Going Home

by Jana Leigh

  “Really? We are gonna have the whole ‘universe greater good speech’ again? I get it, but it doesn’t matter, it is still dumb and annoying and if we can’t figure this out soon, we are not even going to have the future as a reward,” Cami said and there was a murmur of agreement.

  “You know, if we hadn’t stopped what we saw, we would have all died a long time ago,” Slay said.

  Cami sighed and put a hand to her head. “Do you think I don’t get that? I do, but it is frustrating to be marked as the bad guy in this situation without completely wanting to scream ‘DO OVER’. You know, it would have been so much easier if someone would have drawn an arrow and said do this!”

  “It wouldn’t matter, some people don’t follow the rules, ever. There will always be the people who will forever do what is right, even though not always following the rules, but do what is right with good intentions. Then, there are the people who only care about themselves and what they can get, be damned if it is wrong, they don’t care. Anyone can make an argument for what they do, anyone. However, it is the ones who when making the argument do not blame someone else for their failures, instead they own up to it and accept the consequences for doing it, that will always win in the end. Because no matter how long it takes, being evil and selfish in order to take something that isn’t yours because for some reason you feel like you deserve it? Those are the ones who in the end will never succeed because they will never have anyone standing in their corner other than other selfish, evil people. So no matter what the plan, it will never work because they ultimately will turn on each other in order to win,” a deep voice said from the door and they all turned. “I have been alive for more years than I should be and I understand the sacrifice others made in order for that to happen, why, because in the end it will take all of us pulling together to defeat something that is so unnatural and evil. I also understand my time will end when this is all said and done, and I am willing to accept those consequences as well for messing with something the gods never intended us to mess with. Each of us in our own way will need to atone for our mistakes, and when we do, forgiveness will be given in the way only the gods will allow.” The mayor of the town walked fully into the room and looked at Quin and Cami and nodded.

  “Dad?” Quin said.

  His father walked to him and said, “I am sorry to interrupt, but when I heard what you were saying I felt like you needed a little boost of encouragement. We are all in this together, and things will get much worse before they get better, but you also know that now is when you will not be able to help your children. They must discover the rest of this on their own. The one we have lost will be found, and all will be set to rights. It is a long road we must travel together, and I know sometimes it is frustrating, which is why we are all here or coming here. You need us like we need you, and you know it. Like I said, in the end, us all being together is what will win the war. Now, your mother is worried about Jaden; she has seen him a few times close to the compound. He avoids her if she approaches and refuses to shift. We need to get him to talk.”

  Quin nodded and Cami sighed and looked at Kira and Dalton who both looked just as tired and stressed out as they had yesterday. The whole thing was taking a toll on the group. Even with Rebekka, who was still currently alive, although that was only because they were giving her a taste of the torture she had put their children through when they were taken.

  See that was the rub about this whole fucking thing. The children didn’t realize that because they had been watching over them, because they had been making sure they were protected, some of the Chosen and Senate had been captured as well and experimented on. There was really nothing they could have done, especially since it had seemed at the time the Ulfer had seemingly come out of nowhere. How had they known where the children and the Chosen were at that particular moment, they had no clue.

  They looked for spies, and there was none; they had looked for tracking devices, there were once again none. They had looked for any way they could track their movements down to the magical signature either Cyra or Dalton left when they popped. Nothing, it drove them all nuts, but in the end. When they moved from the island to Drake, they noticed no one had followed them since. Which was strange, but they were now wondering what they were missing.

  Kira said softly, “Maybe Dalton and I should talk to him. I know this is a pack thing, but we have been talking and it is hard to explain. I am pissed that someone did that to me, to us, but at the same time, I feel the need to connect with Sabrina. Regardless how she was conceived, she is a real human being with all of our DNA, which makes her our child. She didn’t ask for it, she didn’t become evil, nothing, she is just a lost child who has no clue where she belongs. As a mom, that devastates me, it also is something I can deal with, maybe fix. Sabrina is part of the Chosen children, she is and will always be our daughter, and I don’t know her, that hurts.”

  Cami was silent and she looked at Quin who was feeling the same as she was, helpless to fix anything in Jaden right now. Maybe they did need to back off, let Kira and Dalton handle it. She looked at Blaine and she could see it upset him, but she could also see acceptance. Dammit, she really wanted to help Jaden but she couldn’t right now, not until he dealt with it to begin with.

  “I agree,” Quin said and turned to his father and said, “anything else?”

  “Well, other than that, Skye, Argus, and Jacob, you really need to talk to Bambi and Heather. They um, have been offering massages to the humans who have been traveling through. I really don’t want to have Bryan take them in, Adele was, shall we say, a bit pissed the last time. Oh, and Grace is on her way, we may need to send an escort out to meet her, she is traveling with Lena and Seila as well and they, well, they had a bit of a problem in Vegas.”

  “Why were they in Vegas? That isn’t on the way here, in fact, they totally are way off track to get here,” Argus snapped.

  “Okay, really look who we are talking about!” Quin’s father said and everyone pretty much shrugged and nodded. “Good, now, someone is going to need to make sure their situation doesn’t follow them.”

  Jacob nodded and said, “Fine, I am on it.”

  Quin nodded and then looked back at his pack, and the Senate. They had been through so much, so fucking much, and he was going to ask them to go through more now. “I think right now, we are going to need to give them some space and time, to sort through this. They are our children and they are stubborn but they will figure it out, we need to have faith in this. So from here on out, the compound is off limits to us, it is now the Drekinn Pack compound, and our area will remain the town and the area in the foothills. Kira and Dalton, I understand you wanting to get to know Sabrina, I think right now, since Stephan, Hope, and Marcus have accepted that she is their sister, we give them a little time to deal with that as well. Unless of course, Sabrina comes to you. For now, if you would find Jaden and talk to him, it would be appreciated. If you need help from Cami and I or of course Blaine, we will all be available.”

  Chapter Six

  Tara laid on her bed looking up at the ceiling, her thoughts were flying all over the place. Vincent was staying in her spare room for the time being. After they had joked and laughed through lunch, re-acquainting themselves with each other, learning about their lives, and finally knowing that tonight when they went to bed, they would wake up and remember they were siblings. That was what she was having trouble with, how could their parents do that?

  She knew who they were, Lacey, Shawn and Sevi, but she still couldn’t picture them. It was frustrating, she could see her brother but her parents, were just not there. The others had felt the same way until they had seen them in person, then the memories began to flood back in. She had almost left the compound to go into town to find them. She knew they were there; they were all there.

  She heard a soft knock on her door so she rolled over and said, “Come in.”

  Sabrina walked in and she smiled at her friend. She knew Sabrina was having a hard
time. Even knowing she had half siblings here made her uncomfortable still. Sadie, Marcus, Stephan, and Hope, they were her blood, but Sabrina felt like every single time they saw her, they knew she was conceived unnaturally.

  “Hey,” Sabrina said with a sigh and flopped down on her bed.

  “What’s up?” Tara asked and Sabrina waited for a second and then turned to face her.

  “They want me to come to dinner.”

  Tara frowned and said, “Who?”

  “Hope and the others. She invited me, said they were having a family dinner tonight because they wanted to talk about my situation. Sadie is coming too.”

  Tara nodded and smiled. “And?”

  “Well, I don’t know, it feels so weird. I mean, I thought of them as my bosses really. Now they are my siblings, but only half of my siblings. It is just so fucked up. I don’t know how to act. What if I piss one of them off? What if I accidently say something that hurts their feelings. GAH! This sucks.”

  Tara laughed and said, “Come on, it’s not that bad, they are still the same people, you are the same. So really it’s just a matter of calling Cassandra’s ass fat and Hope the Goth Queen, then they will say your hair is like straw and you need to eat a sandwich and all will be good.”

  “Really? You really went there?” Sabrina laughed and shook her head. “Leave it to you to bring everything down to this, insulting each other to prove that everything is okay.”

  Tara laughed and shrugged. “It is a gift.”

  “Fine, what about the buff hotties?” Sabrina said and wiggled her eyebrows.

  Tara groaned and put her hands over her face. “Well, I have about five minutes to figure out what the hell I am supposed to say to them since Vincent is bound and determined to get a drink with them, and me. I don’t know what to do with them. Seriously, we talked about this, I have more I want to do before I need to settle down and stuff. You have seen how the others are. I mean, I love the guys, Marcus, Alexander, Nik, all of them are great, but Brinn, Cassandra, and Lexie, they are always fighting with them and when it comes to doing something even slightly dangerous, the guys flip. I can’t do that. I mean, it is too much work, especially when I have a million things going on.”

  Sabrina snorted. “Okay, let’s clarify this slightly. We have a lot of shit going down, that is a given. However, one, we are shifters and when you meet your mates, you know what is going to happen. The mating pull is going to drive you all nuts. Two, having them be slightly controlling like the others. I say slightly because, if you haven’t noticed, all of them use the arguing as like foreplay. Seriously, I am not shitting you, we talked about this, remember. When Lexie was acting strangely, which isn’t that abnormal but still was a bit over the top for her when Simon arrived. Well, after their mating she didn’t stop messing with Simon’s head, it is their thing I guess you could say. Your mating is whatever you want it to be. But first you need to actually stay in the same room with them for more than thirty seconds.”

  Tara rolled her eyes. “They are part vampires, I mean, I don’t care or anything, it is just, weird. I never thought my mate would be a vampire.”

  “Please, that is kinda hot I think, although I am curious about Reese. I mean, I have to tell you I am confused, his scent, it is vampire but there is something else, something I don’t think I have ever detected before.”

  Tara nodded. “I looked at the charts when I first got back here. I know I should have waited but I just wanted to know. One of his parents is vampire, and another a Sidhe, while the last wasn’t labeled, which was odd since they were all labeled, but if we assumed it was an oversight, they couldn’t be a shifter, so I would guess human. Then there is Nian, whose parents are human, Fae, and vampire. I am a bear and a witch, I am the only shifter, and that is weird don’t you think? I mean they fit and I, well, I don’t. I don’t really have any witchy powers or anything. Hell, I’m not even sure they know who they are.”

  Sabrina looked at her with a frown and then she said, “Overthink shit much, and wow, good job snooping and shit, you are a step ahead at becoming a mate. Come on, it doesn’t matter, they are your mates, and you know as do I that you are looking for anything to make it not do. Stop and go with the flow.”

  Tara sighed and said, “I can’t.”

  “Why?” Sabrina said patiently and Tara met her eyes.

  “Fine, listen, I get everyone is finding their mates, all of them, and then they are like super mates when they are done. Look at them, all of them, they are like forces to be reckoned with, so are you, I mean come on, you are a descendant of one of the Alphas of the Denver Pack. You are the bomb, me? I think I got the short string, I can shift into a bear, and that is it. Nothing else, woooo hoooo. Why in the heck would two vampires, some of the strongest, deadliest magical creatures out there, who not only obviously are buff and scary, but also have some other magical powers because they are Sidhe and Fae for goodness sakes, how will I fit in?” Tara said.

  Sabrina narrowed her eyes at Tara and said, “You just met them, how in the hell have you worked all this out in your head in so little time? I mean, you met your brother again after forgetting him, you all were in the meeting with the parents and you had like what, fifteen minutes alone? How the hell did you convince yourself of this?”

  Tara sighed and said, “It wasn’t sudden; I have been feeling like this for a while. It is just so damn intimidating being around all of them sometimes.”

  “Oh my gods, you are so full of shit.” Sabrina laughed and Tara rolled her eyes.

  “No I am not.”

  “Uh yeah, come on, your hotties are going to be waiting, and honestly I need to raid the fridge and find some ice cream so I will at least follow you to the main house,” Sabrina said and Tara groaned but stood.

  Nian looked around the cabin they had been assigned to and wandered out of one of the bedrooms, went to Reese’s doorway, and said, “Hey, nice place, huh?” They were getting ready to meet Tara and Vincent in a few minutes, but since they hadn’t been allowed to shower while they were being held, both of them had asked for a little time to clean up.

  Reese turned around and looked at his friend and said, “Yeah it is, at least it’s better than the cage they were gonna put us in.”

  “True, what do you think about all this?” Nian asked and Reese shook his head and smiled a little.

  “Well, when we were caught a few weeks ago, I seriously was trying to figure out why the fuck they wanted us. It makes sense now. However, also hearing everything Marcus, Hope, and Stephan told us, I agree with them too, it was fucked up that they made this decision without even talking to us,” Reese said. “I get why they want everyone together, to work this shit out but still, I have questions.”

  “I don’t know, man; my head is like swirling with stuff. I mean, we thought our parents were dead, and now they are alive. I want to see them but then I don’t. Plus, we don’t know where we fit in here. Tomorrow we are going to need to tell them though.”

  Reese turned and looked at Nian and nodded slowly. “I know; I’m just not sure how the hell we are supposed to do that. I mean, hearing everything that has happened, laying this on them is gonna suck, man.”

  Nian nodded and said, “I know, but we have to, we don’t have a choice really.”

  “Yeah, maybe they will understand what we heard and saw more than we do. I mean, it is crazy to think anyone would do what we saw. But on the off chance that is what is awaiting any of the others still out there, or if they have someone already. We need to know,” Reese said and Nian nodded.

  “And our mate?”

  Reese sighed and looked out the window and smiled. “Yeah, well, she is something else entirely. We are going to need to explain to her the need for the mating so quickly. I mean, she needs to understand that unmated children of the Chosen right now are in danger. None of them seemed to know about that, which really we wouldn’t know either if we hadn’t figured out a long time ago how to use our gifts together.”

&
nbsp; “How are we going to explain, you know, what we do?” Nian said. “It’s not as if we are normal or anything.”

  Reese snorted. “I think we are safe there, don’t you? I mean, Anthony and Lexie are here, right. All they need is Jessie and Beau, and we are pretty much screwed, the whole lot of us.”

  Nian laughed. “Shit, can you imagine Beau squaring off against Marcus or Stephan. Damn, when they were young it was like WWE every night.”

  Reese chuckled and said, “I missed this. I mean, we have been together for a long time, we were lucky, what about the others? Now that I remember all of them, it is like we were missing a huge chunk of our family. This whole time we could have been together, and we weren’t. I don’t get.”

  “Me either but then I have a few more questions about what the hell is going on here to begin with. I get the whole Chosen thing, blah, blah, blah. We have read the history books. However, we were just standing in a room with people who are children of the Chosen, we know them, we know we are apparently part of this group, yet standing here, I have no fucking clue what the hell my parents look like. Nothing, nada. Why? Why were they talking to Cami, Cloe, Jo, and Lacey like they had known them for years? If they had, why were our parents not around? I just don’t get a damn thing here that is going on. I want to, it’s like my head is gonna explode when I stop to think about the whole thing,” Nian said.

  “Well, we could sit here and talk ourselves to death about the whole thing, or we could get off our asses, stop wallowing in self-pity and go find some answers. Vincent and Tara will be meeting with us in a few minutes. Lunch went pretty good, I mean really it was a little surreal talking to them and everything, and most of their answers were, ‘we will discuss it tomorrow’, but still, once we aren’t in a crowd, we can ask more questions,” Reese said.