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Chapter Seventeen
Reardon paced in wolf form in the stone cell Flidae had deemed as his new home. The golden rope she’d used to enslave him had a choking grip around his neck, but he couldn’t keep still. He couldn’t shift. He couldn’t talk.
He couldn’t be with Brandy.
That last limitation hurt the most. He’d had no chance to say a proper goodbye. To kiss her once more. To hold her once more. At least every curve of her body, every smooth expanse of flawless skin, every scent that made Brandy uniquely her was burned into his memory. He would never,neverforget her. She’d be with him always—at least in thought and in his heart, even if he couldn’t be with her as he wanted to.
Though he’d only been among Brandy, Dylan, Meredith, Parker, and even Chella for a short time, they’d come to be more family to him than anyone else had been. His mother loved him. He knew that. But she hadn’t given him the attention or the care a true mother should.
His brother, Jaemus, loved him too. At least he had before Reardon changed him without his permission. Still that connection wasn’t like what he experienced with Brandy and Dylan.
Reardon had a bond with Kole, Shawn, and Erik too, but once again, he’d severed that link when he shared his ability with them without their consent.
Any way he looked at it, Brandy and Dylan—and the sanctuary’s wolves—were the closest thing to a family he would ever have and he craved that so damn much. To be a part of their lives. To have them be a part of his. To love them for as long as his werewolf life would allow him.
Brandy had also given him a home at Silver Moon. It’d been a long time since he’d called one placehome, but the sanctuary certainly felt like one. The wolves had accepted him and made him their Alpha. He felt empty without them around.
The big iron door to his cell scraped open with an ear-piercing screech. He instantly lowered to his belly and put his paws over his head, attempting to cover his large and sensitive wolf ears. When Flidae floated in, a long violet-colored cloak swimming around her slim form, he wished he could sink his teeth into her.
“Now, now,” she warned, waving a finger at him. “Ripping me to shreds will do you no good, wolf.”
Get out of my head.
“But it’s so much fun in your messy head, Reardon McAlator. So much fun.” She clapped her hands. “I have ideas on more fun.”
Reardon raised his head, not liking the sound of this at all.
“True. What’s fun to me has not been fun to you lately.” She wandered deeper into the cell, but not close enough for Reardon to reach her from the end of the golden rope, which told him perhaps she was a little afraid of him.
Good.
“You overestimate yourself again, mutt.” Flidae’s form grew in height, her cloak lengthening magically as she towered over him. “I command creatures far more frightening than you and they don’t intimidate me in the least. They bow down to me. As should you.”
She raised her hand, fingers spread, and suddenly an immense pain tore through his skull. Reardon had no choice but to drop his head and cover it with his paws again. It felt as if someone were taking an ax blade to his head.
“Your will is strong, but I am stronger. You’ll do well to remember who is dominant and who is submissive. That’s been your problem all along. When you killed for money, but didn’t use your wolf abilities—abilitiesIbestowed upon you—I didn’t care what you did. Kill all you want as a human. That activity doesn’t concern me.” Flidae lowered her hand and the splitting pain stopped, but not without leaving Reardon with a headache so intense his eyes hurt. “It’s when you chose to use your wolf to kill and made other wolves to do the same… well, that’s when I had to step in. I’m in charge of all wild creatures, Reardon McAlator. You are not.”
How he wished he could shift to human. He had some words for Flidae and he didn’t care if she didn’t like those words.
“You can give me your words, wolf. I hear everything even if it is not spoken aloud.” She folded her arms across her chest and reduced her size back to normal.
I made a mistake.You sent me from this place, this time, as punishment. You took my life here away. I felt that loss, Flidae. It was a fitting consequence for my arrogance in changing my men without their consent… or yours.
He sat up on his haunches, not wanting to stay in the cowering position and sensing that Flidae was truly listening to him.
My men were the only family I had and what I did to them is unforgivable. I don’t expect them to accept any apologies if I ever see them again, but separating me from them hurts for I have no chance to make it up to them. They have been scattered and their hatred for me has no doubt only grown. I do not know how they fare. Have they been sent to times and places that are harsh? Are they getting a chance to do something worthy? Are you tormenting them as you are me?
At that last question, Flidae raised an eyebrow. “I think your men have been tormented enough simply by being turned into werewolves. Regular men do not always handle such a change well. You were made to be able to endure it. And my purpose in scattering them was to further punishyou.”
Does that mean they have been sent to good times and places?He hoped this for his men who had not only suffered because of what he’d done to them, but had suffered because of the very life they’d led as mercenaries. Trained killers for hire under his leadership. Damn. Had he ever done anything to benefit those men? He’d basically led them to probable death each time he’d accepted a contract. Most of those jobs had ended with them receiving a handsome reward, but had it been worth it?
“I can’t see how it could have been worth it, wolf,” Flidae said. “Your life before this point has been nothing but brutality. I fear you are incapable of truly putting another first. You even managed to get something for yourself out of your time with the wolf scientist.”
But she got something too.
“Did she?” Flidae floated toward the cell door. “That’s what I want to confirm next.”
Confirm? How?Reardon’s stomach did a sick roll. He didn’t want Flidae even thinking about Brandy.
