“Bored, aren’t you?” she asked.
He grimaced and walked toward her. “There is other stuff
that I would rather be doing, and this place is so tiny I’m starting to get
claustrophobic.”
She dodged his hands. “Don’t start that or we’ll never get
back to your house.”
He grunted and picked up four boxes like they didn’t weigh a
thing and walked out of the door. “Make sure I got everything.”
* * * *
They arrived back at Rane’s, unpacked, and were sitting on
the lounge, cuddling and talking.
“How on earth are you going to have this house ready by
Saturday?” Kirby asked. “The upstairs is just a shell with a roof.”
Rane shrugged. “I’ll have all the wolves pitching in. One of
the best things about being in a pack is that there are always multiple people
who have skills that you need. Most of us don’t start in the enforcers full
time until we’re in our late forties, but some decide to do it earlier, it’s
their choice. We don’t need as much sleep as humans. About four or five hours
is all we need, unless we’re hurt, and then we need more. Because of this most
of us work and do enforcers as well. The mated werewolves are always given
first choice of what jobs they want to do.”
Kirby frowned. “That really doesn’t sound fair, that means
the unmated do more work than the mated males.”
Rane shook his head as he continued. “Remember that we live
a lot longer than humans and need a lot less sleep, so we rack up quite a bit
of time. Most are not as lucky as me—they don’t find their mates until a lot
later in life. We also have a pack fund which helps everyone. When we pass onto
the next life we leave a quarter of our money to the pack, and the rest gets
divided between the family. Now, we are a new pack—we only started about thirty
years ago—so it will take us some time to build up to where we want to be.”
She nodded against his chest. “I suppose, but why so many
different jobs?”
“We age so slowly that if we stay in the same job too long
people start to notice, so we try to break up our long life. For example, Tray
was a carpenter for twenty-three years. He even had his own company, but
because he’d been doing it so long and never aged, he had to give it a rest and
let someone else take over for a while. Tray is currently, and will probably be
for the next couple of years, a full time enforcer. Then he will either go back
to being a carpenter or start a new profession. Now that Tray has Sara, he
could cut back and do part time, just work in the mines. He could probably have
a rest from enforcer altogether, since he is newly mated.” Rane stopped
talking, looked at Kirby, and asked, “Would you like me to retire from the
military and become a part time enforcer or take a rest from it all for a
while?”
Kirby frowned at him, surprised he would ask. “What do you want
to do?”
“I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to be worrying
about me, not liking what I do.”
“I am proud of what you do to save our world.” She kissed
his nose and both cheeks before giving him a light kiss on the lips. “I also
think it helps having brothers who are in the military.”
He smiled as she took his lips to hers again. “I’m so lucky
to have you, little red.”
Rane had two days to get the humans ready before he paired
them with a group of werewolves for the raid on Thursday. This would be their
first underground raid of a demon stronghold, and he needed them trained to
save the demons’ hostages.
Arriving at the military compound, he knew that he had to
deal with Kirby’s brothers first before he had to focus on his other major
issues. Finding them in the gym, he smiled as he saw the worry on both of their
faces.
“Follow me.” He walked to his office.
In his office, he turned to them. They stood at attention.
“At ease. I know you’re not happy about your baby sister being
my mate, but I really don’t give a shit what either of you think. The only
person I care about is Kirby. Because she cares for you, I’ll give you a couple
of options. One—suck it up, or quit. Two—start trouble, and I don’t advise
this, because you would be surprised at what us animals can get away with. Or
three—and this is the one I recommend—be happy for your sister and accept us
werewolves into your family. If you choose the last one, there will be lots of
benefits.” He stared at both of them directly in the eyes. “What’s your choice?”
They both stared at him, and it was Hayden who spoke first.
“I’ll choose number three.”
“Welcome to the family.”
“You better not hurt our sister, or you will be surprised at
what we will do.”
Rane smiled, showing his sharp teeth, and nodded, giving his
full attention to Logan. “What about you, Lieutenant?”
Logan frowned. “I suppose I’m on the same page as Hayden.”
Rane nodded. “I’ll see you at my house this weekend. You’re
both dismissed.”
They nodded and walked out.
As they were leaving, Rane added, “Lieutenant Logan, you
will need to be ready tonight, you’ll be with my patrol.”
Logan nodded again and walked away. Rane breathed a sigh of
relief. It wasn’t perfect, but it had gone better than he’d expected.
He called all of the werewolves together so he could relay
of the information that he hadn’t gotten a chance to tell them yesterday. Eight
werewolves squeezed into his office. After he had explained and told them all
the important things, Tray was the first to speak up. “Fifty more men are way
too many, Rane. Fifteen is way too much. We’re struggling with the six we were initially
sent, which is now only five. Yesterday we had another six arrive. We are too
small a pack to handle this.”
Rane sighed. “I said that. Their reply was they are calling
most of our werewolves back from missions and so on. Which at the moment is
only eight, but there are ten more werewolves coming from England’s packs, they’re
going to be given citizenship on entry. They should arrive in a day or two,
just in time for Thursday’s rescue and destroy mission on the underground demon
hold. It has taken us three months to get ready for that, and I’m still not
sure we are. Not for a place like that.”
His brother Kane came into the room. “You’re going to have
the humans practicing tonight. They’re going to have to be thrown into the deep
end. If we use all werewolves and do shifts of four to five hours hopefully we’ll
be ready for Thursday. I need them to know what they’re getting into and what
they’re up against.”
Rane looked at them all, not keen to tell them the next lot
of info Faith had said. “Mates that have gifts can now be used against the
pack, so if the demons capture mates, if they don’t kill them, they can train
them to use their powers against us. Faith says it’s one of the reasons the
demons are taking all of the paranormal humans, they are not chancing any of
them not being our mates. We need to find as many mates as we can before the
demons do, and rescue the ones they already have.”
Just as he thought it would, his comment caused mayhem.
“Tonight at eight-thirty Sandra will start teaching
self-defense fighting classes for all of the women we have saved, and any
willing to join in. Faith will be here to observe Sandra’s teaching skills.” Rane
sighed. “Speaking of the devil…” Before he could continue talking, Faith, Jamie,
and Ben came in.
Faith smiled at everyone. Ignoring their chatter, she said, “Ah,
I see I’ve come just in time. Yes, self-defense classes tonight for the women.
I’ve come to tell you some good news, hoping it will pick up your spirits. By
the end of the year over half of you will have mates, and all of them will be
joining my classes.”
All the werewolves talked at once again. Faith held up her
hands just as Kane told everyone to be quiet. Kane looked at Tray and him. Rane
got a sinking feeling as his brother spoke.
“Tray, Rane, your mates have to practice because they’re
coming with us on Thursday.”
Both he and Tray growled. “No fucking way. Our mates are not
going into that much danger. There is no way they could be ready, no way are
they going to demon central. No.”
Faith glared at them both. “You don’t have a choice. We’ve
gotten them the next three days off work, and you need to get them ready. Kirby
and Sara are quick learners. Remy is getting better, but she won’t be one
hundred percent until Arden gets here. The girls will come with us on Thursday,
no arguments.”
Rane gritted his teeth as Kane stepped forward. “Group one
will be Faith and I, Jamie, Tray, Sara, Rane, Kirby, and Cullen. David and Alex
have been moved up from the beginners. I know they’re only eighteen and
nineteen, but trust me, they are ready.” Rane raised his eyebrow at his brother
who nodded and added, “I’ve seen them, they really are ready. Four others are
ready to move up too. Nathan, Jacob, Matthew, and Robert. I’ve told them to
report to you and Blake. They should be here in about two hours. We need all
the help we can get.”
Faith rolled her eyes. “I told you they were ready.”
Everyone groaned as Faith went into a trance for a minute.
When she came out of the trance she said, “Wrath needs to come tonight.”
Rane shook his head. Wrath was nighty-eight years old,
without a mate, and too reckless. They were all scared they were going to lose
him. Usually a werewolf didn’t last past ninety without a mate, and definitely
not past one hundred.
Faith glared at him. “You need to stop shaking your head. I
just had a vision, and trust me, you’re going to want to bring him with us
tonight.”
As he looked at Faith the whole room seemed to sigh in
relief—their friend would be all right and would have a mate to help heal his
soul. They hated losing one of their own. Faith started to walk out of the door
then she stopped, turned, and smiled.
“Oh, I almost forgot, good idea, Rane, about Logan being on
your team. Also, Bengie is going to start training with the new recruits. They
need to see what kind of strength they’re up against.” As she passed him, Faith
gripped his hand and went into another trance, smiling when she came out of it.
“Oh, this will be good. I’ll meet with the head women of the pack to talk about
organizing a school and better facilities, that way the fifty new recruits will
eventually be able to move their families here.” Clapping her hands together,
she rushed out of the door.
Kane shook his head before he turned to Rane and patted him
on the back. “I have been told by Dad that I’ll be here tonight to help with
the recruits. Tonight I will show them no mercy. Rane, I want you to pull the
cockiest one out of the bunch.” Kane chuckled. “Faith is going to show him
something, so bring him over as soon as Faith has finished the self-defense
class.” All of the werewolves laughed as he turned and walked after his mate.
Turning to the rest of the werewolves, Rane stated,
“Training for an hour, and then I want them to have rest time, after that I
want them to meet Kane and I.” He turned to Devlin. “I want Hayden with you,
Devlin. No mercy, let’s see what he can do.”
Devlin nodded, adding, “Those brothers of hers have high
potential. I can tell you that from what I have seen.” He chuckled. “It will be
Logan who gets his arse kicked by Faith.” They all laughed again and went off
to their duties.
* * * *
Kirby arrived at Rane’s at seven-fifty, surprised to see the
exterior of the house almost finished. The door opened before she got to it, and
Rane stood in the doorway in his uniform. Mmm, men in uniform.
“What do you think? I told you I would have it ready by
Friday.”
She grinned at him. “Wow, I didn’t know it could happen so
quickly. The finished product will be beautiful.”
He pulled her into his arms, lifted her up, and kissed her.
Loving his taste, she moaned into his mouth. “I could really
get used to this.”
He pulled away, asking her how her afternoon had been. She
walked inside with him, sat on the lounge, and told him all about her day. He
hugged her as she finished off saying, “It will be nice to have a long weekend,
although Faith told me what it’s all going to be about tonight and the next
couple of nights. I will be learning and helping. I’m so happy. This is going
to be so exciting. This time I’m going to hold off all the minions.”
It took Kirby a while to realize that Rane had stiffened
under her. She looked into a hard, angry face. Sighing, she elbowed him. “What?”
Kissing her forehead, he murmured, “To tell you the truth, I
really don’t like you being involved in all of this. I don’t want you in harm’s
way. I’m not happy with Faith right now. She’s had training since she was six
years old, but you haven’t even been doing this for a week.”
Kirby gritted her teeth and frowned. “I’ve been excited
about helping. I thought you would be proud. For once in my life I feel
useful.”
This time he kissed her lips. “I don’t like you in harm’s
way, and your brother will be there and I don’t want him thinking I’m
deliberately putting you in danger.”
Kirby turned to straddle his lap. “I didn’t think you cared
what they thought, only what I think. Let me help, I really need to help.
Please.” She kissed him, and he groaned, pulling her closer.
“I hate agreeing to this, and I wish we had time to talk
more about this, but it will have to wait until later.”
They left the house, and five minutes later they arrived at
the military compound for the self-defense classes. Rane kissed her and walked
away. Smiling, Kirby turned to see twelve women, including Sara and Faith.
Faith smiled. “Now we can start. Remy would be so upset that
she’s missing this, but at least she can move now.” Faith nodded and then
turned to everyone. “We’re going to do basic moves to start with, and then we’re
going to progress on. Three nights a week we will be doing this class.” She looked
at Sara and Kirby and said, “You two lucky ladies will be doing it every day.
You are even lucky enough to be coming on Thursday’s rescue mission.”