32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Cora

Now that she was fully bonded, she could spend an entire day away from Pike and Kimble and not feel any ill effects. Pike had been coming to work with her anyway, probably because he didn’t have anything else to do, but not today. Nothing was going to distract him from the new garden!

It was nice to have Pike with her, but she didn’t mind working alone. With their bond humming in the back of her head, she felt secure and happy no matter how far away she was.

Before heading to her first job, Cora stopped by the office. Charlotte had everything so ruthlessly organized that Cora only needed to stop by to sign things. Today was one of those days.

“Heya sweetie!” Charlotte called out as Cora entered. The office came with a small industrial space in the back that Cora used for storage.

Looking around, she noticed Charlotte had made some changes. The small office looked better with a few pieces of art on the walls and new matching chairs.

“Please tell me you didn’t pay for any of this,” Cora begged, flopping down into one of the chairs.

“Nope, it came out of the office supply account,” Charlotte said as she got up and poured them both cups of coffee. The woman loved her coffee and had a nice little coffee bar set up behind her desk. After handing Cora a cup of perfectly prepared java, Charlotte retook her seat and started pulling out paperwork.

“I need you to go over this contract for the Johnson house and make sure all the numbers are correct. Then you need to approve these.”

Cora leaned forward and started going over the paperwork. She gave up halfway through, sat back, and rubbed her hands over her face. “No more!”

Charlotte chuckled. “This is what happens when you don’t come by often enough. I send you emails and texts, but you never respond. I’m forced to print out actual paper!”

An idea hit Cora. Dropping her hands from her face, she pointed a finger at Charlotte. “You!”

Charlotte tilted her head, her short, curly hair bouncing a little. “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Cora said. “I want you to become a partner. Then you can sign all this shit, and I’ll only need to stop by to get something out of storage.”

The woman’s eyes went wide, and she sat back, obviously stunned. “I’m sorry, what?”

Cora put her forearms on the desk and leaned in close. “You buy into the company, and we become partners.”

“But I’m not an electrician,” Charlotte protested.

“Who cares?” Cora answered. “You know how to type up the bids. You do all the scheduling and customer service. Some things have changed in my life right now, and I don’t want to spend any more time doing the stuff I don’t like.”

“Do the changes have anything to do with you having a vampire and a bear shifter clinging to your aura?” Charlotte asked.

“What the hell?” Cora said, throwing her hands up. “Did everyone know but me?”

“Probably,” Charlotte said with a chuckle. She stood up and stretched a hand over the desk. “Nice to meet you. I’m Charlotte Davis, member of the Ember Druid Clan.”

Cora grabbed her hand to shake. “Druid, huh? Would that stop you from being a partner? Like would the other druids not want you to do business with me?”

Charlotte shook her head and sat back down. “We aren’t a conservative clan like the Foundation Druids. Even if someone said something, I’d ignore them. ”

“Then let's talk to a lawyer about getting you on board,” Cora said.

“Are you sure about this?” Charlotte asked. She looked both excited and intimidated.

Cora gave her one, slow, emphatic nod. “I’ve never been more sure. Don’t worry about the money. We can figure that out. The important thing is that I never have to deal with paperwork again!”

***

Assured that Charlotte was going to make her life even easier; Cora left the office with a spring in her step. The rest of the day flowed quickly, and the next thing she knew, she was packing up and ready for a shower.

After belting herself into Van Guts, she stared at the vehicle’s dashboard. “Should we go to the Cedar Street house first and pack up clothes or drive straight home?”

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she went still.

Home? How had the Palomar Mountain compound become home to her unconscious mind so fast?

Apparently, it only took her several days to start thinking of Kimble’s place as home instead of her little house. He’d repeatedly offered to split their time between locations, but it seemed like there was no point. As much as she loved the house on Cedar, it didn’t feel right anymore. She should pack as much as she could in the van and come back for the rest later.

She debated selling versus renting her little house the rest of the drive. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice the car parked in front of her house or the person sitting in it. Hitting the automatic opener, she eased Van Guts into the crowded garage. Getting out, she was surprised and wary to see a familiar figure striding up the short driveway.

“You bitch!” Lucy hissed, stopping at the back of Van Guts and effectively blocking Cora. The door from the garage to the kitchen was between them, and she knew the bear shifter would be faster than her.

There would be no retreating from this conflict .

“I told you I’d pay your rent,” Cora reminded her, blindly tapping her phone with her thumb, hoping she hit the right spot. “But no one in the family is giving you cash anymore.”

Lucy bared her teeth at Cora and made an inhuman sound. “Just because you’re fucking my brother doesn’t give you control over me!”

“I’m in love with your brother,” Cora said as she looked around for a good weapon. “And the two of us are part of Kimble’s flock. You know that’s a deep connection.”

“Kimble is the most useless vampire to ever exist,” Lucy declared, dramatically throwing up her arms in frustration. “The one thing you can count on with vampires is that they’re rich as hell. Pike should’ve had more money after Kimble claimed him, not less. Every month he was poorer and poorer. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Being with Kimble should’ve meant I got everything I wanted.”

She sounded like a child having a tantrum. How was Pike so blind to his sister's true nature?

Really, she shouldn’t judge. How long had she put up with her family?

Welp, all of that changed now!

Spotting something that would work as an excellent weapon, Cora edged toward it while bringing both hands up, palm out. The move made her accidentally drop her phone but that was fine, she needed her hands free anyway. “I don’t carry cash and hurting me isn’t going to get you anything.”

“You have a bank account, right?” Lucy said, advancing a step. “Send me money with your phone. Send me a lot, or I’ll fuck you up.”

Cora pretended to shy back against a set of metal shop shelves, the bottles and cans clinking with her impact. “I won’t, and your brother won’t be happy if you hurt me.”

Lucy's expression was nothing but absolute confidence. “He won’t believe you.”

She reached out to grab Cora’s arm at the same time Cora raised the spray can and covered Lucy’s face in flat white.

Lucy screeched with surprise and frantically wiped her face. “What the—”

Cora thought that would give her time to skirt around Lucy and away, but the bear blindly lunged, her massive body leaving no room for Cora to duck away. The impact drove Cora into the shelves and knocked the air out of her.

“You stupid, useless human!” Lucy screamed as she grabbed hold of Cora. One hand balled up in her shirt and the other wrapped around her bicep. The grip on her bicep was painfully tight, making clawing at Lucy’s hand ineffective. The necklace under her work shirt felt hot and tingles radiated from it. Suddenly, Lucy’s grip didn’t hurt as much, but she was still working on pulling air into her lungs.

“I could squeeze your throat,” Lucy hissed. “I could put my fingers around your tiny, scrawny throat and keep you from breathing. Then we’d both get to die!”

They’d both get to die? That didn’t make any sense! “I’ll get you the money,” Cora wheezed out. “I need my phone.”

Lucy was blinking rapidly, but her watery eyes couldn’t focus as she looked around. “Where is it?”

“At my feet,” Cora said, pointing.

“Get it!” Lucy let go of her shirt and arm, then shoved her roughly. “Send me everything you have. I need everything!”

Dropping to her knees, Cora swept up a length of lead pipe that had fallen over during their struggles. Using both hands, she drove it up with all the power in her small, muscled body. She might be human, but that didn’t make her weak!

The impact made Lucy gasp and double over. Even a bear shifter couldn’t withstand a solid blow to the solar plexus. Cora was able to scramble out of the way before Lucy dropped to her knees and started heaving.

“You do not get to come into my house and threaten me,” Cora growled, feeling strangely strong and energized. The pipe felt light in her grip, and she could sense both Pike and Kimble in the back of her mind, worried and scared.

She pushed assurance at them as she backed away from the bear shifter. She didn’t know how long it took for them to recover, so she kept moving until she was all the way out of the garage with plenty of exit points and in full view of her neighbors and any passing cars.

“I won’t be bullied, harassed, or threatened ever again,” she declared. Memories of Seb floated through her head. All the things she let him get away with because no one believed her. Now she had people who wouldn’t question what happened. Even Pike, who’d let Lucy walk all over him, would draw the line at Lucy’s actions today.

She watched Lucy painfully get back to her feet. Her face was scrunched in pain, and her skin flushed. “You’re dead, human.”

She opened her mouth to speak but two things happened at once. The necklace got super-hot and a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and swung her around. She looked up and up to find a guy almost as tall as Pike glaring down at her.

“What’s going on, Luc?” the stranger asked. “Is this the human with the money?”

“Damn it!” Lucy wailed. “Look what you’ve done! Why couldn’t you have just given it to me?”

Oh damn, Cora hadn’t thought Lucy would have a partner. She didn’t hesitate to swing the pipe again, but there wasn’t much room between the two of them. Without the proper momentum, the blow wasn’t substantial. The guy didn’t even flinch when it landed against his torso.

Wrenching the pipe away from Cora, he tossed it aside and raised a hand, knuckles out. He was going to back hand her and because he was so damn big, the blow might kill her. His other hand was only gripping the shoulder of her shirt.

Thinking fast, she dropped to her knees and slid out of the shirt. Before he could reach down to grab ahold of her, Cora punched his groin. She hoped to at least startle him, but what happened next was as much of a surprise for her as him.

She felt the warmth from the necklace flow over her entire body. She’d felt strong since bonding with Kimble and Pike, but at the moment, she felt like a superhero. The blow was so solid, she knocked the guy off his feet. Curled up on his side with both hands covering his crotch, the stranger whimpered and moaned.

“She punched my dick! The human punched my dick!”

Shakily getting to her feet, Cora moved so she could see both shifters. The guy was still clutching her shirt, but she didn’t want to get close enough to get it back. Should she run? Hit both of them again?

“Oh damn, that’s impressive Cora.” Looking over her shoulder, Cora found Luis from three houses down standing at the end of her driveway, eyeing the man with lifted eyebrows .

That’s when Cora remembered she was standing there in nothing but her bra. As if reading her mind, Luis pulled off his overshirt and tossed it to her, leaving him in a white ribbed tank top.

“Thanks,” she muttered while pulling it on over her head.

“Why did this bear attack you?” Luis asked as he stepped a little closer to the growling stranger. “Where is your vampire? It’s well past dark, he should be here protecting you.”

Cora gaped at him. “What?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Luis asked. His eyebrow moved from surprise to scrunched up. “Weird, I thought you’d know since Mikey told me to keep an eye on you and your mates.”

“Mikey?”

“Yeah, Mikey,” Luis said with a little nod. “Alpha of the Lobos Gris Pack and friend of just about everyone including Imani.”

“You’re a wolf?” Cora guessed, relieved to hear one familiar name in the mix. Luis nodded his head; then his expression turned worried as he focused on something behind her. Cora pivoted to see what caused the reaction. Even as she turned her body, she heard Luis start sprinting up the drive while shouting for her to run.

Lucy had gotten to her feet and was rushing at her.

Without thinking, she dodged to the left at the same time she used her entire upper body to throw a jab to Lucy’s throat with her right. She wasn’t playing nice with these bear shifters; they were just too damn big and tough.

Again her entire body went warm, and the punch was strong enough to send Lucy flying back. She landed hard on her back just as Luis reached them and stuttered to a stop. They both stood over the gagging and gasping Lucy.

He cast her an admiring glance. “Woah! I didn’t think humans could do that.”

“I’m stronger than I was,” she murmured, shaking out her right hand. Her knuckles hurt from delivering two powerful blows, but that was better than the alternative. She raised her left hand to grasp the necklace through her shirt. “I think I might have had a little power boost.”

“What do we do with these two?” Luis asked. “I think Imani’s flock knows a guy who could take care of them. ”

Lucy whimpered at Luis’s implied threat, but the strange man only cursed and moaned. Neither shifter was getting up any time soon.

“I’m not sure,” Cora said. “Watch them for me, ‘kay?” Luis nodded and skirted around them to find her phone in the garage. It had ended up under the van and was still working.

She knelt next to Lucy to show her the screen. The woman started crying fat tears when she saw the phone had been connected to Pike the entire time.

Tapping the speaker, Cora spoke into the phone. “Pike?”

There was the loud sound of wind and then Pike spoke. “Kimble is in his griffin form, and we’re flying to you. We’ll be there soon!”

“Take your time, guys,” Cora drawled. “None of us are going anywhere.”

While they’d waited, Luis dragged the shifters into the backyard. Then he’d stood over them, glaring. Neither tried to get up. It wasn’t long before a griffin appeared with Pike clutched in his front talons.

There was a rush of wind as Kimble set Pike down, then landed while shifting. Cora didn’t think anything of it since she’d seen him do it before, but Luis let out a low whistle of admiration.

“Damn, vampires have all the cool magic.”

Cora ignored him and focused on her bear. As relieved as she felt to have them there, it was still hard to see the devastation on Pike’s face as he took in the sobbing Lucy.

The moment Pike got close enough, Lucy lunged for his leg and hugged it tight. “They were going to kill me!”

Pike crouched down and gently pried her off his leg. “Look at me, Lucy.”

“You have to save me,” Lucy begged. “Cora’s jealous of our relationship. She wants me dead because she doesn’t want competition for your attention.”

He shook his head slowly, his face tight with pain. “I heard everything Lucy. We both know you came here to hurt my mate. Even though I won’t let them take your life, you’re dead to me now. I have no sister.”

Lucy cried out and for the first time, Cora thought she saw real panic and regret on the shifter’s face. Pike stood up and turned his back on Lucy to face Kimble. “I need you to take them both somewhere away from here. I don’t want them dead, but can you use your thrall so they won’t come near me or Cora again?”

Kimble looked heartbroken for Pike. “Of course, sloneczko . Consider it done.”

Shifting again, Kimble grabbed one of them in each claw, then pumped his wings hard to lift his burden into the air. No sooner was he above the house than Cora noticed his shape shimmer and seemed to distort and disappear.

“Huh,” she muttered. Now she understood why there weren’t pictures of Kimble as a griffin all over the place.

“It’s glamor. It’s kind of an extension on their ability to thrall people,” Luis explained as Pike pulled her into a full body hug. “Looks like it’s time for me to head home to my mate. Have a better evening.”

Pike didn’t respond, and Cora gave a small wave as Luis left through the gate at the side of the garage. She focused on Pike, his body shaking, and his breathing uneven.

Feeling for their link, she pressed love and reassurance at him. She didn’t talk. What would she even say? I’m sorry your sister tried to kill me? Yeah, no, better to be silent and let Pike talk when he was ready.

“How did I not see what she’d become?” Pike whispered, his voice breaking as he spoke.

The answer was as simple as it was complex. “Because she’s your sister, and family is complicated.”

Pike clutched her a little tighter. “I need to tell Mom and Dad what happened.”

“Later,” Cora urged. “I came over to pack up some of my things before heading back to the mountain. Let’s do that. If we hurry, we’ll get there before Kimble.”

“Yeah, I want to go home,” Pike agreed with a sniff.

“Home,” she echoed. The word sounded perfect and right. A place for all of them to heal.