Chapter 22

Devin was pacing around the yard when he caught a whiff of exhaust fumes. He felt every nerve in his body tightening, ready to face an intruder, when the black cruiser appeared through the trees coming towards the house. He curbed the need to growl at the Sergeant as he got closer, Devin didn’t want anyone near Rayne. In some areas of life, he was willing to compromise, sort of, but not this one. An odd realization to have hit him with the car only a few feet away now.

The car stopped and the man inside opened the window. “Hey, Devin.”

“Mark.” He’d known him years before he’s ever worn a badge. Devin hadn’t liked him then either. “What brings you out this far?”

He shrugged. “Just checking into a stolen car and I thought I’d drop in and see if you’d seen anything.”

“A car?”

He nodded.

Devin made an exaggerated motion of looking around the driveway.

Mark laughed. “I didn’t mean one that pulled right up to your door, I wondered if you’d been out painting or whatever and seen anything.”

“Haven’t gone far lately. What am I looking for if I do?” Devin was relieved he was staying in his car, with his blood still running a little hot, he didn’t want to take a chance on doing something stupid like he’d almost done inside a short while ago.

“It crossed the border a few days back, it’s a white Cabriolet, one of those little tiny boxy cars...”

“I know what one looks like, Mark.” He needed to leave and he needed to do it now. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Appreciate it.” He nodded once and then put the window back up.

Devin stood without moving and watched until he couldn’t see his car. A white Cabriolet? It wasn’t a coincidence that Rayne drove the same thing. He shook his head and then looked back to the house. He may have been out of touch with the rest of the population on the planet, but he knew Rayne wasn’t a car thief. Devin could sense a lie and smell scents that went with them, and he knew she hadn’t lied so far.

Frowning, he started towards her campsite. Devin didn’t want to snoop around in her things, but he couldn’t just pretend this hadn’t happened. What could happen that would make her steal a car and hide this far from where she’d been?

He was almost to the site before he decided that he was going to have to move down another level to find out who the car belonged to. Devin had to know and if he asked her, or told her about the police looking for her, she might run and he knew he couldn’t live with that. There had to be a damn good reason why Rayne had taken a car and drove this far to hide.

He glanced at the car as he went into the cabin. If he could find her keys then look at the registration and not have to search further. Pausing inside, he surveyed the room. Everything was neat and in order, so he would have to be careful to not move anything out of place. Devin walked to what looked like a purse, the most logical place to start but stopped when he saw it was behind another bag that looked like a purse. Regardless of reason, no male wanted to put his hand into a purse. He cursed under his breath and turned to see what was on the other side first, a glint of caught his eye and he found himself looking at a ring of keys hanging under the window. He struggled with a moment of disappointment, having found them so easily. He had to admit, then, that he’d wanted to go through her things to see what else he could find out. In the last few days a few kinks in his personality had been shown to him, and he wasn’t happy with the revelations.

Devin paced along the path a third time, his mind too scattered to make the call. He looked down at the phone in his hand and then back to the front door of his house. He couldn’t take a chance of calling his father in the house, in case Rayne woke up. Sometimes finding out your gut instincts are right isn’t a good thing, and of course this was one of those times. Devin’s mind was lost right now, the thousand scenarios bouncing around weren’t helping. He didn’t even know where to begin.

Confirming, from an old photo, that Rayne was indeed Nicholas and Sarah Andrews’ daughter had been the highlight of his search. He hadn’t searched through everything, just the one case sitting on passenger’s seat of her car. He’d stopped after that, not needing anything else. That was the good part. The rest fell somewhere between anger and jealousy, and all the degrees of annoyance from one to the other. Rayne’s car was not her car it was registered to a man. A man, if he wasn’t mistaken that she sure as hell shouldn’t have ever been anywhere near, yet her driver’s license had the same address as the car registration. If that was the family that had taken her in when her parents died, the one her father had worked for, then the beginning of something ugly was here.

Devin let out a ragged breath. Aiden Tomas, the son of Alberto was one of the families, and he used that term in a non-blood-relative-very-criminal way, that the Alliance was trying to erase, diplomatically of course. That family had been known to blackmail and entrap shifters into unlawful and dangerous employment for more years that he could remember. What was Rayne doing with them? How had she gotten this far out of their grasp? It was no wonder she didn’t know her own heritage, her parents probably hid it to protect her. He didn’t want to dwell on how they had died, he knew it wasn’t by any natural means. Did Rayne know this? Was that why she was here? Too many questions and not enough answers. He had to remedy that.

Devin took a deep breath as he dialled the phone. His mother answered. “Hello, Mom. I need to speak to Dad,” he closed my eyes and reached for some patience, “It’s Alliance business.” Surprised when she relinquished the phone immediately to his father. Well, perhaps that was the key to getting around her? He could hear his father walking somewhere, probably private.

“Devin?”

“Yeah.” Everything he’d just learned flooded to his mind at the same moment and Devin didn’t know where to start in trying to explain it all to him.

“Is everything okay, son? Is she all right?”

The mention of Rayne grounded him, helped find his focus. “Yes and no. She’ll be fine in a day or two from her boat trip, but there’s a lot more going on than a few scrapes.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Actually, there’s a lot. I need you to look into a few things in the Alliance archives.”

“Oh?”

His tone was suddenly harsher, that soft voice from seconds before gone. “I had a visit from the police, inquiring about a stolen car...”

“A car?” His confusion was more than clear.

“Just bear with me as I try to get all this vocalized. Dad, it’s a mess.”

“I’m listening.”

“The car is the one Rayne was driving.”

“Her name is Rayne?”

Devin had to ignore the warm feeling from hearing someone say her name. “Yes, and she is the daughter of Nicholas and Sarah.”

“You’ve found them? Do I need to send the Alliance? Are they in trouble?”

“They’re dead. I don’t know how or when, I just know both of her parents are gone.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw, trying to focus. He had his father’s attention and he’d was on the way to getting answers. “The car Rayne is driving is registered to Aiden Tomas...”

“What?” Devin heard a door close loudly as he no doubt was ensuring he had complete privacy. “Was she running from him?”

“I don’t know. I do know it had to be pretty serious, stealing a vehicle and driving from Chicago to here, is not something Rayne would do on a whim.”

“I suppose not.” He sighed loudly. “They’re going to come after her.”

“I know.” Devin’s chest felt tight.

“You can’t let her out of your sight, Devin. If they find her, you won’t see her again.”

A pain went through his heart because he knew his Alpha was right. Some part of him had known that when he’d read the name on the registration. His father confirming it didn’t make him feel any better. “I don’t know how to keep her here, indefinitely.”

He snorted in a way that wasn’t from entertainment. “She’s your mate, Devin. You’ll find a way.”

“She doesn’t know her own heritage. She mentioned her mother wanting to take her home, but she has no idea about any of it...”

“If Aiden Tomas gets his hands on her, she’ll find out in a very unhealthy way. The last informant we managed to get inside, before he vanished, was able to find out that they’re trying to set up their own breeding program so they can raise their own. They mean to rent them out like hired guns...”

“I remember you discussing it with Calum’s dad. I haven’t thought much of it since, I thought you’d have dealt with it by now.”

“We haven’t. We’ve managed to get a few out, but that’s made it worse for those that are still trapped inside.”

“Dammit!” Devin wanted to beat or tear something apart. He took a breath and waited for a few seconds, giving them both a bit of time. “What do you suggest?”

“You have to find a way to tell her what she is, what you are...”

“I’m working up to it, slowly. I can’t just shift in front of her, as far as I know she doesn’t even know we exist.” Devin swallowed the knot in his throat. “She’s close to her first estrus.” He hoped his father caught where he was going with that, because a part of his wolf understood it, but his human side was still trying to catch up.

His father sighed. He could hear his heels clicking along the wooden floor. “I was planning to send some of our pack that way, but not if she’s close and yet—unclaimed.”

He said the word as a challenge to Devin, and he knew it, just didn’t have time for that right now to rise to it.

“I’m sending Calum. He’s cat and shouldn’t make you feel threatened in that way and he has a vested interested in making sure nothing happens to you and your mate.”

Devin wanted to say no. It was right on the tip of his tongue, he wasn’t sure if being cat was less of a threat than being male, but he did need backup and Calum and he had a fairly good understanding of one another. “Tell him to keep his distance, for now.”

“I will. I’m going to see if I can find out what the Tomas family are doing about their missing... car.”

“Keep me up-to-date. If they’re heading this way I want as much notice as I can get.”

“You’ll get it.” He cleared his throat. “Be careful, Devin. This is not going to be easy, mating issues, most especially when she isn’t even aware and protecting her…”

He didn’t need to add the explanation, Devin had already arrived at the same conclusion, the moment he’d tasted her and read the registration. “I’ll call if I find out anything else.”

“Do that.” He hung up.