Chapter Twenty
ROADKILL TURNED off the car engine and frowned. “Can you hear screaming?”
What Eve loved was the way he tensed his muscles, ready to take action if needed.
Ready to protect us.
Eve laughed. “It’s not screaming—it’s kids.
Richard regularly invites children from the local orphanage to spend time at Leighton Hall.
They look after the farm animals, they learn about nature, and they get to be in beautiful surroundings.
” Then her face tightened. “Except these kids are different. Poor things.” Richard had told her about the activities planned for that afternoon, but it had slipped her mind.
“Why poor?”
“They were liberated from that camp in Texas.” She peered at them. “Weren’t you part of that mission?”
Hashtag nodded. “That was the second camp we raided. The first was in Montana.” He shuddered. “Only Texas was worse.”
“Why?”
“The fucking Gerans and their fucked-up breeding program, that’s why.” The bitterness in Roadkill’s voice surprised her. He was usually so easygoing. “We found so many kids there, kept apart from their mothers. God knows what the Gerans were doing to the poor little mites.”
She took hold of Roadkill’s hand and squeezed it. “But you saved them. That’s got to be worth something. And then Aelryn took them out of there.”
“How do you know all this?” he asked.
“Richard told me when we talked this morning. He said some of the kids stayed in the US and some came to the UK, to give them a new life over here. That’s when he became involved with them. He’s helping to find families for them all. ”
“Their parents didn’t want them?” Roadkill seemed horrified. “It’s not the kids’ fault. They didn’t ask to be born. So they were abandoned? How many kids are we talking about?”
“I think he said about twenty in this part of the UK.” She tilted her head to one side. “Want to see them? I told Richard we’d help out. You know, playing games with them….”
Hashtag smiled. “We can do that.” Then he grinned. “We should get Horvan out here. He could shift and give them rides on his back. I bet they’d love to ride on Mama Bear.”
“Or a lion. Or a tiger.” Roadkill’s eyes widened. “And that might be something Dellan could do too. I know it wouldn’t take his mind off things, but it would give him something to focus on.”
“Excuse me? Can we go back to… Mama Bear?” Eve bit back a laugh. “Horvan? I can’t think of anyone less like a mama bear.”
Roadkill rolled his eyes. “Oh gods, don’t tell him I said that. He hates it when we call him that.”
“No, what he hated was when someone painted his claws with sparkly nail polish while he was taking a nap.”
“They didn’t.” Eve snorted. “Oh, I wish I’d seen that.”
Roadkill chuckled. “Don’t worry, I have pictures.”
“What?” Hashtag squawked. “You never told me that.”
“Duh. Because if I had, five seconds later Horvan would have found out, and then he’d have made me delete them.”
“I would never tell.” He smirked. “Okay, yeah, I probably would have before. But not now. Mate’s honor.” Hashtag got his phone out. “Let’s see if H can spare the kids some time.”
Eve and Roadkill left him to his call and walked into the gardens where children of all ages ran around shouting and laughing, the late afternoon sun lighting up the tops of the trees, making them glow.
To listen to the happy sounds, no one would ever have guessed the miserable circumstances that had brought the kids to this spot.
Hashtag joined them a minute later. “He loved the idea. He said he’d be right out.”
The words had barely left his lips when screams of delight filled the air.
“Kitty!” one little girl hollered and made a beeline for Dellan, who lowered his chest to the ground to allow her to clamber on his back. Then he padded carefully across the lawn, followed by a group of three little boys, all clamoring for their turn to ”ride the kitty.”
Rael lay on his back while a boy and girl rubbed his tummy.
Eve chuckled. “So that’s what a lion sounds like when it’s being tickled.”
As for Horvan, he was playing tag with five or six children, and judging by the whoops and yells, they were loving every minute of it.
“Wouldn’t you love to know what kind of shifters they are?” Roadkill mused. “We could be surrounded by snakes, mice, bunnies—”
“Bunnies?” Hashtag snickered. “Cute, Roadkill, very cute.”
A young woman approached them. “I’m Mary Edwards. I take care of the children. I don’t know whose idea this was, but it was a masterstroke.” She watched the children engaging with Horvan, Dellan, and Rael, her smile constant. “They’re so good with children. Do they have any of their own?”
Eve’s chest tightened. “No, they don’t.” At least none that we know about. Something in a nearby tree caught her eye. Nestled in the branches, its tail caught between its paws, was an adorable red panda.
“Oh, look at that,” she said softly.
Mary followed her glance. “Oh my,” she said with a sigh.
It was such a change in her demeanor that it pricked Eve’s senses.
“Is everything okay?” Then it struck her. “Why isn’t he—or she—playing with the others?”
Mary let out another sigh. “His name is Logan. He’s four, and he’s scared to death of everything and everyone. We’d hoped bringing him here, letting him touch grass and climb the trees would help, but he’s so scared he just stays up there and screams if we try to take him down.”
Roadkill growled, and it vibrated through Eve and Hashtag. Those fucking monsters.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Mary muttered.
Oh hell. I said that out loud, didn’t I? “Then tell us the rest.”
“We’ve only recently learned about him. Aelryn’s people have been going over the records they found in Texas. It seems as though Logan was kept in isolation for most of his life.”
“But why?” Eve demanded, aghast.
Do you need to ask? Hashtag snarled. Why did they do any of the atrocities we’ve discovered? Because they could. Because no one knew what they were doing .
Mary regarded her with troubled eyes. “He was rescued from a lab of some sort. He was locked in a cage, crying. When they took him out, he panicked. Even when they tried to talk softly, he screamed. In the end, they had to tranquilize him. The file we found for him had no name listed, so one of our people called him Logan. The name stuck. But if he’s ever adopted, his new parents are welcome to change his name. ”
“What was he doing in a lab?” Not that Eve didn’t have her own ideas.
She just didn’t like them.
“They were doing experiments on him, injecting him with the DNA of other shifters in an attempt to make him viable for… something. And don’t ask me what, because they didn’t say. One report said he should be culled, but another argued he could be useful.”
“Useful.” Hashtag’s tone was bitter. “They’re talking about a little boy.”
“In the end, they kept him and subjected him to horrific things. It seems they took his DNA and tried to splice it with the DNA from shifters who exhibited psychic powers. I can only assume they wanted to know if it could be done, and I have no idea if they were successful or not. I didn’t think psychic powers could be passed down through the genes, but what do I know? ”
“Oh, you’d be amazed by what they’ve accomplished.” Eve shivered. “Except ‘horrified’ is probably closer to the mark.”
Hashtag jerked his head in Roadkill’s direction. “You don’t think they used Seth or Jake, do you?”
Roadkill frowned. “I don’t know how many other psychic shifters they had, so maybe?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Eve said flatly. “In fact, the only thing that matters is this little guy needs help.” She crossed the yard and stopped at the tree. The red panda didn’t so much as glance at her.
Eve wasn’t going to be put off.
“Hey, sweetheart. How are you? My name is Eve.” She gestured to the guys, who came over to join her. “And these are Donal and Hiroshi, my mates.”
“Hey, big guy.” Hashtag kept his voice low and soothing. “It’s good to meet you.” He reached up and scratched the tiny ears. “Can we call you Logan? You seem like a Logan to me. I love that name. ”
The little panda shuddered. Hashtag sat at the foot of the tree. “You know, I bet I’m way more comfortable than that branch.” He patted his lap. “Why not come down and see if I’m right? You can sit here with us.”
Logan gazed at them, almost as if he was trying to judge the sincerity of their words. Finally he stepped gingerly across the branches until he reached the trunk, then moved down the tree head first and dropped onto the ground.
“That a boy,” Hashtag said, smiling. “Come on over.”
Instead, Logan turned and rushed toward Eve, who swooped him into her arms and held him close. His warm soft fur smelled amazing, but the way he clung to her?
That felt… right.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I swear, it’ll be okay.” She gazed at her mates, her heart hammering. I want to help him.
Roadkill smiled. Then that’s what we’ll do.
Eve blinked. You don’t think it’s too soon for us to be adding a child to our practically new relationship?
No, sweetheart. We know we’re bound by fate. Maybe that’s why we found this little one now. Fate has more in store for us.
She glanced at Mary. Before Eve could get a word out, she beamed. “All of these children are available for adoption, you know.”
See? Hashtag teased. Fate brought us here for a reason.
He’s right . Roadkill smiled. And that reason is sleeping in your arms.
Eve glanced at Logan. Sure enough, he’d fallen asleep, still clutching his tail.
She knew one thing for certain. Fate knew exactly what it was doing when it brought her to Horvan’s team.
And speaking of Horvan, he was lumbering over to them, a little boy on his back, his tiny fingers clutching the brown fur around Horvan’s neck.
“Way to go…, Mama Bear,” she murmured.
That was the first time she’d ever seen a bear roll its eyes.
Eve squared her shoulders and turned to Mary. “Who do we talk to about adoption?”
HORVAN HAD only just shifted back when Aelryn stormed into the hall, his eyes blazing, his cheeks flushed .