“What will you do when you find her?” He asks me in a tired, strained voice. “Will you bring her back here and stay…until…?”
As angry as I am at him I see the toll the years of suffering and the weight of responsibility have taken on him. Gone is the strong Alpha that held our mismatched pack together and always strived to protect us from the world. For the first time, I truly realize what the cost was to him to let Eden through his icy demeanor and control when she first came to us. He resisted her up until the night she wore the dress he clutches in his hands and I now see that it was to avoid this very outcome. Sympathy and understanding for him push aside some of the anger I feel until another pang of panic and desperation washes through me through the bond.
“What would you have us do, then? Should we abandon her ta this time unprotected and allow her ta be abused and then killed again?” I ask him coldly.
His eyes drop to the dress and he slowly shakes his head. “No, I want her safe as much as you do but I also want…need…to protect Luca from any more damage. Will you take her away? When you find her, take her far from here. I will tell Luca that the bond you feel is gone and that you have returned to the wild. Eventually, he will accept that she is not coming back and hopefully his mind will begin to heal.” He looks back up at me with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “I will provide you will all the finances you need if you will do this for him…for us.”
I consider his words for a moment but before I can respond, movement outside through the window behind him catches my attention. Cade is back and I watch him shift to his human form and approach Luca. Whatever he says to my brother has him tossing the ax aside and racing for the stables. I can only assume Cade has found her. I have to go so I turn my attention back to Sebastian.
“I will speak to Cade about it.”
I leave the room quickly and race back to our own to gather clothing for my cousin. If he has found her we cannot go in our wolf forms to collect her. We will need horses. I meet him as he is striding toward the house and toss the bundle of clothes at him. He tells me as he dresses.
“It’s a tavern in the poorer area of the town. From what I could see there are rooms above it ta rent. I dinnae scent her anywhere near it but if he has her locked away in a room, I wouldn’t. Finn, the bond feels stronger there and she is in so much pain I almost lost control of my beast and tore the place apart ta get to her. She’s there, I know it.”
I clasp his arm and turn him towards the stables where Luca is leading three mounts out into the yard. “Aye, I believe it. He’s been trying ta keep her away from Luca and from what I’ve seen, it wasn’t the worst decision. He’s just gone about it the wrong way, ya ken.”
He sends me a sharp look. “He thinks Luca will be a danger ta her?”
I sigh and slow down so Luca won’t overhear us. “No, he thinks she’s the danger ta him. You’ve seen him, talked ta him, aye? Bas thinks Luca will crack completely if she comes back and then leaves again. He may not be wrong.”
Cade curses. “Too late for that, then. I already told him I found her.” We both stop and look Luca’s way for a moment where he’s checking the tack on the horses. “I’ve been thinking about what Bas said. It wasn’t right that we left him alone ta deal with the aftermath of Eden leaving. We did it both times, Finn. If we lose her again…we need ta stick around and help him with Luca. They’re our brothers and they took us in and cared for us after we lost our families and pack. We owe them both.”
I nod my agreement. “Aye, ‘tis true. We will stay, no matter how this time ends.”
When we reach Luca, all three of us mount up. Cade and Luca get their horses moving but I pause for a moment and look back at the house. I spot him watching us through one of the windows and I shake my head. His shoulders and head drop and I know he knows that we are going to get her. I nudge my mount in the side and catch up to my brothers. There’s no choice to be made. The love we have for her demands it.
Eden
Ilay on the floor pressed against the door in my bathrobe that Bas brought me. It’s as close as I can get to leaving and getting back to Luca. The fog in my brain has come back and Luca is all I can think about. He needs me. He needs me to come back to him. I hate Bas for keeping me trapped here. He’s ruining everything…everything! All that matters is getting back to Luca and I can’t do that stuck in this room with no way out. My glazed eyes scan the room, looking for some kind of weapon or way that I can kill myself. If I can go back to my time, then I can travel back again and I will make sure Bas doesn’t find me first before I get to Luca.
Raised voices and the sounds of fighting come from the tavern underneath me and I paw at the door listlessly, wishing someone would come up. Sebastian compelled me so I can’t speak to anyone but him and I can’t leave the room but if someone was to come and open this door I could find a way to get a message out to Luca so he can find me. I can’t speak but I can write a note if I had paper. I cry out as a spike of pain lances through my head. I need to get back to Luca! It hurts, it hurts so bad!
“Eden! Eden, are you here?”
I push up off the floor and claw at the door. I know that voice! Cade, it’s Cade. He will take me to Luca. He will take me back to him! I bang and kick at the door wanting to call out so bad but I can’t.
“Eden, are you in there?” Is yelled from the other side of the door as I continue to bang at it.
“Just break the damn thing down!”
That voice has me freezing in place. That…that was Luca. Luca is here! I made it, I made it back to him! My bloody hands fall to my sides as all the urgency and need to get to him that I’ve been weighed down by lifts and the fog in my brain clears. I spin away from the door and stare around the room. What happened? Why am I here? I stare down at my hands as memories of how I’ve behaved since I was shot by that soldier flash through my mind and a choked sound gushes out of me. How…why…why would I do all of that?
“Eden! Move away from the door. We are going to break it down so move back!”
I quickly move to the other side of the room even as my mind races to put the pieces together. Luca…I’ve been obsessed with getting back to Luca. Why? Why just him and not the others too? Something must have happened to make me that way. The door crashes open and my wolves come flying in with a shout. I open my mouth to say their names but nothing comes out. They pull me into their arms and tell me that I’m safe and that they’ll get me out of here but I know they can’t. I can’t leave this room until Sebastian lets me. He compel…Oh my God! I know what happened to me. I pull free from their arms and push them aside and there he is. Luca is standing in the middle of the room, his mouth stretched with a wide smile filled with insane glee.
“You came back to me.”
I try and yell, scream at him for what he’s done but nothing comes out. I know he must have compelled me to come back somehow even if I don’t remember him doing it. It’s the only thing that explains my behavior and the desperate need I’ve had to get back to him. I can’t scream what I want at him so I lunge at him instead but Cade captures me around the waist and pulls me to him.
“There will be plenty of time for hugs and reuniting when we get you back to the house. We need to go before the regulators get here, yeah? We might have caused a wee bit of damage to the owners and the property when they tried to stop us from coming up here.”
He drags me toward the door while Finn gathers my clothing up but my furious eyes never leave Luca. I can’t fucking believe he would do this to me. I had no way to fight it. It took over my entire brain. All my will was focused on doing what he compelled me to. First Luca and then Sebastian did it by forcing me to…
“Argggg!!!!”
The pain whites out my vision and has the meager contents of my stomach coming up all over. My fingers claw into Cade’s arm leaving deep bloody grooves until he lets me go and I drop to the floor and drag myself back over the threshold of the room to make the pain stop. I lay there gasping as tears flow down my face and wait for the dark spots to leave my vision.
