Unfortunately, Luna had decided that she needed to visit her mother, likely because it was Mother's Day, though Adam and Ryan didn't really celebrate that, considering the fact that their mother was a little bit of a nut case, but that was beside the point.He had kissed Willow goodbye, loaded up the car, raised his brow at his brother as his brother fearlessly gave his daughter away to a man whom he was pretty sure he had heard Ryan disparaging the other night, and took off in the car with his Luna and his alpha, resigning himself to yet another tedious, boring day in which he waited to return home so that he could finally see his mate.
Thankfully, Adam had been to the Forsythe-Drew household often enough that he was beginning to get to know the staff, and sitting in the kitchen with them was never really a hardship for him.Though many of the other positions at Annabel's house had been notably refilled recently, a fact that irritated Adam because he thought of how he would have to figure out exactly who was working there and run a background check on every single one of them, the people in the kitchen didn't really change.
Probably because it was hard to find people who were good cooks and willing to put up with Annabel's constant attitude, but Adam kept that opinion to himself.
While he had heard a few bumps, a couple of screams, and the like, most of Adam's day had been admittedly calm.He had a few nice rounds of conversation with the gardeners, asking them about how they changed up the lawn and what they thought about the increasing security dog presence on the property, and then he'd also sat down and had a nice cup of tea with the butler.Overall, you would describe his time at the estate as being a calm departure from his normally taxing experiences on the pride compound.
Really, he wasn't worried about anything in the slightest, and he had no reason to be.Not here.
When they were at the Pantera compound, where it was noted that there was a lot of tension in the air and many people didn't want the merger to go through, he felt like he had to work his ass off.But here at his Luna’s parents’ house?
Adam sighed, feeling like he was finally able to relax himself somewhere.After all, the Drew estate had thousands of its own security guards and cameras up the wazoo.If anything was going to happen anywhere, it very likely wouldn't be here.Not after her parents had been cleared of trying to attempt kidnapping her several times.It was clear that there was nothing wrong with El’s parents, and therefore, Adam felt like he was able to breathe.At least for a few moments, until a red light started going off on the kitchen wall.
“Fire in the main wing,” the butler sighed, His voice making it sound like this was something that happened just about every day, which was concerning, to say the least, especially when Adam thought about it and realized that the people that he was meant to be protecting were in the main wing.
But no sooner had Adam clamored to his feet then the door to the kitchen had been thrown open, bouncing against the brick wall in the room and cracking the white-painted stones.He blinked in surprise at that, not expecting anyone to charge into the kitchen of all places, and then blinked again in surprise at the faces that greeted him, their eyes wide, their mouths partially open, a look on both Ryan's and El’s face that was concerning, to say the least.
“Adam,” his brother practically spat out at him, diving forward to grab his arm and tear him across the room even as the bodyguard blinked in confusion in his brother's general direction.“We need to go,” he said, using that alpha tone of voice that he so rarely used with his brother, the same tone of voice that left Adam blinking even more, his mind going blank as he found himself unable to argue with his brother.
Ryan almost never used his position in the pride over him; he never spoke to his brother in that tone that was laced with the authority of the alpha, but he was doing it at that moment, and he was doing it relentlessly, his voice so heavy with authority that Adam couldn't even think to argue that he should be able to finish his drink, all he could do was blink and follow them, his mind going blank as they charged to the door at the other side of the kitchen, leaving all the servants who had been surrounding Adam and conversing with him before even more confused than they had been.
Especially when, just a moment after the trio had departed, some of the new hires came bursting into the kitchen.“Where are they,” a man with black sunglasses demanded of the kitchen staff, his voice filled with anger, his eyes practically burning with hatred.When they didn't respond quick enough, he simply shook his head at them, as if disgusted, and stomped across the room, ripping the door open so hard that it could have practically come off its hinges.
Interesting, to say the least, but not the most interesting thing that had happened to the servants as of recently, considering the fact that not even a few weeks ago, Annabel had thrown all of her former husband's clothing out on the lawn, screaming something about a whore.Still, they all looked on in confusion, and if Adam were to ever return, they would undoubtedly tell the man.But, it seemed that Adam was currently concerned with running across the lawn.
And running quickly could not make much sense to his pattern if you asked Adam, considering the fact that as he followed Ryan and El, he found that they didn't make a logical beeline to their car as most people who are trying to escape a bad situation would.No, instead, they cut through a lawn and towards the bushes at the front of the house, sprinting with all that they were worth and allowing their beasts to propel them forward, and consequentially, Adam as Ryan turned back at him and spoke in that alpha tone again.“Faster,” Ryan said, his voice laced with a desperation that Adam couldn't even begin to place as he helplessly followed his brother, incapable of arguing at that moment.
The man's confusion only grew as the three of them stumbled up to the bushes, with his Luna digging through them for a moment before producing a large, rather thick file folder.
“We need to go,” she said, her voice making it clearer that there was no arguing to be done concerning this, but in the distance, Adam heard something that had him furrowing his brow and wrinkling his nose, pausing as the effects of the alpha's command weighed on him, and he was left to look with confusion towards the house, hearing something on the distance but not being able to completely place it.
At first, at least, as he stared backward and eyed the windows, incapable of comprehending his own brother's speech as his jaw began to drop and his eyes began to widen, a shadow showing in the window nearest him, and his mind consequentially being rendered incapable of understanding what it was.At least at first and then, he comprehended it all too quickly, the words escaping him in a large, far too loud explanation.“Lion,” Adam had breathed, his voice filled with shock as he saw an unfamiliar site at the estate, that of a rather large lion with a dark mane, Marcus, crashing through the window and landing beside him just a moment later, leaving not only Adam but El and Ryan blinking in confusion as well as they all stared at the singular lion and then the two men that quickly followed them.
“Marcus?Shawn?Trip?”El exclaimed, and yet there was little to no time for reunions as the three only shook their heads at her, raising their knees higher as Trip lunged forward and gripped El’s hand, forcing her to run with him, and consequentially, Ryan and Adam as well, considering the fact that there was no way that they could leave her side.
The six of them headed for the hedges, with El just barely vanishing behind the foliage before she realized what it was that they were all running from, with the big bad wolf that had all the lions on high alert.
But then she came into view, in those last seconds before El’s hand was grabbed, and she was forced to move through the gap in the fence, this small, narrow pathway that was open to the side of the gates because of the fire alarm.
Annabel.Her once-adopted mother stood in the window with a shotgun in her hand, her eyes filled with anger and a look on her face making it clear that she was not happy.Especially not considering the second sight that she found herself confronted with the moment that she had walked down the stairs.
All of the people that she had dragged, all of her party guests, were out on the lawn, filing out of all the exits.As it turned out, the American habit of having schoolchildren run through fire drills after fire drills instilled a healthy reaction in adults.Mainly the fact that from the moment any red-blooded American heard a fire alarm began to scream, they made for the exits, whether or not they were drugged.It was the one reliable bit of human behavior, and whatever it was that Annabel had been planning, it was that behavior that had spoiled it.
From the moment that the alarms had gone off, everyone had sobered quickly, blinking out of their daze as they stood on the lawn and waited for what they perceived to be a fire to go out.
And worse yet, because it was Annabel, and she had spent her whole life trying to make sure that she and her children were seen, that their names were always at the forefront of everyone's mind, and their faces decorated the cover of every magazine, the moment that that fire alarm went off, a chain reaction set off, one that made it imperative that the woman not be standing in the window holding a shotgun with such a look in her eye.
Not when faster than cop cars or firefighters could ever hope to arrive, the paparazzi showed up.Decked out in their black cars, holding their cameras, and walking around without an ounce of shame, the paparazzi began to line the wall, taking advantage of the head gates falling open with the pulling of a single fire alarm, and taking as many pictures of the estate as possible as Annabel stood with a dazed look in her eye, staring out at the lawn.
Whatever hatred she had felt for her daughter, it was nothing compared to the pure and utter rage that was aimed toward whoever it was who would pull that fire alarm, wherever the panther was that had mauled her face, scratching across her features and undoubtedly leaving a scar that Annabel would have to take several trips to a plastic surgeon for.
But at the end of the day, Annabel grinned as she realized exactly the opportunity that was presented before her.Because, with the press lining the lawn and with her sons soon to come out and see the wreckage of the party, Annabel had finally begun to set in motion a plan years in the making.One that she hadn't been completely sure would be successful.One that she hadn't fabricated enough evidence to sell her sons on, to begin with, but that now would appear far more than legitimate to them.
Whoever it was who had broken into her house that day, who had attacked her and ruined all of her files, she should have shaken their hand, congratulating them on helping her with her plan.Now, the narrative was whatever she wanted to be; she was the victim that she was trying so hard to portray herself as.
And as hunter clans across the nation saw the image of Annabel Drew standing on her lawn, her husband missing, her face mauled, and her world torn apart, it was more than likely that they would begin to understand exactly what a menace to society shifters was.She wouldn't have to bother hosting another dinner party for the soft-minded, more conservative hunter families, the ones who had recently begun to argue against the hunting of shifters who weren't operating outside of their limits.The ones who had tried to say that there was a way for humans and shifters to live in harmony.
The ones who had stood in defiance of the Drew name.
