Hell Spawn: Shifter Squad 09

by J. C. Diem

  “I’m sure everyone is now satisfied that both you and Lexi are indeed supreme alphas,” Mark said. Nods came from everyone. “You can change Ranger Delgado back now.”

  Bruce transformed back into his human form. He grinned fiercely as he donned his clothing again, sans underwear. “That was a rush! I don’t know how you did it, but I remembered being a bear that time.” Usually, we didn’t remember what it was like to be in our wereforms. I’d only begun to retain my memories of shifting after I’d become bonded to Reece. As supreme alphas, it seemed we could also enable other shifters to remember what it was like to be in their wereforms.

  “It’s because he was linked to your mind,” the oracle said. “The same thing happened to me when Lexi transformed me into an eagle.”

  Reece had released Leanne from his control and she was frowning. She hadn’t truly believed that we could be stronger than her. “You’ve demonstrated that you can take over another alpha’s mind, but are you sure you can use us to break someone free from the faerie’s spell?”

  “Nope,” I replied. “But I’m Fate’s champion and she’s supposedly given me the tools I need to fight this battle. We have to at least try to rescue the shifters. I’d rather they were on our side than on our enemy’s.”

  “We have five alphas now,” Mark said.

  The oracle interrupted him. “Six,” she corrected. “There aren’t many of my kind left, but I am the equivalent of an alpha.” That explained how she was able to take over her birds.

  He inclined his head in thanks at her explanation. “We have six alphas on our team. Hopefully, they will be able to boost your power enough for you to free the captives.”

  “It is a pity you don’t have another alpha to call on,” Ava said. “It may sound superstitious, but seven is a very powerful number.”

  We did know another alpha werewolf, but contacting her was the last thing either Reece or I wanted to do. Sharing that thought, we grimaced in unison. Mark saw our exchange and knew what we were thinking. “I’d never ask either of you to approach Nina Carter. Not after what she did to you both.”

  “We don’t have the luxury of turning away any help,” I said reluctantly.

  Kala raised her hand. “I get to shoot her the moment she steps out of line.”

  Reece smiled slightly and nodded. “Done.” He felt no affection or allegiance to his mother now that he knew the entire truth of what she’d done to him as a child.

  “Yes!” she crowed in triumph. My father was taken aback, but no one else was surprised by her glee. Mark was well used to dealing with shifters, but my dad was still fairly new to all this. He didn’t really understand our bloodthirsty natures.

  “I’ll go with you this time,” Flynn offered.

  Mark had killed Nina’s husband and she’d probably shoot him on sight. Kala was just itching for an excuse to end Nina’s life. Even if he’d wanted to come with me, Reece needed to stay behind to make sure the shifters behaved themselves. I didn’t want to go alone and Flynn was an ideal choice for a companion.

  Sabine watched Flynn anxiously as he walked over to me. “You can come, too,” I offered. She smiled gratefully and hurried to join us. Several of the shifters watched her swaying walk speculatively. They knew she wasn’t human, but they had no idea what she was. They’d get one hell of a surprise if they saw her shift into her true form. She slid her arm through Flynn’s and I took us to West Virginia.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Fifteen

  We arrived at the outer edge of Nina Carter’s property. Being back here instantly dredged up some of the darkest memories of my existence. I’d once stood on this exact spot in my werewolf form as I’d contemplated killing her entire pack.

  It had been a pivotal moment for me. I’d made a choice that had ended up shaping my destiny. Instead of decimating the pack, I’d stolen Reece away from his controlling mother. I’d wanted him to suffer for the mental agony that he’d put me through by rejecting me. With revenge in mind, I’d blackmailed my own mother into feeding Reece her blood. He’d already been hovering on the edge of turning into a hybrid like me and he’d just needed that final push to transform him.

  Looking back now, if I hadn’t forced my mother to change him into the same type of creature as I was, humanity would have been doomed. Without him, I’d still be an unfeeling, uncaring monster being controlled by my mother. Instead of having no emotion like me, he’d felt every emotion with excruciating intensity. We became so alike, yet we’d reacted very differently when we’d become hybrids.

  He hadn’t believed me when I told him I didn’t love him anymore and that I wasn’t capable of the emotion. Apart from a short moment of utter despair when he’d attempted to commit suicide by sunlight, he hadn’t given up on me. He’d persisted in his pursuit of my love. I’d torn my bond free from him, but he’d still been linked to me. Reece had known that my feelings weren’t gone and that they’d just been suppressed. He’d waited for me to be asleep and had awakened my desire from its slumber. The fact that I could still want him proved that my emotions hadn’t been dead after all.

  When my mother had been killed by Viktor D’Ath, both Reece and I had gone mad from losing our master. Natalie Pierce, Fate’s warrior from another dimension of Earth, had teleported us away before we could tear our friends apart. Possessing talents that I didn’t have, she’d ripped away the barrier that I’d erected around my heart. My emotions had been freed and all of the pain and anguish that I’d felt at Reece’s abandonment had come rushing back. I’d been determined to never let him hurt me like that again.

  When he’d been mortally wounded by the Cerberus golem, I’d found myself at another crossroads. I’d been faced with the choice of either bonding myself to him again or letting him die. He’d rejected me over and over, yet I loved him so much that I couldn’t let him go and I’d chosen to save him. Only when we’d become bonded again did I realize that he’d been a puppet of Fate. I now knew that he’d loved me from the first moment that he’d seen me and that he would love me for all eternity.

  Fate had treated all of us like chess pieces, including Nina Carter. I wasn’t sure if the abuse that Nina had heaped on Reece had been her doing or if Fate had made her do it. Deep down, I knew the answer. Fate was harsh, but she wasn’t evil. Reece’s mother was just as defective as her husband had been. She’d abandoned her son when he’d needed her the most. If Mark hadn’t found him, he’d have starved to death.

  Sensing my rage at everything that Reece had suffered, Flynn put a hand on my shoulder. “We don’t have to do this, Lexi. We can leave right now if you want to.” Sabine watched me dispassionately. She wasn’t emotionless, she was simply neutral on this topic. I doubted she knew about the history we had with this pack yet. She hadn’t been with us long enough for Flynn to have told her everything.

  “I can handle it,” I replied and tried to convince myself that I was strong enough not to tear Nina’s face off like she deserved.

  One of the dogs on patrol caught our scent and began to bark. Alerted that intruders were nearby, werewolves boiled out of the main house and other buildings on the property. Within seconds, the entire pack had gathered.

  Spying me, Nina went rigid with shock and fury. Ned put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off and stalked towards us. Bearing guns openly, her pack crossed the field on her heels. Ned pulled her to a stop fifty yards away and the group automatically moved to shield her from harm.

  Pushing her way to the front again, Nina stared at me in hatred. Several inches shorter than me, she had a thin, small build and lank brown hair. Her eyes were the same shade of brown flecked with gold as Reece’s. “What do you want?” she asked tightly. She spared a short glance for Flynn and Sabine then ignored them completely.

  It didn’t surprise me at all that she didn’t ask about her only surviving son. The last time she’d seen Reece, he’d been almost feral. The vampirism in his system had been warring with his inner wolf and it had been tea
ring him apart. Knowing he was beyond her ability to control, she’d decided to end his life. The last thing I wanted to do was to ask this woman for help.

  Sensing my inner turmoil, Flynn stepped in so I didn’t have to talk to her. “Have you seen the newscasts about the towns that have been attacked by strange stone creatures, animals and zombies?”

  She nodded without taking her eyes off me. “What about it?”

  “We know who is responsible and we’re forming an army to stop him. We could use your help.”

  Her upper lip lifted in a derisive sneer, but her brother put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from speaking. “Give us a moment to talk,” Ned said. As her second in command, he was the voice of reason. The entire pack moved away until even I couldn’t hear them talking. Ned spoke to his sister and the set of her shoulders told me she wasn’t listening. Then Gloria, the buxom blond bimbo Reece was supposed to have mated with, said something to her.

  Turning to glower at me, Nina’s expression changed to a nasty smile as she contemplated whatever Gloria had just said. Striding back across the field, she came to a stop on the other side of the fence. She was standing so close that I could have reached out and touched her. “I’ll agree to help you on one condition,” she said as her pack hurried to catch up to her.

  “What condition is that?” I asked. I already knew that I wouldn’t concede to whatever it was she wanted. We were both alphas, but I was higher on the hierarchy. Even if she’d put a gun to my head, I wouldn’t have bowed to her.

  “I want you to get down on your knees and beg me for forgiveness.”

  “For what?”

  “For killing one of my sons and for taking the other one away.” Making me kneel was Gloria’s revenge. She was still pissed at me for stealing her intended mate away. Both women wanted to see me grovel and I wasn’t going to satisfy them.

  We all knew that Nina didn’t care about either of her children. She just wanted to be in a position of power over me. My werewolf surged to the fore before my vampire or necromancer could stop her. My hand moved so fast that it was just a blur as my fingers wrapped around Nina’s throat. I dragged her over the fence and the barbwire tore through her jeans and her flesh.

  Nina tried to pull her gun, but I caught her hand and held it in a crushing grip. I pulled her in close and she had to go up on her tippy-toes to avoid being strangled. My wolf wasn’t going to stand for any challenges from this creature. She knew Nina would cause problems and would do everything she could to cause me misery. I might need her power, but I didn’t need her consent to take it. Staring hard into her golden brown eyes, I pushed my will into her mind.

  Struggling against the weight of my power, her glare of defiance lasted for only a few seconds before she succumbed. Bowing her head, her shoulders sagged. “I submit to you, alpha.”

  Gasps of shock swept through her pack. Ned looked sad that it had come to this and drew Gloria behind him to protect her. I’d forced her to pick someone else to bond to before I’d taken Reece away. Ned had been her choice, even though he was much older than her. Even when my emotions had been locked away, some part of me had still wanted Reece. I’d wanted to make very sure Gloria wouldn’t try to make a play for my mate ever again.

  Flynn slanted me a doubtful look at Nina’s sudden deferential attitude, but I knew this wasn’t just an act. She was now mine to do with as I willed.

  “Time is wasting,” Sabine reminded me. “It will take several days to rescue the captives from their confinement. We need to return to the others so we can begin to execute your plan.”

  “Go and pack some belongings,” I instructed the pack. “Meet us back here in five minutes.” I had no intention of stepping foot on the property. Being this close was bringing back the memories of Reece being locked in a cell and being starved half to death. If I dwelled on that for long, Nina would end up dead and I’d have to find another alpha to help us.

  They scurried off towards the buildings as Reece spoke into my mind. I barely remember being locked in that cell. The vampirism had spread so far by then that everything that happened to me when I was imprisoned here is hazy.

  I was able to feel everything that he did and I knew he wasn’t angry with me for taking over his mother’s mind. She’d done the same to him, with Fate’s help. Nina had done everything in her power to tear us apart. She was lucky I hadn’t wrung her mind like a dishrag and left her unable to think at all. Once this war is over, promise me we’ll never have to see her ever again, I said.

  I promise. If you like, we can banish her and her pack to another country.

  Good idea. How about Antarctica?

  Are you sure that’s far enough away? His thought was dry.

  No, but they wouldn’t survive if we sent them to Mars. His mental laugh at my response sent a shiver of sexual anticipation down my spine. We hadn’t had much of an opportunity to be alone lately. I hoped that would change soon.

  The werewolves returned just under five minutes later. Nina was silent and subdued as they gathered around. I didn’t bother to explain what I was about to do. If I hadn’t needed Nina’s help, I would have left them all to die in the coming apocalypse. As far as I was concerned, they were all culpable for the abuse that Reece had suffered.

  We sank into the soil and popped up in Texas. Zeus bounded over to me as if I’d been gone for a year rather than just a few minutes. The newest arrivals looked around wildly, unsure of what had just happened. Seeing a rival pack of werewolves, Nina snarled and started towards them. “Control yourself,” I ordered and she halted in mid-step. “We’re all allies here. No one is going to attack anyone unless I say so.”

  I caught and held the eyes of every shifter who had agreed to help us. They looked to their alphas, who nodded in uneasy agreement. I’d achieved Ava’s recommendation of gathering seven alphas together. Now we just had to travel to one of the EERI compounds and see if we could free the prisoners from Kurt’s influence.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sensing my anguish at briefly returning to the place where Reece had been imprisoned, Zeus leaned against my legs. His solid weight was comforting and I bent to thump his side the way he liked best.

  “What the hell is that thing?” Gloria asked, pointing at my guardian with a shaky finger. Revealing her true nature, she hid behind Ned and peeked out from behind his shoulder.

  “It’s a Rottweiler,” Cole said as if she was an idiot. “You’re a werewolf, you should have known that.”

  “I know it’s a Rottweiler,” she said in an acidic tone. “It’s obviously escaped your notice that it isn’t breathing.”

  Reece slanted a look at me and pressed his lips together to hold in a grin. I caught his thought that he’d dodged a bullet by not becoming permanently bonded to her as his mother had intended.

  Cole and his pride apparently hadn’t taken any notice of Zeus. They now stared at him as if he was rabid. “Is it undead?” Felix asked curiously. He was the only werelion who didn’t seem to be fazed.

  “He,” I corrected him. “Zeus is a he and yes, he’s undead.”

  A babble broke out between Aiden, Nina and Cole’s people. Leanne and her bears already knew about Zeus’ transformation and stared at the other shifters smugly.

  “How could you let your dog be turned into a zombie?” Gloria asked in disgust and fear. She had no idea that I’d been the one to change him.

  “Oh, he’s much more than just a zombie,” I said with a humorless smile. “Why don’t you show them what you can do?” I said to Zeus.

  Sensing that I wanted him to shock the shifters, he gladly complied. Grinning widely, his body began to grow and to change shape. In seconds, he became a hulking creature that seemed to be shrouded in living shadow. Crimson light blazed from his eyes. Towering over even the tallest werebear, he threw his head back and howled. Deep and hollow, it almost sounded like it was coming from the far end of a long tunnel. Far in the distance, desert coyotes yipped and
bayed in response.

  Bruce Delgado gave a booming laugh, startling some of the wolves and lions into almost fleeing. “Now that is a hell of a dog!” he said and strode forward to stand in front of Zeus. My guardian lowered his head and allowed the ranger to pat him.

  “Actually, Zeus is a wraith hound,” Ava said in correction. “A hell hound is a very different creature altogether.”

  With his job of scaring everyone completed, Zeus melted back to his usual size and lost his frightening appearance. He’d earned the fear and respect of our allies. Now that they knew what he could turn into, they’d have even more reason not to annoy me.

  “Now that we have seven alphas, we should decide which of the EERI bases we’re going to target first,” my father said to get us back on track.

  “I need coffee before we go on a rescue mission,” Kala declared.

  Flynn peered inside the oracle’s cave dubiously. “I’m pretty sure we’re not going to find any here.”

  “Well, excuse me for not having an espresso machine,” the oracle said sourly. “I guess I must have forgotten to pay the electric bill, too.” She didn’t seem as crazy as she’d been when we’d first met. Maybe being around other people was forcing her to remember how to communicate. She definitely had a firm grasp on sarcasm.

  Kala managed to control herself for a few seconds before she broke down and sniggered.

  Rick shook his head and turned to his alpha. “These are the people who are meant to save the world?”

  “Hard to believe, isn’t it?” Aiden replied.

  “We could use my mansion as a base,” Cole offered. Kala instantly scowled and my father didn’t look particularly happy about it either. He was one short step away from killing the rex now that he knew what he’d done to Kala. Having the bevy of mindless female felines following Cole around wasn’t gaining him any popularity with anyone.