Chapter 92 AURORA

“Little sister?” I asked, looking to Dane in confusion. I didn’t remember the Reeds having a daughter, and she didn’t look anything like them.

Could she be another “foster” child, like me?

Why was it I knew her… and yet I didn’t? It felt like something beyond my lost memories.

Dane frowned but didn’t say anything to me. Maybe he knew of her. I wasn’t going to ask him now, though. We needed to search for our children.

We followed Selene through the strange place that was half cave, half pack house. Every time I looked at her, I got the strange feeling that a piece of my dreams had come to life, so I focused on the search.

We moved through rooms and passages and halls and caverns until I felt like we were moving through a maze. I made sure the unnerving Selene didn’t skip any rooms or doors we saw. Dane kept his head lifted, nostrils flared, searching for any scent of the twins or their nanny.

From the increasingly frustrated way he moved, he wasn’t catching anything.

I didn’t see anything, either. Didn’t hear anything. There were a few children in the Broken Forest Pack, but not many, and none of them were mine.

With every second that passed, my stomach twisted, and I felt more and more like I was going to throw up. Every corner we turned, I expected to see the twins there.

We turned one corner, then another, then another.

They were never behind any of them.

At some point, tears began to stream down my face. I managed to stop them, but they always started again when I wasn’t paying attention.

Two hours after being brought into the Broken Forest Pack house, we’d checked everywhere, and I was holding onto my sanity by my fingernails.

“That’s all, I’m afraid,” said Selene. She’d hardly spoken except for her first words and to answer Dane’s questions.

“But they’re here,” I said. “Remington said they were here.”

“But he left.” Dane’s voice was gravel. “Snuck away when we weren’t looking. I should have had him tied up and under guard. You think by now I’d know better than to trust a Broken Forest wolf showing up injured on my land.”

His words sank into my heart like a blade and twisted, because the first Broken Forest wolf to show up injured on his land was me. “Dane…”

He ignored me. “Show us everything again,” he demanded of Selene.

“No. You’ve imposed on our generosity enough.” Waylon Reed appeared from a side hall as if he was made of shadows. I couldn’t believe how quietly he moved for such an old man. “We let our enemy just walk through our home. I think even the Council will find that more than reasonable.”

“Fuck the Council,” Dane said, his claws and teeth extending and his eyes going yellow.

Someone grabbed me from behind. I struggled, but a lycan from Broken Forest held me against their chest and pressed claws into my throat.

Dane whirled and snarled, bursting into his lycan form in an instant.

Waylon chuckled. Other wolves appeared out of the dark. “I forgot how fast you can transform, Alpha. Truly, a show of strength.”

“Let her go,” Dane snarled at the wolf that held me.

“You no longer have my permission to be on Broken Forest land,” Waylon said. “If you stay any longer than it takes you to leave my territory, you will be in violation of the treaty, and I will use my rights to kill any Blue Ridge wolf on my land that I can. Understood?”

Dane’s eyes flashed gold. “Remington said my blood is what you want. Take me in exchange for the children.”

My heart leapt into my throat at the thought of what Waylon Reed would do to Dane if he had him at his mercy. “Dane, no! Take me, I’ll come back!”

The wolf who held me tightened their grip. I felt blood trickle down my throat.

Waylon smirked. There was something behind it… something sinister. But I couldn’t read it. I was so panicked. “Alpha, taking either of you would imply we have the children. As I’ve said, we don’t. So, you two can be on your way.”

“Let her go,” Dane snarled, “and I will gladly put distance between us.”

“No!” I kicked back at the wolf who held me, but in their lycan form, they were a foot taller than me and ten times as strong. But something in me snapped, and I lost it. “I won’t leave without them! He said they’re here! He said my babies were here!”

I don’t even remember what happened after that, just that I kicked and screamed until my throat felt raw and bloody. At some point, I was lifted and handed from one lycan to another. The new one tossed me over his shoulder and carried me.

I kicked and clawed and punched… and then I realized it was Dane.

My whole body relaxed and drooped over his shoulder as I started to sob. He carried me out of the pack house and then shifted, sliding me down his strong body so that he held me.

He cradled the back of my head in his hand, stroking my back with the other as he whispered promises to me that we’d find them, that it would be all right.

The rest of Blue Ridge gathered around us, muttering threats. But we only had twelve wolves with us, and they had the protection of the caves. There was nothing we could do.

“Go home,” Dane commanded. Then he took my face in his hands and forced me to look at him. “He’s lying about having them, I can tell. I’ll stay. I’ll let them do whatever they want to me if it means getting our children back.”