“I know you don’t like it, Jordan, but that is the way things are,” Bronx said behind him.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Things need to change,” Jordan said.
“This is how things are in our world,” Bronx told him.
“But it’s not fair.”
“To you maybe,” Duncan told him, anger still radiating off him in waves.
Jordan still didn’t understand and he probably never will. But he expected more from Bronx and Duncan.
“It’s just the thought that you would have done it without a thought to anyone else that bothers me,” Jordan told Duncan then turned to Bronx. “I don’t know either of you,” he said and walked out of the office going up to the room he shared with Duncan.
Chapter Twelve
Jordan
Jordanwas sitting on the bed thinking about what had just happened downstairs. He was embarrassed by the way he acted. He was so new to everything, that he was projecting his emotions on everyone around him, especially Duncan. Maybe he was angry with everyone for holding things back from him. But he valued human life, to think that Bronx would have sacrificed his mate to free him. He couldn’t have asked his best friend to do that, not for him. But then again, maybe that was why Duncan could have asked Bronx to do it, he had no emotional attachment to Bronx’s mate. Jordan knew for certain that it was hard to ask his friend to hand over his mate. The door to their room opened and the twins burst in.
“Hey, guys,” he said, putting his depressing thoughts to the back of his mind.
“We are going to Grandma’s for the night,” Benjamin said.
“Yeah, so we have to pack our bags, can you help us?” Maddison asked him as she pulled his arm forcing him to get up.
“Grandma?” Jordan said, confused. “Duncan’s mom is here?”
“No, silly,” Benjamin said, shaking his head.
“Grandma Ayumi,” Maddison corrected Jordan. “Grandpa Laxus said we can sleep out in the backyard like you used to do when you were a kid,” she added.
“Oh,” was all he said. He’d forgotten his parents told them to call them Grandma andGrandpa
“Come on, Daddy.”
Jordan froze when Maddison called him that. Her tiny fingers slipped from his fingers, she and Benjamin continued walking out of the room, not realizing that he wasn’t following behind them.Daddy.His throat felt tight, and he was having a difficult time breathing. He had no idea where that came from.Did Duncan tell the kids to call me that now that we are mates? No, they still call him Uncle.Jordan sat back down on the bed, covering his face in his hands.I’m not going to cry, nope, I’m not. Am I overthinking this? Maybe, it was a Freudian slip?He tried to ignore the leaking from his eyes that fell into the palms of his hands.They want me as theirs. They’ve accepted me.
“Dad, where are you?” Benjamin’s voice rang out in the hall.
Jordan quickly wiped his wet cheeks to mask the fact that he was touched by the twins saying one simple word. He looked up just as Benjamin walked back into the room. His sweet little face smiling at him. His blue eyes shining with excitement and mischief. He was an innocent child, unbeknownst to the things happening around him. Their lives had changed, and they were handling things better than he was. Jordan knew for sure that he would do anything to protect Benjamin and Maddison, no matter what. Then it hit him.Gods, I’m so fucking stupid. Duncan was trying to do the same thing for me.
“Are you okay?”
He looked away from Benjamin and his eyes connected with Duncan’s, he had a very worried look on his face.
“Yeah.” His voice cracked, and he masked it with brushing invisible lint as he got up from the bed. He walked over to his lover, going to his toes and gave Duncan a chaste kiss. “I love you,” he whispered against Duncan’s lips. He looked up at Duncan and saw the shock in his eyes mixing with lust simmering below the surface. Jordan didn’t give Duncan a chance to respond, he grabbed little Benjamin’s hand. He looked down at the little tyke who was sniffing his Uncle. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I smell something weird and it’s coming from Uncle Duncan,” the child said with honest innocence.
Duncan shifted his stance the same time Jordan burst out with laughter. Leave it to a child with a superb sense of smell to draw attention to his uncle’s discomfort. He looked at Benjamin, he had a very confused look on his face as to why they were laughing. “Come on,” Jordan told Benjamin once he was able to get his laughter under control. He kissed Duncan one more time before walking out of the room with Benjamin, to help him pack his bag for the night.
Later that night Jordan walked out of the bathroom, wrapping a towel around his waist. After seeing the twins and his parents off, he had excused himself from the others. He needed to get prepared to leave with everyone else. Duncan was still downstairs with Ryland, the three brothers, Bronx, and three of his coven members, along with the eight nyxians that had come back with him.
The town sheriff was also added to the “need to know” group, along with two of his deputies who would be keeping their eyes open for suspicious activities around the island. They were coming up with a plan to raid the hunters’ compound before they got the chance to clean up the evidence and leave. According to Hayato, one of the nyxians that had helped Jordan escape, the hunters would need hours to break down their equipment and hide all of their evidence. It took them months to set up properly.
Aoi, who Jordan finally learned was Laxus’s little brother, explained things better to Duncan and everyone else about what was really going on. He told them exactly how his evil-as-fuck grandfather was able to make the tainted drug. Aconite. It wasn’t harmful to Jordan and his people, hell, they could eat it if they choose, but once it was introduced to a lykosian’s or sanguine’s system, it instantly turned into poison, killing them. There was no antidote that could cure them. Aoi also explained how Bergstrand’s hatred for lykosians and other shifter sects pushed him to do despicable things. Jordan and the others found out that his birth father was not the first or last lykosian his grandfather tortured and it was by accident he found out exactly how potent and deadly aconite was to a lykosian.
It was Bergstrand’s idea to approach the hunters in aiding them to rid the world of the foul creatures. Aoi and the others believed Bergstrand started working with the hunters right after Laxus and Ayumi got away. He also tried to employ the help of the witches and elfkins who turned him down. He was angered by that, but even Bergstrand wouldn’t be foolish enough to go up against those two sects. Aoi told the group that he feared that Bergstrand had a secret weapon, something or someone he acquired a while back, but he’d kept it close to his chest. It was then they found out that the hunters and Bergstrand had been capturing members from sects and using them as test subjects to build their army of super soldiers, which also included his own people.
