Free Charles (Darkness #8) by K.F. Breene

the breeze. Without warning, the small hairs rose on his neck and arms followed swiftly by a surge of magic. He didn’t like someone else hearing Ann at such a private moment. She’d be embarrassed.
    Flexing, feeling an unspeakable, protective rage well up in him, he walked backwards, closer to her. He stopped in front of the door, his tattoos swirling with magic, as he stared out at the woods in challenge. Whoever was out there, no matter how many, might be predatory animals now but they’d stemmed from humans originally—they had a soft side. In contrast, he was made to be a predator—that was what separated him from the human fork of nature. And he would protect his own like nothing that shifter out there had ever seen before.
    As if hearing his thoughts, or possibly able to see him and reading his face and body language, the creature took off as if it was running for its life. Bushes and leaves rustled, rocks flew—Charles saw a brown body dash off to the right before cutting left, heading up the mountain, no bigger than a medium-sized dog. Nothing else moved.
    Charles waited, his senses on alert. Nothing else moved.
    There had only been one. On this side of the cabin, anyway.
    There were shifters in this wood that hadn’t been caught, and had not been sent by Tim. That might be cause for alarm.

Chapter Six
     
     
    C harles entered the cabin in a rush of adrenaline. Deep, burnished gold swirled around his arms. Magic crackled within the small space.
    Ann came out of the bathroom with a sheen of sweat on her rosy face, eyes wide. “What’s wrong?”
    “Just saw a shifter.” He flicked the deadbolt on the door and stalked to the bathroom, slamming the window shut and latching it. Back in the main room, he stared out of the window near the door, knowing he needed to lay magical tripwires of some sort. He flicked through possible spells in his head.
    “A shifter?” Ann said with an incredulous voice. “What kind?”
    “I only saw a flash, but it was brown and the size of a medium-sized dog.”
    Ann looked out the window next to him, her shifter magic swirling around her. “Think he’s gone far? I could try and catch—”
    “No.” Charles put an arm out, backing her away from the window. “This isn’t the typical war zone. This place is a danger to you. Until we know what’s out there, there is no way you’re running off on your own. Do you know anyone that fits that description?”
    Ann looked down at her feet in thought. “A few, yeah, but they’re not soldiers. None of them came up here.”
    “What animal could be that size and pose a threat to the group Tim sent before us?”
    She shook her head. “None. Only a Tim-type animal, an alpha, would be a threat to those guys. That, or a group. You think this place is run by shifters?”
    Charles slowly moved his head from side to side. “I can’t think how. The brief picture we got was of a huge facility. They have high tech, and that means they have money. There aren’t enough shifters to populate such a big place. There aren’t enough of my kind, either. That shifter is either on patrol and working for these people, or here to check things out.”
    “Tim would know if someone was checking things out. He runs a tight ship with all the other packs.”
    Charles let the confused scowl settle over his features. “Why would a shifter work for a lab who makes shifters disappear?”
    “Could be a guard to keep things quiet. Someone being as secretive as you just said wouldn’t want anyone sniffing around.”
    “Except there’ve been no records of humans going missing up here. There are plenty of hikers, and cabins like this one…”
    “We can speculate all day, but we won’t know anything for certain until we check it out tonight.”
    She was right. “All right fine, then go away. You smell like sex and I want to climb on. I can’t be distracted when I try to work magic or something will get messed up.”
    “Do you blow things