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UNCLE MARK WAS JUST as stunned as the rest of us, but he recovered more quickly. “What do you remember about that battle?” he asked. His hand twitched towards the tablet he kept in his jacket pocket, but he restrained himself from taking notes. Gedniah seemed more puzzled than shocked. He knew about the origins of shifters, but he was still new to our world.
“Not much,” Freya said. Her hand shook when she took another sip of coffee. I put my arm around her and she leaned against me for comfort. “I remember flashes of hunting the undead. On the third night of the full moon when all of the creatures had been eradicated, I sought for a place to rest. I found an empty cave and went to sleep. I woke up after nightfall, with my master and her nest surrounding me.”
“They were going to kill you?” I asked, gleaning her thoughts from her mind.
“My master knew I wasn’t like the rest of her fledglings, but I finished my transformation into a vampire once I changed back to my human form. I thirsted for blood and I no longer had a heartbeat. She allowed me to live, but I never quite fit in with others of my kind.”
“You change into a werewolf during every full moon?” Uncle Mark surmised. She’d told us she’d eaten many animals, so she must have.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “I never remembered it, but my master always kept track of me. I believe she was curious about me because I wasn’t completely undead despite my lack of a pulse. A few months after she’d turned me, my werewolf caught a familiar scent.”
I felt her dread and squeezed her shoulder. “You can tell them,” I said supportively, reading her thoughts and knowing what she’d done. “They’ll understand.”
She gave me a small smile, then continued her story. “The Norse chieftain who had claimed me had also been turned into an animal,” she went on. “My wolf recognized his scent even in his bear form. The rest of his men had also been changed into bears. They’d claimed a territory and were spread throughout the woods.”
“I bet I know where this is going,” Yas said, leaning forward in anticipation. Alex elbowed her in the side for interrupting my mate. Uncle Mark gave the vampire a stern look, then gestured at Freya to continue.
“For the first and only time, I remember what happened during the moon cycle clearly,” my mate said. “I hated those men enough to connect with my wolf’s mind. I told her what they’d done to me. Their brutality had gone too far and I would have died from my injuries if my master hadn’t turned me. My wolf shared my rage. We waited for night to pass and for daylight to arrive before we struck.”
“This is going to be good,” Syd said, flicking a look at Harlan. The tiger nodded in agreement. He was just as riveted as the rest of us by the ancient tale.
“I chose one of the slumbering bears and stealthily approached him,” Freya said, eyes going distant as she replayed that long ago event. “I tore his throat out so he couldn’t roar for help. He began to heal, so I savaged him until he expired. Then I moved on to the next one. It was almost nightfall by the time I crept up to the chieftain. He was awake and knew the others were dead. He didn’t know who I was when I confronted him. He only knew that I was his enemy.”
“How did you fight a werebear and live?” Brynn asked in disbelief.
“I had help,” Freya admitted with a smirk. “The chief was formidable in his human form, but as a bear, he was unbeatable. He slashed me with his claws and almost tore my head off. I barely managed to wound him at all. He had me pinned down and was about to kill me when the sun went down and my master and her nest arrived.”
“They saved you from him?” Alex asked in marvel.
“They did,” my mate confirmed. “They swarmed over him and tore him away from me. They drank his blood and drained him to death and I feasted on his flesh. I never attacked the nest when I shifted because my wolf knew they were my vampire’s pack.” The satisfaction in her tone would have made most humans uneasy. Since none of us were technically human, we felt just as satisfied with her revenge as she did. Even Uncle Mark was more than human now that he was immortal.
“I would have done the same thing,” Liam said. “Most shifters will hunt their supernatural enemies down and kill them. It’s instinct.”
My brother’s support for my mate’s decision made my heart swell with joy. Thanks, big bro, I said directly into his mind.
Freya is my sister now, he replied. She’s part of our pack and we protect the ones we love.
I willed myself not to tear up, but it was hard to suppress my emotions. Freya had caught our exchange through our link. She gave my twin a nod of thanks for not condemning her.
“Did your nest become addicted to shifter blood?” Harlan asked.
Freya shook her head. “My master was too clever to allow us to have a weakness like that. She took us far away from the shifters to another country.”
“Where was your master from?” Uncle Mark asked.
“She was from Romania. She told us she originated from the first vampires that were spawned.”
Again, everyone was shocked, including me.
“Did your master know how vampires came to be?” Liam asked.
“No. She only knows they came from the country of her birth.”
We were all a bit disappointed that the mystery still couldn’t be answered.
“What are we going to do about Killion?” I said to Uncle Mark. “He’s probably abandoned his lair by now.”
“We need to check to be sure,” he replied. “Do you still have the watch you used to track him down with?”
Freya gulped down the last of her coffee before responding. “I lost it in the river after we fell from the dam wall. It’s probably been swept far away by now.”
“We might be able to find more of his hair at his lair,” Brynn said.
“Gear up,” Uncle Mark ordered. “Alex, stay here with Nick and Freya,” he added.
Alex looked disappointed that she would miss out, but nodded obediently. Epsilon looked up at her and she relayed his message. “Epsilon will take you to Killion’s lair,” she said. Emma tugged on her hair to get her attention, then pointed at my mate and me. “Em says she’ll watch over the new lovebirds for Epsilon while he’s gone,” Alex added with a smirk.
Everyone raced off to retrieve their weapons. Ike entered the base and headed up to his bedroom. Crowmon stayed on the couch, observing my mate curiously. He heaved himself to his feet when the team returned carrying assault rifles loaded with silver ammo.
I’d lost all of my gear when the vamps had grabbed me, including the grenades. Liam caught that thought when I sent it to him and nodded. “Killion has some of our weapons,” he told Uncle Mark. “He has an assault rifle, a handgun, machetes and a few grenades.”
“We’ll have to be on the lookout for booby traps,” Uncle Mark figured. “We’ll keep our distance from his lair and send Ike in to take a look.” The zombie could heal any injury, so it made sense to send Old Bony in.
Ike nodded in agreement. “Can I blow Killion’s head off if I see him?” he asked in his slightly raspy voice.
Uncle Mark looked almost amused for a second. “You all have orders to shoot to kill as soon as you spot any of Killion’s nest.”
“Let’s go already,” Syd complained. “My trigger finger is bored.”
Snickers sounded as they filed outside. Epsilon was nestled in Uncle Mark’s pocket, next to the mouse mom had raised for him. I felt a small pang at being separated from him and hoped he wouldn’t be hurt during their mission.
“Your mouse will be fine,” Freya said, then offered me a cookie. “We should reward him for his bravery and loyalty.”
I took the cookie and ate it while nodding in agreement. “We’ll get Alex to ask him what he wants when they get back.”
Alex seemed to be lost in her thoughts. She had a haunted expression on her face that made my heart ache, but she dredged up a smile. “I’d be happy to,” she agreed. “Do you want me to make you guys something more substantial than cookies?”
My stomach growled in answer and so did Freya’s. “We’re both pretty hungry,” I said sheepishly.
“I can’t believe I’m alive again,” Freya said as Alex pushed herself to her feet.
“Your soul was still attached to your werewolf,” my sister said as Emma leaped onto the couch and scampered over to me. The squirrel curled up on my lap and looked up at me expectantly. I petted her like she wanted me to and she held out her paw to my mate.
“What does she want?” Freya asked warily.
“To welcome you to our family,” Alex said. She busied herself making us both sandwiches.
“Just wait until you meet Zeus and he welcomes you,” I said with a grin.
Scanning my mind, Freya looked bemused as she reached over to let Emma hold her finger for a few seconds. “I’ll make sure to keep my hands out of reach of his mouth,” she vowed.
“He’ll get you when you least expect it,” Alex warned her. “No one can escape from his affections for long.”
I appreciated my little sister’s efforts to act as if this was just another day in the Shifter Squad. Then again, we were so used to extraordinary things happening that nothing much surprised us anymore.
