Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

meant taking on the possibility that an ambush was waiting. By going first he was showing Jayce there was no harm waiting in the house. Even though he was the enforcer and there on official business, he was still a guest of their pack. Liam hadn’t expected to like Jayce so much, but after seeing the issues he was having with Kat, he felt an odd connection. They both had female problems.
    Liam had stomped the snow and dirt off his shoes before entering and Jayce did the same. A low hum of voices trailed from the dining room. As they entered the room, everyone quieted. Connor sat at the head of the long, rectangular table and Ana sat next to him.
    Connor stood and nodded. “Jayce.”
    “Connor.” Jayce stood stiffly as he glanced around the table at everyone. When his eyes landed on Erin, the petite redhead Liam and his brother had found naked, beaten, and bloody behind a Dumpster over a year ago, they lingered longer than on the others.
    Connor had never reported they’d found Erin, becauseshe’d begged them not to. She also wouldn’t tell them where she’d come from or who had hurt her. If she had, Liam and Connor and probably the rest of the pack would have lined up for a chance to kill the bastard or bastards who had dared hurt her. Violence against females in the shifter world was rare and by the abuse she’d suffered, it had been obvious shifters had hurt her. Humans wouldn’t have had the strength to. But when she hadn’t wanted to do anything about her attack, they hadn’t pushed her. They’d taken her in and made her part of their pack and protected her the only way they could.
    It was clear to anyone in the room that Jayce’s assessment of her wasn’t sexual, but it was curious. “You’re Erin Flynn.” It was not a question but a statement.
    Her back went ramrod straight and Noah, who sat next to her, moved a few inches closer in a proprietary manner. “Yes.”
    “Did you used to belong to the Murphy pack?”
    Her face paled and after flicking a nervous glance at Connor, she looked back at Jayce and nodded.
    “They listed you as dead at the last Council meeting.”
    At his words, Erin’s gray eyes flashed angrily. “Well, they were wrong,” she said through gritted teeth.
    Jayce continued to stare at her, as if searching for something. The room was eerily silent as they met each other’s gazes. When Erin didn’t flinch away, Jayce finally nodded slightly. “After this meeting, we need to talk.”
    Erin swallowed hard but nodded.
    Liam watched as Noah’s canines started to extend, so he cleared his throat loudly and took the empty chair next to him. The other wolf looked at him and when he did, his breathing began to even out. Noah and Erin weren’t mated or bondmates or even intimate as far asLiam knew, but Noah didn’t care. He’d been protecting her since they’d found her.
    Jayce focused his attention on Connor as he sat at the opposite end of the table. “Before we start this meeting, you should know that the Council cleared you in the death of Taggart.”
    Connor’s nod was barely perceptible. “I wasn’t worried.”
    Liam knew his brother hadn’t been worried about the ruling of the actual killing. That had definitely been justified. Considering Taggart had kidnapped a defenseless cub and tried to rape Ana
twice
, that bastard deserved everything he’d gotten.
    “That’s not the reason you’re here, though, is it?” Connor spoke again.
    Jayce shook his head. “The APL problem is growing. Right now it’s a small group of angry humans, but if we don’t do something to ferret out their leaders, we’ll have a problem.”
    “We have the names of six known members. Three are dead, one we haven’t managed to dig up anything on, one is in jail, and the other has gone missing,” Liam said. The man missing was the asshole who had attacked December.
Mike Taylor.
They’d been trying to track his movements, but it was as if he’d fallen off the face of the earth.
    “How do you know about the dead men? Did you kill them?” Jayce asked.
    Liam looked at his brother. Connor nodded and took the lead. “We tracked down two APL members after they tried to kill my mate.” His voice heated up as he continued. “When we found them, they’d kidnapped another woman. They planned to rape her, but we got there before they could.” He paused a moment. “It was Katarina Saburova.”
    Jayce’s eyes widened and the muscles in his neck corded tightly as they tensed. A thick,