The Wolf Who Hatched an Egg (15 page)

“I’ll be fine. I just need to get this bullet out.”

Shiloh led him into Nicolas’s music store-library and upstairs to the apartment. “Have you called Dani?” Liam heard Nicolas ask. “We need all the help we can get.”

“I didn’t get the chance to call anyone, really,” Shiloh answered as he helped Liam onto a bed. “Nico, they most likely know where I work. They’ll come for me here.”

“Okay, let’s not worry about that for now. I’ll deal with the bullet.

You take care of the egg and call Dani.”

“And Skylar,”
Liam added mentally.
“And contact the pack.

They’ll help.”

“Will they?”
Shiloh inquired. He sounded doubtful.

“It can’t hurt trying anyway.”
At most, they would refuse, but Liam doubted it.

“All right,”
Shiloh replied hastily.
“Just stay put. Nico will help
you out.”

Trusting his shot ass to a hummingbird hadn’t been on Liam’s bucket list, but he couldn’t exactly protest. He just lay there, forcing himself to struggle against the burn. For a little while, it actually worked, but then the odd flame began to fade, and so did Liam’s consciousness. Liam sent Shiloh a brief surge of affection and surrendered to the darkness.

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Shiloh buried his face in his hands, emotionally and physically exhausted. With his mate shot, he hadn’t been able to rest at all, and he was still very concerned about the egg. A hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed it. “Don’t worry, Shiloh,” Skylar Pierce said.

“It will be all right.”

For a brief moment, Shiloh allowed himself to absorb the comfort coming from Skylar. He’d never actually figured out what kind of shifter Skylar was. In his opinion, he was a sea creature of sorts, but he also had a knack for comforting others that seemed almost uncanny. As soon as Shiloh contacted him, he’d offered his assistance in their problem.

Thankfully, Nicolas had been successful in retrieving the silver bullet from Liam’s body, and his mate was recuperating nicely. This knowledge kept Shiloh going, together with the thought that his egg needed him. He’d expected some resistance to his adoption of the egg, but not quite to this extent.

“My mother knows I’m not one to live in hiding.” Shiloh sighed.

“We need to prove we have a right to this egg.”

Skylar nodded. “It’s going to be quite a battle, but ironically, the shootout will help. You two were merely trying to protect the egg, but this Charles person shot at you, endangering it. That counts a lot and allows the agency to get involved.” Skylar frowned slightly. “Still, it’s not going to be easy, and we need all the help we can get, especially if Charles is the biological parent.”

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Shiloh hated the thought, more so since he’d already claimed the egg as his. “It might all be a lie, for all I know,” Shiloh said. “We can’t be sure the egg is Charles’s.”

As he spoke, he felt his mate’s presence approach, minutes before Liam walked into the room. “Who is this Charles guy anyway?” Liam inquired. It was a wonder that he could move around after his injury, but his voice came out strikingly strong. It seemed that after the silver left his body, his shape-shifter abilities helped him heal. “What does he want with you?”

He was carrying the egg in his arms, and Shiloh smiled, even if he’d just left its side minutes ago to wash up and grab a bite. He only remembered his mate’s question when Liam prodded, “Baby?”

Shiloh really didn’t want to go into his past history with Charles.

He’d actively tried to wipe out all of his failed relationships and one-night stands from his mind and didn’t even have to work too much to do it. None of those men could ever measure up to Liam. Still, Charles represented a mistake he thought he’d left behind. God, how wrong he’d been.

Liam’s expression darkened and Shiloh knew his mate had registered his thought. “Oh,” Liam said simply.

“I’m not sure you caught everything he said the other day.” Shiloh sighed once again. “Supposedly, he believes or wants to make everyone believe I stole the egg. And he suggested that he might be able to forgive me, and he and I should take care of it after it hatches.”

Silence followed his proclamation. “I didn’t quite grasp all of that,” Liam said tersely. The bond often made them share thoughts, but the flow wasn’t continuous. In a way, Shiloh couldn’t say he felt bad about Liam not hearing this the other day. If he had, he might have been even angrier and consequently gotten more hurt.

Skylar hummed thoughtfully. “You know, Shiloh, that’s really suspicious. You said you found the egg at the door, right?” When Shiloh nodded, Skylar continued, “Well, what if this guy planted his egg there on purpose, knowing you’d want to care for it? Since he’s
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the birth parent, he’d have first right to it, and he could take it away.

Then, he’d have a way of forcing you by his side.”

Shiloh blinked in shock. It made an astounding amount of sense, and it was exactly what someone like Charles would do. “But then, we adopted the egg faster than he expected,” he said, “and ruined his plans. No wonder he was so pissed.”

“If that’s true, I don’t think your parents or anyone else knows about it,” Liam answered. “They let me out of there even if they could have easily put another bullet in me and finished the job.”

Shiloh unwillingly shuddered, the thought making him sick to his stomach. He strode toward his mate, retrieved the egg, and headed back into the bedroom. As he well knew, Nicolas and Daniel were waiting for him there. The looks they gave him told him they’d overheard at least part of the conversation.

“Shiloh, I am certain the situation will soon remedy itself,” Daniel offered. “You have our assistance, and that of Mr. Pierce. It is in no way possible that anyone can break in here and take your egg or injure your mate.”

Nicolas elbowed him in the stomach. “Liam’s fine, now, Shiloh.

Come on. Sit. Just spend some time with your egg and let us deal with the rest.”

Shiloh smiled tightly at his friends. He didn’t want to remember the image of Liam bleeding on the backseat of their car and then struggling to limp into the store. His mate had been so very brave, impossibly so, and Shiloh still didn’t know what he’d done to deserve Liam’s loyalty. “Thanks,” he answered.

His heart heavy, he placed the egg on the bed and changed into his swan form. As he took position on top of it, he wondered how much longer it would take for it to hatch. He couldn’t be sure as to how much time had passed between the moment when the egg had been lain and its abandonment. His best bet was not long, and the cygnet still needed time to develop.

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As he thought about the little being still under the shell, an odd feeling of anxiety attacked him. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but it reminded him of the moment he’d felt his parents and the other swans. Still, it was different, and something inside Shiloh screamed “predator.”

Moments later, he noticed his friends tense as well. “Someone’s coming,” Nicolas said unnecessarily.

“Do not worry, Shiloh,” Daniel added. “We will not let any harm come to you.”

Shiloh felt somewhat reassured by their words, as well as by the knowledge that, technically speaking, the people out to get them wouldn’t be predators. In fact, through Liam, he was already ninety-five percent sure of the identity of their visitor.

The doorbell rang and Shiloh felt, rather than heard, Liam go to let the new arrival in. There was a round of greetings, and then Liam appeared in the bedroom, followed by Soren. Daniel and Nicolas were analyzing him with undisguised suspicion, and Shiloh managed to squash his urge to hiss at Soren. Intellectually, he knew the Alpha wolf didn’t mean him any harm, but his protective instincts screamed at him to push away the threat. Hell, he even disliked having Daniel and Nicolas next to the egg, let alone Soren.

The Alpha wolf ignored the tension in the room. “Hello, Shiloh. I hear you have a little problem.”

Shiloh had been the one to call Soren, yes, but he knew that he’d been quite incoherent with concern. He hoped Liam would take care of bringing Soren up to speed with the information. He didn’t shift, and just continued to stare at Soren. His scrutiny paid off moments later when he noticed Soren’s gaze slip toward Daniel in a barely perceivable motion. Interesting.

“I’m not sure how much you know,” Liam answered in Shiloh’s turn, “but Shiloh’s people attacked us yesterday. They mean to take our egg and even attempted to kill Shiloh.”

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The brief explanation had Soren focusing on the conversation once again. “Right. The famous egg. I admit I didn’t understand much from what your mate told me on the phone regarding it.”

“Long story short, Shiloh and I found an abandoned egg. We mated and adopted it, but now the egg’s parent is claiming it and accusing Shiloh of having stolen it.”

Soren blinked at him. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just give it back?”

To Shiloh’s surprise, it was Daniel who answered. “Would you give your pup away?”

Soren went silent at that and looked from Daniel to Shiloh and back. “All right,” he said finally. “Just tell me what we can do to help.”

“Simply being here helps.” Liam grinned. “The swans won’t take us by surprise again.”

“It’s not enough,”
Shiloh sent through his connection with Liam.

“Eventually, they’ll get to the egg if we don’t have a definitive
solution.”

Liam’s grin vanished.
“Any ideas?”

Shiloh thought for a few moments, struggling to remember everything that had happened the day before. Something was bugging him, but with Liam’s injury he hadn’t really gotten around to figuring out what. At last, he recalled it.
“The egg has to have a mother,”
he told Liam. “
Charles looked really nervous when I asked about her.

We have to find her
.”

This time, Liam’s smile was warm and encouraging. He walked to the bed and sat next to Shiloh. His arms wrapped around Shiloh’s long neck. It should have been awkward, but it wasn’t. Shiloh felt like they fit together, and for the millionth time, he wondered how he could have ever doubted it. He placed his head on Liam’s shoulder and closed his eyes. It would work out. It had to.

* * * *

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The building loomed large and quiet in front of Liam. Liam had to force himself to stand still and wait. As a predator, he was used to stalking, but somehow, he’d never thought he’d be in this situation.

Shiloh had told them that the only way to find out who the egg’s mother was would be to go to the swans’ valley and search the birth records. After all, no one would expect them to be here of all places.

Of course, Shiloh stayed behind to watch the egg, and Liam knew that if he didn’t have the connection between them, he’d have been worried sick. Hell, he was still worried sick, but it couldn’t be helped.

In these circumstances, standing around and waiting irked him tremendously.

“Stay calm,”
Shiloh said.
“I’m fine and so is the egg. The guys
haven’t been inside for that long.”

Liam knew that, but he still felt anxious. He’d hated having to send Daniel and Nicolas all alone inside the building. As the smallest shifters, they were less likely to be sensed if they got too close to the guards, not to mention that they could sneak inside with ease. The rest of their group acted as backup, in case something went wrong and they needed to extract the two. Other than Liam, Soren, Brody, and a couple more wolves stood by.

In truth, Brody’s presence helped Liam. The man had dropped everything and come to Liam’s aid as soon as he’d heard what happened. To a certain extent, Liam felt bad about forcing Brody to leave his family, but he knew Carson and the kids were perfectly safe.

Simply having his old friend by his side counted more than he’d imagined.

Still, it seemed to take forever until he sensed Daniel and Nicolas approach. At first, he couldn’t even spot the little hummingbird, not that he was surprised. At last, the two shifters reached the group of wolves. The small squirrel climbed on top of Soren—something Liam secretly found intriguing—while the hummingbird buzzed around their heads. Obviously, the two had found what they’d been looking for. Liam led them out of the valley, through the tricky paths,
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following Shiloh’s instructions to the letter, letting his mate guide him through their connection. Shiloh had insisted that in some places, the land was tricky here, so they needed to be careful.

At last, they were home free and heading out of enemy territory.

Liam allowed himself to speed up, and felt tremendously relieved when they finally reached their car. They’d covered it as best they could to shield it from possible swans coming from above, but a lingering doubt had still niggled at the back of his mind.

As soon as they reached the vehicle, they all shifted and grabbed their clothing from inside. “Okay,” Nicolas said as he dressed. “Found it. Her name’s Sandy Anderson. Looked up her location. It seems she lives in England.”

“England?” Liam repeated in disbelief. “Why the hell would that guy hook up with a woman from there?”

“I guess he wanted to keep the egg without having any hassle,”

Shiloh answered through their bond.
“Female swans are generally
protective over their eggs, so having someone from the valley as the
mother of the egg would have caused him trouble.”

Liam sensed Shiloh’s apprehension over what they were doing.

After all, this Sandy might demand her child back, and then where would they be?
“Do you want to abandon the plan?”

Shiloh hesitated for a moment.
“No. I think we should ask her, but
we shouldn’t tell her we found the egg, at least, not outright.”