by Yara Gharios
Two more advance, one bigger than the other but both a similar white and grey color. I waste no time jumping at him the closest one with both arms out, tackling him to the ground. I snap at his neck and latch on. In his attempt to break free, we end up going in circles a few times, until I release and push him away. At the same time, the second one’s teeth latch onto my tail. I growl and turn to snap at him next in the same way. He doesn’t put up as much of a fight as his companion, and submits pretty easily.
That gives me a couple of seconds to look up and search for Dylan’s scent. Finding her trail, I realize she’s above me somewhere. I look for the stairs, and I find them in another room. A wolf blocks my path at the first landing, but it’s just as easy to get rid of him as it was with the others.
Upstairs, there are fewer distractions, so I put my nose to the ground and sniff. A moment later, I finally catch the exact trail left by Dylan’s scent and follow it up another flight of stairs. The scent leads to a bedroom, specifically the bed, which enraged me. But I find no sign of my mate, though I search all the rooms. Then I realize the trail I picked up must have been going down instead of up. It continues on an even lower level than where I first picked it up. The stairs’ structure and extremely poor lighting suggest that they lead the way down to a dungeon. I begin to feel even more anxious, if that’s possible.
What the hell are you doing, Dylan?
It’s on my way down that I hear her voice, making me freeze.
“You *sshole!”
I recognize the sound of a punch, and I jump over several flights of stairs, my heart hammering away in my chest. A shock goes through my system when I find a very human Jason, running the opposite way with his hand over his severely bleeding nose. He sees me there and freezes in turn.
“Logan,” he breathes.
A fraction of a second later, he runs faster. I only manage to snap out of it after he has already slipped by me. Anger fills me at his betrayal, and I run after him.
It all happens very quickly, though we run up quite a few flights of stairs.
When he reaches the second or third landing on his way, he looks back to find me chasing him. He doesn’t see the two wolves already fighting there, tripping right over them and soaring over the railing in the process. I stop in place, and watch in shock as he lands on his head. It only takes one snap, and he stops moving.
I stand there for a good five seconds, staring in numb disbelief at the mangled form of my once cousin. I can’t bring myself to be sad, but at the same time, I know my uncle Cliff will be devastated. I already left him out of the whole battle, because I knew he wouldn’t deal well with his son being on the other side.
A baby’s cries bring me back to reality. It’s coming from the same dungeon Dylan is likely in. Frantic, I run back down, only to find Reena there, Jace crying in her arms and an older kid cowering behind her in fear. The distress is clear on her face, but I don’t have time to deal with her. I know everything; I saw it in Dylan’s mind. Every sign that was there that I should have been able to read, I somehow missed.
But now is not the time to dwell on regrets. First and foremost, my mate needs me. I’ll feel guilty about Reena later. I’m about to run back up following Dylan’s fresh trail, when she speaks.
“She went back for the baby,” Reena informs me. “Third floor. Find them, Logan.”
Her concern is not for Dylan, it’s for whatever baby she’s talking about. I know it, and Dylan must have known it too. That’s the only reason she could have gone back into a raging battle without caring about getting caught in the middle.
You picked the absolute worst time to be a hero, Dylan! I vent my frustration, hoping she’ll somehow hear.
Then I run after her.
CHAPTER 32
Dylan
The second I run down the stairs, a crash resounds from a nearby room that I’ve never been in before, and can’t identify. I pretend not to hear anything and head straight for the dungeon.
Behind the bars of my previous prison, Paul is holding Jace in his arms as the toddler screeches, terrified.
“Stand back!” I yell to be heard over Jace.
Paul listens to me and pulls himself and Jace as far back as the cell goes. I block the screams out with both hands and charge into the bars’ door with all the force I can manage, hitting it with my shoulder. It breaks upon impact, and I topple over with it, landing painfully on my side. I’m pretty sure I got a few fractured bones, but I don’t have time to wait for them to heal. I need to keep moving. They’ll heal on the way.
Ignoring the pain, I stand up and take Jace out of Paul’s arms. It surprises me how easily he comes to me, and that the sound of his cries calms down to a whining. I didn’t think he liked me. His tiny arms wrap tightly around me, and he buries his face in my neck.
“Come on, Paul!” I order as I reach for his hand.
“Reena?”
My hand continues searching for his. “I’ll come back for her,” I promise. “I need to get you two out first. I don’t know what’s happening out there, but it’s our only chance to escape.”
“No, I mean Reena,” he insists, pointing.
Understanding, I glance at the girl behind me. At the same moment, Jace sees her and reaches out to her, calling her some baby variation of her name. She is instantly ready to embrace him reassuringly, closing her eyes as she does so. I see the marks on her wrists for the first time, due to the way she’s holding him. They’re fresh, maybe a week or two old. It explains why no one noticed before.
It’s like she feels my gaze on her, because her eyes suddenly open wide and stare at me with caution.
Seriously, Logan was with this girl for years. How did he not notice what was going on in her family? How didn’t he see it turned her suicidal?
“I wasn’t always like this,” Reena explains, as if seeing the wheels turning in my head, trying to make sense of this. “Jason wasn’t… it wasn’t this bad until Colton put his claws in.”
She pauses, tears spilling from her eyes.
“I only hurt myself a few times,” she continues, justifying her actions. “All of them were this year, because Colton was pushing more after Jason became suspicious, and that made him…violent. I just couldn’t handle it, sometimes. I tried to hide it from Logan, but he found me once. I convinced him it was an accident. He never really loved me… or else he would have asked again. He loves you.”
I have no idea why she’s reassuring me right now. But I am frozen in place, and I can’t complain.
Besides, a few seconds later, I can’t do anything other than growl, as I see Jason’s silhouette stand in the stairway, blocking our only source of light.
“Well isn’t this cozy, sis,” he calls out mockingly. “Are you having a little reunion?”
While I seethe in anger, Reena jumps and twists around. This time, when I see the look of pure raw terror on her face, I do feel sympathy for her, alongside the obvious pity. It’s truly heartbreaking.
Nobody deserves this, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.
“Get back to your room, and don’t ever leave it again unless I tell you to,” Jason commands. “You have a job to do, and you don’t get a free pass just because we have guests.”
Grinding my teeth together, I growl at him. “You *sshole!”
My reaction is automatic, and I let it happen. I swing forward and land a solid punch at Jason’s face. My fist comes in contact with the bridge of his nose, and I don’t feel anything when I crack it. His head lurches back, and he holds his nose, whining painfully as he runs out of there.
Reena looks at me with a mixture of shock and gratitude. I don’t want to hear her thanking me, so I put up my hand to stop her from saying anything at all.
“Dylan?” Paul’s voice suddenly pipes in tentatively.
I jump and turn to him; I forgot he was even here. “Yeah?”
“Emmett’s still up there,” he tells me with a trembling tone.
A
wave of affection for this boy rushes through me. He must be so terrified, yet he’s more concerned with a toddler and a baby boy’s lives. This is one brave kid. I have to do everything I can to protect him.
I nod. “I’m on it.”
It takes me a moment after I’ve run out of there to realize that I have no idea what room Emmett Carson is in. Yet, my feet are mechanically transporting me to the same floor where Colton had just held me in. If there’s one bedroom here, there’s bound to be others on the same level. It’s a long shot, but it’s a start at least.
Sure enough, I see an open door adjacent to that other room. Inside, there’s a crib. And something moving.
Still, part of me is worried that with Colton so close, he’ll somehow catch me off guard and drag me away. So I go into his room to check whether or not he’s moved. He seems to be still knocked out. Before I can be completely certain, a black wolf pounces through the door, growling at the air. When he sees me, he freezes and stares at me with shock.
“Logan?!”
Seeing him in wolf form right now is stirring up all sorts of emotions mixing with my current ones, and they’re all making me dizzy. I’ve been so focused on getting the boys out of here that I didn’t even notice the pull was back. Hard. The only coherent thought I can form – which is actually pretty stupid– is how did he get here? Cars didn’t occur to me. Heck, I didn’t even think he might have run here. The fact that he showed up at the most perfect time is something I just can’t seem to wrap my head around.
Then I finally understand.
“Is that what the whole commotion is about? But how did you know? How did you get here so fast?”
He throws a quick glance down at his uncle before staring at me again, bewildered.
“Oh, yeah, that,” I say, checking out my handiwork. “Don’t worry, I took care of him.”
It happens too fast for me to process it. One second, wolfy Logan and I are staring at each other, and the next, a very human –and very naked– Logan is holding me in his arms, like he’s afraid I would run away from him. Considering what he’s wearing, there’s a chance I might.
“Uh, Logan?”
“I thought I lost you,” he lets out in one breath.
“Um, no, I’m okay, but this is kind of–”
He pulls back and holds my face in his hands. “One minute. Just give me one minute.”
I frown in confusion. “For what?”
The answer turns out to be kissing me. This may be the most unromantic of places, and we may both be a mess, what with me not having changed clothes or washed for several days and him being naked and all disheveled from fighting other werewolves. But I don’t really care. All that matters is that it’s him and me again, together. Even the sparks are still there, bringing my senses to life in the most unexpected situation.
I’m the one to break the kiss, because I need some air. “Right,” I sigh, absolutely ecstatic. “That.”
A wide grin splits across his face, and he holds my own against his forehead in a way that I have to close my eyes, which is a good thing since I’m really not prepared to see him like this.
“You had me so worried,” he confesses. “I nearly blew up my old pack house when I couldn’t find you, I was going crazy.”
This actually surprises me. Logan losing his temper? This is something I have to see for myself to really believe.
In that moment, it hits me, really hits me for the first time. Logan is in love with me. No matter how it all started, he really and truly loves me, for me. He’s never done anything like this to Reena, even at the height of their relationship. Granted, she’s never been kidnapped, but he always put up walls against her and kept her out.
Aside from the fact that he’s opened up to me more than anyone else, he also risked his life to save me today. With Reena, he never even noticed that she was suffering right under his nose because of her brother. He cared about her, but not enough to look deep enough and see what she was going through behind closed doors.
The intensity of his love for me makes me want to drop to my knees and break down crying right now. I’m not sure I’ll ever be enough to deserve it. But I’ll take it. I’d be insane to refuse an inch of love emanating from this incredible man.
Overjoyed, I smile. “Really?”
“Of course!” he replies. “What would you expect me to feel when my mate goes mis–”
He is cut off when he jolts suddenly and his arms tense around me. Something is wrong. My eyes fly open. His are wide, his mouth still frozen in the form of the word he was aiming to say.
“Logan?” I ask, afraid of the answer.
He jolts again and doubles over, shortly after falling to the ground. Colton stands where Logan just was, holding a bloody knife in his outstretched hand.
“Logan!” I scream, crouching down beside my mate, tears of terror beginning to gather in my eyes. The more my vision blurs, the more the ground around Logan becomes red in my field of vision.
“No, no, no, what did you do, you b*stard?!”
“I hate being interrupted,” the psycho says. “Now, where were we?”
Is that it? He hates being interrupted? How dare he? How dare he?!
“Are you completely insane?” I yell. “That’s your nephew! How psychotic are you?”
“Nephew,” he scoffs. “He is just like his father, which means he’s going to turn on me just like my brother did. Better to get him out of the way while I still can.”
Slowly, I lift my gaze to stare up at him “Get him… out… of the way?” I repeat incredulously.
My anger quickly evolves into a fury like I’ve never felt before. My entire body starts shaking from head to toe. Slowly, I rise to my feet and face off with the psycho.
“Ah, drugged up little shewolf is going to try to hit me?” he mocks.
At this, I smirk. I know what’s happening before it does, and I don’t try to stop it this time. If there is any good time for me to have an emotional attack, it’s now. I want to rip this *sshole to shreds. He’s killed innocent families and children, kidnapped others, including me, threatened God knows how many, put Logan through hell and literally stabbed him in the back, and plotted to keep me as a baby-making machine, just because he wanted a big and powerful army.
The last thing I remember, before I black out from the oncoming attack, is the look on Colton’s face as I lunge for his throat mid-shift.
CHAPTER 33
Daniel
When the fighting’s over, and everyone’s recovering, I don’t sleep for days. It’s a nightmare if I fall asleep, and a nightmare if I’m awake, so I don’t bother trying.
Zoey still hasn’t woken up, but everyone says she’s going to be fine. We’re back at SMP’s compound, and she’s in her own hospital room. Dylan is in another, though the doctor and everyone else assures me that her condition is promising, and that she will be fine.
Twice, I went to visit her, while Sadie kept watch over her sister. The only marks Dylan had when they first brought her in are on her ribs and fist. They healed after a few hours, however. I guess she put up one hell of a fight against whoever dared cross her. I’m proud of her, and I can’t wait for her to wake up so we can put our silly feud behind us and gloat about her insane fighting skills.
Though I mostly spend my time by Zoey’s side now, I also think about Logan Underwood’s condition. His medical state is the worst, because not only was he stabbed in the back –both figuratively and quite literally– whatever he was stabbed with also did more damage than simply tearing through skin, muscle and bone. He’s been poisoned. Heavily.
Nevertheless, my sister and girlfriend are what I’m most worried about. I try to distract myself by planning what to do when they’re back to normal. I have to find the right moment to make up with Dylan, though maybe I should give her some time first to get better. Plus, she will probably be focused on Logan, and she’ll be even more terrified for him than I am for Zoey.
Yeah, I’ll give her
space first, I decide.
So that leaves Zoey. How can I make her life easier when she wakes up? Our relationship is out in the open, so there’s no burden weighing down on her from that part. We also admitted that John exists, so that secret is also out. All that remains now is to reveal everything we know about him. We’ve avoided doing that so far because we don’t want anyone to worry about him being a threat. We were waiting for things to calm down so that we could explain calmly and without alarming anyone.
I trust him now, because he’s kept the secret this whole time, and he’s tried to get to know Sadie without even mentioning that he knows about werewolves. It’s been harder for her to accept their father’s betrayal, because she hasn’t had the preparation Zoey had before meeting John and facing the harsh reality. But I have a feeling she’ll be fine with time, and having everything out in the open might just make it easier for her and everyone else.
My mind firmly set, I stand up from my seat next to Zoey’s unconscious form, and kiss her on the forehead. Sadie looks at me strangely from the other side of the bed, trying to understand what I’m doing. I realize what I have to say concerns her more than anyone else, but there’s no one I trust more to watch over Zoey at the moment, excluding their parents of course. Besides, I’m sure Cade will tell her.
“I’ll be right back,” I whisper, kissing Zo’s head again.
My parents are the first people I call to meet me in Logan’s office. Cade is already there, so I simply knock on his door. I also invite any of my brothers who aren’t busy and would like to attend. They all show up.
“What’s going on, Daniel?” Dad wonders.
Once everyone is in the office, I take a deep breath and go stand behind the desk, where they can all see and hear me.