Mates of a Human

Part Six. Chapter Eight. Eric

"Quit staring at the sun. You'll damage your eyes," Damien drawled as my head turned once more to watch the sky split into an array of colours as the sun made its final descent. He was leaning against a tree, his eyes shut as he half dozed, the air still warm from the heat of the day.

"I can't help it," I replied, my tiger pacing inside me as impatient as I felt.

"It won't do you any good," Damien replied, opening one eye to peer at me. "We won't be moving out tonight."

"Don't remind me," I bitched, huffing as I glanced amongst the trees at the group of cats who would be taking the lead into pack lands tonight.

Consisting of a mix of wildcats, most no bigger than a domesticated house cat, the plan was to have these small spies infiltrate the pack lands and send messages back through various links to Damien. It was a severe case of Chinese whispers, so a bit of a risk, the cats could only communicate to those they had strong bonds with; mates, family members and very close friends. Granted I could also receive messages from Michael, but seeing as my mate had allowed himself to be 'captured', he could only let me know so much. His last message to me let me know where Alex was being held. His father is a disgrace, keeping our pregnant mate in a cell in the basement.

Despite our planning, however, we needed Gabriel's help if we were going to pull this off. A wolf's nose was too fucking good and would soon smell out our small infiltrators if we weren't careful. The King had arranged for him to come and speak with us tonight and so we were waiting, in groups at random distances close to the border. None were more than a thousand metres out and for a fast cat, that distance was nothing.

By now the sun merely peeked above the horizon and Damien was wide awake. Tigers were generally nocturnal beasts, although some of us had to adapt to a more human clock. Still, given the choice, I'd quite happily return to a life of late and lazy mornings and vigorous nights... especially the nights. But before those nights could happen, I had to kick several mongrel's arses and rescue my mates.

"So when are Pack Law supposed to sweep in and do their thing?" I asked. I was still unhappy about the decision to bring them into it, more so when the King introduced us to their boss. It just had to have been her. And what sort of get up had she been wearing? She wasn't some dominatrix from a club, she was supposed to be a professional police officer! She claimed that she had had her eye on the pack for a while, some case involving them, but she refused to spill the beans. She said that Alex's kidnapping was the perfect excuse to further the investigation on their territory.

Michael had growled at her for that, even though she swore to keep Alex out of any media frenzy that might follow. "What sort of woman would I be," she had stated, "If I allowed any harm to come to that boy and the cubs?"

"Could also be pups," I reminded her, but she had just waved her hand dismissively.

"Cubs, pups, babies," she had said, irritably. P.M.T was a permanent condition for that woman. "But I want one named after me."

"What if they are all boys?" I had asked her, teasingly. Well it wasn't as if that might not be the case.

"Then one of those boys will have to get used to having a feminine name," she had stated, crossing her arms, her tone brooking no nonsense.

"Middle names," Michael had replied, equally stubborn and not wishing to back down. "Girls only, though and variations if more than one."

"Deal!" That stubborn, green-eyed woman had finally agreed, even sticking her recently manicured hand out for Michael to shake. Her nails were already chipped, I had noticed. I don't know why she bothers to pay all that money to get them done in the first place.