Barely Winging It (10 page)

“Thanks, sis,” Reese cheerfully replied right before
he ended the call.

Havana groaned again. Stepping up to her mate one last
time, she spoke to him in spite of knowing he couldn’t hear her. “I’ve
gotta
go and help with lunch, my mate. I’ll be back later,
but just a heads-up, it sounds like I’ll get drafted again into helping with
supper.” After another kiss, she forced herself away from her mate’s warm
embrace and headed down the stairs. Opening the door, she nearly cursed herself
for forgetting her stuff. Just as she turned to head back, something in the
forest glimmered. Turning to see what caught her eye, she slowly started to
head into the tree line.

Havana didn’t hear anything, but she felt a piercing
pain in her stomach. Looking down, she saw a red tipped dart sticking from her
stomach. She looked up, but everything looked blurry, then nothing but
blackness.

Chapter Nine

First hours of Saturday morning

After the attack at the hotel,
Bronya
stayed quiet to help assimilate everything she’d just seen and heard. There
were many things she didn’t understand, but she knew those answers would come
soon enough. But for now, she was struggling with the things she understood but
found hard to believe. As they made their way from the hotel to a large house
in the middle of nowhere, she tried to get her mind to shut down enough to
rest. Of course with the bloody room and dead bodies still burned behind her
eyelids, that wasn’t something she thought she could do.

Arriving at the large house, she leaned closer to Nix.
For some reason, she felt most comfortable with him. Something about him calmed
her a bit and gave her the sense that she was safe. She needed that to help
keep her sane. Entering the house, Nix introduced her to a large man. “
Bronya
, this is our Alpha, Ralph
Kaska
,
but everyone calls him
Alphy
.”

Ok, “alpha” was a term she was familiar with. In the
animal world, an alpha was a leader, so she deduced this man was their leader.
Watching them each subtly show their necks to him helped
confirm
it. “
Alphy
, this is my mate,
Bronya
Webber.”

Alphy
smiled and held out his hand. “I’m pleased to meet you,
Bronya
.”
She took his hand and shook it. “I’m very sorry for the violent introduction
into our world. There are a lot of things to assimilate, so take your time and
don’t be shy to ask questions.”

They made their way into the dining room where
Dultyn
was, and to her surprise, two other gargoyles.
Bronya
marveled at the difference in their appearances, but
she pressed closer to Nix. She wasn’t frightened so much as she was unsure of
herself.

They had uncrated a large print that she thought was a
beautiful piece. It was simple, yet drew her eye with its lines and patterns.

“She’s going to love it beyond words,
Dultyn
. You did
good
, man.”
Alphy’s
admiration sounded sincere, and
Bronya
had to agree. Whoever it was meant for was a lucky girl.

Feeling a light press on her lower back, she allowed
Nix to navigate her to a room upstairs. “This is my room. We have just a few
hours before we need to be back up again. I don’t expect you to allow me to
hold you, but I would feel better if you would sleep in here with me. If you
would rather me sleep on the floor or even have me shift and perch on the bed
frame, I would do that for you.”

Bronya
thought about what he said and offered. She hadn’t known him for more than a
few hours. Could she be ok with letting him lie next to her and hold her?
Feeling her eyes grow almost too heavy to keep open, she felt her concerns fall
away. She really didn’t care right now. Shaking her head, she took a chance and
walked into his arms, which immediately wrapped around her, drawing her into a
warm and comfortable embrace that had her relaxing so much she nearly fell to
sleep standing up.

His rich chuckle drew a shiver of pleasure down her
spine. “I’m tired, too. Thank you.” He kissed the top of her head then led her
to one side of the bed. After both of them took off their shoes, she allowed
him to draw her close against him, spooning her against the front of his toned
body. She felt her eyes burn as her lids closed over them. She felt her body
relax in his hold, and just before she was completely out, she thought to
herself,
how odd that it feels so right
to be here with him
.

A thumping noise had
Bronya
jolting awake. She felt a solid wall of heat at her back as warm strong arms
squeezed her close. “
Shh
, it’s ok, I’ve got you. It’s
just a friend at the door.” His hand rubbed lightly on her hip, calming her.
She molded her back to his form as he called through to door.
“Yeah?”

Bronya’s
eyes were burning dry as she looked around. The sun had started to rise.
Already?

A muffled male voice sounded from the other side. “
Alphy
wants you to join us in a meeting in five. Coffee is
already brewing.”

“All right, I’m coming.” Nix kissed the top of her
head, “Sorry, Dove, I’ve
gotta
get up.” She moved
just enough to give him room to roll over and sit on the edge of the bead. She
watched his shirt pull tight around the muscles in his torso as he stretched. A
flutter of want pulled in her stomach, but before it could accumulate further,
he stood up and headed for the door. She watched as he stopped at the door and
looked back. “Let me show you where the bathroom is and after we’re done, I’ll
lead you to the kitchen, before heading into the meeting.”

A few minutes later,
Bronya
was sitting down at the breakfast bar with a hot cup of coffee warming in her
hands. “This is Gale,
Alphy’s
mate, and Connie, her
mother. I’ll be down that hall on the right if you need me for anything.”
Turning to the two ladies, Nix asked them, “Take it easy on her. She hasn’t
spoken much because she’s still processing.” With another kiss planted on her
forehead, Nix took his own steaming cup of coffee with him down the hall he
indicated and disappeared into a lit doorway.

Bronya
wasn’t normally so quiet or shy, but she really didn’t have any energy yet and
she still hadn’t finished wrapping her head around what she’d seen only a few
hours before.
Right, no
telling how long that could take.

Gale plopped down next to her while her mother started
cracking eggs into a bowl and whisking them. “Welcome to the pack. I’m Gale.
I’m human, too, and so is my mom. You should love being the destined mate to a
shifter, especially Nix. Did anyone get to tell you yet all the perks?”

Bronya
shook her head. Gale must have seen the stress on her face, because she toned
down her voice as she continued. “It was a ton for me to take in, too. I was
fifteen when I learned about shifters. Let me try to give you some basics. First
off, you can’t be turned into any paranormal. You have to be born that way.

“They are completely cognizant when they are shifted,
but their baser instincts are stronger, and when they refer to their animal,
it’s more like referring to their instincts. But their animal is them. You can
talk to them in their shifted form, and they’ll understand you just like when
they are in human form. Also,
paranormals
heal
faster, much faster, then a human so they can’t go to any human hospital or
doctor.

“There are several different species of animal
shifters, both predator and prey, but don’t let that cause you to judge mean
and nice. My loving stepdad is an elk shifter, and his alpha, also an elk, was
evil and cruel.”

Bronya
sipped her coffee while she tried to follow along as Gale continued. “
Shifters,
or all
paranormals
really, usually live in groups, or packs, for a couple of reasons. Of course
you can probably guess it’s for protection, but it’s also because they live so
much longer than humans. They can’t really bond to them because they can’t keep
them as friends for long. They also have to worry about always hiding that part
of them around them. So they are usually very close to those within their own
pack.”

Ok,
Bronya
sort of
understood this. She watched nature enough to know how some animals live and
work together.
Wait, live longer?

“That brings us to hierarchy. The leader of a group is
the alpha. His second in charge is the beta. After that are the lead enforcer
and other enforcers and then the lead tracker and other trackers.”
Bronya
was able to make sense of most of the hierarch
system. It was a lot like in wolf packs. Taking another sip of her bitter brew,
she struggled to keep up with the info dump as Gale continued.

“For safety and protection, there are laws within the
paranormal world. That is one thing you might have noticed last night. When you
cross a line in the shifter world, usually there’s no going back, so it can
mean death. They have strict laws, and if you mess up or hurt someone, the
victim is entitled to restitution. All shifters are governed by the shifter
council, and the vampires have the vampire council. I’m still learning what
others are out there.”

Bronya
started to feel a pounding throb behind her eyes.
Vampires?
She rubbed her eyes to
try to ease the blossoming throb.
This is
“just some basics”?

Gale finally noticed her discomfort. “Oh! Ok, I guess
that’s enough for now. Hey, don’t worry, I can easily promise everything will
be all right. Of everything you learn, always remember that fate never makes
mistakes. Nix will be everything you need him to be. That’s how fate works. So
just relax and let things sink in.”

“Oh, hello.”
Bronya
looked up to see a
tall, thin, strawberry blond come in. He held out his hand to her and gave a
slight smile. “I’m Doctor Seamus Rossi. You must be
Bronya
.”

Bronya
only nodded and shook the man’s hand.

“How’re you handling things?” he asked.

Bronya
shrugged and looked down at her half empty mug. She vaguely remembered drinking
it, but her thoughts were mucked up a bit. A gentle touch on her shoulder
brought her attention back to the doctor. She looked over to see his
sympathetic expression. “Just take it slow … well, as slow as you can. Things
happen pretty fast in the paranormal world. Always remember that.” Plopping
down in the seat next to her, his expression suddenly changed to cheerful.
“Whatever you have,
Connie,
smells good. May I please
have a cup of juice?”

Bronya
picked a little at the food in front of her and tried to follow the
conversations going on around her. Another man who resembled the doctor came in
and stood just on the other side of Seamus.

Gale introduced him. “That’s Ryker, our tech guru and
Seamus’s twin brother. Ry, this is Nix’s mate,
Bronya
.”

Ryker lightly flounced on the balls of his feet as he
approached her. He stuck out his hand, and his whole face lit up with a smile.
Bronya
only paused for a second when she saw what looked
like fangs, but she reached out and shook his hand as he happily greeted her.

“Hi,
Bronya
.
I
love
your
name.” Ryker sang the word “love” as he spoke. His flamboyance reminded her
fondly of Zeke. That gave her a kind of familiarity with him which had a
calming effect on her. She was just starting to relax as Ryker poured himself a
glass of juice when a well-shaped young woman with loads of energy skipped into
the kitchen. She watched the cheerful girl spot Seamus, caper up to the end of
the bar, and look at him with a giant smile. “Good pleasant morning to you,
Doctor blood-be-gone.”

Ryker choked on his juice. Seamus had to pat his back.
“I’m late for the meeting.
Laters
.”
Ryker grabbed a muffin and trotted down the hall. Seamus
turned to look at the young woman.
Bronya
tuned out
the woman and tried to focus on her meal.

With Seamus’s disappearance,
Bronya
looked up and noticed the energetic woman smiling at her. “Hi, I’m Havana. You must
be Nix’s mate.”

Bronya
took her hand and shook it as Gale introduced her. She was grateful for Gale, as
she didn’t think she could handle all that energy alone right now. Gale introduced
the two legged caffeine rush.
Yeah, my
headache isn’t getting any better.

Her mind remained relatively empty as she tuned out
the girls until a group of tall well-built men made their way into the
breakfast area. Introductions were made, not that
Bronya
would ever remember their names with so much going on, but she appreciated
being thoughtfully included. She was able to make out many of these were a
building crew for homes they were building around the property. The thought of what
kind of home Nix would have drifted through her mind.

A man came out and spoke to the group. “
Mornin
’, guys. I heard you being introduced to
Bronya
. Her attack was orchestrated by that beta, Damon. We
think they possibly followed Enzo to the hotel after he left here last night.
Damon wasn’t part of the group that attacked, so he’s still out there and we
think he isn’t alone. Keep an extra close eye on your surroundings. I’ll be
joinin
’ you out there when I can.” She watched him refill
his coffee cup and head back into the office where Nix was.

Bronya
felt slightly guilty that she didn’t help with the dishes, but her head was
starting to feel a bit out of control. So while the girls were doing clean-up,
she searched out Seamus. He was just bringing down the dirty dishes when she
found him.