Phoenix's Fate (RARE Series, #2) (10 page)

S
erenity wanted to kick herself.  She had no idea why she had acted like that with Phoenix.  She had no reason not to trust him; but old habits die hard.  Serenity had been running for so long, that she did not know how to stop.  She almost gave him the last name she had been using when the General kidnapped her, but she could not lie to Phoenix.  She would not have a relationship based on lies.

Stopping at the hospital exit, Serenity waited for Phoenix to catch up with her.  “Campbell,” she whispered to him as he stood beside her.  “My last name is Campbell.”

Phoenix grasped her hand, kissing her knuckles.  “Now it’s Madison,” was all he said.  Smiling shyly, Serenity peered up at him between the hair that had fallen forward to cover her face.  “Serenity Madison.  It has a nice ring to it.”  He placed a kiss on the top of her head, hugging her closely.  Smiling, they turned as one and walked out into the sunshine.

Serenity loved to be outside, but the General had never allowed it.  Not only were the women required to stay inside the building; they were rarely allowed to leave their room.  Feeling the sun on her face was heaven.  To walk out, feel the sun shining down on her, and know that she was free was one of the best feelings in the world.  Serenity was oblivious to the slight chill in the air.  To her, the day, the weather, it was perfect.

“I’ve been staying with my friend Nico and his mate Jenna,” Phoenix said, “But I have a condo in town where we can stay for privacy.  I’m going to be honest with you, though, I don’t feel comfortable taking you out of the compound.  As much as I want to take you home with me, I have a feeling this is not over.  The General is going to come after you and Jade.”

“You want to leave me here?” whispered Serenity, the distress obvious in her voice.  Phoenix looked at her in confusion.  “Why would I leave you here?  I’m staying with you, Serenity.  Where you are, I am with you.  We just need to figure out where that is going to be.”

Serenity took a deep breath.  What was wrong with her?  Of course he wasn’t going to leave her.  She was his mate and he took that seriously.  She knew that, but for a second her insecurities surfaced and she worried Phoenix was going to leave her at the compound.  Leave her alone to fend for herself and that scared her.  Wait, Phoenix kept mentioning the compound.  What was the compound anyway?  Serenity had quite a few questions, but those would have to wait.  They had a little boy to see first.

Phoenix reached out and took his bag from her grasp, throwing it over one of his wide shoulders.  Reaching down he grabbed her hand and tugged her down the stairs and through the hospital gardens.  Serenity breathed in deeply as they walked.  There were so many different smells in the air, but her favorite one was the scent of her mate. 

Taking another deep breath, she held his scent inside her as long as she could.  Finally she had to exhale.  She saw the looks Phoenix was getting and it was pissing her off.  Her wolf wanted her to grab him and mark him.  To show all the bitches walking around the compound that he was hers and they should back off.  However, Serenity knew all of his attention was on her.  His gaze had not strayed.  That soothed her wolf somewhat, and put a smile on Serenity’s face. 

Soon, she would claim Phoenix, and everyone would know he was hers.  There was just a little biting and a lot of sex that needed to happen first, then it would become official.  She was claiming her mate tonight, and they were not going to be quiet about it.  There was no way they could stay at Nico’s and Jenna’s with Hunter there. 

Walking up the sidewalk to the small cottage style house, Serenity tried to think of a plan.  They could not stay here, but they could not go to Phoenix’s condo.  She had no idea where they were now.  And seriously, what the hell was the compound?  Why did they call it that?  It sounded like one of those cult places where people went and drank the red Kool Aid to die.  Maybe she should get answers to some of her questions sooner rather than later. 

Serenity was starting to become anxious when she felt a hand on her back.  Phoenix leaned in and softly told her, “I’m going to text Chase and see if, maybe, he has an apartment we can stay in until everything with the General is handled.  Something here at the compound.  It will give us some privacy, and you will be safe.”

“As long as we don’t have to wear white robes and drink red Kool Aid, I’m good,” Serenity told him.  She laughed nervously as Phoenix looked at her in confusion.  “You keep calling this place a compound.  That makes me nervous, Phoenix.  More than nervous, freaked out really.”

Phoenix burst out laughing.  “Awe, baby, you are so adorable,” he said.  “That’s just what the White River Wolves call this place.  It’s their home.  They have had threats in the past, so Chase’s dad put a huge fence around an extensive amount of their land.  The pack has more enforcers and trackers than a normal pack would have to cover any issues or threats.  The hierarchy is basically the same as any other wolf pack; they just have more force behind it because the safety of the pack means everything to Chase, the current Alpha.  When Chase’s parents died, he made very few changes.  He kept things the way they are because it works.”

Embarrassed, Serenity looked down and shrugged.  “Well what was I supposed to think?  A compound to me is either a place where people are being held against their will, which obviously isn’t the case here, or some kind of fanatic religious group who follow a leader claiming to be a higher power.  That always turns out bad.”

Still laughing, Phoenix pulled Serenity into his arms.  “I promise, no one is here against their will and Chase isn’t going to make you drink anything you don’t want to.  You can trust me, Serenity.  I am not going to let anything happen to you.” 

Just then the door flew open and a little dark haired boy threw himself into Phoenix’s arms.  Phoenix picked him up and the child sniffled as he wrapped his arms around Phoenix’s neck tightly.  Well, shit, Serenity thought.  So much for claiming her mate tonight.  They were not going anywhere.

T
he General sat at his desk in his remote Alaskan facility.  It was in the middle of nowhere and was cold as hell, but there was also a slim to none chance RARE would even think of looking for him there.  He was trying to decide what he was going to do next.  That disgusting team of mercenaries was not going to be allowed to sabotage the plans he had put into effect over 20 years ago.  Because of them, he’d already moved all of his original facilities.  Several women and their children, not to mention close to 75 of his own men, had been lost.  His army was seriously depleted.  He was working on getting that number back up now, but in the meantime he had no choice but to hide out in this god forsaken place.

The General refused to allow this to go on.  This band of misfits was not going to ruin his plans.  He had not sunk all of his time and money, let alone his reputation, into this project just to have RARE ruin him in less than a month.  It had taken over 20 fucking years of his life to get this far.  He was not giving up. 

RARE could keep the women and brats they managed to rescue in the raids. He didn’t give a shit about them. But, Serenity, he wanted Serenity back. The little bitch had been hiding her healing ability from him.  The General sent a team of men to monitor her for months before they had finally grabbed her.  Even though she refused to shift into wolf form in front of him, he had known she was a wolf shifter, but he hadn’t known about her healing ability.  The General wanted that ability. He wanted her back and wanted her studied by his scientists.  And then he was going to find the perfect man to breed her with because he wanted children with her healing ability.  It would be a huge benefit to his army.  If injured, they could be healed quickly and sent right back into the action.  Yes, that ability would be his.

The General wanted Jade back, too.  But he wanted Jade for different reasons.  At first, he had stolen Jade because he assumed she had the same abilities as her mother.  Yeah, he knew who her mother was.  He had known all along.  The General was the one that had sent Jade’s father to Angel in the first place.  Angel had thought the man loved her.  Unfortunately for Jade’s father, he actually had come to care for Angel eventually and had refused to see reason where she was concerned.  The General had made sure that problem was eliminated.  The man had been one of his best soldiers; it had been a huge loss when he’d been taken out.  But it was all for the greater good. 

The General had originally wanted Angel, but he had known that Angel would be a huge pain in the ass and would fight him every step of the way.  So instead of stealing her, he had manipulated the situation by placing one of his highly trained men into her life and getting her pregnant.  Then he had stolen her children instead.

Angel had been pregnant with twins, a girl and a boy.  She’d had no idea that when Jade was born, Jade’s brother had lived.  Angel thought that he had been stillborn.  She was so devastated at the time that she hadn’t questioned the doctors.  Her son had lived, and that was the first child of Angel’s the General had stolen.  Four years later he had taken Jade. 

Angel had no idea how the General had been manipulating events in her life all of those years ago.  He thought it was funny how the events were playing out. Angel gets called in to save a child, only to find out that the General had also stolen her own child.  Just wait until she found out her son, Jinx was still alive.

Yeah, the General wanted Jade back.  He needed her back.  It was the only way he could control her brother.  He had been able to manipulate Jinx at a young age by threatening his sister, and the General had used that knowledge against him for several years.  For some reason, the boy loved his sister, even though he had only met her twice.  Once when he was four, and again when he was six after trying to rebel.  The General had shown him what would happen to Jade if he tried it again.

Jinx was a cocky little shit, but he was good at what he did, which was basically whatever the General told him to do if he wanted Jade to live.  Jinx had abilities he inherited from his father, along with his mother’s abilities as well.  Jinx was a wolf shifter, but he was so much more.  The General needed him for the war that was coming.  And that meant that he had to get Jade back, because without her there would be no controlling Jinx.  There was not much the General was afraid of, but Jinx scared the hell out of him. 

Picking up his phone, he made a call.  By the time it was over, he was positive Jade and Serenity would be found and brought to him.  And if he was lucky, he would get Angel as well. 

W
hile Serenity and Jenna were getting dinner ready, Phoenix and Nico went out back to have a cold beer and talk.  Lily and Hunter were playing on the swing set, but Hunter refused to go far from Phoenix.  Phoenix hadn’t realized how his staying away had affected Hunter.  He had figured that Hunter would integrate himself into Nico’s and Jenna’s family and be happy.  He had been so wrong. 

Serenity had connected telepathically with Phoenix when he went outside and was not ashamed to admit that she was listening in on his and Nico’s conversation.  She was not ready to be away from Phoenix in any way right now.  She needed to hold him close to her somehow, so she had connected to him without asking permission first.  She hoped it would not piss him off, but she couldn’t help herself. 

“He cries at night,” Nico told Phoenix as they watched the children.  “He cries himself to sleep and then shifts into his bear form.  It’s hard to get him back out of it in the morning.  Hunter doesn’t feel safe when you aren’t around, Phoenix.”

Crap, Phoenix thought.  There was no way he could leave the little guy tonight.  He didn’t want to upset Serenity, but Hunter needed him. 
Stop worrying, Phoenix,
Serenity whispered into his mind. 
We will stay here with Hunter or he will go where ever we go.  We cannot leave him.  We will not.

Closing his eyes, Phoenix soaked in the intimate sound of Serenity’s voice in his head.  He felt connected to her in a way he had never felt with another woman.  A
sk Nico if we can all stay here until the Alpha can find somewhere else for us. Preferably a two bedroom because Hunter will be coming with us.

Smiling at the command in her voice, he looked back over at Nico who seemed to be waiting for a response from him.  “Sorry, man, Serenity was talking to me.  You mind if we hang here until Chase can find a place for us?  I don’t want to take Serenity back to the condo until I know it is safe.  The General is going to be looking for her, but there’s something else going on, too.  I don’t have the specifics yet, but I think someone else is after her besides the General.”

“No worries, brother.  You got a place here as long as you need one.  We can move Hunter out to the couch so you and Serenity have some privacy. He can have the room back when Chase finds you a place.”

“That’s not necessary,” Serenity said as she walked out the sliding glass door and made her way to Phoenix.  “Hunter can stay in our room with us and when we leave, he will be coming with.”  There was no room for argument in her voice. 

The surprise was evident on Nico’s face.  “Are you sure?  He is more than welcome to stay here until the council decides where to send him.”

“The council doesn’t need to worry about Hunter anymore,” Serenity told him.  “You tell them that he is ours.  His home is with us.”

“Serenity,” Phoenix warned her, “We don’t get to make those decisions.  We can request it, but with neither of us being bear shifters, they might not approve it.”

“Bullshit,” Serenity growled.  “I am sure all of you have connections.  Use them.  That boy is staying with us, end of story.  They do not want to fight me on this.  They have no idea what I am capable of.”

A small voice interrupted their conversation.  “I can stay with you?”  All eyes turned to the little boy that had made his way over without anyone noticing.  Hunter was watching Serenity closely as he moved slowly towards her.