Authors: Tigertalez
He kept his embrace light and didn’t hold her for long.
He could smell Dex’s scent on her and knew he’d started the mating process.
Pulling back, he held out a hand to the vampire. “Dex,
thank
you, and welcome to the family.” Dex took his hand and shook it. Slate added,
“I’m really glad you are here to help her through this family crisis.” Looking
down at his sister, he planted a small kiss on the top of her head. “Congratulations,
baby sis.”
“Thank you.” Her voice was shaky, quiet and subdued.
He didn’t like the sad and shy look she had, and
didn’t think it was normal for her at all considering her spirited display over
the phone when they talked right before the attack. “I would feel better if you
let Katie look you over. She’s in with Mom right now.”
Suddenly her face crumpled, and Dex immediately
wrapped Slate’s sobbing sister in his arms. He heard the vampire muttering
assurances to her. Once she got control of herself, she wiped away her tears.
“I was afraid she was dead.” Her face scrunched up in sorrow again as her voice
broke. “I left her here and escaped.”
Slate could clearly see she would need time to heal
and forgive herself. “You didn’t know, and you did what she wanted you to do.
Why don’t you go in and see her? She’ll be so relieved to see you’re safe.”
She shook her head. “I will, but first, I want to know
what happened to Dad.”
He ushered her into the living room.
Dex
grabbed a large cushioned seat and placed her in his
lap. Slate fought back a chuckle. He loved seeing his sister cared for the way
a mate should be. A door opened down the hall, and
his own
mate came around the corner. He sat down and offered her his lap, but she sat
beside him instead, reminding him his injury wasn’t ready for that yet.
“Injury?” his sister’s voice carried to his ears. “Did
Dad hurt you, too?”
“No, actually I was injured while protecting my alpha
and his mate just before I called Mom.”
“Yes,” Katie interjected. “He’s supposed to be
bedridden, but this was too important to stay home. I’m Katie, Slate’s mate.”
“Hi, I’m his youngest sister, Elise. It’s nice to meet
you. Where’s Mom? Is she going to be ok?”
“She’s hurt pretty bad, but with some care and time, I
think so. Dr. Rossi wants to do more tests and his own complete examination as
soon as we get back to the pack lands. She’s sleeping right now, but she has a
pretty bad concussion so I’ll need to check on her often.”
Slate cringed at the news of his mother’s injures. At
lease there was hope that she would be all right. Tyler was still here, so he
came around and introduced himself to Elise. “I’m Councilmember Tyler Ghost. I
would very much like to hear what happened if you are ready to talk about it.”
Slate could see Dex’s hold tighten slightly, no doubt
trying to reassure her. She nodded her head as Fabian handed
her
an
afghan to place over her lap. Dex tucked the blanket around her as
she described the events.
“Dad told us never to talk to Slate or there would be hell
to pay. Whenever we mentioned Slate, his temper would go through the roof and
he would whip me and my sister with his belt. We learned quick enough to never
talk about him. He was supposed to be at work today, so when we got the first
call from Slate since he left, we were excited and didn’t push him off the
phone. I guess Dad forgot a paper he needed for work and returned home to get
it. We didn’t hear him drive in because we were too excited to hear Slate’s
voice and telling us all the great things that were happening to him. It didn’t
help I got a little too out of control and was cheering. I was a bit loud.”
“I don’t remember Dad ever being so abusive. Aside
from mentioning me, was there any other time he would hit you?” Slate asked.
“I don’t remember much about when you left, but I
think that was when their marriage started to go downhill. He wasn’t too bad
most of the time, but over the last couple of years he had gotten worse. When
they fought, their fights got progressively louder and more frightening.
There’ve been times he’s thrown things and broke things.
Holes
in walls, broken windows, that sort of thing.
I don’t know for sure if
he ever hit Mom before today. This year has been the worst he’s ever been. He’s
been mean and crazy like. I think it’s why Layla left home instead of going to
college here. I usually just hide out in my room when Dad’s home.”
Slate was horrified. “Why didn’t you or Mom or Layla
even, tell me? I would have come and helped you.”
“I think Mom was in denial about how bad it really was
getting. Really Slate, we’ve seen him happy, laughing, and loving. To tell
anyone felt like betraying him, and to do anything against him felt like it was
overreacting. It was just so confusing. He never did anything like this before,
so we had too many doubts what to do or how to respond. But after what happened
today, I was going to call you after I healed enough and figured how to get to
a phone.”
Slate was relieved to hear that. He wanted his family
to know he was someone they could rely on to protect and provide for them. “So
you were cheering too loud, and Dad came home. I remember hearing him shouting
over the line. Please tell us what happened.”
Elise looked like she was steadying herself. Slate
hated forcing her to remember the horrendous event. He stayed quiet and let her
mate soothe her until she was ready, then she continued to recount her story. “He
started shouting at us and hitting us. He broke Mom’s phone and kept hitting
and kicking her. Every time I got close, he would strike me. I kept my head
protected, but he hit and kicked me several times in the stomach.”
“The bastard!
You should really let me take a look at you,” Katie
urged.
Elise shook her head. “I had some internal bleeding,
but it’s stopped after I shifted. I’m weak, but so long as I don’t do much,
I’ll be ok.”
“How do you know that?” asked Katie.
“I’ve been trying to get my doctorate in biochemistry.
I knew what to look for.”
Slate could see Dex’s eyes go big and his brows rise
on his forehead. Several others were obviously surprised as well, but he knew
his sister was a smarty-pants, so it wasn’t a surprise to him. She had always
been a fast learner. “What happened next?”
Slate could tell by her face she was picturing the
event in her mind and was having a difficult time keeping her emotions under
control. “I ran to my room and I tried to think of what to do, but I was
hurting so bad.” Dex was rubbing her back and murmuring encouragement and words
of comfort into her ear. With her mate’s support, she continued. “I locked the
latch on my door. He tried to come through it, but the alpha arrived then.”
Slate stilled. The hair on the back of his neck stood
up again. “What happened?” he felt breathless when he asked.
“They talked about what happened. The alpha thought
what dad did was ok, so he told him he could easily keep Slate away and if he
needed h-help g-getting,” she paused and steadied her breath, “rid of Mom’s
body, to give him a call. And t-then…” She sounded as if she lost her breath,
but she looked around then straightened her shoulders. “He told dad to make
sure I knew to keep my mouth shut n-no matter what it t-took.”
Kace swore. “That lying piece of pig shit! How did we
not scent his deceit?”
“More than likely he used enough truth, added with his
extreme actions, and maybe even banked on the heavy scent of blood and pain
already in the room, to mask it,” replied Tyler.
Slate groaned. “Fuck.” A sick sort of dread soured his
stomach. “This means my sister could be in more danger than my mother because
she knows the truth about the alpha and my mother doesn’t.”
“It would seem likely,” Tyler said. He looked back at
Elise and gave her an apologetic look. “Please continue.”
“After he left, Dad started breaking down my door. I
crawled out the window and jumped down and took off as fast as I could. I was
hurt pretty bad so I couldn’t go far, but I wanted a place I knew I could watch
for him coming while I rested. That’s where you found me.” She turned and
looked at Dex. Dex ran a tender hand down her faced and placed a soft, short
kiss on her lips.
Tyler cursed and took out his phone. He paced the
small living area while Slate saw his two guards looking out the windows. More
clicking had him looking back to Dex. While Tyler was on the phone with some
American shifter councilmember, Dex was on the phone with his coven leader,
Raymond. Slate suddenly realized it was his job to inform his alpha what was
going on and that Alphy may very well need to challenge another shifter, but
this one would be a predator shifter.
Taking out his cell, he placed it to his ear and
listened to it ring. A breathy Alphy answered. “Damn it, you have the worst
timing!”
Slate grunted. He was amused but was too upset to
really laugh. “Yeah, but this way I made your mate happy with the opportunity for
you to make it up to her.”
Alphy guffawed. “Yes, she does have that look of glee
on her face.
How’s
your mom and sister?”
Slate suddenly felt emotional. Having to say it all
out loud was a bit harder then he realized. He took a breath to steady himself.
“It’s bad, Alphy. We’ve got big trouble.”
“Shit, hold on a sec.” Slate heard Alphy mumble his
apologies to his mate. Sure enough, he heard her chipper response to her mate
that she’d be looking forward to him making it up to her. After a moment of
hearing him moving around, he heard Alphy calling for the others
,
then get back on. “Ok, we’re all here and you’re on
speakerphone.”
Slate detailed what he saw when they arrived and the
hunt for his sister. He did put in that one of the assisting vampires was her
mate. He wanted to give them some kind of good news, and then he continued to
tell them her story.
“Fucking lousy piece of shit!”
Alphy raged. “We need to get your mom back to
Bancroft. Is your sister going to go to the coven with Dex, or is she going to accompany
her mom with you?”
“Uh, I don’t know yet. I hadn’t thought about that
yet. Hold on, Tyler is just now getting off his phone. He was on with an
American shifter councilmember.”
“Put us on speaker if you can,” his alpha ordered.
Slate looked at the councilmember, who nodded his head. He clicked the button
for speaker. “Ok, you’re on speaker.” Glancing over at Dex, he could see him
doing the same thing with his cell for his coven leader, Raymond.
Tyler waited until everyone was ready before he began.
“I spoke to a friend of mine on the American Shifter Council. He said we have
another danger to watch out for. Apparently this alpha has a buddy on the
council who would back up just about any decision that the alpha here makes, more
than likely even helping to cover up any crimes. The council member is
unofficially…”
Tyler emphasized the word
and gave everyone in the room a look.
Keep it secret, got it
, thought Slate.
“…being
investigated and in order to keep from blowing the bigger case, they can’t help
in the smaller matter.”
Slate growled at the situation being labeled a “small”
case. Tyler gave him an understanding and apologetic look while the others in
the room and over the phone swore and spat their distaste at the situation.
Alphy sounded over the line. “Councilmember Tyler,” he
kept the tone official, “how soon can you get them back home?”
“The plane is ready for an emergency takeoff, so as
soon as we pack everything we can possibly take, we’ll take off. The
councilmember is able to quietly help with a few logistics, but he has to be
careful not to be found out that he’s helping. It could tip off the
councilmember under investigation.”
Raymond sounded over Dex’s phone. “Dex, I know you
want your beloved safe, but maybe when you land, you and the others should
accompany them back to Bancroft, give them the illusion that you are part of
their pack. There’s no need to tip off how many allies Alphy’s pack really has.
I’d like to unofficially contact two members on the coven council. I grew up
with them. I know I can explicitly trust them to keep this quiet while still
putting up the official cover that we will need.”
Slate was a little bit relieved his sister didn’t have
to make a choice yet whether to stay in Bancroft or Toronto. He wouldn’t mind
if she chose Toronto. It was closer then what they had been, but he just didn’t
want to have to face that just yet. He was also thankful that he wasn’t the
only one taking care of his family. He may have had all these people backing
him, but none of them had a personal interest invested so they could leave at
any time. With Dex being his sister’s mate, he’d want to keep her safe with
everything in him. Slate hugged his mate close to him and buried his nose in
her neck, taking in her scent.
Hang on!
Slate dropped the cell and buried both hands in his
mate’s hair and took in several more breaths, searching for the odd smell she’d
had that he assumed was her cancer.