Healing Cherri

by Jana Leigh

  Declan shook his head until he heard, “Da bitch is leaving the nest,” Calli said clearly, and Kade barked into the com, “Just meet us at home.”

  They walked along the top of the building to the overhead hover parking. Declan insisted on taking his own vehicle since it contained most of his stuff. He explained he had not had time to go to the hotel he was staying at to drop them off. He was too anxious about following his lab equipment. Sabrina shrugged but checked it out before allowing them to get close.

  Cherri grinned when she saw the large size of his hover craft. It was made for working on the farm. There were times he needed to sleep in his vehicle at night when he was out in the fields with the cattle. This vehicle turned into a small sleeping room. He liked all the storage. He left most of his furniture back in Texas, not really caring about moving it. He gave it to the foreman and his family to use.

  The security was tight even on the roof parking, and she noticed several of the Enforcers were standing guard. Her eyes were drawn to an extremely tall, muscular guy who was standing across the lot. She had seen him before and noticed his build, but had never gotten any closer because Calli warned her not to mess with her Enforcers. But damn he was fine; his short, military-style haircut made him look fierce, and even from where she was standing she could see he had green eyes. They were bright and distinct. His facial features looked chiseled in a classic fierce warrior face. He was handsome and sexy. Shit, what the hell was she thinking, her hot mate stood right next to her, and she was thinking of another man? The girls were right. She was a slut.

  She heard the zing of a small motor just before she noticed that Calli, Kade, Rissa, and Trina stepped out into the open. The small machine was something she had never seen before, and she looked up and pointed, ready to laugh. It was about the size of a trash can and had the same look, kinda boxy with rounded edges, and she was looking at the back and could see it had several pipes sticking out. When it turned and faced her, she frowned when she saw the lights that were on the front. A red scanner swept over the top of the roof.

  She heard Kade and Thomas yelling, and Declan grabbed her and fell on top of her, knocking her to the ground. She could see the man she had been fantasizing about run to them and cover both Declan and her. What the hell was going on? Cherri wondered, and then she heard the shots.

  Calli was screaming for Cherri, but she was covered with two huge men and could barely breathe. Declan was whispering into her ear trying to soothe her; she heard crying, and then she realized that it was her.

  It seemed to take forever for the shooting to stop. She felt Declan try to push the man off of them, but he wasn't moving. Instead, she was listening to a deep voice yelling above her.

  “Clear the fucking roof and someone shoot that fucking bot down!” He-man said, and she felt shivers running through her. Then she heard Declan say, “What the hell?” And she knew that he was feeling something too.

  There was a loud noise, and then she heard falling metal. “Clear,” someone called, and then she felt the pressure from the body above her ease up.

  Declan slowly moved off her and then felt every inch of her while she lay on the ground to make sure she was not hit in anyway.

  “I'm fine,” she snapped and brushed his hands away. “Where the hell are the others?”

  Declan had paused and then turned toward the man standing in back of them barking orders, and she felt the electricity flow around them like it had the first time they met and were close enough to each other.

  “You've been hit,” Declan said, and stood up and grabbed the man’s arm.

  The large man frowned at Declan, who almost met him eye to eye. Wow, Cherri thought, as she looked at the two of them standing in front of her, they were any woman’s wet dream.

  Cherri jumped up and grabbed the two men and rushed them back into the building. Most of the Enforcers were studying the thing that opened fire on them. When they reached the door to the building, there was another Enforcer standing there. “Nikolas, how bad is it?”

  “Just me, it was programmed to find her,” he said, pointing at Cherri.

  “The building is on lock down; Kade and Calli are calling the shots from the command room,” the Enforcer told them.

  The three of them nodded and then entered the building. She pushed them to the med lab, so they could take care of the man who saved them. Declan went to the supply closet and gathered all the stuff, while Cherri pushed the man to the table and pulled at his black shirt that was standard issue around here. Cherri hated black, but Calli and Kade both wore it, black tee-shirts with black cargos, and black boots.

  “Shirt off,” she said briskly.

  “It's only a scratch,” the man protested.

  “I will determine what's wrong and what medical needs you have,” Cherri said briskly and then stopped when her hand touched the bleeding wound on his upper bicep. The bullet had grazed him good. The trench would have to be stitched carefully. She felt the zing of attraction, pulled back and looked up, and the man stared down at her.

  “Well shit,” she said and turned to Declan, who was standing close to them. “Do you feel it?”

  Declan nodded and looked at the man. “What's your name?”

  “Nikolas Stable, and yours?” he replied curiously.

  “I'm Declan Chase, and this is Cherri Rett, soon to be Chase,” Declan said and stood straighter. The alarms sounded, and they all paused to listen.

  "THERE IS A BREACH IN THE MEDICAL WING, I REPEAT, A BREACH IN THE MEDICAL WING. ALL AVAILABLE ENFORCERS COME IN ARMED."

  “Kiki,” Cherri whispered and then went to run out the door. Both of the men grabbed one of her arms and held her back. Sabrina ran into the room and said, “The roof is clear; we have another threat in the med wing. We’re going on lock down."

  Just then the loud alarms Cherri had only heard when there was a drill went off, and the heavy bullet-proof doors closed locking them inside the lab.

  “Well, this sucks,” Cherri said, shaking the men’s arms off her. “Get back up on the table. Sabrina, call Calli and see where everyone is. Declan, help me stitch Nik up.”

  “It's Nikolas,” the large man said gruffly to her, and she looked up and glared at him.

  “Listen, you and I both know there's some freaky shit going on here. Declan is my mate, and so are you. Deal with it, if I want to call you Nik, I will. I want a fucking puppy, and I'm going to have one, so get over yourself and hold your fuckin’ arm out so I can stitch it,” she ground out and the large man looked at her with narrowed eyes and then held out his arm. “Now, I'm a high maintenance bitch, as I already explained to Declan, so you just have to deal. Declan seems to be a nice man; he's from Texas and has the sexy drawl thing going on, but don’t let that fool ya. He's a bossy son of a bitch. So how are you going to fit into all this, I have no clue. I think you seem like you're like a big teddy bear, but you're gonna be possessive. Could be a problem, but I think we can all work around it.”

  Both of the men were looking at her like she was crazy, she was calmly talking and stitching the arm of a man she just met and with her other mate. Towards the end of her speech, they both detected a bit of panic running through her voice, but her hands never wavered and so they let her rabble on.

  Sabrina was standing behind them talking on the com link with Calli, relaying everything that Cherri was saying. They could all hear the Alpha swearing and yelling at her mate to let her ‘the fuck out of the room’, she had to get to Cherri. Rissa apparently was in the same room and was trying to calm her friend down while giving Sabrina instructions on what to do if Cherri started to melt down. It was ugly when it happened.

  Both of the men were taking note of what Rissa was saying. Cherri could throw one huge fit if she was stressed, and it apparently took a lot to get her down. One of the things was a spa day, but since they were on lock down that wasn't going to work. They looked at each other with panic in their eyes. Neither of them knew how to deal with a hysterical fema
le, let alone a hysterical mate.

  “See, now you are all stitched up. Now we need to clean up. Okay, what do I need to do?” Cherri said with a hint of desperation in her voice, and she looked at Declan and then Nikolas, and tears began forming in her eyes. “I swear, my friends call me a slut, but I'm really not. I have only slept with like a few guys in the recent years. They just like to give me shit. I promise I won’t be a slut if we mate. And my mother thinks I'm still a virgin, so we have to make her think I still need a white wedding, even though I have two mates, and I will be a slut bride. But she is like bat shit crazy like the rest of the moms, and if she finds out I'm not a virgin, she will flip.”

  Sabrina turned her com link on the speakers around the room since Calli was demanding it. “Cherri!” she yelled, and Cherri looked around her, the tears flowing freely now, and the men were trying to console her, but she was shaking her head and backing away. “Gods damn it, Declan, she's in shock. Be a fucking doctor.”

  Declan seemed to snap into motion, he went to the cabinet and pulled out a syringe. She needed to calm down. Being shot at, finding out she has two mates, and Kiki being attacked was taking its toll on her.

  Nikolas was holding her hands loosely, trying to talk to her. “Baby, that's all good, we can do whatever you need. A dog would be good; I just need you to take a few deep breaths and calm down for me.”

  Declan was walking up behind her and nodded to his new mate. Sabrina had turned off the link and was whispering in the receiver what was going on.

  “Honey, can we sit down for a second?” Declan said smoothly, taking her arm and leading her to the table and helping Nikolas lift her up, each using a hand as Nik had a wounded arm, and Declan had a needle in the other.

  “Sitting down isn't going to change anything. How the fuck am I going to handle two of you? I mean I can barely get myself ready in the morning. I have to have two cups of coffee before I even leave the bed, did you know that? Then I have the ritual of the hair brushing at night and also the exfoliating. Do either of you even care? I mean, I am so high maintenance, when I go to the spa they have like four people ready to work on me. Who's like that?” She cried.

  “I'm sure we can deal with it. I have dreamed about taking care of my mate for so long, that all seems like a cakewalk,” Nik said smoothly and Declan pulled the needle out and pushed it into her arm.

  “Hey,” Cherri said and looked at Declan with a frown. “What was that?”

  “Just a little bit of a soother,” he said, and he saw her eyes begin to droop. Nik caught her and gently laid her on her side, and they heard Calli still talking on the link.

  Declan walked over and calmly said to Calli, “She's now asleep for a few.”

  He heard Calli breathe a sigh of relief and said, “If she wakes up, there's a bag of chocolate hidden in her desk drawer, in the way back of the third drawer, get it and have it ready. Hopefully, we will all be there soon, but we are waiting to hear about Kiki and Thomas.”

  “Did you get the part about a second mate?” Declan said and looked at Nik.

  “Yeah, Brooks is on the phone with Ms. Praton, who is out doing a little research, hopefully they will come up with something. I have no clue what the hell is going on,” Calli said gruffly.

  “We got it,” Declan said and handed the link back to Sabrina, who nodded.

  “I will try to find out what the hell is going on,” Sabrina said and turned her back to give them a little privacy, and Declan turned around and looked at Nik.

  Chapter 8

  Kiki/Kristopher lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He had no clue what the heck was going on, but he was trying to remember. Flashes of memory were coming to him, but they all gave him the impression that these people were nuts. He saw him and his parents out eating, him in class and talking to people. Nothing about freaky shifting animals or Drag Queens. These people had to be crazy.

  He heard the alarms go off, and he stood up. Holding the bed because he felt just a little dizzy, he waited for it to pass before he tried to walk. Something was going on here. And he didn’t trust these people. Moving slowly to the door, he opened it slightly and saw the large man who had been in his room before standing there.

  Thomas, his name was Thomas, he thought. How did I know that? Someone must have said it while they were in the room. Thomas stepped forward and said, “Do you need something?”

  Kiki/Kristopher shook his head and said, “Just trying to figure out what is going on?”

  Before the large man could reply, there was a noise to their left and Kiki/Kristopher stuck his head out just a little more to see what it was. A small little robot was wheeling its way down the hallway. He watched as it stopped at the first doorway and scanned the room and then moved on. “What’s that thing doing?” he got out before Thomas reached a hand out and put it on the top of his head and pushed him back into the room forcefully.

  Kiki/Kristopher stumbled and fell as the door slammed, and he heard gunfire in the hallway. Screaming in a high-pitched tone, he scrambled to the corner and pulled a chair around him and then covered himself with a blanket. The noise was deafening since it was right outside his door. Something slammed into the door, and Kiki/Kristopher screamed again, this time he frowned when he heard himself. Shit, he sounded like a girl. Calming down he listened.

  There was a message being read over the intercom about there being a problem in the med wing. He wanted to yell ‘Ya think?’ but he held back. He had to let them do what they had to. He, for some reason, trusted the large man that was standing guard.

  He could hear Thomas yelling at people to stay back, and then he would hear a burst of gun fire. Something again hit the door, and then he felt and saw a large hole explode in the door. The freaky little robot stood there with a red scanner thing moving around the room. Kiki/Kristopher made himself look as small as possible.

  Thomas yelled and then he saw the top of the little machine explode with a loud BOOM! Kiki/Kristopher had never heard anything like it. His eyes were ringing, and when he saw legs running in the room, he still stayed in the corner.

  Thomas was kneeling over him and trying to get the covers off. “Kiki, we have to move; we're going to another secured floor.”

  Kiki/Kristopher poked his head out and said sarcastically with his old sassiness, “Another secured floor, really? I thought this was the safest place for me.”

  Thomas sighed and said firmly, “We have to move so we can make sure everyone is safe, come with me, please.”

  Damn it, he pulled out the nice card, and his mother always taught him to be kind to people when they said please. He stood up and held his head high and walked out the door behind Thomas, who was carefully looking both ways, making sure it was safe before hustling him quickly to the stairs. He groaned but followed the man as they climbed up.

  Chapter 9

  “What do you mean it didn’t work? I wanted those bitches taken out before I move forward,” the CEO of the Prentiss Agency yelled into the phone.

  “They had more guards than we thought,” Mr. Twisted said smoothly into the phone. He was starting to get sick of this bitch who thought she could tell him what to do all the time. She came into this late in the game. His plans were already set, and his boss knew what he was doing.

  The King Bondi, who was now dead, had started this revolution just after the war. Mr. Twisted chuckled when he thought about the name they called him, if only they knew who he was. His boss knew his plans and he was following them. If it hadn’t been for this bitch who decided she was going to challenge the old King and take over, things would have been done by now. The world would be well on its way to being the way it should be.

  But no, she had to come in with her lofty ideas and take over. Only three people knew that the King was dead, the bitch made them keep the facade of the King being alive so she could hide in plain sight. He had been doing this for so long, sometimes he wondered which side he was actually on. No, he knew, and soon so would everyone else.<
br />
  “I don’t care if they had a million fucking guards, those three women need to die and soon. That will stop at least part of the problem we have and the rest will be done soon. I have all the votes needed to replace Drekinn. Once I'm the head of the agency, anyone who doesn't follow my lead will be declared Rogue and be hunted.”

  “I'm not sure how the humans are gonna feel about all this,” he commented. He needed to make contact with his boss and find out some information. The Drag Queen was alive since he hadn’t intended on killing him, but he had to keep the situation in control, he had to shoot. All these years undercover and he was beginning to realize that some evil he was not going to be able to stop. He was going to have to pick a side, there was no real choice, but making it out of here alive could prove to be impossible.

  The woman hissed in the phone at him and said, “They'll fall in line, I have plans that are in place that will make the old Drekinn look like they were planning on taking out the humans. They'll be calling for their heads on a silver platter, and I will provide the knife. When the Prentiss Agency is in control, then we'll be able to truly finish our plans. The injection to turn humans is almost done; we will build an army the likes of which they have never seen before. Then the tide will turn and the shifters will control the humans. No more pandering to these weak people.”

  The hit man shook his head; there was something to be said about the medication that the Ulfer needed to make them sane. She had not gotten a full dose. “That will only solve part of the problem, you know.”

  “Don’t tell me what I need to do, you're just the messenger, now go and deliver my statement. I want them dead by the end of the week,” the woman said and hung up the phone.

  He stood there and shook his head; he had no intention of actually doing what she wanted. He just had to think of a good plan to keep the Pack safe. The pull from the Pack was getting stronger. The longer he resisted, the more insistent his animal became.