Cloe: Two for the Bite of One (11 page)

Cloe cleaned her wound carefully and then pulled the shirt on. Next was her jeans, she had taken off the scrubs she had pulled on earlier and winced again when she saw all the scratches on them. Cleaning each of them with soap and water then antibiotic cream, with each pass she cussed out the Rogues. Finally done, she pulled on her jeans, then her boots and looked in the mirror. Cloe brushed her long hair that had hung in a tangled mess under the cap she had put on. Fucking A, she hated when she had to do this.

Well, she thought, looking in the mirror, at least I don"t look like a crazy woman any more. Now she just looked like an old hag with the bags under her eyes and the pinched way her mouth was set. It reminded her of the old woman who had lived under her in the apartment complex when she was in college. Teagan and Cloe had often made fun of the woman, joking that if she had sex more often, the sour expression on her face may go away.

She opened the door and walked back into her office. While she had been in the bathroom obviously, her father had decided to invite people to their discussion. Teagan was sitting behind her desk with his feet propped up, and in the two chairs that sat next to the couch held the Denver and Council Pack Alphas. Great, just what she needed.

“Dad, I thought you said you wanted to talk to me.” She said rudely looking at the Alphas.

Cloe knew that they had helped save her mate"s life, but right now, she was a little pissed. Pissed at the situation, pissed at her parents, and pissed at what she knew the outcome would be. These people had brought the fight to her doorstep by tracking her down. Why couldn"t they have left well enough alone? She knew it was irrational, she would not have met her mate and been joined with her other one had Darien not come to town to find her. That really did not matter to her though. She wondered if she could pitch a fit and kick them all out of her office until she felt like she could deal with all this shit.

“Sit,” Her father ordered and pointed to the chair next to Teagan behind her desk. Her mate had risen and was ready to back her up in any decision she made, she was certain of it. If she wanted these people gone, Teagan would order them to leave. Cloe sighed and put her head down until her chin rested on her chest.

“Fine.” She grumbled and sat next to her mate. Teagan grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

“Darien is sleeping, his fever has come down, and I think it will break soon. I checked the wound and it is mostly healed.” He whispered in her ear and she nodded and kissed his cheek for being so in tune with her.

“Let"s get down to business.” Bryan said loudly. “Cloe, do you remember everything that we told you when you were a child? About the Prophesy and your destiny?”

“Uh, yeah, sort of.” She said wiggling in her seat. “What I remember the most is that your Alpha did not support you.”

Bryan nodded and looked at Quin who sat stone-faced waiting for her father to finish talking. He explained everything that he could remember about the past and what role she was supposed to play in the future. She nodded as he spoke because things came back to her.

Teagan leaned forward and listened intently; he had heard the story before from Cloe but wanted to hear firsthand what the future held. A confused look on his face flashed for a brief moment when her father said there was only one shifter born on the first of every month in that one year. She was going to have to ask him about it when they took a break.

“Baby girl, I want you to listen to Quin. I have talked to him and explained my issues with the past. He has assured me that things will be different. I would never force you to do anything; you can make up your own mind.” Bryan said and nodded to Quin and Jaden.

“Cloe, my name is Quin and this is one of my mates, Jaden. Cami, my other mate, is back in Denver, she is pissed that we came out here without her, but she is pregnant and would never have been able to make the trip. Though, after talking with her on the phone, I have been instructed to ask you a list of questions as soon as we are done here.” Quin laughed and Cloe smiled, he had a deep voice that just flowed over you. She would reserve her opinion until after he spoke, he deserved that much.

“Here is what we know. The Seer told the Old Council about a Prophesy of thirteen children. It was over when the Rogues kidnapped Jo. She is, in fact, very much alive and in Denver. Oliver has admitted that he handled all of this wrong. He has had to take a long, hard look at the people that he surrounded himself with at the time. People that gave him advice, because we have discovered there was someone working on the inside. Alpha Bryan, I am supposed to convey his apologies and he wants to see you as soon as things settle down. I am the Alpha of the New Council. The Old Council will turn over all their assets and control to us when we have found all the Chosen. We have a destiny. I don"t really care what has happened in the past, but I can tell you about the future.” Quin said and sat forward so she would listen to him.

Cloe nodded and listened as the Alpha explained his philosophies and idea of what the New Council was going to be like. Maybe it will not be so bad after all. The only thing holding her back was her Pack, she did not want to leave them.

Teagan looked at her with a worried expression; she knew that she was sending off some serious vibes to her mate. But the more she thought about the situation, the more she became convinced what she was thinking was important.

“Alpha Quin, can I ask you something?” Cloe said and paused trying to figure out the best way to word what she wanted to say. Cloe was not good at political things, she tended to speak in short phrases and expect people to understand her. Her Pack understood this, they just grew accustom to the way she spoke. Oh well, she had nothing to lose.

“Of course, I want all the Council to feel free to express their feelings and opinions.” Quin said looking a little wary of what she was going to say.

“The purpose of this New Council is to bring the shifter world together and live with the humans in peace, right? Of course, I think I am simplifying things, but that is the endgame.” Cloe said and paused to see that both Quin and Jaden were nodding their heads. “Okay, then I would like to point out that our town is already like that. We have different shifters and humans who know about our Pack and even are members. This Pack is what you are striving for, why should I leave it now? As far as I can see, we are doing what the Gods wanted here in Milliken, which is good enough for me. I am sorry that I do not hold much faith in the New Council. I have heard the kind of damage that was done when the Old Council did not believe in its members.” Cloe said calmly. She hoped she had not offended the Alpha but he needed to know that she did not want to risk her future on a whim.

Quin frowned at her and looked at her father who was smiling proudly at her. He always said the measure of an Alpha was whether he could take criticism or questioning about his Pack. That was one of Oliver"s problems; he refused to accept that he was not all-knowing. It made the Pack weak when you did not take the members opinions in to account.

“I would also like to add, that yes, I did mate with your brother Darien. We have not discussed this in any way, but right now I am inclined to encourage him to move here and be the co-Beta of my father"s Pack.” Cloe said quietly.

“Well, shit.” Quin said and leaned back in his chair and looked at the people in the room. “I would have to say that I would agree that this Pack is everything that we want accomplish. However, I have to state the obvious. Your Pack is small, and relatively unprotected out here. If we had not come to help, the Rogues would have taken you all, your Pack and family killed. The Denver Pack is growing; we have security and a nice chunk of land. Plus we own more land in the mountains so we can run when we want to.

We decided Denver was the base for the New Council. The reasons are extensive and well thought out, but the major one was that I was not going to abandon my Pack for the Council. I think they can work together to be strong.” Cloe sat for a few moments and then said, “While I understand your thoughts, isn"t that actually a weakness for the Denver Pack? I mean, with the Council Pack being there also, the Denver Pack will lose your focus. I know the New Council is important, but there are a lot of people involved in this. Thirteen seats on the New Council and that does not even count the spouses of each of them. Why should all of us have to leave the Packs, that we are a vital part of, to come, and sit on the Council? I am sure it would be okay for some of the Chosen; I really do not know any of them or their situations. But for me, I have no desire to leave here. I would be more than happy to help the Denver Pack and travel to see your spouse, other than that though, nope.” Bryan spoke up and said, “Can I interrupt here for a minute? I want to point out something to you. The Old Council Pack was close but not in the same place as Oliver"s Pack. He was the Alpha of both Packs, you can ask him, but if I remember correctly, he just split his time. Oliver did not have the strength to pull this off. Looking at the two of you, I would say that you could. Jaden, you are the Alpha of the Denver Pack, and Quin, you are the Council, right? Well, if you separated your Packs by only a few miles, like say forty, I would venture to guess there would be no issues that you could not handle. I am sure all the logistics would make sense if you mapped them out. Think about it, right now, you are so busy trying sort out who is who and what is what, you are losing sight of the obvious. Each of your Packs has a different goal and need. Throw it all out on the table and see what makes sense.”

Quin and Jaden looked at each other and grinned. “So, what you are saying is that we could have the New Council Pack say, here in Milliken? Would you be willing to step down?” Quin asked.

“Adele and I have talked about this for a longtime. We never wanted to be Pack Alphas forever; we just did what we needed to do in order to protect Cloe. Retiring now seems like it may be a good idea.” Bryan smiled.

Cloe sat back stunned that her father had found a way to get around her. He knew she was going to say she wanted to stay in Milliken. Damn him, she was actually impressed that he had figured this all out. He must have been planning this since Darien came into town.

“I am going to call the rest of the Council, have them drive up here and we are going to sit and get this all decided. Bryan, do you have place for us all to stay until we can get this figured out?” Quin said and stood up.

“Yep, Adele and I will get it all set up. By the way, I should tell you that we own all the land around here. There is about forty acres just to the north of town that would make a wonderful place for a Council house.” Bryan said slyly.

Chapter 8

Cloe and Teagan stayed seated as the rest of the group left. She was exhausted. She wanted to go to bed for a week, but one of her mates was still in the clinic recovering, and the other one was trying to hold her together.

“Let"s go check on Darien.” Teagan said and took her hand and pulled her up. She felt like she could sink into the floor in a puddle of goo.

“"Kay, let"s go. I hope he is awake finally. We just need to sit and talk about things, we need to make a few decisions, and it doesn"t feel right without him.” Cloe said. They walked hand in hand to the door where their mate was laying. Cloe looked in and smiled in relief to see him sitting up, looking more than a little pissed off.

“Where the hell have you two been?” He growled at them.

“Well Mr. Grumpy pants, we were in a meeting with Quin and Jaden. We just got done.

How are you feeling?” Cloe asked stepping forward to look at his medical chart.

Nodding to herself, she saw that Darien had improved over the last few hours steadily.

His wounds had all but healed and though he suffered some blood loss, he was looking better. “Well it looks like your fever has broken; I think that you are on the mend, sir.”

“Duh, I already knew that when I woke up.” Darien said and stuck out his tongue.

Teagan laughed at his mates. “Seriously?”

“Hey, I felt like we needed an icebreaker. When you walked into the room, I thought that maybe I had died from the look on your faces.” Darien shrugged. “What"s up?”

“Apparently, my father has decided that he is going to retire and give the Pack to your Alphas. The New Council is on their way up here as we speak to make sense of this mess.” Cloe said.

“Why don"t you seem happier?” Darien said.

Cloe sighed and sat on the side of the bed and pulled Teagan down with her. They sat in silence for a few moments while she tried to gather her thoughts. Teagan rubbed her back and Darien just held her hand. It felt good to have her mates be so supportive.

They had only known each other for a short time but so much had happened. First Cloe was injured and now Darien, if it kept going the way it had been Teagan was going to lose a limb. She must have said it out loud because both of her men laughed.

“I certainly hope not, I like all of my limbs right where they are, thank you.” Teagan rumbled behind her.

“Me too.” Darien said with a grin.

Cloe had no choice but to laugh. “You know what I mean. Listen, I am so confused, the only thing that makes sense is you two. Since I was a child, my father told me what a mess the Council was. When I was in college and away from this Pack, if it had not been for Teagan, I would have gone nuts. This is my home. This is my family. I never thought I would ever be a part of the Council or a Prophesy. I just never thought I would have to deal with all of this shit. Do you know what the Seer said about me? I am supposed to be the Medical guru. That"s a lot of shit, what if I screw it up? And sitting on the Council, hell, I have no desire to be political. Look at me. I live in black jeans and shirts; I don"t look like the typical Chosen.”

“True, but you are sexy nonetheless. Listen honey; let"s take this one step at a time. You don"t even know what is going to happen. I say you check me out of this popsicle stand, and then we go play doctor at Teagan"s place. I have a pain somewhere only you can handle.” Darien said and raised his eyebrow suggestively. “We can deal with the rest of this later.”