Thief (Blood & Bone Enforcers MC)

“We’re going to watch a male dragon who’s been trying to kidnap female dragons. Don’t tell me there won’t be danger. Just being so close to a dragon means she won’t be safe.”

“It’s minimal, Noah. Do you really think I’d let her go if it wasn’t? You know me better than that.”

“Minimal is still too much. And I’m not convinced you’re letting her go because of her computer skills. I think it’s a misguided attempt to matchmake.”

Blake snorted. “Do I look like a matchmaker to you?”

“If the shoe fits.”

Blake crossed his arms, looking at him steadily. “What’s the real problem here, Noah?”

He copied his pose, arching an eyebrow. “It’s what I said. That she’s going on a shifter mission, when she doesn’t even know shifters exist. That she could be in danger while we watch dragons. And how the hell am I supposed to keep our existence quiet from her while we’re gone? You saw her. She’s already suspicious. She needed to go home and get away from this world, not get drug deeper into it.”

Blake nodded his head. “Yeah, I did see her. And I could also see that she wasn’t going to just ignore her instincts while they were blaring that something was wrong. She thought we were an MC that dealt with illegal shit, and she still followed us to the meeting so she could secretly listen. You’re crazy if you think she was just going to leave in the morning.”

“I could have talked her into it,” he muttered.

“Like you talked her into it after you pulled her out of the room? Look, I get that you’re upset. But you need to start focusing on how you’re going to satisfy her curiosity so she’ll leave once you two are back. That is, if you actually want her to leave.”

Before he could protest that he did want her to leave, Blake was already out of the room. Cursing, he yanked his ballcap off, just barely resisting the urge to crush the bill. He was stalking over to close the door when Tarun knocked and stuck her head in.

“What, is there a tag team effort in the Enforcer house today?”

Tarun huffed a laugh as she came in. “Was Blake coming from your room, then?”

“He was. Still refusing to tell Lily she can’t go tomorrow.”

“I think maybe she should.”

He looked at her incredulously, watching as she perched on his bed. “Have all of you lost your minds? A human shouldn’t be tagging along on a shifter mission.”

“I don’t think it’ll be dangerous, though. I’ve been honing my gift since I’ve been here, and I can now actually search for threats, not just wait for them to come to me. I feel no threat toward either of you on this mission.”

Blowing out a breath, he hooked his hands on his hips and stared at the window. Every shifter had a gift, something extra they were born with. Some were physical, some were mental, and having a good gift was essential to being an Enforcer. Tarun’s was being able to sense when threats were looming, and it was what brought her to them a couple months ago. When she mated Luke, she asked if she could join the Enforcers, and Blake said yes.

Noah’s was being able to sense what other shifters gifts were and use them as his own. It was a handy gift to have, especially during missions, and he used it now, borrowing Tarun’s and seeking out any physical danger directed toward Lily.

Tarun was right, though. There wasn’t one.

“That’s something, I guess, but the future can change in an instant. Someone could catch us and then bam, danger will surround her.”

“And if something like that happens, you’ll protect her.”

“Like I protected Brandon.”

The words were spoken low and soft, but she heard them anyway, and he watched in the reflection from the window as she straightened with interest.

“Brandon, as in Lily’s late husband?”

“Yeah. We were deployed together when that bomb detonated. We both should have died, yet because I’m a shifter, I walked away alive. I couldn’t protect him and keep him alive long enough to get back to her. What’s going to make her any different?”

“She was right. You do feel guilty about living while he didn’t.”

He looked over at her, his eyebrows high. “You’ve been talking to her?”

She waved a hand. “That’s not important. Noah, you need to stop thinking like that. Maybe you would have died if you were a human, but like it or not, you were born a shifter. You should feel lucky, not guilty. And it was a bomb. How could you have protected Brandon against that? It’s totally different than the mission with Lily.”

“Other than Luke, he was my best friend, Tarun. I promised myself I’d make sure he got back home to Lily. Instead, I walked away when I have no family, and he died, leaving a grieving wife behind. How is any of that fair?”