Gradually, throughout the day, the rogues were rounded up by the guards and High Alphas.It was noted that High Alpha Nicola McCann was missing, and an investigation in her office uncovered some of her shady dealings.Conrad didn't even have to mention the kidnapping or murder plots; she was on the hook for smuggling children. There was a warrant out for her capture, and the Alphas had forwarded it to the bounty hunters; she would be caught in a matter of hours, not days.Carlos' father was on the missing list, too, even though the territory had been combed for him.Reluctantly, Carlos left the office with Sabrina and Conrad once the door was fixed.As they left the building, the number of guards milling around and checking identification badges was higher than Conrad had ever seen.For every civilian or worker, there seemed to be at least three soldiers."There are so many people everywhere," Sabrina mumbles, dragging out of Carlos' arm.She's half-asleep. She had been spoonfed soup
Having to go and see Scarlet isn't Conrad's idea of fun, but she guesses that it has to be done eventually.Carlos dropped her off outside the cell building, and she reluctantly stares up at the top of the building. It's a towering structure, and Conrad thinks there might be over forty floors - she can't remember what Carlos had told her.She gets her identification badge out before she even gets to the door, clinging to it nervously as she pushes the door open.Carlos is on his way to court with Scarlet so that he can make sure his mother stays in prison for a while longer. He doesn't have enough evidence, and they both know it, but he's hoping for a miracle, as is Conrad.Conrad makes it to the elevator before anyone even asks for ID, which surprises her a little. This is supposed to be one of the most secure buildings in the area, but if she had tried, she probably could have made it into the elevator with no problems.It's cold in the lift, and she finds herself withdrawing into h
Everyone seems to be dropping dead around her.Conrad is musing to herself as she sits on the kitchen floor, her back against the wooden cupboards and a carton of orange juice in her hands. She had gotten dizzy while pouring a glass a few minutes ago and had opted to settle on the tiles and drink from the carton.She can hear footsteps on the stairs, and she looks over to the doorway.Sabrina appears at the end of the steps, absorbed by the book in her hands.So distracted is she, that she narrowly avoids tripping over Conrad's out-stretched legs."Why are you on the ground?" Sabrina asks judgementally, folding her arms."Why aren't you on the ground?" Conrad counters lazily, moving her legs towards Sabrina.Sabrina hops over them with a giggle before settling beside Conrad, folding a page in her book."Are you sick? Will I get dad?" Sabrina suggests, and Conrad shakes her head slowly."No, it's okay. I washed my hair this morning and thought I could dry and style it without eating. Y
"If you need to talk, don't be afraid to come to me," Conrad quietly informs Sabrina, not looking up from her magazine."Whatever," Sabrina mumbles sulkily."Sabrina, you're allowed to have big feelings, but you're not allowed to be rude," Carlos warns her sharply, looking across the aisle at them.They're flying to Conrad's pack, and Sabrina is still barely speaking to them.Conrad was worried about her, but Carlos mainly was just annoyed. Sabrina had yelled at him for two days in a row, and he had grounded her. She couldn't use her tablet for a week, and he warned her that it would increase if she continued to be rude to them."Yes, I am. I didn't want to come here, and if I have to, I don't know why I have to act excited," Sabrina snarls.Conrad silently passes Sabrina one of the books she slipped into her bag before they left the house.Sabrina reluctantly takes it, pulling the blanket over her legs and curling up in her seat.Don't try to reason with her; she's still angry. It's
Everyone is quiet before breakfast. This was usual in the Rosser household - none of them were exactly morning people.Carlos is terrified for the meeting, although he doesn't let the others see. Conrad can sense it through their bond, her hand absently going towards her neck.Carlos had marked her the night before.It wasn't a big event, and it was something they had quietly agreed upon on the way back from the field they had relaxed in for a while. Carlos had wanted to mark her anyway, and he had explained that he thought it would give them a better chance of keeping Sabrina if they had all of their i's dotted and their t's crossed.Barbara had squealed when she noticed it, but quickly sobered up when Sabrina had appeared at the top of the stairs looking very confused."Conrad, why can I feel you?" Sabrina asks, hopping down the stairs, holding the bannister."What?" Conrad probes, raising a brow."I can feel that you're excited. And scared. Why?" Sabrina frowns, sliding her hand in
Sabrina won't stop crying, and Conrad feels like joining in.She purses her lips tightly, not letting the whimper escape.She so wishes she could cry, but she can't. She has no tears left, and her chest feels hollow.The crisp air makes a shiver run down her spine, and she pulls her black coat tighter around her with her free hand, her other holding Sabrina's.The little girl is in a matching black coat, with a black wool hat on her head as she shakes with sobs while they walk.She's attached to Conrad's side, and Conrad takes comfort in it, letting the little girl seek her out.It's silent apart from the sound of footsteps as they walk up the tarmacked path, and Sabrina's occasional wail cuts through the air like bullets.Conrad can feel every single sob, their bond making it difficult for her to continue walking. She can feel the little girl's waves of agony, and she's focusing on not sending her own back.They finally make it to their destination, and Conrad stands at the top of the
NEW VOLUME"Mels I think we should break up" David said to her, his voice flat, no emotion, as though he wasn't blowing up her entire world with his blunt words."What?" Melody asked, her face had gone pale, she had heard the words he said the first time but she couldn't believe it. She loved him and he loved her, why would they break up? Why would he want this?"Look, I like you a lot, and I think you're really great, but let's face reality. Your mom is moving you practically across the country. We wont see each other for the rest of this year. Plus next year you know I'm going to get into an Ivy League Law School. We just wont have lives that overlap anymore. I don't want to spend the best years of yours and my life stuck in a long distance relationship. You understand right babe?" He tried to put his arms around her, to comfort her like he had so many times before. But his touch felt dirty now, there was no comfort to be had in his arms."Fuck you David, you just want to get your d
Melody and her mom had arrived on a friday afternoon, so she had the whole weekend to try and settle into her new home before having to face starting at a new school on monday. Her step father didn't seem so bad. He was quiet most of the weekend, and didn't bother Melody. He did kind of creep her out when she caught him staring a couple times. He did seem old fashioned compared to what Melody was used to. Frank came home from work, went to the living room and his arm chair to read the daily paper he actually still paid to be delivered to the home every morning. He read while enjoying a cocktail before dinner. Like he still lived in the 1950's. Her mom was weird around him, she was wearing an apron and cooking dinner when he arrived and brought out his cocktail smiling. Like she was a king on a throne. Goodbye women's rights and feminism Melody thought while rolling her eyes.How the fuck did the guy stepford wife her mom so completely? And how long could her mom keep up the sweet char
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