by Leia Stone
I gave him a glare. “Hell no. When do we leave?”
He smiled. “In a few hours. I have a private plane waiting and I’m firming up some details with the council and some other packs.”
Other packs? Whoa. Looks like we were in for some excitement.
Mexico
Seattle sent twenty of their wolves. We brought forty. We all made our way in a caravan of rented cars from the airport. We stopped at a gas station in Tucson, Arizona to meet with the local pack there. Tucson was close to Nogales, Mexico, the biggest heroin drug entry point in the US.
A dozen bikers rolled into the parking lot just as we exited our cars. A tall, slender woman jumped off her bike and shook out her long red hair. Her arms were littered with tattoos of skulls and roses. She wore cut-off jean shorts that showcased her long, muscular legs. A few bigger boys walked behind her. She kept my gaze but smiled. She was an Alpha. I could tell.
“You must be Aurora?” She hugged me. She smelled like motor oil and sandalwood. I returned the hug, taken aback.
“I’m Katerina. It’s an honor to meet you. We dominant women gotta stick together.” She winked.
I smiled, immediately liking her.
Max huffed beside me. “You’re still a raging feminist, Kat.”
She grinned and gave Max and big hug. “And you’re still just a piece of eye candy.”
He shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”
I laughed.
Kat gave Shamus a big hug. “How’s Petra? Still acting like she’s been on her period for ten years?”
My mouth dropped open, but Shamus shook his head, smiling. “It’s good to see you, Kat. And your trash-talking mouth, nothing changes.”
She smiled and then tipped her head to Kai. “Kai.”
Kai nodded back to her. “Kat.”
Something passed between them. Why wasn’t she hugging him? Did they date? Ugh. I didn’t want to know. Clearly they all knew each other. How many exes did my mate have?
“My second, Donny boy.” She gestured to the big brute beside her with black hair and neck tattoos.
“She’s kidding. If you call me Donny boy we will have problems. I go by D.”
Kai smirked at D and shook his hand. “I’m Kai. Aurora, my mate, is my second. This is Max, my third.”
I heard Max growl softly behind me.
Kat winked at me. “Takes men’s egos a little longer to recover than ours.” She gestured to Max.
“Hah! Like that time I beat you in arm wrestling? You sulked for a week,” Max told her.
‘Were you guys all pack?’ I asked Kai.
‘Yes, in Utah. Ages ago.’
She scanned the group of wolves behind us and lowered her voice. “Kai, since you called me, I have had some of my wolves watching the border.”
Kai and I leaned in. Shamus, Max, and D huddled around us.
“You won’t believe it,” she exclaimed. “The border workers are vampires.”
The collective curse word was comedic. “Not all of them, but enough to get a shit ton of drugs through,” Kat told us.
Kai’s eyes went yellow. “The vampires need to be crippled. It’s time we take a stand.”
Shamus nodded. “Agreed.”
Kai looked at Kat. “This is your territory. We won’t wage vampire war here and bring heat on your pack without your permission.”
Kat nodded her head. “Two days ago, my biggest problem was Phoenix pack trying to inch into our territory. Now that I know about the vampires seizing the borders, bringing drugs into our country to pump it into teenagers and bleed them dry, well let’s just say, agreed.”
Max had a gleam in his eye. “Well, that settles it. Please tell me we will be blowing something up tonight.”
Kat winked at him. “You know me.”
We had a plan and I was in position. The Tucson wolves knew the border better than we did. They would sniff out the vampire drug runner trucks and then radio us to take them down. Kai, Max, Shamus, and I were all crouched behind a van in the desert.
“Tango Charlie, we have an eagle inbound. Manuel’s Taco Truck,” Kat said over the walkie talkie.
Kai laughed. “Copy.”
I glared at him and the smile fell from his face.
They totally dated, I decided.
‘You look sexy when you’re pissed,’ he told me.
That got me to smile. I needed to get over Kai’s past. He was my mate.
Our ‘broken down’ van hid Max, Kai, Shamus, and I from view. The other wolves were waiting back in the bushes along the deserted dirt road. It was about ten o’clock and completely dark outside; perfect for vampires to come out of hiding.
‘Get in position,’ Kai told us. He tightened the string that held the nail strip along the road that would puncture their tires. I could hear an engine off in the distance. As it approached, I became nervous. The Mexican drug cartel wasn’t exactly known for being nice. We were constantly seeing them in the news.
‘This is about to unleash a whole new slew of hell on our door step, Kai,’ I told him.
Kai met my eyes. ‘That’s okay. When I die one day I want to say my life mattered. That I did something good.’
Dammit. He had a point. I clutched a silver stake with my bare hand.
“Time to piss off some vampires,” Max said as he crouched down. The truck’s engine was close. I heard the tires roll over the nails with a loud pop and a hiss. The driver slammed on his brakes. He opened the door to get out and I smelled him. Vampire. I could also heavily smell the metallic scent associated with heroin. Kai jumped out from behind the van and rushed at the driver, slamming him onto the hood. I leapt up into the air and jammed the silver stake into his heart. Poof. Ash littered the ground. A couple months ago, I would have been grossed out by that.
“Huh, that was easy,” I exclaimed.
The roll-up door to the side of the taco truck flew open and a vampire leapt out spraying bullets at Kai and I. Kai ducked behind the front of the truck and yanked me by the waist, pulling me down.
Then I heard a snapping sound and a groan.
“All clear,” Max called. We came out from behind the car to see Max standing over a pile of ash, the vampire’s gun in his hand. A bullet wound was bleeding from his shoulder.
Shamus and few Seattle pack members came out from behind a distant bush.
“Push this into the desert; we will deal with the cargo later,” Shamus told his guys. They put it into neutral and pushed it easily off the road.
“Max, that’s a silver bullet,” I told him, eyeing his arm.
He reached inside the wound and dug into it with his fingernails. He winced, I winced and then he pulled the bullet out and threw it on the ground.
The walkie talkie beeped. “Two yellow school busses. Two vamps in each. The cars behind them are human and taking the main road. So this must be the entire shipment for the night,” Kat told us.
Kai grabbed the gun from Max’s hand and handed it to me. “The nails will take out the first bus’s tires, you shoot out the second.”
I didn’t want to split up, but I nodded.
I jogged twenty paces away from the van and took cover behind a large bush.
The large buses’ engines were approaching. I had been practicing my shooting in pack trainings, time to see if it paid off. The first bus passed me and I heard a pop and then he slammed on his brakes. The second bus slowed and I popped the tires with the gun.
The driver of the second bus poked his head out and inhaled. “Werewolves!” he screamed, and gassed it. He slammed into the bus in front of him, pushing him over the nail tack strip.
Shit! I ran out from behind the bush as the two busses began to speed away. Even with flat tires and riding on rims, they were moving fast. Kai took off after the first bus in super speed. I did the same, but headed for the second bus. None of the other wolves could run as fast as Kai and me. We didn’t want the busses getting to their check point with backup.
‘Be ca
reful!’ Kai roared as he leapt onto the driver’s door and pulled him out of the open window. The first bus rolled to a stop and the second bus crashed into the back of the first. I followed Kai’s lead and leapt onto the driver’s door. But the driver was ready for me. He had a silver harpoon gun aimed at my head, ready to take it off. The pointed tip was cutting into my chin. I didn’t breathe. Everything was in slow motion. If he pulled the trigger, I was a goner. My head would come clean off.
He inhaled, as he was about to pull the trigger, he scrunched his eyebrows. Then he spit in my face. “We can’t kill her! She is the one Queen Layla wants!” he roared to the vampire in the back seat. I didn’t even process the information. I acted on instinct. I used the distraction and grabbed the harpoon from him and shoved it under his chin pulling the trigger and taking off his head. Ash rained down on my hand as I jumped down onto the ground and ran to the back of the bus where the other vampire was escaping out the back door.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Kat shouted and threw a huge silver stake from ten feet away. It hit his chest with a hard thud and he was ash.
She high-fived me. “Good job.”
I tried to smile, but I was un-nerved by what that vampire had said about not being allowed to kill me.
‘You okay?’ I asked Kai.
‘Just a little dusty,’ he replied.
I heard him walk up behind me. I turned and saw that he was covered in ash. I smiled. “You look hot when you’re dirty,” I said aloud. Okay, I was an insecure girl and I wanted Kat to hear it.
He grinned and pulled me in for a kiss. “Likewise.”
Kat was staring at us, she looked a little sad. I felt bad then, that we had rubbed it in her face.
“You won the bet.” She smiled at Kai.
His face grew sullen. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“What bet?” I asked.
Kat shrugged. “Sadie, Kai, and I had a bet going about who would meet their mate first.”
“I’m happy for you,” she told Kai.
I forgot about how big of a deal it was to meet your mate. That it was all werewolves wanted.
“Your time will come,” he told her with sadness.
She nodded and then looked at me. I wish I had some news for her. My gift just didn’t work that way. I shrugged.
“Well, it’s time for a little explosion.” She regained her composure.
We put the taco truck and two busses deep into the desert and Kat rigged them with explosives. I watched the fire burn with intensity and with it, my desire to help the humans burned bright inside of me. I liked what Kai said about dying and knowing you made a difference. That’s what I wanted to do in life. Make a difference.
Wedding Bells
The next morning I awoke to a flurry of activity. Our plane from Phoenix was a red eye and got in early. I had crawled into bed for a little nap and was awoken to Kai’s voice outside. Kai was screaming on the lawn and I could hear a large truck engine in the driveway.
“Gotcha, you bastard!” Kai screamed. My heart was hammering inside my chest. I opened our master bedroom window that led to the side of the house. I kicked off the screen and leapt outside without thinking.
Kai was wrestling a drone to the ground from the net of our drone catcher. Jai, Izzy, and Anna were helping.
“Jesus! You scared me,” I told him. I was in his oversize t-shirt that barely covered my butt. He eyed my bare legs with a smoldering look. Anna and Jai hid their smirks and looked away.
“Go inside and change. The wedding set up people are here,” Kai told me.
Oh my God. I was getting married the next day. I smiled. He grinned back at me.
I heard Emma’s voice then. She was barking orders around the front of the house.
“This is cream! I ordered white! Look at the form. White.” Emma was screaming.
I reached into the bedroom window and grabbed a pair of yoga pants off of the chair. I put them on and ran to the front of the house, pulling my hair into a pony tail.
“Emma what’s wrong? You’re pregnant. Calm down, you might go into labor,” I scolded her.
She had one hand on her belly and the other on a piece of paper. “I ordered a white silk tent for your wedding. Look at this thing! It’s eggshell.” She gestured to a group of guys holding a very large bundle of beautiful silk fabric.
“Emma, it’s gorgeous. I love it!” I told her.
Her face cooled. “Really? Because they can exchange it.”
The guys seemed to be having a hard time holding onto the bundle for very long. I seriously thought it looked white and couldn’t tell the difference.
“Yes, I really do. Set it up out back,” I told them and patted Emma’s belly.
I went inside to shower and get ready for the day. As the water beat down on my back, a sad thought struck me. My mother wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding. My heart ached at the thought. Maybe Sylvia could tamper her memory or something afterward? But during the ceremony she would be so weirded out about the Shaman and the blood exchange and that wouldn’t work. I felt awful.
‘What’s wrong?’ Kai felt my emotions.
‘Nothing, just that my mom won’t be able to see me get married. She has waited her whole life for this day.’
Kai was silent for a long time. I could feel him taking pity on me. ‘I’ll figure something out.’ He didn’t sound too convinced.
Something else had been bothering me too. ‘Kai?’
‘Yes, my love.’
‘Layla has been silent. She has told her people not to harm me. She is waiting for us to marry, then she will come for me, won’t she?’
I could hear the growl in his head. ‘And when she does, I will be ready.’
‘Me too.’ She was evil. She had been here too long, causing too much pain and robbing humans of their futures. I made a promise to take her and that dark witch, Prudence, off of this earth forever.
My phone beeped. A text from Alexa.
-They know about the early wedding bells. Expect drama.-
Okay … I forwarded the text to Kai. They, I assumed, was RAIDOS. How was she still getting information on the inside?
Kai wrote back. -Seattle and India pack are coming. This will be the most heavily guarded wedding in history. Also, I just killed two of their drones =) Bring it on.-
I chuckled.
Never a dull day in this pack. We were doing it. We were getting married. I called my mom to chat about small talk. I didn’t mention the wedding. I didn’t know what to say. She knew we were engaged, maybe I’d just let her think we were engaged for the next year, then do a fake wedding. Yeah.
The morning dragged on. Emma and Diya had done all of the hard work so I didn’t have to think about the small stuff. But still there was so much to be done! Emma, Diya, and I decided to get our nails done in Sandy, at the base of the mountain. We were waiting for three pedicure chairs to open up when Alexa walked in with a baseball cap on and dark, baggy clothes. The hairs on my arms stood. She casually sat next to me. Diya and Emma looked at me waiting for my direction. I shook my head slightly, indicating they shouldn’t talk to her.
She was wearing a Portland State University hat. “I like your hat. I went to PSU,” I told her.
She took it off and turned it over, a note and three small one-inch vials fell swiftly from the hat and into my open palm. I curled my fingers around them and tucked them quickly into my pocket.
“Oh, thank you. I wanted my hair done today, but they look too busy here. I’ll have to come back later.”
She got up and left. Diya looked at my pocket and then flicked her eyes to the bathroom.
“I gotta pee. Be right back,” I told the girls.
I tried to walk slowly and calmly to the back of the salon. Someone was watching us. Alexa wouldn’t have risked being exposed if it wasn’t important.
I shut the bathroom door and locked it. Then I opened the note while setting the medical glass vials aside.
Aurora,
> I signed up to be a part of RAIDOS because I was curious about supernatural races and I wanted to minimize their threat to humanity. But I won’t do that at the cost of the lives of good people. You, Kai, and your pack are good people. RAIDOS has a contingency in place that if you and Kai marry … they plan to kill you. They can’t risk it. They don’t want vampires to be able to reproduce and have children, and I know you don’t either. They don’t care the cost. It’s a casualty of war to them. They have silver bullet guns, silver harpoons, silver cages, holding facilities, and much more. They are ready for a war with your kind. They have been preparing a while.