Paranormal Romance and Romantic Suspense Author Caridad Pineiro

Undead Uprising Chapter 17

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This week’s Wicked Wednesday brings you another installment of my urban fantasy involving a twist to the werewolf mythology, battles with vampires and a struggle for control in a werewolf pack. I hope you like this next free chapter that I’m offering you.

In the prior chapter, Catalina meets with Hemmerich, one of the pack’s alpha wolves and a prospective suitor for Catalina. Catalina has been instructed by her father to remove Hemmerich from the protective detail on which he had been working and assign him to a desk job. Catalina follows her father’s commands, but is surprised by the outcome. She suspects that coming to work in the corporate headquarters of the pack is just what Hemmerich wanted, but does not know why. Any investigation, however, must wait as Catalina is due to go out on patrol. In Chapter 17, we see Catalina preparing for that patrol.

For those of you who may have missed the first chapters, you can read them here:

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Catalina’s leather jerkin waited for her beside her sword. She picked up the garment and noted where a new padded panel had replaced the one which had been torn apart a few nights ago. The jerkin seemed heavier in her hands and when she slipped her hand within, she detected the cold of finely wrought metal mesh.

“I hope you like it.”

She faced him as he leaned against the door to the gym, the jerkin gripped in her hands. “Gracias. It’ll come in handy.”

“You should reconsider going out alone,” her father said and walked into the room. He paused in the middle of the mat, arms crossed against his massive chest.

“Who will go with me now that the cycle is over? You?”

Heedless of her father’s presence, she slipped off her T-shirt and tossed it aside. After, she eased on the jerkin. A little tighter with the additional protection. She stretched and flexed, trying to get a feel for the new addition to the armor.

Her father reached out and stopped her midstretch. “Stay home tonight.”

She glanced up at him and smiled ruefully. “And if I do, papi? How many die tonight? Or tomorrow? Should I stay home tomorrow as well?”

He rocked back and forth on his heels for a moment, then said, “I’ll go with you.”

She shook her head vehemently and waved off his offer. “The pack cannot risk losing you.”

Turning, she walked away from him and to the small alcove at the side of the gym. She pulled a pair of leather pants off a small shelf next to the pallet and sat on the edge of the bed to put them on. Her father followed and stood before her, watching as she prepared for battle. Thigh high leather boots followed. She stood, grabbed a belt and the scabbard for her sword, making sure the belt rode low on her waist and tight enough not to shift out of place. The last thing she needed was for the scabbard to trip her up during battle. To complete her weapons, she slipped on the leather vambrace with its silver throwing knives on her left forearm.

“Ready?” her father asked and despite his earlier request, he handed her the sword he had given her so many years earlier. She took it in her hands and after, sheathed it in its scabbard. He snared one other item from her armory — a pistol crossbow. “This might be of use.”

She took the weapon and examined it, noting the silver-tipped arrows secured beneath the barrel of the pistol. They would help her keep her distance from any vamps she came across that night. “Gracias.”

She eased the strap for the crossbow over her shoulder and worked the strap back and forth until the weapon nestled comfortably into a spot between her shoulder blades. “Wish me good hunting?”

Her father surprised her by enveloping her in his arms. “Please be careful. Cuidate.”

Unused to such an emotional display, it was awkward for a moment, but then she relaxed and returned his embrace, burying her head against the broad plains of his chest. “I promise, papi. I’ll be careful.”

His voice gruff as he set her at arm’s length, he said, “Make sure you come by when you get back.”

“I promise,” she replied and headed out for her hunt.