Free Protect and Fur [3xtasy Lake 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Corinne Davies Page B

some warmth to it.
    “Are these warm because—” He bit into it, and the incredible flavors of currants and brown sugar flowed over his tongue.
    “Fresh from Catherine’s oven about twenty minutes ago.” Craig lifted his face to the sun and then took another sip of his coffee. “Looks like it’ll be a nice day today.”
    Aiden took another bite and then grunted at him, unwilling to lose one delicious flake that was melting on his tongue.
    “Are you going to tell me what happened?” Craig stood up and moved around to the front seat where Aiden left the binoculars.
    Aiden watched his friend look through them in the direction of Brenna’s house, and then he slowly circled around. “What’s there to tell?”
    “You got close enough to have her robe in your car.” Craig stopped and focused in on something, and Aiden was willing to bet the pastries in the bag he knew what that was.
    “I’m practicing to be a stalker.”
    Craig lowered the binoculars and then nodded his head in the direction he’d been looking a moment before. “And the assholes down there? I saw some of them in town the other day. What’s their story?”
    “Who’s asking?” Aiden wasn’t about to share any pack information with the human police. “Is this an official police inquiry or are you asking as a fellow shifter?”
    “I’m on a break, Aiden.”
    Aiden finished off the second pastry in the bag and then crumpled it up and tossed it on the passenger seat through the window. “They’re a bunch of assholes I’ve been tracking for a while. They’re an offshoot of the pack that was in Nova Scotia. They travel around and try to take control of small towns that don’t have a strong enough Guardian force. The more towns they hold, the stronger their little army becomes because they immediately start recruiting.”
    He held out his hand, and Craig placed the binoculars in it. There wasn’t much to see right then. The rogues hadn’t strayed from the house and had been up late partying the night before. So far they’d kept to themselves, but Aiden knew it was only a matter of time before they discovered the vulnerable parts of the town to hit in order to take over. Which is why he was taking a moment to sneak a peek at Brenna. He knew he should stay away from her, but his wolf demanded he watch out for her.
    “Aiden, you and I were fostered in the same pack for training.”
    Aiden wasn’t certain where Craig was going with this. “Yeah, and you tried to leave every chance you got.” Aiden remembered their time in Nunavut. It had been fucking cold all the time, and Craig’d hated it. The only way out was by a small Cessna, and Craig’d tried to barter a flight every chance he’d gotten.
    “They weren’t bad people, Aiden. I couldn’t get past the hate I felt for my shifter nature.”
    “Yeah, I know. That’s why I helped smuggle you on board the plane that day. There was no way you could’ve stay up there.”
    “But you did.”
    “I did, and I learned what I needed to. It was a perfect place for me to learn some control.” Back then, every time Aiden’d gotten angry he’d shift into his wolf. Having an uncontrolled shifter in a city wasn’t safe for anyone, but up in the Great White North, no one knew or was near enough to be threatened.
    “You can’t leave Brenna behind and expect me to pick up the pieces.”
    “What are you talking about? I don’t expect that of you.”
    “What about when you took off with the Guardians to help out with the border wars out west? Who do you think helped your parents when you were out saving people?”
    “I was doing my job.”
    “I know, but while you’re off saving the world, life goes on. Bills need to be paid and family gets sick.”
    “Don’t you dare throw that in my face.” Aiden thought of his grandfather every day and still regretted not being there to help his grandparents. After the rogues killed his parents, he couldn’t see anything past stopping them all. “I