Hunter scowls. “When someone has something in high demand, it’s human nature to extort it for the highest value that they can. And with as heavily guarded and monitored as females are, they had little choice in the matter. Sure, they could shift, but there were always several other wolves in the packs that could as well. Didn’t stand a chance of fighting back or running, since they could be tracked down and dragged back. Or worse, find themselves in a situation where they crossed paths with someone from a more brutal pack that would sniff out what they were, so there was nowhere to hide. And seeing as the pack provides everything, it’s not like they had any money of their own, weren’t trained to fight... everything was stacked against them to keep them as breedable prisoners, just masquerading that fact as benevolently protecting and providing for them. The whole concept is revolting.”
Damian grimaces before getting the story back on track. “But then Annika broke the mold. She refused to accept the life forced upon her, and against all odds, left. Despising her parents for marrying her off, she burned their house down after locking them inside. She used the fire as a distraction to run, and the smoke to mask her scent so that no one could track what direction she fled, giving her a head start before anyone even realized that she was missing.”
I take a drink, enthralled, as he continues. “But it was the final straw. After countless chances, the wolves had finally used them all up. The curse settled in in full force, no more women born to give them another chance at redemption. They were forced to face the reality of how epically they’d messed everything up, watching the days pass by without a shred of hope or joy. All the while their other halves consumed them, capitalizing on their broken spirits and turning them into shadows of the men that they once were. The dry season got a little longer each year, chasing away the natural game inhabiting the mountain to the point where we were forced to make trips into the neighboring towns for food, the farmland near the base of the mountain not nearly enough to support us all anymore.”
Fiddling with the silver hoop in the top of his ear, he exhales heavily. “We were born into a dying legacy, our families already barely hanging on by a thread. Broken, but the three of us are convinced it isn’t beyond repair. We’ve spent our entire lives trying to get them out from under Acheron Wilder’s thumb, even going so far as to stab him in the heart eighteen years ago.”
Bo flicks his gaze between Sabrina and Kaige. “What happened?”
Hunter flags down our waiter, ordering another round of drinks before he scoffs. “Bastard doesn’t have one. Must’ve missed it by millimeters, or his healing abilities are the envy of the nation. Should’ve seen our faces when he walked right past us the next day like we didn’t watch the light go out of his eyes before leaving him bleeding out in his bed.” A shadow crosses his face before his expression shutters completely.
Kaige turns to Sabrina, such hope in his gaze that there’s no doubting the sincerity of his words. “But then I intercepted Adrian’s call and heard aboutyou.And it dawned on me that if Annika leaving damned us, her daughter returning was too poetic to be anything other than our final chance of salvation. If you came back, then it would breathe life back into our people, give them hope again. It’d give them a reason to fight, to push back against Ash. And if we could get the Slaughters on our side, it would damn near ensure victory.”
Reid narrows his eyes. “Were you tapping Adrian’s phone, or the Slaughters’?”
Kaige doesn’t miss a beat. “Slaughters’. Like I said, we’ve been working on trying to find a solution for years. Information is power, and we needed to find an opportunity to get them on our side. So the day Adrian arrived, I showed up at the Slaughters’ dragging the bloody pulp of a member of their pack that I’d caught skulking around my border. Just so happened it was perfect timing to overhear about Sabrina, so I volunteered the three of us to verify Adrian’s tip and if it was true, retrieve her.
“Pointed out how it went every time they left to search for Annika. They returned to their pack capitalizing on their absence, trying to fill the seat of power, and growing bold enough to push against our borders so we’d be forced to cut some of them down. Every time they returned from a few weeks of searching, they spent the next few reestablishing dominance and putting their men back into line. So I pitched it not as us giving a damn about what happened to them, but if itwastrue, logically they’d be arranging her match to one of the three of us to gain access through our territories for a trade route off the mountain like they’ve been after for years. This provided us a chance to win her favor so she could weigh in on their decision, so she’d be somewhere that she wanted to stay. And a happy daughter would be much more inclined to discuss the topic of her mother with them.”
Tilting his head as he considers something, my twin eventually replies, “They had to know you tapped their phone. Adrian was able to hack into our security system at home, so he’d have found the timing suspicious and likely checked. And they sent him along with you to report back to them.”
“Well damn, he actually survived without being devoured. Didn’t see that one coming.”
“SHUT UP!”
All eyes turn to me as silence falls, and I close my eyes in mortification at the slip. That is, until Sabrina begins rhythmically stroking her thumb over the back of my hand. Prying an eyelid open, I force myself to face her, but there’s no condemnation in her gaze. If anything, she looks... relieved.
Leaning in, she murmurs in my ear, “I’ve been waiting for you.” With a brief kiss to my cheek and a squeeze of her hand, she leaves things at that.
Clearing my throat, I attempt to get the conversation back on track before anyone says anything. “Eh, maybe, maybe not. They’d send him either way since they don’t trust you three. At least Adrian is in business with them, so they’d be more likely to believe what he says, or want confirmation you weren’t lying.”
The waiter returns with the next round of drinks and an apology for the delay in the kitchen before rushing off as a few glares are aimed his way. Bo finishes off his current beer before reaching for the new one with a shake of his head. “But then when they received confirmation, why wouldn’t they drop everything to rush over here to get her rather than you three stringing them along for more time?”
Damian shrugs. “Because we’re assholes. Their mate ran away from them, so it was easy to exploit that sore spot. Pointed out that they were going to make their daughter hate them too if they ripped her away from her life while she was in the middle of doing something that was important to her. The project had a deadline, so that helped pacify them, to a degree.”
Slade strums his fingers on the table. “Why not just leave?”
All of their faces fall, but the dimming hope in Kaige’s eyes makes his the most notable, and Sabrina squirms uncomfortably in her seat. “Where would we go? We don’t have the money to give four hundred people new lives and homes. And it wouldn’t exactly be discreet with that many people, so there’d be nothing stopping Ash from tracking us down and slitting some throats, manipulating them to return back under his control.”
Something’s nagged at me through this entire conversation, but it only now clicks, and I scrub the heel of my free hand over the tightening pressure in my chest,prayingthat I’m wrong. “So, he slaughtered your parents to bring you to heel. That means he either wanted you to stop making waves sowing dissension in the ranks, or to do something for him.”
They’re all silent until Slade scoffs, disgusted. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Sabrina tilts her head to face him. “Didn’t what?”
Swallowing, I tighten my hold on her hand. “What happened eighteen years ago, angel?”
She pauses, contemplating it, but Damian closes his eyes as he confesses, “He sent us to kill Noah Laroque.” Her strangled sound of disbelief has his eyes flying open, raising his hands in surrender as he rushes out, “I swear to every god in this world and the next that we had no idea who you were back then. We thought he was just some human, and even then, we refused. Hell, we tried tokillhim to get out of it, but the bastard’s a fucking cockroach that retaliated by killing Kaige and Hunter’s parents.”
Throat bobbing, he swallows. “He forced our hands, Sabrina. Iswearthat we had no idea. And once we came here and learned that he was your father, we’ve spent all of our spare time trying to figure it out, but nothing makes sense. If he knew about you and your mom, why kill Noah if not to bring you home? Why send us to kill him at all and not to grab you two? Nothing adds up, but I promise, we didn’t know, and didn’t have a choice. Fuck, we were barely teenagers at the time, but we tried everything we could think of to get out of it. He was just... worse than anything we knew how to deal with at the time. Still is.”
She whispers, “So he forces you guys to, what? Be his hit men? Scrub his laundry, do whatever he demands at the snap of his fingers?”
Hunter squirms in his seat. “He proves time and time again that he can kill any of us if we stop being useful or cause him too many problems. So he makes everyone do a test of loyalty when they become teenagers and holds the evidence above their heads as leverage so we can’t escape, even if we run. This was ours. We thought he was some random guy that owed Ash money or something. Or at least, that’s what we told ourselves.”
I tighten my grip on her hand, but while she accepts the comfort, it doesn't dampen her anger.
“That was the point in my life that it went to Hell, I hope you know. Everything was fine until then. I washappy.Loved. And you ripped all of that away from me.” A sudden thought occurs to her and she chokes back a sob. “That’s why we moved around so much, not because she struggled to hold down a job. It’s because sheknew.She knew he was murdered and they were nipping at our heels, was preparing me to survive alone in case they caught up with us. Keeping me at arm’s length would’ve meant her scent wouldn’t be all over me to tip anyone off if I crossed paths with a wolf without realizing it, and kicking me out as soon as she could let me stay hidden in plain sight and actually have a life while she went back into hiding.”
