Challenging Love (Drekinn Book Five) Read online

  As she neared the building Viv paused, then she heard it. The dulcet sounds of her only daughter as she bellowed down the hallways after her mate.

  “When I say my back hurts, it does not mean you cancel sparring for the day. I could kick your ass with one arm tied behind my aching back,” Calli howled.

  “I know, dear,” Kade said and kept walking, much to Viv’s amusement.

  “I swear if you say that one more time I will eviscerate you,” Calli stormed. Viv rolled her eyes, stepping into the main hallway where all the action was. Rissa and Cherri were following behind her daughter laughing. Calli had just announced a few weeks ago she was pregnant, and suddenly she had become a whiner.

  “Suck it up,” Kade yelled over his shoulder.

  Oh shit, so the wrong thing to say to a mentally challenged pregnant Alpha bitch, emphasis on the BITCH! There was silence as Calli paused and folded her arms across her chest and waited for her mate to recall his words. Cherri and Rissa stood with their mouths open and all of the male Enforcers who were previously standing there watching and talking, scattered to the winds. The women backed away against the walls because they knew they were going to witness their Alpha get his ass kicked.

  “What did you say?” Calli said quietly.

  Kade paused and turned and his eyes narrowed. “You heard me, suck it up. You are my mate, and I will not let you do something stupid.”

  “Oh really?” Calli said and strutted forward a few steps. “You are not going to let me do something, huh?”

  Viv smiled, she and her friends had made sure when the girls were young to raise them to take care of themselves. This was not the normal times they were dealing with. Shifter females needed to know there were times when they would be called upon to fight alongside their mates. Viv had made sure her daughter knew how to take care of herself, and her mates.

  Calli was an Alpha Bitch through and through, Viv had made sure of it. Watching her now gave her a feeling of pride to see her get ready to dress down the arrogant male she mated with.

  “Yep,” Kade growled and put his hands on his hips.

  Calli snorted and then walked the final steps so she was standing toe-to-toe with her mate. Viv watched and knew what was coming and delighted in the fact that she had taught her daughter well.

  In a swift motion, her daughter swept her mate’s feet out from under him. She heard the crack of his head hit the floor and then the roar of anger come from him when Calli sashayed away from him. “What the fuck?”

  “Since I am so delicate, I figured you would want to make sure that at least my leg was still in shape, you know, in case we have to I don’t know, FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES!” Calli yelled over her shoulder. “Now I must go rest, it completely wore me out.”

  Kade growled, pulled himself up, and shook his head and looked at her. “She is your daughter.”

  “You are damn right she is.” Vivi laughed and walked to the hallway where her rooms were. She could only hope her mate was waiting for her, after watching this display, Viv suddenly felt the need to get the crop out.

  *****

  Pilar heard the commotion in the hallway and opened her door. Calli and the others were laughing and walking down the hall toward the large room they had designated as the “Chicks' Hideout,” good she was going to have someone to complain to.

  “Oh, honey, he didn’t mean it like that.” Cherri laughed nervously. “You know how men are, they just wanna piss you off when they are being assholes.”

  “Yeah, besides, we can just go back to your room and soak his clothes in kerosene, then throw them out the window above his office and light them up so he can see them floating down and remember the heinous way he treated you. Then he will come and beg your forgiveness and you can laugh and lock him out of the suite,” Rissa said with a bored tone. She looked up then in surprise. “Did I say that out loud?”

  Cherri snorted and laughed, “Yeah, good plan. Calli, you can watch us drink while plotting his demise.”

  Calli frowned as she listened to her friends, Pilar knew she was pissed, and that would normally mean one thing, a girls' night, but since Calli was pregnant it meant that everyone got drunk and did stupid things while Calli plotted and planned. With any luck, her friend and Alpha would be able to help Pilar figure out what to do with Brooks.

  “I am in,” Pilar called and shut her door. The three women stopped and Rissa laughed.

  “Uh oh, Ms. Praton looks a little miffed,” she drawled.

  Calli tilted her head and nodded. “Come on, Ms. P. Let me help you plan the perfect murder.”

  Chapter Two

  Pilar and her brother were unique. They still held their secrets as they had to, it was imperative they defeated the Prentiss Agency. But that wasn’t what she was thinking about at this time. As she stood looking out the window of the rooms where she had come to think of as home, she wondered what the fuck she was going to do.

  Pilar had played the game for so long, being Ms. Praton. The woman who ran the Drekinn Agency, the woman feared by many because of what she knew. The secrets she held. It had all been a game though, trying to find the people who would help her figure out what had gone so wrong all those years ago. She had to know. When the Chosen had completed their destiny, they had all thought it was over. Things would be great. And it had been, Pilar could still remember how her and her friends had finally been able to be who they were destined to be in public, instead of hiding.

  Then it had all changed, the humans had become scared again of the power of the magical community, and no matter how many times they were told they didn’t need to fear them, it had still not worked. The human world didn’t want to live in peace; they wanted to make sure the magical beings didn’t take over. It was paranoia at its finest. Pilar and her family had been forced to hide, something her father was still pissed off about. But she had promised to find an answer as to how this happened and how they could change it. Damn it, she didn’t want to live the rest of her with a tracker in her. It pissed her dragon off to even think about it.

  Kade and Calli were the only ones who could top her strength, they knew it, and she knew it. Pilar had made the decision not to be the leader of this pack and to sit on the Drekinn Council for the very fact she didn’t want to play these games any more. Soon, she was going to be able to have both of her mates, and she wanted to settle down. Together they would find the answers they needed. Of course, that was probably going to be a battle considering the circumstances, but maybe if they get the Prentiss taken care of and the other shit out of the way, she would be able to settle down.

  She knew Brooks was her mate, she had known from the first moment they met all those years ago. Pilar understood why he refused to mate with her. He was a warlock, she was a dragon. They knew their third was a shifter of some kind, not a vampire, or a Fae. Knowing he was on the same compound as them made both Brooks and Pilar edgy. They wanted to go to their mate and help him heal. Their mating would be the beginning of the end.

  Cherri refused their requests, claiming his injuries were severe and they weren’t sure if he was feral or not. It would devastate both of them if he was. But they had to wait and pray their mate would finally come out of the coma he had been in for weeks, and be healed enough to realize he was safe.

  Pilar made a noise of frustration and then looked for something to throw. She was pissed and frustrated, and all she wanted to do was take her anger out on someone. “I need a fucking drink!” she yelled at the three women who were staring at her at the bar. They had barely made it into their room when she yelled.

  “Hang on to your panties, missy,” Rissa grumbled and pulled a bottle out of the cabinet.

  “Straight up,” Pilar grumbled and slammed her hand down on the makeshift bar.

  “Well okay then, looks like we are going for the hard stuff today.” Calli smirked. “I wish I could join you.”

  Cherri nodded and slid a glass over to Pilar. “Yeah, the big bad Alpha is clipping her wings.”
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  Calli’s eyes narrowed. “He may have called off our sparring match but I am more than willing to take you on, bitch.”

  “Oh boy, made it just in time,” Kiki said from the doorway. He was standing with his small mate, a beauty named Sydney, she was a fairy, and an adorable one at that.

  “Uh oh, who pissed off who?” Syd said as she followed Kiki into the room.

  “Let’s see. Kade pissed off Calli by telling her that she was a delicate flower who needed to rest and Brooks pissed off Pilar because…” Rissa said.

  “He is a fucking man,” Pilar grumbled.

  “Yes, of course,” Rissa said. “Death to all arrogant assholes,” she yelled and took a shot of the whisky she had poured Pilar.

  Everyone followed suit and soon they were situated around the table with a ton of junk food littering the surface and several full bottles of alcohol, and shot glasses all around except for Calli who was drinking milk.

  “Damn this sucks,” Calli grumbled and looked down at her stomach. “I hope you appreciate the sacrifices being made for you.”

  “I am sure he does,” Cherri said and patted her friend’s arm.

  “No!” Calli yelled. “HER!”

  “Of course,” Cherri laughed. “Sorry forgot, she appreciates the sacrifices.”

  The women laughed. Since finding out she was pregnant, the two Alphas had an ongoing battle about the sex of the child. Kade insisted it was a boy, while Calli claimed to already know it was a girl. The two had been arguing since the first day.

  “I explained this already,” Calli said slowly as if they were stupid. “My uterus would never betray me with a male until first having a female. We all know how this works. If I had a son first, he would be Kade’s and I refuse to have them plotting against me. This way, I will regain the upper hand and all will be right in the world. Besides, I have so much to show a daughter.”

  “Yeah, like how to skin a squirrel.” Kiki laughed.

  “We only did that once when we were starving,” Cherri argued.

  “Yeah and I made sure it wasn’t a shifter before we killed it.” Rissa nodded solemnly.

  “I refuse to ask how you did that.” Syd laughed and shook her head.

  “Oh, I can tell you…” Rissa began and they all rolled their eyes and yelled.

  “NO!”

  “Fine,” Rissa grumbled and leaned back.

  “So what did Brooks do now?” Calli asked innocently.

  Since this whole thing began, Pilar knew the time would come that she would have to tell them part of the truth. She had wanted to do it when everyone was together, however, right now, she didn’t care.

  “That asshole has been holding me off for years with the whole, ‘we have to find our third mate’ shit. You know, it wasn’t like I was asking him to fucking cut off an arm or anything, a little slap and a tickle and all would have been well. But no, Mr. I-am-gonna-make-sure-you-are-a-virgin-when-we-all-mate has made my life fucking hell. Still, when push came to shove I thought he would cave and we would be happy together until our third came, and we could explain together how our love would not be contained. NOOOOOOO, we found the stupid scroll and then it was like I was a fucking leper or something. All of a sudden it was ‘no don’t touch me’, ‘someone will see us’, ‘I have to go out of town’, ‘we can’t be seen together’, ‘I am a big ole asshole’. Blah blah blah,” Pilar mimicked and the women tried to cover their smiles.

  It was hard though. If you had known Ms. Praton and then seen her transform into Pilar, the young and beautiful woman before them, anyone would have been shocked. Of course, she had explained all of that. Pilar had seen a need, and no one would take her seriously when she appeared so young. As a much older woman the humans had sat up and paid attention when she explained the need for the Drekinn Agency. Everyone had. At the time no one knew what the new world was bringing, but what the shifters saw was the humans once again becoming paranoid about the shifters.

  They didn’t want them to take over, which was impossible, they had never had the numbers for that. Nor did any of the normal non-psycho magical community, they only wanted to live in peace. The psycho ones, you know the Ulfer, well that was another story altogether, Pilar thought.

  “Okay then, back up, did you say virgin?” Calli said incredulously. All of them stared at her with their mouths open. Of course they did, who would have thought a dragon at least a hundred years old was a virgin. It wasn’t like Pilar was shocked by the situation either.

  Pilar nodded slowly and looked around at her friends. “Exactly, you see what I am saying?”

  “Like nothing?” Rissa pressed.

  “Nothing,” Pilar said.

  “What?” Kiki said and leaned forward. “Surly you have….”

  Pilar turned red and then shook her head and looked down at the table. “Uh, yeah, no.”

  “Well shit,” Calli said and they were all silent while they each tried to think of the best way to handle the situation.

  “Hey, I could help, I actually have experience now.” Kiki smiled at Syd who blushed.

  “Uh, thanks?” Pilar laughed and then shook her head. “No, I am not really worried about that portion of it. I mean it can’t be too hard right?”

  “Oh, honey,” Cherri said in a sad voice. “If that is what you think, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get some more booze and lay it all out.”

  *****

  Kade stood in the doorway of the security room where all of his friends were already seated and yelled, “Women!”

  Dec looked up and snorted. “Yeah!”

  Brooks hid a smile as his Alpha walked into the room and glared at all of them. “You all need to get your women under control, they are feeding the flames with Calli, and God knows she doesn’t need any help there.”

  “Yeah,” Phillip laughed. “We have so much control.”

  Kade snorted and looked at Brooks who had not said anything. “What do we know?”

  Brooks shook his head. “Not much, basically the same as before, other than we are getting more and more shifters and other beings coming in daily seeking sanctuary. What we really need is for someone to make a list of the people coming in. I am starting to get worried about the wards we have on the compound. With so many passing through, it could weaken them. Any of the Ulfer could sneak in and totally fuck things up.”

  “I thought your warlock wards were stronger?” Dec asked.

  “Normally they would be; however, with so many magical people being so close together, they also are like a freaking beacon to anyone who pays attention. My wards can’t hide all of this power.” Brooks sighed.

  “So you and Pilar are mates with Calix?” Kade finally said, but when Brooks looked up, he saw the Alpha trying to hold in a smile.

  “What?” Brooks said with a frown.

  “Nothing, nothing,” Kade said and looked around the room at the men who were now holding their breath too.

  “Really? What?” Brooks growled and finally Dec looked at him with a twinkle in his eye and said.

  “It’s just, he is a wolf shifter.” Dec laughed.

  Brooks frowned again and shrugged. “And?”

  “Brooks, you realize that Calix means ‘cat’ in some languages, right?” Kade smiled.

  It took a minute before Brooks shook his head. “Assholes.”

  “Did his parents hate him or something? I mean, why the fuck would they call a dog a cat?” Simon laughed.

  “Shut up,” Brooks said with a smile.

  “Fine, but you know we are gonna ask, right?” Nik said slowly. “Maybe he is a cat/dog mix. Like I am a Gryphon, you know.”

  “Hey, wouldn’t that be funny if he was a dog, with like cat ears and tail. It would be funny.” Dec laughed.

  “Or a cat with dog legs or something.” Peter laughed.

  Soon the men were making jokes and Brooks looked ready to beat the shit out of them. It would have been all fine until Thomas walked in the room with a paper in his hand. �
��We have Calix’s information.”

  Everyone froze and Brooks swung his gaze to the Alpha. “What the fuck is he talking about?”

  “Uh,” Kade stuttered.

  Thomas paused and almost backed out of the room. “Kade wanted…”

  “He is part vampire,” Kade yelled and Brooks turned quickly and stared at him open mouthed.

  “How do you know that? He is a wolf, a strong one,” Brooks argued.

  Declan actually had enough thought to look chagrined and said, “We tested his blood.”

  Brooks turned and glared at his friends. “Why would you do that? We already knew that he is our mate.”

  “Because we are testing everyone who comes in here. Something weird is going on, we needed to make sure that none of the people coming were a spy,” Kade said slowly.

  “MY MATE? A SPY?” Brooks bellowed and the men looked at him with a shocked expression. Brooks never got angry and yelled. He was cool as a cucumber. Always had been, even when having to deal with Calli and the girls before they found their mates, and that said something. Those three were hell on wheels and usually found a way to piss off a saint on a daily basis, but not Brooks, he would calmly deal with whatever mess they got themselves into. But this time, his friends had actually crossed the line, they questioned his mate, and his wounded mate at that. It was fucked up. Did they question Simon, who they believed was ‘Mr. Twisted’ for so long, no, Brooks had been the one to smooth that over and assure everyone he was on the up and up.

  “Now we didn’t say he was a spy, we said we were checking. Come on, man,” Kade said and looked at Brooks. “We said we were testing everyone, and that means everyone who crossed onto our land.”

  Brooks turned and stared at the Alpha, and the guys in the room held their breath. He was a warlock, and a powerful one too; they could see the evidence as he struggled to keep his powers in check. The man's hand clenched and unclenched and they could see the blue collared spark flying out from his fingertips as he fought for control.