~Kade~
It was the middle of the night, and we were still sitting in Analise’s cabin. We had been here for too long. It was dangerous to stay any longer in case Nathaniel decided to visit his little secret.
“How can he not have realized that your scent is exposed?” Cara asked as we put on our jackets.
“He’s too busy with other things at the moment,” she said and looked at me.
He was busy with Layla, was what she meant.
“Please,” I begged and looked at her. “Is he hurting her? I just need to know,” I asked.
She took a deep breath and grabbed my hand.
“He won’t lay a finger on her for as long as she is of use to him,” she said.
Justin and I shared a look. The second that Layla wasn’t helpful, he’d get rid of her.
“For now, though, she’s safe.” Analise’s eyes fell for a split second, but we all caught it.
“What do you mean she’s safe? The way you said it, it implies someone else isn’t,” Cara said.
“Well, she isn’t an obedient girl, that mate of yours, so he will find another way to uphold his control over her,” she said and moved her eyes between the three of us.
My brows furrowed, and my eyes narrowed in on Analise.
“You told me earlier that I shouldn’t be alive. Why?” I asked.
Analise tilted her head, her fingers pulled between each other, and her nose wrinkled as her face tensed. She looked up, her eyes burning with a desire to hold back her words, and her pale cheeks flustered with the littlest bit of color. “You have a threat in your house, and blood will spill. A life must be taken, Kade. It should’ve been yours, but you changed the story, and now another will take your place.” My eyes widened. Cara drew a sharp breath and put her hand on my arm.
“Jackson,” Justin breathed and clenched his jaw.
I took out the keys to the car. “Come with us. You’ll be safe at our pack,” I told Analise and darted out of the house. We made it a few feet before I noticed she wasn’t following us. “Come on, let’s go!” I said and reached out my arm to the woods.
She smiled and raised her head.
“No, I’m staying. I have some things I need to do before I can leave. Before I can be free,” she said hoarsely.
“You won’t survive here. I see it on your face. Your life is draining from being here,” I said.
“It’s not from being here, darling. Leave. Go now before anyone notices you.” Her sentence wasn’t done, but her voice stopped. Her eyes glowed and grew red and blurry with tears.
“Leave,” she whispered. “Leave now.”
I looked at Cara. We started running toward the car. Everyone jumped in, and I pressed the gas, telling Cara to ring up the pack and see if anyone had been hurt.
“Fuck!” she shouted. Her hand hit the back of Justin’s seat, and her knuckles grew white from her hard grip on the phone.
“Call someone else!” I told her and took a sharp right turn that almost ended with us driving into a truck.
“Dude, werewolves aren’t immune to decapitation!” Justin shouted and grabbed the seat with both hands.
“Anything?” I asked Cara, ignoring Justin’s comment.
“Nothing,” she groaned and started tapping away on the screen.
My foot was pressing as hard as I could on the gas pedal. All I saw was the terrified look in Analise’s eyes when she told us to go, and her words about me meant to be dead kept ringing in my ears. If I let someone into my house and somebody got hurt—
“Watch out!”
I turned the wheel. The wheels lost contact with the ground, and the headlights that headed toward us disappeared as the car drove out on the side of the road before I regained control.
“Kade,” Cara breathed in the backseat, her back pressed against the seat and her hands clasping the door.
“Sorry,” I said and shook my head clear of the memories, but they were still there and the only thing I was seeing. The road morphed into a sea that turned red with the blood of my pack members and the floor of our house, causing our feet to slip and slide through my family’s blood.
“Everything will be okay. We’ll make it,” Cara said and leaned forward between the seats. Her hand rested on my shoulder, and her thumb drew sooting circles.
“We all saw Analise’s face, her fears, and heard her words. Nobody in this car believes your words, including yourself.” Her hand stopped moving, and she slowly sat back.
It felt like forever, but we finally reached our pack. The car soared through the street and in through the gates.
“Slow down. Kade, you have to slow down!” Justin pressed his hands against the dashboard.
I saw the stone wall form in front of me, but my mind didn’t react until I saw my mother stepping out, and my foot finally hit the break. I saw her standing alive and well, watching with horror as the car stopped inches away from the stone that would’ve turned us into soup.
“Kade,” she said with a scolding gaze when we stepped out.
“Someone’s hurt, who is it?” I asked, running up the stone stairs.
My mother stiffened, and her lips shivered. “How did you know?”
I grabbed her shoulders softly and broke her shock. “Who was hurt?”
Her brows arched, and her hands raised as her fingers slowly circled my wrists. My mother cupped my cheek; her hand held mine like when I was a child, comforting me. Right on cue, she leaned in and wrapped her arms around me. She placed her head on my shoulder and looked back at Cara and Justin.
When she leaned back, she smiled a soft smile that faltered if she hadn’t forced it.
“It’s Danielle, and it’s bad,” she said. The lights around the house were lit and illuminated her face.
I stepped to the side, about to run in, but she grabbed my arm and held me back. My mother’s face hardened, and her eyes grew to the fierceness they had when we arrived.
“She was saving Anna.”
He wanted Anna.
