Her Guardian Shifter. Karen Whiddon

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       Chapter 7

      Another pause. Had there been accusation in the Pack Protector’s tone? When Officer DeLeon continued, Eric already knew exactly what he was going to say. “What I’ll need from you, Mr. Mikkelson, is proof of your whereabouts since 1:00 a.m.”

      Stunned, shocked, Eric took a full twenty seconds to respond. “I’m in New York, sir. And yes, I can provide whatever proof you need.”

      It was only after he’d hung up that he allowed himself to give in to his grief. Jason was gone. Not only his best friend, but his contact inside the Pack Protectors. The guy who always had his back. And Yolanda had taken herself out along with him.

      Unfortunately, the phone call had been all too real. Jason was dead. Yolanda was seriously injured and in intensive care. The doctor had told Eric he wasn’t sure if she would pull through.

      The taint of unspoken accusation had colored every sentence between Eric and Officer DeLeon. Even though it hadn’t taken long for the Pack Protectors to verify that Eric was indeed in New York, on the opposite side of the country.

      From what DeLeon had reluctantly revealed, it appeared Yolanda had gone to Jason’s home to confront him. She’d purchased a pistol and some silver bullets, apparently with the intention of threatening him. Things had gone downhill from there. Everyone in Jason’s division had been familiar with the woman and her crazy accusations. No one had seen her as a viable threat, least of all Jason.

      Privately, Eric thought she’d purchased the one weapon that could kill a shifter in order to eliminate him, once she got Jason to reveal her ex-husband and son’s location. He wondered if Jason had, before he died. Knowing his friend, Eric doubted it.

      Poor Jason had been caught in the middle. A Pack Protector, he clearly hadn’t taken Yolanda seriously enough. This broke Eric’s heart.

      Meanwhile, Yolanda continued to recover at the hospital. While a silver bullet could kill, she’d missed her heart and brain and any other vital organs. Now she had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.

      One of their own had been killed and the Pack Protectors were in a frenzy to blame someone. At first it had seemed as if they were trying to figure out a way to accuse Eric, but in the end they’d had to acknowledge Yolanda had done this, and she’d acted alone.

      However, Detective DeLeon’s casual use of the word Berserker concerned Eric. He sounded as if he had no idea what a Berserker was. Yolanda definitely wasn’t one, but the other man referred to her as a Berserker more than once. Luckily, as far as Eric and Garth were concerned, whatever caused bears to go wild was rarely passed down. Instead, it mostly appeared to be a random gene mutation.

      Eric could not allow anything to happen to Garth, even if his birth mother was determined to be Berserker by people who knew no better. Eric had shifted with Yolanda and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wasn’t.

      DeLeon had said Yolanda would be charged with murder if she lived. Right now, no one seemed certain she would. If she did, Eric could only hope she remained in police custody. He couldn’t help but pray that Jason, in his final moments, had not revealed Eric and Garth’s location.

      * * *

      Though most of the snow had melted, except for odd little pockets of dirty whiteness in the shadows of buildings or a particularly large tree, the slate-gray sky and icy, gusting wind promised another storm would be on the way sooner or later. After all, it was January.

      JJ, like most of Forestwood, bustled around trying to run errands and stock up on supplies before she was snowed in again.

      Her mother called from Australia just as JJ finished putting up the groceries. It was summer there, and her mom always loved to tell her how much fun she had at the beach in the blazing hot sun. She didn’t seem to ever grasp the fact that her daughter really preferred fall and winter.