Their Unexpected Mate [Paranormal Protection Unit] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (19 page)

Katherine smiled up at Gaia. “You do know that he’s going to pick those two sentences apart time and again, right?” She was fascinated by this woman, this goddess. She watched as the woman popped a couple of the candies in her mouth.

Katherine felt it then. Taking in a deep breath, she looked around and barely heard the whisper of Gaia telling her to accept her destiny and assuring her that all would be well, when she felt it. It felt like every single one of the hundreds upon hundreds of stasis pods opened and lines from each of them roped around her and tied tightly around her. Katherine heard herself scream as she was lifted from the ground, the power feeding from her to them and back again.

* * * *

In the other room everyone watched the screen and what was happening. When they saw their bond-mate lifted from the ground by an unseen force, the Alpha team pulled their weapons and began to beat at the wall, doing all they could to get to her, and shockingly the Dragons threw flames at the wall as well. In all of their minds Gaia spoke.
Stop with the melodramatics already. She will not be harmed. Her people are awakening and she is learning of them just as they are learning of her. This is all a part of the process. Cease and desist or I will freeze each of you where you are. Now, watch and learn because this is the one and only time that this will happen.
Or so she hoped.

Katherine heard their hopes, their joys, and happiness. In that moment she realized the enormity of what she was facing. Falling to the ground, a soft grass that seemed to rise up and catch her from where she had been floating, she panted. Looking up at Gaia, she watched as the woman popped the final candy into her mouth, and whispered, “You could have warned me and them, you know.”

Gaia shrugged. “They never would have allowed you to enter this room had they known.” She watched as the Fae all rose from their chambers and smiled as the Guardians of the Sleepers moved to each person. The Guardians weren’t true beings. They were mere whispers of Fae of the past, ghosts, so to speak, but in this place they were solid, they were real, and they would care for the Fae that were awakening and ensure that they were all equipped for this new world. “Now, let’s go back to the melodramatic beings that you call your bond-mates.” She smiled and waited until the wall was open once more to add, “Are you certain that these three are the ones that you wish to keep for the rest of time?”

Katherine knew what the woman was doing and nodded her head. Looking to her bond-mates she said, “Absolutely. There is no one else in the world that I would rather be with.”

As one the men reached out for her and surrounded her. Trey was the one to speak. “You could have told us,” he said with a growl, his wolf barely staying under wraps.

“And if I had, you would have tossed a fit before you allowed me to take her where she needed to be so that her people could wake. The Guardians are caring for them now.” She looked to Talon. “I will select her royal guard and have them come to your home base.” She smiled and then, “And from there they will go to the Bears,” she added. “The Wolves’ Royal Elite Guard will in the meantime join with the Dragon Elite to protect the queen of the Fae.” Gaia looked to Katherine. “I will see you in your dreams, child.” Reaching out, she touched her cheek and whispered. “Always listen to the truth.” With that she was gone.

Katherine looked up at her men and leaned heavily against Mac, her legs shaky and unable to really hold herself up very well. “Can we please go home now?” she whispered. “I think that I need a lot of a nap, if you wouldn’t mind, please.” When she felt Mac pick her up, she curled into him and without a second thought was sound asleep.

Talon looked to those assembled. “Now that the question as to if Katherine Douglas is truly the missing heir of the Fae has been answered, I adjourn this meeting.” He could feel the missing power that was now Katherine’s and looked to her in her mate’s arms. He hoped that she would be able to handle it, because it was a great deal of power that the woman had taken upon herself.
Ah, Dragon King, she will be fine.
Gaia’s voice whispered in his mind.
Protect her. Very, very soon those that want her dead will come for her. Before her royal guard are in place. Be ready,
the voice said softly and then withdrew.

Opening the vortex to lead them back to Katherine’s home, Talon looked at the men and said, “Later,” and let his elite walk through first, Katherine and her mates second, and Talon and Quincy pulled up the rear.

Not wanting to let her out of his sight, Mac lay her on the couch and covered her with the blanket that Sullivan passed to him. Stroking a finger over her cheek, he looked to the deadly men in the room with them. “Have the reinforcements shown up yet?” he asked in a soft voice as he turned back to his commanding officer. “And where are we with the original mission?” Was that his main concern? Hell no, but they did have a reason to be there and since this was where their mate had called home now and where all of her people would eventually congregate, they had to ensure that it was safe. Part of that would come from getting the drug-running garbage gone.

“We have eyes on them,” Bulldog said and took one of the seats. Leaning back, he crossed his ankles and closed his eyes for a moment, his hands behind his head and his mind working through everything.

“Did you hear what she said to me?” Skittles asked with a frown and paced from one side of the room to the other, shooting the dragon guards a look and frowning. “And not a fucking word from either of you because it seems that I’m going to be sharing my fucking bond-mate with one of you assholes.”

Both of them growled. Allister spoke first. “Shut up, Skittles, we fucking caught it.” He growled and looked to his twin Aiden.

Talon flipped them both off. “Fuck both of you,” he said. “We need to get this fucking mission over so that your bond-mate is safe,” he said to Trey when he opened his eyes. “We both know that when the Fae start to show up here, the ones that we are trying to run down will know something is up. We are on a time limit.”

Rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, Trey shook his head. “Yeah, I know. I don’t want to leave her alone, but I know that we all need to get back to The Bar tonight so that we can get these fuckers.”

“She won’t be alone,” Talon assured him. “You know that as well as I do. Between your father’s royal guard and mine as well as the Bears’ that I’m sure will soon be here, she won’t be alone.”

“Yeah, but we won’t be with her and that’s the fucking crux of it,” Sullivan said softly. “That’s what has us pissed off.” All three men were having one hell of a time trying to keep their composure because they knew that they had to leave their mate vulnerable, and that had them pissed to high heaven.

“Tonight,” Talon said and stood. “I’m going to go and double-check the perimeter. Skittles, I need you to ensure that her brother is locked out of every fucking thing. Get the attorneys on it and get his ass out of her father’s home as well. It’s time to clean house so that the new Fae will have homes, so that the Fae queen will be safe.”

“Got it, boss,” Skittles said and turned on his heel. “I’m going to the office.” Lifting a hand and murmuring the words to open his own transportation vortex, he stepped through and away.

“I fucking hate it when he does that,” Mac growled. “Mostly because I can’t fucking do it,” he added with a grin. “It would be nice to be able to open a travel vortex like that.”

“You do know that she’s going to be pissed when she wakes and we tell her that we have to go out to finalize this, right?” Sullivan asked and looked to the woman lying there on the couch before them. “Damn, part of me wishes that she were full human so she wouldn’t be in the danger that she’s in now because of being queen, but the biggest part of me is happier than hell that she is not fully human.” So that they could have a full, long, and happy life together.

“Are you sure that you all have to leave?” She knew she had asked that question five times now but she really, really didn’t want to let them go. She needed and wanted to be able to keep them there with her.
Safe
.

“Yes, baby, we have to go.” Trey slid another blade into his boot, and then the flip stick that would extend into a silver sword with the jerk of his hand. The flip stick was especially effective with the lesser of the shifters.

“If you need us, just call our names,” Sully told her honestly. “We’re your bond-mates, kitten. You call to us and we’ll hear you.” Picking up the Glock, he checked the weapon to ensure he had a bullet ready to fire, he took the three extra clips his brother passed to him. “Thanks,” he muttered.

“There will be someone close at all times, love,” Mac told her, slipping blades into the sheaths down his boot. “Pass me a stick, too, bro,” he asked, taking the weapon even as Sully slid one into the holster on his thigh. Flicking it open, he nodded at the smooth slide.
Just like a hot blade through warm butter, perfection.
Closing it, he slipped it into place before shrugging into his leather duster.

Katherine watched her men and couldn’t help but to feel impressed with her men. Good lord, looking at them now made her mouth water, made her ache, and she bit her lower lip. “Good gravy, you guys make me want to be the one that you are about to go and battle.” She watched as they all strapped more weapons to their thighs and shivered. “And here I thought that Quincy had a lot of weapons on him.” When he had flashed her earlier she had seen every weapon that was strapped to his surprisingly muscular body.

“He’s an amateur in comparison,” Trey told her, shrugging into his jacket and slipping more clips into the inside pockets. “Besides, you can never be too prepared for every eventuality, but you can always try.” Catching the assault rifle Mac tossed him, he clipped it to the strap under his jacket and tucked it into place. Moving to her, he looked down into her face. “It will be all right,” he told her softly. “Now, give us a big kiss and we will see you when we are done.”
Hopefully much sooner than later.

“I love you,” Katherine told Trey and reached up to pull him down to her for a kiss. She kissed him lingeringly, ensuring that he had felt every single emotion she was feeling.

When Trey pulled back from her and Mac pulled her close she grinned up at him. “I love you, too, Mac.” She ran her hands up his chest and then around his neck. Pulling him closer, she felt every inch of her body molding to his and she shuddered. “Goodness.” She didn’t want to let them go, but they had a job to do. She knew it. When he kissed her, holy crap, when he kissed her she felt as if she were flying higher and higher in the skies than any plane ever could fly.

Trey walked out onto the porch and Mac followed, leaving her alone with Sullivan. Reaching out to him, she moved to the edge of the couch and wrapped her legs around his waist to pull him closer. “You will come back to me quickly, right?” she asked and stroked her hand over his chest and up his neck. “And be safe for me?”

“Of course we will, kitten,” Sully said and buried his hands in her white-blonde hair. “Have I mentioned how much I love your hair?” he asked with a grin and pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips. “Don’t worry, baby, we will be back before you know it.”

“I hope so. Be safe,” she whispered, and watched as he then walked out and she suddenly felt completely and fully alone.

“God, I hope that we don’t have to do that often,” she whispered to the empty room and sat down before the fire to wait for her men to return.

Looking to the others, Trey led them to the truck when he got a nod, but paused next to a shadow. “Keep her safe. No one in, no one out. Your lives hinge on her staying exactly in the condition we left,” he warned softly. Climbing into the back seat, he nodded to Mac. “Let’s get a move on. Faster we go, the faster we can get back.” Hopefully they’d get it all done in one sweep, otherwise…well, he wasn’t going to be going there yet.

* * * *

Sometimes things went sideways faster than a man could blink. Unfortunately for Sullivan this was one of those times. One minute they were cutting through the thugs that the Drakonian Mafiosa Twins had hired off the streets. Well, not cutting through them so much as Skittles blasting them with magic and knocking their asses out. Yeah, sometimes it was fucking good to have a warlock on your side. And the next minute Sullivan and Mac were facing off against one of the dragon brothers. Sullivan had fought alongside his twin since they came screaming out of their momma, but these dragons refused to go down, refused to be put down, and fought dirty.

Sully knew when Talon took down the larger of the two dragons, both men having shifted into their primal dragon forms and battled, which left Mac and Sully fighting the other dragon in his fucking dragon form.
Aces.

“Move your ass!” Mac yelled at his idiot brother. Well, he wasn’t an idiot most days, but then there were others when he just…grr! Whipping out a blade, he ducked under a lethal swipe of huge motherfucking claws and slammed the blade deep between the scales in the shoulder joint. “Take a swipe at me, asshole, and I will hurt you,” he snapped, punching up under the jaw of the large beast. Where the hell was his bloody brother?

Sullivan came up with the blade and shoved it deep between the underbelly scales as Mac distracted the dragon. He felt the blade slide into organs and twisted. “Fucking bastard,” he growled, and pulled out the switch stick from its harness on his back and snapped it out, too. Hanging onto the sword blade as the dragon thrashed in his death throes, Sullivan shoved the next blade in as well, twisting as he did so.

The next agonizing minute, though, he felt a pinch in his shoulder and then the full-blown exit wound that ricocheted off the dragon scales and back into his body again. “Some fucker shot me,” he garbled, his hands losing grip on the swords and falling to the ground at the same time the dragon lost his battle with life as well. Lying on his back and coughing up blood, he looked at his hand covered in his own blood with a frown. “Who the fuck?”