by Hazel Gower
“I have a name.” She jumped up and down, filled with excitement. “Hope. My name is Hope.”
“So, no more Pet?” Griffen raised a brow.
She shook her head. “Nope. No more of the slave name,” she growled.
She’d been reading. It was one of her favorite things to do. At first she didn’t really know how to read. She’d only had visions of words here and there, knowing what they meant. Griffen had been so patient with teaching her. She was lucky she was a fast learner.
But there was something though she just couldn’t get the hang of…the internet. It never looked up what she wanted, or it seemed to short-circuit and stop working. Even Griffen didn’t understand why it never worked right for her.
Griffen came to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, gathering her into his embrace. “Hope.” He gazed down at her face, and his eyes shone with happiness, which told her that she’d chosen the right name. “It suits you. You are my hope.”
Beaming up at him, she felt her heart pitter-patter. Love—this was new to her, and she loved being in love. Ha, she laughed. That wasn’t something she did before meeting Griffen...laughing. The two L words—love and laughter.
“Thank you,” she said. “You are more than just hope for me. You’ve given me things I never even dreamed of.”
* * * *
Hope
She was going to the movies and a restaurant. Hope was so excited. She was going on a date with Griffen. It was not only her first date, but her first time to the cinemas and a restaurant. She’d watched movies on the huge TV Griffen had at his...their house, but she’d been told it wasn’t the same feeling as going to the movies.
Hope didn’t get in the car very often. She and Griffen walk everywhere and stayed close to their home. She online shopped for most things, or more accurately, Ava and Remy bought what she needed as the internet stopped working when she was around. This was her first real ride in a car, since she didn’t count the time when they found her.
It was a nice car—slick, black, and what she was told was a sporty look. The drive to the waterfront restaurant wasn’t a long one, and they listened to Lifehouse, which was one of Griffen’s favorite bands. Hope liked the music, and they didn’t talk while he drove, but she didn’t mind, her gaze was focused on their surroundings. She had only ‘seen’ most of the world through her visions, it was different seeing it in the here and now as it passed her by.
When they made it to the city, Hope was glad he reduced his speed so she could get a better look. Everything was so close together, and as they slowed toward the beach she noticed the hive of activity. Street vendors, lots of people strolling along in different states of dress, lines starting for cafés, restaurants, and bars.
Griffen parked on a side street and came around and opened her door and helped her out of the car. He kept a hold of her hand as they walked along the busy streets. Hope gripped his hand tightly and took deep, calming breaths. She’d never been around this many people without knowing any of them.
She’d been to Remy’s wedding, but she’d been surrounded by Griffen’s family and people she knew. They might be people who weren’t that fond of her, but she still had ‘seen’ them or actually seen them in person at Griffen’s house. This was new though; she hadn’t ‘seen’ these people. This was also the furthest they’d been from her new home since she had been saved from the demons.
She put all her concentration on staying human and not letting herself change. She focused on her mate and the knowledge that he was taking her out and treating her like a real mate.
“Thank you,” she murmured, not loud enough for the passersby to hear, but enough for his wolf hearing.
He squeezed her hand. “There is no need to thank me. You’re my mate. I need to woo you, and…” He winked. “I was going stir-crazy not leaving our little town.”
“I like the idea of wooing. So, what else is involved in wooing me?” Hope raised her brow as she darted a look at him. He guided them around the people, making sure she didn’t knock into or touch anyone.
“Lots of walks and talking. Movies, dinners, and even watching some chick flixs that I normally wouldn’t go near but suffer through to make you happy. Cooking you dinner, and formally introducing you to all my family and bragging to them about you.”
Hope laughed as he’d stated everything he intended to do. “I think meeting your family and bragging might be a bit hard as I’ve already met most of them. I’m not too sure what you’d have to brag about either.”
She wasn’t human. She wasn’t even a shifter. Sure, she had some good qualities like being able to tell them a lot about the demons, and she supposed her chameleon could come in handy if they needed a spy maybe, and if she trained, but other than that she couldn’t think of much else for him to brag about.
He guided her to a line for a restaurant that had an upstairs and down. The tables all looked full. “Don’t sell yourself short. There is plenty to brag about you. For one, you have given us life-saving information on the demons. I learned...” He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “...that I’m just as much an alien to Earth as you.”
Hope turned to him and brushed her hair with her fingers, making sure it hid her ears. “You were born here, and so were your parents. So that makes you an Earther. Like our children will be.” She muttered the last bit, unsure if they ever would get what she hoped for…children. He hadn’t had sex with her. They still didn’t sleep in the same bed.
“Children? You want them? I mean, we can have children?”
His voice rose, and the people in front of them turned to stare at them. She could feel the ones behind them staring as well. She clenched her teeth, closed her eyes, and concentrated on staying the way she was…in human form.
Griffen groaned loudly, and he lowered his voice so only she could hear. “I’m stupid. Sorry. You said that we could have children.”
Hope shook her head. “No. I said humans can have children with almost any species. Remember, you’re not human. I’m hoping, because you’re my mate, that means we’re a match to be able to have children.” Hope stared into his light blue eyes. She reached up with the hand not gripping his and brushed his hair over toward his ear. “All I have ever wanted was a family of my own. From the moment I saw you, I started to hope, to dream, to pray, that I got to have a life with you, that I got to have a family like the ones I saw your brothers, sisters, and friends have. I wanted to be loved. I wanted to give as much love as my whole being would let me.”
“Oh, Hope. I’m happy to try and give you as many children as you want, but you don’t need them to have beings that love you. You know my family is growing to feel that for you now.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers, lingering when he spoke. “I am falling too.”
She felt hope swell within her, and she knew she was already in love with Griffen. She’d been in love with him for years, after seeing everything he’d done, and she fell more every time she had a vision of him. She was ecstatic that he was starting to fall in love with her.
A waiter holding an iPad cleared his throat. “Sir, ma’am, did you have a booking, and if so, what name would it be under?”
Griffen had a booking, and because of that they got in and were guided to a table located on the top balcony. It had a stunning view of the ocean at night. She gazed out at the water, watching the waves crash to the shore.
Griffen leaned over and used the tips of his fingers under her chin and turned her head to face him. “I love watching you experience all these new-to-you things.” His hand dropped, but his smile stayed in place. “I want to experience all these firsts with you.”
Her heartbeat skyrocketed, and she knew that in this moment she couldn’t love Griffen any more than she already did. He was her dream man, and she was lucky to have him. Reaching over, she grabbed his face and leaned in and kissed him.
“Thank you for this. Thank you for wanting to give me all the firsts.” She let go of him and leaned b
ack in her seat, beaming at him.
“Sir, ma’am, I’m Jeffery, and I’ll be your waiter tonight. Here are today’s specials.”
Hope looked down at the menu on the table and the extra gold-and-white paper with the specials on it, and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She was on her first date and at a fancy restaurant. She was living her life. She was being normal.
* * * *
Dinner had been amazing, and everyone had been right—going to the movies was so much better than watching it at home. Now they were walking along the beach. The perfect ending to the perfect night. She held the sandals Remy and Ava had made her wear.
“I know what we haven’t done…basics.” Griffen stopped and faced her.
“What do you mean basics?” She had no idea what he was talking about.
He started walking again and pulled her along for a moment before she fell into step beside him. “Basics. You know, like favorite color, food, and animal.”
Hope didn’t know why it would be basic to know her favorite animal or food, but she shrugged. “I like blue. Light crystal water blue. Your eyes go that light color when you look at me sometimes.” She spotted a red tinge touch his cheeks before a grin spread over his face. “Food. I love anything you cook me. I didn’t get much food from the demons, and the food I did get wasn’t very tasty. Animals. Well, I know of a lot of different ones. I even know of animals from other worlds, but I never actually saw any of those.” She shrugged. “I don’t have a favorite. Do you?”
They kept walking and passed by other couples, and even a dog or two on leads, but she didn’t pay them much attention, all her focus was on Griffen.
“Well, you should guess what my favorite animal is…” He stopped, turned her to face him, and winked. “Wolves.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
She giggled, and they sat on the sand. She placed the sandals on the sand between her legs. “I should have thought of that. Well, wolves are my favorite too. White ones, with light blue eyes.”
His arm settled around her waist. He leaned in and tucked her hair behind her ear, kissed its pointed tip, and then placed the hair back over it. “Gold is a favorite color of mine—rich, bright gold with a tinge of yellow slashed through it.”
Hope lost control of her skin color for a moment as his words penetrated. She gazed at him, and she knew her eyes, which she changed to a light brown when she looked human, flashed to her true gold color. His chuckle was music to her ears. In the months since meeting her, with all the drama that had happened, he hadn’t laughed much.
“I like that you lose control,” he said. “It gives me a tell. You never did it before.”
“It’s harder now that I gave Faith what she needed. It takes concentration and energy to stay in human form.”
His hand was stroking her back, but it paused at her words. “You’ve never said anything. You don’t always have to be like this. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged. “At first I didn’t know how giving what I had to Faith would affect me. Then when I did, I didn’t want people uncomfortable with me.”
His stroking of her back continued. “I hope I’m not lumped in with those people. I’m your mate.”
She darted a look around her, making sure she wasn’t being watched as she kept her human skin. “How about, I’ll be me at home?”
Hope watched him as his gaze seemed to search hers and his teeth nibbled on his bottom lip in thought. “I understand around here, and places where people don’t know what you are, that you can’t be yourself, but I want you to let go at our home and even at my family’s. They are safe places. Shifters will understand. We have two forms. You shouldn’t have to hide who you are.” He groaned. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Remy is right. Now that I’m used to it, what you can do is really cool.”
Her heart soared, and she leaned against Griffen. She was starting to be accepted. Maybe, just maybe, everything would work out how she’d dreamed.
Chapter 5
Griffen
Hope had come out of her shell. She had become a social butterfly, visiting with all Griffen’s sister-in-laws and their friends. She loved Braydon, Ryland, and all the other babies in the pack, and the children adored her. Hope had a magical effect on them. She could get them to sleep when some of the mothers were ready to pull their hair out. People were slowly becoming more comfortable with her.
Everyone had been training hard, and they were all cautious and worried because the demons and their minions had been silent. They’d like to think that the demons had retreated after their last attack, but from what they’d learned from Hope and what Faith had ‘seen’ they knew they hadn’t.
The guards that walked the outside perimeter of the town had come across some of the demons’ zombies, but they hadn’t entered the town or gotten any information from them. The guards had disposed of them. Once the demons turned the humans into slave zombies, they were lost and couldn’t be turned back or saved. They had tried, but hadn’t found anything that worked to turn them back to humans.
Now that they knew what the demons were up to, they had a plan. The problem was there weren’t enough shifters for what they needed. And with the humans being able to be turned to zombies if they were taken by demons, having them guard the scientists and other people who knew about technology and making more machines would be risky.
More human military had arrived for them to train, and it was spreading them thin. Griffen had been away from training, at first with getting Hope settled, and then when she’d revealed herself, but now he was back at the compound, helping his brothers and friends train the human military. Ava was too pregnant to train the women, and Sandra was too. So his mother was training the women. His youngest sisters, Josie and Emma, weren’t happy about that. Mum was tough on them, where Ava and Sandra had given them a little leeway and let them be teenagers.
He and the other shifters had been setting tasks for the humans that were getting harder and harder. He knew they’d never be able to hunt demons on their own, but they were getting better. It was the new recruits that he hated training. They had a bunch of them, and when the humans first arrived there, they were always so cocky.
Growling as he resisted the urge to put down one of the new recruits he was working with, he looked over at Grayson, who looked like he wanted to do the same. The new recruit, Dillan Hancock, was a dick with a capital D. He had finished the new course first and left everyone else a good five minutes behind him, but Dillan was a dick because after being there for a week he hadn’t figured out that they were only as strong as their weakest link and they needed to work together as a unit to win against the demons. They had to work as a well-oiled team. The humans had promised they were only sending the best of every military division, but right now Griffen wasn’t sure of that.
“I wish Ava wasn’t so pregnant, so she could show these arseholes what they were missing.” Grayson groaned, as Dillan smirked at them as he stretched and ran on the spot to keep his body heat up.
That was another thing the humans sucked at—they couldn’t control their body heat. The nights were getting colder, and the new leather uniforms the humans had to wear weren’t as warm as their military wear.
Griffen raised his brow as an idea formed in his mind. He wondered if Hope would be up for helping them out. The first day the humans arrived they showed them their shifter forms so they knew what they were up against and what they were in for. They then gave the new recruits twenty-four hours to sort through everything they’d learned before they started their training. These new men though were cockier than a lot of the recruits they’d gotten, maybe even more than Logan, and he was Ava’s human mate.
Speaking of the devil, Logan came strutting over. He liked his new uniform, and unfortunately, they knew why. Ava had made it known how well she liked her mate in it, and Logan, being a dick, boasted about it. He already strutted around like a cocky shit, because he thought his sperm was super as he’d knocked up Ava w
ith triplets.
“What up, bitches?” Logan’s smirk spread wider when both Griffen and Grayson growled. Logan knew how much Griffen hated being called a female dog.
“Shut the fuck up, Logan,” Grayson snarled. “I’m feline, not a fucking female wolf or dog, and I can kick your sorry arse. Leopards are the best shifters.”
Logan dramatically rolled his eyes Griffen’s way. “You could try.” He winked at him. “Tell him how Ava would kick his kitty away.”
Sighing when Grayson snapped his shifting face at Logan, Griffen whacked both men. “Stop fucking around. We don’t have time for this shit. There is no way I’m taking these new recruits out any time soon, and we fucking need everyone and can’t afford to spend six months training them like we did with your lazy arse, Logan.”
Logan ignored his dig, but his smirk slipped to a frown as he studied the new recruits and the course they were doing. Another three men had completed the course, and they were running in place like Dillan, which was helping them stay warm.
“How long have they been here?” Logan jerked his head toward the course.
“A little over a week.” Griffen raised his brow. “Are you humans bullshitting us and not sending us the best?”
Logan’s gaze darted from the four men who’d finished the course to the other six who were almost done but finishing more as a group. He sized up every man before focusing back on Griffen. “If you’d asked me that before I met Ava, I would have said absolutely, but now I’m not so sure. The threat is real, and if this is what they’re doing after a week, I’m not liking our odds.” Logan looked around at the other groups. “I hate to say this and do this to Bengie, but they need to see him.” Logan caught Griffen’s gaze, and Griffen wasn’t sure he would like what Logan was going to say next. “We need to show them Pe—”
“Hope,” Griffen cut him off.