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My three buddies and I started a security firm fifteen years prior, and the job took me out of town a lot, working as a bodyguard or setting up and demonstrating the security systems Steff had created. It felt good to be home. My body was bone tired after this two-month job guarding a pop star princess. It was a fine gig. I’d gotten to tour the country and see the sights, which was always sort of fun. The problem was that the chick was like a damned nympho and wouldn’t keep her hands off me. She’d tried to fuck me five or six times over the course of the tour. She was hot, yeah, but I was a professional. I never, ever, mixed business with pleasure.
I’d made it very clear to her that I was not interested, especially after she’d tried to talk me into a three-way with her and one of her backup dancers. It got so bad that even her manager tried to tell her to find another guy to set her sights on. I’d finished the last show and deuced out before she could pull the whole
tour’s over, you’re not on duty anymore, let’s party stuff. Just too messy. Our firm was one of the most respected in the country, and I wouldn’t risk our reputation for a wild romp in the hay.
I walked across the living room, unbuttoning my dress shirt, and glanced out the front window. There was a car parked outside the house across the street. I frowned. I’d been so dog tired when I pulled into my driveway that I hadn’t registered it until now. I leaned closer to the window and saw a bunch of broken down cardboard boxes stuffed into the trash can at the end of the driveway. Definitely looked like someone had moved into the place.
I sighed. It had been nice not having neighbors the last few years. I wasn’t really a people person. It was what made me good at my job. It was easy for me to tell some crazy fan to get their ass the fuck back and not feel bad about it. Now, I’d have to make nice and introduce myself at some point in the coming days.
I was starving, but my exhaustion was winning out. I’d been awake for nearly thirty-six hours. Plus, my fridge was empty. I ate a spoonful of peanut butter, tore the rest of my clothes off, and collapsed into bed.
Sleeping for over twelve straight hours, I awoke to the sound of a box truck door rolling up. My eyes snapped open, and I rubbed my eyes, feeling groggy. The clock by the bed said I’d overslept since I told the guys I’d be at the office by two. If I were going to make it on time, I’d have to hurry, especially since I’d need to pick lunch up on the way. My stomach was about to eat
itself. After a quick shower, I threw on clothes and brewed a cup of coffee.
Outside, two guys were carrying boxes and furniture down the metal ramp of the truckit seemed they were hired movers based on their uniforms. The actual new neighbors were nowhere in sight. My phone rang, pulling my attention away from the house across the street. It was Miles.
“You still coming in?”
Groggy and disoriented from sleep, I nodded before realizing he couldn’t see me. “On my way. I overslept.”
“Bro, it’s two in the afternoon.”
“Yeah, well, some of us have to work for a living.”
“Very funny. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Hanging up, I jumped in my car and pulled out of the driveway. As I pulled away, I craned my neck to try and see the new neighbors. No-one but the movers. I’d have to wait till later to see if they looked like serial killers or not.
At the office, I was in for a surprise. The guys weren’t in our small conference room. They were all packed into Miles’s office. Miles saw me and motioned for me to come in. When I stepped inside, he nodded for me to close the door. I raised my eyes. That was unusual. This was obviously not going to be what I thought it was. I’d assumed that Blayne was going to give me a new bodyguard assignment. He typically did security analysis, but he was also the main team member who booked jobs. I was the field guy, doing the jobs that required the most travel. I was also requested more than any other guy we had on contract. But a job assignment would have been a simple open-door meeting. Three minutes and done.
Instead, I found Miles, Blayne, and Steff. No one else. We had some clerical workers, security techs, and secretaries—a staff of maybe a dozen. None of them were shifters. But every man standing in the office was.
“So,” I said. “What’s with the cloak and dagger?”
Miles sighed and leaned forward. “There’s been a development.”
Steff chuckled. “You haven’t sold the company to some mercenary-for-hire group, right? Black Water or some shit?”
A look of irritation flashed across Miles’s face. “Seriously? Can we be professional for one damn minute?”
“Fine, fine. What’s the big news?” Steff asked as he took a seat on a filing cabinet.
“We got a call last night from an alpha in a nearby shifter pack. The wolf clan that has a spot about forty miles away.”
Blayne leaned against the wall, popping peanuts into his mouth one at a time. “And what did the werewolves have to say?”
“Wolf shifters. You know we hate being called werewolves,” Miles corrected.
Blayne rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, get on with it, my man.”
“Anyway…” Miles visibly tried to push away his irritation, “…the alpha asked me if I’d noticed any strange disappearances in our area. Among shifters. I told him our pack was only the four of us, so we’d have known if one of us was missing. The guy then tells me that he’s had several of his guys up and vanish. No sign, no word, just gone. Said it was like nothing he has seen before. They won’t answer their phones, they haven’t shown up at their homes, fully ghosted.”
I frowned. “Maybe they were some sketchy dudes and took off to start their own pack?”
Miles pointed at me and nodded. “Exactly what I thought. So, I made some calls. I checked in with the other four packs within a day’s drive of here. Every one of them has had disappearances. Exactly the same story all around.”
Miles and I had known each other since college. We’d both been kicked out of our respective packs. After discovering each other’s secrets, we’d formed our own mini-clan. Even though we
weren’t the same species, it helped prevent us from going feral. Having another shifter around kept us grounded. We’d found Blayne and Steff not long after and had been together ever since. We were a strange group. Blayne was a panther, Steff a bear, and Miles a wolf. I didn’t know of any other cross-species clans, but it worked for us. And while none of us was officially the Alpha, Miles was the
face of the business. Other than that, we all owned an equal twenty-five percent. Over the last fifteen years, we’ve gotten to know each other very well. I knew Miles even better than the other two. When he spoke about the shifters going missing, he did a good job of keeping a placid look on his face. I could read his eyes, though. He was fucking scared. Miles was almost never scared. It put me on edge.
I uncrossed my arms and leaned on his desk. The next word that came out of my mouth sent a shockwave through the room.
“Hunters?”
Steff’s and Blayne’s eyes widened. Miles pulled in his bottom lip and chewed at it. There were very few things in the world that could make a room full of shifters nervous. Hunters were one of those things.