Damian goes rigid. “Sabrina, stay with-”
Kaige cuts him off with a small shake of his head. “He's not dying, calm down. But we ran into him and filled him in about you being mated to Annika's daughter to see if he could give us any more information like my mom did, and, well-” he grimaces “- freaking the fuck out is putting it mildly. And some of the things he was muttering...” With another shake of his head, he looks at me with a pinched expression. “They make an awful lot of sense, and I really wish they didn’t.”
As we take off running in the direction he came from, Damian demands, “My mother?”
“Mason and Gage took her to my parents’ place,” he assures, but it doesn’t put any of us at ease. If the guy is this pissed off about his son being mated to me, to the point they had to actually remove his mate from the vicinity for her safety, that doesn’t particularly bode well for how he’ll react when I show up.
We make record time, approaching a cabin that’s nearly identical to the one Kaige’s parents live in. “Are you sure I shouldn’t stay outside?”
Kaige clasps his hands behind his neck, closing his eyes and staring up at the sky as he takes a couple of deep breaths. “I’m sure.”
Swallowing, I nod, but we both hang back as Damian storms inside ahead of us with Hunter on his heels. “You’re freaking me out, you know that right?” I murmur. “Highlights, please?”
All color has been stolen from his eyes, his control utterly shattered. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Oh, well that’s not ominous at all. Clears things right up, thanks so much.”
He takes my face between both hands, thumbs brushing over my cheeks as he adamantly declares, “Nothing you hear in there changes anything. We’ll get through this together, and you’re not going to let it break you.” A hint of fear flashes across his obsidian eyes. “You’ll remember that you love me. Not just him,me.You see us; really see us.”
Ice fills my veins as I follow him up the steps into the cabin. The place looks like a tornado tore through it; dishes shattered, furniture laying in splintered, broken pieces. Slade, Bo, Cinjin, and Reid have shifted and are snarling as they pace, forming an agitated circle around a man in the center of the room that’s pulling on his ebony hair and muttering under his breath. He glances up, and I get a quick flash of eyes the color of rubies with the hard edge to match before the manic glint takes over again.
Damian pleads again, “What the hell is going on?”
Kaige keeps a firm hold on my hand as he pulls me in closer, and I stare in horrified fascination as dark, shadowy tendrils snake around the man’s body, dancing across his skin before fading into a familiar haze of smoke. Darting a quick glance at the hellhounds snarling around him, I confirm that I’m not crazy. The smoky haze that clings to their fur is the same as that coating Damian’s dad, because it’s not smoke at all.
It’s the feral energy that we struggle so hard to contain.
Voice a rough croak, the man locks eyes with his son. “You need to get her as far away from this place as possible.”
With a snarl, Hunter snaps, “What the fuck is going on, Xander?”
Fisting his hair, chest heaving, he mutters to himself between breaths, “No one should have been able to undo it, to find her.”
Growling, Hunter stalks closer. “Undowhat?!”
Xander swallows. “The block I put on her abilities. It was either that or kill her, but how could I?” Like a flip was switched, every bit of energy clinging to his skin disappears in a puff of smoke and he drops to his knees, deflating.
Warily, Damian approaches him. “I don't understand. Dad... what did you do?"
Following his lead, I risk a few steps closer, but four sets of eyes swivel to me, lips curled back with warning growls. Reid breaks off from the group, stalking over with preternaturally silent footsteps before giving me his back as he returns to glaring at Damian’s father.
Care to clue me in on literally anything? Anything at all?I beg my mental roommate, but all I get are crickets.
Silence. My favorite.
With a trembling hand, he releases his hair, clenching and unclenching his fist instead. Taking a few deep breaths, he attempts to wrestle back enough control to have a lucid conversation. “Zayden came to me for help, but by the time we got back, she was already dead. I tried, but it was too late.”
“Who?” Damian coaches, sinking to his knees in front of him.
“Amelia Wilder,” Xander states like it’s obvious. “Baby came quickly, and her healing wasn’t kicking in, was getting worse. He came to get me to try to help her, but by the time we arrived, she was already gone, and Everett nearly was, too.” Snapping his gaze up, he stares me straight in the eye, gaining more clarity as he calms down. “They realized fairly quickly that it wasn’t the childbirth that killed her, it was the little alpha that was draining anyone that came into contact with her.”
The floor tilts under my feet, and the edges of my vision blacken, but there’s no ringing in my ears. It’s as if the world wants me to hear the painful truth, or rather,shewants me to.
Hunter whispers, “So Annika isn’t her mom?”
My stomach lurches as Kaige wraps an arm around my waist to keep me upright, the conversation in the elevator rising up to taunt me.‘Cost more than I wanted to pay, but he made it so that I could actually pick you up as a baby without being at risk of you draining me dry.’
Blinking back tears, I shake my head in denial. “No.”
