BirthStone (13 page)

Jennings blinked against the light as he
tried to make sense of where he was. He tried to move and
discovered he couldn’t. He was strapped to a bed and his head hurt.
Inhaling, he refused to panic and tapped into his wolf just as
Froggy taught him.

His wolf whined but there wasn’t much else.
At least his beast was still with him and according to his former
instructor that made all the difference.

“How are you feeling, Detective?” A deep
feminine voice asked from somewhere in the room.

“I think…water, please.”A long straw in a
cup was held against his lips. He sucked long draws, savoring the
liquid as it coated and saturated the dryness in his mouth and
throat. “Thank you.” He tried to see more of the person but in the
dimness of the room he could not.

“Your mother, Marsha, was a good woman. She
would be proud to see you today.”

At the mention of his mother, Jennings
stiffened. “What are you talking about?” His mother died his
freshman year of high school.

“Marsha was a breeder, as was her mother.
She fell in love with a wolf, although she didn’t know it at the
time. They had sex. He left town, not realizing she was one of the
few human females who could breed from wolves. She never saw him
again, didn’t remember his name either. By the time I met her, you
were around four, five…tops. She needed help and moved into one of
the sanctuaries we have set up around the country for breeders. We
offer protection against those who would harm these women, and
train them to survive in the world.”

Jennings frowned. “I don’t remember any of
that.” He tried to move his arms, but the cuffs were locked
tight.

“Of course you don’t. But that’s another
issue. When Marsha left to move out west to be with her new
husband, she took an oath to continue your treatment. It pleases me
that she was faithful in that task.”

“What are you talking about? Oath to who?
For what?” His mind cleared at a miniscule rate while he struggled
to break free of the bonds.

“Stop struggling, you’re only going to hurt
yourself, and then how will you drive home?”

He stopped. They were going to allow him to
leave? He took a deep breath. “Where am I? How long have I been
here?”

“You are in one of our sanctuaries, and you
have been here overnight.”

“Overnight?” He tried to remember but his
mind blanked.

“Who are you?” Quietly he called upon his
wolf and was met with silence.

“Corrina Griggs, I'm founder of the
sanctuaries. I knew Marsha personally. She was a sweet woman, so
idealistic. I was at her funeral, stood in the back. You probably
don’t remember, but we sent a large bouquet of pink and yellow
flowers. They were her favorite colors.”

Jennings swallowed hard.
I’m trapped with
a crazy bitch
. “You’re a breeder?”

“Yes. I do believe I was one of the first,
although I cannot prove that.”

He reached out to Froggy through his link
and heard static. Fighting down the panic that threatened to choke
him, he spoke. “You have pups?”

“No.”

He didn’t know what to say after that.

“I killed them.”

Jennings stilled and then gazed toward the
shadowy outline the voice emananted from. “What?” He couldn’t wrap
his mind around her blatant confession.

She tittered. “Aw, come now Lieutenant, the
pups were colored. I lived in the south during that time and they
would have been slaves. I could not present either of those little
colored girls as mine. I had them drowned by my servant. Since then
I have been very particular over my male choices.”

He tried to relax so he could remember
everything she said. He didn’t think La Patron was aware of the
sanctuaries or this woman.

“Sounds like you have been around for a
while.” Since slavery days, that’d place her over a hundred.
Knowing La Patron was over three hundred made her declaration
easier to believe.

“I have. We have. It has been a long journey
but we are near the end. Soon the world will see the beauty and the
power of the half-breed nation. Wolf and human, working and living
together side by side. Our numbers have finally reached the
pinnacle, we are the majority over full-bloods.”

He blinked. “Majority of what?” His mind
must still be muddled because there were a lot of half-breeds like
he had been, totally out of sync with their wolf. In order to be an
effective breed, you had to embrace your wolf or die.

“There are now more half-breeds in the
nation than full-bloods,” she repeated slowly, as if he were
incapable of understanding those words the first time she uttered
them.

He latched onto a crummy thought. “What
about the shots, the ones I’ve been taking for years. It kills the
wolf and eventually the breed.”

“Of course it does,” she snapped. “We have
the antidote to reverse it. So as we take our place –”

“You’ll control thousands of wolves by
having the medication or solution to them living longer.”

“Don’t ever interrupt me again,” she
snarled.

“I apologize.” If they were going to allow
him to leave, he wanted to take as much information as she would
share with him.

After a brief silence she spoke. “It’s
millions, not thousands.”

He frowned but remained silent. Millions
what?

She must have read the confusion on his
face. “Millions of half-breeds have been documented as receiving
this shot for a period of five years or more. All it takes is
twelve months of steady consumption and the wolf begins to
deteriorate. It’s slow, which suits our purpose. But now…now we are
at the precipice of change. Things are in place.”

“Place?”

“Pity they killed Robbie. To be fair, he was
supposed to kill La Patron, to get him out of the way…” She sighed
as though it hurt to think of her deceased relative.

“He was your son?”

“Yes. Alfred as well. But their father is
human.”

Alfred? Why did that name sound
familiar?

He heard the scraping of the chair. “I just
wanted to talk to Marsha’s boy, I always liked her. She had a good
heart and believed in the cause. She kept her oath and I believe
she would be proud of you.”

Jennings swallowed hard. He hadn’t thought
of his mother in years. She hadn’t been a nurturing parent, but
she’d done her best he supposed. “Thank you,” he said into the
silence.

“Mother, are you ready?”

Jennings froze. He knew that voice. He hated
the fogginess still muffling his senses.

“Yes, dear.” She paused and he knew she was
looking at him. “It was nice seeing you again after so many
years.”

He didn’t respond as he heard the steps grow
distant. Who was her son? He focused on that mystery instead of
wondering why she sounded as if she would never see him again. He
lay in the dim room for what seemed like hours. Muted clicking
sounds and the release of pressure on his legs and wrists signaled
he could move his limbs. Slowly he drew his legs up and his arms
down. Tingles of pain filled him as circulation returned.

Rolling to his side, he stopped himself from
falling off the narrow cot with his hand and pushed up. Pain sliced
into his skull as the room swam before him. He remained still and
counted to ten. Inching forward, his head pounded ferociously, so
he counted to ten again. This time slower. He placed his bare foot
on the floor. It was cold and hard, like concrete. He placed the
other foot next to the first and scooted forward, testing his
weight. His knees buckled. He grabbed the bed and waited a few
moments. When he stood the next time, his body cooperated and he
walked in the direction he had heard the footsteps leave.

It took a while, but eventually he tumbled
outside into the scorching mid-day heat. Leaning against the wall
he sucked in gulps of air to clear his head and calm his heated
body. Fire burned in his chest from his heart slamming repeatedly
against it. Something was wrong with him but he had no idea what.
Again he reached for his wolf. Internal sounds of whimpering and a
weak whine was the response. Jennings gritted his teeth in
frustration; those bastards had done something to his wolf.

Blurry eyed, he gazed out at the area in
front of him. A white Volvo sat off to the side beneath a tree. He
shook his head and stared at the vehicle. It took a few minutes for
it to dawn on him that the Volvo was his car. Pushing off the wall,
he moved slowly to the automobile, opened the door and sat down,
the keys were in the ignition. A thousand things were wrong with
this picture, this entire situation in fact. But sitting in the
driver’s seat of his car helped him return to a normalcy that he
desperately needed.

He sought his wolf and felt his beast stir.
“Thank you, Goddess,” he whispered. He leaned his forehead against
the steering wheel and breathed. His wolf was going crazy, growling
and snapping. He knew he needed to drive away while he could, but
the urge to be one with his wolf pushed him to shift.

Opening the car door, the interior light
illuminated the folder on his front seat and that’s when it came
rushing back to him. “Merriweather, that son of a bitch,” he
murmured. That was the voice that sounded so familiar. The
Merriweathers were at the root of tampering with breeds to displace
La Patron and all full-bloods. He shook his head and closed the
door, searching the car for his phone.

When he couldn’t find it, he inhaled deeply,
trusting his wolf to alert him to any additional danger. He started
the car, and drove down the broken path away from the house. When
he reached the main road, he stopped and got out of the car to look
around for some type of marker so he could return with La Patron’s
security to investigate the house. Without his phone, he couldn’t
take a picture. Even with his enhanced vision there was nothing to
distinguish this dirt road from any other. Unzipping his pants, he
pissed on the bushes of both sides of the entrance knowing he could
find his scent. Finished, he returned to the car and drove off.
Five minutes later and a few miles down the road, a loud explosion
tore through the silence of the day.

Jennings pulled over to the side and stared
back at the burning building. In his gut he knew it was the place
where he had been held captive. It seems he didn’t need to mark the
location after all. He called out to Froggy through their link and
this time he received an answer.

“
Where’ve you been?"
the gruff voice
asked without a salutation. Jennings told him what happened. That
information he wanted to tell La Patron.

“
You headed home?"

“
Yeah. I need to clean up and then I’ll
report in."

“
Station or here?"

“
Wherever La Patron wants me for
debriefing. The old woman, Griggs, she’s planning a takeover with
half-breeds. Something about having the antidote for them to live.
It’s kind of foggy but I’ll tell him what I remember. You’ll tell
him what happened, right?"

“
Yes. Be safe."

“
Will do. Changed my mind, I’m on my way
to the station to check in with the Captain. I can’t find my phone.
After that, I’ll be heading home to shower, grab a bite to eat, and
then head back to work."

“
Expect La Patron to contact you, he was
worried when he got word you were missing last night."

Knowing somebody was concerned watered the
dry areas in his life. He had always lived alone and never
seriously dated. Being part of a pack completed him. “
I look
forward to it."
Traffic into town was backed up due to road
work crews. After taking a few detours, he pulled into a parking
spot in the back of the police station, turned the car off, and
headed into the building to report in. He hoped the captain was in
his office and in a good mood, because once he explained what
happened, Jennings intended to arrest Merriweather and his
mother.

“One moment,” the security guard said as
Jennings entered the building. “We have a new procedure and I need
you to walk through this device.”

Jennings nodded. “This is pretty far from
the main building is there a reason for that?”

“Yes.” The man didn’t elaborate and Jennings
didn’t care enough to push. He placed the contents of his pocket
into a small container for separate scanning and stepped into the
small gateway. Immediately red lights flashed, the bars in front
and behind him lowered, trapping him.

He gazed at the security guards, who backed
up, and two men wearing hazmat suits headed in his direction. A
siren went off, hurting his ears.

“Remain still, we are going to try to shrink
it.” The men pressed some buttons, there was a whirring sound. The
sirens were loud in the background, making him dizzy. He placed his
palms over his ears.

“Sir, return your arms your side and remain
still,” one of the men said as the other backed off.

“
Jennings
?" Silas called out to
him.

The background noise was so loud he could
barely hear him. “
Sir…it hurts. The noise hurts
."

“
I know. Listen to me
." There was a
pause. “
Jennings?"

Jennings closed his eyes to stop the pain.
It got worse. He lurched forward and threw up. The sirens seemed
closer, as if they were in his skull.

“
Jennings
?" Someone yelled his
name.

“
Hurts
," he murmured, squeezing his
eyes tight.

“
Listen to my voice…it’ll make it easier
for you. Just listen to my voice
…"

Jennings tilted his head to follow the calm
sound. There was an audible clicking inside his head, and then
nothing.

Chapter 11