by Dace Everan
Logan glared at his mate. “There was no agreement to you two joining!” he argued.
Celeste snorted, pushing him aside and going to the rest of the group. Logan growled and she paused momentarily before continuing. It had been a mere warning of a growl. Had he stepped after her she would definitely had gone back to him.
Farron took his mate by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Celeste and I are able to take care of ourselves. We just have more to take care of us now,” he assured him.
Logan snorted. “You don’t even know these people!”
Farron laughed. It was deep and resonating. “They are your family, Logan. We smell them all over you and you all over them. You have imprinted on these people and they on you. You are bound to Celeste and me, and now we are bound to them.”
Logan released a breath. He wasn’t sure how long it would take him to come to terms with all of this. He looked Farron in the eyes and relaxed. He had to have faith that the people around him knew better than he did right now. The change from human to werewolf still had some of his regulated emotions all out of whack.
“Fine… We need to get this on the road and help those in need.” He pulled away from his mate and went to the table and took a seat, waiting for the others to follow suit. He watched as Farron laid out the maps and plans of the building that they had accumulated over the years.
Between Logan and Farron the team was filled in on the happenings of the compound. Teams were assembled and it would be a quick in and out job. Take only scientists as prisoners and exterminate any guards.
* * * *
Deni watched from a high point on the side of a mountainous hill as the seasoned soldiers crept around the compound. Silent predators ready to strike when needed. Her gaze landed on Logan and his new family. A small smile crept to her lips. His team would miss him when they would have to leave him here. But his new mates would love and protect him for the rest of his long days.
“You will help won’t you, Deni?” asked Rachel from her side.
Deni gave a curt nod. “When they need us we will assist. Right now we wait and see if they can do what they planned.”
Rachel looked over to Ben, who sat calmly on a large rock, his gaze fixed on the compound. “Will we help the one named Harley? Will we go back with her and help her with the ones she is about to save?” Rachel knew Harley would need assistance with these one in the compound. The terrors they had been through would be hard to get through to any of them.
Deni narrowed her eyes. It wasn’t something she wanted to do. The three of them had been in peace for so long and she was quite enjoying just watching the world go round with this sense of calm that had finally fell over her.
Ben cleared his throat and shifted. “I will go with her. These beings, that this, team is—” He paused. “Saving.” He used the word loosely. “They will need assistance. Harley and her team don’t comprehend what it is they are getting into. What species they are about to unleash onto the world.”
Deni snorted. “This Harley is opening up a can of...” She looked at her two friends. “Whoop ass?” she asked. Ben smirked and Rachel giggled. Deni nodded. “Yes, a can of whoop ass on herself.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited as the first set of members entered the compound. “She thinks she can handle these beings. Even with the help of that human, Laird, she cannot handle or comprehend the different beings in that building.” She gave her two friends a sidelong look. “She wouldn’t be able to handle us. Yes, Ben, you should assist her. You, too, Rachel. You will be able to interpret or understand the ones that have been genetically modified.”
Rachel nodded. If that was what Deni wanted, she would go and assist. She grabbed hold of Ben’s large hand. It gave her tiny one a gentle squeeze.
“I will protect you, little one,” he promised.
Deni smiled. As useless as the words were, they were touching. Rachel could very well kill Ben with but a look.
* * * *
Farron stared in wide-eyed horror at what was before him. He pulled Celeste closer in a protective hug. He could feel the hurt for those around them radiate from her. “Oh goodness,” she gushed in a hushed whisper, her eyes wide in horror and pain for these beings.
He gave a stoic nod. He recognized the few members of his own people that had gone missing over the years. Members of Celeste’s pack. “Logan. Those eight stay with us,” he ordered, pushing Celeste to stand behind him as he approached the lost members of their pack. His heart thumped heavily at the sight of familiar auburn hair, limp and greasy compared to what he remembered it being. He reached out to open the cage.
“No, Farron!” Logan grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. “We don’t know what they have been through.” He turned Farron till Farron looked him in the eyes. “We wait until Harley has evaluated each and every one,” he commanded.
Farron shook his head. “Those are our pack members,” he argued. His heart shattered at the sight of his people in cages, their bodies thin and looking deathly. They all cowered against the wall, fear in their statures. He was sure fear was in their eyes, too, but they all hid their faces. But the one! He needed to see the face of the one woman. His heart cried.
Logan nodded. He had felt the pain radiate off his mates when they had come upon this certain group. “We will not endanger our pack outside these walls until we have been assured these few are safe to bring home,” he ordered. He cupped Farron’s cheek, feeling his man’s anguish.
Celeste hugged her arms around Farron’s free arm. “Logan’s right, my love…. We have to protect the pack. We cannot bring them home until we know it is safe,” she said softly.
Farron growled and stepped back, giving a firm nod. “Then make sure they can come home. They need their pack around them.” He growled, shrugging off Logan’s grasp and Celeste’s touch. “I’ll be outside,” he called as he walked away from the two.
Alarms had gone off the minute they had entered the compound and the people they had managed to capture were mere janitorial staff and a couple of computer techs. All of the scientists had gotten out. Farron growled and he could feel his claws wanting to break free and rip something apart. He hoped his pack members he had stationed outside had managed to capture someone!
Chapter Twenty
Logan looked around the table. His team…his old team. He didn’t belong to these people anymore. He grimaced. He felt a soft hand settle on his. He looked at Alisha.
“It’s okay Logan, speak,” she urged. She had seen the unfamiliar strain in his usual jovial face. Damn sakes, she had never seen him as serious as she had in the last week. The change he had gone through broke her heart. But seeing his eyes sparkle and that familiar grin on his lips when he looked at his mates made her heart beam for him. He had found love. He had found himself his very own family.
Logan nodded and wiped the grimace from his face. “I can’t come back with you.”
Jariko settled in his chair his arm curling around Alisha’s shoulders. Alisha settled into his embrace.
Harley inhaled a steady breath while Roark’s upper lip twitched. His muscled arms crossed his thick chest and he stared at Logan waiting for an explanation.
Harley cleared her throat when she realized Logan wasn’t going to say any more. “I have had a private meeting with Farron.” She straightened her shoulders and looked at her other team members. “Jariko and Alisha.” She offered a sincere smile. “I’m losing one of you. I’m losing Logan…” She settled back and sighed. “Logan, you will keep in contact with me.” It wasn’t a question but a demand.
Logan nodded. “Absolutely.”
Harley nodded. “Alisha will be working from a safe house unknown to any of us.”
Logan raised a brow. He wondered how that would work, with Jariko out in the field and her who knows where? He smirked. She was obviously right where Jariko wanted her. Good, that one was safe.
“Your friends Rachel and Ben said they will come back with me. Deni is st
aying in the area. She said she would stay in contact with you.”
Logan gave a nod of understanding, grabbing his chair and turning it around straddling it. “And what about you and Roark?” he asked.
Harley shrugged. “We will return to Laird’s safe haven and help those that we can. The ones retrieved from here need rehabilitation. I have been recommended some reliable doctors.”
Logan nodded. Good, it was what he wanted to hear. He needed to know she had reliable people on her side. People to help her and those that really needed it. Having Ben and Rachel in her team eased many of his worries.
Harley looked him square on. “The ones you want to keep. Do you want doctors here for them?”
Logan shook his head. “Farron, Celeste, and I will handle them,” he assured her.
Harley nodded. She couldn’t believe it. This was the end. The team was basically going their own ways. Would they all ever have the chance to work together again? Alisha would be a mommy, Logan no doubt a father in no time. Jariko could very well retire when his baby was born. She looked to Roark. Pain filled her eyes. Her only team member who would never know what it was like to be a father. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat.
Logan cleared his throat. “We will keep in contact, Harley. This is not how we are ending,” he assured her.
Harley looked at Logan and smiled. “Good.”
* * * *
Farron watched as Logan crossed the room, removing his T-shirt and tossing it in the hamper in the corner. As he started on the buttons of his jeans, he stopped to remove his socks and toss those in the hamper. “We’ll have them out, Logan,” Farron voiced from his perch on the bed.
Logan glanced at Farron and nodded. He was sure his mate would be harassing his old team mates to come visit.
Celeste entered the room whistling and smacking Logan’s ass. “Of course we’ll have them out,” she assured him, stepping out of Logan’s reach as he lunged for her. She squealed as he pounced after her.
Farron chuckled as the two stumbled to the bed and fell with a bounce.
Logan pulled her and twisted her until she was pinned beneath him. Her laughter filled his ears and his heart filled with utter love, with a fullness it has never had. He looked Celeste in the eyes then tore his gaze from hers to Farron’s. Pride filled him at the loving look Farron had directed at the two of them. This is where he belonged. Here in the arms of these two wondrous people.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am the proud mother of two wonderful children who are soon going to enter the tween years. AAHHH Save me! I started dabbling in writing at a young age. My first story was a twisted story about bunny rabbits and a little girl in a mystical forest, an evil mother who wanted nothing more than rabbit stew. (I was eight.) My older sister introduced me to romance novels at the tender age of eleven and I've loved them since.
I find being able to create a world of wonderful characters an amazing achievement. I had always figured historical romance was where my heart laid, but after reading a few BDSM and erotica e-books. My mind was changed and I have never felt so comfortable in my life than in being able to create wonderful people and bring them together with a little spank and tickle.
I love Sci-fi and Zombies! Horror flicks and nightmares are a normal for me. I once had a dream about rainbows and sunshine and unicorns and lovey dovey stuff and that scared the hell out of me. Happy dreams are not normal for me. I love music, anything from Never Ending White Lights; White Stripes to Lana Del Ray maybe some Waylon Jennings. I am all over the place in the music.
For all titles by Dace Everan, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/dace-everan
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com