Free Trickster by Nicola Cameron

he said shortly, pulling the
flash drive out of his left jeans pocket and handing it back. “The website
should be live by now.”
    “Great.” She tilted her head at the
SUV. “Well, if you want to climb in, I’ll just go in and activate my code.”
    Mark folded his arms, keeping his
eyes on the ground. “I’ll wait out here, thank you.”
    “Suit yourself. Boris, keep an eye
on him.”
    Red/Boris nodded and moved to Mark’s
side as Caren opened the SUV passenger door. A high-end laptop sat on the seat
and she flipped up the lid, fingers tapping across the keys. As Mark watched
she opened a web browser and surfed to the credit union’s website, entering a
userid and password in the login section, then hit Enter.
    After a moment, an “Invalid User”
screen popped up. Frowning, she re-entered the userid and password. The same
invalid user screen appeared.
    Livid, she turned on Mark. “You
screwed up, sweetie,” she snarled, yanking a smartphone out of her pocket and stabbing
at the buttons. “Congratulations —you just killed your boyfriend.”
    “Did I?”
    She froze, staring at him. Comprehension
dawned. “Oh, you little son of a bitch. Boris, kill him.”
    Suddenly the garage lights went out,
plunging them into darkness. Mark stepped back, yanking out the compact stun
gun Delaney had given him and jamming it blindly into Boris’s ribs. The thug
screamed, jerking away and dropping to the concrete with a meaty thud.
    An enraged scream echoed through the
garage, Dopplering up into a furious feline yowl. Under that Mark could hear a
loud scrabbling noise interspersed with panting yips, the sound of a coyote
pack on the hunt. A mass of low shapes rushed past him, growling and snarling.
One stayed against his legs, pressing against him and pushing him back. Delaney.
    He dropped to a crouch, throwing
his arms around his mate. “Hey, Caren?” he called. “I think my boss wants to
have a word with you.”
    The lights came back on, dazzling
him, and he buried his face in Delaney’s ruff. “Love you, angel,” he whispered.
    A pulse of affection through their
connection was his response. When his vision cleared, he saw that the rest of
the pack had cornered a hissing, spitting bobcat.
    The biggest coyote shimmered and
shifted upwards, turning back into Scott Devlin. “Ms. Dawes,” he said to the
bobcat, “you might want to shift back now. It’ll make it easier for you to talk.”
    The bobcat yowled at him, then
shifted back to human form. Absently, Mark noted that Caren was just as hot
naked as he’d thought she’d be. In his arms, Delaney growled.
    Not interested , he thought to his mate. At all.
    Across from them, Caren sneered at
Scott. “You think you’re so fucking clever,” she said, hands planted on her
hips. “So you stopped me. Big fucking deal. What are you going to do now, call
the cops? Because I promise you, you and every other coyote shifter out there
will regret that big time.”
    Scott considered her. “Yeah, I
figured you’d have some sort of dead man switch set up. No, we’re not going to
call the cops. We’re not going to call any human authority whatsoever.”
    The accent on human made Caren frown. “What is that supposed to mean?”
    “Exactly what it sounds like.”
Scott turned as the elevator dinged. “I’m going over your head, Ms. Dawes.”
    Caren whirled, and paled as a man
walked out of the elevator. To Mark’s eyes the new arrival was tall, with blond
hair and a pleasant if unmemorable face. To his shifter mate senses, however,
the man radiated the power of an Alpha. “Thank you for calling me, Devlin,” he
said, nodding to Scott as he walked up to Caren, glowering at her like an Old
Testament prophet. “I’d been told that this one might show up in my territory.
Frankly, I hadn’t thought she’d be that stupid.”
    To Mark’s shock, Caren actually cowered
away from the tall man, swallowing hard. “Alpha,” she said, “please, let