Free Texas and Tarantulas by Bailey Bradford

realized. “Are you really the shifter bogeyman?”
    Mahon had tensed up so much that all of his muscles bulged.
    “The truth,” Trent said in a much gentler tone.
    Mahon averted his gaze. “We’re all Mahon. It means bear. We’re all Morrison.”
    “That’s confusing.” Trent couldn’t even make sense of it at first then Diego gasped at the same time pieces clicked together in Trent’s head. “All? So there are more bear shifters out there, doing the bidding of…of whom? And each of you has the same name?”
    “Yes. We were raised up to be servants for the Cosgi, a few select shifters from varying breeds. They ensure the safety and protection of our kind.”
    Joe cursed.
    Trent laughed. “Well, they sure as shit dropped the ball on it this time.”
    Mahon hunched over, propping his elbows on his knees. “It’s scarier to have shifters believe there’s just the one of us. I’m not the murdering version, either, in case you’re wondering. Though I was sent to kill you,” Mahon added, flicking a very fleeting glance at Trent. “They said you had Diego here—you and Joe—and Diego was being held against his will. That you had murdered several betas.”
    “They were trying to kill us, and Diego—” Trent sent him a hopeful look.
    Diego pulled off his shirt then stood in front of Mahon, but not close enough to be grabbed. “Look at me,” Diego said. “See all of these scars? Why would I want to go back to the pack that did this to me? Do you have any idea how much I was hurt? How often?”
    Mahon clenched his jaw.
    Trent knew how shocking it was to see Diego like that. The scars weren’t just contained to his torso and arms, either. He had them everywhere, even his private parts, his neck and his face.
    “Why would I want to go back?” Diego asked again. “Joe loves me. I don’t ever want to leave him. We just want to be left alone, us and Trent.”
    Mahon looked to be struggling with something. Trent waited, watching him.
    Diego put his shirt back on. “These aren’t all of the scars, not at all.”
    “He’s never going back to that pack,” Joe vowed.
    Mahon folded his fingers together, and sat up straight. He tipped his head up. “I thought I was supposed to bring Diego back. I was told, kill Trent after holding him and making you give me what we needed. I thought that was Diego. Now, I think it was the video, the copies of it, everything to do with it.” He took a deep breath then let it out as he bowed his head again. “Then I was supposed to kill Joe.”
    “And me?”
    Mahon shook his head. “Your pack still wants you back, Diego. I didn’t know about…”
    Diego moved to stand beside Joe. “How is that possible? If you’re from the east coast packs, you had to know how ours treat their omegas.”
    “That’s just it. I haven’t been on the east coast in years. I was in Alaska making sure two of the packs there were protected. I kept the peace for two more packs in Wyoming, then more in Montana and South Dakota. A few other places. That was my job for almost a decade then I was called back.” Mahon rubbed at his eyes. “Then I was yanked out of that position and brought into this one.”
    “Because you didn’t know the details,” Trent mused. “And this is all interesting, but I’m not sure I believe it. So what do we do with you?”
    Mahon eyed the gun. “I wanted to live to be older, much older, but if you’re going to kill me, make it clean and quick.”
    “Not much clean about most gunshot wounds,” Trent told him. “Killing… I did it when I had to. And when the tarantula scared me earlier. I don’t like doing it, though. I don’t want to.”
    Mahon finally looked a little hopeful. “You could—those chains Diego mentioned?”
    But Trent didn’t want to keep the man bound up. He waved the idea aside. “No. You tell me, right now, what you’re going to do. You’ll be free to leave here afterwards.”
    “I don’t know, other than not kill you or Joe,