Rane's Mate

by Hazel Gower

  Rane kissed her lips. “Don’t worry, little red. Remember what you saw Faith do the other night, just watch.”

  She smiled and then moved closer in to watch. Faith was in the middle of the mats, looking at both men, who were circling her. They came for her together. Faith laughed and kicked Lance in the stomach and punched Logan in the stomach too. She then spun, turned, and high kicked Logan. Jumping back, she kick-punched Lance, laughing the whole time as she backflipped out of the way.

  Rane laughed too as Faith looked like she was deliberately playing with them. She sparred with Logan, and spun, flipping out of Lance’s way. Rane could see the look of wonder on both men’s faces. Faith used that to her advantage and pounced with everything she had, finally taking out both of them.

  He heard Kirby murmur, “How does she do that? Move over Buffy.” She chuckled. Kirby came into his embrace as Sara and her cheered. Lance and Logan had looks of respect and wonder as they sat up and stared at Faith.

  She smiled at them, which turned strained a second later as she went straight to Kane and said, “They did good, but they need to keep their anger and frustration contained, because it’s holding them back.” Faith whispered something into Kane’s ear before she fell into his arms and went into a vision. Rane took over from Kane, putting a human with every werewolf patrol group.

  When Faith came out of her vision Kirby and Sara were sitting next to Kane. One held some bottles of water, and the other had sandwiches. While they ate, Faith talked to Kane, and his frown got worse the more she spoke. Rane moved over to hear the end of the conversation.

  Kane looked up to him. “What do you want first, the good news or the bad?”

  Rane ran his fingers through his hair, almost pulling it out. “Bad.”

  Kane’s smile was strained. “We’re going to have to move our raid of the demon stronghold up. We’re going on Wednesday. We’ll leave here and travel through the night, arriving at daylight, so everyone needs to be ready pretty much now. Wednesday morning will now be D-Day.”

  Rane groaned.

  Kane continued, “The good news, which we kind of already knew, is Wrath will have a mate by the end of the night, and she will be a healer. Here is a tiny bit more bad news. We’re going to a hospital tonight. We’re going to have a busy night, Dad is even coming to fight. We’re pulling in every werewolf, even Granddad is going to help. He’ll be doing locations, and Mum’s getting the house ready for any supernaturals. We have four elders who are going to be drivers tonight. Everyone is pitching in.”

  Rane moaned, nodding as they all headed to the van where he saw an elder and Wrath arguing.

  Chapter 10

  As they drove through the city to their destination Kirby reflected back on the last couple of days. Had only been four days since she’d met Rane and found out about demons? It felt like years.

  She couldn’t believe she’d found someone who accepted her and her gift. She was so happy to be learning how to use her gift, fighting and helping save the world. She was mated to a man who was nothing like what she thought she would end up with. He was strong, stubborn, sure of himself, proud, and definitely a force to be reckoned with. Groaning, she realized that he was a lot like her brothers. If someone had asked her if she’d ever go for a military man or mercenary, she would have said ‘no way’. Kirby knew how controlling and overbearing her brothers were. She didn’t want that for herself.

  But Rane had been more than anything she could imagine. She looked at him and sighed. He was way too good looking for her.

  She knew he wasn’t happy right now. His face was a granite mask of anger, and it was half her brother’s fault, he had done it again, come over yelling at her and telling her she was not allowed to come out tonight fighting, then the idiot had turned to Rane, saying, “I can’t believe you’re letting her go fight demons, minions, and zombies. I thought you were going to look after her and take care of her. This is not something I want for my baby sister. I haven’t worked so hard to keep all those military men in Singleton away from her only to have her fall into something worse.”

  What had shocked Kirby the most was that all Rane did was growl and nod his head. Kirby shook her head. She was pissed off with her brother, and Rane. Her brother should stay out of her business and stop being an arsehole. She was angry with Rane because he had agreed about her not coming. And he wasn’t even trying to get on with her brother. You would think they would try as they worked together, but no, they couldn’t even for her.

  The twenty-five minute drive to the hospital was tense and uncomfortable, with only Faith talking, reminding Kirby she needed to focus on the minions and try what she had been taught earlier today. Sara was told to call on her water element powers and ice anything she could, with water to fire at the demons. Tray had gone nuts at that, saying Sara wouldn’t be getting close enough to the demons to do that.

  Sara and Kirby sighed in relief as they all got out of the car when they arrived at the hospital, which was eerily quiet considering it was a metropolitan hospital. All the werewolves swore as the sulfur smell emanated around them, and Faith paled for a moment and turned, staring at Wrath.

  “They’ve got her, Wrath. She didn’t mean to do it, but she told them we’re coming. She has no control over her sight, and only sees visions very rarely, but since she turned thirty she has been coming here to get help.” Faith patted his hand. “I need you so enraged that you can take on two demons by yourself, because from what I’ve seen we’re going to have to call in reinforcements. They have your mate on the tenth floor and—” Before she could get the rest out he was gone. Faith wasted no time turning to Jack. “Call in more reinforcements, because they are everywhere in there. They’re waiting for us. There are about eighteen supernaturals in there, and over two hundred civilians. Once we step in they will be on us.”

  Faith turned to Sara and her. Kirby gulped, knowing what Faith was going to say. “I don’t care, I’m helping,” Sara and her said together.

  Logan, Tray, and Rane jumped in with, “No, there are too many of them. Someone needs to drive the women back now.”

  “Don’t even think that I’m not helping,” Kirby said. “For once my power will have some use.”

  Sara added, “Think of all those people. That could be me in there, Tray. I’m a nurse, I’m going to help.”

  They took Faith’s hands, pulled out their iced knives, smiled at each other, and were about to go inside when Rane grabbed her arm.

  “Little red, I really think you need to go back. You haven’t had enough training. Two days of training is nothing. Come on, not tonight, you’re already coming on Wednesday.” He kissed her hand.

  Her brother piped up. “I agree with the dog.”

  Rane growled, and she turned to them both. “I’m going.”

  Faith smiled. “Kirby, minions will be the first things that come at us, so you’ll need to be in the front line.” Kirby straightened her shoulders and took several calming breathes while Faith continued. “Logan, I’ll need you at the back to shut and lock the doors. I don’t want anyone coming in.” Faith then raised her eyebrow at Logan, saying two words, “Use it.”

  Kirby shook her head at the odd comment, while she felt Rane’s arms come around her as he leaned down and whispered, “I’m really not happy right now. Promise me that you will try not to be a hero, because back up is a good half hour away, and I will personally tan your butt if I find out you didn’t hide from the demons.” He turned her and kissed her forehead. “Don’t let anything happen to you. I need you, little red.”

  They walked into the empty emergency room. The smell of blood was so strong not even the disinfectant smell drowned it out. Kirby could hear faint screaming and moaning. Everyone started to spread out.

  Faith shook her head and said, “Not here. Up.”

  They took the stairs. As they reached the second floor, Kirby turned back to all of them and whispered, “I feel hundreds of minions.”

  As they got close
r to the door, the crying, screaming, and moaning got louder. Kirby was terrified, but she knew that she had to do this. Wiping her hands on the leather pants that she had been given, she stared at the door that would lead them all into chaos and ordered herself to focus on the minions. She nodded as the door opened and she zoned in on the first forty minions that came for them.

  Focusing on as many as she could, she screamed, “Stop!”

  Over half froze, but the rest kept coming. Never giving up, she kept trying to contact as many as she could. Faith moved, crouching down in front of her, getting everything that came at her head on. Jamie and Rane were on either side of her, with Logan at her back.

  * * * *

  Rane was amazed at his mate as she held twenty something minions back. Knowing they had to act fast, he, Jamie, and David, who he had to admit he was impressed with, backflipped in the air, taking out as many minions as they could. Moving forward, they searched out demons.

  Rane dared not look back as Jamie, Faith, and Kane took care of a massive demon coming for Kirby. He ran down one of the halls where the screaming was the loudest.

  A demon held two people, one was a woman in her late thirties, the other a man who seemed to be in his forties. The demon was looking into the man’s eyes, and then he drank his blood. The woman screamed and the air around them swirled, moving things, making things fly through the air at the demon; the woman was an air element. The demon shook the woman and growled. “Stop or I will kill him.”

  The demon shook the woman again before his head came up and he stared at Rane. He wasn’t the largest demon, only about eleven feet, although he had two tails, which was something Rane had rarely seen. It added to the problem, as the tails were like extra sharp hands with pointed arrows at the end.

  Rane nodded to David, telling him to hurry as they needed to get up to the tenth floor and help Wrath. “David, you deal with the front. I will do the back.”

  Nodding, David attacked the front, cutting off one of the demon’s hands with his long knives, which released the dead man, and the woman slowly tried to crawl away. Rane went for the tails, getting rid of them first, as they had the best movement and did a lot of damage.

  Blocking as one tail came at him, Rane sliced the other off. The other tail tried to wrap around his waist, succeeding when minions came at him, slicing his skin and obscuring his vision with their body and wings. With the demon’s sharp tail wrapped around his waist, its arrow head digging into his stomach, Rane killed the minions. He sliced off the tail around his waist, pulled out the arrow head that had embedded in his skin, and jumped on the demon’s back. The demon bucked, growled, and threw his huge body around, trying to get him off.

  The demon said, “You will all die tonight. We have over thirty demons to your pitiful numbers. You puny werewolves will all die,” he spat at David. “We demons will have your mates and all the others that are here.”

  The demon grabbed David and threw him at the wall, then banged his back with Rane on it against the other side of the wall. Using the wall as leverage, Rane pushed the rest of the way up and wrapped his arms around the demon’s neck, slicing his head off. He then pushed the demon’s body forward with his feet.

  Letting David handle the rest, he ran, heading for the next level. Passing more demons and helping fight them, he stopped when he saw his mate commanding minions to freeze. A zombie came up to Kirby, and Rane glanced around, noticing that everyone was busy. He ran over to his mate, killing the zombie.

  Kirby chanted “Stop, stop, freeze, freeze” over and over again. Faith and Kane were fighting a demon together only metres away from her, and Logan was killing as many minions as he could that were frozen. Rane helped Kirby again as another zombie came out of nowhere and grabbed her around the waist, which made her lose her concentration. The minions came out of their freeze, and they attacked. She kicked and punched and slashed at wings and cut heads off the minions, doing her best. Rane growled, trying to get the minions’ attention and to get them to turn to him.

  Logan turned at his growl, yelling at him. “About fucking time. Kirby needs your help!”

  He growled louder as he used his claws to rip wings and grab at minions, pulling their heads off, roaring when a demon came out of the elevator with more minions and went straight for Kirby. Running to get to them before they reached Kirby, he backflip-kicked to get where he needed to be.

  * * * *

  Kirby was high on adrenaline. She knew in the back of her mind that when this was over she’d be in a shitload of pain and have one severe headache. She just couldn’t believe what she had done, and what she was doing—using her powers to help kill. She didn’t really care too much for the ugly creatures, but it still didn’t feel right using her powers like this.

  The things she hated the most though were the zombies, as they had once been human, and when they grabbed her she hesitated, which cost her. When she heard Rane’s roar, she knew he had come to help her, and he would save her. He looked breathtakingly amazing, an avenging angel even in his half-changed form. The elevator doors opened and inside was the biggest demon she had ever seen. He was squished into the elevator, and when he finally unraveled himself he was easily seventeen to eighteen feet tall. She had no idea how he had even fit into the elevator, because she would swear that he was bigger than it was. She gulped as minions flew from the doors of the elevator somehow.

  Faith came up beside her, swearing, and yelled over her back at Kane. “Hurry the fuck up.” Then she turned back to Kirby. “You have to focus and gain as much control of the minions as you can. The less minions there are, the easier it is for us to fight the demons.”

  Kirby nodded, focusing on the new minions that were looking directly at her. These minions seemed to fight more, they didn’t stop when she said, “Stop, freeze, stop!”

  Going into their heads further, she noticed a scary thing, this demon was onto her, he was counteracting her. Knowing her friends were in trouble and that what she was about to do was stupid, she did it anyway. Searching for the link the demon had to the minions, she found it and stopped the minions.

  Logan killed as many as he could. He came from behind her and moved in front of her. She focused on the link, but the demon started to notice and grabbed the link, laughing into her head. She fought as he told her, “Come to me. Kill the wolves. Kill, kill, kill.”

  Kirby screamed as the demon came closer and his long tail wrapped around her. Faith was trying to get around to the demon’s back. Rane and Kane were fighting the demon from the front as best as they could, even as minions flew at them, but the demon’s horns on his head were so big and he used them on Kane as much as he could. Faith was climbing up his back while Rane distracted him, slashing at him and trying to go for his heart.

  Kirby struggled with the tail as they fought. Getting a good grip on her knife, she used it to chop the demon’s tail from around her waist. She yelled at her friends as she caught some threads of the demon’s thoughts. He was going to smash Faith against the elevator doors. Kirby yelled to try and get the demon to look at her, to get its attention, as she leaped through the minions, killing them and the connection. Kirby lost the demon’s train of thought, but she didn’t care as she now had his full attention. Rane freaked at that, roaring, finally getting at the demon’s heart as talons from the demon’s hands wrapped around Rane’s middle, trying to pull him away. Without thinking of the consequences, Kirby ran up, using her knife to slash at the demon’s arms. Her brother pulled her away as the demon’s head rolled by her.

  Rane turned to her, and she gulped. He was scarier right now than the demon. Rane nodded to Logan and then turned back to her and said, “Never do that again, Kirby.”

  She frowned as they walked to the stairwell. Very quietly and hesitantly, she said, “I was connected to his mind, through the minions, he was blocking me and when I got the thread it caught me and he was trying to get me to do things. I didn’t, I just kept following the link from the minions. He was
going to slam his back against the elevator doors while Faith was on him, so I acted without even thinking. I ran and I lost his train of thought because Logan and I killed the last minions. I don’t know what the demon saw in my mind, I don’t think he saw anything, but based on what I saw in his, I knew I had to help.”

  Rane and Kane swore, but Faith nodded and said, “We’re going to have to look into that, I wonder…” She was cut off as the whole hospital started to shake. Faith continued, “Quick, we need to help. There is an earth element here.” Faith cocked her head. “Maybe an earth witch.”

  Chapter 11

  Two and a half long hours later, Kirby sat in the hospital’s large conference room with twenty werewolves, fifteen military men, Sara, Faith, and another woman who was sobbing in Wrath’s arms. The giant werewolf was gently kissing her forehead and seemed to be whispering calming words.

  Two military men, who she guessed were pretty high up, called for quiet, but nothing happened in the room until Kane whistled then said, “Quiet now.” His tone was so deadly she thought some men even stopped breathing.

  The general stepped forward, introducing himself, and then started talking. “After tonight you have our full cooperation. We will help on Wednesday, giving you anything you need to find the tunnels and weed them out. I think we need more than fifty soldiers trained.”

  Rane cut the general off. “With all due respect, General Beal, fifty is already too many. We need all the wolves to be focusing their energy on fighting demons, not helping train humans. We don’t have enough wolves to go around as it is, and we’re doing things we have never done before. We’re letting our mates help, plus—”

  The general cut him off this time. “We need to protect and help in the fight too, today demons and minions killed just under a hundred, and wounded many more. The men you have so far seem to be doing fine.”