“I need your car!” Alex yelled.
“What?” he asked.
“I have to have your keys. Please.”
“You’re crazy.”
The little girl in his arms began to cry. “Look,” Alex said as Michelle came out the door buttoning her jeans as she ran. “Head inside our room once the shaking stops. We’ve paid for three nights. Please…help me.”
The man stumbled as the quaking continued. He looked from Alex to his daughter and then to the car. Alex could see him output the scenario together in his head. He owed Alex for saving his daughter. He handed over the keys and rushed to join the other guests that had poured out into the carpark as Alex and Michelle jumped into the car and sped away.
“Where are we going?” Michelle asked.
“I- I dunno. Caves.”
“What? What caves? There aren’t any.”
Alex gripped the window sill of the car door as the car rumbled along the dirt road, straining to remember the voice. Following a voice in her head might not be the best strategy but it was all she had at the moment. “Caves…something about caves. We have to find caves. There has to be something!”
“Jenolan Caves? They are less than an hour away.”
“Yes! Good. Ok.”
“Alex, are you ok?”
Alex pressed her hand to her temple. “I don’t know, babe. Just…please hurry.”
Chapter Twenty-One
All You Need Is Love
Nicole held her breast with a trembling hand. Every time she blinked, more tears escaped just like her son. She tried to ease her nipple into his mouth, but the baby was having none of it. Howling his misery for all to hear. Her eyes ached from crying and exhaustion. He hadn’t eaten since she had been here. She was sure he was malnourished. She was worried about his heart. His constant wailing had caused a temperature.
She tried all manner of ways to hold him. To settle him. But on and on he cried.
“Please bub...It’s right here!” she sobbed, but the little man simply ran his tiny lips over the leaking nub and screamed. Nicole placed him down beside her on his back and buried her face in her hands. She tried to be strong, but she had told herself these things many times. She hated herself. She had no idea what she was doing and couldn’t even take care of her son. How the hell did women do this? What was wrong with her? Her milk was coming in heavy supply. She WANTED to feed him. She knew what to do but not how.
She couldn’t go on like this. The thought of him dying because of her shattered her soul. All she had wanted was to find him. To hold him. In her heart of hearts, though she knew it wouldn’t be easy, she had not expected this. Somehow, she thought he would know her. Sense her. That they would bond. But she felt as if he didn’t know her; he didn’t want her. She wasn’t enough, she wasn’t good enough. She had promised to take care of him but she couldn’t even feed him.
His feet kept sporadically kicking in to her hip, as he started to choke on his own saliva. She rolled him to his side and rubbed his back, blurting out, “I’m sorry...I don’t know what you want bub...I’m sorry.”
A small knock stopped her speaking. “Begging your pardon miss, can I come in...?”
It was the handmaiden she had sent away. Nicole refused to open the door for anyone, even using a chair under the handle. Not that it would keep out wolves, but it was the best thing she could think of. She was terrified they would take him away. Nicole was going to ignore it until she came again from the other side of the door. “Please, miss, I can help.”
Nicole had no idea if that was true. She had no idea if it was a trap or a rouse but desperation fuelled her steps. Opening the door, she started pouring herself out to this stranger. “Please...I don’t know what to do...I don’t know what’s wrong with him...”
The maiden walked past her straight to the bed. She cooed the infant and picked him up, cradling him just as Nicole had done. Almost instantly, he began to quiet down. Nicole could not understand. She was overjoyed and yet a strip of heartbreak hit her too. So much she uttered her thoughts, “It’s me...he hates me...”
The maiden looked up at her and shook her head earnestly. “Oh no, miss. No, he doesn’t. You’re everything to him, but...could you allow me a small piece of advice?”
Nicole wiped her eyes and nodded her head with quivering lips.
“He can sense your fear. Not just because he’s a wolf. He’s a baby. They need to know you’re okay otherwise they won’t feel safe. Here...let me show you.”
Nicole walked towards her and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Now...” the maiden said softly, speaking to Nicole yet looking at the boy with a beautiful smile and calm tone. “This little man is hungry and we are going to feed him...yes we are...and mummy needs to just relax because I’m here...and we are all okay. Aren’t we little man? Yes, we are. Now...is mummy ready?”
Nicole stripped off her top completely. Modesty was out the window as long as this worked. She just wanted her son healthy. “Yes.”
“Yes...” the maiden looked to Nicole and then to the baby. “You’re going to go to your mummy...yes...she wants to feed you...” she continued in the same flowery tone and lowered him into Nicole’s arms. The maiden used the tips of her fingers to roll back the nipple and it popped into his mouth. Almost immediately he started sucking. The joy and relief Nicole felt could not be accurately described. More tears came and she could only thank the woman, over and over again.
“May I?” she asked, indicating to Nicole’s right. Nicole nodded and the maiden sat. “All of us go through this at one stage or another. You are doing just fine. We all think we are failing but it’s not true. Look at him...” she said, gesturing with her chin. Nicole did so and she continued, “He’s beautiful. He needs you and he loves you. This is the hardest job anyone will ever do. They can’t tell you what’s wrong, but they know more than we give them credit for. They are remarkable things. Whenever you feel down, whenever you feel like this is getting too much for you, remember this. The closeness. The love. You’ll need all that and more to survive. Not just here, but life.”
Nicole blinked and nodded, clearing her throat. “I can’t thank you enough. What is your name?”
“Claudia, miss.”
“Don’t call me miss. My name is Nicole. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sorry for being so rude the other day. Your kids must be very lucky.”
Claudia gave a sad smile and paused for a few seconds before answering, “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry, did I say something wrong? You’re just so good with them...”
“No...nothing wrong. I just...I’ve lost all mine.”
“Oh...I’m so-”
“It’s all right. You weren’t to know.”
“I am so terrified every day that something could happen to him. I can’t imagine what that must be like for you.”
“It’s my lot. My family were in debt to Tynan’s father a long time ago. When they couldn’t pay their debt, he demanded a life of servitude. They refused and he had them executed. I had nowhere to go, so I was taken in by the Slade Estate. I was pregnant four times by four different fathers by the time William died. I lost them all. Wilson became Alpha after that and his new wife said there were to be no more slaves. So we were all set free. The trouble was I had nowhere to go. I wasn’t about to trust Wilson after the cunt of a father he had, so I went to the only place I thought I would be heard. I was made a midwife and I’ve been here ever since.”
Nicole looked down into the eyes of her son, now getting heavy. “I’ll get you out.”
“Begging your pardon?”
“I have friends on the outside. I know they are coming.”
Claudia gave a sad shake of her head. “Please don’t do this to yourself. It’s impossible. Tynan has plans for everything. He’d know they are coming. He has secondary plans for secondary scenarios. Whoever your friends are, they will die.”
“Alicia Slade.”
“Well now,” Claud
ia said, eyebrows raised. “Maybe she- no. Not even her. They have history, he knows her. He’ll be prepared. If you can get a message to her, tell her to abandon this. You just don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. He can’t be defeated. Too many have tried. Unless you have something that Tynan doesn’t expect, it won’t be enough.”
“I have faith that a mother’s love, and a grandmother’s, can defeat anything. One way or another, I promise you. We will get out of here. Together.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
A Blockade
Nick landed on his feet as he sailed over the fence and sprinted to a large, steel shipping container to scope out what was in front of him; aircraft belonging to various companies. He found what he was after: British Airways. But the baggage was being loaded by three men. No way in hell they wouldn’t spot him trying to sneak on. He would have to distract them.
Nick crept up, keeping a fair distance. He was trying to hone his senses on to their conversation, seeing if an opening for him could be achieved with a break in speech but it was like trying to tune an old radio. The voices faded in and out of his mind with little to no clarity. All he could manage was “Make sure…tag that…it’s going to London…wrong one”. He looked down to see his nails flared, ready for battle.
I am not going to kill anyone.
He gave the sky a fleeting glance as drops of rain fell on to his head. The cloud that covered the city was swirling like the beginnings of a cyclone or hurricane. Maybe that was the reason his wolf powers were going haywire. He hadn’t been exposed to the moon in many months. He had never heard of weather affecting his kind before, but this was no ordinary storm cloud.
Nick put it out of his mind as the moment he searched for was upon him. One of the three had broken away from the others to answer a radio call from the truck, putting him at least fifteen feet away from the others on the almost pitch-black tarmac. More importantly, their backs were to him.
With a sudden but controlled strike, Nick used the flat of his palm on the back of the man’s skull. He was out cold so fast Nick had to cradle his head to stop his jaw from smacking his chest.
“I’m so sorry about this…” Nick whispered, as he lay the man out a good way from the truck. Nick hid on top of the truck, only having to wait a few seconds before the cries of the man’s fellows reached him. They rushed over to his prone form, and by the time they had roused him, Nick was safely tucked away, hidden by the baggage. He had no food, no water. He was facing a daunting flight, stuck here in the baggage area going, he suspected, to London via Dubai. None of that mattered to him, though it should. Nicole would be there. He was doing this for the chance to see her again.
The thought of her lips and strawberry lip gloss vanished as he realised the plane was rounding corners, taxiing to the runway before coming to a stop. The plane launched itself into top speed and within seconds, it seemed, Nick felt himself tilt and they were in the air.
Finally, Nick relaxed. It worked. He hoped the worker was alright. He hated having to hurt someone to get what he wanted but thankfully he was only knocked out for a minute or two.
A sudden thump caused Nick’s head to bounce off the wall. “Ow…ok we won’t call that turbulence. “That’s karma.”
Yet another thump, more violent than the last. That wasn’t what bothered Nick. What bothered him was that he could hear panicked screaming from above: the passengers. Suddenly, Nick was airborne. His back crashed into the ceiling and he was dropped just as unceremoniously. The plane entered into a violent nose dive. He didn’t need his wolf senses to pick up the panic from the passenger seats.
The screams cracked through the bulkhead. This wasn’t turbulence. Nick tried desperately to cling to the wall, but the inertia of the drop pinned him down. The emergency lights flicked on and off allowing Nick to concentrate on something he saw yet couldn’t explain.
Black smoke seeped through the gaps in the main doors, curling and twirling in on itself like tendrils. The tendrils curled backwards like spiders’ legs and latched on to the inner walls, pulling chunks of metal away before reattaching and repeating. An acrid, burning smell reached Nick’s nose, which he saw was coming from the edges of the doors themselves. The smoke was burning through them like acid, and the shakings of the plane were so violent the bulkhead was being squeezed and smashed like it was tin foil.
Nick used all his strength to push himself up, fighting against gravity as the doors to the cargo hold blew apart, and freezing cold air rushed inside, filling the space with the same black smoke.
Nick covered his mouth with his arm, trying not to breathe in the rank, mouldy air. As he looked over his forearm, he lowered it slightly. A shape had formed a few feet in front of him: a shadow figure. A face of smoke, complete with eyes and a mouth, was staring at him. The air grew even more rank and the figure appeared to sneer at him, pleased with its work.
Nick roared and extended his fangs and nails. He didn’t know how he could possibly fight this. But if there was a way, he would try.
An image of Nicole flashed in his mind. The first time she kissed him, really kissed him. He swallowed the memory and leapt high, hand outstretched to swing as hard as possible towards the sinister face smiling at him. Ready for the challenge as the plane hit the ground.
Chapter Twenty-Three
A Close Call
Nicole sat forward and swung her feet out of bed, flinging sweat soddened sheets off her. As she moved her head down, more sweat began pouring down her nose. Her dream had caused a fever. Usually her sex dreams involved the night she spent with Nick. What he did to her. She ran through it, over and over. This one was different though it still starred her dead lover. She had imagined him breaking the door down of the room she was in, silver eyes blazing at her. No words were said between them, and Nicole found herself with her back against the wall, his arms hooked behind her knees, plunging himself into her with abandon, their lips barely parting, filling her then backing out before going again. Somewhere, even in sleep, she knew it wasn’t real, yet she had still woken up crying. It took everything for her to not burst into tears again. She was sick of crying. She was sick of seeing him in her head. No, that wasn’t true. She longed for him, but she could do without the constant, feverish reminder about the way he touched her. How right now she wanted his mouth between her legs…
Nicole stood up and deliberately shivered, wriggling her fingers before running them through her hair. She let out a deep breath and remembered what Alicia had said. It was normal to want your Alpha. But she had said something could take the edge off until it wore off. What was it? Showers didn’t help, no matter how cold.
She tried to put it to the side and focus on something much more important than her cravings: her son.
She didn’t know she could love something as much as the tiny body that lay in the wooden cot. She stroked his fist with the tip of her finger, looking into his eyes. Those eyes that both took her breath away and broke her heart. They were Nick’s eyes. The exact same colour.
The baby was the spitting image of his father. “What am I going to call you, little man?” she whispered.
“Anthony is a great name,” came a voice from the doorway.
“Why would I name my son after a piece of steaming shit?”
He stepped into the room and slowly closed the door. The latch closing made Nicole close her eyes just briefly. Don’t panic. Just breathe. “Get out,” she said.
He closed the gap on her and began stroking her hair, speaking softly, as if to himself, “You have no concept about what’s going on do you…”
“Surrounded by and hostage of wolves. What’s there to not understand?” she replied, shaking her head away from his grasp before he gripped a fistful of her hair hard. Pulling her neck back, seething.
“That you’re safe…” he slammed her face into the wooden cot, splintering several legs. Nicole whimpered, but he slapped his hand across her mouth. “Tynan put me in charge of your safety. That means…�
�� he removed his hand and slapped her cheek. “That I control what hurts you.”
Nicole was spurned to action by her baby waking and crying. Anthony’s strength pinned her down to her knees as she tried to shake him off her. Another strike from him turned her body around so that she hit the bed chest first, blood spurting from her mouth onto the sheets.
He pinned her with his own body. “You can fight all you want, but you want this. I could smell how wet you are from outside…”
Nicole tried to scream, but his forearm wrapped tightly around her throat as he hissed into her ear, “The only reason you’re still alive is because that chubby little parasite stretched you open. Those chunky hips and that loose pussy will easily make more of us.”
“Fuck…you…” she breathed, before cracking his nose with the back of her head. He groaned and faltered momentarily before wrapping around her neck again, tighter. He moved his other hand to his broken nose. He moved the now bloody dripping hand in front of her face before pressing it against her skin and wiping his blood on her.
“Like a little bit of fight in a girl…”
Nicole coughed from the restrictions to her airway, causing her to lean forward, and to her disgust, felt his erection pressing into her rear.
“No…stop!” she screamed, as the walls started to tremble. The baby’s cries were getting louder.
“That’s it,” he replied, kissing the back of her hair repeatedly as his elongated nails snipped her underwear like butter, “Try and tell me what to do now, bitch.”
Nicole cringed at the leaked tears. She couldn’t push herself up. He was too strong. A new wolf. “Shut up!” he screamed at the baby, unzipping himself with his free hand. “You’re getting a sibling…after I take mummy’s arse.”
Nicole bellowed “No!” yet again, but it was no use. She couldn’t even hear herself over the howling of the infant. The sound was so strong pieces of the ceiling were falling. She felt Anthony suddenly fall back as the sound from the baby went almost silent. She chanced a look back and saw Anthony writhing on the ground, hands on either side of his head. He removed them and looked at them. His ears were bleeding, hearing something she couldn’t. And then it came to her. The baby. Her son. The crying. It had reached some sort of sonic sound that only wolves could hear. Anthony scrambled to his feet and bolted to the door. He was backhanded hard when he flung it open, and Tynan appeared just outside. Tynan threw him from the room and he disappeared around the corner. Only then did the sound come back to Nicole’s ears and the baby had silenced himself.
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