AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Isn’t that pathetic?”
“No, it’s human.” Her sister frowned. “Wait, why does that sound weird?”
“Because we live in an alternate universe now where nothing makes sense.”
“You’re right again. Bannon, I told you to get your butt down here!”
Janessa reached up to snag her son’s ankle. Bannon squealed in protest and threw a fit. Lachelle gasped as his facial skin rippled with silvery scales. Her poor sis was in big trouble.
Leaving the two alone, Lachelle decided to take a walk to clear her head. She left the house and strolled down the path toward the lake. Energy pulsed through her body. She paused to wiggle around a bit and noticed, after all that drama a couple days ago, she wasn’t sore. How could that be?
“I’m not complaining about it.” Her voice echoed across the water as she arrived at the lake.
A family of shifters splashing around in the water looked in her direction. She smiled and waved. They nodded respectfully, even smiled back a little. She decided to keep her thoughts inside her head.
The shifters respected her perhaps because she was Janessa’s sister, but did they automatically prefer Kelly? Over the last couple of days, Kelly hadn’t been around. As far as Lachelle knew she wasn’t at the homestead. Her face and name hadn’t been in the news either. What was she doing?
Lachelle’s cell phone rang. “Hey, what’s up, sis?”
“Come back, Lachelle.” Janessa’s tone was tight. “Declan’s here. He’s saying
…he…”
“What, sweetie?”
“Just come back. I need you.”
Lachelle hurried to the house, and when she walked in her breath caught in her throat. She forced herself to swallow and advert her eyes. Gerard had arrived with his brother, along with a few others. Among them was Kelly. It was too much to hope the woman had been snatched and that no one would fight for her return.
Everyone settled in Janessa and Declan’s living room. Declan sat beside his wife, an arm about her shoulders. Gerard stood near a window, stiff as a board and wearing a grim expression. He looked ready to bolt, and she wondered why. As soon as she walked into the room, his gaze settled on her and remained. Even as she found a seat on the opposite side of the room, she felt him watching her.
“What’s happening?” Lachelle asked although she could guess.
“I’m allowing myself to be arrested,” Declan stated.
Janessa sobbed.
Lachelle jumped up from her seat to kneel in front of her sister and take her hands. Janessa squeezed her fingers like a lifeline. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her eyes begged for understanding of the situation, but Lachelle couldn’t give it. Lachelle figured the same thoughts ran through her sister’s mind that ran through hers. Declan could lose his life while awaiting trial.
“You don’t have to do this,” Lachelle told him. “You have a family who needs you. Bannon has just—uh, awakened or whatever. Doesn’t he need his daddy to teach him the ways of the dragon?”
For an instant, Declan appeared amused and then grew serious. “I will be here for him. I won’t be gone long.”
“That’s what you think. You’ve lived among them—us—long enough. You know how the system can work.”
“I’m giving them the opportunity to do the right thing.”
“You’re being stubborn is what you’re doing!”
One of the shifters stepped forward. “Show respect.”
“You shut up,” she snapped back.
Gerard made a small noise, and the man paled, then settled on the wall he held up.
Lachelle glared at all of them, including Gerard. “None of you have anything to say about this? You’re going to let your ‘king’ take the fall for what all of you were involved in? Some of you are single. You could say you were the one who killed Patrick. I mean Declan was mostly in dragon form. How would anyone know for sure? Well?”
No one spoke.
