For Their Happiness (16 page)

When we got there, I handed Jazzy a set of keys that had been in my pocket, after rinsing them in the sink,
set her down on the bed,
and let her play with them as Nikki and I talked.  She loved keys at the moment.  She was teething
, so chewing on them felt good on her gums, and the jingle of them made her giggle.

“I don’t really know how to say this, but…I feel like Zeke would make a great addition to our pack.”  Nikki started off slowly.

I nodded in agreement.  I felt as if I knew what her concerns were going to be, but waited for her to continue.

“Well, I’ll be coming in with the others for the ambush, but I worry that the rogues may turn on him before we get there.”  She finally said.  “Especially if he has to reveal his status before planned.”

“You are afraid something will happen to him; that he’ll get hurt?”  I asked just to verify.  When she nodded, I thought about it for a moment.  “I’m not really sure what I will be able to do to protect him, but you know I’ll do anything in my power.  He will have the power to stop any of them with a single command, though
.”

“I know.  I just…”  She looked down, obviously at a loss for words.

“You feel something for him, don’t you?”

She looked back up to me with tears in her eyes.  “I can’t tell exactly what I feel.  I never even entertained the thought of another
man
besides Travis.  I loved him with my whole heart; I don’t know if I can set myself up to lose someone else.”

“Well, with that kind of thinking, then yeah
; anything will fail.”  I told her, grabbing her hand and squeezing.  “But what if this is your second chance from the Goddess?  Are you willing to let it pass you by?”

Nikki looked off toward the wall of her room, lost in thought.  I got up, picked up Jazzy, and headed to the door.  Before walking out, I turned back to her.

“You need to decide first, though.  It will only cause you and him both more heartache if you start something your heart can’t commit to.”

I went down to the kitchen and ate lunch and played with my angel for a while before Trent found me.  One look at him and I knew I needed to be with him.  We walked Jazzy back up to Becca and Billy’s room.  Luckily they had had time to finish their ‘alone time’ and took her so I could have some ‘alone time’ of my own with Trent.

He made love to me for the rest of the afternoon.  We only left the room long enough to join the pack for dinner before heading back.  After talking
for a while
and a little
bit
more loving, I fell asleep secure in his arms.  I would be leaving with Zeke and Bolton in the morning, but I was able to block that from my mind and dreamed of babies with my red hair and Trent’s amazing eyes.

I was following Zeke in the woods somewhere on the border of North and South Dakota where we would be meeting the rogues.  He had contacted them that morning not long after we left and told them the cover story.

He said that he had followed us home to our pack land and waited for me to be alone. 
The story was that
I had been in the clearing with some kids, and
he came up as a wolf and threatened the children.  I sent them running and he took me; I went willingly to save the children.  It was believable for both sides, and they took the explanation, telling him where to meet them.  The rogues had
already made their way to the area, so it worked out well for them.

I had talked Zeke into tying my hands with rope and leading me through the woods.  It would be more believable of something he would have done, and he knew I was right.  I just walked along behind him at a fast pace as he held the end of the rope.  He said that had been the way he had traveled when in human form before.
  Now if they had anyone watching, everything would be more believable.

Bolton was about a half a mile back from us, following at the same steady pace we had set.  If he scented anything or noticed anything happening that wasn’t supposed to, he was supposed to create a distraction and divide the attention of whoever it was.  He was just at the edge of my senses
, but enough for me to feel better with him being there
.

Trent was with me.  We weren’t communicating, but I could feel him with me.  He had a really hard time letting me go that morning.  When I woke he was lying beside me, propped on his elbow just watching me.

He bent down to kiss me softly on the lips.  “You are so beautiful.”  He whispered
,
his lips feathering against mine
,
as the kiss ended.  “I want us to be here, like this, always.  Promise me that you will never leave me.”

I knew what he was really saying, and I also knew I couldn’t
make that
promise.  “I love you so much, Trent.  I am so happy to have been blessed with you as a mate.”  I told him, running my fingers down his stubbly cheek.  “Just know that no matter what life has planned for us, our destination will always be the same place.  We
were always, and
always
will
be destined to be together.”

He rested his forehead against mine, his eyes welling with the tears he refused to let fall.
  I knew I was seeing a side to Trent that nobody had gotten to see before; the vulnerable, unsure side that needed the assurances of his mate that they would be alright.

“I need to hear you say it.”

I kissed him, and I put everything I felt for him that kiss.  When we finally parted I was honest with him.

“I am not the Goddess to be able to say
what
will or will not happen.  What I can say is that we both have done everything in our power to make sure that we will be together again.  If that doesn’t happen; if something goes wrong…”

“No.  Nothing is going to go wrong.  We can’t let it, baby.  I can’t go on if you’re not here with me.  I won’t.”  He said vehemently.

“Yes, Trent, you will.”  I told him.  I sat up and he followed, not moving his arms from around me.  “I know you love me, so no matter what happens, you will go on to lead this pack and be the best Alpha you can be.  You will find love again and live the life that we couldn’t.  You will do it for me because it’s what I want.”

He nodded, the tears finally escaping the corners of his eyes.

“I want to hear you say it.”
  I said, repeating his words back to him.

“I will go on.”  He looked back into my eyes that were now also leaking tears.  “I’ll do it for you.”

I slid my arms around his neck and pulled him to me.  “Let’s believe, Trent.  Let us both go into this and believe that we’ll both be safe when
it is
over.”

I kissed him now with all of the passion and love I could put into one kiss.  Though it was already time to go, we didn’t care.  Trent made love to me again, neither one of us speaking or breaking the spell we were weaving for each other.

An hour later we headed down to the rest of the pack.  My parents and friends all gave me a hug one by one; none saying goodbye.  When I finally got back to Trent, I whispered in his ear so no one else could hear, “Whenever you start to worry or doubt, just close
your eyes, think of me, and fee
l me there with you.  I’ll be there.
  I’ll always be with you.
”  His arms tightened around me for a second before he kissed me fiercely.

Walking through the woods, almost to our destination, I could feel Trent doing just as I said; he was thinking of me and feeling me.  We were one and we always would be.

“
They’re
straight ahead.”  Zeke breathed out in a whisper only I could hear alerting me out of my daydreams and musings.

We walked about a hundred more yards before coming to a clearing.  There stood Harry and Bethany along with the Diamondbacks and
a few
rogues.  Some wolves were around
,
snarling and drooling
,
that could only be the ferals.  I looked them all over, keeping myself calm and trying to project that and the feeling of serenity to th
ose around me and immediately the snarls died down; the wolves all looking at me curiously.

This was good.  This part of the plan seemed to be going bett
er than we thought it would
.

‘We are here in a clearing.  I seemed to have managed to calm the ferals.’
I told Trent through our link.  I had been telling him each move we made; where we were and such.  I felt his love and assurance, telling me they were on their way, through our bond
,
and it helped me to keep my calm.

“I’m so glad you joined us, Crystie.  I’ve missed you.”  Bethany said as if we were here for a casual meeting.  “I can see that Will was right about you.  You have already tamed my wolves.  I need you in my pack, Crystie.  I admit though, that I thought we would have a fight on our hands to get you.”

“I will always do whatever I have to do to keep my pack safe.”  I told her.  It was actually hard for me to stay calm while hearing her talk.  I felt the unfamiliar anger coming back to me, and I didn’t know how to deal with it, but I just tried to push it back and do as planned.
  “I will do as you ask and join your pack as long as you guarantee me there will be no kind of attack, harm, or even a threat of
any type made against the MoonBeam P
ack by you, the rogues, the Diamondbacks, or even the ferals.”

“My my.  You do cover all of your bases don’t you?”  She said mockingly.  I felt like I was missing something, but couldn’t figure out what it was.  Had I forgotten something? 

I looked over to Zeke to see his reaction to all of this,
but he was down in the grass un
conscious.

‘Something’s wrong, Trent.  They took out Zeke while Bethany was talking to me; I don’t even know what they did
to him
.’

I was beginning to panic and didn’t know what to do, but then I turned
it
in
to the anger I had shoved back
earlier
and tried to figure out how to use it
to my advantage
.

“Did you really think you could fool us, Darling?”  She said in a bad exaggerated southern accent.  “One of my wolves saw Zeke with your pack back in Texas.  I knew as soon as I heard fro
m him you had something planned, but hey, I have my own plans.”
  She laughed.

I felt a prick in the back of my neck.  My hands were still tied, but the rope was no long
er being held, so they flew up to
the place I had felt the sting.  I turned around and the man there looked at me regretfully.

‘Trent!  They injected me with something!  They knew Zeke was with us; saw it in Houston.
  I don’t know what’s going to happen.’

‘We’ll be there in fifteen minutes, just stay…’

I lost my connection to Trent.  I couldn’t hear him or feel him outside the spark of life I felt telling me he was still alive.  Something had cut me from my link to him.  I was dizzy, and just standing there, my world started spinning and I fell over.

Bethany walked over to me.  She brushed my hair out of my face like my mother would have done if I had fallen when I was little.  “I’m sorry honey, I know that stuff packs a kick, but I had to make sure there was no way for you to contact your pack.”  She stood up and ordered one of the pack members to pick me up and carry me to wherever they were going.

They started walking
off
with me in tow;
leaving Zeke out cold on the grass, when a large pony sized gray wolf that I recognized came out of the tree line straight to attack the ferals.  Bolton had come to cause his distraction.  I just hope he survived until the pack got here because when I called on the shift, my wolf was asleep and nothing happened.  I was stuck as human and couldn’t help.

I didn’t know what to do.  Even when my wolf had left me, I had been able to shift.  What had they injected me with that blocked my natural magic?

The man carrying me, along with Bethany and Harry, went over to a tree that was surrounded by bushes, trying to get out of the way of the fight going on.  My head was still spinning, but I focused as much as I could on what was happening.

Neither t
he rogues
nor the
ferals
had
realized that Bolton was attacking them until he had already taken four of them out, but he still had a good thirty five or so to go, and that didn’t include our little group and the seven enforcers of Harry’s standing around us.

Bolton fought valiantly
yet savagely
, but I was
still
so scared for him.  At that moment it was a fight of five on one.  Everyone that was in the field was now in their wolf form, our group being the only ones left on two legs.