wants us to get ghost."
"Then you get ghost, little brother, all gods be with you," Rex said, before disconnecting.
Ari pocketed his phone and joined his unit brothers in bagging up the dead. They moved quickly, sensing Aiden's urgency. In truth, Ari agreed. If the enemy took great pains for them to discover the dead here and possibly be distracted by them, then the last place they needed to be was in this warehouse.
"Freeze!" a female voice yelled out.
"What now?" Thane grumbled.
Ari turned and time seemed to slow. There, in the middle of the warehouse, in a deputy uniform, with her gun trained at his commander, was his beautiful mate.
Chapter Three
"Brie, put the gun down," Sheriff Rathais ordered gently.
Brie took in the scene before her. Men were moving body after body into large, black body bags. "Sir?" She took a deep breath and steadied the hand holding her weapon.
"That's an order, deputy," her boss repeated firmly.
"But…" She watched as River continued to process the scene. The ungodly large pile of bodies became her main focus. "Why didn't you call this in?"
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"You and River tore out of the office, of course I was going to follow." She loved the Sheriff like a second father. He had trained her and helped her become the law enforcement officer she was today. She knew in her heart that he would never have anything to do with so many deaths. "Sir?" she asked again, feeling lost.
Rathais walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I need you to go back to the office and forget you ever saw any of this."
"Well, that does not sound super sketchy," River murmured.
"What he said," Brie pointed.
Rathais sighed. "There are things you don't know. Things I was going to tell you when you took over as Sheriff."
"Things? Pile of dead bodies kinda things?" she demanded.
Rathais blinked in surprise. "Actually, no, this is not normal, even for us. Brainless ferals attacking fae, shifters, vampires, and witches, is the usual norm."
River snickered. "Gods, you are terrible at this."
Brie felt her eye begin to twitch. "What?"
"It may be faster to simply show her," a gorgeous blond said, as he walked up to them pulling off his clothes.
"Sir, I'm gonna need you to stop," she said, trying to keep her voice even. One, she had no idea why he was getting naked, and two, he was absolutely breathtaking, and three, he was getting naked!
"Gods above, Ari," Rathais exclaimed, shaking his head.
Brie's eyes never left the beautiful man before her. Seconds later, it felt as if her entire head became wrapped in cotton. Her hearing was muffled, and she knew she was going into shock, but who wouldn't? The runway model was now a freaking lion!
"Sir?!” she yelled.
"Stand down, Brie, we can explain," Rathais started. When she turned to face him, her body moved along with her head, and she now had her gun pointed at her boss.
"Brie, it's okay, honey, just put the gun down," Rathais continued.
Movement out of her corner of her eye had her swinging back to face the huge lion. "S-s-top," she ordered.
She felt Rathais move closer to her, and the lion began to snarl viciously. When her boss wrapped a comforting arm about her shoulders, the large feline roared loud enough to hurt her ears. Without thinking, she fired off a warning shot, her normally perfect aim skewed by her own shaking hands. When the lion collapsed, she was horrified. "I didn't mean to hit him!" she said, looking up into her boss' kind eyes.
"We know, honey. He had to go an act like an idiot. He should have known better than to approach someone holding a gun when they're spooked." Rathais easily pulled the gun from her hands. "Shift back, Ari, you're upsetting my deputy."
It wasn't until the men around her began to look concerned that she realized something might be really wrong.
"Ari?" Aiden called out, kneeling down next to the lion. He pushed back part of the mane and inhaled sharply. "He can't shift, the bullet looks close to the spine. If he shifts back to human, it may cause irreversible damage."
Brie felt her knees go. "I didn't want to hurt him," she whispered.
"I know, hon, you're a huge cat lover," Rathais easily supported her weight.
Aiden grabbed his phone. "Rheia, I need some advice."
"Who's Rheia?" she asked.
"A surgeon who lives with Aiden," Rathais answered.
Aiden ran down the series of events, explaining that they now had a four-hundred-and fifty-pound lion laid out with