Chapter 100 Chapter 100
Marilyn chuckled and waved a hand in a dismissive manner at her, “It’s why he’s in chains, so he’s not complaining, even if he did, no one would listen.”
Pausing Nona’s hand, she looked at her aunt. “What?” Her first thought was she’d had sex with a man that was imprisoned for a sex crime, then remembered with her aunt, she needed to clarify before she freaked right out because she always started with the punch line first.
Nona’s head snapped around and she looked at Marilyn. “You don’t think she has enough to cope with the last few days, you had to go and dump that on her? I planned to wait a few days and explain it all to her. In an orderly way.”
Shae went over and sat on the edge of the chair beside her aunt. “Explain, please.”
The door opened and Shae’s mother and Aunt Louisa walked in.
“Leroy came storming in while I was visiting. We figured he knew about Shae…” She shrugged to Shaelan, “Your mom filled me in.” Spotting her sister, shook her head. “Sister, I should have known you would be here. Does mayhem follow you everywhere?” She smirked.
Aunt Marilyn smiled, “It’s a skill, takes lifelong practice, sister, not just anyone can do it.”
Shae’s mother gasped, “Shaelan, oh look at your face!” She came running over to her.
Shae really needed to look in the mirror. First, she needed to know what Marilyn was talking about.
“What’s going on?” Louisa asked in a soft voice.
Aunt Marilyn laughed, “Brock is gay and I’ve let the proverbial cat out of the bag.”
Stilling her mothers’ hand from fussing at her, Shae got up. “Which she was just going to explain.” She glanced at the face of the four women present, “and I’m guessing you can all help.”
Shae’s mother gapped at her. “Brock is gay? Gay, like, he prefers men?”
Nodding, Shae sighed, “I almost stopped breathing when he dropped the act and spoke.” She glanced at her Aunt Louisa, “he sounds like you.”
“What?” she chuckled, “Oh my goodness.”
“Well then.” Her mom shook her head. “I guess no marriage?”
Shrugging, she sat back down. “We’ll work out a plan later. He bought us some time.” Turning she glared at Aunt Marilyn, “You were going to explain?”
Several sighs and deep breaths later the other women sat down and Shae waited for one of them to start. Her heart was still beating faster then it ever had before, and if she didn’t get answers immediately about why Calum was locked up, she was going to scream.
“We were once part of an alliance … a long time back…” Nona said quietly, a look of deep contemplation on her face, “the alpha didn’t like their choices and forbade our clan to leave this territory, until it was sorted out.”
“It never got sorted out.” Her mother added.
“Mmhm,” Marilyn bobbed her head, “after the next generation, no one ever found a true mate again...” she looked around at the other women, a sad look in her eyes. “Mates can be anywhere in the world. Condemning us to this territory was handing us all a half life.” She shook her head. “You feel incomplete.” She motioned to her sister. “You can fall in love and marry, with it not being your true mate…”
“But there’s always this small part… wondering.” Aunt Louisa said with a sigh.
Nona huffed out a breath. “By the second generation, around your parents’ time... maybe earlier … time blurs after a while… the clan was starting to weaken. The fairer ones could no longer shift, fewer of us gave birth to children who could. It was almost as if the life force in our people was dying out.” She glanced hesitantly to Shae’s mother who nodded, a serious look on her face. “That’s when the captive breeding started...”
Shae stiffened. “The what?” She opened her mouth then closed it and got up. “Captive breeding? I thought they were criminals!” She put a hand over her mouth then dropped it. “You mean to tell me we are holding innocent men against their will? They’ve done nothing wrong?” She thought of Calum and pain jolted her heart. No, she couldn’t focus on him until she found out what was happening.
Her mother cleared her throat. “They thought that bringing new and stronger blood lines back into the families…”
“So why didn’t they marry outside the clan, actually bring new blood lines in?”
Marilyn sighed loudly. “I never thought I’d ever see a man having to be held against his will to mate with a woman.” She shook her head. “It didn’t work at first, and we sane people thought they’d drop it.”
Nona nodded. “They started using the herbs for both parties after a few months… makes both think it’s their mate… then successful conception happens…”
Shae tried to process this. Calum had been given herbs to want her the way he did. Her heart thumped louder in her chest. Of course, he had, why else would a man held against his will agree. It was… it was just ludicrous. “What does that mean for the couples? The ones that actually love each other?”
“Those women forced to breed with the other blood line… it makes it very hard on their end is what it does.” Her mother said with a hard tone in her voice. “It takes several new marks to get the stench of another man off them.”
Shae held a hand over her heart. “That’s awful.” She thought of the marks Calum had put on her, would they be there forever? Had they given him those herbs? She needed to know. Granted there were more important things to wonder about right now, but how would she find out? Shaking her head, she realized that was the least important thing to focus on right now. “Why hasn’t anyone done anything about this?”
Marilyn snorted, “Most don’t know.”
“The elders do, and are too weak to do anything,” Nona sighed, “The couples forced into the breeding, are sworn to secrecy or lose their spouse and children. Only the male guards know, and the healer, as well as the alpha and seconds families.”
Everyone was silent. The air was heavy like each older woman was mourning what the clan had gone through. Shae tried to grasp what that meant, other than Calum wasn’t a criminal yet was a man being held against his will. A man she had asked to help her, and he’d done it so tenderly, with patience… even stopping right before… to ask if she’d changed her mind. “Is every person there innocent?”
Marilyn shook her head slowly. “No, the other side is actually a real jail.”
“Oh.” She supposed that was good at least, if any of this could be called good. Out of nowhere it hit her. What if they sent other women in with him? What if he did with them what he’d done with her? She jumped up and paced quickly to the window and looked down toward the yard. This horrible feeling hit her in the gut, she felt like she was going to be ill as the thought of him forced to have sex with another woman hit her.
“Nona,” she spun around and looked at her, “we have to get to Calum out of there.”
Marilyn sat forward like she was going to say something until Nona held her hand up to stop her. “Calum.” She said in a soft voice. “That’s the fella’s name?”
Shae nodded. “It’s not right, we have to get him out so he can go home.” It bothered her she wouldn’t see him again, but she didn’t have time to examine why right now.
“How, Shaelan? We can’t just walk in and demand he be released.” Her mother looked from one woman to the next, “right?”
“No, we can’t.” Nona said as she got up. Going over to her bag, she picked it up and dug to the bottom of it. Pulling out a small pouch, she set the bag down again. As she walked to Shae, she emptied it into her hand then held up keys. “But we can get him out.” She put the keys in Shae’s hand and squeezed it shut. Then turned back to the shocked looks on the others faces. “What? I may have set a few loose throughout the years.” She nodded to Shae. “Trick is to have them mangle the cuffs so it looks like they broke out.”
Nodding, Shae looked down at the keys in her hand. “But how do we get him out of the building?”
“That’s the rub, isn’t it?” Marilyn mused.
A knock on the door had them all freeze and stare, holding their breath. Shae looked at the keys in her hand and quickly tucked them into the pocket of her jeans. Her mom got up and went to the door and opened it. Brock stood there.
He stepped in and nodded to the women, then gave Shae a wide-eyed cold stare.
She glanced at Nona, then back to Brock. “They know.” She held her breath waiting for his reaction.
“Oh, thank god,” his shoulders sagged, “you have no idea how painful it gets being that tense and upright. All. The. Time.” He wagged a finger at the women. “I expect you to keep this secret or it’s my life, literally, that will end.” He sighed. “Actually, gives me the fuzzies, that someone else knows…” he waved a hand in the air, “except Garrett, and he’s having an identity crisis right now, so boo on him.”
Shaking off the shock, her mom jumped up. “Brock, where is Leroy?
“Oh, he went for a run to blow off steam… or whatever.” He smiled at Shaelan. “I thought I’d scoot up here and make a plan with the girl while he was gone.” He looked at Nona and then Aunt Louisa, his brows drawn together, then pointed a finger at Aunt Marilyn. “What gives? I can smell a scheme in play.”
Shaelan brushed her hair back from her face and sighed. “We’re trying to figure out how to get Calum out.”
His head snapped back to her. “Calum?” He pursed his lips for a second. “We have a Calum here?” His jaw dropped, “is that who…”
Blushing, she nodded. “He’s one of the captives.”
Brock’s shoulders slumped down. “Filthy, vile practice that is. I want to hurl every time I walk into that place.” He straightened, his eyes going wide. “You went to one of them? The captives they force to...” His mouth dropped open, then he snapped it shut and stood there with his hand over his mouth looking at her.
“I didn’t know what to do.” She grimaced. “I didn’t want to mate with you.”
“Oh. I’d be offended, but eww.” He held a hand over his flat stomach. “Thank you. You’re forgiven.” He huffed out a breath. “I can get you in,” he paused, “we’ll think of a reason, but…” he shrugged, “I can’t break him out of the collar…” He motioned to his body, “Big strong body, but unless I’m in my cat skin, I have all the strength of a worm.” He tapped his head, “I think it’s all psychological, but what do I know about that? I’m just a big he-cat second in training.” He rolled his eyes.
Shae pulled the key out of her pocket and held it up.
“Well then,” he grinned at her, “lets go break a Calum out.” He bowed to the women still looking at him shocked. “Ladies, we will return.” Blowing out a breath, he closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and was the expressionless, cold-eyed Brock again.
Aunt Marilyn started clapping. “Bravo!”
He giggled, then glared at her and cleared his throat. Staring at the ceiling, he exhaled and focused until he was the other man once more.