My brothers keeper, p.1
My Brother's Keeper, page 1
part #2 of The Guardians Series
My Brother’s Keeper
The Guardians II
JJ King
The characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are completely fiction and are in no way meant to represent real people or places.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this eBook with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2016 JJ King
All rights reserved.
Kindle Edition
DEDICATION
To my writing besties, Candace and Juanita. May we laugh, drink wine, vent, and inspire one another until we’re all old and gray.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I wrote Blood of Eden, the only person reading along with me was my mother. This time, I had a bit more help from friends, fans, and fellow authors, but, as before, my mom was there through it all, hearing me out whenever I had a crazy idea. No one besides her knows more about this world I’ve created or cares more for the integrity of the story. So, I thank her, for the help she’s given me in the past, the present, and will most certainly provide in the future. I love you Mom.
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
About the Author
Chapter One
Daphne closed her eyes and willed herself not to knee the drunk asshole in the balls.
She’d been having a great time on the dance floor with her best friend Julie and the six other women who, along with her, made up their group of girlfriends, until some random guy decided he had the right to grab her ass.
When he squeezed, anger, fueled by tequila, coursed through her veins and she whirled around, a low growl escaping her lips before a hand shot out and whipped her back around.
“Get out of here perv!” Julie shouted at the drunk, flashing him the finger and spouting choice words in his direction. She held Daphne in front of her, away from the dancing crowd who were mostly oblivious to the incident and ran her hands up and down Daphne’s bare arms. “Get a grip Daph, you’re glowing a bit.”
Daphne squeezed her eyes shut, keeping her head pointed down to the floor and breathed deeply, sucking in stale air and body odor and exhaling frustration and rage with every breath. She focused on blocking out everything but Julie’s unique citrusy scent and after a moment it worked enough to calm her down. She sighed and looked up at her friend who was watching her with a cocky grin on her gorgeous face. “Oh my God Daphne! You almost wolfed out there! We should probably stop drinking.” Julie started to giggle.
Daphne didn’t feel like giggling at the moment. She never allowed herself to lose control, but, since it was girls’ night, she’d gone balls to the walls and drank six or seven, or maybe ten, shots of tequila, plus a couple more glasses of wine, with her girlfriends. From her past drinking experiences, she knew that alcohol didn’t affect wolves quite the same way it did humans, but she seemed to have passed the point where even wolves got hammered.
She had been one second from beating that man to a pulp, in public; that wasn’t good. And letting her eyes glow? That was even worse.
Ever since she was a child Daphne’s eyes had glowed when she was in the midst of terrible anger. It wasn’t a common occurrence amongst her pack or any others that she’d heard of, but there were stories of wolves whose eyes glowed like hers, so at least she wasn’t a freak of nature.
Daphne glanced at her watch and sighed in relief, 1:47 a.m., time to get ready to head home. They had been partying since supper time, so her bed would be glorious. Her feet were sobbing for release, but it had been the perfect night up until that loser had decided to grab her, and she wasn’t about to let him ruin her mood and the end of their girl’s night.
Daphne grinned at her friend and gave her a big hug. “You saved me!” Julie had actually saved the man but, realistically, she’d probably saved Daphne’s career as well, since public brawls with drunken men didn’t always look so good on a lawyer’s rap sheet.
They joined the other girls who were, thankfully, unaware that anything had even happened, and danced for another song before collectively heading to the little girl’s room and then out the bar to look for a cab.
Sarah, Julie’s youngest sister pulled at Daphne’s arm and pointed across the street. “Look! Street meat! I want some.”
“Gross Sarah. Those hot dogs are probably disgusting.” Delia chimed in, then headed straight to the vendor. She ordered a large dog and loaded it with sauerkraut, onion, mustard, ketchup and hot peppers.
Daphne laughed as she watched the woman take a bite. “I thought you said they were disgusting?”
“Disgustingly good,” Delia muttered through a mouthful of meat.
They all caved and bought one of the extremely large hot dogs then sat, squeezed together, on a bench and ate their food. Despite her initial reservations, the hot dogs were amazing, especially in her inebriated condition, although the fresh air was helping her head clear up nicely.
A group of guys strode by and grinned at them, clearly amused at the sexual significance of their eating sausage. What they didn't know was that each and every woman in the group could out eat, outplay, and outperform each and every one of them. They were sisters, cousins, and friends, and every single one of them was a wolf.
♀♀♀
Daphne felt the vibration of her cell phone seconds before the obnoxious sound of Baby Got Back jarred her out of a deep sleep.
"God damn it, Julie!" She moaned and flipped over from her stomach to her back, desperate to shut down the song. Sir Mix-a-lot wasn't her usual ringtone and since Julie was the only one with her password, she figured her friend had messed up her ring tones at some point during the night.
Finally, she found the glowing abhorrent instrument of torture. Not that she hated her cell phone, but it was the middle of the night and she hadn’t gotten home until 3:00 a.m. since the girls had decided to go out for pizza after they’d finished their hot dogs. The local pizza house stayed open late most Friday nights for the club crowd and their pizza was out of this world delicious. The food had helped sop up the extra alcohol in her system, but the extra hour out had exhausted her beyond belief.
Plus, she’d been in the middle of what she thought had been a sexy dream although, in the fashion of dreams, the particulars were slipping away from her with every passing moment.
She glanced at the screen and moaned. Unknown number. She pressed the ‘Refuse’ button and threw the offending object back onto her bedside table.
It rang again.
And again.
On the call, Daphne cursed loudly and clicked on her night light. She pressed the answer button angrily and growled into the phone, “What?”
“Daphne?” The deep masculine voice sounded uncertain. “This is Keme Little Foot.”
Daphne’s exhausted mind perked up and focused, confused as to why her Alpha’s heir apparent would be calling her in the middle of the night. Curiosity cleared the cobwebs from her brain.
“Keme? Why the hell are you be calling me at this hour?” She knew he wouldn’t take it as an insult. The time they’d spent together cementing his father’s Alpha status had allowed them to get to know one another quite well. She knew he was sincere and he knew she was straight forward.
There was a pause. So long that she glanced at her phone to make sure the call was still ongoing.
“I need your help.” He sighed loudly. “We need your help.”
With absolutely no trace of her previous exhaustion, Daphne pushed to her bare feet and started pacing. It was kind of her thing. A subconscious tick that helped her concentrate.
“Who is we?”
Another long pause.
“Keme, if you called me it’s because you trust me. Go with that instinct and tell me who you’re trying to keep safe.”
Her rebuke worked like a charm. His voice was clear and strong when he responded, “I need you to help me hide Katherine and Quinn.”
Daphne was floored. That was honestly the last thing she every thought would come out of his mouth but then again, this entire conversation wasn’t something she could have imagined happening either.
“What happened? Isn’t Katherine due any day now?” The woman was almost thirty-eight weeks pregnant for her husband Quinn and the entire wolf pack was excited beyond measure to greet the first grandchild born to Canada’s other Alpha, Pierre LaFlamme. “Can’t Pierre protect her?”
“No.” He half growled into the phone, clearly agitated. “It’s too big. Katherine came to me terrified. I can’t explain now, just know that it’s an emergency. She needs to disappear to have the baby and your land seemed like the perfect solution.”
That made sense. Anyone wanting to go off the map could easily do so in her province of Newfoundland, where there was more land than the population could possibly ever occupy. Her home was located on the western portion of the isl
and close to the tiny town of Stephenville. Close enough that grocery runs were easy, but far enough that she could easily slip into the forest that surrounded her little cabin home on three sides and run, uninhibited, as her wolf.
“Where are you?” She left the room and walked to the kitchen, needing water or coffee.
“We’re out west, near my village but we’ll be leaving soon to come to you. Is there an airport close to your place?”
Her head spun. They were obviously planning to fly, which meant they would be arriving within the day. “Um, yeah. Stephenville has an airport. I’m around fifteen minutes outside of town so it’s not a problem for me to pick you up. When do you think you’ll make it in?”
Daphne heard Keme mumbling to someone in the room. “We’re taking a fairly small plane so we’ll need to stop and gas up along the way. Katherine thinks it will take around seven hours with pit stops.”
Seven hours. Daphne looked at the window in her kitchen and saw no indication of sunrise anytime soon but she doubted there was any chance she'd be able to get any more sleep after this news. Plus, she had a shit load of things that had to get done before she could house three guests, one of whom would be having a baby very shortly and, if she was right, wouldn't want that baby being delivered in a hospital. This could get messy.
"Okay. I'll see you guys soon." She ran her hand through her long hair, pulling it up into a rough bun and securing it with an elastic she always kept on her wrist. "Oh and Keme, keep them safe."
He grunted and the phone went dead.
Daphne stood in the middle of her kitchen and looked around helplessly, completely at a loss as to what to do first. Ever the logical lawyer, she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, grabbing a pen and pad of paper from the bowl in the center of the table and started a list. It was necessary seeing she’d slept only an hour and a half and was probably still a bit drunk.
She would need food, lots of it, and toilet paper, and more blankets. Her little cottage only had two bedrooms and she used one of them as an office since she so rarely had guests. That could be easily remedied, though, she'd just move the desk to her room and relocate the computer. That would give Katherine and Quinn a room, leaving her with the problem of where to put Keme.
He was a tall man and her couch wasn't exactly super-sized enough to fit his long limbs. Julie had a blow-up mattress that she occasionally used when visitors stopped by. She wouldn't mind lending it. Since the visit was apparently top secret, Daphne wouldn't be comfortable asking anyone but her most trusted friend for help.
Daphne decided to start her preparations with coffee and lots of it. She wasn’t a big coffee drinker, actually didn’t like the stuff unless she had some hazelnut creamer to pour in and make it yummy, but this called for caffeine in large quantities and she was exhausted enough to comply.
She sipped from the large mug and breathed in the scent of the roasted beans. While she didn’t like the taste of coffee, the smell of coffee beans was to die for.
The next hour was spent hauling furniture and rearranging to suit her guest’s needs. She kept a tidy house so the rooms only needed a quick going over, but it all added up. The extra blankets she’d made a note to find were hanging on the line outside her house, freshening up in the morning air.
The sun was rising now, casting soft orange and pink light through her windows. It would be a beautiful day. Daphne stood in the doorway of her home and looked around, satisfied with what she saw. The place looked warm and welcoming, exactly what Katherine would need to relax before the baby came.
Daphne exhaled and chewed on her bottom lip. Things were about to get interesting.
She needed to run.
Chapter Two
Daphne stood at the top of the cliff and surveyed the rugged land.
She looked down at her favorite place in the world. To most, it wouldn't seem like much, certainly less appealing than a Caribbean beach or even a snow studded mountaintop, but to her, this place was home. The area was far inland, away from roads and humans, even hunters rarely got in this far. It was a sheltered area of the land, protected on three sides by outcroppings of tall ragged stone, with a marshy region at the center that circled a small pond.
A herd of moose, mostly cows and their calves, were gathered around the water. The second year calves played while their heavily pregnant mothers stood by and watched. Pretty soon the new calves would come and these yearlings would be on their own. It was their last chance to be young and foolish.
Daphne raised her head and closed her eyes, letting the warm wind blow over her onyx colored fur. The temptation to chase and hunt those majestic animals filled her with a longing that nearly surpassed the knowledge that she had a limited amount of time left to run.
Turning away from the moose, she stepped lightly over a fallen branch, careful not to scare the wildlife, and broke into a run. The pads of her feet sunk into the mossy ground with every stride, connecting her to the earth. She never felt as right as she did when she was her wolf. Being human wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Life was purer in her animal form.
Two hours had passed since she’d set out, so time was of the essence. Katherine, Quinn, and Keme would be arriving in approximately three hours and she still had to shower and go grocery shopping.
Daphne took the fastest shower of her life then sped into town, praying she wouldn’t run into a cop along the way. She stopped at Dominion first, then Coleman’s, and finally the Co-op for supplies, spreading out her purchases and paying with cash so no one looking for proof of refugees would find any. Julie’s house was her last stop before heading home.
Julie stood on her front porch, hip rested against a post and a coffee in her hand. "Are you sure everything is going to be okay? I don't like you getting in the middle of all this."
Daphne had told her the basics, unable to keep secrets from her best friend. They were soul mates as far as she was concerned, except not in the sex and marriage type way. Theirs was a much deeper connection than any she’d ever had and probably ever would. According to Julie, who had found her actual soul mate in Derrek, the emotional bond that was created when you recognized part of your soul in another’s body, was nothing short of breathtaking. Daphne hoped she’d get the chance to find out someday.
“I have to help, Jules. It’s bigger than me. This baby…” she trailed off, looking out at the woods that surrounded Julia’s home, “… is special. I have to help.”
Daphne stuffed the mattress and its attachments into the car, surprised there was any room left, and drove the remaining distance to her house.
It took five trips to the car to bring in all the supplies. It wasn’t all food, though the vast majority was. She’d gone for dry goods and canned foods, not knowing how long they’d be with her and simply not having the freezer or fridge space to store fresh food. Her freezer was almost full anyway, with moose, and steak, and pork chops, and every other meat you could name. When life got busy, she’d didn’t always have time to indulge in a hunt of her own.
By the time she put everything away it was 11:35 a.m. and time to head to the airport to pick them up. The plane was due to arrive at noon.
