Argus: Accepting the Challenge (3 page)

“Cami we have to play this out.  Michael Challenged and I have two weeks to answer.  I will push it as far as I can.  But I will face him.  There is something else going on here though.  That is why we want you to be aware of what you are doing.”  Quin said patiently.

Cami rolled her eyes and nodded.  “Of course my big bad Alpha.  I have been properly chastised.  Now, the babies want some parenting time before we have to go back into meetings.”

Jaden smiled and kissed his mate.  “Wow, I almost believed that you were not going to continue to cause problems.”

***

“Ladies, the gig is up.”  Cami said as she walked into the room that they had taken over and called the ‘chicks nest’.  It was a large conference room on the bottom floor of the Bed and Breakfast.  For a short while, they had computers and other things set up in here, but the men had since claimed another room after having to listen to them for a few days.  Devon had been pissed when one of his Enforcers claimed that he was scarred for life after listening to a conversation the women had.  He claimed that they were messing with the Enforcers concentration.  Casey, his mate had taken care of that nicely by telling him to ‘suck it up cupcake’.  That had started to become their motto to their men.

Jo looked up from what she was doing and frowned.  “What?  You too?  I just got a lecture from Tey telling me that I was going to have to dial it back a little.  We need to reassure people, using my gift is the easiest way.  He is just pissed that I also told Shane that Emily was hot for him.”

“Hey girls, we have a visitor.”  Cloe called from the doorway and they turned.  Cloe was pushing in Jordan who had been seriously injured in the bomb blast.  Trinity was following behind. 

Jordan was the only human on the Council.  She was unable to be changed into a shifter so she would always be vulnerable.  Her mates were over protective because of this.  They were surprised the men had let her out of their sight.

“Did you break her out?”  Cami asked smiling and coming to give Jordan a kiss on the cheek.

“Nah, I just let a few tears fall, and cried about being lonely and they jumped to get Cloe.”  Jordan laughed.  “The doc here says that because of their claiming I am actually healing faster than a human but not as fast as a shifter.  So hopefully soon, I will get to take off these stupid casts.  They are driving me nuts.”  Jordan complained and hit her legs and laughed.  “I itch in some embarrassing places.”

Trinity smiled at the women who had become her best friends in such a short period and said, “Yeah, she just wants to have a bottle of the wine we were drinking yesterday.”

“Damn straight.”  Jordan laughed.  “Since Romy and Larkin can’t scratch my itch, I need to drown my sorrows.”

“Okay ladies, the men are off planning their little strategies and all that important stuff that we females would not know anything about.  So while they are busy I wanted to talk about what we are going to do about this fucked up situation.”  Cami said and looked around the room at the women she had grown to think of as sisters.  Jo, Casey, Ruby, Cloe, Lacy, Jordan, Trinity, and Kira looked at her and smiled.

Ariel walked through the doors and announced, “Good morning ladies.  I hear we are having a pow wow in here about what is going on?”

Cami laughed and said, “Of course, you know we are the real brains of the Council.”

Ariel smiled and nodded.  She was the Queen of the Northern Pride’s King Ryan.  They had come to help Jordan and her mates out when they needed to have support.  And since then had decided to move their Pride to Milliken.  Ryan and Ariel had been invaluable when the explosion took out the New Council house.  They had taken over and gotten people organized.  Quin and Jaden were talking about making them honorary advisors of the New Council.  They were an asset they did not want to lose.

“I know, I know, the men think they are so smart.  It’s sad really how they’ve fooled themselves.  Anyway, here is the scoop.  I talked to the wolf that was dating Michael for a while.  She said that he was normal until a few months ago.  When he was on patrol in Denver with his partner, they were jumped and attacked by the Rogues.  His partner disappeared and Michael came back changed.  She said he was short tempered and volatile.  She finally broke it off when she got tired of his disappearing mysteriously, and taking strange calls at all hours of the day and night.”  Ariel said.

Cami looked around the room and smiled.  “This is what we are going to do.  Cell phones aren’t secure, can they hack his cell?  Once they get the number he’s calling, they can back trace to see what other numbers that number calls.  Aha!  ”   

Chapter 2

Skye blew the hair out of her face and then hefted the tray of food she was supposed to be delivering.  As she made her way across the kitchen, she thought of that old country song.  If she didn’t have bad luck, she wouldn’t have any luck at all.  First, last week when she decided she was gonna leave her good for nothing boyfriend who took all of her paychecks for his beer and buddies.  Since she snuck out while he was passed out, she could only take what she could carry.  That had not been much.  She only took a small bag full of jeans and sweats, plus some personal items and his beater of a car.  The damn thing had made it as far as the city limits of Dallas and had broken down.  The small suburb she had broken down in was not the best neighborhoods.  But it had a cheap motel and a restaurant across the street she got hired to work in to make the money she needed to fix her ex-asshole’s car.  She finally had that, now she just wanted a little extra for traveling money.  She figured, to be safe she should work for another week, maybe two.

Her boss was an asshole and the customers were rude.  Still, she made some good tips, and right now, that is what she was holding on to.  Skye was short and round, she did not think she was fat, that is, until her boyfriend told her so every damn day.  He said that she could make a hard on limp by looking at her naked body.  It had embarrassed her and pissed her off all at once, because he said it in front of his drunken buddies.’

She wasn’t blind.  She knew she was a little on the short side and could probably lose a few pounds.  But she was not ugly.  Skye had long brown naturally curly hair, which was currently pulled back into a pony tail to keep it out of her face.  Her eyes were a funny green.  They turned colors when she was sad to a yellow, and when she was happy a bright almost grass green.  Her mother called them cat eyes, she called them weird, but she liked them.  The rest of her was plain.  Not that she cared, as of a week ago, she was officially off men.  She did not care if the hottest man she had ever seen came to her and told her he loved her and couldn’t live without her.  She was officially and permanently single until she got her shit together.  Maybe she would be the local cat woman, live alone and talk to the forty or fifty cats that she horded.  Well, there’s a scary thought for ya.  She laughed to herself.

Sighing heavily she pushed the swinging door with her hip and bounced out into the main dining room.  Putting a small smile on her face, she delivered the food to the table full of cowboys who seemed to enjoy playing grab ass.

“Here you go.  Will there be anything else?”  She asked sweetly and then felt like sticking her finger down her own throat.  She hated being nice to shitheads.

One of the larger men patted his lap and said, “Only if you want to sit here and join us.”  He said smoothly and winked at her.

Skye shook her head and then shook her finger at him.  “Sorry, not on the menu.”  She said and turned away rolling her eyes.

The door to the restaurant opened and a tall sleek man walked in.  She felt an instant attraction, and had she been alone she would have probably pulled out her vibrator and fantasized about him making love to her.  STOP IT.  She thought and shook off the tingling feeling she was having all over.  Single, NO MEN.  She gave herself a mental slap.  Then walked over to the man who was looking around.

“Table for one?”  She said softly and then stepped back when she heard a growl and the man stepped closer to her and bent over and sniffed.  Great, hot and a freak.  Just her luck.  Well that took care of that fantasy.  She pasted a smile on her face and looked him in the eyes, cleared her throat and said.  “Sir?”

“What?”  He said and then smiled down at her.  She felt her pussy get wet at the sexy smile and hot eyes.  Forget Tom Cruise, this guy was gorgeous.  She did not think she had ever seen anyone as handsome.  Long bushy dark blonde hair, brown eyes with golden flecks, and a body made for sin, he was every woman’s wet dream she thought, and took another step back.  Unfortunately, he followed until he had her backed up against the counter.  She hated the feeling of being trapped.  It reminded her of a few times her ex had decided that he wanted to take his bad day out on her. 

“Table?”  She whispered and cringed.

The man must have read her body language cause he stepped back and smiled gently at her.  “Sorry, honey.  I had a to-go order.”  He said and his voice rolled over her like a soft caress.  Shit, too bad, he was weird; she would have loved fantasizing about him later.

Her vibrator had seen her through some long nights.  Skye had bought it on the internet and hidden it in the kitchen, because goodness knows her lazy ex never went in there except to get his next beer. 

It was the first thing she had grabbed when he hit her for the last time and passed out.  She was not going to be anyone’s punching bag again.  Skye never thought she would even put up with it once, but she had been stupid and lonely.  That is why she stuck it out for so long, that and because the lazy asshole took all of her paychecks and gave her so little to live on.  The last encounter with her ex had been particularly ugly.  It scared her to think that he was so violent, and thought she belonged to him.

This is why having a man was not a good idea.  She refused to put herself in that position again.  As long as she kept moving, Bob would never find her the way he threatened he would.  Then she would settle in a small town where everyone knew one another.  It was a dream of hers.  She could do a little self-service for a few years; she thought and then remembered that she needed some batteries.  Making a quick reminder to herself to grab them from the gas station next door, she looked back up at the man.

“Name?”  She asked.

“Uh…. Shit, Jacob Tread.”  The man said and then frowned.

Skye smiled and went into the kitchen and told the girl who was supposed to be sitting at the cash register that she had a customer.  Shaking her head from the thoughts of the sexy man, she went back to work.  She had three more orders to get out or she would not have any tips tonight to buy those batteries.

Her boss barked at her and she waved her hand and took out the next order forgetting the delicious looking man who had already left.  She was on a mission.  Skye needed to make enough money to get the hell out of here.  She wanted to go to Colorado; she had never seen the mountains, still, something about them called to her.  That was where she had hoped to end up when she left Florida, but she had not made it far enough.

Sighing she went back to work and daydreamed about telling her boss to fuck off as she walked right out the door.

***

Argus finished pouring himself a drink and had just settled back into his chair when his door flew open.  Thank the Gods he had been sitting down, or he would have dropped the glass of really fine 20 year old whiskey.

“Jacob, what the fuck?”  He bellowed and looked at his best friend, and future mate.

“Get off your ass; we are going out for dinner.”  Jacob grinned at him excitedly.

“You dork, I sent you out for food.”  Argus grumbled and put his head in his hands.  Sometimes Jacob could be an airhead.  A gorgeous airhead but an airhead nonetheless.

Argus looked back up at his friend and groaned.  They had similar looks; it was the lion in them.  Both had shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes, both were tall and broad, their muscles were defined.  That is where the similarities ended.  Jacob had an amusing sense of humor and his smile lit up his face.  Argus was more serious and rugged.  Although, Jacob said when he smiled he almost looked human.

“If I said the word, mate and found.  Would that get your ass up off your throne, oh majestic one?”  Jacob said and threw his jacket at him when Argus bound up from the desk.

“What?”  He said and snagged his jacket out of the air and paused.  “Hang on.”  He yelled when Jacob would have walked out of the door again.  “Slow down, what are you talking about.”

“The sweetest little woman I have ever seen.  She has long brown hair and a luscious body that makes me want to grab, and never let go.  That is what I am talking about.  She is perfect, small, hell tiny even.  I almost didn’t leave.  I wanted to grab her and run.  But she was a little skittish.  I wished you had been with me.  You’d have thought you died and gone to heaven.  I swear I almost lost it.  One whiff of her and my cock was so hard I could have drilled nails.”  Jacob groaned.

“Shit, are you serious.  What’s her name?”  Argus asked and shrugged his jacket on.  Finally, they were going to meet their mate.  It seemed like a lifetime, and now he wanted to get to her fast.

“Uh.”  Jacob said and looked at him sheepishly.