Rane's Mate (15 page)

Logan turned at his growl, yelling at him. “About fucking
time. Kirby needs your help!”

He growled louder as he used his claws to rip wings and grab
at minions, pulling their heads off, roaring when a demon came out of the
elevator with more minions and went straight for Kirby. Running to get to them
before they reached Kirby, he backflip-kicked to get where he needed to be.

* * * *

Kirby was high on adrenaline. She knew in the back of her
mind that when this was over she’d be in a shitload of pain and have one severe
headache. She just couldn’t believe what she had done, and what she was doing—using
her powers to help kill. She didn’t really care too much for the ugly
creatures, but it still didn’t feel right using her powers like this.

The things she hated the most though were the zombies, as
they had once been human, and when they grabbed her she hesitated, which cost
her. When she heard Rane’s roar, she knew he had come to help her, and he would
save her. He looked breathtakingly amazing, an avenging angel even in his half-changed
form. The elevator doors opened and inside was the biggest demon she had ever
seen. He was squished into the elevator, and when he finally unraveled himself
he was easily seventeen to eighteen feet tall. She had no idea how he had even
fit into the elevator, because she would swear that he was bigger than it was. She
gulped as minions flew from the doors of the elevator somehow.

Faith came up beside her, swearing, and yelled over her back
at Kane. “Hurry the fuck up.” Then she turned back to Kirby. “You have to focus
and gain as much control of the minions as you can. The less minions there are,
the easier it is for us to fight the demons.”

Kirby nodded, focusing on the new minions that were looking directly
at her. These minions seemed to fight more, they didn’t stop when she said,
“Stop, freeze, stop!”

Going into their heads further, she noticed a scary thing,
this demon was onto her, he was counteracting her. Knowing her friends were in
trouble and that what she was about to do was stupid, she did it anyway. Searching
for the link the demon had to the minions, she found it and stopped the
minions.

Logan killed as many as he could. He came from behind her
and moved in front of her. She focused on the link, but the demon started to
notice and grabbed the link, laughing into her head. She fought as he told her,
“Come to me. Kill the wolves. Kill, kill, kill.”

Kirby screamed as the demon came closer and his long tail wrapped
around her. Faith was trying to get around to the demon’s back. Rane and Kane
were fighting the demon from the front as best as they could, even as minions
flew at them, but the demon’s horns on his head were so big and he used them on
Kane as much as he could. Faith was climbing up his back while Rane distracted him,
slashing at him and trying to go for his heart.

Kirby struggled with the tail as they fought. Getting a good
grip on her knife, she used it to chop the demon’s tail from around her waist.
She yelled at her friends as she caught some threads of the demon’s thoughts.
He was going to smash Faith against the elevator doors. Kirby yelled to try and
get the demon to look at her, to get its attention, as she leaped through the
minions, killing them and the connection. Kirby lost the demon’s train of
thought, but she didn’t care as she now had his full attention. Rane freaked at
that, roaring, finally getting at the demon’s heart as talons from the demon’s
hands wrapped around Rane’s middle, trying to pull him away. Without thinking
of the consequences, Kirby ran up, using her knife to slash at the demon’s arms.
Her brother pulled her away as the demon’s head rolled by her.

Rane turned to her, and she gulped. He was scarier right now
than the demon. Rane nodded to Logan and then turned back to her and said, “Never
do that again, Kirby.”

She frowned as they walked to the stairwell. Very quietly and
hesitantly, she said, “I was connected to his mind, through the minions, he was
blocking me and when I got the thread it caught me and he was trying to get me
to do things. I didn’t, I just kept following the link from the minions. He was
going to slam his back against the elevator doors while Faith was on him, so I
acted without even thinking. I ran and I lost his train of thought because
Logan and I killed the last minions. I don’t know what the demon saw in my
mind, I don’t think he saw anything, but based on what I saw in his, I knew I
had to help.”

Rane and Kane swore, but Faith nodded and said, “We’re going
to have to look into that, I wonder…” She was cut off as the whole hospital
started to shake. Faith continued, “Quick, we need to help. There is an earth
element here.” Faith cocked her head. “Maybe an earth witch.”

Two and a half long hours later, Kirby sat in the hospital’s
large conference room with twenty werewolves, fifteen military men, Sara, Faith,
and another woman who was sobbing in Wrath’s arms. The giant werewolf was
gently kissing her forehead and seemed to be whispering calming words.

Two military men, who she guessed were pretty high up,
called for quiet, but nothing happened in the room until Kane whistled then
said, “Quiet now.” His tone was so deadly she thought some men even stopped
breathing.

The general stepped forward, introducing himself, and then
started talking. “After tonight you have our full cooperation. We will help on
Wednesday, giving you anything you need to find the tunnels and weed them out.
I think we need more than fifty soldiers trained.”

Rane cut the general off. “With all due respect, General Beal,
fifty is already too many. We need all the wolves to be focusing their energy
on fighting demons, not helping train humans. We don’t have enough wolves to go
around as it is, and we’re doing things we have never done before. We’re
letting our mates help, plus—”

The general cut him off this time. “We need to protect and
help in the fight too, today demons and minions killed just under a hundred,
and wounded many more. The men you have so far seem to be doing fine.”

Kane growled and took a step toward the general as the general
continued. Kirby giggled as the idiot worsened his situation as he gestured to
her and Sara.

“If the women over there can fight and win, then I don’t see
a problem.” He pointed at Kirby. “I know you’re human. You’re Lieutenant
Logan’s sister.” He raised his eyebrow. “And Rane’s wife.”

This time Logan growled too, and Rane seemed to force out, “Tread
lightly, General. I shouldn’t have to tell you this as it’s not information you
need to know, but the reason these women can do this is because they’re
supernatural in some way.”

Kirby sighed as the idiot general then turned to her and
said, “What are you? What kind of supernatural?”

Her brother came to her side. Rane lunged at the general,
only to be held back by Jamie and Devlin.

Her brother spoke before she could. “With all due respect, sir,
that’s not something she has to divulge.”

The general frowned and stepped toward her, which caused
Rane to go nuts, and his brothers looked strained holding him.

“I looked into your family file, Lieutenant Logan Brown, and
she has had no defense training. How on earth did she come out of this blood
bath? She must have an extraordinary supernatural talent.”

Kirby shivered as she looked into the calculating eyes of
the general, who stared back at her. She straightened her tired and aching
shoulders, so she didn’t feel so small. Rane was let go and came straight to
her side.

A pissed off Faith came charging up to the general, pointing
at him. “Don’t even think about it! You would be dead before you reached the
door. Only the men you brought with you would fight, and I don’t even think
they would if you do what you are thinking of.”

The general seemed to debate something and looked at Faith
for a couple of seconds before he took a step toward her.

Faith continued. “I will kill you before you take another
step.”

This time the general raised an eyebrow at Faith, and his
mouth turned to a smirk.

Major Black, who had been sitting quiet in the corner, spoke
up. “Sir, I have seen this woman in action. Do not underestimate her. She’s the
woman in the reports who saved me.”

Kirby could see the shock and the calculating glance that
then came into the general’s eyes. All the werewolves in the room were growling
now.

Faith ignored them all and kept going. “Nothing would show
up in my blood or Kirby’s. If you’re thinking that way, you aren’t any better
than the demons.”

The general’s face was red with anger as he looked around
the room. No one supported him, even the men he brought looked at him with
disgust. Logan now joined Rane as they stood next to her.

The general cleared his throat as he took one last look
around the room at the werewolves. “I’ll clear this mess up, deal with the
media and all of the survivors.”

Kane seemed to growl out as he stood in front of Kirby and
Faith. “We will be taking any of the survivors who want to come with us. Some
of the supernaturals will feel safer. We have been cleared for this already.”

The general’s face, if at all possible, seemed to get redder.
He nodded then turned and walked over to his men.

Faith turned to them. “We have to keep our eyes on him. I
agree we have to step up our training of the women, and make sure our women are
never alone with him.” She paused and made sure she looked at all of the
werewolves. “Now that I think about it, keep all of the supernaturals away from
him.”

All the werewolves nodded.

Frowning, Kirby said, “I thought he was the top ranks of the
military and had all the power?”

Rane kissed her forehead before answering. “He is very
powerful, little red, but he’s not the top, although he is very close.” He
whispered the rest. “They don’t know the head honcho is a werewolf.”

Raising her eyebrow, she gasped out, “How do they not know?”

Rane shrugged. “We’ve been hiding from the beginning of
time.”

“You would think that we’d know by now that you guys
existed. With all of this new technology, it doesn’t make sense.”

Faith giggled at her, adding her own two cents. “Normal
people see and think what they want to. There has been video footage, but normal
humans don’t want to think of what is out there. They’re all too involved in
their own lives.”

Kirby thought that through, then nodded her head, saying, “I
felt you out there but I chalked it up to various things.”

Kirby didn’t even notice that all the werewolves, herself,
Faith, and Sara had walked out of the hospital, until they were standing
outside by the large tent that was the makeshift hospital.

“Della and Ava have spoken to the supernaturals, and it
looks like they’re all coming with us,” Faith said. “Kirby, I think that we
should go around tomorrow at lunch time and meet these new people, have a talk
with them.”

Kirby liked the idea, but now that the adrenaline was wearing
off she was too tired to talk, so she agreed by nodding. Without realizing it
she had been leaning on Rane more and more, so much so that she didn’t think
she had really been walking. She gave up on the pretense and leaned all of her
weight on him, almost collapsing into him. Rane chuckled, kissed her forehead,
and picked her up.

She smiled as she heard, “Thank God, I didn’t want to be the
first to show how exhausted I was.”

Kirby didn’t want to admit it either, but hurt too much to
care who caved first. Sara fell into Tray’s arms.

It was Jamie, who she had completely forgotten about, who
said, “Think how the regular human military men feel. You have extra strength
and healing, thanks to mating one of us. It’s one of the reasons we haven’t
trained humans to do this until now, and the only reason we’re doing it is
because we have no choice.”

That brought her back from almost falling asleep in Rane’s
arms. She looked around and asked, “Where is my brother?”

She couldn’t see Logan. She did notice that the werewolves
didn’t even seem tired. A lot of them were leaving.

Rane whispered in her ear. “They’re going patrolling. Don’t
worry, I’ve sent Logan back to the base. He’s been with us all this time, while
the others were only there for the last hour. We had already been there
fighting for over an hour.” He kissed her forehead again and sighed. “I hate to
admit this, but Logan did really well, although he’s pretty beat up and it will
probably take him a couple of days to get back to one hundred percent. We’re
going to need him for Wednesday.”

Kirby nodded into his chest, too tired to respond. He placed
her in the car and gently kissed her lips.

* * * *

Rane woke the next morning at six o’clock, which was a good
hour later than he usually woke. He’d slept in. He shut his eyes and took a
deep breath, wrapping his arms around the lush, naked woman next to him and
pulling her even closer. Rane chuckled as he remembered getting Kirby out of
her clothes last night, she had moaned out, “Don’t make me do anything please,
I’ll be good. Give me five minutes more sleep.”

When she was naked, he’d placed her in bed, and as he walked
away to do some work she moaned. “No, don’t leave. You’re so warm.”

Rane had chuckled and forgotten about the work that needed
to be done. He got naked and hopped into bed, and she had snuggled into him,
muttering, “Mmm, smells so good, so soft and warm.”

She hadn’t made another noise after that, falling straight
back to sleep. Looking at her now, she was gorgeous, her bright, fire engine
red hair was everywhere, and he brushed a curly lock off her face. Her cheeks
were a healthy pink, and her lips were slightly parted. His eyes drifted down. The
sheet had fallen to her waist, and her breasts were pressed against his chest,
the pink nipples pointed as the morning air hit them.