43. Zaden
Chapter forty-three
Zaden
“Zaden!”
I lift my head and turn towards the soft call.
“Sup, Patrick?”
“There’s two guys here to see you.”
I frown and follow him to the porch. I push in front of Patrick, alarmed when I see who they are.
“Go inside and send the guys out,” I say coldly.
I put my hands on my hips and tilt back on my heels. “You’re a long way from safe, old friend.”
“I ain’t your friend, boy.”
I snarl, but Bailey elbows him hard.
“Dad!”
“Fine. I’m behaving,” Anderson says. He’s wearing a blue flannel shirt and jeans and looks like he ought to be roping cows, not riding bikes.
I find it curious that Bailey is so annoyed with his dad. Mind you, it’s really hard to resist my own urge to kill that clown.
“I’d like to see her, if I could,” Anderson says quietly, respectfully.
I glance back at the door, and one of my prospects runs.
In minutes, Valen, Ianto, Ranger, and Mills are spread out around me. A few moments after that, Lia comes out .
She sees Anderson and Bailey and smiles, it’s a tense, uncertain smile, but when Anderson spreads his arms and calls her Lili, she pushes past us. I watch, grinding my molars as she throws herself into their arms.
And I can’t bring myself to stop this shit show because above everything Lia deserves a family, and he might be the only one she’s got.
I shudder with the urge to keep from killing these arrogant pricks and wait.
“Are you happy?” He has the audacity to ask.
She nods her head. “I am. So happy.”
“I’m sorry, I think. Fuck. I believe I was misled about your situation. I’m man enough to say I was wrong.” Anderson is looking at me when he speaks, one president to another.
“What do you mean?” Lia asks and steps back warily. Ranger pulls her into his arms, and she turns into his embrace, relaxing.
“Your mother came to me a few months ago. She said that they,” Anderson’s eyes flicker across my pack, “were using synthetic drugs to keep you here. Blackmail, extortion. That she tried to get you out but wasn’t able to, and she needed my help.”
Lia gasps and pulls back. “They would never do that to me.”
“I realised that after Bailey let you and your friend go. He explained to me what he’d seen and how careful he was with you. The doctors told me you had no drugs in your system and no signs of abuse. Bailey said you were going into heat?”
“Yes, she did. She’s a switch.”
Andy looks at Bailey for a second, and I wonder what that means.
Lia glances back at Ranger, and that tiny smile is everything. Lia is ours. She might love Anderson and long for a relationship with Bailey, but she’s ours first and always.
“Wait,” I say and step closer. “Did China contact you recently?”
“Yes, a few weeks ago, she got desperate and said you were planning on turning her into your whore,” Anderson says.
I seethe.
I glance at Lia, and then back at Anderson.
“I’m done fucking around with this bitch.” I storm away from them, heading straight for the Raines’ mansion.
“What are you going to do?” Lia shouts and grabs my arm. I whirl on her, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a small shake.
“Lia, she needs to be stopped, the next time she might kill you,” I say to her.
She glances past me, but that’s all I need to spring past her. I jog up the steps of the Raines mansion, but when I go to knock on the door, I find it open.
I push it open, and then pull my gun out and walk slowly into the mansion.
I can hear a strange sound coming from deeper inside, but I don’t know what it is .
“Lia, stay behind me.”
She glances at me and nods.
Ianto and Valen fan out, moving from room to room, giving me nods when we find it clear.
Out of the corner of my eye, I find Anderson and Bailey advancing through the mansion with me.
The huge dining room doors that I broke are fixed. I reach out, glance at the others, and when I get nods, I squeeze the handle down and push the door open.
My mouth parts. I walk inside, shocked. The walls are black with scrawling charcoal. The carpets are filthy. There is a pile of trash and the stench of human feces.
At the far end of the room, I spot movement in the dark. I edge forward, moving swiftly, until I realise that what I’m looking at is a very naked China Raines.
Her bones are sticking out, she looks far too thin, and her hair is a bird's nest. She’s smeared with streaks that I can’t and don’t want to identify.
But worse is the mutters. She’s talking to herself, and she hasn’t even noticed us yet.
Lia lunges past me, but I stop her and shake my head.
Instead, I look at Anderson.
He approaches her and speaks softly. Mills returns to the room and gives me an up nod.
I turn back and drag Lia up against my chest.
“What are you doing, China?”
She pauses and turns her head. “The answers here. I have to find it.”
“Okay, can I help you?” Andy asks softly.
She hesitates, and then gives him a quick, erratic nod.
“Hey, China, when was the last time you slept?”
China whips back to the wall. “I don’t know.”
“Have you had anything to eat or drink?”
She shakes her head. “I have to find the answer.”
“Okay. Okay. What’s the question?”
China stops and goes completely still. “When did it go wrong?”
I look up at the wall, the huge wall of lines, and I see the picture, the big picture. Arrows, a wall of arrows pointing down to one word.
Aurelia.
I make a decision to take the consequences on the chin. I whirl away with Lia and carry her back through the mansion until we get out the front.
I set her down, and she turns, ready to go back in there.
“No.” I don’t bark the command, but she stops all the same .
Her lower lip trembles. “But she’s my mother.”
“No, Lia. She’s the woman who hurt you and abandoned you. She’s not your mother. We are your family. Take my hand, and let’s go home.”
A single tear runs down her cheek.
I keep my hand out, waiting for her to take it.
“If I let her go, she’ll be alone. She’s my mother.”
“China Raines will never be alone,” a voice says coldly. A woman in expensive clothes walks up the porch stairs. She’s in a black suit and has gold on her neck and fingers. Anyone would know who she was instantly.
“Aunt Cara,” Lia says warily.
Another woman who looks like a softer version of Cara and China appears, and I realise this must be Chile who would be Auryn’s mother. My anger spikes. And where were they when Lia was left alone and suffering?
“China is sick. She has always been sick. We tried getting her help for many years, but she resisted all our attempts. But we’re here now. You can go.”
“Why now?” Lia snarls.
“China called us, asking for help. She said about the voices. She said she can’t control her mind,” Cara says with a shrug. “I’ve found a very expensive hospital for her to stay in.”
Chile looks at me, but when she looks at Lia, there’s no affection, no love. The three sisters are as evil as evil gets as far as I’m concerned. I just want them away from Lia.
No matter. She has an entire world of family with us.
“Take my hand, and let’s go home. You don’t owe these people another second of your time or energy, Lia.”
Lia inhales, and I feel the pack gathering close. Bailey walks out and beams at Cara and Chile.
“It’s the Wicked Witches of Westcove.”
I snort a laugh. Westcove is a pretentious part of our city that has a bad reputation as being rotten at the core.
“Ah, look, it’s the Raines who isn’t a Raines.”
“Ah, blood will tell, and turns out, I have blood and…the name. Boom, bitches.” Bailey chortles as he stomps down towards us.
Cara shudders. “You remind me of-” She cuts herself off and stomps up the porch. “Get off our property.”
“Sure, Aunty, nice chat. Love you, too. Locke sends his regards. ”
She stumbles, pauses, and then walks in like he hasn’t said a damn thing. That blow must have hurt. Her prodigy is living it up, happy as can be without her. Having achieved more fame than her and living the dream of a pack life.
Chile follows, unwilling to get into an argument.
Lia puts her hand in mine with certainty and grips my fingers hard.
“Okay, let’s go home.”
I start walking, and then my conscious pricks at me, and I stop, rubbing my free hand over my forehead. Damn it! Oh, of all the unfairness in the world, this is the worst. I grit my teeth and turn back.
“Bailey, are you coming?”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Can I?”
“Yes. You’re, after all, our brother.” It hurts to say those words.
Bailey and I wrinkle our noses at the same time. Ianto mutters something about alphas cut from the same cloth and disappears back towards home. I lead Lia back, and then before I can even wrap my brain around today, Mills is whirling around his kitchen, cooking burgers, handing out beers, cake, and biscuits.
Anderson joins us an hour later. We stand on the porch watching the sunset.
“We’re rivals. My club and yours will never get along. There’s too much bad blood. But that’s the closest thing to a daughter I have, and I don’t want to lose any more time with her. Besides, Bailey has always considered her family. He’s got no one but me.”
“Yup,” I say shortly. “He’s got us now, too.” The reluctant words drag out of me. “Peaceful truce? Define the boundaries. You stay on yours, I’ll stay on mine?”
“With a neutral territory,” Anderson agrees. “For family catch ups.”
We clink our beers together.
“You got Lia out before she saw?”
“I think so. If she did, she hasn’t mentioned it yet.”
“Good. Look, China is an amazing woman. She is clever, flirtatious, seductive, mysterious. She can be magic. But what she has always been is a terrible mother. She just wasn’t made to do it. It would be better for Lia to just cut ties because China has tried her best, but she can’t be around Lia. Or Bailey.”
I nod. I’d suspected as much.
“We’re family now, Mirakill.”
I growl.
He laughs. “I feel the same way. See ya at the birth of your pup.”
I jerk upright. “What?”
“Births, deaths, birthdays, celebrations, all those happy moments. You get to share them with me now. ”
I groan.
He lifts a hand. “Don’t kill my boy.”
“No promises,” I say, knowing I won’t lay a hand on Bailey as long as he makes Lia smile and knowing that Andy knows it, too.
He gets on his bike and leaves in a deep roar. And I find myself actually liking the old biker. He’s got something in him that I know my dad would respect.
Lia comes out and stands beside me. “Where’s Andy gone?”
“Home. He said he’ll be back at birthdays, holidays-”
“Don’t look so horrified,” Lia teases.
She stands in front of me and wraps her arms around me. “Have I mentioned how much it means to me that you aren’t killing my family, even though they are your sworn enemies?”
“There’s always tomorrow,” I growl.
She laughs and lays her cheek on my shoulder. “Thank you, Zaden.”
“For what?”
“For everything.”
I wrap my arms around her and put my chin on her head. “Get rid of your brother so I can fuck you.”
She snorts a laugh.
I lean in and lower my voice, making it a husky purr as I drag my fingers down over her ass and then up and under her shirt. She shudders and leans into me, letting out a tiny whimper.
“I’m serious. If you make him go away, I’ll strip you naked, force you to your knees, and push my cock into your mouth. And you’re going to suck it like you love it because we both know you’re a whore for my cock.”
Her eyes are huge, but she’s barely breathing. “So confident.”
“Mm, I am because after I come down your throat, I’m going to lift you onto the kitchen island and lick that delicious pussy until you leave a fucking puddle on that granite.”
I pause, watching her eyes get darker, so focused on me. I pressed my fingers between her lips, loving the way her eyes get all black and sexy. I bring my hand out and suck my fingers, slowly one at a time.
“Are you wet now?” I purr, teasing her because we both know she’s dripping. “Your nipples are hard.”
She inhales on a shudder.
I slide my hand under her skirt, squeezing an ass cheek viciously, and dragging her up onto her toes .
“After you scream, I’m going to climb up there and fuck you under all Mills’ pretty, shiny saucepans. I’ll make you moan and scream, and when you squirt, you’ll leave so much on that fucking island that everything we eat will taste of you. Then I’ll share you with the others.”
My fingers slide deeper between her cheeks until I find what I seek.
I press my lips to her ear. “Look what I found.”
She parts her legs and whines.
“Lia…”
She fists my shirt in her hands. “What?”
“Get. Rid. Of. Your. Brother.”
“Oh.”
I pull my hand out and step back, leaning against the mansion. She staggers a little; her cheeks are all rosy.
“Bailey!” she calls. “Bailey, you need to go now.”
I snicker and finish my beer. I give it five minutes.
“Clear the house!” I shout.
In ten minutes, my house is empty of everyone but my old lady and my pack.
I slowly strip out of my shirt.
“Lia.”
“Yes, Zaden?”
“Get on your fucking knees.”