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“What?”
She blinks at me. “I was just saying about how I missed us hanging out.”
I feel sick as I always do remembering that time in my life, anything to do with that time.
“What are you doing here?” I ask again. This time my voice is cold, and I don’t try to hide how annoyed I am with her.
She huffs, her eyes finding the window and staring out. The bleak, desolate neighbourhood is particularly gray today. I used to think it's what my soul looked like until she came into my life. How can two sisters be so different? I can see her fighting with the words long before she turns back.
“I heard…stories. Some guys have been taken. Four of them from a party last night.”
I straighten. “And?”
She bites her already chewed up lip. Trin is a beautiful woman, but this Trin is wounded and half feral. She’s pale, her hair is lank, she needs to eat and sleep and stop eating her lower lip and fingernails.
“When I was there, I heard things. They thought I was too out of it. Maybe I was, but I can’t say nothing.”
“Say what?”
Trins’ eyes flash to mine and hold there. “You love me, don’t you, Darion?”
I groan. I don’t want to do this with her again. “I love you as a friend. Nothing more. There has never been anything more than friendship between us.”
Trin nods. “Yes, that’s enough. I heard things about Missy. About Elise. My family. I heard that they are going to a worse place. A place that I never went to, somewhere you know…”
She trails off, but I’m filled with icy rage. Underneath that rage is a fear I haven’t felt for a long time.
“Who?”
Trin shakes her head. “I don’t know. They kept me buzzing out of my skull. Everything comes in flashes, but I’ve been remembering more. I just know that’s where the man’s voice said she was going. She would be his crown jewel.”
I’m barely breathing. My nightmare has invaded my world, and it’s going after Missy. No…
Trin clutches the side of her head and whimpers. “I can’t remember. It hurts. But I can’t let them hurt my sisters. I can’t.”
I want to yell at her, to rage, but I don’t say anything. I hold still when she wraps herself around me, and I count the seconds while my heart rages.
“I’ll have Sven drive you home.”
She hiccups and steps back, wrapping her arms around herself. I feel a pang of guilt. I can’t be that island of comfort for her.
I walk to the intercom on the wall and call for Sven. He appears a few minutes later, all rippling beefy muscles in a tight black tee with our logo on it.
He spots Trin, and his gaze softens with understanding. “I’ll take her home.”
“Thanks, Sven, maybe stop and get her something to eat. Let me know how the girls are doing, too.”
Sven gives me a sharp nod and guides Trin out of the room. I go to the window and stare out at the street.
Am I sure about Missy? Yes. Now, I had to do some digging, do some research, but I feel confident that she isn’t complicit in this. She’s a potential target. She’s innocent and a victim, and I…I do trust her. Completely.
The thought makes my stomach roil. The idea of someone I care about being in that dark, damp room.
Flashes of memory rip into my mind. Being held down, punches, kicks, a terrible pain. The confusion of the drugs they forced into my veins. Seeing a tiny, terrified Lukas behind Sebastian, a boy with a man’s body, his face a mask of agony as he swings, helplessly outnumbered.
I remember the moment my alpha rose, broke to the surface, to save the two that it recognised as ours. How no one in the room could fight against my bark. I remember Sebastian unlocking me, and the stairs, those cold metal stairs so shocking against my hands and feet, then grass and freedom. I remember turning and biting them, without asking, instincts driving me to protect, protect, protect. Seb cradling my head to his neck as I sobbed into his wound. Lukas clinging to both of us.
I suck in a deep breath and seek our bonds, needing to feel them, know they are okay.
