"Hello?" Conrad utters, and she can hear someone cheer."Okay, we didn't think you'd answer. Is he okay? Are you okay? They got Scarlet, she's in the cells, but they're still looking for the guy who hit Carlos. We've got guards covering the hospital for you," Amber rushes to get everything out, and Conrad raises an eyebrow."Okay. I'm alright, annoyed, but alright. Carlos is in surgery; he should be okay. Thank you for letting me know, but why did this require a phone call?" Conrad asks with a frown, leaning against the wall.It's all a scarily bright white colour, and it makes her feel uncomfortable and cold."Because I wanted to tell you that Aaron ran off when he heard Scarlet was captured. Nobody else could decide to ring you, so I decided to do it while they went on lunch. My brother is being released to house arrest for the twins like you expected, but his release is being delayed because of the attack on Carlos. They want to make sure he had nothing to do with it," Amber explai
The scan is nice.She doesn't feel any crazy adoration for the tiny thing on the screen; she can't even really make out which part of the body is which.Sabrina is ecstatic, hopping around the room in delight, her dark hair swinging behind her and almost knocking plastic cups and paper plates off one of the shelves. Her happiness is filling the room, as well as her chatter about what she'll do with her little brother; she had decided it was a boy, and she wasn't listening to anyone telling her otherwise."Will we get your family from the waiting room? They might like to see this," The nurse suggests, a smile on her lips as she looks around at the three of them.Carlos is propped up on pillows, fiercely blinking his tears away as he stares at the screen in awe.Conrad looks a bit blank, but she's watching the screen with equal concentration."Yeah, get them, please," Carlos nods, looking away from the ultrasound quickly.He rests a hand on Conrad's shoulder, and she takes it, squeezing
"You're very young. You know we wish we had waited a few more years to have you, and we were younger than you. You deserve to live your life; you're only a child," Barbara pleads."I expected you to be happy about this," Conrad whispers, taking a step back.Her thighs hit off the metal of the bed frame, and her hand finds Carlos' again."You're a child. I'm not going to be happy about my daughter ruining her life," Barbara exclaims, her eyes wide."I'm twenty-five!" Conrad exclaims, swallowing her hurt. It's sitting on her chest like a bowling ball, and her eyes have involuntarily filled with tears."That's too young," Barbara shakes her head, leaving the room quietly.Silas hasn't moved, stuck in a half-shift as he stares at Carlos."I can't believe you would try to trap my daughter like this," Silas growls, storming after his mate.Conrad immediately sags against the bed, tears falling from her eyes.Carlos eases himself up and pulls her towards him, cringing as her head leans again
Everything is organised.Charlotte is with Matt, and Conrad had received a text from her confirming that she would stay with him to sort out their issues.Sabrina is eating the Chinese takeout she asked for while watching a programme on the television, one that Conrad googled to make sure was okay for her age group.Her only challenge is her parents, who haven't emerged from the guest room.It's silent there. She would know; she found every possible excuse to go upstairs every few minutes to make sure everything was okay in there.The house is spotless. When she gets particularly stressed or anxious, cleaning is her preferred method of wasting energy.You could eat off the floor of the kitchen; she even scrubbed the grouting around the tiles.She closes the door of the living room where Sabrina is when she hears footsteps on the stairs.Silas and Barbara make themselves visible, sitting down at the table."We would like to apologise," Barbara informs her, clasping her hands in front o
Where are the guards?, she asks Carlos nervously.They should be there. I was about to check in with you because they're not responding. Is something wrong?, he questions urgently.Okay, so something might be wrong. I think the guards might be dead, because rogues are circling the house, Conrad cringes, creeping back to Sabrina.I'm on my way, Carlos responds gravely.Stay where you are. So help me Goddess if you move, I'll put you back into that bed myself, Conrad warns him aggressively, taking Sabrina's hand.I'm not leaving you there defenceless, he reasons, and Conrad can feel a cold smile spread across her face.Oh, we're not defenceless, Conrad replies, cutting the link."We know you're in there," someone shouts from outside.Conrad shakes her head to Sabrina, and they both stay silent, standing beside the bedroom door.Nobody has gotten into the house. If they had, the alarms would have been tripped, no matter how they got in. The house had more alarms than a military base; she
It stays quiet, and by the time the clock strikes 6 am, Sabrina is fast asleep, and Conrad is twitching in her chair.Carlos had stayed in the hospital, as Conrad had wanted. She would have liked him there for a little extra security, but he wasn't in fighting form, and she'd never put him at risk.The entire floor was silent, and nobody had moved from their apartments all night. She had been watching the security cameras intently, ready to tell people to get back in.The sun is slowly rising, and the beams flit in through the slightly open blinds.She stands up from her chair, her knees and hips clicking in unison as she moves for the first time in hours.Conrad peers through the blinds, noting the absence of people or cars outside. She can see their vehicle abandoned by the emergency entrance, but nobody is near it. Rogues may act ballsy at night, but they usually wouldn't risk being caught in the capital in daylight. While there was security at night, it was a lot less concentrated
As soon as the door slams behind them, Carlos doubles over, one hand reaching for the wall.Sabrina is instantly handed off the Amber, who quickly ushers her into one of the conference rooms while one of the other interns makes sure the doors are locked and sealed."Okay, you're going to be okay," Conrad mutters, half-dragging Carlos into her office.He collapses onto the couch, wincing as he presses his hand to his chest, where his wound is."Shit, Con, it's burning," he hisses, and she stares at him in horror.She's helpful when there's fighting action or drama, but she's no good with pain. She never knows what to do except hand it off to someone else.So that's what she does."Okay, I'm going to call the doctor," she declares, stomping to her desk."Sabrina is secured. She's safe. Mark is sitting with her talking about dinosaurs. All entrances and exits are secure," Amber chirps, popping her head into the office,"Summon your wolf to help you heal," Amber frowns, and Carlos shakes
As soon as the words leave Eliza's mouth, she's met with complete silence."Carlos," someone screams from the main floor, and he bolts up from his desk, sprinting out of the room.There's a hole in the door, and Conrad exclaims in surprise."How the fuck did they do that?" She gasps, her hand flying back to her gun."They shouldn't have been able to," Carlos mutters, prowling down the stairs.Conrad lets herself slide into a half-shift, as does Laurie.The two of them stay close together, with the Martiniques walking behind them."This won't end well," Laurie mutters gruffly, and Conrad doesn't even have to look at her to agree.The downstairs is totally silent, and nobody is making any noise, which worries Conrad.The interns never shut up, no matter what. She had even begged them to play the silent game, something Charlotte did with children.Matt appears in the hole in the door, a pleasant smile on his face."Oh, Carlos! I'm thrilled to see that you're back on your feet. I'm amazed
Josephine and the elite teams did exactly what they had set out to do. They had moved so efficiently that they had knocked out most of the command structure entirely before the hyenas had a chance to even sound an alarm to warn the others that their doom was coming.Any who did not actively fight, were given the choice to end their days there and now or move semi willingly to an enclave Josephine had been working on for far longer than Alexander had realized. To Josephine, Melody was just another target, one of far too many in a larger pattern. One that Josephine had been working to end on her own long before Melody had even been born.Alexander was in awe as Guillermo filled him in on the progress during a rather social seeming jog several weeks after the incident; which was all Alexander could bring himself to say about it all. Still working on it with his therapist. But things were going better. He was focusing on being a dad, and decided to take up carpentry. If he was going to li
Melody drove up to the familiar house, the smell of burnt clutch heavy in the cabin of the vehicle. Melody didn't know how to drive a manual, let alone an old truck with a heavy gear shift and broken power steering. Thankfully it didn't matter. The truck just had to get her here. Looking all normal, and human and alone. If the truck had to stay behind because Melody had wrecked the transmission on the relatively short easy drive over, no harm done. Flint would carry her to Alec's pack lands and virtual sanctuary until they could arrange to get back to their own home.The home looked significantly worse than she was prepared for. The picket fence she had admired that first day hadn't been painted in a while when she had left, and hadn't been touched since. Many boards were missing or broken. Beverly must have hated it, she had been a realtor and she was good at it. At making homes look good enough that people wanted to live in the warm homey environments she created. Looks were often d
"You don't have to do this yourself, Guillermo and I can take care of it.." Alexander pleaded with Melody. That evening as she insisted on preparing everything to travel across the country to execute Frank. Throwing random clothes into a suitcase while she stomped around the room on feet far too heavy for someone of her size."Yes I do!" she was nearing hissing at him as she insisted strongly. She paused, packing the suitcases, "I need to do this, he hurt my whole family Alexander. He needs to pay for it. I need him to pay for it. To know he brought his end on himself, I want him to know." Her words were so heavy with with such a finality to them, that Alexander, never able to really say no to her finally gave in. She could come on the mission, only if the shrink and doctor cleared her first. After this afternoon's panic attack, and early pregnancy he was sure she wouldn't get the clearance from the doctor. She's pregnant, no doctor would let her go out to murder their step father.He
Alexander and Melody spent their time with their kids and Diana. Letting Alexander's mother take care of everything while Melody and Alexander played on the floor with their kids, ate snacks, and just enjoyed the peace of their family. Raven was stomping around in her room out back, apparently a nap was not coming easily. "I guess it's not all she hoped it would be?" Alexander ventured softly while James was cuddling in his lap, almost asleep with a picture book in his hands."She has wanted this all her life, maybe dropping a vampire sighting on her this early wasn't the best idea." Diana said, softly, her voice like a lullaby as James drifted off to sleep. Melody was just returning from putting Ansley down for a nap, and smiled at seeing James limp in his fathers arms. She came over, gently and carefully picking the little boy up who snuggled into his mother's body as she picked him up, and took him to have a nap as well. Giving Alexander some time alone with his mom."Alpha doesn'
The next morning it was confirmed by Guillermo that Frank and Robert had almost certainly had something to do with Beverly's murder. Randy was only innocent of this particular crime because he was already in prison for a statutory rape charge. A combination of wire transfers from offshore accounts, messages on burner phones, and finally a time line established when Guillermo searched recent security and surveillance cameras around the small town where Melody and Alexander had met. Trying to figure out what had happened and when.Beverly was a woman who liked routine he learned, and even though she couldn't find a job after she had been laid off, had tried to keep busy. She volunteered, working at the animal shelter some days, food bank on others. Spent an hour or so in the town library applying for jobs before hitting the grocery store before heading home to cook for her family. She didn't seem to interact much with anyone in the town. She hadn't carried a cell phone in over a year be
The first couple photographs showed three women, roughly Melody's age, nothing else in common between them. They were all of different heritage, but all were very dead, by the similar ragged horizontal slash across their throats. No metal blade had opened their throats, that was the mark of a clawed hand. Then there had been two men, Melody didn't know them, but her heart filled with sadness as she realized these were all probably the dead mates to alphas. Who in turn according to Alexander research, never knew their mates were taken and murdered, instead thought they had been rejected. That each of these people had been stolen and their lives ended, causing echos of heartbreak for so many people, filled Melody with guilt that twice she had been taken, and twice she escaped mostly unharmed. She didn't know why she was ok in her home now, and these people weren't.Alexander was just finishing up with Guillermo, his own worry at a new level with the news from his head of security. He dr
This was how his life should have been. Raven would be unbearable if she ever learned that she really had been right all along. She was born for this, Alexander wasn't. He didn't feel any guilt at all now. As he laid Melody in a rocking chair so he could run a bath for her, he checked on his mother as she did the same for Ansley.James was staying with Robin and her family tonight. James adored his older cousins, and seeing how other people lived their everyday lives. He was a nosey kid, Alexander hoped he didn't drive his very controlled sister insane overnight. James was more in tune with his grandmother or Lark. Almost like Robin could feel his worry, Alexander's phone buzzed with a notification, he checked and saw a video of a wide grinning James holding a Mario Kart Steering wheel in his small hands, his face aglow with joy as he tried to play with his older cousins, who were laughing at his eager attempts to widely steer around the course. The sound of generations, and blended f
Melody awoke with the most unwelcome deja vu. The particular heavy and slow feeling of waking up after having been knocked unconscious. Judging by the rhythmic pounding and pain radiating from the back of her head, it had been physical this time instead of chemical. She didn't know if that was better or worse, she still felt sick and nauseated, and the headache was worse, but her body didn't feel as clumsy.The overwhelming wrong feeling had diminished, but things were certainly not right. But at least she was able to think now. She looked around, lovely another cement room from floor to ceiling, a single caged in bulb in the ceiling for light, and a clean, if uncomfortable pallet underneath her. Things smelled clean, which at least wasn't offensive and an improvement on the first kidnapping. Melody wasn't scared this time, she was boiling under the surface like a secret lake of lava.Yup, she had been kidnapped again. Ansley! Where was her daughter? Who had taken her. Melody knew she
The next week was perfect, better than ever before. Alexander was scheduled to see his counsellor at least twice a week, he was getting Raven up to speed on current pack issues and general local politics. He felt lighter. Like himself in a way he had missed without even realising he had been missing something at all.Melody's days were a little more boring. Delia had texted her on schedule all through the weekend through until Sunday night. Then she had called to let Melody know she was taking a week off school and going on vacation with the man she had gone home with on Friday night; and was still with. Melody had worried about her friend, but after talking on the phone, Delia was safe, and happy, and excited. So Melody wished her friend well. Maybe the dark tall brooding man Delia was with was a shifter too, and Delia was his mate. Melody gnawed on her lower lip wondering how she would even try to ask her friend if that was the case, without letting too much slip if Delia wasn't in