Justice (12 page)

It was going to make it difficult to visit Paul, but he’d do what he had to, for them. It occurred to him that Paul might be willing to fly to Phoenix and see him. That was something they needed to discuss. They’d been spending most of their time together talking about everything but their parting. Justice was going to step up and see what compromises they could reach.

He heard the splash before he saw the bear. Since the animal was upwind of him, Justice hadn’t smelt the beast first. He supposed the bear wasn’t concerned with his approach. Justice slowed down. He had no interest in fighting a bear. He watched while the bear splashed in the stream. What would Paul think of this? There was a beauty in nature, even the scary parts of it like the huge bear. Justice hoped Paul would be able to see that, if not now, someday soon.
It would be amazing to bring Paul with me on hikes, to share this with him.

Of course Justice wouldn’t want Paul anywhere in the vicinity of a bear, but the rest of it, the sunlight and sounds, the aromas and feel of earth beneath one’s feet, that he wanted to share.

But Paul had yet to see him in shifted form. Justice feared his mate might never be able to accept that side of him. He mewled and the bear swung its big head his way. Justice expected a roar, but what he got was an inquisitive sound as the critter eyed him.

In case he was looking like a possible dinner, Justice thought it was in his best interest to vacate the area. He’d play in the stream another day, perhaps.

Running would put the most space between him and the possibly hungry bear. Justice put his powerful hind legs to work and was far away before the bear’s roar stopped ringing in his ears.

The hair along his spine stood up as he stilled. Someone, or something, was watching him. A predator was a predator for a reason. His senses were heightened and danger was riding in on the breeze.

Justice kept moving, slowing his pace gradually. He sniffed at the air every few seconds, and when he finally caught a whiff of what was tracking him, fury and fear collided inside him.

Wolf. Not just a wolf, but a shifter. God damn it!
Had the sick fucks who’d been part of the human trafficking ring found Paul? The FBI agent, De la Garza, had told Paul they hadn’t been able to find any more of the people involved, but Paul had admitted to Justice that he hadn’t told them much, if anything, about the shifters. Justice understood. Who was likely to believe shifters existed, unless they were one, or mated to one?

The scars had been explained away as from wolves, kept as pets. Like Paul had been. It made Justice sick, but dwelling on the past wasn’t going to help them now.

The chances of there being a wolf shifter on the property or near it, and that shifter having nothing to do with Paul, was nil.

Justice walled off the part of his mind focused on the other shifter. He didn’t want Paul to pick up on it and have a panic attack or be scared. Up ahead, the shrubbery thickened. If Justice could slip into it, he’d possibly be able to circle around and get behind the wolf. It was an obvious ploy, at least to him, but he couldn’t come up with a better one at the moment.

Paws struck the ground behind him. His stalker was no longer trying to hide his presence. Justice knew he wasn’t going to be able to make it to the bushes and he spun around, head low, growl tearing from his throat. It was times like these he wished to hell and back that he could roar like a lion, but snow leopards weren’t given that gift. Marybeth had claimed it had to do with avalanche prevention in their homeland.
An avalanche would be great right about now.

What had to be the largest wolf he’d ever seen came charging at him. Big, grey, with one gold eye and one silver, the beast was frightening. His teeth were huge, sharp, and saliva was dripping from them.

Justice’s heart thudded, adrenaline shooting into his veins as he prepared to be attacked. He snapped at the air, warning the wolf, not that he thought it’d work.

The wolf came at him—and yipped before bouncing to a stop. The damned thing lowered his upper half and wagged his thick tail.

What the fuck kind of crazy is this?
A dozen possible theories ran through Justice’s head, but they all had the same conclusion—this was a setup.

He snarled and swatted a paw through the air. Dying wasn’t an option, not on his part, anyways. He snapped again and lowered himself, preparing to leap on the wolf.

But the damned thing whined and wagged his tail again before flopping over and baring his belly. Even then, his tail kept swishing against the ground, kicking up dirt and leaves. His tongue lolled out of his mouth, the tip landing on the dirt. Those mismatched eyes held a serious note, but not a cruel one.

It didn’t make sense. Justice growled and sniffed. He smelt wet dog, or wet wolf, which wasn’t a pleasant odour as far as he was concerned. There was nothing in his senses telling him this was a trick, though his leopard wasn’t thrilled to be so close to any kind of canine.

The wolf yipped at him then whined and wiggled. Justice narrowed his eyes at the thing. Sunlight glinted off something on the wolf’s neck and it made Justice squint as he found the source of the shiny. A strip of thin black leather was around the wolf’s neck, and dangling from it was a small glass jar filled with stuff. Justice didn’t know what kind of stuff, but it looked like dried green plants and pebbles, maybe even a tiny piece of feather. Or hair.

There was something about it that was mesmerising. Justice jerked his gaze away from the necklace. That was some freaky kind of mojo or something in it. He wanted no part of it, even if he was just being ridiculous and the necklace was nothing.

Before he could do anything else, the wolf began to shift. That gave him pause. There was no way a man could outfight or outrun a snow leopard. To turn into his human form now would mean the wolf shifter was completely vulnerable to him.

Why would he do that? What’s his game?

Justice didn’t have time to look around and check for more wolves because the man had shifted in no time at all. He didn’t seem to have hurt when it happened, either. And he was fucking huge in human form, too, with more bulk than Justice could ever hope to attain. Loose black curls hung unevenly around the man’s face. He still had those mismatched eyes when he looked at Justice and grinned.

“Did I scare you?” he asked in a deep, rough voice. “That’s good,” he answered before Justice could. “I wouldn’t want you to be cocky, not if you’re going to be Paul’s mate.”

“What the fuck?” Justice tried to say, but that didn’t work out so well in his leopard form. He sounded like a cat trying to hack up a hairball. Was this a trick to get him to shift? Did the weird stranger think that Justice wouldn’t be able to kill him if they were both humans? A smaller stature didn’t mean a weaker man, Justice had learnt that ages ago.

“You are Paul’s mate. That’s good, makes you protective of him and he’ll need that in case they come for him still.”

Fuck it, I’m shifting.
He’d be vulnerable for a few seconds, but that was a risk he had to take.

The pain of shifting didn’t even register this time. Justice tried to keep his eyes on the wolf shifter, but there was a few seconds where his vision hazed and his ears filled with an annoying buzzing. Then he was on his hands and knees, doing his best not to show any signs of exertion.

“That looks like it hurt,” the man rumbled, sounding amused. “Must suck to be one of your kind.”

“Who are you?” Justice snapped, wishing he’d just killed the bastard in the first place.

The bigger man smirked and sat back on his heels, looking as if he knew Justice’s thoughts. “Most people call me Cliff.” He shrugged. “That’s one of the nicer names. But I’m not here to be your best friend, Justice Chalmers. I’m here to make sure none of the shifters involved in the trafficking ring get to Paul. I have some—excuse me, can’t word it any other way—justice to mete out to those shifters. We can’t have that kind of shit going on in our world.”

Justice leant back and glared at Cliff. “How do you know who I am? And what are you, some self-appointed shifter avenger?”

Cliff kept smirking at him. “Well, I could tell you that there’s a super-secret shifter society that handles wayward dumb fucks who put all of our kind at risk.”

Justice thought Cliff was just screwing with him, but he wasn’t a hundred per cent sure until Cliff let loose a braying belly laugh.

“Gotcha.” Cliff chuckled again then wiped at his left eye, the silver one. “Do my eyes freak you out? Usually I wear brown contacts—”

“I don’t care about your goddamned eyes! What game are you playing?” Justice snapped the question out as he curled his hands into fists.

“No game, other than seeing how huffy I can get you,” Cliff told him. “I killed two of the bastards who were after Paul. Got there just in time, too. You should thank me for that and stop being such a dick to me.”

“You—” Justice looked the man over. The necklace caught his eye and he quickly turned his gaze up to Cliff’s face. “You’re telling me you were the guy that kept Terence and Pat from taking Paul?”

“Taking him, hurting him, killing him. Yup.” Cliff stretched out his arms. Muscles rippled all over his body. “Killed Pat quick, then took a little longer with Terence. Fucker was too stupid to die easy.” He shrugged. “Oh well. By my count, there’s still about seven shifters waiting to be held accountable for what they’ve done. It wasn’t just Paul, you know. There were several humans bought and sold and killed.”

“How do you know any of this?” Justice asked, sceptical as all get-out.

Cliff winked at him. “You’ve heard the saying, if I told you, I’d—”

“I’m a Marine, of course I’ve heard it, and if you think I’d let you kill me, you’re crazier than you seem.”

“That’d have to be pretty far out there, then,” Cliff replied. “I’m still not giving away my secrets. I will say I’ve made it my life’s goal to protect our people, no matter what breed they are. The shifters involved in the trafficking exposed what they are to humans who are now free. A few of them are, anyway. A lot of them were killed as soon as the FBI started making busts.”

“Where are the other humans? The ones who got away?” Justice asked.

Cliff sucked on his teeth then shook his head. “Nope, sorry, not telling. I know you’re a cop and all that, but the less people who know, the better for them, right? You can’t break under torture and give info you don’t have. And before you say you wouldn’t break in the first place, yes, you would. You’d do anything to protect your mate, even if you hated yourself for it.”

Justice looked away. He knew Cliff was right.

“It’s our nature to protect our mate above all others. I’ve seen it happen time and time again, and that’s as it should be, but this time it could get innocent people killed. Really, you don’t need to know the information anyway.”

“No, I don’t,” Justice admitted. “I hope they’re safe.”

“They are,” Cliff assured him. “I’m an ornery, wily son of a bitch when I need to be, which is most of the time. Have to be, or I’d have been killed a long time ago.”

Justice looked at him again. “So you’re a vigilante.”

Cliff shook his head, then he nodded. “Whatever rocks your boat. If it makes you feel better to apply a term to me that I’m sure you look down on, go for it. But you and I both know that shifters, though they live on the same planet as humans, still live in their own world, with their own societal rules. It has always been that way, and do you think, Justice, that I’m the first of our kind to do what I do?” Cliff rolled his lips in, as if he were working to keep back more words. Maybe he was.

“Why are you here? And why should I believe you?” Justice settled for asking.

“I’m here because Paul is here. I know he would hate me on principle, so I can’t very well go up to him and warn him. If I tried, your grandma would gut me.” Cliff flashed a wicked grin. “Nothing in any world like a strong woman. Anyway, he’s the only one left loose, so to speak. The other former slaves are safe, happy—some have even found mates who are shifters. Even wolves. It’s weird, but whatever, Fate knows what she’s doing. Paul needs to be watched, because the bad guys are going to come for him.”

“I’m supposed to go back to work the day after tomorrow. I was going to leave in the morning…” Justice mumbled.

“Might want to rethink that,” Cliff said, sounding entirely too amused. “Of course, I guess it’s hard to let go of a long-held goal once you’ve attained it. I mean, the job you always wanted, or your mate’s safety—”

“Could you be any bigger of an asshole?” Justice snapped. “And how do you know anything about what my goals are?”

Cliff tapped the small jar on the leather necklace. “Because I’m special.”

“I’ll say.” That was just creepy. Justice hadn’t missed the way that glass sparkled when Cliff touched it. “Are you a shaman?”

Cliff snorted. “Hell no. I’m not a ‘pure’ enough soul for that. I kill people who need it, Justice. I know that rubs your lawman side the wrong way, but it is what it is, and it always has been what it’s been.”

“Now you’re speaking in fucking circles.”

“It’s a habit,” Cliff said. “Look, the truth is, you have a hard choice to make, but you and I both know what you’ll decide to do. You have to, he’s your mate. Maybe, once things settle down, you can get on with the local police or sheriff’s department, whatever these bumpkin towns have. Your priority now is your mate.”

“What are you going to do?” Justice asked him. The whole conversation seemed surreal, yet Justice was strangely relieved to know he wasn’t going to be leaving Paul behind after all. He could take Paul with him, but there would be more people to help keep him safe here.

“I’m going to do what I’ve been doing for some time.” Cliff stood. The man really was massive, but it surprised Justice to find the man was only a couple of inches taller than him.

“How is Paul doing?” Cliff asked. He wrapped his hand around the jar.

“It’s going to take a lot of work, but he’s up to it. He’s a strong man,” Justice said, proud of his mate.