Challenging Love (Drekinn Book Five) (2 page)

“No,” Brooks said as he stepped into the room. “No, someone was working against you, but not to hurt you, to protect you. There is a spell, I can feel it, and we need to unlock it. It seems like they are allowing us to see one step at a time, I don’t know how but they are. We need to talk to her.”

Pilar glared at her mate, he had just as much of a secret as she did, it was truly going to suck talking to Calli, Rissa, and Cherri. Brooks had taken the easy way out and disappeared for weeks on end, because he was trying to find an answer to why they couldn’t remember certain things. Well it was a fucking stupid question, and an even stupider answer. To top it all off, he was looking gorgeous and sexy even though the mating pull had been wearing on both of them, hadn’t it?

“Great, now you want to talk to me?” Pilar scoffed.

“Look, I told you it wasn’t time, then. Now it is, can’t you feel it. He is our mate, and he is dying, unless we figure out what the hell they did to him, we will lose him. I am not willing to let that happen. Now, work with me!” Brooks barked. Pilar narrowed her gaze at her dumbass mate. She was going to do some serious damage to him, including kicking his perfectly sculpted ass.

“Ha, for years you have been ignoring our bond, and now you want to use it like a fucking talisman. Forget it, I will find a way to save him and you can go and fuck yourself. I am sick of you thinking I can be put on hold forever. This was my life you were fucking with, mine!” Pilar screamed.

“And I have suffered just as much, but we had to wait. Our mate was not here yet,” Brooks said gruffly.

“Oh please, you didn’t want to bother because you wanted to do what you wanted when you wanted and how you wanted. Don’t try to sugarcoat this shit,” Pilar said and Phillip held up his hand.

“I think I am gonna give you guys some space here to deal with this. Sister, call me when you are ready,” Phillip said, laughed, and went to Brooks and patted him on the shoulder. “Good luck with that. Remember—she can breathe fire.”

“He is going to need more than luck,” Pilar grumbled.

“Listen,” Brooks tried to reason. “Can’t we just move on? We have a lot of shit to deal with.”

“Shit, are you saying our mating is shit?” Pilar roared.

“No,” Brooks said quickly, “I was talking about the books, we have to figure out what we are missing from them.”

“Right,” Pilar said, turned, and walked to the door. “Tell me when we have to deal with all this shit.”

Brooks frowned and shook his head; he didn’t understand the damn woman.

*****

Calix could still feel what was going on around him. Since the moment he escaped, he knew he would be meeting the Drekinn, they were the only ones who could help him. Plus that was where his mates were. He may be part wolf, but he was also part vamp. Those two combined made him unusual, and thank goodness the arrogant assholes of the Prentiss had never questioned his shifter side. They thought he was only wolf, and a special one, but it didn’t matter. They would never have discovered the truth.

The torture sucked though, he knew that it would take a long time to heal from this, they had injected him with silver, to prevent healing, even from his vampire side. It had to be worked out, his injuries were severe.

His mates: a dragon and a wizard. His grandparents told him plenty. They had been told by their Seer. So far everything else she had predicted was correct, why not this?

Calix tried to open his eyes again but couldn't, for a while he felt something when he was close to whoever was taking care of him. The feelings switched now, and when he felt the women enter into the room, he knew they were supposed to help him, but it was something more, something like a kinship, it was exactly as they explained to him when he was younger. When he found the right pack he would know it. For years, he had searched, and every time he stumbled on a pack, they hadn't felt right. Calix knew there was something more out there.

Now, if he could wake up and focus, he would be able to tell if he was right.

*****

Vivi, Shelly, and Brenda were in charge of the severely wounded man. They were more than happy to help Cherri and her mates with him. There was only one small problem with the situation.

Calli and the others wanted to make sure they had security on the wolf in case he woke and went feral. No one knew the effects of the silver that was injected into the man. So they waited, and watched. Vivi was getting a bit bored sitting in the outlaying cabin and something was going to have to happen soon or she would go postal.

“Hey, sugar,” Brenda said as she walked into the room. Today she was sporting a new outfit that Kiki had helped her put together, and once again she looked like a floozy, damn it, Vivi wanted to look like one too.

“Are your relieving me?” she asked hopefully.

“Yep, Shel and I are going to give you a break. But when you come back later we expect some booze to help us hang with you tonight. Last night Shel snored so loud I almost covered her head with a pillow. I tell you, unless the woman is flat ass drunk she sounds like a freight train.” Brenda laughed.

“Deal, Calli and I need to talk. Apparently she is letting the hormones take over,” Vivi said standing. The three of them had been living in the separate house with the poor wounded wolf for the last few weeks. They didn’t care, it gave them a break from all the hoopla at the main house, but it also cut them off from the normal amenities they usually shared in. Like wine, and hairspray. Do you know how heavy the bag would have been to stock up? Shit, they just brought it over a bit at a time.

“Good luck with that. I just went over to shower and have breakfast and I heard an earful, the wolf needs some chocolate or something.” Brenda snorted and Vivi waved as she walked out the door.

“Into the fray!” she called and trudged her way to the main house. The air was fresh and crisp, and she smelled the faint scent of all of the wolves and creatures who had moved with them into the compound. There were hundreds now, all of the magical beings who had been in hiding were welcome here. It was like putting a fucking beacon on the roof.

Not that she cared, it gave the Drekinn Pack numbers, and that is what they needed right now, people from the paranormal community willing to fight back finally. Viv was sick of the rules and shit they put them under. Hell, if she wanted a good bottle of booze she had to make it. Since they had been on the run, they had people bringing it to them. The building was going up faster than they could approve the members.

As she neared the building Viv paused, then she heard it. The dulcet sounds of her only daughter as she bellowed down the hallways after her mate.

“When I say my back hurts, it does not mean you cancel sparring for the day. I could kick your ass with one arm tied behind my aching back,” Calli howled.

“I know, dear,” Kade said and kept walking, much to Viv’s amusement.

“I swear if you say that one more time I will eviscerate you,” Calli stormed. Viv rolled her eyes, stepping into the main hallway where all the action was. Rissa and Cherri were following behind her daughter laughing. Calli had just announced a few weeks ago she was pregnant, and suddenly she had become a whiner.

“Suck it up,” Kade yelled over his shoulder.

Oh shit
, so the wrong thing to say to a mentally challenged pregnant Alpha bitch, emphasis on the BITCH! There was silence as Calli paused and folded her arms across her chest and waited for her mate to recall his words. Cherri and Rissa stood with their mouths open and all of the male Enforcers who were previously standing there watching and talking, scattered to the winds. The women backed away against the walls because they knew they were going to witness their Alpha get his ass kicked.

“What did you say?” Calli said quietly.

Kade paused and turned and his eyes narrowed. “You heard me, suck it up. You are my mate, and I will not let you do something stupid.”

“Oh really?” Calli said and strutted forward a few steps. “You are not going to let me do something, huh?”

Viv smiled, she and her friends had made sure when the girls were young to raise them to take care of themselves. This was not the normal times they were dealing with. Shifter females needed to know there were times when they would be called upon to fight alongside their mates. Viv had made sure her daughter knew how to take care of herself, and her mates.

Calli was an Alpha Bitch through and through, Viv had made sure of it. Watching her now gave her a feeling of pride to see her get ready to dress down the arrogant male she mated with.

“Yep,” Kade growled and put his hands on his hips.

Calli snorted and then walked the final steps so she was standing toe-to-toe with her mate. Viv watched and knew what was coming and delighted in the fact that she had taught her daughter well.

In a swift motion, her daughter swept her mate’s feet out from under him. She heard the crack of his head hit the floor and then the roar of anger come from him when Calli sashayed away from him. “What the fuck?”

“Since I am so delicate, I figured you would want to make sure that at least my leg was still in shape, you know, in case we have to I don’t know, FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES!” Calli yelled over her shoulder. “Now I must go rest, it completely wore me out.”

Kade growled, pulled himself up, and shook his head and looked at her. “She is your daughter.”

“You are damn right she is.” Vivi laughed and walked to the hallway where her rooms were. She could only hope her mate was waiting for her, after watching this display, Viv suddenly felt the need to get the crop out.

*****

Pilar heard the commotion in the hallway and opened her door. Calli and the others were laughing and walking down the hall toward the large room they had designated as the “Chicks' Hideout,” good she was going to have someone to complain to.

“Oh, honey, he didn’t mean it like that.” Cherri laughed nervously. “You know how men are, they just wanna piss you off when they are being assholes.”

“Yeah, besides, we can just go back to your room and soak his clothes in kerosene, then throw them out the window above his office and light them up so he can see them floating down and remember the heinous way he treated you. Then he will come and beg your forgiveness and you can laugh and lock him out of the suite,” Rissa said with a bored tone. She looked up then in surprise. “Did I say that out loud?”

Cherri snorted and laughed, “Yeah, good plan. Calli, you can watch us drink while plotting his demise.”

Calli frowned as she listened to her friends, Pilar knew she was pissed, and that would normally mean one thing, a girls' night, but since Calli was pregnant it meant that everyone got drunk and did stupid things while Calli plotted and planned. With any luck, her friend and Alpha would be able to help Pilar figure out what to do with Brooks.

“I am in,” Pilar called and shut her door. The three women stopped and Rissa laughed.

“Uh oh, Ms. Praton looks a little miffed,” she drawled.

Calli tilted her head and nodded. “Come on, Ms. P. Let me help you plan the perfect murder.”

Chapter Two

Pilar and her brother were unique. They still held their secrets as they had to, it was imperative they defeated the Prentiss Agency. But that wasn’t what she was thinking about at this time. As she stood looking out the window of the rooms where she had come to think of as home, she wondered what the fuck she was going to do.

Pilar had played the game for so long, being Ms. Praton. The woman who ran the Drekinn Agency, the woman feared by many because of what she knew. The secrets she held. It had all been a game though, trying to find the people who would help her figure out what had gone so wrong all those years ago. She had to know. When the Chosen had completed their destiny, they had all thought it was over. Things would be great. And it had been, Pilar could still remember how her and her friends had finally been able to be who they were destined to be in public, instead of hiding.

Then it had all changed, the humans had become scared again of the power of the magical community, and no matter how many times they were told they didn’t need to fear them, it had still not worked. The human world didn’t want to live in peace; they wanted to make sure the magical beings didn’t take over. It was paranoia at its finest. Pilar and her family had been forced to hide, something her father was still pissed off about. But she had promised to find an answer as to how this happened and how they could change it. Damn it, she didn’t want to live the rest of her with a tracker in her. It pissed her dragon off to even think about it.

Kade and Calli were the only ones who could top her strength, they knew it, and she knew it. Pilar had made the decision not to be the leader of this pack and to sit on the Drekinn Council for the very fact she didn’t want to play these games any more. Soon, she was going to be able to have both of her mates, and she wanted to settle down. Together they would find the answers they needed. Of course, that was probably going to be a battle considering the circumstances, but maybe if they get the Prentiss taken care of and the other shit out of the way, she would be able to settle down.

She knew Brooks was her mate, she had known from the first moment they met all those years ago. Pilar understood why he refused to mate with her. He was a warlock, she was a dragon. They knew their third was a shifter of some kind, not a vampire, or a Fae. Knowing he was on the same compound as them made both Brooks and Pilar edgy. They wanted to go to their mate and help him heal. Their mating would be the beginning of the end.

Cherri refused their requests, claiming his injuries were severe and they weren’t sure if he was feral or not. It would devastate both of them if he was. But they had to wait and pray their mate would finally come out of the coma he had been in for weeks, and be healed enough to realize he was safe.

Pilar made a noise of frustration and then looked for something to throw. She was pissed and frustrated, and all she wanted to do was take her anger out on someone. “I need a fucking drink!” she yelled at the three women who were staring at her at the bar. They had barely made it into their room when she yelled.