by V. A. Dold
Cassidy slipped into the hallway with him close behind. He paused just long enough to ease the door shut.
There’s bound to be at least a few trainees positioned throughout the grounds. It’s a drill we’ve all practiced in the event of an assault on the compound, Cassidy warned.
So… we’ll be walking into an enemy ambush. I’m not surprised.
As they neared the corner of the hallway, Cassidy raised her fist, signaling him to stop. Then she crept forward, using her telescopic mirror to see around the wall.
He didn’t move and barely breathed, not wanting to distract her. As she visually assessed the situation, he utilized his shifter hearing and sense of smell to detect the level of threat. Three. He sniffed again. No, four bogies.
That’s what I have as well.
Marcus’s head swung around when he heard footsteps in the stairwell. We’re about to be flanked.
We have to make a run for it. Tell some of your brothers to cover our asses as we exit the building on the run. We’re going to need it.
Marcus tapped his earpiece once. “Simon?” he whispered as they ran for the exit.
“I’m here,” Simon responded.
“We need cover fire as we exit the building. Stand by for further instructions.”
“Got it.”
Cassidy cracked the door open enough to identify the enemies’ locations without getting shot. “From our position, bogies at one o’clock, four o’clock, and eleven. We go on three.”
Marcus repeated what she’d said.
Cassidy gripped the knob tight and hissed, “One, two, three.” They burst from the building, running low to present less of a target as Simon and Thomas covered their asses.
The instant they reached the vehicles, Cassidy bent and gripped her knees, breathing hard.
Marcus did the same, only he breathed easier than she did. He was a wolf shifter, after all. Physical exertion was less taxing for him.
Simon and Thomas took one last shot each and headed for the SUVs.
Thomas looked them over from head to toe. “You all right? Anyone hit?”
Marcus shook his head. “Just a graze. I’m good.” Then he glanced around the interior of the SUVs. Everyone was accounted for along with all of the children. “We were the last ones out?”
“Yep. Everyone’s accounted for,” Cade said from the driver’s seat of the first vehicle.
Marcus helped Cassidy into the SUV’s back seat, following once she was seated.
Simon climbed in last and pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Hans. Etienne said his man from Las Vegas is in town to train some new recruits, and he’ll bring a crew to mop up.”
Seventeen
The instant the flight attendant announced it was safe to move about, Cassidy released her seatbelt and stretched. It was a long flight home, and she was already a little stir-crazy. Not only did they rescue Colin, twenty children were on their way to Louisiana as well. With all of the adults on the team, there weren’t enough seats on the Le Beau jet for everyone, so Isaac and the Le Beau women were on a second plane with the children. The patriarch of the family and the women mated to his sons were incredibly generous people.
Standing, she glanced at Quin. He was already searching for leads on the kids they’d rescued. She prayed she could reunite the kids with their families. They deserved to grow up with people who loved them.
Smiling, she made her way to the rear of the plane where a cot was placed for Colin. She was surprised and pleased to see Jamie was on a cot beside her brother. Both men were too battered to sit upright for hours at a time, so a makeshift infirmary had been set up for them.
“Everyone okay back here?” Marcus asked, joining her.
Jamie gave her a salute. “So far, so good. Though, I’m not looking forward to landing.”
Cassidy grimaced. “There isn’t much we can do about the bouncing and jostling, sorry.”
“No, we can’t,” Marcus agreed with a grin as he lifted a small first aid kit for her to see. “But we can give these boys something for the pain.”
Colin turned his head in the direction of Marcus’s voice. “Thank God. I hurt all over.”
Seth shouldered his way into the rear compartment with them. “I can help with your injuries. I’ll do what I can and then administer the painkiller.”
When Jamie opened his mouth, Cassidy shook her head. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want answered. Just keep in mind, we’re not the only people in the world with strange gifts.”
Jamie shut his mouth but kept an eye on Seth.
Cassidy tried to move out of Seth’s way and proceeded to bump her head on the slope of the ceiling. “It’s too tight in here for five adults. I’ll leave you gentlemen to Seth’s care.”
“Thanks, Cassidy,” Seth said as he knelt beside Colin’s cot.
Marcus took her hand. “Come on, mon amour. Let’s go back to our seats.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
It wasn’t long after returning to her comfortable captain’s chair when a flight attendant stopped beside her and smiled. “Would you like a drink or something to eat?”
She hadn’t thought about refreshments, but a cocktail sounded perfect. Her nerves were a bit frayed after the operation they’d pulled off. “Yes. A rum and coke, please.”
The flight attendant smiled again and moved on to ask Marcus the same question.
When the attendant moved on down the line, Marcus squeezed her hand. “Are you doing okay?”
Cassidy took a deep breath. “Yeah. I am. It’s surreal to know Jones is finally gone, but it also feels like a millstone was removed from my neck.”
“That’s understandable.” He paused and searched her face. “That’s not all that’s on your mind, though.”
Cassidy was about to answer when the attendant passed her the cocktail she’d ordered. She waited until the woman was several feet away before whispering, “Now that Jones is gone, I was thinking about my future.”
He leaned in and whispered back, “Do you mean attending college with Colin?”
She waggled her head back and forth. “Well… yeah. I mean, I still want to do that, but I was thinking about something else.”
“Really? What’s on your mind?” He breathed into her ear.
“Um… well—” She checked on the attendant again to make sure she was out of earshot. “You said you’d tell me about shifters,” she murmured.
Marcus glanced behind himself to see what Cassidy had been looking at and chuckled. “You don’t have to whisper. The flight attendant is one of us.”
Cassidy’s face reddened. “Oh.” She glanced at the attendant. “Are all of your employees shifters?”
Marcus leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “Of course not. You’re an employee, remember?”
She grinned and shook her head. “Oh, yeah. I didn’t think of that. So, give me the low down on shifters. What haven’t you told me yet?”
Stefan leaned across the aisle. “Yeah, Marcus, what wolfy stuff haven’t you told her yet?”
Cade’s head jerked up from the magazine he was reading. “Are you telling me you haven’t told her about us yet?” he demanded.
Simon moved from his seat to one closer to them. “I can tell you what you want to know.”
“Forget those losers. I can explain everything for you,” Quin said as he tapped away on his laptop.
Thomas snorted and shook his head.
“What have you told her so far?” Simon asked
Marcus scowled at his brothers. “I can do this without your help.”
Cade popped his brows and gave him a look. “Well, you haven’t yet.”
Marcus heaved a breath. “Fine. She knows I’m a shifter, the three signs for finding a mate, where we came from, and what a mate is.”
Stefan nodded. “That’s a solid beginning.” He focused on Cassidy. “There’s something you should know about our aging process. We live a long time.”
She cocked her head. �
�A long time?”
Stefan nodded vigorously. “A really long time.”
She swallowed hard and looked from Stefan to Marcus.
He scrubbed at the stubble on his chin like he was uncomfortable with the subject matter. “We, uh—” He swallowed hard but soldiered on. “Unless we’re killed, which isn’t easy to do, we live about fourteen hundred years.”
Cassidy stared at him for a second. Two. Then glanced from one man to another, searching for evidence of trickery. Deep down, she knew she wouldn’t find any. She’d heard the truth in Marcus’s words.
Stefan rolled his eyes. “Geez, Marcus, grow a pair and tell her all of it. We age normally, like a human until we’re about twenty-five, then we stop aging for eight hundred and seventy-five years. Then we start aging again, very slowly.”
Cassidy frowned at him. “How is that even possible? In this age of online posting, someone would have figured it out and posted a video or something.”
Quin lifted a hand and waved it about without pausing his internet search. “I take care of that. When one of us needs to reinvent themselves, I create a new identity for them. We make people believe we are our own descendants. After a period of time, usually when one of us is in danger of being found out, a descendant, aka us with a new identity, inherits any property and investments the deceased identity left to them. I also monitor the internet for anything damning and remove it.”
“You… remove postings others upload? How is that even possible?”
Quin scoffed. “Child’s play. Hacking the pentagon? Now, that’s a challenge.”
Cassidy’s mouth fell open.
Marcus leaned in close and whispered, “You don’t want to know.”
She took a sip of her drink and nodded. Then something occurred to her. “Are you telling me, you take human women as mates and watch them age while you stay twenty-five for like ever?”
“Of course not,” Marcus was quick to exclaim. “When a shifter claims a human as a mate, if the human is older than thirty, they go through a regression of sorts where their body returns to the way they were in their mid to late twenties.”
“Pardon me for asking, but are you older than thirty?” Cade asked
“No. I’m twenty-eight.”
Cade nodded. “Then you might be out of the woods. The problem is, between your training and career, I imagine you’ve sustained a few injuries. They can be tricky during a claiming.”
She frowned. What did that mean? “Tricky?”
Seth strode from the back of the plane, answering her question as he took his seat. “Because of our unusual aging process, you might for lack of a better word, regress a few years. If that happens, your old wounds will go through a healing process that’s less than pleasant. I heard the pain ranks up there with childbirth.”
Cassidy wrinkled her nose. “That sounds like fun.”
Marcus took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “It may not sound like a barrel of laughs, but it comes with big payoffs.”
“What kind of payoffs?”
“When I claim you, you’ll receive a shifter soul.” When her lips parted to form a question, he kissed her silent. “I’ll explain that, too. Just be patient.”
When she nodded, he continued, “The shifter soul gives you the ability to change into a wolf like I do. But that’s not all. You’ll also get several other abilities. There are several that are common to all of us. You’ve already seen me shift into a wolf. What I haven’t shown you yet, is the ability to dress or undress with a thought. Although you have to actually have the clothes first. We can’t just magically create clothing that we don’t own.”
Stefan leaned in closer again. “We call it poofing. It comes in handy if you know what I mean.”
Cassidy pulled back with a sour look on her face. “That’s way more than I want to know about someone I barely know.”
Cade smacked the back of Stefan’s head, then turned to her. “Your senses of sight, smell, hearing, and taste will be exponentially stronger. Marcus can teach you how to mute those abilities, so they aren’t painful or distracting.”
Seth nodded. “Our healing gift would have been useful for you over the past decade or so. It’s a pity you didn’t have that. You’ll heal from injuries ten times faster than you do now. That speed also applies to movements. That’s why we can all move so fast when we want to.”
“We’ve already used our telepathy. What I haven’t shown you yet, is we can send caresses and emotions to each other, too.”
Cassidy’s brows rose. “Seriously?”
Marcus caressed her cheek with a thought
“Oh!” she exclaimed as she pressed her palm to the cheek he’d touched.
“The last gift is the one that is specific and to each individual shifter. We talked about our gifts when I shifted for you. When I claim you, your gift will be stronger and more manageable.”
“Really? It would be nice if I could turn my lie detector off when I want to.”
“That might be an option for you. We won’t know how the claiming effects your gift until it’s done.”
Cassidy bit her lower lip. “How is this claiming thing accomplished?”
“Here you go,” Thomas said, joining the conversation for the first time.
Cassidy accepted the piece of paper he held out and read aloud the title. “The ritual.”
“It’s fairly straight forward, but the words are important and have to be recited just right.” Thomas shrugged. “Seeing as you have a few hours of downtime to fill, I thought you might want to memorize the words so you know them when you decide to accept Marcus as your mate.”
Cassidy glanced at the sheet of paper again. “Thank you, Thomas.”
“You’re welcome.”
Cassidy first murmured the claiming ritual under her breath several times, then in her mind over and over until she could recite the words by heart. When she finally folded and tucked the paper into her pocket, the flight attendant was instructing them to take their seats and belt in. Then the plane began to circle for their landing at the Le Beau’s private airstrip.
* * * * *
Cassidy waited on the tarmac for her brother and Jamie to be brought out on stretchers. They looked far better than they had when they were hauled out of the compound, but there was still a ways to go before they were fully healed.
Her heart bloomed with emotion as she watched Marcus and his brothers handle the stretchers with incredible care. Neither she nor her brother had been given much consideration since their parents died. To see complete strangers treat her brother so tenderly brought a tear to her eye.
Cassidy blew a kiss to Colin as he and Jamie were loaded into a large van. As the back doors were closing, she mouthed, I’ll see you soon.
Marcus put his arm around her waist and guided her to the same SUV they had ridden in to reach the airstrip a mere twenty-four hours ago. “Your brother and friend are being taken to my parents’ house. There, my mother, sister-in-law, and Seth will heal them further.”
Cassidy hesitated but finally had to ask, “Do you think they’ll make a full recovery?”
“Absolutely. My mother won’t have it any other way. She’s tenacious when it comes to healing.”
“Good. How long do you think it’ll be before the boys are up and around?”
“A day, maybe two for the broken bones to completely knit.”
“Wow, that’s… fast.”
“I suppose it is. I’m so used to it, I don’t give it a second thought. Come on. You can check on them and visit for a bit before we head to our house.”
Our house. The concept gave her a warm fuzzy feeling in her belly. Could it really be her house too? Did she want it to be? If she stayed on the plantation, Colin might feel abandoned again. She’d have to talk to him about it. Hot shifter or not, her brother came first.
Cassidy tiptoed into the bedroom Colin was resting in. Though she moved silently, Colin sensed her. He always did, dang it.
“Hey, sis
.”
Cassidy smoothed his hair, leaving her hand on his shoulder. “Hey, big guy. How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good. That guy, Seth, did something on the airplane that took away most of the pain, and some women were here a minute ago. Their candles, herbs, and chanting, are freaking weird, but whatever they did, worked.”
She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Great! I hate to see you in pain. Look, I’ve been thinking about all of our stuff we left at the apartment. I think we should leave it there and replace it. Some of Jones’s followers may have survived, and they’ll be out for revenge.”
Colin’s brows pulled together. “Can we afford that and still attend college in the fall?”
“That’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about. Marcus and I are an item, and he wants me to live with him here on the plantation. He told me about a college program the Le Beau corporation offers its employees. If I continue to work part-time on their security team, I can attend free of charge. That would free up all of the money I was going to spend on my education. And if I live with Marcus, you could have that bachelor pad you’ve been talking about.”
Colin’s mouth had turned down into a frown until she mentioned a bachelor pad. “Are you serious? I could have my own place?”
“You could have your own place completely furnished with new furniture,” Cassidy amended.
“Holy mackerel! All I need is an apartment. A house would be a lot to take care of and go to school at the same time. Will you help me find one close to campus?”
“Of course! I’ll help you shop for furniture, too, if you want.”
Colin yawned, his eyelids drooping. “Thanks, sis. You’re the best.”
“You’re welcome. I better let you rest. I’ll see you later.”
“See ya,” he mumbled as he slipped off to sleep.
She tiptoed out and eased the door shut.
“Is he sleeping?”
Cassidy suppressed the squeak rising in her throat. “Emma. You scared the daylights out of me.”
“I’m sorry, cher. I didn’t mean to startle you.”