Chapter Seventeen – Cade

“No,” Cade said firmly.

“Yes,” Octavia said.

“Not now,” Cade said, denying his mate what she wanted.

“It’s my decision,” Octavia said, as she grabbed a bunch of towels from the linen closet and followed Cade back downstairs to the sitting room, where Wes and Tobias were sitting. Tally had arrived and was checking them over, placing her hands on a wound on Tobias’s arm and muttering a spell.

“I don’t want you to make it while you are emotionally wrought.”

“Overwrought…” Octavia let it go: they needed to concentrate on getting everyone healed, then she would tackle Cade again over turning her into a shifter. “We should get you to the hospital,” Octavia said, wincing at the cut on Cade’s forehead.

“No, there’s no time,” Cade said. “We have no idea when that thing is going to attack again.”

“Matthew said he would call tomorrow night. That gives you time to get that looked at. You need stitches,” Octavia insisted.

“No, he doesn’t,” Tally moved her hand and the wound closed to half its size. “Best I can do.”

“Thanks, Tally,” Cade said, and she moved on to Tobias.

“Octavia, can you come and sit with Wes, make sure he keeps his head up and a towel under his nose. Blood is next to impossible to get out of the carpet,” Eva said.

“Glad to hear you are such so sympathetic, Mom,” said a nasally Wes. “I think it’s broken.”

“No, it’s not, just feels that way,” Eva said. “You’ll all live to fight another day.”

“Is that what you intend to do, Cade?” Tally asked. “Fight another day?”

“Not now, Tally,” Cade said.

“Cade, I think now is the time,” Eva said quietly.

Cade set the towels down and folded his arms across his chest. “You saw what that thing could do. We don’t stand a chance.” Never once in all the times he had led the squad had Cade been anything but optimistic of their chances. He always went in with a positive attitude that they would win, no matter how the odds were stacked in their favor. But not this time. His head throbbed, his arms ached, his leg was bruised, and stiffening up where the degetty had picked him up like a rabbit and flung him into the ground. His bear had not shattered, but his confidence had. If they went up against this degetty, they would die. His brothers, or his mom, or his mate, they would not all come home.

“Tally, even if Zinan can help us, what are we supposed to do? The degetty Matthew is setting on is us stronger than Zinan. We need a druid.”

“What if Zinan fought alongside us?” Tally asked.

Cade shook his head. “Don’t you get it? We can’t trust that you can bind him strongly enough to hold him. And if the bind breaks, we will have two degetty on our hands.”

“So what? We hide?” Tally asked.

“That is not a bad idea,” Cade said. “What if we go to the Council and refuse to leave?”

“You want them to protect us?” Tobias asked. “What are the chances? We are expendable.”

“If we face that degetty, we are dead.”

“Cade, can I speak to you, alone?” Octavia said.

“Go, I’ll help Wes.” Tally took over pinching Wes’s nose. “I hope you plan to talk some sense into him,” Tally said quietly as Octavia slipped past.

“I’m going to try.”

Cade shook his head. No matter what Octavia had to say to him, he knew what he was saying made sense. They did not want to get another degetty mixed up in this. However, he had to concede their options were slim with or without Zinan.

“Before you say anything, we cannot trust Zinan. There is no guarantee Tally can control him.”

“And you aren’t even willing to try?” Octavia asked.

Cade turned around and began to make fresh coffee, ignoring the half-kneaded dough Eva had abandoned when she had heard her sons being attacked by a degetty. She had shifted, and joined the fight as a bear, something she rarely did since her mate had left. Her bear side was something she shut away and tried to ignore, much like Helena shut magic out of her life.

“Cade.” Octavia put her hand on his arm. “I know you are scared.”

Her words hit him hard, his father’s words coming back to him. He was supposed to protect them, to keep them safe, but how was he supposed to do this against such staggering odds?

“I promised my dad I would keep them safe.”

“I know. But there is no safe in this situation. Matthew is going to send in that degetty, and if I thought it would stop at just taking my life, I would give myself to it.”

“Not happening,” Cade said.

“But something has to happen, Cade. Come on, you can get us through this.”

“How? It feels as if I’m drawing straws to see who comes off worse. We do nothing, and the degetty takes down my brothers, or my cousins, as we try to protect you. We let Zinan out of the box and my mom or Tally gets it… And then we still have to deal with the one that is after you.”

“Or Tally controls Zinan. And we see if he has information to help us. Even if as a stop-gap we put Taro into the Druid Box.” Octavia squeezed his arm. “You have to let her do this.”

“She’s a kid.”

“She’s a young woman, and if she thinks she can do it, you have to let her try.” Octavia cupped his cheek in her hand and leaned in, kissing his lips. If only he could simply pick her up in his arms and carry her away to a den somewhere, high up in the mountains where no one could ever find them. But he could not leave his family behind, not even for his mate.

“If she gets hurt, I can’t have her thinking I chose you over her.”

“Cade, no one who knows you will ever think that.”

“She’s right,” Tally said from the kitchen door. He didn’t ask her if she’d been eavesdropping on them, it didn’t matter, not in the whole scheme of things.

“Tally. What about your mom? If something happens to you,” Cade asked.

“Firstly, nothing is going to happen. I know I can do this, I’m strong enough. Secondly, my mom probably wouldn’t even notice.” Tally shrugged. “And she has Locke.”

“Tally, that is not true. She is still your mom, she still loves you,” Cade insisted.

“I know, somewhere deep in her subconscious. I see it sometimes, usually when she is falling asleep in her chair. It’s like the barrier comes down, and she opens her mouth to speak and bam! It’s back up.” Tally walked into the kitchen, her hurt at seeing Cade and Octavia so close, hidden. “I want to do this, because maybe if we unravel this plot, I might get my mom back.”

“You think it’s connected?” Octavia asked.

“What if this degetty was pulled from the Underworld by a druid? What if that same druid is the one who has bound my mom so she doesn’t tell us whatever it is she knows?”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Octavia asked.

“Perhaps. But the two things could be completely unconnected.”

“There is one way to find out. Let me take control.” Fire flashed in Tally’s eyes, and he saw the hunger there, the need to know more; it was the same hunger and need that had fired through his veins when his father didn’t return. Slowly he had dug a hole and buried that need to find out the truth, to put his family back together again. But it was still there, festering away in a deep dark pit.

“OK,” Cade finally said.

“OK. So you’ll let me do it?” Tally asked, her face flushed with excitement.

“Yes.” Cade nodded. It was the right decision, but it didn’t stop guilt from bubbling up inside him.

“I’ll go and get everything I need.” Tally backed out of the room, and then turned and ran.

“Tally, if you think you need the support of your other coven members you should ask them to help.” His words were lost as the front door slammed shut behind the young witch.

“I’m proud of you,” Octavia said. “It is the right thing.”

“And what about you?” Cade asked.

“What about me? The threat of an impending degetty attack is hard to shake off.”

“I mean the other thing,” Cade said.

“You turning me… Into a shifter?” Octavia asked.

“If you ask me to, I will do it. I’m not a tyrant, I don’t want to lay down the rules for everyone.”

“I want you to turn me. After we release Zinan. And if it will help.”

“Deal,” Cade said, and turned back to the coffee, needing to concentrate on the mundane, and not on the danger he was about to put all of those he loved in.

Octavia placed a hand on his back. “None of this is your fault.”

“It sure feels as if it is.”

“You didn’t bring any of this on us. But knowing how much responsibility you carry makes me believe you will do the right thing and get us through this.”

“I wish I had your faith.”

“Then maybe it is time you started believing in yourself.”