Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(45)

“Good at getting away.” Angus moved past Sean and picked up Tamsin’s clothes. They held her warmth—she couldn’t have been gone long.

“I swore she wasn’t Feline,” Sean said. “But no way a Lupine and most especially a bear slithered out that window. Oh, wait—a snake.” His eyes sparkled with mirth. “She’s a snake Shifter, isn’t she? She’ll fit right in, in Texas.”

“Her mother is a bobcat, she said.” Angus carried Tamsin’s jeans, shirt, and silky underwear to the bed she’d been sitting on and began to fold everything neatly. He felt weird touching her underwear, but he sure wasn’t going to let Sean or Dylan near it.

“Aha,” Sean said. “That might be it. I’ve never met a bobcat Feline. But still.” He shook his head. “Scent is wrong, even for an unusual Feline.”

Dylan’s eyes had gone hard. “Find her, Angus. Bring her to Shiftertown.”

“You’re not my leader.” Angus smoothed Tamsin’s folded jeans. He’d tucked the underwear between the folds, out of sight. “Spence is. I answer to him.”

Dylan’s growls had Ciaran backing behind Angus, and this time Ciaran did hold on to Angus’s legs.

“What she knows could help us,” Dylan said, his voice barely controlled. “Gavan was into something big—my intel is full of it. But I don’t know what. We need to know what it was before Shifter Bureau gets hold of it, do you understand? It could assist what I’m putting together. Make her tell you, anyway.”

“I’m not interrogating her.” Angus met Dylan’s stare, even if it wasn’t easy. Dylan was far above Angus in any hierarchy, but the fact that Angus wasn’t required to answer directly to him helped. “Since I’ve met her, people have wanted to catch her, trap her, and grill her—including me. Leave the poor woman alone.”

“She’s not a poor woman. She’s trouble. I know that when I scent it. I agree that Gavan had faulty judgment, which is all the more reason we should know what that bad judgment led to.”

“You want to put her under your power,” Angus said flatly. “You want me out of the way so you can bring her in and set her up as part of the Austin Shiftertown, am I right? That way she answers to you and to Liam. You assure Shifter Bureau you have her under control, and they relinquish the keeping of her to you. I go home and never see her again. Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”

Dylan was a big man, broad of shoulder. He stood a half inch taller than Angus and used every micrometer of that height. “Partly. I can smooth the way for you to take your son home and make sure you aren’t punished for what she’s done. You’ll be out of it completely, your cub safe. I can guarantee that. And if you want to see Tamsin again, you’re welcome to visit. Though I am not sure why you would. She’s sure led you on a merry chase.”

Angus’s fingers twitched. He believed Dylan when he said he could get Shifter Bureau off Angus’s back. The leader of the military attachment of the South Texas Shifter Bureau had mated with a bear Shifter from Austin, and Dylan used him to influence the agents in that Bureau office.

“You might have a lot of power in Texas, but I’m based in Louisiana, and it’s a whole different ball game there,” Angus said. “This Haider guy—wherever he’s from—doesn’t look like he’ll give up the chase that easily. While we’re arguing, she’s out there alone, and Haider will be scouring every direction we could have taken from where we left him, probably has alerted Bureau agents everywhere to be on the lookout for her.”

“All the more reason to find her and bring her to me. I’ll protect her from this man. I can, Angus.”

But would Dylan be better for her than Haider? Maybe Dylan would stop short of terminating Tamsin, but Angus wouldn’t put it past Dylan to use tranqs or heavy intimidation to scare her into telling him what he wanted to know.

Thinking of Tamsin quivering, drugged to the gills, under Dylan’s sharp stare made growls vibrate his body.

“I’ll find her, but I’ll protect her,” Angus said. “From Haider, and from you.”

Sean watched, concerned and ready to back up his father, but also with interest, as though curious to see who would win the debate.

“Would it help if I said please?” The dry tone in Dylan’s voice meant he wouldn’t say please if it killed him.

“Nope.”

“All right, then.” Dylan turned to Sean. “Get on the phone. I need trackers, as many as you can round up. The best. Spike, Ronan . . . Tiger.”

Sean’s brows rose, but he slid his phone from his pocket and flipped it open.

Angus’s blood chilled. Dylan could lay his hands on the best trackers in Shifterdom, especially Tiger, who could locate anyone with uncanny precision. If Tiger was on Tamsin’s trail, she’d never get away.

Angus snapped around to Sean. “Sean—don’t call. No one is going after Tamsin, because if they do, they’ll have to go through me first.” He took a deep breath, the conviction of what he was about to do filling him with strength. “I claim Tamsin Calloway as mate.”

The words rang through the room. Sean, in surprise, lowered the phone, and then quietly folded it closed. Dylan only gave Angus a level stare.