Page 43 of Hidden Nature

My eyes snapped open, and I used my magic to grip tightly around her throat as I stood and walked around the table. She started to claw at her neck in hopes of removing whatever it was that I’d done, but she wasn’t at all powerful enough to fight me. When I reached her seat, I yanked the chair out, looking down into her panic-filled eyes as her skin started to turn purple with the lack of oxygen.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you… yet,” I assured her, relaxing my hold on her neck. She gasped for breath, her entire body shaking as a coughing fit hit her, tears streaming down her face. “There is one thing that I hate most in this world and that is to be lied to. Facts and accurate information are how I keep myself alive and when someone lies to me, that puts me in danger which isn’t a place I like to be. Danger means possible death. Death means my mates go down with me. You see, it’s not just my life that I worry about anymore. Elves play by different rules than wolves do. When we mate, it’s on a soul level, but I wouldn’t expect you to know this since you aren’t an elf or spent much time with them. Now I am giving you one chance to tell me why you lied to me and risked our agreement, killing us both?”

“What?” Zander snarled, his rage breaking my hold on keeping him silent. “Mother, what have you done?”

Morwyn looked at me with a hopelessness in her eyes. “I’m dead no matter what happens. Gareth found out about the baby when my scent changed. I tried to mask it, but we had several functions we needed to attend together, which rarely happens, but it was at one of those occasions where we had to play the happy couple that he caught the scent. He beat me to within an inch of my life and I ended up losing the baby. Even werewolves aren’t superhuman enough to protect a fetus from that. Since then, he has kept a trained eye on me. Those guards out there are his, not the Senate or my normal security. He only let me come because I was going to be with Zander and he hates Peter as much as Gareth does. I’m too important for him to kill, but knowing him, he is finding a way that I might accidentally die a tragic death that he can mourn and move on from. Finley, I know it was wrong to lie, but I didn’t think you would help me if it were just for me alone. How cowardly it must make me sound to go to such lengths to gain my freedom.”

“Swear to me on your own life since it’s the only one that matters, that you haven’t kept anything else from me,” I bit out, wrapping my magic tighter, reminding her that I held her life in my hands.

“No, that is everything I have kept from you.” She sobbed, a tear trailing down her cheek. “This life of being unable to trust anyone is the only one I’ve known. I don’t know how to be anything but conniving and believing that everyone will betray me, so I keep things close to my chest. If I ever get the chance to raise another child, I wouldn’t want them to grow up like Zander did. Your mate is right. How we have been doing things in our pack isn’t the right way, and we could be so much more, but the Senate won’t let that happen.”

Sensing that she was finally being honest with herself and me, I released her and all the others from my hold. “If you truly mean that, then get me Delilah. She is hiding out at her grandfather’s home and we can’t get to her as easily as you can. We hold a promise to each other to make this happen and this is going to be part of it. You won’t be standing on the sidelines while we do all the work.”

“I can do that, and you’re correct, there is no way that you would have been able to get into her grandfather’s home. It’s one of the most secure places I’ve ever seen, but it was built that way to harbor Dark Ring members that needed a place to hide,” Morwyn shared. “He is one of the members that helped to create it, or at least that is the rumor.”

Hearing that actually made sense to me. He was a man of power and it would take a lot to question him and stay alive afterward. It would need to be public and loud. Thankfully I wasn’t going to need to do the leg work on that part of our problem, but I did feel it was within my right to ask for a boon. “I want her bodyguard as well. The gorilla. He and I have some unfinished business that I’d like to settle once and for all.”

“You and Bakos have history?” Peter asked as he leaned back in his chair, looking impressed. “Must admit that fact alone makes me believe you might be able to pull this off.”

I wasn’t bothered by Peter’s remarks. He was a small-minded man who put too much value in looks, thinking I was too small and female to do any damage. My mates weren’t sharing the same feelings as I was about ignoring the remark as their growls filled the air. Rolling my eyes, I turned my attention back to the meal, sad that it had gone cold in all our talking. If things got to the point of a fight again, I wasn’t going to stop it. Clearly, me doing so wasn’t helping to change their minds on handling the situation peacefully.

“I have a question,” Lane interjected, breaking the tension and silencing the snarls. “What happened with Peggy, the woman they used to get Finley out of the pack lands? She was fine earlier and now her mind is broken.”

Morwyn’s shoulders slumped and she poked at her food with her fork. “It is the Senate’s policy that all loose ends are tied up so they can’t lead back to what the Senate does in the shadows. Peggy was such a person, and we couldn’t risk her breaking and telling you that she was our spy since she arrived.”

Pausing, she looked up and met Zander’s gaze. “Your father wasn’t pleased that you left the pack lands to join a no named pack at the time. He wanted you to follow in his footsteps and hoped this singing career would drop off, but it only grew bigger than any of us imagined. Then you started to speak out about werewolves and our lives, educating people, proving to them we weren’t just mindless animals. That’s when the Senate decided to keep an eye on you, sending Peggy to be our person hidden in plain sight. Once the pack here started to grow and became another kind of threat, we had her gather information and send it back to us if it was a major change. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Peggy knew far too much and it would hurt the Senate if she talked.”

Lane’s face started to turn red, his hands balling into fists as he tried to keep himself seated. “You had no right to harm one of my pack members. The Senate is our leadership, but that does not apply to the interworking of the pack as a whole.”

Peter snorted at that. “God, you really believe that crap? Let me tell you something, pup, never believe a goddamn word anyone in politics ever says because it’s all bullshit.”

Lane opened and closed his mouth a few times, failing to be able to say what he really wanted to, then turned his eyes to me. “Help me understand this, Finley. I just can’t wrap my head around a group of people who claim to be there to keep the supernatural people of this world safe, but they do shit like this? They might not have killed Peggy, but she will never be able to live a normal life again.”

How I wanted to tell him we could change the way the world worked, but that wasn’t our job. “What is done is done, but we can make sure it never happens again. We will make certain that Peggy gets the best life she can have now with what has been done to her. Ensuring that we get the right people to lead once we bring it all down is the most important thing for us to do. I know a man of your integrity will be able to help change the world for the future.” Lane nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t appeased with my answer. It was the only one I had to give him because I was far too jaded to give him more hope than I already had.

There was a knock at the door snapping us all back to attention. “That will be my signal to leave,” Morwyn explained. “At the moment, I’m only allowed to be away for so long, and he doesn’t trust me to be someplace sleeping overnight. He fears that I might find myself with child again as if I’m a teenager who can’t keep her hands to herself. That monster hasn’t touched me in that way since I was pregnant with you, Zander, so it’s not like he doesn’t know about Peter, and I don’t know about his women.”

“What changed?” Zander questioned, scowling.

Morwyn quirked a brow at him. “I got pregnant. There is a reason you don’t have any siblings. It was part of the understanding. We could each have our needs tended to, but there couldn’t be a challenge to the Senate spot from our kids. You, my son, are the perfect pairing of two powerful families that sold their souls to the devil. No one else could unseat you.”

“That’s fucked up on so many levels,” Zander muttered as he stood with his mother.

The rest of us quickly followed, saying our goodbyes and letting Zander have a moment with her as they walked out the front door.

“Anyone need a drink?” Colt asked, walking to the wet bar in the living room. “I think I’m going to need a few after the shit show that just happened.”

I started to gather plates from the table, needing something productive to do after all that magic I’d had to hold back. It was pushing me to act fast and strike hard, but I knew that was a foolish plan when Morwyn said she would bring us Delilah. Once we had her, the rest of it would fall into place even more smoothly with the added help of a senator gone rouge. Setting the dishes in the sink, I went back for more, but before I got there, I was swooped up in a strong set of arms.

“You guys enjoy your drink. The twins and I are going to have some quality time with our snuggles. Don’t look for us until noon tomorrow. I’m not letting any of you fuck with our alone time,” Mason yelled over his shoulder as he carried me out of the house.

Laughing, I swatted his ass. “Put me down. I’m not going to run away or anything.”

“Oh, I wasn’t worried about that. I just didn’t want one of the alphas or the elf to snatch you up. Although having your sexy ass right here in my face is rather enjoyable, so I think I’m gonna keep you here,” Mason informed me, returning the smack.

Noah jogged out of the house to catch up with us. “Hey, who’s going to do the dishes?”

“Not me or you and that’s all that matters,” Mason answered with a chuckle. “What do you say we have our sleepover in the treehouse?”