"It can make all the goddamned logic in the world, but you sent our mate off to a fairy!" I roared.
Upstairs, one of the kids whimpered awake. I smacked my fist on the table, a great deal quieter than my voice had been. I needed to remember the little ones were trying to sleep. My mate was missing. My omega was probably in deep shit and everyone was acting like it was no big deal.
I needed to calm down, but it was hard. Sadie had taken care of herself for a damned long time before we'd turned up; that was true. It didn't make the alpha wolf in me any happier to sit back and just let things happen to her. Of course, in the past little while I'd been jailed and in a massive wreck. Maybe I really did need to slow down a little bit.
"Right, now that that's over with," Lillian said, giving me an annoyed look. "I know. And I didn't think any of you would like it. We're going soon. Tim will be here pretty quick. Nerida's no one to play with, even when it comes to people outside of our community. I sent her to the lesser of two evils."
"You should have sent her to us," I shivered, grinding my claws into my palms. "You should have talked to us about it, let us helped you decide what was best for the pack. You're barely involved in it."
Lillian's eyes narrowed at me. "I'm more like an honorary member at best. I know. Why do you think I couldn't care less how much you bitch and scream like a toddler?"
Oh, my moons and stars, that bitch needed to have her head ripped off. I lowered my head, pressed my face against the table, and sank my teeth into the wood. It groaned under the pressure of my bite until I felt it begin to give. I didn't want splinters in my mouth but goddess, it was better than beating her the fuck to death over this.
"She has a point," Gabe said.
My head whipped up to stare at him as if he'd grown horns. He waved a hand at me. "Don't give me that. She has a very good point and you know it. Like she said. Sadie's slate is clean. We've all been in the community too long. The fairies aren't part of it, but they love to stick their toes in it. I imagine that's probably why Queen Nerida gave the Nightflight a place to stay, just to stir up trouble on our end and get something out of Alashia's flight. This is chess, Leo. You don't like chess."
"I don't like bullshit," I growled. "Sending an omega off to a dangerous entity is so much bullshit-"
"We're going after her. That's what matters."
The voice took me by surprise. I stared back at Hudson as he leaned on a cane. My long-time pack mate looked rough, his skin ashen, his hair greasy. I'd never even heard him come in, livid as I was. Given the look on Gabe and Lillian's faces, I don't think they did either.
He hobbled past all of us and sat down at the head of the table, a shattered king reclaiming his throne. My breath left me in an instant. If Xavion and Sadie had been present, everything in me would have calmed down. But they weren't. That was the problem. That was the biggest problem we had.
"Welcome back. Did you escape the hospital when you felt Sadie disappear or what?" Gabe asked, his brows raising.
Hudson glared up at his cousin. "I can walk. I left."
"They're going to come looking for you," Lillian said. "You idiot."
The big wolf snorted. "I walked out and they can fuck off for the evening. Someone bring me up to speed. You've been feeding me bits and pieces, and no one would tell me anything over the phone. Darien threatened to send the cops after me."
"The museum's a nightmare, Sadie's in fairyland with Queen Socorro, the Nightflight ruined everything, and Alashia's flight is being a huge pain in the ass," Gabe said, simply.
"The kids are safe? The animals are safe?"
Gabe nodded. "Much as they can be. Alashia's crew keeps frying everything."
"I saw that on the news in the lobby when I was walking out," Hudson sighed. Then he went silent, the clock on the fridge happily chiming the end of Halloween and the new month's dawning.
My mind was still going a thousand miles a minute, but I wasn't about to lip off to Hudson, either. Gabe was one thing. Sometimes we got along like cats and dogs, whiskey and ice cream. You know, all those delicious combinations. Hudson was... I respected Huds. I respected Xav. I scowled at Gabe; he could go fuck himself.
"Okay," Hudson said after a moment, letting out another sigh. "We're going after her. Lillian has a babysitter called. We need to tell the people back at the lodge we'll be a bit longer so the dogs aren't there by themselves. Can any of you think of anything else?"
Lillian shook her head. "I had this planned from the minute they took Xavion. Sadie was never going to let that go unnoticed. Not in a million years."
"Yeah, she's been working herself into the ground. I'm not happy with any of you about that," Hudson frowned. "But that's for another time and place. As soon as Timothy gets here, we get a move on. How the hell are we getting to Blackstalk Keep? It's banned from connecting here, I thought?"
"It is," Lillian said.
"I'm listening but you aren't talking. You keep that up and we're going to have a problem."
Lillian sighed, flipped him off, and looked at Gabe. "I've got a way in. That's all I'm telling you. I've had my hands all over your kids for a while now. If I wanted to kill this family off, I'd have started with the lowest hanging fruits."
"You talk about Analise like that again and you won't have to worry about getting us there," I snarled, my ire rising again in a second flat.
Though Lillian had been kind to the kids, she'd gotten sharp with us now and then. I didn't appreciate being told how to raise my daughter by a bitch who had never so much as had kids herself. Just because she was Tommy's biological aunt didn't mean I had to tolerate her being around my kid.
Lillian arched her brows at me. "Okay then. You take off work and you work on potty training with her. You answer all those questions she has and cuddle her when she's upset. I'm not threatening your kid, Leo. I'm telling you that if I wanted to hurt any of you, I'd have had ample opportunity already. Idiot."
"Alphas," Hudson said, his voice gentle but chiding. I fell silent, aching to kick Lillian's ass. Hudson continued. "We have a plan. Good. That's it. We're done. Lillian, are you coming with us or not?"
I watched as she turned that over in her mind, for all of a second, then got up and left the table. Deep down, I knew she wasn't threatening my kid. That didn't mean anything to my surface emotions. I went upstairs to check on the quads and Tommy, all of which shared that single room when we were at the McMansion here in the city.
All of them perfect, all of them little angels, fast asleep with their blankets tucked up around their chins. Norrin was the closest to the door, looking so much like Xavion that it hurt. How had we been stupid enough to let the kids go get their candy? They were young enough. We could have skipped it or done something special inside the house, where it'd been a great deal safer. No, we'd had to head out into the great wide world and put ourselves at risk for a candy bar or three.
"They'll be fine while we're gone."
I looked back at Hudson and sighed. "You shouldn't be anywhere near this. You shouldn't even be out of the hospital. What the hell, man. What took you so long to heal, anyhow? A smash like that shouldn't have made you hurt that bad."
"Dunno, but it's worth investigating when we get back," Hudson shrugged. "I want answers from Ioane's team. I kept waking up only to be plunged back into darkness."
"You think they were doing something to screw with you?"
"I just said I don't know, Leo. There's no reason to pursue it right now, not when we've got Sadie and Xavion to worry ourselves with."
I scowled at him and looked back at the kids. "What happens if we don't come home? What happens if none of us do? They end up in a fucking orphanage?"
"There's worse things. We stop the stupidity going on, maybe it's fine in the end. Doesn't matter if we come back or not," Hudson said, his voice quiet.
I jerked my head at Tommy's sleeping form. "Pretty sure he'd disagree with you on that, Huds."
"Pretty sure he's too young to get a
say in this."
There was something hurt in his voice. I wrapped my arms around my middle, my mortality a little too close for comfort. I didn't like heading into unknowable battles, though I had no issue with a fight or fifty. The fae were tough and, the few times I'd interacted with them, I'd come out on the short end of the stick. As it was, we weren't going to get a break. We weren't getting a chance for something different.
Downstairs once more, I caught the scent of unicorn. Of the herd, he was the one I knew the least. That, of course, did wonders for my nerves as the situation stood. Tim was a guy of a variety of descents, but I imagined the paler skinned ones had won out at last. He wasn't entirely white, but he damn sure wasn't as dark as the rest of the guys in my pack. I tried not to tear him apart just for existing. As it was, he moved about six steps away from me and a dull, dark hank of hair fell into his face when he did it.
"You smell like someone kicked you in the nuts," he said.
I glared at him. "Alashia kinda did. Kinda stole one of my pack brothers. And the idiot alpha who lives with us might've sent our omega running off to her death. You up for watching a bunch of puppies?"
"I love kids. I'm good with the twins. Pretty sure I've got this covered," Tim said, warily eyeing me. "If not, you aren't gonna kick my ass, are you?"
My heart stopped in my chest, all but literally. "If our kids get banged up while you're watching them, we're having roast unicorn for dinner tomorrow. Or whenever the fuck we get back."
Tim gulped at me and I menaced him a little more. It was the best thing I could do to assure that I saw Analise again, that I saw all of them again. Sure, I was especially attached to my little girl, but those four had shared a space for several months before we'd met them. All of us had taken the time to get to know them, play with their little feet and ears, and groom them to sleep when they'd been newborn pups running around in the woods with us.
And Tommy. Goddess, I'd known Tommy since he'd been a twinkle in Hudson's eye.
What if the dragons attacked while we were gone? What if they attacked right that second? It didn't really seem to matter; there was no defense for several tons of fire-breathing monster. Even the cops and the military were having problems getting them to fuck off. I was a pretty tough guy. I couldn't do anything about that kind of stuff by myself.
"You ready to head out?" Gabe asked me, hugging me against his chest.
I ripped away from him, showing a little tooth as I did so. "I've been waiting for the horse to show up. We need to go. We've needed to go."
"Be nice," Gabe said. "This isn't the first time we've all been in danger, it probably won't be the last. We're going to be okay."
"How the fuck can you say that?"
Gabe shrugged. "If I don't believe it, I'll go insane. Let's go."
I followed him back to the backyard, a place where I'd spent ages grilling and letting the kids chase me around when I had a ball in my mouth. A place so full of happiness and peace didn't need to be destroyed by Lillian standing out there, stark naked, cutting her wrist open to do some kind of blood magic.
I didn't have much of a distaste for magic. There were plenty of my kind who did, but there was little enough harm to it that it didn't get me too irritable. Hudson, on the other hand, was glaring at his former sister-in-law like she'd kicked Matilda for no good reason.
"Get the spell done and over with. We're going to talk about this witchcraft stuff when we get back here, too," Hudson grumbled.
Lillian shrugged and wrote a letter in the air, her blood standing out against the false dawn. "If you know a better, easier way than a blood sacrifice, please let me know in the future. I'd be happy not to get myself all sliced up for your mate."
The archway that opened reeked of snow and rotting leaves. I glared at the sickly blue light, so much for not disliking magic, I guess. Lillian and Gabe were the first through, followed shortly thereafter by Hudson and I. There was no convincing the big alpha to go back, even if he had to walk into it carrying a cane.
I just hoped we'd all make it back.
Chapter Seventeen
Sadie
Did you know that time passes differently in the fairy realm than it does in the real world? Because I didn't.
Dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner all passed again while I sat on the sands, enjoying the sun but not so much the warmth. I'd come from a place that was cooling down from a long, blazing summer full of disaster. I didn't care to be drenched in it again, but a brief respite from the cold was a nice treat. There wasn't anything to eat or drink, but I didn't feel like I needed to.
And that was pretty weird. The Queen had gone off to deal with some problem or another. It was something that I didn't really understand, but that I was willing to accept was important. I slept soundly upon golden waves, drank in the clear sky above, and enjoyed myself.
It was so strange. I didn't really remember why I was there, but I was happy to be there regardless. It was a little weird being naked, but no one seemed to be bothered. Maybe they were the type of European people who had all those beaches that didn't mind nudity.
"Are you ready to wake up yet, little wolf?"
Queen Socorro stood behind me, her giant cat mount standing peacefully at her side. I looked back at them and rubbed my chin. "Wake up?"
"You came here for a purpose, a pure driving reason. Though I must admit, should you desire to stay in the quiet of my sanctuary, I would have no objections. You ask very little."
I couldn't think of anything I'd asked for. My mind raced and I couldn't think of any reason that I'd come, either. "I'm sorry. Could you remind me what's going on? It's lovely here, but if I came here for a reason it's not like I'd abandon that. It can't have been much, but-"
"Your mate lies in the clutches of the Blackstalk Fae, their queen wanting nothing more than his blood upon her hands for all I may gather."
My mate? My mate. I had a mate? I rubbed my forehead vigorously and tapped the side of it, as if trying to kickstart it awake. Like my old car, back home. It was a piece of junk, the sort of thing that most people wouldn't pay you for if you dragged it across the scales at a junkyard. But, no. That wasn't right. That was... that was a long time ago.
Xavion.
Hudson. Gabriel. Leo.
The kids.
Carrie Ann and Bosco.
My thoughts shot through the haze as if someone had smacked me with a stun gun. I jumped to my feet and stared at her, shedding sand with every spasm of muscle. Everything hurt as if I'd been on the ground for days. I only knew of one set of meals I'd missed, but how long had it been?
"Three days," Socorro told me, as if able to read my mind. "Our days, in any case. Not your own. You have quite some time before you'd pass three human realm days in this place."
"But Xavion-"
"Experiences much the same time compression confusion as you do, yes. I have little doubt that he has suffered greatly as you lay upon these comfortable sands, enjoying yourself and soaking up the sun."
Queen Socorro gave me a shrug that said she didn't care if I ever left, my mate's fate wasn't up to her. A stiff breeze whipped past me, sending a little blast of sand against my legs. "I have to get out of here."
"You owe me for time spent on my land, little wolf."
What? I stared back at her, baffled. "I need your help to reach Xavion and to save him. And I have to get out of here. I'm sorry for intruding but-"
"Debts must be paid, lest we fall into the madness that does not beget comfortable society," she said, tilting her head. "A child for my services as it stands. You have five of them, you may spare one."
The very idea of that sent shivers down my spine. "Not on your life."
"A child is too great a price to pay for comfort and her mate's happiness. Perhaps, then, I ask that she trade herself for her mate."
Well, it was certainly more like what I was willing to do. I frowned at her. "What do you mean by that?"
"Every month, two days per month of
your choice. You will come to me, willingly, and assist me in the taking of my opposite's throne. I have great use for a werewolf such as yourself," Socorro said.
I turned that over in my head for a moment or two before I put to use that which I'd been employing with the family business. "I want this in writing, and I want to examine it before I sign it. I'll do it for a year and then we renegotiate the terms of such a treaty. Is that fair to you?"
Her eyes lit and she vanished, only to reappear a second later offering me a parchment scroll. I'd never touched it in my life, but I'd spent enough time around role-players of the live action variety to know what it was. I took the scroll and unrolled it, reading through it as quickly as I possibly could. I, Sadie Faye Fontaine, would so swear to report to Socorro on two days of my choosing each cycle of the moon, offering unto her strict obedience and every assistance I could give in turn for her help during this tragic section of my life.
Puppy Problems: A Reverse Harem Werewolf Romance (Her Secret Menagerie Book 3) Page 15