Rise to Embrace [Rise of the Changelings, Book 3] (Siren Publishing Epic Romance, ManLove) (2 page)

Nate smiled.

“Why are you smiling?” Selene, a female enforcer just one rank below him, asked. “It looks evil.”

“I’m just thinking about what my job entails.” Nate was Rick’s top enforcer, and left in charge of the werewolf changeling pack in Shelton. Rick had given Nate full authority to deal with any traitor how he saw fit.

Nate planned to. It was a job he was born to do.

They sat in Nate’s red Yukon, a vehicle that had undergone more repairs since this war started than Nate cared to think about. But he loved his Yukon, so repairing it was his only option. They sat there staring at Laurence Tormos’s home. Larry was a librarian. That should have made him harmless. The guy worked around books all day. There was nothing spectacular about him.

But Larry made one vital mistake. Instead of cataloging books, Larry decided to be most helpful to the local authorities and catalog changelings instead.

Larry was changeling.

That only made Larry an idiot.

A dead idiot just as soon as Nate got a hold of him. What Larry was doing was not something small that could be dealt with by giving him a simple punishment. No, Larry was selling out his own species.

To Nate, that required a death sentence. One he was going to carry out. Killing was not one of the things he loved about his job. It was a necessary evil. It was an evil Nate did not lose sleep over.

“There he is,” Selene said in a tone that was low and angry. “Do you want to take him now?”

“Let’s wait until he is clear of the busy street. We’ll follow him and catch him in a less populated area.” Nate started the Yukon and pulled away from the curb when Larry slid into his car and drove away. He kept a distance, but Nate knew his red Yukon was just as well-known as he was.

Maybe he should have listened to Selene and taken her Honda. The problem with that idea was the fact that Nate couldn’t work out how to fit his extremely large form into such a little car. He would have had to peel the car off of him just to get out of it.

Nate kept back, disappearing in plain sight. Either that or Larry was just too dumb for words because he never made a move to indicate he knew he was being followed by a big red Yukon that belonged to his pack’s top enforcer.

“He’s parking.”

“I can see that,” Nate said as he pulled into a parking lot across the street and a few yards down.

“Now?” Selene asked.

Nate grinned at her. “Are you that excited to kill him?”

Selene glared at him with her gorgeous chartreuse eyes. “No, I’m that ready to make him pay for what he did.” She turned to get out, but Nate grabbed her arm, pulling her back. He jutted his chin toward Larry.

“Looks like he’s meeting someone.”

They sat there in silence as they watched Larry walk over to a small white car that had just pulled into the parking lot.

“Who do you think he’s meeting?”

“Could be anyone,” Nate replied. He didn’t know Larry personally other than the man came to pack meetings, so it was anyone’s guess who was in the white car. “Son of a bitch!” Nate jerked up in his seat when a gunshot was heard and Larry crumbled to the ground. The white car sped out of the parking lot, and Nate made sure he followed.

Larry lying on the ground dead wasn’t his concern. The man was dead. There wasn’t anything Nate could do about it, and it had been the same thing Nate had planned on doing anyway. Just not in such a public place.

The white car began to slow down and then turned down numerous streets until they were out in the suburbs. Nate was a bit concerned that whoever was driving might spot him, but they hadn’t tried to lose him. Nate was also about eight car lengths back just to be cautious.

“Oh, hell,” Selene said in a shocked whisper. “Why is he pulling into Rick’s driveway?”

Nate pulled over about ten houses down and watched. He was just as curious to know why someone who had shot Larry was now going to their alpha’s home. Rick wasn’t there. He hadn’t been there in over two months.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Selene slammed her hands into the dashboard as Nate stared wide-eyed at the man with flowing blond hair getting out of the car.

It couldn’t be.

Why was Sasha Monroe, alpha of the wereleopard leap, going into Rick’s home? Better yet, whose fucking car was he driving and why had he shot Larry? Sasha walked right inside the front door and disappeared. Nate was not stupid enough to believe the cat hadn’t known he was being followed. Sasha was playful, provocative, and one of the most lethal men Nate knew aside from Rick. His leap and Rick’s pack were the strongest in the state. Hell, in the tristate area. That was until both their pack and Sasha’s leap started running and hiding from the law, fearing that they would be taken to a detention center.

Or worse, turning traitorous.

Nate and Selene quickly climbed from the Yukon and hurried toward Rick’s home. They stayed out of sight and well-hidden until they were standing on Rick’s back porch. Nate nodded his head and both slipped inside.

Before Nate knew what was coming, Sasha was behind him, claws to Nate’s throat, and Selene was left standing in front of him, her gun drawn. The tips of Sasha’s claws were pressing into Nate’s skin.

“Lower your gun.”

Selene hesitated, glancing from Sasha to Nate. Nate gave a nod. She lowered it, pointing it toward the floor, but she looked pissed as hell as she stood there glaring at Sasha. Nate swallowed as Sasha raked his nails down Nate’s neck. He wasn’t so sure Sasha was going to harm him. The touch was too light, too intimate.

“Why are you here?” Sasha purred into Nate’s ear.

“Because you broke into our alpha’s home,” Selene snapped.

Nate glanced at her and gave a slight shake of his head. “Don’t piss off the kitty cat whose claws are at my throat, Selene.”

Sasha shifted slightly behind Nate. It brought Sasha’s chest closer to Nate’s back. He had to suppress the moan as he began to feel Sasha’s heat soaking into him.

“Why are you following me?” Sasha asked.

“You’re standing in Rick’s home, Sasha. I should be the one asking the questions. You are supposed to be helping us gather the changelings and getting them out of town. Why aren’t you?” Nate asked. Sasha was an inch taller than Nate, but Nate was twice as wide as the cat. Whereas Nate looked like he could be a world heavyweight bodybuilder—but it was all homegrown, thank you very much—Sasha was more toned down, with honed muscles and a slimmer waist and body frame. Oh, Sasha had a nice body. Nate had seen him once in a snug T-shirt and the sight damn near made his jeans sticky. Sasha’s biceps were well developed, his pecs rose just the right amount, and his abdomen was flat, and from what Nate had seen, an eight-pack. The man loved to purr, loved to be provocative, but he was also the fastest man Nate knew.

He could have had Nate against a wall, throat torn out, and gone from the house before Selene had grabbed her gun. If Sasha had wanted to.

He was playing with Nate.

“I’ll save the answers for later.” Sasha purred, and then Nate inhaled sharply when the tip of Sasha’s tongue touched his nape before the leopard alpha was gone. Nate took off into the kitchen giving chase, but Sasha was nowhere to be found.

Selene walked in, reholstering her gun. “Can you do me a favor, Nate?”

“Sure, anything,” he replied as he held the screen door open for her. There was no use trying to hunt Sasha down. The man would be long gone by now.

Selene glanced at him, and then her eyes lowered to Nate’s groin. “The next time I have my gun drawn, and you have a pussycat pressing his claws into your throat, try not to get so goddamn excited.” She walked out with a scowl on her face. Nate followed her, an erection in his jeans so hard it was painful.

“Where to now?” Selene asked.

“We need to find Detective Dayton. I want to know how he got that list of names to begin with.”

Selene stopped walking and looked up at him. “Graham betrayed us, Nate. I would think it was him who provided the names of our pack members. The alpha of the werehyenas had pictures of pack members in various stages of shifting. If you ask me, between Graham and Tyson, the detective didn’t have to do much work to get that information together.”

Nate watched as Selene ran a hand over her short, black, pixie-like hair, frustration in her eyes. His hard-on hadn’t diminished in the slightest. He was just as hot for Selene as he was for Sasha. It made a very peculiar situation for him. It was very tempting to tell her how he felt, but she was an enforcer and Nate was in charge of her. He didn’t want to take advantage of his position, and he couldn’t find the nerve to tell her.

Yeah, big bad Nate was a chickenshit when it came to little five-foot-three Selene.

“Rick told us to steer clear of Tyson. The werehynena alpha is up to something other than trying to take over our territory. Rick isn’t sure what it is, but his orders were to keep away from him.”

“But he started all of this,” Selene argued.

“No,” Nate disagreed as they headed back to his truck. “The humans started all of this. It didn’t help that there were people willing to hand us over on a silver platter, but it was the president who ordered our extermination. It was a corrupt judge and an even more corrupt detective who tried to frame Dorian and Rick for those murders down at the waterfront. What we need to do right now is go back to Larry’s and figure out how he was cataloging changelings. That information needs to be destroyed.”

Selene climbed into the passenger seat.

“We need to find Detective Dayton and get that list,” Nate repeated.

“I assume since the detective has the list, so does every cop in Shelton. It wouldn’t do us any good to grab one list, Nate,” Selene said as she buckled herself in.

“Think, Selene.” Nate started the truck and drove through the suburban streets until the forest began to disappear and the city lights came into view. He was determined to search the librarian’s home until he found what he was looking for. Nate had already heard rumors that changelings were being cataloged with the government. He didn’t need Shelton’s residents to be dumped into the large databank as well.

“You don’t think the detective gave up all the names to his fellow cop buddies, do you?” Selene asked.

“No,” Nate replied, “I don’t. He has an ace in the hole. I can feel it in my gut. Plus, I want to have a talk with him about Omar.”

“Yeah,” Selene said as she gritted her teeth. “I want to talk to him about blackmailing Omar as well.”

“We still have to gather the changelings that are in hiding and take them someplace away from Shelton. Rick wanted them out of harm’s way since the other two detention centers were confirmed,” Nate said. “But I don’t think Sasha will be helping us.”

“I still don’t get why Sasha killed Larry and then was at Rick’s home,” Selene said as she glanced over at Nate. “That doesn’t make any sense to me. I know he and Rick aren’t on buddy-buddy terms, but I really don’t think Sasha would turn traitor.”

Neither did Nate, and he planned on paying Sasha a visit to find out exactly why he killed the librarian and then proceeded to Rick’s. It was bugging the shit out of him, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. They had to search Larry’s and go see the detective. Nate had a feeling Detective Dayton was holding back. Only a third of the changelings in Shelton had been taken to the detention center. While just one was too many for Nate, he knew that if the detective had a list, there should have been more arrests. Something was going on with not only him, but Tyson. Rick ordered him to stand down, but it didn’t mean Nate couldn’t have someone keep an eye on the werehyena.

Tyson lived in Hamilton County, the same county as Master Kraven, a very nasty and treacherous vampire. Nate would not be surprised if the two were working together to take down not only Rick, but Sasha and Edward as well. It was just a little too convenient that Rick was supposed to be arrested and Edward was kidnapped.

Someone wanted the leaders out of the way. Which meant Sasha was going to be targeted. Nate needed to find Sasha and warn him.

Because if anything happened to Sasha, Nate was going to tear Shelton apart.

“Are you getting a bad feeling about this?” Brooke asked as they walked through the forest together. He continually scanned all around them, feeling as if he had just walked into enemy territory.

“My gut is telling me we shouldn’t be here,” Deluca replied.

Brooke glanced over at him, and Deluca knew his best friend could feel the enemy all around. They may be elite op soldiers, but they weren’t invincible. The long jagged scar that ran down Deluca’s back was proof he could be harmed. Deluca gripped his gun tighter in his hand, wondering if these werecoyotes were going to fuck them over. He could tell by Rick’s reaction that even the werewolf alpha didn’t trust them.

That was a very bad sign.

Ryan Deluca walked next to his longtime friend, Kenneth Brooke. Not only had they worked side by side in the military for the past ten years, but Deluca had grown up with Brooke. They had gone to grade school together, and then on to high school. They had both enlisted at the same time and had been stationed together.

The two of them had seen their share of tragedy and triumph, and no one could ask for a better friend. Hell, they had even shared women on countless occasions. They were as close as brothers, and Deluca couldn’t imagine his life without Brooke somewhere in it.

Deluca gave Brooke a quick glance when they entered an area that seemed to grow thicker, denser. The trees compressed tighter together, and high above them, there were what looked to be naturally made homes.

When Garrett had said compound, Deluca had immediately thought about concrete walls and high fences. Nothing like this had ever entered his mind. There wasn’t anything concrete here. Every hut, house, or whatever they referred to them as, was made from only things nature supplied. The porches were made of thick moss padding. The homes were leafy and, in Deluca’s opinion, looked like what amounted to freaking kid’s tree houses—only one hundred times nicer, plusher, and a hell of a lot bigger.

“We can talk here.” Garrett pointed to the largest structure of them all as he came to a stop the center of this makeshift village. “This is where we have our meetings.”

There was something in Garrett’s tone, as if there was an inside joke that they weren’t privy to. This only made Deluca even more weary of the coyote alpha. His gut was telling him that there was something very off about this guy.

“I’d rather talk here.” Rick expanded his arms to indicate the wide open space of the forest around them. “On the ground.”

Deluca could see the keen intelligence behind Rick’s grey eyes and knew the man wanted to stay out in the open just in case shit got funky. The worst thing that could happen would be to get trapped in one of those naturally made homes high up in the trees.

Deluca agreed with Rick’s decision to stay on the ground. They were in enemy territory as far as he was concerned. He didn’t have a good feeling about this situation, but then again, Deluca hadn’t felt good about any of this since stepping foot in the mountains.

Deluca and Brooke automatically began to position themselves around the weaker people who had come with them. All were changeling except them, Dorian, and Howard. But in Deluca’s eyes, Miguel, Benito, and Isabelle needed protection as well. Isabelle was with child and the other two were so damn short that Deluca just couldn’t make himself see them as anything more than grown teenagers.

He knew both were eighteen, but that didn’t make them fighters. The two didn’t look like rebels. Instead, they reminded him more of college students out here for a hike in the mountains.

“Suit yourself.” Garrett’s response was acerbic, making Deluca’s hairs rise on end. The man wasn’t pleased, and it showed in the fine lines around his mouth. Either the guy was up to no good, or he didn’t like having another alpha in his territory. Deluca knew the man had agreed to meet, but that didn’t mean his intentions were pure.

This was a hostile situation that could go very badly. There were only eleven in their small group, whereas Garrett seemed to have at least seventy changelings around him, if not more.

Deluca didn’t like the odds.

“Don’t worry.” Benito winked up at him. “I’ll protect you.”

Deluca gave him a small smile. He really did like the kid. He and Miguel were worming their way into Deluca’s heart. The two reminded him of kid brothers. He felt a fierce protectiveness toward them.

“I’m honored,” he whispered back.

Garrett led them to a wide open area, and then he took a seat on a large boulder. It rose higher than they stood, as if the werecoyote did this move on purpose to look down on them. “Please, have a seat and tell me what is going on with the detaining of changelings and the mass blood testing.”

Deluca and Brooke continually scanned the area around them, including the trees above. He wanted to tell Rick to get everyone out of here, that this felt off, but the two alphas were busy talking and he knew Rick was on a mission to recruit as many changelings into this fight as he possibly could.

But in Deluca’s opinion, they could do without the deceptive coyotes. There were hundreds of thousands of changelings in the United States alone. Why Rick was bothering with this bunch, Deluca wasn’t sure. It didn’t feel right, and his instincts were telling him to get the fuck out of there, and fast.

Brooke’s amethyst eyes locked onto Deluca and he knew his friend was feeling the vibes as well. There was an undercurrent rippling through the trees. The changelings that surrounded them were gearing up. Deluca could feel it.

“I’ve seen your face all over the news, along with the human’s.” Garrett waved a hand toward Dorian. “Tell me, Enrique, why would I help someone who is out to destroy his own species?”

The air around Deluca felt electrified. Even Benito and Miguel began to glance around. Edward moved closer to Isabelle. Mason slid Omar toward Howard. The changelings were feeling it as well.

Garrett stood on the large boulder, pointing a finger down at Rick. “You even have the audacity to bring some sort of freak among us!” Garrett’s frosty gaze snapped over to Edward.

Deluca knew Edward was a half breed. His beast was rat and cougar. But the man had been attacked by a different type of vampire. Not only did Edward have two breeds and one vampire gene inside of him, but he was able to walk in the daylight. That made him a very rare type of creature, and a highly feared one if the expression on some of the werecoyotes’ faces was anything to go by.

“Did you sell us out?” Rick’s question cut out the bullshit. “You said you believed I didn’t kill any of those people. Now you are standing up there judging me?”

Deluca’s attention turned to steely focus at Rick’s words.

“No, I didn’t sell you out,” Garrett answered, “but keeping you here just might calm the humans. If you disappear, then sooner or later they will forget about Enrique Marcelo and all will go back to the way it should be.”

“You’re a damn fool.” Rick’s words were coated in frost. “Even before the fiasco with me started, the humans didn’t know what to do about us.”

“Yet you have taken a human as your mate.” Garrett accused, as if Rick mating Dorian was an act of treason among their species. “You have two human guards, and I’m really not sure what he is about.” The alpha pointed toward Howard. The air all around them seemed to crackle with tension. Deluca noticed some of the coyotes moving closer. They were being boxed in, and all too late Deluca knew what they had planned.

None of them were getting out of here.

Benito slid a cell phone from his pocket and began to press on the keypad. Deluca wasn’t sure what that was about, but he prayed the man was calling for reinforcements, because hell if they wouldn’t need them.

Deluca pulled his gun and aimed it a second too late. One of the werecoyotes had Isabelle and was holding claws to her throat. Edward leapt toward the man, but was knocked back by another coyote.

“Stay down, mutt,” the man who knocked Edward back warned.

“Hurt her and you’ll know the real meaning of nightmares,” Edward said as he circled around the two men. They matched his steps, never letting Edward get close enough to do any real damage.

“Just calm down,” Rick warned the coyotes. “That’s my little sister you have, and she is with child. If any harm comes to her, you better believe I’ll hunt you down and slowly peel your skin from your bones, and then I’ll feed you to the buzzards while you are still alive.”

Deluca kept his gun aimed at the head of the man who had Isabelle trapped in his arms. He could drop the guy holding Isabelle. Deluca didn’t have a problem hitting his mark. The problem he had was what would happen after he killed the son of a bitch. They were heavily outnumbered. It was a slaughtering waiting to happen. He was almost positive Garrett meant them no harm.

But he wasn’t going to bet his life on that assumption.

Garrett meant to hold them as prisoners, but not harm them—at least not yet. The man was merely trying to find his own solution to this ever-growing problem with the government. Keeping them prisoners was not the solution, but Deluca wasn’t about to take down the man who had Isabelle and turn a potentially reversible situation into a war among Rick’s group and the werecoyotes.

There was a powder keg inside Edward. Deluca could see the fuse in the man’s eyes. He wasn’t going to hold back for much longer. The coyote was holding Edward’s pregnant mate. That had disaster written all over it. Edward was already one screwed-up individual in the head, and it seemed only Isabelle had any kind of power over the man. Deluca had seen the way Edward’s dark eyes followed her wherever she went, as if she were his sun and moon.

If one thing held true it was the fact that even when the man released her, Edward was still going to try and kill the guy for threatening her with his claws.

Garrett turned back toward Rick. “Now, again I say, follow me.”

“You are not holding us hostage, Garrett,” Rick said icily toward the alpha, who still stood on the boulder as if it were his personal throne. Deluca wouldn’t lose any sleep over taking this bastard down. Garrett was full of himself.

More changeling coyotes appeared, but these men had assault rifles aimed at Rick.

“We may live among nature, but don’t take us for non-modernized fools. We have a cache of weapons, and I will use them if necessary. Your best course of action is to do what I command,” Garrett said as he made his way down off of his throne-like boulder. “Tell your humans to lower their weapons, Enrique.”

Deluca had known this was a bad idea from the start. When Rick had told him that the coyote changelings were a breed not to be trusted, Deluca had voiced his protest. Now they were being marched up a winding wooden staircase into the large tree house–like structure, and there wasn’t a damn thing Deluca could do but go.

“Looks like we’re staying for dinner,” Benito said as he walked in front of Deluca. As they were escorted into the large open aerial loft, not only were they relieved of their weapons, but their phones as well.

“You are free to roam about this loft. But rest assured, there are plenty of changelings keeping guard,” Garrett said before he left them.

Deluca glanced around the place. The inside was breathtaking. It was airy, plush, and looked almost like a real home. He spotted large oversized pillows for lounging, and a small kitchen off to one side of the room, but what caught his attention was the woman who stood staring at them as if she had never seen a stranger before in her life. Her big green eyes were wide as she glanced at Deluca and then over at Brooke.

“You’re human,” she stated.

“And you are…” Brooke fished for her name.

“Not human,” she replied and then hurried into a room Deluca hadn’t noticed. Brooke glanced his way, and Deluca wasn’t sure what to say. They both stared after her, and Deluca knew in that moment that he had just met the woman of his dreams.

And from the way Brooke was staring at the empty doorway, so had he.

* * * *

Nate was heading to Sasha’s to ask the man what in the hell was going on when his phone chimed that he had a text message. He glanced at the screen and cursed, hurrying toward Sasha’s door.