Allies

Chapter 6 #2

“He told us not to come back. Never come back. And he told her the same thing. I don’t know what the other males told their mates, and a few of the females didn’t even have mates, so I don’t know what they’re planning to do.”

“The females are not part of this. We’re going to see what we find, if there’s anything, or physical proof that will tie anyone to the attack.”

“Or bury the dead,” Steve said.

“And bury the dead,” Jack echoed. “We’ll decide what to do from there.”

“When are you leaving?” Steve asked.

“It’s in the beginning stages, so not a definite date yet, but within the next few days.”

“I’ll let you know,” Steve said.

“My personal opinion, you need to do what Grail asked. But if your heart says otherwise, I’ll welcome you on the trip.”

Steve looked Jack in the eye unflinchingly.

“My personal opinion, Alpha Laighin, is that you should stay here with the majority of your people, males, sentries and fighters especially. Be prepared to protect what’s yours.

We thought we were, but now everything is gone.

Send a small team to investigate. But make sure they’re prepared to fight when they get there, just in case. ”

“I don’t get it. My impression was that your Pride was well trained, overly prepared. How did another Pride get the drop on them?”

“After so long of being on alert, and fending off small attacks from time to time, it became routine. We became lax, overly confident. Went through the motions but never expected to have to actually defend against someone we couldn’t beat.

If you want to see for yourself what remains there, send someone.

Don’t go yourself. To my knowledge, we didn’t do anything to antagonize the Falwell Pride, or the Variant, or whoever else the Falwells had with them.

This was simply because they wanted what we had, or they wanted to eliminate us.

Either way, don’t leave your Pride unprotected to go see what happened to another. You’ll end up like we have.”

~~~

Rance stood near a window, a broom in hand as he looked around his house. “Not bad. We knocked this shit out pretty quick.”

“Pretty quick? You call three hours pretty quick?” Niko asked.

“Considering its condition, yes.”

Niko tied up the last trash bag and carried it out to the porch and tossed it into the yard.

“Next time you start to build a collection of pizza boxes and beer and whiskey bottles, maybe collect them in garbage bags so we can just throw them out instead of having to pick their nasty, sticky asses up off the tables and floors and shoving them into the damn garbage bags.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Rance said.

Niko looked at him and raised his eyebrows. “It was. It really was.”

Rance shrugged. “Whatever. It’s done now.”

“No, it’s not done. We have to clean the bathroom and we have to…” he paused as he looked back at the kitchen. “Well, the kitchen’s not dirty, because you don’t bother to cook, but it does need a good wipe down. What’s the bedroom look like?”

“Shouldn’t be bad. I haven’t been in there.”

“So it probably needs a good wipe down and dusting, too.”

“More than likely.”

“The extra bedroom?”

“I got an extra bedroom?”

“Jeeezuz,” Niko grumbled.

“What are you tackling next?” Rance asked.

“I’m thinking about going to the bar.”

“Come on! I gotta get this place in order. No female would want to even sit in here.”

“No, no that’s not true. The living room is sit-able.”

“Fine. Just go,” Rance said, as he propped the broom against the small two seater bar that separated the kitchen from the living room.

“I’m not going,” Niko grouched. “Can’t let that little boy sit in any of this nastiness if it’s him and his momma that gets your place.”

“It’s not nasty!”

“It’s dirty, you don’t clean regularly.”

“I don’t need to. I have one or two of the girls come in and clean for me while I’m out.”

“In what universe?” Niko asked.

“This one! They just haven’t been here lately.”

“Lately as in this year?”

“Fine. You don’t clean either.”

“I clean my room at Jack’s religiously.”

“You don’t want to be kicked out.”

“That is true. But I also clean the bar and I insist on levels of clean that make people think I’m a little obsessive.”

“You are a little obsessive.”

“About cleaning, though?” Niko asked.

“It’s looking that way.”

“Meh,” Niko said, as he walked past Rance and into the kitchen. He dug around under the kitchen sink and found two large containers of disinfectant wipes. “I thought you said we were out of wipes!” he asked, lifting them into the air.

“I thought we were,” Rance said.

“Here, go take these and clean the bathroom.”

“The bathroom isn’t bad,” Rance insisted.

“You okay with Gwen seeing it? Her little baby boys sitting on your toilet?”

Rance stood there scowling at Niko, then grabbed a container of wipes and started off toward the bathroom.

“Hang on, here’s some bleach spray, too! Look at you having all the cleaning supplies,” Niko said.

“If I have wipes, why do I need bleach spray?”

“To spray the toilet, inside and out. And use the toilet brush to scrub the inside of the toilet. Use a wipe to wipe down the outside so nobody is sitting in bleach. You do have a toilet brush, don’t you?”

“I do. What are you going to be cleaning?”

“I’m cleaning the kitchen while you do that.”

“Alright,” Rance said.

They both worked quietly for a few minutes before Rance remembered something Niko said. “Hey, what little boy?”

“What?” Niko asked, as he stopped wiping down the counter top and looked toward the bathroom.

“You said, can’t let that little boy sit in any of this nastiness if it’s him and his momma that gets this place.”

“Oh, yeah. Cute little kid named Griffin. He asked me if I’d protect his momma since he didn’t have a daddy to keep her safe. I promised I would. I said I’d keep her and him both safe.”

Rance didn’t answer right away, but within a few moments Niko was aware of Rance standing across the room looking at him.

“What?” Niko asked.

“You promised to take care of this boy and his mother?”

“Yeah. He was scared.”

“So you just decided to be his new father?!” Rance asked.

“I didn’t promise that! I just said I’d keep them safe, protect them.”

“Like her mate?”

“She doesn’t have a mate! Kid said so,” Niko said.

“She does now. Her son just found her one,” Rance snapped.

Niko opened his mouth to argue, then kind of deflated and closed his mouth.

“No, it’s not like that. He’s just a little thing, like Bella’s age.

He’s scared. And his momma probably is, too.

That’s all it is. He’s trying to help his momma because he watched her struggle to keep him and her both safe on the way here.

What was I going to tell him, no? I’m not going to tell any kid that. ”

“This isn’t any kid. He’s a shifter. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“He knows what mates do, because he said his mother doesn’t have one. And he asked you to step in.”

Niko blinked a few times, and looked around the house. “It’s not like that. It’s innocent, and I’m going to make sure they’re safe. But that’s all it is.”

“You met his mother?”

“No, she was passed out exhausted. He was hanging out with Jack and Bonnie and the girls. Cute little dude. I got the feeling he was a little like Hell Cat. Broke my heart when he asked if I could keep his momma safe. I couldn’t say no.”

“Maybe you should go talk to his mother.”

“And say what? Your son asked me to protect you, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea? No. I got this. I protect females all the time at work. I can do it here, too. We all keep them safe.”

“That much is true. But maybe make sure that her son doesn’t think it’s more than it is so he doesn’t get disappointed. She can talk to him about it so he doesn’t get the wrong idea.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“Good. Now, we got your problem fixed, let’s finish fixing mine.”

“Your dirty house is your only problem?”

“One of many, my friend. One of many.”