Devi: Matefinder Book 2 (14 page)

                Kat was staring at us, she looked a little sad. I felt bad then, that we had rubbed it in her face.

                “You won the bet.” She smiled at Kai.

                His face grew sullen. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

                “What bet?” I asked.

                Kat shrugged. “Sadie, Kai, and I had a bet going about who would meet their mate first.”

                “I’m happy for you,” she told Kai.

                I forgot about how big of a deal it was to meet your mate. That it was all werewolves wanted.

                “Your time will come,” he told her with sadness.

                She nodded and then looked at me. I wish I had some news for her. My gift just didn’t work that way. I shrugged.

                “Well, it’s time for a little explosion.” She regained her composure.

                We put the taco truck and two busses deep into the desert and Kat rigged them with explosives. I watched the fire burn with intensity and with it, my desire to help the humans burned bright inside of me. I liked what Kai said about dying and knowing you made a difference. That’s what I wanted to do in life. Make a difference.

                The next morning I awoke to a flurry of activity. Our plane from Phoenix was a red eye and got in early. I had crawled into bed for a little nap and was awoken to Kai’s voice outside. Kai was screaming on the lawn and I could hear a large truck engine in the driveway.

                “Gotcha, you bastard!” Kai screamed. My heart was hammering inside my chest. I opened our master bedroom window that led to the side of the house. I kicked off the screen and leapt outside without thinking.

                Kai was wrestling a drone to the ground from the net of our drone catcher. Jai, Izzy, and Anna were helping.

                “Jesus! You scared me,” I told him. I was in his oversize t-shirt that barely covered my butt. He eyed my bare legs with a smoldering look. Anna and Jai hid their smirks and looked away.

                “Go inside and change. The wedding set up people are here,” Kai told me.

                Oh my God. I was getting married the next day. I smiled. He grinned back at me.

                I heard Emma’s voice then. She was barking orders around the front of the house.

                “This is cream! I ordered white! Look at the form. White.” Emma was screaming.

                I reached into the bedroom window and grabbed a pair of yoga pants off of the chair. I put them on and ran to the front of the house, pulling my hair into a pony tail.

                “Emma what’s wrong? You’re pregnant. Calm down, you might go into labor,” I scolded her.

                She had one hand on her belly and the other on a piece of paper. “I ordered a white silk tent for your wedding. Look at this thing! It’s eggshell.” She gestured to a group of guys holding a very large bundle of beautiful silk fabric.

                “Emma, it’s gorgeous. I love it!” I told her.

                Her face cooled. “Really? Because they can exchange it.”

                The guys seemed to be having a hard time holding onto the bundle for very long. I seriously thought it looked white and couldn’t tell the difference.

                “Yes, I really do. Set it up out back,” I told them and patted Emma’s belly.

                I went inside to shower and get ready for the day. As the water beat down on my back, a sad thought struck me. My mother wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding. My heart ached at the thought. Maybe Sylvia could tamper her memory or something afterward? But during the ceremony she would be so weirded out about the Shaman and the blood exchange and that wouldn’t work. I felt awful.

                ‘What’s wrong?’
Kai felt my emotions.

                ‘Nothing, just that my mom won’t be able to see me get married. She has waited her whole life for this day.’

                Kai was silent for a long time. I could feel him taking pity on me.
‘I’ll figure something out.’
He didn’t sound too convinced.

                Something else had been bothering me too.
‘Kai?’

                ‘Yes, my love.’

                ‘Layla has been silent. She has told her people not to harm me. She is waiting for us to marry, then she will come for me, won’t she?’

                I could hear the growl in his head.
‘And when she does, I will be ready.’

                ‘Me too.’
She was evil. She had been here too long, causing too much pain and robbing humans of their futures. I made a promise to take her and that dark witch, Prudence, off of this earth forever.

                My phone beeped. A text from Alexa.

                 
-
They know about the early wedding bells. Expect drama.-

                Okay … I forwarded the text to Kai. They, I assumed, was RAIDOS. How was she still getting information on the inside?

                Kai wrote back.
-Seattle and India pack are coming. This will be the most heavily guarded wedding in history. Also, I just killed two of their drones =) Bring it on.-

                I chuckled.

                Never a dull day in this pack. We were doing it. We were getting married. I called my mom to chat about small talk. I didn’t mention the wedding. I didn’t know what to say. She knew we were engaged, maybe I’d just let her think we were engaged for the next year, then do a fake wedding. Yeah.

                The morning dragged on. Emma and Diya had done all of the hard work so I didn’t have to think about the small stuff. But still there was so much to be done! Emma, Diya, and I decided to get our nails done in Sandy, at the base of the mountain. We were waiting for three pedicure chairs to open up when Alexa walked in with a baseball cap on and dark, baggy clothes. The hairs on my arms stood. She casually sat next to me. Diya and Emma looked at me waiting for my direction. I shook my head slightly, indicating they shouldn’t talk to her.

                She was wearing a Portland State University hat. “I like your hat. I went to PSU,” I told her.

                She took it off and turned it over, a note and three small one-inch vials fell swiftly from the hat and into my open palm. I curled my fingers around them and tucked them quickly into my pocket.

                “Oh, thank you. I wanted my hair done today, but they look too busy here. I’ll have to come back later.”

                She got up and left. Diya looked at my pocket and then flicked her eyes to the bathroom.

                “I gotta pee. Be right back,” I told the girls.

                I tried to walk slowly and calmly to the back of the salon. Someone was watching us. Alexa wouldn’t have risked being exposed if it wasn’t important.

                I shut the bathroom door and locked it. Then I opened the note while setting the medical glass vials aside.

                Aurora,

                I signed up to be a part of RAIDOS because I was curious about supernatural races and I wanted to minimize their threat to humanity. But I won’t do that at the cost of the lives of good people. You, Kai, and your pack are good people. RAIDOS has a contingency in place that if you and Kai marry … they plan to kill you. They can’t risk it. They don’t want vampires to be able to reproduce and have children, and I know you don’t either. They don’t care the cost. It’s a casualty of war to them. They have silver bullet guns, silver harpoons, silver cages, holding facilities, and much more. They are ready for a war with your kind. They have been preparing a while.

                I fear that my time on this earth is going to be short if I don’t make changes soon. They know I have knowledge of their facilities and plans. I wanted you to be warned. Your life will not be peaceful if you marry Kai tomorrow. Be ready for war, not just with the vampires but with humans too. But I understand why you want to marry him. You deserve it. I have enclosed three vials of a serum that protects werewolves from silver. It gives them permanent immunity. Give it to Kai, Emma, and whoever else you want to protect most. (It won’t hurt the baby). I have done some bad things in my life. This will help me set them right. Helping you…

                Don’t try to contact me.

                Happy wedding day tomorrow.

                Goodbye,

                Alexa

                Shit! I grabbed my temples. It was not what a girl wanted to hear before her wedding day. For a split second, I considered not marrying him, but something within me had changed. Having the vision quest and opening myself to Kai had reconnected our bond. I wanted everything with him. I wasn’t the type of girl to be told what to do. If RAIDOS thought they could keep us from marrying, then they were about to be surprised. We had over 300 werewolves attending this wedding. I would marry Kai. If that started a war with the humans as well, then so be it.

                I folded the note and placed it in my pocket. The vials clanked together softly. I casually walked back out to meet the girls. I knew that Kai could talk to anyone in the pack with his Alpha bond. I wondered if, as his second, I could pull on that bond to talk to Emma and Diya. Normally, I could only talk to them in wolf form. I stilled my breathing and calmed my mind. I felt for Kai’s energy. It was there, inside of me, burning bright and strong.
Alpha
. I funneled that energy into Diya and Emma and saw mist rise up off of my skin.
‘RAIDOS is going to try to make sure the wedding doesn’t happen. We need to be quick, not arouse suspicion. They’re watching.’

                Emma’s nostrils flared. Diya glared out the window. They were mad. They had received the message. Then I felt Kai’s shock as he felt me tug at and borrow his Alpha power.

                After our nails were done, we got in my car and I sped down the winding road to our house. Kai had texted me twice asking about my erratic energy and the pull on his Alpha bond. I told him ‘wedding stress,
’
but used our code word for RAIDOS, adding ‘I’m hungry.’  It pissed me off that they were watching us and tapping our phones. I wasn’t a criminal!

                I pulled into the driveway and my tires skidded a little. The yard looked breathtaking. I tried not to peek too long because Emma wanted to surprise me. Since I was closer to Kai, I could fully communicate with the mate bond.

                ‘Alexa slipped me this note and these vials.’
I handed him the stuff as he met me at the car. Emma and Diya waved to me and walked towards their house.

                Sylvia slipped out the front door behind him.

                “Oh hi, Sylvia. Are you here for me?”

                She looked at Kai and they shared a look.

                “No dear, I was meeting with Kai again. I will see you tomorrow.” She smiled. “He invited the whole coven.”

                I grinned at Kai. That was big of him to invite the witches. None of the wolves would appreciate it, but he did it for me.

                Kai led me inside. He read the note fully and turned the vials in his hand inspecting them.

                ‘I trust Alexa. She’s pack. She has done nothing but go out of her way to protect us,’
I told him.

                He nodded.
‘I agree. She is pack. I’m on the council now. I will bring it up and see if we can officially bring her into the pack as a human. Even if we can’t, I will offer her protection.
’

                I smiled. We were always on the same page.