Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Sloan
“I just don’t want you to be disappointed if you’re wrong.” Sloan shook her head, trying to find the words to express her feelings. Why was this so hard for her? Why couldn’t she just say what she felt?
“How many sabertooth shifters can there be?” Kade propped up his head with his hands, elbows on the table. He looked like he hadn’t slept all night. “But what if I’m wrong? What are the odds that my brother and sister have survived in New Hope all these years?”
“I don’t know. I can go and find out for you, if you’d like.”
“No, I should do it. I need to do it myself. I’m acting like such a pansy right now.”
“You’re not. This is a big deal. I understand the letdown you’ll feel if it’s not them. I heard they’ve been meeting with Theo and Cherub since they got back. They’re sharing with the Azra leaders information they’ve gathered in New Hope.”
“When I first heard two sabertooth shifters escaped from New Hope, I froze.” Kade ran his hands through his golden brown hair. “I just need to go see. It’s like pulling off a band aid right? The sooner I get it over with, the better.”
“Your brother and sister were taken from you at a young age.” Sloan took his left hand in her own. “Will you remember them?”
Kade squeezed her hand tighter.
“I can never forget. The New Hope soldiers came into our home and slaughtered our parents. They took my sister and brother from me that day. I never saw them again.” Kade paused. He swallowed hard. “Not until today … maybe.”
Sloan let a moment of silence settle across the small living quarters Kade shared with Edison and Elwood. The two sat in the tiny kitchen at the four-person table tucked in one of the corners.
“How’s your injury?” Sloan knew it was a poor attempt at taking Kade’s mind off his brother and sister, but she had to try something. “Feeling any better?”
“Yes, I’m back to one hundred percent.” Kade gave Sloan a look that said: I know what you’re doing, but I’ll let you distract me anyway. “I’m not sitting out another fight.”
“I know,” Sloan conceded his point. “I was actually surprised you let me talk you into staying here when we battled the mage engine.”
“I only did it because I understood you’d have a better chance at survival if you weren’t worried about your wounded boyfriend,” Kade admitted. “If it weren’t for that, I would have just disobeyed your orders and came anyway.”
“Yeah, you never struck me as the obedient kind of kitty,” Sloan teased. “You ready to go do this?”
“Do what?”
“Come on, we’re going to see if those two shifters from New Hope are your brother and sister.”
“What, now?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m not going to let you sit here and worry yourself into an early grave. I kind of like you, if you haven’t noticed, and want to keep you around for a long while to come. Let’s go, on your feet.”
Kade reluctantly rose from the table. “You said they were busy in meetings and stuff. Maybe we should just wait until?—”
Sloan grabbed Kade by the wrist and started to drag him out of the apartment.
“Ugh, I hate how strong you are.”
BOOM! BOOM!
Sloan rapped on the thick door of the capitol building that led to the main conference room.
“Well, looks like no one’s here.” Kade turned to leave. “They must have already gone. Too bad for us. I guess we’ll never know.”
Sloan reached out and grabbed Kade by the back of his shirt.
“Come in.” Theo’s deep, familiar voice reached them through the door.
“Let’s go,” Sloan coaxed Kade, as she directed him back to the door. “I’ll be right here.”
Sloan opened the door and pushed Kade inside.
The shifter stumbled forward.
Sloan followed behind. The room with descending theater seats lowered in front of them. Kade stumbled down the stairs, prodded along by Sloan who waved to the three figures below.
Theo sat in a chair next to a pair of crutches. Bruises marked his face, along with a white bandage that wrapped around his head like a turban. His right leg was in a splint. The wound had come from a particularly large vampire soldier who had clawed into him during the mage engine battle.
Seated on either side of Theo were Sasha and Saber, the two New Order leaders who had escaped the city with Jack and Abigail. Sloan and Sasha had officially met; Saber she had only seen in passing.
All three of the members in the meeting were hunched over a large map of the Outland. When Sloan and Kade had walked into the room, their chatter had ceased. The two sabertoothed shifters below never took their eyes off Kade.
As soon as they walked in, Sloan knew they were a part of Kade’s family. They had to be. They all had the same tanned skin, the same large features, and the same eye color.
Kade walked to the bottom of the amphitheater as if he were in a trance. Saber rose, his one good eye staring at Kade as if it were never going to leave.
“Kade?” Saber whispered in a tone so thick with emotion that if Sloan allowed herself the luxury of emotions, she may have cried. “How?”
“Is that really you?” Sasha looked like she wanted to stand but didn’t trust her legs to support her weight at that moment.
“You’re going to have to tell me.” Kade looked back and forth between his brother and sister. “I was so small when you were taken. My memories are like nightmares more than thoughts.”
Saber walked around the table and grabbed his brother.
Tears fell so fast from his one good eye, they streaked down his face like a river.
“We looked for you. When we escaped, we tried to find you, but there was no sign. We swore to take down Leah Nobel then. That’s why we stayed in New Hope.
I swear, we looked everywhere for you, little brother. ”
Saber sobbed into Kade’s shoulder a moment longer. Sloan understood what the moment meant for the reunited family. She took a seat in one of the rows of chairs, waiting for them to finish.
Sasha finally stood and joined her brothers. Though tears found a place in her orange eyes, unlike Saber, her voice was clear and free of emotion.
“Let me see him,” Sasha instructed Saber, who obeyed, finally letting Kade go.
Sasha placed a hand on either side of Kade’s face. She examined him from forehead to chin the entire time, a Cheshire smile creeping across her full lips.
“It is you, Kade.” Sasha lost control of her emotions as a fresh wave of tears cascaded down her high cheekbones. “I’ve missed you so much.”
All three members of the Hyde family were hugging, laughing, and crying. Sloan took Theo’s lead as the bear shifter hobbled up the stairs.
“I think they deserve a moment alone,” Theo whispered to Sloan. He put too much weight on his injured leg and almost fell.
Sloan caught him. She grabbed the big shifter around his waist and draped his arm over her neck. In this way, she helped him the rest of the way up the stairs.
“I think you’re right,” Sloan said with a final look behind her. Seeing Kade so happy, she knew she must love him. She’d never felt this way about a man before, and she didn’t think she would ever again. “Let’s get out of here.”
If Sloan knew what the future had in store for the shifter family, she would have stayed and enjoyed the moment with them.