Leonora

 

Draco and Charlotte came back completely different twenty minutes later and not a soul said a word. “Let me have my baby.” Charlotte took the baby with a wide grin. We all knew that they made up and Draco asserted his dominance and love for her. I gushed thinking about how much happier Charlotte looked. My sweet friend lived in her own world of fear, refusing to let anyone in. I wished she confided in me, but I understand that this was scary for her to admit. I needed to squish her, so I did with a huge grin. Her face turned completely red, ducking her head in embarrassment.

“I’m going to do a cursory search of the house for any listening devices. Someone was watching us that day or they wouldn’t be coming after you. They couldn’t have known that Falcon and Leonora teleported to your place, so there’s a snitch at the hotel,” Draco said.

“Do you have video footage of the day we met?” Falcon asked Hunter.

“Yes, we had it pulled up when you arrived. We figured the same thing,” Hunter answered, waving his hand for us to follow him. We stepped into his office and they had the video cued to the time of our arrival.

“Maybe it was the guy who knew you,” he suggested to Falcon. I remembered Henry and nothing about him was malicious. He always her generous thoughts and respected Falcon.

“No, it wasn’t him.” Falcon shook his head vehemently.

“How can you be sure?” Kane posed, crossing his arms as to come off more imposing. It was evident that he believed we were hiding something.

Draco chuckled then added, “Because we can hear the thoughts of any regular human that’s not a mate of a supernatural being.”

“What!” Catherine gasped, her face open with shock.

“Yes, we can hear their thoughts. And his thoughts were nothing unkind. He’s always been the one I liked. The rest of my employees were less than trustworthy,” Falcon elaborated about Henry.

“Wow, super strength and shifting doesn’t sound as cool now,” Arabella bemoaned, but Gage spun her around in his arms and kissed away her disappointment.

“Sorry, baby. I’ve got something for you to make it up after we’re done with the battle.”

“And I’m holding you to it, mister,” she demanded, poking her finger into his chest before he lifted her up and carried her over to the large sofa, sitting down with her on his lap.

“Well, you have your advantages,” I remarked.

“But that means those like you two have extra abilities,” Gage addressed Charlotte and William.

“That’s true for me at least. And my cousin thinks that he should rule all because he’s a hybrid. Falcon, he hated your family before. I know that but trust me when I say that he’s no match for you. He was a coward back then and I don’t think he grew a set in all these centuries. He’s led by his mate. She’s the alpha in the relationship.” That surprised me to hear. After all, I couldn’t picture Falcon or Draco being anything less than alpha to the max.

“I’m curious. I don’t know much about what it is that I am, but how could I’ve have been a human all this time and yet a shifter. I’ve never shifted or anything,” Charlotte said.

“We don’t know much, but from what we can tell, not all born between the wolf shifter/vampire hybrids have gifts. It’s almost as if it’s an aberration.”

“Are you serious?” Charlotte questioned, holding onto her baby boy tight.

“Yes, what we do know is that it’s very rare, but it’s possible they may manifest later. We don’t really have any evidence to go by,” Gage added, frowning while clutching onto a book.

“What about your parents?” Hunter asked Charlotte.

My longtime friend shrugged. I knew it was hard for her to discuss them. Losing parents that actually loved you must have been hard. “My parents died in Europe. I grew up in an orphanage.”

“Wow, I wonder if your parents died during a battle,” Falcon ruminating to himself.

“I don’t know,” Charlotte sighed. “Everything has been a secret so long and pushed from my thoughts that I never considered looking into it. Or maybe I just never wanted to relive the loss.”

“Well once we get this all settled, we can look. I’ll do all I can to get you some answers,” Draco promised her. He held her in his arms, rubbing her stomach. I arched my brow at him. It could be a habit or maybe he was thinking about knocking her up again.

“Okay, but to me, it no longer matters. I just want to go on living a life with my baby and mate,” she answered, turning in his arms and smiling up at him.

“Hopefully when it’s all said and done you will,” he murmured, bending down and kissing her. A collective “aah” filled the room.

“We all will. Before the one blitz attack by a traitor in our midst, I only lost one or two soldiers in a battle at any given time. And these soldiers are nothing compared to the ones of the past.”

“That’s very true. Their battle skills are lacking compared to those of the past. We had nothing but training to occupy our time. Today, there are things to get lost in and these guys seemed to have forgotten the old ways.”

“It could explain why they brought in the humans. Many of the soldiers now are dedicated and scrupulous,” Hunter added. We all nodded in agreement.

“The women will be staying at your hotel because the one thing I know is that they won’t attack in a public place. If there’s a chance that regular humans could get it on the internet, they won’t even try,” Draco said.

“My sister Chloe is with her husband. They are supposed to meet us at the hotel,” Gage told us.  

“Good, the women will be safe if together. One more wolf will do wonders for the numbers. I don’t know how many men are coming, but there’s going to be a lot. They want to catch you off guard, but they don’t know that we’re here,” Falcon supposed.