by Lia Davis
Chapter Twelve
Blaine poured two cups of coffee when he heard movement coming from the bedroom. He hadn’t come back last night. Instead, he’d stayed in his room at his father’s house. He kept things at both places because Cameron refused to complete the mating bond. Although it irritated the hell out of him and pissed off his leopard, he understood why.
She needed some space.
Ever since they’d lost the baby, she’d withdrawn from him and her friends. The Cam he’d seen over the past couple of days gave him hope that she would finally be ready to move on. And, if she wasn’t, he’d pull rank on her.
As much as it pained him, he didn’t want to talk about the baby and what could have been, but damn it, he couldn’t live with the female he loved and not mate her. He was out of patience and tired of being the boyfriend. They were mates, damn it, and it was past time they lived like it.
Now they had a third.
Graham’s footsteps pulled Blaine out of his thoughts. He took a sip of his coffee while watching the male cross the living room to the kitchen. He wore a pair Blaine’s gray sweatpants, which were a little baggy. Allowing his gaze to travel up the male’s tight abs, Blaine froze when he caught sight of the bite mark on his shoulder.
Well, damn if that didn’t turn him on. He knew all too well how Cam could lose control in the heat of passion.
Graham sat down at the island, and Blaine set his coffee in front of him. “Thanks.”
Blaine nodded and pushed a box of donuts to him. “I see that you had a nice evening.”
Graham jerked his head up and locked gazes with Blaine but relaxed when Blaine smiled. “You could have warned me she was a biter.”
Blaine’s lips twitched. “We’re felines. We’re all biters.”
“Cam takes it to another level.”
Blaine threw his head back and laughed. “True.”
Graham fell silent. Blaine studied the male as Graham focused too hard on his coffee. “You can speak your mind. In case you haven’t noticed, Cam and I don’t hold back when something’s bothering us.”
A smile spread across Graham’s lips, and he looked back up to Blaine. “I was wondering how long you and Cam have been together.”
Hell, he’d known this one was coming sooner or later. It was a simple question; one that Graham had every right to know the answer to if he was going to be a part of their lives. And he was if Blaine had anything to say about it.
“About sixteen years,” Blaine answered. When Graham’s expression grew more curious, Blaine continued. “We’ve only been in the mating dance, so to speak, for seven.”
Graham drew his eyebrows together. “That’s a long time not to bond with each other.”
“Tell me about it,” Blaine said as he plucked a doughnut from the box. “It’s complicated.”
Graham sat back in the high-back bar stool and crossed his arms over his bare chest, drawing Blaine’s gaze to his lean, muscular body. “If I’m to be in this triad, you need to speak your mind.”
Fuck. The male had just used his own words against him. He was right. He deserved to know the truth. He needed to know that there was a high possibility that Cameron would never bond either of them. “When she hit her first heat cycle, we ran off and spent the weekend together. It was the most reckless thing I’ve ever done, being the Pack Marshal and all.”
Blaine took a drink of his coffee, relieved by Graham’s silence. “A few weeks after that, she found out she was pregnant.” He remembered how scared she was when she told him. His tough warrior afraid to be a mother. Then his amusement faded as the pain gripped his heart. “She lost the baby about three months later.”
Graham opened his mouth to say something, but Blaine held up his hand. “Don’t, please. It’s still a pretty painful subject.”
A choked sob drew Blaine’s attention to the living room. Fuck. “Cam?”
She shook her head and moved forward, clenching a thin shirt box to her chest. She wore a black satin nightie that hung to mid-thigh, and her dark brown hair was rumpled from sleep. When she met his stare, Blaine cursed again.
She’d been crying.
Damn it.
She stopped next to Graham and set the box on the counter. Without looking at either of them, she opened it. Heartache slammed into Blaine as he peered at the contents. On top was a sonogram picture and under that was the DVD he and Cam had recorded for the baby. His vision blurred, but he refused to let the damn tears fall.
Graham picked up the lid and placed it back on the box then gathered Cameron into his arms. Blaine walked around the island and wrapped his arms around them. After a few moments, Cameron wiggled free from them.
She dried her eyes with a paper towel and picked up Blaine’s cup of coffee. “Has Blaine told you that I have commitment issues? Well, not me, my jaguar. She has mourned the loss of our little boy and refused to mate. I haven’t pushed her either, because I wanted to grieve and blame myself. Then you came into our lives with Max and Sammie, renewing hope of a family.” She sighed and pulled the donut box toward her. “I can’t take another loss. I’m afraid, if I lost another child, I’d shut out more than the pain."
Graham reached over the counter and gripped her wrist. “I’m staying in Ashwood. Sammie is making friends, and with Max’s abilities, I have to stay so he can learn to use and shield his gifts.”
Cameron smiled, and her eyes watered again. “I’m not sure if I could ever give either of you a child of your own.”
Graham kissed her knuckles, and Blaine moved closer to her so their arms touched as he took her other hand. Graham looked from Blaine to Cameron and said, “Before you, I never considered being part of conceiving a child.”
****
It was mid-afternoon, and Cameron swore the walls were closing in on her. She needed to get outside and check out the location Isaac had left in the journal. She’d always hated the waiting part. Keegan always made them wait until everyone was on edge. Cameron guessed he did that on purpose so they all tracked down the rogues irritated and ready to kill.
Yeah, Keegan had a dark streak lurking behind the level-headed Alpha. She was glad it only really came out when on a mission involving Onyx.
She’d tried to relax, but instead, she cleaned her whole twenty-nine hundred square foot apartment, twice. Damn it. Where were Blaine and Graham?
The three of them had spent the morning talking, laughing, and making a vow to complete the mating after the raid.
So, yeah, she as on edge for more than one reason.
God, she was going to do it. For better and for worse, she was going to complete the mating bond with both of her males and form a triad.
She was scared to death.
Blaine and Graham had left shortly after lunch. Graham went to spend some time with the kids and talk with Nevan and Dani about watching them again tonight. Cameron wasn’t sure she liked the idea of Graham coming along, and by the way Blaine’s body had tensed when Keegan cleared Graham’s participation, it told her he felt the same.
She didn’t doubt Graham’s strength, but he didn’t have any solider training. The Alpha said he had a right to be there. She didn’t argue that, but she didn’t have to like having Graham so close to the enemy.
Why in the hell was she waiting for Blaine?
Letting out a huff, she marched to the door and yanked it open. Her irritation shifted to annoyance at the sight of Blaine and Graham in her doorway. “Ready?”
Blaine ignored her mood and nodded. “Dane, Alec, and Travis are already in the area and confirmed it’s some kind of lab or some shit. Alec said there are mutants crawling all over the place.”
Just fucking great.
She glanced at Graham. “You didn’t happen to find anything in the journal on how to neutralize those bastards, did you?”
One side of his mouth lifted slightly. “Sorry, no.”
She shrugged and pushed past the males to step out of he
r apartment. “Well, we’re just going have to get our hands dirty.”
Cameron walked across the street where Keegan and Hayden stood with their backs to her as they peered into the forest. She stopped between them and took in the stillness of the air. Hayden stood a couple of feet from Keegan, both their powers flowed around them. The combined leopard and wolf magick calmed her, helped her focus on the task at hand. She took a step forward to offer both Keegan and Hayden her neck in a silent act of trust.
Tonight Hayden wasn’t going in as a Marshal. He was going in as the Alpha male. Luna didn’t care for participating in these types of missions. Cameron didn’t know why. Many of the Pack members believed it was to keep both Alpha’s out of the field at the same time. Something told Cam that it was more than that, but it wasn’t her place to pry into the Alphas’ business.
It wasn’t that the Alpha female was weak. She was far from it and would do anything to protect her Pack. Cameron had witnessed Luna bringing down an alpha male, reducing him to a trembling submissive for challenging her power.
Hayden, on the other hand, didn’t have a problem going into battle. He was as bloodthirsty as the rest of the enforcers.
Hayden shifted his body slightly beside her and gave a short nod. She took off, running at inhuman speed through the woods alongside the enforcers she grew up with, trained with, and trusted with her life. The pounding of boots against the earth told her that the others were on her heels.
The early summer night air rushed over her skin and through her hair. The thrill of a hunt sang in her blood with the promise of a kill, making her jaguar pace, demanding to be set free. Her human side approved of the cat’s thirst for vengeance and relished it.
The Onyx had taken her parents and nearly taken her brother, twice. The first time she was fifteen. Jared had left Ashwood to go on some reckless hunt to avenge their parents’ deaths. Instead of delivering the payback he craved, her brother had walked right into a trap. Or, at least, she thought it was a trap. Although she’d never seen any physical signs of being held prisoner, as she believed he’d been in his time away, Jared hadn’t come back whole.
The only thing he told her was that he’d found his mate and lost her.
So, yeah, she wanted each and every rogue and their freaks of nature to pay for the pain and loss they’d caused.
Noticing the Alphas slowing down, she followed suit. A few moments later, they stopped at the edge of a small man-made clearing. In the middle was a single-story metal building that looked more like an oversized storage unit.
“This is way too fucking close to home,” she growled.
Keegan fisted his hands beside her as he let out a low growl of his own. “Sure the fuck is.”
Hayden grunted. “It won’t be here for long.”
Cameron felt her lips lift at Hayden’s promise to destroy this little outpost and searched the surrounding area. “Where are Alec and Dane?”
Keegan nodded straight ahead. “There.”
She followed his gaze and grinned. They were lying flat on their stomachs. Dane was doing something with his tablet, and Alec was scanning the building as if itching for an attack. “Alec looks tense.”
Blaine laughed. “Alec is always a little tense.” His tone got serious as he moved a few feet to their left. “There are way too many mutants here. I can smell the rancid bastards.”
Just then the other enforcers and a few sentries appeared at the edge of the trees that surrounded the lab. Cameron’s blood raced in her veins, heightening her cat senses. She felt her fangs lower and knew her eyes had changed from their usual brown to the gold of her jaguar.
It was time to rumble.
Chapter Thirteen
As Keegan and Hayden gave the signal, the enforcers moved forward, splitting off to surround the building. Blaine signaled for Graham to stay close, not because Blaine didn’t think the male could handle himself but because Graham was a civilian in this war. Besides, the rogues must be pissed that the children were now in the custody of Ashwood Falls. They wanted them back, no doubt, and would go to any lengths to get them.
So, yeah, Graham was more a liability and a distraction for him, and for Cameron. Shit. Why in the hell had his father allowed it?
Trying like hell not to look at the male, Blaine asked, “You good?”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Graham’s short nod. Just then the double barn-size doors to the building bowed up, and at least a dozen rogues charged out. Blaine drew his gun, aimed, and popped off a couple of rounds, hitting four rogues in the head.
Stealing a glance to his right, he saw Cameron engaged in hand-to-hand with a large male. The male lunged for her neck, and Cameron downed the attacker by nailing the bastard in the kneecap. She heard the snap as her foot connected with bone, pushing the joint in the opposite way it was intended. He screamed and dropped to the ground. Cam pulled her Glock and shot the rogue in the head.
That was his female. He smirked in approval and focused back on the wolf charging toward him. Blaine crouched like a fullback waiting to slam into the opposing team trying to sack the quarterback. Only this wasn’t football, and their quarterback had larger fangs than he did.
Blaine charged, slamming his shoulder into the male’s stomach, and they hit the ground. The sound of bones cracking told Blaine the rogues back was seriously fucked. Rising up over the male, Blaine took his head in his hands and, with a quick jerk, broke the rogue’s neck. His body went limp.
Dropping the piece of shit, Blaine twisted in time to see Travis with a beach ball-sized fireball between his hands. The crazy ass pyro was laughing as he shouted, “Fire in the hole!”
The sentries and enforcers closer to the building heard the warning and instantly ran away from the metal building. Travis thrust his hands out, releasing the ball of flames and magickal energy.
As soon as the fireball hit the building, Travis formed another and ran around to the other side. Shaking his head, Blaine teleported to stand next to Graham. When he materialized, he was knocked to the ground by a large mutant. The half-wolf, half-human bared its fangs and snapped his teeth at Blaine. Cursing, Blaine tried to knock the creature off him, with no luck.
He punched the mutant’s jaw, which only pissed the asshole off. Suddenly, an explosion of blood and brain matter erupted, and then the creature’s body fell to the side. Blaine stood, wiped stuff he really didn’t want to think about off his face, and meet Graham’s raised eyebrows. He still held the 9 mm at shoulder level, stunned.
Blaine peered at him cautiously and cursed. Was that the first time the male had killed? When Graham’s blue eyes shifted to something over Blaine’s shoulder, he didn’t bother to turn and look. He just dropped to the ground. A split second later, Graham fired off two more shots.
The sound of two bodies hitting the earth let Blaine know he could stand again. Eyes wide, he stared at Graham. “You okay?” he asked. Graham nodded and holstered his gun.
“What the fuck?”
Cameron’s voice drew his attention to the front of the lab. Travis stood a few feet from the entrance, his body surrounded with an orange and red hue. Flames covered his hands and arms. Travis turned to face Keegan, focusing on the Alpha.
A moment later, Keegan shouted, “Get back! Now!”
Blaine, Graham, Cam, and the others all ran back toward the woods. Turning around, Blaine saw the rogues frozen in place, watching Travis as though they’d never seen anything like him before. Hell, Blaine had never seen anything like it. Yeah, he knew Travis could control fire, but this went beyond control. It was as though the fire was a part of him.
In a flash of bright orange light, Travis seemed to explode. No, that wasn’t right. The fire and energy that surrounded him thrust outward, hitting the rogues and mutants and the building. The next moment made Blaine’s heart stop. An explosion sounded off from inside the building a split second before metal and other debris flew out in all directions.
“Shit. The fucker is crazy,” Hayden said as he came to stand next to Blaine.
Blaine nodded. “I think we just witnessed first-hand how he destroyed his den.”
About two years before, Travis’s den had been attacked by mutants. They infected his Pack with the virus, turning them all into blood-crazed, half-changed mutants. Travis said he’d had to destroy the den and those infected.
Now Blaine knew how the male had done it.
He’d burned the fuckin’ den down.
Blaine scanned the area but didn’t see Travis anywhere. “Come on, Hunter. Where the fuck are you?”
The silence was almost unbearable. Blaine so didn’t want to go back home and tell his sister that her mate was dead, although she’d know it as soon as it happened through the mating bond. He didn’t want to see her hurting, not when she was just a few months pregnant and mated just as long.
“Thank God,” Cameron breathed.
Blaine followed her gaze to see Travis staggering out of the burning building. Without a second thought, Blaine flashed to his brother-in-law’s side then dematerialized to the medical center.
****
Cameron stayed to do cleanup and some fire control. Dane had found an outside faucet and hose, which wasn’t unusual in the area. Many homes and other dwellings had wells. Alec and a few other enforcers dug up the grass around the area to keep the fire contained within a hundred yard radius around the burning facilities.
Damn. This was one fucked-up night.
Cameron scanned the charred land around her. The metal structure had caved into itself and still burned. She wasn’t sure it would stop or if water would put it out. After all, the fire had been forged by magick and Travis’s will.
She hoped they’d be able to douse the flames instead of waiting for them to die out on their own because she really didn’t feel like camping out tonight to make sure the whole forest didn’t burn.
