“Don’t pretend to understand Viv,” Carson said rapidly, before he could answer, No, she wouldn’t. Viv had more compassion than anyone he’d ever known. She’d seen good in Carson when no one else in the world had.
“I promise you,” Zander said, “not all Shifters are like that. If you tell me about them, I’ll help you track them down. Could have been ferals.”
“You’d turn on your own kind?” Carson had to blink to bring Zander into focus. His eyes were wet for some reason.
“My kind doesn’t put innocent women into comas,” Zander said with a growl
“If Shifters did this, then they need to be stopped,” Rae put in. Her eyes held the same determination as Zander’s. She might be Collared but it hadn’t killed her spirit.
“What can you possibly do?” Carson asked in disbelief. “You’re breaking the law just by being here. You took over my boat, you’ve flouted every Shifter regulation . . .” He broke off and swallowed. “You can’t do what I can.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised what we can do,” Zander said. “We’ll hit land soon. You sit here and think about whether you want us to help you, or run off and summon Shifter Bureau. Depends on how bad you want these guys that hurt your mate.”
His mate. Carson supposed that in Shifter terms, Viv was his mate. Carson wanted to find the Shifters that hurt her, would do anything to give them back every pain they’d made her suffer.
Carson said nothing, only clutched Viv’s picture to his chest and shoved the ring back onto his finger, where it belonged.
“Rae,” Zander said. The man held out his big hand, half turning to the door. When he looked back at her, Zander’s eyes sparkled with something besides brute strength and wildness.
He was in love with Rae, Carson realized suddenly. Whether Zander acknowledged it or not, Carson knew exactly what the look meant, having seen it in his own eyes often enough.
Before Rae went to Zander, she laid down the electronic picture frame that held Carson’s many photos of Viv. She stood up, gave Carson another look of sympathy, and walked across the small room past Zander. She didn’t take his hand but her swift glance at him as she slid out the door confirmed it. Her feelings for Zander were just as strong.
Zander let her go, fixing Carson with his long stare. “More than pictures in that, isn’t there?”
There was. The small drive inside the photo frame held files of all Carson’s research into Shifters and notes on his search. He couldn’t read the files until he could transfer them to a computer or his phone, but they were there.
“How long have you been looking?” Zander asked him.
Carson saw no reason to lie. “Nearly two years.”
Zander’s brows went up. “I admire your tenacity. With any luck, your hunt will end soon. But your mate might not be any better, even so.”
As that truth smacked Carson between the eyes, he wanted to rise up and beat the hell out of Zander. But Zander wasn’t saying anything Carson didn’t already know. He made himself sit rigidly, wishing Zander would go the hell away.
Zander studied Carson a moment longer then walked out and closed the door. The lock clicked into place.
Carson didn’t care. He touched Viv’s face with his blunt fingertips, lay down on the bed, and cradled the photo to his chest.
* * *
Rae heard Zander come up behind her as she leaned on the railing on deck, watching the beautiful mountains slide by their port side.
Zander’s broad arms landed next to hers, the T-shirt he wore pulled and tugged by the wind. “You okay?” he asked her.
Rae hid a shiver. “The poor guy. This must be horrible for him.”
“And yet, he’s going to take it out on Shifters,” Zander said. “I saw that in him. It’s what I would do if something happened to . . .” He trailed off, turning to focus on the rolling green and black mountains of the coast. “I’m going to make sure he targets the right Shifters and leaves the rest of us the hell alone.”
“How are you going to find them?” Rae asked. “If un-Collared feral Shifters did this, they might be anywhere. Or dead. Ferals don’t last long, from what I hear.”
“They can be resilient,” Zander said. “Remind me to tell you about a feral I once cured.” He gave a shudder. “That was brutal.”
Zander wasn’t joking—his face was drawn with memory, a haunted look in his eyes. If Zander’s healing ability made him experience the same pain as the Shifter he cured, then he must have taken on the uncontrolled, raw insanity that made a Shifter feral. Rae wasn’t certain exactly what happened inside when a Shifter went feral, but it couldn’t be good.
She laid a comforting hand on Zander’s arm. “You all right?”
Zander’s shaking eased and he took a long breath. He looked down at Rae’s fingers on his sun-bronzed skin. “Probably you shouldn’t do that.”
Rae started to withdraw then stubbornly kept her fingers in place. They could fight their frenzy . . . couldn’t they?
Zander’s fists clenched on the rail. “Let’s focus on getting your sword fixed and finding the Shifters that hurt Carson and his wife. We can’t let Shifters out there go on rampages. Miles also saw Shifters brutalizing others, so there’s something wrong, and it’s been going on for a while.”
“Fine by me,” Rae said, but she couldn’t make herself let go of Zander’s arm. “How are we supposed to find them? Stand in the woods and call out for any feral Shifters to come on by?”
“Ha. Leave the comedy to me, sweetheart. No, we’re going to find them with technology. What do you know about the Guardian Network?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“I don’t know anything about it,” Rae said, bewildered. “I know it exists but no one gave me the password or anything. I don’t think the other Guardians want me near it.”
“We’ll ask them,” Zander said, a resolute light in his eyes. “You’re a Guardian, Little Wolf, whether the other Shifters on the planet like it or not. Take the power and run with it. Guardians have access to knowledge the rest of us grunt Shifters never see—and to be honest, most of us don’t care. You’re of the lineage of the first crop of Guardians gathered in Ireland back in the fourteenth century. Your sword has been handed down to you from the first Guardian who swung it.” He gestured to the hilt on Rae’s back.