Alone.
He shoved back the memories of friends he’d lost before depression gripped him. Allowing them to take root wasn’t wise, especially with the possessiveness humming in his veins for Jasmine.
Humans could be injured. They got sick. Died in tragic accidents. All in the blink of an eye. One minute, they could be alive and healthy. The next? Gone. That was reason enough to justify holding their loved ones close. Or avoiding them at all costs. The latter wasn’t possible for Rafe. Jasmine was too important to let go.
Rafe forced his fingers to unclench. He caught a glimpse of a car ahead of him. The tension drained from his body. He allowed his cats to rise and offer their increased senses. The red taillights turned to dark gray and the world around him brightened as his cats’ night vision became his.
Rafe breathed a sigh. The car was hers. He remembered the decals she’d had on her windows—stickers to save big cat habitat and to put an end to animal research. They were worthy causes and ones he approved of too.
He dialed Kade.
“Where are you?” Rafe asked as soon as the call connected.
“In the middle of nowhere. It’s no wonder these humans got away with hiding our shifter kids so long. They live in the boondocks.”
Rafe laughed, not at Kade’s irritation but at Jasmine. Her head was bopping as if she was singing along to music.
“It’s not funny, Rafe. I stepped in dung! Do you know how bad that stuff smells?”
“It hasn’t been that long since our only mode of transportation was by horses. I remember.” He cleared his throat. “Did you find Jasmine’s children?”
“Not yet. Her property is smack-dab in the middle of two large cow pastures. I checked those first, found nothing.”
Whether her home choice was intentional or not, she couldn’t have picked a safer location. The stench from manure would cover up the scent of her boys and deter other shifters from investigating.
“She said they’re with a Mr. Wilkins.”
Kade grunted. “Figures. He was next on my list. He’s on the opposite side of the bigger farm.”
Up ahead, Jasmine’s car slowed. She turned down a smaller road. He drove past it then did a one-eighty. He waited for her to disappear from view and followed behind with his lights off.
“Looks as if we’re headed there too. Wait until you see headlights then go out to her home and make sure it’s safe.”
“More orders. Sure thing, brother.” Kade ended the call.
The one-lane macadam turned into a gravel road. Rafe pulled into the bushes, so as not to stir up dust. His heart raced. The separation from Jasmine was unavoidable. He didn’t want to alert her to his presence, but he hated not knowing where she was, if she was safe.
He dropped his head against the back of his seat. Unless a bear or deer ran into her path, she wouldn’t have an issue. The woman had survived perfectly fine without someone watching over her.
Of course, she’d probably hadn’t caught the attention of anyone who’d be a threat to her or her kids. She lived a good twenty miles from any shifter territory. The nearest was the Kagan single shifter pack to the west of her property, but wolves rarely left their pack lands and likely wouldn’t have stumbled over her.
In all honesty, the Royals wouldn’t have either. They tended to avoid single shifters and humans alike, preferring to remain isolated. The Alexander pride was no different. Their plantation home and its surrounding acreage sat in one of the least populated counties of Virginia. The only reason Rafe had left was because of the information sent to them from Shifter Affairs, a small department of the human government few knew about.
Megan’s adoption had raised some flags when Tony enrolled her in kindergarten. Shifter Affairs agents had then identified her as being feline, and the nearest pride had been contacted to investigate. Rafe and Devin had driven to West Virginia immediately.
It hadn’t been soon enough.
The fire might’ve been an accident, and Tony’s death just a coincidence. Rafe drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He really wanted to believe that.
No matter the reason behind Tony’s death, the hard decisions had yet to be made concerning Megan and Jasmine’s boys. Since they’d been found closest to Rafe’s home, they’d be assimilated into the Alexander pride and tied to their family’s spirit unless their birth parents were found.
It was what happened to those humans the shifter children had loved that became a little sketchy. Ultimately, whatever was best for the kids would be the choice that was made. If that meant moving Jasmine with her boys, Rafe wouldn’t complain. The only other option would be to take the kids, allowing the humans who’d cared for them to think they’d died.
That had been done in the past. Actually, it was the preferred solution since it removed humans from the mix. Allowing them knowledge of shifters was dangerous. A human’s vow to protect the secret of shifters’ existence was an easy one to betray, and if a human was found guilty, primal law took over. That demanded the human’s death.
He gripped the steering wheel. No. He didn’t want to go there. Jasmine wasn’t facing that fate. If he had anything to say about it, she wouldn’t. Ever.
Time stretched with no signs of Jasmine’s car. His cats’ demands built. They needed to see her, to know she was safe. So did he.
He slipped from his SUV and moved quickly through the woods. A small two-story home sat at the end of the road. Thick undergrowth and trees surrounded three sides of the place, and a stream wove through the front yard.
The property was serene, quiet, and well kept, but it offered too many hiding places for Rafe’s comfort. It was a good thing he’d followed her. He crouched behind the bushes near the yard
