“Sorry, guys you’re not going to believe what happened.”
“Try us, mom.”
“I was at the store shopping, got everything I needed and left. When I was halfway home, I realized that I didn’t buy the steaks. Actually, I didn’t buy any meat at all. I couldn’t believe that I forgot the meat. I had to turn around and go back for tonight’s dinner.”
“Why didn’t you just come home?”
“And feed you what?”
“Mom, I don’t think you forgot the meat.” Ven moved to the windows looking outside.
“I’m telling you I forgot.”
“Camire, Ven and I eat nothing but meat. The only reason we eat vegetables is because you make them, then you give us that look that means we better eat them. There’s no way you forgot the meat on your own.”
“Ven.”
“I’m going. Keep mom safe.” He was out the door leaving Deja looking shell shocked.
Enzo walked over to her and pulled her into his arms.
“We have to be careful. I don’t know what was stalking us, but it’s still looking.”
“I’m some kind of bad ass hybrid why am I running?”
“Because every bad ass has a weakness and we don’t know what yours is.”
“You don’t have a weakness.”
“Tell that to every Kur’ik who never made it off the battlefield.”
She laid her head on his chest. He was right, and she knew it, but she was tired of running.
“Do you think we did the right thing?”
“Your best friend’s life was in danger and so was mine. We did the right thing.”
Enzo slowly rocked her from side to side making her feel secure and cherished.
“I can’t imagine my life without you.”
He took his hand and cupped her cheek smiling down at her. “Without you, I didn’t have a life.”
She smiled up at him. He always knew what to say.
“I need to get the groceries.”
He let her go and went out to the car.
“Did you find anything?”
“No, but I don’t like it. I feel like something is trained on my back watching me.”
“The same feeling you got when we were in the compound?”
“No this one is different, but it still feels deadly.”
“Do another sweep. I’ll take the groceries in the house, and then I’ll join you.”
He watched as Ven melted into his surroundings before he headed to the house.
“I think you got enough food here to feed us for a month.”
She jumped when she heard his voice. Her arms were wrapped around herself as she stared out the kitchen window.
“I may have gone overboard.” She started unpacking not looking at him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing…I,” she sighed and sat down. “Last night I dreamed I died.”
“That’s not happening I won’t lose you.” His body started to stretch as claws appeared on his hands. She stood and took his hands placing them on the side of her face.
“I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to worry you. Like you said we all have a weakness. Maybe we’re about to find out mine. Go help Ven secure the land. I’ll be here when you get back.”
“I’m not leaving your side.”
“The one thing we know is that nothing can get in here. If something attacks me, it will be too far away to get to easily. Go, I need time to think.”
He walked out the door expanding his plans to keep his mate safe.
“Declyn.” No answer, it wasn’t like him to hold a grudge why wasn’t he answering?
He walked further away from the property still calling for his Alpha. When there was no answer, he changed forms, allowing his werewolf to take over his body. The mental cry that came from him hit against a barrier. He intensified it with no results.
He mentally called Ven to him. He waited until his son changed forms and the two of them attacked the barrier that seemed to be surrounding them. Their mental cry cracked the barrier allowing their voices to slip through.
“Go check on your mother.”
“Yes, Sir.” He ran back to the house not bothering to change forms.
“Declyn?”
“Enzo? Where the hell are you?”
“I think we’re in trouble.”
“What’s happening.”
“Someone is tracking Deja. When we left the compound, we were followed, but I was never able to see the enemy. We shook them, but I think they picked up Deja’s trail when she went to get food. Hurry.”
“You never were good with details.” Declyn cut the communication.
Deja hit the floor just as Enzo was entering the house.
*~*~*~*
“You found them?”
“Enzo found me. They are right where you said they’d be.”
“What?”
“They’re in trouble, something is tracking Deja. He doesn’t know what it is or if it’s a who and not a what.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Drive faster. Caden and Xander have just arrived. They’re outside, Deja is on the floor, and neither Enzo or Ven are approaching her. They say they seem to be in communication with someone, but they aren’t close enough to hear the conversation.”
“We’ll get there in time just keep driving.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Just a feeling. I don’t think whoever has her wants to kill her immediately. He wants her to suffer. He wanted me to suffer that’s why I was still alive when you showed up.”
She went back over her conversation with Detective Baker focusing on what he didn’t say. When she was cut open her organs had been taking care of. It was as if the person doing the cutting thought he was a professional. None of that was said regarding the other females. There was no grace in what was done to them as if an artist was at work. She had gone online and listened to the reports of what happened. Each report said the same thing. Whoever had mutilated the females had done it in anger.
This time he would take care because he believed Deja was what he had searched for. A cold chill walked up her spine reminding her of what happened in Ron’s apartment. Was Ron after Deja?
The feel of Declyn’s hand on hers brought her out of her thoughts. They were parked in front of a beautiful house. It was Deja’s dream house.
She glanced at Declyn her eyes glowing with anger.
“Fire?”
“Why can’t they just leave us alone?”
“Who?”
“The world. When we were younger, we were always someone's target because we didn’t fit in. Now here we are being targeted again.” She took a big breath. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be, I think this is part of being human.”
“Let’s go save our beta.”
They walked into the house with Caden and Xander becoming visible behind them. Tristan and Cait left the car. They were each carrying a weapon in their hands.
“The doctors fight?”
“Only if they want to live.”
Declyn knocked at the door before opening it.
“Enzo?”
“In the kitchen.”
They walked into find Deja floating in the air close to the ceiling.
“Deja! What’s happening.” Fire screamed looking at her friend who was writhing in pain.
“I’m happening. If you try and touch her I swear I will kill her.” A man she had never seen before walked into the room.
“Why are you doing this?”
“You and all your alien friends think we’re stupid. I knew you existed. Did you think you could kill my sister and get away with it?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not an alien, and neither is Deja. Neither of us killed your sister, but I am sorry for your loss.”
“Shut up!” his words came from between his teeth as his brown eyes lit with a fire that made her want to take a step back.
<
br /> “There was no sorry when you tore her apart. You didn’t stop when she screamed for mercy.”
“Because I wasn’t there. I didn’t do what you're accusing me of.”
“I’ve seen the pictures you paint. I know you’re from an alien world.”
“I was born right here about two hours away.”
He raised his hand causing Deja to scream. “I bet she thought she was invincible, but your friend told me her secret. He whispered it to me at night. Told me how he spent years trying to eradicate you and your kind but you keep coming back like bad pennies. No more, I will kill every one of you until there is no chance of you taking over my planet.”
“I’m sure if your friend were here he’d tell you he wasn’t talking about us.”
He waved his hand in the air and tossed Deja’s body against a wall.
“You will want to stop that.”
“Or what? What will you do? I know you’re an alien. I might not have proved it, but I know what you are.”
“Run Fire, take everyone and go. This is my destiny.”
Safire turned her head to see Enzo, and Ven’s eyes were focused on Deja. The fury that burned there was enough to make her shake.
“They’re helpless if they move against me she’ll be dead before they touch me. Show me your other form.”
“You don’t want that.” Her voice was quiet as she contemplated his death.
“I want to see what kind of grotesque alien you are.”
There was a boiling in her stomach. Anger? Acid burned her making her want to throw up. How was she supposed to become a creature when she was human?
Give it a minute, I’ll guide you.
Could she just give him the alien voice in her head?
Deja screamed blood trickling down from the wound that appeared on her arm.
Oh hell no. No one hurt her friend. She raised blazing eyes to look at the man standing before her. Her body elongated making her several inches taller. Her hair got longer she could feel it down her back touching the base of her spine. Her nails grew anther inch or two, but nothing else happened. So much for being a bad ass.
“How dare you try and trick me. Your friend will pay the price.” He raised his hand, but Fire raised hers first.
She clutched her fist together and pulled him towards her.
“I knew it, you are an alien freak.”
“No, I’m a woman watching you torture her best friend. She’s bleeding. Do you get off on hurting women? Seeing them weak and helpless? Is that the only way you can get pleasure?”
She threw him against the wall. “Did that feel good?” He hit another wall.
“I’ll kill her.”
She focused on him not blinking. A low-level bolt of electricity went through his body disturbing his rhythm for a second. She could hear his heart fight to find the right beat.
Deja fell into Enzo’s arms.
“I’ll tell the world about you and your kind. Everyone will be hunting you down.” He lurched to his feet running for the door.
Fire looked up pain in her eyes. “Kill him.”
Ven, Xander, and Caden disappeared into their surroundings.
“He’ll never bother us again.”
“You ordered them to kill him.”
“Deja, he killed women looking for aliens. He deserved to die.”
“Safire, I’m proud of you. I always knew you were the bossy one, but you tried to pin it on me.”
She relaxed, and her body returned to normal. Laughter came out lightening the mood.
“Don’t think you're off the hook. You left and didn’t come back.”
“Have you looked around? I have my own pool and sauna; this place even has tennis courts and the bedrooms. I’m trying to figure out a way to move the compound here. I want a pool Enzo.”
“You sound fine.” She was looking at Cait who was doing an examination on her.
“She is fine. Today we all live.”
“We can’t ask for more. Your vacation is over.”
“Bossy.” She snuggled into Enzo’s arm and stared at her friend.
“You can stop being scared now, I’m okay.”
“You might not be after I holler at you.”
Declyn took her into his arms and the breath that was being held in her body slowly released. They really had survived the day.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“What happened?” They were sitting in Enzo and Deja’s living room. It was late, but no one was ready to turn in, they needed answers.
“I don’t know. I forgot the meat. That shouldn’t mean anything, but it does.”
“I erected a barrier around the house that no one should have been able to breach. He didn’t physically breach the barrier. I had to let him in after he had Deja up in the air slowly choking the life out of her. He threatened that he would kill her if I even tried to touch her.”
“How come he had so much power over mom, but couldn’t save his own life?”
“There are too many questions but not enough answers. Cait, what do you know?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“Then why all the blood test and physicals. What happened to me and am I the only one? I was fine if watching your best friend get tortured could be called fine. The next minute I was changing. I thought differently, I could hear my thoughts in English, but there was another language in my head that I understood.
“At that moment, I knew exactly what he was doing to Deja and how to stop it. It was more of an interference of what he was doing than a stopping. Now I don’t remember the details only the broad outlines.”
“It has happened to each of us. I turned into something with wings. I still refuse to name it, but until today I was sure I was a bad ass that could never be hurt. Now I know better.”
“I changed to. I shrank, how is my body physically able to get smaller in size and in height? My daughter’s life was in danger, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
“How is this possible, we’re human?”
“I have a theory, but that’s all it is.”
“Care to share it with the class?”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“I won’t share it, not now.”
“When your Alpha gives you an order, you deny her?”
“Yes, especially when I’m the Alpha’s physician. All you have to go on is my word. If I give you half-baked theories, you won’t be as willing to listen to me in the future. You can make me, I realize that. Ask yourself if you make me will I ever be willing to work for you again?”
“Cait, I’m not trying to make this a pissing contest, but we need to know what’s going on.”
“All I have is a theory, you still won’t know what’s going on. I have three human females who have all done something that shouldn’t have happened. I need hundreds more to see if the same thing will happen again but we don’t have that kind of time, but I need at least one more. If it happens with a fourth female and she matches the same criteria you all have then I’ll make my theory known.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“I go back to the drawing board, and we wait. I will tell you this. That animal you fought was an Ephant, the same one Declyn was hunting unless I missed my guess. You killed it with your Wolverine claws. My mate loves superhero movies. I think I’ve seen them all. When we went to rescue Deja, did you notice there were no claws? I did, your body changed in a totally different way. Could you be a shapeshifter with the ability to take on more than one form? I don’t know, but it is a theory.”
“Cait I’m not going to sleep tonight.”
“If you knew my other theory no one would sleep tonight.”
Fire went to speak, but Declyn shook his head. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. I have a theory too, but I want to hear Cait’s first. Tristan?”
“I like Cait’s theory, but I am considering other possibilities. She’s right though we need more evidence before we are able to present her
theory.”
“How do we find out about the man who almost killed mom?”
“We track Ron down. I doubt he’ll be leaving town.”
“What does he look like?”
“I’ll draw you a picture.” She smiled at him, he was such a good godson. “You and I will have to go to breakfast.”
“Fire, don’t you dare corrupt my son.”
“Have you ever wanted a drum set?”
“Drum set?”
“Yes, they make lots of noise, you’ll love it.”
Deja groaned, and Fire’s eyes twinkled.
“Fire whenever you need it, you can use the garage apartment.” Deja smiled and waved goodbye as they left.
*~*~*~*
Life had slowly returned to normal, and they were finally opening The Wolves Den for more than a tracking station.
“What are you wearing?”
“A skirt and a cami.”
“Maybe we should stay at home.”
“No way, we are going to the club. It feels like forever since we’ve been in there. I could always wear this dress if my skirt is too casual.” She bit her lower lip to hide her smile as she held up the dress.
“Where’s the rest of it.”
“You’re too young to act this way. I’ll stick with the skirt.”
“Every male will be looking at you.” He grumbled as they walked out the bedroom.
“I’m Alpha they are going to look at me anyway, but no one will dare touch, and you know it. Come on I want to dance, and we haven’t had a chance to continue your lessons.”
The phone rang making them both stop as Fire sighed and looked at the screen showing an unknown number.
“I just want it to be over. Hello?”
“Fire?” The voice was soft as if it was unwilling to bring attention to itself.
“Sage?”
“I need your help.”
“Where are you?”
“I’ll be in town tomorrow.” She spoke quickly telling her where to meet her.
“I’ll be there, I promise.”
“I hope.” The connection dropped.
“It’s not over.”
He pulled her into his arms. “It doesn’t matter we can deal with it. Now there is you and me together, we won’t let anything happen to our people.”
Declyn (The Wolves Den Book 3) Page 18