Selene’s POV
By now they’ll have found the apartment.
By now Bastien will know about Lila.
Will he know she’s his? Will he recognize his own scent, like a bonfire in the nighttime forest, blended with my own through the apartment? Will Drake be safe at my mate’s mercy now the truth is out?
I glance at my daughter in the rearview mirror, counting down the minutes until we finally reach the safehouse. She’s cozy in her carseat, playing with the cloth doll I gifted her at the equinox, babbling away happily in her own special language.
We’ve been driving for more than two hours, and I’m beginning to worry that I haven’t heard from Drake yet. Surely he should have been in contact by now? Surely he should have checked in to make sure we made it to the meetup with his driver and were on the road.
“Mommy,” Lila asks, catching me watching her. “Where we going?
“We’re going on an adventure.” I answer, pushing away my worries and adopting a light-hearted tone.
Her tiny nose crinkles. “What’s an venture?”
“It’s when you go somewhere new, and have exciting and unexpected experiences.” I explain, “and do things you’ve never done before, and…” Run away from ex-husbands and psychopathic dictators, my unhelpful thoughts suggest. “Lots of things.”
Lila hums thoughtfully, staring out the window as the landscape whizzes by. “Where’s Rake?” She wonders, using her baby name for the Eros Alpha.
“Uncle Drake is with…” What do you call the father of a three-year-old who doesn’t know he exists? “A friend of ours.”
She perks up automatically. “Playing?”
“Yes.” I latch onto the description. “They’re playing… keep away.”
“With a toy?” Lila suggests eagerly.
With great effort, I manage to keep the bitter sarcasm out of my voice, “With something our friend treated like a toy.” I can’t keep the smile from my face as I watch her intent expression. “And with something else, much more precious.”
“I wanna play!” Lila exclaims, buying my flimsy falsehoods as only a child could.
“We’ll play all you want when we get to…” Our fully furnished padded cell, intended to keep out serial killers and mad ax men, “the castle.”
“We’re going to a castle?!” She squeals.
Whoops. “Well not a real one,” I hedge, not wanting to get her hopes up. “Not like the ones from your books, but it’s very high up and very safe, just like a castle. They were built so that no one who wasn’t invited in, could ever enter. We’re going someplace just like that.”
At least, I hope we are. I can’t be certain how secure the home is until we arrive, and I have a bad feeling that if Bastien tracks us here, no security measures in existence will keep him out.
Which is why we should be with him, instead of alone in the middle of nowhere.
Would you please give it a rest, Luna? I beg. I know you’re mad at me, I know you want Bastien, but you weren’t there when we were together. You don’t know what it was like, and Lila is more important.
Lila is the most important thing in the world. Luna agrees. I’m already waiting for the other shoe to drop. Luna has been impossible from the moment she caught sight of our mate, and I’m certain her agreement is a misdirect. She doesn’t disappoint. And her father is the only other person who could understand that the way we do.
At best her father would use her to trap us, at worst he would claim her for himself and take her away from us. Is that what you want?
You might have a history with the man, but you’ve never felt his wolf. Luna counters, I did. I know him in ways you don’t.
You just met him! I all but scream in my head. Honestly it’s times like these I wish I could shift so that Luna could run off some of this anxious energy.
Even though Luna returned more than three years ago, it seems almost a decade of daily Wolfsbane poisoning stole that most fundamental part of our being. I never shifted when I reached physical maturity, blocked by the poison. I never came into my powers, cut off from that part of my magic. Now I’m grown and finally have an intact soul, but some wounds are too deep to heal.
I’ve never shifted into wolf form, and I probably never will. Most of the time I’m so happy to be whole again that I don’t feel any remorse for this loss, but right about now, I’d give my left arm to transform – no matter how painful the process.
As the sun sets the car’s headlights flare automatically, and only fifteen minutes later, the gps pings.
We’re close.
Rounding the final bend in the road, a fortress-like house comes into view, shielded on all sides by thick stone walls. I pull into the drive and put the car in park, jumping out of the vehicle as soon as I can, and gathering Lila to explore our new residence.
________________
Bastien’s POV
“I’m running out of patience, Cavanaugh.” I growl, “I know you know where she is.” We’re back in the Alpha’s office, pacing around each other like circling vultures, each overflowing with rage, worry, and resentment.
I haven’t had time to process all the revelations we discovered in Selene’s apartment, least of which is the fact that she has a child. I don’t know much about children, but if I had to guess, her little girl is close to three years old. That would mean that Selene was either pregnant when she left Elysium, or she became pregnant shortly thereafter.
Is it possible I’m a father? Wouldn’t I have smelled the change in her, even if the pregnancy was in its early stages?
More importantly, if I’m not the father, who is? Selene was impossibly sheltered before escaping Garrick, and has always been terribly skittish around men. Drake Cavanaugh would be the likeliest candidate, but if he fathered a child with my mate, why aren’t they living together? Why isn’t he in the photos? Why hasn’t he marked her?
In the end it doesn’t matter who fathered her child. It’s still an innocent in need of protection, and one created by the love of my life, a miracle of her creation. Just looking at the angelic little face in the photos makes me want to rip Cavanaugh limb from limb for endangering her, fore keeping them from me is doing just that.
“I told you when you arrived that I protect the privacy of my pack members.” Drake bites back. “I produced Selene so you could see she was not being held under duress, but that is the extent of my responsibility.”
“Like hell.” I thunder. “She’s being hunted by–”
“By a husband she does not want!” Drake bellows, “You need to accept it, Bastien. You had your chance, and you threw it away. You mistreated and neglected her, you chose a cruel, vapid socialite over the woman created for you by the Goddess herself. You have only yourself to blame.”
“You speak of what you do not know!” I hiss, “I never looked at another woman, from the first moment I saw Selene. I loved her with every fiber of my being.” I profess, my throat burning. “But she lost her wolf and couldn’t feel our bond. Still, I loved her so much I was willing to let her go. I didn’t do it in time, but I was going to.”
“Oh and I suppose that now she has her wolf back, you think she’s just going to fall into your arms.” Drake scoffs in disgust.
“This isn’t about us!” I thunder. “This is about the fact that someone in your pack tried to report a woman you’re supposed to be protecting – and her daughter – to a man who would kill her.” Aiden and Donavon have ceased trying to hold me back, instead standing by to watch and mop up the blood when it inevitably spills. “You’ve failed them both. You are not equipped to protect them, and it’s time you sacrifice your pride and let someone who is capable take over!”
“I’ve heard enough.” Drake nods to his guards, “You might be the Alpha in Elysium, but I am Alpha here, and no one speaks to me this way, no matter their excuse.” I can see the sentries approaching in my periphery, bracing myself for an imminent attack, “Take Mr. Durand into custody, let’s see if some time in a cell doesn’t cool his temper.”
“You’re going to regret this.” I caution Cavanaugh as his men move in. “I’m going to find Selene, one way or another. I’m telling you now, you’d rather be with me than against me when that happens.”
“Famous last words.” Drake drawls, giving the signal to attack.
Wolves fly at me from all directions, determined to restrain me and take me into custody. Unfortunately for them, I’m not just an Alpha who’s lost his temper. I’m an Alpha who’s been separated from his mate, and they now stand between us.
