Lola pulled her head away from Callon’s and turned to look at the Shaman.His silver eyes swirled dangerously as he glared at Lola’s best friend, who simply blinked up at him.
“Sooo,” Lola drew out as she looked back at Taras and Lyra.“The couple fell in love and made a baby.What happened next?”She shifted on Callon’s lap and tried not to feel self-conscious over the fact that she was sitting in his lap in the first place.
“As you know,” Taras continued, ignoring Roan and Maddie, “Shaman can sense the magic of ananimus.Roan noticed there was something different about the human female that mated with our male.And after talking to her, we found out she’d been able to see past our glamour.She hadn’t wanted to admit it, nor had her mate wanted her to.”
“Why?”Maddie asked before Lola could.“Is there some rule prohibiting you all from revealing yourselves to humans?”
“An unwritten rule,” Lyra answered.“Not so much a law, but you can imagine what would happen if the wrong kind of human found out about our existence.”
Maddie nodded.“They’d want to capture you and experiment on you.Or kill you because they perceived you as a threat.We humans can be awesome sometimes.”
Lola raised her eyebrows, wondering if her own spirit had somehow jumped into Maddie.Why is she talking so much?Maddie’s sudden extroversion was truly unusual, especially in a stressful situation.Maybe she’s in shock.
Taras motioned to Maddie.“Exactly.We desire to keep a low profile.But the decision we made after finding out what this female could do was foolish, uncaring, and something I will forever be ashamed of.”
“Okay.”Lola held up a hand.“I see where Callon gets his inability to just spit it out.I mean, we’re sitting here thinking the absolute worst, and you just keep hinting at this horrible action.Are there tons of women sitting in rows of freezers somewhere in the basement because you thought they wereanimi,but then they turned out not to be, so you had to kill them because they knew what you were, and you had to silence them?Did you have to kill their families, too, because they went missing and obviously their families would go to the police and there’d be some serious publicity over a bunch of women going missing?For the love of every woman’s sanity in the history of ever, rip the bandage off already.”Lola breathed heavily as she finally snapped her mouth shut.Everyone stared at her—some with brows raised, some with blank faces, and a couple with grins, as if she were the most amusing thing they’d seen all day.“I mean…” She looked at Lyra and Taras.“Please, could you get to the point?”
Lyra leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.“Shaman began searching for the human women that hadanimimagic.And when they found them, they took them.They brought them to our territory where they could be exposed to our males in hopes that a connection could be made.The Shaman”—she motioned to Roan—“were required by their own oath to share information.So Roan had to tell the Council what we’d learned.Once the other kingdoms knew, it became a competition.The more females a kingdom had, the more chances for mates, which would allow more males to tap into their beasts.”
“And babies,” Maddie muttered.“Don’t forget that little tidbit.”
Lola felt like she was going to vomit.They’d abducted women.Just like the Kingdom of Venom was doing.“You were human traffickers,” Lola blurted out.
“No.”Callon growled.“We never trafficked.We did not sell or trade women.They are precious and treated as such.They are pampered.Human females in a kingdom have anything and everything they need or want?—”
“Except their freedom,” Lola snapped back as she swung her head around to glare at him.“And I suppose there were human captives at the mansion you took me to?”
He stared at her for several heartbeats before he finally nodded.“Captives really isn’t the right word,” he muttered.
This time when she pushed away, he let her up.Lola’s hands fisted at her sides as she walked backward away from Callon.She wasn’t paying attention to what was behind her and bumped into something solid, but it wasn’t a wall.Hands rested on her biceps, steadying her.Callon jumped to his feet, his face changing in a blink from human to something between lion and man.He moved forward toward her.
“Get your paws off her,” he said through a large mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Lola glanced over her shoulder and saw Bane behind her.Good grief.She inwardly sighed and stepped forward, forcing his hands to release her.Then she moved to the side so that the panther was no longer directly behind her.
Taras rose to his feet.“Stand down, Callon.”He grabbed his son’s arm and pulled him back, which was a testament to his strength because Callon certainly wasn’t voluntarily yielding the space.Woah.The Prime is powerful.“She doesn’t want Bane.My guess is that your mate doesn’t want anyone in this room at the moment.”
“Except me.”Maddie raised a hand.“I’ve got no history of snatching up innocent women to make babies with them.So we’re good.”
Lola shook her head and glanced around the room.Recently, she’d been in awe of them because of their uniqueness and supernatural qualities.But ultimately, they weren’t any different from humans.They made stupid choices that hurt others.They made huge mistakes that had huge consequences.She didn’t have any right to judge them, butthis?This was something more than calling in sick to work when you really just wanted to read the newest book in a series you love.Thiswas way beyond grabbing a drink in the grocery line only to realize once you were in your car that you’d forgotten to pay for it and then being too lazy to walk back inside and do the right thing.These werepeoplethey’d taken.People with loved ones, friends, jobs, and pets that relied on them.And they’d been snatched right off the street because the beastwalkers thought they had a right to take them.No matter the reason, stealing a person is never okay.
“Lola.”Even though his mouth wasn’t fully human, Callon’s voice was gentle.His face still sat in that in-between state.His golden gaze pierced hers as he took another step toward her.
She shook her head and held up a hand to stop him.“No.You have to let me process this.This isn’t the same thing as you turning into a gigantic beast or coming from a completely different realm.This is wrong, Callon.”
“I know.”His chin dropped, and his shoulders slumped forward in defeat.“I know.”
Roan spoke up.“If it helps?—”
“It won’t,” Maddie quipped.
“Our Creator has deemed fit to punish us for our actions,” he continued.“That was one of the things I was coming to tell Taras and Lyra tomorrow.”He paused and looked at his watch.“Well, technically today, considering we’ve passed midnight.”
“Does it have to do with what you told Callon when he came into Lola’s room in berserker mode?Because that doesn’t sound like a punishment.”
Roan’s eyes cut to Maddie who leaned back on the love seat, her body moving with the grace of a cat.He spoke calmly, but slowly, maybe because he didn’t think she’d pay attention otherwise.“By the ten kingdoms, Female, would you let me finish?”
Maddie simply shrugged.
