Page 14 of A Hatchling for Valentine’s

Kellan let out a frustrated sigh. “He shouldn’t keep getting away with it all the time.” He frowned as he glanced around the shop. “Didn’t you say the guy who was crying for help is in here?”

Lena jerked her head toward the curtain. “He’s in the back room with Sue. She had just arrived right as everything went tits up. He’d like to thank you and…” Lena glanced at Dora who shrugged her shoulders. “We were thinking. Since you’re a swan, and apparently, he’s a swan, maybe he’d like to go back to Vale Valley with you?”

“I don’t understand. Wouldn’t he rather go home? You know, wherever that is?”

Dora chewed on her thumbnail. “You should go talk to him. It doesn’t sound like he has one.”

Oh no. What did Finn do this time?

“Okay, I guess I could do that.” He worried his lip. “What should I say?”

Dora shrugged. “I dunno. Go with your swan senses.”

Kellan narrowed his eyes at her. If he’d had any swan sense, he would’ve gotten away from Finn a lot sooner than he had. “You’re a big help.” His shoulders slumped. “Wish me luck, I guess.”

Dora gave him an encouraging smile. “You’ll do great. In the meantime, we’ll make more cocoa.”

Kellan rolled his eyes. Cocoa. He made his way behind the counter and past the curtain where he spotted the young man Finn had been manhandling. Sean. He sat on a floral couch with his denim-clad legs tucked beneath him, wearing a torn navy-blue sweater that was at least two sizes too big. He didn’t have a jacket. His honey blond hair was longer in the front and hung in his eyes. Sean appeared to be about his age and was at least as small as he was as well.

He glanced up as Kellan approached with large, round caramel colored eyes framed by dark lashes. His skin was as porcelain as Kellan’s and he had a stray thought that they seemed as if they could be related based on looks alone.

“Hi, Sean. I’m Kellan. Is it okay if I sit down next to you? I’m a little sore after all that.”

Sean hiccupped on a sob. “Please, sit. I’m so sorry you got hurt because of me. I don’t want anyone else to ever get hurt again because of me.”

Kellan perched on the edge of the cushion. “Well, I don’t think that’ll happen, so you shouldn’t worry.”

“But what if he comes back? What if he returns with the rest of the herd and tries to take me and hurts other people?”

Kellan squirmed on the couch. He wasn’t usually the one doing the reassuring. “I don’t know if you saw or not, but I whooped his ass and he seemed to be in a pretty big hurry when he left.”

Sean straightened a bit. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “That really happened?”

Kellan snorted. “Yeah, I can barely believe it myself. But it’s for real. And anyway, he’s nothing but a big bully. He’s not as tough as he thinks he is.”

Sean hung his head, and after a moment of silence, Kellan realized he was crying.

“Oh no. Did I say something wrong?” Kellan twisted his hands in his lap. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good at making people feel better, I guess.”

Sean shook his head and wiped the back of his hand under his nose. “Finn killed my best friend and forced me to go with him and the herd.”

Killed? Sure, Finn and the gang had robbed their way across the Eastern seaboard and all the way to the Canadian border, but he’d never known them to be murderers.

“That’s awful, Sean. I know Finn’s a horrible, horrible being, but why would he kill your friend?”

Sean lifted his gaze. “Because he wanted me to be his… you know. I’m an omega, but my best friend was an Alpha and when he wouldn’t take Finn up on his offer that we join them, he stabbed Gary, right in front of me.”

Sean dropped his head in his hands and sobbed openly. Kellan swallowed hard, shocked to discover that his brother was even more despicable than he’d thought. Now we have to get the shifter network after him. Being a thief was one thing, but a killer? No, Finn had to be brought down before he murdered another innocent person.

Kellan regarded the hurt swan sitting next to him and remembered how scared and lonely he’d been when Vic had found him. And I hadn’t even been through something as terrible as Sean.

He dared to place a hand on Sean’s arm. “Everything’s going to be all right, Sean, I promise. We’re taking you to Vale Valley. You’ll be safe there.”