by Jo Larue
Sylas gave her one more deep and mind shattering kiss before he got up and pulled her with him. “I’m starving, and I bet you are too. Let’s get out of here and find some food.”
After she caught her breath back, she smiled and nodded. She was ready to tackle another day and for the first time in a very long while, not alone.
Chapter 13
Trey paced the house, cursing. This was the third subject on his Chance list, and it was another no go. The first one he waited almost a full day for. It turned out to be a male subject who apparently was out of town. The second he waited a few hours for while he waited near the apartment. There were woods on the backside of the building and he was able to shift and watch from some bushes right outside the hall corridor. Again, it was a male.
This third one came home from work and yet again, another male. He confirmed each one by waiting until someone identified them by saying their name. He was tired, hungry, and pissed. If the next one was a washout, he was screwed. There was no possible way he could follow up on thirty eight other people named Chance. He could not go back to Craven and admit lying. Or explain what he was doing for the last two days. His quest for Alpha could be lost if he missed his opportunity on this next, and last, person.
Trey kept his plan simple. Find the girl, allow the pack to see how deranged Craven is, catch his weakness for her, and kill him. He knew there was no way in hell Craven could resist punishing her in front of the pack. Craven wanted to make an example of her, but his mistake and downfall would be the human aspect. If Trey didn’t kill him first, the council would call in the Fate’s Enforcer. He could lose the pack as well if this wasn’t done his way. He didn’t want chaos, at least not to the point where he couldn’t control the situation. He wanted to kill Sylas, not be hunted by him. This was his row to hoe, and he would finish it.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, Trey started cleaning the house of his prints. He’d found a house empty of the occupants. Early springtime meant a lot of people on vacations. This one was checked for an alarm system and finding it lacking, he picked the back door lock. Some skills came in handier than others did, and in another lifetime his was thief. This was before he found out he was a shifter. He was too young when he lost his parents to know what he was.
A nurse who worked in the orphanage took him in and adopted him. Small town ideals saved him from starving. In the wilds of Washington he wouldn’t have lived long. They struggled, but Trey never wanted for anything. He went to school and lived a normal life.
Everything stayed that way until the night of his sixteenth birthday. Growing up without parents to teach him about his gifts caused the greatest harm to the woman he called mother. In his horror of what was suddenly happening to him, he got too close to her, wanting her to fix it like always. She hugged him when it happened. He shifted in her arms and the sudden burst of power in his body crushed her back and neck, killing her instantly. In his world, you didn’t care about anyone, because they always ended up dead.
Trey left the house as he found it and returned to his SUV. The Navigator was his home away from home and after the day he just had, it felt good to sink down in the comfortable leather seats. He set the final address into his GPS and left, hoping this last one was his money tree. He stopped at an all night fast food place and purchased several hamburger meals to go. He was starving, again.
Finding the next neighborhood was easy, but there were no empty or vacant homes on the same street. He found one, for sale, on the next one over that was kitty-corner to subject four’s backyard. There was one problem he saw right off. The house for number four also had a complete privacy fence. He would deal with that later. Thankfully it was the middle of the night and no dogs were sounding warnings of a stranger being around.
Trey picked the back door lock, hoping he would not have to use this skill again any time in the near future. Never would be too soon, as far as he was concerned. At least this house was set up to sell, complete with furniture. He left the lights off and settled in. Subject four was not home as far as he could tell, so that gave him time to contemplate his life since that fateful night he needlessly killed his adoptive mother. He opened the bag of burgers and ate while he reminisced. Mostly he wondered what he could have done differently. He knew now that he should have never gotten close to her during a shift. Life was full of “if only” and his seemed to have them more than most.
The shock that set in following her death set his feet to running. It seemed that he’d not stopped since. Taking up with a gang of human kids in the streets of Seattle taught him the hard lesson of survival. The gang initiated him in with an attempted beat down, but they were clueless. It ended up being the opposite. By the end of the fight, he was the only one left standing of the baker’s dozen that jumped him.
Trey won instant respect and they taught him the fine art of thievery. He ended up being the best of the bunch. He could get in and out a target in less than five minutes, including shutting down the alarm system. In big cities, burglaries were the bottom of the priority list for police intervention. His five minutes snagged them quite a few trinkets before he left the gang to their own devices.
Trey finally discovered he preferred being in the woods. His shift was wolf and that’s where they thrive. He met a female wolf while out on one of his forays in the wilds of northern Washington. They stayed together for several years until he caught her with another male. He left her, the state, and never looked back, until now. He was tired of struggling and taking orders, and he was definitely tired of being alone.
Trey contemplated his desire to bring the pack into what it should be, a family. Yes, they were all rogues, but they had the same wants he did. That is how Craven brought them all together. Each and every one of them was tired of being alone. Craven thought he lorded over a pack full of cutthroats. Boy, was he mistaken. Sure, if called upon they would defend the pack to the end, but they really did not want the life of the lone wolf.
This was the difference between him and Craven. He got to know the pack by each individual member. He knew everything about them; all of their individual wants and needs. Craven only wanted to know they were his pack and nothing more. He treated them all like animals; to jump and run when called. To obey without question and to do all his dirty work. As far as Trey was concerned it was about to come to an end. One way or the other, it would end.
Trey considered the extra plus to his plan. If the human was attached to the Enforcer, then all the better. He lived and breathed to bring that man to his knees, preferably dead. He did what research he could on the death of his parents. There were several newspaper articles about it, complete with pictures. It seemed the fight and their deaths made the local and statewide news. It had been called a massacre of a local cult. Just because they were different and lived in a commune, they were a cult. It wasn’t right, but what could he do. Besides, the real issue behind all the deaths was a rival pack that wanted their land.
Humans didn’t understand pack life, but then again, humans didn’t know Immortal shifters existed. The common denominator in all the pictures he’d seen was Sylas Taiken. He was shown standing in the background in every picture he saw of the aftermath. This said one thing to Trey… Sylas was part of it somehow, and Trey would make him pay with his life. If not for almost half of the pack getting out when the fight first began, he would not be here today to exact his revenge.
There were enough members of the pack left to reform it, but the new Alpha wanted no part of the old one, they never did. Being born to Alpha’s, he was too much of a threat to the new one. He was thankful his Aunt whisked him away that night. It was fine with him. They would get theirs too someday. Karma was a bitch.
Trey smiled as he started to fall asleep in a chair next to a rear window. He was tired and sated, having eaten all but one of the meals. He needed sleep and felt he had time to do so, since subject four was not home yet. His last conscious thoughts were how he couldn’t wait to see Craven and Sylas meet
their makers.
Trey had nightmares that night about the fight between him and Sylas. He tracked Sylas down after hearing about a shifter who killed a human. He knew the shifter and watched him until Sylas showed up to enforce shifter law. He waited until after the bout with the bear. He wanted Sylas tired. He knew it was his only chance of surviving. He’d barely gotten away with his life. Sylas left him after the fight, thinking he was dead. Hell, he practically was. His leg was broken in several places along with many other bones and a punctured femoral artery. He’d nearly bled out before being found by his Alpha.
Trey remembered the Enforcers words still to this day. “Don’t know what this is about wolf. I don’t take life without reason, and this fight had no reason to it.” That was nearly 30 years ago and still fresh as if it happened yesterday. Craven didn’t ask questions and he gave nothing up. This was his battle and he wouldn’t lose the next one.
Chapter 14
Jack was up and nursing a cup of coffee by the time they got their shoes on and hit the kitchen. Chance cooked breakfast for the three of them. One of the only things she could cook decent enough to eat was an omelet. She also found some potatoes and grated them into hash browns, adding jalapenos to the mix. She loved spicy food, especially in the mornings. It added the extra wake up one needed after a night of drinking. She topped the omelets off with some salsa and the room stayed silent, with an occasional, “This is good,” getting tossed out around mouthfuls, until they were finished.
Chance took her coffee out to the back deck to enjoy some fresh air as the guys cleaned up. She insisted it was only fair; she cooked, they cleaned. She picked a white leather Barcalounger to sit in and it felt like heaven. She made a mental note to get several of these for her cabin. She turned in her chair when she heard a loud bang and then laughter coming from the kitchen. Sylas was loading the dishwasher and had dropped a plate. “OK, sticky fingers Malone, go join your girl. I got this,” Jack fussed at him while laughing.
“I had a thought while waiting on you two slowpokes,” she said to both of them when Jack finally joined them on the deck.
“Uh oh, she’s thinking, Sy. I’ll distract her while you run for cover!” Jack laughed, winking at her.
“You can do the running, Jack. I’ll stick with my girl, thank-you-very-much!”
“Your girl. Huh. Never been called that before.” Chance winked back at Jack then turned to Sylas with a straight face and raised eyebrows.
Chance was surprised when Sylas reached over and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Yes, my girl. You think I’m gonna let a girl get away that can kick royal ass? I might need you to put Jack in his place one of these days. Since I’m his best friend, it wouldn’t be prudent for me to do it, and he doesn’t hit women. You’d seriously have one up on him.”
“Low blow, brother, low blow.” Jack tried to be serious but lost the battle and laughed at him.
“No worries, Jack. I don’t hit men either. It’s the monsters thinking they are men, the ones who hit women that I have issues with. I can tell neither of you are those kind of men,” Chance said quietly. Having turned the conversation towards the serious side unintentionally, she smiled at them both.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to get so morose. It’s a conversation for another day. What I was trying to say earlier is why don’t I ask Rick to meet us at the property tomorrow instead of my house. I’d love for both of you to see it. I’ve also asked a water dowser if he would dowse the area for underground springs. I think he is available tomorrow as well. Make it a day trip with a picnic? I mean, if you would like to. Since I am happily and permanently unemployed now I have nothing else going. And I’m rambling. Your turn to talk now,” she rushed out looking at Sylas and then Jack, blushing furiously.
Nice going, Chance, now they think you’re nuts. That must have been the most you’ve said at one time to either one of them. Scare the hunky men away rambling like an escaped looney. Yea, real smart. Not! She thought to herself as they sat quietly looking at her like she had a third eye or something.
Busting out laughing at the same time, Jack punched Sylas in the arm and said, “I’m game if you are Sy. I can get one of the girls to open and close the bar. Sounds like an adventure to me! I can take care of the eats, if you want to take care of the beverages. Motorcycles or cages?”
Chance piped in before Sylas could reply, “Its very rough terrain up there. I haven’t hired out a crew to bulldoze a driveway into the property yet. Cages would be better. Sylas?”
His eyes were glowing bright and beautiful as she looked at him. He was smiling at her with a big grin on his face. “I only have one question. You’re happily and permanently unemployed?”
“That was all you got out of the whole conversation, Sylas?” She laughed; totally thrilled that he didn’t think she was looney after all. “Yes, I no longer need to work. So… do you want to go see my property?”
“Yes, babe, I‘d love to see your property. I got the drinks handled, and I heard every single, lovely word you said,” he replied kissing her again. She made all her calls and set the meetings for around noon. It gave them time to sleep in a little and eat before heading out in the morning.
Chance and Sylas agreed to head to their respective homes to shower, change clothes and to meet back at Jack’s that evening. He lived closer to the property and it made more sense to leave together from his place. Sylas drove her home and insisted on waiting for her to do what she needed. Chance insisted she was fine. She needed a little space to gather her wits and she couldn’t do it when a look from him made her knees weaken. She waved him off from the front door. She could tell he was reluctant to leave, but she promised to lock the door after he left, so he acquiesced.
Chance heard the Jeep round the corner and was about to lock the door, when she heard the neighborhood dogs raising hell. Then she heard scratching at her front door. She cracked the door just enough to peek out. Pretty Boy, the husky, was sitting on her porch. She opened the door enough to let him in and then locked it as she had promised.
“Pretty Boy, I’m so glad to see you’re alright! Are you hungry?” The dog wagged his tail with those expressive eyes, so she went into the kitchen and filled a bowl with left over steak and another with fresh water. “I hope you don’t mind, but I think I’d like to call you Sy, Pretty Boy. Your eyes remind me of his.” He turned a quick circle and reached to lick her hand and she let him. She felt better with him here. It wasn’t that she was afraid of anything or anyone hurting her, it just felt better with him there.
“Taking a shower now, Sy, so make yourself at home. Be out in a few minutes.” The dog yipped in agreement and she walked into her bathroom to turn the water on. When she came out to decide what to wear, Sy was lying on the end of her bed, curled up watching her. “I see you took that literally, Sy! It’s okay, you curl up anywhere you want.” She gave him a quick ear scratch. Grabbing a towel, she left him to get clean.
When she finished and turned off the water, Chance grabbed a comb and ran it through her wet locks. She was one of the lucky few blessed with thick individual strands of hair that tended not to tangle when wet. Leaving the bathroom wrapped in her towel, she walked into the bedroom to sort through her clothes again, not satisfied with her first choices. Since they were going to spend the day in the woods, she grabbed some comfortable jeans and a tank top with a pull over sweatshirt. She dropped the towel to dress and heard a whine coming from her bed.
“Embarrassing you am I, Sy? Sorry sweets, but I need to get dressed.” Chance bent over to pull on her jeans, and the dog jumped from the bed and left the room. She giggled and said aloud, “I can’t believe you can’t be in the same room with me naked. Too funny!”
Chance finished dressing and picked out another change of clothes should she need them. Sy scratched at the front door, so she quickly let him out. She started to head back to her room to finish when she heard another scratch at the door. “Can’t make up your mind, Sy?” she said but stopped s
hort of anything else when he raised his paw to the lock and left again. Shocked, Chance closed the door and locked it. She watched, slack-jawed, out the front window as the dog went on his way, seemingly satisfied the door was locked.
Chapter 15
Sylas was dying. He was in pain. He had to be, because he couldn’t breathe. The vision of Chance naked in all her glory was too much. Why he went into that bedroom, knowing… knowing she was getting ready for a shower was beyond him. It was all he could do to walk away from her and leave the room.
Chance reminded him of Lady Godiva with all that hair. All he wanted to do the second she dropped her towel was get lost in her. Then she bent over and he was done. He wanted her more than anything he’d ever thought of wanting in his 500 years. He wanted to pull her tresses, be inside her and never come out again. He’d almost shifted, and the pain of needing her right then and there had caused him to whine.
The only reason he came back to the house was her need for a shower. She would be at her most vulnerable then. He had a bad feeling about leaving her there alone, but once out of the shower, he knew she could take care of herself. He took a huge gamble when he didn’t hear the lock click shut by pawing at the lock when she opened the door again. He needed to be more careful. If he kept this up, she would learn about the immortal world, and he could not let it happen until he knew she was the one.
