“The jammer will be ready?” Klaus asked between bites. “On time?”
“Excuse me?” the stranger asked, coming back to reality.
“The transmitter. The jammer tower that your engineers have been building?”
“Oh, yes,” the stranger said, smiling a little. “They assure me it’s on time and will be powered up the moment your strike teams move into place to cut off the town. They foresee no delays. I apologize, I haven’t even yet had a cup of tea this morning.”
Klaus tore off a chunk of bread and soaked it through with egg yolk before stuffing it in his mouth. As he chewed, he wiped his inhumanly large lips clean, his eyes still locked on the quietly eating stranger. He rose from the table, rested his giant hands on the table, their sausage-sized fingers splayed out in front of him.
“I will ready the troops.”
“Yes,” the stranger said. “I will be in position soon, and will notify you via radio.”
Klaus nodded, then went to leave, each footfall sending a smallish tremor through the stone floor like a freestanding safe was being set down.
As the German giant left, though, an uneasy feeling began to settle over the stranger. This cloak and dagger version of Klaus had certainly thrown his preconceived notions for a loop—so much so that the stranger was now worried what else may happen as the day’s events began to unfold.
Chapter Thirteen – Peter
“Alright, everyone,” I said to my assembled pack, “let me start off by reiterating how goddamn stupid I’ve been when it came to assessing the capabilities of our enemy.” I looked around the room from my position at the head of the conference table as I spoke, making sure I locked eyes with every one of the ten individuals seated there. Each of my men, each of their mates except for Rebecca Stokes, Vanessa, and our two human employees were crowded in the little meeting room. I’d left Mary to run along to school, not sure how much help she’d be in this setting. As far as I was concerned she was a non-combatant and she had exams to study for.
“I let my preconceived notions of what was, well, possible in this world get in the way of logically examining every piece of evidence. And for that, I apologize. With Gen’s eyewitness account to back up and verify the information we’ve received from both Mary and Vanessa, it’s clear that we’re facing something just as strange as shifters.”
There was a brief moment of silence while everyone let my apology sink in. The fact that I was actually giving one threw Frank and Matthew for a loop, as evidenced by the look on their faces.
“Don’t worry about it,” Elise said. She looked around the room, her big pom-pom of a ponytail nearly taking out Jake’s eye as her head turned from one to side to the other. “We understand why you were so skeptical to begin with.”
“It has set us back on the planning stage, though,” Richard added. “We even equipped to deal with a threat like this?”
“Yes and no,” I replied. “We’ve been stockpiling all sorts of countermeasures for all kinds of threats. Because, while I didn’t believe there’d be giants or the patrons of the Fountain of Youth coming after us, I did assume there were worse things. We have the ordinance to take out armored trucks and helicopters. Even a tank, if we put our mind to it. I don’t see why any of that wouldn’t work on a giant or the youth brigade. It would certainly work on us, even, in our wolf form.”
“Jesus,” Jake breathed. “You mean we’ve got anti-tank weapons?”
“I called in a few favors,” I said with a grim smile.
The truth was, I’d done more than just call in a few favors. I’d also decided I needed to owe some as well. All my connections at the Department of Defense, the federal levels of enforcement, and every civilian private security contractor I could think of, had opened their warehouses for me. C4, Light anti-tank weapons, armor piercing bullets. You name it, I’d probably squirreled it away in my climate-controlled storage across town.
Jake grinned like his mind was opening to the possibilities. “Well then, Cap, I just got one question for you. What’s the plan?”
“That’s the spirit,” I replied, slightly relieved I didn’t receive any more pushback on this.
Over the next hour, we went through our defense plans. In the event of a strike, we’d all send out a cellphone blast first, then meet at the safe house. If the roads were impassable for any reason, the guys were quite capable of carrying their mates on their backs for long distances at high speeds, and could cover the trip in just over an hour.
Guns and ammunition were to be distributed accordingly. I wanted every one of them with a rifle or shotgun in their truck, along with enough ammunition to keep them in good supply during a sustained firefight. The guys all had additional sidearms in their homes, but we were going to distribute additional ammunition for those, as well.
“Reckon the cops are going to care if they find a small arsenal in my old Mustang?” Frank asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I think Sheriff Peak won’t do much if he comes across it,” I replied. “We’re licensed for everything under the sun. Why should he?”
“What’re we doing to make sure these guys don’t get the drop on us?” Jessica asked.
“Lacy and I are keeping an eye on all municipal airport activity in the surrounding area. If anything Jaeger-Tech comes in, we’ll know. There hasn’t been any activity as far as we’ve detected, though, so we’re in the clear for the moment.”
“Shouldn’t we have a partner system?” Frank asked. “Just in case?”
“After today,” I said. “I’m expecting all of you to keep a close eye on your mates. We’ve got a day here to wrap up any business we need to in the office, and then…we’re going to temporarily close our doors.”
The guys and Vanessa all nodded. It wasn’t coming as a surprise, particularly since I’d shut off all out of town business. We’d just have to coast on our savings for a while. Luckily, the agency didn’t carry a lot of debt.
“Guess that includes my work, too?” Lacy asked.
“Sorry, kiddo,” Jake replied. “Guess you’re gonna have to pirate movies at home from now on.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny, Jake. I’ll have you know I don’t pirate just movies back there.”
“Music too, right?”
“Oh, shut up, furball.”
“No new business, period,” I continued. “Not until this threat has passed. After that, we’ll resume normal operations.”
“Even if someone from town comes in looking for help?” Richard asked. “That’s not exactly our style, Pete.”
“Yeah, I agree,” I said, sighing. “But it’s not safe to focus on other cases right now. The people of Enchanted Rock are just going to have to manage without us. At least for a little while.”
Silence fell over our assembled team once again. I looked around table, trying to gauge everyone’s reactions by glancing at their faces. Across the board, I could see the silent determination of a group of people who were unwilling to be pushed from their lives. Even the women, who hadn’t had any kind of training, had their chins set and ready.
“If no one has any other questions,” I told the room, “I think this briefing is adjourned. We’ll close up shop sometime after lunch and head over to the armory across town, start to distribute everything we need.”
Murmurs rumbled through the group, punctuated by the sound of office chairs being vacated. As everyone got up, I caught Vanessa’s exhausted eyes. One glance and I knew she’d slept about as well as I had that night before. With just a delicately arched eyebrow she told me she’d meet me in my office, then disappeared out the door along with the others. As she walked out, though, I could tell something was different about her from the night before. Tired though she may be, there was also a new kind of confidence to her, which was saying something considering how secure and sure of herself she’d always been.
“Lacy,” I said just as our IT girl was about to leave the conference room in Vanessa’s wake, “can I speak to you a moment?”
“Uh, sure, boss man. What’s up?” she asked as she came over, her eyes large and innocent as she looked at me. She may have been twenty-one, but I still looked at her like she was the same age as Mary. A fresh-faced kid wearing juvenile clothes. Sure, she might have been doing the job of an adult, but it was a bit hard to take her seriously as one.
Behind her, the rest of the team disappeared out the door, headed for their cars and offices. All the guys paired up with their mates. The air was thick with tension, the kind you only had right after a briefing for a dangerous mission.
“I’ve been giving it some thought,” I said as I jogged the file in front of me together and stood, “and I’ve come to a decision. You and Gen–”
“–don’t say it, Pete–”
I held up a hand as I continued. “You and Gen need to leave town. Just for a while until this whole thing blows over.”
“Come on, boss,” she whined, “if I’m not here, who’s going to help you guys out on tech stuff?”
I put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “Lacy, listen to me. I don’t have the manpower to protect you and your grandmother. We’re stretched as it is protecting our mates. You two are the only ones tied only to Frost Security, and even if you stick around you’re going to be sitting on your hands. Everything you need to do as far as monitoring goes can be done outside the area, anyway.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes, sticking out a lower lip in an unbecoming pout. “But–”
“No buts,” I said firmly. “End of story.”
“Kicking us out, Peter?” Gen asked from the doorway, and both Lacy and I turned to look at her. For an old lady, she was surprisingly quiet and agile. Quiet enough I hadn’t even heard her approach.
“He’s saying it’s too dangerous, Grandma.”
“You know I’m right, Gen. When things are settled down and the offices are back to normal, I want you back first thing. But until then, it’s too dangerous for you to be here.”
Gen crossed her arms and set her chin in much the same way as my men’s mates had.
“I’m keeping your best interests in mind, you know that.”
She sniffed once, her delicate ginger eyebrows coming together ever so slightly as she watched me. Finally, though, she just nodded. “Fine.”
“Well,” Lacy said as her grandmother turned to leave the room, “that was uncomfortable.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. Gen Richter may have been pushing retirement age, but she was still one of the most stubborn and determined people I’d ever met in my life. And, coming from a guy who’d gone through the SEALs training program, that was saying something.
“Figured she’d have put up more of a fight,” Lacy said with a shake of her head.
“Me too, to be honest.”
Lacy sighed and scuffed the carpet with her shoe in an “aw, shucks” gesture. “Alright, boss man, I’ll get everything wrapped up and shut down. Want us to let you know where we end up?”
I shook my head. “No. Just go somewhere far away and safe. And drive, don’t fly. Nothing to track where you are. If things do go south here, I don’t want anyone coming after you.”
“Think it’ll get that bad? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know it can get that bad. But do you really think it will?”
“I don’t know what will happen,” I said honestly. “And that’s what has me so worried. These people have been around a long time, and they know more about us and our kind than we do about them, Lacy. So better to be on the safe side of things.”
“Anything else? Last minute security?”
I tried to think of anything else I might need from her, but I was coming up blank. She’d already secured our phones more times than I could count. Security had been installed in all our homes and at the Curious Turtle. “No,” I said finally, “you’ve done good, kid.”
She smiled a little before disappearing from the conference room, presumably slinking back to the dank cave she called an office.
Files in hand, I left right behind her and headed back to my own. The guys had already settled in at their desks to finish up paperwork, set up incoming email notifications, and to close any last bit of work. Even though we’d pretty much put the office on minimum workload for the last three months or so, we still had enough work that this battening down of the hatches would take a few hours.
When I circled through the reception area to get to my office, Gen didn’t even glance my direction. I knew enough to take a hint and just kept moving. I still needed to talk to Vanessa since she’d arrived a few minutes after the meeting had started.
“All your briefings that dire?” Vanessa asked as I strode into the office and shut the door behind me.
“Not always,” I replied as I began pulling down the blinds on the glass enclose of my office.
Our offices had begun as an old saloon building from the 1800s that I’d bought for a song and a dance, and we’d had to do quite a bit of work to bring it up to any sort of modernity. We had to do a lot of rewiring, sanding down and re-staining the hardwood, and installing glass cubicle walls to make individual offices of sorts that were as close to soundproof as we could get them.
Richard and I had done most of the work with our own hands, and there was no way I was leaving it behind and running from these Jaeger-Tech bastards.
Personally, I loved this little building as much as I loved Mary or Vanessa.
Well, maybe not that much. But with the amount of blood, sweat, and tears I’d put into this place, it was almost neck and neck in the running.
“Listen,” she said as I settled in behind my desk. “I’ve been thinking about the hybrid.”
I swallowed hard and looked into those crystal clear blue eyes of hers. God, she was beautiful. The most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. And now, as I looked through those windows and deep into her soul, I realized how badly I’d been deluding myself with all these thoughts of denial. I’d been pushing the old ways out to arm’s length, trying to find a new way forward. But that hadn’t been working, and my brain and my blood had been trying to tell me how badly I’d screwed up by ignoring my heritage.
“I know,” I said, leaning over my desktop. “I have been, too. I had a dream last night, Vanessa. A…a vision.”
Her mouth dropped open a little. She promptly shut it. “A vision? Of what?”
“Of being what you want me to be. Of what we need me to be.” I told her about what I’d seen, about the climb up the side of the monumentally large apartment building, of how she waiting for me at the top.
She leaned forward as I told her my dream, her hands on the desk in front of her.
As I poured out everything to her, about the half-memories from my time over in Iraq, I began to feel as if my soul was unburdening itself. Like I’d been hiding these things from my own mind for so long, that they’d been like a buried corpse in the recesses of my brain.
“And then you told me to wake up and to be ready because there was a storm coming.”
She turned her face away, swallowing hard as she closed her eyes.
I reached out and put my hand over hers. Her skin, so cool to the touch, so smooth, nestled perfectly in my grasp.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ve made a mess of things. We should have been doing this months ago.”
“I…don’t worry,” she said, turning back to look at me. She flipped her hand around, returning my grasp. “Because I don’t think it would have worked until now, anyway. We both had to change.”
And then it was time for her to tell me her story.
Chapter Fourteen – Vanessa
“Ivana told me,” I said in a voice that was nearly a whisper, as I looked up at him from beneath my lashes, “that I need to accept the pack if I want to help you. That they’re my pack.”
He squeezed my hand, the pressure from his fingers more reassuring than the pressure on my chest. It felt like an elephant was sitting on me as I thought of what was looming over me. A future, a wor
ld where I wasn’t alone anymore. A life.
“Go on,” he said, his thumb stroking the back of my hand.
I squeezed his rough, callused palm. “That’s it,” I said. “She said if I accepted them, I’d be able to guide you. That that’s all we would need.”
“Really?” he asked, his brows creasing. “That simple?”
“Simple?” I asked, giving him a crooked little smile as I glanced up at him. “Think your pack will just accept me as your mate? As one of their leaders?”
“Well why wouldn’t they?” he asked. “I mean, I’ll just tell them you’re my new second-in-command, and–”
“Peter, you can’t do that,” I said, laughing a little at the startled look on his face. “This isn’t the military. It’s a shifter pack. You can’t just drop somebody in and go, ‘well, she’s your new boss.’ It doesn’t work that way and you know it.”
He sighed. “I guess you’re right. But there has to be some way, doesn’t there? To take a vote or convince them you’re the best woman for the job?”
“Maybe I should start training with you guys up at the safe house?” I suggested.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. We’re meeting back up there in the morning. You can do the shooting exercises with us and run some drills. What do you think?”
I smiled, nodding. “I think it’s a start.”
His thumb still stroked the back of my hand. Warmth was spreading from our grip, traveling up my wrist and my arm. Reaching, it seemed, all the way to my heart. Already, I knew, I was smiling more easily than I had in years, despite the circumstances we’d all found ourselves in.
“Tell you what,” he said. “Why don’t you go down to the Curious Turtle and prove your worth to the women of the pack first? Let me finish up the paperwork here and you can meet up with us at the storage unit later. How’s that sound?”
“Perfect,” I said, retracting my hand from his grasp with more than a little reluctance. “That sounds like a start.”
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