by Hazel Gower
“Does everything in your room need to come when we pack up?”
Turning to Rane, she shook her head. “No. Don’t forget that you said I could leave your house if you stuff up. If I move everything and we pay the lease out, where will I go if you do?”
“You can always stay with Kane and Faith. You can never come back here though, because it’s too dangerous, I won’t let you risk it. Can you imagine what would happen if they found you?”
She gasped and took a step back.
Rane swore and came to her. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I need you.”
He pulled her up so he could kiss her. His kiss started out sweet, but as his hands moved down he cupped her arse. They were interrupted by the phone as it rang and rang until she couldn’t ignore it any longer.
Letting go of Rane, she told him to chuck all of her clothes into the boxes and she would sort them out later. Kirby answered the phone, knowing it would be her parents. “Hi, Mum.”
“What’s this about you meeting a man and not telling us, me? Of all things.” She groaned, as her mother continued. “Tell me you’re not moving in with him? Your brothers said nothing. Really, all I got was ‘yes, Mum, she is seeing someone. Yes, it is serious. I don’t know why she didn’t tell you, Mum.’ So what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?”
Kirby sighed. She had never lied to her mother…well, the odd little blaming things she did on her brothers didn’t count, so really, she never had lied, and she wasn’t about to start now. She knew if she said even one thing that didn’t sound right they would be down here ASAP, so instead she said, “Mum, I really can’t explain everything over the phone. Please be patient, I’ll tell you everything on Saturday.”
Kirby rattled off Rane’s address and phone number to make sure they were the same ones her mother had. She told her mum that she would speak to her tomorrow and assured her that everything was fine. An hour and a half later her mother hung up, very reluctantly.
Kirby turned to find Rane with eight boxes packed and stacked. “I haven’t packed anything breakable, because I know how you women are about that.”
Raising her eyebrow at the last comment, she added, “You women, really.”
He put his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. My sister Ava can help you with the rest. I spoke to her while you were on the phone.”
“Yeah sure, Ava seems really nice.”
Rane looked miserable. He looked like an animal locked in a cage.
“Bored, aren’t you?” she asked.
He grimaced and walked toward her. “There is other stuff that I would rather be doing, and this place is so tiny I’m starting to get claustrophobic.”
She dodged his hands. “Don’t start that or we’ll never get back to your house.”
He grunted and picked up four boxes like they didn’t weigh a thing and walked out of the door. “Make sure I got everything.”
* * * *
They arrived back at Rane’s, unpacked, and were sitting on the lounge, cuddling and talking.
“How on earth are you going to have this house ready by Saturday?” Kirby asked. “The upstairs is just a shell with a roof.”
Rane shrugged. “I’ll have all the wolves pitching in. One of the best things about being in a pack is that there are always multiple people who have skills that you need. Most of us don’t start in the enforcers full time until we’re in our late forties, but some decide to do it earlier, it’s their choice. We don’t need as much sleep as humans. About four or five hours is all we need, unless we’re hurt, and then we need more. Because of this most of us work and do enforcers as well. The mated werewolves are always given first choice of what jobs they want to do.”
Kirby frowned. “That really doesn’t sound fair, that means the unmated do more work than the mated males.”
Rane shook his head as he continued. “Remember that we live a lot longer than humans and need a lot less sleep, so we rack up quite a bit of time. Most are not as lucky as me—they don’t find their mates until a lot later in life. We also have a pack fund which helps everyone. When we pass onto the next life we leave a quarter of our money to the pack, and the rest gets divided between the family. Now, we are a new pack—we only started about thirty years ago—so it will take us some time to build up to where we want to be.”
She nodded against his chest. “I suppose, but why so many different jobs?”
“We age so slowly that if we stay in the same job too long people start to notice, so we try to break up our long life. For example, Tray was a carpenter for twenty-three years. He even had his own company, but because he’d been doing it so long and never aged, he had to give it a rest and let someone else take over for a while. Tray is currently, and will probably be for the next couple of years, a full time enforcer. Then he will either go back to being a carpenter or start a new profession. Now that Tray has Sara, he could cut back and do part time, just work in the mines. He could probably have a rest from enforcer altogether, since he is newly mated.” Rane stopped talking, looked at Kirby, and asked, “Would you like me to retire from the military and become a part time enforcer or take a rest from it all for a while?”
Kirby frowned at him, surprised he would ask. “What do you want to do?”
“I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to be worrying about me, not liking what I do.”
“I am proud of what you do to save our world.” She kissed his nose and both cheeks before giving him a light kiss on the lips. “I also think it helps having brothers who are in the military.”
He smiled as she took his lips to hers again. “I’m so lucky to have you, little red.”
Chapter 9
Rane had two days to get the humans ready before he paired them with a group of werewolves for the raid on Thursday. This would be their first underground raid of a demon stronghold, and he needed them trained to save the demons’ hostages.
Arriving at the military compound, he knew that he had to deal with Kirby’s brothers first before he had to focus on his other major issues. Finding them in the gym, he smiled as he saw the worry on both of their faces.
“Follow me.” He walked to his office.
In his office, he turned to them. They stood at attention.
“At ease. I know you’re not happy about your baby sister being my mate, but I really don’t give a shit what either of you think. The only person I care about is Kirby. Because she cares for you, I’ll give you a couple of options. One—suck it up, or quit. Two—start trouble, and I don’t advise this, because you would be surprised at what us animals can get away with. Or three—and this is the one I recommend—be happy for your sister and accept us werewolves into your family. If you choose the last one, there will be lots of benefits.” He stared at both of them directly in the eyes. “What’s your choice?”
They both stared at him, and it was Hayden who spoke first. “I’ll choose number three.”
“Welcome to the family.”
“You better not hurt our sister, or you will be surprised at what we will do.”
Rane smiled, showing his sharp teeth, and nodded, giving his full attention to Logan. “What about you, Lieutenant?”
Logan frowned. “I suppose I’m on the same page as Hayden.”
Rane nodded. “I’ll see you at my house this weekend. You’re both dismissed.”
They nodded and walked out.
As they were leaving, Rane added, “Lieutenant Logan, you will need to be ready tonight, you’ll be with my patrol.”
Logan nodded again and walked away. Rane breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t perfect, but it had gone better than he’d expected.
He called all of the werewolves together so he could relay of the information that he hadn’t gotten a chance to tell them yesterday. Eight werewolves squeezed into his office. After he had explained and told them all the important things, Tray was the first to speak up. “Fifty more men are w
ay too many, Rane. Fifteen is way too much. We’re struggling with the six we were initially sent, which is now only five. Yesterday we had another six arrive. We are too small a pack to handle this.”
Rane sighed. “I said that. Their reply was they are calling most of our werewolves back from missions and so on. Which at the moment is only eight, but there are ten more werewolves coming from England’s packs, they’re going to be given citizenship on entry. They should arrive in a day or two, just in time for Thursday’s rescue and destroy mission on the underground demon hold. It has taken us three months to get ready for that, and I’m still not sure we are. Not for a place like that.”
His brother Kane came into the room. “You’re going to have the humans practicing tonight. They’re going to have to be thrown into the deep end. If we use all werewolves and do shifts of four to five hours hopefully we’ll be ready for Thursday. I need them to know what they’re getting into and what they’re up against.”
Rane looked at them all, not keen to tell them the next lot of info Faith had said. “Mates that have gifts can now be used against the pack, so if the demons capture mates, if they don’t kill them, they can train them to use their powers against us. Faith says it’s one of the reasons the demons are taking all of the paranormal humans, they are not chancing any of them not being our mates. We need to find as many mates as we can before the demons do, and rescue the ones they already have.”
Just as he thought it would, his comment caused mayhem.
“Tonight at eight-thirty Sandra will start teaching self-defense fighting classes for all of the women we have saved, and any willing to join in. Faith will be here to observe Sandra’s teaching skills.” Rane sighed. “Speaking of the devil…” Before he could continue talking, Faith, Jamie, and Ben came in.
Faith smiled at everyone. Ignoring their chatter, she said, “Ah, I see I’ve come just in time. Yes, self-defense classes tonight for the women. I’ve come to tell you some good news, hoping it will pick up your spirits. By the end of the year over half of you will have mates, and all of them will be joining my classes.”
All the werewolves talked at once again. Faith held up her hands just as Kane told everyone to be quiet. Kane looked at Tray and him. Rane got a sinking feeling as his brother spoke.
“Tray, Rane, your mates have to practice because they’re coming with us on Thursday.”
Both he and Tray growled. “No fucking way. Our mates are not going into that much danger. There is no way they could be ready, no way are they going to demon central. No.”
Faith glared at them both. “You don’t have a choice. We’ve gotten them the next three days off work, and you need to get them ready. Kirby and Sara are quick learners. Remy is getting better, but she won’t be one hundred percent until Arden gets here. The girls will come with us on Thursday, no arguments.”
Rane gritted his teeth as Kane stepped forward. “Group one will be Faith and I, Jamie, Tray, Sara, Rane, Kirby, and Cullen. David and Alex have been moved up from the beginners. I know they’re only eighteen and nineteen, but trust me, they are ready.” Rane raised his eyebrow at his brother who nodded and added, “I’ve seen them, they really are ready. Four others are ready to move up too. Nathan, Jacob, Matthew, and Robert. I’ve told them to report to you and Blake. They should be here in about two hours. We need all the help we can get.”
Faith rolled her eyes. “I told you they were ready.”
Everyone groaned as Faith went into a trance for a minute. When she came out of the trance she said, “Wrath needs to come tonight.”
Rane shook his head. Wrath was nighty-eight years old, without a mate, and too reckless. They were all scared they were going to lose him. Usually a werewolf didn’t last past ninety without a mate, and definitely not past one hundred.
Faith glared at him. “You need to stop shaking your head. I just had a vision, and trust me, you’re going to want to bring him with us tonight.”
As he looked at Faith the whole room seemed to sigh in relief—their friend would be all right and would have a mate to help heal his soul. They hated losing one of their own. Faith started to walk out of the door then she stopped, turned, and smiled.
“Oh, I almost forgot, good idea, Rane, about Logan being on your team. Also, Bengie is going to start training with the new recruits. They need to see what kind of strength they’re up against.” As she passed him, Faith gripped his hand and went into another trance, smiling when she came out of it. “Oh, this will be good. I’ll meet with the head women of the pack to talk about organizing a school and better facilities, that way the fifty new recruits will eventually be able to move their families here.” Clapping her hands together, she rushed out of the door.
Kane shook his head before he turned to Rane and patted him on the back. “I have been told by Dad that I’ll be here tonight to help with the recruits. Tonight I will show them no mercy. Rane, I want you to pull the cockiest one out of the bunch.” Kane chuckled. “Faith is going to show him something, so bring him over as soon as Faith has finished the self-defense class.” All of the werewolves laughed as he turned and walked after his mate.
Turning to the rest of the werewolves, Rane stated, “Training for an hour, and then I want them to have rest time, after that I want them to meet Kane and I.” He turned to Devlin. “I want Hayden with you, Devlin. No mercy, let’s see what he can do.”
Devlin nodded, adding, “Those brothers of hers have high potential. I can tell you that from what I have seen.” He chuckled. “It will be Logan who gets his arse kicked by Faith.” They all laughed again and went off to their duties.
* * * *
Kirby arrived at Rane’s at seven-fifty, surprised to see the exterior of the house almost finished. The door opened before she got to it, and Rane stood in the doorway in his uniform. Mmm, men in uniform.
“What do you think? I told you I would have it ready by Friday.”
She grinned at him. “Wow, I didn’t know it could happen so quickly. The finished product will be beautiful.”
He pulled her into his arms, lifted her up, and kissed her.
Loving his taste, she moaned into his mouth. “I could really get used to this.”
He pulled away, asking her how her afternoon had been. She walked inside with him, sat on the lounge, and told him all about her day. He hugged her as she finished off saying, “It will be nice to have a long weekend, although Faith told me what it’s all going to be about tonight and the next couple of nights. I will be learning and helping. I’m so happy. This is going to be so exciting. This time I’m going to hold off all the minions.”
It took Kirby a while to realize that Rane had stiffened under her. She looked into a hard, angry face. Sighing, she elbowed him. “What?”
Kissing her forehead, he murmured, “To tell you the truth, I really don’t like you being involved in all of this. I don’t want you in harm’s way. I’m not happy with Faith right now. She’s had training since she was six years old, but you haven’t even been doing this for a week.”
Kirby gritted her teeth and frowned. “I’ve been excited about helping. I thought you would be proud. For once in my life I feel useful.”
This time he kissed her lips. “I don’t like you in harm’s way, and your brother will be there and I don’t want him thinking I’m deliberately putting you in danger.”
Kirby turned to straddle his lap. “I didn’t think you cared what they thought, only what I think. Let me help, I really need to help. Please.” She kissed him, and he groaned, pulling her closer.
“I hate agreeing to this, and I wish we had time to talk more about this, but it will have to wait until later.”
They left the house, and five minutes later they arrived at the military compound for the self-defense classes. Rane kissed her and walked away. Smiling, Kirby turned to see twelve women, including Sara and Faith.
Faith smiled. “Now we can start. Remy would be so upset that she’s missing this, but at least she can move no
w.” Faith nodded and then turned to everyone. “We’re going to do basic moves to start with, and then we’re going to progress on. Three nights a week we will be doing this class.” She looked at Sara and Kirby and said, “You two lucky ladies will be doing it every day. You are even lucky enough to be coming on Thursday’s rescue mission.”
Kirby smiled. It felt so good to be useful.
* * * *
Rane found everyone in the training yard. Kane was running all the recruits hard. He watched as all of the werewolves conversed about the good and the weaknesses they saw.
Forty minutes later Kane brought them in with a wicked grin on his face; it got wider as they came to the group of women. Faith, Sara, and Kirby came toward them, and Kane turned to the panting men. “What I have just put you through is child’s play, but I will reluctantly say that there were a couple of men who stuck out, and I see a lot of potential. I’m going to reward you.”
Kane turned to Faith and she came forward, all five-three, fifty kg of her, and stood next to Kane. She wore tight, leather pants and a matching top. Kane growled at the men as most of their eyes bugged out at the sight of Faith, and Rane laughed.
“Lieutenant Logan and Lieutenant Lance were by far the leaders of this pitiful group, but you two are still not up to scratch, and to prove this, so you don’t get too cocky while you’re out, Faith is going to bring both of you two to the ground. Now, I will tell you she is human with a bit of enhancement, nothing that should stop you two though, she is not military trained. She is what you would call werewolf trained.”
Rane watched as Logan’s and Lance’s smiles became huge, especially as Kane continued on. “If you two can beat her I will give you two days off, and apologize for doubting you.” Kane turned to Faith and smiled. “Faith will even agree not to go for the family jewels.”
Faith smiled and stepped into the fighting ring that had been made.
Kirby moved over to Rane, pulling him down so she could whisper in his ear. “I’m not sure that this is a good idea. I don’t like the look on my brother’s face.”