Pete had to know, beyond anything these new recruits would dish out that he was able to push through to the end. Gabrielle was finally satisfied that Pete had what it took to accomplish this goal. If any of the new recruits could beat him, then that person deserved the title.
Gabrielle told him that if he threw his hat in to be the leader, he would be staying on the new team. He would be making his choice to make that team successful whether from a leadership position or as a team member just like in her group.
That evening, Pete consumed three normal dinners to get the energy he needed to recuperate from Gabrielle’s training efforts.
The door closed behind John and the TQB team.
Pete turned around and looked them all over. “Every one of you knows that only one of us can lead. Only one of us is going to be the one that we all look to lead us forward. I’m not pulling my punches; I’m not pulling anything that will stop me from making sure I’m the team lead. You had better not do it either.”
Pete continued, “The six of us represent the first Were Guardian team for Bethany Anne. If you were in New York for the meeting, you know I will not accept anything less than the utmost respect for her. For this reason, you will have to go through me to make the team lead. If you believe anyone else, or you yourself, would make a better team lead then let’s get this discussion started.”
The guys talked it out for a few minutes. Tim made it plain he was throwing in. He was almost apologetic about it, but said his inner wolf couldn’t have it any other way. Pete didn’t mind. Matthew, Joel and Joseph all said that they would follow either one of the guys. Rickie admitted that while he wouldn’t mind trying for it, he was still nursing some injuries where he had been shot the day before. No one really believed that Rickie was powerful enough to beat Tim, so it wasn’t like Rickie was truly giving up a good chance at the leadership position.
It really came down to Pete or Tim. Tim had thirty pounds and a couple of inches on Pete, but he didn’t have Pete’s TQB training or the most recent training Gabrielle had put him through. Pain wasn’t Pete’s friend, but he sure as hell knew pain intimately and had all the experience necessary to know what he could and would live through to make the position his.
Pete walked over to Tim and held out his hand, Tim took it. Both understood this wasn’t personal. It was just the way Wechselbalg decided things.
Bethany Anne was in her room. Three monitors had been brought in to view the discussions and the fight or fights. It looked like it was going to be just one, between Pete and Tim. The fight was being piped over to the other ship, where Todd Jenkins and his group of Marines were also watching. Everyone wanted to know if this group could pull together and be something more than a bunch of unruly young Were. This was a new experience, even for Dan and his group. No one had fought with Wechselbalg before. Thousands of miles away, there was one other person watching this fight who wasn’t part of Bethany Anne’s group. Near Denver Colorado. Jonathan Silvers had been called and had admitted he wanted to watch his son in his first alpha fight.
Jonathan was proud that his son was fighting, yes. But he was prouder of the way he was fighting. Pete had taken a hammering early on. Tim had the reach on Pete, but he got back up. Tim didn’t want to know who was going to beat who up first. Both realized this wasn’t a quick fight, rather this was a fight to decide the future. Only one Were would be able to stand after this fight was finished. Many times, those who watched the fight cringed as a particularly hard punch or kick connected with massive follow ups. Pete was the first to go down and barely rolled away in time. Tim wasn’t holding anything back, but after the first five minutes Tim didn’t have any extra anger to harness because he was fighting to breathe when a particularly hard kick cracked a couple of his ribs. After fifteen minutes, they had separated to give themselves a minute to heal. Surprisingly, Pete had the better healing rate between the two of them.
They hadn’t started out as anything but two guys who needed to prove something to themselves and a desire to drive the future for Weres. Pete had a need to leave the kid from Colorado behind and step into the shoes of the man who would help lead his kind into the future. Tim knew he wasn’t going back and was striving to be the only thing he knew to be, the one at the top.
Both were losing a little of themselves each time they connected or felt the brunt pain from wherever their opponent connected. Tim was bigger, he had the reach but Pete was well-tuned muscle and well versed to make his strikes hit harder and more accurately. Each man kept pounding the other. Their faces were damn near unrecognizable. Pete’s right eye had closed up after successive poundings by Tim. Tim would lean on his right side, trying to not put so much weight on his broken left ribs that Pete kept crushing with punches and kicks to stop it from healing.
By the twenty-fifth minute, there wasn’t one person watching who didn’t respect both men. Pete had an appreciation for Tim he hadn’t had when he walked into the gym that morning. Tim couldn’t believe anyone was capable of taking that much damage and still standing.
Pete stopped dancing around and set his feet. “Was that the best you’ve got Tim? Can’t you put anything else together? I can go all day doing this shit. What are we at, twenty, thirty minutes? Ready to go for an hour or are you ready to stop doing the fucking tango with me? Let’s end this. It isn’t that I don’t respect you, but there is no fucking way I trust someone I don’t know to move the Wechselbalg forward for Bethany Anne. We have more to accomplish than you know, and I will never quit, I will never give up, I will only finish my mission. Ad Aeternitatem.”
Tim wasn’t sure what those last two words meant, but he recognized them from the patch. He grunted his agreement and walked up to Pete and settled into position.
Pete said, “I called it, you go first.”
Tim didn’t say a word, just reared back and slashed down to hit Pete in his half exposed face. Pete stumbled, but stood back up and got back in position. It was his turn and he used it to deliver a solid uppercut that barely got to Tim before the block. Tim’s head blew back, causing him to take a couple of steps away before he shook his head and got back into position.
They went on like this, exchanging blows that came with less power and less accuracy for five more minutes. Blows that would have put most humans down on the mat. Todd’s group of Marines all had their mouths open at the sheer ferocity of the two men going at it like gladiators of old. No quarter asked for, no quarter given. No one doubted these two guys would be some scary people to meet in a dark alley.
Pete’s left eye was slowly closing and Tim’s ribs had been re-cracked again causing him to spit up blood. They grinned at each other.
Tim spoke through thoroughly cracked and swollen lips, “For a skinny fuck, you’ve got a really good right hook.” Tim threw another downward slashing punch, but Pete was able to block most of the damage and kept it away from his face.
“There’s only one problem with my right hook, Tim.” Pete got himself back in position.
“Yeah, what is that?”
Pete let loose a lightning fast left that connected solidly with Tim’s jaw. Tim’s eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped to his knees and then slammed down on the mat.
Pete stood straight up and looked down at the man he had just bested. “My left hook is even better.”
Pete looked at the four other Wechselbalg, all of them having stopped everything but breathing as they witnessed the two guys pummeling each other, sheer determination moving them through pain and injuries that should have caused them to drop to the mat forever ago. “Any of you guys want a piece of this? I’ve got all day. We are the Guardians. We don’t stop, we don’t quit. We will not know the word defeat. We will move through the darkness, we will defeat our foes, we will never leave our people behind. Anyone who can’t deal with that, step over here and let’s discuss it.”
Joseph, the quiet one, shook his head. “Hell no.”
Pete kneeled down and grunted as he started to lif
t Tim up. “Come help me take our team member to medical, it seems he ran into a wall.”
Tim mumbled, easily heard by the Weres, but he was unable to move his body, “No, a fucking freight train kicked my ass. As soon as I can move, I’ll buy you a… shit, I have no money.” Then, Tim dropped back into unconsciousness.
The team all smiled as they helped their new team lead carry Tim to medical.
The Queen Bitch’s guards lifted their beers to the monitor and said with solemn voices, ‘To Bethany Anne’s Guardians!”
Back in the United States, in a very pricey bedroom in Colorado, a man stood with tears sliding down his face.
Two hours later, Pete had his new team of Guardians running through some of the same workout routines he had learned from John. Tim was right there with them and Pete told him that they would keep their bloody clothes on. Pete wanted everyone to realize how fast Wechselbalg guardians come back from what would have put humans in the hospital and he and Tim were the poster boys as they walked through the hallways. If either one of them had cleaned up, it wouldn’t have been as pointed an example.
The door opened into the workout room and the six guys looked over, expecting to see John or maybe Dan Bosse come in for a follow-up.
Tim and the guys, some who had seen one of them before, felt their internal warning signals go off the charts. Two vampires had just entered the room.
6
Key Biscayne, FL, USA
Frank went looking for Lance and found him in the kitchen making a sandwich. Looking up, Lance asked him if he wanted one.
“No, thanks anyway. I need to get your opinion on something, or rather someone.”
“Ok, can we do this while I eat this roast beast?” Lance tossed a jalapeño chip into his mouth and grabbed a beer. “Want a beer?”
“Yeah, actually that sounds good.” Frank sat down on the barstool. His body had continued to get healthier and he figured he was probably biologically in his late thirties about now.
“Foreign or domestic?”
“Foreign, I feel like living on the wild side.” Lance grabbed a Heineken and set it on the bar, closing the refrigerator after putting up the roast beef in the meat drawer.
Lance said, “Ok, times a ticking, who’s our candidate for craziness today?”
Frank gave Lance a funny look. “Do you know what I’m about to ask?”
Lance swallowed his bite. “No, but you rarely ask me about anything related to people, so this has to be out of the ordinary.” Taking another bite of his sandwich, he twirled his finger in a universal ‘get on with it’ gesture.
“Bobcat called me asking for a rocket scientist.” Frank pulled the tab off the can of beer.
Lance snorted as if to ask, ‘Really?’
Frank answered the unasked question, “Yes, a real rocket scientist.”
Lance swallowed. “Ok, what’s the problem?”
“Other than those chips are god-awful loud?” Lance smiled at him. “He has a bit of a stigma attached to him.”
“In what way?”
“Like the tinfoil hat wearing type.”
“Ok, explain more while I crunch as loud as I can.”
“Has anyone told you what a pain in the ass you are?”
“Outside of my daughter? Not too many can get away with it when you’re a General.”
“It might explain your poor table manners.” Frank took another swallow of his beer.
“If I remember correctly, I was making my sandwich and eating in the normally prescribed location to eat, namely the kitchen. You followed me down and are now harassing me in the aforementioned eating area. I believe you are actually showing less decorum than I.”
Frank sat there for a couple of seconds, dammit, he was right. “You’re still an ass-munch.” Lance laughed at him. “Ok, Marcus Cambridge was with NASA for about three decades until he got kicked out for political reasons. Then Space-X grabbed him and he lasted three years before they also showed him the door.”
“What for?”
“Apparently, as he’s getting older he’s getting more and more blatant about his belief in UFOs. Such that he is airing his point of view more often and it’s getting him into political hot water. Being so vociferous in public with his views is not sitting well with the establishment.”
“So, what’s the problem? Does he have the skills we need?”
“Oh, his skills and knowledge and even his research is what we need badly. The problem is, do we need a tinfoil hat scientist working on our team?”
Lance put his sandwich down and pushed his beer to the side. He clasped his hands together and rested his elbows on the countertop. “Let me get this right. You came down to the kitchen, interrupted my lunch and criticized my eating habits to ask me whether a scientist who believes in UFOs is appropriate to work on a UFO, right?” He grinned at Frank.
“Yes, but he’s... Well. Oh, dammit. You’re right. I’m letting others’ opinions of him cloud my judgment. He’s right but doesn’t have proof to back it up. I’ve got the proof that he’s right and I’m letting others persuade me that believing in the truth and speaking to it without evidence is a problem.” Frank got up from the chair and grabbed his beer.
Lance picked up his sandwich. “Where are you going?”
Frank called back over his shoulder, “Packing for California, Orange County, to go speak to the guy.”
“Need backup?”
“Not fucking likely, you ass-munch.”
Lance chuckled and finished his sandwich. Ten minutes later, he noticed a missed text message from Patricia, she was arriving in… he checked his watch. Too soon. Oh damn.
He called William, but was unable to raise him and then remembered he was supposed to be off. Tossing his trash, he grabbed the keys and jumped in one of the SUVs. He made very good time to the airport and was pulling up outside when his phone chimed with a text message that she had landed.
Two hours later, Lance pulled back into the driveway, listening to gasps of surprise from Patricia as she saw the expensive surroundings and the smell of the waterway so close by. She had commented as they went through the security post at the beginning of the subdivision and made another when he pulled onto their street. Finally, when he had to open the gate to drive into the driveway she just shook her head in amazement.
This was absolutely unlike the General Lance Reynolds that Patricia was familiar with. He was a gruff man who wasn’t into large displays of wealth. “Is this yours?”
Lance laughed. “Hell no. It’s my… Well, it’s owned by the primary owner of the company I help manage. She’s out of the country…”
“She?”
Now why did that sound like he had just said something wrong? “Yes, she. As in female. What is it with you ladies? You want females to move to the top of the chain, but when a man works for one it becomes an issue?”
“You are in her home.”
Well, taken out of context, she kind of had a point. Damn women and their logic.
“Sort of her home. This house and the one next door are used as a base of operations when she and her team are here in the States. Although, I’m working to find a much bigger and better facility. When she’s here, there are about nine to eleven people spread between the two houses. Right now, there are three of us using them.”
“Where is she now?”
“God only knows. She said she might be in the area and able to drop in. I think she’s on her yacht somewhere near South America. Who the hell knows? It isn’t like she alerts me when she needs to move around.”
“Why so many people? An entourage?”
Lance snorted, turned off the car, retrieved Patricia’s luggage and opened the front door. “Not exactly.” He stepped aside to let Patricia in. While she was admiring the large entryway her attention was drawn as Frank came down the stairs. “Patricia, let me introduce Frank Kurns, one of the three employees living here at the moment.”
Frank held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you
, Patricia. Love to chat, but I have to catch a flight over to California to pick up a rocket scientist.”
They shook hands, then Patricia watched as he hit the button to open the gate. An Escalade was waiting to take him to the airport.
Lance closed the door and took her to one of the bedrooms made up for visitors. It wasn’t overly large, but it did have its own full bathroom, TV and computer set up. A large red rug set off the darker grey and white color scheme, Patricia admired the furnishings, which had a very European flair. “I would love to meet the decorator, this is lovely.”
Lance, remembering his last comment about Ecaterina to Patricia, decided to let that opportunity pass him by because he really did want her help.
“I’ll have to ask who did the decorating for you. Are you hungry?”
Patricia turned around and smiled. “Something light would be nice. I’m planning on seafood tonight and you’re picking up the tab.”
Did he just get stuck with the bill that easily? Well, he did ask her to fly out. “Ok, seafood tonight and there are snacks in the kitchen.
“Did Frank just say he had to go pick up a rocket scientist?” They walked to the kitchen and she sat on the same barstool Lance had a few hours before, getting comfortable after setting her purse beside her.
“Yes, the team needs his expertise to build some craft with new technology from one of our… acquisitions.” He grabbed snacks and put out a couple of bowls. Patricia raised her eyebrows and held out her hand. Lance handed her the bag and she grabbed her own chips.
“So, are you messing with the military industrial complex then?” She popped a chip in her mouth.
He said, “Not really. Well, we don’t have any plans to in the near future, too early to tell for the farther future.” They would have to eventually, but no reason to bring that up right now.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 88