True Traitor (First Wave Book 7)

by Mikayla Lane

  Grai smiled sadly. “You’re too good for me,” he said as he brushed back a lock of her hair from her face and kissed her cheek.

  When he stood, Lauren spoke to him through their connection through the Shengari’. “Grai, I will guard them with my life,” she said honestly. There was something about this family that she was so drawn to and she didn’t really know why, but Lauren would protect them as if they were her own.

  Grai looked at Lauren for a moment before pulling her close into a quick hug. “Thank you, so much . . .,” Grai said, tears misting his eyes before Lauren smiled and nodded.

  “Go, they’ll be fine,” Lauren said, helping him to leave his new family.

  Grai looked at them one last time, memorizing his beautiful mate cradling his newborn daughter, while his incredible son slept peacefully nearby. Without another word, he left the alcove and strode towards the center of the room while the place erupted in applause and congratulations to the new father and the courageous mother.

  Leif smiled broadly at Grai and shook his hand. “Congratulations. You have a beautiful family,” Leif said, having seen the picture that Lauren took while the family was bonding.

  Without permission from Grai or Tricia, Lauren had taken the picture and added the caption, “This is the dangerous family of mutants. Be careful of the infant especially, that smile could stop your heart with its adorableness.” Then she had sent it to every mountain hybrid comm.

  It had obviously been meant as a way to thumb her nose at Fiorn and his order for the child and mother to die, but within 20 minutes, it had turned into much more than that.

  Four cats came barreling down all four tunnels, each sounding a warning that people were coming. A lot of people. The place became a cacophony of activity as warnings and alerts were shouted and the hybrids prepared to defend the family and his people.

  Within minutes, shouts were heard around the room to hold fire, they were friendlies and Grai and the others watched in surprise as women and children began to file into the old chamber hall. Grai and the others quickly holstered their weapons and he looked at Leif.

  “What the hell are they doing here? You have to get them out of here! It’s too dangerous! I thought you were getting them out of here?” he said in a low growl to Leif, as he watched the mothers and their children begin to set up little camps around the sheet covered alcove where his family was.

  True agreed. “You idiot! Get those kids out of here!” she said, worried for the families.

  Leif smiled and shook his head as one of the hybrids that had been with them in the chamber the whole time, walked up to Grai with a small girl in his arms and a pretty brunette by his side.

  “Sir?” he said, holding his hand out to Grai.

  Grai shook his hand and smiled at the pretty little girl in his arms. “Hi, little one,” he said to the girl who blushed and smiled before hiding her face against her daddy’s shoulder.

  The man chuckled. “I wanted to introduce my family to you. I’m Austar Mekkino, this is my mate Sefia and our daughter Astrid,” Austar said, as his mate smiled at Grai.

  Grai was a little surprised as he looked up to watch more women and children coming into the chamber. Looking back at Austar he said, “You have a very beautiful family and it is a pleasure to meet them. But, you really need to get them somewhere safe. Now.”

  Austar and Sefia chuckled at the stunned man as Grai watched the women and children continue to come into the room. It was Sefia who explained what was happening.

  “We are somewhere safe. The one thing the Legends would never do, no matter how angry, is hurt our children or their mothers,” she said with a smile.

  Grai freaked out.

  “You will not be shields! I will die before I allow a child or mother to shield me!” he said, his horror at the thought making him feel sick to his stomach.

  “No!” Leif said, rushing to reassure Grai, who looked like he was going to have a stroke. “They have come to stand with your own mate and children,” Leif said.

  Grai shook his head as he heard Tricia’s gasp in his mind before she also began to loudly protest from the sheet covered alcove. But, this was one decision that the mountain hybrids weren’t going to change their minds about.

  Austar looked at Grai and shook his head slightly. “You have no say in this. It was the decision of our women to do this. Sefia is right that Fiorn won’t harm them,” he said, trying to ease Grai’s mind.

  Sefia stepped forward and smiled shyly at Grai. “It was Fiorn who caused your family to be here. It is our honor to stand with them, to right his wrong until you can get them out of here safely. And don’t try to say your boy can take care of them. We know that. But, he’s exhausted and its time we stood for our own. They are hybrids, just like we are. They are, our own. As are you,” she said.

  Grai was choking on his emotions until they all became silent at the roar heard coming from the south tunnel. Grai looked at Sefia and said, “Get to safety!” before running towards the tunnel to intercept an obviously furious Legend.

  He wasn’t sure which one until Leif turned to him with a grimace as they ran and said, “That would be my father.”

  Grai nodded, remembering the younger of the Legends he’d met, as he easily jumped over the vehicles clogging the tunnel, calling out, “Reinforce the other tunnels! It could be a trap to distract us!”

  Grai could easily see the large explorer, pulling several of his hybrids behind him as he slowly made his way towards the chamber hall. Grai, Leif, Decano and True, were the first to reach him and Leif Sr. stopped when he saw them.

  “What do you want, Dad?” Leif asked, wondering why his father was here. Alone. He was afraid it might be a trap.

  Leif Sr. glared at Grai for a moment before looking at his son. “I would like to speak to you privately,” he said.

  Leif stared at his father for a second before shaking his head. “No. Anything you want to say to me, you can say right now,” Leif said, unwilling to let his father get him alone.

  Leif knew his father would try to talk him out of this, or even kidnap him away from the situation and he wasn’t going to give him a chance. He was his own man and he would stand like one. Which Leif had to admit, he felt a lot more confident doing, with the large and dangerous mutant by his side.

  The legend roared in rage and everyone flinched but Grai, who just shook his head at the man. He turned to Leif and the others and said, “Go back and make sure the other tunnels are secure.”

  When Leif looked between Grai and his father and was getting ready to argue, his father looked at him and shook his head. “Go son, your grandfather is capable of anything right now. Protect our people,” the legend said as he looked at Grai and held his stare.

  Grai sat down on one of the vehicle hoods as he watched the others file back down the tunnel to the chamber hall, each one looking back periodically to make sure that they weren’t in an all-out battle.

  When they went as far as the entryway to the chamber and turned back to face them, Grai sighed. “I think that’s the best we’re going to get out of them right now. Your son worries for you,” he said, looking at the now pacing legend in front of him.

  Leif Sr. looked like he was going to roar and lash out at Grai, but then surprised him by plopping down on the back end of a vehicle right in front him.

  “This has gone too far,” Leif said simply.

  Grai nodded his head. “Yeah. It has. But, everything happens for a reason. The Gods allow for no coincidences. From what your son tells me, if we can actually resolve this, all of our people would be much safer. And we can all use the talents the Gods gave us to save us all, including the humans. You made a good man in that boy,” Grai said, keeping his tone even and calm. Anger and blame wasn’t what the man and the father in front of him needed right now.

  Leif shook his head. “What are you?” he asked, dying to know which story was correct. That his father had failed the mutant’s mother or that the Valendrans had bet
rayed them.

  Grai sighed. “Although, it is correct that my mother was taken from Valendra while your father led the planet’s security, I do not blame him for what happened. Nor do my brothers. To be honest with you, there is much more to concern us all that we need to be dealing with,” Grai said, watching the legend closely.

  Leif shook his head. “I do not know what to believe anymore. But, I know that the man who beat that Valendran is not the man I am, or want to be,” he said, running a frustrated hand through his shoulder length, blonde hair.

  Grai chuckled. “The hardest thing to do is take hundreds of years of what’s been pounded into your head and try to assimilate that into the truth you see before your eyes. The clashing of truth in your mind can cause you to lash out in fear of the unknown. I lived it daily while growing up on my father’s ship. I understand the position you are in and do not envy you the decision you must make,” he admitted honestly.

  Leif snorted. “Even that is hard for me to comprehend,” Leif said, trying to reconcile in his mind the viciousness he’d seen from the Relians versus the caring, confident and strong leader standing in front of him.

  Grai chuckled. “One thing I learned when I was very young, is that nothing is ever as it seems. By the time we think we got it all figured out, something else comes along that just flips our world upside down. Sometimes it’s bad, sometimes it’s incredibly wonderful, but it always makes our lives interesting,” Grai said with a kind smile.

  Leif chuckled bitterly. “And sometimes you have to come to the realization that you have to betray those you love the most in order to do the right thing?” he asked, more to himself than to Grai.

  Grai shrugged. “Sometimes, you have to betray them, in order to force them to see that they are the ones betraying themselves and their people,” he said simply.

  Leif sighed. “It sounds so easy, doesn’t it?”

  Grai shook his head. “It’s the hardest thing you will ever do in your life. And the one you will always question, even if it turns out as well as can be expected,” he said knowingly.

  Leif turned to him. “You sound like you know from experience,” he said curiously.

  Grai snorted. “I blew up my father’s ship. With him and most of his council on it. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t second guess whether or not I could have reached him or my brother Dagog, if I’d only tried harder. I saved two brothers, but gave up on another to do it. Some days, I wonder if I should have done more,” he said honestly.

  Leif shook his head, wondering what kind of strength it had to take for the mutant to kill his own father. And the love he must have for his two brothers to have done it. This was not the evil that he expected the man to be. This was a man. A father like himself.

  It didn’t stop him from thinking of how his people would react to him. “Sometimes it can be too late . . .,” he began.

  Grai snorted and jumped off the hood of the vehicle. “It’s never too late. Come on, let’s go look at the plans we have laid out in the chamber hall and figure out how to keep everyone safe until your mother arrives. I hear she’ll be here soon to try and settle things down,” Grai said, motioning for the legend to follow him into the chamber hall.

  Leif looked down the hall and shifted his feet. “I don’t think my people . . .,” he began before Grai cut him off.

  “They need a familiar leader. They need you to tell them they did the right thing and they won’t be punished for it. Not by you. And your son needs to know his father loves him and doesn’t see this as being a traitor, but being the good man that you raised him to be,” Grai said, shocking Leif with his words.

  Leif nodded his head and walked down the tunnel with Grai, to the surprised gasps of both Grai’s people and Leif’s. Everyone parted to let the two large men into the chamber and as they passed near where Gracus was sitting up in a chair, Leif Sr. stopped. The room became deathly silent as Gracus stared up at the legend unflinchingly.

  Leif cleared his throat. “I can never express to you how sorry I am for my dishonorable behavior. There is no excuse for what I did or for the shame I inflicted on myself and my people. I hope to one day earn your forgiveness,” he said, uncaring that most of his people were listening to him.

  Gracus reached up a bruised hand. “There is nothing to forgive. I will be well in a few hours and it will be forgotten long before then,” Gracus said with a lopsided grin, due to the bruising and swelling of his face.

  Leif took the Valendran’s hand and shook it to the cheers of his people. He was a little surprised when his son slapped him on the back and smiled at him.

  “Glad you’re here, old man,” Leif said with a grin.

  Leif Sr. was a little overcome with emotion and he just nodded his hand and looked up to blink away the tears in his eyes. “Hey, who did you put on the catwalks?” he asked as he looked at the cavern ceiling, noting no one there.

  Grai and Leif looked at one another in surprise before Leif said, “What catwalks?”

  Leif Sr. looked at his son and said, “There are catwalks carved into parts of the walls and around the ceiling. I may not have shown them to you.”

  Leif could hear the regret in his father’s voice and didn’t want to make the man feel worse. He’d sucked up enough pride coming there on his own the way he had.

  “Dad, tell us how to get up there,” Leif said.

  Leif Sr. nodded his head. “There are sixteen different positions up there, we should probably get some volunteers,” he said, looking to Grai.

  Grai shook his head. “Your people, your cavern, your call. We’ll follow your lead, just tell us where you need us,” he said, allowing the man to earn back the respect of his people and his position as commander. But, he was also ready to kill him if Grai thought he was betraying them. He honestly didn’t feel like the man was being deceitful though.

  Leif Sr. smiled bitterly at the chance the mutant was giving him and it again gave him pause at the clashing of the fiction versus reality in his mind. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he looked at Grai and said, “Thank you.”

  Grai shook his head. “Let’s get everyone safe,” he said, not needing any thanks.

  Leif nodded and called out, “Where are our climbers?”

  More than a dozen hybrids pulled away from the others and Leif led his son and his people towards the side of the walls. He pointed at what looked like natural outcroppings in the walls.

  “You’ve all seen the fake rock climbing walls the humans use. These nubs act the same way. If you follow the different nubs on the wall, each leads to a different defensive platform,” he said, showing them how to press themselves against the walls and look up to see the pattern in the nubs.

  Grai stepped farther back and concentrated solely on the nubs and almost gasped at the pattern going up the walls in different sections. Leif Sr. and his son walked over and grinned at his expression, while the hybrids got ready to scale the walls.

  “It’s impressive isn’t it?” Sr. asked.

  Grai nodded his head. “That really is amazing. Who built this place?” he asked, wondering if the father knew.

  Leif Sr. shrugged. “We never really tried to find out. By the time we’d gotten here, our numbers were thinner and our people exhausted from the arduous trek. We were just grateful to have found it and that it was vacant,” he admitted.

  Grai looked around the room in amazement, his curiosity piqued as to who or what had made it, so long ago. He was hoping that it was something they could all discover together when this was all over with.

  Grai looked up when he heard a familiar voice call out, “You can cancel the climbers. We’ve got it covered.”

  He looked up and grinned as Lt. David Jacobs and more than a dozen hybrids became visible on the platforms surrounding the cavern walls.

  Grai shook his head. “How did you manage the camouflage?” he asked in surprise.

  David grinned and kneeled down on his platform, shifting his weapon to his lap.
“I seem to have a real affinity for the energy here,” he said as he waved his hand through the air and his body shimmered for a second before disappearing.

  “Damn, that’s handy,” Leif Sr. said as the hybrids on the platforms appeared and disappeared.

  Grai chuckled. “You’re an amazing ally to have, David, I’m glad you guys are all ok,” he said, truly happy David was watching their backs.

  *****

  Leif grinned down at True as he gently pushed against her until she turned irritated eyes to his. “What?” she mouthed.

  Leif jerked his head towards the south tunnel. “Follow me,” he whispered.

  True looked at him with narrowed eyes for a moment and he tsked. “Such thoughts at a time like this?” he asked teasingly and she stomped off towards the tunnel.

  Leif sighed and followed behind her, admiring the view of her backside in her low rise jeans. Something about seeing her in the jeans with her guns strapped to her thighs was pretty hot and he had to shake his head to clear his thoughts.

  They’d just walked to the last line of vehicles blocking the tunnel before True stopped and turned to him. “What do you want?” she asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

  Leif sighed. He’d hoped they’d made a lot more headway than this and was a little disheartened that they weren’t. Trying to keep the hurt out of his voice he folded his own arms over his chest and faced her.

  “I thought it would be a good idea to complete the task we began earlier, before we got distracted by a beaten Valendran. Now that we have even more children inside, it’s even more imperative to make sure they have food, water and medical supplies. And a few board games to keep them out of our hair would be a plus . . .,” he said, glad he’d just thought of the last. It really would make things easier on them.

  True looked at him like he was crazy.

  “Why? Your dad is helping us, won’t Fiorn back down now? I mean it’s not just his people he’s fighting anymore, it’s his son and grandson!” she said, unable to believe that this wouldn’t end quickly now.