The Alpha didn’t want to hear that he had been in the wrong. There was not that much that he could do. He could fix it, but Justice didn’t know if it was possible. It didn’t feel like it right then talking to him.
“She already knows what I am going to do, Justice. You knew better. I have to make an example of you.”
Justice could understand where he was coming from, he expected it, but that didn’t mean that he was going to go down that way. “I won’t be able to leave it alone. They are my family, my kids, my woman. I won’t be able to let that go.”
Ben squinted his eyes at Justice and asked him if he was threatening him or not. Justice didn’t want to answer, because he knew how his words were going to be taken, but he couldn’t help it. There was just something about the way he said it. Justice made it clearer. “No, I am not threatening you at all. I am just speaking the truth. I don’t know if I can just walk away from this.”
Ben scoffed, “I am trying to not kill you because my sister loves you. Why are you making it so hard?”
Justice just shrugged, because he really didn’t have much to say at all. He tried to figure out what was going to happen next, but he was out of ideas. There had to be something that he could do, something to make it all right again. He asked Ben if there was any way that he could get him to change his mind and at first, Ben shook his head like there was nothing. Then though, he started to think about it, and he finally said that there was something that he could do to change the outcome.
“What? Anything. Tell me what I have to do.” Justice meant it too. He wanted things to be better between them, so he tried his best to pull it together. There was always something about the way Ben looked at him sometimes, the full show of his emotions, and they were never all that good. Ben could be downright evil when he wanted to be and there was a hesitation when Justice saw him look like that. What would he ask him to do?
It didn’t take long to get an answer and it was hard for Justice to hold off. He was shocked, but it wasn’t that hard to understand his reasoning. Bishop had been starting problems with his clan and had tried to embarrass Ben, saying all sorts of bad things about his sister. It was bad enough that it was true, but he had made it even worse. Justice understood all of that, but why did he have to die? And why did Justice have to be the one to do it?
“When does it need to be done?”
“If you want to come back here, you need to bring proof that he has been killed. If you do that and restore my sister’s honor, we will talk about some other sort of arrangement.”
Justice noticed that he said arrangement, and he knew that it was said carefully, and it could very well be not what he wanted. There was a reason that he said it that way and Justice needed to figure out what he meant, but he was going to give it a shot if he could. What other choice did he have? There was nothing else he could do but play the games that were presented to him.
Chapter 27
Allie
About a week went by and her brother just refused to talk to her. Allie could only imagine what it was about. He had not left much to the imagination of what he was going to do and the idea that Allie wasn't going to get to say goodbye to Justice was truly hard for her to stomach. She wanted to try to have him see reason. He wasn't always so unreasonable so Allie had to think that there could be something good to actually come out of it. She really needed to believe that.
The problem was, her brother would have nothing to do with her. He was obviously mad and feeling betrayed, but the fact that he wouldn’t even give her a chance was rather alarming. Allie hoped that she would be able to convince him to not take everything out on Justice. She was willing to do about anything just to have him next to her. Soon, she would be going into labor, and she wanted Justice to be with her. The idea of him not being there made her sick to her stomach.
She started to get a very weird feeling. If she didn't know any better. Allie would think that there was no way to make it any better. That was a scary thought to have obviously, but it was certainly how she felt. The closer she got to her due date, the more helpless she felt. Allie needed someone, some support. Justice had been amazing, and she honestly did not want to go on without him.
Allie had to move into action. She had some idea where she might be able to find him, so she wasted no time trying to do exactly that. Ben said he hadn’t killed him, and for the most part, her brother was a pretty honest guy. If Ben would have killed him, he would have admitted it. Which meant that he was still alive and there was still hope. She didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to wait for her brother to make the right decision. She might be waiting indefinitely. Knowing Ben, that very well could be the case.
The place where Ben locked people up was far out of the way, and Allie was not too excited about the distance of travel that she was going to have to go through to get there. She was already feeling pains in her stomach, but she was determined to go. Knowing that the baby was coming soon only made her want to go even more. Allie could not just forget about him. She wanted him to be there when she had the baby, and Allie was willing to take the punishment if that's what she must do. She was willing to do what was necessary, something that she never would have thought to have said before, but now she truly understood what that could mean.
The holding cells weren't too far away from her home, but she was big and pregnant and a little nervous about going anywhere by herself. Allie would have much rather gone with anyone else, even her younger brother, but she couldn't rely on him not to tell Ben. Allie couldn't make a mistake about loyalties. She hated the fact that one brother had so much say over her life.
Part of her figured that she could always just go and never come back. When she slipped away and nobody noticed, Allie was already thinking about how she could get away. She was going to get Justice, and they were going to run off together. That was Allie's plan and though she hadn't really thought it through all that much, she was quite sure that it was the perfect plan.
Like most plans though, nothing was really going quite the way she had hoped. When she got in there, she realized that Justice was nowhere to be found. That, of course, was unsettling, especially considering she had rested a lot on him being there. She made her way through the place twice, almost got caught just as many times, but Allie just couldn't believe it. Where would he be?
Naturally, Allie started to fear that maybe her brother had lied to her about all of it and Justice wasn't alive anymore. It very well could be that her brother didn't want to upset her before she had the baby. He would find it abhorrent. She started to think bitterly about her brother and how he always thought he was right about everything. Was he just keeping her in the dark because that was just another way he could manipulate her?
Allie was at a loss as to what to do. She had a plan that the two of them would find each other, reconnect and they would all be together happily. That was how she had seen it going and it was a serious bummer that it didn't happen the way Allie saw it going in her head. It was certainly what needed to happen. While she was trying to come up with an answer, something very clear ran through her mind. She was not going home.
Allie wasn’t going to be able to ever believe her brother again. She couldn’t trust him and wanted to have nothing to do with him. He would probably try to marry her off as soon as she had the babies. How her brother could be so cold, Allie would never know. They had never been too close, but she had never thought that he hated her before.
Allie had no idea what she was doing or how it was all going to turn out, but she was on her own. She had to look for Justice, but she had no consideration of where she would find him. She figured that it was a little too much to ask for it to be easier. Allie was terrified of what she was going to do. She knew that the babies were coming soon, but a big part of her was thinking that she needed to be anywhere but where she was. It was time for her to find her own way. Allie always talked about how she wanted to have control of her own life and that was exactly what was going to happen next.
With her mind made up, she shifted into her true form and took off. She tried to find Justice, went all around to find her lover, but he was nowhere to be seen. Allie quickly realized that he was not being held prisoner by her brother which made her question repeatedly if he was alive at all. A part of her had to believe that he was, just because she could not accept it if he wasn't. Allie knew herself and she knew how much she loved Justice. When she told Ben that she would not be able to forgive him, Allie had meant it. If he had still done something to Justice, she would never go back.
Allie quickly felt like she was being followed, but she tried to push the feeling off. She convinced herself that it was likely because she was so worked up. No one was going to come get her. She reminded herself that everything was fine, but then again there was another side of her that felt differently. Where did she get the eerie feeling that something bad was about to happen?
Allie pushed herself to run as fast as she could out of just a gut instinct that she couldn't shake. Of course, Allie thought she was being ridiculous and that nothing would come of it, but then she heard the rustling in the woods right next to her and then on the other side of her. Before Allie could stop anything from happening next, she saw two shifters come from either side of her. Allie didn't have to follow her gut any longer. The danger was no longer hidden and an object of her imagination. It was real, right in front of her and she knew she’d been found out, but by who?
The shifters that tackled her didn't seem to care that she was pregnant. They weren’t her brother’s people. They were someone else’s and if Allie had to guess, her first thought was Bishop. He was getting his revenge apparently. Bishop wanted to claim her child as his own and Allie would be damned if she was going to let that happen. He probably knew that too, which meant that he was willing to do more than she liked to think about.
Allie struggled as much as she could. She tried to get away from them, really she did, but even though she might have hurt one, it wasn't enough to stop anything from happening. Allie was quickly dragged away and then she called out to Justice, it was the first time that Allie thought that he really wouldn't be there to save her. He had too many times before and now she trusted him to do it, but where was he? Allie felt herself grow cold inside, wishing more than anything that Justice was there to save her. He wasn’t though. Allie was on her own, and she’d never felt it more acutely than she did then.
