by Mikayla Lane
Reven came back into the room and stood beside Ivint.
“Jax said that she and Sam are just chilling out there. Apparently the delicate one is Fiorn’s mate,” he said with a grin.
Ivint laughed.
“I’m not sure if we should be grateful or not. Whoever she is, she’s obviously the true leader. We could be jumping from one problem to another,” Ivint said, his mind trying to figure out what was going on. This was going far too easily.
Reven looked at his friend.
“You think they are luring us inside and into letting our guard down?” he asked with renewed fear for his pregnant mate.
Ivint shook his head.
“I don’t know. But warn everyone to stay alert and on guard until we can establish some kind of official communication with someone,” Ivint said.
“What are you thinking?” Reven asked.
Ivint shook his head and looked more closely at the mountain and the craft in the skies as they hovered low over the mountain.
“I just don’t see Fiorn allowing anyone, even a mate, to have that kind of power. Do you?” he asked.
Reven shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest.
“No, I really don’t see it. He’s stubborn, arrogant, set in his ways . . . hell, what he’s doing right now shows his instability,” Reven agreed.
Callumus, temporary first commander of the Adaria while Gracus was grounded, called through Ivint’s comm.
“Sir, we have Relian ships entering the quadrant!”
Koda came through the comm next.
“Sir, keep your ships cloaked! The rest of our fighters are going to intercept before they can come anywhere near the planet,” Koda said confidently.
Ivint shook his head.
What else could go wrong? He wondered.
“Remain cloaked and let Koda handle this for now. Koda, if you need help you better damn well ask for it before it becomes an emergency,” Ivint warned, unwilling to see the young man and his fighters harmed because he didn’t ask for assistance.
Chapter Seven
Countdown Clock to Human Discovery
18:00 Hours
This is WSBC Channel 9 News with a special update. Federal and local authorities are continuing the evacuation of the area near the landslide that occurred on Burnt Tree Ridge. Garfield County Sheriff Joe Scarborough has closed secondary roads near the slide to allow for quicker evacuation. I-70 is now closed in both directions between exits 133 and 129 as the slide continues toward the highway. As Garfield County wakes up, the road closures could lead to traffic snarls as commuters head to work.
Early damage reports indicate that not only have the cell phone towers been affected, but the Internet has also gone down. Providers are unable to give repair estimates until officials can ensure the area is safe enough to inspect the damage. Heavy rain is still expected and everyone is asked to avoid the area until the authorities can ensure it’s safe. We will provide updates on the situation as they become available.
True spent the next hour with Tara and Leif while they tried to convince her they weren’t the bad guys. Even though True had heard the chatter through the Shengari’ that everyone was alright and their forces were basically being welcomed inside the mountain, she didn’t trust any of them. Something seemed off, and she couldn’t shake the feelings of mistrust she felt towards the mountain hybrids, as her people were calling them.
True was shaken from her thoughts by Tara.
“You’re a tough nut to crack. What exactly will it take to prove to you that we aren’t the bad guys here?” Tara asked, warily eying the fire starter in the backseat.
True didn’t hesitate.
“Take me to Grai,” she said.
Leif shrugged.
“Might as well. He escaped over an hour ago with the rest of them. We could probably get back and meet up with them—wait out the legends until the DF gets here,” he said, thinking it was probably safer than trying to convince the fiery she-beast to believe he wasn’t a monster.
At this point, he’d be happy to have the woman anywhere but behind him. She was dangerous and made him nervous. Actually, if he was honest with himself, he’d have to admit she was making his junk nervous.
Fear of being set on fire again would do that to you, he thought angrily before he tamped it down again.
Tara snorted.
“You two are pathetic. I’m taking you back just to get rid of both of you,” she said with a shake of her head.
Leif flipped Tara off, causing True to snort at the blank expression he’d maintained while he did it. Not that True was jealous or anything, but Tara and Leif seemed to be awfully close and she was curious about their relationship.
True cleared her throat.
“Are you two brother and sister?” she asked. She knew there was no resemblance between Leif and Tara, but she wanted them to clarify their relationship for her.
Tara laughed at her.
“Might as well be. We grew up together. And I still kick his ass when he needs it, just like a big sister would!” Tara said as she reached across the seat to pinch one of Leif’s cheeks. He slapped her hands away from him.
Leif snorted in disbelief.
“Kick my ass? You used to sneak in my bedroom and give me night terrors!” Leif said, unable to believe that Tara still called it kicking his ass.
Tara laughed.
“Hey! Only when you’d been a real asshole that day,” Tara said as she looked at True in the rearview mirror with sparkling green eyes.
“Besides,” Tara added, “it was good for you! Made you grow up into a strong, protective man.”
Leif looked at her in disbelief and horror.
“You’re fucking kidding right?” he asked before he turned to True in the backseat, forgetting their personal arguments for the moment.
Leif pointed at a grinning Tara and looked at True.
“I was seven; she was eight. I stole one of her cookies at lunch, and at naptime she gave me nightmares that went on for weeks! I spent half my childhood sleeping with the lights on and somewhere near Nana because she terrorized me in my sleep!”
True had a few bad nightmares in her life and she couldn’t imagine someone doing that to her intentionally to get even for a cookie! Against her better judgement, she was actually starting to feel sorry for Leif. She narrowed her eyes at Tara in the rearview mirror before Tara burst out laughing.
“Oh please! He’s a big boy and a few nightmares didn’t hurt him. Besides, he got more shit from everyone else growing up for being the progeny of legends, so the nightmares were only the icing on an already burned cake,” Tara said the last with a laughing snort as she looked at his crotch.
True actually felt bad for giving the mountain people more of a reason to pick on Leif. The guy wasn’t what she had expected, but she did feel a connection to him even if she was trying to ignore it, and she felt bad for hurting him. Although, she’d never admit it in front of Tara. Not because she couldn’t do it, but because True thought the woman might twist it and turn it into something else to pick on him for.
True wasn’t surprised when they headed right for the mountain wall, and it opened just as they were going to hit it. They parked and exited the vehicle, and True was a little surprised when five of the hybrids in the garage area grinned at them with scrunched hands in the shape of hearts.
Tara looked at them oddly and laughed.
“What the hell? We don’t usually get greeted like this,” she said with a questioning look to Leif.
One of the men laughed.
“Traze T’Alq came in after you left. And that’s how he got us to let him inside,” the man said with a grin, while the others chuckled.
“He’s a fine kid . . . for a mutant,” one of the women said.
Leif looked startled as True laughed.
“Where is he?” she asked.
One of the women said, “We gave him vehicles and a comm to get to his brother, but we heard that
he took the wrong fork and he’s heading right towards Ass 2. You may want to go and save him,” one of the women said.
Leif looked at Tara with wide eyes before he grabbed True’s hand and pulled her through the door and into a tunnel. There were two vehicles there and Leif hopped on one and pulled True’s hand to get on behind him.
True looked at him blankly.
“If we don’t get to him in time, my father might kill him. Please, get on,” he said.
Tara hopped on the other vehicle and gave True a questioning look before she started her vehicle and took off. With a sigh, True swung her leg over the seat and tried not to slide into Leif. She held on to the back of the seat and thought she’d be able to keep from touching him, until he took off so fast she was forced to throw her arms around his chest in order to stay on.
Oh, what a damn fine chest it is too, True thought as she tried to keep her hands from roaming all over him.
She had one hand on his upper chest, cupping a pec that flexed beneath her hand as he used the throttle. The other hand was on his lower abdomen and so close to where she’d burned him that she was surprised he wasn’t moving her hand himself.
The heat of his body was quickly permeating hers, and the chill she’d had from being outside in the early morning hours was long gone and replaced with a slow heat. If it wasn’t for the situation, True had no doubt that she’d be cuddling up to the guy like a contented cat.
True wasn’t sure if she was irritated or not that Leif seemed oblivious to the fact that she was pressed so close against him, but she forgave his oversight when he pulled beside Tara and yelled out, “Get your own team there to head the kid off before he gets killed! We’re going around to the other side to try and head off Ass 2 before he can get to the mutant!” In that moment, True knew Traze was in serious danger.
Leif sped past Tara and zipped down a bunch of corridors and tunnels.
“Where is everyone?” True asked. They hadn’t passed another person since they split from Tara.
Leif turned to give her a devastating grin that made True’s heart seem to flip flop in her chest.
“Most of our personnel are outside facing yours. The rest are in Fiorn’s Folly, the main facility, or even aboveground and being evacuated with the humans. Mostly the children and mothers . . . just in case,” he said as he turned back around to guide the vehicle.
“How big is this place?” True asked. It seemed like they’d been driving for miles.
Leif grinned.
“It depends. Fiorn’s Folly is a small town, and it’s around 200 feet below the surface and about five miles in length. Then there’s the main facility, where almost everyone works at this location. It’s deeper than the town, and it’s a 12-story building,” he said.
True interrupted him.
“How the hell did you build all of this?” The scope of what he was talking about was too enormous for her to understand how it was possible.
Leif laughed.
“A lot of it was here. We just built within it. There was someone here long before we were. They built this place on the ley lines. A lot of the tunnels and caverns were already carved from the rock. We called most of that the old section, and it’s almost never used anymore,” he said. He was distracted as he tried to use the Shengari’ to find his father—before the man started a war.
True was still curious.
“You don’t know who was here before you?”
Leif shook his head.
“The place was empty. It was like a lot of other places where whole groups of people just suddenly vanished. Back when my father found this place, they didn’t really care who had been here, just that they weren’t here anymore. Our younger generations, including Tara and myself, we’d like to know who was here before us,” Leif said with a twinkle in his eye.
True snorted.
“I bet your legends love that,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.
Leif laughed.
“Oh yeah, they’re all about the history of this place. They think that the less we know, the less we’ll want to stay. They’re gonna be surprised when they try to fill those ships to leave, and they’re the only fools on a one-way trip to a lonely life,” Leif said.
True looked up at him in surprise.
“You really intend on staying here?”
Leif looked back at her with the most serious expression she’d seen him display.
“We not only intend to stay. We’re hoping the DF can work out a truce with your people so we can start working together. We want to fight. We’re tired of sitting back and playing the clean-up crew,” Leif said.
He looked back at True’s startled expression and grinned.
“We’re getting ready to intercept my father. Can you pretend to be happy to be my mate long enough for Tara to get the boy to safety?” he asked cheekily, with only a slight bit of hurt coming through his energy.
True leaned her cheek against his back, like she’d been dying to do since they’d first taken off.
“I can pretend anything to save my family,” she whispered.
Leif couldn’t stop the shiver that ran through him when he felt her warm breath caress his neck and ear.
Damn her, Leif thought as he tried to quell his growing erection just as they stopped behind his father.
“Father!” Leif called out, just as he saw Tara peek around the corner up ahead.
His father turned to him with a thunderous expression, and Leif felt the look go through him like an ice bucket.
Yup, that look could kill any thought of sex, romance—hell anything good, Leif thought as he cleared his throat and got off the vehicle.
With his fists clenched, Ass 2 turned to his son.
“What do you want, boy? I don’t have time for your petty issues! We’ve been infiltrated!”
Leif held his hand out for True, who looked like she didn’t want to take it. He turned back to his father and was getting ready to lower his hand when he felt True take it and give it a gentle squeeze. He was more than a little surprised when he felt her send him encouraging energy through their bond.
True stared at the ass treating his son like a bad child instead of a grown man and she stepped forward.
“You’ve been infiltrated because you’re an asshole, and this was the enema you’ve been needing for a very long time. So how about you just give up before you end up embarrassed, in a corner, and covered in your own shit,” True said it with such a beautiful smile on her face and in such a sweet tone of voice that it took a few seconds for her words to hit Leif’s father.
“Oh hell!” Leif uttered as he pulled True behind him just as his father roared in rage.
His father stomped towards them, fists clenched, when Leif pushed True towards the vehicle.
“Get it started!” he told her through the Shengari’.
As True moved to the vehicle, Leif stepped forward to meet his father and keep him as far away from True as possible.
“Father! She’s just a little upset over what’s going on! Don’t you think Nana is going to love her? Nana is going to love meeting her, don’t you think, father? Nana and True are a lot alike! Right? Have you talked to Nana?” Leif asked, making sure to interject the delicate flower’s name every chance he could.
The only thing that frightened Leif’s father more than his own father was Nana. Leif was hoping like hell he could get his father to remember that fear before he did something they would all regret later. Although, he really didn’t have a problem with True setting his father’s junk on fire, either.
True got the vehicle started and pulled up alongside Leif. Father stared down at his son, his chest heaving with his barely controlled anger.
“Get her away from me!” he ordered without sparing True a glance.
Leif maintained eye contact with his father while he backed toward the vehicle and hopped on behind True. He barely had time to put his arms around her before she hit the gas and propelled them forward. Leif lo
oked behind them and saw that his father was still standing in the same spot, still trying to control his rage.
“I got the boy; he’s safe.” Tara told him through the Shengari’. Leif was so relieved he squeezed True’s slight body closer to him and rested his head on her shoulder.
True grinned.
“Your dad and your grandfather have some serious anger issues,” she said.
True had to admit that it felt really good to have his arms around her like this, and she hoped that he would keep them where they were. In fact, she had to stop herself from leaning back into him.
Leif looked back and couldn’t see his father anymore.
“Slow down,” he said and waited until True did.
“He’s got a lot of reasons to be angry, so does Ass 1, but it’s not an excuse for their behavior. Take your first right,” Leif said, pointing in that direction and enjoying the feel of how close she was to him.
True was quiet, unwilling to ruin the moment—the first moment they had together where neither was feeling anything bad about the other. She really just wanted to enjoy it. Sadly, fate had other ideas.
“Cuz! Oh my God, I didn’t think I’d ever see your sexy red-headed self again!” True heard Traze’s voice before she saw him and Tara standing off to the right.
True stopped the vehicle so quickly the engine died and threw them both forward. Leif looked at Tara, who was grinning broadly, before sizing up the smiling boy who’d barely been saved from his father.
Leif held out his hand.
“I’m Leif Erikson. Yeah, son of that guy and grandson of that other guy,” he said with a smile.
Traze’s face lit up as he grabbed the larger man’s hand.
“Oh damn! I thought I had some big shoes to fill! You poor bastard!” Traze said with sympathy evident in his voice.
Leif couldn’t help but chuckle at the kid. He was funny and had more balls than most, coming in here the way he did. Leif liked him right away. Tara obviously did as well, because she was still standing guard on the boy.
Leif looked at Tara.
“We need to get them and the others somewhere safe until the DF gets here,” he said.