Shea: The Last Hope (26 page)

Diavolo should have returned by now. He wondered where his new partner had gotten off too. Roarke grinned and wished he could see the look on the, 'oh so special Chosen'

when they found out that their nightmares were going to become reality. His partner assured him that his kind would never agree to be associated with shifters of any kind.

They were too interested in remaining in the dark so to speak. He laughed at his own joke.

"Sir, there is someone who would like to see you." Trixi said into the intercom. He rolled his eyes; the woman had about outlived her usefulness. She was going to have to be replaced sooner or later. He really needed someone who could type as well as give head.

"Who is it?" He snarled and could smell her fear coming from the outer office. But he couldn't sense anyone else, interesting, he thought and stood up. He was going to take a meeting he guessed.

Epilogue

Blaine woke from the vision with sweat on his forehead. It was crazy. It couldn’t be true. They had finally seated the entire New Council, and things were progressing. Part of the prophecy was complete, now they had to finish it.

Quinn and the Alphas asked for a list to be made of all the magical creatures out there.

Cami had been so excited because she was going to finally know if some of the mythical creatures she’d read about were real. When Griff had joined their Council, she had practically come unglued because he was an actual Gryphon, and that was nothing to her response to Shea.

But this? He was not sure even Argus knew of the existence of these creatures. Blaine had heard the stories and had shrugged them off. Most of the stories had been told to him when he was a child of creatures who walked the night, took children from their beds, and fed off their blood. But it had only been stories.

Blaine leaned over and shook his mates awake; they would have shared his dream. Kira sat up and smiled at him. "Yep, Cami is gonna freak."

Dalton groaned and rolled over. "My grandfather used to try to scare me with stories about Vampires. Seriously, do you think they’re real?"

"The visions are not wrong. We just have to figure out what they mean and who the girl was. She was definitely in trouble." Blaine said and rolled out of bed. "We are going to have to call a Council meeting for this one. I have no clue when they are going to be here, but we are going to have to be prepared."

Dalton laughed. "Hey, did you notice that they did not burst into flames in the sun but could walk outside. I guess that part was not true huh."

Kira laughed and hit her mate on the back of the head. "That was a book. This is real life, now go, and check on the babies. We have a long day ahead of us."

Dalton groaned and fell back against the pillows; it was his turn to dress and bath the little ones. He loved it, as did Blaine, but he liked for Kira to think, she was getting a favor out of him.

***

Tripp stood on his post and looked across the wide-open land that stood before him. He loved the place he lived. The mountains and the wide-open spaces, it was like the best of both worlds. Travel for ten minutes and he could run in the wilderness and then travel another few miles and back into civilization, then the flat lands.

The sun was peaking over the east casting a red and purple hue over the mountains. It was amazing. Tripp sighed as he stepped back and looked around. He was going to have to take this shift more often; he liked the quietness that surrounded him. He had been upset about covering at first when one of his Enforcers had called in, now he was thinking he could get more work done in the middle of the night. His schedules were ready for Devon to look at, and he had already half way planned the training that needed to be done for the others.

This was the first time he allowed himself to be thankful for the job he had received. At first, it was downright frightening to be responsible for the Enforcers of the Council Pack. But Devon had trained him himself, and he had felt honored for the promotion when Devon and Darien had become Council members. Gregg, Quin's other brother could have taken this job, but he had wanted to remain in Denver with the original Denver Pack. So Tripp had stepped forward and asked to be trained. He had fought his way to top Enforcer through dominance challenges as was customary.

It had been a battle, but he had reveled in the fight. When he first took over his duties there had been an attack on the Council, a bomb set off by the Rogue leader and from there it went downhill. His first few months of Lead Enforcer were mixed with drama and babysitting. Babysitting is what he, and the other Enforcers described their duties when they had to guard the females of the Council. They were unruly.

Tripp stepped back into the house they had set up for the Head Enforcers to live in until they met their mates. There were only five of them that lived here. Tripp was the leader, the other four each supervised an eight-hour shift, and He supervised them. His relief would be here soon, and then he would have a long day ahead of him before he would be able to hit the sack.

He went over the checklist that was waiting for him and made sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. Each of the New Council members had their own homes now, and the Pack compound house was where the Alphas lived. It was huge. But the magical community that had come to live in their small little town had seemed to explode when Roarke had declared war on the Council Pack. They were training more Enforcers by the day to help protect the members of the Pack and surrounding area.

His second stepped into the room, and he smiled. “Good Morning Deleon, your men have arrived. I saw a few of them getting together outside for their assignments. Here’s the schedule for the day.”

"A Council meeting at one?” He said curiously.

"That’s right; Blaine called it a few hours ago. Something must be going down." Tripp said and then stood up from the desk. "I’m going to get cleaned up and then go to the Pack house and work in the main security office. We have a lot of people applying for permission to come to Milliken, and we have to get them researched."

Deleon nodded and took the papers from him.

Tripp knew the work would get done. Now he needed a large cup of coffee, and some breakfast before his day got underway but first a shower to clean the grit from his eyes and refresh him before changing into clean clothes.

He went into his private suite and looked around. Everything was nice and neat, just as he left it. Tripp had been in the Marines, it had instilled a certain amount of OCD in him when it came to keeping things in order. He sighed and pulled his clean black jeans from the drawer and a black shirt. It was his normal work attire, just like the rest of the Enforcers.

When he stepped into his bathroom and looked in the mirror, he groaned. The scar from the last fight had still not healed all the way. When the New Council fought with the Rogues, he’d been injured. Roarke found a new way to fight, magically enhanced weapons. Though as a strong Werewolf shifter he had the amazing ability to heal, the weapons had been different. They were still trying to figure out the spell put on them to cause such damage that healed so slowly.

Tripp had a scar from his right eye to the corner of his mouth. His friends said it made him look scary as hell; he hated the way that it made him seem mad all the time. His personality was not like that at all. Tripp grew up in a large loving home with his parents and his five brothers and sisters. If you were too serious in that home, you would have never survived. His oldest brother loved to play jokes on him and his siblings. Tripp smiled when he thought about what his brother was going to find when he woke up. Since he worked the night shift, it had been the perfect time to get back at his brother for the last joke he had played on him while he was in the hospital. Thank goodness, Darien caught the change in on the doctor’s testing order. He would not have been able to sit for a week; a proctologic exam would have been a very uncomfortable thing.

To get back at him, last night Tripp had run to his brother’s home while he was on break and hotwired his new car and moved it to his parent's garage. Then taken a picture and went back and left a ransom note. His brother would hit the roof when he found his new Dodge Charger gone. Serves him right, he thought.

Tripp pulled the strip of leather that bound his long hair from the back of his head and sighed. The thick black hair flowed around his shoulders; Tripp had been about ready to cut it back into its normal close 'high and tight' cut that he had been so used to in the military when he had been wounded. Now he used his hair to hide the scar on his face.

Though the women seemed to like it, it showed he was a warrior, he thought it made his light-hearted personality not match his wild angry look.

His natural olive complexion seemed almost too good to be true, and working in the sun had deepened his tone and so the traits he received from his Indian heritage stood out.

His long straight nose and full lips had always a drawn the women. But it was his piercing grayish eyes that most of his prospective mates seem to love.

Unfortunately, so far, he hadn’t found the one who would calm his wolf. He hoped that soon he would be able to settle down and provide his mother with the grand pups she demanded on a daily basis.

Now completely nude he turned and stepped into the shower. For the last few days, his wolf had been restless, like it knew something was coming but not quite sure what it was. Tripp never questioned his wolf, and so he was planning on really looking at the applications that were piled on the desk today. Maybe his wolf had scented something from the papers that indicated something wrong. Or maybe he had scented his mate, either way he needed to stop messing around and get busy. The longer he took here the slower his day would be.

Showering quickly, Tripp headed off to the Pack house to get breakfast. When he walked in the door, he could hear the rumble of voices already up and apparently in a heated discussion in the dining room. Most of the time he ate in the kitchen with the rest of the Enforcers, but for some reason, it sounded like there was a problem and his wolf insisted on moving toward the raised voices.

"We don't know for sure yet. First, we have to talk to Tripp and Devon; they’ll run he checks for us." Quin said calmly.

"But she’s a human, seeking shelter here. We need to make sure that she knows what we are. Betsy from the town bed and breakfast said she’d shown up wearing nothing but a pair of sweat clothes that didn't fit her and her purse. She had to be desperate for help. Betsy said she insisted on speaking to someone from the Council." Cami said and sat back against the chair again her belly once again swollen in pregnancy.

"I know mate, but we have to be careful and make sure she is on the up and up. What if we grant her sanctuary, and she’s a spy. No Tripp will take care of her interview, and then we’ll see what aid, she is in need of." Quin said firmly and looked at the doorway where he stood. "See, we can have Tripp over there now."

Cami snorted and said. "Lucky guess babe Tripp, would you please come in and eat with us. We have a favor to discuss with you."

Quin rolled his eyes and said. “Good Morning Tripp, please come in, I know you were scheduled to work in the office today, but we need you to go into town. There’s a woman who turned up last night in need. She refuses to speak to anyone but someone from the compound. You will have to talk to her, and see if she is telling the truth or not. She’s human but knows of our existence. She claims to have important information for us."

Tripp sat down and smiled at the young female wolf that placed a plate in front of him.

He nodded and looked at his Alpha's and said. "Of course I will. What shall I do with her if it checks out?"

"Bring her to me.” Cami said firmly and rubbed her stomach. "I was a human once, I know how scary it can be for humans to find out the world is not what you thought it was, and she’s probably terrified too. I think we should applaud her courage for coming here rather than doubt her. Not everyone is out to kill us, you know." Cami said sarcastically and then looked at her mate and stuck out her tongue.

Quin growled as Jaden walked into the room and laughed at them. "What have you done now my naughty little mate?” Jaden teased and bent to kiss both of his mates.

Tripp watched with a smile. He wanted that. He wanted to have the comfort of a mate to come home to. He wondered again when he would find the woman who would make him complete.

"I hear we have a bunch of stuff on the plate today.” Jaden said when he stood up.

Quin nodded and said. "Meeting, humans, we’ll be lucky if we get any time at all to actually play with our adorable children."

Cami rolled her eyes and said to Tripp. "Yeah, yeah, whatever so will you go now?"

Tripp finished his plate and then stood up. He grabbed his coffee and smiled. "On the way I’ll tell you the outcome in a few hours. I will not bring her here unless she checks out.” He warned and then laughed when Cami growled at him.

***

Caterina stared out the window to the quaint little room the owner of the bed and breakfast let her use while she waited for someone to come to her from the New Council.

She didn’t know why, but she wanted to be able to see them, as soon as they arrived.

She had a feeling of foreboding that made her want to make sure she would have time to run, if the person was someone who would hurt her.

She remembered that Adolfo promised these people would keep her safe, but she had lived for so long running. She didn’t know what safe felt like anymore. Adolfo was the only safety she knew, and he was gone now. Killed; fighting for her to have time to escape. Images of her long-time friend and companion; fighting with the vampire, flitted through her head. His beautiful fur; that she remembered petting so often late in the nights, when he would come to her to comfort her after another nightmare; covered in his own blood as it pooled on the floor below him. His large brown eyes looking up at her, saying his last good-bye and telling her he loved her, while he held that vile creature by the throat in order for her to escape.