Devi: Matefinder Book 2 (19 page)

                Nahuel spoke in a calm clear voice,
“I join your souls as one. May you have no secrets from one another. I join your souls as one. May you protect one another until death. I join your souls as one. May you respect each other as equals, regardless of pack rank. I join your souls as one. May fertility be bestowed upon your family. I join your souls as one. May you love each other for the rest of your long, long lives. It is done, so be it.”

                Then he placed his hand on my head. An electric jolt ran down his hand and zapped my pelvis. I opened my eyes in shock. Kai looked concerned. I smiled.

                ‘It’s okay,’
I assured him,
‘but I think he literally jump started my ovaries. I felt it.’

                Kai had to stifle a laugh.

                Nahuel cut my arm and then did the same with Kai’s. “With this final act, you become one. Mates for life. Is this your wish?” he asked me.

                “It is,” I replied on instinct.

                “Kai, is this your wish?” Nahuel asked.

                “Yes,” he answered with a big grin.

                Nahuel placed our wrists together and chanted in an ancient language. I saw mist pour down from the trees. I felt Kai’s energy stronger than ever before, his thoughts, feelings, how much he loved me. How scared he was that I would be taken away or hurt, how much he hated RAIDOS and the vampires. How much he hoped to keep a secret from me. I probed at that thought and gasped when I saw what he was trying to hide.

                Kai looked into my eyes, seemingly willing me to understand.

                “Kai, you can’t,” I said aloud.

                The people in the front row mumbled.

                ‘Shh, my father will kill me,’
he said.

                I quieted quickly.

                I knew my mate was protective and would protect me at all costs. But never, in a million years, did I think he would expose our kind to the humans in a bid to save my life.

                Kai’s eyes flashed yellow.
‘That’s right. Let the vampires try to fight us once I get the humans on our side. They won’t like it if their food fights back.’

                Holy shit. Kai was crazy.

                The crowd erupted into cheers and Kai’s gaze became a sexy smolder.

                Nahuel patted my back. “Congratulations, you’re mated.”

                I pushed Kai’s secret to the back of my mind and let this moment settle in. It felt so good to have your person. I would never be alone again on a movie date, no more sad Valentines days, no more abusive boyfriends. Kai was made for me and I for him. We found each other out of all the people in this world and we’ve become one. My eyes glowed yellow and Kai grabbed my neck, gently pulling me in for a kiss. The crowd roared and Kai tipped me back as I giggled.

                ‘You’re mine,’
Kai told me.

                ‘Ever since our first kiss in your office, I wanted it to be you,’
I confessed. He stood me upright and held my hand, smiling. The crowd gathered up and down the aisle holding their arms up high creating a tunnel for us to run under.

                Kai glanced at me from the side. “After you, my wife.”

                I grinned and ran forward. White rice fell from the hands of our friends and loved ones. I laughed and was very touched at the lengths Emma and everyone had gone to give me a wedding close to that of a human.

                Kai and I met his father at the end of the aisle. He was on his cell phone shouting orders.

                “Papa, give us an update.”

                Raj glared at his son, clearly not liking the order.

                “Please,” I added, nudging Kai. Kai rolled his eyes.

                Raj got off the phone. “The problem has been fixed. RAIDOS came and saw Tristan and Izzy exchange vows. They knew we were up to something, but they can’t prove it. They are gone now. I’ll take you to your reception.”

                I looked at Kai. Okay wedding was over, time to talk about Kai’s deep dark secret.

                ‘Kai, you’re not serious about telling the humans we exist, right? Those were just deep dark thoughts that will never happen, right?’
I had secrets, hell, we all had weird dark thoughts, but this seemed more than a thought. It was more like a plan.

                Kai held my hand as we followed his father.
‘Trust me,’
was all he said.

I sighed. If Kai was serious about this, life as humanity knew it would never be the same.

***

                The reception was in a huge red barn between Emma and Izzy’s property. There were hundreds of people. It was decorated simple and elegant. As they served the food, Kai leaned into me. “The entire wedding has been catered vegetarian in honor of the bride.” He smiled. I nearly spit out my wine.

                “You’re making three hundred werewolves eat vegetarian?”

                He nodded. “I am.”

                I grinned. Kai slipped his hand under the table and caressed my thigh.

                ‘What is a polite amount of time to stay at your own wedding reception?’

                My belly heated at his meaning. I grinned.
‘When we cut the cake, then we’re out of here.’

                He laughed.

                The night went smoothly. Kai’s father was gone for most of the reception dealing with security issues at our borders. He didn’t bother us with the details, but he returned to check in on the party and I noticed vampire ash on his clothes. After cutting the cake and dancing, we snuck out. Kai drove us to a secluded cabin high up on the mountain. There were tea lights inside white paper bags leading the way up the driveway.

                “We’re not going home?” I questioned.

                Kai shrugged. “My father thinks this is a better idea. I agree.”

                Whoa. He agrees with his father. That’s rare.

                We got out of the car and I inhaled. It smelled like Max, this must be his house.

                Kai opened the front door, there were rose petals on the carpet leading to a bedroom door. I laughed.

                Kai groaned. “This is Max’s house. He must have told Diya and Emma we were going to be here tonight. They’ve decorated.”

                We opened the bedroom door and both started laughing. Condoms, lotions, and sexy lingerie littered the bed, red balloons and roses as well. Kai picked up a black lace bra and a pair of panties and raised his eye brows to me.

                I grinned and lifted my arms. “Help unwrap me.” My Sari was wrapped around my body so many times I wasn’t sure I could get out of it myself. Kai helped unwrap me and then began to unsnap my blouse. Once that was gone, he stared at my red bra. He peppered my shoulder with kisses and then hoisted me up on the bed.

                “What about the lingerie?” I teased.

                “Forget it.” He panted in-between kisses.

                I smiled. Guys were so easy.

                The next morning I awoke with a grin. The night before was mind blowing. Kai was right when he said mating after you were married was different. It was magic. Literally. Mist had crept in through the windows and down the walls. Maybe that was how werewolves got pregnant once they were mated, some kind of magic changed them to be fertile. I reached over and felt the bed, empty. I sat up and noticed a note on the bed. I smiled. As I read the note, my stomach dropped. No!

My dearest wife,

Please forgive me. I do not want you involved with what I feel needs to be done today. My father lost three men in the night. The attacks were relentless, both from RAIDOS and the vampires. We can’t live like this. I must go forward with my plans. Turn on the news.

I love you. Be safe.

Kai

                My hands shook. I scrambled out of bed wrapped in a sheet and searched for the remote. Once I found it, I turned on the TV with dread. This would be catastrophic. What was he thinking? If the humans didn’t kill Kai, the council would.

                The second the TV came to life, I noticed a picture of Kai, and a frazzled-looking blonde newswoman was explaining the story.

                “We have live feed from an interview earlier this morning at Safe Haven domestic violence shelter in Oregon. We have confirmed this is not a computer graphics trick and news is coming in all across social media of reports of werewolves being spotted all over the country.”

                Oh shit. He did. Holy, holy shit.

                The feed cut to footage of the gym at Safe Haven, Kai looked gorgeous as usual and Max was with him. Damn you, Max! Traitor. The women at Safe Haven were all clustered around them.

                “I have dedicated my life to protecting my family, these women, humans,” Kai was saying. The newswoman made a weird face when he said humans. Kai continued.

                “So, at this point, I feel that to protect you all the most, I must share with you a secret. This secret may get me killed, but it could save your life.” Kai was turning on the charisma. Not being too stern or scary.

                The newswoman was looking nervously at the camera. “We’re here to learn about what you have been doing at Safe Haven,” she reminded him, nervously.

                But before she can cut the camera away, Kai shifts into his werewolf form blindly fast. His clothes tear and he stands there in wolf form. His large black fur and yellow eyes are menacing. He lowers his head to try and look timid. The gasps from all the women in the auditorium make the footage seem all the more real. Some of them scream. A few stumble backward. Max looks at the camera. “Werewolves are real and it is our intention to protect humanity from a very real and very scary threat. Vampires. Vampires are real too and they have been injecting your young ones with heroin and drinking them dry in order to get high. They want humanity to be asleep while they continue to use you as food, or worse, change you into drugged up bloodsuckers!” The newswoman was holding the microphone in front of her in a protective gesture. Her hand was shaking.

                Max looked at the camera. “Meet at your local parks. Your local werewolf pack will be there to teach you how to protect yourself from the vampires. God help us all in the days ahead. A war is coming and we must unite to protect the human race.” Max finished. The newswoman dropped the microphone and the footage cut off. I was looking back at the woman in the newsroom.

                She was speechless. “Uh … well. We will be following this story closely. Let’s … go to commercial.”

                I realized I hadn’t taken a breath. I gasped. Oh my God. My mother. She would see. EVERYONE would see. There was no going back.

                I picked up my phone and saw breaking news alerts. Videos from werewolves all across the country were being uploaded. I saw one of Shamus. Kai had orchestrated this entire thing.

                ‘Kai, what have you done!’
He was close. I could feel it.

                ‘I had a dream,’
he said.

                What the hell was he talking about? I heard a car door shut. I inhaled. It was him. I threw on clothes and ran outside.

                He was with Max. They stepped out of the car.

                “Your Devi spirit visited me in my dream and showed me two versions of the future. In one, humanity and werewolves all but go extinct. They hide in caves and scavenge and kill each other over territory and food. The vampires over populate Earth and live off of drugged up human slaves with their half-breed demonic children.” His jaw is set, veins popping out of his neck.

                I grabbed my arms and shivered. I felt sick. “And the other?”

                His face relaxed. “We unite. Not all humans will embrace an alliance with us, but most will. It will be enough. We kill Layla and her clan dries out. The senseless bleeding out of humans stop and we all live together in a new future. A more balanced future.”

                I swallowed. “After a shitload of drama, I’m sure.”

                Kai shrugged. “There was no other way.”

                “The council, your father. They’ll kill you.” My eyes went yellow.

                Kai gave me a sly grin. “There is a law that states no council member may be punished with death. That’s why I joined, I’m exempt now.”

                Relief flooded my chest. “What? You planned all of this, didn’t you?”

                Kai grabbed my waist and held me close. “Since the moment I knew that Layla and RAIDOS would stop at nothing to have you.”

                I kissed him.

                ‘You stupid idiot. I love you.’

                He smiled and kissed me deeper.
‘I love you too. Remember that.’

                I didn’t like the ominous message. “How did you get so many werewolves to reveal themselves?”

                Kai shrugged. “I called every pack that you had found a mate for and told them you needed a favor.”

                Hah! Before I could retort, helicopter blades whirled in the distance. I broke away and saw a look of sadness etched onto Kai’s face.

                Devon and Alexa burst through the trees in human form and immediately began shifting. This was only Alexa’s second shift.

                “Kai, they will capture, experiment, and torture every last one of us now,” Alexa said as she was shifting.

                She screamed in pain, but the shift was happening with as much grace as she could manage.

                “Plan B,” I told Kai. “Let’s leave the country. Let’s run.”

                Kai looked at me, his look said good bye and I didn’t like it. “Too late.” He shifted.

                Shit! I shifted too. Max stayed human and held up a gun. Men were repelling from ropes. Max pointed the gun right at them and let bullets fly. One guy dropped to the ground with a sickening thud. This isn’t what I wanted. Why couldn’t they leave us alone!

                I counted twelve RAIDOS guys, heavily armed, running at us through the trees.

                ‘Where is the rest of the pack?’
I asked Kai. I knew Seattle pack drove home the night before, but India pack was still around, and our pack as well.

                ‘My father’s pack is split, fighting the vampires in Portland and here on the mountain. Half of our pack is at the park meeting with the humans. The other half is guarding Emma and the women. It’s just us.’

                The men were moving closer and Max shouted over the noise. “Go back now and no one else gets hurt. There are things you don’t know. The vampires are killing your people and keeping them hooked on heroin. We want to help stop that. We’re on the same side.”

                Good, he was trying to reason with them.

                One of the men responded by pulling the trigger on a harpoon type of gun. A thick silver chain net flew through the air and wrapped around Kai’s body. It clinked tight underneath his belly with some sort of magnets. His head was sticking out and he was trying to shake it off.

                ‘No!’
I took off running and clamped my teeth down on the metal chain trapping Kai’s body. One of my teeth snapped off. It was burning his skin, I could smell it. Why didn’t he take the silver immunity serum!

                I heard Devon and Alexa growling and fighting, Max’s gun was going off. It was like time was going by really slow, but at the same time everything was happening too fast.

                The man holding the other end of the harpoon pulled on the net and Kai almost fell, but kept himself upright. Kai bared his teeth and bit down lightly on my neck skin, just enough to break the skin. Ow!

                ‘Aurora, I name you Alpha of this pack. I transfer pack bonds to you willingly. Blood of my blood.’

                No! I felt tons of little strands of energy, like ropes binding themselves to me.
‘Alpha, Alpha, Alpha,’
the pack chanted.

                ‘What? Kai. No!’
I screamed.

                Another silver net flew through the air toward me. In one quick motion, Kai clamped down on my neck skin, like a lion mother would to her cub. He picked my body up and flung me high up in the air, tossing me forty feet into the side yard. My howl cut through the crisp morning air and I hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of my lungs. My ribs snapped. The empty net hit the ground right where I had been standing. The man who had Kai, hooked the net line onto the helicopter line and all of a sudden Kai was being hauled up into the air like a circus animal.

               
‘Kai!!!’
Hearing my desperate scream terrified me. There was nothing I could do.

                ‘We need back up at Max’s, now!’
I shouted into the mind of the entire pack, which I could feel was
my
pack. Alpha power coursed through my veins.

                I started to run and I felt myself limping as my bones tried to regrow from my fall.

                ‘I’m coming, Kai, hang on,’
I told him as they loaded him into the helicopter.

                ‘No, they want you. They want to kill you. Stay back,’
he pleaded.

                ‘No way!’