Sedona Sin Page 2

  We were fucked.

  CHAPTER 2

  Naomi

  Footsteps came toward the house, and I held my breath, all my attention on the four little boys in the tiny safe room at the back of the closet. Gage’s twin boys, Hawk and Hank, were six months younger than mine, but the four of them were already their own pack. Gage had been bitten and “mated” to Samantha. We lost her in the battle to free ourselves of Allen Caldwell. Gage had embraced being a single Dad as best he could, and I helped out when I could.

  In the past six months, my boys—Bart and Ben—had grown not only in size but in vocabulary and coordination. Cole, our pack doctor, who also owned the local veterinary clinic in Sedona, said that shifters matured faster than humans, which meant preschool was out of the question. There was no way I could tell someone my boys weren’t even three years old yet. They were about the size of four- or five-year-olds and already had the vocabulary of a kindergartener. They also had no trouble understanding that when I said hide, I wasn’t playing. Our hide-and-seek was a matter of survival. I hadn’t locked them inside yet, but we were ready.

  Since I’d been bitten and dragged into this paranormal nightmare, I’d seen too many friends die, and I was not going to be next. I stayed in the shadows with the window cracked. Finally, I caught a scent, but it wasn’t a rogue jaguar shifter like the ones Asher Mateo had warned me about. I recognized this scent. And a few seconds later, so did the boys.

  “Daddy!” Hank gasped. The little guys wouldn’t start shifting into wolves until they were much older, but even now, they had heightened senses and used them instinctively.

  “Wait. Let me make sure he’s alone.” I already knew he was, but I hoped I’d get to talk to him without small ears present.

  Gage was just coming through the front door when I rounded the corner. “Hey, Naomi.” He smiled and looked around. “Where are the cubs?”

  I tipped my head toward the hallway. “Hiding. Did you see my text?”

  “No.” He shook his head, sobering. “What’s up?”

  Gage wasn’t thirty yet, but in spite of his age, he took on being a dad with his whole heart.

  “I’ve got the house on lockdown, and the boys are in the hiding place. Asher caught the scent of another jaguar shifter in Sedona.”

  “Shit. Again?” Gage frowned.

  Gage had just gotten out of the Air Force when Caldwell had him bitten. It was easy to see why our previous Alpha had thought Gage would be an asset to the pack. He was a hulking guy, at least six foot three, and he hadn’t lost any of his military muscle.

  “Yeah.” I kept my voice low. “The boys already smelled you, but I told them to stay back there. I didn’t want to scare them about the jaguar.”

  Gage nodded and started down the hall. “Thanks, Naomi.”

  His broad shoulders filled the narrow space until he turned right, and the squealing of little boys erupted. I sank onto the couch in the darkened living room, resting my head in my hands. I was so damned tired of living like this.

  Before I was bitten, I’d been working my ass off trying to get my foot in the door with entertainment companies. I usually did graphic design, web design, whatever I could to pay my student loans and build my marketing résumé. That was how I got mixed up with Allen Caldwell in the first place. The cool logo on the sign and the menus of the Wolf Pack Bar had sealed my fate.

  I groaned, pushing the memories away. Nothing I could do about it now.

  The only good things to come out of all this were my twin boys. Bart and Ben made every day worth living. I’d always imagined I’d have a family someday, but in my imagination, I was married and my husband helped raise the little guys. I never dreamed I’d be forced to mate with a man I barely knew. But Brock ended up being kind.

  I couldn’t say the same for Caldwell. Our previous Alpha had tried to get me pregnant himself at first. He’d said he needed an heir, but when it hadn’t happened, I ended up locked in a storage facility like an animal.

  At least I lived through it. Brock hadn’t.

  “Mama?”

  I turned toward my son’s voice. “I’m on the couch, Bart.”

  He came into the living room and crawled onto my lap. Of my twin boys, Bart was the eldest by ten minutes and seemed to have some sixth sense about knowing when I was upset. It was tough to keep anything from him. I boosted him onto my lap, and he snuggled in. I sniffed his hair and closed my eyes. I would live through this hell all over again in a heartbeat if it meant I got to be this little guy’s mom.

  “Why are you sad, Mama?”

  “I’m not sad.” I sighed and kissed his head. “Just tired. I don’t like that we have to hide.”

  “Why do the jaguars hate us?”

  If only it were that simple. “They don’t hate us, but their leader was doing bad things and we helped stop him. Now the jaguars don’t have a place to go.”

  He leaned back, looking at me with dark eyes that seemed to understand so much more than they should at his age. “We have a big house. Maybe they can sleep over.”

  I let out a sad chuckle. “I think there are too many of them.” I put him back on the floor and patted him on the behind. “Go tell Uncle Gage I made spaghetti if he and the boys want to stay for dinner.”

  Bart’s face lit up with a bright smile, and he was gone in a flash. God, I wished I could dive into happiness so freely.

  I got up, staring into the darkness. I couldn’t live another year like this, but I didn’t have a lot of choices. I didn’t make enough money to afford a place on my own, and going to my parents back in Ohio wasn’t an option, either. You could call me hardheaded, but when my dad had told me heading west was a mistake and that I would beg to come back home, there was no way I was going to show up on their doorstep with two little boys and prove him right.

  Not to mention that if I shifted into a wolf in the middle of Cleveland, I could expose my whole race to the humans. I’d never put a target on my little boys’ backs. But knowing all that didn’t make me feel any less trapped.

  Gage came down the hallway with his twins clinging to his legs. Bart raced toward him with his hands up. Gage scooped him off the ground and placed him on top of his shoulders. Ben brought up the rear, giggling behind him, as he clung to Gage’s belt loop and sock-skied down the tiled hallway.

  I chuckled, shaking my head. “I’m guessing they want you to stay.”

  “Wish we could, but I have a pizza in the truck and a couple little cubs in desperate need of baths.”

  “No bath, Daddy!” Hank pouted from his right leg.

  “Sorry, buddy.” He lifted Bart down from his shoulders and picked up his son, Hawk, sniffing him. Gage made a repulsed face that had all four boys giggling. “Whew! Maybe two baths.” He caught his wriggling little boys, one under each arm, and grinned. “Thanks for watching them, Naomi.”

  “No problem. Be careful out there.”

  “I will.” He went out the door, and I quickly locked it behind him. I waited for the taillights of his truck to disappear before hitting the security pad for the gate, locking that behind him, too. This big desert estate used to be owned by Allen Caldwell, but it was part of a trust now, sort of a home base for all of us in the Sedona Pack when we needed it.

  I filled my little guys up with pasta, got them cleaned up, and put to bed before I caught the scent coming through the window.

  Shit.

  My pulse raced as I took out my cell phone and hit Asher’s number. I wanted to believe I called him because he was at the top of my recent calls list, but his face was the first to fill my head when I realized danger might be right outside my door.

  “Everything okay?” he answered.

  Just hearing his deep voice calmed the adrenaline lacing my bloodstream. I grabbed my pepper spray. “It’s somewhere on the ranch. I smelled it,” I said, keeping my voice hushed.

  “Are you sure it’s not Vance? He was at the bar tonight.”

  “No. I’d recognize Vance’s scent.” I crept toward the front door, turning off lights as I made my way to the window. I stayed low, watching the shadows outside. “I’d go hunting for him, but I can’t leave the boys in here unprotected.”

  “On my way.”

  I ended the call and forced my breathing to slow. Jaguars didn’t have as keen a sense of smell or hearing as we did, but if they were close to the house, I didn’t want to chance them hearing my heart thundering in my chest.

  Before Caldwell had me bitten, I was a third-degree black belt and an expert with throwing stars. It was probably another reason I was targeted. He wanted strong females for his werewolf breeding program. My stomach turned at the thought. I’d kill him all over again if he were still breathing.

  My coat hung on the rack by the door, and I slid my fingers into the inside pocket and pulled my throwing stars free. Just running my fingers along the cool, smooth metal helped me find my center again. Until I’d had the twins, I had nerves of steel, but knowing their lives were in my hands raised the stakes exponentially. If that jaguar made any move to come inside this house, I’d attack first and ask questions later.

  Being bitten and changed into a werewolf wasn’t all bad. Not only had I gained heightened senses but increased strength. I could throw my stars twice as far now without losing any accuracy. I didn’t need Asher to save me. But if he could convince the encroaching jaguar to retreat while he was still outside, I could keep watch over my sleeping boys without leaving them unguarded while I fought.

  Five minutes passed, and nothing happened.

  It would be easy to get my hopes up that they’d left, but the scent hadn’t faded. Crouching under the window, I crossed to the light switches and turned on the porchlight.

  Glass shattered, and a silent bullet crun
ched into the stucco wall. Darkness again. Whoever was out there had a silencer and a clear shot of the porch. Damn it.

  Behind me, the kitchen window exploded, and another bullet whizzed past my ear. It sunk into the wall next to the door. Shit. There were two of them out there—one covering the front and one on the rear exit. I was running out of time.

  Adrenaline pumped through my veins until my hands trembled, begging me to run, but that’s what the assassins outside were counting on. I took out my phone and sent Asher a text. I didn’t know if he’d see it before he drove up, but I had to try.

  Jaguar out front with a silencer. Be careful.

  I’d take care of the one in the back. Staying low, I hustled to the coat closet and stepped inside. I felt around for the pistol we had stashed on the shelf over the coats. I took it down and dug into the pocket of the trench coat for the key to the trigger lock.

  Guns weren’t my thing, but after the fight with Caldwell, Luke Reynolds had given me a few lessons. I wasn’t an amazing shot like him, but I wasn’t bad. The trick would be not getting killed before I could fire. Jaguar assassins had a lifetime of weapons training.

  I heard Asher’s Jeep roar up the drive. That was my cue. I rushed out the back door, sticking to the shadows. A gun fired out front. Since the jaguar had a silencer, it must’ve been Asher’s shot. I hoped he had hit the mark but didn’t get much time to consider it before the stucco exploded right beside my head.

  Holy crap!

  I dropped to my knee, raising the gun and taking aim in the direction the bullet had come from, but I didn’t see anything. I was a sitting duck. I sprinted to a big boulder and took cover. Another bullet had dirt spraying down on me, but I wasn’t bleeding, thank god.

  Another gunshot deafened my ears from the front of the house.

  Please, Asher, be careful.

  I pivoted just in time to see a shadow dressed in black rushing toward the back door. Holding the barrel steady, I squeezed the trigger. The jaguar shifter collapsed onto the ground, gripping his side. I jogged over, my gun at the ready in case this was all an act.

  “Hands behind your head.” I didn’t bother trying to be quiet. My gun didn’t have a silencer. If Asher hadn’t found his target yet He could be headed my way already.

  “I’m hit.” He groaned, keeping his hand pressed against his side.

  I moved closer, still ready to shoot him. Kneeling beside him, I frowned. I couldn’t place from where, but I recognized this guy. “Who are you?”

  “Trying to help. There’s another…”

  His words faded away when a man in black with a matching ski mask stepped out of the shadows, the long barrel of the silencer aimed directly at my head. “Drop the gun, bitch.”

  I did as he asked.

  “Kick it away.”

  He hadn’t shot me yet, so I must have been worth something to him. I pushed the gun away with my foot, my fingers clasping one of my stars in my pocket.

  “Put your hands up,” he commanded.

  In one fluid motion, I jerked my hand free. The sharpened points of the star spun from my hand until they connected with the guy’s neck. He fell backward, dropping the gun on his way down. I didn’t check his injuries. The gurgling told me all I needed to know.

  Asher came sprinting around the corner. “Front’s clear. Are you all right?”

  Seeing him in one piece made it easier to breathe. He came closer, gun still at the ready, covering me. The wind washed his scent over me, comforting me. Somehow, Asher always managed to smell like the desert after a monsoon, wild and clean. I swallowed the lump in my throat and fought the urge to stand and cling to him, to make sure he was really safe. Asher had enough on his plate trying to watch over all of us. I didn’t want him to worry that I was falling apart. He was one of my only friends, and he needed me as much as I needed him.

  “Yeah.” I stared up into Asher’s eyes for a second before I took a knee beside the wounded jaguar shifter without a mask. “Who are you?”

  He looked so familiar. Maybe I’d seen him around Sedona?

  “I’m Chandler Williams. I work for…” He winced. “CBS Phoenix.”

  It was so obvious now. My hands began to tremble. I just shot a news anchorman. But his scent was definitely jaguar. What the hell was going on here?

  “But you’re a…”

  “Jaguar shifter.” He clenched his teeth. “I swear I’ll explain, but I won’t be able to if I bleed out first.”

  “Right.” I looked back at Asher. Being a werewolf, he probably had heard the conversation, even with the gusts of wind. “Can you get him inside? I’ll call Cole.”

  Asher raised a brow. “Sure that’s a good idea? How do we know he’s telling the truth? He could’ve been working with them.”

  “Because he warned me about the other guy.” I lowered my voice. “And I’ve seen him on TV. He’s not lying about that.”

  Asher holstered his gun. He still didn’t look convinced, but he trusted me. My heart thumped in answer. He raised a brow. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah. Just adrenaline,” I lied.

  He helped Chandler up as though he weighed nothing and carried him into the house while I closed my eyes and enjoyed the cool breeze. We had survived.

  For now.

  CHAPTER 3

  Asher

  I carried the wounded jaguar into the kitchen and settled him onto a stool. When I had rounded the corner at the back of the house, I’d almost tripped over a dead man in a ski mask. One of Naomi’s ninja stars had been protruding from his thick neck.

  But she had let this one live. I didn’t understand why this guy was worth saving, but I trusted Naomi. There would be plenty of time for questions later. Plus, the man’s injury left him in no shape to attack us.

  I reached for the kitchen light switch as Naomi came through the door with her phone in hand. I looked over at her as she pocketed her cell. “Cole on his way?”

  “Yeah.” She went to the sink, rinsing out a clean kitchen towel. “He’s about ten minutes away. He said if the bullet had nicked an artery, Chandler would already be dead, so we should be able to patch him up.”

  The jaguar shifter groaned. “Good to know.”

  I frowned, shaking my head. “Why are we helping this one again?”

  She raised a brow. “I already told you he tried to warn me about the assassin, and there will be more questions than we can handle if an anchorman from CBS Phoenix dies on our property.”

  The injured man lifted his head. A thin sheen of sweat covered his very pale face. “I’m Chandler Williams. I’m not one of the jaguar assassins. I was bitten.” His eyes fluttered closed as his head lolled forward.

  “Shit.” I caught him before he crumpled off the stool.

  Naomi rushed over with the rag, and I glanced her way. “We should lay him down.”

  “Let me get some more towels, and we can put him on the floor.” She left the room and returned a moment later with three big beach towels. She laid them out as I hoisted the stranger off the stool. After I got him settled on the floor, I shook my head. “Why would a jaguar shifter risk changing a newscaster? It makes no damned sense.”

  Naomi rolled her eyes. “Like any of this does? Why’d they bite us?”

  I did my best not to stare at the dimple in her cheek. Then there were her eyes… She’d mentioned one of her grandmothers was from Japan. Naomi had her eyes. And if I wasn’t careful I was going to lose myself in them. The woman had just killed a man with a ninja star in the backyard, and yet, all I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and protect her.

  But I didn’t. She’d been through enough since being bitten—forced to give birth to twins while being locked in a storage unit, shifting into a caged wolf once a month. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that another werewolf was the last thing she needed. She did need a friend, though, and I was trying to be that. But the rush of living through a life-or-death fight made it tougher to keep from crossing that line. She was so damned resilient. Her spirit shone through her dark, almond-shaped eyes like a beacon, calling to me.

  The front door opened, and Cole came in with his vet bag. He was a trained veterinarian by trade, but shifters needed to stay as far from hospitals as possible to be sure the human world never got a sample of our DNA, so Cole was our doctor now, too. It didn’t hurt that he could also treat us in our shifted forms. He and his parents were part of Caldwell’s pack before the Alpha had gotten the bug up his ass to rapidly grow their numbers. Cole’s twin brother, Chase, had been another casualty of the uprising.