Mating Instinct: A Moon Shifter Novel (25 page)

Before Jayce could continue, Kat spoke. “Why can’t I scent you?” she asked Connor.

Her Alpha gave a little smile. “One of my gifts as Alpha is being able to disguise my scent.”

“Oh.” She bit her bottom lip, then looked at Jayce with questioning eyes. He could tell she wanted to know if he could do it too, so he nodded. “I
knew
you could hide the scent of your lust!” Her eyes widened as she realized what she’d just said. With pink cheeks she turned to Connor. “Sorry.”

Connor just shook his head. “I already checked out the house. There’s someone inside. A shifter, definitely a beta. Probably the guy we’re looking for.”

Jayce wouldn’t know for sure until he scented him, but he doubted there was any other beta hanging out with a member of the APL.

Once the trees thinned to the point that they’d be seen if they continued walking, Jayce stopped and turned to Kat, hating what he was going to say but refusing to let her go any farther.

Connor beat him to the punch. “You can’t hide your scent and we can. As your Alpha, I’m ordering you to stay put unless you’re facing danger. If that happens, I’m ordering you to run as fast as you can away from here.”

Kat’s blue eyes flashed angrily and her mouth opened once, then snapped shut. She shot Jayce an annoyed look as if she knew he agreed with Connor.

Instead of responding and facing her wrath, he wisely kept his mouth shut.

Connor shook his head as they trekked off. “I figured you should stay out of trouble with your female since you’re newly mated. . . . Are you going to bond at the next full moon?”

Jayce’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything since he wasn’t sure if they were out of earshot yet. He had a bad feeling they weren’t and that Kat had heard Connor’s statement.

After a few beats of silence, Connor asked, “Does Kat know you marked her?”

A quick shake of his head. It was embarrassing to admit what he’d done. As enforcer and someone so old, he should have had more control. Kat wasn’t even aware of it, which made him feel worse yet. She didn’t understand pack rules and shifter life enough to know what he’d done. Sure, she’d felt him bite her, but he’d never explained mating to her, and as far as he knew, she was aware of only the bonding process. He had no doubt that she scented him on her, but they’d been having a lot of sex so it was only normal that she would.

“Tell her now before someone else congratulates her. I almost did,” Connor murmured, the words so low Jayce almost missed them.

He ignored the Alpha. As they reached the clearing near the house, he asked, “How do you want to do this?” Now that he was closer to the house, he had no doubt that Fletcher Monroe was nearby. This beta had been at the last crime scene. Whether he was involved or not, they would find out soon enough. Jayce had a pretty good idea that Monroe was right in the middle of all this.

“I’ve scoped the place. There’s only one person there, the beta. I didn’t see trip wires or any other type of trap. I noticed a window on the second floor, east side from our position, partially open. From the size of the window I’m guessing it leads to a bathroom. We can go in that way?” Connor formed it as a question, obviously not caring how they got in as long as they did.

“Sounds good to me. We need this guy alive.” Jayce wanted to question him before they turned him over to the cops.

If they even did. Normally human government institutions were more than happy to let shifters mete out justice to their own kind and rarely asked questions, but these killings had been against humans. They would want to parade Fletcher through their system, possibly have a trial. Too much red tape for Jayce’s taste, but he had no problem handing him over.

Jayce took off, knowing Connor would follow once he’d reached the window. He couldn’t jump as high as vampires could, but he had no problem jumping or even scaling a simple two-story house. As Alpha, Connor would have no issue either. Hell, they’d infiltrated Edward Adler’s home—dead APL bastard—with no problem. It was one of the times Jayce had seen the Alpha in action and he’d been impressed. Not to mention he’d heard through the grapevine how Connor had killed his former neighboring Alpha.

Getting in and getting what they wanted should be a simple task. Even if the cop who owned this house had an alarm system, it obviously wasn’t rigged to the window that was open. Most people went with the bare minimum with security systems, tagging the doors and a few windows downstairs. But never upstairs. Stupid thinking when there were people like him around.

His legs pumped, straining as he sprinted and vaulted through the air. Using his upper body strength and balance, he latched onto the ledge of the window, extending his claws to get a better grip. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his body up, held tight with one hand, and shoved the window up with the other. Thankfully it didn’t squeak; there was just a soft
whoosh
as it moved.

After peeking into the room, which was indeed a small bathroom with black-and-white-checkered tile, he lifted himself up and over the ledge, landing silently on the floor in a roll. Standing back, he waited for Connor to join him.

Moments later, the dark-haired Alpha flew into the room. As Connor stood, he retracted his claws.

Jayce slowly unzipped his jacket and withdrew one of his blades, then pointed to the door. Connor nodded and let his claws out again. They might want this guy alive, but Jayce believed in always being prepared.

Especially since the beta shifter had killed four unsuspecting humans. Even if the humans hadn’t been good citizens, he was fucking up the balance between shifters and humans. Something like this could start a full-scale war with countless innocents getting hurt or even killed in the crossfire. At the moment, this was a lot more important than blood trafficking. While he hated having to pick what to focus on, for the time being there was no other choice. Soon, though, Erin would be ready to take a case on her own. He was looking forward to the day that happened.

Easing the door open, he used his senses before stepping into the hall. There were two faint scents upstairs, one human, one shifter. But neither held that strong note that told him someone was directly nearby.

Slowly, he headed down a long, carpeted hallway until he reached a staircase. Paisley-patterned wallpaper lined the stairwell, ending on the first floor in a foyer with cherrywood flooring. Above them hung a chandelier, the sun glinting off it through the high windows above the front door. Too high for anyone to see them from the outside.

He and Connor stilled at the bottom of the stairs, scenting for the beta. At the same time, they both nodded toward the south side of the home. To the east and west open rooms were visible, one living room and a dining room. As they moved south through the house they entered a kitchen, where the scent grew stronger. There was a French door showing the backyard and beyond, where he and Connor had just come from.

As Jayce scanned the kitchen he nodded at a wooden door next to a stainless-steel refrigerator. Connor mouthed the word “basement” and Jayce nodded in agreement. The scent of shifter was so close and so strong now, there was no other place this guy could be. That distinctive fir and spruce blend nearly overwhelmed Jayce because the other shifter knew they were in the house. The guy’s fear was spiking his normal scent out of control and his heart was an erratic tattoo. Thanks to Jayce’s natural defense mechanisms and his age, he could cloak his own heartbeat, so he knew the beta couldn’t hear it. Jayce also had no doubt that Connor could do the same since he couldn’t hear the Alpha’s heartbeat. Still, the beta knew they were there.

It didn’t matter that Jayce and Connor had been deathly silent or that they’d virtually cloaked themselves. It also didn’t matter that Fletcher was a beta, physically weaker than they were. He was still a shifter with senses a hell of a lot better than those of humans. He might just sense something different in the air, like danger. Betas always had to be aware of their surroundings in a way alphas and warriors probably took for granted.

Right now, the acrid scent of fear was coming from behind the closed door. Taking a deep breath, Jayce opened it, his blade in one hand, and took a cautious step inside.

He froze as he felt the barrel of a pistol pressing against the side of his skull.

Chapter 17

F
or one moment Jayce considered telling the beta shifter to drop his weapon, but he didn’t want to take the chance that he was trigger-happy. It was unlikely that he could kill Jayce unless the beta took his head off or removed his heart from his chest. Even a silver-injected bullet likely wouldn’t kill Jayce, as he was too old, but he didn’t want to deal with a mess.

Lightning fast, he brought his right arm up at the same time he stepped forward and twisted his body. Using about fifty percent of his strength, he slammed the shifter into the back of the door. As the gun clattered onto the stairs, Jayce hauled the guy up and threw him down the rest of the stairs.

The basement wasn’t dark—not that it would have mattered, given his heightened senses—so as he descended he had a perfect view of the setup beyond the crumpled body of the shifter at the bottom. A pullout couch with rumpled sheets and a quilt thrown haphazardly over it, an older-model television, and a coffee table made up the furnishings. A few pairs of jeans, sweaters, and socks also covered what looked like a wooden bench. At least it was insulated and had wood flooring. Not exactly a dungeon.

Though Connor was silent, Jayce could feel his presence behind him as he descended. Fletcher Monroe pushed up and scooted back, his sock-covered feet sliding on the floor in his attempt to escape. As a lupine shifter he should have been more agile, no matter his ranking in the pack, but fear was an acrid cloak around him.

“I knew you’d find me,” he said as Jayce reached the last step. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them as he slumped against the wall.

“Did you know it was me when you held a gun to my head?” Jayce asked quietly as he crouched in front of him, leaving only inches separating them.

Swallowing hard, the other man shook his head. “I knew it had to be a shifter, though. Almost didn’t hear you, but the stairs are above the back of this room.” He motioned jerkily with his head.

Though the beta’s fear burned Jayce’s nostrils, there was none of the almost metallic scent so common with lies. “I’m going to give you a chance to speak since you didn’t lie to me just now. I’m assuming you know who I am?”

Fletcher’s forest green eyes widened as he nodded. “Jayce Kazan,” he said so quietly it couldn’t even be called a whisper.

There was nothing but fear in his voice, which was normally a good thing because Jayce didn’t like people lying to him. In this instance, however, Jayce was worried the guy might go into shock, so he stood up and motioned to the couch/bed. “Why don’t you make that up and have a seat?”

With trembling hands, Fletcher pushed himself up and began folding his quilt, as Jayce continued. “How long is the cop usually gone?”

The shifter paused in what he was doing, but only for a moment. “Sometimes he comes home for lunch, but not often. He doesn’t tell me about his schedule.”

“Any video surveillance in this house, inside or out?”

A shake of his head as he shoved the metal frame to fold it back into the couch. “No, and I’ve thoroughly checked. But I do have this.” He lifted his pant leg up to his knee, showing a tracking anklet.

Jayce had seen the kind before. “It doesn’t look like there’s an explosive attached to it. So why not just cut it and leave?” He had a feeling he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Fletcher say it.

The beta ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, sending it sticking up everywhere as he sat down on the couch. “They’ve got my mate. She’s pregnant and they only let me talk to her if I obey them.”

Jayce planned to get to who exactly “they” were, but first, “How is your mate? Do you have any idea where they’re keeping her or what her condition is?” It took a lot to get Jayce’s anger truly flowing, but to kidnap a pregnant woman, no matter the species, took a certain kind of monster. One that Jayce was going to rip apart.

“I have no idea where she is, but she’s close to her due date. From what I can tell they’re taking decent care of her, feeding her and even letting her take prenatal pills, but still, she’s due any day now and I should be with her.” There was a hint of desperation woven through those words. “How . . . how’d you find me?”

“Doesn’t matter. For the record, you’re responsible for the four killings in Fontana recently, correct?”

With a miserable expression, Fletcher nodded. “Yeah. I did it for my mate.”

Jayce couldn’t exactly blame him. If someone took Kat, he’d do anything to get her back. “Why didn’t you go to your Alpha or the Council?”

“I’m a beta; your Council wouldn’t give a shit about my mate unless we had some political ties. And . . . Luiz is a good Alpha, but if I’d gone to him, they’d have known and they would have killed my mate. He wouldn’t have allowed me to go on a killing spree, no matter how good the cause. And he wouldn’t have been wrong. I know I’ll have to pay for what I did and I’m willing to suffer the consequences. I just want Heather and my unborn child safe.”

Before Jayce could respond, he heard light steps on the stairs above them. Turning to face Connor, who stood halfway up the stairs, quiet and ready for anything, he started to speak but then he scented Kat. Sweet, classic roses. He didn’t have to say anything because Connor grunted in annoyance and strode up the basement stairs to open the door.

Seconds later Kat came down into the basement with her Alpha, an expression of open defiance on her face. “I got tired of waiting for you two,” she snapped before either of them could speak.

Fletcher gasped as he looked between the two of them. “You brought your mate on a mission to kill me?” he asked Jayce, more than a little shock in his voice. “Hell, I didn’t even think enforcers got mated,” he muttered almost to himself.

“We’re not mated,” Kat snapped again, the agitation from her seeming to grow with each passing second.

Because they’d left her in the woods or because of the beta’s statement, Jayce couldn’t be sure. And he didn’t have time to dwell on it.

Turning back to Fletcher, Jayce asked, “The cop, Derrick Bird—he lets you keep a weapon?”

A sharp shake of his head. “Hell, no. I lifted this off one of the men I killed the other night. They were both APL members and from the rap sheet the human gave me, not good men.”

“What about your first two victims?”

“They both had sheets too. The first not so bad, but the second was a fucking pedophile. The cop seems to have a weird moral code about only killing people with records. His partner, or boss—I’m not sure of the hierarchy—doesn’t seem to have that sort of compunction from what I’ve heard of their phone calls.”

“His partner’s name?”

“Anthony Mayfield. I think the cop forgets I can hear his phone conversations even when I’m down here and he’s outside.” Fletcher shrugged, relaxing a fraction for the first time since Jayce and Connor had arrived.

Humans had a tendency to do that, probably because shifters didn’t broadcast the scope of their abilities to the world on a regular basis. “What else did he say? I need to know everything you’ve talked about and everything you’ve overheard.”

Those dark green eyes narrowed slightly. “I know you’re going to kill me, but first promise you’ll search for my mate. You won’t have much time, but—”

“I’m not going to kill you. Not yet anyway. My only concern is bringing down these APL fuckers and stopping the killings in Fontana. I might turn you over to the human government or I might let your Alpha deal with you, so I guarantee you will be punished. But unless you try to kill me again, we’re good. And you can be damn sure we’re going to search for your mate. Now that we have this cop’s name we’ll run his phone records and see what we can find.” Jayce turned around and gave Connor a questioning look.

The Alpha nodded and went back up the stairs, pulling his phone from his pocket; Jayce assumed he was calling Ryan.

“Wait, did you say unless he tries to kill you
again
?” Kat hissed behind him and he heard the beginnings of a low growl in her throat.

The sound brought a ghost of a smile to his lips. Good to know she cared. Schooling his expression, he focused on Fletcher. “Talk. Now.”

The beta swallowed hard but nodded. “Okay. We’re going to another bar tonight. Not an APL hangout, just a busy place where he wants to target at least half a dozen criminals. From what I gather, they want to enrage the humans in Fontana and they think a higher body count is the only way to do that. Apparently the men I’ve killed haven’t brought as much of a media shit storm as they originally hoped for.”

“Do you know who your targets are?”

He shook his head. “The cop doesn’t tell me until right before.”

“How much does this cop know about betas and alphas and shifter life?” Kat asked as she stepped forward.

Jayce wondered why she wanted to know, but he didn’t interrupt.

The beta looked at him, as if asking for permission to speak, so he nodded. Fletcher cleared his throat nervously. “I don’t think he knows that much. Just that we can turn into animals and we have heightened senses. He didn’t tell me the two men from the other night were hopped up on vampire blood until the last second. Didn’t seem to realize that they were more likely to kill me, as a beta, than the other way around.”

“But you did kill them,” Jayce said.

Fletcher shrugged. “I have more to lose.”

Jayce glanced at Kat, who now stood right next to him. “Why do you want to know what this cop knows about shifters?”

Her eyes had a dangerous glint to them. “Because I have a plan that might bring these APL members out in the open as monsters. They want to start a media war against shifters, right?” she asked Fletcher.

The beta nodded. “They know they can’t take us physically, at least not one-on-one. They seem to want the public to ostracize all of us. I’m not sure of their endgame, but I can imagine it’s not pretty.”

“What are you thinking, Kat?” Jayce asked quietly, not liking the vibe he was getting from her.

“You’re not gonna like it, but I was thinking they used his mate against him”—she motioned to Fletcher—“and he’s not politically connected to anyone, so imagine what they would do if they got their hands on me again. My previous connection to you was common knowledge and now we’re living in the same city again. A lot of people saw us at the police station earlier and—”

“No!” Jayce roared. He didn’t know what her plan was and he didn’t care. He didn’t like the direction she was taking.

“No, what?” Connor asked as he descended the stairs.

“I have a plan to bring the local APL out into the open and expose them as the monsters they are.”

“Kat—,” Jayce began, his claws protracting against his palms.

Connor completely ignored Jayce. “What kind of plan?”

“We’ll need to involve Parker—and probably other law enforcement types,” she said, hedging.

Still ignoring Jayce, Connor nodded. “All right. What’s the
plan
?”

Kat smiled at her Alpha’s words, obviously not expecting them. Hell, Jayce hadn’t expected Connor to want to listen after the mention of involving law enforcement.

She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from Jayce to completely face her Alpha. “It’s simple. I’ll be the bait.”

* * *

Kat’s grip around Jayce’s waist tightened as they flew down the highway at breakneck speed. Yep, he was beyond pissed at her. So much so that she wondered if he would even let her go through with their plan for that night.

Connor was annoyed at her too, but for different reasons. He told her she had to clean out the stables for the next two weeks because she’d disobeyed his orders about staying put and because she’d stolen from a pack member. Liam sure hadn’t wasted any time telling his brother about her thievery. Not that she blamed him. The punishment sucked, but it wasn’t too bad. At least he hadn’t scoffed at her idea for tonight.

Unlike Jayce.

He’d tried to tell her no, but as Connor reminded him, Jayce wasn’t her Alpha and they weren’t bondmates. There had been a weird look that passed between the two of them in that moment and she hadn’t been able to shake the odd feeling she’d been holding on to since Jayce had bitten her. Not that she felt physically different, but his scent seemed stronger somehow, constantly surrounding her. They’d been having quite a bit of sex, though, so she’d chalked it up to that. Now she wondered if there wasn’t more to it. Especially since that beta had seemed convinced they were mated. She hated that she didn’t understand more about pack life.

As they pulled into the driveway at December’s house, Jayce was practically vibrating even after they’d come to a complete stop. Without looking at her, he got off the bike and headed inside the house.

Gritting her teeth, she followed him and slammed the door. “Are you going to sulk?” she called after him as she placed her helmet by the coatrack near the front door. Next she hung up her leather jacket, only to freeze with her hand in midair as Jayce strode out of the kitchen. He sure had that angry walk down.

The look on his face was predatory and vulnerable. An odd combination. One that touched something deep inside her and made her want to reach out and hug him. She didn’t like seeing Jayce vulnerable. It threw her world out of order.

“I marked you,” he said bluntly, jerking her out of her thoughts.

She blinked once. “What?”

“In the shower, I bit you.” Again with the almost monotone voice.

Shrugging, she slid one of her boots off. “Yeah, I know. I was there.”

“I marked you as mine. The way I took you,” his voice dropped an octave as he walked so close that only a foot separated them, “from behind, biting you as we made love. It makes you my mate, marking you in a way that all other supernatural beings know you’re mine and to stay away.”

Her other boot fell from her hand, hitting the hardwood floor with a thump. “I thought bondmates—”

He shook his head sharply. “I can’t make you my bondmate until the next full moon and unless we both consent.”

Her heart pounded erratically as she tried to comprehend what he was telling her. “I don’t understand. You bit me, so . . .” So what the heck did it mean?