Page 63 of The Enforcers: NOAH

Mina gripped Noah’s hand hard. He was growling louder now, but she knew this was anger on Tristan’s behalf, and she wasn’t afraid of it. If she could, she’d be growling too.

“Then one day I heard them talking about how they’d tracked down the pack in Alaska, how they were going to take them all out, except the white ones like me. Frank Beckenham thought we were the source of the Council’s ability to erase humans’ memories of shifters, and I guess he thought that by taking us all out…I don’t know. He has this belief that shifters are evil and have to be eradicated, except the ones they keep to study so they know what our secrets are. It’s like a religion with him.”

All the shifters in the room gave a collective shudder at that, and the room filled with the vibration of subvocal growls. Mina wondered what it must be like, growing up like that, knowing that you had to keep what you were a secret because people perceived all of your kind as a threat. That they’d hunt you down and kill you without even bothering to find out what you were really like.

How could Brock keep his sweetness and generosity in the face of such terrible prejudice?

Tristan went on, “That just woke something up in me. I got obsessed with finding a way to escape, to save the rest of the pack. My parents didn’t make it, and I didn’t know if my sister was dead or alive, but maybe I could still save a part of my family.”

He looked straight at Mina. “I tried to warn them,” he said.

“I know,” she whispered.

“I got there too late. The hunters were too close behind me. There wasn’t time…” He looked at Mina. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said. “I remember what you did. You fought so hard…”

He shook his head. “It was a fucking slaughter,” he said. “They captured the white wolves and killed everybody else. They almost got Justin and me too, but Mina started shooting at them from the trees, and she covered our escape…”

Mina remembered it all now. The race through the pine forest to the cabin, with snow just beginning to fall. The feeling of being hunted. The desperate realization that they probably weren’t going to make it out…

Her chest got tight again and she pulled in a shuddering breath. Noah was snarling softly.

Tristan said, “We were holed up in Justin’s cabin, trying to contact someone—anyone—on the radio. They threw in a fucking Molotov cocktail. It exploded right by a kerosene heater, and blew half the cabin to hell. Justin was…” He shook his head. “We couldn’t save him,” he said. “Mina wouldn’t leave him.”

He looked at Mina. “I shouldn’t have left you there.”

“I told you to go,” she said. “I didn’t care what happened to me. I couldn’t leave Justin, but I didn’t want you to die for us.”

She said to him, “I always thought I couldn’t remember because I was too traumatized. That’s what they told me at the hospital. But that’s not it, is it?”

Tristan shook his head. “Justin tried to blur your memories of shifters, to protect you, hoping the hunters wouldn’t kill you too. And I think…I think he tried to take the memory of you seeing him die, to spare you the pain. But he was too far gone to do it right, and he messed with your head.”

“He saved me, though,” Mina said, another memory coming back to her. “Because Beckenham did want to kill me, and Robbie talked him out of it, saying I was too wrecked to be a threat. He felt sorry for me, I think. I was so confused because of what Justin had done, and they told me so many times the hunters had found me and rescued me, I convinced myself that memory of Beckenham and Robbie was a dream.”

She shook her head, puzzle pieces still coming together with horrible clarity. “Is that why he hung around me all those weeks, coming to visit me at the hospital? Trying to make sure I didn’t remember what really happened?”

No one had any answers.

She didn’t know what to feel about Robbie—gratitude for saving her life, or disgust that he’d fooled her for so long. And how long had he suspected—or known—that Brock was Justin’s son, not his? Was that the only reason he’d married her?

Her life was shifting like a kaleidoscope. Everything had shattered and was coming together in a new pattern.

Tristan said, “I managed to stay out of Beckenham’s grasp for a few more years, but I was a personal vendetta for him, and he never gave up. He finally caught up with me a few months ago, and that’s how I ended up in Grant’s cells.”

The room fell silent. There was too much pain weighing them all down, and nothing to be said. No way to make it better.

Noah and Flynn were exchanging more of those looks. They knew something. Noah looked questioningly at Flynn, and he replied with an affirmative nod.

What was that about?

Noah moved Mina gently aside and leaned forward. “Tristan,” he said quietly. “I know nothing can make up for what you’ve been through. But I do have some good news and…well, I guess I have good news and better news.”

Tristan looked up listlessly. “Anything good, however small, would be pretty welcome right about now.”

Noah said, “The good news is, Frank Beckenham is dead.”

Fire blazed in Tristan’s eyes. “Fuck, yeah. Tell me who offed that evil motherfucking murderous shithead, and I’ll send them the best bottle of whiskey I can find, with my sincere wishes for a long and happy life.”

Noah hesitated, and then he said, “Well, that’s the better news. It was Rafe Connors, the Second of the Silverlake pack. And he did it because your sister Terin is his mate.”

Tristan went so white Mina thought he was going to pass out. “Terin’s alive? She’s okay?”

Noah said, “She never got her memories back, but yeah, she’s okay. She and Rafe are true mates, and she’s happy with the Silverlake pack. Ever since they saw you on the video footage Jesse took from Alexander Grant’s cells, she’s been wanting to meet you and find out if you knew anything about who she was.”

Tristan was just staring into the distance. “Terin’s alive. I did it. I saved her.”

He put his head in his hands and his shoulders started shaking. “I finally fucking did one thing right.”