by Sabrina Rue
“Push it out,” Juliette ordered sharply. “Shove it away.”
“I don’t want to,” Harmony’s Second said through gritted teeth. “I want to destroy them all for what they did.”
Justice walked to his sister’s side. “She took everything that boiled inside you.” The twins’ eyes met. “She helped you, Juliette. We need to help her.” Putting his arm around her shoulders, he said, “She’s family. We must keep her safe.”
They joined hands and each held a side of Desiree’s face. Their lips moved rapidly but they didn’t make a sound.
Throwing her head back, Desiree released the wailing cry of a Wolf in deep mourning. Throughout the compound, other Wolves joined her.
It went on and on as tears rushed over Hope’s cheeks.
The children stepped closer, their eyes glowing brightly as they stared into Desiree’s face. Then she collapsed between them and they held her up.
To a male in the doorway, Justice said, “Carry her back to the plane. Take two dozen men. Keep her warm.”
Talon nodded and the Were rushed inside to lift Desiree’s body while another wrapped her in her coat.
When they were gone, Justice took his sister’s hand. “Come meet our parents. It’s alright.”
Her steps were slow, cautious, as her eyes moved around the room to make sure it wasn’t a trap.
Less than two feet away, she stopped. “I-I’m cold.”
Talon shrugged off his jacket and leaned forward to wrap her in it. “The moment we land in Texas, we’ll make sure you’re clean, fed, and rested.” To the men behind him, he said, “Find her something we can put over her bare feet.”
“He meant to breed me.”
Hope sobbed. “I know. They tried with me, with my sister.”
“He beat me when I ran away, burned me if I didn’t find Mates for Packs who paid…”
“Never again, Juliette.” Slicing her palm, she whispered brokenly, “I will love you, keep you safe, even at the cost of my own life. I will never use you, never hurt you, never let another hurt you. I make this vow in blood and it binds us one to the other until my last breath.”
Talon cut his hand and bound himself to the vow.
Stepping closer, Juliette tightened her fingers around Justice’s hand. “You’ll be afraid of me…”
“No,” Hope and Talon said together.
“I can kill you…”
“You won’t,” Hope replied.
“You won’t have reason,” Talon added.
Edging closer still, she nicked her palm with her canines and placed it inside their joined hands. “A-alright.”
Hope pulled her into her arms and held her as tight as she could without hurting her. She held the coat around her as small arms and legs wrapped around her.
“Juliette.”
“I want all of you out of this slaughterhouse. Come.” Talon lifted them from the floor and scooped Justice into his arms. “Let’s go home.”
They walked through the compound as Weres watched them pass in silence.
Nodding to Ryker and Jax, he said, “I need to get them home.”
Ryker told him, “We’ll handle this. Parliament should arrive within hours. There will be questions.”
“They know where to find me. We’ll take Harmony and Desiree with us.” The other Alpha nodded. “Come to the compound when you wrap this up.”
Hope walked to Ryker and stared up at him with tears in her eyes. “Thank you for helping me get my little girl back.”
He smiled. “You’re family. It was a pleasure to fight with you, Hope.” Stroking his hand over Juliette’s head, he said, “Your mother will rest easier knowing you’re safe now.”
“Texas Pack will rest easier with my brother and me guarding you. All of you will be safer now.”
Blinking, Ryker murmured, “You and Justice make me anxious and excited to meet my own children.”
She put her hand over his. “Meet them now.”
They stood like that, still and silent, for almost a minute as tears welled in Ryker’s eyes.
She dropped her hand and laid her head on Hope’s shoulder.
“I’m so hungry, Mommy.”
Holding her close, Hope whispered at her ear, “This is the last time you’ll ever have to say that, darling.”
As they walked up the steps of the plane, Talon murmured, “Just remembered we darted your sister and she’s going to be pissed the fuck off. Please don’t let her kill us.”
Hope winked. “I’ll do my best.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Harmony didn’t kill Hope’s Mate but it was touch and go when she woke up and launched herself at him across the plane.
Strangely, it was Juliette who calmed her down by grabbing her aunt’s hand roughly and staring into her eyes for several minutes with a low growl.
It was simultaneously terrifying and fascinating to watch.
When Juliette let her go, Harmony started laughing. “Alright, you little badass. We’re gonna train so hard.”
Turning up her chin, Juliette mumbled, “I don’t care. If you want to, then I guess it will be fine.”
Grinning at Hope, Harmony dropped into a seat and started texting her Mates. There was no telling what she was threatening them with but she was clearly calm again.
Then the little girl crashed hard and when they landed at Talon’s compound, he led Hope to a bedroom with a small bathroom attached.
She didn’t want to let Juliette go.
Harmony held her nephew’s hand. “Justice can hang out with me. Ryker and Jax are about an hour behind us.”
Nodding, she watched Talon run a tub.
He kissed their daughter’s temple. “I’ll have their own rooms prepared across the hall from ours. One of the Pack mothers is bringing some of her daughter’s clothes until we know Juliette’s sizes and can shop for her.”
He removed several products as well as a wide-toothed comb. “We gathered a few things but we’ll get more.” Reaching into a tall cabinet, he took out towels.
“I’ll get Juliette cleaned up and rest with her until she’s able to eat more than what she had on the plane.”
Leaning forward, he kissed her lips. “Anything you need, I’ll see you have it, Mate. Make a list. Let me give you privacy.” One more kiss and he left the room, closing the door softly.
Sitting on the edge of the tub, Hope carefully removed her daughter’s soiled dress. She hugged her close. While the tub filled, she smoothed her long hair over her shoulder and stroked her hand down her bare back.
There was no difference between the twins’ backs.
Against her chest, her daughter said softly, “They’re always there…you can’t see them unless they’re open but they are.”
“Does it hurt?” Hope asked curiously.
“You know when you wake up in the morning and stretch your arms over your head?” She nodded. “That’s what it feels like when I extend them.”
“That sounds lovely.”
Sitting up, she said, “It is.”
“Is it amazing to fly? I used to dream about it when I was a little girl. At a conference I attended with my parents, a winged Daemon male landed on the stage and I was so jealous.”
“You were?”
“Oh yeah.”
“When I’m bigger, I can carry you, show you what it’s like.”
“Don’t worry about getting bigger. It’s happened too fast already. Stay little as long as you can, darling.” She kissed her forehead and reached to turn off the water.
Taking Juliette’s hand, she swished her fingers over the surface. “Tell me if it’s too hot.”
“It’s perfect.”
Turning on the edge, she lowered the little girl carefully into the tub and smiled when she sighed deeply.
“I’m going to detangle your hair while you relax. Tell me if I pull too hard with the comb.”
It took almost an hour to get the tangles out of the length and Hope kept adding more hot
water.
When she was done, she washed it and deep-conditioned it. Twisting it into a low bun, she poured body wash on a washcloth and said, “You scrub your skin while I check to see if Talon remembered a toothbrush.”
The second drawer she opened held a sealed toothbrush and a travel tube of paste. She waved it at the little girl.
“We’ll stock up on things together.”
Tilting her head, Juliette asked, “Outside…of the compound?”
“If there was a general store on the compound that also had books, I’d probably never want to leave.” Sighing, she returned to the tub to rinse away the conditioner. “All clean now.”
“You’re going to…take me places?”
Stilling, Hope frowned. “Of course. Your aunt lives hours away and I know we’ll visit often. There are places I always wanted to take Justice but it was too dangerous. Now, we can all go together.”
Pulling up her knees, Juliette wrapped her arms around them. “I’ve only ever been to the two houses in Montana. In the first one, I could smell you and Aunt Harmony.”
The pain that arced through Hope’s chest was pure agony. “You were in our old house?”
She nodded. “I liked it there. More than the other place. I was the only kid except Hound but he wasn’t allowed to be around me.”
“Hound? What a horrible name…”
“The boy Gregor told me would sire my children. He was treated horribly by most of the Pack but he was nice to me. He wasn’t my Mate. I told him and he already knew.”
“Where is he now?”
“You didn’t find him?”
“I…”
“What about the women? They aren’t Weres but…they’re very sick and some of them are pregnant.” Lifting her head, she asked, “Did they get them out of the cellars?”
With a rising sense of dread, Hope blinked. “What cellars?” She wasn’t sure about the rescues that took place when they left the Montana property with the children.
“Oh no. I need to get out and get dressed.” Inhaling, she added, “You…should step back, Mommy.”
She stood in the tub and extended her wings. Vibrating them at a high speed sprayed water everywhere but the brilliant white feathers tipped in emerald green were clean and fluffy when she went still.
Kneeling in front of her, Hope reaching out to touch one of her wings. It was soft and downy.
“Beautiful, darling. Just…beautiful.”
“Th-thank you, Mommy.”
Hope dried her hair and brushed it quickly, braiding it down her back the way she and Harmony used to do for each other.
Wrapping her in a warm towel, she picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, closing the door to the hall so she could get dressed in the clothes someone had left on the bed.
“It’s warmer in Texas but we’ll get you the right clothes in the right sizes as soon as we can.”
The pair of leggings, a t-shirt with a halter neckline that left her upper back bare, and sneakers were a little big but they were better than the scrap of material she’d been wearing when they found her.
“Better?” she asked with a smile.
“Better. I need answers. Can you help me?”
“Let’s go, darling.” Holding hands, they left the bedroom and Hope realized she didn’t know where to go. “Um…”
“Lost, Hope?” Harmony said from a doorway at the end of the hall. “You always forget to use your nose, ho.”
They approached and Hope said, “I would have gotten to it.”
Going down on one knee, her twin grinned at Juliette. “You clean up pretty good. Everyone is gonna want to fatten you up. Are you prepared for that?”
“Mm hmm.” Looking up, she said, “We have to hurry, Mommy. I need to know about Hound and the ladies.”
Frowning, Harmony stepped back and gestured into the room. “Then this is the group you need to talk to.”
Walking into what looked like a modern art museum, Talon smiled at them from behind an expansive glass desk.
Ryker and Jax sat in chairs in front of it.
“Hope. Juliette, how rested you look.”
“It’s okay to say clean. I was gross.” He chuckled. “I need to talk to you.”
“Of course.”
Justice sat on the edge of his desk chewing a piece of beef jerky like a cow while swinging his feet. He held out a piece to his sister and she sniffed it with a puzzled expression.
Leaning against Hope’s leg, she took it.
“Delicious, you’ll like it.” She took a bite and nodded. He grinned at her. “I found the cellars last night before Mommy and me came to you. Jax got them out. They’re here with us.”
“The women need to stay here.” She looked between Talon and Ryker. “They can’t be around the males. It’s important.”
All of them frowned and started to speak. She held up her hand. “They’re all human Mates. When Gregor got bored, he’d make me find them. A-after he let them be h-hurt by his men, he’d wait to see if they could have their babies. Many of them died and the babies, too.”
Taking a deep breath, she added, “He said their Mates could be found for a price when he made sure they didn’t serve any use for him. We have to protect them.”
Talon stood. “Will you know for sure that we found them all?”
She nodded. “Wh-what about Hound?”
“Who?”
“The boy Gregor kept as a pet. H-he was badly beaten the last time I escaped because he let me out.”
Ryker’s voice was dangerous. “They called him Hound?”
“He didn’t know his real name but I told him what it was. Gregor beat me badly for it but I didn’t care.”
“What’s his real name, sweetheart?” Hope asked softly.
“Slade.” There were gasps around the room. “His human mother named him before she bled to death giving birth.”
Meeting Harmony’s eyes, she growled. “Cast out and rescued, enslaved, and abused.”
Harmony growled, “Slade…I don’t understand.”
“Sired after Grandmother’s death. Born after Grandfather’s. He tried to stop his pain, his grief, but it didn’t work. He missed Journey too much. He didn’t know about the child.”
Justice’s eyes glowed. “I regret not killing Gregor.”
Snarling at her brother, Juliette yelled, “You didn’t kill him?”
“Parliament took him into custody, Juliette. We started a war in their territory and Montana Pack no longer has an Alpha,” Ryker explained. “They’re interrogating him. There’s still much we don’t know.”
Practically vibrating, the little girl hissed, “I can tell you whatever you need to know. He’ll get away. Don’t you understand he’ll get away? Where is my uncle?” The power dimmed and surged. “You left him in Montana?”
Juliette’s eyes glowed. “I told him Slade was my uncle, that he had a Mate, but he said he’d make sure the Kassis line was tainted in a way no one could wash away and maybe get a few more freaks out of the deal.”
Her wings extended and she lifted into the center of the room. “I’ll locate him. You bring him here and keep him safe. He’s family. Blood of the Kassis line and the only ally I had in Gregor’s prison.”
Arms straight at her sides, her wings beat softly as her canines extended and her eyes grew brighter. Head thrown back, she stared at the ceiling.
Hope watched in fascination as every adult in the room froze to stare at the obvious exhibition of power by her ethereal daughter.
Justice leapt from Talon’s desk and grabbed the heavy chandelier above them. Dangling from one arm, he placed his palm on his sister’s forehead. She emitted actual heat into the room.
Suddenly laughing, the girl flew from the room faster than any of them realized was possible and Justice transitioned away.
Not a word of warning.
“Move it, slow bitches!” Harmony hauled ass for the closest exterior exit and Hope followed her. She knew their Mates we
re behind them.
Hope was getting really tired of all the physical running and fighting bullshit. She wondered if she’d ever get a chance to take a fucking soak and maybe a nap.
She didn’t remember the last time she’d read a book. With family like hers, chances for rest seemed pretty damn unlikely.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Harmony left all the adults in the dust, of course.
Hope skidded through the back door of Talon’s home and couldn’t see her children or her sister.
“Where are they?” Looking around, she screamed, “Justice! Get back here this instant and tell me what’s happening!”
Her son materialized in front of her in a swirl of smoke and sparks. “Hey, Mommy!”
“Cute will not save you. What’s going on?”
“Oh! Yeah, Juliette found our uncle. Cool, right?”
Crouching in front of him, Hope struggled for calm. “Where’s your sister? Where’s my sister?”
She shook her head. “You can’t do this, Justice. You can’t act like we’re still living crazy and on the run. There are people who care about you, more than just me, and you can’t just transition away without telling us what’s happening!”
“You’re yelling, Mommy. You only yell when you’re scared.” He stepped closer and cupped her face in his small hands.
“It’s okay. He’s on the other side of that canyon.” He pointed to the west. “He tracked Juliette to make sure she was safe.”
“We’re having a family talk about this crap. I’m tired of running all over the place!”
Talon slammed to a halt in front of them in a rugged SUV. “Climb in, Mate.”
“You beautiful man. Seriously.” Jumping in the passenger side, Justice climbed in the back. “I swear, I don’t have the energy for this anymore.”
He chuckled and put it in gear once Ryker and Jax were seated on either side of Justice.
They sped across the plains and Hope thought that it had a beauty unique to the area. It was teeming with wildlife.
As they crested a small slope, she murmured, “Uh oh.”
Harmony and a young man who looked to be a teenager but Hope knew was much younger were fighting, kicking up dust, and growling at each other.