Chapter Four
3195 Words
Chapter Four
“You may all be excused,” Romeo said, holding onto Amanda’s hand. “And I want absolute silence on this issue until I say otherwise.”
“What do we do now?” Amanda asked.
“We find out everything we can about Brody Duscene,” Romeo said. “Can you locate him?”
“Of course,” Amanda said, but added, “I do, however, feel it’s a slight betrayal of our daughter’s trust.”
“She just destroyed our trust in her.”
“I was talking more of her trust in us,” Amanda smiled. “We’ve always been open and honest with her and the other children. Whether you like it or not, darling, our daughter is grown. She’s free to love and be loved in return, to choose a mate.”
“She hasn’t even brought him home, Amanda,” Romeo groaned.
“I’m not sure I would have brought you home, either, had my father been alive and acted as you just did.”
“So I should have just acted like nothing happened?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. You could have done it a little more privately. You humiliated her for following her heart, something I’ve always told our children to do.”
“That was before their heart led them to do stupid, reckless things. As far as I know, there is no Brody Duscene in our pack and that worries me.”
“Regardless, love, we have to fix this. I won’t see our family fall apart because our daughter fell in love.”
“You do realize that she’ll go into season with the full moon don’t you?”
“Yes,” Amanda grinned. “Are we too young to be Papa and Nana?”
“Ugh,” Romeo groaned, making Amanda laugh.
>>
After things had calmed down some, Amanda made two cups of hot chocolate and carried them on a tray up to Sarina’s room. She knocked twice and with no answer gently pushed the unlocked door open. “Sarina?”
When no answer came forth, Amanda set the tray down and searched the room, quickly realizing that Sarina was nowhere to be found. “Romeo!”
“What is it?” he asked, bounding up the stairs three at a time. Coming to the same conclusion as his wife, he called for his three sons to start looking around the property. “Does anyone know where this Brody Duscene lives?” With no forthcoming information, Romeo called his entire family to meet him at the house for further details.
“What do we know so far?” Elijah asked, holding his wife’s, Penelope’s, hand. As a wind Radiant, Penelope could invoke everything from a cool breeze to a tornado at the drop of a hat. It was something she had to learn to control while Amanda was learning to harness the power of the Earth. Only when Amanda had become their leader did the Radiants have free rein to marry whom they deemed worthy. Thanks to Amanda’s rational thinking, Penelope and Elijah were finally able to acknowledge their love for one another.
“Not much I’m afraid,” Romeo said to his younger brother. “Brody Duscene is the wolf we’re looking for. He’s not of our pack and we have no real details on him. You should also be aware that he is Sarina’s mate.” An audible gasp that swept through the entire group was exactly how Romeo still felt.
“And you think she went to him?” Jeremiah asked. As Romeo’s father and the father of his deceased twin, Damon, he had once been the alpha of their great pack. His hair now going white and his eyes a dimmer blue than they once were, he still stood as a great leader in their pack and Romeo couldn’t come close to adequately expressing the love and respect he had for his father.
“I have no doubt of it. She’s covered in his scent and the musk of new love. She would scarcely run anywhere else.”
“You know, if she has gone to him, there’s no real way you can make her come back.” This came from Romeo’s youngest sister, Audri, who was as outspoken as his own daughter.
“Yes,” Romeo replied. He was thankful when Benjamin stepped up and put an arm around Audri’s waist. How she had gotten herself a man like Benjamin, Romeo would never know. He was the perfect balance of calm and rationale for his high strung sister.
“We need to know she’s safe,” Audri’s twin, Aurora, said. Her husband, James, who’d come along well after Amanda had given birth to Wade, was sitting next to her on the couch. “Whether or not she comes home at this point isn’t really the problem.”
“What?” Romeo said rather pointedly.
“I was just trying to point out that Sarina is grown now, whether anyone in the family likes it or not. She’s also of breeding age, Gramps,” retorted Audri.
Romeo let the dig slide as everyone chuckled. “Just wait until your Katie is there, dear sister of mine. Then we’ll see how funny you think it is.”
“She’s got at least five years, big brother.”
“They’ll fly by,” he said with a note of obvious sadness in his voice.
“Alright,” Jeremiah said, taking over. He wasn’t the alpha any longer, but his family respected him and gave him leave. “Let’s split up in two’s, no less than two couples per quadrant. I want my granddaughter and her mate found.”
The family did as he asked. Aurora and Audri took the north quadrant with their husbands. Elijah and Penelope agreed to take the west quadrant with Sebastian and Bryce, two of Romeo’s younger brothers and Sebastian’s wife, Lacie. Romeo’s other brother, Joseph, and his wife, Rachel, agreed to take the south quadrant with Romeo and Amanda. “And I’ll take the east quadrant with the grandchildren – all of them,” Jeremiah said, his statement final.
The search began in earnest as the moon began to rise higher in the sky. Sarina’s entire family branched out, hoping to find her safe and sound by morning. It’d be a difficult search, stretching into territory that was beyond the borders of their community and putting Romeo and Amanda, the reigning King and Queen, in a very delicate situation.
>>
Sarina swiped at the angry tears that poured from her eyes as her soul oozed out its heartache. She’d always believed that her parents loved her, wanted her. She’d always seen them as strict, but fair. Now all those visions were nothing but ash. She tossed them to the wind as she ran, sobbing through the woods. Using the power inside her, she reached out to Brody, willing him to answer her.
Her power poured from the pain in her heart, making her chest ache as she left behind her family to reach for the man she loved. She couldn’t explain it, but her mother had been right. She’d waited her whole life for the man she’d love into eternity and it had struck her like a lightning bolt when Brody had shown up in her life. Newly mated or not, she’d known him from the moment he’d spoken to her.
“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing out so late?” came a surly voice. Sarina used her keen vision to spot the man, who looked to be three sheets to the wind, with a bottle of rum in his hand.
“I like late night walks.”
“Me too,” the man chuckled. “Especially when a pretty woman happens by. You got a name, sugar?”
“I do, as my parents saw fit to give me one when I was born.”
“Funny,” he said, his voice hardening. “You going to tell me what it is?”
“No,” Sarina said, bunching her muscles tight. If she had to, she’d turn and try shift to save herself. The moon wasn’t full yet and she’d never changed before. From what she learned from the pack, the pain would be beyond anything she’d ever endured, but if it meant saving her life, she’d do it. “And trust me when I tell you, you don’t want to push me on that one.”
“Oh?” he laughed cynically.
“Please sir, just enjoy your rum and leave me to what I was doing.”
“What were you doing, darling? Because from here it looked like a whole lot of nothing. Now, you and me on the other hand, we could spend some late night time enjoying the more carnal aspects of our anatomy. I’d even share my rum with you if you want a nip.”
“No, thank you,” Sarina said. She watched the man’s eyes go steel hard and turned to run when his hand caught her hair, yanking her viciously backward. She landed hard on her back, feeling the crunch of rocks under her skin. The man, who moved much faster than she’d given him credit for, considering his inebriated state, was on top of her in seconds, his hands roughly pushing and pulling at her clothes. Her scream hit the air like a gunshot until the back of his hand landed across her cheek. The sting stole her breath and his weight prevented her from drawing another deep breath to try again.
“I like a feisty woman,” the man chuckled. “Makes the taking so much more fun. You ever have a man inside you, baby?”
Sarina nearly vomited from the stench of his breath as his mouth landed on her neck. Still sore from where Brody had marked her, Sarina’s eyes watered from the man’s harsh mouth. Slowly she drew in her breath and screamed again, unable to find the energy to shift with his weight crushing her. Suddenly Sarina heard a feral growl and the man was lifted off of her, his body slamming into a rock. Sarina would have sat up and moved, except for the huge, nearly jet black wolf that stood protectively over her, his face pinned on the man.
“What the hell?” the man said, rubbing his sore head. “Got yourself a pet, do you darling? Well a bullet should take care of him! Then you and I can get back to a little—” Sarina watched as the wolf tore the man’s throat out, leaving his body as it fell. When he walked back to her, Sarina touched his coat, her hand gliding over the silky fur.
“Brody?” she asked, looking into the wolf’s golden eyes. l*****g his muzzle clean, the wolf sat down close to her and yelped as his body shifted back to human form. Seeing that it was Brody, Sarina stripped her shirt off and covered him with it. She stroked his shaggy hair as he finished the change. “You found me.”
>>
Brody finally sat up, catching his breath after the change. Knowing the man in him wouldn’t get there in time, he’d changed on the run and the wolf had taken over. He hadn’t known it was in him to change until he’d heard Sarina scream. He’d never even heard of anyone but an alpha being able to change before the full moon, until now. “I heard you screaming,” Brody explained. “Before that, I was sure I heard you in my head. You were crying.”
“I was sad and angry,” Sarina said, the same feelings still inside her.
“Your parents are angry huh?”
“My dad acted as if he hadn’t forced my mother to marry him. She may have made the decision willingly, but not before he practically bashed her over the head with all of it. And he has the audacity to sit there and act as if I’ve made some terrible decision.”
“Then come home with me.”
“You want me to leave my pack?”
“I just want you safe, Sarina. And I’d like to put on clothes that are actually made for a man’s body.”
Giggling, Sarina’s eyes danced. “I can’t talk you out of that, huh?”
Brody chuckled, “I didn’t know my mate had such a thing for nature.”
“We’re werewolves, Brody. It’s sort of half of what we do.”
“True,” he grinned. Pulling her close, Brody took her mouth, falling into her. As it always seemed to, her flavor punched through his system, warming all the cold places as her hands touched him. Passion, ignited by love, flamed through them both, burning its way to the surface so that everywhere she touched grew hot and hard. Within minutes Brody didn’t care that he was n***d as a jaybird in the middle of the forest at twilight. All he knew was that the only woman he wanted, wanted him just as desperately.
>>
“Can you find them?” Romeo asked as he and Amanda set out with Joseph and Rachel.
“It’d be better if I had something that belonged to him, but having his scent on her clothing will work.” Amanda stepped away from her husband with Sarina’s dress in her hands. Lifting her hands high in the air she called on the Earth to give up what it held. “Powers of Earth hear my call. Give up the blood you hold in t****l. Track my daughter wherever she might go. Find her mate as well, great spirit, as I will, so mote it be.”
Romeo watched as a small trail of Earth spewed up from the ground, lit by a white glow. It headed west where Penelope, Elijah, Bryce, Sebastian and Lacie were looking. “Will they know what they’re looking at?”
“Penelope will know,” Amanda assured him.
“Let’s head that way then.”
>>
It took nearly an hour for Romeo and Amanda, Joseph and Rachel to reach the others. By then Jeremiah was on his way with the older grandchildren, as were Audri and Aurora with their mates.
“What do we know?” Audri asked, voicing everyone’s thoughts.
“We definitely know they’re in this quadrant, but well outside our community as the trail died off here,” Penelope said, pointing toward a forest of trees.
“Should we spread out?” Elijah asked, looking to Amanda and Romeo.
“No,” he said. “Can you and Penelope take the kids and Dad back to the house? Joseph, Bryce, Sebastian, Audri and Aurora will help us search.”
“Alright,” Elijah agreed. After they’d headed back into the safety of their community, Romeo and Amanda headed into the woods, straight on from where the trail left off. Just out of eyesight, Aurora and Audri, along with their husbands, took the left section and Joseph and Sebastian, with their wives and Bryce took the right section.
The woods were thick, mainly with birch and oak trees that grew tall and beautiful to block out both the sun and the moon. Even with their keen eyesight, the eleven werewolves had a hard time seeing, until Amanda did a quick chant. Turning toward his wife, Romeo smiled. “Thanks,” he smiled. “Who knew owls could see so keenly?”
“Well they do hunt at night,” Amanda felt the need to point out. “Now put them to use and find our girl.”
Twenty minutes later Sebastian came running toward them. “There’s a large cave over here that looks feasible for a pack if it’s small enough.” The four of them checked it out and found no evidence of a wolf pack using the space.
“Keep looking,” Romeo said, moving back toward the center with Amanda.
Over the next half an hour no one saw anything remotely useable for a wolf pack of any size, until Romeo saw a massive cave. “Amanda,” he whispered.
“I see it. But how do we alert Sebastian and the others?”
“Can you signal them with a spell?”
“I could try astral projection,” Amanda said, already preparing. Centering herself she chanted what always sounded like nonsense to Romeo. Thankfully she was a truly talented Radiant witch with excellent and very honed knowledge. He saw an instant flash and then it was as if Amanda stood stock still, almost as if she’d been turned to stone like a victim of Medusa. In a moment she was back to herself, a smile spreading across her face. “That was fairly amazing.”
“Excellent hon, now we need a plan.”
>>
Sarina took in the expanse of the cave walls, shuddering as the damp cold sank into her bones. “It’s freezing in here.”
“I’ll build a fire once we get to my room.”
“Why do you all live in a cave?”
“It’s actually a set of caves that run through this side of Mount Chastain. It’s well networked and gives our pack plenty of room to spread out without tripping over each other.”
“There are some, most in fact, in your pack that don’t like me here.”
“They just need to get to know you.”
“Brody I’m not so sure—”
“What is she doing here?”
Sarina took shelter behind Brody’s strong back as he stood up taller, obviously addressing the alpha of his pack. “She is my mate and when she was turned out of her parents’ home for being with me, I brought her to the safety of my home.”
“She doesn’t belong here, Brody.”
“Regardless of how you feel about her, she’s staying.”
“Then I want both of you out,” Reggie said, turning his back on Brody.
“We can’t travel tonight. We’ll be gone first thing in the morning if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t care when you go, but she doesn’t sleep or stay another moment in the presence of our pack. Her coward of a father doesn’t deserve the New Delta Community. If she even knew what he’d done, along with his father, she’d think twice about claiming her parentage. Not to mention that w***e of a mother of hers.”
Sarina growled low in her throat and stepped out from behind Brody, her eyes gleaming as she faced him. “You have no right to speak of my family that way. Who are you to pass judgement? You have your meager pack hiding out in a dank cave.”
Sarina saw the punishment coming and ducked to avoid it. What she wasn’t fast enough to avoid was the silver bullet that slammed into her shoulder. It seeped into her system and kept her wolf from emerging. “Now, Lady Traverse, you might want to think twice about your decisions from here on out. This next bullet won’t be so nice.”
Sarina looked up to see Reggie pointing a revolver at Brody’s head. Wincing, she stood up slowly. “I’ll leave, right now.” Brody caught her hand, imploring her to stay.
“You can meet me when you’re ready,” Sarina said, leaning up to kiss him, “I’ll be waiting.” Stepping outside the entrance of the cave, Sarina breathed in the fresh air, thankful she was no longer inside the wet and cold cave. Bullet in her shoulder or not, she felt sorry for the wolves that lived under Reggie’s regime. He seemed to be a classless leader who demanded obedience instead of earning his wolves’ respect.
“Sarina?” She turned at the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Mama? What are you doing here?”
“We’ve had the whole family out looking for you, darling. Your father is just as hard-headed and stubborn as you are. That doesn’t mean that you have to run away.”
“I won’t let Brody go just to please Daddy, Mama.”
“No one’s asking you to let him go. We just want to get to know him. We want a chance to see what you see in him.”
“We need to find a place to settle first,” Sarina said, her body giving in to the silver that was still oozing into her bloodstream. Taking a labored breath she continued. “We can come visit once we get settled, but I can’t go back home. Finding Brody helped me realize that I need my own life. I can’t live the life Dad or you want for me anymore.”
“Alright,” Amanda replied. Her eyes went wide as she saw the blood seeping out of Sarina’s wound. “You’re hurt.”
Sarina felt as if her body weighed a ton as she took a step toward her mother. Then the world went black.
- Writer
