One True Mate 1: Shifter's Sacrifice (16 page)

Trevor walked ten feet away with Harlan. “Since when does he
try
to cross over? Khain doesn’t have any difficulty getting out of the
Pravus
.”

Harlan spoke quickly. “The felen’s exact words were, ‘there is a disturbance in the
Pravus
. Either he’s having difficulty crossing over, or something big is happening over there. We request
wolven
backup just in case.’”

Trevor watched Ella, noticing the vulnerability of her pale skin, the beauty of her form. “Just in case of what?”

Harlan shook his head. “I’m not the expert. What the fuck is wrong with you? I thought you would have asked me one word, where? And then you would have been gone.”

Trevor faced Harlan. “Yeah, sorry. Where is everyone else?”

“Mac, Beckett, and Crew are already on their way, riding together. You can ride with me.”

Trevor shook his head. “I’ll head out by myself. Got a meeting with Wade in two hours and other important things to do today. Where?”

Harlan gave him a funny look, then recited the directions and headed to his own vehicle. Trevor made his way back to Ella.

“You have to go, don’t you?” she asked as soon as he reached her.

He almost called it all off. Let the rest of the team handle it. But in the end, he couldn’t do it. He was the boss. He was the one that Wade thought would end Khain once and for all. He couldn’t pick and choose his battles. He had to be there for all of them. He nodded slowly. “Listen to me, Ella. You have to go back to the safe house. I’ll send Trent and Troy with you and there will be two other officers there too. You will be safe there, I promise you.”

She nodded slowly and did not argue. “Sorry you have to send people to watch me.”

He shook his head. “Don’t ever be sorry. You’re…” He wanted to say so much more than he could actually bring himself to. “You’re worth it.”

He took her hand, feeling a thrill go through him when she didn’t resist or pull away from him. “Come on, we have to find Officer Adin. I’m not leaving you until I put you in his car myself.” He pulled her towards the crowd, scanning it with his eyes and nose. Trent and Troy followed.

You two, don’t you leave her side. She’s top priority.

Roger.

Got it.

***

Three hours later, Trevor drove slowly back into Serenity, passing the statue of the red wolf at a near crawl. He stared into the wolf’s eyes, keeping only the barest of his senses on the road. When he drove far enough that the connection was broken, he stepped hard on the gas. He was already late for Wade’s meeting.

Report
, he sent out to Trent.

All quiet. She’s napping.

An image of Ella’s pretty face relaxed, eyes closed, body curled up on the small bed in the safe house swam in front of Trevor’s eyes. What he wouldn’t give to be with her, even sitting close to her, watching her as she slept.

The disturbance had proven to be a waste of time. Mostly. All of the KSRT and six
felen
, most of the
Pumaii,
had gathered on Blue River Bluff just to the north of town. Trevor had to admit that he felt something as soon as he got there and walked out to the bluff. Something that made him itch to shift right there, shift and run, shift and howl, shift and bite whatever there was to bite.

All the
wolven
had held their form, but barely, only by walking constantly and holding on tightly with their minds. Two of the felen had shifted and loped off into the woods as monstrous mountain lions that made Trevor’s fangs lengthen. In human form,
felen
were attractive in a strange way, but as big cats, he felt a strange repulsion towards them. Like he would just as soon rip them apart than share the same ground with them. When
felen
and
wolven
shifted near each other, if Khain weren’t around, it was always a bad scene.

When the
disturbance
, the ruinous scream from another world, finally stopped, Trevor was the first to leave. Let his team stay there if they wanted. He had a meeting he had to be at, so he had climbed into his truck and driven off, feeling his need to shift and to run only grow with every mile he drove away from the woods. Thank the Light there was a
Zyanya
scheduled that night. It would be an official
wolven
goodbye to Pickett, but also a running with the moon that Trevor had never felt he needed so badly.

And after that? The rut. Ella’s image rose in his mind and Trevor shook his head. He would turn away a thousand ruts for the chance to sit across from Ella in the dark for just one night. But if the others needed it…

Trevor was pulled out of his thoughts by the police station appearing on his right. Within three short minutes he was standing outside of Wade’s office, tucking his shirt, checking the creases on his pants. He raised his hand to knock, but Wade’s voice came through the door. “Come in, son.”

Trevor opened the door and pushed inside. A male sitting in one of the black leather chairs opposite Wade stood and faced him. Trevor stared him down coldly, afraid he knew who it was.

He was big. As big as Trevor, which was rare. His dark hair was cropped close to his head and he had no beard or facial hair at all. Trevor could see black tattoos on the man’s wrists, peeking out from under the cuffs of the full suit he wore, one he looked both comfortable and uncomfortable in.

But none of that was relevant. All Trevor cared about was the smell coming off of him. It was cold and hot at the same time which could not be.

“This better not be who I think it is,” Trevor growled at Wade, his eyes on the interloper who should not be in the police station, much less inside Wade’s office.

Wade inclined his head. “Lieutenant Trevor Burbank, meet Graeme Kynock, Special Constable of the Police Service of Scotland, on loan to the KSRT, with possible future reassignment.”

The male held out a hand to Trevor but did not smile. “Good afternoon, sir. My name is actually pronounced gray-em” His accent was not thick, but definitely there. He rolled the R in his name which made Trevor want to bite him.

Trevor ignored the hand and turned to Wade, his brow furrowed, his fists clenched. “He’s not w
olfen
,” he bit out, barely able to control himself.

Wade didn’t give an inch. “He’s
dragen
. They have been valued members of the Police Scotland for centuries, working alongside our
wolven
brothers and sisters there.”

Trevor narrowed his eyes and turned to Graeme. “You have females?”

Graeme dropped his hand. “No. We lost all of our females when the Great Destroyer wiped them from the world, just as you.”

Trevor took a step forward. “I thought all the
dragen
were gone. Killed off.”

Graeme lifted his chin. “I am the last.”

Trevor turned to Wade again. “I would like to speak to you alone.” He was so angry he almost shook with it, his muscles tensed and full.

“Whatever you have to say to me can be said in front of Graeme. He should know what he is getting himself into.”

“Fine. How do we know we can trust him? What is he even here for? How am I going to explain to─ to anyone that we’re letting a non-
wolfen
into the KSRT?”

Trevor was distracted by a noise coming from Graeme and he shot his eyes back to the male, falling into a defensive position. Graeme’s clothes seemed to melt and twist and then merge with his body as his body grew to five times its size, quicker than Trevor could watch it. This was no shift. It was something else entirely. Before Trevor could even think about shifting, a red and yellow dragon with a hooked nose and leathery wings loomed in front of him, his scales brushing the high ceiling, two chairs flattened underneath him. The dragon opened its mouth and Trevor could feel its hot breath coating him. It turned its head to watch Trevor with one flat eye, then shot fire across the room at a chair. The top half of the chair disintegrated into ash as the bottom half continue to burn.

Trevor took a step backwards and let loose his own shift, but his was slower, harder and could never rival the smooth transformation that Graeme again pulled off in front of him, almost instantly pulling his dragon-self back into a human form.

“Trevor, no,” Wade warned and Trevor stopped and reversed his shift, leaving his fangs long. The dragon he had just witnessed could snap him in half with one bite, but Trevor would not admit that, even to himself.

A fully dressed Graeme Kynock ignored Trevor’s snarl and walked to the flaming chair. With firm presses of his hands, he put out every flame, pulling it and the resulting ash into him.

Trevor stared, refusing to show that he was impressed.

Wade sighed, eyeing his three ruined chairs. “Don’t you think that could be useful against Khain? A demon who fights us with fire and explosions?”

Trevor growled deep in his throat, unable to give up gracefully. “Sure, if we ever see him! Khain has barely been around for centuries, and some new defensive is not going to help us. We need to go on the offensive, sniff him out. We need new plans, new─”

Wade held up a hand as Graeme unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat back down, his hands clean, his countenance undisturbed. “I appreciate that we took you by surprise, Trevor. I should have told you that Graeme was not
wolfen
. But I need you to let go of your stubbornness just long enough to hear me out.”

Trevor interrupted. “How can you be sure he isn’t a spy? You know as well as anyone that we’ve been burned in the past by
shiften
we weren’t familiar with.”

Wade sighed. “I trust him, Trevor. Bring Troy in here. Have him give you an assessment of Graeme.”

“Troy is busy.”

“Then do it later. I find it very interesting that you’re telling me you want to take the offensive with Khain. That’s exactly what Graeme will be able to help you do.”

“How?”

Graeme lifted his chin and stared over Wade’s head. “I see a green bluff in the northernmost woods of Illinois. Under it, alongside it, in its very essence, is where Khain can be found. This is his home. His hideaway. I can find it, and force my way in.”

Trevor’s mind worked overtime. Could such a thing really be possible? He shook his head. The dragon was having delusions of powers he couldn’t possibly possess.

Graeme looked at him, nostrils flaring. “You doubt me.”

“You’re not as stupid as you look.”

Graeme stood and the fierceness in his eyes caused Trevor to step back. His clothes melded into his skin again, which became scales, and in under two seconds, the red and yellow dragon was back, not quite as big. His scaly head lowered until it was less than a foot from Trevor’s face. Trevor felt a wind form around him but he did not look away. The force of Graeme’s will pulsed outwards from him. Trevor could feel something big coming. He straightened his spine and stared at Graeme. Whatever it was, he would meet it head on.

In the corner, just a few feet from the destroyed chair, a rippling in the air began. A tiny black spot appeared. Trevor wanted to look straight at it, but he didn’t quite dare look away from the beast in front of him.

The wind pulled at him, whipping even his short hair around and items began to fly off of Wade’s desk. Wade gathered his computer and one notebook to him, but did not order a halt to the demonstration.

Trevor could see cords standing out in relief on the dragon’s neck as his body reacted to the strength of his will, to the effort it took to do whatever he was doing.

The black spot in Trevor’s peripheral vision grew larger and he had to look at it. The sight of it caused his gut to tighten and his balls to shrink. Few things scared him in his life, but that tiny black ball that he could only assume was an opening into the
Pravus
filled him with liquid dread.

He tensed, fell back, readying himself to shift, to fight, to die if necessary. He regretted not having more time with Ella, but he pushed her out of his mind. His animal snarled in his head, wanting to come out, needing to be the one in charge, but Trevor held back with all his will. He had to see this with all of his reason intact.

The black hole whirled and sucked and grew and Trevor was able to see into it. It was only a foot or so in diameter but through that tiny window he could see a land of yellow, cracked dirt stretching out in all directions. No plants. No anything, except fires leaping out of the cracks like geysers. As Trevor watched, a book from Wade’s desk sailed past him into the hole and more books tried to follow.

The smell of Khain filled Wade’s office.

With a raging growl, Trevor gave in, shifting, turning into the animal he would fight as. His clothes dropped to the floor and he pulled back on his haunches, ready to leap as soon as the opening was big enough.

“No!” a tortured voice commanded. “You shall not enter!”

The hole snapped shut with a popping sound, cutting a stack of stapled papers that had been sucked partially in clean in half. Trevor stared, his wolf side unable to believe there was nothing to fight. He turned towards Graeme. He would do.

But Graeme had transformed back into the human and was laying on the floor of the office, unconscious.

Trevor paced on the street outside the safe house, needing badly to shift and run, but he couldn’t here in the middle of a suburban street. He wouldn’t anyway. He needed dirt under his feet, the moon calling to him. He could feel her, the moon, growing fat and heavy, just waiting for the sun to finish its descent and then she would rise. She would show him the way.

So many thoughts filled his mind. When the
dragen
had finally come to he had explained that all of the
Pravus
smelled like Khain, and entering there would have done no good.

“To be a
shiften
alone in the
Pravus
means madness,” was all he would say by way of explanation. Trevor didn’t know how his messed-up ability was going to help them if no one could go over there, but he’d been too agitated to try to figure it out. He’d gone down in the tunnels to talk to some of his guys down there, tell them what he’d seen, and then he’d run the tunnels until sunset.