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“We need to know everything you know,” Cade says, interlacing his fingers on the tabletop.
Callum barks out a laugh. “So you don’t trust us, but you expect us to trust you with the things we have learned?” He arches a brow. “You don’t see the double standard in that?”
“We’re the ones at a disadvantage here,” Cade answers. “We are outmanned.”
“Fair point. If information is what it takes to get you to trust us, I’ll gladly divulge what you need to know.” He moves the tray aside so he can steeple his fingers on the table too. “This is going to be a long story, so buckle in.”
Chapter 26
Halle
The death grip Cade has on my thigh under the table is certainly going to leave bruises. Using the mating bond, I send him as much reassurance as I can, and he eases up. I understand why he is so nervous. This is unknown, uncharted territory, and he is right to be on edge. Perhaps I am too trusting, but I don’t see any malice in anyone other than the girl at the door, and her only crime was a crappy attitude.
“Most of our kind have been hunted for a long time, but males like me were subjected to greater hardships. When I was coming into my power, my alpha tried to drown me.”
I can’t stop my gasp. I know how brutal it can be when our true lineage is discovered. Both my pack and my former mate tried to kill me. I’d barely escaped with my life, and I had Cade to thank for that.
The thought of Callum going through that same trauma makes my heart shatter. When does it end? When is enough really enough?
Callum scrubs a hand over his jaw, his eyes heavy with emotion, as he continues his story. “I unleashed the magic inside me to protect myself, killing him in the process. So, I ran. I didn’t have a choice. I stayed hidden for a while, moving around every couple of days, then I heard about a group of male tau who had come together to try and protect themselves from hunters. When I joined them, I had nothing, no one, but I was filled with anger and a sense of injustice at what had happened to me. I wanted to kill every member of the Order.”
“Join the club,” Sawyer says. “We’re all card-carrying members of the we-hate-the-Order club.”
“You’ll find everyone here has a similar story. Tau, wolves, other hybrids—there’s few here who haven’t suffered directly as a result of those maniacs. The more we fought, the more tau we gathered. At first, it was only males, but we started taking in everyone who needed protection. I still have nightmares about some of the things I’ve seen done to those kids over the years.”
A shiver runs through me. I can imagine how bad things might have gotten.
“Over time, we added homes, equipment. We built ways to protect ourselves.” Callum blows out a breath. “I’ve followed the Order and its hunters for a long time. I know more about them than they probably know about themselves, and yet I still can’t figure out what they are doing.”
“They’re breeding soldiers,” Dove says.
Callum nods. “Ayden told you that, right?”
“Yeah,” Cade answers for her, “he did, but how did you find out?”
“We liberated an imprinted pair about twelve months ago. They’d escaped the facility, the female heavily pregnant. They were bonded, but not in the usual sense. They still had their memories, and they helped us fill in a lot of things we didn’t know, but they didn’t have a clue why the Order is creating these kids.”
“How do we find out?” The question comes from Wyatt.
He doesn’t look so good, and as soon as I’ve eaten, I’m going to heal him again. I don’t like how pale he still is, but I did all I could yesterday.
Callum lifts his eyes to him before glancing at Ayden. “I don’t know. Reading between the lines, they’re scared. Like the Order knows something is coming, but they’ve been building an army for at least a decade and nothing has happened yet.”
“Longer,” I say, an unpleasant feeling spreading through me. “They took my mother when I was eight, and they still have her with them. I don’t know what they’ve done to her, but she is a robot. She only does what the Order tells her to do.”
Admitting that makes my heart hurt. It was a relief to discover my mother was still alive, but only for the briefest of moments. When I understood the torment she must have suffered over the years, it made me feel sick to my stomach. How can I be out here when she has been in the hands of an organization that despises our kind for years?
My guilt and shame must thrum through our bond because Cade wraps his hand around the back of my neck, gently stroking my nape. It is a gesture designed to subdue, but when he does it, it relaxes me.
“I’m sorry about your mother. Unfortunately, that is a common story. There are many children here who have lost their parents to hunters. They don’t care about ripping families apart. As long as they get what they need out of it, that is all that matters.”
“We’ll get her back.” The fierceness in my voice takes me by surprise. I’m sure he’s heard this kind of thing said many times before, but I mean every word of it. I will not rest until I have my mother back. I’ve already lost far too much.
“I hope we’ll be able to help with that, Halle, but you should manage your expectations. The truth is those we rescue from the facility often don’t recover from what has been done to them. The Order employs cruel methods to draw magic out of those who wield it. It is a daily torture, and not all minds are able to take it. I don’t like to shatter your hope, but it is possible that your mother will never be who she was before.”
It feels as if a rock is sitting on my chest, stealing the air from my lungs. I don’t want to consider that I’ll never have my mother back. I expected there to be some residual trauma, but I never considered that she might be so trapped in her hell that she wouldn’t come out of it.
We’ll figure it out, Sawyer murmurs through our pack link. Don’t give up yet.
