by Mason Sabre
"God," she cried out, her frustration, her maternal pain for her youngest child thick in the air. Tears streamed down her face. She let out a growl, one forced through clenched teeth. "I can't get them off."
“We will,” Cade said. He pushed himself up, ignored the ache in his side. He should have been used to that by now. Should have been used to that twinge that would come from broken bones or bruised muscles.
Danny had stopped thrashing and stopped moving. He was breathing. His eyes were open, but they were red and bloodshot. His face was white, so pale that it was a vast contrast to the shades of red that marred his face. Blood had spilt down from his eyes, his nose and out of his ears. His wolf was dead.
Cade could feel the absence of it when he reached out to find Danny. Instead of his brother, the soft pulse he could feel on his radar as a constant beacon, he found a vacant space, a dead space. What Cade connected with was the animals themselves—a connection between that side of their souls.
He went to one side of Danny, Gemma went to the other. He didn't miss the way she ran her fingers under her eyes, clearing her own sorrow at what she had seen. She knelt next to Kathleen. “How could someone do this to their own child?”
Cade bit down his reply. Not out of respect for his father. Right then, he didn’t give two shits what the marvellous Trevor MacDonald thought. He kept his mouth shut out of respect for his mother.
“A monster.” It was Karl who replied.
No one answered him, but then, no one disagreed with him either. Monster was perhaps a tame word for the man who would do this.
Kathleen said nothing. She sobbed quietly, still trying to unfasten the buckle that held one of Danny’s ankles in place. “Let me help,” Gemma said, whispering to Kathleen. She pulled off her sweater and used it to wrap over her hand like a glove. It was more like a mitten, hindering her fingers and making it so she couldn’t use them properly.
On the straps, silver was wound through the leather. There was nothing to grab … nothing to grab hold of to give them leverage to get the straps off without hurting his brother. Cade appreciated her trying, though. She tucked a hand inside the strap. They were loose enough for that, but even that made Danny flinch, startling him from the trance he was in. He cried out from the pain of it. His teeth clenched and the veins in his neck popped out again.
“I’m so sorry,” Cade said as he pressed his hands against his brother’s chest and leant his head down next to it. He fisted Danny’s shirt and for one weakened moment, he allowed himself to feel the depth of his grief. He’d failed him. He’d failed and not fought hard enough to get across the room to stop this.
“Let me help.” It was Natalie. She went to Danny’s other ankle, putting herself down next to Gemma. She squeezed Gemma’s thigh, a wolf gesture of comfort and reassurance.
Gemma nodded.
As the two women worked side by side to free Danny’s ankles, Cade and Karl took a hand each and did the same, covering their hands with clothes, cloth, whatever they could find. When the last buckle fell away, Danny started to slide down and Cade caught him, wrapping his arm around his brother’s chest. Despite his own pain lancing through his gut, he lifted Danny and then lowered him to the floor with the affection of a pack wolf.
Kathleen was there instantly. She slid herself into place and pulled Danny’s upper body across her lap to cradle his head. She was crying, soundless sobs … a way of crying she had probably perfected over the years. She brushed Danny’s soft brown hair back and rocked with him.
His arms lay on the floor like the arms of a rag doll. He was listless, passed out at some point when they had been freeing him from the chair.
Kathleen raised her eyes to Cade. They were deep, watery blue.
“I should have protected you,” he said, giving into the sorrow in his mother’s face. “All of you.”
Reaching out to him, she signalled for him to come closer. She pulled him down so his head rested against her shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” she said, her voice soft, motherly, a reminder of the woman who had sometimes snuck to him when the monster was out and bathed his wounds. They stayed like that for a while. Cade leant into his mother. Kathleen had an arm around one son, and the son lying between them. When he threw some of his mental walls back into place, Cade leant back on his haunches and put a distance between his weaknesses. “I’ll take Danny home with me,” he said. “Before our father comes back and has him removed.”
Kathleen gave a slow reluctant nod as she gazed down at Danny and stroked a hand along the side of his face, brushing back hair that wasn’t there. “He won’t let you keep him,” she said. “Not while you are pack.”
“He would throw him out?” It was Natalie who asked. Natalie’s voice reminding Cade that there were others in the room. This was the introduction she had been given to Council, the introduction both she and Karl received.
“He is no longer wolf.”
Gemma had moved out of the way when they had got Danny lose. She knelt on the floor close enough to them that he could feel her, sense her … almost reach out to her and take the comfort he needed. “Maybe he could go to Phoenix,” Gemma said. “They can’t touch him there.”
Phoenix was pack, but he was also half-breed and under the protection of Malcolm. It was a very weak straw she was grasping at, but it was better than anything else Cade could think of right then. It would do. It would be somewhere partly safe while Cade came up with a better idea. Nick Mason … the name Emily had given to him. Maybe he would help.
“Isn’t that putting Phoenix in danger?” Natalie asked.
“No,” said Cade. “He’s a half-breed.” He wasn’t the scared thirteen-year-old he had found in the woods anymore. He was a man now. A man that many of the pack feared, but none of them admitted. He was an example of why half-breeds were executed at the first chance they got. He held all the power, all the strength. “It will just be temporary.”
“Maybe I could—”
Whatever she was going to say was cut short with the intrusive sound of Cade’s phone in his pocket. He yanked it out, took a breath to steady himself and then answered.
It was Avery. “Boss. I know you’re busy with the Council and everything …”
“But?” Cade excused himself from the others and went towards the other end of the room. They would be able to hear him, him and Avery, but it was like stepping out of one world and into another … into one that made sense to him.
“A call came in about thirty minutes ago,” Avery said. Cade could hear sounds in the background of wherever he was. Loud sounds, engine sounds. It sounded like he was on some kind of construction site. “It was from the Rossendale.”
“That’s Human.”
“Yeah. Well you know the dip there? The whole place is lit up like fucking bonfire night.”
“Why DSA?”
“Magic,” Avery said. Just that one word was enough to make Cade lower his head and let out a sigh. Magic … he hated magic. He could deal with shifters, vampires, whatever it was, but magic. They manipulated the situations, made shifters lose their minds sometimes.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Guy said it was like watching lightning in a dome. It came from the ground and then everything went up in flames.”
“It's still on fire?”
“We’re waiting on the fire service, but this will probably have burnt itself out by then. I’ve got two men with me. Do you want me to go down to it? Check—”
“No. Stay there. Make sure no one goes near it. If this is magic, we need to make sure nothing is disturbed. No tricks, no booby-traps. The whole place could be rigged to implode if you step wrong.” Avery had never dealt with a case that involved magic before. Cade had done twice. The first time, he had learnt the lesson very well not to just wade into it. He’d not been able to hear for a week. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just keep it clear.”
He signed off on the phone and then turned to face the window and not the expecta
nt faces staring at him. He could pretend for a second longer that he wasn’t part of what had gone on behind him. That he was simply Cade … DSA.
“If you need to go to work, we can take Danny.” Gemma was standing. She had moved to the side, so he could see her reflection in the glass of the main front window. He ran both hands through his hair and then stopped with them at the nape of his neck and laced his fingers together.
“We can take Natalie too,” Karl said, as he put himself back into position beside Gemma.
Cade clenched his hands together, ground down his jaw at the sight of Karl there.
Karl walked over to him. He had his hand out in a meaningful gesture. “Whatever you need.” He was trying to be his friend … trying to fit in.
“Nat … I.” He stopped.
Natalie was sitting with Kathleen. She had her hand on her back and was rubbing it up and down, offering comfort. “It’s okay,” she said. “I can go with them, if you need to work.”
Cade turned and leant his head back into his hands. He puffed air out. “Fuck,” he said as he brought his elbows together in front of his face and pressed his arms into his head to let it all go. “Mum?”
Kathleen looked up at him. She was rocking Danny again. Her hand brushed his hair back in an absent manner like she wasn’t really there now. Whatever spark had come from her before had dulled and she was back to her usual submissive silent state. She stopped what she was doing at the sound of her name, looked down and frowned. It was as if she was seeing Danny for the first time. She brushed his hair back one last time, leant down and kissed his forehead. “I’ll stay here. Your father needs me. I need to clean up. We have—”
“Are you kidding me?” Cade strode over. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing from her. What did it take to get through to her what Trevor was like … what he could do? “After everything? You’re just going to stay here?”
She put her head down like a disobedient child in front of an adult. She let go of Danny and put her hands in her lap. She nodded. Cade could hardly believe it as his mother rose and pushed Danny gently to the floor. She cast her eyes to Gemma, although not meeting her gaze fully. “Look after my boys,” she said. And then she left.
Chapter 40
Gemma
If there was anyone in the world that Gemma could read, it was Cade. She knew every inch of his perfectly toned body, every taut muscle, every expression, even the ones that were slight … the expressions he thought no one noticed. But she saw it now. The way his shoulders tensed a little, yet stayed still, the way his back curved in and his chest rose. She even noticed that slight tick in his jaw as he held his composure and his frustration with his mother.
He grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair Natalie had been sitting on and threw it on over his shirt. It was grey, always grey when he faced Council. Like some part of his attire would mirror the feelings inside. He leant down and kissed Natalie on the side of her face. A gesture Gemma was sure was for her benefit. Perhaps if he had been leaving his mate alone, without Gemma watching, he would have kissed her on the lips. But even the slight peck he gave Natalie made Gemma turn away from them, so she couldn’t see.
Watching Cade leave was too much for Gemma, and she gave into that overwhelming need to go after him. She stepped into the hallway as he got to the front door. “Cade,” she said, breathing the word out with a hint of regret and a whole lot of longing as he reached the handle. He met her gaze with an expression similar to her own. One that said a thousand things. She stepped closer to him, even with his mate just feet away in the other room, she dared to breach that space between them and grabbed for his hand. She needed to, had to … she longed to touch any part of him.
“I’ll be back,” he said. There was a promise in those words that ran down her spine and ended at the nape of her neck. He gripped her hand, gave it a squeeze and then slipped his hand out, letting them both lift their arms so that their fingers touched right to the last second. Then he was gone. Door open, back to her, he ran down the steps from his parents’ home and ran along the gravel to his car.
She stepped out onto the porch and put her arms around herself in the only way she could think to offer herself any kind of comfort. Her own phone rang then. She’d had hers on silent, but it vibrated suddenly in her pocket and brought a slight yelp from her lips and a jolt to her stomach.
The letter H ran across the screen. Henry …
Pulling the door closed behind her, she moved away from the house and that of any prying ears. A house full of wolves and tigers and all other things was not a place to have a secret conversation. Although, almost everyone had left. They’d gone as soon as the meeting was over. They’d gone like a young wolf hadn’t just had his very heart torn from inside his chest.
Her father’s car was still there. He was in the house somewhere, with Trevor no doubt. He’d be filling in the paperwork. They’d be filling everything like injecting your own child was something routine.
“What is it?” she said into the phone when she felt she was clear of the house. She stepped along the gravel where Cade had just run, still feeling that bereft ache in her chest as she stared at where his car had just been.
“I could live for another century and would not get accustomed to the foul greetings from this age.” Henry’s deep voice drawled through the phone to her, surprisingly calming her inside … calming that part of her that ached for Cade.
“It’s been a long day,” she said, almost apologising to him, but not quite. He was becoming part of her life, something she was used to, but it didn’t stop her still putting up that fight—a wall between them. He would be her undoing. He elicited feelings from her, emotions, things buried deep inside she’d only ever felt for one man.
“I shan't bother you for too long then. But I had thought you might like to know about the little soiree that has just occurred on Human lands.”
“What are you talking about?”
She could almost hear him smiling down the phone at her. She could see it in her head … a little smirk he had that held so much intent. “A fight. These carriages you all insist on travelling back and forth in, they are highly flammable.”
A pause on Gemma’s side of the call as her heartbeat rose to her throat and then echoed wildly in her head with the sound of an alarm. “Henry,” she said. “You need to get out of there.” Her gaze was fixed where Cade’s car had just been … Cade’s car.
“And miss the show?”
She gripped her phone, pushed it hard against her ear. “I mean it. DSA will be there soon. You need to go.”
“That might be a little late. They are already here, standing around like they wait for the car to stop burning as if by some kind of magic. Meanwhile, the poor soul inside is left to wither and die. Have you ever seen what happens when a man burns? At least the screaming has stopped.” A pause, then the sound of something big, a truck. “Ah. The cavalry is here. Come to extinguish this delightful sight.”
“Where are you?”
“Are you concerned for me, Gemma?”
No … yes … her mind got lost somewhere with the vision of Henry and Cade clashing. “I just need you to leave, okay? If they see you there, they aren’t going to ask questions.”
“But I have all the answers. There is not much left of the little green box. Actually, it is unrecognisable.”
“Green box?” she frowned. “Car? You mean car?”
“If that is—”
Shit. “Henry, you need to leave there. Okay? Whatever game it is you think you can play, you can’t.”
“It appears like …” whatever he was saying trailed off like he had taken the phone away from his ear. He probably had. It was a wonder he could work the phone to begin with, but he was learning fast—too fast.
“Henry,” she yelled into the phone.
Nothing.
“Henry, goddamnit. Answer me.” She raced back into the house, falling up the step in her haste to get inside. Her panic had r
isen from a tightness in her chest, to full on not breathing, didn’t dare think, levels. She barged into the meeting room, to Karl and Natalie. Danny was curled on his side. Natalie was next to him. She was wiping his face with a cloth. “I need to go to the site,” Gemma said, breathless. “I need too …”
Karl rose. He went to move to her, hands out, ready to hold her, to give her whatever she needed, but she shook her head.
“No.” It didn’t matter. Nothing did. She had no time to explain to them. No time to stop. She had to get there before Cade did. She grabbed her bag, grabbed her dad’s keys. “Get a taxi. Go to Phoenix’s. I’ll meet you there.” She slammed her purse into Karl’s hand and then raced out before he had chance to stop her.
She ran to her father’s car, not caring right then that he would be pissed at her. She threw open the car door, leapt in and was pulling away before she had even closed the door behind her.
She had to get to Cade.
She just had to.
Chapter 41
Cade
By the time Cade had got to the Rossendale’s at the edge of the river, the fire truck had already arrived. It was the smallest one. Typical. He expected nothing less from the Humans. They would probably tell him he was lucky they sent anything at all, but then this was on Human lands. They had a reason to … looking after their own.
Plumes of thick smoke billowed into the air. It was acrid, hot, layered with the smells of plastic and death. He opened the car door, covered his sensitive nose and mouth and got out. The downside of being a shifter was things like this. The acute senses brought forward all the bad things he’d gladly avoid. It made him cough, which made him wince as the ache in his bones hadn’t yet faded into nothing.
