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"Well done, Six."

A wall slammed down between my mind and the beast's, cutting me off from him in a way I hadn't known was possible. I jerked upright on the couch, hissing in pain when it agitated my wounds, but I hardly noticed, too focused on the things we'd seen.

"What happened? What was that?" Even to myself, my voice sounded hollow.

The beast didn't respond, and I realized I could barely feel him at all. Maybe it would have been a relief to the man I'd been before all of this. Would I have hated having someone else in my mind, someone who could take over my body? I couldn't imagine living any other way, though. My only memories were of the two of us together, and to the person I was now, having the beast there kept me from breaking down completely. With him locked down behind whatever wall he'd built, I was alone in my head for the first time I could remember.

I hated it.

It also left me wondering what else the beast remembered that he was hiding from me. His memories weren't seen through the filter of a human mind, but neither was it the mind of an animal. He was somewhere in between. The colors he'd shown me were muted, but the scent-memory was vivid. He obviously understood human speech, but did the people in the memories know he could? Or did they assume they were talking to me? Did they even know I was in there?

I staggered to my feet, weak and winded after that onslaught, my limbs tingling with phantom pain. I didn't have to remember specifics to know pain had been part of our training. The memory of that collar told me everything I needed to know, except for who'd done it. It wasn't hard to figure out why, either. I knew what we looked like in the beast's form. Every piece of that body was a weapon, and the training ensured we were pointed at specific targets. In this case, apparently, it was shifters.

"Can you at least tell me who that was?" I whispered into the silence. "The person on the ground?" I couldn't stop seeing them. They were sprawled on the white floor, their face hidden. All I could see of them was short, dark hair, which told me nothing about them. I'd been the one to hurt them, though. I knew that in my bones. I just didn't know if they were dead.

The beast remained stubbornly silent, locked behind the wall between us. What little I could get from him felt… guilty, maybe? But not quite that. Like an animal, he didn't feel guilt like humans did. Shame might be closer, but even that didn't seem quite right.

I wished Quinn were here. He'd be able to make sense of all this, and even if he couldn't, he'd be able to soothe our tangled emotions. I knew the beast would listen to him. He'd been gone for hours already, so he'd likely be home soon, and I could tell him what we'd seen. My other half might not be willing to talk to me, but he'd do anything if Quinn asked.

A quiet dinging noise echoed from near the door. It wasn't the loud shrieking alarm I'd set off before, but the quieter one that said a car was coming up the driveway. Quinn had explained the different ones to me before setting them when he left, though I hadn't understood most of it.

Quinn is home. You can talk to him.

Still no response from the beast, but I got a flicker of relief from him, so I knew he was listening. Maybe if we met Quinn at the door, we could get another hug. It might draw the beast out, but more than that, I just wanted to feel him in my arms again.

The cabin was small and cozy, but it still took longer than it should have to get to the door. Taking care of the animals this morning had taken more energy than I wanted to admit and aggravated the bullet holes in my leg, leaving me limping more than usual. Pain accompanied each step, jolting through me while I tried to bury it. Quinn didn't need to know I hurt.

I shouldn't have let myself get so distracted by the pain. I shouldn't have let my guard down so much, even as secure as I felt in Quinn's house. If I hadn't been so focused on just seeing Quinn, I would have noticed that the scent was wrong. I would have realized that something was wrong.

But I didn't. By the time the beast tuned back in to what was going on and howled a desperate warning, I was already opening the door for Quinn.

The scent of gunpowder and blood hit me hard, and I stumbled back a step, trying to shut the door, but it was too late. The soldier standing on the stoop was already pushing through. He stopped short when he saw me, though, the color draining from his face and his eyes going wide.

"Seth?"

The name meant nothing to me, and yet it knocked me off balance. The beast was there in an instant, shattering the wall he'd built and pushing to the front, yanking control back from me. He surged forward and had the soldier pinned to the wall in the space of a breath, much the same way he'd pinned the human detective earlier. He growled, tightening his hand around the soldier's throat.

Defend Quinn's home. Defend Quinn. Remove the danger.

How had they found us? Where was Quinn? What if he came home and the soldiers were here? The beast was right. We had to eliminate the threat.

"Wait!" the soldier wheezed, grabbing wildly at our arm. Even trapped in my human body, we were stronger than most, and our combined fury fed us, allowing us to easily trap the man. He was young, around Lain's age, perhaps, but that didn't matter. He'd come to our den and threatened our mate with his presence. He would die for his crime.

"Please! They're—" He struggled for air, but our grip was inexorable. At least it was until he gasped out four words that made my heart stop. "Going… to hurt… Quinn…"

The world went red.

Chapter 23

Quinn

The drive from Lowery's Crossing to my home wasn't a long one, even in the worst weather. The main road through town continued on into the forest that stretched past the borders of our town all the way to the mountains. Here and there, stretches of farmland broke up the trees, but most of the farms and country homes ran to the east of town, away from the mountains. To the west lay Silver Lake, an artificial lake created by an old reservoir. It was the closest thing we had to a tourist destination, so most locals chose not to live too close. My cabin used to be a vacation rental for out-of-towners, but when the tiny trickle of tourists dried up, it ended up vacant alongside more than a few businesses. I hadn't even known it existed, but the instant I saw it, something deep in my soul settled, as if I'd finally found home.

It was only in the last decade or so that the Crossing had seen a revitalization. The newly-elected mayor had thrown herself into bringing the town back from the brink, investing in local businesses and doing her best to bring travelers and tourists back to the area. While not the resounding success she'd hoped for, we still got some people passing through on their way to hike the Rockies or visit Black Canyon. I avoided them whenever possible, but we at least had enough people passing through to keep one motel and a small B&B running.

This time of year, when the calendar said 'spring' but the mountains still promised chances of a freak snowstorm, tourism was nonexistent. Those strangers couldn't have picked a worse time to come. Everyone in town was usually bored from the long winter and looking for fresh gossip. The only reason they'd flown somewhat under the radar was likely the drama of the last six months. Between a murderer dumping a body here before going after a local, then two teenagers going missing, it'd been a busy winter for Lowery's Crossing. The kids had both turned up safe, which was obviously a relief, but had cut the gossip cycle down by weeks, leaving folks eager for a fresh story.

All things considered, it didn't take a seasoned detective to figure out that the strange car following me on my drive home wasn't a good sign. A truck wasn't an uncommon sight in the mountains, but one the size of a small tank with blacked-out windows was. The only reason I didn't notice them right away was because I was so distracted, zoned out while mentally rehearsing what I would say to Typhon when I got home. It wasn't until I looked in the rearview mirror to check on Romulus that I even saw the truck. I was already past the town limits, away from the few people who could help me, when I realized it was following me.