Chapter 18
Millie
As soon as we pulled into the Tupilaq pack’s compound, my anxiety tripled.
From the outside world, it appeared like any other gated, wealthy neighborhood. However, what humans couldn’t see with their eyes hid a whole other underground world that had a strict hierarchical structure all of its own.
The ware manning the gate gave a smug smile as we pulled up beside him. “What do you want us to do with the car afterward?” He’d arrogantly posed, as soon as the window rolled down.
“After?” I’d repeated, confused by his peculiar question.
“After we kill your mate and you no longer need it. Osyrius doesn’t let his women drive,” the attendant crudely informed me. “He’ll never let you leave the property.”
What a disgusting thing to say! Before I could tell him exactly what he could do with it, Laurence, who was driving, piped up, “It’s my van. I’ll be responsible for it.”
I could feel my mate bristling on the other side of me, but he didn’t give in to the bait, as badly as he wanted to. And boy, could I feel how much he wanted to. Flint, however, sitting opposite Laurence, wasn’t so disciplined.
He took one look at the guy’s name tag and began to laugh. “Ken? Ken Tout?”
The ware pursed his lips and furrowed his brow at the handsome man laughing at him. “Yeah? What’s it to you, mutt?”
Flint beamed at the angry man. “I don’t give a fuck about you either way, Kenny boy, but I don’t think you should be picking any fights with people about their lineage.”
Ken leaned against the side of the van and sneered, revealing a row of uneven teeth. “Oh yeah. Why’s that, pretty boy?”
Flint could barely spit the words out he was laughing so hard. When he finally managed it, Stark, sitting directly behind him, joined in.
“Weren’t your parents, like, half siblings or some inbred goddamed thing?” Flint replied with relish, obviously recalling something he’d read when doing his research about the Tupilaq pack family tree.
Ken’s pock marked face nearly turned purple at the accusation. “Who the fuck told you that? That’s not true! It’s just a rumor. It’s never been proven!” He angrily blustered.
“I don’t know about that, bud. You’re manning an electric gate that doesn’t need a guard during an important pack event.
Something tells me you don’t rank very high on the totem pole around here.
You think it’s because the community has heard the “rumor”,” he said that last word with air quotes, “about your family tree that doesn’t fork? ”
“You might be pretty, mutt, but that doesn’t matter around these parts. Even with those good looks, not a single one of our women would touch your stray dick with a ten-foot pole!” Tout coldly shot back.
“Why in the world would I want a woman to touch my dick with a pole?” Flint rhetorically returned. “If that’s how you’re doing it, Tout, I can see why you pull guard duty during social events.”
“Flint,” Laurence admonished, “knock it off. We need to get going.”
Since the gate was already opening, and Kenny was having an existential crisis about his “unforkable” family tree, Laurence drove inside the compound without another word.
“I’m not going to ask you how you know that stuff,” Laurence said with a sigh, “but I suggest you keep quiet for the rest of our time on pack territory.”
Flint snorted, but Laurence, being the stern leader that he was, didn’t let it go. “I’m serious, Flint. You say something rude about the pack to the wrong member, and you’ll put Millie and the rest of us in danger.”
That sobered Flint right up. “I’m not going to do anything to embarrass you, Laurence.”
“I’m not worried about being embarrassed, Flint. I’m worried about my family getting hurt. My pull here only goes so far. The fact that they’re letting me join you today was pushing the bounds already. Please don’t endanger that.”
Flint dropped the attitude and nodded. “I won’t.”
From what I could gather, Laurence, despite being a “mutt” himself, was highly respected in the shifter community.
Probably because he did what nobody else wanted to do, raising children who were orphaned or abandoned regardless of their blood ties.
Because of his selflessness, he was seen as a sort of “neutral” pack leader in a world full of ruthless power brokers.
As we drove deeper into the heavily wooded compound, I shivered. Ethan put his arm around me and gave me a much-needed squeeze. My hand blindly found his and our fingers threaded together in a silent bid for closeness and reassurance that all would be well.
After what seemed like forever, the land opened up to a sprinkling of houses. Laurence drove down a few dirt roads and up a driveway of one particularly large house. I was guessing, by the size and grandeur of the place, it belonged to Osyrius or his father.
When the van came to a stop, Laurence explained, “Millie, this is your mother’s house. The Tupilaq pack has requested that you wait here until everything begins.”
So I was right. This was Malcolm’s home. And, by default, my mother’s.
“I don’t want to stay here,” I choked out then, hating the idea of spending what little time I may have left with my mate with my uncaring mother. “I want to go wherever Ethan goes. It’s my right as his omega.”
“I know, Princess,” Ethan acknowledged, brushing my cheek with his knuckles, “but this is the way it has to be. Once this is done, we don’t ever have to come back here. We can go home and start our life together, just as we talked about. Okay?”
I wanted to argue and stomp my feet like a child, but I didn’t. I might not like pack protocol, but that disdain wasn’t going to change how they did things.
Not wanting to make this any harder on Ethan than it already was, I nodded. “Okay. I’ll wait for you here.”
“Flint is staying with you to make sure you’re well taken care of. Whatever he says, goes. Do you understand?” Ethan pressed, his grey-blue eyes penetrating my light blue ones.
Last night, while we lay in bed, Ethan had explained that if anything did happen to him, Flint had a way of secreting me out of the compound, though he didn’t tell me how. I knew that was what he was alluding to now.
“Yes. I understand, Ethan,” I dutifully returned.
Tilting my chin upward, he pressed his lips to mine. Softly at first, then with mounting passion until he pulled away. “This won’t take long,” he promised, before opening the door and helping me out of the car.
We were ushered into a spare bedroom inside the mansion to wait until the fight began. Flint seemed as restless as I felt. He paced around the room, repeatedly checking through closets and the view from our second story window that overlooked a courtyard.
“You’re nervous,” I noted, feeling it deep in my gut. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Pausing mid-stride, Flint glanced over at me with a sharpness that bespoke a true predator. “I’m just making sure we’re not being double crossed. That’s all.”
“You think we might be?” I pressed, the crushing weight in my chest building by the second.
“I think I’d be a fool to assume these bastards play by the rules,” Flint returned without really answering my question.
A knock at the door captured our attention then. It opened before we could respond. My mother walked inside, a young boy following on her heels.
She didn’t have to tell me who this was. I already knew by looking at his face. He was my brother, Bowman.
“We wanted to come see if you needed anything while you wait for the fight to begin,” my mother greeted, like she was the hostess of some family party.
“I’m fine,” I snapped, immediately angry that, in the eleventh hour, she was still trying to manipulate me. Attempting to pull my heartstrings by dangling my younger brother like bait in front of me.
“How about you, Flint? Can I get you anything,” my mother persisted, placing a motherly arm around Bowman as he gazed up at the large ware in awe. Flint had that effect on people, I noticed.
“Nothing for me,” Flint replied, neither sharply nor with the typical charisma he usually possessed in abundance.
Bowman fidgeted nervously then. “Did you want to say something, dear?” My mother prompted.
“Is this her?” The sweet boy asked.
Jenny lovingly stroked her son’s head. “Yes, this is your sister, Millie. Would you like to say hello?”
“Hello, Millie,” he respectfully returned, twisting the knife in my chest a little harder.
I was furious, but not at my brother, so I stowed my rage and smiled back at him. “Hello, Bowman. It’s good to finally meet you. Your mother tells me that you’re six years old. You’re a big boy for six. You might even grow up to be bigger than Flint here, if you don’t stop growing.”
The blond boy giggled, making him appear even more angelic than he had before. “You think so? Papa, I mean, our alpha says I’m just another beta and won’t grow into much of anything at all.”
That fucking monster. If I had it my way, I’d let Flint take out Malcolm himself. I don’t think it would take much provocation. He looked close to doing it right now, if his furious expression was any indication.
“Don’t listen to that nonsense, Bowman,” I told him. “You are exactly who you were meant to be. You are perfect just the way you are.”
“Really?” Bowman posed, looking hopeful, which broke my heart all over again.
Flint came over to the boy and knelt down, so they were closer to the same level.
“Listen to me, Bowman. When I was young, wares like Malcolm told me all the time I was just a stray. A mutt. That I wouldn’t amount to anything.
It was a lie. I grew up strong, loved, and cared for by a man named Laurence.
Once he took me in, I had a pack I fit into perfectly and everything else fell into place. ”
I could have cried at his sensitive, impassioned words, but I held back the tears so that Flint could continue to build up my brother’s confidence.
“You did?” Bowman posed, his childish wonder so infectious it was impossible not to be drawn in by it.
“I did. Family isn’t always something you’re born into. Sometimes we make our own family. If the Tupilaq pack doesn’t accept you, my family will. Do you understand?”
“He doesn’t have to leave his pack,” Jenny interrupted then. “Millie, you can see to that. It’s not too late. Stop this fight! Come home and ensure that your brother is safe!”
Her words had the same effect on me as if I’d been physically burned. To put this burden on my shoulders, directly in front of Bowman, was a cruelty nobody deserved. Especially not her child.
“It was nice meeting you, Bowman,” I replied, going to stand beside Flint now. “Hopefully, we will get a chance to speak more at another time. Unfortunately, I won’t be staying here for long.”
“Millie!” Jenny shrieked, her mask of happy hostess evaporating from her face. “Please, I’m begging you! I know that you hate me. I know that I let you down, but don’t make me lose another child. I won’t survive it.”
“Lose another child?” I repeated, feeling so hurt and exhausted at this point I could barely stand. “You didn’t lose me, Jenny. You threw me away. I suggest, if you don’t want Bowman to go through the same experience I did, you leave this sick, twisted place and take him somewhere safe.”
My mother began to sob, taking Bowman by the hand. “Whatever happens to your brother is on you, Millie! It’s on you!”
I wanted to spurn her words, but I couldn’t. While the rational part of my brain knew she was lashing out at me because of her fear for her son’s safety, the little girl in me wanted to curl in a ball and cry.
When the door closed, Flint was already at my side.
Pulling me in his arms, he gave me the loving hug my mother should have.
“Ignore what she just said, Millie. Jenny’s a fucking brainwashed idiot.
None of this is your fault. This is what happens with pack politics and power-hungry men.
Women and children always pay the price for their greed. It’s a tale as old as time.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I let Flint hold me until his phone chirped with a message.
Swearing, he checked his cell and frowned. “It’s about to begin,” he told me.
“Where?” I choked out, already feeling like I’d been through nine rounds at Madison Square Garden all before noon.
Nudging his chin in the direction of the window, he said, “Out there in the courtyard.”
Picking up my purse, which I’d tossed on the couch when we entered, I began to walk toward the door. When he didn’t follow, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Ethan says they don’t want you at the fight. He’s been informed that you’re watching from inside this room. Malcolm is demanding it. He intends for you to be safely tucked away for when he believes Osyrius will win and he’ll want to indulge himself in the spoils of war.”
My eyes darted over to the bed in the corner of the room and I nearly gagged. “What?”
“Don’t worry,” Flint spoke calmly. “That bastard’s never going to get the chance to come within a hundred yards of you, Millie. Ethan and I planned for this. In fact, separating you from the crowd was exactly what we hoped he would do.”
I trusted both Ethan and Flint’s judgement implicitly. If they had a plan, I knew I was safe. However, I suddenly felt a tingling at the base of my spine that made me a bit unnerved.
When that fateful tingling spread to my legs, I turned to Flint and said, “Okay, I think there’s a new problem we didn’t foresee.”
Cocking his head, Flint asked, “What’s that?”
Swallowing hard, I realized that I’d inadvertently found my trigger. My shifter trigger.
Ethan had told me every ware finds their trigger in their own way.
My mate’s was surrendering to the peace, harmony and tranquility in the natural world around him.
Mine was fear and anger, apparently. A shit ton of it.
Go figure. Between my mother, the fight, and Osyrius’s sexual threat, I was about to do something I couldn’t control.
Something that could put everything we’d planned for at risk in the worst kind of way.
“I’m about to shift,” I informed my companion, as I started to rip off my clothes in a blind panic.