Chapter Eight

Laia

 

A week in Winfyre, and I was almost back to normal.

Although I wasn’t actually certain what normal was for me. I’d spent so much time running, obsessing, and worrying, I didn’t know how to slow down. I didn’t know what my baseline was.

Exhausted as I was, it was hard for me to sit still. It was even harder to get used to Rett, his beautiful home, and his willingness to do anything I asked. More than once, I wished he’d give me something to do, but he was ferocious about following Rogda’s bed rest mandate.

Had to admit, it was nice and pretty damn cute.

However, today, Rett had gone off somewhere. After breakfast, he’d reluctantly told me I could go outside, and it had been hard to keep from shouting hallelujah.

The only thing that held me back was the growing sense that I’d messed up Rett’s routine. Some evil part of me thought that that was damn funny, but another part of me felt genuine remorse. I hadn’t wanted to mix up anyone else in this crian shard mess.

Plus, Rett could be nice, at times, for an Alpha.

However, from the circles we warily walked around each other, I also got the sense we wouldn’t be fast friends anytime soon. Sometimes, though, we approached a chumminess at a comfortable distance. But one of us would always backtrack.

That was fine. I’d learned my lessons with Alphas.

Tristan is one, said a voice in my head.

I shoved it aside. I couldn’t process that right now.

For the millionth time, I wandered around the house, admiring and enjoying it. A meticulous kind of clean, but with a warmth there for all that. It was almost like Rett wanted to put on a sharp show to hide the nice, rounded edges.

I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the same for the bear shifter himself.

Otherwise, why would he be so hell-bent on putting up this serious, gruff façade? Where had that kid-toting marshmallow man gone? Or was that someone only a select group were privy to?

Dropping into my favorite chair in the living room, I sighed. Even the view out the bay window, a sun-dappled grove of trees, didn't cheer me. No matter how much I slept, I was still so tired. My limbs were heavy, and my body had strange aches. Even though I felt more alert, it was like my body was lagging behind.

I probably needed fresh air. It was gorgeous out today, with blue skies and warm breezes coming in the window. I mean, Rett had said I could go outside. I wasn’t a prisoner.

Feeling a little bit like I was breaking the rules, I went and got changed. It took me a while to find shoes, then I grabbed a bag, stuffing it with a hoodie, a blanket, and a book.

Everything outside was so green and rich, I wanted to sink right into it. But the backyard had a stiff westerly wind blowing across it, so I made my way into the woods. It was slow going, picking my way down a slim path that crisscrossed down a hill. It was worth it, though, even after I tripped over a root. Several times.

I wound up in a sheltered little cove, with soft sand and gently waving shadows. The sun warmed my skin and had baked the sand to a comfortable temperature. I spread out the blanket and sat down, smiling. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d enjoyed an afternoon like this. It was glorious.

Pulling out my book, I lay on my side and began to read. But soon the sentences began to swim off the page. More than once, I caught myself nodding off. Finally, my eyes grew too heavy, and I settled down into the sand, keeping them closed for a minute.

I heard the book flap shut, and I started. The breeze had picked up. Some part of me knew I should probably pack up and go to the house.

But it was so quiet here, so warm and peaceful, with the smell of summer air, fragrant with trees and ocean, the slap of waves…the hush of wind…a lullaby for the afternoon…

 

“Come on, come on,” I urged myself. “A bit farther. Almost there.”

My breath came in hard bursts as I crawled up the steep hill. Part of me wanted to shift and zip off into the sunset with my victory, but if anyone spotted—

There was a sigh of wind around me, and I hesitated, wondering if I was being too cautious. Eventually, they’d figure it out. Maybe I was delaying the inevitable. I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I’d seized the opportunity to stop them.

And I could only pray that I’d find shifters who would heed this warning. To help me stop the coming horror. To encourage peace, not violence.

Finally, at the top, I turned and surveyed the steep landscapes of the copper-colored Rust Mountains. Tucking my hair behind my ears, I sighed and saluted the Bloodfang base ironically.

“Bye, Jasper,” I murmured, his name echoing with regret, remorse, and a tinge of rage.

“Leaving so soon, Laia?”

A gasp escaped me, and I shifted, leaping into the air—

Only to be knocked down and feel gloved hands slide across my body…

Reaching, snapping…twisting…

Breaking.

“You should have never betrayed me,” Jasper said, his voice almost pleasant as I shifted back and screamed, a scream that didn’t end until I was hit across the face.

“Laia, Laia, Laia,” murmured another voice. “Oh, how could you think of leaving now?”

"What did you do?" I gasped and tried to shift back. Pain wracked my body. "No, no…"

“It was for your own good,” Jasper said.

“Let me go,” I screamed, agony screaming through me, and then I stared at my hands. “I—no.”

A booted foot hit my side, and I went down, eyes closing. Bright sparks of pain lit up my sight.

“Bring her back, and toss her in the cage,” said that second, sibilant voice. The voice that had crawled into Jasper’s shredded heart and gouged his agony into permanent scars.

“Jasper, please,” I whispered. “Please don’t do this. You’re a shifter—you’re an Alpha…”

A hand fisted in my hair, and I was forced to look into his manic eyes.

“Which means you should have known your place, bitch.”

“Jasper, please, I thought we were…”

“I love you, Laia,” he said in a voice of pure rage.

“What?” I gaped. “No! This isn’t…stop. Jasper, you have to stop this, please…”

Darkness rushed up.

Darkness tasting of blood and fire.

 

I was huddled in the darkness, incapable of finding a way out.

“Broken, pretty little thing, Jasper. But then, I warned you she was weak.”

“Take her as payment for my mistake,” Jasper replied.

“Perhaps. She would be useful as an example.”

Voices echoed off the metal walls, then screams, and I was screaming as metal was clamped around my ankle, and needles bit into my flesh.

“It will be over soon, and then everyone will know you’re a Bloodfang pet, Laia.”

“There is a chance the Northbane could seek vengeance. Her cousin is one of them,” Jasper said.

“And yet none of them have noticed she is missing, have they?” A hand stroked my forehead.

“No,” Jasper snorted. “No one gives a damn about her.”

“Exactly. Laia has given up her kinship. She is ours now.”

No, I won’t be.

I won’t…

 

I opened my eyes onto star-strewn skies, and several tears slid free.

Where am I? Is this a dream?

Sitting up, my body weak and fissures of pain cracking through my muscles, I almost screamed out loud in sheer frustration. My hands found my right calf and gripped it.

“I’m not a Bloodfang. I’m not in their cages. I escaped,” I whispered. “I escaped.”

Collapsing back onto the blanket, dizzy and weak, starving and thirsty, I decided it would be okay to let go. To give in to the pull of darkness and nestle in its arms. Tristan would figure out what that weapon did and destroy it. My part was done.

No one gives a damn about her.

Curling up in a ball, more tears slid free. I knew that was true. That was okay.

I thought I’d made up for it in the end.

 

“Laia!”

A deep, hoarse voice echoed around me, shaking a star loose from the sky. I watched through my eyelashes as it fell and then closed them again.

“Laia, where are you?”

I was dreaming again, hearing voices that broke with worry over me.

“Laia, oh, holy shit." There was a scuffle of sound, and I was rolled over, the back of a hand pressing against my cheek. "You're freezing. What the hell were you thinking? Why are you down here?"

“Where am I?”

“Woman, you need to wake up,” the man said, and I cringed back.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I asked and hugged myself. Ashes and darkness. Lost things… “Please don’t hurt me. If Jasper sent you, I don’t have it…I’m nothing. I’m broken.”

The man had frozen, staring down at me with eyes like a blue-white star. Concern etched itself deeply into his face, and one of his hands reached for me, but I flinched.

“You don’t know who I am?” he asked, and I went still. “Laia.”

I shook my head, a little uncertain and conscious of a yawning hole inside of me. “I don’t—I’m sorry. Who’s Laia? I can’t…”

A gasp escaped me as my mind buckled. There was nothing there but burned heaps that had once been memories. All of my memories. Gone.

“I can’t remember anything.”

“Holy shit,” the man muttered, his face now furious, and I cringed. “This must be why…” Abruptly, he stopped and closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths. “Laia, that’s you. That’s your name. And I’m Rett, a friend of your cousin’s.”

“Rett…you know…who is my cousin?”

His eyes opened, the light duller, and there were worried creases around them. “You’re safe, but you can’t stay here. You’re as cold as ice…on a summer night.”

“I don’t feel cold,” I murmured. “Just lost.”

“I’m gonna pick you up now and bring you home, okay?” Rett said.

I nodded, a little uncertain, and winced as he picked me up. “Wow, you’re tall,” I murmured.

Clinging to this stranger as he carried me through the dark, strange to myself and dizzy, I closed my eyes to keep out the world. Not until I felt myself being lowered did I open my eyes.

“Stay right here,” Rett said and ran from the room. A nice room with soft cushions and gleaming wood, with lots of windows.

Pain burned in my ankle, and I curled up, gripping it.

“I don’t think I have a home,” I whispered and curled back into sleep’s waiting arms.

 

“What the hell is wrong with her?”

Rett’s voice rasped from overhead, and my eyes flew open. I gasped, seeing a single bright eye fixed on me. I knew that smile.

“Rogda?” I asked. “What are you doing here—where…?” Vertigo hit me as I tried to get up, and she eased me back down. There was a dull throb in my ankle. “I…”

No, I’m safe. I’m free, in Winfyre.

“Shh, don’t move,” Rogda said and leaned me back. Her hands hovered over my face, smelling of lavender and lemons. “Breathe, calm down.” I took several gulps of air. “What is your name?”

“Laia Llary,” I said and darted a glance around the room.

Reagan and a man with dark blond hair and startling blue-green eyes were standing side by side, both looking at me with visible apprehension. Xander Bane was there as well, dark and inscrutable, flicking his eyes between me and the dark thunderstorm across from me, who scowled. Rett. Why did he look so upset?

“Rett, you’re back,” I said. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

There was an unmistakable edge of panic in my voice. But no, it couldn’t be…

I was in Winfyre, and I’d thought he couldn’t reach me here…

“Ow,” I hissed and grabbed my ankle. The skin burned under my fingers. “Oh. Oh no.”

Rogda took my hand away and rolled up the pant leg, making a sympathetic noise. “Who did this to you?”

There were hisses of sympathy and pain around the room.

Around my ankle was a black brand, a ghastly tattoo burned into my flesh. A shackle made of interlocking, jagged lines, it seemed to pulse in the light. I closed my eyes and hugged my arms around myself, inexplicably lonely. I didn’t belong in beautiful Winfyre, not with this ugly brand on my skin and the target on my back.

“The Bloodfang,” I whispered. “They betrayed shifters, allied themselves with Skrors and Excris. They’re the ones who had the Excris bring them that weapon, and they used it to mark me…” Rogda hissed between her teeth, and I caught her hand. “There’s nothing to be done. This is the price.”

“For what?” Reagan asked in a gentle voice, coming over and sitting down next to me.

I let go of Rogda’s hand and fell backward, eyes closed. “My mistakes.”