Grey joined them, reporting no other rigged entrances, including around the barns.
When all was safe, Avi rushed into the house to the pantry and pulled Fallon into his arms.
She sniffled and hugged him tightly.“I was so worried!”
“I’m fine, we’re all fine.Thanks to Zara’s quick thinking.”
“It’s what being an alpha female means,” Zara said with a smile.“Taking care of everyone.”
Crew, Ford, and Grey joined them, the males holding onto their females while Ford watched with barely veiled longing.
“It’s late as hell, or early as hell, I guess, depending on your point of view,” Crew said.“Grey, do you want to return to your patrol or help with cleanup?”
“I’ll get back on patrol,” he said.“I want to know how they snuck up on us when I was walking the perimeter all damn night long.”
“They’re clearly watching us,” Avi pointed out.“They knew Fallon and I were in the barn.”
“Good point,” Crew said.“Keep your head on a swivel, Grey.The rest of us will get to the cleanup and order new windows as soon as we’re able to.”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Fallon said, giving him a hard squeeze.“Your cousin is a terrible person.”
“Yeah, he really is.But hopefully he’ll realize we’re not worth the effort in trying to take over.He’d already be settled in his own place if he’d just focused on that instead of trying to take over the farm.”
“You can’t reason with lunatics,” Ford said.
They grabbed supplies to sweep and bag the glass and debris and got to work.“So much for waking up to a sexy good time in the morning,” Avi whispered to Fallon.
Her cheeks pinked.“Was that your plan?Now I’m doubly pissed at Colton.”
“I promise to make good on my plans when we’re able to get back into bed.Or somewhere else private.”
“I can’t wait.”
Fallon knelt next to Zara and Tatum in Zara and Crew’s bedroom, picking up the biggest shards of glass before the shop vac would be used.Every window in the farmhouse—and the barn where she and Avi had been sleeping—was broken, leaving glass everywhere.
Nancy and Tris had come over with Dexter and Khyle to help a little while ago.Every herd member was taking part in the cleanup because it was such a massive job.Thankfully, only the glass had been broken.No one had been seriously hurt by the rigged trip wire and explosives on the porch.
She shuddered, thinking how close she’d come to losing Avi or him being seriously hurt.
Before the cleanup began, the herd had met in the kitchen and she’d listened to their thoughts about Colton and his small herd.He seemed like a maniac, much like Otto, trying to take something that didn’t belong to him because he was selfish and insane.
“Did you ever think you’d be cleaning up glass at three in the morning because an unhinged alpha thinks he should take over another herd’s territory?”Nancy asked, her voice a mixture of annoyance and humor.
Zara snorted and dropped a large shard of glass into the trash bin that Ford had brought into the room for them.“It’s a new one for me.”
“Good thing you had intuition that something was going on outside, or we might have two fewer stallions in the herd,” Tris said.
Jaguars, like stallions, had territory battles, and in the history of her people, Fallon had heard some really nasty, awful things that one group would do to another.But it didn’t lessen the fact that there were two people who were trying to upheave the peaceful life in Little River—Colton, who thought he was entitled to take over the farm and kill everyone else, and Otto, who thought he was entitled to claim Fallon as his mate.
She felt Avi before she saw him, her cat attuned to him already.
He smiled at her from the doorway and she rose to her feet.Gingerly stepping over the glass shards, she met him with a kiss.
“How’s it going in here?”he asked.
“Slow but good.”
He smiled at her, but anger simmered in the depths of his blue eyes.
