Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Ash growled as he walked into the Guard. He eyed a few legates lounging lazily against the wall with mugs of coffee until one actually dropped his. Fuckers should at least pretend to look busy when their General was in the building.
“What news of the southern borders?” he asked.
“Nothing, General. It’s been quiet going on thirty-six hours.”
“I see. Have Legion six do a sweep of the area and get back to me with their progress. I will be in my office,” he grunted, nodding at the Imp who was busy cleaning up the legate’s spilled coffee.
Imbeciles.
He was out of sorts, cranky really, and he knew the reason.
He would much rather be at home, committing every inch of his gorgeous mate to memory, but duty called.
Besides, Gabriella was topside at the moment.
He took her to get some things from her stepmother’s house packed, then he was picking her up in a few hours and bringing her back to their home.
Ash still could not believe how very lucky he was that his mate chose him. The fact she’d given him her bite mark still made him shiver with delight and pride. He only wished it were higher on his neck so that everyone could see it.
Hmm.
Maybe he would ask her to do it again later.
Grrrr.
“Sir, we’ve been tracking this band of rogues after the roundup the other night. We destroyed many, but it seems these few got away. They’ve abandoned their attempts to breach security of the southern borders,” Dell, legate of the seventh cohort to the Southlands, spoke up.
“Really? That is interesting. Can we tell where they went?”
“Yes, sir. Seems they went topside. I suppose that makes them someone else’s problem then, eh, General?” Dell smirked.
“Where are they, exactly?”
Ash stood up, hands gripping his desk so tightly he felt the stone crumble beneath the force. His heart stopped beating while he waited for his legate to confirm his worst fears. The band of soulless had gone topside.
Straight to Hermosa Beach.
“Gabriella!” He snarled and vaulted over the desk.
“I want all legions on deck now. Send double the troops to the Southlands. They have not abandoned their efforts. They are merely trying to distract me by threatening my mate,” he shouted as he ran to the nearest portal.
“Mate? Boss?” Dell asked, but Ash snarled over his shoulder, and the Demon bowed low, his hands rapidly moving over his tablet, already doing Ash’s bidding.
Good.
At least he didn’t have to kill the fucker.
Panic had him shoving past the Sphinx, who uttered a rude word only to bite her tongue when Ash’s tail whipped out and smacked her on the forehead.
The Demon was in no mood.
He wanted his mate.
Now.
At his nod, the Sphinx initiated the portal and Ash emerged, barely able to cloak his wings and horn in time. A necessary, though annoying, evil when walking in the human world.
Was he too late?
He hated to even think it.
“Gabriella!” Ash bellowed her name as he used the shadows to travel to her door, panic holding him tightly in its grip.
He smelled the sulfuric stink of the soulless and recognized the soot covered claw prints that marked the grass in the yard leading up to her bedroom window.
The sound of glass shattering sped him on, and Ash roared as he crashed through the half broken orifice to see Gabriella half-shifted and holding one soulless off the ground by the throat.
Holy fuck!
His mate was fearsome and strong, her caramel fur bursting from her pores as she used her Shifter powers to protect herself.
Ash bared his fangs at the rogue who dared trespass on the human plane.
Another lay gutted on the floor, his carcass already crackling and turning to dust. There was a third struggling beneath his foot, but Ash simply pressed harder.
He’d landed on the foul creature when he burst into the room.
“Gabriella! Are you okay?”
His mind raced as his gaze roamed over her body.
She had scratches and her clothes were torn in places, but he guessed that was more from her half-shift than the bastards who’d dared harmed her.
He was torn wanting to rejoice at the joy he felt at the fact she was all right and needing to lay waste to the whole fucking lot of soulless. The bastards dared touch what was his!
Gabby growled, unable to speak with her half-changed face. He nodded, he understood, but he could not help being distracted by the scent of more of her blood. The bastard she was holding had dared strike out with his claws!
Without wasting another moment, Ash leapt into action, smiting the creature beneath his heel with a sharp stab to its forehead with Ash’s tail.
As if she understood his intentions, Gabby tossed the rogue she’d held by the throat and Ash struck him next.
His poisoned venom did its work instantaneously.
The second he struck, both rogues crumbled into soot, leaving piles of dust and a faint stink in the air.
Still, it was nothing a good vacuuming and some air freshener couldn’t do away with.
He had more important things to worry about at the moment. Like the health and well-being of his mate.
“Gabby!”
Ash waited for her to shift back to human. He gathered her in his arms the second he could without hurting her. The transformation always left Shifters a little sensitive the first few seconds. He had to hold himself in check in order not to grab. But he would never hurt her. Not for anything.
“Did you see that? Wow!” she exclaimed, sounding somewhat gleeful at the gory turn of events.
Ash frowned, unsure if she was truly all right or if it was just shock talking.
“I am so sorry, my love. This should never have happened. I think some of these rogues must have followed us the other day when you ran to the borders of Purgatory,” he explained, but she was shaking her head.
“Really? Wow! Well, I have never had so much fun.”
“What?”
Ash stilled.
Was this real?
Was his mate really not upset or threatening to run back to her human life?
He’d been so terrified she’d been hurt, or worse, by the soulless bastards who’d tracked her back to her human home. Second to those fears was the distinct worry that she would realize the danger he put her in, and she would leave him.
Selfish?
Maybe.
But he could not help it. Ash had only just found her. He could not lose her so quickly.
“Hey, look at me,” she commanded. “I am not going anywhere. I mean, did you see me? I was like half-woman, half-Wolf, and I totally kicked butt!”
“Yes, you did.” Ash grinned back.
She was really something else, his wonderful mate! Gorgeous and sexy, even if she didn’t curse and read the Bible for fun. She was still the most badass female he’d ever seen. And she was all his.
How’d a Demon get so lucky?
“Hey! What’s all the noise?” Gabriella’s stepmother came running into the room.
The older she-Wolf’s hair was in a towel, and she was wearing a gaudy red satin robe. But that was nothing compared to her open-mouthed stare at the mess that was once Gabriella’s room. She turned, gaping at the pair of them and the piles of dust that sat on the otherwise polished floor.
“Mim! You met Ash, right? But I don’t think I introduced you to him yet as my mate.” Gabriella smiled, seeming to notice his reticence.
She tugged him forward. She was oblivious of her own torn clothes where her Wolfish form had ripped through, or the remnants of blood, hers and the soulless, that stained them. Pride welled inside of him as she stood tall and confident and introduced him to her stepmother.
The older woman took in the mess casually. She narrowed her eyes at Ash, measuring him from head to foot, ignoring his wings, tail, and horns, much to his shock. With her hands on her hips, Mim frowned at him and raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow.
“So, you’re the man my daughter has taken as a mate,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Yes, ma’am. I am Ashmedai, but you can call me Ash. Gabriella and I have sealed our matebond, fated as it were,” he stated with quiet pride.
“I see,” Mim replied.
“Mim! Be nice!” Gabriella hissed.
“I’ll be nice in a minute, dear,” Mim said to his mate before turning back to him. “But first, I have a question for him.”
“Ask me anything, but know this, I love Gabriella and I will do everything I can in my power to ensure she is safe and happy for the rest of our lives,” Ash said, hoping to stem some of the third degree he was expecting from the woman who was essentially his mother-in-law.
Gabby squeezed his hand and smiled, her blue eyes shining like two cornflowers in full bloom under a July sun. She was so beautiful. Ash’s chest swelled with joy, and he realized he loved her more than he could have ever imagined.
“Eyes up here, mister,” Mim said, snapping her fingers to regain his attention.
He kissed Gabby’s hand and turned back to the older Wolf, waiting for her to get on with it.
Ash had a powerful urge to get his mate back home so he could strip off the rest of her clothing to ensure she was whole after her ordeal.
Okay, so maybe he wanted to do more than that.
Maybe he wanted to claim her all over again.
Yes.
Yes, that.
As soon as this woman was finished with her questions, he was going to take his sweet Gabriella home and show her everything he felt for her.
He nodded, hoping to hurry her along. Ready to give the woman whatever assurance she needed before he carried her daughter off to the Underworld with him.
His cock stiffened beneath his trousers just thinking of his mate’s welcoming heat.
But first he had to get her out of here, and that meant answering her Mim’s inquiries.
Of course, nothing could have prepared him for the words that came out of her mouth. Just as he worried whether his hard on was noticeable, his dick went soft at the other female’s question.
Gulp.
“I’m sorry. What?” Ash asked, uncertain if he heard her correctly.
“I said, when are you going to bring the grandchildren to see me now that you’re moving my Gabby to Hell? I think every week might suffice…”
“What?” Gabby asked, her hands moving to cover her abdomen. “Mim, are you sure?” his mate asked with wonder.
“Of course, I am sure! I could scent it the second I saw you. Is he alright?”
Mim pointed to Ash, unaware he’d backed up a step, then two.
Grandchildren?
But she couldn’t be?
Could she?
One deep inhale told him the truth of it.
She could be.
She was.
“OMG! Ash? Ash!” Gabby squeaked his name, but he could hardly reply.
He felt his mate’s pleasure and her worry just before the lights went out.