Shae read the same sentence for the tenth time. She couldn’t focus, all she could taste was Calum, even after brushing her teeth. All she could smell was Calum, even after practically sticking her nose in garlic powder to try to stop that. How long would this last? It was very distracting.
Even after washing last night, with soap, Nona had walked by and sniffed the air, then chuckled.
She stood in front of the mirror this morning staring at the bites on her breasts and blushing…her cheeks weren’t the only thing that heated when she touched the marks. That was lunacy. They were fresh wounds and should have hurt, not turned her on. She glared at the book and tried to clear her mind.
When her father and Brock stepped into the room behind Nona, the first thought in Shae’s mind was run! The expression on Nona’s face said much the same thing.
Setting the book down, she stood up slowly. “Dad, is everything all right with mom?” He gave her a blank look, almost as if it was weird for her to ask about her own mother.
“Yes. Fine.” He motioned to Brock, who stood beside Nona. “We’re here to set a date. Need to get this settled before your heat hits. I won’t have you whoring yourself.”
Opening her mouth, she shut it again quickly before she said the first thing that came to mind. Bite me, probably wasn’t the best reply. “I’ve been meaning…”
He walked over until he was right in front of her and lowered his head so they were almost eye to eye. “I won’t take any…” He inhaled slowly, his brow furrowed. He repeated the action only this time it was much more obvious that he was smelling her. “What have you done?”
Chalk one up to aunt talks-a-lot, it worked…Her fathers’ large hand connected with the side of her face before she could complete the thought. The pain radiated up to her eye. She refused to make a sound.
His eyes were full of hatred as he glared at her. “How dare you do such a thing…”
Nona made a noise of distress causing Shae to glance at her. Brock had a gobsmacked look on his face, not the hard, impartial look he always wore.
“Chief,” he barked and walked toward them, “this is for me to deal with.”
Her father glanced at him and gave an abrupt nod before giving her another loathsome look. “It will be gone in a few months, son, if there’s no permanent damage.”
Brock nodded, the expression on his face hard again. He stopped in front of her and looked down at her. “Give us a few minutes?”
Her father nodded, as he stepped back.
She looked up at Brock, daring him to just try it when he mouthed the words ‘thank you’ and his eyes softened into an expression she had never seen on his face before.
Glancing around him, she watched Nona and her father walk out of the house and close the door. When she looked back to Brock, he looked like he was going to cry.
“Are you okay?” His face scrunched up in concern as he tilted her chin up. “What a brutish thing to do.”
Shae’s face was throbbing, and she could taste the blood as her lip swelled, but she just stood there stupefied, listening to him. His voice had gone up several octaves and he looked at her with a completely changed facial expression. Not just his expression, but he was like a whole different person.
“I’m so sorry,” he continued. “I’ve been trying to find a way to talk to you.” He wiped a hand across his brow. “This is a complete nightmare.”
Shae stepped back and held up her hand. “What?” Great rejoinder, but it was the only thing her brain could process to say.
He glanced over his shoulder and then looked bashful. “I like men,” he whispered, then practically giggled. “Imagine the horror that is me.” He motioned the air around himself. “Big scary he-cat—” His voice was lower again. “—is gay!” he squeaked.
Shae covered her face, completely unsure of what to think, or do. Then, she dropped her hands away, mouth wide open. “You mean I didn’t have to sleep with…” She blushed.
His mouth made an O, then he covered it with his hand. “Naughty miss. You’ll have to tell me who later.” He sobered. “Seriously, is your face okay?”
The throbbing of her mouth and jaw finally registered and she touched her painful lip. “I’m not sure. How bad does it look?”
“Oh, honey, it’s going to be a big puffed-up mess.” He came over to her and tilted her chin again. Clearing his throat, he glanced nervously toward the door. “He’s going to barge back in here at any second, so here’s the deal, I’ll buy us some time, you try not to anger him. Okay?”
She nodded. Seriously, what else could she do at this point? She’d had sex with a complete stranger for nothing. Her cheeks heated. Okay, not nothing…more like a whole lot of amazing…The sound of the door closing snapped her out of it. She looked up at Brock, who winked at her. Then, his face hardened into the face she was more familiar with.
“I’ll see how I feel about this in a few weeks’ time,” he said in a cold tone, then turned to face her father and Nona.
Shae just stood there, frozen, staring at the floor, not sure what else to do.
“I understand, son. I appreciate you are willing to try. You’re a better man then I am.”
Shae hiccupped, tying to swallow a giggle at that comment.
“If your done here, Chief, I’d like to look after your daughter’s face,” Nona said in her ‘you are excused’ tone.
Shae didn’t look up until she heard the door closed.
Nona practically ran over to her. “Oh, look what he did to you…” She pulled a cloth out of her pocket and dabbed at the blood Shae assumed must be running down her chin.
“Nona…” Where did she start?
“I know, child. If I’d ever thought he would…”
Shae grasped her hand lightly to stop her. “Brock is not who we thought he was.”
“Heh, an asshole?”
Shae shook her head. “No. He’s gay.”
Nona froze and looked up at her. “He likes…men?”
Shae nodded and tried to smile, but it hurt.
Nona covered her mouth, her eyes glittering with humor. “Oh, my god, child, that boy needs a medal. The Chief has no idea, does he?”
Grinning, pain or not, Shae nodded. “His voice is…well…it sounds like Aunt Louisa’s when he’s not pretending.”
Nona started laughing so hard, tears started running down her face.
The door flew open and banged against the wall. Aunt Marilyn stood there leaning against the frame, gasping to catch her breath. “Saw them coming down…” She huffed out a breath. “My lungs…” She stepped into the room. “Ran my ass off…” She looked from Nona to Shae, her eyes moving over her face. “Oh, my stars, baby Shae, what did he do?” Slamming the door, she hurried into the room. “Nona, go get me the meat fork. I’m stabbing it in that man’s heart.”
Nona started laughing harder, bending over, and grasping her ribs.
Marilyn stopped and looked at her. “Have you gone mad, woman?”
Nona shook her head and waved a hand at Shae.
She looked back to Shaelan, her eyes wide.
“We just…” She tried hard not to laugh, “Brock is gay,” she whispered between giggles.
“He’s gay?” Marilyn gave her an odd look, then her mouth dropped. “Oh, you mean he prefers…” She looked at Nona, then to the door. “Your father doesn’t know, does he?”
Shae shook her head.
“Oh. Oh, now I understand the laughing.” She wiped her brow. “Whew! I thought you had finally lost your minds.” She panted out a breath. “I’d laugh, but I still can’t breathe.” She smacked Nona on the arm. “Go get this girl something for her mouth, be a healer.” She tilted Shae’s chin up to look. “And get me a drink. I damn near died running up here.” She frowned and then hugged Shae suddenly. “He had no right touching you.” She grasped her shoulders and jerked her back so quickly, Shae almost tipped over. “Your father hit you, right? Not Brock?”
Shae sighed. “Yes it was, dad. I thought Brock was going to cry.”
“I think I need to have Brock come for tea sometime, soon.” She chuckled. “He had me fooled.” She snorted. “He had everyone fooled.” She frowned. “Dammit, I’ve been outdone.”
Nona came back in. “I think you’re missing the point, Mari.”
Aunt Marilyn dropped her hands away and took the water Nona held out. “The point?” She took a sip, then turned and looked at Shae. Then, her eyes widened. “Oh. The green-eyed one.”
“We sent her down there to sleep with a man when she didn’t have to.” Nona dabbed at Shae’s lip with something ointment.
Her aunt went and sat down. “I don’t think Shae is complaining it happened…” She inhaled slowly. “And I’d say that potent devil did the job thoroughly.”
Shae’s face heated.
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 that 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, she 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 than 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. “Let's 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.
When Brock had said he could get her in, she hadn’t even paused to ask questions. Now as they were walking in the door, she had hundreds and no way to ask them.
Earl was the guard that let them in, he nodded to Brock without so much as a question. He gave Shae a curious look.
“We’re here to look at options,” Brock said, his tone flat and cool.
Shae had to look around as he spoke, so she wouldn’t stare at him when his voice was so low and emotionless. She preferred the real Brock.
Earl’s eyebrows went up. “Oh. I didn’t realize that was a done deal now.” He stepped further away from Shae.
When things settled down, if things settled down, she needed to find out what the protocol was among shifters—as she was one of them and had no idea. How many people knew she was supposed to be mated to Brock? Probably the entire village knew, it would explain the strange looks she had been getting.
Brock made a small shrug with his shoulder. “Just keeping all options on the table.” He looked down the hall for a moment. “If you could keep it to yourself, I’d appreciate it. I don’t need flocks of women in my face planning a ceremony and shit.”
Earl grinned, “I can do that.” He glanced in the office over his shoulder. “Do you need me?”
Brain finally catching up, Shae shook her head. “We’ll be fine.”
Shrugging, Earl motioned down the hallway. “You know where they are. Give me a shout if you need me.”
Brock didn’t even acknowledge him as he started walking away. Shae caught up to him after she made sure Earl went back in the office. Brock lifted a finger to his lips, telling her not to speak. She didn’t understand why but did it anyway.
Her stomach was in knots when they stopped at the door where Calum was. Sensing her reluctance, Brock put a hand on her back and gave her a nudge as he opened it.
Standing there, frozen on the spot as he followed her in and closed the door. All she’d wanted to do since she woke up was see Calum, and now she stood here looking at the floor in front of her.
Brock leaned closer and spoke near her ear. “Cat’s hearing. He could have heard everything we said in the hall…” He put his hands on her shoulders and kneaded them. “Are you okay?”
A low, lethal growl filled the room.
Shae jerked her head up and looked at Calum. His eyes were on Brock, and he wasn’t happy. A warm feeling flushed through her as quick at the sharp intake of her breath.
Brock lifted his hands off her. “Well, I have a new subject for my fantasies for the rest of my life.” He sighed softly. “Sorry, Garrett.”
“Calum.” She quickly got the key out of her pocket. “He’s here to help me get you out of here.” His head lifted to look at her, surprise on his face, which turned to furrowed brows quickly.
“What the fuck happened to your mouth?” he demanded.
His voice was low, and until that moment, she had no idea that dangerous and menacing appealed to her so much.
“It wasn’t like that last night.” His eyes were focused solely on her face now.
Shae fumbled with the keys in her hands as she went over to him, trying to figure out which one was for the collar. “It was pretty dark in here…” She knelt close to him.
He stopped her movement by cupping her chin gently and turning her face so he could look at it. “My mouth was all over yours. I would have felt this and tasted your blood,” he hissed. “Who did this to you?”
Pulling from his grasp, she jingled the keys. “Let me get the collar off.” He turned as much as he could so she could try the first key. It worked. Opening it, she eased it off his neck, her heart pounding when she saw the red marks on his skin.
Calum was on his feet, pulling her to him before she could think. She sucked in a breath when she realized how big he was standing up. He had to be close to six foot five, at least. Grasping her chin lightly, he tipped her face up so she had to look at him.
His green eyes were hard. “Who the fuck hit you?” He lowered his face closer to hers. “They’re dead.”
“Be still my heart,” Brock squeaked. “No, seriously it’s skipping all around inside me…”
“Brock, not now,” Shae hissed.
Calum’s head snapped around to look at him. “This is the Brock?”
Huffing out a breath, she lifted one of his hands to look at the cuffs. “Apparently, Brock is very good with secrets.”
“Heh.” Brock chuckled. “Don’t mind me being here. Continue with the he-man thing. It’s very stirring…”
She paused to watch Calum look him up and down for a moment before he turned and looked back down at her. With a touch, softer than a feather, he cupped the side of her face and lowered his head to lick over her swollen lip. Never could she have imagined a fat lip could feel so sexy. Lifting his head, he looked at her, his eyes searching her face.
“We’re going to continue this conversation about who…”
It dawned on Shae where they were and why they were here. “Let’s get you out of here first.” She held up his arm. “Do you think you can break these? Or mangle them a bit?” She looked nervously over to Brock, then back to him. “So it looks like you broke out?”
He grunted and pulled his arm free from her. Looking down at the collar, he growled quietly. Bending down, he picked up the offensive piece of metal and grasped it in both hands.
Shae stood there, her jaw slack as she watched him twist the collar like it was made out of rubber, not steel. He dropped it with a clank and then held out his arms and clenched his fists. With a low rumble coming from his chest, she saw the muscles in his arms moving, growing. The metal around his wrists protested the pressure, emitting a soft squealing sound, then the one popped open and clattered to the floor, followed by the second one a mere breath later.
“Oh my…” Brock sighed.
Rolling his shoulders, Calum gave him a quick glance then was right in front of Shae again. “What about my clansman?”
She couldn’t think as she looked up into his eyes that were a brighter green now, more cat than man. She cringed when she realized he was waiting for an answer. “One of your clansmen is here?”
He nodded, as he gently brushed her hair over her shoulder. “There might be more, I tracked three this way, I saw Dale in the shower.”
“They let you shower together in here?” Brock asked. “I should have faked being a guard and not a second,” he mused.
Shae turned to look at him briefly, he shrugged. “We can’t just run down the hall calling out names and freeing everyone.”
Calum clenched his jaw, then spun to look at Brock. “Why doesn’t someone challenge the alpha and put a stop to this?” he snarled.
Brock’s eyebrows shot up. “Yes, right.” He rolled his eyes dramatically. “Everyone will follow a gay alpha.” He snorted. “There’s so much male pheromones around here, most day,s I walk around stoned from it.”
Shae’s nerves were vibrating. “We’ll look for them, but first we need to get you out of here.” She turned to Brock. “How are we getting him out of here?
Brock huffed out a breath. “We’ll get him to the back door, it’s not far. Let him out into the forbidden area…”
“Will anyone be there?” She’d always been warned about going there, the whole village had been, but she never understood why. One more thing to add to the list of things she needed to find out.
He shook his head. “Only one that goes there is Jerome and he’s on a supply run.”
She nodded. “Okay.” Her stomach was bubbling with the idea of getting Calum out, she felt ill thinking she would never see him again, but there was no other option. Turning, she was surprised how close he stood to her, his green eyes moving down over her. She thought she’d seen him inhale subtly a few times. “Let’s go,” she whispered, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice and failing.
He grasped her hand and nodded, then looked at Brock. “Lead the way.”
Brock glanced at their hands and sighed. “Let me check.” He turned and opened the door then stepped out. With a stiff posture, he glanced in both directions, then motioned for them to follow.
It was the longest, tensest, thirty feet in her life as they moved to the door that Brock stood holding open. She was shocked when they stepped through and were outside.
Brock kept half his body in the building and motioned to the right. “Do not go that way. I don’t know how you got up here, but avoid that way.”
Calum nodded, then looked down at Shae. His hand tightened on hers as he pulled her closer. “Come with me.”
Shae shook her head. “I-I can’t…”
His eyes search hers for a moment. “I’ll be back, with help,” he whispered.
She stood there motionless as he gently kissed her cheek and released her hand.
They both stood there in silence and watched as he ran, fast, into the tall overgrown weeds.
Tugging on her arm, Brock pulled her back into the building. He grimaced at her. “We’re going to look for his clansmen?”
She nodded. They hadn’t asked names, but she had said she would. So, they were.
An hour later she sat at Nona’s trying to stomach a cup of tea. Her whole body was shaking, thinking of what they’d done. They did find one more of the captives that knew Calum, his name was Marc and he had been the man she’d stitched up on her first visit inside.
He was gone. Calum was gone. She sat there taking deep breaths and trying not to cry. She didn’t know why she wanted to cry. They’d done a good thing, now Calum could go home. He said he’d come back, but why would he ever risk that?
“Shae, child?”
Nona’s voice brought her back to reality. She looked at her.
Patting her hand, she offered a soft smile. “It will all work out, child.”
Marilyn nodded from where she sat across the table. “I had a vision once,” she said in a soft hushed voice she rarely used. “In it was Shae, leading our people to freedom and ending the tyranny and cultism our proud clan has been forced to live with.” She didn’t say any more than that.
Brock moved from where he’d been leaning against the wall and bent down to hug Shae tightly into his chest. “It wouldn’t surprise me.” He straightened and started for the door. “I have to get back before the chest-beating-chief returns. Prepare my story in case Earl yaps and says we were there.” He stopped and gave Shae a smile. “He said he’ll be back…and I believe he will be.” He winked. “A big rawr for that one.” With that he left.
“Who will be back?” her mother asked.
Shae stared into the cup she held in between her palms. “Calum. He said he’d be back with help.” She looked up at the women around the table. Both hope and fear were in their eyes.