by R. E. Butler
Angie listened as Vex and Mishka discussed the vampire-hating church. As far as she knew, there were no groups that specifically hated wolf shifters. The last time she’d heard about a group that hated shifters, she’d overheard Adam discussing a human-run hate group that revolted against a bird shifter group when they moved into a town. The bird shifters opted to leave instead of constantly dealing with the problems the humans caused. When the town was shifter free, they hadn’t gone after any other groups. But this church seemed to be far-reaching and not at all interested in letting the vampires live their lives.
She felt gazes on her, and she realized she’d zoned out. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Are you all right?” Vex asked.
“I was just thinking about the church. There are off-shoots of the groups in other places?”
Mishka nodded gravely. “Their church is set up like a business. Jason Finnegan is the leader. He started the church years ago when his family was caught up in a war between two covens and died. Jason was among the few survivors of his family along with his sister, Olive, and his brother, Sean. It’s been said that his hatred was immediate and profound. He started an organization to drive vampires out of cities by any means necessary, but because he was just a random asshole with followers, he was targeted by police and covens, so he created the church as an umbrella to hide their violent and illegal actions. They hide behind the title of church, when there isn’t anything religious about them at all. They still attempt to clear cities of vampires, and they’ve killed thousands of vampires along the way.
“Jason is the supreme leader of the church. Under him are his lieutenants, one for each state. Under the lieutenants are regional captains who have cells of followers wherever there are covens. Some states have more covens than others. They target us because ours is the largest coven in the Midwest. I own many businesses in Cleveland as well as other cities.”
“Why hasn’t anyone gone after Jason?” Angie asked.
Vex said, “His actual location isn’t known to the public. We’ve attempted to find him but haven’t been able.”
Mishka nodded. “Wherever he is, eventually he’ll make a mistake and be sighted by our coven or another and be taken out. His greatest fear is being turned into a vampire, so he stays hidden. We hoped after Harmony killed his sister and her captains and followers that it would drive him to the public eye to protest what happened, but it didn’t. The SyBl manufacturing plant was targeted, which may or may not have been a cover for them watching the club.”
Vex nodded. “I don’t think they were doing that as a ruse, I think they’re trying to attack us from all angles.”
“It seems to be the case,” Harmony said. “We’re so sorry that you and Alli were caught up in the middle of this. It’s one thing when vampire-hating groups go after vampires because they’re stronger and faster than humans and many shifters. It’s an entirely different, despicable thing for them to target loved ones.”
Angie glanced at Vex who was staring at her intently. They’d just met a few hours ago. Had only shared kisses and touches, but she could already feel how much he cared for her, and she knew if Rage was with them that he’d be looking at her in the same intense way. As if the sun rose and set on her command.
“If it’s all right,” Angie said, “I’d like to call my family now.”
Mishka’s golden gaze darted between her and Vex for a moment. “I trust you understand that I can’t allow you to leave at this point. While those who attacked you are dead, it doesn’t mean that information about you and Alli wasn’t transmitted to the church. You could still be targeted. With the sun set to rise in less than an hour, you’d be on your own and that isn’t acceptable.”
“I understand. I really shouldn’t have left in the first place.”
Harmony shook her head. “I don’t know if it would have mattered one way or the other, Angie. They were clearly watching the club even though we’d set up surveillance protections in a two-block radius around it. One way or another, you would have been seen leaving at some point, and they could have followed you to your pack.”
The thought of lunatics breaching the woods where her family and friends lived filled her with dread. She knew Adam wouldn’t allow that as an excuse for her not to come home – he was the sort of alpha male who would face any challenge to his authority head on. But she’d witnessed these asshole church members fighting two females with the intent to seriously harm – if not kill – them. Adam couldn’t control who was targeted and harmed any more than Vex and Rage or Mishka.
“I still need to speak to Adam.”
Vex stood and she took his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. She felt boneless and deflated, the horror of the attack settling on her shoulders. Her fingers tingled, her hands suddenly feeling cold as her mouth went salty and her eyes stung.
Without a word, Vex lifted her carefully into his arms and hurried from Mishka’s room. “It will be all right, sweetheart,” he murmured.
Her chest constricted, her lungs burning as she struggled to catch a breath. Thoughts of the past rose in her mind, mixing with the horror of the night. Her thoughts went to when she’d been abducted by a witch before Cinder had become female alpha. The witch had cast a spell on Angie, preventing her from being able to open her mouth. She’d been helpless to move a muscle, even when the witch had flayed chunks of her skin off with a wave of her finger. It had been the single most terrifying thing she’d ever been through. Adam had rescued her. The wiccans had set her free. But she’d spent many, many nights waking up in a cold sweat, feeling like she was back on the ground, confined by the spell and slowly being tortured. That wasn’t this situation, but it felt the same in some ways. She’d been at the mercy of someone with evil intentions. So much could have gone wrong. Alli could have been hurt or killed. Angie could have been abducted.
Vex set her gently on the bed and curled around her, holding her close and flooding her senses with his scent. He nuzzled her throat, biting her skin gently and sending her senses into overdrive. The fear curtailed at his attentions. She wasn’t on the roadside getting pulled through the windshield by a crazed human. She wasn’t magically bound in the woods and fearing for her life. She was in bed with one of her two mates. She could practically taste how furious he was at himself, how sincere his thoughts of killing anyone who would harm her.
She tried to blink away the tears but they didn’t respond, cascading down her face and throat as Vex held her. He didn’t shush her or tell her she didn’t need to cry. He just held her tightly. She really wanted Rage, too, but she couldn’t articulate that need to be surrounded by both mates.
As if on cue, Rage stormed into the room, his eyes flashing and a growl in his throat. He looked them over and then climbed onto the bed, settling on her other side and fitting his arms around her and anchoring himself to her. Her wolf relaxed and after a short while, the tears dried up and her fears eased. When she could talk without hiccupping on her sobs, she told them about the abduction in the woods, and how terrifyingly similar it had felt to the humans who attacked her and Alli.
“It breaks my heart that you were harmed before, but it’s unacceptable that you were harmed on our watch,” Vex said. “We should have followed you tonight.”
He stroked the remaining tears from her cheeks. “You couldn’t have known that the church would follow us from the parking lot,” she said.
“We should have anticipated it,” Rage said. “It’s our responsibility to keep you safe.”
She rested her hands on their necks as they stared intently down at her. “What will the coven do differently now to keep that from happening again?”
Rage kissed the inside of her wrist. “We’ll expand the two-block parking lot access. Add more patrols and more guards, more video cameras. What needs to happen is for the church to get the hell out of Cleveland, but I don’t foresee them going anywhere as long as Jason is in power.”
Angie hummed, stroking her fingers
through their hair. “He’s an asshole.”
“Of course,” Vex said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, but I mean that he’s hiding somewhere and letting his people do his dirty work. How many humans died tonight? I don’t understand why anyone would follow him.”
Vex let out a sigh. “Some humans are scared. They readily believe whatever lies he tells them. Some humans are genuinely afraid of vampires for one reason or another – they lost a family member or friend to a rogue vampire, or someone they loved was turned against their will. Jason exploits those fears, counts on them.”
“What’s a rogue vampire?” she asked.
“One who doesn’t belong to a coven,” Rage said.
“Why does that matter?”
“Vampires who turn others are required by our laws to bring those vampires into their coven. Covens – particularly the masters of the covens – keep all their members accountable to the laws and in line. Sometimes, a coven can disperse for one reason or another, and a vampire might stay solitary until they choose a coven to join, like your mates.”
Vex smiled at her. “If a vampire is law abiding, they can stay solitary and fly under the radar of the Hunters, but they usually don’t. They tend to get into trouble, lining up with other rogues and wreaking havoc. Not too long ago, there was a small group of them that made downtown Cleveland their territory, and they were promptly taken out by the Hunters.”
“You say hunters like it’s a title.”
“It is,” Rage said. “Hunters are vampires and shifters who subdue rogues and deal with other issues important to vampire-kind. There’s a Hunter in Northern Ohio, she’s mated to a bear shifter.”
Angie shook her head. “I think we got sidetracked.”
“Right, right,” Rage said. “The bastard leader of the church will be found one day and dealt with. Until then, we’re going to be very vigilant with your safety.”
She wasn’t surprised. That she and Alli had made it out relatively unscathed was a miracle that she wasn’t going to take for granted. She glanced at a clock on the nightstand and saw it was just a few minutes before dawn. She sat up and turned on her knees to face them, letting her gaze run over them. They were so gorgeous. Strong jaws, dark, tousled hair, ultra-masculine bodies that begged to be touched. And their eyes! So much emotion swirled in the depths. Twins but individuals, similar but also unique. They were a study in contrasts, and she still wanted to pinch herself to ensure she wasn’t dreaming.
“Before the dreams started, I never thought much about the sunrise, or even the sunset for that matter. Wolves only really care about the full moon, because so much of our heritage and ceremonies rely on the rise and fall of it. When I realized you were both vampires in the dreams, I started to pay attention to the sun more than the moon, because I knew you’d be tied to the night in a way that I’m not. I couldn’t have told you five years ago when sunrise was on any particular day. Once the dreams invaded my life, I became very aware of the sun’s activities. I can practically feel the sun rising right now. Is it like that for you?”
“Very much so,” Vex said. “When a person is turned into a vampire, at first they can’t ignore the sunrise. They’re drawn to sleep and stay that way until the sun sets. As we get older, it becomes easier to stay awake as the day dawns. We can feel the sun’s movements in our bones.”
Rage nodded. “We believed you were a wolf, so the moon took on new meaning for us, too.”
She pulled her phone from her back pocket. “I need to call my parents.”
“Of course. Do you want us to give you privacy?” Vex asked.
She hesitated for a moment. What would her parents say when they found out where she was and why? It didn’t help her case that she’d been attacked on the way home.
“No,” she said, opening her contacts and finding her mother’s cell number. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when I tell them, but I want you here with me.”
They nodded. She looked down at the screen, aware that they were watching her intently, and then she pressed the connect button followed by the speaker button. The call connected, the ringing echoing in the room. Her heart thudded in her chest, and she was torn between wanting her mother to answer the phone and wanting the call to go to voicemail so she could leave a message instead of having an actual conversation.
“Angie?” Her mother’s voice rang out over the speaker.
Angie’s voice squeaked when she opened her mouth, and she cleared her throat quickly and said, “Hey, Mom. Is Dad around?”
“Um, yeah, he’s here with me in the kitchen. Where are you?”
Inhaling deeply, Angie pushed aside her nerves and steeled her spine. She had nothing to be ashamed of. She had two amazing males for mates. It shouldn’t matter to her parents what they were, only that they were good males.
“I’m downtown at Fang.”
The pause was brief but profound. Then her parents spoke at the same time. “What?”
“Hold up, give me a minute to explain,” she said. “I’ve been having mating dreams for the past few years. I didn’t tell anyone because I wasn’t sure for a long while what they meant. But I realized early on that they were a glimpse of my future, and that’s why I went to the club last night. The dreams showed me two vampire males as my truemates. I had to come here to look for them, and I found them.”
Another pause. This one longer than the last, but no less serious. She could imagine her parents staring at each other over her mother’s phone.
Something dropped on the floor and shattered, and her father cursed.
Her mother cleared her throat. “You’re certain that you had mating dreams about two vampires?”
“Yeah, Mom, I am.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” she asked.
“I... don’t know. I guess I was worried what you’d think about me having two mates and them being vampires. I didn’t want you to discount my dreams or tell me I was wrong. Then they went on so long that I started to go crazy but it felt like it was too late to tell you.”
“How did you get to the club?” her father asked. “Were your friends in on the lie?”
She winced at the word lie. Not that it wasn’t deserved, but still it cut her deeply. “No. I canceled with them and met someone else to take me to the club.”
“Who?” her mother asked.
“A fallen angel named Alli. I drove to her place and we went to the club together. I was perfectly safe the entire time.” Which was a slight lie, since she’d nearly become a midnight snack for the vampire males who thought she smelled tasty.
There was a brief pause and she was pretty sure her mom had muted the phone. She looked at her mates. “That wasn’t too bad,” she whispered as she muted her own phone for a moment.
“They’re not happy,” Rage said.
“No, but they’re not screaming and demanding I come home either. I know I’m young, but I’m an adult. They can’t make me do something I don’t want to do.” Her brother, on the other hand, as alpha had a good bit of control over her. He could insist she come home, and she’d have a hard time disobeying a direct order from her alpha. But she would. She didn’t want to leave Rage and Vex.
“When are you coming home?” her mother asked finally.
She glanced at her mates who nodded. Unmuting the phone, she said, “After sunset. But my mates will be with me. They won’t let me come alone.”
Her father snorted, and it sounded like an annoyed growl. “We’ll need to speak to your brother.”
“What if we meet you at the service road that runs along the territory?” she asked, thinking of where she’d told her mates to meet her.
“That’s fine,” her father said.
“What are your mates names?” her mother asked.
Angie smiled. “Vex and Rage.”
“Are they part of Mishka’s coven or visitors?” her father asked.
“They’re part of his inner circle,” she said. “They live and work at the club
.”
“Are they listening?” her mother asked.
“We are,” Vex said.
“Well, I guess it goes without saying that we expect our daughter to be well taken care of.”
“On our lives,” Rage said. He stared intently at Angie and she sucked in a slow breath. His gaze told her everything she needed to know. There was no way in hell he was going to let her be anywhere near danger again.
“Good, good,” her father said. “We’ll meet you tonight at the old barn on the service road.”
“It will be an hour after sunset,” Vex said.
“That’s fine,” her mother said. “Angie?”
“Yes?”
“It goes without saying that we’re not thrilled you kept such an important secret from us. If you’d come to us before, we could have helped you. But all that aside, we’re happy you found your truemates.”
The tension Angie was holding within her eased, her shoulders slumping and her wolf dancing happily in her mind. “Thank you.”
“We love you,” her father said. “Be safe.”
“I love you, too, and I will.”
“Bye, sweetheart,” her mother said.
The call ended, and she stared at the screen for a long moment. “That went much better than I thought.”
“Did you think they’d be angry?” Vex asked.
Rage plucked the phone from her fingers and set it on the nightstand.
She hummed. “I honestly wasn’t sure how they’d react. They had plans for me, you know? They expected me to find a wolf male to mate and start a family. Adam was even talking about hosting a gathering in the future.”
“What’s a gathering?” Rage asked.
“A big party for unmated wolf shifters. One pack hosts and invites other packs from neighboring cities and states. Our pack hasn’t ever hosted one before, but he wanted to do it for me. I don’t need it now, of course.” She smiled and they growled seductively at her, twin sounds of want and desire.