There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (4 page)

CHAPTER
2

Relieved to
have lunch over as well as to have established some kind of truce
with her mother, Gabi eased the McLaren into the early afternoon
traffic and headed out of the central city. Ross and Rory were a
few cars behind her. Ross’s hair was still slick with sweat from
standing guard in the summer heat, and Rory boasted a
self-satisfied grin. She pondered stopping at the nearest Macca’s
to buy Ross an ice cream. When she stopped at a red light, she took
the opportunity to slip Julius’s ring back onto her finger. The
central stone, tanzanite almost the exact shade of Julius’s eyes,
caught and reflected the sunlight while the black diamonds
surrounding it glinted with a more subdued beauty. It felt right to
have it back in place.

She knew the
route she was travelling with her eyes closed, and the trip brought
out wildly opposing emotions inside her. She was heading to her
house; no, not her house anymore, she reminded herself once again.
Her cosy bungalow on the outskirts of the City, incorporating
several acres of rugged land and bordering a wildlife reserve, was
no longer hers. At least not for now. She had finally taken the
long overdue step of moving into the manor house at Julius’s
Estate. Their properties were over half an hour’s drive from one
another, but she’d stubbornly clung to her much-loved private
retreat for the past several months, despite being Julius’s
official Consort. A position that held much respect and demanded
much loyalty from a Master’s Clan. It had taken Fergus, Julius’s
outspoken Scottish bodyguard, someone Gabi considered a trusted
friend, to explain that she was severely undermining his authority
by clinging to her independence, and that Julius simply couldn’t
bring himself to force her to give up something she loved.

Despite
discovering that she actually was ready to move in with Julius, she
couldn’t bring herself to sell her property, so instead she’d
donated it to her best friends, Kyle and Trish, to use as a Haven
for their ever-growing Werewolf pack. It was the perfect solution:
they could use it as long as they needed to, and it wouldn’t be
standing empty and abandoned. And it was only a few minutes’ drive
from CenOps, the Werewolf Alliance’s security headquarters that
Kyle and Trish were largely in charge of. They had become the front
line of supernatural peacekeeping in the City. And they were doing
a brilliant job, Gabi thought with a smile. Not that she’d ever
doubted them, but they’d stepped way above anyone’s expectations.
And to think that six Werewolf packs in one city could not only
work together, but actually maintain the peace. A year ago she
would’ve laughed in the face of someone who’d suggested the
possibility.

She eased the
car onto the narrow rural road, checking that the dark SUV was
still behind her. For a brief, unpleasant moment she had a
flashback to a few months ago when she’d been driving this road
with Trish’s brother, Derek, in the passenger seat. A sniper had
fired at them, sending the car careening down the steep embankment
on the left. Only the remarkable bulletproof coating on her car had
saved Gabi from an extra hole in the head. They’d never found out
who the shooter was, why they’d shot at her, or who had employed
him. Kyle had found footprints and a scent trail on the ridge half
a mile to the east, so they knew the shooter was alone and male and
had travelled by van, but that was as much as they knew. For some
reason the memory gave Gabi a tight, uncomfortable feeling in her
chest. She pressed one hand into her sternum as she brought the
McLaren to a stop outside the electric security gate at her
house.

No, not her
house, Silver Ridge Pack’s Haven, she reminded herself yet again.
She was thrilled that Kyle and Trish had finally named their pack,
and honoured that they’d chosen to name it for the ridge that ran
across the back of her property, the one lined with silver birch
trees.

The gate began
to slide open before she could open her window and hit the call
button on the console. She eased the car up the winding drive,
musing that Razor would be pissed she hadn’t brought him along for
the visit. As much as her hugely overgrown cat hated Werewolves, he
loved to come back to the house. Occasionally she even brought
Rocky along for the trip, but the tiny squirrel was almost an adult
now, and since their move to the Estate, dotted with oak trees and
enjoying its own population of red squirrels, little Rocky was
spending more and more time with her own kind and less with her
adoptive feline and human family. Gabi was pleased that the
squirrel was happy and doing what came naturally, but she sensed
that it left Razor a little lonely. She took him with her as often
as she could, but there were still many places you simply couldn’t
get away with taking a cat, especially one the size of Razor. It
helped to have a Master Vampire with you who could make humans
forget what they’d seen, but that trick was limited to night-time
excursions only.

“
Gabi!” Trish squealed from the front door as Gabi climbed from
the car and checked that Ross and Rory had made it through the gate
in time. The SUV pulled to a stop with its nose under an overgrown
apple blossom. Trish enveloped Gabi in a crushing hug, though she
had at least learned to stop short of breaking Gabi’s ribs. Gabi
returned the hug just as firmly; it was good to see her friend. Her
last trip away had taken longer than anticipated, and she’d missed
Trish’s company. The woman’s strength, optimism and cheeriness
never failed to raise Gabi’s spirits. If she could just bottle her
friend’s essence…

“
Let Gabi breathe, babe.” Kyle’s laughing voice came from
somewhere inside the house. A second later his boyishly handsome
face appeared at the door. “Lordy, Hellcat, aren’t you boiling in
that?”

Gabi stepped
around Trish to punch her long-time friend in the ribs before he
subdued her with a rough bear hug of his own. The two Werewolves
were dressed sensibly in shorts and T-shirts, and Trish’s chocolate
brown mane was pinned on top of her head.

“
Yes, I am, as a matter of fact,” she told him, wishing she’d
thought to bring a change of clothing along. “Take me to your air
conditioning.”

“
There are lots of cold things to drink in the fridge,” he told
her, elbowing her in the ribs as he passed her to greet the two
Werewolves emerging from the SUV.

Gabi allowed
herself to be dragged off to the kitchen by Trish, leaving the male
Werewolves to do their male Werewolf thing. There was protocol to
be followed when bringing non-Pack wolves into a Haven, but Gabi
trusted Kyle and the guards to accomplish it without offense or
violence. Trish swung open the new fridge, far larger than the one
Gabi had used, and reached in for two bottles of water and a bottle
of full-caffeine, full-sugar cola. No diet, low-sugar stuff in a
Werewolf home. Trish threw a bottle of water to Gabi, placed the
cola on the counter in front of her, and opened the second bottle
of water for herself. Gabi downed the water in a few long swallows
and then moved onto the cola. She’d have loved coffee right now,
but it was way too hot, so caffeinated cola would have to do.

Kyle, Ross and
Rory ambled inside, protocol satisfied, and Trish directed the
guards out the back door to the large Pack common room, where they
could relax and cool off. They’d run the plans by Gabi to turn the
garage into a comfortable, air-conditioned space for Pack members
to hang out together and to sleep off full-moon runs. The
neighbouring reserve was a real bonus for the Pack, as it was
rarely traversed by hikers and certainly not at night.

Gabi was
halfway done with her cola when a ball of black, cream and russet
fur galloped into the kitchen and hurtled straight into her waiting
arms.

“
Slinky boy,” Gabi crowed, lifting him and allowing the
ferret’s whiskery face to nuzzle her own excitedly.

“
Aw, I think he’s been pining for you a bit the last few days,”
Trish said, her affection for the little animal clear in her
tone.

Gabi stroked
him, sending a tiny thread of reassurance to him while assessing
his emotions. Her ability to fully communicate with all animals was
yet another of her inexplicable gifts and one that she thoroughly
enjoyed using. Slinky was profoundly happy to see her, but she
couldn’t sense any unhappiness or depression in his background
emotions. That set her mind at ease. It had been her most difficult
decision: to leave him here with Trish and Kyle. Kyle had always
had a soft spot for the critter, and Gabi knew there would almost
always be someone around to keep him company, as opposed to being
at the Estate, where there would be no one to spend time with him
when Gabi was away. And she was away more often than not lately.
Slinky didn’t adapt as quickly to new people and environments as
Razor and Rocky did, so she’d figured this option would be the
least stressful on the ferret, though it made her heart ache a
little each time she left him.

Roman, the
delightful Rottweiler she’d adopted from Trish, had been an easier
decision. Dogs didn’t do well around Werewolves, so it wasn’t an
option to leave him here or take him to the Estate, where
Werewolves did most duties during the day. But Byron, her very dear
friend and substitute father, loved dogs and recently lost his
large mixed breed, who had been alpha of his small pack of adopted
mutts, to old age and cancer. Using her unique form of animal
whispering and her long-standing relationship with the horde of
seven dogs, it had been easy to introduce Roman and help him step
into the alpha role, keeping the status quo as undisturbed as
possible. It was a win all around.

“
I missed you too, you little rascal,” Gabi told him with a
kiss on the nose. “Have you been keeping Wolf in line? Do you make
him share his breakfast?”

“
Yes, and yes,” Kyle scowled, but it wasn’t a serious
scowl.

Gabi set the
excited ferret on the kitchen counter, and he scampered for his
food bowl as she divested herself of her jacket and snagged a
hairband of Trish’s out of a basket to tie her hair up off her
neck.

“
Oh,” she said, remembering the main reason for her visit. She
pulled a wad of folded papers from an inner pocket of her jacket.
“Here are the papers you needed me to sign.” She handed them over
to Trish, whose face lit up with a childlike excitement.

“
Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she squealed, rounding the
counter to give Gabi another hug. Gabi shooed off the fussing, but
there was a happy bubble in her chest.

“
When will you start building?” Gabi asked Kyle. The papers
were building consents; the Haven needed to expand. Her little
two-bedroom, one-office cottage didn’t house very many Werewolves.
They had been waiting three weeks for her to get back so she could
sign what she needed to. She really had to get them in a room with
her lawyers so they could make arrangements for Kyle and Trish to
have more authority over the place.

“
As soon as City Council approves the plans, Julius’s team is
ready to go,” Kyle told her. She smiled wryly; Julius’s building
team was staffed by Vampires and Werewolves, who only did
construction work when it was required, but they were damn good at
it. Fastest damn builders Gabi had ever seen.

“
Is Byron ‘helping’ the approval along?” she asked, already
knowing the answer.

“
Of course he is.” Trish chuckled. “You know him. He might have
announced his retirement, but he is anything but retired.” She
shook her head in mock exasperation.

“
Well, he was never going to sit at home with a rug over his
knees, so you may as well take advantage of his boredom.” Byron
would never be happy without something to fuss over. His first
grandchild was due in a few months, which would give him something
else to fill his hours with, but until then he could keep himself
amused helping out with CenOps.

“
He’s also putting in time over at the Youth Centre,” Trish
said. “I think he’s secretly tickled pink that they named it in his
honour.”

Gabi shook her
head with a grin, allowing Slinky to clamber up her chest and wind
himself around her neck into his habitual sleeping spot. The little
animal was hot, but she didn’t have the heart to refuse him. Kyle
reached for a console on the wall and turned the air-con up before
she could ask.

“
So they did name it the Reeves Youth Centre, then?” Gabi
asked. Trish’s brother, Derek, also a Werewolf, had recently become
engaged to Kimberley, a Shape-Shifting Doppelganger, and the two of
them had set about turning the old SMV HQ building into a Youth
Centre for teens and young adults of the supernatural community.
Derek had been in lust with Gabi since his human days as a stuntman
when Gabi was the preferred animal trainer on many local movie
sets. Their friendship had been strained for many months after
Derek was infected with Lycanthropy and found out she was in love
with Julius, but then he’d found his soulmate and everything was
falling into place for him. The only person happier about the
situation than Gabi was Julius.

“
The official opening was last week, with a party and a ribbon
cutting and everything,” Trish gushed. “I’ve got some photos on my
phone. You won’t believe what they’ve managed to do with the place;
it looks amazing.” Trish leaned over the counter, holding out her
phone so Gabi could see. The photos showed dozens of smiling faces:
Derek hugging Kimberley to him, pride and excitement on both their
faces; Byron cutting a thick red ribbon, dapper as always; his son,
Ian, and his heavily pregnant daughter, Lara, watching on and
clapping.