Broken Hearts Mend

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Marc didn’t like missing pieces to a puzzle. They were safely assuming the attack on Jax’s house and Carly’s dead mate, were all connected. What the alpha couldn’t figure out was the motive. Why leave Jax alive if they were looking for dead shifters to add to their portfolio? When Marc pulled into the safe house that late afternoon, an idea started to take better shape. “I need to call Andrew. Head inside and take whichever room you’d like.” He was far better at concealing his thoughts than his passenger.

Her grey eyes moved rapidly over his face in search of answers, when she didn’t find any, she asked. “Is everything ok?”

“I promised him I’d check in, he worries a lot. The hunters have already targeted you, there was a bigger chance of us being followed than anyone else.”

“Oh, ok. I’ll leave with your bromance then.”

Marc sat in the driver’s seat, waiting for his guest to be done collecting her luggage. She really was a pretty little thing, shapely too. His eyes took on a life of their own away from any sensible reasoning, and stayed glued on her backside. He watched as she went up the small porch and let herself inside. He waited another minute to ensure she wasn’t in listening distance, before puling out his cell phone. Andrew answered on the second ring. “Is everything ok?”

“Nothing suspicious, and I’ve been looking.”

“Don’t let paranoia keep you unfocused. I have a question I need answered, Carly’s mate, was he panther?”  Marc swept his eyes around the surrounding land of the safe house. It was dark out now, it wouldn’t be difficult to catch anything in human or animal shape moving amidst the shadows. The leaves were still, not even a breeze in the area.

“Yes, full breed. What are you thinking?”

“The most common fact isn’t Ariana and Carly being related. The common fact is Ian, Carly, and Livvy all being panthers.”

Andrew muttered a curse on the other line. “You’re right. Ian was killed and it looked like they were going to kill Carly too. Why kidnap Livvy instead?”

“She’s a little girl who hasn’t had her first shift. They didn’t see her as a threat and if these hunters are anything like Hal, they might’ve wanted to use Livvy as a weapon. They killed triple the amount of shifters when they had Ariana on their side.” Everything for the hunters was the numbers, to kill as many of their enemy as possible. Even if it meant working with the enemy, as they’ve already proved in the past. “We have to find Bradley now.”

“I might have a possible lead on his whereabouts.”

Marc picked up on Andrew’s hesitation. “But?”

“It requires a road trip farther out of town.” Andrew rattled off the small town Bradley last used his bank card. “I checked, none of the pack are close enough to check it out for us. No friendly residents in the area either.”

“It’s probably why Bradley chose it. Years of working with the hunters, he’d know what places had more shifters than others. I’m better equipped to check out the location.” Marc was the alpha, he was stronger and had nothing to lose. The rest of the pack was traveling with family, or they were too young to go up against a trained hunter.  Yeah, this fight belonged to Marc.

“What about Carly?”

There wasn’t a whole lot of choices. She was already in the crosshairs of their annoying hunter’s scope. “I’ll take her along, it might be fun.”

Andrew laughed. “You don’t even see the massive shit storm coming your way.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” it wasn’t easy trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice, not easy at all.