I'm Going to Texas

Talia’s POV

New Orleans Coven House

The fever finally broke after three days. His eyes opened and he recognized me. I was crying, this hadn’t been an easy time for me. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, and my wolf and I hated we were the cause of his pain. I moved my hand over his damp face, pushing the hair aside. “Welcome back, baby,” I said.

“I love you, Talia, but don’t make me do this again,” he said as he cracked a smile. “I feel like shit.”

“You’ve looked better, my mate. Drink some fluids, you need it.” He drained three bottles of Gatorade as fast as I handed them to him. “Come on, let’s get you into the bath.” He groaned a little as I moved him; the change was on a DNA level according to what Jarrod had told me, and every cell in his body had been through the wringer. I had no trouble hauling him up to his feet, my strength was and order of magnitude greater than a human female of my size. He leaned on me as he stood for a moment before starting to move.

He stumbled, and quicker than you could see his hand shot out and went through the wall. “Focus on being smooth, your body is more than you remember. You’re going to have to relearn everything, first to control your body and later to unleash it.”

“I can see that,” he said. We moved into the bathroom, where the sunken tub was filled and the jets were on. Marcy had prepared it as soon as he started coming around. I helped him down into it before I pulled off my clothes and joined him. “Cold water is best for now, sorry.”

“I thought finally being mated would be the end of cold showers and baths, love.” He looked down in the water. “My body feels like it was run over, chewed up and tossed off a building. I can’t even think about sex now.”

“I’m not going to test that today, but I am looking forward to mating you again. I just hope your vampire speed doesn’t mean you finish in under a minute.” I looked up from where I was soaping up a cloth and saw the wolf in his eyes, plus the wildness of his vampire. He was gaining control with every passing moment, the pain leaving his body as the hybrid healing fixed him. By the time I had the two of us cleaned, he was moving without pain.

“I’m hungry and thirsty,” he said. “It’s like my throat aches.”

“It’s the start of bloodlust,” I said. “Your vampire nature is coming through. Our vampire part can come out in our human or wolf forms, just the teeth either way. The drive is more like what your wolf is wanting instinctually. Your wolf will need to integrate with him just like your human side will.”

He was starting to get cold, so I started draining the tub and got us some towels. He pulled me into his chest after we tossed the towels aside. “I love you, Talia. I told you I’d die for you, and now I’m like you. Two of a kind, the only pair in the world.”

“Not really,” I said. “Come on.” I led him out of the bathroom and we quickly dressed in athletic shorts and T-shirts. Leaving our room, I saw Jarrod standing outside Eduardo’s room. “How is she doing?”

“She’ll be coming out of it in about four hours. This will work well, we can train them together.” He opened the door and we looked past him; Erica was on the bed, her body covered in sweat as Eduardo wiped her with cool cloths. He closed the door again. “We’re set up in the garage. It’s four in the afternoon, so Malcolm is up there and will take care of everything.”

“Thank you, Jarrod. I’d never have all this without you,” he said.

“When he’s fed, we need to talk.” He went back to the main area, something was on his mind. He hadn’t said anything since Randall was bitten, but I’d barely listened to anything around me. I was too focused on tending to my mate.

I took Randall’s hand and led him upstairs, through the airlock setup and into the garage. Malcom was waiting for me; the garage had been emptied, and a sheep was standing in the far corner, looking for a way out. I could sense Randall’s wolf and vampire pushing forward; his teeth were changing, and his eyes were turning black. “Shift and feed,” I told him. “Embrace your true nature.”

He pulled off his clothes and shifted into his huge wolf. He was bigger than before, even more dangerous-looking. His teeth were showing; the only difference was his canines were a little longer than before. One moment he was by my side, then next his teeth were around the neck of the ram.

A wolf would rip the throat out, letting it bleed to death, but the vampire part fed differently. The venom paralyzed the sheep, and the long canines found the artery. He stood there for a minute, gulping down the warm blood. When the heart stopped, he tore out the throat and ripped open the belly.

He started to gorge himself on the warm meat, just like I had when I came out. He was about halfway done when the bloodlust lifted, and he looked over to me. He whined, moving aside. “Eat my kill with me, my mate,” he told me.

I pulled off my clothes and shifted, moving next to him. He reached in, removing the liver and dropping it at my feet. I picked it up, biting half and pulling it apart before gulping it down. I nosed the rest to him, moving in to get some of the tender meat from above the ribs.

We finished twenty minutes later, shifting back to human form. Malcolm had us stand by the drain and used a hose to rinse the blood off, soap and towels were ready for us. We pulled our clothes back on and returned downstairs.

Jarrod and Marceline were sitting on the couch in the main area, and both smiled when they saw us coming down holding hands. “Congratulations on making the change, Randall,” Marcy said.

“Thank you. You needed to talk to us?”

“We do,” Jarrod said. “I wasn’t expecting to ever change a werewolf again, much less two in a day, but it is what it is. When Talia made the change, we learned a few things about how to train and handle a new hybrid. With two of you, and one of you being so damn big, training you here isn’t a great idea.”

Marcy continued as she held his hand. “Your wolf doesn’t like being cooped up underground. The other difference is that with you, we only had vampires to train you. With Erica and Randall, we have you, and you aren’t restricted by sunlight like we were.”

It made sense. “You want a place we can run, away from prying eyes.”

“Yes. Another difference is that no one outside the Coven knew about you, while two Packs know about your change now.”

Randall figured it out first. “You want us to return to my Pack to train,” he said.

“We’d like you to consider it. More than that, I was hoping you’d allow my coven members to travel with you to your Pack. It is well past time that we forged a lasting peace with the Werewolves. We have to start somewhere, and family is the oldest way of forming alliances.”

I closed my eyes and thought about it; they were right. Randall, Erica and I were the bridges between the two species which had been at war with each other for millennia. My sister was mated to his brother, his family had accepted me as Randall’s mate, and they accepted Randall now too. “We have to wait for Erica.”

“You need to call your parents first, Randall. I’m sure they were worried about your change, so reassure them and ask them if they would be willing to host us as we train you.”

“What kind of accommodations will you need?”

Jarrod smiled, happy Randall was open to it. “Something secure and underground during the day. At night, we will join them. As long as your Alpha gives his word we will not be harmed, I will do the same for his Pack members.”

Permission was granted a short time later, and I called the jet service and set up a flight department

Todd Blackstone’s POV

Chicago, Illinois

“I want to shift and hunt,” Mercedes said as she rolled over naked on the hotel bed. “There’s nothing on television, I’m sick of room service food and I hate being in the city! So smelly.”

I looked over at my mate, the one I chose after I subdued Talia and kicked her from the Pack. What a mistake I had made choosing her. She was a big-busted blonde who looked fantastic on my arm and could suck-start a jet engine. She was beautiful, but vapid; good to screw, but then you have to talk to her. That’s when you realize she’s the shallowest, most self-centered werewolf in the world. The Pack saw through her quickly.

What’s the difference between Luna Mercedes and a real Mercedes?

Not everyone has been in a real Mercedes.

I was ready to trade her in on a used Honda, but right now I couldn’t afford the distraction of putting her aside. I was lucky I got the warning from Alpha Justin, because that fucker Carlos didn’t tell me shit. He pushed his cousin off on me as part of the deal with Justin to get me the Alpha spot. If I’d have been arrested or killed, he’d have his Alpha job. It didn’t quite work that way. I’d traded text messages with a friend on the Council, and she told me the Chairman had figured out there was a mole. I grabbed all the cash and convertible money I could find, took my fake identification and credit cards, and ran off before they could get me.

I made Chicago before word got out that I was missing. Big city downtowns were the best places to hide right now; Pack wolves wanted nothing to do with noise and smell of them, and even rogues preferred the suburbs. The biggest threat here was vampires; all big cities had them, and Chicago had three. The next biggest threat was the cameras. If the werewolves had contacts, facial recognition could pick them up. That’s why they had spent the last four days holed up in this suite at the Radisson Blue Aqua, on the thirtieth floor looking out over the lake.

“We can’t go anywhere yet, I told you this,” I said. “If you’re so eager to get killed, I’d be happy to drop you off a the nearest Pack.”

“They aren’t after me. I’m not the one who let the Alpha Killer escape with her life.”

“SHUT UP!” I backhanded her, knocking her off the bed. My wolf didn’t like it, they were mates and we were supposed to protect her. She was driving me nuts. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little wound up.”

She looked at me with tears In her eyes and walked away. She grabbed a bottle of rum from the table and went into the luxurious bathroom, slamming the door closed. I heard the bath starting; she wouldn’t be out until the bottle was gone. I might have to send one of the bellhops out to buy another case of booze for me.

I pulled out a burner phone and went out on the small patio; if the wind was off the lake, it was almost tolerable. It wasn’t. I called my contact, she owed me some favors and I was cashing them in. “It’s me,” I said. "What’s the latest?”

“Lots happening,” she said. “The Chairman confirmed that Justin, Rhoda and Beta Jack are all being held by Clark in La Crosse. He won’t allow the Council members in, but he did allow an Enforcer to question them. Justin is in bad shape; the bite Talia gave him is infected, it’s moving up his leg. The Doctor said he can’t do anything about it. He’s got less than a week, they are keeping him in a fucking cage so everyone can see it. So far, he isn’t talking. I’ll send you a video.”

“What about the others?”

“Jack is in the cells, they are working him over but he hasn’t said anything either. They have a television outside his cell, it’s live to the camera where Justin is. His mate is chained up there too, not close enough to touch, and Erica took her wolf from her.”

Erica. That was another bitch I’d let go. She’d helped Talia survive and I’d marked her as a traitor, but Clark’s pack STILL took her in. They’d hidden her from everyone else until Tania had mysteriously appeared. “What do they know about me?”

“Nothing. No one has seen or heard from you, so keep doing what you are doing. Arrest orders have been sent to all Packs, and they have a $250,000 reward out for you. Rogues would turn in their own mothers for that kind of cash.”

She wasn’t lying. “Any idea where the sisters ended up?”

“Tania is mated to Bobby Meechum of the Sulphur River Pack. We think she’s gone down there, neither has been seen around the La Crosse Pack. Talia is mated to Randall Meechum, he’s an FBI agent in the Dallas office. They haven’t been seen either, and after beating Justin’s ass she turned his Pack over to Randall’s brother. Erica’s gone too.”

“Thanks for the info. I need you to call me if there’s any indication they are closing in on me,” I said.

“I won’t let them catch you, Todd. I have just as much to lose as you do.” She hung up on me and I set the phone aside.

I had options. I had cash, enough to start over again somewhere else, but I’d never be safe.

The Alpha Killer was still out there, and now she had the backing of two Packs and a mate. Tania, the only witness to my crime, was mated and under the protection of a strong Alpha. It would make sense they would gather at Sulphur River, and it was there I needed to make my move.

The Alphas were scared shitless of Talia Stillwater. Killing her would gain me enough gratitude that I could get the Council overthrown and my arrest warrant pulled. It was the only way I could live openly, even gain a Pack again.

It was time to gather an army.