|
23.
Wolf
central turned out to be a compound much like the one Drew now called
home.
Vast grounds
and scattered houses with one main house. Ross dropped
them off at the main house then sped off to get Marcus and the
salamander back to their own compound.
Seth
led the way up to the door and knocked. It was opened by a
familiar face.
“Don’t
you have a club to run Bastien?” Seth greeted the wolf.
“Have
you ever heard of delegation?” Bastien laughed. “Besides the bro
wanted me here for this.” He stepped out of the way
letting them into the house.
“He’s
in the living room. You know the way, I’ll get something
to drink. Anything for you Drew?”
“I’d
slay for a cup of sweet coffee.” She
answered.
“Coming
right up. And you Seth?”
“Make
it two and we’re sorted.”
“You
got it.” He left to go get the coffee.
Seth
led the way through the entry hall to the living room.
When
they walked in Drew had the urge to ask if the compounds shared a
decorator. The living rooms were basically the same,
hi-tech and comfy.
Cole
rose fluidly from the chair he’d been lounging in and stepped
forward to greet them.
“Seth,
Drew, thanks for coming.”
“Not
a problem.” Seth smiled. “You were vague on the phone Cole, what
exactly is this about.”
“It’s
better if I show you.” He lifted his chin up, tilting
his head back and howled.
The
sound was so eerie that Drew felt the hair on her arms rise. If
she hadn’t been looking straight at Cole when he made the sound she
would have sworn that a real wolf, right out of a National Geographic
documentary, was howling next to her. She heard an
answering howl from somewhere in the house.
“He’ll
be here soon.”
Bastien
came in with the coffee, a dark haired woman on his
heels.
“Damn it
Kelly I’m going to trip over you, I can carry two cups by myself I
don’t need help.”
She
ignored Bastien and made a beeline for Seth.
“Seth!”
she threw her arms open and hugged him.
Clung
to him was a more accurate description. Drew felt her
hands clench. This was making her itch to hurt the woman.
“Hey Kelly, how goes it?”
Seth was trying to gracefully disentangle himself from the hug, but
Kelly was clinging for all she was worth. She’d always
had a crush on him, but even though Kelly was pretty, she’d never
appealed to Seth.
“It’s
so good to see you, you never come round any more.” She
gushed.
Kelly
still hadn’t released Seth from the hug and Drew was starting to
get really angry.
Gods,
this is what real jealousy felt like. Drew didn’t like
it one bit. She wanted to rip the woman’s clingy arms
off and beat her with them. But it wasn’t like Drew
could do anything about it. Seth may have kissed her a
time or two, and made that joke about no one else having her cause
she was his, but that didn’t give Drew a right to say another woman
couldn’t touch him. She clenched her teeth and fought
for control. She could feel her cat stirring, picking up
on her agitation.
Cole
looked from Kelly, who was stuck to Seth like a limpet, to Drew,
whose face was getting steadily more stormy, and laughed
softly.
“Kelly,
have you ever been attacked by a seriously irate
wereleopard?”
She
wrapped one arm possessively round Seth’s waist and turned to look
at Cole.
“Nope.”
She grinned, happy that she could have this much contact with
Seth.
“Well, if
you’d like it to stay that way I suggest you let go of Seth and
step away.”
Kelly
finally noticed Drew and the pure malice that she was radiating. It
didn’t faze the wolf, she wasn’t going to let go for
anything.
Drew
heard the low warning growl trickle from her throat. That was a
shock, it was the last thing she’d wanted to do. She’d
just told the other woman to back off in no uncertain
terms.
“Don’t
be a moron Kelly, Drew could hand you your ass on a plate.” Bastien
warned her.
Seth
was trying his damnedest not to grin like a fool. She was
jealous. Drew was seriously jealous. He
couldn’t contain it any more the grin burst onto his face. He
unceremoniously removed Kelly’s arm and took the two steps that
would put him in front of Drew.
Taking
her face in his hands he planted a loud smacking kiss on her
lips.
“It’s
about frigging time you got some of what I’ve been dealing
with.” He laughed.
“Its
not funny.” Drew grumbled embarrassed that Seth knew she was
jealous.
“Oh,
its helluva funny.” He laughed then pulled her to sit down next to
him on a couch.
Kelly mumbled
something and left the room.
Cole
shook his head smiling as he sat down again. “You two
are seriously entertaining. I bet Gabe hasn’t had a dull
moment with you around.”
Bastien
sat down too. “You think this is entertaining. You
missed Drew’s sentin appear at the club.”
A
man walked into the room and raised a brow at Cole. “You
howled?”
Drew eyed the new
comer. He was tall, but then Drew had yet to meet a short
mythos that wasn’t female. His hair was a sandy blond,
streaked with lighter color. He wore it cut short in the
back but it angled longer to the front. It was parted in
the middle and long leaving the ends to fall past a perfectly
sculpted jaw line. Cornflower blue eyes peeked out behind
the long bangs.
“Took
you long enough.”
“I was
busy when you called.” His grin was impish, letting everyone know
that he’d been in bed when he was summoned.
“You
don’t have to work your way through every female in the house you
know?” Cole noted dryly.
“Yeah
I know,” the grin got more wicked. “but its so much fun to
try.”
Cole
rolled his eyes.
“Seth,
Drew, this is Dante.” He introduced them. “Dante needs
to show you something.”
Dante
casually reached down snagging the hem of his tee-shirt, he tugged it
off.
“Shees!”
Drew shook her head, when Dante’s perfectly muscled torso was
revealed.
“What?” Seth
asked.
“I swear, when mythos
males were created, you stood in the ‘Hot Bods R Us’
line.”
The men
laughed.
“Just
as long as you have eyes for only one of those bods.” Seth warned
her playfully.
Dante
tugged the waistline of his jeans down on his right side, exposing
his hip and the omega symbol just above it.
Seth
sobered instantly. “Are we having a fire sale on
these?”
“What
do you mean?” Cole asked him.
“Show
them Drew.”
Drew
pulled up her right sleeve and turned her hand palm out so they could
see the Omega symbol on her wrist.
Bastien
pulled a face. “I think Seth’s got a point. We haven’t
seen a new Omega in years, now we have two?”
“Yeah,
one’s female and the others a wolf.” Cole said. “I’m
willing to take a gamble that there is something big in the
works.”
“We’ve
never had a woman, I know that much, but we’ve never had a wolf?”
Drew asked.
Seth shook his
head. “No, Omega’s have always been cats of some
flavor. We’ve never had any other animals. Are
you Du’call Dante?”
“Yeah.”
“At
least that’s a constant. All the Omega have been
Du’call.” Seth gauged Dante. “You know it means you
have to relocate to our compound don’t you?”
Dante
grinned. “I’ve been there, there are lots of beautiful women. I
don’t mind one bit.”
Bastien
laughed and threw Dante’s shirt at him. “Put your
shirt back on you man-whore.”
Dante
laughed “Your just jealous.” He darted for the door when Bastien
aimed a kick at him. “I’ll go get packed and tell my sentin we’re
moving.”
“Any
news on getting Namara back?” Cole asked.
Seth
and Drew took turns telling him what had happened in Nephritis’s
lair, and what had happened at Sandamar’s hideout.
“Hmm,
this nexus stuff is interesting. Keep me informed if you
find anything out?” Cole asked when they were finished. “I’m
happy that we are a couple of steps forward at least. We
have the salamander now we need to home-in on Namara. Tell
Gabe to call if he needs help from the wolves, we are always here for
your compound.”
Dante
popped his head around the corner. “I’m ready when you
are. We can go in my car. I’ll pull it out
front.”
Seth got
up. “We better get going, it’s getting late and Gabriel’s going
to want to know about our newest Omega member.”
Dante
was chucking a duffel bag in the trunk of his car when Seth came out
the house and climbed down the stairs to the car. Drew was
right behind him.
“Hold
up Drew.” Bastien called her, “I promised Selph a bottle of
chocolate liqueur. Give me a second and I’ll run and get
it.” He jogged up the stairs.
“Okay,
I’ll wait here.” She stood just outside the front door. Watching
as Seth opened the door of the car. Dante was already
behind the wheel. His sentin take up most of the back seat of the
car.
“Not too
freaked out by everything that’s happened?” Cole stood just
inside the door.
“Surprisingly,
no. You’d think I’d be seriously freaked. But…”
As Drew answered him she
caught something in her peripheral vision. The hair on he
neck suddenly stood up. There was a wolf hurtling full
speed at Seth, he’s back turned he hadn’t seen it. The
wolf’s mouth was wide, snarling, it was clear who ever that was
wanted to harm Seth. There was no time - Drew didn’t
think, she reacted. She felt her body become fluid as she
shifted for the first time from her human form to
leopard.
The shift
was almost instantaneous she bounded from the top step using her
strong hind legs to propel her into the air. She collided
with the wolf an inch from Seth’s unprotected back. The
wolf and leopard rolled across the ground, the wolf yelping as Drew’s
fangs found flesh and tore chunks out.
Her
cat roaring in her mind Drew saw everything through a haze of
rage. This wolf had wanted to kill Seth, she knew it, her
cat knew it, and it was something they could never allow to
happen.
“Seth!”
Cole’s shout came as the air behind Seth stirred, he spun to see
the leopard take the wolf down mid air.
“What
the fuck!” Seth snarled as Cole reached him.
“Its
Drew!”
Seth felt
his claws shift in as he started forward. Cole grabbed
him. “No – it’s over.”
Drew
had the wolf pinned, its throat in her jaws, it lay absolutely
still.
Dante had jumped out
the car at the commotion. “Oh my god. That shift - She’s
spectacular!”
Bastien
came running out the house. “What the hell is
happening.” He saw the leopard holding the dead wolf by the
throat. “The leopard, is it…”
“Yeah
its Drew.” His brother answered him.
Seth
cautiously moved closer to the leopard.
“Drew,
baby, it’s Seth, I’m going to touch you okay?”
The
cats golden eyes swiveled to look at him but she didn’t let go of
the wolf.
Seth
gently laid a hand on her. “Drew the wolf is dead, you
can let go now.” He stroked the fur along her back.
Drew
heard Seth talking to her from a distance, his words sounded
distorted and blurry. It was that he was talking and okay
that finally got through the cloud of rage that she and her cat
shared. He wasn’t hurt, they had saved him from the
wolf. Drew unclamped her jaws and let the limp body of the
wolf fall.
She moved away from
the wolf and started to shift.
“Don’t
shift yet!” Seth told her, as if he’d read the desire to change
back in her body language. “You’ll be naked. Bastien
go find something to cover Drew.”
He
kept stroking her fur. Soothing her. Drew felt
more of herself come to the surface as her cat calmed down. Bastien
came running out the house with a large blanket, he handed it to
Seth, it was too dangerous to go near Drew right now.
Seth
draped the blanket over the leopard. “Okay Drew, you can
shift now.”
She
did as his asked, smoothly flowing back to her human form. She pulled
the blanket firmly around herself to hide her
nakedness.
“Wow.”
Dante said softly when she shifted.
Seth
pulled her up and close. Just holding her.
“What
exactly happened?” he asked Cole over the top of Drew’s
head.
It was Drew
who answered him. “The wolf was coming at your back, it
was going to kill you. I couldn’t let it do that. I
couldn’t let the wolf kill you.” She was in
shock.
“Shh, don’t worry
Drew, I’m okay.”
“I’ve
never in my long life seen such a complete and sudden shift. I
didn’t even have time to warn you and she had shifted and take
Veronica down.”
Drew’s
eyes snapped towards the dead wolf. “That’s Veronica?”
“Yeah.” Dante answered.
“Good riddance.” Bastien
spat.
“Can you
see to the body please Bas?” Cole asked his
brother.
“Sure.” Bastien
picked up the dead wolf and walked around the back of the house with
it.
“He’ll take her to
the crypt, and call the people who need to see to her.”
“Oh
god what I have I done.” Drew felt a tear slip down her
cheek.
“You’ve done
everyone a favor Drew.” It was Cole who spoke, his voice
firm.
“Veronica
was poison to everyone she touched, it was only a matter of time
before she was declared rogue and killed. Hell, she should
have been declared rogue when Kyle was killed because of her. Only
Gabriel’s request kept me from doing it. Now she’s
dead and she’s no one’s problem anymore. Don’t think for a
second that she didn’t intend to kill Seth. That was
exactly what she would have done. You saved his
life.”
Seth
kissed the top of her head to let her know he agreed with
Cole.
“She was
fully shifted, I wouldn’t have been able to shift fast enough -
best case scenario I would have been hurt badly. It’s
like that vamp you dusted tonight Drew. She was a bad
guy. Don’t forget that.”
He
led her to the car and tucked her into the back seat, and shut the
car door.
“I
want to get her home.”
“Understood.”
Cole nodded. “Seth,” he spoke again. “ you’ve got
one amazing wereleopard there.”
“She’s
an even more amazing woman Cole.” Seth climbed into the
front seat and Dante started the car and took them home.
|
