Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

Turned out it was none of that. In his own noble way, Adam Wright exterminated killer vamps before they got the chance to take another victim. In her opinion, she was just another slayer—just one with fangs and a fatal sun allergy.

That’s what changed, though. When her uncle couldn’t understand why everyone let Adam get to it, it was obvious to Tabby. Adam might be a Nightwalker, a newly turned human, but he was also an ex-cop with Cage experience. The only reason he got caught was because he let Tabby catch him.

Not as a slayer, though, but as a woman. If it weren’t for their mutual attraction and his white knight complex that had him rushing in to save her, Tabby had no doubt in her mind that, despite her training and her skills, she never would’ve caught Adam Wright on her own.

Too bad she couldn’t tell Boone about any of that.

Instead, she focused on what her uncle had told her. He seemed set on involving the Eastern Pack and, while she couldn’t see what that would do for her right now, it never hurt to build bridges rather than burn them.

“Why don’t we try that tactic?” she wondered. “I can go try to get a meet with the Alpha, be a rep for the Society. See what they know. After what happened with Bowers earlier… I don’t know if he was a member of the pack or not, but he was a shifter in pack territory. They’re involved now.”

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea to Tabby.

In a lot of ways, the Pack was similar to the Society. It had its laws designed to protect its people. If she went as an ambassador with her uncle’s permission, she wouldn’t be breaking the code.

It was a win-win.

“Hold on, Tabitha. Daniels is the one with the most recent intel regarding the pack. Let me pass him over to you.”

“Boone, no, don’t do—hi, Eddie.”

“Tab. How’s it going? Ready to throw in the towel and come back home?”

Despite his teasing tone, Tabby’s hackles shot sky-high. “What do you think?”

The other slayer chuckled. “That’s what I figured. Well, I hope you’ll do better with a ground-level search because, from what I’ve gathered, the pack’s not going to be much help.”

“I don’t get it. Why not?”

“It’s pretty simple. They have more to worry about than one feral shifter and a couple of dead corpses. So there’s an unlicensed slayer in town. That’s our problem, not theirs. The new Alpha doesn’t want to get involved. Not when he has his people standing up against a bigger Para threat whirling around their territory. The same threat that’s filtering into Grayson. Woodbridge, too, it seems. Something’s at work, Tab. We don’t like it, but the pack’s staying out of it.”

Wait. So it wasn’t just about a single rogue Nightwalker after all?

Suddenly, Eddie’s frequent trips to check up on her made a lot more sense to Tabby. She knew what he was doing; his attempt to worm his way into her bed was still up there. But if there was a bigger threat brewing?

“How bad is it?”

“Right now it’s just whispers, yeah? But the way I see it—and your uncle’s on board with my thinking—if the humans partnered up with the pack last time, it might be a good idea to get an in with the new Alpha before the city gets wiped off the map. Too bad the new Alpha is a stubborn prick who’s been closing ranks around his pack.”

“Okay. So let me try and see if I can get him to change his mind.”

That way she could quash the whole “being shipped out of Grayson and into Woodbridge” thing. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the city yet.

Oh, who was she fooling?

She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Adam.

“Nah. Boone’s got it handled. Since the new Alpha is still closed off to outsiders, he’s seeing if he can get a message to the retired Alpha. It’s a longshot, but it’s the only choice we have. If it doesn’t work, we’re going to think about moving a whole crew into Grayson to nip it in the bud.”

Tabby gulped.

She’d managed to hide her attraction to a rogue Nightwalker so far. By some fucking miracle, her discreet inquiries about the elixir hadn’t gotten out yet, either.

With Eddie and Boone and God knows who else peeking over her shoulder, how long before they figured out she’d already had plenty of chances to eliminate her true target—and that she hadn’t?

“Keep me posted,” she said because, well, it was all she could say. “I’ll keep my ears open. If the Para chatter picks up and I learn anything about what’s coming, I’ll tag Boone.”

“You know, I can always come back—”