporary. Or I might just have to get mean.”
Chapter Ten
The next afternoon Gash sat in his office staring blankly at his wall of monitors. After today, he wouldn’t be spending his nights holed up here keeping watch. He was moving in with Bailey and setting up a portable monitoring system that he could use from his laptop. That way he could sleep in her bed at night—their bed—and if there were any security issues he could still deal with them.
But soon, there was going to be a lot less to worry about. The threats to Ouachita wouldn’t be a problem for long.
Gash tapped his fingers along the desktop. There was nothing interesting happening on the screens, but even if there was, it wouldn’t have held his attention. Not with what he had to do.
Adira’s plan was an approach he hadn’t thought of before. A plan that wouldn’t have been possible, but was now that the Sorcera had pledged to protect Ouachita.
Gash was sure they wanted something, just like the bears had, but so far they seemed only interested in serving justice. They were almost vigilante in their quest. The way the three had laid out their plan… it was crafty and ruthless and pretty damn brilliant.
The witches seemed innocent enough—and in many ways, probably were—but when it came to battling evil, they were as cutthroat as the clan he’d grown up with.
Honestly, they scared the shit out of him.
The desk phone rang, and he picked it up to answer, “Yeah.”
“Call for you,” Layna said. “And it doesn’t sound like a friend, if you know what I mean.”
“Got it. Send it through.”
Gash waited for the connection to switch over, expecting to hear his brother’s smooth snarl on the other end. This made things easier, Felix calling. Because Gash had been building up the balls to dial his brother all morning.
But it wasn’t Felix’s voice that came through the receiver.
“Gash, you there, asshole?”
It was Rigor. The man and his Junkyard Dogs had been doing dirty deeds for humans almost as long as Felix had. But unlike Felix, Rigor wasn’t a mean-ass motherfucker. Not truly. Even still, he would sacrifice his morals willingly to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was the revenge Gash had promised him.