have hidden a car there. Maybe a motorcycle? And why wouldn’t they try to drug her first? It just didn’t quite add up.
She dashed back toward the tree, but didn’t see any sign of Jason or Christina.
“Who are we looking for?” Roy asked as he came up beside her.
“You’re still here?” She couldn’t stop herself from saying it aloud. “I mean … I’m looking for … Jason!” There he was, along with Christina, standing by the skating rink. There was also a third person with them. Cam!
Her inner cat urged her to go to him. Not that she needed any more encouragement. Her feet practically flew off the ground as she raced to her mate and launched herself at him.
“… said she was coming to meet you, but—J.D.? Oomph!”
“Cam,” she breathed, rubbing her face against his shirt. “Oh, Cam.”
“Where were you?” He gently pried her away. “I—” The expression on his face changed from relief to confusion and then anger. “What the fuck—you’re hurt.” Blue-violet eyes filled with rage as he gently cupped her jaw.
“It’s already healing,” she assured him. “But I need to—” Remembering why she was looking for them in the first place, she turned to Jason and Christina. “Thank God you guys are here.”
“J.D., what happened?” Christina asked, a mask of concern on her face. “Cam said you were coming to say hi to us.”
“I was.” She frowned, then turned to Cam. “I thought you were going to wait by the milk can game.”
“I was.” His jaw tensed. “But I … I changed my mind and wanted to say hello to Jason and Christina as well. What the hell happened?”
“She was kidnapped,” Roy said. “I saw it happen.”
“Kidnapped?” The fury from Cam and his animal radiated off him in waves. “And who are you?” he asked in a murderous tone.
“Cam, please.” Oh boy. “This is Roy. We went to school together and—”
“I’m the guy who rescued her,” Roy snarled back. “Who the hell are you?”
“Her mate,” he growled possessively as he took a step forward.
Shock and confusion crossed Roy’s face. “You’re—”
“Mate?” Jason finished, dark brows crinkling. “Oh, congratulations. No wonder you were going crazy when you couldn’t find her.”
Cam cleared his throat. “Can we talk about this later? Right now, we need to find out why someone would fucking dare hurt my mate!”
“That’s why I was looking for you too,” J.D. said to the other couple. “It could be the poachers.”
“Poachers?” Roy and Cam said at the same time.
“Yeah, a while back, me and Dutchy—”
“J.D.” Jason’s warning, dominant tone made her snap her mouth shut. The meaningful look he shot her reminded her that she wasn’t supposed to talk to anybody about the poaching incident. After all, The Shifter Protection Agency, which she herself had only found out about during the rescue, was supposed to be a secret.
Jason cleared his throat before addressing Roy. “So … Roy, right? I’m Jason. Did you go to Lennox High?”
“Yeah, before I moved away in grade eight. Moved back a couple of weeks ago.”
“Thanks for coming to her rescue, Roy. But don’t worry, we’ll take it from here now.” Jason’s tone was firm, the meaning behind it clear.
“But—”
“You’ve done so much, putting yourself in danger, and we can’t risk you getting more involved. It’s … a family matter now,” Jason insisted. “And we’d like to keep it private, if you don’t mind.”
Roy took a step toward her, provoking Cam to growl at him.
She placed a soothing hand on his arm. “Just give me a sec, okay?” Turning to Roy, she took a deep breath. “Thank you so much, Roy. For what you did. Who knows what would have happened if you weren’t there.” Her cat let out a miffed sniff, as if saying, We can take care of ourselves. “But … I think Jason is right.”
“If you’d like,” Jason began, “I saw Deputy Carson right by the Ferris wheel. We can go over there and tell him what happened. But then he’ll want all of us to come down to the station and conduct interviews and file a report … and that could take all night.”
“I, uh …” Roy stammered. “I suppose you can get that all sorted with the authorities.”
“My lawyer will take care of it,” Jason assured him. “That’s what I pay him for. Besides, maybe it was just some kids playing a stupid prank. Did you see who they were or what they looked like?”
“Um, yeah, I guess they could have been teenagers messing around. They were both