Warrior's Hope (Dark Protectors #16)

Ulric snorted. “To think you believe that you’ll make a Realm female happy just by giving her a house. She can’t live here. She can’t live the way we do. You know that, correct?”

“She’ll live any way I want her to,” Drake responded. Hope had been his from the moment she’d been born; they were destined for each other. Not only did he feel that in his gut, but fate whispered the truth on the wind. “You know the only way to take down the Realm is from the inside.”

Ulric glanced at the screen. “They still don’t know the plan, do they?”

Drake shrugged. “I don’t believe so. As far as I know, they still think your grand scheme is to kill all enhanced females.” Which was just stupid. The Kurjans needed to mate enhanced females just as the vampires and demons did. “It’s a good way to cause war between the shifter, demon, and vampire nations. They won’t be able to help themselves once we’ve finished this campaign.”

“Have you ever thought that your mate will try to stop you?”

“Of course she’ll try to stop me,” Drake said. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Sometimes he didn’t have patience for ancient soldiers who were unable even to text on an iPhone. “She’ll make a fine queen, and she’ll learn her place soon enough. She’ll be an excellent mother, and the power our sons will hold shall impress even you, General.” Not that he gave two shits whether he impressed the general or not, since he fully planned on killing him once he figured out how.

Ulric leaned down and typed rapidly on a keyboard to bring up a square on the monitor. “Paxton Phoenix is back in Realm territory. To think you almost had him in Nuremberg.”

Blood rushed through Drake’s veins with the need to exact revenge. Paxton would die, many times over. Drake would bring him back each time, until at some point he’d finally give up. His fangs dropped low with a need to taste blood.

“I thought you were going after the girl in Nuremberg,” Ulric said evenly.

“I was actually following the girl to get to Paxton,” Drake admitted. “I’m not ready for Hope yet. We might as well let her have the freedom she enjoys as long as possible.” Because there was no doubt, once she was his, that would change.

Ulric seemed amused, and yet anger, as always, flowed from him. Furious seemed to be his default setting. “Are we prepared for the attack on the Seven headquarters tonight?”

“Yes. The Defenders in demon territory came through with the intel.” Drake clicked on another monitor and surveyed the location an hour from Denver. “Soldiers are in place, and air support is ready to go. We have missile lock.” Even though the scientists had enabled the Kurjans to spend a limited time in the sun, they were stronger after dark. “Go time is midnight.”

“Good.” Ulric rubbed his wide jaw. “Don’t forget. I need the Intended in one piece.”

Drake brought up the picture of Destiny Applegate-Kayrs. She was such a little thing to be both a Key and Ulric’s Intended. “The squads have her picture.” Although he didn’t really care. If she died, another Intended would take her place, and fate would stamp another female with Ulric’s mark. “Legend says the three Keys will have the ability to destroy you. I’d think you’d want to kill all three of them rather than mating one.” The other two were also at Seven headquarters, which made it all so convenient.

“If the other two are dead, her power as a Key is ended.” Ulric stared at the stunning brunette. “Mine.”

The door opened again, and Vero walked in. He and his unit had just returned to headquarters the day before, having been stationed outside of Homer for the last year, first creating and then using a training facility for soldiers. “Harold just took another complaint from the women we have here in storage. They need to be put into warmer quarters. The cabins we’ve been using aren’t insulated well enough.”

Drake looked at his cousin. “Then insulate them.” He didn’t have time for this, and Harold did nothing but irritate him. Why hadn’t Vero left the loser in Homer?

Vero stood tall. “If it were that easy, I would. Humans aren’t the only ones affected by the supply chain problem, cousin.” Anger and something deeper glowed in Vero’s blue eyes. He was an anomaly amongst the Kurjans, who never had even a hint of blue in their eyes. After Vero’s father had been killed, he’d spent a lot of time with the females, which might’ve softened him. He had a kindness that didn’t belong in their world.

He’d finally grown to almost six and a half feet, still short for a Kurjan male. Although his chest was broader than Drake’s. They had trained long hours with every weapon until Vero was as fierce a warrior as Drake could make him. It was either that or let Ulric kill the guy, and Drake needed family support. He liked that Vero had created an excellent fighting force for the Kurjans. It was needed.

Ulric snorted. “Why are you so worried about human females? We mate a couple to our people, we inject the rest, then let them go. The hypnosis works, right?”

“Yes,” Vero said. “The hypnosis works. They don’t know that they were taken once we let them go.” His face was stone cold, and his eyes had gone flat, but Drake could still feel the emotion coming from him. The young warrior didn’t like the current campaign, but that was too bad. He would follow orders.

Drake looked back at the screen. “Find them blankets and then send a squad to Spokane.”



Hope sat in the conference room and looked at her team of four, trying to focus even though her head ached from the nightmares that had plagued her. She needed to see Paxton. Her focus shot back into the room as Collin’s report concluded.

Why hadn’t anybody told her this news yesterday? Sure, she’d been unconscious all day and then went on her own mission to deal with Paxton, but her team should’ve checked in. “We lost them?” she asked.

Collin’s face was impassive but fury glowed in his eyes. “We did. The other team got there as soon as they could, but the Kurjans got the two enhanced females in Paris.”

“The sisters?” Libby whispered.

A muscle ticked in Liam’s jaw. “Yeah. Our team was about fifteen minutes behind the Kurjan squad.”

Guilt swamped Hope. “Those women should have been our priority.”

“Maybe not,” Liam said. “Paxton’s been working among us freely, and we didn’t know it. I’m not saying that those women aren’t important and we won’t go find them, because we will.” His jaw hardened. “But we needed to know about Paxton.”

Libby plucked at a piece of paper on the heavy onyx table. “I didn’t have any idea,” she mumbled, her gaze down.

“Neither did I,” Hope said.

Collin shook his head. “I was pissed when we first saw him but, I mean, it’s Paxton.”

Derrick leaned back, looking more like his father, Jase, than ever. “Well, exactly, it’s Paxton. I mean, what do we really know about him? He was friends with Hope and Libby as a kid. With all of us, really. Then he went off with his uncle to study butterflies and the history of ancient cultures. That’s what we thought, anyway.”