“I couldn’t let you become a killer, Jack,” Cohen explained. “I’m gonna do whatever I can to make sure that at least one of the charges sticks. You’ve got my word.”
Jack nodded and clapped a hand on his friend’s back. “Thanks, Cohen. I appreciate it.”
Cohen waved him off. “You’re in Half Moon Key, Jack. This is where you belong. We look after our own. Though you should know, no one has been able to track down Nora.”
Jack grinned. “That’s okay. I think I know where she is.”
He shifted into his lion and ran through the woods until he arrived at the fairy ring, that strange rock formation coming out from the ground that they explored during one of their scavenger hunt events. Nora was there, safe and sound, dripping in coffee.
“I read coffee messes with the sense of smell, so I thought if I was covered in it, Sage wouldn’t be able to track me.”
He threw his head back with a laugh. “You’re brilliant, love. Truly.” He took her into his arms and held her close. “Let’s go home, love. We have a lot to discuss.”
“We do,” she agreed. “Sage told me everything.”
His heart sank, and he met her eyes. His heart soared higher than it had ever gone before, and all because his mate was looking at him with a loving gaze.
“I love you,” she blurted.
“I love you, too, Nora Ledger.”
Deep in his mind, his lion roared. Finally, the truth was known.
TWENTY-TWO
NORA
Nora’s head lay on Jack’s chest as she tracked his deep breathing. Her man was injured, and he needed to rest to heal the injuries his sister and her lions had caused.
Yup. That was right. Her man was a lion shifter, and he came from a long line of shifters, and more than that, there was a whole large group of people living in Half Moon Key who were shifters.
People who could turn into animals.
Jade’s Parker was a panther, and Lila’s Mason was a wolf, like his brother Cohen, Half Moon Key’s sheriff.
It was unbelievable, but she had seen the lions, wolves, and panthers for herself while she ran through the woods to her hiding spot.
A hiding spot that Jack had found without even thinking about it because he knew her. He knew her well enough to know where she would have gone, though he was pleasantly surprised to find she had actually rubbed coffee all over herself in the hopes of making sure no shifter could follow her scent.
If Sage hadn’t spilled the beans about Jack’s lion and his shifter family, Nora never would have doused herself in coffee, but the villain had given her the idea, as it was so often the case in those mystery novels she loved so much.
“You’re awake,” Jack’s voice was rough with sleep. “What time is it? I don’t wanna move,” he explained, keeping his eyes closed. “This is exactly where I wanna be, with you beside me.”
She giggled. “It’s almost noon. You’ve slept for more than twelve hours.”
He joined in on her laughter. “Yeah, I need more sleep to heal when I'm injured.”
Nora ran her hands over his body where there had been wounds. Now the skin was smooth, with not even the lightest touch of pink to suggest there was a scar. He was perfect, as if the fight had never happened. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked before kissing the skin at his hip.
“I’m fine, love. Are you all right? Yesterday was a very big day.”
“I’ll say,” she teased. “I learned a bunch of stuff about my hometown. How could I not know there were shifters in this town? I’ve lived here my whole life.”
“Shifters are very good at keeping secrets, Nora, but I want you to know I have no more secrets from you now. You know everything there is to know about me and about my life.”
“That’s good because you’ve basically known everything about me for a long time now.”
He shook his head and kissed her forehead. “No, not everything. I should’ve seen you for what you were earlier.”