Penn, Jenny - Chasing Lacie [Sea Island Wolves 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (18 page)

“Mmhmm,” Lacie murmured. “Ready for my nap.”

Chapter 13

Lacie hadn’t lied. They hadn’t even finished lifting her out of the pool and drying her off before she lost awareness. Muttering and grumbling, she still gave them grief in her sleep, but at least she couldn’t run again. For that Chance would be thankful.

Carrying her back up to their room, he held on to Lacie while Davis pulled down the covers. Even then, he resented having to let her go. She felt so soft and warm in his arms, the gentle expanse of her chest pressing against his a rhythmic reminder that she was safe and well. As horribly off track as everything had gone that day, he reveled in the assurance that it hadn’t ended badly.

Technically they’d won the first round. Lacie was alive and unscarred physically. She would stay that way, Chance vowed silently as he settled her onto the mattress. Nothing would harm her. Chance would sacrifice his own life to see that pledge through.

First, though, he’d sacrifice Davis. Tossing his partner a smirk, he eyed the other lycan, assessing the goofy look on Davis’s face as he stared down at their mate.

“You’d die for her.” Chance caught Davis’s gaze. “Wouldn’t you?”

“You even have to ask?”

“Good.” Chance ignored the dirty look Davis shot him with his answer. “You can go first.”

“Ha.” Davis’s scowl broke into an honest grin. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m the one who’s going to be babysitting. You’re the one who’s going to be fighting,
Alpha
. That kind of puts your number before mine.”

Chance’s nose wrinkled at that retort. Davis had it right. As the future Alpha of the clan, Chance would be busy and kept busy for most of his life with pack business. Davis, on the other hand, would be busy with their family.

While Chance traveled for business, Davis would be at home playing daddy to the pups. Through all the long nights that Chance would be handling the inevitable problems that sprung up in the clan, Davis would be at home handling their woman. Unless, of course, Chance wasn’t Alpha.

“You never know.” Chance leaned down to tuck the covers in tight around Lacie. “I might lose the fight.”

He spoke of the battle him and Davis would engage in on the night of the full moon. Whoever won would be Alpha of the family and have first mating rights when it came to their woman. A big deal normally as it set the hierarchy of the family in place. Right then, Chance would have chosen a lower rank for more time with Lacie.

“Nah, you won’t.” Davis didn’t look the least bit worried by Chance’s threat as he went to check the shelter’s security system for updates. “It’s not in your nature to throw a fight.”

“It’s not in any of ours.” Chance didn’t argue the point, knowing Davis was right. In wolf form under a full moon, he wouldn’t be rational, calculating or even worried. He’d crush Davis and take what was his. That was the nature of the beast.

The reward would be that he had first rights to Lacie’s cunt whenever he wanted. Better yet, after the full moon, Davis wouldn’t be allowed to dick around with Lacie’s pussy until after Chance got her pregnant. That explained Davis’s bitching given he knew in two weeks, he’d have no chance at Lacie’s cunt for at least the next two.

Hell, it could be longer—after all, there was birth control. For as much as Chance wanted kids, he liked the idea of making them the best. Of course the clan would get feisty if Lacie didn’t start growing a belly full of pups within a month of their mating. So Chance couldn’t keep Lacie’s cunt to himself for too long.

“Ah, crap.” That groaned complaint drew Chance from his pleasant contemplations to Davis’s dour scowl.

“What’s up?”

“We got company.” Davis flipped closed the laptop that attached into the shelter’s main security system. “In the kitchen.”

Chance didn’t bother to ask details, but turned toward the door that led to the other apartments that made up this suite. The entire underground complex was made up of suites. Every three bedrooms fed into the same kitchen and living shelter. All were attached to the communal living areas that they’d passed through to get to the bathing pool.

Lacie had mistakenly guessed that they feared some nuclear holocaust, but lycans didn’t fear the destruction of this world by man. They had many worlds in which they could live, making Earth relatively unimportant.

The only value Earth had was as a buffer between the worlds they preferred and the chaotic, shadow worlds that lied on the other side Earth. It was inevitable that at some point that darkness would punch through, turning Earth into the next battleground. When those days dawned, this underground facility would be used as barracks for the soldiers who would heed the call of war.

“Hey.” Davis blocked Chance’s hand from the door latch leading into the kitchen. “What about?” Chance followed Davis’s nod to where Lacie lay curled up in the bed. “She wakes up and we’re not here, God knows where she’ll go next.”

“We could tie her to the bed.”

“Or we could leave a note.”

“Won’t work as well as ropes.”

“She’ll wake up mad.”

“Better an angry mate than a dead one.”

Chance won with that argument. Less than five minutes later they had each one of Lacie’s limbs secured to a different corner of the bed. Still they had to wait another minute for Davis to write a note and leave it on the pillow beside her. Chance knew his buddy hoped that would mitigate Lacie’s response if she woke up early, but still considered it a futile gesture.

He didn’t waste his breath complaining, though, knowing the argument would only delay them longer. Chance was itchy to get into the kitchen and hear what had happened. When the two-foot, steel door finally slid back to reveal a room packed full of Alphas, Chance had at least one answer. Things had gotten worse, which at this point seemed to be the trajectory they were on.

“Hey, son.” Chance’s dad looked up from his seat at the back, right next to the door Chance and Davis strutted through. “Welcome to the party.”

Moving out of the way as the door started sliding shut behind him, Chance hovered next to his father. “And it looks like a big one. Why is everybody here?”

“To get our marching orders.” Ron glanced back at the door that clicked shut. “How is she?”

“Tired.”

“Amazing,” Davis answered at the exact same time, drawing a grin from Ron.

“Yeah, I heard she came barreling out of the shelter with a shotgun, all ready to find you and kill whatever she had to on the way.”

“More like she almost got herself killed.” Chance didn’t like the pride in his father’s tone, not wanting anybody to encourage Lacie into even more reckless behavior. “Speaking of, did all yours turn out to be zombies, too?”

“Yeah and fresh, too.” Ron’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Couldn’t get a useful word out of them.”

“And—”

“
Silence!
”

Konor Kragen’s roar brought the room to an immediate still as every lycan stiffened up at their king’s command. Kragen Kings were not anointed based on bloodlines, but were born with fate’s own mark encircling their necks. The dark, tattoo-like collar flexed and bulged with the tension of the muscles beneath as all attention focused on Konor.

“As you all know, a demon has decided to wage war against our mates and us through them. We will put this rebellion down. That is why you have all been called here. Edward?”

Konor nodded to one of the smaller lycan’s lingering by his side. Old enough to have seen more than one century pass, the elder wore the robe of the high council and that alone demanded respect even if his frail appearance made him one of the weakest men in the room.

“We were informed of the threat by the Masters of Cerberus. They presented us with a list of mates that were considered targets.” The white-haired elder’s voice rang out clear and loud in the large room, his words bringing little comfort. “Their concerns were confirmed today with an attack on the Dillon mate.”

That drew a lot of glances in Chance and Davis’s direction. Neither said anything, not needing to explain that the situation was secure. If it wasn’t, Chance and Davis wouldn’t have been there.

“Obviously we are working with The Masters to determine the exact nature of the threat, the intent behind it and how the identities of our mates were discovered.” Konor stepped in to lay out the assurances that were taken for granted, but still had to be given.

“But we have gained some valuable information from today’s events.” Edward began dancing about the crowd, darting between the large lycans as he handed out a stack of folders he’d lifted off the kitchen counter.

“First, we know right now that the immediate threat is coming from a demonic disciple going by the name of TJ Carver.” Edward flashed past Chance in a cloud of herbal incense and leaving behind a blue folder. “That’s obviously not his real name and irrelevant to the fact that he’s clearly been building an army of undead.”

“Kill the disciple and the zombies will fall with him.” Konor scanned the crowd, his ebony brows lowered like a thick band over his penetrating gaze. “He’s our priority. All of you gathered here, except the Dillons, have no mate at stake and will bring the full force of your might into this battle.”

Chance listened with half an ear to the rest of Konor’s orders as he laid out the plan to find and catch Carver, more interested in the file Edward had handed him. Thick and full of information, it even had a picture clearly taken from a video of Carver leaving the grocery store with Lacie.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, Lacie looking up with a smile on her face while Carver’s blond head dipped down, his smirk only half visible. She’d been that close to danger, and it made Chance sick, especially given the rest of pictures included with the file.

Carver liked women, liked to hurt them, to butcher them, to raise them from the dead enslaved to his will. But he would not get Lacie, and neither would any of his zombies. Chance might not have been there to stop Carver from getting close to Lacie that first time, but he was here now.

“Chance?” Jolting at the sound of his name, he looked up to find Konor towering over him, a hand extended in welcome.

“My king.” Bowing his head, he accepted the rough handshake and waited while The Kragen greeted Davis and his father. Konor’s attention turned almost immediately back toward Chance, naturally returning to the strongest of the Dillons.

“I hear your woman is safe.”

“And asleep.” Chance nodded. “But it was closer than I liked.”

“Closer than is acceptable.” Konor glanced around the slowly emptying room. “Come. We brought you toys.”

Falling in step beside Konor, Chance left Davis and his father to follow. Normally it would have been Ron who walked beside the king, but the tides had already started to change. With Chance’s generation returning from war, the old one was slowly being replaced. The previous kings had already moved on, and soon so would Chance’s father.

“Since we can’t sniff these fuckers out, we brought the motion sensors,” Konor explained as he led them out of the kitchen and down a tunnel toward the main control room. “They’re being set up now, should be online within the hour.”

Chance stepped through the door Konor shoved open and came to a quick stop to bow his head at Konor’s twin, Gregor. “My king.”

“Chance. Davis. Ron.” Gregor nodded to all of them before turning back to the monitor he’d been watching. “I assume Konor already mentioned the motion sensors. We have the first perimeter set up. They’re working on the second and third now.”

“Your men will have to wear tags.” Konor chunked a bag full of small, metal buttons.

Chance recognized them easily, having worn many tags in the past. The little microchips inside the buttons would be coded to each lycan and recognized by the system so they wouldn’t be mistaken as intruders. Even better it would allow them to organize and surround any interloper that broke their perimeter.

“We’ll be able to monitor the situation from here.” It really wasn’t a question since Chance already knew the answer, but he also knew to always verify any assumption.

“Yes.” Gregor glanced over at Ron. “And the feed will transmit through here so you can monitor back at the ranch. From there it will transmit to us, and we’ll also monitor the situation. If the feed goes down, the army comes out.”

“So you’re expecting them to come back?”

Chance understood why Davis asked that question even if the answer didn’t matter. To ensure Lacie’s safety, they had to assume a constant and immediate threat. That didn’t mean the stress of such an assumption didn’t wear on a man. A moment of hope, a small glimmer that things would eventually be better was sometimes all anybody had to cling to.

Chance could see that recognition in Konor’s gaze as he cast a small smile in Davis’s direction. “There’s no way to know, but this all does smell like a distraction.”

“In what way?” Chance narrowed in on that reassurance as nothing but alarm swept over him.

“In the way that if the demon really wanted one of our mates, he wouldn’t need a list or an army.” Gregor smashed a button on the keyboard and then swiveled around to address Chance directly. “There are over a thousand registered lycan mates waiting for their men to return home. It wouldn’t have been hard for the demon to picked one off, but instead he puts on a show, sends zombies, keeps us busy.”