White Knight (6 page)

She groaned. “Yes.”

“Concentrate on that. Concentrate on your mate, all right? He’s with you. You’re safe.”

“Hurts.”

“I know it does. It won’t hurt for long, and then you’ll have a beautiful new baby. Jimmy will have a new brother or sister.”

She whimpered a bit and reached out. Knight clasped her hand. He took the edge off her anxiety and fed her what peace he could, hoping it helped with the terrible pain she was in. He didn’t want to imagine Brynn like this one day, terrified and in agony, giving birth to the world’s first three-quarter loup, one-quarter Magus child.

Michelle was the only thing he needed to focus on. Knight ignored Dr. Mike. He ignored the smells associated with giving birth. He drew on all of his reserves of peace and joy and he fed those to Michelle and Francis. He gave them everything he had and pushed aside the white-hot grip on his hand. She could break it if she wanted and he wouldn’t let go. Not until this was finished.

She screamed. Dr. Mike gave an order. Francis held her tighter.

Knight didn’t look away from her face.

A high-pitched wail joined them in the room, and then Michelle sagged against her husband. She released Knight’s numb hand and dissolved into sobs. Pure relief washed over Knight from Michelle. He tore his gaze away, down to the squirming, squalling, purple-ish baby Dr. Mike was wiping down with a cloth.

“It’s a boy,” Knight said.

Blue ribbon on a white knight chess piece.

He shoved away the memory. “It’s a boy,” he repeated.

Francis whooped. Michelle reached out, and Dr. Mike gently deposited the bundled baby into her arms. The combined joy of the three others in the room with him hit Knight hard, something incredibly beautiful that only made him ache for what he’d lost. The ache rose into his throat, strangling him. Stopping further words.

“He’s perfect,” Francis said.

“Ten fingers, ten toes.” Dr. Mike chuckled. “And roaring like a champion.”

“Thank you,” Michelle said. “Thank you so much.”

“You did all the work, lass. I’ll need both you and the wee one in my office for proper exams.”

“Of course.” She tore her gaze away from the squirming bundle in her arms. “Knight, thank you. For everything.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Knight replied, finding the ability to smile somewhere amid the terrible ache in his chest. “Congratulations.”

“I’d like to name him Thomas, after your father. If that’s all right.”

The ache grew heavier, sharper. “Of course it’s all right. Thank you.”

“Tommy and Jimmy,” Francis said. “I like it.”

“I’ll leave you three to get acquainted.”

Knight hated himself for making such a hasty retreat, but he had to get out before the weight of their happiness crushed him. In the bright daylight, he allowed the darkness to come out and release the ache. He gave in to the grief and pain so it didn’t swallow him whole.

He walked blindly, uncertain of his own facial expression, only needing to burn off some of the grief. No one approached him. No one called out. He kept going until he reached a patch of land on the south side of town, not too far from his own home. The memorial garden.

Instead of burying their dead like humans, loup garou cremated their loved ones and scattered the ashes in important places. In some instances, such as the Alpha family, a memorial stone was placed in a special garden that was tended to by the whole town. After their deaths, stones had been placed in the garden for Thomas McQueen and Joseph Reynolds. Other stones had also been added for the towns of Stonehill, Springwell, and Potomac.

The fence was a natural hedge of boxwood, shaped and kept at about waist height. Dozens of flowers and bushes had been planted and maintained over the years, creating a place of beauty and peace in which to visit lost loved ones, memorialized by stones or not.

Knight knelt in front of the volcanic glass they’d chosen for their father, its shiny black surface engraved with his full name. Bishop had placed it next to the rose quartz engraved with “Andrea McQueen.” Mother and father, together. His mother had died to save him. His father had died to save a town targeted because of him. Through no fault of his own, Knight had taken them from his brothers and from Cornerstone.

Warm wetness trickled down over his cheeks. He wiped the tears away. Tears of joy for a successful new life coming into the world. Tears of sheer agony for everything his run had suffered these last two months. No tears for his own pain.

No, for himself all he had left was rage. Rage and darkness.

“I’ll find a way to fix this.” He brushed his fingers over the rose quartz. “I’ll bring Shay home. The hybrids will die. My brothers will have happy lives with their wives and children. I promise.”

Hold on for me, Shay. Please.

He touched the volcanic rock, its glassy surface so smooth and cool. “I won’t be a pawn anymore, Dad. Not for the hybrids and not for any other run. I’ll be the man you raised me to be, active in my own life and my future. Alpha Behr can scream to the heavens for me to be sent to him, but that’s not my choice. Bishop understands. I know you would, too.”

A gentle breeze brought the faint scent of sage he associated with his bodyguards. He glanced behind him, toward the entrance to the garden. Tanner lurked there, hands in his pockets, an oddly sympathetic look on his face. Knight rarely saw any emotion from him or his brother Luke.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Tanner said.

Knight dusted off his knees as he stood, unperturbed by the interruption. “I’m impressed. I forgot you were tailing me this morning.”

“You looked like you needed some distance.”

“Yeah, well, it’s difficult to get any real distance when I can’t leave town, and no one will let me be alone unless I’m in the house.”

Tanner didn’t reply.

“Michelle Barnes had her baby,” Knight said for no real reason. He rarely conversed with the Westfeld brothers. Mostly he treated Luke and Tanner like irritants, when they were taking time away from their families and their run to protect him. “It was a boy. They named him Thomas.”

“That was kind of them.”

“I ran out like a fool.”

“Births are emotional. Our White Wolf is always exhausted afterward.”

“I’m exhausted from a lot of things, but not from seeing a baby born. I’d like to see a lot more.”

“New life.”

“Yeah.”

Tanner hunched his shoulders, hesitating over something.

“You can say whatever’s on your mind,” Knight said.

“My run’s White is my aunt. Her name is Tabitha. She’s precious to me not only because she’s blood, but because I understand her importance to my run. And I see how she struggles some days with the burden of her status. As a White, sometimes it seems like your life isn’t your own. You aren’t free to make your own choices, because the needs of others will always come first.”

Knight stared at the pale-haired man in front of him, really seeing him for the first time. A man with a past and a story to tell who genuinely seemed to understand Knight’s point of view. “That’s exactly right.”

“I see that in Tabitha, and I also saw that in Colin. Luke and I grew up with him, and the three of us were inseparable. The best of friends. We saw how little choice Colin had in his own life, always one step behind his older brother.”

“Colin didn’t have a choice in coming here to challenge Bishop for Alpha.”

“No, he didn’t. Before he died, Colin told me that he had great respect for Bishop. Luke and I do, as well.”

“Gratitude. We need all of the allies we can get.”

“You have us. Perhaps not our Alpha, but you do have us.”

“Thank you, Tanner.”

“And if there’s anything I can assist you with, please ask.”

“I will.” Knight glanced back at the memorial stones. “We should head back to the house. You’ve been chasing me around town all morning.”

Tanner only smiled and slipped away into the shadows.

Knight left the garden a little less burdened than when he entered, but no less determined to see this thing through to the end—and to bring his mate home.

The pleasant scent of roasted meat roused Shay from a dark sleep, and for an instant, she was at peace. Mrs. Troost was fixing lunch. Knight was somewhere nearby. She would eat on the patio with the sun on her face.

And then she opened her eyes.

The stark walls of her prison no longer ran like paint, but they still existed. Her thin cot mattress was still on the cold cement floor. The damned collar was back on her neck. The only change was the missing baby bassinet. She was alone in the room.

I shifted. Finally.

Desiree, to her credit, had kept her promise about convincing Allison of the necessity of Shay’s shift. They’d hauled her into a windowless room, drained her nearly to unconsciousness, then removed the collar and left. Shay didn’t recall much about the shift into or back out of her beast form. All she knew was that the need to peel her own skin away from her body was gone.

She scratched at her left wrist, remembering the sharp sting of Desiree’s fangs piercing the skin. The wounds were healed, but the sense memory hadn’t disappeared.

Does Knight still feel the place where he was bitten?

She hauled her exhausted body into a sitting position. A tray of cooked steak and a bottle of water sat beside the mattress. She ate with more enthusiasm that she’d felt in days, thrilling at the taste of the meat and the chill of the water. Her body craved the sustenance, and it was gone too soon. The food helped her mind clear. It smoothed out the rough edges of memory.

Leopold.

She had a brother.

I have to get us out of here.

She’d gotten Desiree to trust her a little bit. She would do whatever it took from this point to gain more trust. To get information. Anything Shay could use to ensure her escape. Even if it meant playing nice with her enemies.

Desiree didn’t make her wait long. The whimpering baby gave her away long before she turned the locks. Shay shifted around to face the door, hoping to appear open and interested in her visitors. Desiree had the baby on her hip and a bottle in one hand, and she seemed insanely relieved to see Shay awake.

“Oh good, this kid doesn’t like me.” Desiree plunked the infant right into Shay’s lap and slapped the bottle onto the cot. “Please, get her to eat.”

Shay adjusted the squirming child to a more comfortable position. The formula was still warm. “What’s her name?”

“She doesn’t have one.”

“Why not?”

“We couldn’t decide.”

“Her parents couldn’t decide?”

Desiree shrugged. “The father’s dead and deservedly so. He never got a say. Not even before Fiona ripped his throat out.”

Shay made a terrible leap based on the faintest citrus scent marker in the child, as well as the baby’s jet black hair. “Was Fiona her mother?”

Genuine grief crumpled Desiree’s youthful face, temporarily chasing away the anger and hate that always seemed to linger. “Yes. We tried to take care of the baby, and even Leopold tried to help, but we were awful at it. Victoria was kind of successful, but then she was murdered, so we needed you or Brynn. We needed someone to take care of our sister’s baby.”

Shay studied the feeding child with fresh eyes. The spawn of her enemy. An innocent life trapped with a warring family and no happy ending in sight. It also meant that Magus-loup half-breeds could reproduce—good news for Brynn and Rook. News she desperately hoped to share with them. “Is that why Fiona wanted to impregnate Victoria? Because she had a child of her own?”

“Partly.” Desiree glanced around, as though worried Allison might overhear and be angry. “Her pregnancy gave Fiona the idea that we could reproduce and create our own family to protect each other. But we couldn’t manage it with regular loup, so Fiona came up with the plan to secure Knight. She knew that would work.”

Her skin crawled at the matter-of-fact way Desiree spoke about kidnapping a man for the sole purpose of raping him. Repeatedly. Her beast snarled.

“We had to protect ourselves,” Desiree said. “No one else would. The Magi betrayed us. Other loup would hate us. You were all so inferior anyway. We only had each other.”

The official word about the hybrids’ escape from Magi control was that they’d “lost control” of them. Archimedes Atwood hadn’t been keen to discuss the details of that loss, and Shay latched onto Desiree’s words. “How did the Magi betray you?”

Hatred burned like fire in Desiree’s black eyes. “In the place we lived, the Magi prevented us from using our abilities through magic of some kind. They lifted the magic when they wanted us to practice, but mostly we were normal and helpless.”

Shay saw her answer without Desiree explaining it, but she didn’t interrupt.

“Two years ago, one of the men who brought us meals took Fiona into another room and raped her. He said if she told our master, he would do the same to the rest of us, so Fiona kept quiet. They all thought we were sterile, anyway. He came every week for nearly a year. None of us told, and Fiona endured for us. It nearly broke her when she found out she was pregnant. The master was furious. He allowed Fiona to kill her attacker. Instead of terminating, the master was curious how her pregnancy would go.

“Our sister nearly died giving birth, and it left her sterile, but the baby was healthy. A healthy baby the Magi wanted to kill, but we protected her as we protected Leopold. We also planned our escape, and the moment the master let the magic down, we were gone.”

An unexpected flash of anger woke Shay’s beast further. The actions of one careless, despicable man had awoken a hatred inside of Fiona that had led them all to this day. Shay couldn’t imagine the pain or humiliation Fiona had suffered. It did not forgive the horrors Fiona had inflicted upon the loup garou. Nothing ever would. But Shay understood her half-sister a little bit better.

“I’m sorry,” Shay said. “I’m so sorry that happened to her.”

Desiree straightened her spine. “We all swore the day we escaped that we would be the slaves of males no more. Not human, Magi, or loup garou. They would all one day kneel to us.”

“But why destroy my run? Why kill everyone in Stonehill?” Grief battled with Shay’s anger for dominance.

“As a show of our strength, of course. After our escape, the master contacted us, promising us freedom and money in exchange for a few favors. His plans worked well with what Fiona wanted, so she agreed to work for him.”

And then she proceeded to double-cross him.

“The original plan to acquire Knight was more direct. We destroy two towns to show what we can do, and then we politely ask for him to turn himself over to us. The brother ending up at Potomac gave us an even better incentive to secure him. Plus my scent had the added bonus of pointing the finger at the Magi. Sensitive noses are a wonderful thing.”

That information did not surprise Shay in the least. They had theorized as much. Desiree’s words only confirmed it.

Desiree wandered the room, speaking to herself as much as Shay, as though they were actually friends. “I was quite jealous of Victoria, you know. I’ve only ever seen Knight from a distance, and from some photos Fiona took while she had him. For a loup, he’s quite beautiful. And according to Victoria, he has quite the baby maker under his belt.”

Pure jealousy burned in Shay’s gut. Jealousy and rage. Shay had only ever guessed as to the extent of Knight’s pain during his kidnapping. Guesses made based on conversations and the things he didn’t say. Whispers of conversations about a baby. The way he spiraled out of control emotionally after the attack on Springwell and Victoria’s death.

Oh Knight, please hold on until I get home to you.

Shay couldn’t spew the words simmering in her heart. She needed Desiree to trust her, not fear her, and all Shay wanted to do was attack. Fiona and Victoria might be dead, but Desiree had been an accomplice to Knight’s torture, and her beast demanded vengeance.

We’ll have it, old girl. I promise.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how gorgeous he is?” Desiree asked, completely unaware of Shay’s internal struggle. “It’s such a shame our other sister had to charge in for the rescue.”

I will eat your heart for breakfast and your liver for lunch.

“You couldn’t have expected Knight’s family to give him up without a fight,” Shay said, proud of the control in her voice.

“We thought destroying two towns would be incentive enough.”

“They’ll never give him up, Desiree. It’s not about how many other loup you kill, or how many towns are attacked. It’s about family. You know how it feels, right? That overwhelming need to protect your family, no matter what it costs you?”

“Of course I do.”

“They’ll fight to the last loup in Cornerstone to protect Knight.”

Desiree shrugged. “If that’s what it takes, Allison and I are prepared. We have assistance in our war against Cornerstone, and we will take it apart brick by brick if we must. Because this isn’t only about our future children. This is about vengeance for the murders of Fiona and Victoria.”

Shay bit back the need to correct Desiree on who had murdered whom. One of the hybrids had murdered her father in Stonehill, and he deserved vengeance, as well. One day he would have it.

She didn’t comment on Desiree’s declaration, uncertain how to lead this conversation into anything except an argument. She also didn’t need to push her luck with Desiree by asking about their assistance. Feral loup and half-breeds had already been their foot soldiers, and they’d all died for their efforts.

The baby finished the bottle and smiled up at her with eyes as black as her aunt’s. She didn’t look like Fiona. One day the child would probably possess a magical ability of some sort, thanks to her three-quarters Magi bloodline. Brynn would know more about that. Knowing that the baby in her arms was, indeed, her half-niece, made Shay even more determined to escape. She would take Leopold and the nameless baby home.

Home to their family in Cornerstone.

“Chelsea,” Shay said.

Desiree startled. “What?”

“We should name our niece Chelsea, in honor of her grandmother.”

“Oh.” She tilted her head, thinking. “I like it. I’ll ask Allison.”

Shay didn’t care what Allison thought. The baby’s name was Chelsea. “You do that. In the meantime, I’ll take care of her. Now that I’ve been allowed to shift, I’ll be better able to do so.”

“Good.” Desiree ruffled Chelsea’s thick black hair. “She likes you.”

“I like her, too. Desiree, may I ask you something?”

“Ask away.”

“The day I asked you to allow me to shift, after I met Leopold. I smelled something unusual on you, a marker that was familiar but not your own scent. Something like sage. Where did that come from?”

Desiree’s expression flattened. “We’re done talking, sister. You know more than enough for now.”

Shay did nothing to stop her from leaving, or from locking them in. She looked down at the sleepy child in her arms. Shay’s niece. Her mother’s namesake.

“I’ll protect you, little one. I promise.”

***

Bishop McQueen eased back in his desk chair and glared at the stack of paperwork on his desk. Forms from the electrician he’d hired to wire up the new apartments. Various quotes for the lumber and essentials needed to rebuild the auction house. Insurance papers. So many small things that still needed to be seen to before anyone could properly move into the new residences.

He was no stranger to paperwork. He had worked alongside his late father since he was twenty-one, managing the auction house and dealing with sellers. But he’d never overseen a project as large as all of the new construction happening around town—necessary to ensure the comfort and safety of his new residents.

Time for a break. Bishop had been holed up in the office for five hours, making calls and working on the computer. No new leads on the Skydale attack meant more waiting on that front. Mason’s team had left that morning to search in West Virginia, and he wasn’t expecting an update until five o’clock. Bishop desperately needed some fresh air.

Maybe even thirty minutes alone with his wife, if she wasn’t busy.

She often was. As the Alpha female, Jillian had as much responsibility to the run as he did. Being out there, a strong presence for their people, visiting and talking and listening to concerns. Their paths didn’t often cross during the day, so they took advantage of their time spent alone at night. Oh yes, they took advantage.

The landline rang, startling Bishop out of thoughts of his wife naked in his bed. Private number.

Assuming a wrong number, he plucked up the handset. “McQueen Auctions.”

“Alpha McQueen, I presume?”

Bishop went rigid. The voice was unfamiliar, with a prim lilt to it that hinted at someone who walked with his nose in the air. “This is Bishop McQueen. Who is this?”

“Archimedes Atwood.”

Brynn’s father and a Prime Magus within the Congress of Magi. Not to mention the man responsible for the very existence of the hybrids who kept attacking them. He palmed his cell phone and began typing out a 911 text to Rook, Brynn, Jillian, Knight, and Jonas.

“I will assume from your silence that my phone call surprises you,” Atwood said.

“You could say that.” Bishop sent the text. “If you’re calling to speak to your daughter, she’s unavailable.”

“As much as that idea does appeal to me, I have business to discuss with you, Alpha.”

“What sort of business? You ready to call off your bulldogs?”

“If you are referring to my creations, then yes, this does involve them. I wish to stop them and end this violence between our people.”

Bishop snorted. “Oh please. You created those hybrids specifically to cause violence.”

“The original intent was to use them to cause strife between the loup garou runs. It was never to circle back to the Magi, but I lost control of those girls. They work for themselves now, not me.”

Atwood had already admitted as much to Brynn weeks ago. “You created living weapons that you lost control of, and they began slaughtering my people. Hundreds of loup have died because of you, Mr. Atwood. I would sooner rip your throat out than be your ally in anything.”