can get pretty much everyone to fall in line to do Hugo’s bidding.
After talking for a moment, Hugo makes a hand signal to open the gate, and I practically hang out of the window to see who’s on the other side. Hugo left the keys in the ignition, so if shit goes bad and Pack Rockhead is on the other side waiting to attack us, I’ll plough right into them and take out as many of them as I can.
Heartless? Maybe. But I grew up with them, and I know their pack motto. “Step on the small and claim it all.” It wasn’t exactly a comfortable bedtime nursery rhyme. If they get it in their heads that they want to take us out, they won’t hesitate to do just that, using any sneaky, dishonorable tactics they can. I won’t go down without a fight. This time, I won’t run from them.
I have one hand on the keys and one hand on the outside of the window, my body poised up, straining to see past the enforcers as the gate slowly slides open. But what I see on the other side makes me falter. It’s not Pack Rockhead.
Officer MacQuilley is standing on the other side, his cop car parked at the gate. He has a shiner around his eye and I can tell by the scowl on his face that he’s ready for this morning to be over, even though it’s barely past eight. I’m confused about why there’s a big hubbub over Mac. He’s an ally for us, and comes over sometimes to relay information to Hugo.
Mac is human, but his grandmother was a shifter, so he carries some shifter DNA, and he knows about our kind. It’s good to have him as our eyes and ears, and unlike some of the dirty cops in town, he doesn’t run information through Pack Rockhead. Mac is a solid guy and he helps us out when he can.
In return, we make sure to help keep an eye on Pack Rockhead and pass along information that Mac should know. Seeing as there’s no immediate danger, I slip out of the Jeep and make my way over. Hearing the door shut, Stinger turns and shakes his head at me, but returns his focus on Hugo.
“Mac,” Hugo says, striding forward. “What do you got?”
“Sorry to run over here like this without calling ahead,” Mac says, running a hand through his orange hair. “But time was an issue. But if I hadn’t crossed into Aberrant pack land, they would’ve gone over my head and taken her to Rockhead.”
Hugo frowns. “Who?”
Mac points back to his cop car, and all of our focus goes there. “Got the burglary call in around seven AM this morning. She was found inside the hardware store.”
“A shifter?” Hugo asked.
Mac nods. “She’s gotta be.”
I can’t help the crushing disappointment that sinks into me. It’s not the guys. They haven’t come for me.
“She shifted in front of you?” Hugo asks.
Dread coils in my stomach. If the shifter in his cop car really did openly shift in front of a human, then our own shifter government would punish her according to shifter law. Sometimes that meant immeasurable fines, but it would definitely mean imprisonment. and no shifter wanted that.
It was common knowledge that they used warlock magic in Cane prisons, and the magic there makes shifters unable to change into their animals. And if our animals are kept suppressed like that for years at a time...it can lead to madness or death.
So it’s a relief when Mac shakes his head. “No. I knew she was a shifter because she’s been collared.”
I hear Stinger curse under his breath and several of the other enforcers shift uneasily. I can feel fury rolling in waves off of Hugo, as his alpha energy slips out from his rage. To collar a shifter is a barbaric act, but our shifter governments have been unable to overturn the ancient law that allows it.
To this day, vampires, warlocks—hell, even other shifters—are legally allowed to collar a shifter and bring them into servitude if a contract is agreed upon. Centuries ago, it used to be done to feral shifters who had committed grave crimes, as a way for them to atone without being put to death. But the punishment had been twisted and used in other more nefarious ways. It wasn’t something commonly done anymore, since there’d been an outcry against the form of slavery, but the law had never changed.
“She’s lucky I