Chapter 178

[ 1,367 words ]

Liam

“Will the kid be staying with you?” I ask Elliot.

“Yes.”

I give him an incredulous look. “Is this a fact or have you decided this on your own?”

The male has a knack for forcing the conclusion he wants, free will be damned.

It’s actually impressive.

“It will happen,” he says, confirming my belief.

“He’s going to need a mentor.”

“Lucky he has you,” Elliot says deadpan.

“Are you asking or telling me?”

Elliot cradles my daughter in his hands. “We’re family. You’ll do it.”

He goes back to cooing at the baby as she smiles a gummy sleepy smile at him.

It strikes me that his personality can be depending on who he is around. Around my pups, there is a sweet, almost doting side I’ve never thought was there.

“Thanks for holding her,” Hazel says as he enters the room.

“It’s my pleasure,” he says.

Taking the baby to go and get her fed Hazel leaves the room.

“Let’s go speak to Sage, but don’t speak about the living situation yet. I’m going to need my Princess to smooth things over.”

I laugh but get up and follow him.

We head to the healer building, walking in and stepping straight into the second patient room.

Sage stands quickly and a lot of relief crosses her face when she sees Elliot.

It seems he’s already established trust with her. That’s a good start if he wants to argue the case for the boy.

Dante is sleeping in one bed across from Ashlynn who is in the other.

“How are they?” Elliot asks.

“Doing well. The healer says they should be good to travel in a few hours. Right now they are just sleeping off some of the aches.”

She pointedly looks at me and Elliot says, “This is Liam, my brother in law.”

“Hello,” she says carefully.

“Nice to meet you,” I say, keeping my voice even so as not to make her alarmed.

“He is a hybrid as well. They are the only living hybrid on this continent.”

Her eyes widen and she looks back at her son. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing bad, but we would like to talk to you.”

“Sure,” she confirms.

We step outside and she closes the door softly behind us.

“What’s this all about?” Sage crosses her arms over her chest.

I figure it’s best to just get straight to the point. “I want to mentor your son.”

Suspicion automatically slams down on her face. “Why?”

“As Elliot explained, we’re the last of our kind and being a hybrid is…complicated. It is more difficult to reign in our instincts and to make peace with our inner beast. We are faster and stronger then your average shifters and with that comes the need for more control.”

“So you would… what? Come to our house and teach him.”

Considering her house will now be on Nightshade territory, I nod. “Or here. Whatever works best.”

“We’ll consider it,” she agrees.

Elliot gives her a satisfied smile. “ Good. Now I have another question for you.”

She makes a go ahead gesture.

“Are you aware of any other hybrids?”

“Only my late mate. But I got the impression that his uncle felt that made him special. That’s why he didn’t agree without pairing. He wanted to ensure the passing of the gene and he believed a human was too weak to produce a hybrid offspring.”

What a cunt.

“Do you think he’ll look for you guys one day?”

“No. I faked my death and covered my trail. I wanted to make sure my son was safe, that he could live a good life. “

I swallow hard. For a moment, in not talking to a mother, I’m talking to my mother.

I’m listening to what she was willing to do to give me and Aria a fighting chance.

My respect for Sage goes up.

“I’ll give you my number and we can talk about a schedule for Dante. It’s important to start soon, especially since puberty looks like it might be around the corner.”

“Shit, are you telling me he’s gonna get super hormones for something?”

Elliot laughs. “Something close to that.”

“Great. This day just keeps getting better and better,” she sighs.

“Don’t worry I’ll help you wrangle him in,” I say.

And I mean it.

I didn’t have anyone to show me how to handle what I was, but I did have a great support system and friends that were willing to grow with me.

I could be the person that helps to make it easier for him.

“Thank you for doing this for Dante. It’s very kind.”

“Of course,” I say before taking my leave.

She doesn’t know it yet, but soon she’ll be pack.

***

I’m on the back porch with Felix. “ Finally remembered me huh?”

“I always remember you.”

He puts his hands on his hips. “Thats true I’m just greedy for your attention.”

“Really from what I hear you’d been keep yourself busy,”

He twists away from me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

“Do I look like a fool to you? I’ve seen you sneaking back and forth with me sister.”

“Turn coat,” he snarks.

“I haven’t mentioned anything, yet. But that could change depending on what information you’re willing to provide.”

He narrows his eyes but there isn’t any heat in the action. “If I wasn’t so annoyed with you I’d be proud of how far your black mail skills have come.”

“I learned from the best.”

That seems to nullify him a bit. “Your sister and your mate are having a look into the victims. I’m tryna find a link that could make all of this form a lick of sense.”

“I should have known Hazel is part of this somehow.”

Felix shrugs unapologetically. “We’re a good team.”

They are.

I’ve seen them do some pretty impressive shit together. To top it off my mate is fucking smart. And not slightly better than average smart, the kind of intelligence that makes people doubt their own.

Felix studies me. “Are you going to tattle?”

“No. But I do want to be updated on what you find.”

“I figured you would bargain for something,” he looks me up and down.

“It’s a fee for my silence.”

“Granted,” he says without hesitation.

“So what have you found out so far?” I ask knowing there has to be something.

Felix chews his lip deciding how exactly he is going to word this. “I’m not one to speak ill of the dead when they were good while living, but Rosa’s husband’s history is complicated.”

“What do you mean complicated?”

“I mean, I understand why they excommunicated themselves from them. There was infighting, battles for dominance, pretty strict rules about breeding and more sick shit.”

“Breeding?” I repeat, disgusted at the terminology. “What the hell do you mean?”

“The family forced pairing based on multiple factors. Intelligence. Dominance, purity of bloodlines, all in the hopes to have the strongest and most elite children. There are even some rumors of inbreeding in the family tree.”

My lips curl. Disbelief, surprise, and revolution warring for the primary spot in my emotional state.

What kind of people did that?

“That explains why Kane was so unstable,” I say.

“He wasn’t the only one. Their father was worse. I’m frankly surprised that Aaron was as normal as he was.”

“Play so what does that have to do with the rest of the victims?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I got one of my feelings, so I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’m on the right track.” Felix confesses.

His feelings have never been wrong before. They were so accurate, it almost felt like I was being set up.

“Do any of the others support your theory?”

“So far, the two I checked do. But you know how these things go. I like to get at least ninety-five percent accuracy before something is common to something.”

I nod, giving him that one. “It’s a good policy.”

“I can’t say that I think we need to start doing some background checks on the other packs.”

I freeze. “Do you think one of them is behind this?”

“I think there is enough of a possibility that it would be stupid not to check just in case.”

I think about it for a moment. For them to have such information that they did about the victims and be able to hunt them down so efficiently, there had to be an inner access point somewhere.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Besides bringing me a piece of chocolate cake every now and then for my continuous support, nothing.”

“Guess I have no choice but to go on cake duty,” I smirk.

“Damn straight,” he says. “Extra chocolate frosting.”

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.