Zach
Page 12
Zach just hoped that whoever was cooking breakfast knew what he was doing, but even if he didn’t, it just smelled too good to refuse to eat. The whole house smelled of bacon and coffee, which Zach’s body longed for, especially after the morning he just had, and it wasn’t even nine AM yet. God only knew what else would happen during the day.
Zach pushed open the kitchen’s door, mentally cursing Kameron for wanting to pass in his office before breakfast. When he stepped in, all noises instantly stopped and all the eyes turned to look at him. Damn.
Well, not all of them. The guy who was cooking seemed to be in a world of his own as he moved in front of the stove, not even acknowledging that Zach had entered the room.
Zach blushed and gave the room a little wave. “Hi there. How are you guys doing?”
Duncan snorted loudly. “Oh, we’re fine. What about you? I think I heard some screaming or something. You didn’t hurt yourself, right?”
Zach narrowed his eyes at him. Of course, he just had to go and tease Zach about it. Zach had hoped Duncan would have gone home but of course, he had no such luck. And he was the only one in the room who knew him enough to tease him. “I’m perfectly fine, thank you.”
Zach neared the table and winced a bit as he moved, the soreness getting worse for a little while. That made Duncan outright laugh, of course, and several of the other shifters in the room snickered.
Zach looked around, pleased to see that there were a lot more shifters in human form than the day before. Yanis was sitting at the table, a steaming mug in his hands and a snake around his neck as he talked to a small, dark haired woman who was sitting on a slightly bigger man’s lap. The man at the stove was tiny with fiery red hair, his ass shaking at the rhythm of whatever song he was humming as he cooked.
A tall, very thin man who was more legs than anything else was leaning against the counter and knowingly smirking at Zach, not at all bothered by the tiny sand-colored cat sitting on his shoulder and looking at Zach with wide eyes. A huge ass eagle was perched on the fridge, watching the whole room.
Two shifters that looked like small monkeys were curled up together in a big, dark skinned man’s lap. The man was talking with an average-looking man with long light brown hair while a man with Asiatic looks was cooing to a small fox with large ears.
In short, the kitchen looked like a mix between a melting pot of cultures and a zoo. There was even a deer huddled near the open kitchen’s door—and it had fangs. Huh.
Then there was Duncan, looking as if he belonged right there with all the people in the room. He was completely at ease as he talked with Craig, his hands moving around in front of him as he chatted with enthusiasm.
Zach was taking all of that in, not knowing even where to begin, but then the small guy who was cooking, the only one who hadn’t looked at Zach when he had come in the room, turned around and squeaked before launching himself at him.
Zach caught the man before he could fall down and was stunned to see that he really was smaller than him. Zach hated being so small, but this guy couldn’t be more than five foot four, maybe even smaller.
“Hi, Zach!”
“Umm, hi...” Who the heck was he? Now that some of the shifters were in human form, Zach couldn’t even tell who shifted in what.
He put down the small man and the guy stuck his hand out. “Oh, sorry. I’m Jago. I’m the Elephant shrew shifter you took care of yesterday, or, well earlier.”
That explained the small size and the red hair. Even in his Elephant shrew form, Jago’s head was an orangey red. “How are you doing?”
Jago gestured at Zach to sit down before going back to his pans. “I’m fine, really. We’re all fine, now that we’re free.”
It took a bit of maneuvering to have everyone sitting at the table. There wasn’t enough space for everyone, so Zach grabbed two plates. “I’ll go eat with Kameron in his office. I think we should all meet later, before the other guys get here.” Everyone nodded, even the animals, and it was damn funny to see. “Okay then. I’ll see you in about an hour in the clearing in front of the house.”
Zach hurried away, happy to have a little silence. Kameron was on the phone when he walked in the office, so he just put the plates down and gave his man a quick kiss before settling to listen to the phone call.
“Did you notice anything else?”
“She’s learning stuff way too fast for a normal kid, Kam,” a female voice answered. “It’s not only the physical aspects that are different.”
“We knew they were different, Isabel, but if it’s too much for you...”
“Oh, no, no. She’s a sweetie, really, and I don’t want to give her away. I just thought you should know.”
“What about the rest? Is she starting to come out of her shell?”
Isabel sighed so hard that even Zach heard it as if he had been the one on the phone with her. “That’s a bit harder. I know they didn’t have much human contact in the lab, so I guess it’s normal that she still doesn’t talk much and shies away from me. I just hope she’ll get better. I saw Nathan the other day, and he called Andy daddy.”
“Nathan is doing very well, but then we knew he wasn’t conditioned as deeply as Luke and Melissa. Give them time, Isabel.”
The conversation ended soon after that. Zach was curious. He’d heard about the kids they had rescued from the last lab, but he didn’t know much more. He had been living with Stan and kept out of the loop when it happened.
Zach grabbed a strip of bacon and munched on it before asking, “So, the kids. Tell me about them.”
Kameron looked up from his eggs. “Well, you know we found them in the lab and that they were literally created by the scientists. We found out that the objective was to have enhanced soldiers that couldn’t shift. The fact that they were raised like soldiers was a bonus, a way to control them from the start.”
“What kind of enhancements are we talking about?”
“They’re faster than normal humans, their eyesight is a lot better, as is their hearing. Now it also looks like they learn stuff a lot faster than an average kid does. And from what I saw they’re already trained to fight. I’m going to have to ask Duncan or Thomas to fight with one of them, just to see what they can do.”
Zach frowned. “They’re only children.”
“Yes, but not normal children. I can’t let them go to school with the others if they’re dangerous. What would happen if the kids fought? They’re trained to kill, Zach.”
Zach didn’t like it, but he could see it was a necessity. He just hoped the kids would be fine, and he knew Thomas and Duncan wouldn’t hurt them. He leaned back in his chair. “This Alpha mate job is going to be a lot harder than I thought, right?”
Kameron chuckled. “Yeah. Even with the old inner circle thing finally over, we still have the kids to deal with, the new shifters to help, the council, and the wendigoes problem. Then there are the normal, everyday problems of the pack.”
Zach’s head hurt just to hear about all that and he briefly wondered if it had been wise to get himself into it.
Then he looked at Kameron, at his mate, at the way he smiled and at the love that shone in his eyes, and he knew everything he had done was worth it.
About the Author
Catherine lives in Italy, country of good food and hot men. She used to write fantasy as a child, but it was reading her first gay erotic romance novel that made her realize that that was what she really wanted to write.
After graduating from college in English language and translation, she divides her day between writing, reading, taking care of her son and reading some more.
You can find her on Facebook and Twitter or on her website: authorcatherinelievens.wordpress.com
Email: lievens.catherine@gmail.com
on Archive.