Percy stifled a yawn. It was late. Nearly midnight, and he was starting to second guess his promise to Isabella to stay awake. But he was a man of his word, and he would stay up. Not like he needed an excuse to speak to or spend time with the pretty redhead. It was a weird feeling, this sudden attraction to a woman he'd only known for a couple of weeks. He hadn't felt this way since he was a kid. In a way, it was kind of fun. Liberating. He'd moved here for a fresh start. A new lease on life. It only made sense that maybe he'd find the chance for something…more with someone.
But he wasn't going to rush anything. Especially not with a woman who already had a child. He wasn't a fool. He knew there was a chemistry between them. Some kind of…kinetic energy whenever they were around each other. It was comfortable. Fun. But again, she had a child, and he just didn't know if that was something he was ready or willing to attach to himself yet. What if they did begin to see each other? Percy wouldn't just be taking on a new romantic relationship, he would always be taking on a new relationship with her daughter too.
Was he really ready for that? Was he really ready to become an important, influential part of a child's life? He didn't know. If he were bitterly honest with himself, he never imagined ever having children. He wasn't necessarily opposed to the idea on principle. He just never believed that he would necessarily live long enough to have to worry about it. But now that he was actually faced with possibility of potentially taking a pseudo-paternal role in a young child's life?
It was equally terrifying and exciting.
And was it worth it, to put himself out there like that? To take that risk with his own heart? His own happiness? He'd only just moved here. Had uprooted his entire life and taken an enormous gamble that this entire thing would work out. He didn't know if he would be comfortable living in Paradise if things between him and Isabella progressed but didn't work out for whatever reason. He needed to look out for himself first and foremost.
He groaned in frustration, leaning his head back against the head of his leather arm chair in his living room. He absently took a sip of the rum in his tumbler, a smile washing over his face. It wasn't something that should have made him happy. He shouldn't have enjoyed all of these strange and conflicting emotions. But it just felt so…normal. Mundane. It was nice.
His phone beeped. Thinking it was Isabella, he grabbed it, but it wasn't her. He had a series of motion activated security cameras along the property. Whenever something crossed over into the property, he got an alert in the phone that linked directly with the cameras giving him a live look at what was going on. Usually it was only a squirrel or the odd deer, but he knew he was in grizzly country, so he kept a Swiping open the phone, he watched the live feed for a moment. His eyes narrowed. Through the night-vision of the camera, he saw something blur past the frame, followed by three other blurs.
His eyes narrowed. Whatever that was, it wasn't natural. Stuffing his phone in the pocket of sweatpants, he walked briskly over to the closet in his bedroom. Shoving his shirts out of the way, he knelt down and pried off a loose piece of floorboard. Once it was free, he reached down into the small hole and gripped the handle of the lever hidden there. Yanking on the lever, there was a soft mechanical clicking sound, followed by the click of a small hatch in the back of the closet. In the hatch was a large case. Grabbing it, Percy reached down and closed the hatch again and headed back to the kitchen.
Flicking open the locks on the side of the case, Percy opened it. Inside the case was an ornate, silver handgun next to a number of fully loaded magazines and a box of shotgun shells laying on a bed of styrofoam. Below the magazines was the separated stock and barrel of a worn, yet polished and well-maintained shotgun. Attached to the lid of the case was a brilliant looking watch and an ornate looking golden pen. He grabbed the weapons, clasping the watch around his wrist and stuffing the pen in his pocket. Ramming a magazine into the pistol, and racked one of the glimmering golden bullets into the chamber. Shoving the pistol into the waistband of his sweatpants, reaching back down into the case and loaded five shells into the breach bolt, before shouldering the weapon and wandering out of the house.
The night was cool, and hair on the back of his arms stood on end. Pulling his phone out again, he checked the cameras. The movement had come from the southern fence. He wasn't sure whether or not they were after him or after the animals. If it was a monster or supernatural, then they would be after him. The wind was blowing east to west, so he began making his way to the eastern corner of the property.
The cool evening breeze danced along his shoulders. He listened intently for any sounds of movement. He could hear something rustling in the bushes a couple dozen meters to his right, but the movement was slight. Entirely too small to be whatever he'd seen on the cameras. There was a large tree a few dozen paces away. Nodding to himself, Percy slung the shotgun over his shoulder and began to clamber up the tree. If whatever was coming was after him, then, having a higher vantage point would be ideal.
Once he was settled on a high branch, obscured by most of the foliage and hidden from the light of the moon, he unslung his shotgun and began to fiddle with his phone. He flicked through several of the feeds for a few minutes, but didn't see anything. Then, as he flitted past the camera feed for the stables, he paused. There had been a blur of movement that he'd caught from the corner of his eye. Flicking back to the stables feed, he scanned the area around the corners of the stable. He just managed to catch a glimpse of something large, black, and matted with fur as it darted around to the front of the stables.
Flicking the camera over again to the front of the stables, his gaze narrowed. The front door to the stables was open. A white-hot rage flashed through, as thunder cracked loudly overhead. Whatever this nonsense was about, they weren't monsters. They were supernatural. Supernatural, and for one reason or another they were after his pegasi. Threatening his newfound peace and happiness.
He flipped out of the tree, and took off at a sprint in the direction of the stables. As he approached the the door to the stable, he could hear rustling and movement from inside, but no noise from the animals. That was either a good thing or a bad thing. He could, however, hear voices from the inside the stables. Checking the breach bolt on the shotgun, he nodded in satisfaction for a moment before kicking the door open. He caught the barest glimpse of a large man in a black jacket and a shimmering head of all black hair before Percy depressed the trigger and golden bb's exploded from the barrel. The man barely had time to let out a strangled gasp before he was thrown off his feet. Blood spurt high in the air as the man's arm was torn free from his body.
The pegasi brayed loudly, jumping and shuddering in their stalls, but Percy did his best to ignore the din.
As the other man flew back Percy was already swiveling to his next target. There was another man dressed in all black with shoulder-length brown hair, his hand had been on the handle to a nearby stall. Percy had moved so quickly, that the man barely even had a chance to turn around before Percy had already killed the first man and rounded on him.
Depressing the trigger once more, the shotgun burped and a fiery tornado of bb's crisscrossed through through the man. The bb's ripped through the man's shoulder and throat. Due to the close proximity of the shot, the man's head was nearly torn from the roots. Blood, muscle fiber, and various viscera spilled over the floor, as the men collapsed against the stable gate, his head nearly falling from his shoulders.
Something snarled and Percy swiveled. But it was too quick for him, and something heavy slammed into him. The wind was knocked right out of him as he was thrown backward, smashing through the stable doors. He landed on the ground, tucked, and rolled up pulling the pistol free from the hem of his pants as he did so. Through the hole in the stables burst an enormous, black wolf. Nearly five feet tall even on all fours and with a maw full teeth that seemed to glisten in the light of the moon.
Percy didn't hesitate, as he depressed the trigger and the pistol barked. Three rounds smashed into the wolf, but the rounds were too low of a caliber and only served to stagger the creature. The wolf howled in fury, but shook it off and charged forward. Percy rolled out of the way, stowing his pistol away back in his pants as the wolf repositioned and darted back forwards. Snarling, Percy pressed the small button on the side of his wristwatch, and brilliant golden shield materialized.
He managed to bring the shield back up just in time to block the claws before they sank into him. Percy's feet skid along the the forest floor. He was both surprised and mildly impressed by the strength of the creature, but at the end of the day, it wasn't anything special. Using his own, considerably greater, strength, Percy disengaged from the wolf before slamming the rim of the shield into the mouth of the wolf.
Dazed, the wolf staggered backwards and Percy pressed forward. He slammed the rim of the shield once more into the side of the wolf's head, crushing its eye. With a flick of his wrist, he retracted the shield. Darting forward, Percy gripped the wolf around the mouth, one on his upper jaw and one on the lower. With a growl, Percy began to pull. The wolf's paws scratched and clawed at him, but Percy ignored the stinging pain and continued to pull. Something snapped as the wolf's jaw cracked and broke. All at once, the wolf stopped moving as its body went completely limp.
Panting heavily, Percy dropped the wolf to the ground. Expanding his senses around him, he looked around him but didn't feel or see anything else to suggest there were more of them around. Glancing down at the wolf once more, Percy glared at the foul creature before stepping over it and heading back to the stables.
Luckily, it looked like none of the stalls had actually been opened. Percy had gotten there just in time, none of the wolves had actually gotten inside the stables. He let out a soft sigh of relief, he could have healed most if not all injuries the animals received, but it would have been a nightmare.
"Easy girl, easy…" murmured Percy, patting the flank of a bright white pegasi. She let out a rather pitiable whimper, but cooled off a little. Reaching out and nuzzling Percy's shoulder.
With an absent wave of the hand, the mess of blood and viscera vanished. He grunted as he surveyed the mess he'd created. He'd need to dump the bodies. Whoever these guys were, someone was sure to know about them and Percy didn't need someone snooping around. Luckily, he was only a couple of miles from Lake Superior. The deepest part of the lake was well over a thousand feet deep, and few divers ever made it that deep.
As Percy began collecting the bodies of the wolves, and piled them up in a small stack outside the stables, his mind raced. The wolves hadn't been after him, but had been after his animals. Clearly the shape-shifters in town were behind this. But why, and to what end. Why go after his animals and why not just go after him directly? And who was behind all of this? His first instinct was Isabella. She was the closest to him in the new town, and he knew that she was supernatural of some sort. But he quickly dismissed that idea as nonsense. Percy had a good sense of people, and a good sense of their motivations and temperaments. Isabella wasn't the type to pull this kind of thing. At least not so brazenly. Besides, she wouldn't have trusted Percy to come near her daughter if she was actively going to try and kill him. Either way, Percy decided it was about time that he really tested to see where Isabella's motivations laid. He already knew how he would push her, it was just a matter of seeing it through.
So that led to the only other tangible lead he had. That cop he'd seen around town. The one he'd caught in mid-transformation his first week in town. Packard, he believed the name was. He certainly seemed aggressive enough, and hadn't exactly been welcoming to Percy. But it was a far cry from being a little rude to him, to trying to kill off all of his animals.
And even then, it still didn't explain why they went after his animals and not him personally. It sure as hell would have made more sense to just kill try and kill him if someone wanted Percy out of the way. It took little more than ten minutes for Percy to take pictures of the faces of the dead men and collect the bodies and dump them in the big lake, before he made his way back to the stables to inspect the damage. Thankfully, the structural damage was mostly superficial. Thanks to the close proximity of the fighting, most of the bb's had gone into the bodies of the attackers. But there was still some superficial damage that he'd need to spend part of the next day taking care of.
After one last glance through the stalls to check on the status of the pegasi, and a peek at the cameras to make sure there were no more surprises in store, Percy made his way back to the house. His case was still on the kitchen table where he'd left it. Lifting up the false bottom that had been housing the weapons, Percy grabbed the bulky laptop and thumb drive inside and went back to his comfortable armchair. Pulling the sim card out of his phone, he inserted it into the thumb drive before putting it in the port on the side.
Clicking on the file, he uploaded the photos into the database on the computer. There was a couple of moments as the computer hummed before three images popped up
"What the hell?" He muttered. All three men were suspected members of the O'Sullivan crime family. A powerful shapeshifter family based out of Boston. The family worked in arms trafficking, drug smuggling, extortion, bribery, and racketeering. But what in the hell were they doing here in Paradise? And more importantly, what the hell did they want with him? He hadn't been in the business in over a year, and he'd worked on the west coast, not the east. He'd never done a job in Boston and he'd never actually worked any of the shifter cases. So what were they doing going after him?
Had he gone after one of the bosses and not known it? Or had he inadvertently gone after one of their associates?
He began to dig a little deeper, but he didn't find a single name he recognized. But if the attack wasn't connected to his work, then what was this entire ordeal about? He knew that Packard had been a little obsessed with Isabella, but it couldn't be that simple…could it? That seemed almost too convenient. Pathetic. All of this over a woman? It was the twenty-first century, not the middle of the nineteenth.
He sighed and closed down the laptop.
He'd keep his eyes on things. Whatever the reason, someone wanted him out of town.
But Percy had just gotten this life, and he wasn't going to give it up without a fight.
His phone began to buzz in his pocket, pulling it out he smiled as Isabella's face on the screen and his bad mood disappeared.
He slid open the phone and accepted the call as he sat back down on the leather arm chair.
"Hey there high-flyer, how's Boston?"
Isabella groaned on the other end, "Miserable. Every time I come here, I'm reminded why I stay in Michigan." She sighed again, "Anyways, sorry for keeping you up so late." She chuckled, "Hope you weren't too bored"
Percy smiled.
"Nah, I found a couple ways to keep myself occupied."
AN: Shoutout to Double for helping me with this idea and for being the best beta on the planet. Check out the link in my channel for the discord server I'm in. My upload schedule is there and you can come hang out with me a bunch of other really awesome and talented authors. Thanks for all the love, and hope you're enjoying the ride thus far.
Love,
LilDB