Legacy (Blackwater Pack Book 3)

by Hannah McBride

  I rolled onto my side as my fingers closed around the phone and pulled it into the bed with me. Clicking the power button, I smiled when I saw five text messages, one from Remy and one from Mom, the other three were unnamed contacts. It wasn’t hard to guess who they were when I scrolled through the text.

  MESSAGE (UNKNOWN NUMBER): Larkin and I are going to see if Ainsley wants to be our new bestie if we don’t hear from you today.

  I rolled my eyes at Katy’s message. Such a drama queen, but I totally owed both of my best friends a call.

  MESSAGE (UNKNOWN NUMBER): I know you’re probably super busy, but I just wanted to let you know we love you and miss you. And Rhodes wants me to remind you that you need to get your butt back here at the end of the week.

  Of course Rhodes would make Larkin relay a message, and I didn’t doubt the beta who had become like a brother to me would follow Remy straight to Russia to get me if I wasn’t home when they wanted.

  MESSAGE (UNKNOWN NUMBER): It’s Dimitri. Just realized you didn’t have my number. Text when you wake up if you want a personal escort to breakfast.

  Yeah, an escort would be needed since odds were I would get lost trying to find my way back. Maybe after I got done talking to Elias, I could poke around this palatial estate and see what I could find out about my—

  About Nikolai.

  I brushed a lock of hair off my cheek and read the next message.

  MOM: I love you, Skye.

  That message warmed my heart. I missed my mom. Yeah, there was a lot currently hanging unsaid between us, but she was my mom and the only source of support I’d had most of my life. I didn’t stop loving her just because she omitted a few crucial details.

  The last message made my heart pound.

  REMY: Call me when you wake up, babe. I need to talk to you.

  Anxiety tangled with the always present longing that coursed in my blood as I opened his contact info, selecting the video chat option. I could have called, but I needed to see him.

  I winced as my face filled the screen while waiting for him to pick up. I should’ve at least brushed my hair or something because I looked freaking exhausted and my hair was a wreck. I frantically smoothed it down as best as I could before he answered.

  It only took the span of a few heartbeats before he picked up.

  “What’s wrong?” The words tumbled out of my mouth before he could say anything.

  Remy’s lips quirked into a small smile. “Hi, babe. I miss you, too.”

  I sighed and back-tracked. “Hi, babe. I miss you, I love you. What’s wrong?”

  “Hang on,” he said, the phone’s screen darkened as he walked through a barely lit hall. A second later, the light came on and he sank into a chair.

  “Are you in your dad’s office?” My nose wrinkled as I looked around behind him. I had only been in his dad’s office a few times in the days leading up to the Summit. Gabe and Remy had wanted to prepare me for what was to come.

  Oddly enough, a bombing wasn’t something we covered.

  “Yeah.” His eyes looked around the room, a small frown pulling down the delectable corners of his mouth. “I’ve been using it for meetings.”

  “Wow,” I replied, a little stunned. “But seriously, what’s going on? Your text was pretty cryptic.”

  “Couple things,” he said, his tone firming as he settled into Alpha-mode. “I spoke with the Alpha of Stone Valley. They’re planning to join us. We also have six other packs who plan to do the same, including Windale.”

  “Griffin’s pack?” That surprised me. After Blackwater and Norwood, Windale had the largest pack in the United States.

  “Norwood has done a really good job of isolating them in Illinois,” he replied bitterly. “If they waited much longer, they would be completely on their own. Stone Valley felt the same way.”

  “I just can’t believe Stone Valley agreed,” I murmured. “I figured they would be dead set against us after what happened with Mom.”

  “They were at first,” Remy agreed, breathing deeply, “but the enemy of my enemy and all.”

  “Right.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Did you tell my mom about it?”

  He nodded, his expression shifting into something I couldn’t quite read.

  “What?” I pressed curiously, feeling the sudden tension in him.

  “Your mom said something,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t even know what it meant, but it’s been bothering me since.”

  My stomach clenched with unease. “Okay.”

  “She said that her bond was broken for her. Not that she broke it,” he told me, frowning deeply. His dark eyes studied me curiously. “Did she ever say something like that to you?”

  “Mom only told me she was bonded to Nikolai literally right before the bombs went off. Nikolai said she was the one who broke their bond.” I paused, remembering how bitter he still seemed about it.

  Remy hummed a little, digesting that.

  “So, if Mom didn’t break it and …” The realization hit me so hard, all the air whooshed out of me. The room tilted as a wave of dizziness swept over me, my skin turning clammy as my veins filled with ice.

  “I’m going to be sick,” I muttered, dropping the phone on my bed even as Remy shouted at me from it.

  I staggered across the floor, barely flipping on the lights in the bathroom and dropping to my knees before I emptied whatever was still in my stomach into the toilet.

  Once I was finished, I flushed and hauled myself up, rinsing my mouth under the faucet.

  I could still hear the tinny shouts of Remy through the phone’s speaker in the other room. I made my way back to the bed on wooden legs, picking up the phone as I sank onto the floor, my back braced against the bed.

  “What the fuck, Skye?” he demanded, equal parts furious and panicked. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  I sucked in a shuddering breath. “I’m fine, Remy. I think.”

  “The hell you are,” he snapped. His fingers ripped through his hair, and I knew he felt frustrated by the distance between us.

  “Rem,” I said, firming my voice as I shoved down the roiling emotions in my gut. “I’m fine. But I need to go.”

  “Go?” he repeated, incredulous.

  “Can you … I need you to trust me,” I said quietly. “Can you do that?”

  He sighed loudly, the sound mixing with a warning rumble of his growl. “Skye …”

  “Can you do that, Remy? Yes or no?” I tightened my voice. “I’ll call you in a few hours.”

  “Hours?” he echoed. His eyes narrowed into thin slits.

  “Yeah. I need you to just trust me. I swear, I’m fine, but I think someone here has answers I need.”

  His jaw clenched. “Fine. Call me in one hour.”

  “Two,” I hedged, not sure how long I would need.

  His gaze turned flinty. “One.”

  “Fine. One hour.” I repeated, giving in.

  “I love you,” he told me fiercely.

  His words threatened to thaw the ice wall around my heart. “I love you, too.”

  I hung up and scrambled to my feet. It took a second to grab new clothes from the closet and pull them on. I tucked the phone into the pocket of the hoodie that I slipped over my head and headed for the door. Once I stepped in the hallway, I realized I had no idea where I was even going.

  “Skye?”

  I turned, my heart pounding like I had been caught.

  Lulu frowned at me as she walked down the hall. “What are you doing?”

  “I need your help,” I blurted out, not sure if she was someone I could actually trust, but I was kind of out of options.

  “Of course,” she answered automatically, coming to a stop a foot away from me. “What can I do?”

  I took a deep breath. “Take me to my uncle.”

  Surprisingly, Lulu didn’t hesitate to help me. She took me back downstairs to the elevator and into the tunnel that connected the house to the mountain. She sat in
silence as we moved underground via the cable car, not pressing me for issues.

  Once we got out of the car, she used her handprint to unlock the elevators, pressing a combination of buttons once inside.

  I frowned. “There’s a code to get in here?”

  She glanced back at me. “Your uncle is being held in the lockdown section. Not everyone has access to it.”

  “And you do?”

  A bitter smile twisted her pretty mouth. “Occasionally I’m needed there to help extract information.”

  “Because you’re a …” I struggle to say the word.

  Her gray eyes cut through me. “Witch? You can say it.”

  I smiled weakly. “Dimitri said you didn’t like being called that.”

  Lulu snorted lightly. “Dimitri doesn’t know shit about my people. And it’s not our preferred pronoun, but it’s the one that makes the most sense, I guess. I try not to be too offended by the word.”

  “So, what do you prefer to be called?”

  “Elementals,” she answered, wrinkling her nose at my confusion. “I know. Society has normalized witches and magic, so it’s typically how we explain this to outsiders.”

  “And how does that work exactly?” I asked hesitantly. “Being an elemental, I mean.”

  “How does being a shifter work?” she countered, arching a brow. “It just is. My people have existed since the dawn of time. We’re people that are more attuned to elements and can access and even manipulate them in raw form. My people, the Romani, have a connection with the earth and all it’s creatures.”

  “And your people created shifters?”

  She nodded.

  “So, can you create more shifters?” I asked slowly.

  After a beat, she slowly shook her head. “No. The magic that was used was not something we have had access to in a couple centuries. Merging a man and a beast takes a great deal of energy. It’s not something a normal Roma can do. Besides, even if one was strong enough to pull that much magic from the earth, there’s certain … things needed to happen to make such a transformation positive.”

  “Such as?” I pressed as the doors opened.

  Lulu stepped out and gave me an unreadable look. “We believe there is a way to replicate the spell, but there are certain circumstances that have yet to align.” She smiled, this time it was more genuine. “But we’re hoping things have changed.”

  She led us down a sterile, gray and white hall with blindingly bright fluorescent lights overhead until we reached a solid steel door with another biometric scanner. She placed her hand against it and a second later, the door pulled open to a wide room lined with cells.

  A few people slept in some of them, all of them men.

  “The women’s cells are on the floor below,” Lulu explained.

  I followed her down the row, trying my best not to look at the men who were housed and on display like zoo animals.

  “Why are these men here?” I asked, unable to help myself.

  Lulu gave me a tight look. “Usual crimes. Theft, assault, violating Pack Law. They’re kept here until the Alpha decides their sentence.”

  So Nikolai was the judge, jury, and executioner.

  “Where’s my uncle?”

  Lulu nodded at the last door in front of us. Another steel one with another biometric scanner. She placed her palm on it and a second later it beeped and unlocked.

  “We keep the more dangerous ones in here,” she said quietly as the door pulled open.

  Two guards stood just inside, their stoic faces impassive as they looked at us. Finally they gave a brief nod and let us pass.

  Where the other cells had looked like normal jail cells with bars, these cells were rooms, completely blocked off by steel walls with a steel door the only access point. A thin, narrow window only provided a glimpse into the rooms.

  Lulu kept walking until we reached the end of the row.

  “Open it,” she said.

  I turned back to see one of the guards had followed us.

  He inserted a key into the lock, twisting and opening the door for us.

  The first thing that hit me was the coppery tang of blood. My wolf scented it, alerting me, before my eyes could focus on the scene in front of me.

  “Holy shit,” Lulu breathed beside me.

  That didn’t begin to cover the carnage in front of me. Blood splattered the walls, some streaks black and dried, other fresh and still dripping down the cinder block walls.

  And that nothing to say of the man in front of me on his knees. He glanced up, one eye swollen closed. A steady river of blood dribbled from his mouth. He was barely upright, one arm cradled to his waist, the other arm shaking from the exertion to hold himself up.

  The eye that could still see locked onto mine, the green identical to my own. His mouth opened, my name forming soundlessly on his lips.

  My gaze swung to the only other occupant in the room. The man had flecks of red splattered on him, like he had stepped out into a blood storm without an umbrella.

  He passively wiped his knuckles on an already crimson rag as he glanced at me.

  “Skye,” Nikolai greeted, actually smiling at me. “Wonderful timing. Your uncle and I were just discussing you.”

  19

  Skye

  “What the hell are you doing?” I whispered, still trying to get my brain to process what I was seeing.

  Nikolai tossed the bloody rag onto the floor before lifting a knife with a wickedly curved blade from the table beside him. A table that was filled with a bunch of things that made a shiver zip down my spine.

  Linden looked completely broken at his feet, barely upright. I could see the glint of silver on his arm, identical to the band I had worn when my wolf was suppressed.

  “Speaking with your uncle,” Nikolai replied congenially. He pointed the blade at the man on the floor. “He seems to believe whatever transpired in your pack was a simple mistake.”

  “It’s …” Linden spit out a mouthful of blood with a rattling breath before looking at me. “Tell him. It’s a mistake. Your … your mother kept you—”

  With a snarl that surprised even me, I stalked forward and knelt in front of him. “Don’t even say my mother’s name, asshole.”

  Shock, quickly followed by fury, lit his eye. His mouth twisted into what I assumed to be a grimace.

  “Ungrateful—”

  He was cut off as Nikolai’s steel-toed boots made contact with his ribs. The undeniable crunch of bone and cartilage, accompanied by the animalistic howl from Linden, turned my stomach.

  “Stop!” I yelled, whirling to my feet and glaring at Nikolai.

  He arched his brows, amused as hell that I was stepping in. “I would have assumed you would enjoy that, little wolf.”

  “He has answers I need,” I hissed. “Answers I can’t get from a dead man.”

  Smiling, Nikolai held up his hands and took an over-exaggerated step backwards.

  As I turned back to Linden, my eyes met Lulu’s. She didn’t look the least bit surprised or upset. Like walking into a room where a man was being beaten was a normal occurrence.

  Her eyes moved to Nikolai. “I’ll be outside.”

  “Thank you, Lucia,” Nikolai told her, his tone the picture of courtesy and kindness as he smiled at her.

  What kind of a psychopath helped create me? This man was covered in blood—my uncle’s blood—and yet seemed completely at ease. Hell, everyone else seemed completely calm, too. Like this was just a normal day, and maybe it was.

  That wasn’t my concern.

  I dropped into a crouch in front of Linden. “I want answers.”

  “Fuck you,” he spat, glaring at me. The effect was less threatening when he only had one eye and it looked like he was missing a few teeth.

  I held up a hand as Nikolai took a menacing step forward.

  “You’ll tell me what I want to know, or I’ll make sure they keep you alive for a very long time,” I whispered softly. “I’ll make sure you’re given
the same treatment my mother was every single day for the rest of your miserable life.”

  Linden flinched from me.

  “That can absolutely be arranged,” Nikolai said in a bright voice behind me.

  “What happened the night she came home?” I demanded.

  Linden stared at me blankly.

  “The night after she bonded with … With Nikolai,” I forced out.

  Linden’s gaze didn’t break, but his lip curled slightly. “Apparently she had second thoughts.”

  “You’re lying,” I replied coldly. “Mom talked to Remy tonight and she said … she said she didn’t break her bond. She said it was broken.”

  Something flickered in his gaze. It swept across his expression like a shadow in candlelight.

  “What did you do?” I ground out, my hands curling into fists.

  Linden snorted, the sound a choked, garbled sound. He dropped onto his side, maneuvering himself so his back was against the metal framed cot that was his bed.

  “I didn’t do anything,” he replied. “Is that what she said?”

  “Then you know who did.” My teeth clenched hard enough to crack the enamel.

  Linden lifted his good hand and attempted to wipe away some of the blood from his face. All he did was smear a grotesque streak from eye to chin. “Allan.”

  I swallowed down a fresh wave of bile. “Why?”

  “Because she had an obligation to our pack,” he sneered. “Father coddled her, worshipped her. But mother and I knew what she really was. Best day of my life was when she betrayed our pack. Selfish bitch.”

  “She was bonded!” I shouted, getting to my feet to tower over him.

  I could feel Nikolai behind me, his curious rage a palpable, tangible thing strangling the air. Thankfully, he didn’t intervene.

  “How? How did it happen?” I demanded, my chest heaving as I struggled to breathe.

  Linden shrugged awkwardly with one arm, looking away. “I wasn’t there for the act. All I know is it was Allan.” His gaze cut back to me, that familiar calculating glint. “He was disappointed the paternity test showed he wasn’t your father, you know.”

  I staggered back a step, stunned.