wall between me and the outside world. “Shannon…” He reached out a hand, slowly, like you would to a spooked animal. “You called, and I raced over here. Gonna have to do some catch up hours to the McElroy’s, but I’m here. Tell me what’s got you scared.”
“Scared?” My head jerked up, and I looked him in the eye. “Not scared. I have to run. This place, the land, it’ll go back to the pack, I guess. Janey’ll need some time to find somewhere else, and then there’s the dogs…”
“Shannon, tell me what's going on.”
“She told me, over and over. We don’t get discovered, we don’t let people know what we are, and if we do, we run. They know. They’ve got a whole lockup full of shifters up on the hill. They’re milking them for sperm, creating this bank, ostensibly to save the animals.” I waved my arms in the air vaguely. “For what, I have no fucking idea.” I looked up at Jai as if seeing him for the first time, the dirt stains on his shirt and his boots, the look of concern on his face. His brows kept creasing and then smoothing a little, his eyes tracking my movements. “God, you guys have gotta get out too. That has to be why they’re here. Why Harvest Grove? Why in that fucking prison? Jesus, they’re gonna come for you too.”
“Shannon…”
He put his arms out like he was going to sweep me up into them, but I wouldn’t, couldn’t let that happen. I ducked under them, going to the bag I had half packed, and pawed through, looking for my phone.
“Where is it?” I muttered, hating the way my voice rose. “Where the fuck is it?”
“Shannon.”
I heard the whip in his voice, felt it lash down across my skin, soft as a feather, sharp as a knife. His hand wrapped around my wrist, stilling me until it was just him, me, and my madly beating heartbeat.
Go…go…go…go… it thudded, the impulses Nan had spent so long ingraining in me beating like a drum. But they were met by an equal and opposite force—Jai. His grip was gentle as he turned me around, pulling me close until my face was buried in his chest. My arms went around him as I rested my cheek on the hard muscle, smelling sun warmed cotton, earth, and him. I was ashamed of how good it felt when he stroked his hand through my hair, just doing that over and over, until my breathing evened out.
“Are you OK? Did they hurt you?”
I felt like I was losing something when he peeled me off him, holding me still as I wavered on my feet. I felt like I’d had a big cry or something, scoured clean by tears. I shook my head. “No, not really.”
“Tell me about not really. Tell me what happened.”
He directed me out my balcony doors to sit on the old wicker chairs there, dragging his over until it was up against mine. I sat down, seeing he was about to help me do it, like I was a child. I frowned as he sat across from me, his grin showing me just how much that mattered. When he settled, he took my hands in his and rubbed them slowly, that feeling and the sun on my skin helping dispel the omniscient chill I’d only just noticed.
“Tell me from the start,” he said. “Tell me everything.”
So I did.
It seemed surreal to describe what I did in the bright sunlight, but the words came, vomiting forth much like my breakfast, until my voice and my heart broke upon them.
“They wanted me to…”
“I know, love.”
“And it would have been…”
“But you didn’t. That was so fucking brave, Shan. I know what you and your nan thought about sticking your head up.”
I remembered my lurching run from the place and felt anything but.
“He’s still in there. They all are. Every fucking day, they’re taking semen samples, and for what? Why would they go to all this trouble? You should see the place. It’s worth a bloody fortune. Someone with real deep pockets is bankrolling that place, and for what? Why would they want shifter semen?”
“Especially as a whole bunch of us give it away for free,” he said with a smirk, but that died a quick death when I shot a look at him. “I’m gonna have to tell the alphas about this, you know that, right?”
“Of course. You’re going to need to mobilise the pack.