Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(34)

“Son of a—” Angus thumped the steering wheel. “I need to have a serious talk with him.”

“Why?” Tamsin asked. She lowered her seat back, resettling her sunglasses over her eyes. “Reg seems like a nice guy. Letting you use his car without question, agreeing to pick me up when he didn’t know anything about me. He must be a really good friend.”

“He is.” Angus’s voice lost its hardest edge. “When I was accused of being in with Gavan up to my neck, he stuck by me.”

“You see?” Ciaran spread his hands. “So it’s fine to go to the fight club with Reg. He looks out for me.”

“Still going to talk to him about that. And if we weren’t heading down a freeway to a covert meeting in a diner parking lot, you’d be grounded.”

Ciaran’s face puckered in the scowl that was so like Angus’s own, then it cleared, his good humor returning. “Good thing we’re on the run, then.”

Tamsin laughed. “I really like your cub, Angus.”

“I like you too.” Ciaran sounded slightly surprised but pleased at this revelation.

“Aw.” Tamsin twisted to reach around the seat for Ciaran’s hand. Ciaran held hers for a moment, relaxing the same way he did when Angus hugged him.

The two smiled at each other. Angus glanced at them and couldn’t stop the twinge of foreboding inside him.

Lake Charles was a town hugging the lake of the same name, a spread of houses, stores, and gas stations, no different from most small towns in the states Tamsin had seen in her life. The land was flat and green, landscaped trees soared in yards, and lawns separated neighbor from neighbor.

The diner lay down a side street that contained shops, a church with a square steeple, a few restaurants, a self-storage center, and a lumberyard.

The day was waning as Angus pulled around the block to the parking lot behind the diner. The lot was small, sharing space with other businesses and a large Dumpster.

Angus parked the SUV in the lot’s one empty space, turned off the engine, and let out a tired breath.

The guy had to be exhausted. Tamsin had slept at the haunted house and again as they drove, but she didn’t know when Angus had. He’d showered at the house, but the red lines around his eyes and the droop of his body told her maybe he hadn’t laid his butt down in a long time.

Shifters didn’t require as much rest as humans—they could go for days if necessary—but they needed some. Tamsin guessed Angus had been awake nonstop since Haider had recruited him.

Tamsin unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. When Angus didn’t move, she said, “You coming?”

Angus’s gray eyes fixed on her. “I told you, we’re not going in.”

“I am,” Tamsin said. “I’m starving. So is Ciaran. I bet Haider didn’t feed him in that crypt.”

“Not well,” Ciaran said with a shudder.

“Too dangerous,” Angus snapped. “We wait.”

Tamsin hopped out of the SUV and looked back in at Angus. “There’s an old fox saying—You’re not the boss of me. Now, what am I in the mood for? Barbecue beef? Maybe some shrimp? Or debris?” Roast beef with its gravy made rich with roast-beef shavings—Tamsin had only had a debris po’ boy once, but she never forgot it.

“Mmm.” Ciaran almost moaned. “Come on, Dad, please? I’m hungry, and we gave Haider the slip. It will take Dimitri a while to get here, though maybe less if he lets Jaycee drive. If you put on your jacket and keep it zipped up, no one will see your Collar.”

Angus frowned at him for a long time, but Tamsin saw when the tide turned. Ciaran needed to eat, Tamsin was going inside no matter what, and Angus knew he wouldn’t win this battle.

The breath he let out had a snarl in it. “All right.” He grabbed his jacket from the back seat where he’d tossed it and shrugged it on. “We’ll go in. But keep a low profile, and no talking.” He moved his finger from Ciaran to Tamsin.

“Sweet!” Tamsin slammed her door and opened Ciaran’s. “Come on, Ciaran. Let’s go eat everything in sight. And then have dessert.”





CHAPTER TEN


Tamsin walked into the diner behind Angus, who was leading, as Shifter males liked to. She held Ciaran’s hand, absurdly pleased that he let her.

Angus dropped his hood as they went in, but the jacket covered his throat. Other men in this diner wore hoodies, as the rain was pelting down outside.

Ciaran looked like a human kid, even if he had wiry muscles and a gray-eyed stare like his father’s. If the people here weren’t used to Shifters, they wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that Angus and Ciaran weren’t strictly human.

Angus received a few startled glances, being as large as he was, and all Shifter males had something of the beast about them. But the fact that he was with Tamsin, who’d never be large, and Ciaran, who was adorable, softened the looks. The big bad male couldn’t be so bad if a harmless-looking woman and cute little boy followed him without fear.

It was a seat-yourself place, so Angus led them to the rear of the dining room, sitting down in the chair that let him put his back to the wall. From there, he could observe the entrance as well as the hall that led to the restrooms and rear exit.

Tamsin, living without a Collar and hiding her Shifter-ness for years, was less wary about those around her. Most people were out for dinner with families and friends, and because this was a local place, many of the diners knew one another. This town was on an interstate, however, which was only a few blocks away, and so the locals saw nothing odd in strangers stopping for a bite on their way through town or to the lake.