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He pulled a newspaper clipping out of his back pocket and held it up. The man glanced at it, and his face morphed into a grin. “It really did work then. She knows exactly how to play you.”
Lucas narrowed his eyes. His phone was ringing in his car, and he could guess at the damn name that would be flashing across his screen right now.
“You don’t belong here, you know,” the man said. “None of us do.”
Lucas shook his head, baffled. What was he doing here? He’d asked himself that so many times on the drive here.
“I don’t know you,” Lucas said, and he didn’t hide the growl in his voice.
“No one does. So what?”
“So why are you living in a replica of Asheland?”
“Maybe I don’t have anywhere else to be.” He tossed the broom down. “Maybe I’ve been waiting for you to show up. Maybe I’ve been waiting for a good fight.”
“I’m here to manage a male—likely a bear, and I smell you. You ain’t a bear. You’re more likely a fuckin’ porcupine or something, so don’t give me that shit about waiting for a good fight. I’ll eat you!”
“Ew, kinky.”
Lucas had been ready to throw more words, but that stopped him in his tracks. Gross.
“Theoretically speaking, if I was a porcupine shifter, I would kill you anyway.” He grinned brightly, but it didn’t reach his glowing green eyes. “You would choke on me.”
“You aren’t registered, are you?” He didn’t know why he’d asked that, but this guy seemed the type.
The man walked backwards, arms outstretched. “Why would I register to a bunch of humans, Lucas Slater, son of the Boarlander Silverback. Age thirty. Unmated. Unattached. No family group. Registering never did a damn bit of good for anyone that I know.” He turned and barked out over his shoulder, “You think she would’ve been able to drag you out here if you were worth a damn? You’re the expendable one the boss sends because no one would care if you’re gone.”
Rage had boiled in his blood from the moment he’d said Lucas’s name like he knew him.
Lucas pulled off his shirt and took three big steps toward him before something rushed him from the woods like a glowing white torpedo, and Lucas barely ducked out of the way from the outstretched claws aimed for his face.
Realization hit him like a crowbar to the gut as he ducked her wrath, then watched the white tiger land gracefully behind him and morph seamlessly into a woman he used to know.
Stunned to his bones, Lucas stared in horror at the fire in Cadence’s eyes.
No, no, no.
He’d been tricked.
Stunned, Lucas backed away a few paces, but Cadence advanced, matching him for every step he retreated. “You’ve come,” she said on a breath. He couldn’t read her expression. Anger? Shock? Frustration?
“I was sent,” he corrected her. With a quick glance around, he accused her. “You did this.”
“Did what?” she asked, lifting her chin higher into the air.
“You replicated the old park.”
“So?”
“So it wasn’t even ours! We are Boarlanders! We aren’t Ashe Crew!”
“We aren’t Boarlanders anymore, and who says I did this for me?” she asked primly. “Some of us care about other people outside of ourselves.”
Realization struck him like lightning. “Who else is here?”
Cadence’s eyes cooled and she shrugged up one shoulder. “Gunner.”
“Fuck!” He turned and linked his hands behind his head, stared up into the sky, and then rounded on her. “Did Gunner do this?” he asked, flinging the newspaper clipping at her feet.
