by Jana Leigh
Kade stepped forward. “We just got here as well, only about a week ago. We are still setting shit up, trying to figure out who we are missing. Hell, until recently we didn’t even remember who we were.”
“The spell?” Stephan grinned. “Yeah, I finally figured that out when I was meeting people who kept reminding me we had met before. Large chunks of blank spots. Anyway, I woke up, Sadie was there, she seemed way more confused than I was. I think they had her longer.”
“How much longer?” Kade asked.
Stephan looked at Kade intently and said quietly, “When she passed out in the parking lot I was looking her over for injuries, and she has scars.”
“Impossible,” Cherri said, “if she is a shifter too.”
“Yeah, I know,” Stephan said seriously. “But they are there, see for yourself.”
Cherri paused and then looked over her shoulder where Calli had just re-entered the room. She raised an eyebrow and Cherri motioned with her head. Calli walked to the corner where the woman was still unconscious, although mumbling and seemingly dreaming, because she was flinching. The alpha female pulled up the woman’s sleeve and gasped, holy shit, her arms were a fucking mess, scar upon scar.
Calli leaned down and inhaled, what the hell was going on, she stood abruptly and turned to Cherri. “Has anyone been near her?”
Kade shook his head and looked at his mate. “No, Cherri was getting info, what’s up?”
“Something wrong, very very wrong,” Calli muttered.
Cherri frowned and then said, “What is up?”
“Come here.”
Cherri grabbed her gloves and peeled them off, Kade walked over and Stephan hopped off the table and followed. Calli stepped back a little and then said to her friends, “Sniff, what do you scent?”
The trio did as Calli asked and Stephan nodded and said, “Sadie, I know it is her, she was my best friend when we were young.”
“Yeah, that is not the issue.” Calli frowned.
Cherri frowned and stood. “Yeah, I would guess he is right. I mean, I am not sure or anything.”
“Shit, am I the only one who is getting this?” Calli snapped and her mate grinned at her.
“Babe, love you, but since the whole pregnancy thing, you have like a super sniffer. I don’t get it either,” Kade said.
“Jeez, none of you read your emails, do you?” Calli snapped. “Fine, let me spell it out for you. Trina has been sending emails to us all about each one of the Chosen and the Senate as she finds out more about them in the history files. She started with all of us first cause yeah, she knew we wanted to know when siblings started showing up. Anyways, Sadie aka one of two children born to Kira, Dalton, and Blaine; the other being a male named Brodie.”
“Yep, you are right, well about Sadie and Brodie that is,” Stephan said and laughed. “They only had the two, Uncle Dalton chased them constantly after they learned to pop, he said it was all he could handle.”
“And, what are you saying?” Cherri said and Calli sighed and shook her head.
“I am stapling shit to your forehead from now on,” Calli said and Stephan snorted.
“I so missed this,” Stephan said.
“Not for long,” Kade laughed.
Calli hit her mate in the stomach and continued. “Seriously,” she snapped. “Sabrina is from Kira, Blaine and Dalton. I may be wrong, but her scent doesn’t match this woman’s.”
Stephan shook his head, “I don’t know who this chick, Sabrina, is. But seriously, this is Sadie, and unless Brodie had a sex change, which I seriously doubt because he was a male whore, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Not possible,” Cherri snapped. “Sabrina has been with us since the get-go, she is one of the Drekinn. But Calli is right, their scents are different.”
Kade frowned. “Needless to say, we need to figure this out.”
“Oh we will, our moms are on their way, maybe they can shed some light on this,” Calli snapped. “And I swear on all that is holy if they are keeping something from us, I will kill them, no matter who the fuck they are.”
“Moms?” Stephan grinned.
“Shit, sorry,” Kade said, running his head down his face. “We need to talk. There is a lot of shit you don’t know.”
“Obviously,” Stephan snorted. “At least tell me if Mom and Dads are on their way.”
Calli sighed louder and whispered, “I am so kicking her ass.”
“Who?” Stephan said.
“Dammit,” Calli ground out. “My mother.”
“Aunt Jo?” Stephan laughed.
“Excuse me?” Calli said, straightening up.
Stephan looked at her with a confused expression. “Uh, I know I am nuts, ‘cause belonging to my family and all this makes you like certifiable. But you have remembered some right, like names and scents, they came back to me first. I swear I thought I was crazy, especially when I was freaking sitting in a meeting and it was like I was hit over the head with a sledge hammer. I was sick, and then when I made it to the bathroom, I saw the mark on my arm and I knew. Hope, she met her mates, right? That is why I got my mark?”
Kade nodded slowly and Stephan grinned. “Where is she? Shit, I can’t believe how much I missed you guys. It is like coming home.”
“Stephan,” Calli said warily and his gaze snapped to her. “How much do you remember?”
He frowned and said, “Well not a lot, I figured…”
Kade shook his head. “Come on, the moms will be here soon, I will try to fill you in before they get here.”
Sabrina looked at her friend and grimaced. She needed to get up. Slowly she pulled herself up until she was sitting, ignoring Kiki as he ranted while pacing, not paying attention to her at all. Cameron was staring at her intently with his almost black eyes that kinda freaked her out. He was a hybrid; she had figured out that much of it.
“Kiki,” Sabrina snapped and her friend paused. “Where is Trina?”
Kiki stopped and then looked at Sabrina and said, “Working, Calli and Kade asked her to find something, she is in the stacks.”
Sabrina nodded, “Well, I need to get outta here. So tell them I will be at my house for now.” Suddenly she felt an extreme desire to get out of here. It was strange but she felt it in her bones she needed to leave.
Cameron stood and shook his head. “The Alphas want you here.”
Sabrina pushed down her panic, and shook her head, “I need.”
Kiki frowned, “Babe, I have fresh clothes and…”
“No!” Sabrina barked and Kiki’s eyebrows went up.
“Settle down, babe, let me just…”
Sabrina shook her head and got up off the table, she was acting out of character but it was as if her body knew she wasn’t supposed to be here. It was wild. She looked around panicked, she felt heat rising in her face. She couldn’t stand it, none of it, what the fuck was wrong with her? Sabrina panicked, looked around and saw the window. She needed out of here, she couldn’t stay.
With a growl she began to move and Cameron and Kiki both went into action, converging on her from two separate sides. She screamed, why she didn’t know but she was a mess of emotions, scared, angry, sad, wary, what the fuck was all she could think when Kiki took her down to the ground.
“Get Cherri,” Kiki yelled and held tight, Sabrina didn’t care they were friends, nothing was penetrating but the need to get out of here. She fought, but Kiki held firm.
Cameron ran to the door and opened it and yelled loudly, “Fuck, someone get Cherri!”
Sabrina bucked and her Alphas ran in the room. “Sabrina?” Calli snapped and she turned and glared at her friend, a friend no longer, all she could think of was danger. She was in danger, none of these people understood.
“Fuck you,” she growled at Kade who tried to use his Alpha power to control her, she laughed loudly. She heard her own voice and got scared, wow, her head was gonna spin around soon, she could feel it.
Cherri,” Kiki yelled as he fought
Sabrina. Cherri ran in with a syringe. Sabrina’s eyes widened and she knew they were going to kill her so she fought. Kade and Cameron fell on her right when she flung Kiki off and across the room. They wrestled until she felt the prick of a needle in her neck and she froze and turned.
“You bitch,” she muttered and then her eyes rolled up in her head and she dropped.
“Yeah, well, like I haven’t heard that before,” Cherri said.
“Who the fuck turned her rabid?” Calli demanded loudly as she helped Kiki to his feet.
“Not sure, close encounters of the fucked up kind, babe,” Kiki said.
“Shit,” Kade said, standing up. “Is there something in the fucking water here or what?”
“My mother better have some answers or we are so out of here,” Calli said.
Chapter Seven
She was floating, damn, it was the best she had felt in years, no pain, nothing. Sadie wanted to stay here forever, it was safe and she was certain that here nothing would ever hurt her again, not Rebekka, not Damen. Nothing.
Sadie let the soothing breeze float over her as she thought back, there wasn’t a time it seemed she hadn’t been in pain. The tests, the doctors, the injections. Sadie had no idea why, she wasn’t told. Over the years she had come to accept her place in life, the people who had been assigned to care for her were killed when she had just turned eighteen, striking out on her own had been scary but Sadie had been so determined back then. What a fool she was, three weeks later she had answered an ad that changed her life, and not in a good way.
“Sadie,” she heard and fought whoever was trying to force her back to where she didn’t want to be. “Come on, sweetie, time to open those pretty eyes.”
“Mom?” Sadie whispered and she felt someone grab her hand. Sadie wanted to cling to the feeling of her mom.
“Shhhhhh,” her mom whispered. “Not too loud, your dads are here too. Come on, honey, wake up”
“Don’t wanna,” Sadie muttered and sank into the bed she knew she was in. Her parents, they were dead. If she was hearing them, then she was dead too so she could sleep, it felt awesome. She didn’t want to go over the past again, it served no purpose.
“Come on, pretty girl,” she heard a male voice grumble, one of her dads, she could feel him.
“Dad?” Sadie whispered.
“What did they do to my baby?” he whispered and she grimaced. This was not cool; she was not going to finally get reunited with her parents so she could have them feel regret.
“We have to hurry,” her mom whispered. “Baby girl, please.”
Sadie moved her head and moaned, she needed to get back to them, wherever they were. “That’s it,” one of her dads said and she grinned, he was always so encouraging, she missed him, desperately, both of her dads would have gone ballistic if they saw what had been done to her. And her mother would have left no stone unturned and left a wake of dead bodies.
“Help,” Sadie whispered and her mom kissed her on the forehead.
“Your mates are here, wake up; they will help I promise.”
Sadie frowned, mates? She had mates? No way, she pushed and struggled with her memory, she would have remembered, mates were the most important thing. She didn’t have mates, she remembered being in the office, shit, Stephan, she knew him.
She heard noises, thumping, yelling, what was going on? She needed to get out of here. “We need to go,” one of her dads said and she heard her mom sniff. Dammit, she hated it when her mom cried.
“But she needs us,” her mom whispered.
“Jo will take care of her, come on, I know it sucks, but we gotta go,” her dad said again.
“Come on, she is safe now, we will make sure she is taken care of,” her other dad said.
“I love you,” her mom whispered in her ear and she felt her kiss her cheek gently. Then she felt both of her dads kiss her on the forehead. She missed them, Sadie really wanted to go with them.
Then she was suddenly alone. She frowned in her sleep, dammit she liked that dream, maybe it would come back. She relaxed but didn’t fall back into unconsciousness, no she listened, there were noises but not many, people moving and talking outside the room she was in.
Sadie thought about her mom and dads, she loved them so much, her whole family. Brodie, her brother who drove her nuts but she adored him anyway. Where was he? They had spilt up when their parents died, why? She couldn’t remember, she just knew he was out there somewhere.
Someone opened the door and she sucked in a breath.
“She is awake?” someone muttered and came to her side, was this a dream? It didn’t make sense, what was happening?
“Sadie?” she heard a female say and then someone touched her wrist. Sadie struggled again, she opened her eyes and blinked because of the light, shit that hurt.
“A spell broken and rebounded, hon,” the female whispered. “Come on, wake up and you will see. Right about now you are probably disoriented.”
Sadie turned her gaze and saw a gorgeous woman standing next to her. Wow, she was seriously pretty, Sadie wanted to laugh, how long had it been since she had actually felt like laughing. People crowded in the room and she frowned. They were familiar, but she didn’t know them. Shit, her eyes widened, yeah she did, this was the Drekinn, Rebekka had been hunting them for a long time. And all of them were right here, in front of her. How was that possible?
“Sadie?” Stephan said to her left side and she turned. The panic in her eyes must have been noticed because she heard someone say.
“Give her breathing room.”
“I...um, hey?” she said and knew she turned red, Sadie did not like attention, she had been used to deliberately not seeking it at all.
Stephan smiled, shook his head, and leaned over, then whispered, “Sadie, you know everyone here. All of them are here because you are here. You came home, it is time to celebrate.”
She frowned and looked at him intently. “They don’t know.”
Stephan frowned and said, “What don’t they know?’
Sadie looked over his shoulder and leaned closer to Stephan and shook her head, tears gathering. They would hate her, all of them, Sadie had personally sent out the wanted posters on these people. Even if they currently seemed to know her, and she felt some kind of connection with them, it was strange, almost like she was living in a strange parallel universe, basically she was panicking.
“Come on now,” the gorgeous female said. “My name is Cherri, and the rest of these people are,” and she introduced all of them. Stephan was chuckling when she said the names out loud. “What?” the woman snapped.
“It’s just those are not your birth names,” Stephan said and the woman frowned and said.
“Come again?”
“Your names, the ones you are using are the ones we all made up. Don’t you remember?” he said and they all shook their heads, Stephan grinned bigger. “Seriously, how could you forget? Well, take that back, you could forget, they used the spell on us, now, I don’t know everything mind you, just bits and pieces I put together, little notes everyone left, you know. But anyways, the names Rissa, Cherri, Kade, it was a game we played when we were young. The one Uncle Lagon taught us. I am sure they made a game out of the whole protection thing they were worried about, but anyways, we all chose a name, it was the name we were to use if something happened and we needed help, that’s when we used the name. We called our parents and said our friend needed help. If a stranger asked us our name, we used our fake one. Mine was Harvey and Sadie’s was Sabrina.” Stephan laughed. “We loved that teen show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
The room went silent, not one sound and Stephan looked up and around and frowned. “What? Hey, my legal name is Harvey, check that shit out, I did what they said but the publicists at the corporation told me to use my middle name. Not my fault, they wanted a poster boy for the corporation.”
Sadie froze, the tension crackled in the air, what in the hell happened? She didn’t like where she was, l
aying down, it made her vulnerable. Slowly, because no one was looking at her, she slid to the ground. Slowly she righted herself and found herself with Stephan on one side of the table with the others opposite of them. She searched the people’s faces, most of them intently staring at Stephan, while two men, twins in the hallway really, eyes were locked on her. Shit, she thought, trying to pull her eyes away but knowing it was impossible. Mates.
Rayne and Storm heard the commotion in the room next to them. Rissa had completely ignored the noises like they were normal, but the twins had been worried, especially when they heard Sabrina screaming. That had finally stopped Rissa, apparently the screaming of the terrified kind was not normal here.
“What the fuck?” Rissa said as she paused her interrogation of the twins.
Simon stood and went to the door, all the activity drew him into the hallway and Rissa followed, but not before turning and glaring at them and saying, “Stay here, or Simon will release his psycho side and chop you both up.”
They both rolled their eyes, if they had figured out nothing else, it was Rissa was a little nuts in an adorable kinda way, and Simon was a badass who they didn’t really feel like fucking with.
“How long do you think they are gonna keep us here?” Rayne said out of the side of his mouth.
“Well, I have no clue but the others are going to start to wonder soon,” Storm said with a shrug.
“We don’t leave without our mate,” Rayne said quietly.
“That goes without saying. She is not staying here with these weirdos, I don’t give two shits who they are. Right now, she is all that matters, something was wrong with her,” Storm snapped.
“The other one, the girl who we thought was our mate. How could that be?” Rayne whispered.
“It was a spell, when it was broken by seeing our real mate, I could feel the backlash of the spell,” Storm said slowly. “Whoever did it is gonna die, that spell was made to fuck with us. If we hadn’t met our mate, we would have claimed her and it would have killed our mate.”