Haulcon's Revenge

by Yvette Hines

  Adair had told him about her genealogy research and her travels to Alaska only to come away empty handed because the line of Eskimo she was supposed to be connected to was extinct.

  The medical man had said they were still present but diluted. Unlike their breed of valf that came from Siberia where they were able to remain pure because they kept themselves away from humans, her strain had mingled and married humans to the point nothing remained of them. But her.

  He’d given her a drink and made sure she finished it. Hessel had told her that she would need extra nutrients for the coming birth to survive it.

  Since she had no need to doubt his words at the time, she consumed the entire cup.

  Hessel had continued, “Seeing that you have become pregnant proves that humans can be the cure for us in so many ways. That human scientist just needs to discover the right connections, answers. Then we will be able to move into the cities. Take over and breed the human woman for a whole new race, a stronger race. It is evident in how fast your offspring is growing.”

  “You’re mad.” She had told him. There was a glaze in his eyes that made them dark and bright. He didn’t appear just lost in his research like her father, he had seemed evil and arrogant.

  “No, Jacin had been mad. He’d just wanted to feed off humans, control and kill them at will. But, my daughter had guided him perfectly and ensured he waited until the right moment. She would have made the perfect Alpha mate. Enough valfs would have come up dead by human hands that the clan would have been angry and more than prepared to follow him into battle.” Frustrated he’d shoved his hands through his hair. “Haulcon had to come back and ruin everything. All my hard work. I’d told Jacin to make sure he got rid of him.” Hessel shook his head. “Too prideful. Not completing the job.”

  Hearing enough, she’d gotten down off the exam table. “I’m getting out of here.”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” The door swung open revealing the person who had been standing on the other side the whole time.

  “Sylista.” Was the last thing Adair had said before everything around her went dark.

  Adair shuddered at the memory and the ache throughout her body began to return. Groaning she gripped her stomach.

  “I need to get out of here.” No medical doctor had to tell her that her child was on the way. She’d seen enough animals in labor and women on medical reality shows to know the signs.

  “I’m not having my baby in some cage.” Think. She told herself. If she didn’t get out of there in a few hours the sun would come flooding through those windows filling the room with light. The rash on her skin would be painful on top of the trials her body would go through giving birth.

  Then an idea came to her. First thing she needed to do was tame the wildness of her mane. If she had a mirror, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to recognize herself. Fingering her hair, now down to the curve of her ass, she weaved it into a braid over her shoulder.

  Next she kneeled in the middle of the cage and started to sing. It was a song that was ingrained more in her heart than in her memory. Her mother had only been with her a few months but she had sung to her. When she was five, she had been scared and her dad had come in and attempted to calm her with the song. He had explained it was one she loved her mother to sing when she was an infant.

  “Bright morning stars are rising

  Bright morning stars are rising

  Bright morning stars are rising

  Day is a breaking in my soul…”

  Closing her eyes, Adair rubbed her belly and continued to sing the song over and over again. She wasn’t only singing it for her father, she was also singing it for the little girl who had lost her mother as well as for the unborn child inside her.

  Over and over, she sang the song from beginning to end, unsure of how long she sat there as time seemed to stand still.

  “Rachel? Rachel, I’ve missed you so.”

  It was the hesitant wonder in her father’s voice as he called her mother’s name that had Adair opening her eyes. There on the other side of the bars was her father, his face slick with the tears that were cascading down his light brown cheeks. His arm was stretched through the bars as he reached for her.

  She continued to sing the final verse as she held his gaze feeling the wetness of her own tears making rivulets down her face.

  “It’s me, daddy,” came her rough whisper.

  “Adair?” His gaze searched hers, for the first time in years he seemed to really be seeing her, taking in every aspect of her appearance. “You’re all grown up.”

  Taking hold of his hand, she said, “I am. But I never stopped needin—”

  There came a loud crash and then a roar that seemed to shake the building.

  “Haulcon.” She could feel his presence near.

  Then she saw something go flying across the window from the small observation room and her mate was there with his large hand locked around Chris’s throat as he slammed him against the wall. “Where is she?” he growled.

  “Haulcon! Haulcon, I’m here!” she called out.

  Allowing the young scientist to drop to the floor he turned and stared at her through the glass. As if there was no space and distance between them she felt him caress her.

  Sweet mate, are you all right? Have they hurt you?

  I’m fine.

  She watched his gaze take in her hand linked with the man on the other side of the bar. Then Haulcon was in the room clutching her father’s neck as he held him up from the floor. “Never touch what is mine. I should kill you.” His fangs were elongated and his eyes were so dark green they appeared black.

  “Wait, Haulcon! Don’t hurt him,” she pleaded with him as she pressed herself to the bars gripping a sleeve of his black duster.

  “Why? He has killed many valfs and now he attempts to harm my mate and unborn heir.” He shook her father like a ragdoll.

  James Ellis gasped and his light brown complexion became a sickening purple hue.

  “He’s not a murderer. He’s my father.”

  Tilting his head, Haulcon stared at her, his brows tight with a frown. “Why would a parent put their child in a cage? Poke at them?” He pointed to the needle hole on her arm that was almost completely healed.

  Another sign that his serum had altered her DNA some. A valf would have healed instantly, but her being more human caused it to be a slower process.

  “I’ve changed so much since the way he remembered me that he thought I was valf.”

  He growled and squeezed harder. So, it is okay that he puts my people in a box?

  Wrong word.

  Her father’s face was starting to swell from lack of oxygen.

  “Please put him down, Haulcon, so he can let me out,” she coaxed.

  Haulcon released him.

  Her father crumbled to the floor, squirming and gasping for air. Finally, his body calmed and as it shook with an occasional wracking cough.

  “Where’s the key?” Haulcon asked. His voice was still tight, but he wasn’t growling anymore.

  James dug the key ring out of his pocket and passed it to Haulcon.

  Taking it, the valf Alpha rushed to the cage and unlocked it.

  “Careful, the bars are silver,” she told him.

  “They will not harm me. It is only if it gets into my bloodstream that it is dangerous.”

  “Oh.” She fell into his arms once the door was open. “I thought I would never see you again. I was so scared.”

  He held her bulky frame tightly against him. “What did I tell you, mate? I would always come for you.”

  “Because I carry your heir.”

  “Because I love you,” he declared.

  “I believe it.” She kissed him. Pulling back, she said, “My father may have put me in the cage, but he wasn’t killing your people purposely.”

  “How do you know?” He glanced over at her father who was now standing, leaning against the wall staring at them.

  “First off he is a
scientist. A good one. He would have attempted to keep them alive to continue to study them and gather more data. But, look around, Haulcon. See all the windows.”

  Haulcon turned from left to right taking them all in.

  “In the morning this room would be flooded with sunlight. Almost like a magnifying glass. I’m sure their deaths were accidental and since you said it was mostly the weak and frail valfs that were taken. They probably could not survive it, even in wolf form.”

  “You may have a point.” He glanced at her father again. “Tell me scientist, were you trying to kill my people?”

  “No. Never. I just wanted to understand your DNA so that I could create medicine to help good cells reproduce and fight cancer.” He shook his head. “But, that never came about. It didn’t work in any of the lab rats. The cancer still took over.”

  “But I’ve changed,” Adair declared.

  “We saw that in the first reports of your data that was starting to come in.”

  She thought for a moment as both men stared at her. “I think it’s because valf serum has to be directly given to the source as Haulcon had done to me.”

  Her father scratched his head. She could almost hear his mind clicking together the information. She hoped she would not lose him cognitively again.

  “Father, how did you get the valfs from Hessel?” she asked.

  “Who?”

  “Our valf medical man. Or did you have connections with Sylista?”

  Adair was happy Haulcon had discovered the truth about the father and daughter. She hadn’t looked forward to telling him that there were traitors in his clan.

  You have to thank young Daprin. He saw Sylista take you to Hessel and that you never came back out.

  How did they get me out without anyone seeing me?

  There were old prohibition tunnels that happen to connect from the medical clinic to the city. They had been moving drugged valfs underground.

  I’m so sorry, Haulcon.

  “I had interactions with no one,” her father was saying. “The valfs were in large body bags at our door. The first time it happened we thought they were dead wolves; a joke being played on us by the local teens. However, when we opened it up, we realized that the animal was breathing. So, we placed it in a cage and drew blood before it awoke. Animals have always healed faster than humans so like all our other tests we looked for correlations. We could only collect so much data, because by the time we returned in the morning there was a dead valf in male form in the cage. Not burned up, just a hardened shell.”

  “It was the sunlight, dad.”

  He frowned. “They weren’t burned to ashes.”

  “They wouldn’t have been. Valfs are not mythical vampires. The sun constricts their blood vessels and their body loses oxygen and eventually it kills them,” she informed him.

  “That explains a lot,” he sighed then glanced over at Haulcon. “I am truly sorry.”

  She could understand when Haulcon couldn’t come out yet and say he forgave her father, but he at least gave him a sharp nod acknowledging his words.

  “Oh!” Adair clutched her belly as a piercing pain shot from her lower back into her vagina then water gushed down her thighs.

  “Mate?” Haulcon’s voice was ravaged with concern.

  “I know there is still a lot we need to work out, men, but my son will not be born on a lab floor,” she groaned.

  Haulcon scooped her up. “What should we do?” He looked toward her father.

  “The south wing of the center. There are beds over there,” James announced looking both frazzled and excited.

  “Lead the way!” Haulcon ordered.

  Her father rushed out of the room with Haulcon right on his heels. James Ellis bellowed instructions out to Chris and the other two people on his staff, calling out supplies he needed as they practically ran down the hall.

  Adair panted holding on to Haulcon’s shoulder. She nodded at the four familiar faces lined up in the hall as if they were keeping people away from going into the room.

  Nyca, Marco, Tison and Larina smiled at her and chuckled at their anxious Alpha as he rushed by.

  When they reached the room and Haulcon laid her on one of the beds, he asked, “Do you know what you’re doing? Should we take her to one of your human hospitals?”

  Her father stood at the end of the bed and looked at Haulcon, more lucid than she’d ever seen him. “Besides having my doctorate in genealogy, I was a family practitioner before my wife became sick. So, yes, I know what I am doing.”

  Chris entered the room at that moment with an armful of things.

  Her father washed his hands in the bowl of water as he said to Haulcon, “Hold her hands.” Then he looked at her and smiled. “You squeeze the shit out of his hands, baby girl, just like your mother did to me when you were born. Broke two of my fingers.” He chuckled.

  Adair would have laughed if she wasn’t in so much pain.

  Twenty minutes later a screaming, large gook covered mess was in the arms of his grandfather.

  “Oh, my, just look at him.” Her father looked up from the baby he held close to him, dirtying up his lab coat and smiling. “A fine healthy boy. I think he’s at least nine pounds.” He passed him to Haulcon so he could finish the mundane tasks of the birthing process.

  “Hello, heir. Glad you were just as anxious to meet us as we were to meet you.” The big Alpha spoke softly as he caressed their baby’s pudgy cheek with the tips of his fingers.

  The sight had her all choked up. “We never did discuss a name for him.” She reached up and cupped a tiny fist.

  “Aluf,” Haulcon said as he handed her the baby.

  “What does it mean?” she asked cuddling her son to her chest.

  “The one in charge.”

  She laughed. “Why didn’t you just come out and call him heir,” she teased him.

  “That would be arrogant.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “I love you, my Alpha.”

  His moss green eyes sparkled. “I love you, my mate. Mother of my offspring.”

  Coming to stand beside them as Chris exited the room with the birthing waste, her father said, “I need to take the child with me to get him cleaned up. Why don’t you bring him, Haulcon, so Adair can get some rest?”

  Adair passed her son to his father. “We will probably have to stay a few days at my apartment until I have enough strength to travel back to the compound. If that’s okay with you?”

  “Yes. The others can take the message back that you are well and of the newest addition. Friedol will handle things until my return.” Haulcon leaned down and kissed her.

  “Glad to hear it.”

  When he started to move away with her father, she stopped him, “You didn’t kill Sylista and Hessel did you?”

  A shadow crossed his gaze. “No, I sent them back to Siberia. The clans there are more remote, isolated from humans.”

  “Okay.” That gave her some relief. She knew the grief he carried from having to end Jacin’s life. “So, what will your clan do about a medical man?”

  He glanced at her father and said, “I don’t know, maybe while we take care of Aluf his grandfather and I can discuss relocation options.”

  James’ eyes lit up. “Are you serious? You’d trust me to be at your compound?”

  Haulcon shrugged. “You could continue your research and at the same time help us answer some questions about our own species.” Then his gaze met hers. “More importantly, Adair would have some family of her own around.”

  Her heart swelled in her chest and her throat tightened with emotions. Thank you, mate.

  Anything for you. Get some rest.

  She watched the three men that made up her world go out of the room. Her life had come full circle. She was now a mate and a mother. Her world that had seemed so empty and lonely before was now filled and overflowing with love.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  USA Today Bestselling Author, but I’m simply Yvette Hi
nes. I’m an erotica author that loves pleasurable hours between the sheets; whether it is a blended tale of interracial lovers, the clandestine bite and wicked passion of a paranormal lover or the sting of a commanding whip against tender flesh. Even better, make my day and toss in two gorgeously, decadent men who only want to pleasure their woman. I write Short and Sexy, Sensual Erotica (SASSE). Occasionally, you may get a full-length novel from me. However, life is too busy and most of us have more than one job, family and other activities that don’t allow us long hours to read any more.

  I’ve been penning erotic tales since 2007, on the hedonistic side of the romance genre. However, I’ve been writing romance under a different pen for a while. I’m eclectic by nature.

  I’m married to my best friend. A guy that makes me laugh ‘til I can’t breathe. A man who steals my breath every time he walks into a room. I believe in happily ever after like the rising of the sun depended on it. I’m a member of Chesapeake Romance Writers and Romance Veteran.

  You can find out more about me at: http://yvettehines.com

  or on Facebook and Twitter (@sasseYvetteH)

  SASSE Sheets Blog http://sassesheets.blogspot.com