Healing Cherri (2 page)

“
Ha, not blonde anymore,” Cherri crooned. Her friends loved to call her the blonde bimbo of the group.

“
Once a blonde always a blonde, there's no going back,” Calli drawled and then lowered her gun when Sabrina called from the other end of the room that it was all clear.

Cherri stepped out from behind the large wall she had been pushed behind when Calli and Kade entered. She really just wanted to get to her computer and upload her information. She had an idea and wanted to see if she could make it work. If she could, then maybe Kiki would wake up. When he was shot in the head, they gave him a drug to help him repair his brain; part of the drug was a strange mixture of a sedative and regenerating drug. Cherri thought possibly Kiki was having a reaction to the sedative. Ah, modern technology, a bullet to the head was no longer deadly, well only if you missed the important area on a shifter that needed to be hit. There were only a few ways to kill a shifter; the tried and true bullet was one of the deadliest.

“
So, what’s going on?” Cherri said, trying to stand on her tip toes to see above the towering bodies in front of her. “I need to get back to work. Kade, just take him out in the hall and beat the shit out of him for invading my space, and if his face is as handsome as his voice, don’t leave marks. It would ruin the mood if I decide to give him a spin.”

Chapter 1

Declan Chase had been busy emptying his boxes when all hell broke loose around him. He had guns pointed at him, and then the most delicious voice floated from across the room. Whoever it belonged to had to be hot and sexy; her sweet, husky voice flowed over him, and his wolf stood up and took notice. It had been a while since that happened, and the last time he thought Lily had been his mate. Sadly, she had only been a vicious guttersnipe who wanted his money to go shopping with, but he would gladly give the person behind that voice what she wanted in order to hear her talk again.

Ms. Praton had hired him a few months ago to take over at the lab. He had been unable to actually get up here until he settled things at home in Texas. His parent’s died last year and had left a mess. They had owned a large cattle ranch which he inherited, but he had no intention on actually running it. His passion was medicine and he refused to give it up. The last straw had been Lily. When Ms. Praton called asking for help because of the mutations that were showing up, Declan had jumped at the chance to work for the Agency. In the shifting world, no matter how smart you were, if you could shift, the humans were afraid. So unless you lived in a large city like New York, you didn’t really do well with patients. This was going to be his ticket to move from the country now that his parents were no longer with him; he’d been labeled a Loner. This meant he could find a small family Pack and join, not that he had to. It was just easier in the eyes of the humans if he did.

So, he had to hire someone to work the ranch for him, and then make sure things were running smoothly enough for him to leave and come to New York. It had felt like forever since he had been in a lab. When he had all his equipment shipped, Declan had followed with the actual shipment so he knew everything made it. It also gave him an excuse to leave early.

When he came in this morning, Ms. Praton had not been in, and the security had been a bitch to get through. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but this was not the same place he had visited a few months ago. Something must have happened, but being too engrossed in getting settled in the lab and right to work, he had blown off the warnings about making sure you carry your ID’s with you. He could see the mistake now that he was staring down the end of a weapon. Declan was not a stranger to guns, living on the ranch he had been a precision shot, but he really didn’t think pointing it out to the woman who was setting her sights on him that she was holding the gun wrong, was a good idea.

“
Your ID and information say you are the new head of the lab?” Sabrina said, and looked over her shoulder. She had a confused look on her face. Someone named Ms. Rett was the head of the Lab right now, and apparently she was getting a promotion or something, because he was taking her spot.

“
Yes ma’am, that's what I was hired for,” he said, making sure his drawl came out to make it sound a little sarcastic. He already had the security checks, why would they even question this? “Can you tell me why you're all in here pointing your weapons at me?”

“
Because they're worried you're here to kill me,” the voice said from the back of the room. “But who cares, the bigger question is, who the hell hired you to run this lab?”

Declan smirked, and then said, “The big honcho did, and now I would love for someone to start answering my questions instead of asking more.”

He heard the husky chuckle, and his cock got hard. Why was he having such as reaction to just a voice? It was driving him nuts, he needed to see her. His wolf was pushing at him to walk forward and find her.

“
Oh, I would love to answer your questions, Country,” the woman said and finally came into view. His wolf went nuts. Declan held up his head and inhaled deeply through his nose.
Mate
, he thought, and looked at the woman and hoped he was scenting right.

There were a lot of people in the room, including the tall woman who was heavily armed in a protective stance and growling, pulling his mate behind her. And then a large man, who seemed to be the tall woman’s partner, stepped in front of the pair of them and blocked his view completely. Declan refused to allow his mate to retreat, and responded to the woman and man with a snarl. The Enforcer who was closest to him made a noise and then tension filled the air again.

Now the guns came back out, and Declan was forced to hold up his hands and wait while everyone yelled around him, he didn’t care because he was staring at his mate. Since all the people seemed to think he was a threat, they were focused on him and moved away from her. She was
gorgeous
, and
perfect,
he thought. Long, dark hair with reddish highlights, and her eyes were flawless and green—she was like a pint-sized pixie. Her heart-shaped face, pert lips, and her body, oh man, her body was the things centerfolds were made of. Of course, those were from the old days. Now the pictures were in the vids, but Declan still had some old magazines his father had stored. He, of course, would never admit it, but there were a few of those ladies he had thought of when he pleasured himself. After seeing his mate, he couldn’t think of what a single one of those women looked like.
Shit
, he needed to get closer to her.

“
Sir, please step back and put your hands on the table in front of you. We have cleared you with security, but until we get a few questions answered, you need to remain where we instruct,” the large man said with a commanding voice.

Declan paused and then looked at the man. His wolf howled and then bowed.
What the fuck was going on
? He did as they said, figuring if he complied, it would make it so he could get with his mate faster. But then he felt some strange connection with all the people in the room. He counted six of them. The Enforcer who was in front of him and the Enforcer who stood behind her. Then there were the obvious couple who seemed to be the leaders, and then his mate.

“
No problem, I have to tell you though, I think that woman is my mate, and my wolf was just responding to her,” Declan said smoothly. Then pointed at the cute, little woman who was wearing a lab coat he noticed for the first time. Whoa, his mate was a doctor too, this was amazing, and his thoughts turned to sneaking into the closet for an adult game of doctor.

“
Huh,” the tall woman said, and her partner laughed and slapped his leg with his meaty hand.

Declan was missing the joke, but who cared, if it made the situation less tense, he would be able to get his mate alone soon. Thoughts of bending her over the table were filling his head. Damn, he had to snap out of it, all he was thinking about was where he could fuck her—that probably wouldn’t make the best first impression.

His mate made a noise of disbelief, and then finally came closer to him slowly. She lifted her head and sniffed. “Shit,” she whispered and then turned back to the Enforcers. “I’m outta here,” she announced, and then turned and ran for the door.

***

Calli grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She probably looked like a fucking cartoon with her legs still trying to run while in her friend’s arms.

“
Easy there, turbo,” her friend whispered to her and then set her back down. “Let’s work this out,” Calli whispered in her ear.

Cherri sighed and stopped fighting then turned around and looked at her friend in the eyes and said, “I’m not ready.”

She wasn’t. When Calli found her mate, they had all been shocked, one hundred and twenty-some years they had lived and nothing. Calli and Rissa were her best friends and sisters. They did everything together, from the time they met each other in their parent’s front yard in the borough. They had been inseparable forever it seemed, going to college (three times) together. Then moving into their high rise loft when they scored big in the human stock market, which was a big secret. Since the humans were afraid they were trying to like take over the world and stupid shit like that, they were supposed to be regulated with how much money shifters could make. But Rissa, their other bestie, was a computer nerd to the hilt. She had all their accounts worked out so it looked like a few of the humans hit it big in the stocks. The girls had a good laugh over the whole thing.

Then Calli met her mate. Kade was awesome and fit right in with the rest of them, but there were more things that came to light after they met. The whole thing with people trying to kill them, plus they actually had a higher purpose than what they thought, which really kinda pissed Cherri off. She felt like getting three Doctorates had really exceeded her potential, so much pressure. This is where the whole thing gets kinda hinky. They had barely touched the tip of the iceberg of the information they needed, and so far nothing was actually making sense.

They thought the drugs the dipshits were bringing in were for one thing: to change the dipshits into acceptable shifters who weren’t gonna freak out at any moment. But that didn’t really make sense, why would they care? The humans just regulated them more. If they were criminals, why not fly under the radar like they were now?
Just butt ass confusing
, Cherri thought.

Kade and Calli were actually the Alphas of their new Pack. No one, of course, knew this because of the freaky ass human laws that prevented any formation of Pack, Prides, Dens, etc. It was stupid really; the only organization of any of the shifter or magical creature was that of a family. They were allowed to take in two Lone members who were shifters that had no family to speak of any more.

That was a damn lot of Alphas and also what the humans completely wanted. Since Alphas were so territorial, they figured by declaring only families could be organized would cause them to fight among themselves for territory. They had no clue what being a shifter meant; they just thought they were animals. But having a group bigger than a normal shifter family raised flags with the humans. Then they were often separated and banned from seeing each other again. When the girls had moved out of their family's homes, Calli had become their Alpha—it was a natural decision since she was a mean bitch. While Cherri was the bubbly, happy, girly girl, and Rissa was the ubber smart airhead. Calli was the strongest, the meanest and the one who loved guns.

They lived like this for years, happy and content making money on the sly and working for the Drekinn Agency. The Agency was the regulatory Agency of the magical community. They were established just after the last human and shifter war. At first, they were established to make sure the shifters were following the rules. The humans had made many laws in order to make sure what had happened in the past didn’t happen again. The history books were still a little hazy on the facts; they had just figured out the humans had hidden the details, so history would not be repeated.

Apparently in the past, the humans had been happy about the shifter community coming out. Their ancestors had smoothed the way and for many years, frighteningly enough, they had actually lived in harmony with the humans. Cherri always wanted to start humming some old “Let the Sunshine In” song when they started talking about this. It was like a fairytale since they had been unable to actually see this way of life.

There had been a second war in the magical community. The Chosen had won, and they had come out to the humans. Years later, there had been a human by the name of Franklin Stemp, who raised questions that many humans wanted to know the answer to. If the shifters had such elongated lives, what was to stop them from planning and waiting for one generation of humans to die, and the next to come so they could take over?

It was logic at its finest, and with humans also envying what the shifters had, it had caused a problem. Shifters made money; they had larger houses, and they generally seemed more relaxed and happier than the humans. Studies had been done by the humans and it was found that since shifters knew they had longer to live, they didn’t enter the whole rat race of life.