Gifted with Hydrangea (13 page)

“
I know, I know,” Havana waved her hand dismissively.
“The house probably needs to be demoed, but I love the spot. So, what do the
flowers represent?”

“
They mean perseverance.”

The room went quiet for a moment, until Betty spoke.
“I can’t think of anything more perfect to greet the survivors. I’ll get some
vases.”

“
I always loved the bouquets you sent Enzo,” Katie said
with a large smile. “If you were picking hydrangeas for Enzo, what flowers were
you going to put with them?” Katie asked.

“
Gladioluses. They mean strength of character. It was
going to be my subtle message that one day, I would stand strong, and persevere
in my goal to finally approach him. I always explained everything to him in all
my letters to him.”

“
That is the sweetest thing ever.”
Lita
sighed out. “I hope when I meet my mate, that he is as romantic as you.”

Heath blushed a little bit. “Uh, thank you,” he said,
uncomfortably.

“
I can call in an order of those for you?” Havana
offered.

“
Oh, no, don’t worry about it. My mom and dad own and
run the flower shop, and they always let me have whatever I want for free. I’ll
need to borrow a phone though. I have several other flowers I want to use.”

Havana quickly took out her cell and handed it to him,
giving him a huge smile, and an expectant look as she did.

After he was done asking his father for the order, he,
along with Havana and her mate,
Dultyn
and the two
twins, took the dozen vases Betty brought out, and drove out to the house with
all the hydrangea bushes.

Heath felt his anxiety rise a little bit as he looked
around, remembering what had happened that evening.

“
Hey, chill, little flower bud, you’re
gonna
be fine.” Havana lightly slapped him on the back of
his shoulder. “When we’re in our shifted forms, we are every bit as cognizant
as we are in our human forms. The girls won’t hurt you.”

“
You are?”

Havana gave him a look that said it should have been
obvious. “Of course. Didn’t Enzo explain all of that to you?”

He shook his head. “I guess he knew how much talking
about the shifter part freaked me out. We were still just starting to get to
know one another. But he did tell me a little bit about the hierarchy, and, uh,
mating.” Heath’s cheeks flamed when he admitted that last part.

Havana laughed. “Figures he would focus on those
parts. It’s simple to explain, really. Our animals are the same as us, only cuter.”

Heath laughed at the goofy look she directed at him.
“Seriously though, you think you were introduced into our world in a bad way,
you should hear about
Bronya’s
experience. She was
attacked, and my sexy mate here flew down in his gargoyle form, and fought the
wolf off, all in the middle of the night, in the forest.”

Heath lost his humor, and he could feel his stomach
knot up. “Seriously?” His mind spun a little bit. Heath noticed that the entire
time,
Dultyn
had remained quiet. He hovered over
Havana and looked at her with absolute love.
I want that with Enzo. I can do this. I
need
to do this.

“
Yup. Her mate is Nix. He’s a falcon, and one of the
pack’s trackers. I’ll tell
ya
the story sometime. But
she was fine, and you will be, too. There’s a
lotta
stuff we face that will terrify you, but we got your back, and Enzo will die
before letting anything bad happen to you. So you’re golden. I can scent the
girls are coming, and I can hear they’re in their shifted form, so go over
there, and give them a chance to show you how right I am.”

“
Wait, how can you hear them, or tell they are in their
shifted form?”

“
Simple, the patting on the ground sounds like paws,
rather than feet, and their breathing comes out different.”

“
You can hear all of that? I don’t hear a thing.”

“
That’s because I’m a shifter, goof. If I had the rank,
I’d chuff your mate for not explaining any of this to you. We retain our
heightened senses when we are in human form.”

“
Like scent and hearing?” Heath asked as he looked up
and saw the two wolves casually trotting in their direction.

“
Yep. Look, see, told
ya
. Now
relax.”

Heath stiffened when the two grey wolves, still so
very skinny, approached him. He closed his eyes, and held his breath. He heard
a wolf whine, so he peeked an eye open, and saw them both sitting about six
feet away with their heads cocked to one side, then the other. They whined
again and walked their front paws forward, resting their bellies on the ground.

Heath let out a breath, and relaxed.
Ok, so I’m not chow, yet. I can do this.

Havana walked forward and squatted down, petting one.
“Come here and touch one.” Havana held out her hand, indicating for him to
approach the other one.

Heath slowly made his way closer, and when he was
close enough, he carefully reached down and ran his fingers over the top of the
wolf’s head. After stroking it once or twice, he relaxed and used his whole
hand to smooth down her neck. She barked, which made Heath jolt and fall back.

Havana fell on her butt and laughed. Heath held his
chest, trying to calm his startled heart as he watched the wolf he pet, roll
around and do a bark-like laugh. He laughed, too, only he was sure his sounded
a bit more hysterical.

After that, Heath felt much more confident around
them. Katie had been right. He watched the two wolves as they got up and loped
around the area, playing. As he watched them, he asked Havana, “So there are
gargoyles, vampires, and different kinds of shifters here?”

“
That’s right.”

“
Can I ask what, uh—” Heath grimaced as he thought how
to work his question. “Uh, shifter kind you are?”

The mischievous look Havana gave him concerned him.

“
I’m a bear. Don’t worry, I won’t maul you, unless of
course, you had honey.” Havana then winked at him, which caused the towering
man behind her to growl.

Heath gulped. His voice was slightly shaky. “Not
helping, Havana.”

Havana laughed out loud. “You’ll be fine. You know I’m
playing with
ya
.”

Heath gave her a skeptical look that only caused her
to laugh more. The girls rejoined them, fully clothed, and they started to pick
the flowers. They eagerly accepted his teachings when he showed them how to cut
the flowers.

They picked a large bundle of flowers and returned to
the farm. Once they arrived, Heath saw Dylan, the delivery driver for his
parents, drive up. He waved to him as he approached. Off to the side, he saw
Enzo stop at the opening to the garage, and watched them.

“
Hi, Heath, so you finally met your man? How’s it
going?” Dylan asked as he opened the side door of the van.

“
Uh, yeah. It’s going great.” Heath paused and nibbled
his bottom lip.
Here goes nothing.
“Uh, it’s going so good, actually, that I’m, uh, going to move in with him.”

Dylan’s shocked expression froze on his face a moment,
before his face spread wide in a large, openmouthed smile. “Wow! That’s huge.
You never move this fast. He must be something else. Do your parents know?”

“
I haven’t talked to them about it yet, but when you
know, you just know. Enzo is the one, and I’m going to go all in. When you find
the one, you can’t hold back. You
gotta
take a leap
of faith.”

“
Wow,” Dylan responded, as he handed bundles of flowers
over to Havana and the twins. “I’m blown away, man. I get it though. You can’t
expect the Taj Mahal if you only invest enough for a mobile home. If you don’t
want me telling your parents, I won’t say anything, but I
gotta
say, your parents have been a little bit worried about you the last couple
days, so you might not want to take too long to have a talk with them. And you
know how your mom gets when she’s worried about someone.”

Heath huffed out a chuckle. “Yeah, let them know I’m
good, and I’ll talk to them soon, but don’t tell them anything more. I want to
get settled before I talk to my parents about it. Maybe I can take them out on
a date, with my date.”

“
Sounds cool.” Dylan shut the van door. “If he’s got a
brother, let me know, I could use a happily ever after.”

Heath watched Dylan walk around to the driver’s side
and get in. He backed up and drove back down the driveway.

An inviting wall of heat warmed
his back.

“
Move in?” The voice that spoke from behind him sent
jolts of pleasure down his spine, and seemed to ping the bottom of his balls.

Heath turned and tilted his head to get a full view of
the hopeful look on Enzo’s face. His belly started doing happy summersaults with
the hope and desire he clearly saw burning in his eyes.

“
I was hoping to, I mean, if that’s okay with you.”
Heath was so breathless, it was hard to put the words together, and push them
out of his mouth. It didn’t help that his mouth had suddenly gone cotton dry.
But he lost his breath completely when Enzo’s smile spread across his face.

Enzo’s hands reached up and dug through his hair. He
pulled him forward until his lips were pressed against Enzo’s soft, moist
mouth. Enzo’s tongue poked through their parted lips and dipped into Heath’s
mouth, stroking along and around his tongue.

Heath reached his hands up behind Enzo’s shoulders and
pulled himself up a little more. He fully returned the kiss with vigor. His
mind was lost in a haze of lust that made him feel like he was flying through
the clouds. It stopped when those tasty lips pulled away. Enzo fisted his hair,
and a sharp pain, which was oddly pleasurable, tugged at his scalp. Heath
whimpered. He didn’t want to stop.

Enzo kissed his temple. “I don’t want to stop, but I
still have a lot to do, and if I don’t stop, I would spend all that time
showing you, and your ass, just how happy you’ve made me. I promise to make
this up to you, but right now, a lot of people are needing our help.”

Heath nodded. “I know. Uh, later, can you show me your
wolf?”

Enzo pulled back and looked down at him. His face
expressed uncertainty. “You sure? You don’t have to rush yourself.”

“
I know, and thank you for that, but I got some advice,
and all of it worked so far, and that’s the next thing on my list.”

“
What advice? For what, sweetheart?”

“
I wanted to stop being afraid. I really want to be
with you, Enzo. So Betty, and some others, gave me some suggestions. One of
them was to face my fear. Another one was to make a large leap of faith. That’s
the moving in part. I’m really, really, glad you didn’t freak out.”

Enzo’s deep chuckle caused him to shiver. “Sweetheart,
shifters move fast. Doc says everything in the paranormal world moves fast, and
he’s right. We fall in love and commit ourselves to our mates just about
instantly. I’ve wanted you permanently by my side since I got wind of you. You
think you’re moving fast, but I would say you still need to catch up.”

Heath’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, good to know.”

“
So the other bit of advice is to see my wolf?” Enzo
gently asked him.

“
Yeah, and from what I’ve already seen with the twins,
I think they’re right.”

“
I agree with them, it will help you see I am fully me
even in my wolf form. At the next available time alone together, I’ll shift so
you can see my wolf.”

Heath immediately missed Enzo’s heat when he pulled
away to go back to the office.

Heath’s heart was light and happy as he joined the
girls inside. For the rest of the day, he instructed the girls how to arrange
the flowers, and even where best to place each unique arrangement. He felt
almost giddy,
and he kept finding himself humming happy songs, even
after the survivors arrived. In turn, he was able to see the shifters he helped
Katie and Havana with smile a little, and like Havana said, a little bit goes a
long way.

Chapter Eleven

Ryker adjusted his position in his seat again. His
side still ached with discomfort, but at least his mate was back in human form
again. Not that he could see to enjoy that sexy, chocolaty body. Ryker was back
in Erie, but both Gavin and
Neto
were with
Rudo
back in Waterford, gathering all of his remaining
possessions. He smiled at that. Ever since the raid yesterday, when he had been
shot,
Rudo
had been extra attentive to him. Ryker was
surprised that his beloved actually agreed to leave his side long enough to
return to Waterford to finish retrieving his things, and complete the legal
paperwork.

“
Why don’t you go lie down for a little bit?”
Rudo
told him through their
link.

Ryker sighed then shook his head, something asinine
since his beloved could not see him at this moment.
“I’m fine. Just a bit uncomfortable is all. I want to make sure
everything worth finding in all of this stuff from your ex-alpha, is found. And
we need to find who was working with him. I’m just glad Matteo is helping by
taking over the investigation into the hard drives taken from the raid in
Philly. How about you? You’ve been gone all day.”

“
I’m glad we decided to keep my property, instead of
selling it. It was a lot to deal with the human insurance company for both the
theft and the fire, and the shifter council on the claim against my alpha. I am
grateful for the sheriff’s help, and a tip from
Neto
that worked to hurry the humans along. They wrote us a check, which I deposited,
along with the check the council gave me for the claim against my alpha. He’s
now in their custody.”

Ryker closed his laptop, and rubbed his eyes.
“What about your safe?”
he asked as he
leaned back in the leather tub chair, and propped his feet up on the table.
“You never told me if everything inside
survived.”

“
The safe was the only thing left standing, and it
protected everything from the fire. I’ll need to buy a new safe, but right now
all of its contents are riding in the cab of the van, with me.”

Ryker’s head rested against the back of the chair, and
he closed his eyes, enjoying the sound of his beloved’s voice in his mind.
“How many stolen items were you able to get
back?”

“
Most of my equipment, but I’m thankful that what I
didn’t get back, I have in the shop back home in Bancroft.”

Ryker gave a contented sigh, hearing
Rudo
call the farm “home”. He relaxed and yawned, as
Rudo
continued.

“
I got back a few pieces of furniture that I made. The
most important ones to me are a dresser, a bookcase, and what is going to be
our bed.”

A wry smile spread across his face.
“What? You don’t like the bed I’ve got back
home?”

Ryker felt
Rudo’s
mirth.
“I would rather sleep on the floor than to
continue to sleep on that atrocity you call a bed. It bites me. The only one I
want biting me, is you.”

Ryker’s dick jerked awake with the picture he now had
in his mind of his mouth pressed against his beloved’s neck, and the feel of
his sensitive fangs sinking into his hot flesh and piercing his artery. His
mouth began to water with anticipation to the taste of his beloved’s blood
coating his tongue.

Ryker tried to get his mind off of the ache that was
now in his pants.
“So are we driving the
van back to Bancroft?”

“
Gavin said he would.
Alphy
called and wants the rest of us to fly back. After we get back, I want to open
a joint banking account with you.”

The warmth of affection spread across Ryker’s chest.
Before he could respond,
Rudo
continued.
“I am ten minutes away. When I get to our
room, I will expect you naked in the bed, and preferably stretched and ready
for me.”

Ryker’s cock began to fill to its max with the
thoughts his beloved was sending him. Ryker jumped up and stripped, nearly
tearing his clothes off in the process. His rigid cock slapped his lower belly
as it bobbed up. Ryker hurried over to his suitcase and pulled out his large
bottle of lube. He returned to the bed, ready to put the lube to use, to
stretch himself for his beloved, when his cell rang. The tone was his
alpha’s
.

No! Damn it!

Ryker picked up the phone. His voice was a bit breathy
when he answered it. “Hello?”

“
Rye, you and your team pack up, and be down at the
airport in twenty. Leave the moving van there at the airport. I’ll have someone
in the pack fly down and drive it up.”

The line went dead before Ryker could respond. Ryker
looked down at his flagging dick. Twenty minutes didn’t leave any time to play.
“Bad news, love.
Alphy
just called.”

Ryker told
Rudo
about the
phone call as he got dressed. As tempted as he was to try to squeeze in a quickie
when he saw his mate walk in, he knew it was at least a twenty minute drive to
the airport from the hotel without all the packing, and time to check out.
Rudo
sent him down to check all of them out, as he and the
guys packed, and they made it to the port just barely in their ordered
timeframe.

The plane that was waiting for them was Councilman
Black’s. Ryker briefly looked around as he boarded and found a seat. Tyler was
there, with his assistant, Van, and Tyler’s two bodyguards, Zander and Zane.

“
What’s going on?” Ryker asked Tyler as he clicked his
seatbelt in place. The clicks of
Rudo
, Gavin, and
Neto’s
belts sounded before Tyler answered.

“
Matteo thinks he’s identified four other labs from
some of the information he’s uncovered from one of the hard drives. Encrypted
emails he was able to decipher from one of the higher-ups indicated that he, or
she, was trying to assure the other offices that they were safe. They didn’t
think the one shifter escaping, who we know was
Maysa
,
would cause much of a problem, especially when she was gone for so long and
nothing happened. Other emails read how, after the raid, they didn’t believe
any of the other offices could be linked to them, so not to panic. However,
Councilman Black and several others believe that with this second raid, they
will now start to panic.”

“
That isn’t good for the shifters they are holding
against their will, in the labs.”
Neto’s
face looked
grim.

“
That would be correct. The company has to be well
aware of the threat by now, and is possibly taking action to cover things up.
We don’t have time to waste investigating whether these are indeed labs or not.
We need to take action now. Councilman Black wanted more time to establish who
was trustworthy on the council, and who was corrupt, but under the
circumstances, he’s reaching out to those he believes he can trust, and
coordinating a simultaneous raid on all four locations at once.”

Ryker stared at Tyler with wide open eyes, and his
mouth was somewhat
agape. The shaking and rumbling of the plane taxiing
down the runway shook him out of his shock. “Wow, that’s huge. So, which one
are we going to?”

Tyler handed Ryker a tablet as he answered. “Since our
team is pretty much already assembled, we are heading to the one furthest away,
in Medford, Oregon. Councilman Black is hoping by the time we get there, and in
place, that he’ll have teams in place and ready at the other three locations.”

Ryker looked over the information showing on the
screen. He was so engrossed that he didn’t feel himself being pushed back into
his seat as the jet powered down the runway on takeoff. He didn’t notice the
pressure in his neck at the sudden elevation, or the tilt as they angled
through the sky. He was too intent on the information before him. However, when
his beloved intertwined their fingers together, Ryker felt awareness, and
blushed at his reaction. They were, after all, in a confined and pressurized
space.

****

Rudo
watched with amusement as
Ryker struggled to concentrate on the information on the tablet. It gave him a
smug sort of pride that just the simple act of holding his mate’s hand could
derail his concentration so much. He also got aroused watching his mate
navigate his way around the complex intricacies of technology. As he continued
to watch Ryker, he became more aware of the subtle indications of discomfort
and fatigue Ryker was displaying.

“
You are still healing, and you need to rest.”
Rudo
tried to project his
concern through their link.
“Just a
little break, mate. Please?”

Ryker looked up at him from the screen. His eyes were
drooping, and there were dark rings under them.

“
I know you want to help, but you need to take care of
yourself, too.”
Rudo
continued to urge his mate.

Ryker closed his eyes and nodded his head. After
adjusting himself, Ryker was leaning against him, asleep.
Rudo
relaxed, breathing out a sigh of relief. If he was to add to the list of other
things he loved about his mate, being able to hold him and care for him was on
the top of that list.

The flight was quiet most of the time. About an hour
before they were expected to land, Tyler received a call from
Alphy
, whose plane had already landed. After he hung up, he
turned and reported to everyone on the plane.

“
Alphy
sent out two men to scope
out the area.”

Neto
leaned forward and kept
his voice low. “What about the locals? Are we getting any help from any packs
or covens?”

Tyler shook his head. “No.
Alphy
didn’t want to tip the local shifters off, in case any of them are linked to
the company. We’ve been lucky we haven’t had that problem yet, and he didn’t
want to rely on chance with this. He did get a hold of the local coven in
Medford, however, and even though they have agreed not to interfere, they also
refused to help.”

“
Call the coven in Portland.” Ryker’s sleepy, slurred
voice drew everyone’s attention.

Rudo
reluctantly let Ryker go
when he moved to sit up. After Ryker rubbed his eyes, he looked around. “The
leader of my coven, in Portland, offered an alliance with
Alphy
.
If he calls him for help, he’ll get it.”

Tyler’s brows rose a little bit, and his lips formed a
contemplative frown. “Okay then, I’ll call
Alphy
.”

It was just after four in the evening when everyone
was in their places, and ready to storm the building. Everyone wore black
fatigues, even though the daylight was still bright.
Rudo
clutched Ryker’s hand and kept him pulled against his body as they waited for
the order to go.

Ryker huffed out an irritated breath.
“I know you want to protect me, and usually
I would find that barbarian style possessiveness sexier than hell, but right
now isn’t the time.”

Rudo’s
lips thinned as he continued to hold fast to his mate.
“You’re still healing from being shot! I am very angry
Alphy
ordered you to raid the building with us.”

He felt Ryker’s soft hands rub circles on his back. It
was soothing, but didn’t calm him.

“
I know you are worried for me, as I am for you, but
Alphy
has a point. We need to save what we can from their
computers, and I’m the best qualified to do that.”

Rudo
kept his mind blank as his
eyes scanned the building from their position. He and Ryker had been over this
several times. There was very little he liked less than to let his mate run
back into bullet flying danger, but he knew he couldn’t stop it … well, not
without doing permanent damage to their relationship, and that was even more
unacceptable, so he refused to budge on his insistence that he be Ryker’s
personal bodyguard.

The voice of one of the vampires Ryker’s old coven had
sent, crackled through his headset.

“
Unit four in position.”

Rudo
growled with repressed
anger. Not only was he angry at having to let Ryker join in the raid, he was
fighting his hate for that particular member of Ryker’s old coven
.

Ryker’s hands roamed over his shoulders and down the
backs of his arms.
“
Shh
,
honey, don’t let him get to you. Growing up with him, he has always been a bit
of a bigot, but you don’t need to worry about him doing his job. He may be an
ass, but he really is on our side. He won’t dishonor that.”