Hunting Ember (Pride of Alphas #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,47

life now.

It wasn’t so bad. Not bad at all.

“Welcome to the hectic life of shifters,” Carmen said, rubbing at her stomach with a pinched expression. She looked highly uncomfortable.

“It’s a bit intimidating.”

“You’ll get used to it. There aren’t any better people out there. They take care of their own, you know? Speaking of which, I should tell you, I’m not a shifter. But I’ll warn you. Shifters run in families. My sister and I were both single. She met a guy, and he was a shifter. Next thing I knew? A few months later? I met a shifter too. Do you have siblings?”

“Two sisters,” Ember answered.

“Then you better warn them that they probably have a shifter mate on the way.” Carmen winced, her fingers digging into her side with a puff of staggered breath.

Ember blanched at the thought of telling her sisters that her new boyfriend could transform into a lion whenever he felt like it. They would probably think she had been sniffing too much icing sugar.

“Good to know. Hey, are you okay?”

Carmen nodded, but it wasn’t at all convincing.

“Can I get you anything?”

“Oh, ow.” Carmen stilled. Her face turned ashen and then went red. “Shit.” She tried to move from the couch, but her huge baby bump hindered her movements. “Joan! My water broke all over your couch.”

“You didn’t even tell me you had started your contractions,” Lee was pale as he spoke. He was a flurry of activity, grabbing a bag from beside the couch. “It’s hospital time. Come on.” He helped Carmen off the sofa, and immediately, Silvester wrapped himself around her legs. “Buddy, you have to let Mommy go. The baby is coming.”

“I don’t want another baby,” the boy whined, sniffling some seriously faked tears.

Ember knelt beside him. “Want to play a game? How about you go hide, and in a few minutes, I’ll come to find you?”

“Fine. But only if you promise to hide the baby forever too.”

“Umm — sure. We can do that.”

Free from her son, Carmen waddled away, helped by Lee. Peter and Joan helped them to the car, promising to keep Silvester and Sophie busy. It was in this flurry of activity, as Silvester zoomed from one hiding spot to the next, Sophie stumbling behind him, that Ember’s phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, she had no choice but to answer.

“Oh, thank god you answered, Ember,” her boss Ciro said, sounding panicked. “There has been a fire at the bakery. Can you come quick? The police need your statement.”

“Shit. I’m so sorry, Ciro. I’m on my way.”

With a quick explanation to her possible future in-laws and promises of another round of hide and seek to her rambunctious future nephew, Ember cabbed to Ciro’s bakery.

She had to win the competition now that her place of work had gone up in flames.

Ember was barely out of the cab, confused and frowning at the still very intact bakery.

The storefront's glass was clean and sparkling. A few customers leaving made the bell over the door ring out.

“Wha—”

The word died on her lips as something hard collided with the back of her head.

The very last thing Ember saw was Ciro’s scowling face, then everything turned black as she fell to the ground.

Chapter Seventeen

Kai

Kai was pissed.

Angrier than he had ever been. None of his leads had panned out. He was no closer to figuring out who was after Ember than before. His stop at the Police Station hadn’t yielded any new results. They were just as stumped as he was.

No one had a motive.

Everyone had an alibi.

The cameras at the studio had nothing on them. The cops were going through the footage again because it made no sense. Whoever had poisoned the almond flour had to be on the lot at some point.

The bastard had evaded all cameras.

It didn’t sit well with Kai. It led him to believe that whoever they were dealing with was a shifter. Only a shifter would have the ability and agility to sneak around security cameras.

It would also explain why the scent of the last letter had been tampered with. Whoever had sent it had known Kai would recognize another shifter’s scent. The issue with that theory is that Ember hadn’t known of shifters’ existence before he told her. What shifter had it out for a woman who didn’t even know of their breed’s existence?

It was a frustrating mystery, but he wouldn’t stop trying to solve it until he got to the bottom of it all and saved his mate. At least