Home is Where the Heart Is (Cloverleah Pack Series Book 15)

by Lisa Oliver

  “Demon!” Several screams and shouts went up, but Cass only had eyes for his mate. Dropping to his knee beside him, Cass’s hand hovered over where the knife handle was still protruding from Wes’s shirt.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay.” Wes tried to push himself up but couldn’t. “I think he hit a nerve in my spine.”

  “You’ve got a fucking knife sticking out of your back.” Should I pull it out – leave it in there?

  “Pull it out then, would you please?” Wes started coughing, blood welling up over his lips. “I need to shift, and I can’t do that with a knife in me.”

  “You know I’m going to kill the bastard who did this, don’t you?” In his demon form, Cass’s hand covered over half of Wesley’s back. “Captives or not, that individual is pure evil.”

  “The knife.” Wes started coughing again and his face was losing its color. Pressing two fingers around the wound, Cass pulled the knife out in one quick move. Seconds later, the Henley he was touching turned to fur. Wes’s wolf form was huge and coated in black and red fur – Unusual for a wolf shifter. But Cass had other things to worry about. Standing up, he twirled the knife still dripping with Wesley’s blood through his fingers, searching the now muttering crowd.

  “Penalty for trying to kill a mate?” he asked the alpha casually as he spotted the attacker running for the huts.

  “Well, it’s death usually, at least when it happens to true mated pairs,” the alpha said hesitantly. “But you can’t kill him. There’s so few of us. Red wolves are almost extinct.”

  “Which is probably the only reason that asshole was alive to try and kill my mate. That sleazy wolf wasn’t shafting anyone, and if he was, the female he was forcing wouldn’t have been old enough to give birth to pups.” Cass glanced at the shocked alpha. “Demon senses. We see every dirty desire. Excuse me.” He waited until the sleazeball had almost reached the huts and then threw the knife. Like a bullet, it hit the spot, the elder clutching his chest as he fell.

  “Leave him!” Cass’s voice boomed loud enough for a couple of frightened women to hear as they ran to his aid. “He does not deserve your mercy after what he’s done to your daughters.” The women backed away, frightened, and one of them was crying.

  “Demon.” The alpha’s face had gone quite pale. “I know not what we did to offend you, but we live humbly here and only seek to find our reward in heaven. I humbly protest Eli’s killing. The stabbed man came to us under false pretenses. He’s clearly not a true wolf shifter and therefore any attack made against him wasn’t against shifter laws.”

  “What do you mean, not a wolf shifter?” Cass looked at his mate with pride. Wes was trotting around on all four paws, sniffing the ground madly. “Are you worried about the color of his fur perhaps, because I’m sure that’s a very recent change.”

  “No, demon, although I confess he’s not a size or color I’ve seen before. But the man was half human. I scented it when he arrived. He’s not a true wolf, even if he tried to convince you otherwise.”

  Cass slapped one fist into the palm of his other hand, his anger rising quickly again. Some people are just too damn ignorant to live. “By Hades, I swear some of you backwater heathens need to get to grip with modern times. Under paranormal law, Wesley shifts into a wolf, therefore he’s a wolf shifter. Where the hell do you guys get your information from?”

  “It’s in our teachings, passed down from elder to each new generation since before time began. The only true wolf shifter is a pure wolf shifter.”

  “Those same teachings caused you to get rid of that Raff I suppose too.” Cass sighed. He really didn’t have time to spend educating heathens who wouldn’t listen. “You claim you want to go to heaven but you’re full of bigotry and hatred - a dislike for anyone who’s slightly different. It’s ignorance, I tell you. Pure ignorance. But fine, if you want to stay here, I’m not going to stop you. Just remember what Wesley said, the dark ones are gone now, and they’re not coming back. You might want to start thinking about how long their self-sustaining magic will linger now they’re not here and how you’re going to feed all those babies you’re having when the food stops appearing in the cupboards. It’s not my problem and you’re not likely to get any other visitors out here. But I’m adult enough to respect your decision. Hey, Wes, come on, babe. We’re leaving.”

  “The food we eat is tainted with magic?” The alpha grabbed Cass’s arm, a bold move.

  “Dude.” Cass brushed off the annoying hand, giving the alpha one of his best scowls. “You’re in a bubble realm within the Underworld. Have you ever heard of that place? It’s about as far away from that dream of heaven as you have can get. It’s run by my master, Lord Hades, an ancient Greek God in case you haven’t heard of him either. It’s where the evil dead and demons reside. So, even if you managed to find the edge of this sub-realm and get out of it, you’re still going to end up in the Underworld. With the evil spirits of the dead, and friendly demons like me who would see you as lunch snacks.” The last part wasn’t true; demons did not enjoy eating shifter or human meat. But Cass was in a foul mood, he still had the scent of his mate’s blood in his nostrils.

  “There’s no way out of the Underworld without Lord Hades command. This man,” Cass rested his hand on Wes’s furry head, “was your only ticket out of here and the only reason he insisted on us looking for you at all, was because he knows and cares about Raff. So, you can all sit around, with your self-righteous outdated attitudes, and wait to die. Because there’s nothing else for you guys down here.”

  Wes woofed and Cass deliberately chose to misunderstand even though he had a pretty good idea what his mate was trying to say.

  “We can’t transport the unwilling, babe, no matter how much it might mean to your friend Raff. These people have every right to sit here and wait for angels,” Cass started laughing. “Oh, Hades, that’s so funny, right? I mean, angels, babe. Down here? What were they thinking? But anyway, regardless, if they don’t want to feel the wind on their faces, howl at the moon or bask under the sun, then they don’t have to. You and I have got places to go. I’ll see to it Raff knows his ex-home pack is still alive, if somewhat misguided in their thinking. Come along.”

  He turned, the hand on Wesley’s head convincing his mate to do the same. They hadn’t got three paces, when the alpha yelled, “How can we trust you? You’re freaking covered in red skin and have smoke coming out of your nose. What if where you leave us is worse than here?”

  “You can’t trust me, I’m a demon.” Cass didn’t even bother looking over his shoulder to reply. “You should have trusted one of your own kind who came to you in truth and offered to help instead of knifing him.” He swirled around as he had a sudden thought. “But if you’re having doubts about what life is truly like in the Underworld, watch this.”

  Sending out his powers, Cass lifted the stabbing asshole’s body off the ground near the huts, moving it to the edge of the wards. “Stick with me, babe,” he muttered under his breath. “No matter what you see or hear, don’t move from my side.”

  In a louder voice he said, “are you all watching closely puny red wolves? This is just a sample of what the Underworld is like.” He flung the corpse onto the ground about fifty yards away before yelling. “Furies hear my call. A soul who deserves your justice awaits collection.”

  The sky went dark, and the air came alive with the sound of insane shrieking and flapping wings. Black shapes whirled around, a seething mass of fury and hate. It descended over the body, plucking at it, picking at the clothing until there was nothing left but the naked shell of an evil man, which they carried away with a flap and a wail. The furies were gone as quickly as they arrived, leaving behind nothing but blessed silence and scraps of cloth dotting where the corpse had been.

  “My gods, what are those things?” The alpha cried.

  “Lord Hades special brand of hell for child abusers and kiddie rapists,” Cass said with a smug grin. “I could have let the soul go through processing,
but there was no need. If the man had been innocent, the Furies wouldn’t have touched him. They are just one of the special delights this realm has to offer. Remember, in the Underworld all of those dark secrets you carry deep in your heart are evident to any being who resides here.” Cass chuckled. The Alpha’s white face amused him. “Wes, babe, shall we go? Be careful out here.” Cass waved a friendly hand at the stunned red wolves as he turned away. He wanted to be back behind the rocks before he translocated Wes back to the house they were using.

  Wes nudged his shoulder against Cass’s legs as Cass kept walking. “I meant it when I said we can’t force the unwilling, babe,” Cass muttered. “It has to be their idea. But we can go to Cloverleah, let Raff know his pack is still alive, and maybe someone there can recommend where these misguided wolves can go. I’m not sure we want that sort of hatred and ignorance around the littlies.”

  Cass was going to take Wes’s silence as an agreement. The rocks that had hid him and Myka were now barren of life forms, but Cass wasn’t surprised Myka had disappeared home. It was well past dinner time, and mama would have a spread laid out as she always did. Cass was tempted to take Wes there, but their mating was all still new, and his mate had been stabbed. We can visit mama another day, he promised himself as he translocated Wes and himself back to the house.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I’m not going to Cloverleah and you can’t make me.” Wes folded his arms across his chest and gave his mate what he hoped was a quelling look. The lightly grilled steak was settling nicely in his belly, Wes had happily submitted to Cass’s demands for an intense physical examination to ensure he’d suffered no long-term harm from having a knife in his back. An examination that included two orgasms for Wes, once in Cass’s mouth and the next one all over the kitchen bench when Cass had fucked him. But instead of dragging him off to bed, which was Wes’s hope, Cass insisted they needed to report back to Cloverleah concerning the stubbornness of the red wolves.

  “You have my powers,” Cass said calmly. “If things get too uncomfortable for you, you can always come back here with just a thought and a click of your fingers.”

  “There’s no reason you can’t go by yourself. They don’t want to hear from me, let alone see me.”

  “You wouldn’t have forced a favor from Myka, if you didn’t want to help Raff.”

  Stop being so damn logical. “You don’t understand,” Wes tried for some calmness of his own even when his stomach was churning in a million knots and his heart felt like it weighed a ton. “What if I go there, and someone tries to kill me? I’d be gutted if you hurt the people I cared about. I’ve already been stabbed once today. I’m not sure I want that to happen again.”

  “They will not hurt you. I will not let them.” Cass’s rumble sounded as though it came from a deep cave, and smoke wisped out of his nose.

  “You don’t know that. You can’t promise that.” Wes was silently pleased his stubborn mate felt so protective over him, but not pleased enough to change his mind. It wasn’t the thought of physical violence that worried him, it was the death of a thousand cuts that would come if just one person he once called packmate snubbed him in any way. He wasn’t as strong as Cass in that respect and crying over his pack loss once was more than enough.

  Cass pulled out the big guns. Dark eyes with a flicker of flame around the edges, peering soulfully into his. “Don’t you feel the need to protect me?”

  Hell and damnation. Wes knew he was stuck. “Of course, I want to protect you, you silly demon. It’s a wolf shifter’s way. But you’ve been to Cloverleah before…”

  “They tried to use magic on me last time.” Cass’s bottom lip pushed out from the top one – as far as pouts went, it was quite successful when combined with his deep eyes.

  Wes sighed. “Babe, honey buns, sweet pea, they can’t hurt you. Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Because they need to see you’re not the devil they think you are, and if you’re standing beside me when I’m in demon form, they’ll notice the difference straight away.” Cass’s pout turned into a wide grin complete with teeth. “You don’t want me disappearing, leaving you alone, unsure when I’ll even come back. Those guys at that pack of yours can talk for fucking hours.”

  “They’re not my pack anymore,” Wes said automatically, even though what Cass said was true. For everyone to have a say, pack meetings could run for hours. “And it won’t even be a meeting. We just have to see Raff, speak to him, ask him to talk among his friends, maybe the djinn or fae could take his hateful home pack, and be on our way again.”

  “I sent them a message. They’re having a meeting right now.” Cass looked like a two-year-old in a candy store sometimes. “I told them we had news, and I want for them to see you standing tall and proud, in the flesh.”

  “Well, if you sent them a message, why didn’t you just tell them about Raff’s pack?” Wes was close to hyperventilating. Somewhere in his psyche he’d taken the golem’s actions as his own personal shame. Stand tall and proud? Wes would rather tear out his own entrails. “They won’t want to see me.”

  “They owe me payment for finding that pack of mangy wolves,” Cass said simply, dropping his arm over Wes’s shoulder. “I intend to collect and as you’re my mate, it’s only fitting you come with me. I want you with me.”

  “Then, I’ll go, but I’ll need to get changed,” Wes said helplessly, knowing he couldn’t refuse again. “I’m not visiting anyone with your spunk still drying on my sweatpants.”

  “It’s all taken care of, my sweets,” Cass purred as Wes felt his body translocate.

  I’m not ready, he yelled as his body reassembled itself, back in the pack house living room.

  Wes’s knees trembled. The scents, the muted conversations all in tones he knew and had loved. He caught the excited chatter from Luke and the rumbled grumblings of Anton, or it might have been Adair. But one voice cut through all the others.

  “Wes, you came home.” Suddenly Wes’s arms were filled with Frankie’s slight body. The boy was squeezing him, hugging him as though afraid he’d disappear.

  “I’m not here to stay, Frankie,” Wes said as he felt his eyes fill with tears. “Cass and me just had a message to deliver for Raff.”

  “Carrie wanted to see you so badly – she’s got a lovely room in Dean’s house” Frankie said quickly, seemingly ignoring his words. “Zeke got to climb a real big tree but then he got stuck and Anton climbed up and got him down. The cheetahs have to have a bath every night, but Diablo and Griff spend all their time chasing them around the yard because the boys don’t want to get in the water which is hilarious to watch. Why can’t you stay?”

  Gently pushing Frankie away from him, so Wes could look him in the eyes, Wes said quietly, “I knew you’d all find a good home here. These people will love you and cherish you and bring you up right. They’ll protect you from every danger imaginable and they’ll never let you down. I’m really happy for you all, and you especially, Frankie.”

  Wes looked up, seeing Vassago approach hesitantly. “It’s okay. I know Frankie is your son now,” he said, his voice firming as his pain blossomed and threatened to overwhelm him. “I’m not going to whisk him off to the Underworld, or anything stupid like that. I know he belongs here.”

  “Congratulations on your mating,” Vassago said, nodding. “Frankie, please come along. We asked you to stay with the others.”

  “Wes?” Wesley had to steel himself against the pleading in Frankie’s eyes and tone.

  “This is the best place for you and the others, Frankie. When Cass and I get settled, maybe you can come and visit, okay? Give them all a hug for me, all right?”

  “We’re going to get you back,” Frankie scowled as he walked out of the room, ignoring Vassago and a glowering Adair completely. “A pack that throws away one of their own, is no place for me and the littlies, no matter how good the food is or how warm the beds.”

  Cass’s firm hand on Wesley’s shoulder was the only t
hing stopping him from breaking down. Turning away from the now empty doorway, he faced Kane and Shawn, the men he once called Alpha and Alpha Mate. “We haven’t come to cause any trouble for you or the little ones. Cass has news about Raff’s home pack I felt he should share. Cass?” Turning away from the alpha was new to him, but Wes did it. If he looked at Cass, he wouldn’t have to acknowledge the lack of welcome from anyone else. “Can you explain what happened today please, mate?”

  The smile Cass gave him promised heat and warmth, the one he gave the pack was full of teeth. “You offered me anything I wanted in exchange for finding Raff’s home pack. I found them. In another bubble realm, like those that held Wes and the children. They are a stubborn, rude and ungrateful pack of assholes who refused to accompany Wes from their current abode. They didn’t trust me, and I can’t transport the unwilling, especially away from a realm they shouldn’t even be on. They are currently safe, they have food, shelter, and one of them used to be well enough to stab my mate in the back. Please note the past tense relating to the last article. I’m sure you have powers aplenty to get them out from where they are so, I’ll take my payment now, and be gone.”

  Pandemonium broke out, everyone’s voices raised at once. Most of the voices were angry, or concerned, but one rose above the rest. It was Raff’s. “Please, demon, can’t you just send them home where they belong?”

  “Afraid not, pipsqueak,” Cass didn’t seem affected by the glowers Nereus and Teilo were sending him. “Tell him, son of Poseidon, how powers work between realms.”

  “He’s right, precious.” Nereus focused on his upset mate. “Demons can’t transport anyone living between realms unless it’s that person’s choice.”

  So that’s why you asked me to come with you. Wes barely resisted glaring at Cass himself, especially with Shawn watching him. He did his best to keep his face impassive.