Page 12 of Robb

And if it was a sanctuary for her, then it was a sanctuary for her brolga, too. It loved nothing more than stalking through the grass, craning its long, graceful neck and foraging about in the mud for a bite to eat. There was little in the world that could beat the feeling of literally spreading your wings.

Life was pretty much perfect when she was alone in the shack, with just herself and the stars and the animals she chose to surround herself with. There was nothing that could make it more perfect.

Well… there was one thing.

Tahnee watched her reflection in the store window as her nose wrinkled in annoyance.

Yeah. It would be nice to share all that with my mate.

The brolga rolled its beady eyes with dark amusement.

‘Bye, Robbo,’ it crowed inside her head, laughing with a raucousness that almost covered up the bitter edge.

Shut up, she muttered. It had to end, and you know it.

The brolga tilted its head at her. No. I don’t.

It was easy enough to forget that you’d walked away from your mate – your idiotic, rules-loving, honorable, fucking cop mate – when you filled your days with running a sanctuary and spending time with your guests.

Well, okay, it wasn’t easy, but it was doable.

More or less.

But on those nights out in the shack, with only the moon and the wind for company, it became a lot more difficult to make herself forget that she was alone. Half, when she should have been whole.

If she hadn’t already known that Robb was her mate, she would’ve been okay. She’d been interested in him, of course – or at least interested in winding him up and pissing him off, which to her were basically the same thing – but she could’ve let him go with just a mild regret about never finding out how hard she would have to bend that iron will of his before it snapped. She was sure that a guy like that had a lot of pent-up stress that, if played right, could be made to release in the most entertaining – and sexy – way.

But the moment they’d touched – the moment she’d made the idiotic, impulsive, wonderful decision to kiss his stupid, uptight mouth – it had all come crumbling down, and she’d known that she would live with the regret for the rest of her life.

Maybe Robb has the right way of doing things, she thought grimly, staring at the display of hats like her life depended on it, unable to snap herself out of the state she’d found herself in. If I’d played that whole thing like a sensible person instead of letting my passions get in the way, I never would’ve known what I was missing out on. Mixing business and pleasure was the dumbest move I ever made.

And yet, somehow, she couldn’t entirely bring herself to regret it. Even though it had physically hurt to make herself walk away from him – even though it hurt her every day of her life, even now – part of her was glad that she’d had those few seconds of pure happiness. For that one, perfect moment, everything else in the world had melted away, and she’d known what was possible in life.

Her phone buzzed, and she let it pull her out of her whirling thoughts, grounding her in the here and now. She had a mission to accomplish, preposterous though it probably was, and she needed to keep her wits about her.

Tahnee checked the screen – a message from Liam, one of her team at the sanctuary. Not only did her people help out with the running of the sanctuary and checking in on her rescue animals while she was away, but they were all well-versed in keeping the sanctuary’s operation private, not to mention dealing with anyone who might threaten said privacy. She trusted them all with her life.

The message was short.

All good?

All good, she replied, slipping her phone back into her pocket before making her way down toward the designated alley once more. It was getting closer to the arranged time, and she wanted a chance to scope it out.

Threading her way through the crowds, she kept her eyes peeled for the street she needed to turn down. Melbourne was easier to navigate than Sydney, with its rigid grid structure, but she’d only ever been here a couple of times before… and, she now realized, it had been ages since she’d really been anywhere bigger than a mid-sized country town.

The sanctuary had become her life, and she’d put her days of leading big-city cops on wild goose chases behind her. Actually having to be careful not to bump into anyone hurrying in the opposite direction was something that she wasn’t used to.

As was the impersonal, well, grayness of the city itself.

She did have to admit that she was enjoying the rain, at least – it was something that she didn’t see much of back home. Even if it was ruining her hair.

Turning a corner, Tahnee found herself in the laneway she’d been told to come to. It was pretty typical, from what she could see – dirty puddles filling in the dips in the bluestone cobbles, rubbish strewn about the place, a few doorways leading to trendy hidden-away shops and restaurants. Colorful graffiti covered the walls, as well as, inexplicably, a scrawled picture of a very well-endowed female Garfield.

The perfect place to bring a scared baby shifter, she thought with an eyeroll.

The rain pattered down as she walked around a corner with what she hoped looked like a casual stroll, taking photos of the graffiti like any other tourist might do. Internally, though, she was taking in everything she could, trying to work out if Zak and Keira were nearby.

But… nothing. The laneway had an abandoned feeling, with all the locals either still at work or taking cover indoors somewhere – certainly, Tahnee was sure that they had better things to do than hang out in wet, stinking alleys. And the sense that allowed her to detect other shifters in the vicinity was coming up empty.