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‘I didn’t do it for you. I know you’re friends with Jess, but we’re not quite there yet. It was an asshole move ordering Maxwell not to share information with us. If we’d cooperated, who knows how much sooner we might have got the kids back?’
‘I’m sorry, but it was the right call for the elementals,’ he said firmly. He was sorry, not sorry.
‘The elementals? Or you? You put the kids at risk to secure your political position. It highlighted where your priorities lie.’
‘My priorities lie with my people,allof my people.’
‘Jason is your lover’s cousin. How do you think Maxwell feels about your priorities?’ I asked cattily. Roscoe slid a look at Maxwell, met his eyes and looked away. I saw a flicker of anguish dance across Roscoe’s face. Oh yeah, trouble in paradise. Careful where power takes you, Roscoe.
‘Where’s my mummy?’ Wren asked, her bottom lip wobbling.
‘She’s on her way. She should just be a few minutes,’ I assured her. Once the kids had been secured, Greg had called Mrs Dawes to bring Joyce and Sonia. They were on their way, no doubt breaking the land-speed record en route. ‘Are you okay? Would you like a hug?’ I have little to no experience of kids, but if I were Wren I’d want a hug.
She gave a tiny nod. ‘Yes, please.’
I sank onto the floor, pulled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her. ‘You’re safe now,’ I promised.
‘This is awesome,’ Bobby crowed. ‘I got rescued by the alpha. I’m going to be able to tell this story for years and years.’
‘I’m glad you’re happy, Bobby,’ I said dryly. ‘I hope the experience wasn’t too upsetting for you.’
‘The kidnapping part was pretty scary,’ he admitted honestly. ‘The guy whose throat you ripped out told me he was my dad, but he didn’t look like Mum’s photos so I tried to run away, and that’s when the ogre got me. That bit wasn’t very nice.’ His voice was quiet and small and I hated it. Bobby was never quiet or small.
He brightened. ‘But after that it wasn’t so bad. They kept us in one of the rooms upstairs with a big TV and they let us watch it all day long. Likeallday long. The worst thing was Jason kept wanting to watchAvatar The Last Airbenderand Wren and I wanted to watchPaw PatrolorBlaze.’
‘I wanted to watchPeppa Pig,’ Wren muttered from the safety of my lap. ‘Jason didn’t want to watchPeppa.’
Jason reddened. ‘I let you watch a few episodes now and again. Trust me, that was a supreme sacrifice.’
Wren rolled her eyes. ‘You let me watch five episodes.’
‘That was still way morePeppa Pigthan I wanted to watch,’ he said grumpily.
‘And they let us eat popcorn,’ Bobby interrupted. ‘As much as we wanted.’
‘And sweets,’ Wren admitted. ‘Honestly, I kind of miss fruit and veggies.’
I gave her an extra squeeze. ‘We’ll get you a banana as soon as we’re back,’ I promised. I met Jason’s eyes. ‘They treated you all okay?’
He nodded. ‘Yeah, it wasn’t the worst. We had to share a big double mattress on the floor, but the bedroom had an en-suite bathroom. We all grew a bit bored with the TV. It turns out you really can have too much screen time. But when we complained, they gave us a board game. Monopoly.’
‘We had to put it away again because Jason couldn’t play nicely,’ Bobby chimed in.
‘You and Wren kept giving each other money. That isnothow the game works,’ Jason protested.
‘She needed it to buy Mayfair.’ Bobby shrugged. ‘You got all scary then.’
‘I did not get scary, I gotfrustrated.’
‘It was only scary whenshevisited,’ Wren whispered.
‘Who?’ I asked, my mind picturing Charlize in her mighty griffin form.
Jason paled. ‘The witch. We got taken alone to another room. She had us sit down on a chair and it was the only object in the whole room. It was creepy. She made me take my shirt off and then she painted runes onto my skin.’
‘I didn’t like it,’ Wren said softly, burying her head into my neck. ‘The runes made my skin itchy.’
Bobby absently scratched his arm. ‘I wasn’t scared of the witch. She seemed okay. I don’t know why you guys were mean about her.’
