Rick opened the envelope, gritting his teeth at the pictures inside.
There were photos of various pack members, each in several stages of shifting.
This would destroy many lives if the newspaper got ahold of them.
“I take it these are copies.”
“They are. But he also has the same evidence against the wererats as well. I suspect they are the ones behind my king’s disappearance.”
“Do you know their next move?”
Leon shook his head.
“You could have just come to me with this. There was no need for the cloak-and-dagger bullshit.”
Leon laughed.
“It is our way. We meant no offense. Do you wish to have your nominee returned to you now?”
“What the fuck do you think?” Rick asked as he stuffed the envelope in his pocket.
Something told him that the king’s abduction was only a ruse to a bigger plot.
He just wasn’t sure what that plot was.
“Keep him hidden. He is a highly sought man right now. Until you defeat the werehyenas and clear his name, the police won’t stop until they catch him.”
The man standing at the car opened the back door.
Rick saw Dorian sitting in the backseat, his hands cuffed behind his back and looking scared as hell.
The wererat helped Dorian out and then closed the door.
“Come here, Dorian.”
The human moved quickly across the parking lot, nearly tripping a few times along the way.
Rick could see the fear in the man’s brown eyes, but Dorian didn’t say a word.
Rick reached up and gave the signal.
Within seconds they were surrounded by werewolf changelings.
“Take Dorian to my car.”
Leon looked surprised that they hadn’t been alone.
He started backing toward the parking lot when the werewolves began to surround him.
“Can we expect your help in this matter?” Leon asked, his eyes snapping from Rick to the other changelings.
“You should have asked permission to enter my territory.”
“We haven’t moved in. I’ve come to you from our very own territory. We still live in Freelawn County.”
Well, hell.
“I’ll call you when I know something.” Freelawn sat between Shelton County and Hamilton County.
Rick was a little more at ease knowing the wererats hadn’t just moved right in without asking permission first.
It showed they weren’t stupid.
Leon raised his hand, as if to grab Rick’s arm, but stopped and let his hand fall short.
“He is our king, Alpha Enrique. We are lost without him. I’m not sure how well he will take the news that I’ve come to you for help.”
By law, Rick had a right to interfere in wererat business now.
They had come to him.
He pretty much owned them as of this moment.
But Rick didn’t want that.
He had a big enough headache dealing with his own changeling pack.
“I’ll call you.”
Leon didn’t look happy with Rick’s answer, but nodded.
“My phone number is on the back of the envelope.”
Rick wanted to reassure the wererat that he would try his best to find their king, but he couldn’t show any weakness in front of the man.
He suspected Leon was the king’s right-hand man.
Rick was halfway up the access road when Leon called out.
“His name is Edward.”
“What?” Rick said as he turned around.
“My king. His name is Edward Costello.”
Rick nodded, but kept on walking.
He didn’t let Leon know that he knew the Costello name.
It had been a very long time since he had heard it, but knew he had to help Edward.
For some unknown reason, he wanted to check on Dorian, to assure himself the human was unharmed.
He looked exhausted, but Rick hadn’t noticed any bruises on the man or smelled any injuries.
“What do you want us to do?” Nate asked as he stepped closer to Rick.
“Find those fucking werehyenas. Let me know where they are hiding. If it’s a war they want, then it’s a war they will get.”
His top enforcer nodded and then disappeared into the thick forest surrounding them.
Rick slid into the driver’s seat, glancing over at Dorian.
“Were you harmed?”
Dorian shook his head quickly.
“I was too quick and dodged the fist.”
Rick sat there stunned.
They tried to strike his candidate and then asked him for help?
Were they mad?
He reached out, tugging at Dorian’s chin, turning his face back and forth.
He needed to check for himself.
“I’m fine.”
Rick released the human and started his car.
He pulled away, and drove out of the forest, heading home.
He wasn’t sure what to do with Dorian.
He hadn’t planned on being with the man until last.
This was going to make getting to know the other two choices very awkward.
But then again, Rick hadn’t started dating any of them considering he was trying to find a way out of this mating mess.
He pushed the thought aside.
There was nothing he could do about it at the moment.
Right now he needed to figure out what to do about the werehyenas.
They had openly declared war on the werewolf changelings.
Rick couldn’t let the challenge go unheeded.
If he did, he left his pack vulnerable.
He still needed to find out what happened to Alexander.
He hadn’t forgotten about his nephew’s death.
It seemed that when it rained, it poured.
And he had thought his life was complicated at the candidacy ceremony two weeks ago.
The bullshit seemed never ending lately.
“What happened?” Rick asked as he turned onto the freeway.
Dorian glanced at Rick and then turned toward the window, slumping in his seat the best he could, considering the man was cuffed.
“When I got home from work, there were cops waiting for me. They arrested me for killing three people. Halfway to the station, we were carjacked. Only, they didn’t take the car. I was their target.”
“The police think you had something to do with your escape.”
“I figured they would. What am I going to do?” Dorian sounded desperate.
Rick couldn’t blame the guy.
He was on the most wanted list right now, and the human hadn’t done a damn thing wrong. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
“You’ll lay low at my place until I can figure out what’s going on.”
Maybe he could date Dorian first.
The guy was already going to be living with him for the time being.
Hopefully Rick could solve the problem and have the man out of his place by the second week.
He knew Silvia wouldn’t welcome someone intruding on her time with Rick.
Rick groaned.
He really, really didn’t want to go through with this.
There had to be a way out of this forced mating.
“Why is this happening?” Dorian asked, wiggling a bit in the seat and reminding Rick he needed to find a way to the get the cuffs off of the human.
“Unfortunately you’ve been dragged into a changeling matter.”
Dorian slid his eyes toward Rick, the brown coloring turning darker.
“My life is ruined over some changeling matter? Care to explain to me why I’m going to be sharing a prison cell with Bubba?”
Rick stopped the smile before it formed.
It seemed Dorian had a twisted sense of humor.
Rick liked that.
“The hyenas want my territory.”
“From the cuffs I’m sporting around my wrists, I’d say that was a bad thing.” Rick watched from the corner of his eye as Dorian scooted up the seat, pushed his arms down, and then pulled his legs out.
Now Dorian’s hands were sitting in his lap.
Flexible.
“They were bothering me.”
Rick nodded, but didn’t say a word.
He was struggling with the fact that Dorian, a human, interested him.
Rick hadn’t expected that.
Dorian was supposed to be as boring as a human could be, chatting Rick’s ear off about nothing important, and irritating him to death.
Dorian wasn’t irritating him.
The man was catching Rick’s attention.
Dorian sighed.
“I have a few places I can lay low. You don’t have to burden yourself with me.”
The thought bothered Rick.
“Since you are here, you might as well be the first person I get to know.”
“Oh.” Dorian glanced out of the window again, entwining his fingers together, making the silver bracelets look like jewelry instead of steel cuffs.
The sun glimmered off of them, tempting Rick to reach out and run his fingers over the cold steel.
“Oh?”
Dorian turned to face Rick.
“Can I be honest with you, or will you turn furry and bite my head off?”
Rick did chuckle this time.
“Go ahead.”
“I’m not really into this whole candidacy thing. I don’t believe I should be forced to mate someone.” Dorian put emphasis on the word mate.
“People should be able to choose who they want to spend the rest of their life with, not speed date and then get hitched.”
The man was speaking Rick’s exact thoughts.
He didn’t agree with what was happening either, but there was no way out of it.
“I’ll take that into consideration.”
What else was he supposed to say?
He wasn’t about to tell Dorian that he was just as fucked as the human.
“Just thought I would throw that out there.” Dorian sat back, becoming quiet as Rick drove home.
The human was doing more than catching Rick’s attention now.
He was thoroughly intrigued.