Chapter Twenty
Locus
There were more…cousins, aunts and uncles, and the deer didn’t know where they all were, but I was overwhelmingly grateful to have any of my family back. The ride to the office seemed to take forever, the silence so loud eventually even Renie picked up on it and cried a little. I pushed my own feelings back and reached over the seat to rest my hand on her fat little leg, comforting her.
“Are they okay? Are they all there? Who is it?” Once I started to ask, the questions flew from my lips, but Felix just shook his head.
“Wait until we get there, omega mine.”
His reply only made me more nervous. What wasn’t he telling me?
The second he stopped the truck, I was out and racing for the clinic, leaving him to follow with the baby. I crashed into the waiting area, where Leah, who had returned, finally, from Hawaii, sat at her desk. She moved quickly to stop me from tearing into the back.
“Wait, Locus.” She barred the door, raising my fear level even higher. “No. Don’t panic. Just slow down. They’ve been through an awful lot…and they don’t look good.”
I stared at her, chewing on my lip. “They’re going to look amazing to me. No matter what.”
She gave me a soft smile and stepped aside. “I’m sure that’s true, but still, take it slow, okay?”
She was right, of course, despite my desperation to see them. And at the back of my mind niggled the fear they might not be my people after all. But my fox was jumping inside me, and with a pat on Leah’s arm, I headed into the back area.
Ace and Patty turned to face me when I entered. They looked frazzled, their usually immaculate scrubs rumpled and with some stains I’d rather not identify, but when they parted, what they revealed was a sight I’d entirely lost hope of ever seeing again. My parents, Granddad, my brother, and…
“Where’s Irene…” We’d named our daughter after my beloved sister.
Granddad, who had lost so much of his hale, solidness rose, shaky on his feet, and Dad hopped up and took his elbow. “Grandson, she went back for the others.”
The others. Of course she had.
“But…we have to go after them. Let’s go now. Where have you been? We can get some of the people in Haven to help us and we…we…”
“We can’t, son.” Dad’s face held sorrow such as I’d never seen. “They were taking them away, again. And we don’t know where.”
I was ripped in half with grief for those who were once again out of reach, mingled with intense joy at seeing those who were present. They were in human form, and looked beaten and tired, with bruises and scrapes, but like I’d told Leah, they looked amazing to me.
Forcing myself to focus on those who were here, I hugged them all and kissed them, breathing the scents of family, until Felix cleared his throat behind me.
“Would anyone like to meet our daughter?”
And a whole new round of hugging started. Everyone agreed Renie was the most beautiful baby ever born, with a few more tears shed at how she resembled her aunt Irene.
I stood with my alpha as our daughter was passed from hand to hand, lavished with kisses and our darling was so good. She cooed and blew bubbles and didn’t freak out at all the strangers. I was proud.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” he murmured.
“With a dad like you, how else could she be?” I rested my head against my alpha’s shoulder, taking in the amazing sight. “They might need someplace to stay for a while, until we see what happened to our old home…if they even want to go there.”
“We can fit a few more foxes in our house for a while, omega mine. If it makes you happy.”
We were soaking up the happiness, tinged with a little regret for those who were still not there when Leah came up to Felix and whispered something to him.
He followed her out into the waiting room then came back and beckoned to me. “Rogue, you have to see this.”
I trailed out after him, keeping my attention over my shoulder on Renie and her newfound relatives. “Now? Can’t it wait?”
“No…no I don’t think so. Let’s step outside.”
As we did, the rest of my weak but always curious relatives followed as well in time to see a parade of foxes padding down the road. They looked at least as bad as I must have when Rob and Sasha found me in their yard, and my first benefactors, the semi-retired mercenaries, were leading the way.
It was too much and I fell to my knees, sobs shaking my shoulders.
“Sasha, Rob, what have you done?”
Sasha grinned and stepped forward to take Renie from my mother’s arms just long enough to plant a kiss on her forehead. “Our goddaughter needs all of her family.”
“But how did you find them?” Were they magical?
“Your sister. We found her running down the side of the road and we followed her. They really had only a few guards on the truck where all the others were stashed.”
Rob glowered. “And those guards won’t be bothering you anymore.”
I had no doubt that was true. “I can never thank you enough.” My family scampered around me, some still in fox form, others shifted, and Patty and Ace were trying to get those who needed the most care inside, while Granddad regaled Leah with some tale or other about their escape, and my parents cooed over their grandbaby.
Bubbles of joy fizzed in my veins and I turned to Felix. “Did you know they were doing this?”
“I asked them to help if they could. I couldn’t let part of your family continue to be imprisoned, could I?”
My heart swelled so big with love for Renie, who I managed to extricate from Mom’s arms because I just had to hold her, for my family, our new friends…the town of Haven. And for my mate, who had nursed me back to health and given me happiness when I’d have sworn there was none to be had.
“I love you, you know,” I shouted to him over the chaos and noise.
“I know,” he shouted back. “I love you, too.”
“But where are we going to put them all?” We couldn’t just leave them at the clinic.
“We’ll figure something out. Haven always has room for a few more.”