by Erin R Flynn
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There is no such thing as a victimless crime. If you truly believe that, you’ve never been a victim. And the victims aren’t only the authors, but the fans who lose authors that quit over our constantly being stolen from and mistreatment. Mistreating the authors that write the books you like or read—not liking them isn’t an excuse for theft, it’s just extra weird then—that’s not a fan. Fans leave reviews to support. Fans send messages of love. Fans… Well fans are nice. Be nice.
There are lots of ways to fight eBook piracy, reporting the site even if you’re not the copyright holder is always a good option. If you want to help in the fight, Google it and you can see there are many ways.
Division Chief Seraphine Thomas got the greatest gift and kicked in the teeth all by the same person she never thought she’d see again. This time she might truly hit her limit of what she can handle, but unlike for most of her life, she isn’t alone to weather the raging storm. Plus, it’s amusing when she’s not the only one freaking out and others lose it as well.
It brings up old issues that put Sera on the outs with her wolf and not the time for things to spin out in her territory… Even if she’s not allowed to handle all of Chicago’s problems. But Sera likes a challenge, and finding a way around the red tape to help is what she’s best at.
She’s pushed back and from several sides, and given she’s always getting crap about starting trouble, maybe it’s time she actually start some trouble to cut off the problems she foresees coming and save lives. And if she gets a chance to enjoy it and spank some people, all the better, right?
Seraphine Thomas is a crime series filled with Chicago attitude and a strong heroine that pushes what most would think a female lead capable of, along with the heat being involved with several men brings while trying to figure out what she wants.
1
A few weeks after the convention and all the crazy of Vlad’s funeral, and things were almost back to normal. I wasn’t up to feeding in the siren show, but I was getting energy from them, as it was a deeper feed and it wouldn’t be glaringly obvious when I did the show because I couldn’t keep up with them. Still, it was progress, and most importantly, my strength had quickly come back.
I wasn’t fully myself, but I was damn close, and it was motivating to keep going and stick with the plan. Really motivating.
There was some confusion when I was leaving the club with my security detail, as there were late deliveries since dinner was almost finished. I’d gotten held up, so they decided to bring the vehicles to the back instead of going through the garage when the club was so busy, but now we were hurrying to get out of the way.
“Seraphine, we need to talk,” a male voice called above all the hustle and clanking of crates.
I froze, someone bumping into me when I did, but I ignored him and everyone else around me, knowing that voice. It had been over twenty years since I’d heard it, but I still had nightmares and memories of hearing it and that exact phrase that always meant I was in trouble. I turned and locked eyes with the man.
The man with the same eyes I used to have before I had become a wolf.
I headed towards him, ignoring what my security was saying, instead noting how the years had not been kind. I stopped a few feet in front of him. “What could you ever have to speak with me about, Dad?”
“Oh shit,” Emilio whispered from behind me.
Clayton Thomas looked over my shoulder and then back at me. “It’s private.”
“They’ll still hear if they walk a few blocks away.”
Anger I remembered well filled his eyes, and it took everything I had not to react. I wasn’t that little girl anymore, and this man might have been my parent once, but I was Alena and Zeno’s daughter now. This was just a man I shared DNA with.
“They can still pretend and give us some space,” he replied.
I nodded, waving them back a bit when I felt how scared he was. “What do you want, Clayton?”
He flinched at that, but what did he really expect? He let out a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his hair like he always used to when he was tired. Except he would use both hands normally, and it made me realize he was carrying something now that I was calmer.
And that “something” had a heartbeat. I wasn’t so calm after that.
I swallowed loudly and met his gaze after glancing at what looked like a baby carrier. “Where’s Mom?”
“Your mother left me a long time ago,” he muttered, not looking happy to have to admit that. “We lost the baby she was pregnant with, and she blamed me and my genes.”
I couldn’t hide my shock. “You knew what I was. You treated me like a freak, and yet you knew.”
He sneered at me. “Of course I knew. You’re just as crazy and weird as my old man. You got that gene and—”
“It skips a generation, so it was blind luck it wasn’t you,” I cut in, my tone cold. “You knew and left me for something you knew about and wasn’t my fault. You win world’s worst father, so I’d be—”
“It’s like you,” he snapped, that anger coming back, and my dad had a horrible temper. I eased down though, swallowing my own valid rage. “I can’t do it. I want out.”
“Out? Where is the mother?”
“My wife died giving birth to it.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Here I find someone like me, and after everything I went through, I thought it was a new start, a new life I finally deserve. But no, it’s another freak, and it kills her. I want out.” His eyes had more than anger in them but also the desperation I’d seen on the job too many times. He was about to have a breakdown.
“I’ll take him,” I said, holding out my hand for the carrier, able to smell the baby was a boy.
His eyes flashed shock, but then he frowned. “No, you have a crap ton of money. I mean I want out. I want to just retire on a beach somewhere and—”
“She’s not paying for—” Reagan started to argue but stopped when I held up my hand.
It was too late though. He’d set off my dad’s temper. “I’ll lose him in the system, and you’ll never see him. You won’t even be able to get him through the courts as a new werewolf or whatever freak you are now. No one would ever give you a child.”
I swallowed my own response and nodded. “Fine, twenty million. Give me the baby, and I can give you more than that in untraceable gems. Let me check the baby is okay, and I’ll give you that and let you disappear.” He opened his mouth to argue. “Or I could just take him because I am that fast, so don’t piss me off, Clayton.”
“Fine,” he grumbled, handing me the carrier. The second I had it and the baby was safe, I passed him back to Reagan and grabbed my dad, glad I still was in my work clothes because I had cuffs. “What are you doing?” He struggled against me as I slapped on the cuffs, but I put my hand over his mouth so we didn’t draw more attention.
“You just tried to sell your child to a division chief of the FBI. Are you like fucking stupid?” I hissed, easily dragging him over to the SUV. I met Emilio’s gaze. “Call Orson to get the plane ready and take us to the apartment.”
He gave a slow nod, obviously confused but not about to argue. Reagan hopped into my SUV, sitting in the very back with the carrier and noddin
g to me that everything was fine.
I waited until we were loaded up and moving before taking my hand off Clayton’s mouth. “Listen carefully to me because you have three choices here. One, I arrest you as FBI and you risk what they might do to you, knowing you’re my biological father and someone from the government was party to trying to live dissect me recently, so I’m sure they’ll do the same or worse to you until your human heart gives out.”
His eyes went wide with fear as his heart raced too fast, and I knew he understood the mistake he’d made popping his head up. I was grateful so I could protect my brother, but yeah, big mistake for Clayton, and I wasn’t even done yet.
“Two, I send you to the Shifter Council for blackmailing an Alpha and threatening my sibling even if he is your child, as that falls under that protection.”
Reagan snorted. “That won’t end well. How many people have you put in there? Human and paranormals. There has to be hundreds already. Or the council will use him as a bargaining chip. Too many are interested in your gifts and will milk him like a stud horse or worse.”
I nodded that I felt the same, keeping Clayton’s gaze. “Or you agree to give me full custody, and I send you to Greece where my real family is. You can retire on a house arrest, and I don’t give a fuck if there’s a beach or whatever, but they will also keep you from being any more threat to me. But be sure not to piss them off because I promise they will be happy to eat you.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “I don’t think you’re giving me much of a choice if you’re already saying to get your plane ready.”
“You want the other two options or a chance at something better than a lab rat and abused?” I asked, not even flinching at his words. “Tell me everything I need to know besides his mother had clairvoyant blood genes too, and I’ll let you retire in Greece somewhere nice as long as you don’t start trouble. I don’t care about you, but they will use you, and I’m not about to let you hurt me or my brother any more than you have.”
“Greece, fine, Greece,” he muttered moments before we pulled up at the apartment building. “It’s like you. That’s all I know besides it was puking up the formula.” He sighed when I didn’t reply. “It’s four days old and already gives me the same looks you did. It’s like you.”
I nodded, seconds from blowing my top that he kept calling his son “it.” What an asshole, so much worse than I’d even remembered. Then again, he’d called me “the problem” from most of my memories.
I looked at Reagan when we pulled into the parking garage. “I need you to go to Greece with Orson. Please. Call when you’re in the air, but don’t discuss this. People will want him, and I have to figure out how to handle this.”
“Whatever you need,” he agreed. “Carter can get his car and stuff, and we’ll figure it all out later.”
I nodded, that was smart. We parked, and Orson came jogging over with a bag. I nodded for him to talk to Reagan as I pulled out my phone and texted Brian, asking where he was. He answered almost immediately that he was at his parents’. That might actually be perfect with all the heightened hearing in the building.
I texted him to stay there and I was coming to him before focusing back on what was going on. I grabbed Reagan’s arm after taking the carrier from him. “I want it clear that he doesn’t become one of us. If he misbehaves, drown him for all I care, but he cannot become one of us.”
“Got it. I love you,” he whispered, giving me a gentle kiss. “It’s going to be okay.”
I gave him a look of yeah right and thanked Orson. I didn’t even say goodbye to Clayton, watching as they stuffed him in Orson’s car and pulled out. Once they were gone, I glanced at Emilio. “I need Brian. He’s at his parents’.”
“I know where that is,” he told me, giving me a worried look.
I couldn’t even blame him, getting into my SUV and holding the carrier protectively. I finally glanced down and saw blue eyes like the ones I used to have looking back at me. I had no idea what to do, but I swallowed my panic and slid my finger in his hand, thinking that was something people did with babies. It seemed to help or he was already tired because his eyes closed again and his breathing deepened.
Brian’s parents lived on the West side not too far from the loop, so it took about ten minutes to get there given traffic was light on 290. I was in shock because even if it was quick, I felt like I blinked and we were pulling up front. The second my SUV was in park, I got out with the carrier, careful not to jar the baby.
“I don’t even know his name,” I whispered, my breathing picking up.
Brian was standing in the doorway when I reached the porch. He gave me a worried look but moved aside for me. “Sera, what’s going on? You’re as pale as can be, and you look like you’re going to vomit.” He glanced down at what I was carrying. “Are you holding a baby?”
I bobbed my head, moving in the house further so the baby was in the AC since it was still warm at night. “My dad just tried to sell me my half-brother. I don’t know his name. He kept calling him ‘it.’ I don’t think he has a name. He’s spitting up the formula. He’s on a plane to Greece because they’d make him a lab rat. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do this time, Bri.”
“Okay, okay, calm down, and I missed half of that,” he whispered, taking the carrier from me when I started pacing. “So we get soy formula, right?”
I gave him a look like he was nuts. “I don’t know. I have no fucking clue what to do for a baby. I don’t know how to change a diaper. He’s four days old, and I have no fucking clue what I’m supposed to do. He’s like me. His mother was like my dad. He’s going to be more powerful than me. Do you get it? He’s like me.”
“Then you’re the perfect person to help him,” Grammy Havers said firmly, and I’d forgotten she lived with Brian’s parents, both of them also staring at me with wide eyes.
“I shouldn’t even be around a baby as a new wolf,” I rasped, totally about to lose my shit. “He came back after twenty years to sell me my brother and still hates me. He knew what I was and left me to deal with it alone because I was crazy like his dad.”
“Oh dear, okay, we need to focus on the child,” Mrs. Havers said. She let out a yelp, and I turned to see what was wrong. I moved in front of Brian and my brother but then eased down when I saw what it was.
Or more who it was. The haze in the corner of the room slowly turned into Dain, and then he blinked at me. “You called me.”
“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry,” I whispered, fisting my hair.
“You are panicking and terrified. What is happening, my love?” He moved to me and grabbed my shoulders. “Sera, what has happened? You’re spiraling.”
“Her dad showed up,” Brian explained, but instead I moved Dain’s fingers to my temple and thought about what had happened, showing him.
He nodded when I was done. “It’ll be okay, I promise.” He hugged me and quickly filled in the others as I started to get shocky again.
The baby let out a wail, and I pulled away from Dain, crouching down to see him in the carrier. “What do we do? How do we do this? He probably needs to eat. Clayton was calling him an ‘it,’ so I doubt he was doing much, and I don’t know where he even came from.”
Dain squatted next to me and touched the baby before pulling out his phone. “He’s jaundiced. We need to call the doctor.”
“Oh god, tell me I didn’t just like kill him by coming here,” I whispered in horror.
Dain shook his head, but the doctor answered.
“It’s very common with newborns, Sera,” Mrs. Havers assured me. I hoped she was right about that.
“The child is—” Dain said, but I snatched the phone away and put it on mute. “What?”
“We can’t tell people,” I whispered, fear choking me again. “Dain, who would want this baby? The government? They want me. It’s why I sent Clayton away. What if people call DCFS to get him away from the new werewolf? Someone could try for him tomorrow. What do we do?
”
“He’s the child of a second cousin of Brian’s,” Grammy Havers said firmly. “We have family that lives all over. A second cousin had a baby, and the mother didn’t live, and he gave him to Brian because he couldn’t handle a newborn.” I opened my mouth to argue, but she shook her head. “Others will know the child is human, right?”
“They will,” Dain agreed. “I was going to say a cousin from your mother’s side because some can smell he’s related to Sera. If custody is signed over to you the right way, it doesn’t matter, Sera. If you’re named the guardian, then that’s it. I will handle this. I promise I will handle this. For now, no one needs to know anything, and the doc won’t ask questions beyond what he should.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, realizing I was messing everything up in my panic. I glanced at the Haverses and winced. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, you’re always welcome here, and we will help however we can,” Grammy Havers said firmly before looking at Brian. “Call us and let us know.”
“Of course.” He shook his head when I tried to take back the carrier, and I reacted like he slapped me. “Sera, you’re panicking. I know you won’t hurt him. Just breathe a moment.”
“There’s no car seat. I wanted to protect him,” I explained.
“I can take more damage,” Emilio said gently as he traded the carrier for the keys. “Let’s get to the hospital. Dain, call whomever and start getting a list of what people should pick up from Target since we have that twenty-four hour one.”
“I can’t be a mom,” I whispered as spots formed in my vision. “I’ll mess him up.”
“We all feel that way,” Grammy Havers assured me.
That didn’t help, and I felt myself start to faint, Dain catching me in time and carrying me to the door. “You’ve had way too many stresses for this, but we will handle it. It will be okay, I promise, Sera. You can do this.”
I heard him, but I was dead weight until we reached the SUV, and then I was only dizzy, rubbing my forehead as I tried to get a handle on what I was feeling. I sat next to Emilio, worried when the baby kept crying. I reached over, and he took my finger again, settling down and giving me a scared look, maybe all babies were terrified or looked scared, but I felt it too.