CH20

Sophia was excited and worried. They had finally lucked out and had a lead on his location. The Holy Grail of shifters. She had sent Hal Lockwood, Cole Maddox, and 8 of her more experienced members along with 2 of her rookies to set up a stake out and watch him as much as possible.

He was known as Fenrir Greyback to everyone involved with the Paladin network. He was known to wear the robes of the Death Eaters and was believed to be the single most powerful werewolf ever known. It was believed that he had magical powers.

Sophia was being very careful with this shifter. If her teams actually managed to kill him, it would be the single most successful killing in the history of the Paladins - hell, even from before the Paladins were ever formed.

The name he was using now was William H. Bracken. The son of a bitch was in politics. It was how the arrogant bastard had been identified. It had taken them a few days to find his location at first. Now they had teams following him and watching his office and his home. She had sent another 8 men who had yet to arrive.

Sophia was at their restaurant helping her husband when her burner phone vibrated. She stepped out the back door and blocked it to hold it open. "Yes?"

"We have him in his own car headed from his office to home most likely. It's when he's most vulnerable. Save for one man at his office and one sitting on the switch watching over his home, the rest of us are in trucks, two of which are Peterbilt cabs with no trailer," Cole Maddox told her. "Is Lockwood in a god position?" was Sophia's only question. "He has yet to check in but should be in position in as high up as possible…30 seconds tops," Cole replied. That information told Sophia that they had already scoped out their ambush site that gave them the best advantage. "You are cleared to go ONLY if Lockwood confirms his position. Otherwise you will stand down and continue to watch for the next opportunity," Sophia ordered. "Understood." And the line went dead. She went back into the restaurant to work, though her mind was on the mission she had just cleared.

Sophia was lifting up a plate to place it on the out counter when she came up short and hit the edge instead and dropped it. She lost the plate and the two already complete meals that went with it to the same table. "I'm sorry." She bowed her head. Her mind wasn't on her job here, it was on her job out there. "You've been distracted for the last 20 to 30 minutes," her husband mildly chastised her. "Go take a break; when your head is clear come back," Guy told her and had one of the people in the kitchen clean up the mess and get started on the replacement meals. "Yeah, I'm really sorry." Sophia took her white jacket off and went out the back door, forgetting to block it open so she could get back in. "DAMN IT!" Now she was going to have to go all the way around and enter through the main entrance.

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Maddox was in the car behind their target. They had been switching chase cars so as not to give themselves away. The rookie next to him took his signal from Maddox. He ordered the Peterbilts in and sat and watched. Secure in the knowledge that Lockwood was up high using his sniper rifle in his GOD position.

Maddox was 4 cars back as they all sat at a red light. The light turned green and Maddox and his rookie jumped out of their car and began running forward just as the target car started through the intersection.

It was almost perfectly timed as both Pererbilts came from each side and t-boned his Mercedes. They were just a little off from each other so they didn't hit the passenger compartment on opposite sides. Instead one hit the rear door on the passenger side while the other truck hit his left front corner panel. The result was the car was spun and trapped between the two trucks. Lockwood meanwhile was watching everything when he saw a blur that could only mean one thing. Lockwood keyed his mic. "He's…" The next sound everyone heard was Lockwood gurgling blood as his neck was ripped open from a savage bite.

Maddox and his rookie reached the car and opened up on it along with the passengers of the Peterbilts. These four were just starting to eject their spent clips and slap in new ones when the drivers of the Peterbilts started emptying their clips into the car. Maddox thought he heard something over his headset, however the sound of all the firing, including his own as he and his rookie opened up on the car to empty their second clip into it, drove the thought from his mind. Unbeknownst to Maddox that sound was the two men in one of the cars on the side gurgling blood as their necks were ripped open.

They had two cars teamed with the Peterbilts that were following the target car and were now one block away on each side making their way to the site.

Just as Maddox emptied his second clip and the sound of gunfire ceased, he and the others heard the two men in the other car that was on the far side making frantic sounds as they bled out. "Yellow hair 2, report." Maddox gave them a moment. "Yellow hair 1, report." He called the other team. "SHIT! Everyone scatter, NOW!" Maddox yelled into his mic. But it was already too late. A massive explosion took place centered on the Mercedes. It blew the Mercedes into at least a thousand small pieces. The largest pieces of the Peterbiilt's that survived the blast were the axels and the tires. One tire was never found since it was on a roof two blocks away.

There wasn't enough left of the men in the Peterbilts for anyone to determine if there ever had been anyone in them. The only two bodies that were found were Maddox and his rookie. Lockwood's body was found 2 weeks later after someone complained of the smell. The blast also blew out windows in buildings for two blocks around. The fires of the surrounding buildings were quickly put out because the massive hole in the street had broken a water main that sprayed water everywhere, preventing even more damage.

"Lanie, what have we got?" Espo and Ryan walked up to Lanie who was just finishing looking over the second body. It had taken at lot for Espo and Ryan to get this far. The area for 6 blocks around the blast had been closed off in fear of another explosion, and only now were the ambulances being allowed in. "I have no IDs on them. Getting prints off of them is going to be impossible," Lanie commented as they all look at the crispy blackened forms that used to be men. "I might get lucky with dental records. I also might find enough DNA left in their abdominal area to ID them," she remarked. "Give me some time in the lab and I'll tell you what I find."

"Looks like both of them were armed." Ryan had noticed the heavy assault rifles. "They were clearly shooting at something or someone." Lanie pointed out all of the yellow numbers being placed at the large number of casings that were all over. "We're going to need the experts from the bomb squad. This is too big for a simple car explosion. I didn't even see anything this big in the gulf," Espo mentioned. "I'll gather all the security camera coverage that I can find," Ryan said and walked off. Maybe there were some cameras in the surrounding buildings. Espo and Ryan had a really huge and complicated mess on their hands.

What they didn't see was a very well dressed man step back and disappear in a tight swirl of black that then blew apart and scattered. He reappeared on a rooftop not far from his building and ripped the neck open of the man that was watching his home. "Fools," was his only comment before he disappeared again.

Bracken was in his secret sub-basement below the basement of his house. He didn't see that the last man he killed fell and caused a series of unbelievable actions. The first action caused a cascade until 6 actions later the toggle was pushed on the device the dead man was sitting in front of. This last action sent a signal to 6 drones sitting on roofs in the area. It lit the rocket boosters of the planes they were attached to until they burned out and were discarded. The planes, each packed with something only Paladin could get their hands on which was more explosive than simple Semtex, were already programmed and flew without error to their sites. The front door of the house. The windows on either side had a plane crash through them. Each bedroom on the upper floor had a plane crash through it while the final plane crashed into the natural gas meter.

The resulting explosion blew the house to matchsticks and caught the buildings next to it and the one across the street on fire. The buildings next door ultimately collapsed sideways onto his house. It was almost 10 years later that the new owner of the house cleared the area for construction and found the basement and the basement below it. The man that found it died instantly and never saw the man who did it; he was carrying his mate who was in a cryo tank and they disappeared in a dark swirl of black that blew apart and scattered.

His political career may be over for now, but he would live for a very long time.

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It had been 3 days and she hadn't heard anything from the team she had sent against the man who called himself Bracken. Sophia saw her kids off to school, made sure they had lunch money, and made them promise they would eat something healthy. No burgers and no pizza. "Yes Mom," her son moaned since today was pizza day at school and he was sure she knew that. He was going to get pizza anyway. After all it was Pizza! Still they each got a kiss and were sent on their way.

Sophia needed to pick up something from the local farmers market for the restaurant. Guy had called to tell her they were having a run on the special. The special was priced at over $100 but it was selling like hot cakes; they hadn't anticipated it selling like this at that price. It was good news since they were still making a profit off of each meal, just not what they normally would have. She had promised that she would be there in 30 minutes, 45 tops. She jogged down the stairs to her BMW in the garage, opened the door, sat down, then began to start the car when she saw something and picked it up.

"YOU'RE FIRED!" was all it said. Sophia sucked in a breath knowing what it meant. Time stopped for her at that moment. Her car blew up taking half the house and her with it. She died so quickly there was no pain but the message had told her she was dead. Paladin, her creation, didn't fire people. They eliminated them to ensure there were no loose ends.

Only this time it applied to her.

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Kate had walked back to the motorhome right next to Rick who had shifted back into a human male and had put his clothes back on. He had no idea what she was thinking and he didn't know if her silence was a good thing or the end of them. Even his bear was scared, possibly even more scared than Rick was. It was his bear that had wanted Kate more than he did, not to say that he didn't want her - he did, so very much. As they walked he ached to wrap his arms around her and take away any pain she might be feeling.

Kate silently unlocked the door and walked inside, went to a cabinet and took out a bottle of something. He didn't get a good look at it but it was easy to deduce that it was hard alcohol. Next she pulled out a glass and went to the back of the motorhome. Rick started to follow but stopped as she walked through what would be his bedroom continuing up the stairs to hers. He retreated to the sofa and bent over, his face in his hands with his elbows resting on his knees.

His future was blowing up spectacularly. It was almost an hour later when he stumbled his way into the bedroom, stripped off most of his clothes save for his boxers, crawled into bed, and literally cried himself to sleep. Kate was lost to him, he just knew it. It was Meredith all over again.

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Rick was in awe of the tiny, perfect bundle that was placed in his hands after she had delivered their baby. He hadn't meant for Meredith to get pregnant. After she did, he did what he thought he was supposed to do; he married her. He knew she wasn't his mate but he was a proud man who did the right thing, or so he liked to think.

At first Meredith was actually being a mother. Doting over her daughter, breast feeding her, pumping breast milk for later, changing stinky diapers, cooing and playing with her. Rick was happy until that one fateful day. Alexis was enjoying her first birthday. Okay, her parents were enjoying her first birthday. Meredith had been holding her cooing at her when suddenly she had a snarling, growling bear cub in her hands.

Her reaction was exactly what Rick had envisioned in his nightmares. Meredith literally dropped the baby on her head while he scrambled to get to her and prayed that she wasn't hurt. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" Meredith screamed at him. "I…I gave birth to that monster!" Meredith was still screaming.

"Mere, Alexis isn't a monster and neither am I. I had hoped to be able to tell you differently but we're both…" She cut him off. "You're a damn monster too? MY GOD! What are you? Are there more of you?" Meredith ran for their bedroom.

Rick was left holding his baby girl bear cub. He finally followed Meredith just as she came rushing out of their bedroom with a suitcase and a carry-on bag. "Where are you going Mere? Alexis needs you, we're a family," he called to her back. "I want nothing to do with you monsters. Don't ever touch or talk to me again." Meredith slammed the door behind her.

A few weeks later a messenger found him and served him with divorce papers. His family was broken. Meredith got all the money and he got his baby girl. "Your wife has signed over everything to do with the child named Alexis Harper Castle to you. According to her lawyer she was quite specific in that she never wants to see you or the "Monster", her word, ever again," his lawyer told him. Rick never heard from Meredith again.

He used what milk Meredith had pumped sparingly as he weened Alexis onto formula using bottles. He never did understand why his baby girl never shifted again. Years later it was like she had never shifted before. He knew the bear within him had a voice; he could only guess that Alexis had the same. Was her bear remaining quiet? Had it been Meredith that had silenced it? Had it awakened lately? Was that why Alexis wanted to go see Kate so badly? Had her bear latched onto Kate to take away the memory of Meredith?

That Kate was now out of their life only caused him to cry into his pillow that much harder. He was hurting and now his daughter was going to be devastated again. Rejected by another woman because he and she were shifters.

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Kate was numb, simply numb, as she walked back to the motorhome. She had come here to make love to the man she was falling in love with, if she wasn't already in love with him. It felt so much like she was that it just kind of came out that way.

She'd found out Rick was a bear and not just any bear. He was a freaking huge bear the size of her Durango in body alone. His "bear hug" had been even more amazing than any of his other hugs. Was Alexis a bear too? She wasn't making love to an animal. She may be prone to a few kinky things but animal sex certainly wasn't one of them. Besides if he was this big as a human, just how big was he as a bear? He would rip her in half. Her thoughts were bouncing around in her head like rubber balls off a wall.

Kate unlocked the door and went in search of the tequila bottle. She grabbed a tumbler and went up to her bedroom. Her bedroom was only about 3 feet high at best. She had to crawl to even get to the bed. One wall had these little cabinets that held some of her clothes and all of her lingerie. She had placed some of it in there with the intent of wearing it on this trip. She wanted to feel sexy and be told she was beautiful and desirable. Most of all she wanted to get laid. Now it was all out the window. Kate poured herself a drink and set the bottle aside on the floor. She propped up her pillows of which she had plenty and leaned back as best she could and sipped her drink.

She replayed the last few months. Her mother, Rick, and Alexis. Oscar and Linda. She was alone in this. She couldn't ask her mother what to do, hell she wasn't even sure if she wanted to tell her mother.

Humans that were also bears, wolves, lions, tigers, and lord knew what else. Rick had held her while he was a bear, and despite his obvious strength, he had held her with such tenderness.

Kate put her glass down and rolled over to plant her face in a pillow. She loved him, she knew she did. She had been using Freddie almost daily since before she had started her new job and the only face she saw while stroking Freddie in and out of her was Rick's. "But he's a bear!" she mumbled into her pillow. She rolled over and slapped her bed with both hands. "DAMN IT!" Why did it have to be so complicated? It was only now that she noticed the stupid voice had remained silent. At least something was working out as planned.

It was an hour later and she was still awake. She had her glass back in her hand but hadn't taken a sip as yet. Her mind was going over everything Rick had told her. He loved her and he wanted her. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. "What was it he said?" Kate tried to remember. Something about being bound mates that came with benefits. What kind of benefits? Bound for life? What happened when one of them died after they were bound?

Kate shook her head. She was not making love to an animal! She pounded her pillows and plopped her head down. Then she heard him. He was crying. The sound got her to crawl over to the stairs. She could definitely hear him crying as she laid on her stomach. Kate pressed her face into the floor. Rick was crying and it was breaking her heart. She loved him and she knew it. His crying caused her to cry. "DAMN IT!" she whispered.

It wasn't easy but Kate stripped off all of her clothes and with her heart pounding, she worked her way down the stairs. What she found made her heart break all over again. He was only wearing boxers, lying flat on his stomach with his face smashed into a pillow, his arms and legs spread out to all 4 corners. Now she was the one who wanted to take his pain away.

He had told her his secret and had proven it to her and instead of accepting him she had pretty much rejected him. She started crawling into the bed and noticed that Rick had caught on to her being there. He turned over slightly to look at her with swollen, red, tear filled eyes. "Kate?" he croaked, his voice rough. She made it to his face and placed her fingers over his mouth till she was lying partly on him and next to him.

"Explain what being bound means?" She needed more information. Rick swiped his hand over his face. "Being bound is part a physical thing and part mental. Something in a shifter's bodily fluids make it so that only the mate can excite you physically," he began. "So it's a chastity device for both. What else?" she asked. "The chemicals or hormones exchanged as well as the mental experience make sex between them all consuming. You don't have just physical orgasms but mental ones as well," he continued. "But I'm not a shifter," she pointed out. "Doesn't really change anything, it just means that what you get from me will benefit you while I benefit from nothing," Rick countered.

"You mean you won't enjoy it when I make love to you," she said. "That's not what I said. Your experience and your orgasms will be heightened because of what I give you while I'll remain the same," Rick told her. Kate took it all in and pondered what he'd said thus far.

"What else?"

"The mental aspect means our minds are linked," he replied. "Which means what exactly?" Kate definitely didn't want him reading her mind. "It means we can talk to each other whenever we want. Think of it as a form of telepathy, speaking without talking aloud," he told her. So he couldn't read her mind, only what she wanted to tell him. "What else?" she asked warily, hoping there wasn't much more. All of this was already more than she bargained for.

"I will know when you are in danger and you will know when I'm in danger. Also if you were a shifter you could heal some of my wounds while I can heal some of yours should either of us get hurt for some reason. It's not like neither of us could help the other regrow limbs. But gun shots, knife wounds, and those kinds of things I can fix," Rick explained. "So I can't fix you," Kate stated and watched as he shook his head and wiped away a few more left over tears.

"There's one more thing you should know no matter what." Now came the big one; the one that would make her run.

"There's an organization whose sole reason for existence is to exterminate shifters, all shifters. Lions, bears, wolves, all of them. Every man, woman, and child. I don't know much about them only what my father beat into me," Rick explained.

Hearing that had Kate whip her head to look him in the eye. "Your father beat you?" But Rick's bear was huge, couldn't he fight back? Get him to stop? Plus the knowledge that his father beat him had her stroking his cheek with her finger. "My father decided that the only way to teach me anything involved beatings and whippings," he stated without emotion.

"You couldn't stop him? Is he a bear too?" It suddenly occurred to Kate and watched Rick. "What about your mother?" Surely she didn't put up with this. "You mean my father's life mate who is under his thumb just like everyone else around him," he replied in an expressionless tone. Kate couldn't believe his childhood. So much pain and no love. How did he come from that to be the most loving and gentle person she had ever met?

She worked her way up the bed until she was lying on top of him. She had her answers and none of them scared her enough to stop loving him. Kate kissed him when she was in place, took his hands, easily rolled him onto his back, and pinned them to the bed. She broke from the kiss. "Make love to me Rick," she whispered into his lips. "Kate, if I do…" He stopped talking when she kissed him again. She broke from the kiss quickly. "Shut-up and make love to me. I'm not afraid," she told him and kissed him again.