Chapter 215 Blackwood Curse
The heavy oak door clicked open before Fennigan or Jax could even attempt to gather the horrifying spread of photographs.
Leela stepped into the office, the door brushing against her pregnant belly. She was a picture of absolute, exhausted maternal warmth, carrying a softly snoring toddler on each of her shoulders. Caspian’s little face was buried in the crook of her right neck, and Briar’s silver-tipped head rested heavily on her left.
But Leela’s expression wasn't peaceful. Her brow was furrowed with deep, visceral concern. The mate bond was a two-way street, and the sheer, suffocating wave of grief, panic, and horror radiating off Fennigan had pulled her straight down the hall.
"Fenn, what's wrong?" Leela asked softly, keeping her voice pitched low so she wouldn't wake the twins.
She stepped further into the room, her eyes darting from Jax’s pale, rigid face to Elana, who was hastily pressing a crumpled tissue beneath her silver eyes. The former Luna never cried.
Leela kept walking, stepping right up toward the massive mahogany desk.
Pure, unadulterated panic slammed into Fennigan’s chest. The juxtaposition of his beautiful, breathing children sleeping safely on his mate's shoulders while the glossy photos of their soulless, floating replicas lay right there on the wood was too much. It would break her. The stress would be too much for her and unborn Zephyr.
"Stop," Fennigan choked out.
Moving faster than a man his size had any right to, the Alpha practically threw himself around the front of the desk. He positioned his massive, broad frame directly between his mate and the horrifying spread of evidence, completely blocking her line of sight. He reached out, his large hands gently but firmly gripping her waist to halt her forward momentum.
"It's nothing,Sparky," Fennigan said, his voice a frantic, breathless rumble as he tried to carefully turn her back toward the door without jostling the sleeping toddlers. "It's just old pack records. Nothing you need to worry about. You should be resting—"
Leela planted her feet. She didn't let him turn her.
She looked up into his face. The soot from the bunker was still smeared across his jaw, but his glowing silver eyes were wide, frantic, and filled with a terror she had never seen in her Alpha before. Over his massive shoulder, she could see the edges of the glossy photos scattered across Elana’s desk.
Her eyes went wide. The mate bond wasn't just humming; it was screaming at her that he was lying to protect her.
"What are those?" Leela demanded, her voice losing its softness, replaced by the firm, unyielding tone of a Luna.
Fennigan’s jaw clenched. He shifted his stance, stubbornly acting as a physical shield. "Leela, please. Take the twins back to the room. I will come explain everything in a minute, I swear to you, just—"
"Fenn," Leela interrupted, her voice dropping into a deadly serious, commanding whisper. "What are those."
The silence in the room became absolute. Jax stood frozen near the bookshelves, completely unable to help his brother navigate the impossible situation. Fennigan felt like he was suffocating, trapped between traumatizing his pregnant mate and lying to her face.
Elana pushed her sleek wheelchair backward, pulling away from the desk. She tossed her crumpled tissue into the wastebasket, her spine straightening with the absolute, uncompromising authority of a matriarch who refused to let the poison of Damon's lies spread to the next generation.
"Fennigan," Elana’s voice cut through the heavy air, rough from crying but completely steady. "Move."
Fennigan froze, looking over his shoulder at his mother. "Mom, no, she can't see—"
"I said move, Alpha," Elana commanded gently but firmly. She met Leela's fierce gaze, the shared understanding of Luna to Luna passing between them. "Your father built his entire life on keeping me in the dark to his evil side, and it nearly destroyed this family. We do not keep secrets in this pack anymore. Not from our mates."
Fennigan’s shoulders slumped in defeat. He dropped his hands from Leela's waist and took a step to the side, completely exposing the desk.
Leela stepped forward into the space he cleared. The room was deathly silent, save for the soft, rhythmic breathing of Caspian and Briar sleeping heavily on her shoulders.
She looked down at the glossy photos scattered across the polished wood.
At first, her exhausted mind couldn't process what she was seeing. She saw the older boys slumped against the concrete, the blood matting their silver-tipped hair. Her brow furrowed in deep, nauseating confusion. "Fenn... who are these?"
But before he could answer, her eyes tracked across the desk to the stack of photos Elana had just been looking at.
The suspension tanks. The sterile fluid. The tiny, perfectly formed bodies with the Blackwood brow. And the milky, soulless white eyes staring blankly out of the glass.
The realization hit her like a physical, devastating blow to the chest. A wave of pure, suffocating horror exploded through the mate bond, hitting Fennigan so hard he actually winced.
Leela’s breath hitched violently. Her arms tightened around Caspian and Briar in a fierce, terrified, instinctual vice grip. She squeezed them so tightly to her chest that Caspian gave a soft, sleepy murmur of protest, though he didn't wake. She was suddenly terrified that if she let them go, they would vanish into the dark water of those tanks.
"Sparky..." Fennigan whispered, the pet name tearing from his throat in a cracked, desperate plea.
He stepped right up behind her, his massive chest pressing against her back as he wrapped his heavy arms entirely around her and the babies. He buried his face into the side of her neck, trying to anchor her. "Sparky, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to carry this. I didn't want you to see what he almost did."
Jax moved instantly. The Beta stepped right up to Leela's side. Knowing she was seconds away from completely collapsing under the psychological weight of the images, he reached out with large, gentle hands.
"Let me take them, Leela," Jax murmured softly, his voice a steady, grounding rumble in the panicked room. "Let me take the babies."
Leela was trembling so violently she could barely stand. She allowed Jax to carefully lift the heavy, sleeping toddlers from her shoulders. The Beta easily gathered both of his niece and nephew into his massive arms, holding them securely against his chest and stepping back to give her space.
The moment her arms were empty, the last of Leela's strength completely gave out. She slumped backward, her spine hitting Fennigan's solid chest as a ragged, tearless gasp tore from her lips. She couldn't look away from the tanks.
"He was going to cut them open," Leela whispered, the sheer, psychopathic reality of it finally settling into her bones. Her hands came up to grip Fennigan's thick forearms where they were wrapped around her waist.
The Luna and the former Luna stared at each other, entirely united by the devastating trauma of the Blackwood curse.