Rane's Mate

by Hazel Gower

  “Wow,” Kirby mumbled. She took a seat in the middle of the sofa with Faith and Sara on either side, discussing when they would leave and what bands were priorities.

  Kirby couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She had never had this before…friends that she could laugh and argue with, and now Faith even knew her secret ability. She finally felt like she belonged.

  * * * *

  Rane came into the house to laughing, screaming, and squealing. He waited in the entry hall, watching and listening.

  “Oh my God, they didn’t. What did you two do?”

  He heard the musical voice of Kirby answer, “Well, Faith must be used to it because she handled it like a pro. I tell you what though, damn! That is not what fifteen to sixteen year olds look like where I’m from. If they did, I wouldn’t still be a virgin at twenty-two years old.” All four girls squealed with laughter.

  Rane would swear his wolf did a happy dance that she was untouched and only they would have her.

  Sara giggled. “Faith, you have to tell, give it up.”

  “Okay, but I laughed my arse off when it happened. I don’t know if I can tell it. You know how I told you that after school care is in the converted gym? Well, it was myself and Kirby’s turn to set up, which involves a lot of moving around and lifting. I noticed we had a crowd of boys about the age of fifteen-sixteen. They were finishing up playing basketball. The coach usually always tries to stay back if he knows Kirby is going to be there.”

  Kirby chimed in, “He does not.”

  Rane bit his tongue so he wouldn’t growl. He didn’t want them to notice him and stop talking. Rane stepped toward the doorway and peeked into the lounge room, watching as they threw food at each other.

  “Hey, don’t waste the M&Ms,” Remy said, which for some reason made them fall to the floor in giggling fits.

  “Don’t listen to Kirby, he does stay back for her, and if the PE teachers or coaches at the school I went to looked like him, I would probably be a soccer or basketball star,” commented Faith. All the girls squealed in laughter.

  Kane came up beside Rane with his work bag in hand. “I know I’ve retired from the military, but someone has to keep an eye on things, so while you’re gone, I’ll check on your recruits. Do you still think you can do this? I know what she is to you.”

  “Hell yes, I’m going. I’m not an idiot. I am not going to run from my mate. I’m going to embrace this with open arms. You’re running right now, aren’t you, Kane?”

  “God yes! You do hear them, don’t you? I love that woman in there, but when she’s with those friends…” He shivered. “Good luck with them today. Watch those women like a hawk.”

  Kane left and deliberately slammed the door. Faith turned toward it and said, “Oh, there’s Rane. Let’s go. I don’t want to get there too late.”

  He smiled and nodded at them, then turned around and headed out the door, knowing that they were following him.

  * * * *

  By late afternoon, Rane had figured out that he was in hell. A straight guy never goes out with women on a girls’ day out, no matter what they’re doing or where they’re going. He should have taken Kane up on the offer to bail out. It was worse still, because if one more person accidently touched Kirby’s butt, boobs, waist, or any other body part, he was going to rip them apart. Not to mention the men who asked for her number…they were going to die. The worst thing of all was that she ignored him, wouldn’t even look at him, avoided being close to him. By the time night fell, his wolf was so on edge that he did something he never did, he retreated and called Kane.

  “Okay, who do I have to get to replace me? I can’t watch without touching her or breaking some bones in these guys that she’s attracting.”

  Kane chuckled. “Not to worry. I’m coming, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes, and then we can endure together.”

  He shut his phone as Jamie, Devlin, Owen, Cullen, Dominic, and Tray came up next to him. “We heard the good news, bro. Good luck with that one, she is hot.”

  Rane whacked Jamie upside the head. “Does anything but shit come from your mouth?” He turned to Tray. “How the fuck did Kane get you to do this, Tray?”

  Tray frowned. “He didn’t, I’m in the same boat as you.”

  Rane raised his eyebrow.

  “Sara,” Tray explained.

  Rane laughed. “When?”

  “Kane’s thirty-fifth birthday party, but she was still seeing that dick then. They broke up a week and a half ago, so I’ve been biding my time. I knew she’d be staying with Faith this weekend. Don’t worry, Rane, I know how you feel. The guys have been holding me back. That last guy that came up to her nearly didn’t leave here alive.”

  Rane nodded, glancing over at Faith only to notice that she had gone still. Fuck, she was going into one of her trance visions. She was pushed from behind and started falling. All seven werewolves ran straight to Faith, but Remy, Sara, and Kirby caught her right before she hit the ground.

  Rane picked Faith up, and even he could feel that this was going to be a big vision. He yelled over the noise to call Kane and see how close he was. The six werewolves surrounded the women, protecting them from any danger or prying eyes.

  Rane was surprised when Sara spoke up. “This is not the place for her to be having one of these.” All the wolves turned to stare at her. Sara rolled her eyes. “She’s been one of my best friends for sixteen years. My God, I’m a water element myself. I know you guys are something paranormal, but she would never tell us what.”

  All the werewolves turned to Remy and waited for her to tell what element she was. Groaning, she reluctantly told them. “Okay, fine, I’m a fire element. You can all stop looking at us now. You expected Faith to keep your secret, so she also kept ours.”

  Faith was snatched out of Rane’s arms and the wolves stood to attention as Kane took over. “How long has she been out? Who was around? Did she touch anyone?”

  “Five minutes tops,” Rane said. “I didn’t notice anything suspicious, and no, she wasn’t touching anyone.” He turned to the women. “Did any of you see her touch anyone? Did you notice anything suspicious?”

  Kirby moved forward, speaking up. “No. I only felt you seven wolves, though there is a cat shifter somewhere out there, but I don’t know if it’s male or female.”

  Remy and Sara looked at her in surprise. “You’re a what?” Sara asked.

  Kane interrupted, “Not here. Not now. We need a safe place.”

  Taking out his phone, Kane made a call and five minutes later they were all backstage in a medical tent. Once everyone else was cleared out, the twelve of them sat quietly, too scared to say anything. They all waited for Faith to come out of her vision. Kane held her tight on his lap.

  Faith came out of the vision, panic stricken. “You need to call more wolves.” She rubbed her forehead. “Honey, massage my head, I saw too much in such a short period of time. Fuck, Remy, Sara, and Kirby…where are they?” The three women came into her line of vision. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to say a lot of weird stuff and I’ll have to explain it later.” She turned to the werewolves. “I’m so sorry if I say something I shouldn’t.” Everyone nodded. “Here it goes—psychics, elements, and sensors must be drawn to each other. We must all love music because there are a lot of us here today. So what do you think is going to happen tonight? Demons, minions, and zombies are coming.”

  Kirby and Sara laughed. “Um, very funny. They’re all make believe,” Sara commented.

  Faith smiled sadly at Sara and Kirby. “I’m so sorry to drag you into this, but they are real. The military knows all about them, and they make sure it stays hush-hush.” Faith turned back to the werewolves. “Tonight is going to be major. The demons are working together in large groups, they’re desperate for these people.”

  She turned and focused on Rane. “You’re going to have to get military help, as I don’t know how we’re going to contain this. I saw four groups of people the demons want.” She push
ed off Kane and started to pace. “In the first group I saw two women. They are both some kind of element. I think they’re in their late twenties-early thirties. They were both blondes, one with blue eyes, the other green. They both had jeans on. One had a black lace top, the other had brown sequins, and they were coming out of the techno beat shed. One of the side doors was near gates and I saw three demons, and I did a quick count and I think there were eight minions and two zombies. That was all I got because it flashed to the next one really quickly. The only definite I got was the demons.

  “The second group is the one we need to focus on as they want them bad. I’ve never seen this many demons work together. Eight demons.” Faith shook her head. “They want the people… They’re just teenagers. There are five of them, all are something paranormal. I only got a definite of two though, the important ones. One boy is like me and the other boy is similar to Kirby. Minions were everywhere, I couldn’t get a sure count, there were four zombies maybe.”

  Faith started shaking. Kane stopped her pacing and hugged her close, assuring her that his father was listening and he had Major Black listening on another phone.

  She settled into Kane’s hold and continued on. “They’re near the small stage. This group is in a band, and they played earlier this morning and stayed to watch the other bands. This is the youngest of the four groups the demons want, and they’re all males. I feel this one is going to go down around about ten-thirty or eleven PM. They’re going to leave via the left side exit off the backstage, all the boys together. It was too quick, and that’s all I got. The only thing I can remember about them is that one had a mohawk and the other had lots of piercings on his face. Sorry,” Faith apologized again. “Too much was going on.”

  Faith continued on as Rane looked around the room, noticing the intent stare of all the wolves and the women. He returned his attention to the conversation as the werewolves swore, and then the room turned quiet. His brother told their dad that they were going to need every available wolf there now.

  Hanging up the phone, Kane looked at Rane. “Please tell me that you have trained the six human military men enough, because we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  Rane sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “They will have to do. If we split them up, put two in each team, they should be fine.” He got on the phone, making sure everything was organized.

  Kane swore, pounding his fist, before he turned back to him. “Rane, the weapons aren’t all iced.”

  Sara cleared her throat. “I’m a water element, what do you mean by iced?”

  Rane smiled at Kane, pulling one of his blades out as he explained to Sara how everything worked. Sara was confident she could ice the tips.

  Faith interrupted them, speaking loudly so the whole room could hear, which now consisted of all of the werewolves they could spare, six military men, and three women.

  “We need to try to make this look like part of the show. We want the least amount of pandemonium. Sara, Remy, and Kirby have agreed to help. I know already that Sara and Remy work well together. I’d like for them to be put with—”

  Tray stepped forward. “If you’re putting Sara in danger, she goes with me.”

  Sara stared at Tray bug-eyed and open-mouthed.

  Kane spoke up. “Tray, you’re my best marksman shooter with bow and arrows. I need you elsewhere.”

  “I mean you no disrespect, but my mate stays with me.”

  Kane nodded and Faith smiled.

  Sara sputtered out, “Mate…I am not...”

  Tray went straight over to Sara and looked into her eyes and said, “Yes, you are.” He pulled her shirt to the side and bit her shoulder.

  Sara screamed, and then moaned. Several chuckles were heard when she pushed on his head, smacking it. “You arsehole, you bit me.”

  Rane chuckled as they continued to bicker. Faith and Kane gave more instructions.

  Finally Faith looked at Rane and said, “Kirby and I are going with you in the second group.” Faith advanced on him, her finger pointed at his chest. “Don’t you do anything like Tray just did. I’m going to kick his arse later if Sara allows him to live. I mean it, Rane.”

  He put his hands up. “I will not bite her tonight.”

  “Okay, let’s go and get into position, and remember, minimal damage.”

  Pulling out into their groups, Rane looked at his group which consisted of Kane, Jamie, Devlin, Blake, Major Samuel Black, Sergeant Nathan Cross, and Dominic, Seth, and Owen in wolf form, also Faith and Kirby.

  Chapter 3

  Kirby was trying not to freak out. A few hours ago she had found out that her new friends were supernaturals and that other beings existed, like werewolves, demons, and other terrifying things. Oh, and that demons wanted to take over the world, kill almost all of humanity, and any humans that were left made to be their slaves or zombies. The thing that had her scared shitless though was that in a crazy moment she had agreed to help.

  They got themselves in as much of a position as possible. Kirby couldn’t understand how the demons were going to do this when they were surrounded by people. “How on earth do they expect to pull this off? There are people everywhere.”

  “They think the chaos they’ll cause will help them get the people they want. And sad to say, but it most definitely will. As everyone will be trying to get away, they’ll be going in the opposite direction.” Faith glanced at all the people near the stage then turned back to her. “Let’s hope the demons come when the last band has finished, then almost everyone will have moved to the main stage.”

  Kirby looked around to see the band was finishing their last song. Biting her lip, she turned to Faith. “How long do you think we have? The band is finishing now and we all seem to be spread pretty thin.”

  Faith didn’t get to reply as Rane came strolling over and cut her answer off. “Tell me you gave Kirby a weapon so she’s not just standing around looking like a stunned mullet.”

  Kirby ignored Rane’s comment. She didn’t even bother to acknowledge him. Every time she thought about him or even glanced his way her stomach did weird little flips.

  She smiled when Faith rolled her eyes before turning to him. “Of course, although I don’t know what good they will do her. She has had no training. First thing tomorrow I’m going to teach the girls some basic moves.” Faith reached forward and patted his arm. “Try not to worry. I’ll protect her.”

  Rane groaned. “Oh God, now I feel real great. Why didn’t we just send the girls home? Dad, Mum, Bengie, and the girls would have looked after them.”

  Kirby felt her stomach sink. Fantastic, Rane didn’t even want her around.

  Faith sighed. “We couldn’t spare anyone to drive her home, and I kind of wanted to try a little experiment with Kirby.”

  Kirby turned to Faith. “What experiment?”

  “I was hoping you would help with the minions as they are kinda animals.”

  “No fucking way, Faith. I know what you’re thinking. Kane, control your mate,” Rane muttered.

  “Idiot,” Faith and Kirby huffed out.

  Faith and Kirby shook their heads as Faith glared at Rane. “You did not just tell Kane to control me. If we didn’t have demons coming right now I would so be kicking your arse.”

  “Faith, I want to help, tell me about this experiment.”

  “You said you can talk to animals, so maybe you can get minions to do what you want, or at least confuse them enough for me to kill them.”

  Kirby touched her forehead, feeling a migraine coming on. “Well, if I can see the eyes of an animal—”

  “I said no. You are not looking a minion in the eye, no frigging way.” Rane glared at her.

  Fuck this idiot. What right did he have to tell her what to do? She’d moved away from her overbearing, controlling brothers so she didn’t have to put up with stuff like this. She’d had enough. Rane might be the best looking man she’d ever laid eyes on, but he was a controlling arsehole just like her
brothers. She turned to Rane, her fists clenched at her sides.

  “You do not get to tell me what to do. You’ve been glaring at me all day long and made it perfectly clear to everyone that you do not want me here. I don’t care if you’re the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, you are a controlling arsehole. I pity the woman who gets stuck with you.”

  Kirby heard laughter behind her, which turned to covered coughs as Rane turned and growled at his brothers. “Well, guess what, little red? That woman is—”

  Faith interrupted them. “Not now, Rane. It’s showtime.”

  Kirby turned from Rane to see they were surrounded. She screamed, even knowing she shouldn’t as it would draw attention to her. But at the sight of the minions, she couldn’t help it.

  “Kirby, get it together,” yelled Faith.

  It took her a minute to gather herself. There were screams everywhere. Faith was right, most people had moved to the big stage, but the few that were still around were screaming and trying to get away so they wouldn’t be slaughtered.

  Kirby saw creatures that were a mixture of a small, fat pig, but gray and black instead of pink, and a bat, but the wings had sharp thorns all over them. The little creatures also had sharp teeth.

  Faith yelled over to her, “If you can’t control them, then you’ll have to kill them. The best way is to cut the wings off first and either chop off their heads or stab their heart, but give it a try to control them before you attempt the other.”

  Sighing, Kirby looked up, nodded at Faith, then turned to look at the minions. She stilled though when she saw a demon. Frozen, staring at the things out of nightmares, Kirby looked at eight huge beasts ranging in size from ten to sixteen feet. They were built like a tank and were bright red with black thorns all over their exposed skin. Two large, black horns protruded from their head. They had wicked, long teeth, and had a tail with an arrow spike on the end. Some had two arrow spikes on their tail.