Hell Hounds novel Chapter 51

         Trying to sneak into a room full of shifters that are ready for war was not as fun as it sounded. The image of a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs came to mind. In this case, the rocking chairs were half of her armoury and she was the cat.

              So here she was, looking for her mate in a dark room full of armed shifters. The only thing she could think of was the word crazy. It kept ringing through her head.

              Finally, Yolanda found him in a lower bunk by the far corner of the entrance. She stood there, looking at him. Yolanda so wanted to climb in beside him. But wouldn’t look good from any angle. If she shook him, he’d make noise in a panic.

              Okay, going in for a sleeping beauty with a role reversal. Why did her brain go to great efforts to make her laugh at moments like this? Gods, she hoped Ian found it funny. She leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips, praying she wouldn’t get attacked by him or someone else.

              Sure enough, his eyes shot open, and the kiss ended with him crab-walking backwards on the bed. Giggling, Yolanda whispered, “It’s me. We need to check in on things in the armoury.”

              “What? Why? You’re the arms master. Why can’t I sleep?”

              “You’ve heard of a fox in a henhouse?”

              “Yeah…”

              “We have Fianna in the armoury and as my new assistant your ass is by my side so when it comes time, we both know where they’ve moved shit.”

              “Wait, when did I become your assistant?”

              “Shh… and come on. I’m assuming you slept with your boots on.”

              “Teleporting fairies damn right I kept my boots on.” They tried unsuccessfully to whisper talk to each other, but as it goes three others woke up and there were a few complaints about the noise they were making.

              “Fine, come on, we can talk outside.” Ian grabbed his gear and followed Yolanda out of the room. Outside, he dropped his gear and grabbed her. He planted a far more attentive and insistent kiss this time.

              He leaned back from the kiss. “That’s better, okay, now what is this crap about being your assistant?” He frowned down at her, waiting for a response.

              “Simply, they are enlarging the armoury as we speak, and I needed an assistant before. Now I need one even more. You have the skill and training for standard weapons and the ability to learn quickly. Being my mate is a factor. It also helps that you need a job here beyond being our fixer within the RCMP. Now we need to get down there before they change everything so we can’t find anything.”

              “Fine, let’s go.” Ian waved Yolanda ahead of him while he picked up what he dropped and followed.

              Once in the lower basement and past the heavy door. The armoury was abuzz with people. Hear was everywhere. Items were being examined, others were being tested, and there were clear signs of new gear coming in and fresh symbols around the space.

              Yolanda stopped someone passing by her. “Who’s heading this up and where are they right now?”

              “Armoury’s run by a Yolanda Redgrave, but she’s not here. Something about a mission keeping her busy.” Yolanda rolled her eyes.

              “Either you’re new or you think you are a comedian. I am Yolanda and I am looking for the Fianna in charge of this upgrade.”

              “Oh, geez. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. They didn’t show us a picture of you. It’s been lost from your pack’s file.”

              “Thank you. I will get that rectified. Now who and where, please.” Ian watched her with amusement. She could be such a hardass.

              The young guy gave her directions, and she set off in that direction. The young Fianna turned to Ian. “Wow. How do you would with that?”

              “I kiss her. It a perk about being mated.” That brought forth a few snickers.

              “It’s not my day, is it?”

              “No kid, it’s not.” With that, he followed Yolanda further into the armoury. The lighting within the armoury now shone at a blinding level in one place and almost non-existent in other spaces. But there were people everywhere. “Okay, now I see why you needed me down here. Wow, I didn’t expect to see so many people this deep within here.” He said, stepping up behind Yolanda.

             “Yeah, we take things like this seriously. You know why. This affects us all, it’s just humans don’t know about it yet.”

             “This one does.”

             “Ha! If you claim mated status, your status changes to whatever your mate is, and that species rules and laws are yours now.”