CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The words wrapped around my mind, swirling in my thoughts and drifted through my body. I sat there, the cold seeping through the floor and into my skin as it wrapped up and coiled around like a physical force lurching towards my stomach before it slipped inside and tightened around my insides.

They took my sons because of Dean. They took my boys because of this man that was never in their life. All because he wasn't human. All because of that night.

I stood slowly, knees buckling slightly before the door opened and in walked another female. Her eyes darted from me to the mess left on the floor before she quickly curled her lips into a scowl. The putrid stench of vomit had numbed my nostrils, but I glowered back and shoved her aside as I stumbled to the door.

“Oh dear, Alyssa?!”

Melinda’s voice trailed after me, soon accompanied by the scuttle of her feet as I marched through the halls. The same words were a mantra in my mind. They took Damon and Ryan because of Dean.

It was his fault! He was the reason they were suffering. All him!

My thoughts were a summons and I stumbled upon Dean with the other men, or Alpha’s in a dining room setting. They were perched around the tables, mouths and hands occupied with dinner while I’d been left to come to terms with everything in another room?!

“The fuck?!” The snarl ripped from my throat as I stopped at the head of the table and my brows furrowed together. “Are you all fucking kidding me?!”

“Alyssa!” Melinda hissed as she skidded to a stop beside me. Her hands lashed out and curled around my biceps as she tried to usher me back from the table. As my eyes skewered over the men, I picked out new, older faces among them. One man with a short bread sprinkled with white glanced from Dean to me before smiling slightly.

“You are eating fucking steak while my sons are missing! You son of a-!”

“Finish that sentence and you will regret it,” Dean snapped back rising to his feet. Lyon groaned softly and pushed his dinner away so that he could rest his elbow on the table and drop his head into his hand.

“You’re right,” I muttered gently moving away from Melinda. “It would be harsh of me to call your mother a bitch when the only problem is you. You asshole! My sons are out there in the hands of some bastard wolves and here you are having a fucking gathering with mates?!”

“Alyssa, calm down and hav-” Jared began but my hand whipped out and suddenly there was a glass flying at his head.

“FUCKING WEREWOLVES HAVE MY SONS!”

My scream was more of a battle cry as it echoed around the room, no doubt reverberating down the whole building. Melinda gasped behind me while all the men around me tensed, fingers dug into arms of chairs and I trembled. Dean’s face contorted as he appeared to be torn between shouting back or just ripping me apart. The older man beside him pursed his lips, his deep blue eyes swirling silver as he gazed to his son.

Melinda’s hand was tentative on my shoulder, hesitant first before she firmly gripped my arm once more. “Dearie, please. We will find them.”

“Why were you the one to tell me?” I snapped, twisting my neck to pin her with my gaze. Her lips parted but her eyes darted behind me to her son. “Why was it you there when I woke? Why was it you that told me why my sons were gone and not your son?! Why is he too coward to tell me the truth!”

Bright eyes shot back to me and wrinkles defined her soft skin as she glowered back. “Now listen here, Alyssa. Dean is-.”

“Alpha,” I spat jerking from her touch. “Yet he needs his mammy to talk to the mother of his children?! How fucking pathetic!”

“Enough!”

The growl came from Dean, but the words were formed from the older man. He stood with his son and jerked Dean away from where he was about to lunge before levelling his finger with me. His voice was low but powerful, a man used to barking orders and having no fear that they wouldn’t be obeyed.

“You have just stumbled into a world of nightmares, girl! Do not taunt a wolf, let alone one who has lost his sons!”

“They are no more his than they are the bastard who took them!” I snarled back. My hand whipped out once more but before I could slash the stranger’s finger from my face Lyon was there holding my fingers in his.

“For the last time I didn’t know!” Dean snarled, his teeth were lengthening in his mouth, weird popping noises echoing around the room as his eyes burned brighter. The black pupil expanded before shrinking rapidly and shifted positions ever so slightly.

“But how come they did?! How did they know I had your child I never told anyone! But they knew! Who the fuck did you tell of that night?!”

Blank eyes drifted around the room. My questions fell on deaf ears as no one was quick to answer. At my back, Melinda was moving to sit in the discarded chair while Lyon continued to hold my hand in his. My fingers twisted to grip his and I held on tight enough something shifted beneath my grip. Yet he didn’t pull away.

Dean straightened, his teeth snapping back to normal as he glowered from me to his father. His eyes danced, different shades fighting for dominance as he fell into thoughts. “It was five years ago…”

“Another notch on your belt that didn’t matter? Something to brag about to the friends?” I scoffed, eyes rolling to the heavens. “How many other women are out there with your children?!”

“None!”

“And how the fuck would you know, Mister ‘my-assistant-screens-all-calls’?!”

“Oh fuck you!” Dean roared back then, he sidestepped his father as I jerked away from Lyon and strode forward to meet him face on.

We collided while others pulled back, our chests pushed together as he glowered down while I snarled up at him. Hands tightening and clenching at my sides, I yearned to rip through his skin with my nails and leave him a scarred mess.

All of it was because of him! How many more had lost children because of him!

“If only you could have kept it in your pants all would be good.”

“Says the one that had been begging for it!”

“At least I can remember all I fucked and who I told them about! Can you? How many other one night fucks are out there with kids from you? How many have been stolen?!” Spittle was slapping his chin and chest as I hurled the abuse at him. “I think there is a term for you that is a man-fucking-whore!”

“Alyssa-.”

The warning wasn’t from Dean, instead it was one of the others in the room but they wouldn’t get there in time as Dean’s eyes had finally found a winner and were now burning amber with just a few specks of blue to peak through.

His hand lashed out, arching towards my neck but before he could cut into me with nails that had popped and extended into claws, my hand crashed against his. Bones creaked and blood kissed the air as his nails shredded my palm yet before pain assaulted me the world shifted.

Running.

They were racing through the forest. Eyes blurred and vision impaired. Everything hurt. Bones screamed, muscles bunched and cried out but they pushed on. Hands clasped together he pulled his sibling further. Just a little further.

They screamed as something popped and one sibling fell to the earth. The ground sizzled around them as another bone snapped and his arm jumped at a weird angle.

“Get up! Get up! Pwease! MOMMY!”

“MOMMY!”

Voices were shouting around me. I was being dragged back. Hands were gripping mine; my name was called but the world was blank.

I sucked in a breath, pain flaring from my hand as my blood sloshed to the floor. Dean was being held back by the older man while Melinda and Lyon were crowded around me. My ears were ringing, eyes unfocused on the building I was in. Instead I was still trapped in that forest, the scent of the trees burning in my nostrils as I jerked away from them.

“Close,” I whispered, my head falling back onto Lyon’s shoulder as he held onto me from behind. Melinda was wrapping my hand int a cloth and the pressure of her touch stung further. “Close.”

“Hush, Alyssa it’s not deep you’ll be ok.”

“You fucking idiot,” Lyon growled against my head and I shuddered. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

Mommy!

The voice wailed through my mind and I jumped forward. Melinda fell to the floor as I surged away from them. Lining one side of the room, were floor to ceiling windows with a door. I lunged for it, my son’s names forming on my lips as their cries echoed in my mind and seized my heart. Close they were close; I could feel it.

Breaking from the confines of the house, I surged into the open and ran.