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She lets out a soft sigh. “If you cut them in their false form, they don’t bleed. If we had a witch there might be a spell we could use to find out how many of them are in Nightshade, but without that I would guess there are at least seven. Maybe more.”
“At least seven,” I repeat, thinking about the child who seemed afraid of us. “He has four children. Considering he had no Luna, I am guessing they had different mothers?”
My mother nods. “Three different women carried his children. He was the only one present at the births. I thought after I lied to him, that meant he was trying something different, but now I can see the real reason. If they were his sons, and they were born chimera, the mothers must be like him.”
“So, no one else was permitted to be there because they weren’t shifters, and anyone who helped would know the minute they arrived.”
“That makes seven likely chimera in Nightshade,” she repeats. “At least seven.”
“His eldest son seemed afraid of us,” I tell her.
“His children may not know what they are. Children and teenagers can be unpredictable. He may have been waiting for the right time to tell them.”
“Then they should be no threat to us,” Scratch says.
“The mothers will be, though,” Fox says. “Especially once they know we killed their leader, or whatever he was, whatever he meant to them. If those three are anything like him, we don’t want them all coming after us at once. There’s no way we’d survive that.”
“I think you should go back to The Abyss,” my mother says. “For tonight. The Alpha’s children are mean-spirited and power-hungry. The eldest will claim he was the one who killed his father. By pack law, that will make him the Alpha. We should see what the mothers do when this happens, find out who is their new leader. That should help us prepare for what comes next.”
I do not like the thought of going back to The Abyss.
Even if my mother’s suggestion makes sense, I don’t like the thought of leaving her here.
I don’t like the thought of leaving my future mate behind, either.
“It is likely that the mothers will take some time to plot their next move before they do anything,” she goes on. “If there’s any way they can tell you came here, or that you’re still here, you’ll be at risk of an attack you might not win. William might have known what he was doing with you four, but we can’t assume they knew. He was secretive. He didn’t allow any of them to get close. He seems to have kept their kids out of the loop. He was being very careful.”
“We can’t leave,” Fox moans, picking up the last cookie from the tin.
Snake hisses his agreement. He sticks out his tongue.
I look at Scratch, and I can tell he’s conflicted.
“It makes sense to be careful, but we cannot leave without making a plan for tomorrow night.”
I nod slowly. He is right. We may have to go back before the portal closes tonight, but we should not leave until we know what we are doing when we get back.
My mother gets up and takes a large sketchpad from the side of the couch.
She flips it open onto a clean page, and places it on the coffee table.
Snake moves the tray back a little with a flick of his tongue.
She thanks him for his help before she starts to draw out a map.
“This is where we are,” she says, as she marks the spot with an X and draws a rectangle around it.
She starts to draw paths and buildings, quickly sketching out a map of the entire town, including the part of the woods where the portal opens.
“You’ve come out of the woods at this spot before,” she says, pointing to the path between the nursery and a house. “Maria, the mother of his eldest son, lives and works there as the head of the school. She is thoroughly unpleasant. I used to think that was because he never made her pack Luna.”
“Does my mother also live and work there?” Fox asks.
“She lives in a house over in this area.” She points it out. “So, she will already be home by the time you come back to town tomorrow night.”
“That’s good news,” I tell him when he looks vaguely deflated. “She won’t be there when we have to fight her boss.”
“There’s one problem with that,” my mother says. “The nursery is where all the kids in town are. There aren’t any babies right now, thankfully. But you would have to lure her away from the building to deal with her. It wouldn’t be safe to fight a volatile creature like a chimera around dozens of small children.”
