Leo agreed.
He listened to the family chatter, talking about their travels and Mira’s life, and how they’d often been in the same state, close but far at the same time.
“So,” Rami said, settling back in the chair, “we wanted to go with Mira to the bed-and-breakfast and meet up with Daphne, Gideon, and the others.We have a lot to discuss.Mira told us there’s an anti-shifter group causing problems for you guys and that you don’t go anywhere without an escort, so we’d like to offer ourselves as escorts to get you back to Thorn Hollow, and then we would take Mira with us to the bed-and-breakfast.”
Leo nodded.“That works for me.I haven’t called for a pack escort yet.”
When the meal was finished, they hustled out to the vehicles, with Leo and Mira in the lead, and an SUV and a truck behind them, filled with her family.
She leaned against his shoulder with a yawn.He kissed the top of her head.
“Did your family talk at all this morning about their plans for the future?”he asked.“Before I joined you guys?”
“Yeah, actually, they’re considering staying.Jantha said they could stay in Bishop, but they don’t know if they want to do that.I’m not sure what their options are, but they do have the RVs, so maybe a campground?”
He hummed.“I’ll talk to Adam.If they want to stay in Northern Ohio, there are lots of options.”
They stopped in Thorn Hollow so he and Mira could clean up and change, and then he gave her a kiss goodbye and waved as she left with her family to talk to her other family.
He shook his head with a chuckle.She was in for an interesting day.
Someone honked, and he looked over his shoulder and saw Solan waving from his truck.“I’m driving ya, get in!”
Leo jogged over and got in.“Thanks, man.”
“You bet.How’s mated life treating you?”Solan asked as he pulled away from the curb.
“Unbelievable.I’ve never been happier.She’s everything.”
“I’m happy for you.And I definitely can’t wait to find my truemate.”
“I know it’s cliché, but she’ll show up when the time is right.I wasn’t really even looking for a mate, and our paths crossed.Fate has a strange sense of humor.”
“Most definitely.”There was longing in Solan’s voice, and Leo hoped that his friend would find his other half soon.Solan cleared his throat.“So I heard a bit from Brick this morning about what happened in Bishop.Tell me the tea, dude.”
“It’s totally insane,” he said.“So it turns out Mira’s biological family wasn’t dead at all…”
* * *
They pulled into the dealership lot.At first glance, things looked fine.The neat rows of cars for sale gleamed in the morning sun.But as soon as Solan parked, something prickled in warning for Leo.
“Hold up,” Leo said.“The cars look weird.”
Solan followed Leo’s gaze to the row of SUVs at the front of the lot.They all seemed to be sitting at odd angles, tilted toward one side or the other unevenly.
“Shit.That doesn’t look right at all,” Solan said.
They got out of the truck, both of them wary, and approached the SUVs.Leo crouched and looked at the front tire as Solan scanned the lot with a low growl.The tire was entirely flat.The valve stem had been cut.
“Damn it,” Leo said.He stood and moved to the other tires of the SUV, finding the same thing.It took him only a few minutes of checking in the first row to see that all the valve stems had been cut on every single tire.
“What the actual hell?”Solan demanded.
Leo looked at the other rows of vehicles.Each looked wonky, and he was certain that an inspection would show that the valve stems had all been cut as well.It was a catastrophic attack.And he knew exactly who was behind it.
“I’ll call Adam,” Leo said, his phone already out of his pocket.
“I’m going to take a walk around the lot and find out why the security measures in place didn’t alert us to people on the lot.”Solan’s eyes flashed angrily.
