Chapter 11

Paycen was nervous to say the least. He had never thought finding his mate would be so interesting. He had been there when Austin found his. Bryony was a little spitfire when it came to her husband. She was even more so now that she had Connor and another child on the way. She had even taken to training so she could protect herself and her children if something should happen when Austin wasn't around. Gone were the days of the quiet little woman who just loved to read books.

He knew Anna had followed him because he was tingling. Instinct told him to bind her to him, but he fought against that with every part of him. He couldn't do that to her, not when she didn't understand what was going on with Shawn. She was right. Shawn wasn't supposed to be able to use her power until she hit puberty. But Tyler was also right. When under extreme duress, a child can tap into their powers to protect someone. That's what Shawn did.

The ocean wasn't as calm as it had been earlier in the day. It was like it knew what was going on. Either that or Emery was so angry he was affecting the tides. Emery was one of the most powerful Hydrokinetics to have been born in this generation. He tended to use his lucidity to his advantage. Many people didn't realize that though he as honest, he was very slow to anger. Like his liquid counterpart, it took a lot to rile him. So with the waves crashing against the coast, it meant he was trying to hide his anger but wasn't doing very well.

Both adults stopped with their feet in the water. The water ceased its angry repetition like it knew they were there. It only cemented the fact that Emery had been the one controlling the water. Paycen turned around to look at the house and received a smile in his mind. So the bastard knew what he was doing.

Not caring that the seat of his pants were going to get wet, Paycen sank down into the sand. He dug his toes into the wet substance and wiggled them. It paid to go around barefoot all the time. Sometimes he had to be careful though.

Silence passed between them for a few minutes. It made sense. Anna had no idea what he was going to say. The last three days had been absolute hell. First they had been attacked in their home. Then Anna had found out that the man who was supposed to be her best friend was one of the ones behind the attacks. And finally Shawn had been attacked today. It was becoming more dangerous for them and they had to do something.

"What's going on, Paycen?" Anna asked.

He took a deep breath then ran his hand through his red hair. "I've been thinking since this morning. Arin had the right idea but went about the wrong way to do it. Shawn needs to be trained so she isn't like Tallyn was. A Pyro without the proper training is very dangerous. If I'm correct, she might be even more powerful than some of the others."

"What are you saying?"

He turned to look at her. She sat back a little. He knew the look on his face must be an earnest one. She had no idea what he was talking about. He took her hands and very gently ran his thumbs over the backs of her hands.

"Anna, let me bind you to me. Shawn will be protected by my team and by me. She will be trained by the best people in the Kingdom. Let her be my daughter."

Suddenly Anna choked up. She stared at the man in front of her. He wasn't just pursuing her to have her as a prize or because instinct mandated it. He was pursuing her because he liked her. She could tell that by the look on his face. It had only been a couple of weeks but she felt more alive with him than she had with Louis. She would always love Louis because of what they had created, but there was something about Paycen that screamed at her.

Without a word, she pulled his hands closer to her and leaned forward. She kissed him gently. She felt him tense for a moment then relax. When she pulled away, she put her forehead against his. She heard him laugh a little bit.

"Anna, my real question is can I adopt Shawn? I love that little girl like she was my own already. I want to make it legal," he whispered.

He laughed when she tackled him in the sand and kissed him passionately. Instinct took over and he changed it. He sought out her mind. When she agreed, he shifted the collar of her shirt. He stared at the section of tanned skin for a long moment before he pressed a kiss to it.

Anna held still as she allowed him to do what he wanted. This whole thing felt so right. A gasp escaped her when she felt him bite down at the juncture of her neck. She squirmed to get away from the pain but Paycen held her in place. She felt something course through her. It was hot and potent. Her eyes were opened and she saw the same silver hue that she had seen when she looked through Mikey's eyes. It was diminishing as Paycen held on.

Slowly she came off the high. Paycen reached up and ran his hand over her skin. She saw that her blood stained his lips but he didn't seem to mind. A different kind of warmth filled her as he pressed his hand onto her skin. He seemed to glow with a different kind of energy. She stared at him until his eyes shifted back to their normal green color.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I'm a Healer," he replied. She noticed his voice was as raspy as hers. "I can harness the body's energy to heal the person. That's how I heal my own."

"Are you the most powerful one?"

He shook his head. "No, Tyler's Healer is actually a little more powerful than me. He's older than me so it makes sense." She watched his face go slack for a moment then he craned his head backwards. "Shawn's on her way."

Anna looked up as she heard the dog bark. Serge always accompanied Shawn when they were at the house. They saw the blond head come over the hill. The dopey dog lost his balance and rolled down the hill. Shawn laughed at him as she ran. She caught up to him, rubbed his face, then ran towards them. Serge's first instinct was to attack the water. He barked at it then stuck his face into the spray.

Shawn ran up to them and jumped on Paycen. He caught her then held her up as if she were an airplane. She laughed then hugged him when he lowered her to his chest. Anna watched the whole scene with a smile on her face. This was something for which she had been hoping for a very long time. Shawn had opened up to Paycen very quickly and she was beginning to love him like a father.

"Shawn," she said. She waited until her daughter had looked at her. "How would you feel if Paycen became part of our family?"

It took a few seconds. The look on her face as she registered what her mother had just said was priceless. She looked at her mom for a long moment then looked at Paycen. He waggled his eyebrows at her that made her laugh. She leaned down and hugged him.

"Does this mean you'll live with us?" she asked.

"Well, actually I was going to ask you and your mother to move with me to New York," he said. He looked up at Anna. "My work's in New York as is my school. I'm almost done with my residency."

Anna looked at Shawn. Her daughter was begging with her eyes. Now that they were bonded, she was certain she couldn't live too far apart from him. She didn't want to tear Shawn from him, not when they had just told her they were becoming a family.

"I guess we'll move with you." She made it sound like she was exasperated with the whole thing. But she smiled when Shawn wrapped her arm around her neck as well.

"Can I call you daddy?" Shawn asked.

Paycen smiled. "I'd be honored." His attention was drawn away when Serge started barking hysterically. "What are you doing, you dopey dog?"

They all started laughing when the Saint Bernard turned around with a crab hanging from his nose. He shook his head to dislodge the intrusive creature. When he finally got it off his nose, he stared it down and barked and growled at it. Paycen stood and walked over to his dog. He grabbed him by the collar and started back for the house. After they were up the hill, he picked Shawn up and set her on Serge's back. The dog's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he pranced up to the back door.

Dinner was uneventful. There was a huge a gap in their dinner table because Abby was still in a Paycen-and-Deuce-induced coma. The guys weren't going to pull her out of it until the next day. Aggie was excited to be moving to New York. She had lived there when she was a girl and had never had a chance to go back. Now that her daughter was going back, she thought it was a good idea for her to return as well.

The pick elephant in the room was the fact that they still know who was spearheading the attack on the group. Arin was only a small part of it. Finding out who was really behind it was taking its toll on everyone. Anna knew that the group who was protecting her and her daughter was about to be at their wits end with this whole situation.

When bedtime rolled around, Anna walked into the bedroom she and Shawn shared. Shawn was in her bed and curled up against Paycen. He was reading a book to her, making different voices for each character. When the story was done, he grabbed her by her feet and yanked her down the bed. She laughed when he pulled the covers over her face and started tickling her. When she was tucked in, she reached her arms up. Paycen leaned down and she hugged him and kissed his cheek.

"Good night, Daddy," she said.

He smiled. "Good night, sweetheart."

He flipped off the light on the bedside table and walked out of the room. When he got to Anna, he wrapped his arm around her neck and walked into the living room with her. The feeling of being a father was the most exhilarating feeling he had ever had.

The living room was quiet as they walked in. The guys had a map splayed out across the coffee table and Aggie was flitting between them with coffee cups. Paycen sat down in the floor and Anna sat beside him. Smiles came upon everyone's face.

"Don't start," Paycen groused.

"We didn't say anything," Emery said.

"You didn't have to."

"Let's get down to business," Keldin said. He tossed the file to Paycen. "Alex has given us access to everything he has. He had to return because things were getting worse in his department. Before he left, he gave us his access codes."

"So what have you found out?" Anna asked.

"There are three different things going on at once. Logan's group asked Arin to kidnap Shawn. That we know really well. We've got a team going after them. The other two pieces of the puzzle are who is hacking into our systems," Tyler said. "So I revamped the systems. I had an alert go off earlier today after the attack on the primary school. I tracked the signal. It came from the police station."

"So another officer is involved?" Deuce asked. Tyler nodded. "What's the angle this time?"

"The Royals," everyone said simultaneously.

"With Aiden and Mikey involved, it becomes high profile. Besides you, Anna, who was Arin's most trusted confidant?" Paycen asked.

"Anthony Brown. He was always talking with him. But look at this." She sat up and pointed at the map. "This is the city. Here is our station, San Diego Police Headquarters. Right below it runs a tunnel system. If what you say is true, they're going to try and break Arin out. They'll use the tunnels."

"Not if we get there first," Keldin said. "I can go down in the tunnels and collapse two areas near the central jail and headquarters. Old tunnels can be finicky so I'll make sure I support them so none of the tunnels make the city collapse as well."

"All right. That's two parts of the three. What's the third?" Cougar asked.

"Logan's gang has taken over various parts of the city. They've taken a couple of the targeted people and are selling them on the black market. Apparently we bring a big profit."

"If we can turn a big profit, that means they can take their war from the streets into the buildings," Landen said. "A lot of people will die."

"We need to shut them down."

"So we have two dirty cops, a gang who wants to kill you, and your Royals who can kick major ass," Anna said. Everyone looked at her. "Well, it's just another day at the office."

"True. We won't make any plans until Abby is back to fighting force tomorrow. She'll know more from the men's minds than we will. If we can get them to talk, then we can stop the gang," Tyler said.

"Do we want to stop the gang first?" Paycen asked.

"No, we want to stop the dirty cops first."

They sat there for a little bit then decided that since they weren't making any definite plans that it was best for everyone to get some sleep. But who could really get some sleep when at any moment one of them could be attacked?