Finn: Xavier’s Hatchlings ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (Xavier's Hatchlings Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  Again, the compulsion. Peter was a good deal stronger than Robert might have admittedly known about. The power to make Robert speak and tell all finally exhausted him in trying to fight it. He looked up at his brother.

  “What was I supposed to do? Let her rule me around like I was nothing more than anyone else in the pack? I’m your brother, Peter. We should never have let her get between us like she did. You had to see what she was doing.” Peter told him it was her job to order him around. “You allowed her to do this to me? You wanted her to treat me with no more respect than she did any of the others here? Christ, Peter. Even you would have been pissy about having to listen to her harp about me getting a job. I had to help out around the house. I needed to stop gambling. All those things would spew from her mouth every time she was around me. I got sick of it.”

  “You killed her or had her killed because you’re a lazy fuck.” Robert might not have put it just like Peter said, but really, he was a lazy fuck. “But that wasn’t all you did, was it, Robert? You took my daughter from me as well. Where is she? Do you even care what happened to her? Have you given one thought as to whether she too might be dead out there?”

  “One of the men said they’d sell her off. If it’s any consolation for you, I did tell him to sell her to a good caring couple. He didn’t share the proceeds with me, so I haven’t any idea how much he was able to sell her for.” Peter just stared at him. “Peter, you know you can’t kill us, don’t you? It’s in the by-laws.”

  “You have the nerve to quote by-laws to me, you fucking bastard. I should just kill you where you sit. At least then I’d get some sleep at night.” He yelled for someone named Rachel. Robert’s back was to the doorway, so he could only hear her speak. “Could you do me a favor and ask Finn if he’d go with me to pack land? I need to have him do something for me.”

  “Yes, sure.”

  He didn’t hear her leave the area, but when his brother laughed, it was all he could do to turn enough to look at what he thought was so funny.

  “Hello, Uncle Robert. Do you remember me?”

  Robert looked at the woman. When it occurred to him who she was, he knew he was so fucked right now. It was Dalia. She wasn’t dead? Not possible. Robert had seen Manchester blow a hole in her fucking head. Rachel, if this was her, leaned in closer to him, just bending at the waist to look him in the eye. Her face was beautiful, just as he remembered. When she put her hand around his throat, the long nails of the wolf she was cut into his flesh. Robert felt his bladder let go.

  “So you do know who I am, don’t you, uncle dear? Your long lost niece that you let someone sell off instead of manning the fuck up and rescuing me.” Robert told her it wasn’t his fault. “You have to tell me how you came up with an answer like this one. Did you not owe a great deal of money to Mr. Manchester? From gambling, I heard. You not only supplied him with my mother’s plate number and a description of her car, but you even handed him a picture of her so he’d get the right person. How is it not your fault when you simply handed him everything he needed to kill her?”

  “I didn’t want my wife to be dead. I had an idea he wasn’t planning on killing her anyway.” Rachel told him he was a liar. “Okay, so I knew what he was up to. Like I said, I didn’t want Marie killed. Besides, your mother was a fucking cunt.”

  Robert felt two of his ribs break when she kicked him in the side. This shouldn’t be happening. She was related to him by blood, damn it. When she got down on her knees in front of him again, he told her the law like he had his brother.

  “Ah, but don’t you see? When you had me sold off—and I know it was you who sold me to the Merkels, not one of the other men as you claimed—I was no longer related to you. I found the small loophole when I read the by-laws as well.” Robert didn’t know that. But then, he and Peter were related, so he just figured Peter’s daughter would forever be his niece. “You have a sick fucking mind. Did you know? You make me sick.”

  Marie came in the back of the house, and Peter told him to shut his mouth. He could no more open it to warn his wife than he could have screamed out her name. She was chatting it up with Thomson and seemed to be excited about being invited to the big house. Marie was telling how she’d dreamed of living in this house for a long time.

  As soon as she came into the living room, she was told to sit like he’d been told. Marie kept staring at the younger woman until she spoke softly to him. The idiot had to know each and every one of them could hear her.

  “I thought you said she was dead. Isn’t that what you told me?” He told her to shut up. “I will not. I want to know why I was dragged from my home and brought here. What is going on?”

  “I’m what’s going on.” Peter had never looked so good. In the last few minutes, it seemed to Robert that his brother had gotten taller, more confident, and his muscles were bulging from under the sweatshirt he had on. “You now have the opportunity to tell your side of the story as to why you had my wife killed and my daughter taken from me. I want details. Names and anything else you have inside that fucking sick head of yours. You will both tell me the truth now.”

  “Peter, we didn’t do anything wrong, you know.” Peter just looked at him. “My wife means so much to me. Everything. So you can understand why I didn’t want her to die. You had your daughter—well, you should have had your daughter to keep you company all the time. I never thought of everything when I sold her to the Merkels. Maybe had you looked a little harder yourself, you could have had her here all the time.”

  “So, this is my fault? Because I didn’t look at every crib in this town, on the off chance you sold my little girl to a family? You’re unbelievable, Robert. I can’t believe I protected you so many times as the leader of our pack.” Peter walked behind him to where Marie was, her back to his, which made it so Robert wasn’t able to see her or warn her of Peter’s anger. “What did you do when you found out Robert had killed my wife and sold my child? What was your part in all this?”

  “What did you expect to happen, Peter? You never took our side in anything she said about us. Every day I was being dragged to the packhouse to go over some minor issues Dalia had with what I was doing. It was difficult enough for us to have enough money to gamble with, without your wife telling us to get a job and help out with the pack.” Marie laughed then. It was harsh and something Robert was afraid of when she did it to him. “Your wife wasn’t as saintly as you think she was. Did you know it was her plan to send your daughter away to a boarding school when she was old enough? I bet she didn’t tell you she was pregnant either. I wonder who it might have been by.”

  “Dalia was pregnant when you had her killed?”

  Robert knew Marie was going to gloat over this new information. He wanted to tell her to shut her fucking mouth. As soon as he felt her back slump against his, he knew his lovely wife was dead.

  Robert sat there, his back being soaked by the blood of the only woman he’d ever loved. His own mother was never as close to him in love as Marie had been. Her body was moved, and he fell to the floor on his back. He watched as someone carried her out the back way of the house.

  “Get up.” Robert stood up but didn’t have the strength in his legs he needed to walk. He knew his brother could see he was hurting and did nothing to see to his needs. She was dead. His mate, his wife, was dead. Robert demanded to be told who had killed her. “You lost all rights to demand anything of me when you murdered my wife and unborn child. But I’ll gladly tell you who got to kill her before I did. It was my daughter. Slicing her head off her body without a second thought. What do you think of my daughter now, Robert? Want to try and sell her off again? I might watch you trying to convince her to get into the car of a stranger.”

  Robert fell twice and stumbled several times as he was literally dragged from the house to the yard and beyond. His lip was bloodied—he could taste the copperiness of it. After what seemed like hours, he was in the field
the pack owned. Robert got down on his knees to beg mercy from his brother.

  “Shut up.” He did, his mouth closing off like he’d been born without a mouth. Begging still with just his hands and eyes, Robert pleaded with him to not let him die. “By order of the pack, the Duncan Pack, I hereby sentence Robert Duncan, brother to me, to death. The reasons for it are as bad as they could be for his crimes against my family. He had my wife and our unborn child murdered for money. Then he sold off my only living child for the same thing. Greed and money. I hereby order his death by fire.”

  Robert thought they were going to set him on fire in the pit they used when here. But as soon as he turned to see how it was going to be done, he saw a big fucking dragon standing right behind him. Screaming now, compulsion having been taken away, he knew he was to die, and watched in horror as the dragon drew in a deep breath and then spewed it all over him.

  His last thoughts were that he should have been more careful not to be caught.

  Chapter 9

  Finn found Rachel on the deck. She’d been missing for about an hour when Mildred came to tell him. Missing wasn’t the word she’d used. She told him Rachel seemed to be grieving. Going out onto the deck where she was, he moved to her side, and Rachel looked up at him.

  “Did you go there and help them with the death of Robert? I don’t care one way or the other if you did. I just wanted to know.” Finn sat beside her and took her hand into his. “You’re stalling. I don’t want you to be unable to come to me when you’re trying to protect me.”

  “Yes, I helped in the death of Robert Duncan. His wife has been killed, as you well know. They had no children, or I would have helped them out. Not for the parents, but because they would be innocent, as well as being family. Marie knew about the plans to have your mom killed as well.” Rachel asked him what he would have done with the wife. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I want to say I’d be compassionate about her situation. I want to say she had very little to do with the deaths. However, she knew. And could have—no, she should have gone to someone to tell of the events.”

  “I agree with you on telling someone about what he did. I don’t know, for the life of me, how they managed to be here all this time and not tell someone about it. Or at least let it slip. He had my mom murdered, which is bad enough. But to kill off the tiny life she was carrying was horrific. He had no cares at all about what happened to his only niece and the yet to be born child. It’s hard for me to let it settle in my head.” Finn picked her up from the chair she was on and held her on his lap. “I have nothing of a memory of my mom. I don’t have anything to see of her likeness except for the newspaper article. I know I look like her, but nothing more.”

  “I asked if there were any items belonging to your mom you could look at. Peter said he’d bring over some of her things for you to have. Also, he would very much like for you to come to see him as much as you can. He’s going to be with you when you shift.” Rachel said she didn’t think she was ready for shifting yet. “I understand. Would you like to come in for some lunch? Mildred said you skipped it.”

  “Not just yet. I’ve been thinking very hard on what the outcome has been from Robert killing my mom. Not just her being dead, but other things happening because of her being killed.” He asked her what she’d thought of. “Foremost is that I was adopted and not with my own family. I did wonder for a moment if he would have had me killed as well, but I don’t think it was his plan at all. Also, from what Mildred said—she asked me to call her Grandma—Peter grieving so hard is why the pack is doing so poorly. Then there are the things trickling down because of Peter being unable to deal with the pack and his missing mate too. There’s more, but I think you can understand where I’m going with this. Right?”

  “You’re saying Robert’s death wasn’t nearly enough for all the things he’d done in order to get rid of someone.” Rachel told him he was brilliant. “I get that a lot.”

  Rachel smacked him on the chest and laughed. “I was thinking of something I could do to help the pack out. I’m a member of it now, did Peter tell you?” Finn told her Peter had said she was his next in line to lead the pack when he retired. “I’m not ready for anything even close to taking over a pack. But he did tell me he’d train me in being a wolf. To think, all this time, I was so close to my biological father and had no idea. It’s sort of sad, don’t you think?”

  “It is. Very much so. What surprised me the most about it was the number of articles being run about the disappearance of your mom and you. No one in the pack could see how much you looked like her? I guess I find it hard to believe.” She told him how she wasn’t photographed much when someone would come to their place of business. “Okay, I guess I can see where it is you’re coming from. And even if your name was mentioned, without a picture, it would have been hard.”

  “Exactly. Oh, before I forget to tell you. Chad went by the police station earlier and was told Sandra will be released at two today. They can’t hold her any longer than three days. She’ll have a fine to pay, as well as face some restrictions. She can’t come within a hundred yards of either myself or Chad. She’ll violate her restrictions as soon as she’s released, I think.” Finn thought so too. “Chad has already signed all the paperwork on the house and had it filed to establish it now belongs to Sandra. He asked me if there was anything in the house I wanted. I told him there wasn’t. So he’s donating all the household stuff to the halfway house just outside of town if Sandra decides she doesn’t want it. I think he put it in the paperwork when he put her name on the deed. It’s for female prisoners who have been released. It helps with some of the things missed while in lock up.”

  “I had no idea. How long have they been around?” Rachel told him at least four or five years. Then she told him where it was located. “The old elementary school? I would guess it’s as good a place as any to help women out. There would be a lot of rooms to use.”

  “Yes. But all the classrooms have been converted to dorm-like settings. When I was there at the grand opening, I was told, along with the other people there, that there would be eight beds in each room. I don’t know, but it sounds very crowded to me.” Finn thought about how they could use something newer to use. “What are you thinking right now?”

  “About how the Manning Foundation could help them out. As you observed, there has to be issues with overcrowding. Not to mention, if I remember correctly, the building was built in the early part of the last century. It has to be getting to the point of falling down around their ears. Wouldn’t you think?” She nodded. “I think we can help them out with not just a better living arrangement for the women, but other things they’re dealing with too.”

  “What other things?” Finn explained about the kitchen. “How do you know all this about the building? I mean, I only just told you about what it was being used for. Do you secretly go out at night and hunt down elementary schools for fun?”

  “No.” He laughed. “When we first moved here, my brothers and I were given paperwork on all the buildings in use. It didn’t tell us what was being done in the building, only the specs on it.” She asked him why he needed it. “To see where we could start helping the people who are already making a living in the town. It would have told us not only how old the building was, but also if things like the furnace were too old. If windows needed to be replaced. Among other things, we were told how many bathrooms were in the building per how many people lived and worked there. In this case, it would have told us the building has such and such number of people there, and the ratio to how many bathrooms there are.”

  “Okay, I get it. But what can you do for them? I’ve noticed government run places are difficult to donate to. Well, difficult is an understatement. It’s more like you can’t help them.” Finn told her it was a private company. “Well, aren’t you just full of information today. Okay, smart ass, how do you help them without pissing them off because you know things about t
heir building?”

  “I’ll talk to my brother, Milo, and have him talk to them. He’s good at convincing people of things they might not have realized they needed.” Rachel stood up and paced the length of the deck. He loved watching her work things out on her own. “Now, you tell me what you’re thinking about.”

  “You may recall that I have money. I have no idea what your net worth is, but I’m figuring it’s considerably more than mine is.” Finn told her how much they were worth. “Christ. Are you serious?”

  “I never joke about love or money. So yes, we’re billionaires several times over.” He asked her again what she had in mind.

  “I have to think a moment. You have several billion dollars?”

  “Yes. What is it you want to do? And so you know, it’s us that has money, not just me. We share all of anything I had before meeting you.” She told him she had several million, but not a billion. “Again, yes, you do have billions. If you want to use the money you had before for anything you wish, I have no problem with your decisions.

  Rachel took up pacing again. Finn knew she’d not tell him anything until she had it worked out. While he was waiting, he contacted Milo to tell him what he had in mind.

  You’re not going to believe this, but I have a letter from them. They contacted our headquarters a few days ago about needing help with the furnace and air conditioners. There is one in each of the eighteen rooms being used as housing. Finn asked him if he knew what it was being used for. I didn’t before, but I do now. They house women in the place who need to acclimate themselves to the outside world after prison. It’s a good cause, I think. They’re not funded by anything but donations either. There was a foundation helping for a lot of years. However, the money ran out about the time things in the building started to break down. It says here if we can help them with the installation of a few more bathrooms, it would be greatly appreciated. What is it you have in mind?