Then Callum held his hand out to her.“Please?”
Swallowing hard, she slowly approached and held out her hand, forcing herself not to wince at the contact.
He barely touched her, but she felt a slight tingle from him and sensed he was restraining himself so as not to freak her out.
He released her hand, more tears flowing down his cheeks.“You’re newly mated to someone who endured such heartbreaking trauma, and still helped us?”
Aisling wiped her eyes with her hands.“Aye.Those feckin’ cunts were evil.”
“She’s mated to Tamsin,” Peyton said.“Tamsin is Faegan’s youngest child with Frannie, but she was also a victim of her father and despised him.He had Tamsin’s first mate killed.”He pointed to Trevor.“Maisie, one of Trevor’s children.And Maisie’s twin brother, Rupert, was killed in the same attack.”
Callum slowly nodded.“We’re in your debt.All of you.”
“Nah.”She smiled, sniffling.“Lookin’ forward to gettin’ to know both of ye better.Like Peyton said, yer family.”
He also took Trevor’s hand, briefly, nodding when he released him.“We are grateful, Trevor.”
“Whatever you need,” Trevor said, “whatever we can do, please ask.We’ll do our best to take care of it.For now, we have a variety of clothes in the wardrobe for you,” Trevor said, pointing.“We didn’t know who or how many we’d have, so we made sure to put in the basics in a variety of sizes.We’ll buy everyone proper clothing as soon as possible.And there are bottles of water there.”He pointed to a dresser.“If you wish to bathe first, there are towels and soap, and other toiletries in the bath.”
“We’ll shower later,” Callum said.“I want to help awaken everyone first.”
“We have basic food on hand,” Trevor continued, “but we weren’t certain what people would or could eat.There are food supplements, energy shakes, and the sort, and a plentiful variety of soups, all available right now.We’ll have more food brought in shortly once everyone’s awake.We will also have kitchen staff on hand twenty-four/seven to prepare anything you wish anytime you wish.”
Callum nodded.“Anyone ambulatory can probably eat normal food.I’m not certain about the youngest children, but the supplement shakes, at the very least, should be fine to start.”
Bryn sniffled and turned to them.“What about the other children?Not the ones from the lab.Did you locate them yet?”
“Other children?”Peyton asked.
“The children they took from us over the years and raised elsewhere.”
Peyton, Trevor, and Aisling exchanged horrified looks.“Uh, we haven’t been through all the records yet,” Peyton said.“We didn’t know about them.How many?”
“If they’re alive,” she said, “at least five of ours.And probably more from IVF.I don’t know how many others were taken from other parents.”
“Fuuuck,” Peyton said, his hands on his hips as he stared at the floor.“None of the people we compromised ahead of time said anything about that.We’ll make going through the records a priority to locate and rescue them.We have the resources to do that.”
“Thank you,” Callum said.
Peyton
They aren’t the only ones who’ll need therapists by the time this is over.
The revelation that there were potentially so many children out there if they used IVF or other shifters to… breed…
Fuuuuck me.
He guided Trevor and Aisling out into the corridor to wait while the couple changed clothes.
“That’s a lot of missing people we need to locate,” Trevor whispered.
Peyton grimly nodded.“Hopefully they’ll be easy to find if the lab kept records.”
Ten minutes later the couple emerged, Bryn keeping tight hold of Callum’s arm while Peyton and Trevor led the way, and Aisling brought up the rear.
They started with the adults first.All of them awakened terrified, disoriented, and quickly calmed once they realized they were safe.Over half of them spoke English in varying degrees of fluency.Between Peyton’s and Callum’s Prime skills, and a couple of the medical personnel who either spoke their language or were good with translation apps, they were able to communicate with them all.
Most importantly, they were able to quickly assure them they were safe and protected.
