by C. Sunrise
“Is this how you were taught to treat women?” I ask, petulantly. “What would your mother think? What would your wife think?” I huff.
“My wife?” Hi laughter reverberating through the small room. “She’s long gone. Not that she would have cared about me cutting open a disgusting crossbreed such as yourself. The girl with a pure-bred wolf for a father and a cat for a mother. My wife was working with me to bring things back to the old ways but decided she wanted out. She thought she could find a better way than mine. So, I helped her get out. I took care of her.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask as a cold smirk forms on his face.
“What do you think I mean?” He chuckles and I realise exactly how dangerous this man is. “I strangled her,” he continues, a smile forming on his face as though he is bragging about a great achievement. “I wanted her to look me in the eyes and understand the cost of betraying me. She fought it at first, but eventually she accepted the consequences of her actions and quit fighting.”
I doubt she accepted the consequences and willingly let herself be strangled to death. This man is delusional to think that was what happened when she lost consciousness from lack of oxygen getting to her brain. The coldness of his words as he speaks about the woman who gave birth to his son and was by his side for many years sends shivers down my spine. I have no doubts that this man is a true psychopath.
“At least she gave me my boys before she exposed her cowardice,” he adds.
Wait, boys? Blaze never mentioned having a brother.
The confusion on my face catches his attention and he chuckles.
“Blaze was my third son.” He shrugs, face expressing indifference. “I also had two daughters. Blaze was the only one that showed any promise. He would have been the perfect son, if family hadn’t meddled in my business.”
Was? Had?
“What happened to them?” I ask quietly, not sure I want to know the answer.
He huffs and shakes his head.
“They were useless,” he replies without even the slightest flicker of emotion for his children.
He doesn’t have to say more because it’s clear he “took care of them” too. My heart breaks for his family. That the Hunters or other Royals didn’t kill him for murdering his wife and children tells me he must have covered up the deaths.
What kind of person kills their family without remorse? A deeply damaged and dangerous person, that’s who.
“Did Blaze know?” I ask, curious why Blaze never mentioned siblings before.
“Did Blaze know?” He scoffs. “It doesn’t matter.”
My heart pangs for Blaze. I can’t imagine how it would feel to grow up in this kind of family. It makes me appreciate my family even more. My parents gave up everything to be with each other and to raise their daughter; power, prestige, royalty all meant nothing compared to family.
“Ethan… I’m sorry, what is your father’s name now? Shannon? Pasta?” He quips, and I almost lose my mind.
“Shasta,” I snarl, clenching my teeth so hard it hurts.
“Yes, Shasta. The last remaining pure-bred wolf Prime and the most powerful shifter in the world.” He rolls his eyes. “I bet you didn’t know that about him, did you. Tsk Tsk. Guess your perfect little family is just like my family after all.”
Bile rises in my throat, hearing him compare our families. I’ve quickly learned that this is my normal response to the sound of his voice.
“My family is nothing like yours!” I spit.
“You know, I met your father a few times when he was younger,” he admits, ignoring me. This man clearly likes the sound of his own voice. “I also met his brothers and father.” He smirks as he continues. “We went hunting a few times together. Your father didn’t join us on the hunting trips, though—he was young and weak. So, he missed out on all the fun. Especially on our last hunting trip together.”
My eyes widen at the implications of his revelation. Papa’s father and brothers were killed in a hunting accident, and Papa assumed Blaze’s father was the one who murdered them.
It’s true. It was no accident. Papa was right, this maniac murdered his family.
My body lunges forward as vomit spews from my mouth. Laugher fills the room, bringing my beast dangerously close to the surface. I look up, wiping my arm across my mouth. I feel a sharp pressure on my lower lip as I snarl at the man in front of me.
“That’s right,” he says as he smiles and tilts his head, knowing I’ve put the pieces together. “You are a smart little thing. Too bad my son failed at taking you to be his mate. I guess he’s no better than his siblings after all. Disappointing.”
“Tell me, was Blaze in on all of this?!” I demand. “Was he playing me this whole time?” Tears well in my eyes and I’m not sure if they are tears of sadness or anger.
“I’ve been doing some thinking since the last time we spoke,” he says, ignoring my questions again. “As always, I have to take matters into my own hands. I don’t have a mate anymore, not that that matters. My scientists are confident that they can use your special blood to cure my sterility, so you will be my mate.”
I immediately tense, startled by his words. There is no way I will ever be his mate. I would fight him to the death, even if it is my own.
“Never!” I speak slowly and assertively, my eyes boring holes through his face, expressing my contempt. My resolve doesn’t falter even at the sound of his roaring laughter.
“You think you have a choice in this?” An evil smile spreads across his weathered face. “Cute. You will be my mate, and you will give me powerful children. With you at my side, I’ll overthrow all Royals and take what is rightfully mine.”
This man’s delusions never end.
Three more guards enter the room with shackles in hand. They surround me and move in at the same time. I get in a few good punches, but the lingering effects of the tranquilisers in my system makes it hard to fight back.
He nods at the men, and we walk out of the room. The light in the hall is blinding compared to the dark cage they had trapped me in, and it takes a while for my eyes to adjust.
We walk down the concrete hallway and up a set of stairs. This floor looks very different from the floor they held me on. We make our way down another hall and into a room. It’s a large room with two-way mirrors covering the walls on either side. There’s a speaker above each of the mirrors, a large screen at the other end of the room, small surveillance cameras near the ceiling in each corner of the room, and a leather couch in the middle of the room. The walls are made of concrete, unlike the halls we walked through on this floor. I’m guessing it’s a soundproof room too. This room is just another cage dressed up to look like a normal meeting room.
I glimpse myself in the mirror and see that my eyes are icy blue. Being so caught up in the conversation earlier, I hadn’t felt them change. My beast wants out. It wants to end this now. I need to be patient though and wait for the right moment. Hopefully, they’ll unshackle me. Taking on four men with tranquiliser guns will be a challenge, but doing it in shackles would likely be impossible.
“I have something special to show you.” He nods at the other men, who then exit the room through the solid metal door behind us.
“I’ve heard that line before,” I reply. “Spoiler alert. It never turns out well for the other person.”
He chuckles. “Feisty, I like it.”
He nods towards one of the mirrors. Seconds later, a video plays on the screen in front of me. It’s a video from the Halloween party. Looks like someone took the video with their phone.
“Great, amateur videographer night,” I reply sarcastically. “I’ve had worse first dates. Are you trying to promote your YouTube channel or something? Because I’ll save you the time and tell you right now, I’m not interested.”
“Trust me, love, you’ll be very interested in this video,” he whispers in my ear. I cringe at his pet name for me—like this man knows anything about love. He walks beside me and lea
ns against the wall with a self-satisfied smirk plastered on his face.
I turn my attention back to the screen. Halloween party. A bunch of people dressed up in costumes. A few people who should have stopped drinking by this point.
What the hell am I watching and why?
“Wait for it,” he says, watching me intently.
I roll my eyes and continue watching, wishing the person recording would hold the damn phone steady. That’s when I see it. A shiver runs through my body as the video zooms in on me and Kace. With technology readily available these days, you know that the chances are good that you’ll end up in people’s pictures and videos. But this isn’t a brief cameo or a photo bomb; this person is following us. He is corrupting what was a good memory.
I continue watching as the camera captures our entire evening. The games, the rides, meeting up with the rest of our friends, and visiting with my parents. Suddenly, the focus shifts, and the attention is on my parents. I watch as they walk towards their vehicle after they leave the party. An arm appears in the screen, holding up what appears to be an all too familiar tranquiliser gun. Two shots fire from the gun and my parents drop to the ground.
Some creepy son of a bitch just tranqued my parents. Just wait until I get my hands on that fool.
Then it hits me.
I don’t remember how I got here. I must have been tranqued too. That explains a lot. Does that also mean my parents are here somewhere with me?
“Now we are getting to my favourite part.” He tilts his head with a big, toothy smile plastered on his face.
My question is answered as the video resumes recording in a creepy, dank hallway filled with noisy fluorescent lighting. The hallway downstairs. I hold my breath as a door opens and light filters into a room similar to the one I was in. In the centre of the room sit my parents. They’re gagged and tied to metal chairs with heavy chains.
“No,” I breathe, unable to take my eyes away from the screen.
“We have company,” a voice says from one of the speakers on the wall.
“They got here sooner than I expected,” Blaze’s father replies. “Keep them busy. We won’t be long in here.”
Who’s here? Are they here to help me? He doesn’t seem overly concerned about whoever is here, so it’s not likely they’re here to rescue me.
My heart rate slows and my breathing shallows. A man walks past the camera and faces my parents—it’s Blaze’s father. As the camera gets closer, I can see blood on their faces and bodies. Someone has been beating them. My heart rate steadily increases as I continue watching the screen.
Blaze’s father walks up to the camera, looking directly into it as a smile crosses his face. He winks before turning and walking over to Momma. He looks over at Papa briefly, who is squirming in his chair and screaming through the piece of fabric in his mouth. Then, without breaking his eye contact with the camera, Blaze’s father’s fist lunges forward and then pulls back, ripping Momma’s heart right out of her chest. He winks at the camera before his other hand reaches through Papa’s chest, giving him the same fate as Momma.
Removing vital organs is a guaranteed way to kill shifters; our ability to heal makes other methods difficult. So, this means my parents are gone. Gone for good in the blink of an eye at the hands of the madman in the room with me.
“Love makes you weak,” he says smugly beside me.
His words come out muffled and distant as my beast breaks free. I turn to look at the man who just murdered my parents, but he has been replaced by the four guards from earlier, each holding a tranquiliser gun. They begin rapidly firing darts into my flesh. My paw lunges out and rips through one man’s throat like butter.
My paw startles me and I look at my reflection to see a giant mountain lion with one vibrant green and yellow eye and one glowing icy blue eye staring back at me. The raw power of my newest beast is evident as my muscles flex while I zero in on my next target. Another quick swipe and he’s down.
The last two men fire more darts, one man completely misses the target, the other one lands a dart in my flesh. I swing my paw at the one that hit me with the last dart as he is reloading his gun, leaving a nasty gash across his entire body. Before I line up the next target, my body crashes to the side, destroying the couch. I lay there on the ground as the final man standing approaches me—shadow man. I’m groggy and unfocussed but can see and hear things around me; however, my body refuses to move.
As shadow man kneels down, there’s a pained look on his face as he reaches forward and pets me along my neck and head.
“I promise I’ll keep you as safe as possible,” he whispers, barely moving his lips to avoid detection by anyone who may watch our interaction. “But I need you to trust me.”
He pauses and I quickly blink my eyes at him three times, hoping he recognises it as me spelling out “yes”.
He nods slightly and tells me to close my eyes and let my body shift back to my human form. It takes a few minutes to calm my beast enough to focus my mind on my happy place. These sick bastards have taken too much from me already, I won’t let them take my happy place; they won’t take my parents away from me again.
Moments later, I feel my body shift. It’s a very quick process, probably because of the number of tranquilisers they shot me up with. I hear darts hitting the ground as my body twists and shrinks into my human form.
Once my shift is complete, the man takes off his jacket and wraps it around my body, covering my bare skin as best he can. He picks me up and carries me out of the room and down the hall to the back exit of the building.
The sound of a helicopter fills my ears as he opens the exit door. We exit the building and he jogs towards the helicopter. Tiny snowflakes bounce off my flesh as if Mother Nature is weeping for me. I’m placed in the helicopter and seated in one of the open seats and securely belted in place. The shadow man then sits across from me and quickly flashes me a small reassuring smile. No scar on his face by the way, but he is ruggedly handsome as I had assumed. Tattoos cover his exposed skin, including his neck and head. I glance over his shoulder and see my captor in one of the front seats and another mystery man in the other.
I want to scream for help, but nothing is working. I fight hard to force my body to move, even slightly, but nothing happens. Frustrated, I look out of the corner of my eye towards the building, hoping someone would be there to rescue me.
Something at the side of the building catches my eye. There are four men having a discussion. I don’t recognise the two men who are facing my direction—a dark-skinned man with a bald head and a pale-skinned man with long blond hair. They are far away and almost out of my line of view, but I have spent enough time with the other two men to recognise them from any and every angle.
Why are they here? Do they know these people? Why aren’t they running after me? Why are they just standing there talking? Are they in on this?
I call out to them with my thoughts, but they don’t move. Tears well up in my eyes and I choke on my breath as I feel so close to being saved. If only I could get their attention somehow.
As we lift off the ground, they turn their attention towards the helicopter, but it’s too late. The helicopter turns, making it nearly impossible for them to see inside. All hope of being rescued fades. Not that they appeared to be on a rescue mission, anyway. With that realisation, a final stab of betrayal pierces through my heart.
THIRTY
*KACES POV*
A familiar yet startling scent jolts me from my sleep. My upper body thrusts itself upward as I tilt my head side to side, sniffing the air.
Am I dreaming? Is this real?
I rarely sleep anymore. Trying to find Whoopsie, hunting a ghost, and investigating corruption in the Hunters has become a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. When I finally get a chance to sleep, I’m plagued by nightmares. Nightmares so vivid that I struggle to differentiate what’s real from what isn’t. I even shifted in my sleep one night, and while still asleep walked through the pack house
, growling at several pack mates along the way. Fortunately, Jay was around to wake me up, although not before I planted my teeth into his arm.
I get out of bed and rush over to my closet, choosing to throw on a pair of boxers before I wander out of my room in chase of the scent—not only out of respect for the others staying at the pack house with me, but also because it's winter and there’s a permanent chill in the air. Following my nose, I make my way out of my room and into the hall.
The pack house is quiet tonight with several of our pack mates out on patrol. It’s easy to get people to volunteer the night patrol on nights when I’m at the house; word of my attack on Jay travelled fast.
As I approach the stairs, Jay walks out of his room with Bel right behind him, both also wearing nothing but undergarments. They follow me down the stairs without saying a word. It is like we’re all in a trance, being pulled towards something.
This wing of the pack house has three bedrooms on the upper floor for me, my family, and Jay, and three spare rooms for our guests on the lower floor. There’s also an office and a private living room on each floor. Jay, Bel, and I are the only ones staying in this wing, as my parents had to return overseas and it isn’t a good time to have guests with everything that’s going on. So, we don’t worry about running into anyone else as the scent carries us through our wing and out into the backyard.
If I had known we would head outside, I would’ve put on more than just boxers. The winter has been mild thus far, but there’s a foot of snow on the ground and tonight there is a chill in the air that nips at my flesh. These conditions wouldn’t affect my beast, but my human body doesn’t have a natural fur coat keeping it as warm. I combine my beast and human vision to help see through the misty, moonlight yard as small snowflakes float against my exposed skin, melting on contact.
I scan the yard as Blaze, Laze, Craze, and her so-called mate walk out of the trail from their house and towards us. They aren’t wearing any clothes at all and appear to be under the same spell.