Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

thought before it could spiral out of control and the guilt began to eat her alive. There was nothing she could do to change the past. She needed to focus on the future, and that meant finding the antidote for Ben. Without it, she and Ben had no future. She wished she had thought to bring some of her work in the safe room with her, but Jacqueline hadn’t been thinking at the moment. Instead, she leaned back in the chair and watched the boy in her lap. She had thought Nico was fully human like herself, but after everything that had happened, she wasn’t so sure anymore. Jacqueline made a mental note to ask Ben about it once they were out of the safe room.
     
    * * * *
     
    Ben heard them the minute they had set foot in Mitch’s territory. He wasn’t the only one who had heard. As he leaped off the couch, Ryan and Ken came running down the steps at the same time Mitch came running out of his office and headed up the stairs. Ben knew he was headed to wake Tessa up. She had gone up to take a nap when Jacqi had taken Nico with her to the basement. Ben tilted his head to listen and sighed in relief when he heard the cub leading his mate toward the safe room down there. He heard his little mate questioning Nico, but she was following him. That’s all that mattered to Ben. It was taking everything in him to not leap down the steps and make sure she was all right, but the sound of pounding feet coming through the trees stopped him.
    He moved toward Mitch’s office instead and entered just as Ryan pressed the button under his desk to open the hidden door to the weapons closet. Mitch came in as they were gearing up.
    “Tessa in the safe room?”
    Mitch grunted. “I had to practically carry her in there and strap her down to get her to stay. I finally got her locked in when she calmed down enough to listen and hear that Nico and Jacqi were headed to the safe room in the basement.”
    Ben was glad Mitch was so paranoid. Having two fully stocked safe rooms and a secret weapons closet that could be turned into one in a pinch helped make things easier when there was danger. Now that his mate and Mitch’s family were safe, nothing was holding them back from doing what they had to do to take care of the threat currently running up the drive and surrounding the house.
    By now they knew their presence was known so they weren’t trying to keep quiet. The sound of breaking glass at the back of house proved that. Ken, who had shifted rather than use weapons, roared and lumbered off in that direction with his mate following in human form.
    Ben focused on the threat at the front of the house because it was closest to the stairs that led to the basement. He was determined to protect them at all cost, and nothing was getting past him to his mate and Nico as long as he had breath in his body. He had a feeling Mitch felt the same because he positioned himself in front of the steps leading up to Tessa. Ben wished he was out in the open with a few hand grenades or homemade bombs, weapons he was known for, but they were too dangerous for tight quarters. Instead, he readied himself with the blade he had chosen when he heard booted feet pounding up the front steps.
    He and Mitch both moved at the same time just as the first rogue came through the front door. The man’s stench preceded him, but Ben ignored it as he and Mitch moved in tandem, cutting the man down before he ever knew what hit him. Because they had fought together so many times, it was as though their moves were choreographed and rehearsed ahead of time as they took down the rogues one by one when they came through the door.
    Ben moved as if on autopilot. His only goal as he fought was making sure no rogue got past him. The blade in his hand seemed like an extension of his arm as he wielded it against anyone stupid enough to come near him. He was protecting his mate and that meant anyone that came within his range who wasn’t friendly would die at his hands. The fact that it was quite obvious the rogues they were fighting weren’t the least bit trained, made Ben’s job easier.
    It seemed the fighting ended just as fast as it had all began. Ben paused long enough to make sure there was no one else coming through the door before stepping outside to make sure no one else was hiding out there. He tried to scent any intruders still in the woods, but with the stench coming from the pile of bodies in the doorway, it was impossible.
    “One of us is going to have to shift to make