Ready to Were (14 page)

“We’ll shift and run back. It’s the fastest way and everyone needs to heal,” Hank instructed. “I want everyone at the sheriff’s office. We’ll notify your families and tonight we celebrate.”

No one cheered. We were too tired and still in shock, but heartfelt smiles were shared.

“Essie, can I ride you back to town?” Dwayne asked.

“No, you can’t.”

“Fine. It can’t hurt to ask.” He grinned and levitated into the air.

Everyone shifted except Hank and me. We watched as our Pack made their way home. The beauty of the wolves always left me breathless. Knowing I was also one of the magical creatures awed me.

“Can you shift yet?” Hank asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. My wolf felt lethargic inside me, but she was pleased. “You do realize you have some explaining to do, Mr. Dragon Slayer.”

“I didn’t slay the Dragon, pretty girl. You did.”

“You know what I mean.”

He stared at me for a long minute with a sexy half grin on his face. “It might piss you off.”

“It would take a whole hell of a lot to piss me off at the moment, so unless you’re married with ten kids, in which case I’d kill you…now might be a good time to confess,” I told him as my body tensed.

What in the world could he tell me? He was half Dragon? Impossible. His new hobby was offing Dragons? Unlikely. I waited impatiently.

“I’m WTF.”

Not what I expected.
At all.
“Right.” I laughed and waited for the punch line. It didn’t come. “What do you mean you’re WTF?”

“When I discovered where you were and what you were doing I watched you.”

“You mean stalked me?”

“Some might define it as stalking.” He grinned. “You were beautiful, amazing, confident and strong. I didn’t think you were ever coming back to me, so I joined.”

I was speechless. He was going to give up everything he loved for me?

“Why?” I whispered. “You’re the alpha. You have a Pack and a career and a life…”

“Because none of it means anything without you.”

My knees buckled and I crumpled to the ground. How could I ever have been so stupid to have left this man? No one in my long life would ever love me like he did. No one.

“The Pack. What about the Pack, Hank?”

“The Pack was never supposed to be mine in the first place. It just so happens my amazing mother gave birth to two alphas. I was more prepared than Junior was to take over at the time of my father’s retirement.”

“Junior?”

“Yep.” He grinned and shook his head. “It’s time for my big brother to step up and lead our Pack. He’s been ready for a while, but he would have never challenged me for the position. We’re far more than just two alphas—we’re brothers.”

“So, we’re not staying in Hung?” I asked, unsure what I really wanted.

“Right now I want to leave that decision up to you. But I think Junior will have an easier transition to Pack leader if I go away for at least a little while.”

I mulled over everything I had just learned and realized I felt lighter than I had in years. Could I really love the man of my dreams and still do what I’d become passionate about? Stuff like this never happened for me…

“Hank, my parents…” I couldn’t get it out. It hurt. Why after so long did their death cause physical pain?
Maybe because they didn’t have to die
.

“I already know,” he said as he wrapped me in his arms. “Granny told me.”

She’d certainly been busy, but I was grateful I didn’t have to speak the horrible story out loud. My Granny loved me fierce, even if she couldn’t keep her damned mouth shut.

“We’ll go,” I said firmly. “We’ll go back to Chicago and let Junior find his place. I have to find out what happened to my parents and…”

“We. We have to find out what happened to your parents and then we will figure out what’s next.”

I laid my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat—so strong, sure and mine. No matter what else life handed me, I knew my first priority would be to take care of the alpha who loved me.

“I feel very attached to you right now,” I whispered as I breathed in his scent.

“I can work with that.” He chuckled and held me tighter.

“I’m also feeling the need to jump your bones.”

“As much as it pains me to take a rain check, and let me be very clear…it pains me,” he said, referring to the impressive bulge in his jeans. “But I think we should get back to town and make sure our people are okay.”

Reluctantly, I slid from his arms and stood up. “I agree, but I will take a rain check.”

“That’s good because it’s definitely going to rain tonight. All night.”

“You sure about that, Big Boy?” I giggled.

“Never been more sure about anything in my life. Can you shift?" he asked as he gently tucked my wildly messy hair behind my ear.

I closed my eyes and drew on the power of my inner wolf. She was there and she was ready. "Yes. I can."

We quickly removed our torn and bloody clothing as the magic engulfed us. A magic so wondrous and rare it always humbled me. My skin changed to fur, my bones shifted painlessly, and my body became what it was meant to be. My wolf—my strong and beautiful wolf.

Hank's wolf was breath taking. His shiny chocolate coat glistened in the sun. He was much larger than me in his Lycan form, but his eyes were the same mesmerizing green. He nipped at my nose as I mooned at his beauty.

"
You gonna just stare at me or are you gonna to race me back to town
?" His amused voiced bounced through my head and I giggled.

"
I'm gonna kick your Wolfy ass
," I challenged as I took off leaving him in the dust.

The wind in my fur and the sun beginning to dip on the horizon into the ocean made this day one I would not soon forget. Of course, ripping the head off of a Dragon did figure in, but running with wild abandon next to my mate made me complete. No matter where we went, Hank would always be my home. That's the part that would stay with me. Always.

Epilogue

The shunning of the traitors was anticlimactic compared to everything else that had happened. The vote among the Pack was unanimous. The findings were reported to the Council and approved without contest. The Tinas were gone and would not be missed. No Pack anywhere in the world would accept them. I tried to find it within myself to feel pity, but I couldn’t. Perhaps with time I might, but it was still too raw.

The families of the missing girls were ecstatic to have them home. Hank, Junior and I were the local heroes, but Dwayne…Dwayne was the Second Coming.

All the Weres in our community bowed their heads in reverence when he passed. Even the more conservative Weres caught all of his shows at the drag club. The owner had to make a special dispensation for children because the Weres had insisted the young ones witness the talent of their savior.

Dwayne was in absolute heaven.

The Council had quietly sent down a crew to clean up Hung and the deserted resort on the outskirts of town. No one even knew they were here. Apparently they had come in the middle of the night and were gone by morning. My guess was they had sent Hyenas. Those shifters would eat anything—including Dragon guts. I tried not to dwell on it because thinking about it made me a little nauseous.

To make reparations for their misguided judgment—
their words, definitely not mine
—the Council purchased the old resort from the city and planned to restore it to a haven which would make people forget about its tragic history. All the proceeds would go to the Pack. It was yet again the Council putting a tiny Band-Aid on a gaping wound, but my fight with the Council would come in good time.

My boss, Angela was a different story. Her visit to Hung Island, Georgia was quick and to the point.

"Those bastard Dragons are being investigated much to their displeasure," Angela grunted as she sat on the plastic slip covered couch in my granny's house. My boss had brought her own bottle of whiskey and was indulging liberally. She was sporting a new and rather large bald spot over her left ear. She really needed to consider a new vocation.

"Yeah, well they should be," I said as I dug into a Juju's Meat-Lovers Pizza. "What they did was horrific and I'd bet Dwayne's Laboutin pumps that more were involved."

"My thoughts exactly," she agreed. "Those fire blowers need to be doused."

Hank, Granny and Dwayne had joined the impromptu pizza party. Hank was quiet, Granny was downright mute, but Dwayne was as animated as ever. My boss was formally polite. However, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop...it always did.

"She banged him," Dwayne happily informed Angela. "You owe me money."

"Actually you owe me money," she shot back.

"How do you figure that?" Dwayne asked, confused.

"You bet five hundred she would bang him and I bet a thousand you were right. You owe me five hundred."

"Damn it to hell," Dwayne muttered as he pulled out his wallet and removed five crisp one hundred dollar bills. "I need to listen a little better when I gamble."

"So, little missy, what are your plans?" Angela's eyes narrowed at me, but her voice wavered slightly.

I was different now. I knew it and she knew it. No longer was I the scattered dingbat I had been only weeks ago. Well that might be pushing it, but I
had
ripped the head off a Dragon. If that didn't change a gal, I didn't know what would.

I grinned and gave her a non-committal shrug that made her reach into her hair and pull hard.

"And you—Mr. Special-Forces-I-Exist-in-No-Data-Base—what are your plans?" she asked Hank getting more nervous with each non answer. "Are you coming back to Chicago?"

"That depends on a few things," Hank said as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs casually. Nothing Hank did was casual. Nothing.

"What things?" Angela asked. I felt kind of sorry for her. I liked her, but she no longer had my trust. I wondered how deeply she was involved with the Council and how much she really knew about my past and my parents.

"Essie goes off the radar too," he said calmly as if he was discussing the weather, but his deadly magic drenched the room. Angela shifted uncomfortably and Dwayne clapped his hands with glee. "We'll take missions, but we will answer to no one. We will report to you and you can keep the Council aware of our movements."

Angela's silence and terse nod shocked me, but Hank’s demands shocked me even more. He was way more than an agent like me. He had some major explaining to do, but now was not the time.

"After Essie completes the next mission, she has a free pass to get out," Granny hissed from the corner of the room where she sat with her hands fisted in her lap.

"I wondered when you'd talk, Bobbie Sue," Angela said quietly making it very clear to me that the women knew each other. "That's not my call, but I will see what I can do. Are you in?"

Granny stared Angela down until she squirmed and tugged on her quickly disappearing hair. Then my granny shrugged. "I've been out for forty years, but as much as I don't like you, I like the Dragons even less. I'm in."

"Color me confused and clueless, but what in the hell is going on here?" I demanded.

Granny ignored me and continued to pin Angela with a stare that made me want to pee in my pants. "Dwayne is my second. We also go off the radar and Essie is out when we're done. No negotiations."

The silence in the room was deafening and the story was one I would pull out of my granny even if she tried to whoop my ass in the process. As much as I wanted answers, I knew when to keep my mouth shut.

"Deal." Angela sighed and dropped her head to her hands in defeat. "Be in Chicago on Monday and I will..."

"No can do," Dwayne said. The silly Vampyre was gone and in his place was a very powerful supernatural bald freak of nature. "We have a vacation planned and I am not going to postpone it. This mission,
as you call it
, has dead Werewolf and Vampyre written all over it. Before I turn to dust, I am going to drink blood-laced alcoholic beverages with pineapple and pink-jeweled umbrellas in them. Essie and Hank are newly mated and have some urgent business to attend to or else they will be useless walking hormones. Granny needs to experience a nude beach and I need to find a sexy Rastafarian wig for my Bob Marley impersonation. Plus, I bought eight new Speedos and I plan to get good use out of them."

"You're doing men in the drag show now?" I asked, surprised. Not the most appropriate question at the moment, considering the tension in the room, but I just had to know.

"Only Bob Marley and David Hasselhoff," Dwayne squealed and then morphed right back into scary Vampyre dude. "We'll report to Chicago in two weeks. Period."

"Fine," Angela capitulated wearily. "Where are you going?"

"Jamaica." Dwayne grinned from ear to ear. "We're going to Jamaica."

***

“Oh my god almighty and Cher pre-surgery, I could live here the rest of my days and be happy,” Dwayne gushed as we watched the ocean waves crash against the rocks. “If I had hair I’d get it braided and skip along the beach while it whipped me in the eyes.”

I rolled my eyes. Thankfully, he was bald.

“Jamaica is nice,” Granny mused. “But I miss the rednecks.”

She adjusted her thong bikini and I closed my eyes in agony. There was only so much I wanted to see of my granny and her naked butt wasn’t one of them. We'd all decided to postpone the necessary talks about Granny's past and Hank's nefarious skills until our vacation was over. I was more than okay with that. If we were all going to bite it soon, I wanted to have a week of fun in the sun.

“Where’s Hank?” I asked with my eyes still squeezed shut.

No one answered.

“I said, where’s Ha…”

I opened my eyes slowly, prepared to glue them shut if Granny had decided to go topless. My tummy dropped and my heart raced. Granny and Dwayne stood quietly by the shore with their backs to me. Hank was in front of me on one knee. In lieu of screaming or passing out, I dropped to my knees and held on to him for dear life.

“I’m pretty sure only one of us is supposed to be on their knees.” His lopsided grin made me weak and I giggled like an idiot.