Hell Hounds

Trying to sneak into a room full of shifters that are ready for war was not as fun as it sounded. The image of a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs came to mind. In this case, the rocking chairs were half of her armoury and she was the cat.

So here she was, looking for her mate in a dark room full of armed shifters. The only thing she could think of was the word crazy. It kept ringing through her head.

Finally, Yolanda found him in a lower bunk by the far corner of the entrance. She stood there, looking at him. Yolanda so wanted to climb in beside him. But wouldn't look good from any angle. If she shook him, he'd make noise in a panic.

Okay, going in for a sleeping beauty with a role reversal. Why did her brain go to great efforts to make her laugh at moments like this? Gods, she hoped lan found it funny. She leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips, praying she wouldn't get attacked by him or someone else.

Sure enough, his eyes shot open, and the kiss ended with him crab-walking backwards on the bed. Giggling, Yolanda whispered, "It's me. We need to check in on things in the armoury." "What? Why? You're the arms master. Why can't I sleep?"

"You've heard of a fox in a henhouse?"

"Yeah..."

"We have Fianna in the armoury and as my new assistant your ass is by my side so when it comes time, we both know where they've moved shit."

"Wait, when did I become your assistant?"

"Shh... and come on. I'm assuming you slept with your boots on."

"Teleporting fairies damn right I kept my boots on." They tried unsuccessfully to whisper talk to each other, but as it goes three others woke up and there were a few complaints about the noise they were making.

time.

"Fine, come on, we can talk outside." lan grabbed his gear and followed Yolanda out of the room. Outside, he dropped his gear and grabbed her. He planted a far more attentive and insistent kiss this

He leaned back from the kiss. "That's better, okay, now what is this crap about being your assistant?" He frowned down at her, waiting for a response.

"Simply, they are enlarging the armoury as we speak, and I needed an assistant before. Now I need one even more. You have the skill and training for standard weapons and the ability to learn quickly. Being my mate is a factor. It also helps that you need a job here beyond being our fixer within the RCMP. Now we need to get down there before they change everything so we can't find anything." "Fine, let's go." Ian waved Yolanda ahead of him while he picked up what he dropped and followed.

Once in the lower basement and past the heavy door. The armoury was abuzz with people. Hear was everywhere. Items were being examined, others were being tested, and there were clear signs of new gear coming in and fresh symbols around the space.

Yolanda stopped someone passing by her. "Who's heading this up and where are they right now?"

"Armoury's run by a Yolanda Redgrave, but she's not here. Something about a mission keeping her busy." Yolanda rolled her eyes. "Either you're new or you think you are a comedian. I am Yolanda and I am looking for the Fianna in charge of this upgrade."

"Oh, geez. I'm sorry. I didn't realize. They didn't show us a picture of you. It's been lost from your pack's file."

"Thank you. I will get that rectified. Now who and where, please." lan watched her with amusement. She could be such a hardass.

The young guy gave her directions, and she set off in that direction. The young Fianna turned to lan. "Wow. How do you would with that?"

"I kiss her. It a perk about being mated." That brought forth a few snickers.

"It's not my day, is it?"

"No kid, it's not." With that, he followed Yolanda further into the armoury. The lighting within the armoury now shone at a blinding level in one place and almost non-existent in other spaces. But there were people everywhere. "Okay, now I see why you needed me down here. Wow, I didn't expect to see so many people this deep within here." He said, stepping up behind Yolanda.

"Yeah, we take things like this seriously. You know why. This affects us all, it's just humans don't know about it yet."

"This one does."

"Ha! If you claim mated status, your status changes to whatever your mate is, and that species rules and laws are yours now."

"Wait. What?" lan meant this as a joke and now he's learning a lot of things he wasn't aware of.

"Brian, you must be lan, Yolanda's partner. Sorry for the surprise. Yeah, mates and life partners take on the identity species of the partner or partners for simplification. For you, that means you are a Black River Pack member, and you are under the rule of Gregory Wolversen. Your NARC Ambassadors are his parents, so that means you have insider influence."

Yolanda snorted. "What Brian isn't saying is every Fianna is related to the next, and they can give rabbit shifters a run for their money on mass reproduction. It's a long hard story that's messy and bloody at the same time. But they came around eventually, and it just might give us the edge we need. It's another change the Fae don't know about. Back then Fianna numbered only a handful of empowered monster hunters. They annoyed the Fae, and now with technology and research into how the magic works... Well, we have a small army of weaponsmiths and hunters with a bone to pick with the Fae." "Wow... okay so now I'm a wolf shifter even though I can't shift."

"The term you are looking for is a Black River Pack Member. It means you belong lumped with them and no one will expect you to go all furry or ruin any hardwood floors if you get pissed off." "Enough. It's good to see you and your lovely crew, but what in all the hells are you doing to my armoury. I don't recognize it. Now tell me what new toys do I have and what improvements." "Fine, I'll stop scaring your mate. Though you should update him on how his life is changing."

"What do you have for me? Come on. I need to know and I'm dying to know. It's like a birthday waiting for all the presents to be unwrapped." Brian gave her a tablet with a document open. "I don't have time to ramble on about everything, but it's all in there along with a briefing video. I need to get back before someone over there blows us up." Brian jogged off, yelling at a group of people unpacking something in the dark.

"I guess we're stuck reading for god knows how long? The lighting, I assume, is because of certain weapons?"

"Yeah, and I recommend we make a note of the lighting configuration just in case of a screwup."

"Okay, you read I'll get a photo of the lighting panel. I'll leave a message for the guys they teamed me up with, so they know where to find me as well. If they need me."

"Good idea. You do that, and when I'm finished with this. I'll pass this to you, so you can study up on this." Ian jogged off and snapped a few photos. He'd add notes if he found any reference within the notes when it was his turn to read it. Damn, he'd just fallen right into this. The part that freaked him out the most was how easy it was. How did all this supernatural stuff become normal, and why wasn't he questioning everything? From Fianna to Dragons, different realms, and fairies. What were unicorns? Shifters? He'd never be able to eat another rabbit again. If there were so many types of shifters, how did they tell each other apart when they were in shifter form? lan felt like his brain was going to explode.

lan trudged up the ramp to the ground floor. His phone wasn't working down there. Which wasn't surprising at all. All this technology and magic and a cellphone still can't work in a basement. His cellphone rang as soon as he got to the top of the ramp. Accepting the call.

"lan Bennet."

"lan, where are you and your team? All hell has broken loose here at the office." Gregory, true to his word, was shaking things up there.

"What are you talking about? I'm not in a secure location to talk."

"Fine, I'll do the talking. The boss is now on leave pending an investigation. What the investigation is, no one knows. They've also ordered the office to move into the middle of nowhere, Ontario. You're the only one in Ontario, and it's the region they are moving us to. You've got to know what's going on."

"Honestly, I don't know. Keep me updated, I really can't talk here. This is insane. I guess I'll see you here when you show up then."

"That's bullshit, lan. You know something, why can't you say? What are you working on that's so big?"

"I don't know what you mean. I'm just investigating the case I received. It's all in the report I just sent in. Read it." With that, lan hung up. Served Paul right after the crap he shovelled onto lan and his group over the years.

He sent out texts to the others in his patrol group, so they knew he couldn't respond to texts. Someone would need to find him. Ian may have woken up to do something, but if they didn't need to wake up, then he wasn't waking them for this.

Back in the armoury, Yolanda was looking over things and catching him up to speed, before giving him the tablet to read. Ian quickly realized why she wasn't sitting down to read it. He, too found it easier to look at the items and weapons within the documentation. Complications abounded with each special item, but lan made notes to clarify much of it and questions to ask later. After all, he's the dumb human around here.

"How are you doing? Do you understand why I woke you up?"

"Time, or the lack of it, is boggling my mind. This is insane. If we need any of this within a fight, that fight will be of the darker fairy tale nightmare variety and my exhausted brain can't wrap itself around the whole thing." lan looked straight into Yolanda's eyes and saw the same thing there.

"Yeah, this will be here in a few hours, and I promised the Alpha we'd get some shuteye at our place. I'll tell Brian how to contact us if something needs our attention, then we can go get some shuteye.' "I'll be here waiting for you." lan hauled his butt out of the one chair he'd finally found. Yolanda returned the tablet to Brian with the instructions to download the files into the main computer so they could reference it later. With that done, the pair made their way back up to the surface. They took the most direct path through the kitchens after suiting up. Ian snagged some snacks and drinks, knowing that he would not have the strength or coordination to cook anything for himself or Yolanda.

Once inside their cottage, they went about getting ready for bed and eating while cuddled together in the bed. It wasn't long, and they didn't communicate much at all. It was more like stuffing their faces and then passing out.

He'd not once asked her what she encountered or how she felt about it. There wasn't a question there, really. Yolanda responded to whatever she saw within the Dream Realm with extreme prejudice. He wouldn't question that at all. But he wanted to know what happened to her while she was within it.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐