Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Serapina
The entire ride back to the hotel is silent. The shock I felt when I saw my parents and the twins is still sitting heavy with me. I can’t wrap my brain around what’s going on. Apollo takes my hand and kisses it.
“Promise me you won’t leave me.” I whisper to Apollo.
“I got you, Astéri mou. I’m not going anywhere.” He says as he kisses me.
I can feel my parents watching us, my mom is smiling.
When we get back to the hotel, we decide to order room service before we sit down to talk. Oliver and Archer stick close to me, I think we’re all just so confused. When we finally sit down, we all just stare at each other for a few minutes.
Zeus introduces himself and everyone that came back to the hotel with us.
“I need to start by saying that none of you should feel bad about leaving us. We thought we were dying too. When I woke up, at first I couldn’t figure out what had happened.
All I knew was that it looked like your mom and the twins were gone.
I was really weak and could barely stand up.
When I was finally able to get up, I panicked when I couldn’t find you three.
I found three bodies near the bathroom, and saw the bite marks on their ankles.
So I figured that you all did that and somehow got out.
Their bodies were still warm, so I even though I didn’t know how long it had been, I knew that it wasn’t that long.
I tried to shift, but I couldn’t and after a little while, the others started to come around.
I thought about trying to escape. The front door was open.
But I still couldn’t move or shift and neither could your mom or the twins.
When they finally came in to check on us, all we could do was stare at them. ” My dad tells us.
“We stayed with you for a while. We kept checking your pulse and you didn’t have one. We waited and waited, but none of you showed any signs of life.” I say softly. “None of us wanted to leave you.”
My mom comes over and kneels in front of me.
“I know, baby. But you did the right thing by leaving. I’m so proud of the three of you for doing what you did. You made it to Lake Renegade. But I need to know why you came back. You were safe.”
“We came back to find out who took us. And I hoped to find out what they did with your bodies. I still wish we had known you were alive.”
“We found out a few days later that a woman named Matilda wanted to see if one of the serums they were working on worked. It was a serum to slow our heartbeats to mimic death and keep us from shifting. I overheard one of the milkers talking about it after we got up. That’s how we figured out what they must have done to us.
I don’t know why they did it to some of us and not all of us.
But I’m glad they did. And they still don’t know that we have two venom sacs or that the venom that we’ve been giving them isn’t toxic. ”
“Did you see or hear anything else about Matilda? Or someone named Paul?” Enea asks as he joins us.
“No. I only saw the handlers, the same three that the kids killed. The milkers talked a lot when they would be milking us. I think they assumed that we couldn’t understand them.
I will say that I don’t think all of them were shifters.
Some of them were, we could smell them. But there were a few of them that were humans and they’re the ones that talked the most.”
Sebastiano pulls out his computer.
“Do you recognize either of them?” he asks.
“They both came into the apartment before. That woman is a raging bitch and she laughed at how we had our chance to escape and fucked it off. She even said that the three of you were dead. That you were killed while trying to escape. I refused to believe her, I asked for proof. And all she could show us was pictures of Taipan snakes. I told her I wanted to see your shifted human bodies. And she said that they burned your bodies after she took those pictures. That’s why I refused to believe her. ” My mom tells us.
“It took us a week before we were able to shift. No matter what they tried, we just couldn’t.
Finally this past week we were finally able to shift.
But it was painful and it felt like the first time I shifted.
So I don’t know what was in that serum, but she’s an asshole for making it.
That week we couldn’t shift was the worst, my snake was in agony. ” My dad explains.
I can’t even imagine needing to shift and not being able to.
Listening to all their stories makes me so sad.
And a little guilty because they were suffering while we were in Lake Renegade settling into our new lives.
Sakura tells my family about what happened to her and her family.
My mom goes over to her and hugs her. Sakura tells her that it’s all worked out.
That now she has her family back and the love of her life.
Apollo
I lean over and kiss my girl on the head as we listen to her parents and the twins talk about what they went through. The tension in her body is starting to worry me, so I pull her closer to me and I feel her relax a little more.
“So I can see you all have things to tell us too.” Her mom smiles as she looks at me and Seraphina .
“When we got to Lake Renegade, I realized my mate was there. I remembered the stories you used to tell us about how it was when you met each other. And you definitely weren’t lying.
It was like I slammed into a wall. And my snake kept flopping around chanting mate.
Then I saw Apollo and I just knew.” Seraphina says as she smiles up at me.
“I watched my brother and sister find their mates. One was chosen and one was fated. Finding Seraphina was more than I ever imagined. And now I don’t know what I did before her.”
“You had more time for pocket sandwiches.” Seraphina giggles.
“Oh no, I still have time for them.” I chuckle.
We spend the rest of the night talking and getting to know her family. Our plan is to leave tomorrow, we really want to talk to Matilda and Paul. Seraphina’s family needs closure.
When we get back to Lake Renegade, we take a day so that the Crawfords can get settled into the house they chose. Seraphina hinted that she might move in with them.
I’m pretty sure I growled loudly and I started fucking panicking. “If you move out, you won’t be able to have pocket sandwiches!”
“Wait. What?” she giggles.
“You can’t move out. I had this planned, why would you want to move out?” I sniffle at her.
“I was joking, I’d never leave you.”
“But I can learn toooo—did you just say you were joking?”
Seraphina grabs me and hugs me as she’s laughing. Ohhh my girl has jokes. I grab onto her and tickle her.
“Nooooo. Mercy!” She’s screams as she’s gasping for air.
“No mercy. You brought this upon yourself.” I laugh and tickle her more.
All of a sudden, she farts. And that makes me laugh even harder. When I look at her, her face is turning bright red.
“Oh. My. God.” She’s looking at me with the widest eyes.
“You do love me!” I gasp for air as I laugh.
“Me farting says I love you?”
“In this family it does. It means you really really love me.” I say as I kiss her.
“You’re a weirdo.” She laughs.
We get up and get ready, I can smell breakfast and I know it’s my mamá that’s cooking.
“I’m a little worried about talking to Matilda. What if she decides she won’t tell us anything?”
“There’s a good chance she won’t. When we had her mother, Samantha, she refused to tell us anything. To this day we still don’t know why she chose Sakura’s family.”
“Do you think it was random?”
“No, with Sakura’s family, I think they chose them because of Satoshi. He’s a researcher and a shifter and I think Samantha thought that would make him work better for her. Because he understood shifters. But he never gave in to her.”
“We’ve heard of the cleaners before. And after talking to everyone, I wish they hadn’t let them out.”
“You and me both.”
We head downstairs, the kitchen and dining room are filled.
“My mamà’s at the bakery and yours offered breakfast.” Sebastiano smiles.
“And here I thought being hungry all the time was a shifter thing.” I laugh.
“Nope. It’s a Lake Renegade thing. Food is what keeps the town running.” His brother Lorenzo says as he laughs.
After we’ve all eaten, most of us head to the Cimaruta clubhouse.
Underneath it is a huge area, it has interrogation rooms and cells with iron doors.
Shifter proof doors. We can hear someone screaming and from the tone?
I think it’s Paul. That’s what he did last time.
He also shifted and pissed on himself. It wasn’t a fun room to clean up after the cleaners took him.
“We’ve dealt with Samantha, Matilda and Paul before. So if you want us to take care of this, we will.” Giacomo says to Seraphina’s parents.
“A-are they being tortured?” Heather Crawford asks.
“No. Not right now anyway.” Zeus sighs. He goes on to explain that this is what happened the last time we had them in the rooms.
“All I really want to know is why they took us. And what they wanted our venom for.” Stellan Crawford says.
“Do you want to ask her?”
“Sure. Although from what everyone has said, she’s not going to tell me what I want to know.”
“She probably won’t. But you can still ask.”
The twins stay in the living room while Seraphina and her brothers follow us downstairs. As we’re going down, the screaming turns into screeching. We see Ares stepping out of one of the rooms.
“I’m pretty sure I’m fucking deaf and Paul is still a cowardly fucktard. You’re not going to get anything out of him. I think this is how he thinks he’s going to get out of this situation again. Shift and scream. It’s what he did last time.”
“Yeah, but this time he’s not leaving the cleaners compound. No matter what he does.” I say.
“I’ve called my cleaner family, they’ll be here soon.
I do remember that when he was at the compound, he spent a lot of time doing this.
Then one day he stopped and started talking.
That’s why we thought he was doing better.
Well, they thought he was better. I told them from the start that none of them were worth giving a second chance to.
” Hanako says as Paul screams even louder.
“So he’s not in pain, or really crazy, he’s just acting like he is?” Heather asks.
“Yes. This I all an act.”
“That’s insane and manipulative.”
Eros opens the door to one of the rooms and we can see Matilda sitting at the table. She’s chained to it and she doesn’t look happy.
“We just have a few questions for you.” My baba says to her.
Instead of answering, she’s just staring at us.
“First of all, you’re a shifter. Why would you experiment on us?”
“You’re lowly shifters. We’re working on making a superior race and then we’ll take all of you out.”
“Ho-ly fuck. What is wrong with you? Do you really believe that?” I growl out at her.
Matilda smirks at me. “You look like that shithead I shot. Did he die? I hope he died.”
Before I can get to her, my baba steps in front of me.
“You’ll have to leave if you can’t control yourself.” He says as he looks at me, then looks down at my hand.
I didn’t even realize I had shifted my hand, all I was thinking about was slapping that smirk off her fucking face. I take a deep breath and nod at my baba. I take a step back and watch Matilda. Seraphina takes my hand and I fell my body relaxing more.
“Oh how cute. You’re will the slimy snake shifter. I knew I should’ve had them try the serum on all of you.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to get any real answers from her.
Mostly because I think she’s just a puppet in all of this.
I used to think your mother was the head of OmniBioCorp.
But now I know she’s not. Because if she was?
You wouldn’t have been out in the open. You would’ve been hidden away, calling the shots from behind the scenes.
Like the ones that are really running this scam show. ” Enea says to her.
“You don’t know anything. You’re just a fucking human. You know nothing about what’s going on.”
Matilda shifts and we all step back. The shackles on her hands and legs are designed to tighten or loosen when whatever is in it changes shape. I don’t think we’re going to get any more out of her.
“Well fuck.” Ares says as he joins us. “Oh and the cleaners are here.”
Hanako leaves to go and get the cleaners. We all step out of the room and head upstairs.
“So that’s it? We just have to pretend that everything’s okay?” Seraphina frowns.
“I wanted closure, but I realized that I wasn’t going to get it. You’re not alone, you have all of us. My family knows what you’ve been through. So we’re here if any of you need anything.” Sakura says to her.
“We appreciate that. I did have a question, I want to keep looking for who’s behind OmniBioCorp.” Stellan says to Enea.
“We do too. And we’ll take any help you want to give in finding them.”
“Thank you all for everything.”