By the end of his rant, Percival was practically shouting and Talia anxiously watched the door hoping one of the guys would come through at any moment. Surely someone would hear him. Where were Ben and Mitch? Keep him talking, stall. “So you’re here for revenge?” That was a good question right? Bad guys like to tell all about their plans, don’t they? Talia looked over at Nico’s wide, frightened eyes and knew she would do whatever it took to keep him safe.
“No.” Percival grinned wickedly. “I am here for the ultimate revenge. I blame the high and mighty Mitch for ruining everything. Since he took everything from me, I will take what is most precious to him.”
The gleam in his eyes alerted Talia to exactly what Percival was planning as she realized he wasn’t staring at her but the baby. Shock and horror rolled through her all at once and she instantly moved toward Nico, vowing that Percival wouldn’t get his hands on either child.
“Ah, ah, ah. Like I said, this has nothing to do with you, but I will kill you if you get in my way.”
Talia froze at the sight of the gun Percival had pointed at her chest. She shifted the baby so that she wasn’t in the line of fire. “You can’t do this.” She gasped. “They’re innocent children that have nothing to do with any of this. You can’t hurt them.” Percival laughed and Talia shivered. The man was truly crazy.
“You amuse me, my dear,” Percival said as he wiped away a fake tear. “I don’t plan on hurting them. I plan on taking the children for my own. I think it’s a fair trade. Mitch took everything from me, including my daughter. It seems fitting that I return the favor. I was going to kill him, but I decided to let him live. Him knowing that I have his children and there is nothing he can do about it is the best revenge I can think of.”
Talia looked over at Nico. There was no way she was letting Percival get his evil claws into the boy. Nico was a sweet innocent little boy. She couldn’t imagine the light in his eyes being taken away and turned dark by this evil man. Come on. Come on, she chanted in her head as she looked back over to the empty doorway. “You will never get away with this. You won’t even make it out of this house before the guys stop you.”
Percival laughed. “I can do anything I damn well please and no one can stop me. I’ve been toying with you all for weeks, watching as the enforcers ran around after every single alarm I set off. I made it into the house undetected. I’m pretty sure I can make it out without a problem.”
His utter confidence in himself is what scared Talia the most. The man believed every word coming out his mouth and that made him dangerous. When he turned back around to stare at Nico, Talia moved to put the baby down so that she wouldn’t be in harm’s way when she moved to stop Percival from taking the kids. As she quickly laid the baby in her crib, it seemed like everything happened all at once. The alarm started blaring, causing Percival to lunge for Nico. Talia felt like she was moving in slow motion as she ran toward Nico, knowing that she wouldn’t get there in time. She could only watch in horror as Tiny leaped toward Percival with his claws extended.
* * * *
Ken ran through the woods making sure no one had invaded their territory, but his mind was on other things. He couldn’t seem to focus because his bear was telling him something strange was going on. Nothing was screaming outright danger, but something was nagging his bear and neither he nor Ken could figure out what it was. At first, Ken thought it was because they were missing their mates, but as he got closer to the house to see Ryan standing guard on the roof, the tension he was feeling didn’t go away. If anything, the closer he got to the house, the more his bear started nagging him. Ken could feel his fur standing on end as his bear became even more irritated.
“There is nothing out there,” he told his bear. “If someone was in our territory, we would have scented them by now.”
His bear grumbled, but he didn’t comment. If Ken had been in human form, he would have been smiling at the way his bear was pouting.
“Mighty grizzlies don’t pout.” His bear growled before pushing to take over completely.
That caught Ken off guard and he had to move fast to remain in control and not let his animal take over. “What is your problem?” he shouted. He and his bear had always lived in complete harmony, both sharing control equally. Not once in his long life had they ever fought over control until now. That made Ken take a step back and focus on what his bear was feeling.
“Finally,” his bear grumbled. “Pay attention and you will feel it, too!”
Ken took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He didn’t scent anything and his senses were telling him that no one was there, but when he opened his mind, Ken gasped. He felt exactly what his bear had been trying to tell him all along. He didn’t know how they did it, but someone had invaded their territory and was in the house. All Ken could think was that Talia was in danger. With a roar, he and his bear were again in complete harmony. They charged the house with only one thing in mind and that was taking anyone down that got too close to their mate.
Ken cringed when the alarm started screaming as he crashed through the front door, but he kept going. He could hear the pounding footsteps of the other enforcers as they went on alert from the alarm, but his focus was on one thing only, and that was tracking his mate and getting to her. Ken followed her scent up the stairs and straight to the nursery, nearly running over Ben and Mitch when they got in his way. When he made it to the door, he skid to a halt when he spotted Talia crouched over Nico in the corner. She had one hand holding his head to her chest as she covered his ears, while the other covered his eyes. Ken saw the horror in her eyes and was ready to tear anything to shreds that put that look there, but when he scanned the room to find the problem, he realized that Tiny had already beat him to it.
Ken instinctively moved into the room until he stood guard in front of his mate, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Tiny and Percival. It seemed he wasn’t the only one as the other enforcers watched with wide eyes at the door. Tiny had latched himself onto Percival’s face and held on with his back claws as he unleashed his fury with the front ones. Ken didn’t think he would ever get the sounds of Percival’s screams out of his head as the man shrieked and spun, trying to get the cat off him. It wasn’t working, and with each swipe of the large cat’s claws, strips of flesh were peeled from Percival’s face.
The insane growls coming from the cat were enough to keep everyone back for fear that he would turn on them next, so the only thing they could do was stand there and watch. Ken tried to make himself turn away, but something kept his eyes glued to the scene before him to the very end. When Percival’s screams finally died down and he dropped to his knees before falling to the floor face-first, no one moved. Ken didn’t think Mitch could get any more scared of Tiny, but as he looked over, he could see the man standing behind Tessa with his hands over her eyes. Just as much as he was shielding her from the gore, it looked like the man was using her as a human shield as well.
“I don’t know whether to run and hide, or be in awe of the cat right now.”
Ken agreed with his bear. He wanted to congratulate the cat for doing something they had been trying to do for months, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to get too close. He liked his face the way it was and didn’t need a makeover.
No one dared to move or speak as Tiny sat on Percival’s back and continued to growl low in his throat as he batted the back of the man’s head. When it was clear that his prey wasn’t going to get back up, Tiny gave one last hiss before stalking out of the room with his tail held high, leaving bloody paw prints in his wake. Mitch was the first to clear the doorway as he picked Tessa up and leaped to the other side of the room. Ken wanted to laugh at the fear clearly written on the man’s face, but he held back.
Wuss. Ken’s bear shook his head.
Ken quickly shifted and moved to let his mate out of the corner. He handed Nico over to Mitch and Tessa before pulling Talia into his arms. The feeling that had been nagging him and his bear all morning long was fin
ally gone and Ken breathed a sigh of relief that his mate was safe in his arms where she belonged.
“Are you okay?”
Talia didn’t answer, but Ken felt her head go up and down against his chest as she clung to him.
“He tried to take Nico, but Tiny stopped him. Is Tiny okay?”
Ryan snorted as he came over and covered Talia from the back. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about when it comes to that cat of yours.”
“Forget zombie,” Mitch muttered under his breath. “That thing is a demon. I think I’m traumatized for life.”
Ken and his bear silently agreed, but Ken was still thankful the cat had been there. He didn’t know what he would have done if his mate had been harmed.
“Tiny left the job unfinished. Had that been me, there would have only been pieces of Percival left if he had laid a hand on her. No one touches our mate.”
Ken ignored his bear. He knew he would be hearing “I told you so” for not listening to his bear’s warnings that something was wrong in the first place. The irritable grizzly had no intentions of letting him forget either.
“Is he dead?”
They all turned at the sound of Jacqueline’s soft voice coming from the doorway. The heavily pregnant woman stared over her mate’s shoulder as Ben tried to shield her from the sight of the man she had known as her father.
“I’m so sorry.”
The sound of his mate’s voice as she held back tears had Ken growling before he could stop himself. Before he could tell his mate that Percival didn’t deserve her tears, Jacqueline beat him to it.
“Don’t cry for him. The man was evil and he got exactly what he deserved. He destroyed so many lives because of his hatred and prejudices, including my mother’s. No one deserved what happened more than he did. I’m just glad it’s all over and we can put this nightmare behind us.”
“Come on,” Ryan whispered in Talia’s ear. “Let’s get you out of here so we can clean this mess up.”
Epilogue
“Hey, don’t be like that.”
Talia paused at the sound of Tiny’s hissing and Mitch’s muffled voice. She moved toward the cracked bathroom door, wondering if she was going to have to save Mitch from the cat. Ever since the incident with Percival, Tiny had taken it upon himself to become Nico’s very own bodyguard. Since Mitch and Tessa still refused to let Nico out of their sight, that meant Mitch and Tiny had been getting a lot of up-close-and-personal time together. It didn’t help that Mitch was still scared of the cat. Talia didn’t know if it was still because of the way Tiny looked or the way the cat took out Percival. Either way, she’d had to come to the rescue more than once.
Peeping through the crack in the door, Talia had to slap her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Mitch was wearing yellow rubber gloves pulled up to his elbows. If the sight wasn’t so funny, Talia would have wondered where he had gotten the thick black rubber apron he was currently wearing. What distracted her the most was the surgical mask covering his mouth and the plastic shield complete with head lamp covering his face. Mitch looked like he was prepared for surgery or butchering something. Talia would have been alarmed had she not seen what lined the counter next to Tiny.
“You save my son’s life. This is the least I can do so be still.”
Talia’s shoulder’s shook as she watched Tiny’s tail whip back and forth. The cat was not happy, and judging from the soaked bathroom, he had been making his displeasure known for quite a while.
“This is conditioner.” Mitch held a bottle up but quickly snatched it back when Tiny took a swipe at it. “No need to be afraid of it. It’s your friend and judging by the looks of you, you could use all the friends you can get. Use it. Love it. We’ll have your fur shining in no time. Of course, it won’t look as good as my glorious mane, but at least you have something to strive for.”
Talia watched as Mitch poured some of the conditioner on Tiny’s fur and moved to sit the bottle back on the counter before he thought twice and added more. When she was sure Tiny wasn’t going to take Mitch’s face off, she slowly backed away and headed down the hall to her bedroom and her mates.
It felt good to see Mitch attempting to get along with Tiny since she had a feeling they would be spending a lot more time together. Although she hadn’t been involved in Mitch and the other enforcer’s lives for very long, Talia didn’t want to leave. She had a feeling neither did her mates. This was their home and their family and with the threat of Percival finally gone, they had an endless future ahead of them.
Talia didn’t kid herself that there wouldn’t be any more danger out there. As long as her mates were enforcers, the danger would always be there, but Talia had learned to trust in Ken and Ryan. They were strong enough to take care of themselves and they could watch each other’s backs.
She shook her head at the grin she couldn’t hold back when she thought of her mates. Just a short time ago, she had been pretty much a shell. Mitch had called Tiny a zombie, but really, she had been one. The loss of her mate Xander had devastated Talia until the point that it had hurt to breathe without him. Now, she had two mates who had brought her out of despair. They taught her how to live again. To love and to hope for the future.
Talia opened the door to the bedroom and found her mates embraced on the bed, kissing. “That has to be my favorite sight in the whole world,” she told them as she pulled her shirt over her head and crawled between them.”
Ryan growled before pulling her on top of him. “You can see it anytime you want.”
“Until the end of time,” Ken agreed as he trailed kisses down her spine.
Talia shivered at the feel of being completely surrounded by her mates. She liked to think Xander had a hand in bringing her to her mates and thanked him every day for guiding her out of the darkness she had let herself slip into. If it wasn’t for her agreeing to take the midwife job only because Mitch had been her deceased mate’s idol, Talia didn’t think she would have survived much longer. Now she not only had one, but two mates, and a whole lot of possibilities. “I’m holding you both to that,” she got out before her mind went completely blank.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When I am not driving my son to karate, or one of the many activities that he participates in, you can find me curled up reading a romance novel, watching a movie, or writing.
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Until the End of Time [Council Enforcers 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 12