“They’re old friends,”
Hensen sent telepathically.
“Can’t say I hated your reactions though.”
Maggie shook her head at Hensen’s smug acceptance of their unwarranted jealousy, and then leaned back into Kade’s embrace. Thankfully, Hensen’s conversation with his “old friends” was brief and to the point. The beta of Shy River and both his mates were at Dry Creek helping to track down whoever was deliberately mutating shifter DNA.
Maggie was starting to despair that they had even more hiking to do when Hensen’s friend handed him a cell phone and her mate quickly called Gideon. She sort of half heard the conversation, but was still surprised when Hensen’s friends handed him a set of car keys, wished him luck, and headed back inside their home.
“There’s a road about half a mile south of your location
,” Hensen sent as he climbed into the huge four-wheel-drive vehicle.
“I’ll meet you all there.”
Within fifteen minutes they were bouncing along the rough dirt tracks, heading back to where everything had begun.
Despite the fact that Gideon had been given a rundown on the current situation—something he would have passed on in detail to the alpha of Dry Creek—everyone seemed to move away as Hensen, Gavin, Maggie, and Kade stepped into the meeting room. The alpha had his arms crossed, his demeanor far less friendly than the last time Gavin had met him.
“The DNA tests that Brigden ordered clearly showed mutations in Maggie’s werewolf DNA. We’ve found several more wolves with the same problem. Anybody who is bitten by them will become infected.”
“We have the cure,” Gavin said, trying to sound respectful but struggling to keep his voice down. Despite the assurances that Maggie would not be harmed at this meeting, it seemed the alpha wasn’t quite ready to extend that beyond the next five minutes. Fear for their mate’s safety swelled through Gavin, Hensen, and Kade as the alpha signaled to someone who’d come into the room behind them. They closed ranks around her, making certain that if anyone stepped closer that they would regret it.
“I said, ‘we have the cure.’ Does that mean nothing to you, alpha?”
“I’m protecting my people,” the alpha said without an ounce of remorse. To his credit the man didn’t flinch outwardly as Gavin raised his gun and pointed it at the werewolves trying to come up behind them. Gavin knew Kade and Hensen were a hairsbreadth from morphing into their wolf shapes.
“The DNA mutations are toxic,” a man Kade identified as Brigden said in a far more compassionate voice than the alpha had used. “The animals affected have grown increasingly aggressive, and many have morphed into grotesque humanoid shapes. They seem stuck like that, but the most worrying thing is that they pass on the infections just by biting.”
“We can’t risk exposure,” the alpha said sounding less aggressive than he had moments ago. “I’m sorry Hensen, but the situation needs to be contained.”
“The situation will be contained,” Gavin said, feeling his blood pressure rise. Why the hell wouldn’t the man listen? “I can cure the animals. I just need a chance.”
The alpha finally turned his attention to Gavin. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to risk my pack’s safety on the idea that you think you’re some sort of forest guardian. I can sense the mating links. The fact that she bit you makes you all dangerous and most likely delusional. You’re all infected.”
“Alpha,” Gideon said angrily, “this isn’t what we agreed on. You promised to hear them out.”
“I know,” the alpha said, sounding maybe a little tired, “but it’s the only way we can contain the danger.”
Gavin tensed for attack, expecting it to come in wolf form, so it took a moment to realize that the werewolves were actually trying to shuffle them toward a door at the end of the hall. It wasn’t until he heard the thought in Kade’s head that he realized it was the most likely outcome. If they went through that door there was a good chance none of them would ever be coming out. Anger drilled through him and he felt electricity crackle around him as yet another unexpected skill made itself known. The alpha quickly signaled for his people to move back.
“I
said
‘we have the fucking cure.’ Now back off and let me do my job.”
Everyone in the room seemed to recoil from the crackling energy surrounding him and his mates. Only the alpha and Gideon stood their ground.
“What do you need, Gavin?” Gideon asked with a small smile. “Tell me what we can do to help.”
“My blood is the cure,” Gavin said, no longer concerned about sharing that information. Hensen gave him an affectionate smile, apparently agreeing with the change in plans. They’d originally worried that Gavin might be held against his will while they pumped copious amounts of blood from him, but in light of his newest skill, it no longer seemed a concern. “The animals need to ingest it. I’m not sure how much but it should be less than what Maggie needed. Her DNA changes were two-fold.”
“Okay,” Gideon said with a nod. “Suzanne has gotten quite good at minor medical procedures. Would you like her to help?”
He glanced at his sister, only then realizing that she was also surrounded by the crackling electrical field he was somehow generating. She gave him a smart-ass smile, but he suspected it hid a wealth of fear. “Whenever you’re ready, big brother.”
He nodded but wasn’t quite ready to relax the skill currently keeping several werewolves at bay.
“Are you convinced now, alpha? Should I show off more of my skills?” he asked, bluffing just a little. He had no idea if he could urge someone who wasn’t sick to go to sleep the way he’d done to Maggie when she’d been out of control. “Or are you willing to concede that there just might be a species capable of protecting this forest?”
The alpha grinned, apparently impressed with Gavin’s annoyance rather than cowed by it. “I’m glad you’re here, and I’m glad you were right,” he finally said, nodding to the men behind them. They all moved back out of the room and closed the door. It left only Gavin and his mates, Suzanne, Gideon, Brigden, and the alpha of Dry Creek in the room. “I’ve sent my beta after the other woman who was bitten. He’ll be very glad to know there’s a cure. He didn’t like the idea of euthanasia any more than I did.”
“You would have killed her?” Maggie asked, sounding shocked. Considering that she’d been targeted for the exact same thing it was a little confusing. “She’s not a shifter. She would have no way of understanding what was happening to her. She has a right to defend herself.”
The alpha gave her a curious look. “You’re more worried about a woman you don’t know at all than you were for your own safety?”
“Of course I am,” she said looking angry enough to punch the alpha in the nose. Gavin kept his electrical field between them just in case Maggie decided it was a good idea. “You’re talking about a victim. A woman who has no protection, no mates, and no one to explain it to her. You didn’t even give her a chance to survive. You just gave your beta a kill order and sent him on his way.”
The alpha nodded. From what Gavin understood from Kade, the alpha technically didn’t answer to anyone. He could do as he pleased, but instead of dismissing Maggie’s angry tirade, he gave her a sad smile instead.
“I assure you, Maggie, that the decision wasn’t made lightly. I don’t enjoy killing and I’m very relieved that, thanks to your mates, things have a chance to turn out differently.”
“So you’ll call him back? Call off the assassination?”
“I’ll make sure my beta does everything we can to save her.”
Maggie gave the alpha a hard look. Gavin knew she wasn’t looking for pretty lies or false reassurances, so the alpha’s words seemed to satisfy her. “Thank you, alpha,” she said with a respectful dip of her head.
The alpha smiled and then turned to Gavin once more. “Get this done.”
Maggie sat on the front porch of her new home on Shy River pack lands and finally felt the tension drain from her muscles. Curing the affected animals had ended up being a rather quick task in the end. Whether Gavin had grown stronger or his theory that Maggie had needed more because she’d been infected and then made into a werewolf was anyone’s guess, but the simple truth was the animals were cured. They’d done what they could to try and help trace the last known movements of Shaw and Lisbeth Tryden, the two people suspected of creating the problem in the first place, but other than confirm that the den they’d used had been the same one the pack had found filled with medical supplies, it had been quite fruitless.
At least they’d been able to confiscate what seemed to be scientific notes on how the animals had been deliberately infected. It wasn’t over just yet, but with every pack, clan, family, and flock capable of communicating looking for them it had been no longer necessary for Maggie and her mates to stay in Dry Creek.
They’d gotten home late last night and slept on Hensen’s bed like a litter of exhausted puppies.
“Where are you?”
Gavin asked urgently as the electrical field crackled around her once more.
“I’m on the porch trying to enjoy my coffee. Do you mind?”
Gavin seemed surprised by her hostility but then apparently realized what he was doing.
“Sorry,”
he said as the electrical field dissipated.
“Do you want some company?”
“Only if you promise to stop with the wacky electro shit. My hair is frizzy enough without your help.”
“I’ll try,” Gavin said with a grin as he stepped onto the porch with a cup of coffee in his hand. “It seems to be an involuntary response when my mates are in danger.”
She quirked an eyebrow and looked around the idyllic setting of Hensen’s beautiful home.
“Okay,” Gavin qualified, “when I
think
my mates are in danger.”
“So you can’t control it?”
“Actually, I can, but my instinct to protect you seems to sometimes override it.”
“I suppose I can live with that,” she said as he sat down beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She turned her senses to her other two mates and smiled when she realized they were awake and enjoying each other.
“Hensen seems happy to be home.”
“He does,” Gavin said with a smile. “I don’t need a mating link to know that.”
She hesitated before asking the question he could probably already hear in her head. “But do you want the mating link with Hensen?”
“You know I do,” Gavin said pulling her closer as they both watched the sunrise and enjoyed the loving sensations that emanated from the bedroom. She didn’t mean to relay her conversation with Gavin to Hensen but she felt his reaction when her control slipped. Maggie actually heard Kade’s soft laugh as Hensen left him in the bedroom, his cock rock hard and still leaking pre-cum.
“You’re in trouble now, sweetheart,”
Kade said happily through their telepathic link. She gasped when the front door opened suddenly and Hensen stepped onto the veranda.
“Gav, I think now might be a good time for that spanking you’ve been promising our girl.”
Gavin turned to her, his eyebrow raised in question. “You told him?”
“Sorry,” she squeaked in a tiny voice. “I…um…guess it’s kind of like your electro skill. It…um…activates when I’m trying to protect my mates.”
Gavin laughed as he took her coffee from her and then lifted her over his shoulder caveman style. “Nice try,” he said with a slap to her bottom. “But maybe you’ll remember to keep private conversations private if I tan your hide as a reminder.”
She couldn’t help the soft moan as he caressed the very part of her he was threatening to spank.
“Hey,” Hensen said trying to sound affronted but ruining it by laughing, “you’re not supposed to enjoy this. It’s supposed to be punishment.”
“Oh…um…sorry.” She wriggled against Gavin’s hold, well aware that he wouldn’t drop her. “Um…no, stop, don’t.” She couldn’t say the words without giggling, which really didn’t help her credibility. Thankfully, the smack that Gavin landed on her ass in response had her gasping for breath.
“Better?” Gavin asked Hensen, the tone of his voice suggesting they were both having fun.
Hensen pushed the long T-shirt that she wore out of the way and then hooked his fingers into her panties and slid them down to her knees. “Hmm,” he said as he ran his fingertips over the place where Gavin’s hand had landed. “Perhaps that was a little soft. Would you like to try again?”
Maggie wriggled, her stomach twisting with a mixture of dread and excitement. She knew them both well enough by now to know that they’d never truly “punish” her for anything, but it was proving quite fun to pretend. The next slap was so hard that she reared up, bowing her back in reaction, her natural instinct to crawl away thwarted easily by Gavin’s strong grip.
“Much better,” Hensen said as he leaned in to press his lips to her stinging bottom. “That’s a much prettier shade of pink.”
When they finally reached the bedroom, Maggie found herself facedown on the bed, her lips very close to Kade’s still-hard cock. “You interrupted me,” Hensen said as he slid a hand into her hair and guided her forward. “The least you can do is make it up to Kade.”
“Of course,” she said opening her mouth, ready to suck her mate with abandon. But instead of releasing her, Hensen kept the hard grip in her hair, pushing her forward, forcing Kade’s cock deep into the back of her throat. For a moment she struggled, her gag reflex making itself known.