Barely Winging It (20 page)

“Good! We have a few things to discuss. Let’s start
with you,
Neto
.”

Neto’s
stance and voice, though slightly tired, showed confidence. “Our journey here
wasn’t so bad up until the last two days. I was careful so I don’t know if it
was luck, or what, that allowed some shifters to find us. The trouble started
just as we crossed the border into Ontario. We were chased and attacked several
times. I’ve had to replace my tires twice, and we had to hide in a cave once,
for nearly twenty-four hours. That was yesterday. Once I felt the coast was clear,
but I drove us out of there, I didn’t stop, driving through the night even,
until we arrived here.”

“Now tell him what you told us just a few minutes ago,
downstairs. About the Webbers,” Enzo insisted.

“The Webbers?”
Alphy
looked directly at
Nix.
“Your in-laws?”

Nix nodded in affirmation as
Neto
repeated what he had said earlier. “I stopped to help a couple with a flat
tire. I smelt the brake fluid and pointed it out to him. We put some duct tape
on it, and he asked me to not let his wife know. He said he’d tell her later,
after they got somewhere safe and it was fixed.”

“Did you know who they were when you stopped?”
Alphy
sounded curious.

“No, sir.
It wasn’t until we were done that he told me where he was heading and I told
him that was my destination as well. He just said it must be fate. Does he know
about shifters?”

Alphy
sent Nix a look to answer.
“Not that I know of.
Their
daughter is my mate. She learned about us just the other day, and we only just
mated yesterday. She,
Alphy
, and Gale were in a plane
crash last night, and that’s why they’re up here right now to visit with her.
They were really worried, as you can imagine. A simple phone call wouldn’t have
been enough.”

After a brief few moments of silence,
Alphy
spoke.
“All right.
Thank you,
Neto
. Go ahead and head inside for some breakfast and
a nap. I’d like to see you this afternoon, and we can discuss more at that
time.”

“Yes, alpha.
Thank you.” Turning,
Neto
mumbled congratulations to
Dultyn
as he passed and
headed out the door.

“Slate, report.”
Alphy
eased back and
relaxed a little more as Slate took over the meeting.

“Security has been slow to setting up. We have had
many security issues. As you know, the wiring was faulty. At the time of the
kidnapping, Ryker and Tom were in town buying new ones. With Matteo and me
elsewhere interrogating the shifter from the attack,
Kace
and the others on a build, and you and Nix headed to Toronto, it left no one to
stop Havana from being abducted. We ordered tons of equipment but haven’t
gotten even half of it yet. We set up what equipment we did get, around the
house first. What was left was placed around the garage. Ryker worked late
yesterday to replace the wires, but more patrols will have to be kept nearby
until we are able to get more equipment. This puts us at high risk against
whatever Alpha Smith may have planned against us.”

“What’s holding up our equipment orders?” asked Nix.

“Customs.”
Slate’s answer was short and simple.

Kace
asked, “Could
S.I.S
. be causing it?” The room went silent.

“Fuck. Me.”
Alphy
growled
and leaned his head back, rubbing the palms of his hands over his temples.

“How much do you think they know about us?” Nix asked.

“More than they should, that’s for sure,”
Kace
grumbled irritably.

“We need to know what Alpha Smith’s relationship to
the
S.I.S
. is and how much
S.I.S
.
knows
about us.”
Alphy
looked at Matteo. “Matteo, I’m assigning those two tasks to you. Do what you
have to do, without further jeopardizing our existence, to get it done. Ryker,”
Alphy
turned his head to face him, “get Tyler on the
phone. We need information from the council,
and
they need to be warned that a human government just may know
about us. That’s plenty big enough news to end his honeymoon. Slate, what can
you
tell
me about our two prisoners?”

“Nothing great right now.
The first prisoner is a wolf shifter, Ace
Nunce
. He has only given us information that we already
knew, and since the whole thing with the beta is a moot point now, I don’t know
what to do with him. “The SIS pilot is secured in the barn with him, but I have
yet to question them. And it hasn’t been easy keeping them in the barn, I might
add. The council wants us to keep them ourselves for now. We need a real
holding cell.”

Alphy
turned to
Kace
. “We might end up with more prisoners
soon enough with all these attacks. Make building holding cells your priority.
Does anyone have anything else to add?”

Ryker bounced on the balls of his feet. “
Oo
,
oo
, I do. Our guest vampires
headed back home this morning. They took that submissive lion shifter, Maximus
Stone, and offered to imprison anyone else we need until more suitable
accommodations could be created for them. I know you gave them permission for
the lion, but I told them I would have to run the modified offer by you first.”

“That would be welcome. Make the arrangements. Oh, and
Dultyn
, for now, I would like to ask that you
continue guarding at night with Stelios and Bogdan. Keep vigilant guys, and
don’t let yourselves feel overwhelmed. I know we are being tested right now,
but look at how blessed we have been as well. Through our adversity, greatness
shall come. Life tests us to change us. It is up to us to let it be for the
better or worse. Embrace our trials and be ever vigilant of what you allow it
to forge you into. Our choices we make now will define the future of our pack.”
Alphy
looked tired, and everyone excused themselves.
They had a lot of work to do.

****

Bronya
laughed at Reese and Havana’s bantering. She even spotted a smile on the shy
face of the new girl. Her father placed a hand on her shoulder to get her
attention. Turning, she looked up into her father’s face.

“How about you take us to look at the strip of land
you were talking about turning into an airfield? That is if you are feeling all
right. We can take a look at it later if you would rather.”

Bronya
was feeling pretty good so she gave her father a wide smile. “I’m feeling great.
I’d like to wait for Nix though, if that’s all right.”

“Wait for Nix for what?” The welcome voice came from
behind her.
Bronya
hopped off her chair and rushed
over to her man. With his arms securing her, she felt a part of her settle. She
didn’t realize how unsettled she was until just now.

“My parents wanted to go and look at where we wanted
to put the airstrip. Would you be able to take us?”

After giving her another squeeze, Nix loosened his
grip just a little and pulled her back, gifting her with a smile that did happy
things to her belly. “I’d love to. Let me get our jackets and let someone know
where we’re going and then we’ll head out.”

Nix grabbed the keys to the pack pickup and drove them
through overgrown dirt roads that veined through the property. They passed some
of the rundown old homes and drove over small old bridges. Nix pulled up under
a tall tree and parked the truck. “We’ll have to walk from here.”

The rains had stopped, but the ground was still mushy
and muddy. Everyone was wearing tennis shoes or boots, but the ground made
squishy noises in some parts as they trudged deeper into the forest. The road
was close to the field, and they stopped at the tree line when they finally
arrived, enjoying the lush green field, dotted with an array of colorful
wildflowers.

“Oh this is lovely, sweetheart.” Her mother’s voice
breathed out.

“From what we were told, it used to be a farming
field. We were thinking of—”

The echo of a gunshot rolled over them.
Bronya
heard Nix grunt, and as if in slow motion, watched
him fall to the ground, blood pouring from between his fingers that covered his
upper chest.
Bronya
fell to the ground and put her
hands over Nix’s, adding pressure to the wound. A scream tore through the air
beside her, coming from her mother.
Bronya
looked up
and saw her father holding her mother tight against him.

“
Bronya
!”
The angry and wild sound of Gates’s voice had her
looking behind them. He held a rifle aimed at them as he slowly walked towards
them. “You whore! You could have had me, but you chose some crazy cult freak.”

Before any of them could respond, an elk charged from
nearby, skewering Gates with his antlers. The elk kicked out his front feet and
raked them over the now bloody and shouting figure. The elk tossed his head and
pushed, continuing to stab Gates.
Bronya
turned her
head but could still hear his flesh being pounded and the snap of his bones
breaking. Her mother continued to scream, but in a quick matter of moments, all
sound stopped.
Bronya
turned again and looked at the
elk. His horns and hooves were wet with blood. She hoped he was a shifter.
“Help, please. He’s been shot.”

As the ligaments snapped, she watched the fur recede
and shrink. The faced flattened, his long ears shrank, and very shortly a naked
man she’d seen in passing stood before them. Ignoring her parents gasps, he
jogged forward and picked Nix up. “Come on. Let’s get to the truck, and I’ll
drive us back to the house. Do you have your cell?”

Bronya
jogged behind the quickly moving shifter, and she could hear her parents were
close behind. “Yes.”

“Call the house. Tell them to get Seamus ready.”

She had the number on speed dial. She recognized
Connie’s voice answering. “Hello.”

“Connie, this is
Bronya
.”
She panted through her speech. “Nix is shot in the chest. We’re on our way
back. Have Seamus ready.”

Bronya
only waited long enough to hear an acknowledgement before she hung up. They put
Nix in the bed of the truck.
Bronya
jumped up and
continued to put pressure on the wound as the shifter man jumped in the cab.
Her father helped her mother up into the back of the truck then climbed up
behind her, settling on the other side of Nix and holding onto the sides. She
thought it was odd they were out here instead of in the cab of the vehicle, but
she wasn’t going to ask about it right now. Right now she needed to keep her
mate alive.

She looked down into his drooping brown eyes. “Stay
with me, Nix.”

The ride was rough as they sped over the overgrown
roads. The wind and branches whipped around them. Her father pushed her mother
down and shielded her as
Bronya
hunkered down closer,
over her mate. The ride smoothed out once they hit the clearing with the pack
house. They slid to a stop, fishtailing slightly, in front of the garage.
Seamus was out in front and didn’t wait for the vehicle to come to a stop
before jumping in the back with the pack he had and started working on a now
unconscious Nix.

Blood puddles and smudges streaked the bed of the
truck as several others helped carry her mate out of the truck and dash him up
to the medical wing.
Bronya
would have followed, but
her legs didn’t seem to work at the moment. She was usually so strong and calm,
but the thought of losing her mate, even after only really knowing him for
three days, zapped the strength from her limbs and threatened her resolve.

Wow, it’s only been three
days?
She sat stunned at how much had happened in
three days.
Attacked day one, plane crash day two, shot day
three.
Will it always be like
this? Seamus wasn’t exaggerating when he said things happen fast in the
paranormal world.
Her father’s gentle voice, coupled with his hand warming
her shoulder, brought her out of her thoughts.

“
“Come
on,
Bronny
, let’s head inside and get you cleaned up.
Then we’ll get something hot to drink while we wait for news. After what you’ve
just seen and gone through, I know you’re traumatized, but we are here for
you.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, and her nose started to
clog with her emotions. She mentally shook herself and gave her father a nod.
Inside the house, however, was quieter than she had ever heard it. Not even the
twins were running around. She was sure they were in the living room, but they
were keeping quiet.
Bronya
wrapped her fingers around
the hot cup of coffee, warming them, but she didn’t drink any.