by Alanea Alder
Ellie gasped suddenly. "Emeric!" She turned back toward the house.
Declan nodded at Grant and ran into the crumbling building. Grant kept a hold on his mate. "Declan will get him, my love."
She looked up at him. "He tried to save us. He stepped in front of the gun to try and give us time to run. It's my fault! I was too scared and couldn't move!"
Grant nuzzled her neck. "It's not your fault."
Law stepped up beside her, his eyes serious. "Grant is correct. This isn't your fault. Emeric did exactly as he was trained to do, which was save you. Place the blame where it belongs, with the monster that would have killed you." He pointed to the ground. "What's left of him."
Declan emerged from the broken home, Emeric's arm wrapped around his neck. "Need some help here!"
Law and Kendrick surged forward and helped Declan lay Emeric down in the street. Emeric tried to shoo their hands away. "I am fine," he protested.
Ellie knelt down beside him, her training kicking in. "You're not fine; you were shot!" She began to gently rip away the bloody shirt to see what damage had been done. "These will have to come out."
Emeric gave her a weak smile. "On one condition, Doc."
She frowned. "What?"
"Wear that tee-shirt while you work on me." He leered up at her.
Grant bared his teeth at his mate's guard over her head, and the damn man winked up at him. Grant held his wolf in check. The guard got a pass for saving his mate and son. But later, when he was healthy, Grant planned on explaining exactly how unavailable his Ellie was to the handsome vampire.
*****
Grant looked across the bed at his mate. Between them, with a stuffed elephant and wolf on either side of him, their son slept as if nothing at all had happened. Guilt gnawed away at Grant's stomach as he recalled Ellie's shock and horror at what she had been forced to do.
"What?" she asked softly.
"I wasn't there for you or Benji. I couldn't protect you. I almost lost everything." The enormity of what had nearly happened slammed into him.
"You protected me when I needed you the most," Ellie refuted.
"A psychopath tried to shoot you. What was worse than that?" Grant asked confused.
"When I was drowning in darkness," she whispered.
Grant stared. "What? When?"
"Right after Carla's autopsy. I turned off the lights because I didn't want to face any of it anymore. I had failed her and her parents. I couldn't seem to shake free of the depression spiral I found myself getting sucked into." She smiled at him, tears in her eyes. "And then you turned on the light. You sat beside me and held me and let me cry. You gave me my elephant and my wolf, something that symbolized our love, something to hold on to. You didn't try to placate me and tell me everything would be okay. You just held me and let me find my way back to you. That was when I needed you the most. I can handle a thousand Redlys; the only thing he threatened was my life. You saved my soul."
Grant reached out over Benji's head and pulled his mate toward him. He put every ounce of love he felt for her into his kiss. He nibbled and teased her full lips before pulling back to rub their noses together. "Don't ever sit in the dark alone again. Let me stay by your side."
Sniffling she nodded. "Always."
*****
Grant didn't want to get up. He wanted to stay in bed, beside Benji, and give thanks that their small family was still together. But reality always found a way to invade his personal space.
Ellie lingered for nearly thirty minutes, saying goodbye to Benji, as Marjoram held him patiently. Understanding Ellie's fears, Grant would have said to hell with dinner, but Ellie had yet to explain what had happened, and Prince Magnus and his Unit Leader needed a report of what had transpired.
"He's okay, right?" Ellie asked for the third time since leaving Level Six. Grant bent down and kissed her lips. "Yes, he is. Gidan checked in early for the night shift since Emeric is still recovering in the infirmary, and he will watch over Marjoram and Benji."
Grant knocked and Sebastian opened the door. He looked at Ellie, his eyes filled with concern. "Are you well?"
Ellie took a deep breath. "I'm getting better."
Sebastian leaned down. "I opened up one of Magnus' better bottles of white wine; let us go get you pleasantly blurred."
Ellie smiled and surprised Sebastian by kissing his cheek. "That sounds exactly like what I need."
Sebastian blushed deeply. "I will go get you a glass right away." He turned and hurried away toward the kitchen.
Grant shook his head. "I will let him be smitten with you since he feeds us."
They walked into the antechamber, and Grant steered her toward the small love seat. He loved that no one else would be able to sit close to his mate.
Magnus turned to her. "How are you holding up, my dear?"
She nodded her head. "Much better now. I've been replaying what happened all day in my head. I can't believe he came after me."
"Marjoram said she may have known who it was but could not be certain due to the...damage," Magnus said delicately.
"She's right. We did know him. It was my former boss Mr. Redly."
Magnus blinked. "Why on earth would he try to kill you?"
She was about to answer when Sebastian entered. He handed her a glass of wine. "This may help, dear."
"Thank you." She lifted the glass to her lips for a taste, and her eyes widened. "This is good." She took another long sip before she continued. "I was doing research into cellular regeneration. It's years away from being ready for any medical testing, but evidently an independent privately owned lab copied my formula to create a regenerative facial cream."
"Why kill you then?" Meryn asked.
Broderick sighed. "For the patent, am I right?"
She nodded. "If he killed me, then I wouldn't be around to sue for infringement. They'd be free to use the stolen formula." She shuddered. "He said he had killed before, but that his necklace kept others from knowing he was feral."
Elizabeth tapped on her chair arm. "I bet he was involved in more projects than just face cream," she mused.
Grant hated the thought that his mate had been around that killer day in and day out for years. He looked up when the door opened. Nigel and Neil walked in carrying a large laptop.
Meryn perked up. "Is it time?" They nodded. Meryn turned to him. "Don't hate me. But if it were me, I would want to know, and if I'd told you, you would have worked yourself into a tizzy, and after what happened to Ellie today that wouldn't have been cool. You probably wouldn't have shown up at all."
Grant's insides froze. For Meryn to be apologizing meant he wasn't going to like what was about to happen because she understood his anxiety better than anyone. "What did you do?"
"Meryn?" Aiden asked.
She ignored her mate and opened up the laptop before hooking it up to the large television. Moments later, a person appeared on the screen. Grant stood, snarling at the image.
"Hold your nuts!" Meryn said, setting the laptop on a stand so it faced the entire room.
"Is that him?" the male voice asked. Grant stopped mid-snarl. Though the man on the screen looked like his father, it didn't sound like him.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
When the male broke into an easy smile, Grant knew for sure it wasn't his father.
"Oh my gods, he could be your twin, except, you know, he's smiling," Ellie whispered.
The male nodded to someone off screen, and a familiar face appeared. "Mother?" he gasped.
"My baby boy! She said you were alive, but I dared not hope. Your father told me you were dead!" his mother broke down in front of him. He helplessly held out his hands to the screen. "Meryn, do something!"
"What? Invent teleportation? Try talking to her," she suggested.
"I have her Grant," the male said, wrapping an arm around his mother, holding her close.
"And who in the hell are you?"
"I'm your brother Grayson."
Gran
t felt his legs give out, and he fell back onto the love seat. "Brother?" Grant's vision swirled. "You have to get away! You can come here!" He surged to his feet.
"Grant! Easy brother, he can't hurt us anymore," Grayson said, his eyes hardening so much he now looked exactly like him.
Grant froze. "What?"
Grayson straightened his back and met Grant's eyes. "I killed him nearly two hundred years ago and took over the pack."
Grant let Ellie pull him back onto the love seat. "He's gone?" For so long that man had haunted his nightmares. He looked at his mother. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
His mother's face was streaked with tears. "He ripped out my heart the day he took my son away from me. What happened?"
Grant drew in a shuddering breath. "He said I was too weak to be part of the pack. That if I stayed, he would kill you. He told me to run as far as I could as fast as I could, because if I stayed close by and you found me, he'd kill us both."
Grayson sucked in his breath. "You were barely twenty."
Grant nodded. "A natural wolf pack helped keep me alive before I found my way here." He looked around. "These people became my new pack, my new family." Grant looked at Declan, who acknowledged their bond with a fierce nod. He looked at his brother. "How did you find me?"
Grayson shook his head. "That little human found us."
Meryn waved her hand. "He means me." She eyed him. "Hate me?"
Grant stood and lifted Meryn up before kissing her forehead. "How can I ever thank you?"
"You can start by putting my mate down," Aiden growled.
Grant kissed Meryn's forehead again before setting her down. He pulled Ellie to her feet. "Mother, this is my mate, Dr. Eleanor Kimball."
Ellie waved, smiling wide. "It's a pleasure to meet such an amazing woman. Grant speaks of you with such love; it's evident where he got his kindness from."
His mother's eyes widened. "You remembered me?"
"Of course I did! You're my mother," Grant muttered.
His mother laughed, the same joyous sound he remembered as a child. "You were always my frowny face. I swear you were born scowling."
Grant stared up at her. "I was always like this?"
She nodded. "Oh yes. You used to give your father this flat, fearless stare that would infuriate him. It was like you weren't afraid of him at all."
Meryn snorted. "Well, him being all Alpha Born probably meant his wolf saw his dad as a chew toy."
Grayson paled. "Alpha Born? Sir, I..."
"Don't!" Grant barked. He stared at his brother. In a softer voice he continued. "Never, ever call me sir. That was him."
Grayson nodded, his eyes full of understanding. "The pack doesn't call me 'sir' either."
His mother didn't look too surprised at Grant's refusal. "You don't want to come home and lead one of the country's largest packs?"
Grant just stared at his mother until she laughed. She rested her head on Grayson's shoulder. "I told you he wouldn't want to lead. He never did, even as a child." She hesitated. "I knew you were Alpha Born and tried to hide it. If your father had known, you never would have made it to twenty."
"There was some speculation earlier if that was a deciding factor to Grant's exile," Magnus said.
His mother blinked then turned to Meryn, horrified. "Meryn! You never said anything about being in the Prince's quarters! Oh dear!"
Grayson looked at Grant, who shrugged. Grayson's shoulders relaxed a fraction. "Prince Magnus, thank you for allowing us this time to meet my lost brother."
Magnus inclined his head. "I am happy to see that the Fenrirson's pack is being led by someone with such a good head on his shoulders. I have to admit I was worried when I heard Grant's story."
"We will let you go," his mother said. She looked at Meryn. "We can do this again soon? Maybe not in the prince's quarters?"
Meryn nodded. "I can hook you up in my batcave."
His mother frowned. "Batcave? There are bats in Noctem Falls?"
Grayson coughed to hide his smile. "I'll reach out to you later Meryn, to schedule something." He looked at Grant. "I gave her my phone number. I'd like to get to know my older brother."
Grant smiled. "You have a quite a few here."
Grayson looked around. "That I do." He smiled at Ellie. "Take good care of my brother."
"I will," she promised.
When Meryn ended the call and turned off the television, Grant felt like someone had let all the air out of him, and he collapsed back on the love seat yet again. "I have a little brother."
Kendrick's smile was a bit sad. "They can be annoying, but they are worth it."
Grant looked over at Meryn. "What made you reach out to them?"
Meryn shrugged. "I didn't want your dad getting away with hurting you. So I talked to some of the peeps in my cult, and they referred me to this guy who said he was in your dad's pack. Then I kinda cyberstalked a few Facebook profiles until I found your mom and then your brother. When I messaged them, they were shocked you were still alive, and the rest kinda just happened."
Aiden pulled his mate on to his lap. "Please stop referring to your Facebook Group as your cult."
"No way! They're teaching me how to be sexy."
Aiden's eyes took on a calculating look. "Oh?" he said, sounding only somewhat interested. Grant knew from recent experiences with his mate that whoever she was talking to was on the commander's hit list.
"What did they tell you?" Aiden asked.
She turned to her mate. "The guys said I'm a fetish!"
Aiden's eyebrows snapped together. "What! No you're not! Who have you been talking to? Who told you that?"
Meryn's eyes narrowed. "I am so a fetish. They said I should stop trying to be sultry and be a lollicon."
"A what?" Aiden asked darkly.
"I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of it, but it's basically where guys like small, cute girls instead of sexy pin-up models like Ellie." Meryn pointed to Grant's mate.
"I am not a pin-up model," Ellie protested.
Meryn rolled her eyes. "You're forgetting my impression of you when we first met. Pillows." Meryn rounded her hands over her chest.
Grant chuckled as his mate blushed. He leaned in. "You do have wonderful pillows."
"Grant!" she hissed in embarrassment.
"See it's perfect for me. I'm a lollipop fetish." Meryn crossed her arms over her chest.
Anne frowned. "That may be something different."
Kendrick chuckled. "Don't encourage her."
Stefan glared at Aiden. "You are a dirty old man."
"I am not a dirty old man!" Aiden roared. He pinned his mate with a glare. "You are not a lollipop!"
"I can be a fetish if I want to!"
Grant sat back and took a sip of Ellie's wine. The room was full of people; they were loud, the noise almost overwhelming, but for once, he didn't mind.
They were chaotic and nuts and rowdy, but within him his wolf settled down and laid his head on his paws. With one eye open, he watched over his family, and for the first time in his life, Grant felt like he had found his way home.
EPILOGUE
Etain watched as Grant reeled from the news about his family. As Meryn argued with her mate about being a fetish, Etain was left to wonder if Grant's nightmare had come true.
They both shared the same fear that death stalked their mates. What he hadn't told even Grant was that his dream had been different. Darkness hadn't swirled around his mate; it swirled inside of her.
He prayed to Fate for the chance to save his mate from the darkness. He knew if he could just bring her into the warmth and light of what was quickly becoming his family, she would have a chance.
Please help to bring her home.
Thank you for reading!
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