Page 14 of Griffen's Mate

Chapter 5

Griffen

Hope had come out of her shell. She had become a social butterfly, visiting with all Griffen’s sister-in-laws and their friends. She loved Braydon, Ryland, and all the other babies in the pack, and the children adored her. Hope had a magical effect on them. She could get them to sleep when some of the mothers were ready to pull their hair out. People were slowly becoming more comfortable with her.

Everyone had been training hard, and they were all cautious and worried because the demons and their minions had been silent. They’d like to think that the demons had retreated after their last attack, but from what they’d learned from Hope and what Faith had ‘seen’ they knew they hadn’t.

The guards that walked the outside perimeter of the town had come across some of the demons’ zombies, but they hadn’t entered the town or gotten any information from them. The guards had disposed of them. Once the demons turned the humans into slave zombies, they were lost and couldn’t be turned back or saved. They had tried, but hadn’t found anything that worked to turn them back to humans.

Now that they knew what the demons were up to, they had a plan. The problem was there weren’t enough shifters for what they needed. And with the humans being able to be turned to zombies if they were taken by demons, having them guard the scientists and other people who knew about technology and making more machines would be risky.

More human military had arrived for them to train, and it was spreading them thin. Griffen had been away from training, at first with getting Hope settled, and then when she’d revealed herself, but now he was back at the compound, helping his brothers and friends train the human military. Ava was too pregnant to train the women, and Sandra was too. So his mother was training the women. His youngest sisters, Josie and Emma, weren’t happy about that. Mum was tough on them, where Ava and Sandra had given them a little leeway and let them be teenagers.

He and the other shifters had been setting tasks for the humans that were getting harder and harder. He knew they’d never be able to hunt demons on their own, but they were getting better. It was the new recruits that he hated training. They had a bunch of them, and when the humans first arrived there, they were always so cocky.

Growling as he resisted the urge to put down one of the new recruits he was working with, he looked over at Grayson, who looked like he wanted to do the same. The new recruit, Dillan Hancock, was a dick with a capital D. He had finished the new course first and left everyone else a good five minutes behind him, but Dillan was a dick because after being there for a week he hadn’t figured out that they were only as strong as their weakest link and they needed to work together as a unit to win against the demons. They had to work as a well-oiled team. The humans had promised they were only sending the best of every military division, but right now Griffen wasn’t sure of that.

“I wish Ava wasn’t so pregnant, so she could show these arseholes what they were missing.” Grayson groaned, as Dillan smirked at them as he stretched and ran on the spot to keep his body heat up.

That was another thing the humans sucked at—they couldn’t control their body heat. The nights were getting colder, and the new leather uniforms the humans had to wear weren’t as warm as their military wear.

Griffen raised his brow as an idea formed in his mind. He wondered if Hope would be up for helping them out. The first day the humans arrived they showed them their shifter forms so they knew what they were up against and what they were in for. They then gave the new recruits twenty-four hours to sort through everything they’d learned before they started their training. These new men though were cockier than a lot of the recruits they’d gotten, maybe even more than Logan, and he was Ava’s human mate.

Speaking of the devil, Logan came strutting over. He liked his new uniform, and unfortunately, they knew why. Ava had made it known how well she liked her mate in it, and Logan, being a dick, boasted about it. He already strutted around like a cocky shit, because he thought his sperm was super as he’d knocked up Ava with triplets.

“What up, bitches?” Logan’s smirk spread wider when both Griffen and Grayson growled. Logan knew how much Griffen hated being called a female dog.

“Shut the fuck up, Logan,” Grayson snarled. “I’m feline, not a fucking female wolf or dog, and I can kick your sorry arse. Leopards are the best shifters.”

Logan dramatically rolled his eyes Griffen’s way. “You could try.” He winked at him. “Tell him how Ava would kick his kitty away.”

Sighing when Grayson snapped his shifting face at Logan, Griffen whacked both men. “Stop fucking around. We don’t have time for this shit. There is no way I’m taking these new recruits out any time soon, and we fucking need everyone and can’t afford to spend six months training them like we did with your lazy arse, Logan.”

Logan ignored his dig, but his smirk slipped to a frown as he studied the new recruits and the course they were doing. Another three men had completed the course, and they were running in place like Dillan, which was helping them stay warm.

“How long have they been here?” Logan jerked his head toward the course.

“A little over a week.” Griffen raised his brow. “Are you humans bullshitting us and not sending us the best?”

Logan’s gaze darted from the four men who’d finished the course to the other six who were almost done but finishing more as a group. He sized up every man before focusing back on Griffen. “If you’d asked me that before I met Ava, I would have said absolutely, but now I’m not so sure. The threat is real, and if this is what they’re doing after a week, I’m not liking our odds.” Logan looked around at the other groups. “I hate to say this and do this to Bengie, but they need to see him.” Logan caught Griffen’s gaze, and Griffen wasn’t sure he would like what Logan was going to say next. “We need to show them Pe—”

“Hope,” Griffen cut him off.

Logan cleared his throat. “I mean Hope. I know they’ve seen you change to your full animal and that half-phaze shit you do, but since we don’t have a demon to show them—and I wouldn’t recommend catching one—we need to show them how hard this is and they need to work as a team.” He jerked his head to the group of men that were all back now. “They should have all come back at the same time. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, and they need to know that.”

Logan paused for a moment and ran his fingers through his short, red hair.

“I’ve been training with Bengie,” Logan continued. “He’s damn good. I’ll organize a demonstration. In the meantime, we need to drill into these men that they are a team. I looked at their folders, and truthfully, you do have the best. The problem is humans aren’t as strong as shifters. It would take at least six really well-trained men to take down a demon. I know Faith and the other women have helped before, but they’re mated to you men, and when we mate a shifter we gain strength, and to top it off, Faith has had years of you training her, and the other women have gifts like mine, but these men don’t, at least I don’t think they have a power.”

Logan was right. At the moment they had the men training in groups of ten. If he was really thinking though, he needed that to be more like six and then two shifters as the lead soldiers in each group.

Griffen looked around and studied the other groups that were working hard. The only group that looked like they could handle themselves were the men who’d been there for as long as Logan. They didn’t have six or so months to train each group though. They needed more patrol groups now. He caught Rane and Kane’s gaze and could see they had the same concern. He wondered if the other countries shifter military were having similar issues.

“I’m going to have a talk with Kane, Rane, and the others. The groups need to be smaller, and we need to train each group with the two shifters that will lead them. I’m going to have a chat with Hope too. These men need to know that the demons might also use other beings. It’s something we need to look out for. Faith did say she saw other beings when she had her first big vision.”

“Fuck.” Grayson scrubbed his face. His shoulders drooped, and he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them. “I didn’t want to say anything because she’s already been through so much and is really struggling right now, but Nara has heard things she shouldn’t have. She got inside some demons’ heads, but said it was hard to read them as their structure is different from ours, and they’re very twisted and always plotting or dreaming of bad things. She heard things though, plans. I know I should have said something sooner, but it’s taken me so long to build the trust I have with her, and I didn’t want to chance anything that could jeopardize it.”

Grayson wasn’t a wolf, but he was still part of their pack. Griffen had been feeling something was off with him for a while, but with everything that was going on—everything they’d learned and Grayson finding his mate and Griffen dealing with his own issues—he had let it be.

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