Healing Cherri

by Jana Leigh

  “No problem, I have to tell you though, I think that woman is my mate, and my wolf was just responding to her,” Declan said smoothly. Then pointed at the cute, little woman who was wearing a lab coat he noticed for the first time. Whoa, his mate was a doctor too, this was amazing, and his thoughts turned to sneaking into the closet for an adult game of doctor.

  “Huh,” the tall woman said, and her partner laughed and slapped his leg with his meaty hand.

  Declan was missing the joke, but who cared, if it made the situation less tense, he would be able to get his mate alone soon. Thoughts of bending her over the table were filling his head. Damn, he had to snap out of it, all he was thinking about was where he could fuck her—that probably wouldn’t make the best first impression.

  His mate made a noise of disbelief, and then finally came closer to him slowly. She lifted her head and sniffed. “Shit,” she whispered and then turned back to the Enforcers. “I’m outta here,” she announced, and then turned and ran for the door.

  ***

  Calli grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She probably looked like a fucking cartoon with her legs still trying to run while in her friend’s arms.

  “Easy there, turbo,” her friend whispered to her and then set her back down. “Let’s work this out,” Calli whispered in her ear.

  Cherri sighed and stopped fighting then turned around and looked at her friend in the eyes and said, “I’m not ready.”

  She wasn’t. When Calli found her mate, they had all been shocked, one hundred and twenty-some years they had lived and nothing. Calli and Rissa were her best friends and sisters. They did everything together, from the time they met each other in their parent’s front yard in the borough. They had been inseparable forever it seemed, going to college (three times) together. Then moving into their high rise loft when they scored big in the human stock market, which was a big secret. Since the humans were afraid they were trying to like take over the world and stupid shit like that, they were supposed to be regulated with how much money shifters could make. But Rissa, their other bestie, was a computer nerd to the hilt. She had all their accounts worked out so it looked like a few of the humans hit it big in the stocks. The girls had a good laugh over the whole thing.

  Then Calli met her mate. Kade was awesome and fit right in with the rest of them, but there were more things that came to light after they met. The whole thing with people trying to kill them, plus they actually had a higher purpose than what they thought, which really kinda pissed Cherri off. She felt like getting three Doctorates had really exceeded her potential, so much pressure. This is where the whole thing gets kinda hinky. They had barely touched the tip of the iceberg of the information they needed, and so far nothing was actually making sense.

  They thought the drugs the dipshits were bringing in were for one thing: to change the dipshits into acceptable shifters who weren’t gonna freak out at any moment. But that didn’t really make sense, why would they care? The humans just regulated them more. If they were criminals, why not fly under the radar like they were now? Just butt ass confusing, Cherri thought.

  Kade and Calli were actually the Alphas of their new Pack. No one, of course, knew this because of the freaky ass human laws that prevented any formation of Pack, Prides, Dens, etc. It was stupid really; the only organization of any of the shifter or magical creature was that of a family. They were allowed to take in two Lone members who were shifters that had no family to speak of any more.

  That was a damn lot of Alphas and also what the humans completely wanted. Since Alphas were so territorial, they figured by declaring only families could be organized would cause them to fight among themselves for territory. They had no clue what being a shifter meant; they just thought they were animals. But having a group bigger than a normal shifter family raised flags with the humans. Then they were often separated and banned from seeing each other again. When the girls had moved out of their family's homes, Calli had become their Alpha—it was a natural decision since she was a mean bitch. While Cherri was the bubbly, happy, girly girl, and Rissa was the ubber smart airhead. Calli was the strongest, the meanest and the one who loved guns.

  They lived like this for years, happy and content making money on the sly and working for the Drekinn Agency. The Agency was the regulatory Agency of the magical community. They were established just after the last human and shifter war. At first, they were established to make sure the shifters were following the rules. The humans had made many laws in order to make sure what had happened in the past didn’t happen again. The history books were still a little hazy on the facts; they had just figured out the humans had hidden the details, so history would not be repeated.

  Apparently in the past, the humans had been happy about the shifter community coming out. Their ancestors had smoothed the way and for many years, frighteningly enough, they had actually lived in harmony with the humans. Cherri always wanted to start humming some old “Let the Sunshine In” song when they started talking about this. It was like a fairytale since they had been unable to actually see this way of life.

  There had been a second war in the magical community. The Chosen had won, and they had come out to the humans. Years later, there had been a human by the name of Franklin Stemp, who raised questions that many humans wanted to know the answer to. If the shifters had such elongated lives, what was to stop them from planning and waiting for one generation of humans to die, and the next to come so they could take over?

  It was logic at its finest, and with humans also envying what the shifters had, it had caused a problem. Shifters made money; they had larger houses, and they generally seemed more relaxed and happier than the humans. Studies had been done by the humans and it was found that since shifters knew they had longer to live, they didn’t enter the whole rat race of life.

  So the experiments began. Could the humans elongate their lives the same way without being a shifter? Of course, changing people wasn’t an option. Because of the results of the DNA testing, they found the Rogue shifters had missing links. The humans didn’t want to go through all that pain to find they were actually an Ulfer and then be putdown. So that’s when the laws began to be made, and the testing doubled in effort.

  The positive, the humans found a way to live longer with part of an isolated gene from a shifter. Not as long as a normal magical person, but long enough to be satisfied. Then there was the war. The shifters had been pissed about being test subjects and were constantly ordered to help the humans. Some of the old superiority came back, being stronger and faster, they revolted.

  You would think that the shifters could have taken over things. But, there had been that hinky shit going on, Cherri thought. She knew with her studies that something was not adding up in the medical community. Since she had no one to really go to except her boss, Cherri had been gathering the evidence and waiting.

  The problem was, when the medical community began to study the shifters more closely, they found that abnormality on the DNA. Normally, it would be like a genetic marker, but shift into a three hundred-pound bear with no honey, and they had a definite issue. What was strange though was when the abnormality began to show up. According to her paperwork, it was when the humans began the testing. And there was no way they were sophisticated at that time to change a shifter's DNA. There was something else behind this and Cherri just had to figure out what. The changes had occurred after the second war according to her documents, now the question was why. And that was what she was going to approach her friends with when this shit settled down.

  This was really only discovered because the testing had been uncovered, Cherri had been surprised at the advanced technology they had used. What they found was that some shifters lacked the DNA structure that controlled their animal side after their first shift, in turn while in their human side, they had no conscience. They could and would kill at will, for no other reason than they were pissed off at someone spilling coffee on their shoes. It was stupid. />
  After the last week of discoveries, they found out their ancestors fought similar shifters; they just called them Rouges. Well, now they would be called the Ulfer and they were fucking nasty. As they evolved over the many years, the DNA missing link had to have only increased, or been manufactured, causing them to be not just assholes, but complete assholes.

  The Drekinn Agency is the one who discovered this data in the archives some years ago, but had never known what it really meant. Cherri hated patting herself on the back, but not many of the shifters had three Doctorates which helped with deciphering all the files, well, in fact, none but her held the three key degrees needed to read the reports. Someone wanted to hide something, and not wanting to freak the poor human population out, they kept a lid on things to a point. The leadership of the humans knew only what we told them, which were the basics. Nonetheless, this discovery had changed the dynamics of the Agency all those years ago because they figured out about the instability of the shifters.

  Now they had many different levels, all in the effort to track and protect the humans and shifters from the volatile Ulfer. The sad part was they had to hide things from the humans because they tended to overreact to situations. The Ulfer were hard to find most of the time; it was only when they committed a crime that they were found. They were getting a little more frequent, which led her to believe there was something else going on.

  The official levels to the Drekinn were the Enforcers, for lack of a better word, the medical, and the factitious Shifter Services. They had three different official buildings, and four different secret facilities. They were housed in the administrative and Enforcer building with some of their floors off limits. All very woo woo and secret.

  Calli, her best friend, was the Head Enforcer of the Drekinn Agency, and now her mate was her partner. Basically, they were the shit. Cherri certainly wouldn’t fuck around with them, well not seriously at least. Rissa and she decided years ago that if it was discovered that they had the missing DNA, Calli would take them out without blinking an eye or shedding a tear. That’s what made her a good leader. However, both girls slept with a gun under their pillow just in case they wanted to make sure they could get the drop on her.

  All the girls rose through the Agency because of their multiple degrees. Most shifters went to college because of their extended life, there wasn’t much to do if you didn’t get into trouble, or have a family right away. But all this shit was starting to wear on her.

  Cherri was a doctor, a biochemist and a psychologist. No one really expected it out of her, which she loved. All except her mother, who claimed to this day that when she was born, Cherri had looked intelligent. Now all of them were the heads of their sections at the Drekinn Agency. It was something they had all been proud of, and put a huge ass target on their backs in the process. All of this was manageable, Cherri thought, and looked around the room, but mates, that was another story.

  Even that would be semi-manageable if it weren’t for last week, everything changed. They were told about their past, being a descendant of a group called the Chosen. Apparently, they were destined to bring the shifters back to living in harmony with the humans. It sounded like a fucking old movie, Cherri thought, like they were all gonna get together and have a freakin’ hug fest. Ha, like she would even think about hugging the leader of the humans. She had met him once, he was sweaty and gross. Once again the song came to mind, and she shook her head.

  They owned their building so space wasn’t really an issue, they could afford to lead a Pack. They planned to live together even when they were mated, once again not an issue. But then they found out they were gonna be a freaking Pack, in such a matter-of-fact way that there had been upheaval and chaos, two things Cherri didn’t deal well with. So, they bought another building, kicked out all the tenants, and were moving the members of the Pack who were being identified, like fucking daily. It was frightening. All of them were somehow, in one way or another, connected to the Chosen people or someone on the silly Senate. It was crazy.

  Not that Cherri minded, really she didn’t, and she was just feeling a little out of sorts because of the attack. During this entire revelation thing they had going on, they also had to try to solve the whole ‘hit being put out on them’, although they knew why, it was the timing that was strange. It just didn’t explain everything. For Cherri, that was a problem, if someone wanted to kill her ass, then she had better understand why.

  Last week, Calli and Kade were investigating the now-infamous kidnapping, when they found the only person who had seen Mr. Twisted, like ever. It was Kiki, she, shit, he, was a Drag Queen and a damn fine one too. But when they went to get her and offer protection, they had fought off a small attack. Doing what they did the best, Kade and Calli kept investigating, which led them to a cell of Ulfers who were planning on killing them. It was a big coo to actually find them. Unfortunately, Kiki was wounded in the fight. Shot in the head. Fast forward, and now things didn’t make sense again. They were too pat, and Cherri was feeling very unsettled.

  Cherri had been working around the clock watching and helping to heal him. But so far he hadn't woken up. It didn’t make any sense since his body was healed and all of his vital signs being normal, hell, better than normal. She woke up last night with an idea; one she was sure was going to work. So she had come into to check it out on the computer in her lab. The only one that had all of her crazy-ass ideas and she found this mess. Back to the present, she thought.

  Too much was changing too fast, and Cherri just wasn’t ready. She had plans, well, not so much plans, but more like guidelines. She wanted to do a few more things, and she refused to have a mate tagging along behind trying to get her to heel. It was just not gonna happen. Besides, she didn’t need a man; she had her trusty, butterfly vibrator, which had only been improved over the centuries. She also had all the money she would ever need to make sure she could get her nails and hair done twice a month, every Thursday, then on Wednesdays was her weekly massage and facial. It was all about the planning.

  Her friend laughed in her ear and said, “Neither was I, and looked how well it’s working out.” Calli could strangely read her mind when Cherri got to thinking too much.

  “Yeah, you live on the floor below, and we're installing a staircase in the middle of the fucking apartment so we can expand. What's next? An escalator, or whatever the fuck they used to call them. You know those moving stair things,” Cherri whispered loudly.

  “Hey,” Kade said, sounding hurt that she was bitching about Calli moving out.

  “Hush,” Calli said, knowing her friend well enough to know that something was coming, and she listened.

  Just then, the third of the Trio of Darkness, as they had been dubbed this last weekend, walked through the door looking down at the papers in her hand, not paying attention to the fact they had a guy spread-eagled against a table, and everyone was holding a weapon but Cherri.

  “Hey, Barbie, I need to run something by you,” Rissa said, again without looking up and walked right to where they were standing. Classic Rissa, head buried in the sand until they slapped the shit out of her to wake her up and pay attention. However, she had degrees in computer programming and electronics that covered bomb making, so she came in handy every once in a while. Besides, she was the one who made all the money. Her guard and shadow, Trina, looked into the room and frowned before pulling out her gun.

  “Fuck you, duh, crisis, Geek Squaweek. Open thy eyes bitch, and Trina, no guns,” Cherri ground out, and her friend looked up and her eyes went wide.

  “Who is the cute dude being frisked? Hey, is Kade gonna do a cavity search?” Rissa snickered and looked at her friend's mate and grinned. “I mean, I would like to watch and everything.”

  Kade shook his head and put a hand up to his nose and pinched the bridge. “Ladies, we need to settle this, so can we move this pow wow along?”

  Cherri stepped up and stuck a finger in his chest and pushed. “Listen Conan, we're having a deep conver
sation, take all these people and go lift some weights somewhere and let us talk, then we'll come and see you when we're damn good and ready.”

  Kade rolled his eyes and looked over her head at his mate who was chuckling behind her. All three of the women were Alphas. According to the whole creepy history thingy, Rissa, Cherri and their mates were destined to be the Betas of the Pack, which made them just as formidable. She wasn’t sure what that meant yet; they were still researching, but it sounded like a serious fucking hassle. And she was high maintenance enough without adding more drama.

  “Fine, Sabrina and Thomas, take Country here, and go to the conference room; we will call Brooks and Ms. Praton and meet you there in a few. But don’t take too long, I don’t want to have to hunt your asses down again. Trina, you have the girls, just ignore whatever they say and don’t become too scarred,” Kade warned, and Cherri smiled sweetly at him.

  Just two days ago, the girls told him they were going to get their hair done, and they went to investigate another report of the Ulfers. Kade had been pissed, and he was certain that she was not ready to sit through another lecture again. Hell, like that had even made the list of ‘the stupid things’ they had done. Kade was just a little higher strung than most.

  The man who claimed to be her mate seemed to be arguing a little with Kade, who put a hand on his shoulder and calmed him down. Cherri felt a sigh of relief when they finally left the room. She turned back to her friends and put her hands on her well rounded hips.

  “Well bitches, now we have a huge problem.” Cherri huffed and sat down on the floor.

  Her friends looked at each other, and then shrugged. “Okay, I’ll bite, what’s the problem?” Calli asked, sinking down across from her.