CH8

Christmas presents for Alexis:

Rainbow in my room - Glowing rainbow hues are distinct and create an amazing rainbow on any wall! Brilliant colors make any room a cheerful, calming place.

Make-your-own monster puppet - Monster play has never been this fun or this constantly changing! Assemble & reassemble your silly puppet. It's never the same puppet twice!

Jeep Revolution BFR-3 Pedal go Kart - The Jeep Revolution BFR-3 is a sturdy pedal kart with three gears, back-pedal brake and a unique system that allows you to pedal both forwards and backwards!

Cherry Blossom Pink and White Adjustable All-Sport Skate-Style Helmet.

Backyard Discovery Safari All Cedar Swing Set - The safari is colossal, enormous, stupendous! It has both of the towers, one with a clubhouse below, the other with a full picnic table underneath. Tower 2 has the balcony up high with a deck and the turbo slide as well as a 14' rocket slide. Tower 1 has the side Sun Porch with a 12' rocket slide. Both towers have 10' rocket slides for the ultimate in sliding fun! The heavy duty double swing beam has four widely-spaced belt swings. The whole set is made from 100% cedar.

"That one won't be here until spring, this is just a card showing you what it will look like after it is assembled." Rick was going to have to pull in a favor or two to get that thing built. That or owe a couple of people big time.

Christmas present for Rick:

Lamp with Geni inside. "There is a Geni inside Dad. You rub it and he pops out in a big puff of smoke." Alexis reached her arms out wide. "And he grants you wishes… You're alone Dad. If you wish not to be, the Geni will grant your wish," she offered shyly. His little girl's words struck him right in the heart. He never at any time believed Alexis thought he needed someone in his life besides her. Or was this wishing her longing for a mother? Either way Rick cried as he hugged her tightly and let her melt into one of his best hugs he had ever given. "Three wishes huh? What if I only use or need one?" he asked, only to see Alexis shrug her shoulders. She didn't have an answer for that question. "Well, I love it, thank you pumpkin." And kissed her head for the thought that she was concerned for him. Rick was sure she got the idea from the movies that they watch together.

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Sophia was sitting at home eating dinner with her family in the Cathedral Hill area of Minneapolis. She had gotten lucky because her husband, Guy, knew how to cook. Which was a good thing since they owned and operated one of the better restaurants in town. Their restaurant, like a number of restaurants, was closed Christmas Day. They wanted to give their staff the day off. They were probably missing out on having a full restaurant which meant a lot of money. However their staff needed the day off and she and her family could use the day off as well. Her daughter had become a teenager a few months earlier and their son, who was 4 years younger, was into sports. In this case hockey, which meant the family would be going to a hockey game later today.

What her family didn't know was that she was the head of an organization called Paladin. She was at the head of the organization and director of operations that now had members in all 50 states and a few scattered here and there mostly in Europe. They had some of the best and most advanced equipment around. Even the CIA didn't yet have some of the stuff they had access to.

Sophia was enjoying her meal and her time with her family when her burner phone that she always carried rang. "Excuse me." She stood up and went outside into the cold air to get some privacy. "Yes?" This had damn well better be worth it. She was in a good mood and they were going to open their Christmas presents soon. She was dying to find out what her husband had gotten her. She had been hinting at it for weeks. She wouldn't kill him if he hadn't gotten it, but she was going to show him a good time tonight if he did.

"We have a hit," he told her. "How many?" she inquired. "We're going to need everyone on this one, absolutely everyone," he informed her which came as a shock. She had sent Coonan on a simple search mission from a tip they had gotten. He was supposed to find what was likely just a loner and take him or her out and come home. This wasn't what she wanted to hear. "Explain." Sophia needed details. "I'm in a community just north of Kasilof, Alaska. There's an entire clan out here. I'm thinking someone's son came home for the holidays and now we have a big one," Coonan said. "How big?" Sophia asked yet again, annoyed that she had to repeat herself. She may be the cool mom at home, but when it came to her life's mission, she was anything but cool.

"Just over 100 in a nice tight little community. Complete with stores, restaurants, businesses, and schools. All polar bears," he informed her. Sophia would have cursed up a storm but it was actually good news in a way, only it kept her from finding out what she got for Christmas or making her husband happy later tonight.

"How do we get there?" The first problem was logistics. She wished they had teleporters like on Star Trek, but they didn't. They had to fly and drive just like everyone else. "Fly into Anchorage commercial or private jet. From there take a regional hopper to Soldotna Airport. It's only large enough for twin turbo props or helicopters. That or you drive. It's just over 3 hours by car from Anchorage. You'll need a 4x4 with chains to get here," Coonan advised. "Map out the site and send the data. I'll call everyone I can find and get them there." The problem was that it included her. She had a few select men who were really good and Coonan was one of them. However none of them were a match for her. "This may take 24 hours. I want you to check in every six. And I want that map." Sophia ended the call, went back inside, and headed for her bedroom.

Once there she pulled out her heavily encrypted laptop and began assigning people to commercial flights if she had to, but most will be on private planes. A few jets but mostly twin turbo-props. They were going to need cars if they were going to hit every site at the same time, so everyone was going into Anchorage. In the end she rented every car Avis and Hertz had at the airport she was betting, based on how they treated her. She booked herself a flight to Seattle where she would transfer to a private jet and pick up other members of their organization. In her case she would also pick up her weapons in Seattle as well. Now it was time to tell the family.

"That was the office. I'm needed in Seattle." She decided a half truth was better than an outright lie. Especially when she knew her husband would ask to drive her to the airport."Aw Mom!" her daughter complained, and Sophia doesn't blame her. She's not all that happy to be leaving either. "I know honey, trust me I know. My family is important to me but so is my work. And it pays the bills around here and we happen to have a lot of bills," Sophia added, which was no exaggeration.

They had what might be the only single family detached house (renovated commercial building) in downtown St. Paul. It had 3 patios, one of which was huge and on the roof. There were three wine cellars that presently held 1,235 bottles of wine worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sophia brought them home with her from her countless trips to hunt down and exterminate shifters of all types. She was still amazed that the general public had no knowledge of just how many shifters there were on the planet.

The house also had an open concept gourmet kitchen, a theater room, and a 2 car garage that actually had heated floors. Perfect for those cold winters in St. Paul. There were wood floors throughout, mostly old world exposed brick walls. The living room, dining room, and kitchen were on the second floor and had an open ceiling loft-style look. The theater room was actually on the third floor which took up a third of the floor space. The other two-thirds was the roof deck.

The wine cellars were accessed using an old opened up freight elevator. It was classic and she and her husband loved it. The elevator shaft itself was brick on one side and exposed wood studs on the other three. The wood beams that held up each floor were visible as the elevator passed since it went all the way from the basement to the third floor.

The master bedroom was on one end of the building that faced the street. It was massive with the same open ceiling loft-style look. The two kids' bedrooms were on the ground floor behind the garage and also had heated floors to keep the floor warm. The master bathroom even had her much wanted claw foot tub with an exposed brick wall. Her daughter's bedroom even came with its own wet bar sink and coffee maker. How her daughter got addicted to the stuff she didn't know, but she guessed the restaurant had something to do with it, along with her husband who always pleaded the 5th.

Even the garage had an open beam ceiling and tile floors. It had taken 2 years to complete the restoration to their specifications and had cost them 2.793 million dollars. There were three bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 3 partial bathrooms, 5,844 square feet of living space not including the garage or patio areas.

Even their cars weren't cheap. Guy had gotten his precious 2001 Aston Martin DB7 Vantage that he wanted so badly while she got her 2001 BMW X5. Both were the first ones to be delivered to their local dealership. He got his precious sports car while she got the family car. Still she did steal his car from time to time. It had a crème and brown interior with a hint of black. She had to admit it was a beautiful car.

Today however he was driving her BMW because it was 4-wheel drive and it looked like they might need it. "You're sure you have to do this?" Guy asked her standing at the curb with her carry-on next to her. "I'm afraid so. I should be home in 4 days. Just long enough to accomplish what needs to be done and come home. …We can go see fireworks for the first, or just send the kids," Sophia suggested brushing a kiss across his lips. His response was just what she wanted. He held her tight and ravaged her mouth with his tongue. He broke from the kiss. "I like the way you think." Guy was all in for sending the kids to watch the fireworks while they made their own. "I thought I might be able to convince you. Fireworks at home are much more fun," she mentioned and quickly kissed him again.

"I'll have the whip warm and ready along with the tie downs," he offered which actually had Sophia go into a short coughing fit. What that man did to her! He was so perfect and she was so lucky to have found him. She wished she didn't have to keep secrets from him. She just didn't want to risk what her family thought if they found out she was an expert in killing people who happened to be able to shift into another form.

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Sophia stepped into the building that her organization owned and found 18 people already there. "It must be big," one of them stated. "What are we looking at?" he asked his question since none of them knew anything other than to come here. "A hundred plus polar bears in a little town south of Anchorage, Alaska," Sophia informed them as she went to the weapons locker. "That makes it what, the biggest site to date?" one of them commented. "The largest concentration of polar bears we've ever had. I don't need to remind you to be careful. The only thing more dangerous than a polar bear alone is a Kodiak bear. A hundred plus makes this mission even more dangerous. Remember to take your vests with you and plug them in when we get there."

"We're flying to Anchorage and then driving for 3 hours to meet up with Coonan who is on site," Sophia explained as she put on her holster that housed 2 small SIGs behind her back just above her ass. Another went in her ankle holster. Those three were her back-ups while her primary weapon was what she was checking out now.

Half of them were checking their Cornershot weapons. They each fired a .40 S&W round. Some had detachable cameras, audio/video transmission kits, IR lasers. All of them had suppressors since they didn't want anyone showing up to interfere in their operation. A few had a 40 mm grenade launcher underneath. In her case she had selected the Kompakt .223 made by ST Kiril Armory. It fired a 5.56x40mm at 550 rounds per minute and had a magazine capacity of 20. Like all of the primary weapons, hers already had a suppressor attached. Then she put on a vest that held 6 extra clips with 3 on each side.

Eventually another 12 people joined her making it 31 people total in Seattle. Eight of them were women including herself. They had three vans waiting for them to drive them to a private airstrip where they had four twin turbo props waiting and since of the 31 people here, 6 of them knew how to fly, they didn't need an outside pilot. Another 18 were flying in from Vancouver, British Columbia, using 3 more planes, and another 12 from San Francisco using 2 additional planes. It was everyone west of Missouri that she could call in on short notice. Sixty-one heavily armed men and women would be up against 100 plus of the most dangerous shifters she had ever encountered. Only Kodiak bears were more feared.

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True to his word Dick Coonan had been sending her updates of the map he was creating of the bears' compound and was studying them on her laptop. They were spread out a little more than she was hoping for. They were actually in individual homes which made this trip that much more dangerous. Timed incorrectly with everyone spread out all over the place, no one on her team would have any hope of getting backup if they called for it. She needed a plan.

Sophia and her team were traveling in SUVs when she got the final update from Coonan. "Good man!" she remarked enthusiastically. It was just the piece she needed for the plan forming in her mind. Every member had a headset to communicate with each other provided one team didn't over use it, which they shouldn't do because they were all well trained. She had them breaking up into smaller teams than first planned. Save for one big one.

It was Christmas morning and this community had a church which she had Coonan to get eyes on and keep her updated. Sophia smiled when Coonan reported a large number of the community were attending Christmas morning services. They would all die in the eyes of God, proving to Him that shifters should never have been created in the first place. As part of a guess, she and 3 other members of her team would be heading to the elementary school. If this place was anything like when her children were growing up, there would be a craft-making class taking place in the school. They just had to take care of the people who didn't do either, provided she was right.

They didn't need to do the op simultaneously since they were spread out so much. As each team finished they were ordered to drive back to Anchorage for the flight out.

For her part Sophia found 11 children in the school and 3 adults taking care of them. It was all too easy to simply walk in with 2 more of her team and gun them down on full auto. They each only had to change clips once as they walked the area putting another round in each body just to make sure they were dead.

Listening to the radio told her that things went well as the church only had 2 ways in not including the windows. Two of her team sent to the church stayed outside to cover the windows who actually didn't get to fire a shot. Three went into the church through the front door while another two entered through the back. Everyone inside was gunned down with almost no problem. The ability of shifters to change quickly enough and the amount of rounds it took to kill them after they changed, got four of the five inside injured, two of them severely. Things went south because of the people who weren't at either location. Out of those areas Sophia lost a total of 16 people. Fourteen men and two women.

The polar bears, once shifted, had gone from home to home helping out their neighbors. Because of that her teams were overrun though it sounded like a few of the shifters had been injured. Overall it was a success, however the fact that they didn't get all of them meant this group was going to be even harder to find again. Her losses only meant they had to be replaced; other than that the loss meant nothing to her.

To avoid encountering the local law enforcement they spent the night in the hanger near their planes. Since she lost 2 of her pilots, 2 of the planes had to be left behind. Still even that loss didn't faze her any. They had learned a lesson today and Sophia was going to learn from it for next time. Still at least she hadn't lost Dick Coonan, Hal Lockwood, Cole Maddox, or Josh Davidson. They had all survived the mission.

Once back in Seattle they split up and Sophia checked into a Best Western Hotel. It wasn't up to her standards but it also meant they didn't have security cameras all over the place. "Hi babe, how are the kids?" She phoned home the second she was settled in her room. "They're doing great. They're off enjoying their Christmas gifts which reminds me," Guy started off and Sophia finished for him. "All of mine are still unopened."

"As is one of mine," Guy told her. "...the one I got you," she said, not guessing. She knew her husband. "I'll be home tomorrow, we pushed through and finished early." Sophia said. "I'll pick you up at the airport and arrange for the kids to be out with friends. I expect you to be naked and in our bed the second you hit the bedroom door," he informed her. "Tied to the bed with a whip in your hand?" Sophia teased because she so wanted her husband to take over in the bedroom again.

The first time had been a surprise that she hadn't been so sure of. Sophia was used to being in control and relinquishing that control even to her loving husband had been difficult. Now she wanted to be tied down to the bed and have her husband do amazing things to her body while she screamed out her orgasms.

"What are you doing now?" Guy asked her, just to ask. "I'm slowly stripping off my clothes while swinging my hips from side to side," she offered teasingly. "What color are your bra and panties?" he asked since he had a preference. "Red, of course. Nice, loud, fuck-me-senseless red," she told him, knowing his favorite color choice. Hers had been black but she had learned to love red. She could hear her husband moan. "I slip out of my bra and play with my breasts, pinching my nipples til they are flaming red and hard, waiting for your mouth and tongue," she teased.

"Now I'm slowly pulling down my soaking wet panties because I can see your magnificent erection that's soon going to be in my mouth." Sophia could just see her husband's hand on his erection through his pants as she talked. "I can just see a tiny amount of pre-come on the tip of your…" Sophia's phone went beep, beep. "DAMN IT! I'm down to 10% battery left," she had to tell him. "NOOOOO!" he groaned. "I'm sorry baby but I need to plug in my phone and let it charge." She didn't want to. What she wanted to do was finish with her fingers buried inside her as she screamed out her husband's name.

"I'll take it out on you with the whip when you get home. I'll have you screaming in no time," he told her. "I'm looking forward to it. I have to go babe before my phone does it for me. I love you. Kiss the kids for me," she said. "I love you too and I'll see you at the airport. I'll be waiting for your call," he replied and ended the call. Guy moaned after he hung up. Now he had to wait for tomorrow. Sophia went into the bathroom to take off her now-wet panties and decided to take a shower. It took all of her self-control not to take matters into her own fingers and wait for her husband.

Getting to sleep after that phone call turned out to be difficult for both of them.