by A Lonergan
“You don’t even know the half of it.” She shook her head. She wrapped her hands around her massive amount of hair and tied it up with a ribbon.
“They should be okay, if they saw the fire then they probably went to one of the safe houses.”
“One of?” Tracey frowned.
“Yes, there are several. The only ones allowed to know every location are the Guardians.”
Axel and Vivian were holding children in their arms. Some of the kids leaning into them had tears streaming down their faces. My chest swelled with the devastation. There was absolutely nothing I could do. We were up against witches. They had an arsenal I couldn’t compete with. It was obvious now. How did I get around this?
Chapter 37
Jade
“How do we know when we can come out?” I asked as Knox stirred bbq beans on the stove.
Knox tapped his temple. “When he tells me that everything is clear.”
“Do we have enough food for us down here?” I rested my forehead against the edge of the table.
Knox sat down across from me. He slid my bowl to me then a spoon. My stomach churned at the smell. There was no way they were not expired. I pushed them back toward him and laid my head back down. “You’re going to need your strength.”
“I will get it from something else, but definitely not the beans.”
“Don’t be stubborn, Jade.” The fun-loving, mischievous Knox was gone. In his place was a war-bred man. His back was straight as he brought the bowl up to his lips and tilted it back. He downed all the contents in very little time. My stomach churned again. I hated this. I continued to push the beans to him and shook my head. He could have the strength for both of us. “It’s the beans or Vienna sausages.”
“Neither one are appetizing.” I folded my arms over my chest. I didn’t want either of them but I knew I would be hungry in the morning.
If it makes you feel better, you can shift and I’ll eat them for you.
Thanks, Nalia, but I think I’ll be hungry enough in the morning.
Knox shook his head. “You are a strong wolf but you must also be a strong woman. You can’t starve yourself if you want to survive.”
“I’ll live off of the hearts of my enemies,” I snickered.
His soldier facade broke at that and he grinned. “I do remember you were horrified by that at one point.”
“Being held and tortured against your will can change a person.”
His face fell. “Sometimes I forget that you went through that.”
I glanced down at my bare arms. The scars were still visible. I didn’t understand how anyone could forget what I went through with those on display. My nod was forced and wooden. He shook his head as if he was reconsidering what he said. “That’s not what I meant.”
I raised my eyebrows. He picked my bowl up between his hands and ate the contents inside of it then wiped his mouth on the back of his arm. “Look, what you went through was terrible. It’s not something I would ever wish on anyone. But when you came out of it all, you bounced back. You bounced back like no one else I have ever met. You could have, and probably should have, wallowed in it. I think everyone expected it. You have rolled with every single punch thrown at you and when I think of you, I don’t see your scars. I see your strength. They aren’t invisible and I know you probably wish they were, but to us, the Guardians, they are trophies. You have survived things that would have killed others. To me, your scars will never define you. Your trauma will never be who you are. It’ll be everything that you’ve overcome.”
My vision blurred over with unshed tears. I tried my best to blink them back but a few managed to escape and roll down my face. “Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say. What was with these men and all of their words of advice? Did they all graduate from the same academy or something? He must have seen it on my face because he stood up, went to the sink, and didn’t say another word.
After all of the dishes were washed, he leaned against the counter. “You need to get some sleep. I don’t think the week is going to get any easier.”
Thankfully, my sleep was blank. There were no dreams or nightmares. Just peaceful deep sleep. When Knox shook my shoulder the next morning, I caught the end of my snore. I blinked in surprise as I sat up. My hair was tangled around my head like a bird’s nest. Knox leaned away from the bed. “We need to get going. I think the coast is clear. I was able to get some of Rafe’s message through our bond.”
On wobbly legs, I followed Knox out of the safe house. When we reached the top, I had a moment of anxiety that we would find someone on the other side. That Damian would be there waiting for us. But he wasn’t the most patient person around. Knox shoved the vaulted door up and my chest constricted as I waited for explosions of magic or anything that would take my head off. But instead, Knox crawled out of the hole then reached his hand down to pull me out. There were still a few rungs for me to climb but I put my hand in his anyway. My body was feeling the effects of not having any food. Though the deep rest the night before had helped tremendously, it wasn’t enough. Knox lifted me up without any issues then placed me away from the couch. My arms immediately wrapped around my knees as I watched him put the vaulted door back into place. He unfolded himself from the floor and reached down to me again.
Rafe was waiting for us on the edge of the Pack Lands right by my mother’s house. I was still in my clothes from the day before and the last thing I wanted was the look of shame. The walk of shame was bad but the look she would give me would be worse, especially considering, in their eyes, I was dating Rafe and had visited her house with another guy again. Those were questions and accusations I could do without. We got close enough to the house so that Nalia could enhance our senses and hear her moving around. She was humming while she sewed upstairs. Her and those blankets.
As soon as we passed through the extra protective bubble of magic, the door was pulled open and I was yanked from the car. Thankfully Knox was driving. I didn’t know that I had the energy to do so. It was one thing after another lately and even though Knox told me I was taking it all better than anyone else, I didn’t know if I could agree. My body still felt heavy and uncomfortable.
Rafe ran his hands down my face, my neck then grasped my shoulders. His eyes scanned every visible inch of my body before he pulled me into his arms.
Knox saluted us and drove the rest of the way into the property. After what didn’t seem like nearly not long enough, Rafe untangled himself from me and I realized that the Pack Lands weren’t burned to a crisp.
“What happened?” I asked as Rafe wrapped his hand around mine. It didn’t make any sense.
“The fire only burned the flesh. It was sent by a witch acting under Damian, I assume.” He shrugged. “There weren’t any casualties. But a few of the children were burned pretty badly.”
“Witches or wolves?’ I didn’t know why it mattered but I was curious.
“Witches. I don’t know if it was a direct attack against them or us.” He pulled me into his side. “I have been worried sick about you. I wasn’t able to get through to Knox until this morning. Do you need anything?”
My stomach growled in reply. He laughed. “I guess that settles it.”
Chapter 38
Jade
Valentina’s injuries had healed fine within a few hours after I had returned to the Pack Lands. She was still scowling but it wasn’t as strong as it had been before. I wondered if the injury had softened her. As soon as the thought passed through my head, her face darkened some more.
I pressed my lips together as I sat down at the head of the table beside Rafe. Alice had insisted we have dinner and a pack meeting. There weren’t nearly enough chairs or room at the table in the manor now that the witch children were with us but we made due. There was a children’s table constructed on the porch to hold all of them while we ate but this was different. The food wasn’t ready yet and we had to discuss what was going to happen next. The pack deserved to know. This affect
ed them directly. There had been a few smaller meetings done and most of the pack trusted Rafe’s direction. All eyes were on us as Rafe sat down beside me. I still wasn’t used to this. Most of the pack knew he had a thing for me. Our closest friends knew we were mates. So what now?
Rafe steepled his hands on the table. “It’s important that we talk about what happens next with this pack. There has been confusion and fear. Which is rightly felt but I want to try to ease your fears today.” The Guardians stood behind the both of us. They were there as a physical reminder of how strong our pack was but they also made me feel stronger as I sat in front of them. It was comforting to have them there. “We aren’t entirely sure what is happening or why this witch, Damian, has targeted our pack. He’s not the first enemy to target this pack and he certainly won’t be the last. Our wolves are strong here,” He looked at the faces of each of the witch children. “And our witches are stronger. We can survive this together. We have a plan and will be executing it over the coming days. Each of you knows where a safe house is on the property. If you ever have questions, please come to me. No one will be turned away. Each one of you holds value in this pack.”
A little hand shot up in the pack. It was the wolf that Nalia had forced back human just a few days ago. Rafe nodded for him to speak. He stood up tall on the bench. “Is Ms. Jade your mate?”
Rafe turned his attention toward me. His fingers slid along mine under the table. I nodded my head briefly. We were mates, but that didn’t mean we were ready for anything else just yet. Rafe’s lips lifted slightly. “Yes, we are mates.” I swallowed thickly. “But, there are a lot of complicated things happening right now. We can’t make promises to each other with all of this stress and uncertainty for our people.”
Another child’s hand shot up. Rafe smirked and nodded for him to speak. He flicked his long hair from his eyes before he spoke. “How long have you known?”
Rafe licked his bottom lip. “I have known since the moment I met her in the grocery store about a year ago.”
The children watched us awestruck. “Wooooow.”
Alice stood up when a pause happened between the children’s excited banter. “I’ll bring food out for all of you, go out on the porch!” She turned to us. “Everyone else can go get their food now!”
Except the look on her face told me that I wouldn’t be getting up to get food after all. Rafe leaned toward his mother and his grip on my hand tightened. “What’s going on?”
Her lips thinned out. “I think I know who Damian is and why he is targeting us.”
The color drained from Rafe’s face. Archer sat his plate down beside mine then reconsidered as he looked at our stern faces. “I feel like we left to get food when we shouldn’t have.”
Knox sat down beside him and his face dropped too. “What’s going on?”
Rafe pinched the bridge of his nose. “My mom has information on Damian. We need to wait for the others to get back then we can continue.” He nodded to his mother. Knox and Archer both looked down at their plates in longing before they looked over at our empty part of the table. They both slid the food over to us with downcast glances. Tracey sat down across from me and the rest of the Guardians filed in behind her. Duncan was the only one that didn’t sit down to eat. He leaned against the wall and watched all of us.
Alice took a deep breath. “I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t think it could be related at all. A few years ago before,” She cleared her throat. “Rafe had to take on the position of Alpha… his older brother came to visit.”
Rafe’s brows pinched together. “Older?”
Alice closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side like this pained her. “I didn’t know anything about him when your father and I met.” She clasped her hands in front of her then looked my mate directly in the eye. “This isn’t a conversation I wanted to have with the entire pack or even your guardians. In fact, I’ve been waiting to talk to you about it since he came. But then everything blew up in our faces. Your father got sick and then I assumed you got sick too by the way your wolf was always at the surface. Then Jade came around and I worried even more. I didn’t think it was ever a good time to spill the news that you had another brother.”
Mav put his hand on Rafe’s shoulder and bowed his head. None of this was good timing and the more she spoke the more I felt unease in the pit of my stomach.
Alice gritted her teeth together. “I told you about your father’s first wife when we were dealing with the Racer Pack. As far as your father knew at the time, she had died because of complications during the birth of their firstborn. He wasn’t named and without the modern medicine we have today, your father thought he also died. Your father never set eyes on the child. The body of the woman disappeared. At the time, it was a relief. It was one less thing he had to deal with especially with the war that had been happening between the witches and the wolves. It was the same day that your Uncle Jared disappeared to start the Racer Pack. In a way, I think your father thought he was doing what was right for the entire pack. His treacherous brother was gone, and so was his wife. He didn’t have to worry with divorce or what the witches would do in retaliation.”
Nausea threatened to overtake me. I couldn’t even look at my mate seated beside me. I gripped the edges of the table and my head swam. All the things he had said. It couldn’t be. Nalia rose to the surface in my mind.
Do not let this consume you. You had your suspicions, you were close to the truth and every time you almost discovered it, he took it from you. None of this is your fault. You just happened to get caught in the middle of it.
I couldn’t think of anything to say to her. I couldn’t imagine how I was going to process this. Until the memory hit me. I picked my head up and ran my palm along the edge of the table.
Alice continued with her story. “It wasn’t until he showed up that day that we knew he was your older brother. The resemblance to your father was uncanny. He didn’t use magic against our minds or try to alter realities. He just wanted to talk. He told us about how he had never gotten a wolf and it bothered him. Your father apologized countless times to him and we thought he accepted the apology. How was your father supposed to know that his son would live? He knew nothing about childbirth. He knew nothing like what the witches did. We thought they had made peace. I took a picture of them together.” She unfolded a piece of paper and I knew instantly that I wasn’t going to like what I saw there. She slid it across the table and my heart rate picked up. Rafe’s eyes scanned the picture but his face was unreadable. He placed it back on the table. Very carefully, I picked it up. I had never seen any pictures of Rafe’s father. He stood on the left and his arm was wrapped around the shoulders of Rafe’s older brother. Damian.
With it all there in front of me, I could see it. The resemblance they all held for each other. Tears filled my eyes and horror filled my mind. I didn’t know how to process this and I couldn’t imagine what Rafe was going through. Except no one had said it. I was the only one that had met Damian.
I pressed the picture face down on the table and swallowed hard. “That’s Damian.”
Chaos erupted around us. Lucas was walking back into the room from serving the children outside. He looked at all of our faces before his eyes went down to the subject at hand.
“You don’t have to believe me because Lucas was there too.” It was easy to assume that I didn’t have the right picture of who he was in my mind but no one was questioning me. They were just talking all at once.
Lucas seemed to walk across the little area separating us like he was in a dream. When he picked the picture up, a gasp left his lips. His fingers released the picture and it floated to the ground. “How did I not realize?” A blush stained his cheeks. “If you’ll excuse me.”
He rushed out of the room at the speed I wished I could. I longed to escape with him and fall apart at his side. The man that had hurt us and tried to destroy our lives was Rafe’s older brother.
Duncan sighed. �
��Well, that’s more information than I could find. Who knew it was all under this roof, instead of out there with the witches.”
“There’s something else,” I began. All eyes snapped to me. Alice was crying, Rafe was unreadable, Tracey looked torn between staying and going to her brother, all the Guardians looked ready to fight except Duncan. He looked like he was embarrassed. All that work for nothing. “When we were talking about how he had come to access the estate he currently lives on, he told me something.” My heart stopped. I didn’t want to be the one to say this. I didn’t want to be the one to change the course of my mate’s reality. Rafe’s hand found mine. He squeezed it gently. Whatever I said to say, he was ready for it. “He told me that he poisoned his father.”
Chapter 39
Rafe
Everything I thought I knew wasn’t true. I had thought my father had been sick because of something outside of our control. I had to put my father down because this had been a long game for my older brother. My appetite completely disappeared as soon as those words left Jade’s lips. I no longer cared about sitting with my family. I didn’t care about the food that had been prepared for us. Nothing else mattered except for the thoughts I needed to process. There were so many things I had thought I knew. I thought I was the oldest. How dare he keep these things from me? They never found the body and just assumed. Assumptions got you killed. It was the first thing I was taught in my training.
How did Damian manage to even poison my father? Ford had to grow up without a dad because of a deranged psychopath. A deranged psychopath that shared blood with the both of us. What did this even mean? Did this change the course of our planning? I slammed my chair back and didn’t say another word as I fled my family, my mate, and my Guardians. There was absolutely nothing else to be said. If my mother had more information on my brother she could share it with my men. They would plan accordingly while I dealt with all the emotions flooding me. No one followed me as I stormed across the Pack Lands. I didn’t know where I was going and frankly, I didn’t give a damn.
