The Royal Jagger

Chapter Four

Life in the caves changed somewhat in what seemed like only a few weeks. Some of the newer wolves who entered the domiciles were converted human females. Marissa was surprised to learn that the Agency was allowing them to live among the others because they felt badly for accidentally causing the partial sterility problem.

“Why would they exterminate us like vermin, and then try to help us right afterwards?” Marissa asked her uncles with a confused frown.

“Maybe somebody told on them, and now they’re trying to make themselves look good,” Eric suggested. “Who knows with that lot?”

They were all sitting in Marissa’s room, including Raife in her human form. She’d just been learning to crawl, and she giggled as she came over and hit Marissa in her belly.

“Hey, that hurts,” she complained, rubbing the little bit of a swell that lay testimony to her and Peter’s continued activities. She figured she must be about four months along now.

“Where is Peter at today, anyway?”

“You know Peter,” she responded. “He’s morphed into an Agent and is currently seeing if he can find out anything about their true plans.”

“Good man,” said Darius as he stepped past and patted Marissa’s belly as well. “I only hope the new wing they built for shifters doesn’t have his name on it.”

“I thought that wing was for shifters from Vail,” Marissa gasped. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, apparently the Agency discovered a whole new batch of shape shifters, and they’ve decided to ship all of them here to the Black Hills Facility,” he explained. “We sure picked a real hot-bed, coming here.”

“Have you heard anything more from my father?” she asked worriedly.

“He still insists every day that he will get you back somehow,” Eric informed her. “He’s sent numerous followers here already. I do not think I ever had to use my heku as much as I’ve done the last month or so. The blade is becoming rather dull.”

“Oh my,” Marissa gasped. “Where could you possibly have hidden all the bodies?”

“In the hiding caves, of course,” he smirked. “Very aptly named place.”

“Well, let’s just hope the Agents never discover that opening, or there’s going to be hell to pay,” said Marissa with a shake of her head. “Peter says if they try to take him away from me, we’ll just have to go and live down there.”

“Seriously?” Darius exploded. “You’d rather go down in the muck with him than just settle down with a nice Jagger or two? Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy and all that, but come on.”

“If we lived there, we could even bring Raife along,” Marissa pointed out. “Like you said, the place is aptly named. We could be safe there, as long as we found a good cave and fortified it really well. Most folks won’t mess with Peter anyway.”

“You really are in love with that guy,” said Eric with a grin. “I’ve never had something that special myself. And I’ve been alive a lot longer than you have, too.”

“I’m sorry, uncle,” she said sympathetically. “Maybe you just haven’t found the right girl yet.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Peter came in through the secret entrance wall, and everyone glanced over at him. He was still in his Agent form, but nobody was alarmed even for a moment because they were all used to the guise. However, when they took in the grim look on his face, their concern grew for another reason.

“What is it?” asked Marissa as she came to take his hands. He morphed back before he gave her a kiss in greeting.

“They’ve sent me notice,” he said with a heavy frown. “They’ll be taking my caves away here and reassigning me to the shifter caves effective next week. I told them I don’t want to leave, but they don’t care. They say they’re taking all the shifters out of their homes, and they’re not making any exceptions. I overheard the talk while I was an Agent. They said if the moves break up any families, they could easily just eliminate the children instead of trying to determine where to put them.

“What?” everyone shouted in unison. More than one hand shot out to catch Marissa as she fainted. Peter sat directly on the floor, making his belly into a pillow. She opened her eyes and stared at him.

“Babe, it won’t matter to us anyway,” he reminded her. “We’re not going to let them tear us apart, right?”

“No,” she said. “I just can’t believe they’d go that far.”

“I doubt they could, people would find out again,” he said. “Just like with the shot. It’s just how the bas*ards talk when they think we’re not looking. It’s no different than when I overhear wolves talking about biting the Agents’ faces off.”

“If they pull a stunt like that, we will bite their faces off,” Darius commented on a snarl. He was so incensed he had gone wolf and started pacing around the room.

“Would you calm down?” Peter admonished him. “You’re not helping here.”

“Sorry,” he said, becoming a man again. “I think I need some fresh air. Come on, Eric, let’s leave these two to talk.”

As soon as the other men had left, Peter grinned down at Marissa where she lay in his lap. “You know, that’s a pretty interesting area there. If you rolled over just a bit you might be able to start something.”

“S*x fiend,” she accused him, turning to kiss the suggested area before sitting up and walking over to her bed. She fell onto it face first, but her belly was too uncomfortable that way, so she turned onto her side.

Peter joined her there, wrapping her into his arms. “Let’s put this bed in our cave. It’s more comfortable than the one they gave me anyway.”

“Do you really think this is going to work, Pater?” she asked worriedly. “I don’t want them to kill our baby.”

“I won’t let them kill it,” he promised her. “I’m going to go ahead and let them move me, and then I’m going to just walk out of there and come to our new home. Once you’ve disappeared, you won’t be able to frequent the wolf caves anymore, but I’ll make sure we have everything we need, you know. It’s going to be fine, you’ll see. And Raife will be there, too.”