Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

need to refresh your memory? Where did they plan to keep her?” Even thinking about that day he’d caught this guy behind her store made Liam see red. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who needed to calm down. He clenched his fists at his sides and took measured breaths. He was in control, not his inner wolf.
    “Fine, they have safe houses. I’ve never been to any of them, but I heard rumors that Adler has a couple for hostages. I kinda figured it out anyway, since no one would want to keep hostages at their own homes.”
    Jayce took a menacing step forward and Liam had to throw his arm out to block him. Killing this guy wouldn’t do them any good. Especially not in such a public place and in front of his family. “Where are these houses?” He ground the words out, hating that he had to deal with such scum.
    “I don’t know, I swear. I went to Adler’s house for a meeting once, but I was blindfolded for the drive since I was so new. From what I could tell, his house isn’t in town but just past it to the east. There weren’t a lot of lights out there either. Just farmland. I didn’t see any other buildings near the house, though, so I don’t know of any landmarks.”
    “Anything else you can think of?”
    “I don’t know, man. Half his face is burned and he hates anything paranormal and he hates women. Well, except for one woman. There’s this lady, Brianna—she seemed pretty new to the group too, but he was different around her. Almost like she—I don’t know—had a controlling effect on him or something. I can’t…be associated with those people anymore. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said, almost to himself. “Can you just leave now? I don’t know anything else!”
    Liam looked at Jayce, who nodded. This guy was scared and from what Liam could sense, he was telling the truth. Lies often had a distinctive, almost metallic tang to them and this guy wasn’t exuding that. But he still wanted to instill fear in him. “If I find out you know more than you’re telling, I’ll come back and break more than your thumb.”
    With wide eyes, William paled even more. “Shit, man! I don’t know anything else, I swear. I just want to live in peace with my family.” Beads of sweat rolled down the side of his face as he looked back and forth between them.
    Nodding, Liam turned and strode back to the vehicle. Once they were inside, he started the engine, then headed back to the ranch. “We lost the trail at a crossroads last night, but what he’s saying might be true. There’s a lot of farmland and mountainous terrain to the east. Good place to hide just about anything or anyone.”
    Liam started to say more when Connor’s voice sounded in his head.
Get back to the ranch. Ryan finally cracked the encryption. We might have something.
    On our way,
he projected back.
    He quickly relayed the message to Jayce and was almost surprised by the sudden burst of undisguised hope that rolled off the other wolf. The sweet, pure scent was completely at odds with the tough-looking shifter. It didn’t matter that he’d had half a millennium learning to cover his emotions. His feelings for Kat were obviously stronger than any of that.
    Silently Liam prayed they’d find Kat soon. They didn’t know nearly enough about the APL, and the fact that they had no issues targeting women was terrifying. And after what William had just told them…he fought back the thoughts.
    They would find her. They had to.
    December closed the register and handed change back to her twentieth customer of the morning. They’d been unusually busy and she shouldn’t have had time to think about anything, but unfortunately that’s all she could do. She was lost in her head.
    Worried about Parker. Scared out of her mind for Kat. And confused about Liam. She knew that should be the last thing on her mind, but after the way he’d acted this morning, she wasn’t sure what was going on. The cold, distant side of Liam wasn’t something she ever wanted to get used to.
    While she understood they were both stressed, she wanted to lean on him. And she wanted him to do the same with her. If they were going to take the next step in this relationship, she couldn’t deal with someone who didn’t see her as an equal. As the bell above the door jingled behind the last customer, she strode toward the front door and locked it.
    Then she turned the OPEN sign to CLOSED .
    “What are you doing?” Erin came out from behind one of the aisles.