Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

slammed his fist on the sturdy dining room table.
    Connor’s dark eyes narrowed and Ana just shook her head. Everyone else at the table was silent as Liam and Connor stared at each other.
    Finally Connor spoke. “We’re not going to go off half-cocked hunting this guy down. I understand why you’re angry, but we have to be smart about this. Can you kill this guy? Sure. But what will it do for the pack? We need to find the leader and cut off the head of this organization. If we kill this guy, someone else will replace him. This isn’t just about you. It’s about all of us.”
    Liam forced himself to take steady, even breaths. His inner wolf wanted blood and he didn’t care what his Alpha said. That knowledge terrified him. Thankfully December hadn’t been hurt. Not really. Shaken up and scared, but not truly injured. He’d never felt so out of control in his life. Had never wanted to defy his Alpha—his blood—with the intensity he did now.
    Right now he wanted to tell his brother to go fuckhimself and hunt down the bastard who’d tried to take December. Beast and man had never been so unified about anything before. A loyalty to his brother that ran bone deep was the only thing keeping him grounded.
    “What do you plan to do anyway, Liam? Leave December here all alone while you go off hunting?” Ana raised a dark eyebrow and gave him a look that made him feel like a cub being scolded.
    Next to her, Erin snorted loudly. “Your woman is so scared out of her mind that she’s staying on a ranch with a pack of shifters and you’re gonna
leave
her? Yeah, real genius idea.”
    Ana nudged her and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter the species, they’re all clueless,” she murmured.
    Liam clenched his teeth together so he wouldn’t say something he’d regret. Right now December was taking a bath at the guesthouse. He’d called ahead and asked Jayce to move his stuff into the males’ cabin, into Liam’s room. He didn’t care if it was rude. December needed this right now.
    She’d told him she wanted some time to herself, and he knew his time was limited before she got out. He’d planned to ask Ana to stay with her while he went after the guy who hurt her, but now he was reconsidering.
    Connor looked away from Liam and nodded at Ryan. “Continue with what you were saying.”
    Ryan cleared his throat and looked around the table. “I still haven’t managed to decrypt that flash drive, but we might have good news. The guy who tried to mug December a couple weeks ago is getting out of jail Tuesday morning. It’s because of the nature of the crime and overcrowding or something.”
    “How is that a good thing?” Liam asked. Another assholeAPL member with a vendetta against them would be walking free.
    This time Connor spoke, his attention on Liam. “He’s afraid of us—you specifically. You want to do something useful? I need you to talk to this guy.”
    “Talk?” He’d broken the guy’s thumb before and that had gotten him plenty of answers.
    His brother nodded tightly. “Yes.
Talk.
We know his boss’s name is Edward Adler, but so far we can’t find out much about him. That guy, William, was scared enough of you to admit to his crimes and go to jail without a fight. And he gave up Adler’s name. We might be able to use him if you can play on his fear of you.”
    Liam liked where this was going. If he couldn’t hunt down the man from tonight, this was second-best. Nodding at his brother, he stood. “Fine. I need to check on December.” Out of respect he knew he should be asking permission to leave the meeting, but he didn’t care at this point. All he wanted was to see December. The females were right. Leaving her now would be worse in the long run. She needed to know he’d be there for her, and if he was honest, he desperately wanted to comfort her. To convince himself she was unharmed.
    Sighing, Connor nodded and dismissed him.
    Liam barely felt the cold night air as he crossed the ranch. A few females were out walking and he could scent some of the males out patrolling the grounds, but all he could focus on was getting to December.
    She’d been unusually quiet the entire drive to the ranch and when he’d left her to take a bath, she’d barely said two words to him. He’d rather have her calling him arrogant and annoying and yelling at him instead of this subdued version of her.
    He’d left Aiden guarding the house and though he couldn’t see him, he knew he was in the