Mack was mine. I felt that as surely as the now rapid beat of my heart. Blood coursed through my veins, pushing adrenaline with it that had my aim shifting, his forehead in sight, right before I pulled the trigger.
Dax jerked like a downed stag. One minute he was moving, the next he was lying in a rapidly spreading pool of his own blood. Mack trembled, pulling his thrust at the last minute, but it wasn’t Dax he attended to, but me. Closing the gap in seconds, the rifle was yanked from my grip and tossed to the ground, one of the officers rushing forward to take possession of it as his hands went to my shoulders.
“Harper…?”
There was too much to say, too much to ask, but neither of us had the words for it. Cops were shouting, had been shouting for some time. So were all the shifters, because they’d formed a wall around us. I let out a really ugly pig snort, delayed shock, I’m sure, right before Mack swept me into his arms.
Chapter 41
Kieran
“I am going to spank your arse so hard, you won’t sit down for a week,” Mack growled.
“We’ve got bigger fish to fry right now.”
The dads and all the other bear and tiger shifters were enough to hold the police back, but even the threat of people that could turn furry in a second wasn’t enough to stop them when there was a dead body lying in the quarry. Officers moved, guns were brandished, and our community stepped aside, not wanting to become their next target.
“You’re under arrest,” a detective said, frowning as he took a look at Mack. Harper shook her head, wriggling out of Macks’ arms, only for us to get in between them.
“I don’t think so,” I growled.
“And why would you want to arrest someone?” Asher appeared by his side, plucking the gun from the cop’s grip and then discharging a bullet into Dax’s skull. The bullet passed through the mess cleanly, mangling the evidence of what Harper had done. “You just took down one of the city’s mostnotorious hitmen, detective. This is a time for celebration, not recrimination.”
We watched the man stare at him, then scan the lot of us. The stink of fear wafting off him quickly soured into something more avaricious.
“Heroically stepping in to save a woman from a rabid wolf shifter,” Tor said with a smirk.
“Risking your own life to intervene during a dominance fight,” I added, warming to this tactic.
“And apprehending these lowlifes.” Anya dropped several of Dax’s flunkies at his feet, their groans becoming one as Dina and Mira added to the pile.
“The city is a better place for your hard work, Detective Johnson.”
Asher’s ability to identify the man seemed to clinch the deal.
“Alright, get each one of these…” He blanched when he looked at the pile of wounded henchmen. “Males in the shifter strength cuffs and then take them to the station for processing.” The other officers seemed relieved to have something productive to do, putting their weapons away and moving to do just that. I may or may not have been pleased with how roughly they hauled Dax’s gang away. “Not sure what you expect me to do once Homicide gets here, or the coroner.”
“Ask for Halloway,” Asher replied with a small smile. “He’ll say all the right things, making sure you get that commendation and a feature on the front page of the newspaper.”
“Are you alright?” Mum came running up, her hands reaching my face, then my shoulders, before she turned to my mate. “Harper, sweetheart?—”
“I’m fine.” Harper was always quick with a smile, but right now I saw it fray at the edges. “I mean as much as you can be after killing a guy.” Her head swung back and forth slowly, like a dog that had just been clipped by a car. “I think?”
“We’re getting you out of here,” Mack growled, hoisting her into his arms.
“We’ll need to interview—” the detective started to say.
“I’ll be here to answer any questions the investigating officers might ask,” Asher replied smoothly, stepping closer. “Me and my sleuth.”
Lucas and Kyle were his sleuthmates and they clustered closer, forming a wall between the human and us.
“Daria?” Harper pulled free of Mack, looking over the heads of the crowd. “Dar!”
“Is that the lovely girl with the bruised face?” Mum asked. “She’s sitting in the car. We found her bolting up the road.”
“I need to see her. Mack, I need?—”
“I know what you need.”
