Raven’s POV
That ass was a complete idiot, how could he have just walked up and hurt Cheryl like that? What could he have been thinking? I saw Blake was just as stunned by Silas saying that as I was, but I knew what was about to happen. Both Brandon and Justin lunged for Silas and would have grabbed him but he ran behind the rest of the group to hide. Just like the coward, he is.
“I have got him, boys,” Nadia said and the next thing you knew he rose above the men he was hiding behind, and then floated back over towards us. He was screaming out, calling out for help, as he sailed through the air over to the vampires from the safety of where he had just been standing.
“You might want to give him straight to Blake. I believe that they are going to hurt him if they get their hands on him” I told Nadia as I went to take each of my mate's hands in mine. They have to calm down. This is not our pack. We have no pull here. This is a cue for us to leave here as soon as we can. We are not safe, and I do not trust a number of the men here. Including that Travis guy who we kicked out of our pack. He is standing there leering at Reagan and me like he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on the both of us. I shuddered in disgust, as my men calmed down. Yes, we needed to leave, and right now. If they saw that jerk looking at me like that, they would kick his ass for the thoughts that he was not even trying to hide from everyone present.
“Thank you for letting us speak to Graham, Blake. I believe that you will give him just want he deserves for what he has done. But I believe that it is time for us to leave here. Please reach out to us if you need something from us. We will try to accommodate you in whatever we can. That is if you are willing to allow us to leave peacefully. I think you know who is really at fault here, but I hope you will take into account what he did to your mate” I told him. I know she probably doesn’t want to cause problems and would love to leave just as much as we would, but she needs to show him what Silas did to her.
Blake has his hand on Silas’s wrist, to prevent him from walking away from him. “Cheryl, would you please come here? I would like to see what your father has done” Blake called out to her.
“He is no longer my father. We are nothing to each other anymore. I pray I never see him again for the rest of my life” Cheryl said as she came from behind the line of vampires with the help of Max on one arm, and Anton on her other arm. Cheryl’s head was down. She looked down at the ground as she walked, and I couldn’t see her injury anymore. Cheryl just doesn’t like a lot of attention. She had been broken down, and her confidence has taken a hard hit from all she had experienced here. I guess being told repeatedly that you are worthless and had no value for years, it eventually will eventually make you believe that it might be true. I can see both men glaring at each other over her head, and the room is getting very tense over it. The vampires will be backing Anton in this, and it will not go well for Max if they push the issue. I pray that this doesn’t go south before we can get the hell out of here. We don’t need them to fight over her, and I stepped forward with Reagan to take over assisting Cheryl. Blake was so pissed at seeing them helping her, rather than at the injury that she has sustained. Neither wanted to let go of the arm that they were holding, but they both realized that if they had to let go, the other one did too. That was something that was acceptable to both of them, and Reagan and I helped her walk to Blake.
When Cheryl raised her head to look at him, he gasped in shock. Her wolf was healing her, albeit slowly. The bruise was now a deep purple color and it had made a clear outline of a handprint on her face. The blood at the corner of her mouth was not a great look for her delicate feature. Her being frail already, was just the cherry on top of the whole thing. Blake was furious and he let go of Silas’ wrist and turned to him like he was going to confront him. Silas seemed a lot more worried all of a sudden but he never saw Blake's hand coming. Blake slapped him so hard that Silas was knocked down to the floor. The surprise evident all over his face, he didn’t expect it, and Blake said to Garrett, “Take him downstairs, he gets three days in the cells.”
I see the concern he has for Cheryl all over his face. He doesn’t know what to say, or to do here in this. I can tell that he cannot believe that someone, especially her father would do that to her. Silas is hurling threats at Cheryl as he gets taken down to the cells to start his sentence. I know we need to go now. Cheryl is getting hard to hold up, and I am concerned that she might pass out again. This day has obviously taken a toll on her. I never knew how bad she truly had it here. She didn’t like to speak about it, and she had both Reagan and me in tears for all she had suffered. As mothers ourselves we know that the thing that hurt her the most was trying to get her son safely out of there. That must have weighed on her all day long, every single day. Not knowing when Graham was going to put his evil plan in motion. All that anxiety, fear, and stress had to have been draining her every day. I know that the Goddess herself probably put it on Kevin’s heart to train. His strength was the reason that Graham’s plan had failed. Kevin got to be stronger than his older brother, all because he was trying to earn just a little love or approval from Blake.
I smiled at the thought of the Goddess herself stepping in and stopping something that he spent years perfecting. I linked Justin and Brandon and told them we needed to get going, now. They already knew it, and without saying anything Reagan and I led the way, with Clive, my dad, Justin, Brandon, and Max providing a circle of protection around the vampires. It let everyone we passed know they if they wanted to get at the vampires, they were going to have to go through us. But they were all intimidated by the vampires already in the first place. Especially after Nadia lifted Silas off the floor like she just did. It let them know that they were probably dealing with not just vampires, but specials. It made them doubly dangerous, and they all stepped back suddenly to give us the room to walk past. I bet that was Blake telling them to do it, as he stayed at the back of the group.
We took a few more steps before Cheryl’s legs gave out. Reagan and I were having to hold her up. Anton was there immediately, it was like he anticipated it, and he swept her up into his arms bridal style. She was too weak to want to argue with him, but I could see the concern for him on her face. She knew the second Blake saw it, he would be in danger, so we all picked up the pace. We didn’t have to go slow to allow Cheryl to walk on her own, so we got to the SUVs quickly. Blake should have clued in, but I think he was still upset over the fact that Cheryl had been assaulted by her own father. Anton placed her gently into the SUV and buckled her in. He then slid past her to sit on the last row, right behind her. I noticed that he was leaning forward, his hand lightly touching her arm to give it a squeeze. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to give her support, or if he needed to comfort himself that she was OK, and we were all getting the hell out of there.
Blake came up to her door to tell her goodbye, and as soon as he caught sight of Anton touching her, he couldn’t stop himself, “Cheryl is my mate, as much as we both appreciate you taking up for her, you don’t need to do it anymore. I am willing and able to do it. I can fully protect my mate. Please do as you said, when you told me that she still loved me, and for me to give her time. I feel like you wanted to help us at first, and now you just want her for yourself. Please think of Cheryl, how could that possibly work between you two? You are from two different worlds, you cannot be a match, to even try to make this work. Just leave her alone, and allow me to beg her forgiveness. I will do anything to get her back, and I think you should keep your word and not prevent me from trying to get my mates to come back to me” Blake said in a huff.
“I know what I said Blake, it was only yesterday. But that was before I really looked into her memories. I was just going by the fact that she did still have some love for you still left in her heart. She did, and she still does, but something she said while she was talking to Graham hit me. So I looked deeper into her memories. I will not be stopping, or backing away from her again. She would be way better off with me, or even Max, than to be with you. I see what you did to her. I saw it like I was in the room with you when it happened. I felt her emotions at what you did to her, and her fear of you as you did what you wanted, with no regard for her at all when you did it. You took your own mate against her will, and you didn’t do it just once. When I hear what she said, and then stopped herself from going any further, I suspected, so I checked. She had them locked away, so she didn’t have to face them anymore. You gave her too much trauma. I won’t be stepping back, Blake. I hope that you realized that she wasn’t just talking to Graham in there, she was talking to you too. There were hints all over the place from Cheryl that it was the both of you that she was actually speaking to. You both worked together to tear her apart. I see the damage left behind. She is strong, but even strong women can be torn apart, by the words and deeds of others. Especially when it comes to them from the very ones they love. You hurt her more than Graham did. You listened to him, and chose him, over her. You made sure to hurt her, all in the name of your justice. I bet you felt sickened by all you put her through when you found out that you were wrong. Yet you buried your head in the sand to not see what your vicious pack had done to her. She never complained, and the worst part to me, was she still tried to be the best mate, and Luna, for you that she could be. Even with the oppression that you were bringing to her. She kept up everything she promised you in her Luna ceremony. You failed her, over and over, and then dare to stand there like you are the victim yourself. Go try to peddle it somewhere else, because no one here is buying it” Anton told Blake.
I saw the fire leap up in Blake’s eyes and I linked Brandon, “We need to go now because I am starting to get the impression that we are about to have to fight our way out of here” Brandon started the SUV up, and the vampires had already started to back out. I am sure that Alexei had told them that Anton just drew the line in the sand, and they knew that we were about to be involved in a fight too. I was glad to see that Reagan and Clive were already in their SUV and were waiting on us to follow them up the drive.
I turned around to see that Blake was heading for a truck to follow us, and I already suspected that he was telling the gate guards to not allow us to leave. Justin was on the phone with the council telling them what situation we were in, as we might be in a battle for our lives at any minute. We very well may have to fight our way out of here, and although we didn’t want to have to do it, we would for us to be able to get to safety. I called my dad to tell him what was happening, and Brandon mindlinked the warriors that had come here with us. They had stayed in their vehicle in front of the packhouse, while we went in to speak with Graham. All five of our SUVs were heading to the gate as quickly as we could, but it was indeed locked when we got there. Several warriors were standing in front of it, blocking our way.
“Let my people go around us to the front of the group,” Alexei said in a calm tone. We stay put as they pulled around and a large chunk of ice formed into a huge spear right in front of their SUV. The warriors were lifted out of the way as the spear was thrown at the latch on the gate. It broke the latch in two and the gate opened up for us to leave. The vampire's SUV took the lead to leave, and they rammed the gate with the protective grill on the front of their SUV to slam the gate open for us all. Nadia set the five warriors down behind their gatehouse, as we all sped out of the pack. Reagan and Clive went back to Blood Tracker, and the rest of us all headed home in the opposite direction. Blake did drive up behind us but was not able to pass us to try to get us to stop. We watched as a fireball came out of nowhere and slammed into the hood of his truck. He swerved and came to a sudden stop. He got the warning, and he turned to drive across the median to go back to his pack and make other plans. He knew that alone he was a sitting duck out here. I knew he would be furious at Cheryl for escaping from Black Moon. I felt a little bad for him as I know he loves her, but he has to live with the choices he made. This wasn't a sudden or slight mistake. This was years of punishment that was made up to hurt his mate, and he was all in on doing that. he was OK with the hurt he caused her, and he should never have been OK with that.
He was told to leave her alone, that stress was bad for her healing process, and yet at every turn, he was pushing her emotions to the breaking point. We all know he wants her back, but he is applying too much force right now. She made it abundantly clear to everyone present when she spoke to Graham, that she was not going to be coming back there, for any reason. I looked back at Alexei in amazement at what we had just witnessed at the gate. “How was any of that possible?” I asked Alexei.
“Well, you already knew that Anton and Nadia both have a gift. What you didn’t know was that all 9 of us, and several others in my coven, have gifts as well. Kira, Dmitriy, and I are very quick to heal both ourselves and others. Kira is actually more powerful with it as it takes less out of her when she heals others. It tends to weaken Dmitriy and me much more when we do it. To me, it is more than a gift really, as it has saved our lives on several occasions. Nadia’s gift is called telekinesis, she can move objects. Anton had Telepathy, in addition to reading minds, he can also use it to speak into the minds of others as well. I also can control animals; dogs, mountain lions, wolves” Alexei trails off with the last one, and gives us all a smile, like he thinks it is funny. I see Brandon looking at him in the rearview mirror at his sarcasm, but I think it is a great gift. We were safer than I thought back at Black Moon. Just the thought of what they can do, makes me realize what a powerful ally we had in him. That would be a very useful skill for him to have I thought.
“Yes, very useful in case of a war or attack,” Anton said from behind me, and I couldn't stop my burst of laughter. “Yes, both gifts are very useful skills to have in an ally,” I told them both and turned to give them a big smile. They both smiled and nodded at me before they turned serious again.
“Irina has cryokinesis, who allows her to control the element of ice or cold. It is especially helpful in the winter as her powers at that time are unlimited. Polina has pyrokinesis, which allows her to control fire with her mind, which is what just hit Blake’s vehicle. Ivan has clairvoyance, which is the ability to see the past, present, or future. And you didn’t see it, but Adrik is a human lie detector. He knows when someone is lying. He cannot read minds like Anton does though, but still a very helpful skill to have in both the coven and when we go to help out on missions like this. It cuts through the bull much quicker than if we have to learn how someone really is because that takes much more time. Usually, time is of the essence, especially if their intent is to harm us” Alexei told us.
“You have so many valuable members in your coven, Alexei. I appreciate your team getting us out of there safely. It was about to become a real fight for us at Black Moon, one that would have probably resulted in a war” I told him. I am sure that he did what was needed as he knows Anton has feelings for her. It still may result in a war between us. I could tell how mad Blake was with how he tried to chase us down like that. I think that it finally sank into him Cheryl was not going to voluntarily come back to Black Moon pack. I do not think that he liked the reality check that he just got. I think that Anton repeating what Cheryl said, plus the fact that she wasn’t just speaking to Graham when she got everything off her chest, was what got the message through to him today. He just refused to accept the fact that she is over him, and just wants to move on with her life. I know that he will be showing up sooner or later at our gates.
“I agree, we have many valuable members in our coven. I am very glad that we are so close to Black Adder. I believe that it will be helpful for us as we move forward in the coming months,” Alexei said and glanced over to grin at his brother who was now sitting stiffly in his seat and seemed like he was uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation. Cheryl slumped over on me to sleep while we head to Alexei and Anton’s coven. I had wished that she would have been able to speak to him on the way back, but I already have plans to help them get together again. It might have been for the best. Max and Anton both relaxed after she nodded off. Maybe trying to push them together in front of Max, was not the best thing to do. We can wait a little while longer and get them together again. Cheryl deserves to be happy. This romance needs to be pushed along, as they are both hesitant about moving forward. I think that they are perfect for each other. I would support Max if he had been her choice. She is not interested in him, the way he is in her. He needs to bow out gracefully in this because I can see him getting upset and taking it out on her. I don’t what that to happen, I hope he can let her go before it comes to blows between him and Anton. Because I can teel that Anton is very interested in Cheryl, and I do not think that Maz will be able to stop them once they are both willing to admit the attraction between them.
Max pushes too Hard