“I can’t believe I still haven’t heard a peep from my parents. I mean, their priorities have always been a little messed up, but I’ve never doubted their love for me. And they’ve always been protective of me.” I shook my head, feeling dumbfounded by their silence, considering the circumstances.
Tane came out of the en suite bathroom and padded across the room toward me. Taking the sweatshirt I’d grabbed from the closet out of my hand, he tugged it over my head and guided my arms through the holes. “Link probably took their phones away so they couldn’t be tracked.”
“Maybe,” I conceded with a sigh. “It just sucks that they’ve let that stop them from getting ahold of me when you wouldn’t. I’m sure Link would’ve let them call using his phone or something.”
“Damn straight. Nothing would stop me from talking to you,” he agreed, wrapping his arms around me to pull me against his chest. “His entire club could try to lock me down, and that still wouldn’t keep me away from you.”
I grinned a little at the thought of Tane going up against Larissa’s dad and his crew. As tough as they were, I had no doubt my man would find his way around them to get to me. I swore that I’d never take his devotion to me for granted. “Mac, their president, would do anything for his wife, Bridget, too. So I don’t think you’d get much resistance from them.”
I didn’t hear anything unusual, but I stilled when Tane tensed up and cocked his head to the side to look out the window. His dark orbs filled with the ferality of his tiger, and his voice was rough as he commanded, “Get on the floor and slide under the bed, baby.”
Without hesitating, I dropped down to my hands and knees and crawled over to the bed. It was a tight fit, but I managed to squeeze underneath the frame. I couldn’t see much from my position, but I watched Tane’s feet as he crossed the room to flip the switch on the wall. With the lights off and only the moon shining through the window, I could see even less. “Is someone out there?”
“Shh, baby. I don’t want them to realize you’re under there if they make it up here,” he whispered.
That answered my question—yes, someone was out there. And it wasn’t a member of the Timber Ridge pack if Tane was worried about them coming into the house. With Tane’s heightened hearing, I knew he’d still be able to hear me when nobody else would as I barely mouthed, “Please be careful.”
“As long as you stay hidden, I’ll be fine,” he reassured me. “There are only three of them, and they’ll be surrounded soon. Kace is coming in from the east and Zeke from the west.”
I’d adjusted to the shifter world without many issues—taking in stride that Tane could change into a tiger that was about three times bigger than his human form without much thought—but I still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of Kace having telepathic capabilities. But I was going to be super accepting of them after this because being able to communicate with his alpha gave my mate an advantage against the bad guys. I was a big fan of anything that kept him safe, especially since I brought this trouble to his door.
I heard a sound at the window, and my head jerked in that direction as Tane circled the bed to stand flat against the wall out of sight through the glass. I scooted over a little so I could see up to his knees, and slapped my hand over my mouth when I saw a leg descend from the window, a dark boot silently pressing against the floor. The guy didn’t even get all the way into the room before Tane raced forward and slammed him to the ground. Startled eyes widened further when he spotted me under the bed, but then Tane’s hands fisted the front of his coat, and he lifted the guy up as though he weighed almost nothing. “You fucked up big time, coming after my woman.”
“Shit, man. Relax. I haven’t even laid eyes on the girl yet. I haven’t so much as touched a hair on her head. We can work something out here,” an unfamiliar male voice muttered.
“Oh, we’ll work something out alright,” Tane agreed on a low growl. The man’s relieved sigh was quickly followed up by several thuds and a grunt. His feet were dangling in the air directly in front of Tane’s shins. “The only thing that’ll make me happy is knowing any possible threat to Calliope has been eliminated. You’re not going to like my solution to the problem, but that’s okay. The second you entered Timber Ridge, the outcome was already decided. We’re going to work this out to my satisfaction, not yours. But that won’t be a problem since you won’t be around to complain after we’re done.”