Matefinder (19 page)

                I came to with a raging headache.
My mouth was dry and I was starving. I squinted at the bright lights and took
in my surroundings. I was chained to a chair with silver chains. I was in a
large room with rows and rows of bench-type seating. About ten people were
sitting on benches but they stood now and aimed their crossbows at me. I was in
the center of the room on a dais. It took me a second to realize I was in a
church. A crazy thought struck me then. Would I burn alive? I looked down at my
body. I guess not.

                A man stepped forward. “Aurora?”

                I swallowed, trying to figure out
how I wanted to play this. They looked scared but they also look like they
wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

                “Yes, my name is Aurora. Who are
you?”

                He looked to a woman on his right
and she nodded, seemingly giving him permission.

                “We are from a special branch of
the International Intelligence Community. Those who know of us, call us RAIDOS.
Research And Intelligence Division On Supernaturals. Our mission has always
been to gather intelligence on your kind. How much information you give us will
determine if we let you live.”

                I nodded and tried to keep my
wolf from coming out. I could tell by the fact that they stepped back a few
feet that I hadn’t succeeded. I knew my eyes were yellow. I took a deep breath.
“Well, I have only been a supernatural for a few weeks. I was human for the
first twenty-two years of my life.”

                The woman placed a tape recorder
in front of me. “If you answer all of our questions and we determine you are
not a threat to the human race. We will let you go.”

                I looked at her. I could tell
from the way she was communicating with the other man that they were in a
romantic relationship. “I feel it fair to warn you that the longer you keep me
here, the more chance you have of encountering my mate. He will bring our entire
werewolf pack and they will rip your fragile human bodies apart.”

                She raised her crossbow and
pointed it at me. “Don’t make threats.”

                I leaned forward. “It was a
warning. I cannot communicate with my mate because the witch did something to
my pack bonds. But he WILL find me and he won’t ask questions. This church
won’t keep them out.”

                A few of the RAIDOS agents
exchanged looks. A petite woman with short blonde hair stepped forward. “So you
will answer our questions?”

                My mother was human. I was human
a month ago. Of course I wanted the human race to survive. But I also needed to
protect my pack. I needed to give them information but not too much.

                “Yes, unless I feel you shouldn’t
be given certain information for the safety of my kind.”

                The blonde woman nodded seeming
to be okay with that answer. “My name is Dr. Tavern. I am the communications psychologist
for RAIDOS. We have been tracking the three supernatural communities for about
twenty-five years now. We have intercepted your phones, email, and anything we
could, without getting too close to your homes for fear you could smell us. We
know you are a werewolf and after listening in on the vampires’ conversations,
that you may be able to help them have children. They wish to kill off your
kind and take humanity under their ownership as blood slaves with their newly
created spawn. So I guess the biggest question we have is, whose side are you
on? The vampires or the humans?”

                I decided a little humor was in
order here. “Couldn’t you tell how much we werewolves love vampires by the way
we stormed that house and started killing them?”

                Her lips curled into the
slightest smile.

                “Werewolves protect humans. It’s
always been this way. They kidnapped one of our pregnant females. We are here
to get her back,” I told her.

                She nodded as if she knew this.

                “Why aren’t the silver chains
hurting you? We have heard other wolves talk about silver incapacitating them.”

                “Most wolves cannot handle
silver. I am immune to its effects,” was all I said.

                The psychologist nodded. “She is cooperating.
Untie her. Give her water.”

                The man who had approached me
earlier seemed unsure but did as she asked. The second he unlocked my chains I
could have shifted and jumped out of a nearby stained glass window. I didn’t.
If a vampire war was coming then we needed allies. I only hoped it was possible
to become allies with these people.

                I rubbed my wrist and grabbed the
water bottle.

                “Thank you.”

                Dr. Tavern nodded.

                “You said you were human a few
weeks ago. What happened? Do werewolves turn humans just to increase their
numbers?”

                “No, that is against werewolf
law. I was in a bad car accident on Mount Hood. I was dying and my mate found
me. He is an Alpha and he
changed
me, hoping I could survive.”

                “Kai?” the psychologist asked.

                Shit, they knew a lot. I suddenly
felt very protective. I opened my pack bond but I couldn’t sense Kai. Did it
not work if we were too far away?

                The psychologist seemed to
register my apprehension. “We have a drone that flies above Mount Hood. We have
been watching Kai and his pack for a while. He does things differently. There
are no fights in his pack. They don’t do anything illegal. He even pays his
taxes.”

                I breathed a little easier. “Yes,
once Kai
changed
me, I found out he was my mate.”

                The psychologist seemed to mull
something over. “I like you, Aurora. You seem very caring, protective, and
intelligent. Many of the same qualities we find in humans. I want you to answer
this next question very, very honestly. Your life depends on it.”

                I sat up straighter.

                “Are you the Matefinder and what
does that mean?”

                Well, shit. So much for not
revealing too much. My wolf came to the surface. I felt the need to run. Surly
if they knew I could help grow the werewolf race exponentially, they would kill
me. I decided to downplay it.

                “Yes, I am the Matefinder. There
is always one Matefinder in existence to help wolves from faraway packs find
their mate. No big deal.”

                Dr. Tavern chewed her lip. “And
is it true without finding your mate that you cannot conceive children?”

                There was no way around this
question. I knew where she was going. I stood up suddenly, angry. “Yes! I find
mates so we can marry and have a family just like you! YES! If you kill me
right now then the werewolf population will significantly decrease over time.
But if you kill me, then there will also be less wolves to help you fight the
vampires in the future.”

                All ten RAIDOS agents had their
crossbows pointed at me. All except the psychologist. She regarded me
thoughtfully.

                “I guess we have a decision to
make. Either we as humans work alone to ensure the human race survives or we
form an alliance,” Dr. Tavern suggested.

                We stared at each other.
Challenge
,
my wolf said. If they made a move to kill me I would fight. I would probably
die but I would fight.

                ‘Aurora? We’re coming! I can
smell you. We are close. Hold on!’

                Dr. Tavern’s phone beeped. She
broke eye contact to look at it. Relief seemed to flood through her. She extended
her hand to me.

                “We can start small. I would like
to start an alliance from the West coast branch of RAIDOS to the Mount Hood
pack.”

                Would Kai be okay with this? He
wouldn’t like that they were watching us but what could we do? We both had a
common enemy and a common goal.

                I shook her hand.

                “My mate and our pack are close.
You should all leave. This isn’t the best way for you to meet him.”

                She nodded and handed me a thin
phone. “We will be in touch.”

                ‘I’m safe. We have a lot to talk
about. Is Emma with you?’  
I held my breath.

                ‘We have her. She’s fine.’

                My throat tightened with emotion.
Emma was okay. I began to walk outside as the black van pulled away. I could
see Kai running down the street in wolf form, a pack of wolves ran further
behind him. I ran towards him and noticed he was hurt. A trail of blood
trickled behind him.

                He nearly knocked me over when he
saw me. I dug my fingers into his fur and let him smell me.

                “You’re hurt,” I said out loud.

                ‘I nearly tore the head off of
every vampire when I realized you had been taken.’

                Izzy was limping and Max had a
huge gash in his shoulder. Oh God, where was Devon.

                “Devon?” I asked.

                ‘He’s with Emma. They are waiting
for us.’

                I sagged with relief. The Los
Angeles Alpha approached me in human form. “I have a hotel you can stay at
until you are healed for travel.”

                I nodded. “Thank you.”

                Kai nipped my hand.
‘What the
hell happened, Aurora? You said human hunters had come. Then I couldn’t find
you.’

                ‘We have a lot to talk about. Not
here.’
I
rubbed the sore spot on my head where I had been knocked out, and followed the
Los Angeles Alpha.

                As soon as we reached the hotel
lobby I smelled Emma. I broke into a run and followed my nose. I ran down the
long hallway and stopped at door 137.

                “Emma!” I pounded the door. Devon
opened it. His arm was in a sling and he had a black eye. He stepped aside to
let me in. I ran to the bed where Emma sat eating room service. I could sense Kai
behind me. He had shifted to human form before we entered the hotel.

                “Did they hurt you?” I hugged her
hard and she squeezed me back.

                “Not really.” She had a few bruises
but nothing bad.

                “Once I stopped fighting back, they
were okay.”

                Kai approached her. “Emma, I will
never let that happen again. I promise, you and your baby will be safe with me
from now on. But I understand if you want to switch to a bigger pack.”

                My mouth opened in shock. Of
course Kai would feel guilty. He was supposed to keep her safe. A pregnant female
needs the most protection but to switch packs over this? Maybe Emma would be
safer in a bigger pack.

                Emma held out her hands and Kai
took them. “I will never leave this pack. You are my family. You were out of
town and no one thought the bloodsuckers were a problem to us. If I left the
pack based on the grounds that you couldn’t protect me, I would have to leave
my husband, too. He was there and almost died trying to fight them. No one is switching
packs.”

                They shared a look. There was
love there. It gave me goose bumps. Kai would protect anyone of his pack
members but Emma was special to him. Like a true sister.

                A man entered the room with the
Los Angeles Alpha. “Kai, this is the pack doctor you requested.”

                Kai shook his hand. The doctor
smelled of the Los Angeles pack and was a submissive. I would imagine a werewolf
doctor would have to be a submissive. You wouldn’t want a dominant male tending
to you when you were injured.

                “Emma is pregnant. Can you check
on the baby? Make sure it’s okay?” Kai asked him. Devon placed a hand on her
belly.

                The doctor nodded and left. He
returned a few minutes later with a handheld ultrasound machine.

                Kai, Devon, and I all hovered
around the bed. The doctor placed some gel on Emma’s belly.

                “How far along are you?”

                “I don’t know. I just took a home
pregnancy test and found out. We had arranged for a doctor’s visit but then I
was taken.”

                He nodded.

                He placed a wand against her
belly and a black blob appeared. When he moved it a little to the right you
could see a flicker inside the blob.

                “The baby’s heartbeat. Perfectly
healthy. You are about nine weeks along,” the doctor said and then smiled.

                I looked up then and noticed that
all of us had tears in our eyes. Even Kai. Creating life was an amazing thing.

                The second we got inside our own
hotel room Kai collapsed onto the bed out of exhaustion and closed his eyes. I
approached him slowly.

                “The government has been watching
the supernatural community for over twenty years. They kidnapped me tonight,
tied me with silver chains and threatened to kill me if I didn’t answer their
questions. In the end, we created an Alliance. Our common goal is to kill
vampires and keep humanity safe.”

                Kai’s eyes flew open and flared
yellow. “What the hell did you just say?”

                Forty-five minutes later Kai and
I were eating room service and he was still probing me about my encounter with RAIDOS.

                “They have a drone flying over
Mount Hood!” He was screaming as he chewed his rare steak.

                “Kai, they are the government!
What they lack in magical abilities, they make up for in intelligence and
money.”

                “They knew my name? They knew to
tie you up with silver? I don’t like it.”

                “Think about it from their angle.
They know you exist but they have sat back quietly and watched. Then they
overheard the vampires say, ‘Hmmm let’s wipe out the werewolves and make a huge
vampire nation with tons of human blood slaves.’”

                I shook my hands for emphasis.
“Oh and while we are at it, let’s have vampire blood-sucking babies because
this Matefinder girl can help us!”

                Kai groaned. “I see your point.”

                I pulled out the phone that had
been setting in my pocket. “They gave me this, said we would be in touch.”

                Kai snatched it from me. “We need
to tell the council right away. And I want to meet them. And I want that damn
drone off my mountain!”

                I stroked my finger across his
chest. “First we need a shower.”

                He raised his eyebrow. “We? As in
together?”

                I laughed and stood, stripping my
shirt and walking into the bathroom, leaving the door open.

                After our shower, Kai called his
father and told him that when we went to get Emma, some government agents had
detained me. That’s all he said over the phone. We didn’t know who was
listening. His father said the council would be visiting us soon. No time or
place was given. Maybe that was better. I was sure that RAIDOS could be trusted
not to kill us as long as they didn’t have reason. But there were a lot of
reasons. As soon as we weren’t a good use for them, or if they felt threatened,
they could annihilate our kind. I shivered.

***

                It had been a few weeks since we
had gotten Emma back. Diya was busy planning her wedding back in Delhi but we
would video chat often. I wasn’t even sure where to begin with wedding planning
so Diya and Emma said they would take care of everything. Every few days they
would ask me simple things like what my favorite flower was or my favorite
color. Kai’s mother asked me if I wanted to wear a Sari on our wedding day and
I told her yes. I loved the Indian culture and the thought of wearing a red sari
just like in my vision made me happy.

                I had called my mother to share
the news of our engagement and she was actually happy, a little apprehensive
that it was all happening so fast, but happy.

                Kai had stepped up security on
the mountain and at all of the pack houses in Portland. Each home had state of
the art security and was equipped with a large arsenal of vampire killing
weapons. Our daily training sessions now included staking a vampire and how
best to fight them. We all knew we were preparing for something, we just
weren’t sure what exactly.

                I had just reached home after
teaching a self-defense class with Izzy at Safe Haven. We were exiting the car
when I smelled something. Foreign wolves. I looked around and noticed a few
black cars that weren’t pack. Izzy looked at me but I sent her home.

                ‘Who’s here?’
I asked Kai
.

                ‘
My father and the rest of the
council. Come in quietly and don’t speak
.’

                What the hell. Don’t speak.

                I tried to smooth my hair down. I
was sweaty and wearing a tank top with yoga pants. Not exactly how I wanted to
greet the council. I hadn’t even been properly introduced to Kai’s father last
time. I used my key and opened the door.

                The twelve council members sat on
the couches and some had pulled chairs up. Kai was sitting in the middle of the
room with a dry eraser board. He looked at me and put a finger to his lips. I
heard a car door slam and smelled a witch. Sylvia. I creased my eyebrows in
confusion.

                ‘What’s going on?’

                ‘We need to talk about RAIDOS but
they are listening. Just now, we found out that one of the trees out back is
bugged. Sylvia is going to magically keep our conversation safe.’

                Sylvia gave a light knock and let
herself in. She glanced around briefly and nodded at me. She seemed to know
what was going on. She pulled some white salt from her bag and began sprinkling
it around. Then she placed a purple crystal in the center of the room and began
walking around to each council member and held out her hand.

                “I need a piece of your hair,”
she whispered. They reluctantly gave it to her. When she came to me I happily
gave her a piece. I watched, fascinated, as she wound each person’s hair around
the purple crystal in the center of the room. Then she whispered, “Let their
words make no sound. Let none hear it for all around.” A fine mist crept out of
the crystal and created a dome above our heads.

                She spoke loudly now. “You may
speak freely. I will wait outside. Come get me when you are finished.”

                “Thank you, Sylvia,” Kai told
her. I noticed he was trusting her more and more. That was good because I
really wanted to learn more about witches and spell craft.

                Kai’s father stepped towards me.
“First let me properly introduce myself. I am Raj, Kai’s father.  I’m sorry we
have to keep meeting under these dire circumstances.” I shook his outstretched
hand and didn’t make eye contact.

                “It’s nice to meet you, sir,” I
told him as Kai placed a hand on my shoulder.

                Jane smiled at me. “Aurora, thank
you for helping me find my mate.”

                I nodded.

                A large Native American wolf
placed both of his palms up. “Enough pleasantries, tell us everything you know
about this government group that’s tracking supernaturals. We haven’t been told
anything!”

                I took a deep breath and told
them everything.

                “You offered an alliance!” Raj
shouted. I tried not to let my wolf out.

                “Yes, I offered an alliance
between RAIDOS and MY pack. I am second in command, I did what I felt is best
for our pack.” I met Kai’s father’s eyes briefly and then glanced at Kai. He
looked proud.

                “You are not a council member.
You cannot offer an alliance with humans. That’s the council’s decision,” Raj challenged.

                Okay, now I was getting pissed
off.

                “I was knocked unconscious, tied
up with silver chains and my life was threatened! I can do whatever the hell I
want!” I shouted and immediately recoiled. Raj and I weren’t getting off to the
best start. He looked like he wanted to take my head off. Kai stepped forward
and placed himself in between his father and I.

                “What would you have her do, Papa?
Reject an alliance so they have reason to kill her? There is a war coming. We
need allies. The witches have agreed to side with us. Now we have allied with
humans. Together we may be able to save our race. Together we can live long
enough to live out the new relationships and pregnancies that my mate has
helped start!”

                His father looked to the other
council members and nodded. They seemed to be having a conversation in their
heads. How can they do that?

                “Then there are two more things
left to discuss,” Jane told us.

                “Should we publically reveal our
species to the humans and would you both like a seat on the council?”

                What the hell?

                “NO and NO,” Kai answered.
“Aurora and I aren’t interested in politics and the humans aren’t ready for the
knowledge of our kind.”

                Okay, I would have liked to
answer for myself but I agreed. I didn’t want to be on some stuffy council. But
I wasn’t sure I agreed with Kai about the humans not being ready for knowledge
of our kind. If a vampire war was coming and the humans were going to be
enslaved, then maybe they deserved to know who was fighting for them.

                “Do we all agree that if there
comes a time to fight for the humans, we protect them?” I asked. Somehow this
had become my task. To make sure we would be there to protect the humans.
Protect our pack, yes, but protect them as well.

                The Native American wolf stepped
forward. “I know you are new to this lifestyle, Aurora. Kai may not have had
time to tell you all of the stories. It has, and always will be, a werewolf’s
duty to protect the humans from vampires. Without that, the balance will tilt
and we would be thrust into a future none of us want to see.” He held my gaze
and in his eyes I was reminded of Nahuel. As I continued to stare, I suddenly
became very sleepy. I began to fall backward and was caught by Nahuel. I was
having another vision. We were standing in a deserted field with a huge water
treatment plant in front of us. I looked at him. He looked sad. “It’s beginning,”
he told me. I looked at the doors of the treatment plant and three vampires
came out.