Wyatt: The Stanton Pack—Paranormal Cougar Shifter Romance Read online

  It occurred to him when they got into the car that he wasn’t in any shape to drive. Dad took the driver’s seat when he asked him to, and they were headed home. Which home, he had no idea. But it did give him a chance to think about Sidney and her being his mate.

  Since he was in the back seat, she turned to glare at him. Wyatt had no idea why, but he thought that she was cuter more than she was mean looking. When he smiled at her, she doubled up her fist and told him to behave.

  “Look here, buster. I don’t have time for you to be going all apeshit with me or people around me. You tell me what she meant when Dane said that you might kill that man.” He told her what Dane had told him. “And this Dane person—who is she, and how the fuck was she able to talk to me without touching me? I’m not stupid either. And you’d better never treat me that way.”

  “I don’t doubt that you’re very intelligent. You got yourself out of a situation, or you tried to do so by jumping into my arms. However, Dane told me that this man, whoever he is, was after you. I’m assuming to get you alone.” Sidney nodded. “He won’t. Just so you know. Dane also said that we needed to leave the airport before he brought in reinforcements. I’m assuming that you’re someone that he knows about to know to bring in reinforcements. Correct?”

  “Not usually. But after Bryn was murdered, I did some more digging into some of the things that she and I would talk about. Mostly it was her job and how much she hated it. We talked about the people that she worked for as well. Not the company that she drove for, but the parents of the kids on the bus. I also found out that the butler, Abram Maiden, who brought his charge Porsche Humphrey out the envelope, is dead as well. His body was found a few hours after the explosion.”

  “They’re connected.” She looked at him with the oddest look on her face. “What did I do now? Not that I don’t think you’re absolutely the cutest thing I’ve ever seen when you’re all befuddled, but I would like to get to know your looks a little better before you hurt me.”

  “You believed me.” Wyatt asked her why she’d think that he wouldn’t. “I don’t know. I guess I just assumed because you’re some sort of shifter that you’d be all pissed off because I knew more than you do.”

  “I’m a cougar. All my family is. And I’m sure there are a great many things that you know more about than I do. Same as me knowing a bit more than you when it comes to healing people. We’re a team, not a competition.” She didn’t look convinced. “Sidney, you seemed to be okay with the fact that I’m your mate. Why is that?”

  “I felt something too. I’m not human, not wholly anyway. My grandda is a tiger. My grandma was a bear. Don’t ask me how that worked for them, but it did. My parents were both humans as far as anyone knew. I didn’t know them at all. I lived with my grandparents when they were killed. I was four.” Wyatt told her he was sorry. “Thanks. But anyway, I can shift, but I rarely do. It’s difficult for me to hold onto a shape. I can be a bear or tiger when I do it, but not for very long. Also, I have a freaky ability to be able to sort of blend into things around me.”

  When she disappeared, Dad nearly put them in a ditch. When Sidney came back to them, laughing and telling Dad she was sorry, Wyatt had a sudden thought. He wondered if she was being hunted for that ability alone, or did it really have to do with Bryn?

  “Wyatt, I just spoke with your mom. She said for us to come there, that the rest of the family is waiting to meet Sidney.” Wyatt asked Sidney if she was all right with that. When she said yes, Dad nodded at her. “We’re having a light lunch, then we’re going to have a big dinner. I’m supposed to ask you what, if anything, you’d like to have for dinner.”

  “I’m starved. So long as there is meat in the meal, I’m all for it. Does this mean that Bryn’s family is going to be there as well?” Dad said that they were. Would that be all right? “Yes, of course. I have a few things for her father. Information that he might find helpful in dealing with Meadow. By the way, no one should trust her, not even if she hands you a bottle of supposedly unopened water. She’s figured out a way to taint it somehow. Meadow is a person that should have been put to death a very long time ago.”

  Wyatt didn’t even question her about that information. He knew, deep in his heart, that this woman would never say anything that she’d not checked out several times. Wondering how she and the rest of the women in the family would get along, he had a thought that it wouldn’t matter at all to Sidney if they liked her or not. She wasn’t going to change a bit to suit anyone but herself. Wyatt loved her for that. He also knew that he loved her more than he could have ever imagined loving anyone.

  Chapter 2

  Dane looked over the paperwork that Sidney had brought. It was on track with what she’d been able to find out, but there was so much more than even she’d found. After looking over the records of the Humphrey family, she laid it with the rest of the files that Sidney had handed her.

  “This man here, Abram. What can you tell me about him that you don’t have here? I mean, for all intents and purposes, he looked like a good man. Why was he in on this?” Sidney sat down across from her and looked at the files. Pulling out one of the sheets of paper, a yellow sheet, she handed it over to her. “I know what this says, but it doesn’t tell me what you think. And I’m assuming you have a lot of thoughts on this matter.”

  “Abram was a good man. I’m not sure what Bryn might have said to him when he handed the envelope to Porsche, but I can only assume it was something like ‘are you all right?’ Someone that I asked to look this over told me what he said. He told her, ‘Yes, thank you. Everything is going to be all right now.’” Dane asked her if the bomb was in the envelope. “It wasn’t a bomb, but a cell phone. I can only assume that because when she opened it, which it shows her doing, it was what set it. The bomb, the police have determined, was already on the bus. Bryn is going to be charged with the death of the children that didn’t make it. I know they do that for insurance purposes, but I can’t see what this will accomplish. Not now that she’s gone. Those people have enough money that they don’t need the money from this claim.”

  “Peace, I guess. So why was Abram delivering the phone to Porsche? I mean, she had one of her own, correct?” Sidney said that she’d not been able to find out anything about that, as Abram was dead as well. “And his comment. What do you think he meant by ‘everything is going to be all right now?’ It seems to be an odd way to word something. Don’t you think?”

  “It is. But he had very little contact with Porsche. She had her own staff and rarely interacted with the other staff members. Her parents can’t be reached because of their grief. Not by conventional ways, anyway. So I’m going to go over there in a few days and figure out what they might be telling one another.” Dane asked if she could go with her. “If you can make yourself invisible, sure. Because that’s what I’m going to be. I’m sure that you’ve got a few tricks up your sleeve, but I’m not doing this for you. Bryn was my friend, and I won’t have you fucking up my getting to the bottom of this because you have a chip on your shoulder about me having things my way.”

  “You are a bitch, aren’t you?” Dane laughed. “I’m sure you meant that in the kindest way possible. But I don’t want to get in your way. However, we’ll have to test things out before we go, if you don’t mind. I can become anything I want, including things with or without a heartbeat. If I can make myself small enough to fit into your pocket and I become invisible when you do, then you can decide if I’m going to go or not. But I’m going to be armed to the teeth, and I might be able to save your ass if it comes to that.”

  Sidney got up to pace the big room. Dane watched her as she worked things out in her head. She supposed she could have looked at her mind, but Dane thought that for some reason, Sidney would know immediately what she was doing.

  “What can you tell me about Wyatt?” Dane asked her what she meant. “I don’t know. Something, anything, I guess. I ha
ve to get out of my own head for a moment to let things settle, and if you don’t mind, changing the subject helps. Anyone, I guess, would do to talk about something different.”

  “He’s a doctor, and a good one. Surgeon too. But I think, like the rest of the family, that he’s bored with his job. Not so much helping people, but simply putting up with the bullshit of red tape and other rules. I think that he needs something else to do, such as working with less restrictions so that he can find his happy place.” Sidney asked her if Wyatt was as nice as he seemed to be, or if he was showing off or something. “Wyatt is what you see. He’s a good man, youngest of six brothers. He doesn’t put on airs, not even when there is a reason for him to brag about something he’s done. Quiet. Wyatt could sit in a room for hours with his family and not say much. But when he does, you can bet that, like you, it’s going to be right and profound.”

  “He’s not pushy either.” Dane told her that he wasn’t. “He broke a man’s arm at the airport when he tried to take me with him. Wyatt had warned him several times to let me go. Breaking his arm seemed mild to what I think he wanted to do.”

  “More than likely. He has money, a great deal of it, but you’d never know by the way he looks for a bargain. The house that he purchased some years ago is in fantastic shape and beautifully done. There isn’t much in the way of furniture in it as he isn’t, or he wasn’t, in any kind of hurry to fill it. With you here, I’m assuming that he’ll want your help in doing that now.” She asked her why he’d want her input. “Wyatt will only want what you want for the house. Like all the Stanton men, he’s—”

  “Someone paid him off.” Dane waited for Sidney to continue. “I wondered about the influx of money in Abram’s account. A person other than the Humphreys paid him to take the envelope to the bus for her. I’m thinking, with how old he was, Abram was set to retire. The money in his account would have made it difficult to do. But with the money transferred to his account the day of the bombing, it would have been so much easier for him.”

  “How did you come to the conclusion that the Humphreys didn’t do it?” Sidney told her that there wasn’t money in that amount taken from any of their accounts. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to dig a little deeper into that. There could be an account someplace that you’ve not found yet.”

  “Good. Thank you.” Sidney paced more. “Two hundred thousand dollars was put into his account an hour after the explosion. I have no way of knowing if that was the full pay off, but I’m assuming so. There are other things that I’m working on too. Like, did the bomb go off as it should have? I mean, were all the kids supposed to be on the bus when it went up? Who was the target, if not Porsche? That sort of shit is what is keeping me up at night. Then there is the man from today. You said that he wanted me to go with him. Why? Because of what I’m doing with this thing?”

  “Yes.” Dane reached for Wyatt and asked him if he could come into the office now. He’d been called away just after lunch. “Wyatt is coming to join us. I’ve given the rest of the family what I’ve been able to find out. By the way, the man who accosted you in the airport, Ace O’Malley, is no longer a threat to you. But there are more out there to take his place.”

  “Someone knows that I’m looking into this. Someone that has knowledge of what really happened.” Dane nodded.

  Wyatt came into the room with them and kissed Sidney on the mouth before sitting down in the chair next to her. Hailey joined them a few seconds later. “You met Hailey at lunch. She can do this weird thing where she can find people by threads. All she needs to do is touch you—it’s not painful, but powerful—and she can find out who might have replaced Ace. Trust me when I tell you, she’s fucking good at this.”

  Dane had Wyatt stand behind Sidney, to hold her and keep her from flying across the room. Dane had been tossed head over ass before when Hailey helped find someone, and she didn’t want Sidney to be hurt. As soon as Hailey touched her fingers to Sidney’s head, the explosion of them breaking apart was bigger than even Dane had happen to her.

  Sidney seemed all right. Wyatt was laughing, so she figured that he was fine as well. Hailey sat on her ass cursing at all of them, and then blamed all this shit on her, which she supposed was correct. However, it didn’t make her feel any better when Hailey told her that there was only so much that she could do when it came to threading.

  “What do you mean?” Hailey told her that she knew. “I don’t know anything. At least about what you’re saying. What do you mean, I know? Are you hurt?”

  “No. Not really. But you honestly don’t know that Sams is behind this?” Dane sat down. “I don’t know that he’s directly involved, but each of the threads that I found, they all lead back to him.”

  “I had no idea. He’s the one that caused the bombing of the bus?” Hailey said that she had to do a little more threading, what they all called what she could do. “I don’t want either of you to be hurt, but if this is Sams doing this, I need to know right away.”

  “All right.” Sidney stood up and stretched as she continued speaking. “So this Sams person, you know him. I’m assuming that you don’t think it’s possible that he can be involved. If he’s not, then where do we go from here?”

  “I haven’t any idea.” Wyatt stood up and put his arms around Sidney as Dane spoke. “I’ve been working with this man for a long time. If he is involved with this, then there won’t be a hole deep enough that he can fall into that I won’t find him. Those were children, not mobsters trying to bring drugs into his territory. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  “Hum, Dane? I can see threads too.” Dane looked at Sidney when she spoke. “It’s like a colorful trail that leads to people that they’ve come in contact with, right? I can see it. And while it does lead back to Sams, he’s not aware of it.”

  “Do you know who?” Sidney said that she didn’t. Hailey agreed with her. “Someone in his office is doing this? Christ, this is a fuck up. What do you want me to do to help? I’m game for anything.”

  “Okay, but there is something else you should know right away.” Dane almost asked Sidney not to tell her. “Meadow is in on it as well. She’s the one that orchestrated the bombing, as well as the death of Bryn—who was the target, by the way. Meadow wanted her dead for what she’d found out. That’s why they’re after me. I have something that ties this all together, or so she thinks. I can’t go beyond Abram or Bryn because their thread has been cut off.”

  Dane looked at Wyatt. He was a quiet man, but she did wonder what was going on in his head right now. He was much too quiet with all this going on. When he nodded at her, putting out his hand, the long blade that shot from his fingers had her sitting on the floor again. Christ almighty, he’d gotten some of her magic too.

  “I’m not sure I can function at the moment.” Hailey told her welcome to her world. “Seriously. I don’t know how I gave this shit to Wyatt. I’m worried that Sams is in on this. Even if he’s not, then he’s in danger from someone there. I have this buzzing in my head that keeps going round and round like a merry-go-round. I can’t get it to slow enough so that I can get off. What the fuck is going on around here?”

  “One thing at a time.” Sidney picked up the paperwork that she’d laid out earlier. “If you can get into Sams’ accounts, you can tell us if he transferred the money. I’m going to look into Meadow’s accounting to see if she paid the butler. When I was at his thread, I saw that he knew nothing about the phone in the envelope or the bomb. I think he thought that he was helping out Porsche somehow. We’ll figure this out as we go. In the meantime, we have to narrow down our search. I’ll go to the Humphrey home and find out what I can there.”

  “I’m going with you. Not to keep you safe. I have no idea why, but I think you’re more kick assed than I am. But I want to check out things too. Also, if Wyatt here can do it, I’d like to see if he can shift into something small too.” Wyatt said he was fine just the way he was
for now. “Pussy. All right. We’ll take this like you said. One thing at a time until we get some answers. Christ, this is a total fuck up.”

  ~*~

  Wyatt didn’t want to be in Sidney’s pocket, but he figured that it was his best way of being with her. As Dane had said when they decided he would go, Sidney didn’t need him, but he needed to be assured of that. She might not need him, but he certainly needed her.

  As soon as she entered the house of the Humphreys, Wyatt felt the grief in the household like he’d never felt before. It was a tangible thing, and it hurt him too. Wyatt was put on the floor as the little mouse, and he stood up as a man. Doing what he’d been told about becoming invisible, he stood there looking at the front hall. The household was taking Porsche’s death hard.

  There were newspapers piled up on the front table. The flowers in the vase there had long since died and were dropping their petals on the table and floor around it. Mail was piled up, but it had fallen over at some point, and it looked to him like they were only tossing it at the table rather than making any kind of effort to keep it straight. As they entered the office, he was surprised to find a fire going in the fireplace, as well as a man sitting at a desk.

  That’s her father, Mr. Eugene Humphrey. He looks terrible, doesn’t he? He told Sidney that he was grieving himself to death. Yeah, that’s what I thought too. See if you can find his wife. I’m going to see if I can find out anything on the desk here.

  Wyatt found Mrs. Humphrey in the sitting room. She, too, had been grieving, and he felt sorry for the two of them. The room was dark except for the light of the lamp she was sitting next to, holding onto a picture of her daughter and her together. It looked as if they had been on a cruise. Moving around the room, he saw that this room, like the front hall, hadn’t been cleaned recently. Wyatt decided to find out if the staff had left or not.