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But the longer she thought about it, the more she didn’t want to remember the way the children shied away from her father—the way the others would suddenly run away, only to be caught and brought back.
She had never wanted to believe the worst.
She had forced herself not to see the way it truly might have been.
“Kaylene, were there other children?” Fire Thunder insisted, wanting to plant the small seed of doubt in her brain about who her true biological parents weren’t, without actually coming out and saying it.
He wanted her to come to the conclusion alone, not to blame him for bringing to light that she may have been abducted those many years ago.
And if he was wrong about this, she would hate him with a passion for placing such doubts inside her mind.
Kaylene gulped hard. “Yes, there were,” she whispered.
Fire Thunder came close to saying that might it not be true, then, that she was a stolen child?
But he felt it was too cruel.
In her startled eyes, he saw that she might be coming to that conclusion, herself.
He could not help but fear what he had begun here, yet he knew that it was best for Kaylene, should he be right. She had the right to know that this demonic man had no true blood ties to her, releasing her of any guilt she may have at being kin to him.
He hoped with all of his heart and being that it was the truth!
Kaylene was remembering many things about her past that caused a wonder to build within her heart. If so many other children had been stolen away, might she also have been?
Yet there had been a difference between her and the other children. She had lived separate from the others. She lived with the Sheltons as their daughter.
She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth when she recalled something else so vividly it might have happened only yesterday—the time when her father had said that it was time that she earn her keep like the other children in the carnival.
She had found the panther, and they had become close friends. Midnight had grown up muscular and strong. Her father had forced her to perform with him.
As at other times in the past, she now felt used, as though the only reason she had been born was to perform and make money for her parents.
And she knew that her mother couldn’t have any more children.
Could she, in truth, have never been able to have any? Had her father abducted Kaylene as a baby, to fill that gap in their lives?
Fire Thunder watched Kaylene’s expressions change as she stood there in deep thought before him.
Then his heart skipped a beat when she lifted tearful eyes to him. “Please take me to my mother,” she softly cried.
Deep inside her heart, she despaired over this question of whether or not this woman named Anna was her mother. Why hadn’t she thought of it until now? The many times she had wondered which parent she looked like, seeing no resemblance in herself to either of them.
Why not then?
Why did it take all of this to make her realize that things were not exactly as they should have been between herself and . . . those who called themselves her parents.
The cruelties of her father should have made her wonder long ago, for it would have been a blessing to discover that he was not truly her father!
Fire Thunder felt himself weakening beneath Kaylene’s pleading eyes, and started to tell her that, yes, soon, he would take her back to her mother, but only to question her. She would have to return with him, for he now knew that no matter what her background was, he loved her with every fiber of his being. He could never let her go.
But he stopped and stared at the blood seeping through the bandage on her shoulder. Her wound was not healing as he had thought. It had opened again. He feared infection. He had to do everything in his power to make sure that did not happen.
Ignoring Kaylene’s question, and the heart-wrenching way she had asked him to take her to her mother, Fire Thunder swept her into his arms and started walking toward the door.
“What are you doing?” Kaylene asked, her eyes wide. “Where are you taking me?”
As he carried her outside, and the early rising sun cast lengthy shadows on the cage, Kaylene’s heart sank.
