Leap of Faith (Drekinn Book 9)

by Jana Leigh

  Chase smacked his friend on the shoulder and shook his head. “Quit your bitching, come on, let’s get our ticket so we can get up there.”

  The two men walked to the window and looked around; there was no one in there, which was weird since they should have had someone selling tickets. There were some people wandering around, but none seemed to pay any attention to the fact there was no one in the small hut selling tickets.

  “Okay?” Chase said and tilted his head to look up. “Are they sold out or something? Although it doesn’t look like there are that many people, we need to ask someone what the deal is. If they are sold out... Even with our speed, we wouldn’t be able to go that fast, there are way too many rocks, it would be dangerous.”

  Cameron nodded and then held up his hand to an older woman who was walking to the rail. “Ma’am?”

  She turned and smiled and said, “Yes, honey.”

  “Do you know when they will be back to sell tickets?” Cameron asked, smiling at her. Chase wanted to roll his eyes; Cameron was laying it on thick. He was the charmer of the two of them.

  “Oh,” she said and looked around. “They should be there.”

  A cold trickle ran down his spine, something didn’t feel right. He looked around and saw at least one other person looking at the shed curiously. They weren’t the only ones without tickets. Fuck. Cameron looked at Chase and motioned with his head quickly, indicating for him to check the inside of the small shed. Cameron smiled back at the older woman and then took her arm gently and led her away from the shed to a bench. They didn’t need to scare the shit out of her, which right about now he had a feeling they weren’t going to like what they found in the shed. He saw Chase move out of his eyesight and he followed slower, looking to make sure no other human was paying attention.

  Chase moved slowly and looked around as he walked around the small little building. The door was on the back of the shed; it was cracked a little, so he looked to make sure no one was watching him, and he opened the door slowly with his finger and then swore under his breath when he saw the man wearing a uniform laying on the ground, obviously dead.

  He let go of the door and stepped back, pulled out his phone and called 911. Cameron walked around the side of the building and looked at him curiously until he heard what he was saying to the 911 operator. Then he swore under his breath and took a deep breath. Chase hung up the phone, and he whispered, “They are on their way; we need to get out of here and figure out how to get up the mountain without drawing attention. I’m assuming she’s on the train, and they know it.”

  Chase nodded and then turned and walked back to the parking lot with Cameron following him. They wanted to get out of there before the police arrived and began asking questions. This was so not a good thing.

  Once they were in the car, Chase sighed and said, “I really don't want to say anything, like at all, but should we call the compound and ask for help?”

  Cameron was silent, and then he finally said, “No, we drive up the canyon, get as close as we can without the car dying, and then hump it in the rest of the way.”

  Chase nodded and started the car, they were on the highway in no time, and then he finally said, “Hump it in? Honestly, I think you have been watching too many old military movies.”

  Cameron shrugged. “Probably, but then Anthony has been watching them non-stop in the main room, it’s hard to avoid.”

  Chase maneuvered the car onto the highway that would take them up the mountain. There was a lot of traffic, which was normal this time of day. Hopefully, though, when they got closer to the top, they would be able to find somewhere to park the car and take off on foot without people noticing. It was the first time either man could remember actually driving up to the cave; usually when they went there, Lagon took them. The road only went so far, the train went further, which of course wasn’t an option. Both men were deep in thought for a few minutes before Chase spoke up.

  “So, what do you think is going on at the compound? Lexie was saying something about Cassandra,” Chase said, and Cameron nodded.

  “You know, I have learned over the last year or so not to ask too many questions. I mean, if I do, then they will answer, and sometimes I really don’t want to hear the answer. It just confuses me too much.”

  Chase laughed loudly. “Yeah, well I’m pretty sure since Sienna is our mate and she seems to be a little too much like Simon, we may be in the same boat.”

  “Gods help us,” Cameron muttered.

  Chapter Three

  “What in the fuck is wrong with all of you?” Cassandra yelled and pointed to all her friends in the room. They had all been called early in the morning to come to the main house, and none of them knew why until they got there. Everyone was staring at Cassandra like she had two heads or something. She didn’t get it, really she didn’t. How in the hell was this possible?

  “Cass,” Lexie said shortly and then glared at her best friend. “Brinn and I already told you like a million times. You are not pregnant; we would know. We share everything and, bitch, we would totally make sure you had pickles and pepperoni!”

  Their Alpha turned and glared at all of them and said, “I am not fucking around; I seriously am not making this shit up. Listen to me, I went to bed last night pregnant, and I wake up not pregnant, something is fucking wrong!”

  Marcus walked to his mate and wrapped his arms around her and said, “Cass, come on, sit down, we will figure it all out together.”

  She pushed away from him and pointed. “You don’t believe me; I am your damn mate! For now anyway. How can you not remember your own child? This is fucked up, someone had better start pulling out the woo-woo vibes and figure this shit out!”

  Marcus frowned and shook his head. “Babe, I swear…”

  Mak stood and cleared his throat. “Well, I may have an idea of what is going on.”

  Hope and Giovanni covered their faces when everyone went silent and turned to their mate. This was so not going to be good.

  “Oh really? You know why I am not pregnant?” Cassandra snapped and then pointed at Marcus. “Tell him I am not crazy.”

  Mak lifted a hand and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to figure out how much he could tell them so he didn't fuck anything else up, because right when he woke up this morning, he knew something had changed. With Jo and Tey finding their mate and letting the men of the Chosen and Senate know who he was and what he did, of course, things had changed more than he thought. He remembered Cassandra was pregnant of course since Lexie and Brinn were still pregnant, it made him wonder why Cassandra had suddenly become not pregnant. Although he had a suspicion, one he wanted to talk to the Chosen about before he talked to the Drekinn. So, what could he say and not say? Even Hope didn’t know everything, even though she knew he was hiding something, she still didn't know. It sucked.

  “You are not crazy,” Mak said slowly. “And I really wish I could tell you everything, but I can’t.”

  Cassandra frowned, and then Lexie stood and walked to her friend and was frowning, then Brinn did the same. Shit, this was gonna be ugly, the three of them were fucking scary on a good day.

  “What does that mean, she is not crazy? ‘Cause it sounds like to me, what you are saying is, she was pregnant yesterday when she went to bed, and now she isn’t, how is that even possible?” Brinn asked, and then Lexie rolled her eyes and Anthony stood, and they both said at once.

  “Conspiracy!”

  Lexie pointed at her brother and said, “It’s either aliens or a government cover-up. They are snatching our babies and using them for something.”

  Anthony nodded. “I vote for aliens; you know I don’t think our government is that intelligent.”

  Lexie sighed and nodded. “The Prentiss assholes are certainly not smart. I mean, they have apparently been hiding shit for a long time, and they did the whole cloning thing, which now makes a ton of sense. OH MY GOD, they are creating super babies.” She turned and looked at her mates and snapped while putt
ing her hand on her stomach. “That’s it, from now on I need a uterine guard twenty-four/seven. Plus, I need around the clock monitoring, in case they are coming through our dreams and snatching our babies. Oh, poor Cassandra, honey, what are we going to do? Her baby is probably somewhere floating around, being nourished by the murdering scum of the earth.”

  Cassandra rolled her eyes and said, “Really, can we go for a moment without having some weird epiphany, which is completely twisted. Something serious is going on here, and I don’t have the patience for this crap.”

  Lexie frowned at her and then she said, “Bite me.”

  Mak sighed and said, “Listen, I just need to talk to someone, and then maybe I can give you some more information.”

  Marcus shook his head. “Talk to who? Because everyone is right here.”

  Mak looked back at his mates, and they both shrugged, and Mak said, “I need to talk to Quin and Jaden.”

  Marcus stepped closer to him, and he asked, “Why our fathers?”

  Mak paused and then said, “Just give me a little while to figure things out, and we can come back and talk then, okay?”

  “Four hours and we will meet back here,” Cassandra said.

  Mak nodded then turned back to his mates that were standing up. As they walked out of the door, Mak said, “We need to find out what else changed besides this.”

  Gio nodded and said, “Hope and I will look around, see what we can find.”

  “Any little thing we need to look at. From here on out, if I am knocked out, Quin and Jaden need to know. I have a feeling there is going to be more changes; we need to try to minimize it,” Mak said grimly.

  Quin and Jaden were waiting for Mak when he knocked on the door. He had called and asked to meet them a few minutes ago, and they had both told him to come right over.

  Quin smiled and got up when he walked into the room. “Kinda strange waking up and remembering suddenly who you are and a conversation we all had years ago, but was probably yesterday to you.”

  Mak smiled and nodded and laughed. “Really, I am used to it. Although, before there was not nearly the drama there is now. I mean, no one recognized me before because of a spell.”

  “So, let's hear about what is going on,” Jaden said brusquely from behind Quin. Mak nodded and stared at the man, who over the last few weeks looked worse and worse as he worked through the Prentiss cloning a child from his DNA.

  Quin sighed and then stepped back and looked at his mate. Mak could tell the Alpha wanted to say something to Jaden, but he didn’t. Instead, he motioned with his head to the chairs around the table.

  “Come on, I called the guys as well, they are gonna be here in half an hour; I wanted to talk to you first,” Quin said, and Mak nodded.

  They all sat down, and then Mak said, “We have several problems.”

  Quin nodded, and Jaden stared at him intently. “I figured as much.”

  “Hope is still dying, I don't get it, but I swear, for some reason, I know the man who kills her, I saw it this time, clearer, I got a good look at his face, a really good look. Plus, Cassandra had been pregnant, and she is no longer pregnant. Hope and Gio remember as I do, I am assuming because of the blood-bond we share. But either way, they are helping. Right now, we are just trying to find out what else has changed so we can see the effect of what I did, which was tell you guys, as well as Jo and Tey finding their third.”

  Quin and Jaden were silent; Mak knew they were on pins and needles because of Hope dying. Now they had to worry about Marcus and Cassandra as well. He really hoped like hell that we could pinpoint something with all of them working on it.

  “Well, telling us in the past may have affected more than what you and we both realized,” Quin said slowly, and Mak narrowed his eyes, and he looked at Jaden who was almost growling.

  “What?” Mak asked, and Jaden slammed a hand on the table.

  “So far, we have lost two of the Chosen and one of the Senate,” he said, and Mak's mouth opened and closed until he could finally get out one word.

  “Who?”

  Quin sighed and put his hands on the table and said quietly. “Tripp, Tao, and Shea.”

  Mak froze, and he whispered, “One of the Chosen has fallen?”

  Jaden snapped, “Yes, which as it stands right now, if we do not fix this, we are going to be up shit creek without a paddle. What the hell are we supposed to do?”

  Mak leaned back in his chair, and then there was a knock on the door. Quin stood and went to open the door. The rest of the men of the Senate and the Chosen entered, of course minus the fallen. They all looked a lot different now from the last time Mak had seen them. They looked well, they looked rough, like they had really been through a lot of shit.

  As they all sat down. Mak looked at the expressions on their face, and not one of them smiled, they all looked like a piece of themselves had died along with the others. Fuck, he really had never thought something like this would happen.

  “Okay,” Quin said as he sat down. “We told Mak about the ones we lost, but we didn’t get into the hows and whys, I think maybe that may help us figure out what the fuck went wrong before he goes back again.”

  “We need to make sure our mate is protected more,” Lev snapped, and then Griff nodded.

  “You need to make sure you tell us that the Rogues, they attacked the compound, dammit, they attacked when she was alone. She was never alone, ever, except for this one time, they played us, separated us, and we let it happen. She was not supposed to be alone, dammit.”

  Orfeo shook his head and he said, “Tripp was there, she was not alone. There was nothing we could do since they lured us away from her.”

  Virani nodded. “Tao attempted to warn us, we were just too late to get there. We are all feeling this loss, even if it was our mates.”

  “I know,” Griff said sighing and leaning back. “But we feel like we failed our mate.”

  “We all do,” Orfeo said grimly.

  Mak heard the pain in all their words, and he knew, he knew that when he went back, he was going to fix that. But first, he needed to know why Jo and Tey finding their mate had such an effect on things. Of course, it could have been because he talked to Quin and the others, but really, he didn’t think so, that didn’t feel right. No, it was because Jo and Tey found their mate. Plus, Cassandra, she was no longer pregnant, she was Jo and Tey’s child, and now her future changed as well. Something important was happening, he just needed to figure out what and why.

  “Okay,” Quin murmured and looked at Mak. “We have stayed away from the kids; they don’t know because that was when we sent the children out. We couldn’t chance it. So right now, no one knows that we lost people.”

  Mak sighed, and then he nodded. “Okay, that is gonna be best right now. I know that it seems like this is bad, but honestly, over the years, I have seen much worse, and I have tried to fix everything.”

  “How much worse?” Jaden asked sarcastically.

  “You all died,” Mak said honestly, and everyone froze and looked at him.

  “What?” Quin asked.

  Mak nodded and said, “Over the years, my going back and forth, moving through time. The worst it ever got was you all died.”

  Sol leaned forward and said, “Okay, I don’t get why Jo and Tey finding me threw everything into a tailspin. I mean, there are so many other things in the universe, why this? It should have put everything right. Apparently, things are still not the way they should be, does anyone know what?”

  The men looked at each other, but none of them said a word.

  Chapter Four

  Sienna took a deep breath and looked up. She had opened the vent and pushed through to open it up completely. She looked at her watch one last time before shoving it in her bag, then placing it on the sink counter so her eagle could pick up the handle.

  It was time. She closed her eyes and shifted, and it hurt because she hadn’t shifted in so long. Sienna knew it made it more painful if you waited too long.
Shit, she thought and then landed on the sink and picked up the handle of her purse. Yeah, like this wouldn’t draw attention—an eagle carrying a bag, no not suspicious at all. But if she got to the right place it may work out. There should be a corner with a huge tree, it was on the map. It was something like the oldest tree in Colorado, in that tree was where she could hide. Granted the road was right next to the tree but nothing could be done about that.

  Her eagle looked up and then saw the train beginning to curve, and she was up and out in a flash. Looking around for a slight second she saw the branch and flew directly to it, setting the bag in the crook of the branch and the tree, and then she perched and took a deep breath and looked around.

  She moved back a little when she saw the eagle who had been following the train pause and then turn in a wide arc to come back to where she had gotten out. Okay, he had seen her, moving closer to the tree, hoping her feathers masked with the tree to hide her. Her bird was on alert; the danger was near, and it hadn’t been allowed to protect her for months, even though it had been getting increasingly agitated with Sienna refusing to shift.

  The flap of the wings began to get closer, and she turned her head slightly, hiding the coloring on her head a bit more. She froze and waited as the other eagle moved closer and closer. She was on a lower branch, the other eagle landed above her, she could feel and hear it. Her eagle wanted nothing more than to attack; Sienna could feel its impatience. Well shit, she thought, she was stuck, and if they found her, she was in trouble.

  She heard the eagle moving, and finally, she risked looking. Well fuck a duck, it was staring right at her. With a loud cry, the eagle opened his wings and dove down.

  “So,” Chase said when they were well along the highway that would lead them to the peak, or close to it. “How wise do you think it is not to call in and report what happened?”

  Cameron sighed and shrugged. “I am sure we are gonna get shit, considering the guys were following Sienna, and Simon would love nothing more than to wreak havoc on anyone who was after his sister, but there is nothing they could do to help. We know where she is going, we are aware someone was following, and we are right behind her. The train she left on was only an hour ahead of us. So basically, since they travel slower than what our car does, I think we will get there first. That way we will have time to make sure the depot is safe.”