by Hazel Gower
“Isa been cooking cupcakes?” She leaned down and picked up something from the bench top. “Here, trys this.” She shoved the cupcake toward his mouth and he opened it just in time, but still got covered in frosting.
He swallowed the chocolate cupcake and licked his lips to get some of the frosting off. “Thanks, sweetie. Those are so yummy.”
She nodded her head frantically. Griffen reached for another one, and this time ate without getting covered in frosting.
“Do you want real food, or are you going to eat this batch of cupcakes?” His mother didn’t even turn from helping Grace frost the cupcakes.
“Yeah, what you got?” Griffen went to the fridge as he said this. Opening it, he saw it was stocked full with containers of food.
“Why ask if you’re going to look and see anyway?” She sighed loudly, but he didn’t turn from the fridge.
Sophie reached for the container marked lasagna and the one marked salad. Griffen put the one with salad back. “Mummy said that even though yous big, strong wolfly yous still haves to eats greens. Healthy stuff.” She grabbed the salad and gave him her best glare, but it was just the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
He shut the fridge door and gently put Sophie down. He placed the containers on the counter and got out plates, knives, forks, and the microwave lid so there wouldn’t be any spatters.
His mother finally turned as he put everything down and opened the containers. “Oh, son, what on earth happened?” She came to him and cupped his face. “When was the last time you ate?” He kissed his mum’s hands and she wiped frosting off him, patted his cheek, and put her hand on her hip.
“Hope went into heat, and it was way more intense than I could have imagined.”
Her gaze widened and her mouth opened and shut for a moment. Then she looked him up and down and turned back and made sure he had a lot of lasagna and a small salad on the plate before putting the lid over it and shoving it in the microwave. “I’ll feed you up, son. You’ll be back to your old self in no time.” She darted her gaze to Grace and Sophie and mumbled just low enough for him to hear, “Does this mean I could have a grandbaby more unique than what I’m going to have?”
Griffen had no idea if he and Hope could have children, but he had a feeling that if they could she would be pregnant now. He nodded and his mother smiled. He knew that would be the last that she asked about it, and if Hope was pregnant, she would be the best grandma ever.
He wanted Hope to be happy. He’d love children of his own, but if for any reason he and Hope couldn’t have them, he’d be happy with just being the best uncle ever. And there were other ways they could be parents. There were always children needing good homes.
The microwave dinged and his mother got out his food. “Go sit. I’ll bring it to you.”
He went and sat at the table, and his mother sat the plate down and Grace placed the knife and fork down too.
“Eat. You can have some more of the cupcakes if you eat everything on your plate.”
Griffen wasn’t going to argue with his mother. He gobbled up her food and basked in her love.
Chapter 7
Hope
She felt amazing. Hope had slept for almost two days, and she was ready to go out now. She was ready to be free. She’d been in heat. Hopefully, it did what it was meant to do. Babies. She added something new to her dream list. Hope wanted children of her own to love. She was sure that she had to be pregnant.
She practically danced out of the bathroom and got dressed. She knew Griffen was out of the house. She would find him later. First, she was going to go visit with her friends and have cuddles with babies.
She didn’t bother with shoes; she loved the feel of the earth beneath her feet. She made her way toward Kirby’s house. The sun was setting, but there was enough light to see clearly, not that she needed the light, she had good night vision too, maybe even better than a shifter’s.
Kirby and Rane’s house was in her line of sight, and she couldn’t stop the huge grin covering her face. She closed her eyes for a moment and let her surroundings take her in. She liked that this place was surrounded by forest. Opening her eyes, she walked on the path to their door only to freeze when a vision assaulted her.
Demons, zombies, and minions were everywhere. This was a mission the demons knew most wouldn’t come back from. They were there to get as many women and children as they could and kill shifters and whoever helped them. It was a surprise attack, and they thought as it was last minute that she or Faith wouldn’t ‘see’ it.
The demon king had used his portal to move as many demons as he could to the entrances of the town. He’d first moved minions and zombies into the town, as they could stand being close to the water more than the demons. He’d instructed them to get captives out of the town to the demons he would have positioned at the front. Once he had the minions and zombies where he wanted them, he then moved the demons. Hope watched as he tried to keep the portal open for as long as possible, draining its power source.
The demon king didn’t come to fight himself. He didn’t send his best recruits either. Instead, he sent the demons he felt were disposable. His goal for the day was destruction and to kill and capture as many of his enemies as he could. He knew his portal would be drained for a while from this operation, but he wanted some revenge against the damn shifters, and he wanted Pet to pay. He wanted anyone she came close to dead.
Hope watched in horror as the demons and minions killed and pillaged everything around the town.
She needed to stop this vision and warn her family.
Hope yanked out of the vision, knowing she didn’t have much time. For once she was grateful for a vision and didn’t even care that this was her first one since giving help to Faith. All she wanted now was to get the women and children to the water. The demons wouldn’t go to the ocean. Shifter women and humans could handle minions and zombies. The minions could fly over the water, but she wanted to kill them before they got to her family.
She stumbled to Rane and Kirby’s door and banged on it. Rane opened it with growl, but she didn’t let him get a word in.
“The demons are coming. It’s a surprise attack. Get all the women and children to the beach. In the water would be best. Now. There is no time to talk or mess around.” Hope pushed her way through and sniffed out Kirby and Ryland. “Move it now. We need to get you two to the ocean.” Hope spun, not surprised to see Rane behind her. “I need knives and swords. I’m going to fight. No one is getting my family.”
These people had brought her into their family with open arms. The Enewu might not be fighters, but she would fight for the people she loved.
“What the fuck is going on, Hope?” Rane snarled.
Grabbing Kirby’s hand, she pulled her toward the back exit and the beach. Kirby had Ryland in a sling and was grabbing items and shoving them into a bag as they left.
Hope didn’t slow or turn to Rane as she spoke. “I had a vision. The demons are coming. They could already be on the outskirts of town. They’re coming in full force with minions and zombies, targeting the women and children. It’s a surprise attack. They hoped with it being last minute that Faith and I wouldn’t see it. You need to make sure all the women and children are put somewhere safe.”
She didn’t turn or stop when she heard, “Fuck. Fuck. I’ll call and get everything organized. Get my family to safety.”
“I will, and I’ll protect them with my life.” She meant every word she said.
* * * *
Shit hit the fan. Thankfully, Faith had seen the vision too and was already down on the beach with a bunch of women and children. Faith was decked out in her leather fighting gear with all her knives and swords strapped to her, and Bengie had a carrier strapped to the front of him with Braydon in it. That wasn’t what had Hope drawing the long knives Rane had given her—no, it was the minions and human zombies making their way to them.
Hope pushed the women she knew were pregnant and with children, gettin
g them into the surf to at least their knees. The beach was a long strip, and she ran up and down as best she could, getting as many women and children as safe as they could get. Children were crying and screaming, but it was better than them getting hurt.
Remy wouldn’t go into the water. She was determined to fight. Della, Griffen’s mother, was helping get the women to safety too. There were female wolves stalking up and down the beach, waiting for the minions to attack. They came flying in and went straight for the stragglers. With sword and long knife drawn, Hope ran toward them like her life depended on it. She used her abilities to push herself so she could protect the women and children that were diving into the sand.
Hope was now grateful to Griffen for the weeks of hard training he’d put her though. She jumped and jabbed up, hearing the hissing nose and the snapping of wings. The gray pig-like creature’s claws raked her arms, but she was use to pain. She grabbed a hold of the minion and did what Griffen had taught her to do and she’d ‘seen’ in visions before—chopped off its head and cut out its heart. She didn’t cut off the wings since she knew it was dead. Hope moved onto the next one.
She lost herself in the lessons Griffen had taught her. Hope pretended to not to be Enewu. She let all the hate and anger she felt out and let it loose on the minions, who were the first waves. The zombies were there to grab what the minions got to.
Hope’s people had been a peaceful race, unwilling to fight, but as she fought to keep her family safe she became angry at her whole race. How dare they just give up? They should have fought for the ones they loved. They should have fought for their planet. She channeled all her anger into her fight as she swung the sword in wide arcs and dug deep and cut through to bones. The knives were sharp and bespelled with special ice.
The ex-humans, or zombies as they were appropriately named, were focused on a task and would go through anything to get what they’d been assigned to retrieve. They were given demons’ blood, which strengthened them and put them under the demons’ control. She noticed that a lot of human women were more hesitant with them and didn’t kill them as quickly.
Hope knew this attack was a desperate attempt to gain some control back. With her lose to the demons and the last raid the shifters did the demons had been hit hard. They would be wanting to build up again. Hope knew there were underground demon holds in other countries, and she needed to tell the leaders of those countries where they were so the shifters could raid them. If they hadn’t moved them, thinking she would have already told them. The wolfen and their pack had been a focus for the demon king as they had Faith and Australia had a large gifted population.
She sliced through the zombies and attacked the minions with renewed strength, because the demons were losing. Their control on this world wasn’t as strong, and she was a helping force as she was now free. She grunted when a zombie used her hair to pull her away from killing a minion. Hope was never going back to the demons though. She would end her own life before she ever let herself be Pet again. With a roar, she spun and jabbed up, cutting into the zombie man who let her go as his gut spilled out.
She was the last Enewu, but she was now something new. She wasn’t going to follow in her people’s footsteps, she was going to fight to her last breath to save herself and her new family. She hoped that Griffen and the men were doing the same.
* * * *
Griffen
He’d never seen so many demons together. Kane had told him that they weren’t the only ones under attack. Faith had seen towns around the world: two American shifter towns, one in England, and a Chinese town was under attack too. The attacks were a desperate plea to gain their advantage. Now that his people had Hope, the demons were at a loss. They’d lost their seer and their underground strongholds.
Griffen glanced over at Grayson, who was in half-shift, prepared for the demons who were charging toward them. The newer human recruits looked terrified, but they needed all the help they could get. He and all the teams weren’t going to let the demons into their town. They weren’t getting any children or women.
There were no minions or zombies with all the demons, and he hoped that the women were handling what was thrown at them. Faith and Hope had both said that they were going to be hounded by minions and zombies in the visions they saw. He was damn glad he had spent those weeks training Hope, and he knew that the women had been training hard. Griffen had to have faith that the women could handle the minions and zombies, but right now he needed to focus on his own battle. Griffen had never fought this many demons.
He refocused his efforts on the approaching demons. They came in a large group of ten. He could hear the faint sound of fighting in the distance from the other groups. The demons must have gotten to them first. Griffen and his team were outnumbered, with only two shifters in their group. Logan was mated to his sister and was sometimes even better than shifters at fighting, but with twenty humans, and half of them not up to standards for what they were about to do, he worried that they may lose the fight. He needed to remind the humans what they were up against before it was too late.
“Remember to work together as a team. It will take two humans to cut off their heads. Their blood burns like acid. Try not to get it on your bare skin. Just remember you’re a team,” he yelled as the demons roared at them as they swung their tails, hitting a human and taking him down in one swoop.
He half-shifted, pulled out his swords, and charged the demons. Forked, sharp, pointed tails swung, and he ducked and weaved. He had a mission—cut the hearts out and stab them. The humans were climbing up a demon’s back so he went straight for its heart, hoping it would keep its tail and hands on him and not on the humans.
He moved from the first one to the second with quick, efficient ease, but by the third demon it was harder. The humans were exhausting quickly. He could see that they wouldn’t last long as the demons were deliberately getting cut so their acid blood was getting on the humans’ exposed skin. They’d covered the humans in leather, which seemed to be the best protection against the acid-like blood, but their hands and face weren’t covered.
The first human went down quickly in fits of screams as his hands sizzled and the holes in his clothes got bigger before a demon tail dug deep into his chest. The human dropped his weapons as the tail dragged down, ripping him open, and he fell to the ground.
Griffen had no time to feel pity for the man, they were losing. They couldn’t lose, there was too much at stake. There were too many children and a lot of pregnant women in the town. They might be outnumbered, but he would fight to his last breath to save the women and children. He would fight so Hope never went back to being a slave. She deserved freedom. Everyone deserved the chance to be free.
* * * *
Griffen had never been so exhausted in his life. He didn’t know how many hours had passed, but it was pitch-black and they were down to eight humans and six demons. He wouldn’t give up though. He’d keep fighting until his very last breath.
He dragged his body over to a demon about to rip a human’s head off and chopped the hand around the human’s neck, watching its grip loosen and fall to the ground. Logan was on the demon’s back and he was climbing up to its head. Griffen went for the heart but grunted when he felt the slash of a sharp tail across his thighs. Not stopping, he ignored the pain and used his swords to stab up and at the demon.
He heard the chopper, it was loud even against the sound of grunts, growls, and snarls of fighting. He didn’t expect what happened next. Men propelled down...no, not men, half-changed shifters, ten of them. Griffen didn’t know the shifters, but he was damn grateful for them. They got straight into the fight, and with renewed energy he attacked the remaining demons.
The new shifters were swift as they killed the demons. Most of them were panthers. He knew that they were based in New Zealand, but he hadn’t worked with them before. He’d met their alpha and had seen them at meetings, but this was the first time they’d worked together, and from what he was seeing now,
he knew that they were good. There was a wolf he didn’t know with them and a bear he knew had come over as an exchange from America, but the rest were panthers, and they were fast and moved with effortless grace as they fought and killed one demon after another.
Griffen had three bears of their own come to join the pack and a panther, but he was from England and they had also gained four lions from Africa, and other wolves from around the world to make their pack bigger. Faith had been a huge draw card for them. A lot of shifters wanted their mates, and Faith could give them that.
The fighting ended with the help of the new shifters. Griffen wanted to rest, but he wouldn’t be able to until he knew the women and children were safe, until he knew Hope was safe.
A panther stepped toward him, his swords still in his hands. “I’m Blaine. Faith called us hours ago and told us about the vision. We got on a plane and came straight here. With our private plane we could get here fast. I know other packs sent help too. My brother is the alpha, he wanted to come, but we thought it best to leave him behind to protect our home in case there was an attack there. Now go. I bet you’re anxious to get to your women and children. We sent men to the beaches too.”
Shifting, Griffen nodded his wolf head before taking off toward the beach at breakneck speed.
* * * *
Hope
Hope had never been so happy to see new shifters. She’d spent the last couple of hours fighting like her life depended on it, and in a way it did. She would never go back to being a pet to the demons, she’d rather be dead. The shifters came in helicopters and dropped down from ropes. They changed to half-shifted quickly and fought the remaining minions and zombies.
Hope stumbled down to the water, and by the time the waves lapped at her feet she was down on her knees, grateful that there was help. Her strength gone, she closed her eyes for a moment and let the throbbing pains of all her cuts, bruises, and lacerations make themselves known. She still gripped the sword and knives and was sure they’d now melded to her body.