KACELA
Silence met Lia’s statement. I think we were all in disbelief. Eight locations. The horror of it was overwhelming.
I thought about it for a minute and then sorted the girls by their locations. “Okay, locations five, seven and eight are the ones with the most girls. So, they have to be the biggest establishments, right?” I looked around and the other four nodded. I continued.
“So I’m guessing a big city. I suppose it could be several medium sized cities, but it makes more sense to keep them together. The more it’s spread out, the harder it is to control and keep track of the money.” They kept nodding. I realized that they didn’t often deal with illicit companies and that I had more experience than they did. They were deferring to me.
“So, what’s close? Close enough for Jones to disappear to and be back
WYATTWith those words, the meeting was over. Lia and Jarrett left first, both somber, and Earl followed shortly after, already planning his next move. I hoped he warned Nellie before he had her arrested and thrown into the dungeon.“I need to go down to my office and get a few things done,” I said. I didn’t want to. I wanted to gather Kacela up and take her to our room and not come out for weeks. I didn’t want her leaving for Seattle. I wanted her to stay here, where she was safe.I knew she could feel what I was feeling because she looked sympathetic. “Why don’t we put part of our plan into action?” she suggested. “Supposably I’m going into heat, right? Wouldn’t it make sense for you to spend a lot of your time with me?”I nodded. “It would,” I agreed.“So, give me an hour to get my stuff together.&
KACELAEarl had Nellie arrested, somewhat privately, but we made sure Julie saw it. I stayed in our room for the rest of the day and Wyatt brought up a delicious Italian inspired meal that I thoroughly enjoyed. In between love making sessions, I watched Wyatt pace.I finally blew up at him. “You know I do this for a living, right?” I asked.He looked at me with distain. “Did. It’s different, now.”That made me mad. “Why? Because I’m your mate?”“Yes,” he said, with such finality that I exploded.“Wyatt, this is never going to work if you treat me like a porcelain doll that can break. I’m a big girl, a good fighter, and very smart. I don’t have a death wish. I can take care of myself. Nellie will be there. Earl will be there. Two other warriors will be there. And we’re up
KACELAEarl drove us straight to the Hyatt and parked in the garage. Someone met us at the back elevators and handed him a stack of keycards. That keycard gave us access to the private elevator that took us straight to the penthouse suite. I guess that’s what happens when you have a ton of money. I’ve never experienced that before.“The king visits Seattle a few times a year. They know him,” was all Earl said by way of explanation. The warrior that rode with Nellie grinned at me.“Kind of cool, huh?”I nodded. “Yeah. I’ve not ever had this experience before.” His name was Theo and he was a little bit older than Bob, I gathered. He and Bob were good friends, though, and claimed a room together. Nellie raised her eyebrow at me and snagged a room right off from the living room. Earl pointed me to the master bedroom and took the
KACELABob ordered pizza to be delivered to the room and the five of us worked on a plan. We decided that Earl and I would go in and talk to some of the workers directly. Nellie, Bob and Theo were going to go snooping around.I ate my pizza and listened to Nellie argue with Earl about what would be the best way to go about doing the snooping. I didn’t often go in with a plan, preferring to wing it most of the time. I tentatively offered that opinion up.“Hey guys, I’m kind of new to the whole group project thing, but I generally don’t go in with a plan.” Earl looked at me with outrage. I hurried to continue. “I go in with a general idea, but I find that I can’t have a cut and dry plan. If I do, it limits me thinking on the fly.”Nellie turned to Earl with a look of triumph. “See?” she asked. I snorted.“You had a
KACELAUnfortunately, I was three floors up. I opened the small window and poked my head out. The office building was located at the edge of the shipping yard and formed a natural barrier to the boundary. I was looking out on to a busy street; cars were whizzing by.There was also no handy balcony nearby or tree that was a few feet from the window. I wasn’t spiderwoman, so I wasn’t going to be able to climb down the sheer wall of the building. I sighed and then looked up. That was going to be the direction I was going to end up going.I opened the window wider, and then sat on the sill. I wiggled out and then grabbed the brick molding outside the window and then stood, balancing on the sill.I scooted out a little further, gripping the edge with my toes and reaching down to close the window. Below me a car blew his horn as he passed by; I was pretty sure it was a comment on his abilit
KACELA“Earl! Where are you hit?” I shrieked, grabbing at the man and running my hands over him. He grabbed my hands and gave me a little shake.“Kacela! I’m not hit. You are!” He forcibly turned me and pushed me down on the seat, pushing my head into Nellie’s lap and frantically pulling my sweater up. I looked down and saw an ugly wound in my side, puffy and purple, oozing blood.“We got to get her to the clinic!” he shouted at Bob who took a turn too quickly, causing our backend to swing out.“Can’t, boss! They’re right on our tail!”I tried to sit up to look out the back window but Earl pushed me down just as another bullet hit the back of our car.“Head for the interstate,” I shouted. “They won’t shoot at us with so many people around. We can lose them there.”
KACELATo my relief, I was able to find a copy of the file that was too big for me to put on my drive. I quickly downloaded it from the cloud to my hard drive and then I pulled all of the files from the jump drive. I sat back, sighing in relief.“Can we please take care of this now?” Earl asked in exasperation.I nodded, examining it. “Yeah.” I probed at it with my finger. “I’m going to have to pull out the bullet. It’s still in there.”Earl looked distasted. “I figured. I’ve got some basics. I’ll pull it out.”I was relieved. “That would be good,” I said. “It’s hard to do this stuff on yourself.”Earl nodded. “I know,” he said, shortly. I looked at him with interest. There was a story there.I leaned sideway, lifting up my sweater.&n
KACELA“It’s one of our old warehouses. It hasn’t been used in a while. It’s actually on the market to sell but no one wants it. Location isn’t great and it’s been vacant since we quit manufacturing furniture ten years ago.”I looked at Earl. “Are you sure this is safe? They found us at the hotel.”He shrugged. “It’s under the old company name. There’s quite a bit in this town associated with Borderline Timber. It will take them a few days to work through all of that before ending up at an old Circle L Lumber warehouse.”I nodded. This was better than sleeping in the woods or on a beach, that’s for sure. Theo drove up to a door and Bob slid out of the seat beside me, going over to the door and snapping the padlock off. He raised it up so we could drive through, dropping it with a heavy crash. I was onc
KACELA Later that night I was undressing in front of the full-length mirror. I frowned at my body. The scars were fading but I still had a few bad ones. The one that wrapped from my hip over the top of my abdomen was still ropey, even more so than the C-section scar. The scar on my face was also fading and I could now see light from that eye after years of seeing nothing but blackness. The doctors tell me that the mate bond is slowing healing me. I didn’t say anything to Wyatt. I was pretty sure he would use it as an excuse to mate even more, and I wasn’t sure I could keep up. That man was insatiable. As if he heard my thoughts, Wyatt came up behind me and nuzzled my neck, running his hands down the length of my side. I shivered. He was always able to make my body respond. “What’s on your mind?” Wyatt asked, nibbling my ear. I leaned my head back towards him. “I was just thinking about how fast the kids are growing up,” I said, a little sadly. Wyatt smiled. “Aella is o
WYATTFIVE YEARS LATERAfter having Aella, Kacela came home after two days. Dali had worked so hard to keep Aella alive that she was unable to warn us. When Dali didn’t show up after the first day, I insisted that the doctors give Kacela some of my blood to help the healing process along. They kept her for another day to be sure, but Dali came back and Kacela began healing quickly.The complications that Aella had didn’t keep Kacela from becoming pregnant again and we soon added twins to our little family. We spent most of our time trying to keep up with Axel and Luca. Even with the help of two full time nannies, we were exhausted most evenings when we went to bed.Our kingdom thrived. Kacela had a knack with the people and her office door was always open, literally. Sometimes she would come down in the morning to someone already waiting for her, needing her council or wisdom. I
KACELA I curled up next to Wyatt, happy. I dozed off but woke up a few times, uncomfortable. I finally decided to take a shower. I got up quietly so that I didn’t wake Wyatt. I slipped into the bathroom and turned the shower on, scalding hot. I stepped in and let the water rain down over my swollen body. This felt better. I was just sore everywhere, carrying all my extra weight. The doctors said that Aella was going to be a big baby. I wondered what sort of shifter she would be. When the species mix, like Wyatt and myself, you don’t know what the baby will be until they come of age. You can suspect; perhaps she will have wolf tendencies or Lycan strength at an early age, but you won’t know for sure until they shift. I hoped she was Lycan. I felt a breeze behind me and turned to see Wyatt framed in the doorway, looking concerned. “Are you okay?” he asked, quietly. I nodded.
WYATTUnlike Lia and Jarrett, we wanted to find out the sex of our baby. I was thrilled to find out that we were having a little girl.“What about Abigail?” she asked me, out of the blue one night. I had almost been asleep.“For what?” I asked, confused. We were in the process of hiring her assistant and I couldn’t remember an Abigail that had applied for the job.“For our baby’s name.” She paused a minute. “She needs a strong name.”“Like Kacela,” I murmured, snuggling into her and putting my nose in her neck and nuzzling. She groaned and I got hard, moving over the top of her. She opened her legs and I thrust in, hard and fast, satisfying both of us. I waited until her writhing stopped under me and then I let my seed coat her insides. I dropped beside her, both of us panting from the quick intensity of that coupling.
KACELAI could hear the commotion in the yard. I was waiting where Mrs. Woltkamp told me to wait, in the castle near the back patio doors. She said she would come for me when I needed to go out.There was a lot of pomp and circumstance with the whole celebration. The guests were fed, buffet style, and the kids were now playing in the yard while the servers cleared away dishes. After the coronation there would be dessert, drinks and dancing. I was looking forward to the dancing part.Little Emily tugged on my dress. I looked down and smiled at her, a cute little pixie in pink ruffles. She put her arms up to me, wordlessly. Her older sister was assimilating into the pack well and had picked up enough English to get her needs met. Emily rarely spoke, clinging to a few select people. I was honored to be one.I picked her up and held her, cuddling her to my chest while she sucked on her fingers
WYATT The morning of the coronation began rainy. Mrs. Woltkamp was running around, wringing her hands. She had checked the forecast numerous times and it wasn’t supposed to rain. I had reassured her that it was just a cloudburst, over in an hour. I was right. Kacela was incredibly nervous for the day. We had invited people from other pack. She was concerned that they would recognize her as the feared werewolf hunter. “Can’t we just do the coronation privately?” she had asked. I shook my head. “No. First, I’ve been waiting a century for this. I’m going to enjoy every moment of it. Second, it’s custom. I don’t think you want to insult other packs as your first political act.” She had quieted down, until she saw her gown. It was a sleeveless, low cut piece that showcased her muscular body incredibly well, but also showed her scars. “I’m embarrassed,” she said, qui
KACELA I helped Lia back to the blanket. I had no idea what to do and so I tried to mind link again, putting everything I had into it. I finally broke through. Hello, gorgeous, Wyatt purred in my mind. Wyatt. Lia’s having her baby. We’re down by the lake. You need to send help right now! I broke it off, needing to focus. Lia lay back. “I’m going to take a peek, okay, Lia?” I asked, praying I wouldn’t see what I was expecting to see. When I looked, I saw the baby crowning. Yep. She was right. The baby was coming. And I definitely didn’t want to see that. “I thought you said this little one wasn’t in position,” I joked, helping her lean back and lifting her dress. I looked around and found the bottle of wine that Lia had brought for me to enjoy with lunch. I had only drank about a quarter of it so I poured the rest on my hands and arms,
KACELA I’ve been married for three weeks, now. When we got back to the pack there were a few things we needed to take care of. Lia had named the girls Emily and Rachel and she had spent some time trying to find any relatives that they may have alive. When the extensive search pulled up nothing, she and Jarrett adopted them. There was a quiet ceremony for the girls to be adopted. We knew that they were shifters. My wolf could sense it and Dex was a little unsettled about the whole thing. We would find out when they aged what sort of creature they were. Lia was not worried. Neither was Dali. I worried enough for the both of us. My coronation ceremony was set for two weeks. The castle was in a bustle, planning for it, and I had relinquished most of the duties to the house mother. I didn’t particularly care about the color of my napkins, much to Lia’s mirth, so I left the finer details to Mrs. Wolt
WYATT After the surprise wedding, we went back to the hotel to celebrate. I had planned on celebrating in bed, but our guests had other ideas. We ended up at a restaurant in a private room, dancing, drinking and laughing well into the early morning hours. When we finally dragged ourselves back to the hotel, the front desk clerk nicely reminded us that checkout was at 10:00am. “Did you like the surprise?” I asked Kacela, somewhat worriedly. We hadn’t had a chance to be alone since the wedding and I began to have doubts. She responded by flinging herself into my arms. I picked her up and she wrapped her legs around me, grinding herself into my rod that was becoming awake. I put my lips on her, kissing her hard. “What is it that you want, Mrs. King?” I asked. “I want you to fuck me hard, Mr. King,” she whispered back, nibbling on my earlobe. That was all the encouragement I needed. I reached u