*****

Aiden had most of her things out in the family room for her to pack before the guys got there. When she walked through the bedroom to see what had been 'contaminated' he noticed that her bottom lip trembled, but she took a deep breath and went over everything. He was so proud of her.

In the end everything left over were things she could part with. Aiden was furious to see that nearly all of her underthings, lingerie, and nightgowns made up the pile on the bed. He would get her brand new things and make sure she had fun picking them out.

Gavriel hissed when he walked through the bedroom door.

"We need to find this guy, he needs to die." Aiden clenched and unclenched his fists.

"It will be done brother. We won't let a threat to your mate exist." Gavriel laid a hand on his shoulder. Aiden was grateful for the unit's support, he knew, had they not been able to get there when they did, he may have lost control and went after this guy alone. But knowing that his brothers were on their way helped him keep his bear under wraps until they arrived.

"Aiden, can you smell it?" Gavriel took another deep breath.

"The fact that this asshole jerked off all over the place, yeah, I smell that."

"Then you missed the fact that it's a shifter." Gavriel took a step closer to the bed.

"It's faint, so faint." He surprised Aiden by walking over to the closet and pulling out a hanger before returning to the bed. Using the plastic hanger he shifted the bras and panties around.

"Found it." Gavriel lifted up a bra with the hanger.

Aiden shook his head, whatever it was, even being a shifter he couldn't smell it.

Gavriel laid the bra on the comforter and used the hanger to point to the bra clasp.

"Someone forgot about small metal hooks when they were using this to jerk off. There are faint traces of blood around each hook."

Aiden stepped closer and looked again. He could see smudges of red, but he would have missed it since the bra was a floral print.

"Good work. Bag it up and take it with us."

They walked out of her bedroom to the family room. Aiden snarled when he saw Darian packing the few pairs of panties that the psycho had missed into a small suitcase. Meryn laughed and walked over to him. She patted him on the chest and he quieted down.

"You're so cute." She smiled up at him. Aiden was glad to see that the traces of fear were gone. He frowned down at her.

"I am not cute. I am a ferocious killing machine. Paranormals everywhere tremble before me."

"My teddy bear." She pulled on his shirt until he was bent down enough to reach her lips and kissed him. He looked over to see Colton about to say something.

"Not a motherfucking word." He warned.

"Yes, Commander." Colton gave a salute, but his eyes danced with suppressed mirth. Aiden sighed. It was going to be a long day.

*****

While they finished packing Aiden called his mother and let her know what had happened. She promised to make dinner extra special for both Byron and Meryn.

"What's next Commander?" Colton asked.

"Call Lorcan, tell him I'm pulling Alpha out of rotation. Until we catch this fucker you guys are assigned guard duty at my parents' house. I'm not letting Meryn out of my sight."

Meryn tried to hide her sigh of relief. It wasn't that she didn't think she'd be safe with Adelaide and Byron, she just felt better knowing that Aiden would be there too.

"Roger that, be right back." Colton was pulling out his cell phone as he walked out the door.

Aiden turned to Meryn.

"Everything packed?"

"Yup, Darian and Keelan took the last of the boxes down and Gavriel volunteered to speak to my landlord about my lease."

Aiden smirked. "I bet he did. Come on, let's go make sure the guys aren't causing trouble."

Meryn didn't wait for him to take her hand, she latched on to his arm instead. She wasn't sorry to see the last of the apartment. She knew it wasn't in a good part of town but it was the only place that didn't have a waiting list. When they passed the rental office Meryn peeked inside and saw that Gavriel had the slimy-looking landlord up against the wall.

"And you will replace the front door and make sure that the foyer is well lit, won't you?" Gavriel's tone was pleasant but the man in front of him was sweating bullets. Keelan watched, amused. Every time the landlord looked in his direction Keelan would wave his hand and the trio of rats at his feet would hiss at the slumlord.

"Enough fun guys, time to move out." Aiden barked. Gavriel and Keelan turned in unison and joined them. Outside Colton and Darian had two men pinned against their SUV. Aiden sighed.

"I swear I can't take them anywhere."

"When we got here they had taken the tires off your car Aiden, I think Darian and Colton were just making sure that everything was good to go." Keelan said. Aiden's dark gaze turned to the two men. He stalked over and stood behind Colton.

"See, you didn't move quickly enough, our boss here has noticed what you've done. We tried to warn you buddy." Colton spread his hands as if giving up.

"No, please! We're sorry! We put them back! We put them back!" The larger of the two men babbled.

"Run." Aiden's harsh tone made both men flinch. They stared at him in terror.

"I said run! If you look back, I'll be the one right behind you!" Aiden growled. Both men screamed and took off.