Simone smiled at her, grateful to have Kadence’s support in this room filled with antagonistic men. She didn’t get any outright hostile vibes from them—well, maybe Lucien—but she also didn’t feel overly welcome.
“If we can find them, maybe we can save some of the others who were taken,” Nathan said.
“By now those hunters have killed more than I did, and they don’t have a mate to pull them back from the madness. I only see blood on my hands that won’t come off; what they see could be a hundred times worse. Saving them is worth a try if they can be located, but there might not be anything left to save,” Killean said. “But I don’t think they can be located.”
“Maybe not, but Joseph will turn them loose one day, and if we can capture some of them, we can try to save them,” Nathan replied.
“We’ll deal with that if and when the time comes.” Ronan leaned forward and pinned Killean with his unrelenting stare. “Why didn’t you come to me before taking this course of action to find her?”
“Because you would have tried to stop me,” Killean said. “And I couldn’t have that. There was no other way to find her. We werethere, and we still have no idea where Joseph’s hiding place is. You would have done the same for Kadence.”
Ronan couldn’t argue that, and Killean knew it. There wasn’t anything Ronan wouldn’t do to save his mate.
“I believe what you’re saying, but you have to know I can’t let you live with the hunters and us,” Ronan said. “There are children and others who aren’t trained in fighting with us. I can’t put their lives at risk should you falter.”
“I understand,” Killean said. He’d expected as much.
Anger and sadness rose in Simone as she gazed back and forth between Killean and Ronan. Killean tried to hide it, but through their connection she felt his twinge of distress. “That’s not fair!” she blurted.
“Simone—”
“No!” she interrupted Killean before facing Ronan. “He sacrificed himself and everything that meant so much to him to rescueme! If not for Killean, I’d probably be one of thosethingsby now. You have no idea what it was like in there or what they did to us. It could have gotten so much worse for me, but Killean came for me. You can’t punish him for that!”
Nathan and Kadence sat with their jaws hanging open while Logan and Asher looked as if she’d spoken some alien language they couldn’t begin to comprehend. They’d expected her to come back as a docile vampire, but she would never be docile again.
Ronan’s eyebrows were in his hairline, but the corner of his mouth quirked in amusement, which only annoyed her more. He could kill her before she rose from this table, and she doubted many who dared defy him survived, but she didn’t care. Killean deserved better than this. The other vampires looked either amused or as if she were a bug stuck to the bottom of their shoe.
“I knew the consequences when I left, Simone,” Killean said. “It’s not a punishment; it’s the way things must be.”
When she spun on him, the color was high in her cheeks, and her clover-colored eyes burned with indignation. He loved this fiery hunter with her protective and loving nature.
“But—” she started to protest.
“It’s okay,” he said as he clasped her hand on his knee and lifted it to place it on the table. “I made a choice, and I would do it again.”
A sob lodged in her throat. Because of what he’d done for her, he lost everything that meant so much to him, yet he still wouldn’t change anything. She hadn’t considered it possible, but she fell more in love with him.
I’m sorry,she whispered into his mind.
I’m not, he said without hesitation.
She rested her head on his shoulder. The others continued to stare at her as if they didn’t know who she was, but that was okay. She was very aware of who and what she was now.
Sitting up, she threw her shoulders back as she gazed at each of them before focusing on Ronan when he started speaking again.
“I’m not saying you’re not still one of us,” Ronan said to Killean. “But until we andyouknow for certain you can be trusted around others, this is what must happen.”
Simone ground her teeth but refrained from commenting. No matter how much she disliked it, Ronan was right. She completely trusted Killean, but he had to prove himself to them again, and she understood their protective nature. There were children involved, and hunters such as herself, who couldn’t defend themselves against vampires. Given some time, it would all work out, she was sure of it.
“Do you have somewhere safe to stay?” Ronan asked.
“Nowhere close by,” Killean said.
“You can stay here, or if you would prefer, the house behind the prison is available.”
Killean had been to the prison Ronan purchased and modified to hold Savages and purebreds. He’d seen the house behind the prison; it was small, but at least it wasn’t a construction zone like this place. He glanced toward the window and noted the lightening of the sky on the horizon. It didn’t matter; he wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
“The sun is rising,” he said.
