I had to bite back a smile at my girl’s sass. “Flint isn’t going to die, Millie. He’s a former marine, a mercenary, and a tracker by tradeandby natural design. If there’s someone out there, he’ll find him.”
“Yup,” Flint smugly agreed. “I’m the perfect male specimen. A marine and a ware!”
“Perfect or not,” Millie said, revealing her concern, though she was trying hard not to, “a well-placed bullet can still kill you.”
“Not if mine finds him first,” Flint returned as he drew and cocked his gun. “Besides, I’m confident that mine is bigger than his.”
Millie rolled her eyes. “Really, Flint? A dick joke at a time like this?”
“Have you learned nothing about men, babe? There’s always time for a well-timed dick joke.”
Not liking where this was going, I decided to step in. “Flint, go comb the woods for any possible threats. I have to make a few calls. Based on what this mystery person said, they know who Millie is and that she’s been staying here. We’re going to need some back up just to make sure there’s always someone watching the house, and Millie, at all times. That’s a twenty-four-hour job that will require all hands-on deck.”
Flint snagged the phone out of my hands. “Speaking of which, the loser might be tracking Milie through her cell. As far as I’m concerned, this thing is toast.”
“How could he do that?” Millie posed in utter disbelief. “I don’t even know who this asshole is. There’s no way he could have possibly gotten ahold of my phone in the last few hours to set a tracker on it. I don’t care how smart or fast he is.”
I thought about that point for a moment. “We might have to accept that whoever texted has known about you for longer than we have, Millie. That means he could have gotten ahold of your phone at any time.”
“That’s a comforting thought,” she mumbled as she hugged me closer.
Millie wasn’t going to like what came next, but I had to keep my mate safe. “Flint, you’re going to hold on to that device until we can have it scanned for any potential bugs.”
Shaking his head, my brother simply snapped the device in two. “No can-do, boss. Once a device has been compromised, it’s useless. It’s best to just destroy it and get a new one.”
“My phone!” Millie shrieked while Flint dumped the pieces into the sink and began to fill it with hot water for good measure.
Subtlety was never going to be the man’s strength. “Flint!” I scolded. “You could have let her get her contacts out of her phone before you destroyed it.”
“Nope. Compromised is compromised, Big Dog,” he returned, somehow making the nickname sound derogatory like only he could.
Millie looked at the running sink on the verge of tears.
“I’ll get you a new one soon, Princess,” I promised, hoping that would help her cope just the smallest bit.
Flint headed to the door then. “I’ll be back. Give me twenty minutes. If you don’t get an update by then, come looking for my cooling corpse.”
That did it. Millie began to sob over his callous words.
“Go!” I shouted, gently holding my mate in my arms while trying not to throttle my brother.
Taking out my phone, I checked all of my doors electronically while I comforted Millie. Then, I reviewed all the house’s windows, which were also controlled by my cell and could be remotely monitored. I had a more than a few weapons stashed around the house, namely guns in my study and bedroom, and hunting knives on display in the living room. If things escalated, I could easily access any of them. After covering all my bases, I shot off a text for Gavin tocome home as soon as he was able to. Tucking my phone back in my pocket, I then concentrated on my mate.
“You’re safe, Millie. Nobody’s going to hurt you,” I soothed, kissing her forehead as I cherished holding her soft body against mine.
The panic in her voice was almost as tangible as the shudder that ran through her when she said, “It’s not me I’m worried about, Ethan. It’s you! Whoever that man was, he said he was going tokillyou. He said he was going to fuck and knot me in a pool of your spilled blood! Who says something deranged like that?”
“It’s like Flint said, Millie, it’s a bluff. That fool can’t get to me. Don’t let him get to you.”
“How can we be sure of that, Ethan?” Millie demanded. “Like I told Flint, a bullet will kill a ware just as well as a human man, and I’d never survive if that animal harmed you. I swear, it would kill me!”
“Don’t say that,” I gently scolded, hating the thought of anything bad ever happening to Millie.
While I knew I’d defend my mate with my last breath, I wasn’t sure where this new threat was even coming from. I believed it was all tied into the Tupilaq pack somehow, but I couldn’t prove it. In reality, so many wares could be trying to snatch this beautiful woman from me. Omegas were rare and valuable, worth killing and dying over. Even when they had mated, there was nothing stopping an unhinged suitor from kidnapping an omega and forcing his knot onto her. That’s why pack politics were so important. You messed with a ware, you messed with their pack. Strictly speaking, we didn’t have one. Sure, my brothers from Cascia House were all my packmates, but it wasn’t the uniform structure that somany other packs observed. That could be a problem when conflict arose, but I wasn’t telling Millie that. My mate had enough worries to work through at the moment.
“Nobody’s dying, Princess. The texter was just trying to scare you so he could force you to do his sick bidding. He’s a lying bully, and I don’t want you to give him one more thought.”
That was my story and I was sticking to it. Until Flint got back, I was going to hold off on making any phone calls. I didn’t want Millie to overhear my concerns and get worked up all over again.
