Chapter 91

AURORA

“Why should we believe you?” Dane demanded.

To my shock, Waylon stood aside and gestured into the pack house. “Come and see for yourself, Alpha. But you’ve got to come alone. Except for Ann. This is her home, after all. She’s always welcome.”

He paused for a second, like he was thinking, then said, “You know, if those kids were here, it would just be like a visit to grandma and grandpa’s anyway, wouldn’t it?”

The stringy old man shot me what was probably supposed to be a fatherly smile. It was all I could do not to scream.

I started moving forward immediately. Dane grabbed my arm. “No! It’s some kind of trap.”

“They’ve had me here before, Dane. If they wanted to keep me, they would’ve done it then. You won’t keep me from my children.”

Dane’s grip tightened and he growled, “Our children.”

He released me, then moved to stand beside me. “We’ll search.”

“No!”

It was a whole chorus of voices. Both Evander and Trajan on my side, and Archer and Evelyn on Dane’s.

“I should be the one to go,” Evander said. He’d been so quiet since the children disappeared, and he sounded so desperate now. “I was their guard. This is my fault.”

I took my cousin’s hand and tried to give him an encouraging smile. “We all have to sleep, Evander. This isn’t your fault.”

“If they’re not in there, I won’t sleep,” he vowed. “Not until I’ve found them and brought them home.”

There was a fervent note in his voice that worried me. I knew he loved the twins, and I was grateful, but I couldn’t let him torture himself that way. “Evander-”

I was cut off by the argument between Archer and Dane that started next to us.

“You aren’t expendable!” Archer snapped. “I am. Let me go!”

Alpha magic swelled around Dane. He almost seemed to grow, and Archer almost seemed to shrink before him.

“They are my children. Aurora is my…” He trailed off, and I could hear the word hanging in the air. “Mate.” But he knew neither of us were ready to go that far. Not yet. “My responsibility,” he finished. “She will not walk into danger without me at her side.”

My heart turned over at his words. I wondered if hearing them would ever be normal, or if I would ever feel like I deserved them.

Archer looked like he might speak again. Dane’s eyes flashed gold with power, and suddenly Archer flinched, then backed off.

I turned back to Evander and Trajan. “I’m going,” I said, resolute. “Trajan, don’t let Evander follow me.”

Trajan nodded and looked at the younger wolf. Evander glowered at us both. “They’d better be in there.”

“They will be,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel.

I followed Dane up to Waylon and Esther. The Reeds smiled at us. I’m sure it was supposed to be kind, but all I could see was their teeth.

“We have your permission, and safe passage? And the wolves out here will be safe from attack or harm as long as we’re on the inside?” Dane growled.

Waylon nodded, and I felt magic radiate off of him as he made the promise. “I swear it.”

Without looking, Dane reached back and took my hand, and he led the way inside.

The new pack house was like I remembered it. A cave, but not a terrible place. Not like the place I lived when I was a child.

It was so strange. Why had they bothered to make this place so comfortable when the actual house was in such disrepair? What had changed in the five years I went missing that gave them not just the money, but the motivation to do this?

“Would you like a guide?” Esther asked as she fell into step beside us.

“Not you,” Dane snapped.

Esther’s false 50’s housewife smile didn’t falter. “Not me. Selina?”

My lips parted as a wisp of a woman reading on a nearby chair lifted her head. She was thin and pale and had black hair drawn back in a braid. “Yes, Luna?”

“Take your former sister, here, and help her and Alpha Montague search for the missing children from Blue Ridge. Such a shame they weren’t supervised better.” Esther tutted.

Even though my memories were too foggy for it to bring anything specific to the surface, the sound made bile rise in the back of my throat. It was a sound of false sympathy. A sound that might be made right before a “necessary” punishment.

Dane squeezed my hand, able to sense something wrong with me even though I was trying to hide it. I squeezed back to show him I was fine.

Then my attention was totally captured by the woman who approached us. “Selene?” I asked.

Her name also felt familiar – I knew it, but I wasn’t sure how. When she smiled, her hazel eyes crinkled around the corners, and I felt like I should know her. Like remembering her might be very, very important.

“Me, helping you out of trouble?” she said. “Just like old times, little sister.”