Jeremiah hesitated uncharacteristically before squaring his shoulders and looking Kerrick in the eye with a disapproving frown. “May I remind you, sir, that the woman is not the enemy.” The words hit Kerrick in the gut. “The Incendiary is a tool of the Alphar seat of power. Setting aside the rumors that have been circulating that she is your mate, she is clearly an educated and cunning warrior whose sole purpose in life is to serve her fellow shifters in whatever way her Alphar dictates.”
“You make her sound like a slave,” Kerrick grunted, peeking into the conference room to see Zach raise his hand in a five-minute warning.
“That is what her trainers and even Riddan wished her to be. Perhaps if she spent some time with the men and women she swore to protect, it will show her the other side of what it is she does. Living in solitude, she only has an image, an idea, of who it is she’s protecting.”
“She doesn’t want to get close to the people she protects. The idea of isolation as a way of life has been hammered into her mind until the thought of any other sort of existence is an anathema to her.”
“Excuse me if I overstep boundaries, Alphar, but,” Jeremiah leaned in close, lowered her voice, “she will never accept the mating unless you push her past her comfort level, make her see she can still be the Incendiary and be your mate. That’s what mates do for one another, the good ones at least. They force us to see what we have the potential to become and help us to achieve that goal.”
If it had been anyone else giving him a scolding regarding his mate, Aaron and Rhiannon included, he would have slapped them down swiftly. But Jeremiah was reserved, and he never intruded unless he thought it absolutely necessary. It was Jeremiah who had convinced him it was time to challenge Riddan for the Alphar power.
“Thank you.” Kerrick clapped Jeremiah on the shoulder. “You’re my cousin, you get a free pass on overstepping bounds every now and then. Go ahead and see if she wants to help out. I don’t know how amenable she’ll be to the idea, I think I put her in a very bad mood yesterday.”
“I have confidence, sir, that when presented with the options of sitting around doing nothing or getting to beat on our recruits, she’ll choose the latter.” Jeremiah turned and removed himself from the hallway without another word.
“Did Jeremiah just make a joke?” Aaron asked, catching his brother’s parting words as he came out of the conference room.
“I think so.”
“My little brother Jeremiah?”
“Correct.”
“The Jeremiah sprungeth from the same loins that I too sprung from?”
“Hey!” Zach called from the conference room. “Enough with the loin sprunging and get in here. Two minutes.”
Aaron and Kerrick grinned at Zach’s insistence, their affection for the young man forgiving his exuberance and lack of social skills. Kerrick and Aaron had known Zach since his birth, when he and his mother had lived at The Mansion out of necessity. He had been a rambunctious kid, not unlike Lottie’s youngest boys, but The Mansion had been a dangerous place then with Riddan not caring what went on behind closed doors. They looked out for Daniella and Zach until a pack they could easily assimilate into was located. The mansion wasn’t safe enough for a single woman with a child to live there permanently, no matter how dominant and strong she was. As far as Kerrick was concerned, the only trustworthy soldier serving under Riddan’s rule had been Jeremiah.
Kerrick took his seat in front of the large projection screen covering the far wall. The faces of all his alphas in the immediate area would begin to appear, videoconferencing in from their pack lands. In the beginning Kerrick struggled to gain a large portion of his alphas’ trust, having never been an alpha himself. But with the constant improvements he implemented across the North American territory, little by little they began to look to him for strength and guidance. A good portion of the alphas were far older than Kerrick and he understood it could be difficult accepting a younger man as the nation’s leader. When it came down to it, he didn’t need them to love him, just needed them to trust in his strength as their Alphar.
Aaron took his place on Kerrick’s right, Rhiannon to his left. She had a touchscreen handheld propped up in front of her to take notes and keep an open flow of communication with any soldiers sending updates. After the tumultuous sparring session with Cymbeline, Kerrick ordered a doubled guard patrolling the borders of the territory. He was to be notified if even a hint of Vryks were scented. He’d also placed extra guards surrounding the Med Center and family living quarters of The Mansion, not underestimating Mara’s determination to break him down and find his weaknesses. It was precisely what mutilating the bodies of the shifters she murdered had intended to do.
“Zach, I want you to reinforce the sensors on the gate. Mara is cocky. She thinks her power will be enough to win a war, but I won’t underestimate her and assume she won’t look to outside sources for an advantage.”
“Got it, I’ll see if I can figure out a spell that will tune to a Vryk frequency of power,” Zach said, standing by the equipment console located in the far corner. He’d be monitoring the signal strength throughout the meeting to make sure they weren’t cut off or to detect attempted hijacks of the conversation, magical or technological. Magic and technology didn’t always mix well, but Zach had an uncanny knack for unifying the two.
“No, don’t make it strictly Vryk. I want to be prepared for anything.”
“Mercenaries and hired guns come in all shapes and sizes,” Aaron agreed. “If Mara goes that route, she won’t discriminate against any certain species, just get the most powerful. We could use a Vryk specialist right about now. Any suggestions, Rhi?”
Without looking up from the handheld Rhi said, “I only know how to negotiate with them, not kill them.”
“Cymbeline offered her services,” Kerrick said quietly, waiting for the conference to start. “Said I should user her to hunt down our enemies.”
“You trust her to do that?” Rhiannon asked, lifting her eyes from the handheld.
Kerrick didn’t like the atmosphere of doubt and mistrust where his mate was concerned. She had a misstep when she first came to The Mansion, but none of the guards had been killed or even seriously injured. It was time to loosen the reins of doubt and begin to trust. How else would she ever come to trust him and his close friends in return?
“I do,” he said to Rhiannon with absolute confidence. “She’s not the enemy, Rhi.”
“So will you do it? Use her?” Aaron asked, giving Zach a nod of acknowledgment as he called one minute.
Kerrick hesitated as the room went dark and the screen lit up with faces, the microphone not yet turned on from their end. “I don’t know if I can.”
Rhiannon, in a gesture out of character for her acerbic and straightforward nature, wrapped her hand briefly around his fist and squeezed. “Don’t cage her, Ker. Don’t doubt her. Being your mate does not make her any less capable, any weaker. If anything, your union will make the two of you stronger.”
Zach counted down with his fingers and then the voices of the dozen familiar faces burst into the room. His alphas from over miles and miles of territory began greeting one another, some solemnly as they had already heard the news.
“Hello, Kerrick. Where is my boy?” Daniella asked, now alpha of the local Coyote pack, her eyes darting around the screen searching for her son. Other alphas laughed as they chatted with one another, the conferencing system Zach had developed able to single out the voice of one particular screen if they wished to talk with just that person. Kerrick pressed the signal designed to garner their attention and they focused. The chatting subsided, the alphas looked to Kerrick.
“As you all know the negotiations with Mara have not been going as planned.”
“Alphar, she’s essentially a stubborn old lady refusing to budge,” Gerrard, a nearby Bobcat alpha said jokingly.
“The situ
ation has taken a grave turn. Last night the bodies of five shifters were found drained and mutilated at the border of The Mansion property.” More than one growl resounded through the speakers. “Mara has refused to meet us on any points of negotiation regarding the land dispute, and she continuously attempts to blackmail me as Riddan so easily submitted to. I do not wish to go to war. It is the last thing this territory needs as it is still in the recovery stage from Riddan’s abuse. But I will not sit back and allow my people to be targeted by Mara.”
“What’s the plan of action?” asked Michael, Aaron and Jeremiah’s eldest brother. The man currently held an alpha position among a pack of Bears at Kerrick’s request. The pack had been unstable and needed an extremely dominant shifter to rein them in. Kerrick could feel Michael’s time as that alpha ending, his restless need to roam taking over. He would find a suitable replacement eventually and move on. Such was the life of a lone shifter.
“The plan is to utilize our people to observe Mara’s movements, and then at the appropriate time attack.”
“Attack the Vryk compound?” Gerrard asked, scratching his auburn beard in disbelief.
“Yes. By targeting our people, Mara has declared war on shifters. I will not wait for a second attack.”
The gathering took a sharp turn from the previously jovial atmosphere. They had not expected to hear their land was going to war, especially when the wounds of Riddan’s rule were still raw and red.
“What do you need from us, Alphar?” Daniella asked, her Coyote teeth poking from her mouth as she fought for control. The cry was unanimous, the alphas offering their strongest shifters in service to defend their Alphar’s territory. Aaron took over the meeting, going through the itemized list he’d created of what was needed from the alphas and what was to be expected of their people. Kerrick hated war, but he knew he could trust his alphas to do what was needed to protect the shifters.
Cymbeline was nearly finished with her fortieth comic. She had not been able to sleep a wink after the encounter with Kerrick, so she decided to just power through the rest of the comics to keep her mind off the infuriatingly sexy and confusing Alphar. She was about to pick up her forty-first when the door opened and a little boy trotted in. He had brown hair, looked to be about four feet, wore shorts, a blue T-shirt and was talking a mile a minute.
“Kerrick you would not believe how good The Avengers movie was. It was so good. Like uber super-amazing good. We are gonna have so much material for this year’s hero camp and I just can’t wait— Ah! Who are you?”
The little boy had been practically galloping around the room, probably looking for Kerrick, until he spotted Cymbeline with the pile of comics next to her. His little body jumped so high in the air she thought he was about to shift into some sort of bird and fly away.
“My name is Cymbeline Kendall,” she said in a soothing voice, not wanting to startle him further.
“Why are you in Kerrick’s room?” He pointed at her. “What are you doing with my comics?” He pointed at the comics repeatedly.
“These are yours?” She slowly lowered the comic to the floor, seeing as he was bordering on a nervous breakdown. “I apologize, I didn’t know.”
“I keep them here because my little brothers, they’re twins and they are almost three so they don’t know what they’re doing, but I think they totally know what they’re doing, anyway they grab my comics no matter where I stash them and get their dirty fingerprints all over them so Kerrick said I could leave them here for safe keeping because no one would dare come in here but you’re here—”
“Breathe, child, breathe!”
He took a few deep breaths, the blue color Cymbeline had noticed tinting his cheeks fading and returning to their natural rosy hue. “Thanks. My mom has to remind me to do that all the time.” He grinned and trotted over, sitting cross-legged next to her along the wall. “So you like Inu-yasha?” he asked peering at the comic she had been reading. “I think he’s kinda whiny but I like the fights. I really like Sesshomaru.”
“Are you a Wolf, like him?”
“Puh-lease.” He held up his left hand to her face, a gesture she was all too familiar with from Irisi’s attitude. “I’m a Bobcat. Wolves are stupid.”
She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I’m a Wolf.”
“What? Really?” He leaned forward and sniffed her. “Look at that. You are!” He climbed over her and grabbed some more comics off the shelf, laying them in her lap. Apparently her being a Wolf had no real effect on his opinion of her.
“Those are my absolute, one hundred percent, ultimate favorites. You should read those.”
“Bleach?” She held the top one up.
“Yeah it’s about grim reapers and this whole other world where they live. It’s awesome. The fights and the monsters? So. Good.”
She really could not help but laugh at the kid’s enthusiasm. “What is your name, child who speaks without breath?”
“Ha. I like that, I’m gonna call myself that from now on. I’m Evan. Kerrick calls me Superman cause he’s my favorite superhero. Are you one of Kerrick’s cousins? He’s got so many, they just keep poppin’ up all over the place.”
“No, I am not one of his cousins.” She placed the comics to the side and turned to face him. “Do you live here in The Mansion?”
“Yeah.”
“Are there a lot of other families who live here besides yours?”
“Oh, there are tons.” He nodded. “We call ourselves the Alphar’s pack, even though I know we’re not. We’re just lost.” He picked up the comic closest to him, leafing through the pages.
“Lost?”
“That’s what I heard one of the grownups say about us. We’re lost and can’t find a pack because someone died or no one wants us.”
“Did someone in your family pass on?” She placed her hand over his little one and squeezed gently, feeling for the little boy.
“My dad. He went rogue.” Her heart stopped. “It’s over now but Mom didn’t want us to stay with the pack anymore. She said the Alphar needed us here.”
“I am sorry for your loss.” She made a note to look through her files on past targets for a Bobcat rogue. This was why she didn’t want to get close to the other shifters—she didn’t need to know that the men and women she killed had families and children.
“I’m okay.” Evan stood, seemingly not able to stay seated for more than five minutes. “I just gotta be strong for my mom and my brothers. I’m the man of the family now. That’s what David said. He’s the kitchen’s top chef.”
“The man of the house? How old are you, Evan?”
“Eight. Old enough to be the man of the house, for sure. So about Bleach—”
He had just begun to pile the new comics back on her lap when the door opened.
“Ms. Kendall—” The soldier she’d met the day before, Jeremiah, stopped short when he spotted her companion and a miraculous thing happened. When Cymbeline had met Jeremiah, even for such a brief moment, she would not have thought the man capable of facial expressions beyond solemnity. But now, his hands were on his hips and he looked like an exasperated parent. It was somewhat…cute.
“Evan, what did I tell you about visiting Kerrick today?”
“You said he was busy but you didn’t say I couldn’t come to his room for my stuff! It’s my stuff, Miah!”
Cymbeline raised her eyebrows at the nickname but Jeremiah didn’t even flinch.
“Evan, you may stay but only for a little while longer. I must take Ms. Kendall for some training.”
She laughed; the idea was so ridiculous. “You think I need training?”
“No,” he said, addressing her and returning to his previously professional manner. “I think our new recruits need training.”
“You want me to train them?” Was Jeremiah really offering her the chance to kick some ass without fea
r of angering Kerrick? Angering the Alphar, she meant. Not Kerrick.
“You took them out the other day like it was nothing. I want to make that an impossibility for the future. The only way to do so is to have you train them.”
“Oh my Gods you’re gonna train?” Evan jumped up once more, bouncing on the tips of his toes. “Can I come? Watching fights is way better than reading about fights. Please?”
“No,” said Jeremiah, his expression forbidding, not that it cowed Evan. “Your mother will castrate me. She says you already have enough bad ideas in your head from the few training sessions you’ve been allowed to watch.”
Evan stopped bouncing and tilted his head to the side with a quizzical expression. “What’s castrate?”
“Okay, well…I will come with you,” Cymbeline said, standing to go with Jeremiah and avoiding that awkward conversation. “You’ll have to tell me about Bleach another time, Evan. Promise?”
“Promise,” he said, resigned not being allowed to watch the training. “You never said why you were here anyway?”
Knowing it would cheer him up again, she broke the rules and said, “I am the Incendiary.”
“What?” He jumped up once more with a shout. “No way, they’re not real, that’s so cool. Jeremiah, why didn’t you tell me the Incendiary was real?”
Jeremiah turned back to Evan, but Cymbeline saw the evil glint in his eye, even if his outward expression was all austerity. “It’s a very big secret that you have to keep, Evan. And more importantly, she’s not just the Incendiary, she’s the Alphar’s new mate.”
“What?” he said mid-jump, landing with a thud and crumpling into a cross-legged position on the floor. “Oh no, now he’s gonna be all mushy like all the other mated people. Gross.”
“I’m sending someone to fetch you back to your family quarters in one hour, Evan. You better be here and not roaming The Mansion. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.” Evan crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall with a pout.
To Mate an Assassin: The Lost Alphars Series, Book 1 Page 12
