"Shawn, get moving! You're going to be late!" Anna called from the kitchen.
In the two days since the Sector 7 team had come into the city, they had been on four different calls. All of them had to deal with a crazy person attacking one of the Supranaturals. As of now, one was dead. Michael Archens had been shot in the head when one of the SWAT teams jumped the gun early. Paycen had lost his temper and let the guy have it. Emery had to pull him off and had taken him across the street.
Since then everything had been a blur. The Golden Sector 7 team came in and began working with Keldin's team. Paycen had healed Malcolm Schneider of his concussion and had tried a memory retrieval, but the man had been too nervous to finish. In the end, they had released him back to his home with a full guard.
Arin had yet to come out of his coma. Paycen said it was because he was still healing. Internal injuries were a lot harder to heal than external. They required more energy, and if things kept up, he was going to be depleted soon. He kept a close eye on Arin to make sure nothing went wrong.
The chief had noticed Anna had been working on this case and had decided she needed time off. She had argued that she needed to be with the team but he had shot her down. He had given her the next two days off. Shawn was going to love it but they were already running late.
Anna zipped the lunchbox up. When she didn't hear any noise from upstairs, she walked to the base of the stairs. "Shawn! The bus is going to be here any minute! Hurry up!"
There was pounding of tennis shoes on the hardwood floor. A six year old with her mother's blond hair took the stairs two at a time. She hit the floor by her mother with a thud then smiled. Big green eyes peered out from under messy bangs. Anna smiled then ruffled her daughter's hair. She looked just like her father it was uncanny. Louis would have been proud of how big his little girl was getting.
"What's for breakfast?" the girl asked as she slid into a chair by the bay window.
"Banana pancakes," Anna said. She looked over her shoulder. "Mom, would you like to join us."
The other woman shook her head. "No, honey. I will eat when I get to work."
Aggie Hinson looked nothing like her daughter. Where Anna had blond hair and grey eyes, her mother was a brunette with light blue eyes. Her late husband had given all of his traits to their only child. Since his death, Aggie had moved in with her daughter and granddaughter to help them out. This week had been a hard week and Anna had been grateful her mother had been there to take care of Shawn when she worked all night.
Anna heard the tires squeal before she saw the bus. Shawn finished her breakfast and was putting on her backpack. Together they walked out the door and down the sidewalk. The bus driver waved and waited patiently for Shawn to climb on. Shawn turned and hugged her mother then climbed the steps. Anna waited until the bus was down the street and turning the corner to the next street.
When she turned around, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Paycen stood behind her watching the bus. She figured he was memorizing the bus route just in case he had to get to Shawn. The thought gripped her heart in terror. If something happened to her baby, she would just die. There were few things in this world that she cherished and Shawn was the top of that list.
"I didn't mean to scare you," Paycen said.
"It's quite all right. I forgot that you guys can sneak up on us without a sound," she replied. She took a minute to let her heart calm down then started talking again. "What are you doing here?"
"I went in this morning to check on Arin and your chief said he had given you the day off."
"So you followed me?"
"It's not illegal to look someone up in the phone book is it? Because if it is, I totally missed that memo."
Anna laughed. It was hard to believe that this man had lost his temper the night before when the Michael Archens had been killed. He was so kind and gentle with her that she didn't believe for a minute that he could harm anyone. She knew he could harm, though. She had seen him shoot a guy in the shoulder the night before and not think twice about it. The result had been the same, but it was the fact that he had a clean shot to kill and didn't take it.
"Do you want to come in?" she asked.
"Yeah, but I've got something for you."
He turned and whistled. There was a bark then a huge Saint Bernard bounded around the corner. He skidded to a halt at Paycen's feet. The man stooped and ran his hand behind the dog's brown ear. Anna stared at the monster dog then up at the man holding said monster dog.
"This is Serge. He's a retired police dog from Alaska. I know he's a little big but he's very friendly and very safe. He likes kids and he's very protective," he said.
"Why are you giving me a dog?" she asked.
"I'm not giving him to you. I'm loaning him to you. He flew in with my gear this morning. I adopted him from my last stint in Alaska. He, Emery's Doberman, and Austin's German shepherd protect the compound we live in."
"So you're loaning your dog to me while you're here?" He nodded. "I guess I can't argue." Her breath was taken away when he smiled. His green eyes lit up with mirth. She shook her head. "Come on in. My mother's still here so ignore the snide comments."
Paycen shook his head and followed her into the house. Serge came in behind him and slid all over the hard wood. He finally collapsed in the kitchen doorway with a huff.
Aggie was fixing her second cup of coffee when she turned around and nearly collided with a chest. She looked up into Paycen's face and swore she felt a little bit of drool sliding down her jaw. She took in the green eyes and red hair. She reached up and ran her fingers through his buzz cut. She was very surprised when he took it in stride and didn't swat her hand away.
"Mom!" Anna exclaimed across the kitchen.
Paycen held his hand up. "Don't worry. I'm used to it. My hair's naturally red. You can ask my best friend."
Aggie jerked her hand away and flushed. "I'm sorry. I'm just not used to seeing hair that naturally red." She turned to her daughter. "Well, I'm off to work. I will see you when I get home." She was almost out the door when she met Serge. The big dog thumped his fluffy white tail on the floor. "Who is this?"
"That's Serge. He's mine," Paycen replied.
"Why do men have to have huge dogs?"
"To supply their huge egos." Aggie laughed then waved over her shoulder. They heard her car roar to life then back out. She was gone a few seconds later. Paycen looked at Anna. "I like her."
Anna shook her head. "She really has no filter."
"Don't worry. None of us do. Thank you." He took a sip of coffee she offered him then waited for her to sit down. "So Tyler's narrowed down the search of who could be behind this. It is in Alex Lowen's office, but the problem is Alex has thirty people working under him who have access to his computer."
"So you're looking for someone who has a hacker past?"
"The person who's working with human activists to go against us had to be a hacker in his childhood. Otherwise we would have some sort of record."
"If it was a kid or a teenager and they were caught, the record would be sealed because he or she was a minor at the time."
He nodded. "More than likely. So this person didn't get caught and when his powers came in, it enhanced his abilities."
Anna covered his hand with hers. She noticed he jumped but didn't think anything of it. "Do you think this person is a techie?"
"Absolutely. Tyler's pulling our records."
He gently pulled his hand away. When he did he read her mind. She was upset about the loss of contact but she wasn't going to pressure him when she didn't know what she wanted. He took another sip of his coffee and took a second to calm his heart.
There was no denying it now. She was his mate. His personal telepathic frequency was already reaching out for her mind, trying to tie them together. He tried his hardest to keep it from happening but it wasn't working. He didn't want her too involved until they caught this person. She had a daughter to take care of.
He sighed and laced his fingers together on top of the table. "Anna, there's something else I want to discuss with you. It's really important."
She hated the way his voice changed. She liked the playful Paycen who had a Saint Bernard as a pet. She didn't want to see the serious one.
"What is it?" she asked.
"We have reason to believe that your family is in danger. We were at the office today when a letter came in. You were their next target if you didn't give up Arin and trying to find the attackers. This was human handwriting and it wasn't the same as the attacks. There weren't any letters before this. We think you're the next one."
"Is that the reason you brought Serge to me?"
"One of the reason. Another is because you need to know. I don't want you blindsided if something happens. I've seen someone get blindsided and it wasn't pretty."
Anna let it all sink in. He barely knew her and he was already trying to protect her. She was trying to remember everything Arin had told her about their race, but she was coming up blank. Still, he was being honest with her. She had to respect that. A lot of guys would have ignored her and told her not to worry about it. He was telling her what he thought was going to happen and how to protect herself.
They were sitting in silence when his phone went off. He shifted in his seat until he could pull it from his pocket. He hit a pass code then read the message. He smiled apologetically at her then stood to deposit his cup in the sink. He muttered a quick stay to Serge then he was gone out the door. Anna had a brief moment to think about what he had said before she decided to find all of her weapons.
***
Paycen walked back into the beach house to find Emery talking to Tyler. The other guy was giving him the heads up they needed about his recent developments. He wasn't the happy guy he was normally. Then again he had been working hard helping them and taking care of his twin nephews.
Emery was looking a little worse for wear. He had been pulling all nighters since they had gotten to San Diego. He had his work as an ambassador during the days and at nights he worked with SDPD. He was doing his job but he was going to keel over any second. He had even talked to Austin and had gotten the okay to do what they needed to do. Yet he hadn't slept more than six hours.
His best friend waved at him as he walked in and sank down on the couch. He had to take a double take then signed off with Tyler with a promise to be kept in the loop. He closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I took Serge over to Anna's. he's going to stay with her until this whole thing blows over," Paycen replied.
"Did you tell her?"
"I did because she has a six year old daughter and a sixty-seven year old mother to take care of." Emery gave him a look. "What?"
"You didn't tell her about what's going on with you, did you?" Paycen sighed. "It's going to come out sooner or later. It might as well be now when she's realizing there's something going on between the two of you. She's going to realize that she's drawn to you in a way that she's never been drawn to a person before. What are you going to do then?"
"I'll handle it when the time comes. Right now I want to be sure her family is safe."
Emery tossed his head back over the couch. "We figured tonight would be the night they go after her. It would make sense considering her family will be assembled together."
"Why wouldn't they go after them while she's gone?"
"It would make it easier to take them all out at once. Now if she was bonded to you, they couldn't touch her without bringing down the wrath of both Kingdoms. We hold our mates in the highest regard."
"What would you do?"
Emery looked up then. "I would bring her here. No one knows where we are and it's easy to protect." To prove a point he made the water in the fish tank swirl around in a little cyclone. When he was done, he calmed it. "We have the means to protect them."
"I don't want to pull her any further into this than she already is. So far she's been introduced by increments."
"She might as well jump headlong into the fray because she belongs to you."
Paycen knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with him. Emery was passionate about the bondmate part of their race as anyone else. He had been waiting for his as long as Paycen could remember and it was getting worse because he was beginning to feel like he was never going to find his. Now that Paycen had found his, Emery was going to be even more adamant about him claiming her.
He stood and walked away. There was no point in arguing about it now. They had too much going on for that. He was going to things his way even if it killed him. And it just might.