Let’s Talk One True Mate (One True Mate Companion, Vol. 1)

1-Trevor and Ella ♦♦

Timber stayed standing, walking around the room while he spoke. “It’s been about a year since the day Ella and Trevor met.”

Canyon grunted and began opening multiple folders and files on his computer, saying, Shit started the day before.

Timber snapped his fingers and pointed at Canyon. “Sure did. Khain came to the Ula the day before, looking for Ella downtown.” Timber paced around the desks. “I remember it pretty good. We were here in the bunker. Mac was bitching to Wade about Trevor’s leadership, like he had been since Wade transferred Trevor from New York and put him in charge of the KSRT, two years before. Just to stir shit up, Mac decided it was time to bring back the rut.”

Burton shook his head, smiling slightly.

“Wade insisted he talk to Trevor about it.”

Canyon snickered and opened a video file. He cast it as one image to the wall of monitors, then pressed play. Burton swung his chair around to watch. The video was from a security camera in the duty room. It showed Mac in uniform talking to Wade, who was also in uniform. Both males were tall, with wide shoulders and thick chests. Wade looked about sixty, with neat silver hair and beard. Mac was in his 30s, with short, dirty-blond hair and a clean-shaven face. Mac spoke with his hands, his expression moving from irritated to angry to contemptuous, and back to irritated. Canyon turned up the volume.

“He’s never here,” Mac shouted. “He’s always running in the woods or he’s out at his house. He doesn’t know shit about Serenity, he doesn’t know shit about ruts, and he doesn’t know shit about Khain. The KSRT got along fine without a Lieutenant for years!”

Wade listened calmly, then said, “Things change, Mac. You have to learn some flexibility. Trevor is the boss of the KSRT, and he’s your direct supervisor, whether you like it or not. Bring him into this conversation or we’re done with it.”

Mac fumed for a moment, then backed away. “I’ll bring him into it,” he said, and stalked out the door.

The video ended.

“They fought in the woods,” Timber said, “But it didn’t cool Mac off. They came back here, still fighting, this time in front of Wade, who bound Trevor. It did something to Trevor’s head, which revealed to Wade that Grey Deatherage abused Trevor in the war camps, binding him and telling him to kill himself, all because of Trevor’s prophecy stating that he would be the one to stop Khain.”

Burton growled, jumping to his feet, shooting his chair across the room where it crashed into a shelf. “Traitor Citlali wolf. I’ll kill him where he stands. I’ll tear his throat out and paint the dirt with his blood.”

“Whoa, Chief, take it easy,” Timber said, retrieving the chair, and wondering how much of Burton’s response had to do with the fact that Grey and Burton were both reported to have some sort of romantic relationship with Rhen—whatever sort of relationship physical wolven could have with a bodiless goddess.

Burton stared holes through him. “I’ve accepted I can’t end Khain, but I can end Grey Deatherage. I’m the only one strong enough to do it.”

Timber looked at Canyon. Canyon raised his eyebrows and shrugged a little, then spoke in ruhi. Is Rhen okay with—

Burton looked sharply at Canyon, his expression fiery. Canyon slumped in his chair, glassy-eyed and slack.

“Chief! Chief! Are you binding him?” Timber shouted, moving toward his brother, then changing his mind and going for Burton, shaking him by the shoulder. Burton looked away quickly, staring at the opposite wall, then he sat back down and dropped his head into his hands.

“Dear deae ,” he whispered. “I didn’t know I was doing it.”

Canyon shuddered hard like he was trying to shake the last of the bind off. He stood and walked around his desk, rolling his shoulders and rubbing his chest.

Burton raised his eyes to the ceiling and whined deep in his throat.

Yeah, yeah, Canyon said, smoothing his gray and black uniform. No problem, Chief, no problem.

Burton took a long shaky breath, then said, “Forgive me, boys, please.”

Timber watched Canyon, who popped two thumbs up, then sat back at his desk. Timber gave him a ‘don’t-fucking-mention-Rhen-again’ look and Canyon gave him a ‘lesson-fucking-learned’ look back.

“Forgiven,” Timber told Burton. “Where were we?”

Mac and Trevor fighting, Canyon said.

“Right,” Timber said. “While they were digging into each other, the call came in for explosions downtown. Khain was in the Ula—but he didn’t stay long.”

Ella blasted him.

Timber nodded. “Blasted him right through a brick building. Earlier that morning, Ella had been at home, finding her pendant for the first time in her mom’s old junk. She had an appointment with Abigail White at her secondhand store.”

“The foxen witch,” Burton said.

“Yeah her, but we didn’t know she was a foxen or a witch back then. White became friends with Ella’s aunt to spy on Ella, and to get her hands on Ella’s pendant. After Ella’s mom and aunt died, White contacted Ella and said she would pay top dollar for the aunt’s stuff, especially any jewelry, so Ella went through everything in the house. She found her pendant, and when she touched it, it sent her back in time to when she was young, and she had a run-in with Khain. Khain came to the Ula disguised as a kid and stalked her, making her fear for her life. She blasted him with her repelling power—didn’t know what she was doing or how she did it, but she saved herself.”

Burton leaned forward. “Where and when was this?”

“Southern Illinois, 16 years ago.”

“With no record of Khain coming to the Ula?”

Timber and Canyon exchanged a look. Canyon explained: The felen in the area can’t keep records for shit. The pussycats say something happened around that time, but nobody can say when, where, or what exactly.

“Pussycats be slackin’.” Timber agreed. “The pendant sent her back in time, then zapped her back here. She thought she imagined it even though she had evidence she didn’t—sand on her shoes—but she’d been hearing voices and feeling crazy for weeks, so she didn’t trust herself. She put the pendant in a box, took it to White’s store, sold it to White, then Khain showed up in the street. She could hear his thoughts before she ever saw him.”

Blake, Canyon said.

Timber pointed and nodded. “Yeah, Blake could, too. Blake was downtown when it happened, and somehow, he could tell Khain was in the Ula. He heard the same thoughts Ella did.”

“Khain was speaking in ruhi ,” Burton said.

“Maybe the last thing he said was ruhi —Canyon?”

Canyon read from his computer monitor— The last thing Khain said was, ‘Promised, come here ,’, but before that, he said, ‘ She’s close, I can feel it ,’ and ‘ The Promised, I can smell her. She's scared .’”

Burton turned thoughtful. “So they were overhearing his thoughts. Could be that’s normal for a One True Mate, but why would Blake be able to hear him? Does it have anything to do with the coma he’s in now?”

Timber shrugged. “Maybe it was his nearness to Ella, we don’t know—but Troy and Trent say Blake is part foxen. ”

Burton nodded as if he already knew. “A foxen police officer,” he said quietly, looking at the floor.

Timber watched and scented Burton carefully, trying to discern his feelings, but Burton’s face and scent gave nothing away. Foxen were mostly an unknown and many wolven were contemptuous of foxen , thinking of them as always on Khain’s side, but Timber, Canyon, and Sebastian, had evidence that wasn’t the case, not usually. They’d given up trying to talk to Wade about it, and anything Wade believed, Trevor believed, so they weren’t going to Trevor. They were waiting for a good time to talk to Eventine, but maybe Burton was approachable, now that he'd snapped out of his decades-long stupor.

When Burton gave nothing away, Timber went on.

“Khain met Pickett in the street and killed him—just fried him where he stood—then he went inside Abigail White’s store, where Ella was. Ella blasted him with her power and got away. By the time our team showed up, Ella had run off and Khain had left the Ula.”

“And the foxen witch?”

“White was right there, scenting like a human and acting traumatized.”

Not an act, according to Trevor and Blake.

Timber nodded. “They both saw her in the ambulance and said she was screaming and crazy. She’d been bitten by a fox on her shoulder. Ella said she had been wearing a fox pelt around her shoulders—what the females call a stole, but no trace of one was ever found in the store, and she didn’t have it in the ambulance.”

“Khain could have enlivened it,” Burton said.

“That’s what Wade said. Talk about fucking creepy. Dead shit needs to stay dead.”

Canyon balanced a pen on a knuckle, nodding. Definitely creepy.

“Later, Blake went to the hospital to interview White, but she wasn’t coherent. An hour after that, the hospital called and said her family had come to collect her, and she left against the doctor’s advice. Blake went to the address listed on her driver’s license, but no one answered the door at the house for weeks. She moved her store a couple blocks over, but she was never there either. She was so hard to find, we thought she’d moved out of Serenity. We never did find evidence of a fox or the fox pelt. Since she was bitten, we don’t think she called or summoned Khain. He was looking for Ella from the get-go. The next day, Khain showed up again, this time right inside Ella’s house.”

Burton growled. “He got her address from the witch?”

“We don’t think so, or he would have already had it. However it happened, Ella escaped and called 911. Trevor responded and they met. They both felt a strong reaction to the other, but Trevor ignored it because she was human and she didn’t fit the One True Mate prophecy so he sent her to a safe house.”

Burton recited the prophecy in full, his voice flat and unemotional. “ In twenty-five years, half-angel, half-human mates will be discovered living among you. This is how you will rebuild. Warriors, all, with names like flora. Save them from themselves, for they will not know their foreordination. They will not be bound by shiften law, but their destinies entwine so strongly with their fated mates, that any not mated by their 30th year will be moonstruck. Those who are lost may be dangerous.

A pledged female will have free will that shiften know not. Never forget this or it will cause grave trouble. Her body may respond to any, until she is mated in a ceremony of her choosing, then she will acknowledge only one male, as he becomes her One True Mate, and she, his One True Mate. He shall be sworn to her in her life's purpose, to rebuild the shiften race, so that they may fight the evil Matchitehew and protect the humans from him, until the day he draws his last breath.”

Timber moved his chair from his desk next to Canyon’s desk and he straddled it backwards, facing Burton. “You know about the tunnels Grey had built from Chicago to Ella’s aunt’s house, yes?” he said.

Burton growled. “I do. Wade took me to see them.”

“And you know about the boxes of Grey’s code that were in the basement?”

Burton gave a stiff nod.

“And you know Grey used his Citlali powers to force a relationship with Ella’s grandmother and maybe her mother and aunt?”

Burton growled lightly, his face set in hard lines. “Fucking degenerate. His bloodline in the family is the reason Ella is ‘the first and best promised’. The angel sought out Ella’s mother because of Grey’s involvement with the family.”

“That makes sense. Ella could hear ruhi right away. We think the voices she’d been hearing were her picking up ruhi between Trevor, Trent, and Troy, anytime they were within a couple miles of her. She’s incredibly strong in ruhi .”

Burton nodded. “I’m surprised she can’t shift.”

Wouldn’t that be something if she could, Canyon said.

Burton nodded, then waved at Timber to go on.

“This was about the time that Trent met Smokey,” Timber said.

“His echo .”

“Yeah. He was Ella’s aunt’s housecat—a stray who showed up at her house around the same time Trevor, Trent, and Troy, moved to Serenity. He had a bare patch of skin on his shoulder that filled in with white fur, echoing Trent’s renqua .”

“Spooky,” Burton said.

“We all were spooked at first, but Smokey’s cool. So’s Angel, Crew and Dahlia’s echo . They’ve been helpful and not at all creepy.”

Canyon nodded along, agreeing.

“Trevor went to Abigail White’s store and found her husband there. Ella’s pendant was on display and Trevor bought it right away, not knowing anything about it, just following his instinct.”

Canyon pulled up a driver’s license on his computer. Wheaton White, aged 79, he said . Marriage records show he was married to Abigail White for only 6 months. His daughters reported him missing four days after he sold the pendant to Trevor. That was 11 months ago and he still hasn’t turned up. It was his 3 rd marriage and Abigail White’s 4 th , according to the records, but we have reasons to believe that Abigail White has somehow altered official records several times.

Burton pulled a small notebook out of his back pocket and wrote something down, then nodded at Timber to go on.

“By this time, Trevor was falling for Ella, but still not admitting her as his mate. He took her to Pickett’s funeral, but sent her back to the safehouse when he had to go up Blue River Bluff for reports of a disturbance in the Pravus.”

“Disturbance?”

“That’s what the felen called it. You’ve heard that the felen can no longer track Khain when he comes to the Ula?”

Burton grunted in the affirmative.

“These disturbances were the start of that. It was like otherworldly earthquakes, according to the felen . Khain was up to something.”

Graeme, Canyon prompted.

“Our badass dragen, Graeme Kynock, arrived from Scotland that day. Trevor hated him on sight. They met in Wade’s office, then Graeme opened a momentary hole to the Pravus, just to prove that he could. It knocked all the servers offline, but we took care of it and dragen -proofed them. Later, we ran at the zyanya , and then Mac got his rut—me ‘n Canyon were on our best behavior—Scout’s honor.”

Canyon snickered. You were never a Boy Scout.

Burton snorted. “An actual rut with human females. I never—nobody got bitten?”

Timber scoffed. “Your generation needs to learn some restraint.”

Burton eyeballed him.

Timber grabbed a file folder off his desk and held it in front of his face. “Don't do it! You can't bind me for telling the truth!”

Canyon laughed out loud and Burton shook his head.

“Knock it off, joker,” Burton said gruffly.

Timber tossed the folder on the desk. “Absolutely Chief. Consider it knocked off. Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, so Trevor and Ella got together around this time, even though no one was sure if Ella was a mate. A day or two later, they asked Wade, then Crew to see if anyone had any insights. Crew recited prophecy about her.”

Burton looked confused. “What prophecy? What did it say?”

Canyon checked his computer monitor, then spoke in ruhi. Life begins anew. Love brings two, then four, then six more. Khain's downfall lives inside her. She will be queen.”

“That makes no sense,” Burton said. “We don’t have queens.”

Maybe it’s figurative, Canyon told him.

Burton swung his chair to face Canyon. “Figurative! What do you know about figurative prophecy?”

Canyon scooted his wheeled chair behind his desk, hiding from Burton. Nothing, Chief, nothing, he said, his mental voice amused.

“Ignore him, Chief,” Timber said. “You dropped him on his head too many times as a pup. The prophecy, Khain’s Downfall, is supposed to be about Trevor, but Crew’s prophecy would override that designation to one of Trevor’s young.”

“Which one? Track or Treena?” Burton asked.

“No idea. Does it matter?”

“Yes it matters. We give leadership positions based on prophecy. You two’re in the KSRT because of your prophecy.”

Timber shrugged. “They’re twins—we’ll flip a coin or something. Anyway, Trevor needed no more confirmation than that prophecy. He took Ella to his house—just moved her right in, but Khain called her one morning from her sister’s phone. He’d captured Shay, Ella’s sister, and taken her to the Pravus. Ella agreed to meet him, wanting to save Shay. She snuck out of the house and ran to the catamount statue, where Khain crossed her over.”

Burton shook his head slowly back and forth. “Unbelievable.”

“What’s unbelievable is that he didn’t touch her,” Timber said.

Canyon’s mental voice tightened. He’d already touched her sister.

Burton continued to shake his head, his expression troubled.

“Trevor asked Crew to get a message to Khain, that Trevor was willing to trade himself in exchange for Ella’s release. While Crew was talking to Khain, however he did that shit, Khain attached a mental hook to him, making a kind of connection between the two of them. This had something to do with their run-in when Crew was 13 but we knew nothing about it. Crew didn’t tell anyone.”

Burton grunted and nodded. “Secretive bugger.”

Timber opened his mouth, about to say something about the pot and the kettle, but Canyon whipped a pen at him. Timber grabbed the pen out of the air and whipped it back, over Canyon’s head. It hit the wall and bounced to the floor. Canyon fished another pen out of a drawer and stuck it in his boot, not looking at Timber.

“Anyhow,” Timber said. “Khain accepted Trevor’s offer but of course we all knew it would be a double-cross, even Trevor. We just didn’t talk about it. Wade allowed Trevor to go in as a distraction, then they took a scanty team up the bluff and opened a portal into the Pravus using Graeme’s mind powers, with Trent and Troy helping, and Mac as muscle. They followed Trevor to Khain’s house or castle or whatever it’s supposed to be, and found Trevor downed and Ella riled up and using her super blasty powers. They fought off Khain, grabbed Trevor, Ella, and Shay, and escaped back here to the Ula. Khain’s foxen servant also escaped out the portal and then ran off into the woods. ”

“Boeson,” Burton said.

“Yeah, Boe. He ran off in the woods and somehow made it to Sinnissippi Park. Rogue found him almost immediately, cold and alone. This was months before her and Mac got together. Boe ran off and our team barely noticed because Trevor was in a bad way—burnt and dying and not able to shift.”

Dead , Canyon said, pulling a football out of a drawer, spiraling it straight up and catching it.

“He was alive enough to drink the dragon blood.”

Canyon grunted. Timber raised his hand and Canyon threw him the football. He threw it back and went on.

“Trevor drank dragen blood and so did Shay. Trevor recovered but Shay didn’t. She never regained consciousness, even during her pregnancy, labor, delivery, and to this day.”

“It disturbs me that she consumed dragen blood while pregnant,” Burton said.

“I label it DD—Definitely Disturbing, but the young came out as normal humans with no sign of demon lineage or dragen powers. She may have already been pregnant.”

“We’re certain?”

“Timber shook his head. “We’re not certain. We’ve got eyes on the young—Sebastian’s on full-time surveillance.”

“Sebastian? Is that smart?”

“Sebastian’s also being watched, and he knows it.”

“If he snaps, it’ll be too late before anyone can get to him.”

“True. Have you talked to him lately, Chief?”

“Seb? No, ah… I guess I can’t remember when the last time I saw him was.”

“He’s doing good. He interviewed Boe a few months ago and he’s been mellow ever since. Stable, even.”

Burton looked skeptical. Timber went on.

“Graeme did the heavy lifting in that rescue, then gave two people his blood, and it cost him. They took him right out to Remington, the cat doctor, and he stayed there, almost as comatose as Ella’s sister. A few days later was the mating ceremony. It was huge, out in the country. Everybody came.”

“I was there,” Burton said, his eyes on the floor, his voice quiet. “I saw Rhen’s blessing.”

Hard to miss, Canyon said.