Page 1 of Expecting The Unexpected

CHAPTER 1

“I demand that you do something, Hron. My brother is out there with one of your men, damn it! This is completely unacceptable.” Zircon shouted.

“And I told you that they’re fine. I sent men to join them in their search for Jade and that’s that,” Hron explained, far more calmly than he would have, had someone questioned him like that.

Turquoise snarled, “You can’t be serious? If you know where they are, why the fuck didn’t you send us?”

Sitting with Hron and his parents as well as the Emerald brothers, Throg was quickly getting bored with this idiot’s rants. He had much better things to do with his time. Looking around Throg noticed Spencer wasn’t in his usual spot in front of the computer tapping away, and he was curious where the sloth shifter might be. Not that Throg was feeling disappointed or anything. The shit was always giving Throg a massive headache with his constant snarky comments… well, not always. There was that one time....

Throg’s mind started to wander to a couple of weeks ago. Spencer had been extremely annoying that day and Throg had lost his temper and went to remove the man from the office. However, the second they touched, it was as if an unseen force slammed into them, and instead of tossing the little shit out of the office, he had found himself unable to resist Spencer. Between the sparkle in the man’s eyes and the lust-filled scent that permeated within the room, Throg and Spencer came together in a frenzy. Hell, Throg could still feel the way Spencer wrapped around his shaft as Throg thrust into that warm, tight opening and…Stop!That was a huge mistake and not something Throg should be thinking about right now, or ever. It was why he had gone out of his way to not be anywhere Spencer might be. Throg couldn’t trust that it wouldn’t happen again, no matter how much Throg wanted it to.

Spencer was hisViataor mate to those not Nakaka. He knew it from the moment the man had come into his life, but Throg also knew he couldn’t have the man, no matter how much he might want to. His position in the clutch made it next to impossible.

Throg was created by the gods over a thousand years ago. His path in life was simple… he was an ancient guard. His job was to protect the first Nakaka families and nothing more. Throg’s job was almost twenty-four hours a day. Yes, he was given time off here and there, but Throg was never comfortable doing it, not after what had happened so long ago when Throg had taken that small time and gone off the islands of the Nakaka to meet up with a human. Throg had thought he was in love with the man, only to return to discover he had been deceived, and his clutch was in carnage. It was the day every Nakaka’s life had changed.

The Nakaka, oftentimes called gargoyles, were created by two gods… Aumakaua and Madame Pele. The two gods fell in love and wanted others to be able to experience what they had. Madame Pele created the Vulcanic islands and Aumakaua created life. They both loved the people so much, they wanted to protect them so they gathered the souls of animal and man, mixed them with Vulcanic rocks and the beasts known as Nakaka were created.

The problem was as time went on the people began to change. The peace had been kept so well that the Nakaka were needed less and less, and soon the Nakaka got to the point they rarely left their home, and human contact became less and less, causing the humans to stop teaching their children about the Nakaka and the reason for their creation.

Hundreds of years had passed when, by accident, some humans entered their home and saw creatures, the Nakaka, for the first time. These people ran back telling their friends and families about the monster creations living in the volcanos, describing them as the fierce dragons told to them in fairy tales as children, called La Gargouille, hence the term gargoyle was formed.

It was these very people that the Nakaka had vowed to protect that started to hunt and slaughter Throg’s kind, almost decimating his people that one desolate day. The Nakaka were eventually forced to scatter around the world, going into hiding and Throg never forgave himself for not being there to save so many of his kind. Returning to see the blood and death all around him… from both sides, tore at Throg, and at that moment, Throg had made his vow to the gods, especially when Throg discovered that the man he had spent his time off with, was one of the leaders of the people that had attacked Throg’s home.

Corbin had planned and executed one of the greatest coups anyone could have imagined. He and the other leaders were to create a distraction that would get the ancient guards and sentinels out of the way so that their people could go into the volcanos and slaughter every man, woman, and chickpea inside. The bitch was, the plan had worked, but Corbin and the others that had planned the massacre had paid dearly with their lives. Throg had made sure of it, then vowed to Madame Pele and Aumakaua to never allow himself distraction again, and Spencer was definitely a distraction. Which was how Throg found himself standing behind his Caliph, Hron, ready to choke the shit out of the gem brothers.

Hell, he had dreaded coming to this meeting this morning, just thinking about facing Spencer once again, especially since Throg had gone out of his way to not be anywhere his mate was, only to be disappointed Spencer wasn’t here. Wasn’t that shit just fucked up?

Taking a deep breath to get his libido under control once more, Throg looked at his longtime friend and leader of this clutch house, noticing Hron’s patience was coming to an end. Thank the gods, that might mean this meeting might finally be coming to a close, and Throg could breathe easier, knowing Hron would want to go and spend some alone time with Petree, allowing Throg to have a reason not to be anywhere near this room in case Spencer showed up, expecting to talk “feelings” or use that knife-sharp tongue of his against Throg for ignoring him for so long.

“I already told you I sent men to join up with them and Topaz is safe.” Hron snapped angrily.

“You can’t expect us to just sit on our asses when our baby brothers are in danger!” Turquoise snarled back.

If those men knew what was good for them, they’d back off before Hron kicked their asses. The Caliph was getting ready to lose it. Throg had seen it more than once and that little line he always got in the middle of his forehead was beginning to throb. Definitely not a good sign, or the low growl that came from Hron as he hissed, “I can and I do, and don’t talk to me about withholding information, Turquoise. You three have a lot to account for, and if not for speaking with Topaz, I would have the three of you on kitchen duty for a fucking year!”

Emerald had been sitting there quietly as his two brothers took on Hron. Sighing heavily, he finally spoke, “Caliph, you must understand. Our family has been keeping Topaz’s secret our entire lives. Our father made us vow to tell no one and to keep him safe at all costs. Our father didn’t want Topaz to be used as he had been, then when things went wrong, be cast out with no one and nothing.”

“Your father wasn’t cast out, Emerald. Many Nakaka in our clutch house were angry after the attack and blamed him for it. His and the rest of his family’s lives were threatened. We did the only thing we could think to do to keep him safe.” Stok explained.

Zircon snorted, “A lot of good that did him and my mother now, didn’t it.”

“Zircon, sit and calm down, please. Shouting is getting us nowhere.” Emerald implored, then turned to Stok, “When you sent us away, our father and mother were devastated, as were Con, Turq, and me. You took us away from everyone and everything we knew, and to top it off, our mother was pregnant. Coming here, we were outcasts. No one would speak to us, or even associate with us. Did you ever stop to wonder what the other Nakaka would think about us being outcast from our home? The home our elders lived in!”

“You were not outcasts!” Krerr snapped.

Emerald sat forward and Throg could see the man was doing his best to rein in his anger, “How the hell were the Nakaka here supposed to know this? All they knew was we were in one of the most coveted clutches of our kind, and now we were sent to theirs without any word as to why. We were never introduced into the clutch. They either thought we had done something so horrible we were sent away, or we were there as spies for the ancients. All we had were each other. I must say, you took everything we knew from us, but you are also responsible for making us one of the strongest, closest families of all Nakaka. When Jade and Topaz were born, my father and the three of us helped our mother deliver our brothers. It was over a month before anyone even knew my mother had given birth.”

“Caliph Tamale never introduced them to the clutch?” Hron asked in shock.

Turquoise scoffed, “Caliph Tamale never even met our brothers.”

“But that’s unheard of. All Nakaka are introduced to the clutch. It’s how we recognize them as our own.” Stok said in disbelief.

“You don’t seem to get what Em is saying. Caliph Tamale never introduced any of us to this clutch. He never even spoke to us. It’s almost as if he didn’t know we were here.” Zircon snapped.

Stok turned to Hron, “This must be rectified immediately, Hron. If the gem brothers are not introduced to the clutch, they could be called out as rogue, and to do that means they could be forced into a mating they do not want, or put to death.”

“Shit, and they have to be here to do this, don’t they?” Throg asked.