He just didn’t know what he could do about it, or when it would happen, or any of that.Not as he sat there in the closet, silently listening as Annabel continued to paint her picture, and also began to expand her reach, planning ways to interfere with shifter sanctuaries as well, via using her son's political power.Annabel had very obviously been reading up on the topic; she knew how and which shifters to hurt, and she would be relentless until she got what she wanted.
Chapter19
There was not a single question in El’s mind; time was of the essence, and Ryan and her needed to get out of the dining room about five minutes ago.The only problem was that, for the most part, they couldn’t exactly find a way to do that.Not with the two of them sitting side by side with barely any room and a whole array of hunters standing at the edge of the dining room, patrolling the room in a way that, now that El thought about it, was very similar to that of a guard standing outside of a king’s bed chamber, or how Adam would watch Ryan…
And man, did she wish that Adam was there right now as well.
When El and Ryan had initially entered, Adam had been forced to do as all the other bodyguards did, heading to the kitchen to eat amongst the other servants.Now she began to realize what a bad idea that was and how having your bodyguard leave in such a state left you vulnerable.It was no wonder that Annabel had set a precedent for doing that years before, if only because it opened her up for a plan like this if the worst came.
And, in El’s opinion, the worst had come.
Well, Ryan had very clearly begun to sober up from the moment that the word hunters had left her lips.They still weren't exactly in the best situation, and now that she considered it, it might not have been the best idea to tell him such news while they were sitting under such close scrutiny from the guards.
From the moment that Ryan had heard “hunters,” everything about him had shifted.He was no longer relaxed.The drug seemed to pass through his system at a quicker rate.Now, he was on edge, his eyes moving in every single direction, and the man making little to no effort to hide the fact that he was aware that something was going on.And the moment that you saw that someone else was concerned tended to inspire similar levels of concern within you.As time went on, the other dining guests seemed to notice Ryan, their motions having a certain stiffness, as they saw how anxiously he moved.
But whatever drug that they had been fed by the servants, it must have had some sort of additional side effect of occasionally making people have bouts of anxiety, considering the fact that they didn't so much as blink an eye in their direction, at least not yet.But the moment that their eyes went down, they saw Ryan's hand tightly gripping his mates beneath the table?
El was pretty sure that that would be the moment that they would all spring into action, realizing that the two were completely aware of what was going on.At the moment, it was very clearly taking everything that Ryan had to not say anything, to not move too quickly, to not cause a scene.But those threads of control were slowly fraying, and she could practically feel the way that the claws itched to come out from under his skin.
He was, after all, a shifter, and at heart, every wild animal lashed out when they were cornered.There was no questioning the fact that that was what they were at that moment, locked in the dining room with hunters standing in every direction, the other dinner guests being people whom they hardly knew.
Would it be a bloodbath, El dared to wonder, her mind going back to the medieval fantasy show that she and the boys used to watch, the one that they had pretty much marathoned just after Destiny had been born and kept everyone up at strange hours, allowing everyone to have impromptu TV dates if only to stay awake.In that show, there had, in fact, been a bloodbath sometime around the officiation of a wedding.One that one of the bad guys had planned with his cohorts, not willing to see the two kingdoms come together and into power.
El was afraid that this was the very same situation and that the room was full of one or the other, moderately more successful shifters than the ordinary, the shifters having somehow managed to hide their scent in the process.Whatever her mother was, these people were one and the same, only coming from different branches and different lineage.Annabel hated competition that much El knew.She wouldn't put it above her mother to murder everyone who stood in the way of being the best.She had already proven time and time again that she didn't care for people who were supposed to be related to her, much less people who had no connection to her at all.
Still, El could either sit there and ponder how exactly she got into that situation, wondering what exactly was going on and who exactly her mother was—or she could find a way to move and get out of there as quickly as possible.She was currently a fan of the latter, though, at the moment, she was coming up empty when trying to brainstorm any solution to her current situation.
Even if both she and Ryan were to shift, going into their beast forms and trying to fight their way out of there, they would be grossly outnumbered at best, on the off chance that the other people in there were also shifters.El had a feeling that if they were, they were the type that was dumb enough to believe that they were associated with Annabel, that she would never betray them or throw them under the bus.
And then, when all seemed like it was already pretty bad, El was forced to watch as the servants crept up behind the wives of her brothers, whispering in their ears and escorting the two ignorant women out of there with little more than a few words.
Oh, they were fucked.There was not a doubt in her mind.Never before had she felt such a shiver creep down her spine as she did at that moment, realizing that this very well could be the end.
“Don’t be scared,” Ryan whispered at her side, reminding her that he was there as he kept his fingers laced through hers and gave her a reassuring squeeze.“We're going to find a way out of this,” Ryan said, and yet even as his voice sounded so sure of itself, the look on his face was the kind that would dissuade his pride in times of utmost certainty.El began to doubt that.
After all, they had never been in a situation like this, one where they were practically ambushed, and for the most part?She couldn’t imagine that they would get out.Not as those women left and the feeling in her stomach doubled down, her eyes lingering on the diminished number of hunters in the room, and yet scarcely able to make sense of it.Were they going to poison the air or something?
El had no idea.
Maybe Annabel was particularly cruel, and she had already poisoned the wine.El knew better than to assume her mother would overlook any detail when party planning, not when she had made El sit through the lengthy party planning process for both of her brothers’ campaigns and their sweet sixteenths—not to mention graduations, weddings, and the like.
Annabel was a seasoned hostess, and being a seasoned hostess, she never overlooked even the smallest details.
To be at her mercy was a death sentence.
One that El could barely stomach was her daughter's face coming back into her mind, the idea of Destiny being all alone in that world haunting her.With little more than Joseph to care for her, paired with the occasional Persia, it was more than likely that Annabel would eventually find her.But Destiny's chances of survival went up if her mother were somehow able to escape the situation that she currently found herself in.The party from hell.
She was going to have to do something that she never wanted to do, to lash out and rebel against that distinctly human part of her, the part of her that begged her not to become a monster.The idea of jumping forward and attacking the hunters that surrounded them was both appealing and unappealing.She had never wanted to taste human blood on her lips.That wasn't the person that she was.
And yet, the situation was so desperate that it practically called for it.
But just when it seemed like all hope was lost, like she would have to sacrifice what little sanity she had left in this world, a sound hit the air.A loud, piercing sound that was undeniable.One that came from upstairs and had all of the hunters’ heads falling back, their eyes going wide and their mouths falling open as, without a second thought, the first of the hunters left the room, obviously deeming the drugged party guests to be of no concern to them when something was very clearly going on upstairs.
Something that had resulted in a lot of screaming on Annabel's part and loud thumping.A loud thumping that El found herself not wanting to think about as, person after person, the servants began to leave the room, obviously more than concerned for their mistress.
What was going on?El had no idea, and yet, she didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth as she got up from the table, realizing that the door was closed but that the pin pad would very obviously still hold the code from long ago, the one that she was never meant to know.
The year that she was born, the code to dismantle the security system.
