0180
Dane
Mako hands me his newborn son.
It was customary in the pack for the Alpha to meet newborns and welcome them into the pack.
Swiping my thumb across his forehead with a tiny drop of my own blood, I officially welcome him as a member of Black Shadow.
Mako beams at me, his blue eyes shining in delight.
"Sorry, I had to leave the gate." He murmurs. "I couldn't let my mate do this on her own. Though he was already here by the time I arrived." His mate was allegedly still in the bedroom being checked over by one of the nurses that my sister helped train. Yet I couldn't scent
her presence.
'We should go and check.' Aero declares.
'We will,' I tell him. 'We just need to choose the right time.'
"It's no problem." I tell Mako, handing his son back.
"Ryken is a good guy." Mako tells me. "I was so grateful he was passing by."
"Emerson wasn't happy though, was he?" Damien asks
"Emerson is never happy." Mako mutters as he coos over his pup. "The guy wouldn't be happy if he had a million pounds and women dangling from his arms every second of the day. But things are changing here in the pack. He can't live in the past forever." "Is that right?" Damien questions
"Well it is, isn't it! We have a Lycan Luna. You are mated to a Wolf. Mallory is mated to a Wolf. Rumour has it that the Hunter is mated to a Lycan too. Everything changing. Maybe that is what the Moon Goddess has always wanted."
"The Moon Goddess." Damien muses. Maybe he was actually starting to side with Brax a bit more. Brax was always talking about higher powers. Whether that was true or not, no one could be certain.
Mako nods, not really getting Damien's sarcasm. "She has a plan for all of us."
Damien keeps his mouth shut and turns to the window. "Looks like you have another visitor."
Brax always knocks in the same way, almost as if it was his own secret code to tell us it was him. I open the door to him and his frown. "Is Maddie okay?"
"She's sleeping. Klaus said she should be good, though she will have scars." His hazel eyes flicker to Mako and the pup in his arms and then move back to me. "I have some things I need to discuss with you." 'Stay here.' I link Damien, 'Do some digging. Tactfully.' It was so useful being able to link him.
He bobs his head at me as I follow Brax.
"Are you sure Maddie is okay?"
"What I said about Madison is true, something weird is going on down at the gate."
"I'm well aware that Emerson is pissed off with Ryken being there. He made that very clear to Damien and I."
"It's more than that. I got the impression Emerson was hiding something but he was also telling the truth about not seeing Madison."
"But you still think he is involved?"
"I need to do some more digging." He turns away, but quickly turns back. "The pup is not Makos, nor was it born today. Maybe yesterday or possibly even the day before. Remember they are born with tiny souls."
"It's not his?"
"And it's not his mates either." He walks away. "You should question that."
'Why does he have to be so cryptic?' Aero frowns
'It's just the way he is.'
I make my way back into Mako's home just as Damien was asking "So you just took him?"
Both sets of eyes move to me.
"You are not going to believe this." Damien shakes his head.
I sigh, "Where did you find him?"
"In the city, yesterday." He lowers himself onto the edge of the sofa, cradling the pup.
"But you said your mate went into labour?" I ask, glancing to the stairs and Damien shakes his head at me.
Mako reaches into his pocket and pulls out a scrunched up piece of paper. He holds it out to me. "I should have come to you with this when I found it two days ago."
I glance down at the note, 'I can't be here with all those beasts. They are taking over. They are ruining our pack. They will kill us all. I can't raise my pup here.' It wasn't Kira's writing.
"She took my unborn pup and left." He takes a deep breath. "When I went into the city, I found this guy, wrapped up and dumped down an alleyway. I thought it was meant to be."
"You said the nurse was upstairs." Damien presses, "Checking on your mate."
"Sienna is upstairs, she is Kira's best friend. She is seeing if she can find any clues as to where Kira might have gone. Sienna was here with him when I was working on the gate." He nods at the pup in his arms. "So you lied about her labour in the hopes that what?" I demand. "I wouldn't notice when your mate doesn't appear."
"I don't know. I didn't think that far ahead. I'm going to look for her."
"Tracking her down? That's not going to be ideal with a pup in tow. In fact it's fucking stupid." Damien shakes his head "Um," Mako's brow knits together and creases appear across the top of his nose.
"You haven't thought about that either?" Damien asks
"I could manage. I could look after him while looking for Kira."
"No you couldn't, though it was a good thing to bring him here. He's going to need it when he is older." Damien tells him.
"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" I ask. Though I'm annoyed that he hadn't mentioned it before.
'Well Brax could have warned us.' Aero sneers.
'So could Damien!' I mutter
Damien nods, "That pup is a Lycan."
"WHAT?!" Mako lets go of the pup, like he was dropping a grenade. Damien flings himself forward, catching the pup before he has a chance to bounce his tiny head off the floor.
Footsteps move upstairs and Sienna appears, leaning over the bannister. She freezes. She would have already known we were in the house so why was she acting like she had just been caught red handed?
Damien straightens up, the newborn cradled against his chest as he glares at Mako. "You shouldn't have done that."
"GET DOWN HERE! I growl at Sienna.
She keeps her eyes on me, but fiddles with her pink hair as she slowly moves down the steps. I point to the spot next to Mako. She side steps around us, her heart racing as I throw the scrunched up paper down at their feet. "Which one of you wrote this?
" I demand. They glance at each other. "Kira" They both speak in unison.
"Bullshit. "
"It's Kira's!" Mako mutters
Damien steps back as I squat in front of Mako and grip his face. My nails create crescent moons in his skin. "Kira has done work for me. I would recognise her handwriting anywhere. So I will ask you again, who wrote this?"
"He did." Sienna squeaks, keeping her eyes down.
I watch him elbow her. "Shut up!"
"Go check upstairs." I tell Damien, straightening up.
I watch the crescents on Mako's face heal like they were never there.
Pacing in front of Mako and Sienna as Damien disappears from sight, Sienna holds back the tears, while Mako stares straight ahead. "How long did you think you could play this game, Mako?"
"It's not a game."
"By the way you reacted to the news about that pup, I would say that you have been playing a game for a while. You are the one who has problems with Lycans. So tell me, what was your plan?" He clenches his jaw.
"How about we start with something simple, where is Kira?"
"She really did leave." Sienna blurts out.
"She left a few days ago."
"Let me guess, Mako, you were on duty at the gate? What did you do, trick the other person into turning away so Kira could pass through?"
He turns his head away, seething
"Where did she go, Sienna?" I press
"With some guy, I think his name was Coop or Cooper maybe. We were supposed to be joining her. He promised us a better life. A life away from the Lycans."
I laugh. "You both have a problem with Lycans, yet you are willing to run off and join one."
They stare at me, both with their jaws hanging open.
"He's a Wolf?" Sienna protests.
"No, no he is not. But it's great to see where your loyalty lies."
"She was packing!" Damien comes back down the stairs with the pup still cradled with one arm and two backpacks dangling from his free hand.
"I figured as much."
"What are you going to do to us?" Sienna pleads.
"I think you already know the answer to that."