Freedom of Flight Ch. 07

"Give me a moment, I'll come with you." Tarval threw back the covers and went to get dressed. They had spoken about this several times, he knew she had to go home when the natural portals opened, to remove the markers which would trap her here if she didn't go through. She told him she didn't mind being trapped here with him but he reminded her of her family and friends and he would never try to keep her from those she loved. He had told her even more times that he would come to, that he wasn't leaving her alone in her world and she had told him of all the things she would show him when he got there... starting with her bedroom.

"Wait! Dominic has suggested that you should stay here and when I get home, I should get ma to come and get you. No markers means we can stay on earth as long as we like and ma can bring us back for as long as we like. Take your time... pack lightly. I'll be back." She kissed him deeply before leaving. She paused at the door and turned to him.

"Don't be long." He told her, as he knew that the moment he couldn't sense her through their bond he would start getting anxious.

"I love you." She told him before quickly shutting the door.

She walked down the hall to join Sage. Dominic was waiting beside the portal. "Don't take too long in getting back to get him." He warned before he kissed her forehead goodbye.

"I won't! Talk to you when I come back to get my things." She turned and jumped through the portal.

"Bye Da, I love you." Sage told her father before jumping through after her sister. The portal closed behind her.

Alanna caught Sage as she burst through, landing in a quiet, colder sac with neat little houses surrounded by neat little picket fences. Alanna turned to the stunned people. "Trust me, travelling by portal is rough." She smiled.

"Do you have any money?" Sage asked.

"Nope. Looks like we're hoofing it." Alanna looked around. "Where are we?"

"Portals always open within a mile of the last portal. So somewhere in the northern suburbs... maybe?"

Alanna rolled her eyes. She walked up to a telephone booth and reversed charged a call to her mother. "Find out what street we're on." She told her sister while the phone began to ring.

Sage rolled her eyes and jogged down the street to get to the street sign.

"Alanna?"

"Ma, just a sec. Waiting for Sage to figure out where the portal punched through."

Sage jogged back. "Norris Avenue."

"Norris avenue in... somewhere, by the looks of it, in the northern suburbs." She explained.

"Okay, we have five cars in the area. Stay where you are. If you haven't been picked up in half an hour, call." Amy replied.

"Okay, talk to you soon." She hung up.

"You realize that the longer this takes, the more agitated your mate will become?" Sage said as she rested her lean body against the phone booth, tucking her white and black streaked hair behind her ears.

"I know but I have no choice in the matter." Alanna leant on the other side.

"They act like they've never seen a woman with wings before." She said as she rolled her eyes then turned and glared at the group who had gathered to stare.

"Back off, Sage."

At that moment, a black SUV pulled to a stop. The window went down and Dan, one of their parent's enforcers, popped his head out. "Hey sweet things, need a ride?"

Sage jumped up from her position. "Dan the man." She raced to the car.

"Wings, why didn't you just fly home?" He asked as Alanna raced to join her sister.

"Because I'm not allowed to fly unless it's an emergency." She told him, pulling a face as she climbed into the passengers' side. She grabbed a phone to call her mother.

Alanna hopped in.

"What about you, sweetness? What have you been up to?" He asked Alanna.

"She's married, Dan." Sage told him while calling her mother.

"Lucky bastard." He said half-jokingly with a raised eyebrow as he drove off.

Alanna smiled and leant back. She had mixed feelings about being back. She was glad she was home but at the same time, she missed her mate. She missed his presence in her mind.

"Hey ma, we've been picked up by Dan and we'll be there soon." Sage said, she listened as her mother said good and hung up. Sage shrugged off her mother's behaviour and glanced back to her sister as she closed the phone and noticing her face, turned to Dan. "Can this hunk of a junk go any faster? Alanna's only been mated a month."

He glanced into the rear vision mirror, able to read Alanna's face as well. "We can go faster." He said as he put the pedal down further, understanding that new mates were often edgy about being away from their mate. "Are they official yet?" He asked Sage.

"No."

He swore and sped up further. "Why didn't you bring him or her with you?" He complained to Alanna.

"Markers. If he came through a portal, he would have to go through the next one that opened and then they are separated again. Ma can do her own portals that don't leave markers." Sage grabbed the handle and held on before reminding him. "You're breaking the speed limit."

"Shit." He swore as a police car flashed him. He pulled over and pulled out his wallet. Enforcers had been granted special privileges about three years ago; they were basically classed as Were cops but it had made human law enforcement resentful but they didn't know it was a hundred times harder to become an enforcer then it was to become a cop.

The officer walked up. "Any reason as to why you were speeding?" He asked as he got his pad ready.

Dan flashed his enforcer's badge.

"Oh, a Were rent-a-cop. You were still speeding." He said as he took the wallet.

"Yes, I was speeding because the Senator wants her daughters secured as they were kidnapped and taken off-world where they were rescued. The FBI also wants to speak with them and they just came back from being off-world." Dan explained with exasperation. "I am allowed to speed within reason."

"And the reason is?" The officer asked, with a pleased if not sinister smirk on his face, he didn't really care about the excuse he was still going to be issuing a fine.

"The reason is, they were kidnapped and it is likely it will happen again as the men who had helped are still free and Alanna was their payment for helping. Now, either help me get them to a secure location or fuck off." Dan snatched back his wallet and waited for the officer to make up his mind, having had enough of his bullshit. He grabbed a pad and pen and wrote down the officers badge number; if something happened to the Alpha's daughters because of this jerk he was not taking the blame.

"Fine, I'll escort you but if this is just some hoax, I'm still fining you." He said, his smirk gone. He raced back to his car, but was sure it was a bluff. He pulled out before Dan and turned his lights on. Sage reached under his seat and pulled out Dan's own flashing light. Dan grabbed it out of Sage's hand, put it on the roof, and turned it on. He was still not used to having the flashing light, which had been granted to enforcers and cursed himself for not putting it up sooner; it might have stopped the stupid officer from questioning him. He followed the cop car into the city. They pulled to a stop in front of the Were relations building. A group of heavily armed FBI agents were waiting, as was a security detail. They raced forward to surround the SUV. Alanna and Sage got out and walked into the building, leaving Dan to give the officer an I-told-you-so look.

They were bundled into the elevators with two FBI and two Enforcers. They walked down the hall and into their mother's office. Amy smiled as she saw them.

"Ma, we have to get..." Alanna squealed in surprise as strong arms wrapped around her from behind and lifted her in the air. Tarval's lips brushed her neck.

"Your ma came and got me the moment she knew you were picked up." He said into her ear as he put her back on her feet. She turned in his arms and hugged him tight, glad to be back in his arms. She hadn't liked the fidgety feeling she got when she was away from her mate at all.

Amy smiled at them then sighed. "I'm sorry, girls, you will have to have a security detail from now onwards."

"Ma." They both whined at her with pleading looks.

"No... this is non negotiable, the secret service have been hounding me since you were taken. I finally agreed but on my terms. So no secret service or FBI: Enforcers are your security. Between Wolfgang and Shia, we have put together two teams of two guards." She gestured to the two teams. Both teams were dressed casually to fit in with the girls' lives.

"I will protect my mate." Tarval pulled Alanna tighter to his body. "They are not needed."

Amy smiled at the maleness of the statement, Wolfgang had used pretty much the same argument until he realised that their work would take them away from each other. "I know you want to protect her but this world is very different to the world you know and you will need help. Plus, you need a licence to carry a sword and that will take a few weeks to organise."

"What about Electra? Does she get a detail?" Sage snapped like a petulant child who knows that there is no getting around this no matter how much she complained or tried to ditch her detail.

"Electra is FBI," Amy responded.

Alanna rested her head against his chest before turning to her mother. "How is Electra doing?"

"She tracked the man who had died down to Vegas. She has, however, had to put that case on hold. In fact, we are going to have a houseguest so be nice. I have to go get her." Amy vanished.

Tarval's lips brushed Alanna's neck. Alanna groaned gently. He smirked and moved his lips to hers. He kissed her thoroughly, holding her tight to his body.

Sage turned to one of the enforcers. "I can't wait for them to become official." He chuckled for several moments before he tensed up, he could hear footsteps approaching them, fast. He frowned, as there was something weird about the sounds...

"Lana, Lana, Lana." Serenity raced to her sister as her siblings raced to Sage, with the owners of the footsteps identified, the bodyguards relaxed and smiled indulgently at the cubs as they raced to their siblings.

Alanna broke the kiss and scooped up Serenity. "Hey, Ren. What are you doing here?"

"Da." She declared and turned to the door where Wolfgang stood. He smiled at them as he walked in.

"Just came to tell Amy I'm taking the cub's home." He explained before giving each of his daughters a hug and Tarval an approving clap on the shoulder. He had mellowed somewhat towards Tarval over the last month and was actually pleased to see that he was here already.

"Ma went to pick up a guest." Sage explained as she held Temperance and Thais up side down.

"Okay, can you tell her instead?" He requested.

They nodded.

"Come on, runts." He said, using his nickname for the group. Sage let her two go, as did Alanna. They ran to their father and he scooped them up comfortably, having done it a million times already, one in each arm and one on his back. He walked out of the room that way, his 'runts' a wonderful additional weight that he did not even take notice.

Tarval scooped Alanna up and sat her in his lap as they waited for Amy to return with their guest.