Chapter 23 #2
Callum didn’t turn, but he slowly shook his head. “No offense taken. I’m… I’m okay. Just in shock. Good shock.” He took a long, deep breath. “Let me help you. Wake them, I mean.”
“Are you sure?” Peyton asked.
“Yes. Some of them know us. They will be less afraid.” He finally turned, staring at the floor as Bryn clung to his arm. “This is Faegan’s house?”
“Yes,” Peyton said. “He’s dead. Hamish is the owner now, and—”
Bryn gasped, her eyes wide in shock. “Hamish is alive?”
“Yes. He faked his death. He played a crucial role in helping us figure out what happened before we located Donnel. With Hyacinth and Frannie, I mean. Hamish is, needless to say, happy that Faegan is dead, and he had no idea that Donnel betrayed you. Until we can evaluate everyone and get them settled and acclimated, and then figure out what’s next, they’ll stay here and be looked after.
If anyone needs full-time ongoing care because of their injuries, we’ll arrange that, too.
Our packs will take care of all the expenses for as long as needed.
And we have to create identities and documents for everyone. The world has changed a lot.”
“What about Donnel?” Callum asked.
Aisling tensed, knowing this would be a tetchy topic.
“He’s alive, but he’s in the United States,” Peyton said.
“Do you know where?” he asked.
“We do. He’s under Prime orders not to move or run. And I realize there will be business with him that you’ll want to settle at some point.”
“Bet your fucking life we do,” Bryn growled. “Where’s our daughter?”
I do not envy Peyton.
To his credit, he didn’t dodge the question.
“Donnel left her at a parsonage that same night. She was adopted by clueless humans, not knowing her parentage. She was married and had a son, but her husband, a human, died when her son was very young. She then married a guy who turned out to be abusive and murdered her when her son graduated from high school, because she’d told the man she was leaving him.
“No!” Bryn sobbed, crying, and Callum pulled her into his arms, holding her, his face buried in her hair.
“And her son?” Callum asked.
“Is my brother-in-law,” Peyton gently said.
“He’s almost twenty-nine. His name’s Ken.
Amazing guy, and we all love him to death.
Alive and well and in Florida. I know when we tell him about you he’ll be over the moon and eager to be with you.
And he and my little sister have a beautiful infant daughter, plus she’s pregnant with another one. ”
Bryn sobbed even harder as Callum nodded.
Then he held his hand out to Peyton.
Aisling was amazed at Peyton’s bravery as he walked over and let Callum take his hand. A moment later, Callum released him.
“Thank you,” Callum said, tears now rolling down his cheeks.
“You’re pack,” Peyton said. “I’m sorry we didn’t know sooner. If we had, we would’ve come for you all a long time ago.”
“This is a lot to take in,” Callum said.
“I know. I’m sorry to dump all this on you.”
Callum looked at Aisling and Trevor. Aisling offered him a smile and a cautious wave. “Hi.”
“This is Trevor Clarke and Aisling Walsh,” Peyton said.
Callum slowly nodded. “We owe you everything.”
“G’wan,” Aisling said, blinking back unexpected tears of her own. “Yer pack. Like he said, sorry we didn’t know sooner.”
“You risked your lives for us.”
“Bloody hell, we weren’t leavin’ ye there once we knew,” she said.
“They can’t hurt anyone else, either. We killed them and destroyed the lab.
Ain’t no one rebuildin’ it. Far’s we can tell that was the only one.
We captured and are interrogatin’ the head cunt.
Once we’re done with him, he’ll stop exchangin’ oxygen and carbon dioxide in as slow and painful a way as possible.
And if ye like, we’ll let ye take charge with that. ”
Callum snorted and Aisling felt a tingle of Prime power from him, tentatively seeking. She forced herself to remain still and not scramble backward.
No matter how many times she experienced the sensation, it never got easier to deal with.
Then Callum held his hand out to her. “Please?”
Swallowing hard, she slowly approached and held out her hand, forcing herself not to wince at the contact.
He barely touched her, but she felt a slight tingle from him and sensed he was restraining himself so as not to freak her out.
He released her hand, more tears flowing down his cheeks. “You’re newly mated to someone who endured such heartbreaking trauma, and still helped us?”
Aisling wiped her eyes with her hands. “Aye. Those feckin’ cunts were evil.”
“She’s mated to Tamsin,” Peyton said. “Tamsin is Faegan’s youngest child with Frannie, but she was also a victim of her father and despised him.
He had Tamsin’s first mate killed.” He pointed to Trevor.
“Maisie, one of Trevor’s children. And Maisie’s twin brother, Rupert, was killed in the same attack. ”
Callum slowly nodded. “We’re in your debt. All of you.”
“Nah.” She smiled, sniffling. “Lookin’ forward to gettin’ to know both of ye better. Like Peyton said, yer family.”
He also took Trevor’s hand, briefly, nodding when he released him. “We are grateful, Trevor.”
“Whatever you need,” Trevor said, “whatever we can do, please ask. We’ll do our best to take care of it.
For now, we have a variety of clothes in the wardrobe for you,” Trevor said, pointing.
“We didn’t know who or how many we’d have, so we made sure to put in the basics in a variety of sizes.
We’ll buy everyone proper clothing as soon as possible.
And there are bottles of water there.” He pointed to a dresser.
“If you wish to bathe first, there are towels and soap, and other toiletries in the bath.”
“We’ll shower later,” Callum said. “I want to help awaken everyone first.”
“We have basic food on hand,” Trevor continued, “but we weren’t certain what people would or could eat.
There are food supplements, energy shakes, and the sort, and a plentiful variety of soups, all available right now.
We’ll have more food brought in shortly once everyone’s awake.
We will also have kitchen staff on hand twenty-four/seven to prepare anything you wish anytime you wish. ”
Callum nodded. “Anyone ambulatory can probably eat normal food. I’m not certain about the youngest children, but the supplement shakes, at the very least, should be fine to start.”
Bryn sniffled and turned to them. “What about the other children? Not the ones from the lab. Did you locate them yet?”
“Other children?” Peyton asked.
“The children they took from us over the years and raised elsewhere.”
Peyton, Trevor, and Aisling exchanged horrified looks. “Uh, we haven’t been through all the records yet,” Peyton said. “We didn’t know about them. How many?”
“If they’re alive,” she said, “at least five of ours. And probably more from IVF. I don’t know how many others were taken from other parents.”
“Fuuuck,” Peyton said, his hands on his hips as he stared at the floor. “None of the people we compromised ahead of time said anything about that. We’ll make going through the records a priority to locate and rescue them. We have the resources to do that.”
“Thank you,” Callum said.
Peyton
They aren’t the only ones who’ll need therapists by the time this is over.
The revelation that there were potentially so many children out there if they used IVF or other shifters to… breed…
Fuuuuck me.
He guided Trevor and Aisling out into the corridor to wait while the couple changed clothes.
“That’s a lot of missing people we need to locate,” Trevor whispered.
Peyton grimly nodded. “Hopefully they’ll be easy to find if the lab kept records.”
Ten minutes later the couple emerged, Bryn keeping tight hold of Callum’s arm while Peyton and Trevor led the way, and Aisling brought up the rear.
They started with the adults first. All of them awakened terrified, disoriented, and quickly calmed once they realized they were safe.
Over half of them spoke English in varying degrees of fluency.
Between Peyton’s and Callum’s Prime skills, and a couple of the medical personnel who either spoke their language or were good with translation apps, they were able to communicate with them all.
Most importantly, they were able to quickly assure them they were safe and protected.
After introducing personnel and leaving each adult with a dedicated staffer who would stay with them for now and care for them, they moved on to the children.
The eldest first, three girls and two boys, in their teens, from their appearance.
Their situation was worse because they’d all been born in captivity and had no idea what was going on.
Only one of the girls spoke English, but as with the adults, they quickly made them understand they were safe and communicated with them.
The other ten children nearly broke Peyton’s heart. Also born in captivity, the youngest only a baby, a little boy less than a year old.
From the lab doctor they’d already learned that none of the kids were the biological children of any of the adults rescued.
It would take time and scouring the lab records, as well as processing all the DNA evidence, to sort everything out and locate any potential relatives.
Lowri, Aaron, and Jake would make that a priority.
Callum swayed on his feet. “May I go lie down?” he asked.
“Of course,” Peyton said. “Can we bring you anything?”
Bryn shook her head. “I’ll get him settled and come back down.” She wryly smiled. “I know my way around here. At least I used to.”
Peyton nodded and watched them go.
“Now that everyone’s awake, we need to start collecting names and information from the adults,” Trevor said. “So we can locate and notify their families, if possible.”
Peyton nodded. “Yeah.” They returned to the room of the first adult to talk to them.
It was the third woman who brought Peyton up short when she hoarsely whispered her name.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” he asked.
“Maya Peterson,” she said after taking a long swig of water.
“Fuuuck me,” Aisling breathed, shock filling her features. “Can it be?
“Apparently,” Peyton said, then looked at Trevor. “Send a plane for him immediately. Don’t tell him why. Let him think it’s for translations.”
Trevor pulled out his phone and ran from the room.
The woman looked up at them. Her hair had been cropped short, but choppy, not like it was done professionally, and several long, ugly scars mottled her scalp. “How did you find us?”
Petyon sat next to her bed. “It’s a long story.” He held out his hand to her, and after staring at it for a moment, she took it.
He used his Prime to keep her calm. “But I have very good news for you.”
“You do?” She harshly laughed. “Better than saving us?”
“Surprisingly, yes. Jake and Carl are not only alive and well, but we’ll have Jake here in a few hours.
He was part of the team that helped rescue everyone, but since he wasn’t on the transport team, he didn’t realize you were one of the people we rescued.
I’m sorry I didn’t have any pictures of you or I would’ve made sure he came with us on the transport. ”
Her eyes widened. “Wh-what? But they-they’re… they’re dead! Ray told me they died in an accident!”
Peyton grimly shook his head. “They thought you were dead. He told them you died and staged an accident. Ray is the reason you were captured. He sold you out. And they almost captured Jake, but he escaped. Also, Ray’s dead.”
He sensed she was near her ability to take in and process information, so he gently squeezed her hand. “I know that’s a lot to absorb. We’ll explain everything we know, but I want to get Jake here immediately.”
She started crying. “I… I can’t believe this!”
Aisling wiped at her eyes. “Bloody hell,” she muttered, catching Peyton’s gaze. “You might need to reinforce the order to everyone not to murder that cunt before we get all the information out of him we can.”
Peyton grimly nodded. “You might be right.”