Watching Hunter and Ally leave my house hurt so much that I almost couldn’t stand it. She’d been gone for two weeks and I felt that void in my house, in my heart and in my soul. Riley was sad, she missed them both.Ryder sat across from me on the couch and I couldn’t read the expression in his eyes. “What the hell are you doing?”“I spoke to a lawyer. If I push this I’ll have to prove paternity, get a court order to have my name put on his birth certificate then I’ll have more rights to him. Joel says she was being generous with the school holidays.”“You’re going to go the legal route?”“What else am I supposed to do? I have a right to have him in my life, in my house!”“You are stupider than I thought. She loves you Wynter and all you had to do was love her back!” Ryder’s voice was angry but it didn’t match the anger that I felt.“She’s marrying someone else! She doesn’t love me Dad, maybe she did a long time ago because if she did she wouldn’t have left me!”“She left because you k
I woke up to Echo roaring furiously in my head. I could feel danger all around me. “Wynter! You have to get Milo and run!” My mother’s voice was anxious but also steadfast. I peered into her bright eyes and sat up straight.There was smoke and fire, shouting, gun shots and screams. She picked me up from bed and I could feel her big stomach under my legs as she ran down the stairs just as Uncle Felix burst through the kitchen door.“Megan, you need to get the kids to safety.” Felix’s voice was loud over the din as he yelled at her.She ignored him and moved to the porch as she lowered me to the wooden flooring below and I stood in front of her. “I love you Wynter, but now you have to run.” Her voice was laced with urgency as she hugged me tightly and kissed the top of my head.I nodded my head as Echo separated from me and Felix picked me up and placed me on Echo’s back. I felt Milo behind me as Felix hugged him once and pushed him right up against me and his arms came around my waist.
Milo drove and I slept in the truck as we tackled the twelve hours back to Hartwell. We hadn’t been home in more than three years because we rarely had a day to ourselves before another assignment came through.We had taken two days to pack up the furnished apartment, cancel our lease and we left at five am with the two bikes on a trailer and headed back to Georgia and the unknown. Ryder, of course, was happy that we were finally coming home.“Death for treason.” I opened my eyes and looked over at Milo.“Clark’s not an idiot Milo. What he didn’t say was that now the Supreme Councils will handle the assignments which means that they decide who’s taken out. There’s nothing stopping them from keeping certain people alive. The Unit wasn’t monitored and we did our own investigations to determine guilt. That’s not going to happen anymore.”“Greed and manipulation is the order of the day once again.”“Which was why the Unit was started in the first place, to eliminate all the manipulation a
It was six am when Milo and I returned to the farm from our twelve mile jog. We had discarded our shirts by mile 5 as we ran straight through Hartwell. We rounded the house and found Ryder on the porch, arms crossed over his chest, clearly waiting for us.“Oh shit, you’re dead.” Milo’s voice came from behind me as I stood with my hands on my hips trying to catch my breath.“You think I wouldn’t notice? You think I’m that stupid that I wouldn’t know what you and Alexis did?” Ryder’s glared cut straight through me.“Dad, I can explain.” Who was I kidding? I couldn’t explain what had happened between us.“Yeah please do. Tell me about you picked Alexis up from a party drunk and then waited for us to go to sleep before bringing her home.”Milo clutched his chest over his heart as he breathed out. “Oh thank the gods.”“Shut the hell up.” My whisper was harsh, even to my own ears.Ryder fixed his gaze on Milo and I could see the lingering question in his eyes. “Thank the gods what Milo?”“N
“Let’s go.” Milo ruffled my hair and I swatted his hand away.“Piss off.”“Come on, we haven’t seen the three W’s in three years.” Milo’s face was inches from mine as he leaned over the couch.“You just want to get laid.” I looked at the grin on his face.“So? You need someone that doesn’t pass out on you.” He ducked his head as my fist aimed for his head.“Low blow asshole.” He chuckled as a smile finally appeared on my face and I knew he was right. We both needed to get out.Half an hour later we parked our bikes in front of G’s. Warner, Wilson and Winston were three brothers who had bought the dilapidated piece of land straight out of high school and opened a bar. They worked the bar themselves and named it G’s, short for their surname Gates.It was off a beaten down dirt road, basically in the middle of nowhere and the best place to hang out. They didn’t check ID’s since Warner bought it when he was eighteen and the liquor license was in their father’s name.I pulled out a chair f
My phone pinged and my eyes opened instantly. It was my Unit phone and that ping meant Clark was making contact. I accessed the messages and laughed softly.Clark – Up for a private?Wynter – SureClark – Sending location for pick up and eliminationWynter – Will confirm tonightClark – Ross Webber, Vampire, Webber Construction, AthensI looked at the two locations that Clark had sent and memorized them both before putting the phone away. I could hear Milo and Mallory in the room next to me and it was barely seven am. I heard the front door open and then Ally’s face appeared in my doorway.“Okay, this is awkward.” She laughed and then stifled it with her hand as Milo started spouting his ‘Daddy’ shit and I laughed.“You should learn to knock.” I stood up from the bed.“Dad sent me to tell you breakfast’s in ten minutes.” Ally’s face was reddening as Milo just got louder.“Hold on, I’ll walk out with you.”I pulled a t-shirt over my head and opened Milo’s door without knocking. Mallory
I knocked on the door of the hotel room that I had quietly left more than twelve hours earlier. Cali opened the door and looked at me for a few seconds. I saw anger and then hesitation in her eyes as I smiled. She finally opened it wider and granted me access.“You just left.”I didn’t really know what to say. “I’m sorry. Last night was … I don’t know …”“Well, I’m glad you’re here. I need to pack and so do you.” She was still talking but I had stopped listening at ‘so do you’.“What do you mean I need to pack?”“We’re bonded halves. Daddy has the King’s ear so you don’t have to worry about being called up. Daddy will find you something to do in the company. We’ll sort everything out once we get to France.” Disbelief were etched onto my features but she didn’t notice as she continued to pack.“Cali, I’m not going to France with you. My family’s here.”“Did you think I was going to stay in Hartwell with you? I can tell that you’re not even a future Sire. You should feel lucky that I ev
Two weeks had gone by too fast. Milo and I didn’t go out; I spent time with my family. Abigail was nervous and in the end Nova and Alexis had packed her suitcase for her. My duffel bag had been ready for six days. We couldn’t take any weapons on a commercial flight but Clark had already been in contact with me.He knew what I knew about Romania and he’d promised me that there would be a drop as soon as I knew where I would be staying. I had given Abigail a burner phone as well so that the two of us could share information if we were separated.I had everything under control and I wasn’t worried. Abigail though would have to calm down and stop acting so nervous. I understood her fear, not knowing what would happen, especially when they discovered her dragon, but Ryder had explained it to her.Three nights earlier we had all sat at the kitchen table after dinner. “They won’t kill you Abby.”“Your dragon is valuable.” She looked up at me as I spoke and I gripped her hand tightly.“The Ki