Chapter 135 Chapter 135
Grabbing his jeans, Blair pulled them on and zipped them up quickly. Habit had him checking his phone immediately after that. Six missed calls. He clenched his jaw and stared at the screen; did he want to look? If any of them were from Kelsey, he’d have to call her back. “Sorry, Sweetie.” He stuffed the phone back in his pocket and picked up his boots and shirt.
As he came out of the tree-line, he saw Ketu walking out on the other side of the lane. Ketu shook his head and pulled his shirt over his head. “Nothing out of place.”
Blair flipped his shirt over his shoulder. “That’s a good thing.” It was—despite his need for blood and finding something to take out his frustration on.
Ketu nodded, then brushed his black hair back out of his face. “Bruce said there was trouble at a clan three hours west of us a few days ago.”
Blair rubbed his hand over his short hair. “Yeah, I told Devin I’d happily go lend a hand.”
Ketu stopped, putting his hand out so Blair would stop. “What are you running from?” He lifted his hand then dropped it again, “we usually have a blast when you’re here—” he motioned up and down in front of him, “You’re in Blair’s body, but man, you are not our Blair.”
Blair couldn’t help smirk at that. He shrugged, “just working through a few things.”
Ketu snorted, “work fast, dude, Layna is moping about like a heartbroken teenager and it’s depressing.”
Blair started walking hoping that would end the discussion. Layna was Ketu’s sister, and she was a sweet woman, for that reason alone, he’d put space between them the moment he’d arrived. As if she knew he was thinking about her, she came out of the barn as they went across the yard. She paused and smiled at him. He gave her a brief movement of his head that he hoped came across as friendly and not offensive. He stopped when he noticed something. In all the years he’d been coming here, he had never put it together. Layna had the same build as Kelsey, her hair was a darker red, but the sprinkled freckles that covered her—shit—now he felt like a bastard. He’d been using sexy little Layna as a substitute all these years. Hell, she even called him the two times her cycle had hit. Fuck.
After cursing a few more times inside his head, he turned to go talk to her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bruce come out onto the porch of the house. Bruce leaned on the railing and jerked his chin, calling him over.
Bruce was a big burly man, the kids here called him Teddy Bruce. He may appear to be easygoing, but Blair knew there was a reason Ed trusted him to watch over the clan members here. The scars on the man’s face were a testament to how not a teddy-bear-like he could be.
Blair glanced to see Layna noticed as well, and then she turned to go back in the barn. He’d fix that situation later; he decided as he went over to stand below the porch.
“You or Ketu pick up anything?” Bruce spoke softly, as always. Although he’d heard the man use a much louder voice, he preferred the soft version.
“It’s clear.” Blair shrugged. “I’ll check up the road when I run into town later.” He glanced over at the tractor.
“Sounds good.” Bruce straightened up, “Gage called and told me to tell you to answer your goddamned phone.”
Frowning, Blair pulled it out of his pocket. He quickly brought up the call log, five of the six calls were from Gage. The sixth was from Jake. He frowned. “I’ll call him now.” He waited for Bruce to give him a nod and turn to go back into the house. Hitting send, Blair put the phone to his ear.
“About fucking time. Where the hell have you been?” Gage’s tone was harsh.
“Checking the boundaries. What’s going on?” Tucking his hand in his pocket, he turned and looked back to the lane that led toward the cliff.
“A complete shitshow,” Gage growled. “Coop’s hurt and was in the hospital...”
Blair jolted like someone had just slapped him. “What?” Their kind didn’t go to hospitals, they had a shifter doctor on call but risking going to a hospital was rare.
“Old fool tried to do something he should have had help with…”
“Is it serious? Does Ed need me back there?” He would go back. He didn’t want to, but it was Coop, so of course, he’d be there.
“Busted tibia, a stand gave out and crushed his leg. Nona and Shaelan say he can’t even think about a shift for a month, maybe more.”
He didn’t know who either of those people was, but it was still the worst thing to happen to a shifter, being injured so badly you couldn’t shift. “Fuck.” Blair rubbed his hand through his hair.
“He refused to stay in the hospital, so Mom has him put up in the guestroom.”
Blair nodded as if Gage could see him.
“Kelsey and I will be home tomorrow—so,” he paused for a moment, “we’ll be okay in the shop.”
“Okay.” Blair didn’t want to breathe a sigh of relief into the phone, so he moved the phone from his mouth for a second. It was too soon to see Kelsey—way too soon. In fact, he didn’t know how he’d ever face her again.
“The reason I’ve been trying to reach you is there’s a whole other fucking mess.”
Blair frowned, “with what?”
“Devin and Rayne are staying here to try to get this clan back on track…”
Blair still couldn’t believe what Gage had told him last week, the sickness of the shit that clan had been doing and suffered through all these years still blew his mind.
“…we now have clans all over this continent with relatives of members that vanished,” Gage sighed loudly, “the Alliance has designated a team to look into clans that were with the Alliance when it was formed, but haven’t been seen in a while,” he mumbled something under his breath, “but here is just a big emotional clusterfuck.”
Blair cringed, knowing how well Kelsey would handle all that. For a brief second, he was glad he was a tiger and not a panther. “What do you need from me?”
“Dev’s dad asked me to give you a call. The Alliance is ass-deep in so much right now they’re running out of bodies to call in. We have all security amped up in all clans, so we can’t pull any of those—just in case Tomas tries again.”
Blair’s whole body tensed at the very mention of the Tomas organization. “Makes sense, don’t pull anyone from clan security. Just tell me where you need me—” he shrugged, “or what our King requires of me.” It would do him good to have a definitive task to keep himself busy. Any task.
“We need someone to escort nine members of a clan from the border to,” he paused and swore, “fuck, I can’t even remember the details.” He made a soft growling sound, “I don’t think I’ve slept since we got on this damn mountain...”
“Send me the details later. Just tell me where I’m going and when to be there.” Blair looked over at his truck, he could be packed up and pulling out in ten minutes.
“I’ll get Dev to email you the finer points, but Blair?”
Blair lifted his chin at the tone. “Yeah?”
“I don’t know what happened to the rest of the clan, but those nine are the last of it as far as we know.”
A chill went down Blair’s spine. “I’ll get them where they’re going safely.”
“I know you will. We were going to send Cal with you, but he doesn’t want his mate involved in anything like that right now and it’s too soon for them to be separated…”
Blair’s eyebrows shot up, “Cal’s what?”
“Shit—so much has happened, I think we skipped over that.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, Cal found his mate in this village, and let me tell you, I would not mess with her. Vicious little thing.” Gage chuckled.
“Holy hell. I can’t believe Calum is mated.”
“I’ll tell you all the details later, and they’re quite something.”
Blair smirked at Gage’s tone, “I look forward to it.” He sobered, “I can be ready to head out in ten. Send me the details of where I’m going and make sure Devin has my number and all that.”
“I knew we could count on you.” Gage’s tone was serious again.
Blair bit his tongue, literally, so he wouldn’t ask how Kelsey was.
“Shit, I have to go. Marilyn just stomped by with the fork in her hand—I’ll get Dev to send you that now.” Gage hung up abruptly.
Blair held his phone out and looked at it. He didn’t know who Marilyn was or why Gage sounded panicked over her having a fork, but he would definitely be asking him about it the next time they talked. He looked at the phone for a few more seconds, then hit send beside Jake’s name. Stubborn old ass Coop was the last thought he had before Jake yelled into the phone over the sound of equipment in the background.