It was almost disappointing when we arrived at the pack house. I still clung to Davis for a few seconds after we were stopped, and he patted my hands that were wrapped around his waist. “This is going to be okay,” he told me as I finally pulled away from him. “Things might even be better once all our secrets are out in the open.”
I gave him an incredulous look, and he shrugged. “Or not.”
Anna met us at the door before we even had a chance to open it. “I’m so glad you guys are here!” she exclaimed.
My nose twitched as I stepped inside, and I saw Trevor start to drool and Mike edging towards the kitchen. Anna must be super-stressed, because the house smelled glorious. She tended to cook and bake when she was under pressure. “We have food in the kitchen,” she told the guys with a smile. “Help yourselves.”
I rolled my eyes as they all disappeared within seconds. “This is about what’s all over the news?” I asked Anna.
“Yeah,” she said as she chewed her bottom lip. “Austin’s been in touch with Arminius. Turns out that while we had Justin to deal with, the lamia and the witches have their own factions that want the humans to know what we are.”
“Shit,” I said. “We have wolves versus wolves, lamia versus lamia, and witches versus witches. If I were an all-powerful goddess of death, that would probably be music to my ears.”
“Yeah,” Anna said with a sigh as she led me back into the house. “Come sit with me, Caleb, and the pups. I saved you a pan of brownies because I know how your guys gobble them up.”
I chuckled. “I threaten to withhold your brownies from them whenever they give me trouble.”
“I can give you the recipe,” Anna said brightly. “That way, you can bribe them for good behavior as well.”
I cringed. “Better not, I don’t want to ruin brownies for them.” Anna gave me a confused look.
“The lasagna didn’t work out so well,” I explained. “I decided I should leave the cooking to the experts… or just people who can make edible food.” Anna laughed and shook her head.
“Hey, Caleb,” I said with a friendly wave at the wolf who was sitting on the couch. He had his iPad on his lap and an energy drink by his side.
Caleb gave me a nod in return, and Anna’s two pups ran to greet me. She had two adorable Shih Tzus who were the sweetest little dogs I’d ever met – and I usually didn’t like small dogs.
Anna settled on the couch, and the two dogs ran back to snuggle with her. I went right for the brownies she had promised and sank my teeth into the chocolate piece of heaven.
“Yum,” I told her. “I love this frosting.”
Caleb smiled over at me in agreement. I didn’t know him that well because he tended to keep to himself. He seemed like a nice guy, but he also made me nervous because I tended to be unintentionally offensive to nice guys. Nice guys generally didn’t like girls who cursed, drank, and shot things for a living. But if Anna loved him, then that’s all that mattered to me.
“What do we know so far?” I asked as I tried to savor my brownie and not stuff it all in my face at once.
“Accusations are being flung around like crazy,” Anna told me with wide eyes. “Everyone is going nuts. There are rumors about a mob in Chicago who attacked several suspected ‘vampires’ and staked them. There’s a religious group in Texas who has a leader that had announced he’s going to be burning witches once he gets his wooden crosses set up. The value of silver has gone through the roof because people are convinced it can kill werewolves and vampires.”
“Fantastic,” I said sarcastically. “But have we told the humans that we can prove we’re not werewolves by being able to touch silver?”
Anna laughed. “And show you’re not a vampire by drinking holy water and not dying?”
I sobered up pretty quickly. “This isn’t a joke if innocent people are dying, though. How do we stop this?”
“We can’t,” Caleb said quietly. “Like it or not, the secret’s out. It’s going to take time before people calm down enough to listen to reason.”
“Time is the one thing we don’t have,” I said pointedly. “Not with a death goddess on the loose.”
“We also have to consider that she has something to do with this,” Anna added. “Before she escaped from her prison, she was sowing discontent and influencing Justin to expose what we really are to humans. Now that she’s out, her influence must have grown even stronger.” “I haven’t sensed anything like that,” I said with a frown.
Anna looked uncomfortable. “I think she may have avoided attacking our pack once she found out about my connection with her son, Drake.”
“Um, what?” I asked in confusion. “The sneaky fae prince?”
“Yeah,” Anna said with a sigh. “It turns out that he marked me somehow, and she sensed it. She thinks I’m… something to him.”
“Something?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Anna shrugged. “You know fae princes, always trying to mark innocent half-fae wolves who are just going about their daily business.”
“Damn fae princes,” I said with a laugh. “Okay, now that I’m full of chocolate, what do you need me to do?”
“Caleb and I are working on making this house completely self-sustainable,” Anna told me with her serious face on. “He’s working on the tech aspect of getting us solar panels and other stuff so we can survive off the grid while I’m working on creating a plan to keep a constant supply of food and other necessities.”
“Are we preparing for the apocalypse?”
“Yup,” Jason said as he and his brother came into the room.
“You’re on our team, Sam,” Mason added. “Marines know how to fortify the shit out of things, so that’s our job.”
“Cool,” I said with a shrug. “Do we know if we’ve been exposed to humans or not?”
“Not yet,” Caleb said from where he was still working on his iPad. “But we have to plan for the eventuality that we will be. Austin wants us all to stay under wraps as long as we can - but be prepared to defend ourselves if the humans turn on us.”
“Got it,” I said with a sigh as I got up off the couch. “And once we have a base of operations secured, then we focus on personnel?”
“That’s the plan,” Mason told me as I followed him outside.
“And once we have ops and personnel, then we go to war,” Jason finished.
I may have been fighting in a war for the last five years I was in the marines, but I had a feeling I wasn’t at all prepared for what was to come.
Chapter 24
It didn’t take long for society to descend into chaos.
There were riots, protests, and human militias forming everywhere. Reports came in every day of hangings, burnings, and decapitations happening all over the country. Violence was guaranteed daily - and it wasn’t just from the humans. Wolf packs had evicted humans from what they considered to be their territory. There were small towns around the country that had started banning all supernaturals from setting foot within town limits. Trade routes were disrupted everywhere because of the chaos and violence, and food prices were astronomical. Serious riots had broken out and a slew of towns had become more armed encampments than anything else. Cities were now a dangerous place to be as food was in short supply and hoarded by the few humans who had access to it.
The US government had recalled all troops when the situation here had become dire. Parts of the country were now blocked off with barbed wire fences and the borders patrolled with tanks in an attempt to retain a semblance of control over strategic areas. The rest of the country outside of those small pockets had adopted the lawlessness of the Wild West.
Both the government and private agencies were scrambling to come up with tests that could easily identify supernaturals from humans. I was hoping that project didn’t come to fruition too soon, because mandatory testing and identification would just paint targets on everyone’s backs.
I never thought I’d see the day when things would get this ba
d, but here we were. I’d also never thought I’d ever go to Colombia in an attempt to save the world, but I was about to step on a plane to do just that. Luckily, private jets were still flying, so we had a way to get there and back. Money still mattered, apparently.
“You alright, Sammy?” Quinn asked as I plopped down in my seat with a heavy sigh.
“Is anyone?” I asked darkly.
Davis slid into the chair next to me and patted my knee. “I know you don’t want to be going on this trip, but we all appreciate your sacrifice.”
I shrugged. “I’m the one who suggested it.”
“You’re also the one who kept making excuses as to why we should postpone it,” Mike pointed out.
“It’s not my fault Blaze is an asshole, and the apocalypse started,” I said with a wry grin. Austin and the other guys weren’t even close to forgiving Blaze for what he’d done, but I think they were working under a temporary truce. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Anna and the others outnumbered by our pack members with questionable loyalty, but Anna and her guys could hold
their own if it came to a fight. The council had their hands full with the chaos from the supernatural outing, so attacking Anna was no longer on their list of priorities.
“Talk to us,” Rich said quietly. “What are we really about to walk into?”
I gave a bitter laugh and propped my chin up with one hand. “The truth is – I’m not sure.
I haven’t had contact with that part of my family in years, and we were never close.”
Rich handed me his iPad with a map of Colombia pulled up. “Where, exactly, are we going?”
I reached out and took the iPencil from him. “There’s a small town here,” I told him as I marked the spot with a red circle. “From there, we can take transport to a small outpost here.” I marked another spot. “But from there, we walk.”
“And our destination?” Trevor asked with a frown.
“Around here,” I told him as I circled an area that was deliberately unspecific.
“Yeah…” Davis said. “You keep avoiding direct questions about the actual place we’re going. I get that you don’t want everyone knowing family secrets, but it’s just us right now.”
I bit my lower lip. “Some secrets are just ingrained in me,” I tried to explain. “You’d never be able to find the place without me because it’s protected by ancient magic. You’re going to have to trust me to guide you.”
“Alright,” Mike murmured. “But is there a pool?”
I grinned at him. “There’s an endless amount of natural pools, with waterfalls too.”
“That’s all I needed to hear,” Mike said with a grin. “I’ll follow you there.”
The other guys laughed, and I relaxed. I knew I was being a jerk by not telling them everything, but I wouldn’t risk drawing a map and listing the defenses of the jaguar’s ancestral home where secrets could get out. The ancestors of the people there had survived all the madness of the European invasion centuries ago. They had been clinging to their way of life as the world changed around them. I wasn’t willing to be the one to bring it all crashing down. Especially since they were among the few who could ride out the current state of the world without drastically changing their lives.
“I do need to talk to you guys about respect, though,” I murmured.
Trevor raised an eyebrow, and I knew what he was thinking. I was the last person qualified to lecture him on being respectful.
“The jaguars live in a small community in the heart of our territory, but all around us are the villages of humans,” I started to explain. “The Kogi still follow the ancient ways of their ancestors. They may seem primitive to you, but they’re very spiritual.”
Rich nodded. “I suspected that may be where we are headed, after all, Kogi translates into Jaguar.”
Mike raised an eyebrow at him, and Rich shrugged. “Of course, I’m going to do the research to figure out Sam’s origin story.”
“This isn’t a comic book,” Trevor grumbled.
“Nope, but I like the idea of being a superhero,” I said with a grin. “Continue.”
“The Kogi fled to the high elevation around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains over five hundred years ago,” Rich said with a glance at me. “They still have the cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs of a pre-Colombian society.”
I nodded in agreement. “The Kogi have kept themselves in isolation because they believe they exist to care for the world. They have a direct spiritual connection to the earth and an advanced understanding of how everything is interconnected.”
Davis frowned. “Like the Native Americans in the US?”
I nodded. “Kind of. They reached out to the Hopi tribe a few years back when they became concerned that the earth was being harmed by us, their little brothers, and how we are constantly exploiting natural resources without replenishing them.”
“But the Kogi consider themselves to be the caretakers of the heart of the world, correct?” Rich asked.
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “The mountains where the Kogi live are unique, because they extend from the Caribbean Sea up to glaciers at the tops of the mountains. Their land is almost a miniature version of Earth, because you can go from coral reefs and tropical rainforests and then up to alpine lakes, tundra and glaciers, all within twenty-five miles.”
Davis whistled. “I don’t know if there’s anywhere else on earth that’s like that.”
I shrugged. “Maybe? But my point is that they may seem primitive if you look at them in terms of technology, but they are far beyond us in other ways. I want to make sure you’re respectful of their culture and their beliefs.”
Trevor gave me a solemn nod. “We might seem like assholes most of the time-” “Because we are,” Davis interrupted.
Trevor continued as if he hadn’t heard Davis’s comment. “But we aren’t the type of assholes that judge people based on their clothing or value someone more because they have a lot of money.”
“True,” Mike said with a nod.
“Yup,” Davis agreed. “You can trust us to show them the utmost respect.”
“Good,” I said with a sigh as I sat back in my chair. “That’s all I wanted to hear. Now let me go to sleep and don’t wake me up before we get there.”
The guys laughed, and Trevor threw a blanket in my direction. I snuggled up with it and put my headphones in to tune them all out. This trip wasn’t going to be easy, and I needed to be on top of my shit if I wanted to get what I wanted from my dear grandmother.
The plane ride was thankfully smooth enough to allow me to pass out in my chair, and the guys really didn’t wake me up until right before we landed. I was the first one off the plane to greet the man waiting for us on the tarmac.
“Hey, Matias,” I said with a cool nod as he met me at the bottom of the stairs. I had told the guys to let me get off first to talk with him, and to my surprise, they had agreed without argument. I think we were all willing to compromise more than usual if it meant getting help with our current situation.
“Sam,” Matias said with a smile that was a tad too triumphant for my liking. “I’m so glad you made it.”
“I’m not feeling very patient right now,” I said bluntly. “Cut the crap.”
His smile faded. “I was asked to bring you to Dumingueka, but you must make the journey through the jungle and up the mountains on your own. If you can arrive at the sanctuary, then you will be permitted within the walls.”
I tilted my head to one side. “It’s necessary and customary to have a Kogi guide through their territory. It would be disrespectful to march through there without their permission.”
Matias gave me a small smile. “You haven’t forgotten all of our ways. A Kogi guide has been assigned to meet you in Dumingueka. I assume you can make it that far alone?”
“I negotiated to bring my team with me.”
Matias’s face turned sour. “Yes, your team will be permitted to accompany you, although i
t does not bode well for you that you are bringing strangers onto our land. And I have no idea why you would even want to. What do you see in them?”
My face hardened. “Hába Nábia has promised to allow them to leave without harm.”
“Yes, yes,” Matias said with a wave of his hand. “We will not harm your wolves.
Although, I can’t promise that they will find the land to be hospitable to them.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Matias had something up his sleeve. But he had no idea what kinds of trouble he would get in return if he tried to fuck with my team. My guys would have him for lunch and pick their teeth with his bones afterward.
I gave the signal for the guys to follow me off the plane, and Matias backed off. Wolves were generally more aggressive than jaguars, and my guys radiated danger. Trevor gave Matias a death stare as he would have heard every word of our conversation from where he had eavesdropped from the plane. Trevor didn’t take kindly to vague threats. Naturally, I had to ruin his scary face moment.
“I think you scared Matias. You should put on your friendly smile,” I said with a grin. Trevor turned his hard and unyielding stare towards me. I couldn’t resist teasing him when he went all alpha male on me, and I poked him in the cheek. “That’s it. Right. There.” My last two words were each punctuated with another poke.
Trevor didn’t complain about me poking him or reach for my fingers to try to break them. He even let a small amount of exasperation show around his eyes. Probably only because he knew it would satisfy my urge to torment him for several hours, but that’s okay.
Quinn laughed out loud. “This is going to be a fun trip.” He turned to Davis. “Can you imagine Trevor in an entire city of Sams?”
“Nope,” Davis said as he walked past Quinn. “There’s only one Sam.” “That’s why you’re my favorite,” I called to Davis with a chuckle.
“That’s not what you said last night,” Mike teased me as we walked to the vehicle Matias had procured to carry us to the hotel we would stay tonight.
“Well, you’re not holding a pizza right now, are you?” I tossed back at him.
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