Chapter Twenty-Two #3
“Your mother is going to kill me, but it is good to hear your voice, pup. You can’t call our phones. They have been shut off, but trust me, everyone is safe.” Toya’s father chuckled softly. “Your mom is seriously going to be pissed once I tell her.”
“How can I talk to you?” Toya’s hopeful question hung in the air.
“You can’t.” Her father sounded regretful, but firm.
“Well, not regularly, but we might work out a monthly phone call on this phone.” My father offered a tiny branch of hope.
“You would do that for us?” Toya’s father’s voice was deep.
“Of course.” My father’s voice was sincere.
“Without question.” My answer was quick as I stared at Toya. “This phone isn’t traceable. And my home will be secure, that I can promise you.”
Toya nodded. “Thank you.”
“I will set it up with your parents and I will message Amy.” My father’s voice quietly filled the room.
“Thank you Alpha.” Toya smiled, and for the first time today, it was a genuine smile.
“Just call me Gavin.” Toya handed back the phone and I could see tears dripping down her face. “Pup, can you take me off speaker?”
I clicked it off and pulled it up to my ear. “Yeah Daddy?”
“Are you sure you can trust these girls?” I could hear Toya’s father’s rich voice and my father laughed. “Not your girl Terrence. The others.”
“Yes daddy. I can feel it. I can trust them. The goddess hasn’t guided me wrong yet.”
My dad was silent. “Okay pup. I trust your judgement. “
“Thank you, daddy.” I looked at the confused faces of the others. “I’m going to go. Rowan will be here soon, and we have a lot to figure it out.”
“Rowan? Like King Rowan?” His voice jumped up two octaves, and I wanted to laugh.
“Bye daddy.” I hung up the phone and put it back into my lock box.
“What is going on?” Hanna walked over and climbed into my bed next to Toya. “What’s wrong?”
Toya jumped into my arms. “Thank you.” She started to cry in earnest, and Hanna leaned over to rub her back as she cried in my arms. I just smiled as I winked Hanna, earning a smile.. I pulled her back and pressed my cheek against hers.
“We are connected.” Toya nodded and pulled back.
“We are.” She looked around. “We all are.”
“Yes.” I stood and turned to face everyone. Hanna wrapped her arm around Toya. Micca and Wendy got onto the bed and I could feel something settle. “This right here, all of us, we are connected. I can feel that we were meant to meet.”
“I feel the same way.” Wendy smiled and Micca and Hanna nodded.
“I know everyone is confused. And I promise we will explain everything we can.”
“We?” Micca looked at Toya, but she shook her head.
There was a soft knock and everyone turned as I released the spell. I waved my hand. “Come to the living room. We will explain it all right now.”
“Is she talking about…” Everyone followed me to the door and I opened the door.
“Hi.” I opened the door wider.
“Holy shit.” Micca’s voice was a whisper, but I couldn’t stop my laugh as Rowan walked in with a case of beer.
“Hey.” He looked at the girls and back at me. “You said you had food…so I brought drinks.”
“Holy shit.” Micca repeated as she grabbed Wendy’s hand. “Please tell me we aren’t hanging out with our fucking king.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
I dropped my head down and shook it. “Yes, Micca. We will hang out with him.” I gestured for him to come in, and he walked into the kitchen. He slid the beer into the fridge and fidgeted for a few minutes before coming back into the living room and handing me one beer.
“What have you covered?” He dropped onto the loveseat next to me and the girls kind of stood around before I laughed.
I sealed the apartment and cracked the beer. “Sit down.” I pointed to the couch and chair surrounding my new coffee table. Everyone sat except Micca. “What?” I looked up at her and she shook her head, staring between Rowan and me.
“Is it okay if I grab a beer?” Her voice was breathy and confused.
Rowan smiled. “Of course.”
She looked around. “I’m sorry but if we are hanging out with the fucking king, the boogie man of our kind, I need a drink. Anyone else need one?” Everyone nodded, and she went to the fridge to grab four beers. She handed them out and settled on the couch next to Wendy.
Rowan looked at everyone and then twisted to face me. “The boogie man?”
I laughed. “Sort of. Most wolves haven’t met you, and being a Lycan, you are stronger, faster, and more powerful than all wolves.
” He looked at me and raised his eyebrow.
I just smirked. I wasn’t going to admit outright that his command didn’t work on me.
“So most parents use you as a reason to stay in line.”
Wendy nodded. “My mom was worse. She actually knew you. I was terrified you were going to show up at my house when I was bad.” She cracked her beer and took a sip.
“I’m still afraid of you, but you are a lot hotter than I had originally pictured.
” She slapped her hand over her mouth. “Did I just say that out loud?” She looked at Hanna, who sat in the chair. Hanna grimaced and nodded.
Rowan roared with laughter. “Thank you…”
“Wendy.” I answered his question. I pointed to each woman. “Hanna, Wendy, Toya and Micca.”
“Nice to meet you all.” He took a drink and shook off his laughter. “You are here because Amy trusts you. And I want her to have people in her corner.” He looked between Toya and me. “You both will have the hardest time.”
“Why?” Toya opened her drink.
“Because we have to act like we lost our family while being targeted.”
“Targeted?” She leaned over her knees.
Rowen and I both nodded. “We are targets. We are Alpha females who have been left with no ‘man’ in our lives.” I started.
“You are vulnerable without family.” Rowan put down his drink. “As hateful as it is, women are at a disadvantage in our world.” He steepled his fingers. “I have done my best to wipe out the old laws, but they are still enacted.”
“Who the hell does that?” Hanna shook her head in disgust.
“Vince.” I answered, and the rest recoiled.
“What?” Micca asked.
“When my mother left my father when I was a baby, she transferred to Vince's pack. His first order was to enact the betrayal law.” I twirled my drink in my hands. “If you are wondering what the betrayal law is, I’ll tell you. If a female is betrayed by her goddess given mate after they’ve mated, then the Alpha of the pack can enact a law that states that if the woman is unable to find another male to marry her within a certain timeline, my mothers was like two weeks, then she can become a slave.
And if she has pups, they also become slaves to be used in any way the Alpha sees fit, including sex.
” I watched Rowan tense beside me. His hands were tight fists and I could hear the soft crack of his jaw from clenching.
“You have to be fucking joking.” Toya snarled.
“Another obscure portion of the betrayal law is that any children that are grandfathered into the law. By the mother failing to find a new husband, they will forever be a slave. Unable to remove the status and unable to mate…ever.” I looked up and met everyone’s eyes.
“I don’t assume everyone knows who I am, but I am sure you have heard of my mother.
The Luna that was betrayed by her mate only to marry another within ten days. ” Everyone nodded.
“Everyone assumed she was cheating behind your father’s back and he found out and did the same.”
I nodded. “Now you know the truth.”
“Vince tried to trap your mother and you as sex slaves?” Rowan’s voice was dark.
I just nodded. “My mother would never have touched another wolf if it was an option. It was the threat of me becoming a slave that pushed her to marry Morgan, and how he kept her under his thumb the entire time.”
“She did it to keep you safe,” Wendy whispered and I could see a single tear slip down her cheek.
“She is a good mom.” I nodded. “But that isn’t why I brought it up.” I looked at Toya. “I brought this up because I want you to see the men we have to face. The kind of men we will have to fight.”
“Fight?” Hanna tugged at her hair.
I looked at Rowan, and he cleared his throat. “How many of you know about the attacks from when you were babies? The ones that killed my father?” Everyone around the room nodded.
“We all do.” Toya answered. “My father taught me as a part of my training.”
Rowan nodded. “There are a few of us, the newer Alpha’s like Amy’s father, that believed that the attacks were a lot less random than they appeared.
” He drew in a breath. “Not to mention it was the first time rogues had not only worked together on any scale, but also there were multiple coordinated attacks Something we had never considered possible before that day. Multiple packs were attacked. If it wasn’t for sheer luck, half the packs would be gone.
All the packs that had new Alphas appointed by my father were attacked at the same time. Something unheard of.”
“How were there that many rogues?” Micca leaned against the arm of the couch.
“We don’t keep track of them but there shouldn’t have been that many rogues.” Rowan stretched and laid his arm on the back of the loveseat.
I could feel the heat from his arm and I was momentarily distracted. “Not by a long shot. My father always said there was no way for that to have happened randomly. It was organized.”
“By who?” Wendy bit her thumbnail and stared at the table.
“That’s where we come in.” Everyone’s eyes snapped to me.
“What?” Hanna pushed back against the leather.
“I’m going to lay everything out.” I leaned my chin against my clasped hands. “My father said that it is more likely that some Alphas got together and decided they wanted to lead.”
“But the Lycans.” Micca started, and I nodded.
“Exactly.” I looked at Rowan. “My father thinks the king’s attack wasn’t the first attack, but the last in a series. He actually spoke to your father about his theory when he first inherited the pack.” Rowan’s eyes darted between mine.
“Why has he never told me?”
“I can only assume, but he was pretty certain you hated him. And that you blamed him for your father’s death.”
I watched the stronger, sure man I knew crumple in front of me. “I never wanted him to feel that way.”
I smirked. “Unfortunately for all of us, my father is, normally, pretty perceptive. Once he feels like you don’t like him, he will distance himself from you.”
“I was a kid.” He tried to defend himself.
“Yes, and he knows that. He never bad-mouthed you. He understood where you were coming from. He was the man that was supposed to keep your dad safe, and he failed.” Rowan just nodded.
“Anyway, my dad has been investigating the loss of the Lycans for years. And this summer, when I needed him, he helped me. But he asked me to help him.”
“With what?” Toya was invested.
“With hacking into Vince’s system. He’s tried, but Vince has invested pretty heavily in security.”
“You know how to hack?” Wendy bounced. “That is so cool.”
I laughed. “Not at all, but.” I looked at Rowan. “I’m going to spend every minute I can learn how to do it.”
“What do you need us to do?” Toya took her first drink.
“First, I want to train with you. I know we are going to fight at the end of this, and I need all of you to survive.” They all nodded.
“Second, I need you all to help me and Toya.” I faced her.
“We have to appear weak. We have to be vulnerable and approachable. Either the Alphas, or the council, will want to get us under their thumbs. We are the future mates of the packs and if they have a leader under their thumb to push their agenda, all the better.”
“The council is in on this too?” Wendy paled.
“I don’t know.” I turned to face Rowan. He shifted again, and his arm dropped from the back of the loveseat and slid against my back. I shivered, and I watched as his pupils dilated.
“I don’t know either, but it’s better to be safe.” I nodded. “Third, I need people I can trust. To work with, to grow with, to have in my corner as I isolate myself.” I faced everyone again. “War is coming for us, and I, for one, would rather the good guys win.”