Rowena's Revenge (Broadus Supernatural Society) (12 page)

“Yes, you should have, but you didn’t and now has come my
time to rein.” He flashes me an evil grin again before manifesting a ball of
blue and orange flame within his palm; rolling it around as if it is a toy for
his amusement. “Do you want to know what I will do with your precious
Kitten
?”
He spits the nickname Blaine has given Rowena out like it is poison, and I
tense, readying to strike when he shows a weakness.

“You won’t get the chance; she has powerful forces watching
over her,” I assure him, standing defiant in my position. I know Kade is
watching closely over Row, but I also know he can’t intervene until she accepts
who she is. Rowena needs to come to peace with her fire, her Fae heritage, and
meld it with her Were-snow leopard in order to be at peace within her spot in
the universe. That’s what I am supposed to be helping her with, but so far I’ve
been failing.

“Just wait, Penton. She will come to me; mark my words. Then
the world will see what I have planned for it in a wave of flame and darkness.”
He looks down at the fire hovering above his palm and back up to me with a
smirk. “I will see you soon, my friend.” He laughs, throwing the ball of fire
at my head, and I duck just in time to deflect it away from my face with the
blade of my sword.

Getting my bearings, I pop back up, ready for a fight, but
find nothing and no one there to fight.
Cearbhall
has
disappeared—the coward—and I’m left in the dark woods alone while the
adrenaline courses through my veins. His laugh echoes on the wind, stirring my
nerves, but I know it’s only to scare.

I need to get to Rowena to make sure they made it to
Duncan’s safely. She is my number one priority and I can’t let her down. My
naivety and carelessness cost me her life once before and I can’t bear the
thought of it happening again. I can’t fail her again.

Pulling my collar up around my neck, I tuck my sword in and
out of the way, zipping my jacket up tight. I raise my nose to the wind,
scenting for anything familiar to lead me and a faint hint of Blaine’s earthy
scent finds me, mingling with that of other wolves and I shake my head,
scowling to myself.

I told him to stay with Row. Why can’t he just fucking
listen to me, for once?

Rowena

December 27, 2016

My head is pounding and the sunlight is right in my face as
I come to. I thought I told Blaine to put his sweatshirt over the windows of
the
Landrover
to keep the sun out so we can sleep in
peace. Rolling over to smack him in the face,
it’s
funny how the seats of the SUV sink more than they should. Also the wool
blanket underneath me is awfully smooth and I run my hand over them with my
eyes still closed until my hand falls off the edge.
Wait, what?

My eyes fly open and my brain protests from the bombardment
of sun filtering through the window on the wall that I’m now facing. I try to
make sense of my blurry surroundings as my head swims. In my frantic state, I’m
falling out of the small bed before I can catch myself, the cool wooden floor
connecting with my shoulder as I yell out in shock.

Small, pounding footsteps are rushing my way and the door
swings open to three little children staring down at me. Their dark brown eyes
make my memory kick in, and as they yell for their mom, I sit up against the
side of the bed and pull one of the quilts down to cover my scantily clad body.
I’m in Buffalo and Blaine had left me here last night, swimming in a sea of
whiskey that the Female Alpha had given me.

“Are you okay?” The she-wolf,
Sindy
,
rushes toward me, kneeling in front of me as her two smaller children chatter
and whisper to each other behind her. Her hand sweeps over my cheek, and at
first, I flinch away, my leopard hissing at the unwanted contact, but I rein it
in when the little ones gasp and grab onto their older sibling.

“I’m okay, I just scared myself,” I gasp, my heart still
rapidly beating in my chest with my lungs trying to catch up on oxygen. I reach
out hesitantly to the littlest girl, thinking to soothe over making her scared
and I have to hold in an astonished remark when she leaps into my arms,
wrapping her arms around my neck.

“Don’t mind
Kiley
,”
Sindy
smiles, running her hands over the little girl’s
hair, “she can always tell when someone needs a hug.” The woman’s happy smile
and the slight sparkle in her eye almost
breaks
through the anger building within me toward my mates, and I hug the little girl
before she jumps out of my lap with a happy squeal. “Do you want something to
eat?”

“No,” I say a little too harshly as I pull a pair of pajama
shorts from the tote bag strewn about the floor from my fall, “I want to go
find my mates and kick their asses.”
Sindy
gives
me
a serious look and I take a peek at the kids, stating,
“Sorry for the potty mouth.”

She waves my apology away, but grabs my arm as I try to slip
past her. “You are to stay here. My husband said they will be back as soon as
they can, and it’s only a little past sunrise.”

“Penton has been out there since last night!” I almost scream
in her face, my flames threatening to burst forth, but I tamp them down, not
wanting them to become uncontrollable and hurt this family. I can tell she
feels the rapid temperature change on my skin and she releases me, shaking her
hand slightly. “Not to mention Blaine had you slip me, what? Almost an entire
coffee cup full of whiskey and leave me here alone while he goes out to hell
knows where? I don’t think so.”

“No, no, no,” she chides me like I’m one of her little
children and I try to shake her hand off of my arm, but her fingers only
tighten to a pinching pressure. She brings my face to hers and gives me a sweet
smile. “They will be back; trust my husband and his men. Come downstairs and
have pancakes with the kids.”

I try to shake her arm once more, but her grip tightens even
more, forcing my eyes to hers. Even though I’ve never had an Alpha to listen
to, my leopard can still feel the pull of this she-wolf’s power over me and a
low hiss rumbles in my throat. I don’t like this, but this is her home. Her
eyes start to glow a warm chocolate color and I know mine are their usual
blazing light blue when my leopard is surfacing, but I resign when I hear a
haunting howl echo outside.

Her face goes to the window, her brow creasing, and my heart
kicks to a frantic beat again. Her hand doesn’t leave my arm as she looks down
to her children. “Down to the kitchen,” she tells them, pulling me into her
side and throwing her arm over my shoulders. I’m still fuming, but I let her
lead me down the stairs.

“Whose howl was that?” I can’t help but ask as we follow the
children’s laughter into the warm, bright kitchen; the smells of the freshly
baked muffins and cooking bacon making my heart swell with the lingering
sadness that I carry around having missed out on this kind of family time. I
never had morning time with my mom, let alone with any of the men in her life
as they were usually only one night stands and stumbled their way out of our
trailer early in the morning.

Sindy’s
pat on my shoulder breaks
the nasty memories and I snap back to reality, not being able to keep the smile
from my face as I tune into the children’s laughter and simple arguing as they
fight over which seat they want. The youngest,
Kiley
,
is losing and once her older sister pushes her from the chair she wants she
comes running over, wrapping her arms around my bare legs and leaning her cheek
against my thigh, crying crocodile tears.

“That was one of my husband’s soldiers. They are coming
back, and a few are harmed, but not seriously,”
Sindy
tells me as she tends to the bacon, turning it and stepping aside as the grease
splatters and spits. The little girl’s arms squeeze around my legs, reminding
me she is there and I reach down and sweep her up, puzzling myself in the
action.

I’ve never been one for kids, but for some reason holding
this little girl
is
making me feel better. My leopard
is content, purring even, and as the girl plays with my hair I can’t help but
smile and laugh lightly to myself, catching
Sindy’s
eye.

“Is this Aunt Fry’s sissy?” Little
Kiley
asks, and it kind of shocks me, referring to me as someone’s ‘sissy’. I’m
zoned, looking out the front window as the other two girls argue over the fruit
they have, letting the idea of being someone’s
sister sink
in. I like it. I like the idea of it. Out in the snow, I imagine myself chasing
those little boys in the picture I had seen last night as my sister, Siofra,
stands off to the side laughing at us.

“Yes it is,”
Sindy’s
voice breaks
my little day dream as
Kiley
giggles away in my arms,
working on her sort of braid she has going in my hair, which is more like a
knot but oh well. Another howl seems to resonate through the house and the
girls all freeze, turning their faces to the large window and staring out into
the sunlit snow. “They are here,” their mother says, leaving the stove in a
flash and opening the back door to let a slight breeze sweep the cold air in.

The breeze is a heaven sent, bringing me the bright apricot
scent of Penton and the deep, musky earth scent of Blaine, and before I realize
what I’m doing, I’m setting
Kiley
in one of the
dining chairs and racing out the open door and down the snowy back porch steps.
I don’t care about the chill of the snow on my bare feet as I stop to search
the trees. My heart is racing from their nearing scents and the frantic beat of
it in my ears mixes with the howling wind, swirling my hair around my face.

A strong cinnamon and something like fall leaves scent fills
the air right around me and in a swirl of snow and wind, there is a woman
standing in front of me; her sky blue eyes boring into me. The same sky blue
eyes from the picture of my sister and her family, and as she reaches out for
my hand, I feel the pull that my leopard has for her, feeling content almost
immediately in her presence.

“Go back in the house, Rowena. Go back in the house now!”
She shouts, her hand wrapping around my upper arm before she disappears into
thin air, leaving me with a slack jaw expression. It was
Siofra,
I just know it, but how?

“What the hell was that?” I say to myself, shaking it off
and trying to catch my mates’ scent on the breeze again, but all I get is a
strong, sickening musk. I know that scent, but I can’t put my finger on it.

“Get in the house,” the voice comes to me on the wind,
whipping my hair into my cheeks as the scent of cinnamon fills the air again.
In the snow swirling around me, I can see her slight form, trying to manifest
before me; fading in and out. A force of wind pushes me down into the snow, and
as I look up, she yells, “Go!
Now!”

Her swirling figure disappears again, this time right before
a ball of fire flies through the spot she just occupied and slams into the
porch railing over my head, dissipating into sparks. I go into defense mode,
springing up into a crouch to face the man with the face tattoo,
Cearbhall
I guess his name is, and my leopard hisses at the
evil grin on his lips. The heavy, sickening musk reaches my nose just as his
laugh fills the air.

“Hello, my sweet little Rowena,” he coos, facing me head on
with his orange eyes glowing bright in the sunshine as he pushes the hood from
his face. His long, dark hair is braided at the back and as he makes a slow
path, trying to circle me, he pulls the end of the braid over his shoulder,
playing with the ribbon securing it. He stops as I issue a warning hiss and I
can hear the little girls in the house crying, their mother trying to soothe
them.

Their cries pull my attention and I skirt a look up the
porch steps to the glass door, seeing little
Kiley
with her hands pressed against the glass and tears staining her cheeks. The
distraction is my downfall and before I can turn back, long bony fingers wrap
around my throat and my body leaves the snow, my legs dangling in the air. I
let my snow leopard out, but magic flowing from
Cearbhall’s
touch keeps me from shifting fully. It’s something more powerful than anything
I’ve felt before and it makes my heart freeze, knowing he is full of evil.

I strike out at him with my elongated, razor sharp nails,
but removing my hands from his wrist puts more pressure on my throat and I’m
coughing and choking, scrambling to wrap my hands around his arm again to
alleviate it. He just smiles at me as the girls scream again in the house,
little hands pounding on the glass as
Sindy
yells for
them to listen to her and get away.

I’m trying to gasp for air as he laughs, shaking me by the
throat so that my back and legs hit the porch post behind me and I wince as the
wood splinters dig into my skin. I can see his face shift from human to
something ghostly and back again as I stare at him, digging my nails into his
arm so that his blood runs over my fingers. Shaking me hard one more time,
banging my head against a stair as he brings me down to the ground,
Cearbhall
seems to growl; his lips are only a hair away from
mine.

“My sweet Rowena, show me your flames,” he purrs, rubbing
his nose along mine as I see his face flash from human to something almost bare
skull like and back again. I try to pull from his grasp, kicking him in the
side and groin, but nothing seems to faze him and I scream out in frustration,
clawing at his arm and face as he squeezes my throat tighter. “Show me your
flames!”

The tone of his voice does something to me and my flames
burst to life, filling my skin and turning me into a ball of fire in an
instant. The heat is familiar, tingling all over as the blue and orange dance
with each other, ridding me of the tank and shorts, leaving me naked in the
snow underneath this man. My limbs start to shake as they always do when this
much power fuels my flames, but I keep my grip on his arm and dig my nails even
further into his flesh, hearing his grunt in return.

His eyes are reflecting the lick of my flames and as he
leans down,
hovering
his lips above mine, he whispers,
“Your pain will fuel my power. I will rule the world with you as my slave.” His
free hand creeps up the inside of my thigh, making my stomach churn and I try
my hardest to squirm from his grip and extinguish my flames, but nothing helps.
His fingers are at the apex of my thighs and a nasty smile caresses his lips
when I feel two of them circle my entrance. I tense, trying to shut my legs,
but his hand presses down on my throat, forcing me to focus on breathing, and I
try to stifle the scream that comes when he thrusts his fingers in.

He turns my face to his and my eyes widen at the sight. His
features are no longer human; they are the bare skull grinning down at me as he
speaks. “Be a good girl and hold still,” he bites out, shaking my head before
bringing his now bare bone teeth down onto my lips.

The contact brings a sensation of dizziness, and as I feel
him pull back, I see a stream of my blue and orange flames flowing into his
open mouth, lighting the cavernous abyss as he groans in pleasure. After only a
second, I feel weak and I try to scream out, but it’s just a moan. I try to
push him away, but my arms fall slack in the attempt.

“Penton thinks he will get his magic back when he bonds with
you,” he laughs, the empty sockets where his eyes once were now glowing a
bright blue, “but he’s in for a surprise. The only way he’ll get his magic back
is if I die, and the only way for me to die is if someone he loves kills him.
So it’s a double edged blade, you see?”

No,
I scream in my head, tears stinging my eyes,
it
can’t end like this. Blaine! Penton! I need you!