by Erin R Flynn
Always.
22
Our vampire SWAT team got approved, which shocked a lot of people, including me. I had seriously thought we’d get shot down given how the hearings had gone, but our results spoke for themselves.
After some back and forth, we went with APOT or Advanced Paranormal Operations Team. Several people thought it was bland, not enough flare, especially Carter.
I snorted. “You wanted to go with SNOT. You get no vote on names ever.”
He simmered down after that, and we got to work because now that we had funding and were getting going with training, shit would come next. It always did.
Noah worked around the clock with the guys from his security company along with Milo and his team to trick out the estate and mansion Apollo had given him from my bet. We were drawing a lot of attention with it and a lot of interest… Which was part of the plan.
Plans for the pack house were finalized, and as soon as the ground thawed enough to get started, construction would get going. I was handling none of that, but I was glad the pack and other shifter groups were looking forward to it, as we had the space to help any new shifters work on their shifts.
Valentine’s Day ended up being completely insane. Every time I thought it was over, I’d find out there was another stack of gifts for me somewhere that needed to be handled. Granted, I loved that I got spoiled from the men I wanted to, but this being wooed by strangers was just fucking ridiculous. I was seriously glad when Carter and the ancients worked on handling replies to all the gifts along with Dain.
The ploy with Eugene backfired though, and word got out I was open to the idea of mating candidates, so it felt like everyone who had an available son was calling to try and set me up. No good deed goes unpunished, I swear. It’s ridiculous, and if it wouldn’t start more trouble to tell them all to fuck off, I would.
Fine, I told a few to fuck off when they just showed up and basically announced they were in the running to be my mate like that was how it worked. Uh-huh. Idiots.
I’m still working on the first dates and how we will keep having dates. Going slow is awesome. It’s helping a lot with the piles of worries and issues around having a relationship with multiple men. There’s a lot of stress on all of us, and they now know my issues with being abandoned, believing they’ll all walk away in the end, so they’re more on board with the slow idea than I was because they think it will prove they’re in this for the long haul.
Maybe? I cannot figure out the minds of men.
My reputation in Greece has recovered, and by that I mean people think I’m a serious hard ass for what I did to Leda and the other trying situations. I hate that people see cruelty as strength, but whatever keeps us all safe. However, three other sirens were interested in coming and being part of the pack, learning from me and helping the club. I’m thinking about it because they are nobodies… And they know that.
No more overinflated egos who buy into any bullshit that I am the third and adopted daughter. Gag me.
The situation in Iran is… Fluid. So far so good. Eva set up an alliance with the family, including my pack, and I’ve talked to Bijan a few times, mostly to interpret what the US government was asking of him. I have faith that their taking control will work. They sent back all the spies and handed over some terrorists, so yeah, good start.
However, I refuse to talk to Jason. He’s there as the US’s appointed representative and is getting answers to questions I shouldn’t know about treaties and deals, but I don’t want to speak to him. I don’t want to see him. Hell, I was so hurt by his continued shitty treatment of me and games he played, I couldn’t even hear his name without snapping at someone. That chapter in my life is over, and I’m fine leaving it in the past.
My siren however wants about fifty different things in the name of revenge, but I can’t even deal it, so we’re leaving it alone for now, as he’s not even around. God help him if he shows up though.
Word got out that I handled Omid and his radical sect after the takeover, and that has significantly raised my street cred and lethalness. People are a lot less inclined to fuck with me now, which is great. Scary it had to take that to make it happen, but whatever, less people fucking with me is always a plus.
After the president saw with his own eyes how the CIA director treated those who worked for the government like trash, he put the director on a leave of absence pending a full investigation. Galvin says the director is out and it’s all Washington hoops to make sure it’s done right. A lot of people are happy he’s gone.
Yeah, part of me is too, but I have a feeling that will come back around to bite me in the ass and hard.
We found Lillie’s stalker, and the guy was fucking nuts. He had all kinds of pictures of her coming and going from the club, grocery shopping, and just about anything he could get. She’s freaked out, but he’s in jail at least since he assaulted Margo and the witch who was there that day. A security camera caught the whole thing plus the guy starting crap with Christos in the lobby of my building, so it’s done and done.
The officer who held Margo at gunpoint was written up, which impressed me that CPD was taking it seriously. Yeah, the guy messed up, but he needed to be made an example of. We updated the guidelines for a reason, working with the shifters in Chicago on how to react to the police because they wouldn’t just pull their guns and shoot them if they did. So they needed to take their side just as seriously or it was for nothing.
I appreciated that they did.
The pimp that CPD led into my club went to the council, and they gave everything over to Brian to dismantle the guy’s business and make the arrests. Brian told me it was one of the easiest cases he’s ever worked, as the council gave him everything. So score one for the good guys and another reason for his office to glow.
There’s a huge shakeup in CPD’s vice, starting with the top and working down. I have no idea how that will all pan out, but I’m sure everyone will blame me as they always seem to. I guess it’s worth it to get dirty and paranormal hating cops out, but I don’t like how much blowback I seem to get from other people’s crimes.
Grand Rapids is a mess. An absolute fucking mess, and we’re also investigating into Thomas Spelling to find out who he really was and how deep this mess runs.
Linus is handling it well though. He signed a two month trial contract with me that has Nina’s magic on it to enforce certain rules, including working with an advisor who knows the ins and outs of American laws along with council ones, not just Greek. It’s Freddie, and they’re getting along well, and from what he’s updated me with, Linus not only takes it seriously but hasn’t stumbled much, so he really did check into it all.
The council is seriously thrilled with this umbrella idea. Alena and I agree that they’re a bit too thrilled, and we’re worried which one of them will try for taking over all I have next. Or if this is their new idea for world domination where all the Alphas are on contract to the council or something. That would never fly, but there are stranger things that have happened.
Linus has also been very clear that his mother was completely in the wrong. Her sentence has been carried out, and his dad survived, though I’ve heard from Zeno he’s not doing well, so he might not make it. Guilt eats at me when I think about it since I set the trap to catch her and didn’t think about how it would end up with her dead instead of arrested like I’m used to.
Add something else for the nightmares that plague me. But still, I get up every day and do the job because I am the job. Granted, the “job” has expanded to Alpha and business owner instead of only FBI, but it’s still my job, and I choose to do it every day.
I just smile more on the days when someone has decided to spoil me in the hopes of getting nothing more than a kiss. Yeah, I really like being spoiled, but who doesn’t?
The End
Please Review!!
I know it’s annoying, I hate doing it too. But it really, really helps the author with Amazon’s search algorithms. I appr
eciate the kind and constructive reviews, I truly do.
To say THANK YOU for taking the few minutes to review (and all the previous reviews), I’ve written an extra chapter that a lot of people have asked to see. I will absolutely write more extra side chapters to keep thanking you guys for the reviews. So please go review any and all of Sera’s books, and I hope you like the addition!
Love,
Erin
Extra Chapter
“Guess what I just heard?” Hagan, my twin brother, announced as he came into our apartment on base.
I didn’t even bother looking up from the book I was reading. “Someone is fucking someone they shouldn’t? Or someone snuck some more college girls on base and got caught?” He was always more into the gossip and talk anywhere we were stationed, and Quantico had more than enough to keep him entertained in between missions.
“No, Seraphine Thomas is coming to speak to the FBI training class Wednesday.” He frowned when I didn’t react. “Reagan, that’s the name of the chick Alpha Engle said he was making his Alpha Bitch, remember?”
Now I was interested. That asshole who had taken over our home pack years ago was a first class douche and had offered us a spot as Betas since we were getting out. I set aside my Kindle and looked at him. “Right, she worked for the FBI and got transferred to their paranormal division. He was saying it would make the pack untouchable when they mated.”
“We need to swing favors to see her.”
I frowned. “Why? She’s probably some lump of an immoral bitch if she’d consider mating Engle. I thought we were talking about maybe taking over the pack? I mean, doesn’t it upset you that the Chicago pack is led by that asshat?”
“Yeah, it does, and that’s still an option, but it’s a chance to see what she’s like.” He waved off my next protest. “Dude, does Engle strike you as the type of guy who would give a woman much of a choice? So why isn’t she his mate already? He said she’s powerful. What if she’s more powerful than him?”
“Maybe,” I muttered, rubbing my chin. “He’s a born wolf though, and she was just infected. I mean, she probably can’t even shift yet, right? Didn’t it just happen?”
“Yeah, and I say that’s something we look into.” He sighed when I didn’t reply. “Look, I’m going to and see about getting into her lecture. Are you with me, or are you just going to sulk until we’re officially out? People are starting to notice we’ve not aged, Reagan. We served for a while now. Time to find out what’s next in life.”
“Fine, yeah, I’ll look into it, and you swing us getting into the lecture. You’re the one who knows everyone and can trade favors to change shifts if we need it.”
“Damn right I’m the man,” he chuckled, totally goofing around, as it was no big and people switched all the time when we weren’t in the middle of missions.
Later that day, he came back and told me that word was she’d killed Bernard Dorcus during a bust. I wasn’t sure if I was more intrigued that it meant she was a siren, or worried what the Dorcuses would do to her for killing their son. They were honorable, and if he’d done something wrong, they would take that into account… If they were in their right heads with their grief.
Now we really had to speak to her.
Hagan didn’t think she was one though and if infected would be just a wolf, but I knew she was a siren. I remembered meeting a few infected ones when we had been stationed at Greece, but he didn’t buy it.
Wednesday morning came, and the most stunning woman I’d ever seen walked into the lecture hall in a towel and nothing else.
“Oh fuck, tell me that’s her,” Hagan said at a volume humans couldn’t hear or paranormals that far away.
“We are not that lucky, Brother.” No, definitely not. She was breathtaking.
She was shorter than us by several inches and I’d guess about five-nine. Natural blonde hair that shined under the lights that she had pulled up into a professional bun, which was seriously endearing when she was in a towel. The biggest, brightest, deep blue eyes stared at the crowd, filled with nerves and determination. I would have given anything, anything to see what was under that oversized towel because I had a feeling it was perfection.
And then the angel opened her mouth and changed our lives forever.
“Good morning. And no, you didn’t just walk into an art class nor is this a joke of a stripper-gram. I’m Division Chief Seraphine Thomas, and forty-two days ago I was wounded in a bust gone bad and infected with a wolf strain of the lycanthropy virus. And by gone bad, I mean we didn’t know they were wolves and it could have gotten us all killed.”
“Fuck me, we are in so much trouble,” I breathed, Hagan nodding. It was her.
And there was no way we could let some asshole like Engle hurt her, force her to be his mate. The more she talked, the more worried I became. She was completely clueless as to how deep and dangerous the waters she’d been dumped in were. And it wasn’t her fault. It was what an infected wolf went through. It was hit or miss if they found someone to help them.
Or someone to hurt them.
I worried even more when it was obvious the FBI was just as clueless. Hagan and I shared a look that we couldn’t believe they were asking questions like if shifters could be born. We’d been out for over ten years, and they didn’t even know that?
What. The. Fuck. Yeah, good thing they were supposed to protect us. No wonder so many stayed hidden.
“She’s seriously powerful,” Hagan murmured as they tested her on what she was smelling in the room. He was right. She was nailing them left and right, and most new infected shifters couldn’t tell which way was up a few weeks in.
My heart sank as she brought up the man she was living with, but then I reminded myself she didn’t say they were mated. She was too new to mate. That left room for more, and as Alpha—which she clearly should be—she’d be pushed to have more than one. Hell, as a siren there probably wasn’t any way around it.
“I think I’m in love,” I practically whimpered when she snapped at some of the instructors, putting them in their place.
Next the cheetah told his story, and my heart hurt for him. It was such a hard thing to be infected, but his circumstances were horrid. He was lucky to have made it and moved past.
“Oh fuck,” Hagan chuckled as one of the trainees was affected by something she did, totally outing himself. “The bear’s busted.”
“Twenty she smooths it over.”
“Deal.”
I won the bet. Damn, she was smart and quick on her feet. Good, she’d need that as a wolf and powerful. She let out her energy into the audience, and we both moaned, more susceptible to it as paranormals, especially wolves like her.
“I need to get her under me or on top of me or any way she’ll let me,” Hagan whimpered, and I was struck too dumb to even speak, nodding with him.
When she ducked out with the trainee, we did as well, circling around just in time to see her drag his ass into the women’s bathroom. Hagan reached for the door when it sounded like the bear hadn’t been able to shake off her energy like we had, but I stopped him.
“Let her smack him around,” I chuckled, wanting to hear it.
She didn’t disappoint.
Once he left, nodding to us as he hurried back to the lecture, I waited a beat before knocking on the door, amused the bathroom was her temp office. She yanked the door open, and my breath caught in my throat. She was even more amazing close up. Her hair wasn’t up yet after the shift, and I wanted to bury my face in it.
While making love to her for hours and hours.
“Step into my office,” she chuckled nervously as she moved aside and let us in.
“Alpha,” Hagan breathed, sniffing the air as he walked by her.
She seemed to hesitate at locking the door after we were inside, but did it for privacy, probably thinking of our cover, which made me respect her even more. And worry for her because if she put the cover of strange wolves before her safety, that was incredibly dang
erous for her.
We bared our necks to her, waiting for her to acknowledge us, and she blinked when she saw it.
“So is every paranormal here going to greet me on the side?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and studying us closely.
“No, Alpha, we asked to switch shifts and pulled some favors when we heard you were coming,” Hagan assured her, still giving her his neck and not hiding our excitement to meet her well. “We’re getting out soon and are looking for a home.”
“I’m not the Alpha of Chicago, guys.” She moved closer and gave a quiet, pleased hum, which made me go rock hard in my pants. Fuck, she apparently already knew how to wrap me around her finger.
Probably every man. Now that I could see her athletic curves and fantastic rack, I had no doubt she could walk into any club, bar, or anywhere and immediately have scores of men wanting her attention.
“We know. The current Alpha approached us,” I muttered, frowning deeply at my lack of focus, reminding myself why we wanted to speak with her. “He wants us to join the pack. He discussed you being his Alpha Bitch soon as a perk of the pack’s power.” I lowered my head enough to glance at her but keep my neck bared. “But you’re way stronger than that asshole. We don’t want to be under him. We discussed taking over that pack just because it’s messed up and Chicago was our birth pack long ago before he was ever in charge. But now, having met you…” I trailed off, and she moved even closer almost like she was just as drawn to us as we were to her.
“What are your names?” she murmured, her voice deeper than earlier.
“Cooney, Alpha,” we said together, but then Hagan clarified. “I’m Hagan Cooney, this is my twin Reagan Cooney.”
“Hello, Hagan Cooney,” she purred as she stepped in front of him. “And what are you thinking about taking over Chicago’s pack now that you’ve met me? What were you going to say?” She put her power into her voice, and we both shivered.