Unbound: Shifters Forever Worlds(19)

“Not long.”

Long enough. “Aunt Mae, that’s not very definitive.”

“Here’s something definitive for you. They’re coming back. This time for you. I’ve had them tracked.”

“It’s time for you to stop protecting me. I want to know why they’re killing my family and why they did the same to Glory’s.”

“Glory’s family was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The rovers ran into them while they were hunting for you and Frank. They’d heard that the ivy shifter girl was involved with you, so they thought she’d have answers. They mistakenly assumed Honor was the one. They never knew about Glory. Her family never told about her.”

Dane knew Mae well enough to know she was skirting. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“They tortured her family. Clearly they never gave you or Frank up.”

“Why? Why do they want my family dead?”

“It’s a vendetta. Your mother…”

“My mother? She died giving birth to me, what could this have to do with her?”

“She was mated to a cruel shifter — a badger. He tormented and beat her mercilessly. One night, at a poker game, he was drunk and losing. Your mother was the stakes.”

Dane took a seat. “My father won my mother in a poker game?”

“He won her for a night. A night wasn’t enough. You should have seen the way your parents loved, Dane. I’ve never…” Her voice became choked up. She coughed, sniffled, and then continued. “I’ve never seen a couple so in tune with each other. The badger was furious and shamed. He died trying to kill your mother. The badger’s father swore vengeance that the Forester bloodline would be erased. Here we are.”

“Holy hell. That’s…” Dane didn’t even know what to say. What could he? “That’s f*cking crazy. Sorry, Aunt Mae.” He’d never cursed around the woman who’d been as close to a mother as an orphaned, wandering man could have had.

“They’re back in Woodland Creek. And my sources say they know you’re there. They haven’t figured out that Dane Forester is Dane Snow.”

“How can they not know what I look like?”

“You can thank Frank for that.”

Dane knew his aunt Mae. He also knew the unspoken words. She and Uncle Frank both worked hard to protect his identity. Him, the last of the Foresters, now it was up to him to carry on the family name. He knew that meant a lot to his father and his uncles.

“I’ll do that, when I see him in shifter heaven.” Dane strove for humor because he couldn’t show how angry he was about the eradication of his family at the hand of an egotistical badger shifter who was perfectly willing to sell his woman for the night, but not to let her go free, and certainly not to let her be happy — without him.

“I don’t think I like what I’m hearing in your voice, Dane. It’s dangerous for you there. They are coming for you.”

Anger flourished in his soul, a burn to let blood flow, even if it meant his own. The same bastards had taken his father from him and then Glory’s family. “I’ll be waiting.” His tone was grim.

“Don’t be foolish, Dane. There’s at least five of them.”

His mind flew to Glory. She was out there, alone, and possibly in danger.

“I’ve got this. I need to let you go, Aunt Mae. I can’t have them killing Glory this time. She got lucky last time.”

“One more thing, Dane. Glory’s sister, Honor. She didn’t die that day.”

“What are you saying? She’s alive?”

“There was no third body that day.”

Now what was he to do with that? Was he supposed to tell Glory and throw her life into chaos again? If Honor wanted Glory to know where she was, wouldn’t she have contacted her? Maybe Honor didn’t want her sister to know she was alive. Maybe she’d started a new life somewhere else.

Or maybe Honor was dead, and it would be cruel to tell Glory she might be alive, only to have her relive the whole ordeal again.

”Perhaps word of Honor’s body not being found that day is best kept from Glory, Aunt Mae.”

“Agreed. Leave town, Dane. Go far away. I’m sending a team to handle them, once and for all.”

Yeah, right. As if he’d abandon Glory a second time.

He shoved on his jeans, pulled on a tee and his boots and headed out the door.

As soon as he’d stepped into the cool predawn darkness, he paused and took a deep breath.

Glory’s scent was strong, but not so strong that she’d just left. It had been a good while since she’d gone. He’d be able to track her though.

He’d travel much more quickly in his snow leopard. He sprinted from the porch to the thickness of the forest and paused in the cover of the trees, camouflaged from any prying eyes.

He gritted his teeth as his snow leopard pushed forward into the shift. A burst of pops broke through the sound of the crickets, giving the forest’s noises a momentary pause.

He closed his eyes against the pain and grunted as tendons elongated, then changed. Hundreds of bones cracked, his flesh felt like it had become a large rubber band.

His chest heaved and he dropped to all fours. Fur began to sprout on his arms, his hands morphed into large snow leopard paws. Stretching his pads, his claws extended and dug into the forest’s dirt floor, sinking into the mulchy texture, displacing pine needles and stones.