Authors: Joyee Flynn
“Your cousin Rafe.”
“Really?” Imogen’s eyes went wide with shock and his mouth fell open.
“Is that a good or a bad thing?” Yeah, I wanted to second my dad’s question as well.
“Awesome actually.” He chuckled. “He’s next in line for king, so I’m shocked my uncle would risk his heir, but Rafe is a badass and fierce. He doesn’t take prisoners and is excellent in battle strategy.”
“What’s up?” Cord called out as he and Ty jumped out of their truck when it pulled up.
“Where’s Avery?” mom asked, panic in her voice.
“He’s bringing the girls to the pack,” he answered gently and with a smile. “The ones able to fight are coming, but there are several older men and woman staying with the children in a shelter under the Alpha’s house. When Jasper called to tell them what was going on, we got a call that we were included in their lockdown procedure and to bring the girls.”
“And we trust them with our grandchildren?” Martin asked hesitantly as he glanced at Jasper. He was nodding adamantly.
“I trust Alpha Daniels with all of our lives,” Ty answered firmly.
“You’re right,” my dad sighed. “He’s a good man and would do anything to protect his pack or kin. I just don’t like the girls being away from us when there’s danger. But still, that’s better than risking them being close to the fight.”
“They’ll be fine, or we would never have left them, Martin,” Cord said gently. We all agreed that it was the best place for the babies and got to work on the best way to handle the coming fight. This would be a battle for our very lives, and it wasn’t something I could just sit out of, but I was also still injured, which didn’t bode well for my chances of survival.
That’s what we were debating when there was suddenly a blinding light that flashed about a hundred feet away from the barn. A man who looked a lot like Imogen, but bigger, stepped out of it after several more fairies came out first.
“Was your scout spotted?” he asked Katja as soon as he was away from what I was guessing was the portal.
“No, your Highness,” she said from one knee. Her head was bent out of respect as every fairy there did the same. “But I’m sure the vampires picked up on his scent.”
“That will work to our advantage though.” Everyone glanced at Ty then, and he didn’t even flinch. “Those Followers weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer from what Avery said. You guys’ scent will give us the path they’ll take to get to us. We can set up some explosives and a few surprises for them.”
“You have explosives, human?” Rafe asked, and while I wondered the same thing, I wasn’t sure I liked Ty being referred to like that.
“The name’s Ty, fairy,” he answered with a raised brow and Cord cringed behind his mate. Maybe Ty wasn’t always the calm and easygoing one. Just most of the time. “And after we found Avery and learned of your world and the dangers we could continually face, we started using our old Marine contacts to get some supplies.”
“What kind of supplies, son?” Beck drawled with a smirk. Oh goodie! No one knew about this either.
“Enough for an army,” Cord answered and rubbed his hands together in glee. “We’ve got cool toys, and I’ve so wanted to use the rocket launcher.”
“You have a fucking rocket launcher?” Martin exclaimed in shock then my dad got an evil smile on his face as well. “You got two?”
“Martin!” My mom looked as if she was trying to be appalled but really wasn’t.
“Oh come on, Ashley,” dad whined and turned to her. “When am I ever going to play with a friggin rocket launcher again? He can teach me how to use it!”
“Fine, but if you blow off anything vital, I’m going to kick your sorry ass,” she said after a moment with a huff.
“I apologize,
Ty
.” Rafe bowed to my brother’s mate in a gesture of respect. “I mean no offense, I was simply trying to specify since we have a varied group of people here. I would defer to your knowledge of the land and advice on where to set up my warriors.”
“Hey, cousin,” Imogen said as he went over to Rafe.
“Imogen,” Rafe replied, the love evident in his voice. “You always are such trouble. You know that?”
“Yes, but you thrive on trouble.” He giggled as they hugged and had a moment, but then I had a really, really bad thought.
“Wait, if you guys are here and Conley’s coming with his men…” I held my arms out to as if to say, “what the fuck are we going to do?”
“Not to worry, keeper of my cousin,” Rafe said with a wink. “We brought someone with us who’s magically inclined to cloak our scent. Without that distracting them or driving them crazy, there shouldn’t be any problems unless one of them still tries to drink from us. Even if some of our blood is spilt, they won’t catch the smell of it.”
“It’s almost like we know what we’re doing here,” Aaron said with a chuckle.
“We need a map of the area and the route the scout took here.” Ty started walking toward the barn after his announcement, and I didn’t know about everyone else, but I pretty much followed out of curiosity. Rafe barked out some orders and came with us as well. As I noticed most others did.
“So how is Sydney?” Imogen asked his cousin.
“Pissed off,” Rafe groaned and shook his head. “She’s five months pregnant and annoyed that she’s missing ‘the fight of the decade’ in her words. I swear my mate is going to be the death of me. But she loves you like a sister and was fuming that someone dared to threaten you or your mates. I had to have father practically tie her down to keep her home.”
“While it was a wise choice, I’d guess you’ll be sleeping on the sofa tonight.” My mom chuckled as we went in the barn. Cord and Ty moved several bales of hay from the far wall and revealed a large steel door.
“What have my mates been up to?” Avery asked from behind all of us.
“We–we were going to umm, tell you, baby,” Cord sputtered and clearly looked like a kid with his hand in a cookie jar. “We just wanted to be prepared and not worry you that we thought we needed all of this.”
My brother eyed his mates over, arms crossed over his chest. We all waited on pins and needles, even Trey and Addison who joined us as well. Finally he nodded. “All right, let’s see what you guys got.”
“We love you,” Ty said quickly and opened the door. I gasped at what was inside. It was a ten-foot by fifteen-foot steel panic room full of weapons.
“Surprise weekend trip to a luxury hotel my ass,” Avery grumbled as he moved forward to his mates. “This is why we went away a few months ago! You wanted me gone so I wouldn’t know you were building this.”
“Sorry, Avery,” they both said and pouted. Then Ty purred and moved toward my brother. “But that wasn’t the only reason. We had lots of fun, didn’t we?”
“I’ll forgive you if we do it again when this is over and you have no ulterior motives this time. I thought my mates were taking me away for a weekend all about us.”
“Done, my love,” Cord said quickly and kissed his cheek. “It wasn’t just about building this though. We made the reservation before we decided to put this in. It just happened that the contractors could come then and we figured why worry you.”
“Fine.” Avery still sounded quite grumpy about it though. “Show me your toys then.”
“Excellent,” Ty drawled and flipped on the light. There were several gasps as we got a better look at what was inside. Holy shit! It was any military or weapon lover’s wet dream. They had three rocket launchers, dozens of boxes of grenades, even more automatic rifles, and a stack of explosives to name the highlights.
“You are so lucky this is far, far away from the girls,” Avery growled. “None of this shit is legal.”
“No, but the police in this area wouldn’t say anything about it,” Addison said with a wide smile. That was the
wrong
thing to say because that meant he knew and Trey didn’t. All hell broke loose as everyone was shouting, mostly my brothers were pissed they were kept in the dark.
“I hate to interrupt, but Conley just sent me a text that they’re almost here and wants to know if the magic is in place so his vampires won’t smell you guys,” Jasper hollered. That finally got everyone quiet.
“I’m sorry, my little kitty,” Addison said quickly while it was quiet. “It wasn’t my secret to tell, okay? If I ever get a stockroom of weapons I’ll tell you.”
“Oh thanks,” Cord groaned and the fighting started again. My mom put her fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle.
“You can ground your mates later, but right now we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Now, who’s doing what and how for the fight?”
“Yes, mom,” they all said, and Cord started explaining the different weapons.
“I say we put the horses and livestock in the far pasture and those of us who know how to use the weapons take positions on the barn roof. We can lay down fire after we set off the explosives while the fairies shoot flames from the sky. Everyone else can go after anyone we miss or someone who breaks off from the group to flee.”
“I can do a lot more damage with one of those toys than I can as a wolf,” Jasper said excitedly as he rubbed his hands together in glee.
“Seriously?” Trey asked incredulously.
“Darlin’, I’m from Texas,” Jasper drawled, his accent getting thicker. “We know how to shoot before we’re potty trained.”
“Nice,” Addison snorted and bumped fists with his mate.
We got a map then, and Conley and his men landed shortly thereafter. The “smell spell” as we were calling it worked because none of the vamps had any problems with the fairies. Rafe, Conley, and Ty plotted out positions and jobs to get done in the half hour we had left until the bad guys got here. That was the newest estimate we got from one of Conley’s pilots.
The cool thing about the magic to hide the fairies’ scent was it hid
all
of us. The enemy would have no clue they were walking toward a well-prepared adversary. We had well over a hundred people, but we refused to get cocky since none of us had acid for blood.
Cord and Ty took a bunch of the wolves to help them set up the explosives at the designated areas. The fairies were scouting some of the trees for the best positions to hide until the time was right. It turned out that Conley’s men not only knew how to use the guns Cord and Ty had but brought a bunch of their own.
They were laying out positions on the roof of the barn, house, and even the stable. I was impressed and pleasantly surprised how we all seemed to work like a well-oiled machine. And I noticed how well Conley and Rafe got on and hoped this would be a huge step in bridging the gap between the vamps and fae. Then again, they tended to eat fairies so maybe not. It was worth a try.
When our scout said they were coming, we were ready. Everyone was in position, and the air was full of excitement and apprehension. My mates and I were pretending to work in the garden so it didn’t seem as if we knew what was coming. Most of the wolves that couldn’t use a gun were in the tree line on the side of the property. The rest and my family were in the barn waiting for when they were needed.
I saw them coming and tried not to freak out when I saw them out of the corner of my eye. Glancing at my mates, I saw the same look on their faces. I gave them a reassuring smile, but then the bad guys passed the point of no return in the clearing behind our house, and the explosives went off.
It was game time.
“Now!” I heard Katja shout, and the fae took to the sky. Those toward the rear who didn’t get blown up, which weren’t as few as we’d hoped, were now dealing with three dozen fairies and their fire. The vamps on the roof started firing.
“It’s a trap! Everyone fall back,” one of the bad vamps shouted. About two dozen of them started fleeing in all directions. And that meant the rest were Followers. The only negative of the “scent spell” was we couldn’t smell them either. But the Followers wouldn’t think on their own and be able to comprehend orders. They were being controlled, but the head vampire who was creating these monsters obviously wasn’t there because the Followers stayed on course.