Broken Hearts Mend

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Marc and Andrew put Shelby in charge of showing the new woman around as they headed up to Marc’s office to talk. He sank into his chair and let out a long sigh, geez he was tired. He hadn’t slept yet and he hadn’t gotten much sleep the day before either all thanks to the dreams he couldn’t shake.

“What are you thinking?” Andrew asked simply, always the levelheaded one out of the both of them.

Marc didn’t know what he’d so without his best friend there to balance him out. “I’m thinking something isn’t right. She popped up out of nowhere with this sweet little story about finding her long lost cousin.”

“It can be a coincidence that she arrives the next morning after the attack.” While rational Andrew wasn’t pessimistic, he liked to believe in the good first and prepare for the bad. 

“You think she’s on the up and up?”

“I don’t think she’s here to cause trouble but it is a good idea to keep an eye on her just in case seeing how she is from out of town and we don’t know what trouble she could attract.”  That was Andrew’s nice way of saying Ms. Carly Kennedy was pretty and could drive rogue males into harming her.

“So we’ll keep her close and after we find out who is targeting Livvy we’ll bring Ariana and Jax into this and find out what they want to do.” He made up his mind not to tell them over the phone and add to their plate. While they were out of town their only focus should be on each other and keeping their daughter safe.

“And you want us to find out more about her while she’s here?”

Marc smiled. “Of course.”

A soft knock sounded on the other side of the office door. Shelby stepped inside holding Carly’s hand, the little girl never lagged on any job she was given. “We took her bags from the car and put them in the room on the second floor.” The nine year old reported. They normally kept guests on the first floor but with Marc wanting to keep an eye on her he needed her closer to the third floor where his private space was located.

“Thank you Shelby.” Marc always made sure to treat his wolves with respect, he didn’t want them to feel they had to respect him as alpha, he liked to believe he earned it.

“We have a project to get working on. I’ll talk to you later.” Andrew took Shelby’s hand and excused themselves.

Carly was smiling as she watched them go. “Everyone here is very nice.”

“It doesn’t sound like you’re used to that.”

Carly shrugged and sat in the couch he motioned to. “The wolves in my home town don’t like outside races and there isn’t many outsiders anyway. My dad, mom, and I were the only panthers I’ve ever known. It makes finding a partner pretty hard.”

“Ariana is the only panther I’ve ever seen and she has an adopted son who is a wereleopard.” It didn’t matter that Kid and Ariana didn’t have the biggest age difference, he was her son in every way that mattered and over the last month they were getting the paperwork together to make it official.

“Whoa.” It seemed while Carly was a purebred shifter she was in a lot of ways innocent of the world she was apart of.

Marc kept his eyes on the woman and made mental notes about everything he was learning. “Ariana’s mother mated with a wolf and had a child, you never thought of settling down with one?” he asked, taking the conversation back to her earlier admission.

Her brows came together in reflection. “Like I mentioned the wolves in my town weren’t very friendly.”

“Not one?” he found that pretty hard to believe seeing as how she was a beautiful woman and werewolf men weren’t the hardest to please.