The arrival of a car ruined it.
“It might just be Julie and Chase,” said Yvonne.
But as Zander stepped out onto the porch, it was to see that she was wrong. The sheriff slid out of his car, face grim. Beside him, Gwen quietly cursed. The others all emptied out of the house and spread out along the porch.
As Colt marched up the steps, Gwen lifted a brow. “Can I help you with something?”
“Where’s Ezra?” he demanded.
Gwen blinked. “Ezra?”
“Don’t play with me, Gwen,” he clipped.
Zander growled, and his wolf swiped his claws. “Watch your fucking tone.”
Colt’s lips thinned. “Last night, I had several reports that there were all kinds of noises coming from here.”
Yvonne snickered. “Kind of you to check on us the day after the reports came in.”
Perching his hands on his hips, Colt jutted out his chin. “Shifter business is shifter business.”
He had that right, thought Zander. “We went on a pack run. Things can get noisy.”
But Colt wasn’t buying it. “Ezra talked about coming here with his brothers, making you pay,” he told Gwen. “I calmed him down, thought I’d made him see reason. But I went by to see him this morning, and he’s gone. So are Moira and Brandt. His chauffeur and brother are nowhere to be found either.”
Gwen frowned. “And you think they’ll come here?”
“I think they have been here. I think you did something to them last night.”
“Why?” she asked.
His face flushed. “Because they wouldn’t just vanish like this! I want to search the premises. I want to get a crime-scene unit out here and—”
“That’s not going to be possible,” Zander told him, voice hard.
Colt did a slow blink. “Excuse me?”
“Well, see, you have no jurisdiction here anymore,” Gwen explained. “Haven’t you noticed all the shifter markings?”
Colt’s nostrils flared. “That doesn’t make this shifter territory.”
“This does.” Derren handed the sheriff some folded-up papers. He snatched them fast and began to read them. “These are the deeds to the house and land,” said Derren. “As you can see, they no longer belong to Yvonne.”
“Who’s Nick Axton?” Colt asked.
“Our Alpha,” said Jesse. “That makes this shifter territory, which means, as Gwen said, you have no jurisdiction here.”
Gwen barely hid her smile as Colt glared at her, looking ready to explode. Nick had bought the house and land from Yvonne just days before the hearing to cover their asses in case such an event occurred.
Fisting his hand in the papers, Colt growled, “Your neighbors said they heard fighting!”
Gwen arched a brow. “Do we look like we’ve been fighting?” Thanks to Ally, the answer was no. And as they’d moved the cars so that they covered the bloodstains on the ground from Zander’s and Rory’s duel, there was no way to tell that there had been a battle without taking a stroll around the marsh.
The bodies of the dead shifters and humans had all been lumped together deep in the marsh near two of Ezra’s cars. According to Zander, Cain would be sending some people from The Movement to collect them all. Collecting and disposing of bodies was apparently something they’d done for the Phoenix Pack before.
“The deeds,” said Derren, holding out his hand.
Colt handed them back with a petulant frown. “Ezra and Moira wouldn’t have just . . . left.”
“They might have if they were worried that shifters would come hunting Brandt for what he had done to Andie,” said Harley. “We’ve all heard of The Movement.”
The sheriff shook his head. “Ezra would have told me if he was leaving. And he wouldn’t run from shifters.”
“But he might run from Kenny Cogman,” Gwen mused. “Ezra said some pretty mean shit about me at that hearing. Told some lies about me too. Kenny wasn’t too happy to hear that.”
Colt’s frown turned thoughtful. “If you have nothing to hide, prove it and let me inside.”
Yvonne raised a mocking brow. “You sure you want to come inside, Sheriff? You never did like this house.”
Zander folded his arms. Like hell was he letting this bastard enter. “This is shifter territory now. You have no right being here. And we sure as shit don’t want you here.”
“Even if the Moores did come here last night, it would be no business of yours,” said Bracken. “We all know that if someone takes their chances trespassing on shifter territory, they can’t expect to walk away unharmed. As you yourself said, shifter business is shifter business.”
“They’re my friends,” said Colt.
Gwen shook her head. “Not friends, Colt. Not really. People like the Moores aren’t friends with anyone. They’re all about themselves. You lost the respect of a lot of people around here because of them. There had to have been times when you did want to arrest Brandt for one thing or another. After all, he was making your job harder for you. But you always had to let it go, didn’t you? They didn’t respect your authority, and soon other people stopped respecting it. At least you won’t have that problem until they come back from wherever they’ve gone.”
The sheriff sighed. “Just give me a straight answer. Did they come here last night or not?”
“If they did, I didn’t see them,” said Marlon, which was true as he’d been at Dylan’s. “And I doubt they’d have come here just to hide in the trees. Besides, I think the noises this lot made on their pack run would have scared them off.”
For a long moment, no one spoke. Colt pointed a finger at Gwen. “If I find any evidence to suggest they came here—”
“There’ll be nothing you can do about it,” Zander stated. The pack would never admit to anything. Explaining or justifying themselves to humans would be the same as answering to them. “And me, well, I’m not eager to talk to a person who didn’t protect my mate or one of my kind when they were being harassed and persecuted. Now drop your fucking finger, get back in your car, and don’t come back.”
Looking strangely tired all of a sudden, Colt muttered to himself as he slowly returned to his car. Watching him drive off, Gwen said, “It really was smart of you to ask Nick to buy the house and land so that Colt couldn’t insist on coming inside.”
“I’m always full of smart ideas,” said Zander.
As the others retreated into the house, Gwen slid her arms around him. “What does Nick intend to do with the place?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.” Zander brushed his mouth over hers. “You can do that tomorrow, when you come home with me.”
She raised her brows. “Tomorrow?” That was a lot sooner than she’d expected, and she could admit, if only to herself, that it made her panic a little. But then, she supposed it was important to him to get back to his pack.
“Tomorrow,” he stated.
She saw the dare in his eyes, knew he was expecting her to object and claim it was too soon. Instead, she sighed and agreed, “Tomorrow.”
Mouth curving, Zander wrapped his arms tight around her, lifted her off her feet, and kissed the breath out of her.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Two months later