by JANA
“Now what?” Blaine growled and leaned down and sniffed the rich deep scent of his mate. He smelled like dark chocolate. He could almost imagine taking his mate and eating him whole. But he was not going to go there, he thought, and pulled back. They all needed to be together. If they did not get a lead on their mate soon, he was going to have to take matters into his own hands.
“Let"s just see what comes up, shall we?” Dalton almost purred, pulling his mate"s head down and devouring his mouth with their first kiss. It was amazing and overwhelming at the same time. Blaine had heard from his friends what it was like to find your mate.
When he met Dalton, he had refused to think about this part of the deal. If he had known what it would feel like to kiss his mate for the first time, he would never have waited.
They explored each other"s mouth, not being gentle with each other. They dueled their tongues, drawing out the kiss for as long as possible. Dalton swept his mouth across Blaine"s cheek, kissing and touching most of his face until he got to his ear where he whispered, “Oh, I see something has come up.” And then ran his hand down Blaine"s chest and settled at the thick bulge coming from between his legs.
“We can"t, not until we find our other mate.” Blaine groaned and then tried to get control of himself.
“I know we can"t claim one another, however, I could help you with your little problem.” Dalton whispered again, then pulled his ear lobe between his teeth and bit down gently.
“Fuck it.” Blaine said and then pulled Daltons head back by tangling his fingers in his hair and then swept his tongue across the crease of his lips. Slowly he deepened the kiss again, making it almost impossible to think straight. Just a taste, he thought.
Dalton had other ideas though, pulled away, and began to kiss down his chest slowly lowering himself to his knees in front of Blaine. “Perfect.” Dalton murmured but just as he was reaching for his mate"s zipper, they both heard a knock at the door.
“Found her.” Jaden yelled through the door. “And just so you know, we have excellent hearing.”
Blaine wanted to hit the smart ass Alpha as he heard him walking away. Dalton leaned his forehead against his mate"s Jean clad thigh and took a deep breath. Damn them all.
“Let"s go see what they found.” Blaine growled and held out his hand to his mate. As he pulled him up, he kissed him briefly, then looked into his eyes and said, “Soon.” Chapter 6
Kira looked behind her again and slowed her pace down. They had been following her for blocks and she was growing very tired of carrying around her bag while trying to run.
Ducking into a few storefronts and using their back exit had proven to be useful. She should have gone to the new hotel when she found it this morning instead of being lazy and sitting in the café to drink her coffee. Someday she was going to learn to trust her instincts.
Just two more blocks and she was going to be home free. She could cut through the alley to the back entrance of the hotel and she would be there. Once she had a room she would be able to breathe easier and she would not leave again until her dreams told her too.
***
Blaine and Dalton walked into the meeting room and focused in on the Alpha who was barking out orders.
“No, we need to track her down if she is not in her apartment.” Quin growled into the receiver, looked up at the two men waiting, and nodded. “Yes, I know that if she is gone we will have to search the whole city. I will send more people now.” Blaine waited as his Alpha hung up the phone before speaking. “Tell me.” He demanded.
“Dalton, it seems your father is very motivated to find your mate. That was him on the phone, they found the bear shifter"s family who told them where to find her. Obviously she has been off the grid for the last few days. Her father told us that he was worried that someone had found her before we did.” Quin said and then held up his hands.
“Hang on. I sent people to her apartment but she was not there. We are tracing an email she sent to her parents a few hours ago. I suggest you get ready to fly to Detroit.”
“Fly, I will flash us there. Saves time.” Dalton said stepping up next to Blaine.
“Oh, well, that sounds like a good idea.” Blaine said looking at the other man nervously.
“Trust me.” Dalton said and smiled when Blaine nodded and looked around the room.
Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him.
“What?” Blaine growled. Cloe laughed and stepped toward her friend and pointed to his hand that held his mates.
“Are we finally seeing the unflappable Blaine come to terms with his future?” Cloe asked.
“My future with my mates, that is all.” Blaine said smoothly.
“We will see.” Cloe smirked and proceeded to make sure that Dalton and Blaine had the necessary weapons in case they came across the Rogues.
An hour later, they were ready to go. Quin's resources had tracked their mate to a coffee shop where she accessed the Internet. They were going to go from there. Dalton explained to him how flashing went. Apparently, people became disoriented if they were not prepared. Surprise, surprise, Blaine thought and then sighed. Driving fast on his bike was completely different from moving through space and time. The thought was making his stomach upset already.
Dalton said that it felt like walking in a dark tunnel, he just had to keep his head up and focused and he would be fine. Right, like he believed that. He was a wolf. He could see in the dark. Taking away his ability to see was akin to turning him in circles and telling him to walk straight.
“I will have a plane waiting for you when you find her.” Quin said and nodded. It was the last thing that Blaine saw before he felt like his stomach was trying to crawl out of his body.
***
Kira slowed down when she saw the entrance to the back of the hotel. Almost home free. She wanted to take a long hot shower and get some clean clothes on. It sounded like heaven to her. Unfortunately, fate had another plan for her. One she did not think she was going to like. Kira stepped out into the alley and looked both ways before proceeding across to the back door of the hotel.
Two men stepped into her line of sight. They were huge, like two pillars of marble that had come to life. Kira slowed her footsteps and then hesitated. They had seen her but were not moving toward her. Shit, she thought the moment before she realized that they were behind her too. She had two choices. One, surrender, and figure out what the hell they wanted form her, or fight. She knew what she was going to do before her thought process ended. She had no choice. She had to fight.
Shaking her head, Kira made a show of putting down her bags and putting them aside so they would not be damaged, before turning to the men in front of her and smiling. The two men who she spotted behind her moved around to her side and they had her partially surrounded. Bouncing on her feet she shook out her hands and rolled her head around, loosening up before she battled for her life.
One of the men laughed and pointed at her. Clearly, they did not believe in her abilities.
Well, they were in for a surprise. Her parents knew this day was coming, and they had paid a handsome price to make sure she knew how to defend herself. Granted, she could try to use her cloaking abilities, but they did not work real well when someone was focusing on her.
So she was going to have to fight on her own, against four men. This was really going to suck, maybe she should try to talk to them before she commenced to kicking their ass.
“Hey, before we get started, can I ask why the hell you are looking for me?” Kira said.
“No.” The big pillar said and then walked toward her.
Kira smiled and then crouched down and put her hands up, getting in a typical defensive stance like her instructor taught her. Thank the Gods this is where she did pay attention in the survival lessons. Of course, her instructor made it pretty hard not to pay attention. The four foot sprite loved to flash behind her and knock her to the ground when she spaced off even for a second. Kira knew the basi
cs, but she never said she was graceful.
It was the one thing her instructor harped on her about time and time again.
Coordination and focus. That is what she lacked. At this point though she did not care what she looked like, as long as she got away. The man smirked at her, and then moved his hand in a circular motion, as if to tell her to hurry up. Her form may not be the best, but she had proved that she could kick ass when she needed to.
“Oh, you are so going to be sorry.” Kira muttered and then struck with her foot. „SING", she thought and then ran through the acronym. Solar Plexus, instep, nose, and groin.
She hit every single one of her targets while she muttered the meaning behind her word, and the first man fell to the ground rolling around moaning. The other three stood with a shocked look on their face.
“Dude, I think she had a seizure and took him out at the same time.” One of them whispered and looked at her. “See? Look at the way her leg is twitching.”
“Bastard.” Kira said and went for the man who spoke and did the same thing.
“Nope, not a seizure. Though I think she could be having a muscle spasm.” Another one said and Kira rolled her eyes. Men, everything had to be perfect or it was not right, she thought and then moved around a little so the men she had already dropped were not in her way.
“Maybe you just want to take your guys and leave. Then I won"t have to embarrass you, like I did your friends.” Kira said softly and then smiled at them again.
“Listen lady, I have no idea what the Master wants with you and I don"t really care. I just need you to come calmly with me and no one will get hurt.” The man tried to reason with her.
“Wait, let me think. Go with a bunch of scum sucking assholes, or kick their ass and leave on my own. I chose door number two please.” Kira said and kicked the man who had rolled in front of her in the head.
“I really wish you would have chosen differently.” The man said and pulled out a long stick that he hit on the ground and it shot sparks. Crap, they had a stunning wand. It was used for animals at the zoo, but people who knew about shifters knew the stun wand was one of the few things that could take them down.
“Zap the bitch.” One of the big guys on the ground groaned.
“Hey.” She yelled. “That is just rude. You have been chasing me, I just responded. I don"t think it"s fair that you pull out a stun wand now. In fact, I think it"s against the rules or something.”
“Seriously? You are arguing about rules of kidnapping?” Kira heard another voice from down the alley say.
Kira stepped back, wondered for a brief moment if she had made the wrong choice to fight. More of the big scary guys had snuck up on her when she was focused on the shitheads in front of her. Oh, what she would not give for a two-by-four and duct tape right now!
“Hey fuck heads, you are not going to sneak up on me. I will do to you what I did to your friends.” She growled hoping that she sounded at least a little tough.
“Don"t know them, don"t really care. But you are not going to hurt me.” The voice said with confidence and Kira rolled her eyes because she had to see who the dumbass was that thought she was going to go down without a fight.
Keeping her eye on the last two standing attackers that were in her sight, she backed slowly toward the opening at the end of the alley. She gasped when she realized it was the same one in her dream. Damn it, why had she not realized this a few minutes ago?
She would have known this was where she was supposed to be. Her vision showed her running toward her mates right down this alley. Now was maybe a good time to make that actual vision come true. She did not want to fight anymore and she was certain the two men that were left standing were not planning on being nice.
Kira grabbed her bags from the corner and ran without saying another thing until she felt the strong arms of one of her mates wrap around her. He smiled down at her and then pushed her behind him and said to the other one. “Now what?”
“I need to know what they want.” Her taller mate said and growled a little before walking slowly down the alley toward the four men that had recovered and now stood waiting for them.
“Sweetheart, I need you to stand here and wait for a few minutes okay? I have to go and help dunderhead over there before he gets his pretty face bashed in.” Her smaller mate said and kissed her on the cheek.
Kira laughed at the way that they were calmly facing the wolves that had surrounded her. She smiled and leaned against the stone wall of the hotel and watched as her mates confronted the men who had tried to take her.
“So, I am just wondering why you were tracking down my mate, boys. I really don"t think it is a good idea to try to take someone"s mate from them. You know as well as I do, mates are off limits. So give me a real good reason before I get even more pissed off, as to why you are trying to us a stun wand on my mate.” Her large mate growled.
One of the men who had tried to corner her held up his hands like he was going to try and reason with her mates but instead threw a knife at him. It would have been a very good shot if her mate had not been ready for it. She giggled when his hand caught the knife easily, flipped it around and threw it back in a smooth motion. The knife struck the man between the eyes and he fell silently to the ground.
“I am pretty sure that you have figured out by now that this is not something that you want to do. Maybe you are a little afraid of returning to your leader empty-handed.
Maybe you are too stupid to understand that if you chose to try to fight me, you will lose.
Either way, you have about ten seconds to tell me what I want to know, or else you will be joining your friend in hell.” Her mate growled and stepped a little closer to the men who tried to kidnap her. One of them still held the stun wand and he looked like he was weighing his options.
“The Master will not be very happy if we do not bring her back, so it does not matter one way or another what you think you are going to do, I am taking her.” The man with the stun wand said.
“We are going to have to agree to disagree on that.” Her mate muttered. She looked at her other mate who had gone and positioned himself next to their mate. Kira took a deep breath and then jumped when someone touched her arm.
“Don"t be afraid. I am with them. We all are.” A tall handsome man whispered to her.
She looked around him to see about fifteen shifters standing at the entrance to the alley on their side. When she turned to look, there were as many on the other side of the alley. The men who had tried to take her were trapped; they just had not realized it yet.
“Who are you?” She whispered out of the corner of her mouth. She did not want to distract her mates when they were in such a tense situation.
“Well, that"s a funny story. I am the Alpha of the New Council, my name is Quin. So obviously there are some things we have to learn about each other. I mean, a second ago, I was standing in my conference room and then suddenly we were all here. I think we may have to talk to Dalton about projecting his feelings.” He said dryly.
Kira snorted and turned back to watch her two mates take apart the three men who were trying to take her. They did it with ease and seemed to work together like they had been together for years. Kira suddenly became worried about where she was going to fit into the relationship. Were they going to think she was intruding? Crap, her insecurity was going to show and she did not want to start things right off the bat like that.
“Hey, can you see their aura?” The Alpha whispered to her.
“Um, yeah. Why?” She whispered and then smiled when she saw one of her mates begin taunting the last of the men they were fighting. She could not hear what they were saying but the asshole suddenly roared and then ran at her two mates.
“Curious, what does it look like?” Quin said innocently.
“Well, when you look at a regular shifter, like the ones across the alley, they have a dull pale glow about them. Each species is different; they have different hues to them. Now the more powerful t
he shifter, the stranger their aura. I have never actually seen a Council member but my mother described it for me. They will have very strong golden hues surrounding them. I can see at least five of them right now, and yes, one of my mates has one. The other mate has the same color just not quite as bright yet.” Kira said.
“Probably because they are not fully mated yet. Clearly, Blaine has been waiting for you.
He has seen your mating and knew that you had to be together to get your full powers.
The larger man is Blaine and the other is Dalton. Blaine is a wolf shifter and Dalton is a Sidhe. They found each other just a few weeks ago.” Quin said and then stepped back and pulled her with him. “I suggest we move a little, I think your mates have almost finished and we are going to have to figure out how to get back home.”
“Home?” Kira said looking at the people who were around them. There were at least three other Council members and they were huge men. She wondered if it was a prerequisite for being on the Council to be as big as a house.
“Milliken, Colorado. That is where the New Council Pack headquarters is located. We have a Pack house and members of the New Council will have their own homes built next to the Pack house, so you will each have privacy. Right now, we have found six of the Chosen. We are looking for the remaining seven. That is why we were looking for you. We were told you are the only one who could confirm one of the Chosen. You see, Blaine here seems to think that he is not one of the Chosen. We had no clue you were all mates until a week ago. Then we really started to look for you.” Quin smiled at her.
“Oh... well he is definitely one of the Chosen then.” Kira said looking around at the people who were standing guard for them. Finally, she heard a sickening thud and she knew her mates were done doing what they had to. “Why are these men looking for me?”
Quin sighed and looked around at the men who were standing with him. How did he explain this? He thought, and then relaxed when he felt Blaine and Dalton come up behind him. “My dear, that is a long discussion which we will have as soon as we are all safe and sound.”
