Healing Cherri (5 page)

Each of the girls had been kidnapped, shot at, been in multiple fights. Although his wolf was impressed with their impressive track record, the man was pissed his mate had put herself in that much danger. Things were going to change. He looked at the Beta in front of him and hoped he was up for the challenge. They may have to start planning a guy’s retreat in order to recoup after some of their adventures.

The wolf in front of him put his hands on the table and raised a little and leaned forward toward him. Sabrina put her hand on her side arm, but Kade held up his hand for her to stand-down.

“
I don’t think she's my mate, I know. And to be honest with you, we're gonna have a few issues if she doesn’t get her ass in here soon,” Declan said.

Kade laughed and said, “Yeah, about that, you better get used to the fact that when the three of them are together, there's no hurrying them. They will come when they're damn good and ready. Also, you should know they tend to be a little over zealous when they're trying to investigate something.”

Declan sat back down and put his head in his hands and shook his head. “Why can’t I have a normal mate?”

“
Shit, I ask myself that like ten times a day. But back to the family tree thing, I have a few things to explain about that.”

***

Cherri was getting pissed, every time her friends tried to stop laughing, they ended up busting out again when she tried to explain what she meant. Finally, getting frustrated enough; she reached behind her and held up a spray. Both of her friends instantly sobered.

“
Not cool, bitch,” Calli said, knowing exactly what was in the spray.

“
What, which one is that?” Rissa said worriedly, she knew Cherri had devised several sprays that worked on shifters. They had used them a few times to subdue one of the
Ulfer
they were chasing.

Calli sighed. “It's the neuro spray, and she will make us piss our pants if we don’t watch it.”

Rissa groaned and said, “Cherri, come on. Let’s talk about this. It's just your mate, and I'm sure he realizes you have been with other men before. I mean, duh, we are like a hundred.”

“
No, that's not what I meant, you dumbasses. I mean yes, I'm not a virgin, pfft, but what I was trying to explain was my mother. You know what the woman is like; she has tried for the last fifty years to plan my wedding. Every time I go home to visit, it's like ‘Cherri, sweetie, you're still wearing white at the wedding, right? I mean, I was pure when I met your father, and I know that you have dabbled, what wolf wouldn’t, but you haven’t, you know, sullied yourself.’" Cherri mimicked and Calli groaned. “Girls, I'm gonna have to tell her that I should be wearing bright freakin’ red, and she's gonna freak all over my ass.”

“
Please, like she doesn’t know you've had sex.” Calli smirked.

“
Seriously, I swear, I have paid off my doctor to even tell her every year I'm still pure. She's like fucking obsessed. You know what they're like. Hell Calli, your mom thought you were a virgin until you met Kade.” Cherri laughed.

“
The hell you say!” Calli said and folded her arms. “I'm quite sure my mom gets that I have had sex before.”

“
Um, nope, I have to agree with Cherri on this; the moms have it in their heads we all waited,” Rissa said, looking down at her papers.

“
What? They think we waited for like a hundred years to actually do it?” Calli said incredulously. “Wait, I think maybe I have talked to her about this.”

“
Once again, nope. The Mob Mas' really don’t know,” Cherri said. “Shit, I don’t care that I met my mate, hell he was fucking hot. I still have things to do right now, but when I'm done; sure, I will consider it. Wouldn’t mind sharing the same bed though.”

The girls laughed and Calli said, “I still think you're wrong. Rissa, you're in charge of calling the moms and finding out if they know, be subtle, and don’t let them know about Cherri yet.”

Rissa nodded absently and put it in her phone, so she wouldn’t forget. “Now can we get down to business?” Calli said and stood up.

She held out a hand for both of her friends and pulled them to their feet. Rissa held up her paper and said, “I have some things to show you. Let’s get to the computer.”

Not too difficult since that’s all there were around them. They walked to one of the lab computers, and Rissa found her way into the security section and began flipping through films.

One of their greatest advancements had been in the technology field, not even the humans knew how much they had advanced. The humans had been so paranoid; they installed monitoring computers everywhere. They ran on a huge system the Drekinn Agency designed, well that Rissa had designed. It took years to be able to make it work; basically they had their cameras, which went to the humans, all strategically placed so they would see anything. Then Rissa developed a program to tap into the cameras, as well as any com link in the vicinity of the cameras, so they would be able to have multiple views of what they wanted.

Technology was amazing, everything was developed to make their lives easier, and sometimes the humans didn’t realize with their arrogance, the shifters could use their technology against them. They thought the shifters were not as smart as they were; after all, they were just animals. That was what they heard on the cameras the most. Rissa and the others laughed when the people said that because they could usually tap into their personal information and fuck with them. Legal, no, but fun. As long as no one caught them, they were fine, and no one caught Rissa.

“
So this was caught yesterday,” Rissa said and pulled up the video.

There were two men, one of them they could not see his face. For someone to stay hidden on their surveillance could only be one person, Mr. Twisted, it was like he could sense where the cameras were and hide. Plus he didn’t carry a com link, so they couldn’t trace him. Rissa tried all the time, but she had never found him.

They were talking. “We need to get these bitches under control. The
King
is worried they will figure this out,”
Mr. Twisted
said.

The other man was tall and thin; his face was familiar to Cherri, she just couldn’t place it. “I will have the formula soon. We still need more testers. You should get your people on that, instead of pulling me away from my research. I have been nothing but compliant, first you want to have to one formula, and now this other one. They are both complex and difficult. I can’t snap my fingers and have them done. The shit you want me to do is time consuming. Keeping secrets from humans
and
shifters is becoming difficult when I need both to experiment on.”

“
I don’t care about the DNA thing; we need to try to get some of the shifters who are opposed to us gone, without question that is your job. We only have a few weeks before the vote, and I will not let our
King
down,”
Mr. Twisted
said.

“
I will have it by tomorrow, then you can use it all you want,” the other man said and turned to leave. “Why are we here? You know that the Agency probably just heard everything we said.”

“
Of course I do, and that is why we are here. Calli, I know you will hear this,”
Mr. Twisted
said softly as the thin man shook his head and laughed. “I thought for a time that you and I were destined to be together, then the thought of torturing you with your mate watching appealed to me more. I am coming for you, but that is not why I made sure you could all hear this. My lovely Cherri, I think maybe there is much we could do for, and to, each other. While I may kill your friends, I think you would make the perfect mate for me.”

Mr. Twisted
walked away whistling after just threatening them on camera. They could both feel the Alpha power rolling off of Calli—someone threatened her Pack, and her best friends.

Calli growled and Rissa shook her head. “There's more, this was recorded this morning.”

Once again, there was a man who they couldn’t see, but Calli leaned closer to watch his mannerisms and walk. She had to find something to be able to find the fucking asshole. A smaller strange man stepped out of the shadows and handed
Mr. Twisted
something.

“
Sir, here is what you need,” the smaller man squeaked and stepped back after handing the bag over.

“
And is there more?”
Mr. Twisted
said.

The small man nodded and then said, “Yep, and the trap is set, by this time next week they should find out that their best friend is dying.”

Mr. Twisted
nodded and laughed. “Rissa, can you feel the hours clicking away? Hmm, when and where? Both of your friends will be devastated, and then they will come for me. I am ready, my lovely ladies. One of the torture chambers is ready for you, Calli, and the bed chamber is also ready for Cherri. Oh, what fun I intend to have.”

The shorter man backed away and stammered, “Yeah, well I suppose we're even now. I will, uh, just get moving.”

Mr. Twisted
laughed, like him talking to himself didn’t scare the shit out of the little man.

Calli growled louder and then Cherri turned to her friend and said, “Hey, I know the first guy that the sick fuck was talking to. He spoke at some convention or another about DNA manipulation. That little shit is working on the injection the
King
wants to turn them into
Breyting
. Whatever else he was talking about doesn’t sound good either. I mean I know this guy; he's a pompous ass who thinks it’s fun to create new diseases. If he has created one, we're gonna have to watch out.”

“
Rissa, from now on, you don’t go to the bathroom without taking someone with you. I swear this fucker is going down,” Calli said and flipped open her com link. “Kade, we need to talk, there's a lot more going on than we originally thought. We'll be there in a few to talk about all this. Trina, we're going to have a change in plans here.”

“
Wait, I just have to load a few things in the computer, and if I'm right about Kiki, we will wake him up today,” Cherri said, getting pissed that her morning was going to hell in a hand basket so quickly. She had to get busy.

Over the years, the technology wasn’t the only thing that had improved. With the shifter anatomy as well as the humans being compared, they had found the cures for many diseases, and made inoculations for almost every allergy and disease imaginable. When children are born, they only received one shot now, it covered everything. Even those children born with problems have been able to overcome many of the obstacles.

Allergies themselves were no longer an issue, but an allergic reaction to certain drugs still was. Kiki had to be allergic to one of the medicines that they were giving him. The medicine was a combination of drugs they developed for regeneration, synapses building, and infection. It was the drug they were using for infections that Cherri thought Kiki was having the problem with. Since shifters didn’t generally need an antibiotic because of their natural immune system, when introduced to a shifter, it sometimes proved to be a problem. Unfortunately, because of all the stress and everything they had been through, she missed it. Cherri was pissed at herself because she didn’t realize what was going on.

Calli rolled her eyes and then went to talk for another few minutes to Kade while she loaded the results into the computer and then waited. The ding made her crow with happiness because she finally figured out why Kiki wasn’t waking up. Now she just had to fix it.

Chapter 4

“
Cherri found a way to wake up Kiki; we are all going to the med ward and wait,” Calli said through the com link and Kade grinned. Finally, he missed the cougar that seemed to take up all of the space around when he was awake. This shit could wait; his wolf wanted his Pack healthy and whole. He felt a change coming and something was going to need to be done.

When Kiki was shot, they all thought the worst. Kiki was a sassy Drag Queen who they discovered was a part of the Pack even though he was a cougar. It had been a surprise but a welcome addition; he was the only one of them who actually knew how to cook the most amazing dinners. Plus, if he woke up, Thomas could stop feeling so fucking guilty and actually become a member of the Enforcers team again, without spacing off at shitty times.

“
Sabrina,” he said to the woman who was standing at the door just waiting to be told to go to the medical ward. She was anxious to get back to her detail of guarding Cherri and also find out about Kiki.

Kade felt Declan’s gaze heat up on him, wanting to know exactly what was going on. Kade turned to him and said, “One of the Pack members I was telling you about was hurt last week. He has been in a coma since then. Cherri has barely slept trying to figure out why. Apparently she figured it out. Wanna come?”