Kane's Mate (Armageddon Mates) (8 page)

The woman panted her thanks, kissing the baby and murmuring love words. Then she gave the baby to one of the nurses, grabbing her hand and saying, “I know what you are. You have to help me. They’re coming for me and my baby. She’s special. Please, there’s a couple two rooms down, she’s about to give birth to a stillborn baby girl. Switch them. I have bespelled her, they will think she’s their child. In five or so years they will live near wolves but won’t know it. The wolves will love my child and keep her safe. She will be important to all supernatural creatures if she lets herself be.” The woman smiled. “She will even be mate to one. Please. Bring me the stillborn. I’ll say she’s mine. Quick, do it and get out of here before they get you too.”

The nurse nodded and rushed away with the baby. The woman broke down, crying as she chanted. Five minutes later the nurse returned with the stillborn, and the woman shooed the nurse away.

“Run, go somewhere cold with lots of snow or live near water. You must listen to me.” The woman kissed the stillborn’s head. “I’m so sorry.”

A few minutes later four zombies arrived and took the woman away. They locked her in some kind of cell with no windows. Tears rolled down the woman’s face as her torture began. Small demons came to her cell and forced themselves on her. She fought every time, never giving up, but it did no good. Over the years she fell pregnant many times but miscarried them all. They left her alone for a while and this time when a small demon came she didn’t miscarry, she stayed pregnant.

By this time the woman was white and sickly looking. She screamed in agony as she gave birth. The baby was big, and she was in tremendous pain. She gave birth alone to a massive baby boy, at least a twelve pounder, with dark skin with a red tinge, a full mouth with sharp teeth, and black eyes with a red tinge.

The woman cleaned herself up and then sung to the baby, saying, “You are my Ben, my Bengie boy. I love you. Always remember that you’re special, just like your sister. You will be a good boy, don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise.” She sang this and told the baby about all the good things in the world, then a demon came in and took the baby. She fought but was no match for him.

Then Faith saw the little boy sneaking into her room, looking no more than two, bringing food and water. The woman hugged and kissed him, telling him stories of wonderful things she had seen. Then he hugged her and snuck back out.

Faith saw several of these incidents until finally Ben looked to be about the age he was now. The woman looked frail and lifeless.

Ben picked her up. “I did what you told me. They should all be passed out if they ate the food. I love you, Mum. We’re getting out of here, and I’ll get you to my sister.”

The woman smiled. “I love you too, my special boy. Remember my instructions on where to go, and if anything happens to me, promise me you will keep going. Remember, find your sister, help protect her. Live life, have fun.”

Ben shook his head. “No, Mum, I can’t leave you.”

“You must remember they need to get a werewolf army down here to save people. This place is only one of thousands. The wolves have to annihilate it and any others after saving the people. Promise me,” his mum said.

Faith could see they were in some tunnels, heading up.

The woman moaned. “I love you.” She jumped down just as they reached a door, opened it, and attacked the demon, yelling at Ben, “Run! Run for me.” With the last of her breath she said, “I break thy power and give it to my children.”

The last thing Faith saw before she came out of the vision was Ben bursting out of a door into the daylight.

Faith knew from the bottom of her heart that what she saw was true, she even felt it was the truth. Her whole life up until now had been a lie. She didn’t know what to do. Should she feel grateful, pissed, loved, safe, special, or relieved? She now knew she had a brother, a half-brother but a brother, and her biological mother had died. She knew from the vision that her biological mother wanted her to look after, teach, and love Bengie. Faith started to silently sob, tears rolling down her cheeks, selfish tears for everything she had lost, but mostly because Ben got to know their mother.

Faith snuggled into Kane. His arms tightened around her as he whispered things to her, like he loved her and he didn’t want to live without her, how sorry he was for the years they’d missed, and other silly nonsense about her childhood. She needed him right now. She was so scared, and she needed to know she was loved. She wanted to be reminded of who loved her and why.

“Wake up, princess. I love you. Please don’t do this. Wake up. I promise I will give you anything you want, I’ll even buy you that puppy you wanted. Remember that? We could never understand why you wanted one when you had all of us.” He gave a harsh laugh. “I’ll buy you two if you wake up now. Or how about I build you that princess chair and the castle that had to be bigger than everyone else’s? We’ll even make Jamie be the dragon again. I secretly think he liked that, probably has a costume in the closet already. Devlin won’t complain when I, the prince, save him from the dragon. Do you know I never played games with any of the other children, not even my sisters or brothers? I always felt and said I was too old, but you would look at me with those warm, brown eyes, bottom lip quivering, and I would cave and do anything you said. God, I love you so much. Open your eyes, honey. I can’t go back to my bleak existence of the last four years. I’ll do anything.”

Faith couldn’t listen to any more, she opened her eyes and leaned up and kissed him. “I love you too. You always did like saving me from the dragon considering I had to trick you every time to play, and I want two chocolate Labradors.”

Kane laughed and kissed her long and hard. “Don’t ever do anything so stupid again, Faith. What the hell were you thinking? He’s a fucking half-breed demon, the only one we know of. For Christ’s sake, we didn’t know it was possible they could breed with…argh, fuck, I don’t even want to fathom it. If werewolves could have heart attacks you have almost given me two in less than forty-eight hours.”

Then she broke down, crying. “What they did to my mother…oh God, Kane. Bengie’s special, there are not many like him because they usually miscarry. My mum wants me to look after Bengie, teach him, love him. I think he’s even younger than we think.” She stopped and looked around their room for him. “Where is he?”

Faith glanced around the room again. Jamie was asleep in a chair, just coming awake now. Griffen was leaning against the wall, looking white as a ghost.

“Griffen, what’s wrong?”

She tried to get up, to go to him, but arms tightened around her waist.

Griffen gave a forced smile as he said, “That vision of yours was pretty intense. I was stupid enough to touch you, and let’s just say you shared, which should be impossible because werewolves are immune to magic other than their own. Wow, Faith, wow.”

Faith’s eyes widened. She had never shared a vision before.

Griffen nodded at her. “I know, but when you touched the half-breed you got your mother’s transferred power. I’m so sorry. We should have stopped him from being anywhere near you.”

Faith shook her head, still feeling numb from all she had seen. “Where’s Bengie? I need to see him.”

All three werewolves cleared their throats. “Well.”

Kane spoke up. “We didn’t know for sure what he had done to you, and Griffen wasn’t stupid enough to touch you until a couple of hours ago.”

“So?”

Kane mumbled, “We put him in the water manhole, and he’s being guarded.”

Faith screeched, “You what! How long have I been out? How long has he been down there?”

Kane sighed. “For the rest of the day yesterday and all night. It’s now mid-morning.”

Faith punched Kane. “You left my baby brother down there.” She punched him again. “You let me go, Kane, or you will learn what the word pain means. I can’t believe you.”

“Now, princess, just think about—”

Faith kneed him in the balls and punched him again. Jumping off the bed and running for the door, she yelled, “I’m really pissed with you all. If any of you tries to stop me or even moves a step closer, you will be so sorry.”

She bumped into Jack as she ran out of the room. His arms started to come around her and without even thinking she repeated her actions, doing the same to him as she had done to Kane.

As she ran for the back door, she yelled, “None of you Wolfens better stop me or come near me ’til I get my brother, or so help me God, you will not like the outcome.”

She ran on bare feet down the rocky path to the cliffs until her feet were so badly cut and bleeding it started to get slippery, and then she finally saw two guards.

One broke away and casually walked toward her. “Faith, what are you doing here? It’s not—”

Knowing it was all about the surprise, she ran up to him, kicked his balls, and punched his stomach. “Sorry, Blake, but stay the fuck away from me and my brother.” She picked up one of his small blades.

As she got closer the other werewolf went into fighting mode. He was new, she didn’t know him. He must have arrived while she was away. She swore as he sniffed the air. Faith curled her lips up at the side and knew she had a feral smile. She had to use more dirty tactics, as she wasn’t sure how long her warning would hold off Blake and she was out of practice.

“You really shouldn’t touch me. I’m the alpha’s mate. Get my brother out of the hole, and I won’t hurt you.”

The new wolf laughed. “Bitch, you are not tricking me.” He came forward to grab her, but she blocked him.

“Jeez, you’re not a smart one, are you? It’s your funeral. Didn’t you notice how Blake never yelled at me or retaliated? Trust me, I am the alpha’s mate.”

The new wolf paused for a second, which was all she needed. Faith wasn’t going to take any chances with this werewolf. She had never heard a werewolf speak to a woman like this guy was to her, and no matter how focused on the battle a werewolf was they should be able to listen and take notice of those around them. Holding Blake’s blade, she ran and stabbed him in the stomach, using his body to flip over him.

She ran the last steps to the manhole and yelled down to her brother, “You can climb out now, but be quick.”

Once she could see his hand, she grabbed it and helped him out. Suddenly a half-changed wolf grabbed her around the waist with his claws. She screamed as he said, “You fucking bitch, you’ll pay for that.”

He went to throw her, but she used the blade to slash his hands. She kicked off his chest, backflipping off him. Blake was running over and yelling at the new guy to stop, but it wasn’t getting through. There was something wrong. Werewolves were trained to listen while in battle, so why wasn’t he?

Faith faced him. “Bad, bad, doggie. You are in so much trouble. You should listen to Blake.”

He growled and tried to punch her. “No way. I will get you for cutting me, I’m not a pansy who falls at a woman’s feet.”

She moved, blocked, and ducked as she slid under his legs on her knees, slashing what she could with the blade. His clawed hand grabbed her hair, pulling, while the other raked her back. She screamed again, and then a second later his clawed hand was removed by Bengie, who had a vise-like grip on the new guy’s hand.

Just as Blake grabbed the new guy and spun him around they heard a loud howl followed by some other ones.

Faith winced. “Oh shit, new guy, you’re dead now.”

Blake sighed. “She’s right. If you don’t recognize her name I was using, how about the one her mate, the next in line to be alpha, calls her. Princess. I’m not a pansy either, but when a woman tells me she’s the alpha’s mate, I would definitely never hurt her. Contain her, yes.”

The new guy changed back. His face turned pale and his body trembled. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I’m so sorry.”

Blake snarled. “That’s no excuse. You’re two hundred years old, and you’ve been training since you were five. You should have known better.”

There was a loud growl. Faith stumbled, her legs trembled then folded under her. Before she hit the ground, she felt strong hands catch her, lifting her. She glanced up at her brother, throwing her arms around him as he hugged her tight against him. She hugged him back. “Thanks, Bengie. I love you too.”

Bengie smiled, showing sharp teeth. “I thought he was your mate, the big one. Mum said you would have a mate, she wouldn’t tell me what that means exactly. She said I was too young, but I’m not, I’m a big boy, I just turned twelve.”

A “holy shit” could be heard before she nodded and passed out.

* * * *

Kane was shocked. The princess he knew would never have done what she did. Four years ago his princess was a quiet, shy, little mouse. The last three days had really opened his eyes to a new woman. His princess was now a confident, stubborn, loyal—although she always had been, just more vocal—independent, feisty, alpha woman, ready to fight for what she wanted and believed right. Kane loved his old princess, but the new one was making him hotter than ever. Damn, he was so lucky. If at all possible he loved Faith more and more each day. He was sure if any other woman went through what she had gone through she would have cracked, but not his princess, she was the perfect woman to stand beside him, and someday help lead the pack.