Trixing Your Mate

by Sara Spark

  “Mate, there isn’t an inch of you that we don’t want to claim!” Hudson said with a large smile.

  “Including that sexy rosebud of yours,” Keo added. “But that will take some preparing.”

  “Especially for my cock!” Hudson added.

  “Quit scaring her, Hudson! He is teasing, mate. We will definitely not be starting with Hudson’s cock. This is all about pleasure, mate. Not pain.”

  “If, however, you like a little pain? We can adjust. You can tell us any dirty fantasy you’ve ever had, mate.” Hudson winked.

  “Hudson!” she choked. Her mind was reeling. She heard her sister’s voice. “I gotta go, that’s my sister. I will call you when it’s over.”

  “We will be waiting.”

  “Be ready, mate. We are gonna fuck you for days.” She shivered at Keo’s last promise or warning, however she wanted to take it, and hung up the call.

  Trixie heard her sister’s voice again and she called out.

  “There you are! I think I came the long way round to find you.” Rikki laughed as she stepped up to the bench. “They are about to do Graciela’s piñata.”

  “Coming.”

  Silently, two men dressed in full combat night gear including some impressive night scopes on their faces stepped out of the bushes on either side of Trixie and her sister.

  They looked as if they were part of a video game. Like they had parachuted in to normal suburbia to kill zombies or something. The complete contrast between the men and their surroundings was almost comical. At least it was until one of them pulled a gun and shoved it in both of their faces.

  “Which one is her?” The one with the gun asked his friend.

  “Fuck if I know! They look the same.” Trixie had to admit, out of all her siblings, Rikki looked the most like her.

  Both women had frozen when the gun was pulled out, but when Rikki’s oldest, Enzo, appeared calling “Nana says to hurry.” That’s when all hell broke loose.

  Another soldier appeared behind Enzo. Rikki ran forward, but it was too late. The soldier used his rifle hilt to club the boy who crumpled immediately to the ground.

  The second soldier slammed his hilt into Rikki’s skull sending her tumbling to the ground, unconscious.

  “Fuck, Harry. We don’t know which one is which!”

  “Easy, just ask her.”

  “What is your name?” The man with the gun asked her, but Trixie was frozen in shock at the sudden violence out of nowhere. She was mentally still at a kid’s party.

  “Look, bitch, this will be the easiest kill shot I’ve ever made.” One of the soldiers had placed his boot on Enzo’s back and aimed his rifle at Enzo’s head.

  “Please! Please, don’t hurt him! He’s just a boy!”

  “What is your name?!”

  “Beatrix Montene—“ She didn’t even get a chance to finish before the pistol crashed into the side of her head, and she blacked out.

  *****

  Keo was rubbing his chest as they waited at a stoplight. They had stayed a few minutes at the coffee shop, but then had decided that they might as well drive over to where Trixie was. That way, when she called, they could pick her up immediately. Unbeknownst to her, they had already looked up her cousin’s address earlier in the evening and then decided to kill time as they were waiting for her by going to a ‘Keo-approved’ coffee shop several blocks away.

  “Did you feel that?” Hudson asked him.

  “Yeah, it felt,” Keo cracked his neck back and forth. “It felt weird.”

  “You think she’s messing with our bond?”

  The started moving again. “I don’t feel her messing with it now,” Keo said thoughtfully.

  “Me neither.”

  The drove in silence for a few minutes. “What did it feel like to you?”

  “Weird. Like you said.” Hudson tilted his head considering the question. “Like it was a blender full of emotions pouring out all at once. They were all disjointed and mixed up. It was hard to tell what any of it was.”

  Keo nodded.

  They parked down the street and contemplated the house for a few minutes.

  “Trixie will be pissed if we just show up.”

  Keo nodded in agreement. “Especially when she asked for a little time to ease them into this.”

  “Not sure why this is such a big deal to humans. We are a committed threesome. She’s ours for life. Is two intrinsically a better number than three??”

  “Humans don’t make sense at times.”

  “Better not let Trixie hear you say that,” Hudson remarked with a faint smile.

  “Our human is another matter.” Keo’s mouth turned up at the corner.

  Hudson’s claws shot out of the tips of his fingers and embedded in the steering wheel.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure. My bear is not happy.” Hudson’s voice was so low he almost growled that.

  “My owl is going nuts.”

  “Let’s go.”

  After asking the first ten relatives that came to the door where Trixie was, Hudson’s subvocal growls were increasing in strength.

  “Who are you?”

  “We are Trixie’s friends.” Keo choked slightly over the word ‘friends’ and diligently repeated what he had asked the other nine relatives. “Could you show us where she is?”

  “Sí, I think Juan might know where she is.” They had heard some variation of this with the other nine relatives. Except the name was different each time. Maria, Sofia, Roberto, etc.

  They dutifully walked from room to room following the name trail as to who might know where Trixie was. But as minutes passed their animals were getting worse and worse.

  Keo put a hand on Hudson’s shoulder to help calm him down. He felt Hudson tense as a little kid ran by them straight out the backdoor to where a bunch of kids were hitting a piñata.

  They followed the boy outside looking all over for Trixie in the crowd.

  “Ask him.” Hudson could barely open his mouth for the fangs filling it. He nodded to the little boy that had run past them.

  Keo crouched down to the boy. “Hi, I’m Keo. I’m a friend of Trixie’s. Do you know where she is?”

  The boy looked at him with big brown eyes. He showed them a bandage on his palm.

  He and Hudson leaned over to scent the boy’s hand. Trixie. “Did Trixie help you with this?”

  The boy nodded solemnly. “She told me that when you fall down, you always get back up. No matter what.” He blinked at them. “She kissed it to make it better.”

  Their mate was beautiful. Inside and out.

  “Could you point to where she is?”

  The boy looked all around.

  “Where’s the last place that you saw her?”

  The boy pointed to the very back of the backyard.

  Keo and Hudson were there before the boy put his arm down.

  It took them less than five seconds to find the spot where she had been taken.

  As soon as they scented her blood, Hudson’s bear had exploded out, his clothes shredded in the process.

  Keo barely prevented changing. His owl was literally clawing his insides. His fingers ended in talons. He just barely prevented his owl from screeching a threat that would have deafened everyone in a ten mile radius.

  Their mate had been taken and those who threatened her would be destroyed, eliminated from this planet.

  But they had even more of a problem. They had two wounded humans who were almost certainly relatives of Trixie. She would never leave them here. Keo knew exactly what Trixie would say. She would tell him to take care of them first. Not to worry about her.

  And it was at that moment that the full significance of Hudson as his co-mate finally sank into Keo’s very soul. Hudson was here to save their mate. Keo knew it. Felt it with every single iota of his being. If Keo had been Trixie’s only mate, right now he would have had to risk the chance of losing Trixie’s trail or possibly leaving her relatives to die.
If they died, because he chose to track her rather then get them help, he knew that she would never be able to live with that decision.

  But since Trixie had two mates, that choice didn’t have to be made. They could do both. Keo recited every gratitude, blessing and prayer to thank the Mater for sending Hudson to Trixie. Every lingering irritation, and doubt over having a co-mate vanished as he realized the blessing that he had been given. On the invisible plane, the soul bonds between their mating group strengthened and sparked with energy.

  Hudson transformed back into human shape. “What was that?” He had obviously felt the surge in energy in their bonds.

  Keo just shook his head. He couldn’t speak for a moment.

  Hudson turned to point south. “They took her that way, and they’ve put her in something. Something to hide her scent. I can’t tell what it is.”

  “How many?”

  “I count at least five, but there may be more. This is organized.”

  Keo looked at him for a full second, eyes stripped down to expose vulnerability. “Hudson, save our mate.”

  Keo bent down to carefully lift the boy into his arms as Hudson erupted into his bear form and took off running.

  Using his Avian Chimera speed, Keo was soon on the back porch of the house. Screams in Spanish were everywhere as he laid the boy gently down on the porch.

  “Who are you, señor?” An older male shouldered his way through the crowd. From the resemblance to Trixie, Keo guessed that he was looking at Trixie’s father.

  “I am Trixie’s,” Fuck all, if he was going to say he was her friend anymore. She was his mate! So he explained it the only way a human might understand. “I am Trixie’s husband, Keo. Trixie has been taken.” There were startled gasps. “We found this boy and another woman hurt in the woods. You need to call an ambulance right now.”

  Turning around he saw a phone in the hands of a teenager. Using his rapid Chimeric reflexes, he snatched it away with an “I’ll buy you a better one.” Then he was running back to the woman, dialing Magnus as he did.

  “Magnus. It’s Keo.”

  He heard Magnus say to someone else. “It’s Keo.”

  “Oh my God, it’s Trixie. Magnus, it’s Trixie. They want Trixie!” That was Rimie’s voice and Keo could hear the fear in it.

  “You know?” Keo asked Magnus.

  “Rimie knew something was threatening the clan, but we didn’t know who was in danger. I’ve already got a team suited up, ready to go. Just tell us where.”

  “Use this phone as a starting location. They’ve taken Trixie. Team of at least five humans. Hudson is tracking them south from here. We’ve got wounded humans here. I’m going after our mate.” Dropping the phone on the ground while leaving the line open, Keo gently picked up the human and took her back to the house.

  It took 13 agonizing minutes for Keo to find and catch up with Hudson. The only thing holding his sanity together was the fact that he could feel them. Reaching out on the soul plane he wrapped himself around their bonds and he felt them. They were alive. Trixie was alive, but subdued. She was probably unconscious. He had to believe that’s all it was.

  When he heard the shots up ahead, his guts tied up in knots and he wobbled in the air, fighting to hold it together. He heard a tremendous roar that shook the earth and he felt the pain coming from Hudson through their connection.

  Looking down he saw three Humvees weaving through the trees, he had already passed one that was tipped on its side, forgotten in the chase. Stomach sinking, he saw that not far ahead the trees disappeared and it was open land. A few hills, but nothing a Humvee couldn’t handle. If they made it to that open terrain, Hudson would not be able to keep up with them. For although as a grizzly, Hudson was formidable, he was not built for speed. He was more like a tank on four legs.

  Keo needed to slow them down. But which vehicle held Trixie? He could feel she was down there. But Hudson was right, they had done something to suppress her scent. Which meant that Keo needed to figure this out by sight while Hudson was distracting them. The Humvee out in front. Keo needed to start on the one that would be the first to escape.

  Flying high until the last possible second, Keo swooped down only taking a couple of grazes from bullets as he entered into the open window and immediately transformed. Keeping his talons out, Keo ripped and slashed ruthlessly. If these humans had wanted to live, they should never have touched his mate. Blood covered him by the time he was done, searching the Humvee quickly for any sign of his precious mate.

  Another roar caught his attention, two down, two to go. Flying straight to the vehicle that Hudson was chasing and taking swipes at, Keo couldn’t tell if Trixie was in there. Leaving Hudson to handle that one, Keo took after the last vehicle. When entering that vehicle, he took a shot to one of his wings that broke some of the bones. He was not going to be able to fly well, if at all. Not finding Trixie inside, he looked at the last vehicle almost at the open field. Mater, please let her be in that one! What if they had put her in some other transport and this was all a red herring?

  Ripping the dead humans out of the vehicle, Keo drove after the escaping last Humvee. All he had to do was keep it occupied long enough for Hudson to catch up.

  Picking up speed as fast as he could, straining the engine, he finally managed to bump them a little just as they were pulling out of the trees. That bump slowed them just enough that he could turn them slightly. Dodging what bullets he could, well aware that precious time was slipping away from them. If this vehicle didn’t have Trixie, Keo would have to get back into the air, someway, somehow to scout for the rest of the vehicles.

  With a last bold move, Keo ran into the engine of the other Humvee, giving Hudson enough time to tear open the back door. Keo saw through the windows as two humans opened fire on Hudson at point blank range.

  “No!!!” His yell became an ear-piercing screech of his owl as he used his speed, half-transformed and half glided into the opening in the other vehicle, slashing mercilessly.

  When the field went eerily silent, the only noise that of the two Humvees still running, Keo slashed and pulled and threw bodies out of the way. Hudson had half-collapsed over a coffin like box in the back of the vehicle.

  Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

  Keo grabbed Hudson’s head and yelled in his face. “Hudson, transform right now! Right now!”

  With a growl, Hudson transformed to end up sprawled on the ground, so many bullet holes in him that Keo couldn’t count them all.

  Reaching down with his talons Keo slashed repeatedly through the metal of the coffin box until with a rush of pressurized air it opened. And their beautiful mate was laying inside.

  For a moment his heart stopped when he wondered if she was alive, but then he saw her breath was moving gently in and out and he reminded his panicky self that he could still feel her connected with their soul bonds. He quickly patted her down and only felt a few cuts, bumps, bruises and the big knot on the side of her head.

  Turning to his other wounded mate, Keo jumped down to assess Hudson. Shaking his head to wake him up, Keo called to him.

  Blearily, Hudson looked at him.

  “Drink, Hudson.” He slashed a cut on his arm and held it to Hudson’s mouth.

  “You got her?” Hudson mumbled.

  “We got her, mate.”

  Hudson’s head fell back on the ground and Keo felt his heart slowing.

  “Oh, no you fucking don’t! Don’t you dare fucking die on me! After we just went through all that! You will not fucking die! I refuse! I refuse to let you! Now take my fucking blood!” Pressing his cut against Hudson’s mouth he managed to urge, or browbeat (however, you wanted to look at it) Hudson into drinking a little. Chimera could heal their mates. They couldn’t heal anyone else, but they could heal their mates. Unless you were an Alpha. Alphas could help heal clan members that had sworn an oath to them.

  Going back to check on Trixie, Keo went back and forth between his mates, vitally aware that he needed to get them
to safety immediately.

  Keo had to take the risk of driving the Humvee to the Ranch. Most likely there was some sort of tracking device on it. But whoever this military team was, they would already know the mission had failed. Trixie’s team had not reported in. And if they knew enough about Stone Anvil Clan to know that Trixie was important and why she was important, it wouldn’t matter if they tracked the Humvee to the ranch, they would already know about Chimera, the clan, the ranch and mates.

  This group wanted Trixie. They were taking her in a specialized container to hide her scent. They knew exactly what Keo and Hudson were.

  In the far distance, Keo heard powerful military engines headed his direction. It might be Magnus’ team, but then again it might not be.

  “Time to go, Hudson.” Even with his Chimera strength, Keo almost couldn’t move Hudson. He had to yell, and cuss, but ultimately the only thing that Hudson responded to was when Keo said that Trixie was hurt and needed Hudson’s blood.

  Keo managed to dump Hudson into the passenger seat and then last minute went to get Trixie and placed her on Hudson’s lap. Strapping them in tightly. Keo found extra rope in the vehicle to tie them down securely. At intervals he would cut a wound on his arm and force it into Trixie’s mouth and Hudson’s mouth. Cussing as he tried to keep the Humvee under control one-handed. When his wound would heal, he would use his talons to dig out bullets from Hudson, randomly wherever he found them.

  Bouncing across the hills Keo cut across country to head directly to the ranch. He could see the lights of approaching vehicles behind him. Magnus’ team would never need the lights at night. Chimera could see in the dark. They wouldn’t need the headlights.

  When Keo pulled up next to the ranch house, a crowd of Chimera surrounded the Humvee. All of them working on the battered doors, trying to open them. It was too much for his owl. His two mates were seriously injured. One on the brink of death. Keo himself couldn’t fly much with his broken wing that with his Chimera blood was slowly healing.

  With a screech of warning, Keo exploded out of the passenger open window, transforming at the same moment, scattering clanmates in all directions. His owl settled on the roof of lethal talons cutting into the metal of the roof of the Humvee as he protected his defenseless mates.