Challenging Love (Drekinn Book Five) (11 page)

Shelly rolled her eyes and shifted. They ran after their friend in the direction she had taken off. Brenda muttered and grabbed the clothes, as she bent over she felt it. Someone had breached the wards around the property, shit, they were going to be in trouble.

Vivi felt free, she hated to wait so long in between shifts, and it had been a while since they had been able to go on a run. Victor was going to be sorry he wouldn’t come with them, all of their mates were.

She jumped over a tree that had recently fallen and she heard the snap of a twig to her left. It had to be Brenda and Shelly—they were chasing. Her wolf grinned and turned to the right, she wanted to give them a run for their money. Vivi wove in and out of the trees, spreading her scent around so they would have a hard time tracking her. She had taught her Calli this and smiled again. Her daughter was special, all of the Drekinn were, she knew when they found out the truth, they would be pissed. But it couldn’t be helped, so much more was at stake than they realized.

A noise made her pause, whoever was tromping through the woods was not Brenda and Shelly, they were way to noisy, the girls had trained with her, they knew how to hide and be stealth, they had to. What the hell was going on? No one from the pack would be this far out, Kade and Calli had ordered everyone to stay close to the compound buildings. She was breaking the rules as it was, but she could take care of herself.

Damn it, she couldn’t be caught in her wolf form, they would know. Moving fast, Vivi began to weave back the way she came, she needed Brenda and Shelly, together they would be able to take care of this threat, then they would face the music together, but with a prize, she could smell the
Ulfer
.

Slowly she moved until she was far enough away from the
Ulfer
to shift. Damn it, where were the girls? She waited and finally she saw Shelly and then Brenda. She made the noise they would know was a warning for them. She knew that it would alert the
Ulfer
as well so she did it quickly.

“Ca-caw, ca-caw,” she said and Brenda and Shelly both stopped and dropped.

Vivi heard the rustle of movement far enough away that she would have time to get to the girls. Quickly she ran and cursed as sticks poked her feet.

“Clothes,” she said briskly and held out her hand.

They dressed quickly and then crouched down behind a large log. “How many?” Brenda said.

“I thought only one, but now I can scent at least five,” Shelly said and Vivi swore and looked around.

“I thought it was only one too, I think they surrounded us," Vivi whispered.

“We need to get the hell out of here,” Brenda said.

“Duh,” Vivi whispered.

“It was your drunk ass who got us in this mess,” Shelly whispered and slapped Vivi on the back of the head.

“Well I'm sober now,” Vivi growled.

“Shhh,” Brenda said and held up a hand. “They are close, the spell should hide our scent.”

They froze and waited. Then they heard at least three of them talking. “Where did they go?” one of them said.

“I don’t know. I could have sworn that sound came from here,” another said.

“We only need one, the Bondi King wants to know if the rumors are true,” the last one said.

“Yeah, if the Alpha Bitch is knocked up, we are going to have a problem,” the first one said.

Vivi was furious they were talking about Calli. No one was going to hurt her, and how the fuck did they find out so quickly? The thoughts running through her head were about murder and dismemberment when she got a hold of whomever betrayed them. First things first though, they needed to get the fuck out of there.

They listened and waited as the assholes talked about how far they could go into the compound before they would be caught. They had a fuckin' map of the place, how was that even possible?

“You go here, and we will go here. The guards are not on duty there right now,” one of them said.

They waited patiently for them to move off. “Did you hear that?” Brenda said wide-eyed.

“Yeah, and we are gonna find out who the fuck is telling them shit. Give me five minutes and then follow, track where they take me and go back and get the others. By the time you get there I will know who the fuck to kill,” Vivi said.

“Is that wise? Maybe we should just all go back and then we can explain what happened,” Brenda said hopefully.

Vivi turned and stared at Brenda with a shocked expression on her face. “Do you not think I am capable of handling this myself?”

Brenda rolled her eyes. “No, but we are getting up there in age and you may break a hip or something.”

Vivi opened her mouth in shock, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Shelly laughed and said, “She had to be.”

“Hey, that is what Calli said to you when she found your high heeled black boots, you agreed,” Brenda protested.

“No, I smiled and nodded and then when she went to take a shower the next morning her hair turned blue, remember?” Vivi scowled.

“I thought that was for getting a wheelchair and putting it in your room.” Brenda laughed.

“No, that was the hot sauce on her bagel.” Vivi rolled her eyes.

“Whatever, fine, go, we will follow. But if they get pissed at us, then you are the one going into the old folks' home,” Brenda warned.

Vivi smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I would like to see them try.”

Shelly pushed her friend out of the hiding space with a laugh. “You know, one of these days I'm gonna write a book about some of this shit. I mean, we would make a fortune as the moms who have done some of this stuff.”

“Don’t kid yourself, no one has done the things we do, we are unique,” Brenda whispered. “See.”

Shelly grinned when she looked up and saw Vivi standing in the middle of the clearing, she stumbled a little, acting like she was drunk and then began to sing.

When I get mad

And I get pissed

I grab my pen

And I write out a list

Of all the people

That won't be missed

You've made my shitlist

For all the ones

Who bum me out

Shitlist

For all the ones

Who fill my head with doubt

Shitlist

For all the squares who get me pissed

Shitlist

You've made my shitlist

Shitlist

Shitlist

When I get mad

And I get pissed

Shitlist

I grab my pen

And write out a list

Shitlist

Of all you *******s

Who won't be missed

Shitlist

You've made my shitlist

Shitlist

Shitlist

“What the fuck is she singing?” Brenda laughed.

“
Shitlist
, by L7, a band in the 1980s you know on the oldies list she made years ago,” Shelly said. “She loves that stupid trivia, plus apparently way back then, they were allowed to actually sing what they wanted.”

“Oh my, I forgot about that one,” Brenda said.

“Here they come,” Shelly whispered.

They watched as all five
Ulfer
descended on Vivi who was swinging her arms and singing loudly.

“What have we here?” one of the men said.

“Oh hey, big boys,” Vivi slurred. “Just in time for a party.”

Vivi pulled at her top a little like she was going to pull it off, and the men laughed and nudged each other.

“Hey, I am doing all the work here,” Vivi whined.

“It is the mother of the Head Bitch in Charge according to the files,” another one said that held a communicator.

Brenda watched closely, if she could get ahold of one of those, they would know better what the hell they actually knew. It seemed they had a lot of information.

“Let’s take her in, should get us a night off at least,” the first one said.

Vivi snarled and swung when one tried to grab her. They grinned as they watched her struggle a little, a very little, even drunk, Vivi could have kicked their asses.

“One at a time, boys, there is plenty to go around.” Vivi laughed and struggled a little more.

“Tranq her, she is gonna get us caught,” one of them said.

Shit,” Brenda whispered and watched helplessly as one of them pushed a syringe into Vivi’s neck. “That is going to turn out bad, you know how she hates getting tranq’d”

Chapter Nine

“You did what?” Kade roared when Brenda and Shelly came back to the compound and told the group that Vivi had been taken.

“Hey, let’s not worry about what we were doing now. You can spank us all you want when we get Vivi back,” Shelly said crisply.

“This is great, just great.” Victor, Calli’s father, said and ran a hand through his short hair and growled. He was an Alpha as well, and when he felt his mate in pain a short while ago he had almost gone over the edge. It had taken Kade and Dec to hold him back from running to rescue Vivi.

“She is fine,” Brenda said dryly. “Vic, you know as well as I do when she wakes up, she is going to be pissed.”

“Pissed?” Calli snorted. “More like homicidal. We should just wait, she will kill them all and be back.”

“Calli,” her father warned.

“Dad, come on,” Calli whined.

“Find her,” Victor said and Kade rolled his eyes, then talked to Brenda and Shelly.

“Explain again what happened. How far did you follow them?” Kade said.

“To the edge of the city, they have a facility there. Shouldn’t be too hard to break in, I saw at least three weak areas along the fence.” Shelly shrugged after she explained once again what they had done, minus the drunken spree of course.

“Which side of the river?” Calix said quietly.

“It was on this side, we never had to cross,” Shelly said.

“That is where I was. I know that place inside and out. I tried to escape so many times, and each time I found something new. If I could have, I would have destroyed it,” Calix announced.

“What did they do?” Rissa asked and Pilar looked around the room, they hadn’t really talked about what had happened to Calix, everyone had been walking on eggshells about the specifics.

“I was working in Colorado. I had a practice that catered to the magical community. Over the years, so many of us have dealt with the hatred of misinformed humans that I wanted to help those who had been abused. Also, I was involved in helping the humans develop a test to give us, it would determine who was an
Ulfer
and who was a Breyting, when we are born. They don’t understand the
Ulfer
are like psychopaths, born without a conscious, they are dangerous. As children if we could treat them, we may be able to save them. It is a thought, but the humans really wanted nothing to do with it. They just want us caged. So, when I became outspoken about their misconceptions, they captured me,” Calix said and Pilar took his hand in comfort.

“At first, they just wanted to know specifics about the difference between both Breyting and
Ulfer
. I tried to explain, but they didn’t like the answer I gave them. A missing part of DNA is like telling someone they are defective. I tried to explain our history, about the Rogues, but it infuriated them. They asked how I was so sure the Rogues were the ones who were evil. Now I realize the humans were not calling the shots. Anyway, I pissed them off, yes on purpose, because I saw how fruitless it was to try to explain things. I just wanted it to end. They didn’t realize that I was a freak also. I mean, most people thought that Vampires were wiped out.” Calix paused and then looked around the room to Gio.

“They don’t know about you, I am sure of it or they would have tried to get information. They asked about every shifter and magical creature but never a Vampire,” Calix said. Gio nodded but didn’t relax.

“We are easily hidden, the ones who still live. We can walk in the sun, it makes it harder to pick us out.” Gio shrugged.

“Yeah, didn’t want to share that bit of information. I figured you all had a reason to hide that during the ‘coming out’,” Calix said. “Anyway, the first few times they beat me I fought them. Then I just kinda gave up. I mean, they were using everything they could think of on me to see how I would die. I knew it wouldn’t work quickly, they were going to have to bleed me dry. But I never gave up. I knew I would get out. It was a matter of time.”