by Sydney Addae
Asia looked at Hawke. “It’s time,” he said.
She nodded, swallowed hard and returned to her natural state while watching Barticus. His eyes widened and then his mouth dropped before he snapped it shut.
“What? How? You?” He pointed at her as his eyes filled. “You’re –” He took a step closer staring at her face, her body, and then at Hawke, who stood next to her like a sentinel. His fingertips traced her cheek, her nose, her forehead.
“She said you looked like her, I never dreamed you’d be this beautiful.” He paused and his eyes closed tight. “Please, if this is some trick tell me now before my mate appears. I cannot allow that type of cruelty to be played on her.”
“No, this is no trick,” Asia said softly. “Open your senses, test our blood connection.” She had already done so with him and the sensation of being so close to her sire overfilled her cup with joy.
“Yes,” he shouted. Tears fell down his face. He lifted her high, spinning them in a circle. Happy, she held her arms out, catching the air as she twirled. When he set her on the ground his smile was so wide it made her smile.
“My child. My child. My little girl.” He repeated over and over staring into her face. “I have thought of you so many times through the years, but you… you are better than I imagined.” He took her hand and waved Hawke along. “Let’s sit and talk. I have not heard from your mam since I left Athens. She was on her way here. Perhaps there was traffic.”
They walked to the big house at the end of the lands, the one where he and Amynta had lived. When they entered, lights turned on automatically and a fire started in the fireplace. She took a seat on the sofa next to her sire, it would have been impossible to sit anywhere else since he hadn’t released her hand.
Gone was the cold indifferent man she met this morning, instead she was cosseted with his love and genuine delight at being with her.
“You must tell me everything that happened to you. We spared no expense searching everywhere, but you disappeared without a trace,” Barticus said.
“I was hoping you or mam could tell me. I have no true memory of my childhood. I was trained by the Liege –”
“Liege? Sir Gordon, Griffin and Lancaster? You were with them?” His voice rose and he sat forward.
She told him what she remembered but didn’t mention the torturous surgeries, her life as a mercenary or her death.
“Goddess be praised.”
“What? Aren’t you a follower of Nicromja?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Your mam follows the Goddess, so, I do as well. Besides, Nicromja hasn’t surfaced in decades.”
She nodded hoping the Goddess would receive her sire, but had no idea how all of that worked.
“I invested in one of their projects.” He shook his head and met her gaze. She read his sorrow and shame in their depths. “I am so sorry, I had no idea they took you. Although I’m not clear on how they got you in the first place. We’ll wait for your mam to figure that out.”
“One thing, in her journals she said you raped her. And that you destroyed her pack. In fact, she had nothing good to say about you at all, but now you say you’re mated and have been together all these years.”
Barticus patted her hand. “She was angry. Beyond angry with me. When I first saw her, she was too young, but her father wanted to save his pack and offered her to me.”
“Wulfgar said you demanded her in exchange for your assistance,” Asia said.
He snorted. “She was just a child, but if I didn’t take her, I feared he’d give her to someone else and that I couldn’t allow. So she moved in with me and I kept her isolated with just one trusted servant. But I never touched her. When she left me, she went home intact. Her father didn’t know, bastard assumed the worse. I left after the war with Lyrill, but the servant remained loyal to me and kept me informed of everything going on. When Amynta and her father argued over her servicing potential mates, she moved into the servant’s quarters. He mocked her, called her a slave, but everyone knew she was a natural born leader, unlike the boys.” He snorted.
Asia remembered seeing her mam’s things in the servant’s area.
“But the blasted fool set her up to marry the prince in Lyrill. The servant and Amynta knew we were mates, plus I’d told her father I would return for her when she was older.” He clenched his fist and tapped his knee.
“My wolf could never allow another to take my mate, so I came and took her to my home. A few months later she was with child, as it should be. One night, Ira, the High Priest came and talked about the vessel and how you’d be raised in the temple as I had been. Amynta overheard bits of the conversation, packed you up and ran. By the time I sent Ira away with empty promises, she was long gone. That’s when I discovered that in my altered state our mating wasn’t the same as full-bloods. She could block me, we could go for long periods of time without seeing each other, she controlled her body by sheer will, things other full-blood bitches couldn’t do.”
Asia couldn’t believe this, it sounded much like the human breeders. “That must’ve been hard.”
“It is. But after you were born, she contacted me and allowed me to access her link. We talked. The members from her sire’s pack had contacted her after his death and asked her to lead them. Most were young women and children, most of the males had died defending their Alpha. She felt she owed it to them to go and see them, but she didn’t want to risk taking you. Instead of allowing me to watch over you as I asked, she left you with her friend. It was winter and her trip took longer than either of us expected. I was tempted to try and find you, but I had given her my word I would not.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, they were shiny. “When she returned, her friends had died and you were gone. I almost lost everything that day, my mate and my… my child. She was filled with guilt, depressed one moment, on a crusade to search for you the next. Every clue, no matter how small or ridiculous was checked. After five years of fruitless searching the pack found her again and she said yes.”
“But the reward on her head, how’d she travel and avoid getting caught?” Asia asked, confused.
Barticus smiled. “Since I hold the purse strings for the temple, I’ve paid that reward twice. In her grief she didn’t care if she lived or died. This has been going on too many years, she’s ready to stop running and hiding. I am not sure what she has planned, we’ll find out soon enough.”
Asia had more questions but he pulled out his cell, read the text, and met her gaze with a stunned expression.
Dread rolled up her back and settled in her chest. “What happened to mam?”
“One of my vehicles was found at a petrol station on Motorway 21 near the border. Both front tires were shot. Two of my pack members were found dead at the site. One from a car accident and the other had been stabbed in the neck.”
Asia felt bad for his pack but was happy this had nothing to do with her mam. When Barticus stood, she became concerned.
“Where are you going? Mam’s on her way.” She frowned, watching him pat his pocket and look around the room.
“That car… it’s the one I bought for Amynta. She didn’t contact me, maybe she did and I was in the air. But since I landed she hasn’t responded to my call, and she promised to remain open. That’s why I came here first to discuss her link not being open. Maybe she couldn’t.” His gaze met hers and the fear mixed with concern robbed Asia of breath.
“Mam’s not in her car, she’s walking somewhere?” Asia asked. Even though that seemed improbable, her mind could wrap around that scenario a whole lot easier than any other.
Barticus headed for the door. Asia and Hawke followed.
“She’s not conscious. I have to find her,” he said over his shoulder.
“Give me a second, Hawke call Damian,” Asia said, changing into her male skin.
Barticus’ eyes widened. “I don’t know how you do that but don’t tell anyone. I don’t want to lose you again because someone wants
to be superman.”
She smiled, pleased she was his main concern. “Damian has only seen me like this, he doesn’t know I’m Asia. It’s a long story, one I’ll tell you another time,” she said when his brow rose.
They continued following Barticus and he led them to a different exit. After they cleared the land they hadn’t walked far before Damian caught up with them. He looked surprised when he saw Barticus but remained quiet.
A few miles later they came to the edge of the forest. Barticus held up his hand. They stopped. That’s when Asia sensed the presence of altered full-bloods and cursed. With the Liege on the run and in hiding, she had no idea who would use these mindless fighters.
Barticus held up his finger, turned and mouthed. “Me first.”
As much as she hated it, she nodded. He walked out the forest toward his SUV, whistling as if he was returning from an afternoon stroll. Halfway between the line of the forest and his vehicle, a blue speckled full-blood attacked. Asia reached for her sword and remembered she had left it in their car parked on the other side of the forest.
“Now aren’t you glad we eat that nasty root every day?” Hawke asked as he shifted and ran out the woods before she responded.
Damian followed and attacked the one of the other three full-bloods. Asia scanned the tree line, searching for others, and wasn’t surprised to find one making its way to her. Rather than remain in the forest, she stepped just outside the trees and watched the fight.
Her sire changed fighting tactics when he saw normal fighting skills didn’t stop his opponent. These fighters were more machine than human. Before the Liege had reconfigured their make-up, she would use her metal arm, slam her fist into their face and pull out the chip embedded in their minds. It had been the quickest way to defeat them. Now you had to take their heads.
After much strain, her sire broke a bear hug he’d been locked in and then punched his opponent in the face, knocking him back a bit. It wouldn’t destroy the full-blood, but it did give him room to maneuver and fight. The full-blood charged. Barticus stepped aside, clipped him beneath the jaw, sending him flying up and backward into a broken limb where it remained, impaled and wiggling to get free.
Hawke grabbed another full-blood by the head, morphed to his largest size and twisted. He tossed the head into the forest and then the body as he morphed his secondary size and grabbed the full-blood attacking Damian.
Asia heard her attacker coming up behind her and jumped into the air just as he reached out to grab her. His arms embraced air and he stumbled forward, but spun around just in time to receive a kick on his jaw. He twisted and hit the ground. She wasted no time, using her right elbow, she powered down on his back and heard a loud crack. Then she kicked him in the head several times in rapid succession until he passed out.
She threw her finger into the air.
Laughing, Hawke walked over, gave her a fist bump and then removed the head and tossed it into the woods along with the other three.
She looked at her sire leaning against the door of his vehicle and breathing hard. He waved her over. “Are… are you okay?” he asked between breaths.
Since she wasn’t winded or bleeding, she nodded. “Fine. Did his nails break your skin?” She looked him over.
“No. Who were you giving the finger?”
She chuckled. “These things have cameras built into their eyes which allow whoever sent them to watch. I give them the finger, telling them to kiss my ass.”
He smiled and shook his head. “How is it possible your mam did not raise you, yet the two of you are so much alike?”
The compliment warmed her.
“What were those things? Full-bloods, but not like any I’ve ever seen.” He watched Hawke and Damian clear the area of the corpses.
“Products of the Liege, they sell or lease those out to anyone who can pay. I don’t know why they’re here, though. Lancaster’s gone underground.”
“Boris Lancaster?” he asked, motioning her into the car.
She slid in the back with Hawke and took his hand, checking him over.
“I’m good,” he said, and placed a kiss on her temple.
“Yes, Boris Lancaster. He’d kept Hawke prisoner in his castle since he was a pup,” she said as the car moved out of the clearing.
“After we find your mam we need to sit down and connect all the dots. First things first.” He exhaled. “Seems I am always tracking that woman.”
Chapter 21
“Before you drive too far we need to consider a few things,” Hawke said.
“What?” Barticus asked, looking back at them in the mirror.
“Someone sent those full-bloods to the woods. That means they knew we were there. Also, they knew the full-bloods couldn’t stop us, we’ve defeated them before, so why send four very expensive security drones to the forest knowing they’d probably be destroyed?”
Barticus stopped in the middle of the dirt road and turned to look at them. “Good questions. Could be anyone.”
“Does the High Priest use security like those?” Asia asked.
Barticus snorted. “No. I am the financier for the temple and I didn’t know about those things. If I had, we may have used them.”
“You’ve been approached by the Liege, do they have a lab in this area?” Asia asked.
“Lab?” Barticus frowned. “Over the years, I’ve received several invitations. I only went once, a reception in a small town near the border. Very posh. The place didn’t look like a lab.” He looked at Asia. “What does that have to do with my mate?”
“Coincidence?” Asia asked, brow raised. “She’s missing, unable to communicate, and you’re attacked leaving the one place she could go where no one would find her. Someone with knowledge of mates, you and your mate, did that. It’s possible they’re connected to the Liege.”
Barticus stared at her a moment, turned and shifted gears. The car eased onto the paved road. “The last invitation for a meeting came about six or seven months ago. I cannot recall the name of the town but I do remember wondering why meet in such a small, out of the way place.”
“Can you find it?” Asia asked.
“I think so. Finding the right exit is the trick, after that it’s easy. One way in and out.” He sped south on the motorway. The scenery flew by.
“Do you think there’s another lab?” Asia asked Hawke.
“It’s possible. Those fighters came from somewhere. Lancaster’s not in the region. According to La Patron, he’s been seen stateside, so there’s another player. One we didn’t know about.”
She released a long stream of air. “Why take mam? Not for me, no one knows I’m here. For the bounty you think?”
“It’s possible. They need money and three million Euros will go a long way to plug some holes.”
“I just received more information about the accident,” Barticus said. “The attendants were inside the building and told the police someone removed items from Amynta’s car, locked it and walked off. The police are looking for her now. Damn.” He slapped the steering wheel. “This just keeps getting worse.”
No one spoke, although she sensed they all agreed. The happiness from reconciling with Barticus vaporized with the news of Amynta’s disappearance. Asia’s grip tightened on Hawke’s hand to stop trembling. Every time she turned one corner and saw the finish line, it moved.
“Mistress?” She called to take her mind off the troubling thoughts circling her mind. A few seconds passed before she received a response.
“Asia? Are you okay? How’s your mom? Did you find her?”
“Not yet.” She gave Jasmine an abbreviated version of what happened so far.
“So you’re with you father, that’s great. Sounds like a lot of wolf confusion stuff. For a group who thinks so linear, seems like a lot of what happened fell into gray areas. I’m glad you’re sorting it out.” She paused. “Any idea how much longer this will take?”
Asia’s attention sharpened to what wasn’t said. “We plan
to find her today, spend another day or two getting acquainted, but we can cut that short if you need us.”
Silence.
“Things are… moving fast. The media is sneaking onto pack lands and video-taping our people. We’re not so secret and it’s causing some problems.”
Asia’s heart fell. “Is it widespread or a few isolated incidents?”
“So far just a few incidents, but it went viral on the internet and the police are investigating. Silas is being sued for destruction of property because he ordered the labs destroyed. You know how he hates human courts. The media went crazy when he showed up for his hearing, they won’t stop treating him as some eccentric billionaire.”
Asia closed her eyes, imagining La Patron’s disgust and discomfort. She moved that aside and focused on what she could contribute. “The Liege has been in the shadows so long, it’s hard to believe they are behind this. But maybe this is their way of getting back at us.” She bit her lip, thinking hard and pulling Hawke into the link. “The stuff on the internet can be shut down and cleaned up. If the Liege really wanted to out us, they have years of footage that would be more effective. I think this is someone else.”
“Like Uncle Sam?” Jasmine said in such a dry tone, Asia bit back a chuckle. “I told Silas he couldn’t push them around without some sort of retaliation. The government’s changed, the men in Washington don’t think country first like they used to.”
“That’s true. If you like, we can return today to help,” Asia said, nodding at Hawke’s surprised expression. Barticus turned off the motorway, driving to their destination.
“No. No way. You need to meet your mom and spend some time with her. Better yet, invite your parents over. We’d love to meet them, along with your son.”
“Parents. Hearing that word feels strange, but in a good way.” Asia smiled at Hawke. He squeezed her hand.