“I’m about to say something here.”
“I love you, Moira.”
“Ugh! You ruin everything!” Then she rolled her eyes and gave him a half-smile. “I love you, too, Koba.”
“The sun will be coming up soon. Let’s get you cleaned up and tucked into bed.”
Now that he was feeling more relaxed and less on edge, he had another mate to deal with. Somehow, he didn’t think his conversation with Brock would have quite the same ending. A guy could always hope, though.
Chapter Fourteen
He wasn’t hiding. He was…avoiding conflict. That’s what Brock told himself anyway. Though happy for the chance to finally have a relationship with her sister, Moira was still upset with him for going behind her back. That would have been bad enough, but Koba was pissed at him on top of it.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t expected it, but it had been nearly four days, and they were still giving him attitude. So, he’d resorted to spending a lot of time in the unused barn with his team, contacting the Elders, other team leaders, and anyone else he could think of that might be able to help them.
Damon had come through with some Enforcers from different packs in both Tennessee and Alabama. Joss was working on convincing a few of their own pack members to lend a hand to the cause, but most were hesitant after word had spread about Moira being a demon. At least none of them had joined the other side.
The hardest part was getting everyone close enough to help out on the full moon without alerting their enemies to the presence of a virtual army. They were still lacking information, though. Brute force might get them through the upcoming battle, but it wouldn’t stop it from happening again unless they knew why these assholes were coming after them.
Stepping in through the back door after sunset, Brock dropped to his knees immediately, narrowly missing the dinner plate that shattered just over his head. “What the fuck, Mo?”
“Oh, crap! Brock, I’m sorry!” Moira scrambled across the kitchen and threw her arms around him. “Are you okay?”
“Confused, but otherwise unmarred. What was that all about?”
“Moira learned a new trick.” Leaning his hip against the counter, Koba crossed his arms over his muscular chest and smirked. “Show him, kitten.”
“I’m not a circus freak,” she snapped, but her eyes were bright and excited. Giving Brock a quick peck on the cheek, she spun around and pointed at the kitchen table where there were three other white plates stacked.
Brock didn’t have a clue what he was supposed to be looking at, but he watched with rapt attention. No one was glaring at him, and he’d very much like to keep it that way. Without warning, all three plates rose from the table top. They hovered for a couple of seconds, just floating there, and then amazingly, they turned up on end and began to spin.
“Wow, baby. That’s amazing.”
The plates stopped spinning and very slowly lowered back to the table, stacking themselves one on top of the other. “Yeah, it just kind of happened, and I’m working on controlling it. I really am sorry. You surprised me when you came in, and well, you saw what happened.”
“When did this start?”
“A couple of days ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” What else had he missed?
“You haven’t really been around,” Koba accused. “When you are in the house, your mind is a million miles away. We didn’t want to add to the stress.”
There was that attitude he was used to receiving every time he walked through the door. “Why are you acting like such a dick?”
“Guys,” Moira said beseechingly. “Please don’t. We have enough to deal with right now without you two at each other’s throats.” She stared Brock down with a look that said she meant business. “You. No more secrets.” Then she turned that dagger stare on Koba. “And you. Stop taking everything so goddamn personally.”
“Done.” Brock wanted to come home, really come home. He’d tried it his way. All the secrets he’d kept weren’t because he thought his lovers couldn’t handle it. As the alpha, it was his responsibility. Why would he burden other people with his responsibilities, especially people he loved? “What do you want to know?”
“Just like that?”
He didn’t blame Koba for being skeptical after the way he’d acted. “Just like that. I fucked up, and I can admit that.”
“Forgiven.”
“Just like that?” Brock teased, but he knew it wasn’t in Koba’s nature to hold a grudge. Thank mercy.
“Don’t push it.” There was a smile on Koba’s lips, though, and he looked happier than Brock had seen him in days. “So, spill it. What do you know?”
“We have backup on the way,” Brock answered immediately. He’d promised no more secrets, and to be honest, he could really use their input. “They should be here in a couple of days. We have to make sure no one knows they’re here, though. Any ideas on how to make that happen?”
“Have them wait and come on the day of the full moon,” Moira offered with a shrug.
“No,” Koba said, shooting down the idea. “We need them here in case the Walkers decide to make a surprise move before then.”
That had been Brock’s thought, and he was glad Koba was on the same page. Moira’s idea was a good one if they could trust that nothing would happen until the full moon. He might not know the others involved, but he knew his father, and he didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him. “I agree. We need them close enough to help when shit hits the fan, but no one can know they’re here until then.”
“Can we have them come in through the back woods a couple at a time?” Hopping up on the counter, Moira folded her hands in her lap and swung her legs back and forth. “If we can have them blend in with the guys already patrolling, maybe we can sneak them into the barn.”
If they sent four guys out and six came back, maybe no one would notice. The problem was getting them across the creek and through the woods without being intercepted. “It might work, but it could be dangerous.”
“Why does it matter if people know they’re here?”
“First, we want the element of surprise.”
“We want them here in case something happens before the full moon,” Koba added. “At the same time, we don’t want to provoke Brock’s dad into making a move early if we can avoid it.”
Damn, he’d been such an idiot to keep this from them. They were both intelligent and far better at problem solving than he was. He could have saved himself a lot of stress if he’d pulled his head out of his ass sooner.
“I don’t think that really matters at this point.” Moira held her hands up, palms out, when Koba and Brock both stared at her. “I think it’s a little naïve to think we can pull some kind of cloak-and-dagger move on them.” She looked directly at Brock as she continued. “Your dad and whoever he’s working with has been two steps ahead of us this whole time. What makes you think he doesn’t have Walkers, lycans, vampires, or whatever scattered around the area and in surrounding towns?”
“She’s got a point,” Koba agreed. “Steven is probably even expecting us to do something like this. We can have the element of surprise, or the protection we need. I don’t think the two can coexist, however.”
Brock didn’t like it, but he knew Koba was right. “Okay, I’ll let Casey know. We’re going to have to feed these guys, though.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Jumping down from the counter, Moira waved her hands around, though her outburst already had their attention. “How many people and how much cooking are we talking here?”
“At least twenty-five lycans, a dozen vampires, and a handful of Gavalots like Damon and Tate.”
“Wow,” Moira breathed. “Impressive. I’m still not cooking.”
Koba chuckled and sauntered over to kiss her cheek. “We’ll figure something out.”
“What we need to figure out is who my dad is working with.” It made sense to know as much about their enemies as possible. Not knowing who the ke
y players were made him twitchy.
Moira raised her hand and waved it a little. “My dad is helping.” She was such a goofball sometimes, but it was good to see her smiling.
“Rip is involved.” Growling under his breath, Koba linked his hands behind his back and began pacing. “It takes a vampire and lycan to produce a Shadow Walker, so I think it’s safe to assume one of the other men is a vampire.”
“Yes and no.” He’d done a lot of digging and asking around since Koba’s kidnapping. “Demon and lycan blood could produce a Walker as well.”
“I don’t get it.” Moira fisted her hands on her hips and wrinkled her nose cutely. “If they already have a demon, a lycan, and a vampire, what the hell do they need me for?”
It was a good question. Brock wished he had an equally good answer for it. “Everyone take a deep breath, and let’s start from the beginning. Moira’s mom has an affair with a demon. Jump ahead a couple of decades and Ryah is born. Shit does down, the alpha kills her parents, and then just vanishes.”
“Wow, that was great, Mr. Sensitivity.” Huffing and rolling her eyes, Moira grumbled for a few more seconds before picking up the story. “Ryah ends up in a fake marriage to a Shadow Walker who was the adopted son of that same alpha who says that she was promised to him.”
“Then his dad reneged on that deal,” Ryah said, entering the kitchen with her mates, “offering you to him in my place. Carson dies, and within months there are Walker attacks left and right.”
“Didn’t you say there were two lycans?” Brock asked Koba while something tickled at his subconscious. “The other didn’t sound like he was from around here.”
“Right.”
“The former alpha of our birth pack,” Moira surmised with a bob of her head. “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” Her brow wrinkled in confusion, and her lips turned down at the corners. “Only a pureblood can produce a Shadow Walker. I’m a hybrid. So, again, what do they want with me?”
“There was a conversation,” Koba said with a growl, “that sounded very much like you had been promised to Rip.”
“Good to know that I’m just being passed around like a community water bottle.”
Yeah, it pissed him off, but it wasn’t going to happen, so Brock saw no reason to dwell on the information. “I’m goaded into leaving. I’m coerced into returning. Why?”
“It all has to center around Moira,” Damon said reasonably. “I think Koba was just an added bonus once they found out he was an omega.”
“I’m not a pureblood!” Moira stomped her foot like a child throwing a tantrum, though the snarl that echoed around the room was anything but childlike. “Why are we just sitting around waiting for them to attack us? We know where they’re staying. Let me shift and go eat them.”
“You’ve shifted?” Ryah’s hand went to her mouth to muffle her gasp. “You shifted into a demon?”
“How the hell did you change back?” Tate demanded, though he sounded thoroughly impressed.
“Uh, I don’t know.” Glancing at Brock and then to Koba, Moira finally settled her gaze on her sister. “I passed out, and when I woke up, I looked like me.” She looked around the room again, her eyes growing wider. “What? Did I do something wrong?”
“Damon and Tate are Gavalots,” Ryah explained. “They’re born hybrids—demon, vampire, and lycan. When a Gavalot changes into their demon form, it’s nearly impossible to come back from. They’re angry, vicious, terrifying monsters.”
“Love you, too, dear,” Damon murmured out of the corner of his mouth but said nothing to refute her claims.
“Maybe it’s different with real demons.”
“Moira.” Ryah crossed the kitchen and took her sister’s hands, holding them tightly as she searched Moira’s face. “Have you shifted into a wolf?”
“I’m working on it, but no, not yet. Brock thinks I will on the full moon.”
“Honey, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Brock winced and dropped his head, wishing he could avoid this conversation. He’d suspected for a while that might be the case, but he hadn’t said anything in case he was wrong. Once he and Koba had claimed her, Moira’s scent had changed—just as he’d expected. The problem was that she had no lycan scent.
“Brock!” Moira released her sister and spun toward him with fire in her eyes. “You knew? You knew this entire time, and you didn’t tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure,” he answered lamely, trying not to fidget under her heated stare. She might be half his size, but Brock had learned long ago not to underestimate an angry female.
“I really could be a pureblood demon.”
“And an omega,” Tate added.
“So, I was what? Adopted?”
“I would guess hidden,” Ryah whispered. “The way I was hidden with humans.”
“But that means…” Trailing off, Moira sniffled, and a single tear trickled from the corner of her eye. “You’re not my sister. I have no family.”
“Oh, shut up,” Ryah snapped, tugging Moira into her arms and hugging her tight. “We’re still family. It doesn’t matter if it’s by blood or not. We’ll always be family.”
The back door burst open, interrupting the touching moment, and Joss practically fell into the room. “Mo, you have to come now.”
Moira wiped roughly at her face before turning to face the beta. “What happened? What’s going on?”
“We found Tennyson Blakemore.”
“Alive?”
“Yes. He’s in bad shape, but alive. C’mon!”
Moira and Ryah raced out of the kitchen, most likely to get their shoes. The women’s aversion to shoes was kind of amusing. “Which hospital are they taking him to?” Brock asked, grabbing the keys to his SUV from the island.
“No hospital.” Joss shook his head firmly. “You’ll understand why when we get there. Casey and Gatlan are taking him back to my place.”
“Joss!” Brock barked. He didn’t have time for the guy to start playing Mystery Theater. “Why can’t he go to the hospital?”
“Ten’s a demon.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Hey, Ten.” Kneeling beside the bed, Moira took Tennyson’s hand in her own and smiled.
Joss hadn’t lied. The man looked like he’d been through hell and back with deep cuts on his face and multiple bites and bruises littering his body. He appeared to be healing, though, and even gave her a weak half smile in return. “Hello, sugar.” Ten chuckled softly at Brock’s growl. “No need to get your back up, Brock Lancaster. I don’t have designs on your girl.”
“Stop causing trouble.” Moira squeezed the man’s hand and winked at him. “It looks like you’ve had enough of that. Where you been, good lookin’?”
“Let’s just stop pretending that you don’t know what I am.” Tennyson groaned as he tried to sit up. “Help me up, will ya?”
Brock and Joss helped the vet into a sitting position and propped him up against the headboard. Everything in Moira wanted to jump right into the questioning, but it seemed kind of rude and overbearing. Tiptoeing around the issue wasn’t going to get her anywhere, though.
“Who took you, why, and how did you get away?” Brock asked as he settled down on the edge of the mattress.
“You cut right to it, don’t ya? And here I was expecting dinner and a movie first.”
“Ten.”
Brock growled, but Moira had to turn away to hide her smile. She’d always liked Tennyson. Even battered and bruised, he was still cracking jokes to put everyone at ease.
“Two elder lycans, a vampire, a demon.” Tennyson ticked them off on his fingers as he spoke. “A shit load of Shadow Walkers, other lycans, and vampires. No other demons, though. Oh, and some pup that thinks his shit don’t stink.”
“Why did they take you, Ten?” The who of it wasn’t nearly as important as the why. If Moira had any hope of surviving the full moon, she needed to know why they were after her.
“I’m a demon,” Tennyson
answered simply. “They need demons. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t the right demon.”
“But I am?” There was a wrong kind of demon? Why couldn’t any of this be simple?
“They’re trying to create triple hybrids. Specifically, they’re trying to create triple hybrids with powers.”
“Are those the half-wolf things we saw?” Koba asked, speaking for the first time since entering the house.
“That would be them,” Tennyson confirmed.
“What power do you have?” The answer came to her almost as soon as she’d asked the question, but still, Moira waited for confirmation.
“Healing.”
Yep, that’s the one she was thinking. “The others that have gone missing?”
“Yes, they were demons, too. Some had abilities. Some didn’t. They killed them all.”
“Then how did you get free?” Brock asked a bit more harshly than Moira felt was necessary. Tennyson was cooperating, answering every question willingly. There was no need to strong-arm him.
“They dumped me for dead, just like the others. With the henchmen so busy watching you guys, they didn’t even see me crawl out of the woods.”
“Do you know why they want Moira?”
Tennyson bobbed his head slowly, his dark-blond curls swishing against his brow. “They never said, but I saw and heard enough to have an idea. The first demons they took were unmated, going on the assumption that their powers would be highly concentrated since they weren’t claimed.”
“What changed?” Moira really wanted to channel her inner Brock and snarl at the guy to get to the good stuff, but that would just make her a huge hypocrite. So she bit her tongue and waited somewhat impatiently.
“Well, it didn’t work, did it?” Tennyson looked at her like maybe she’d bumped her head a little too hard. “So, then they switched to mated demons, but they didn’t really need the mates. So they disposed of them.”
Moira felt a little green around the gills, and her stomach rolled uncomfortably, threatening to send the contents of her dinner back up her esophagus. “They just killed them?”
Blood Rights [Wicked River 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 13