Changing Fates: A Sons of Satrina Novel (The Sons of Satrina Book 3) (26 page)

If only Starr or Trey had talked to him about what was happening, none of this would have happened. Sure, he wouldn’t have been very impressed to learn that they were into each other, but at least it would never have come to this.

Patrick strode on ahead determinedly, leading the others on through the gate and into a small, neat garden with perfectly trimmed glass and a boarder of vibrant flowers that couldn’t possibly be real in this deep winter. It was almost like they had walked into another world.

The house itself was a cottage style, quaint and in-keeping with the scenery around it. Caleb had spent many summer afternoons playing here. That was before the duties at home had stolen his youth from him.

Patrick knocked on the door and stood back to wait. There was no immediate answer, which was no big surprise seeing as the house was cloaked in darkness. It was late for the shifters, even if it wasn’t for the Lamia.

Eventually, the door creaked open.

“Patrick? Is everything okay?” The woman who answered the door looked at him, immediately worried at having a midnight visit from the Alpha. It took her a moment to realise that he wasn’t alone and quickly tightened the dressing gown around her.

“Can we come in, Sylvie?” Patrick asked.

“Of course. Come in, come in.” She ushered the four of them inside, stepping back to let them by, and then she spotted Caleb. Her face broke out in a beaming smile and she pulled him in for a huge hug.

“Hi, Aunt Sylvie.” He kissed her gently on the cheek, smiling at her enthusiasm.

“Caleb, darling. It’s wonderful to see you! How are you? How’s your training going?” she gushed.

Caleb grinned at her. “I’m fine.”

“You’re looking well. I hope they’re treating you good.”

“I’m fine, honestly.” He laughed. His face went serious again for a moment. “How is she?”

Sylvie didn’t have to ask who he was referring to. He was asking about his mother. Despite his rough exterior and tough attitude, the boy cared deeply for his mother and would lay down his life for her.

“She’s doing great, actually. You’d be surprised.” She smiled, reassuringly.

Caleb nodded, unable to speak past the lump in his throat. That was one of his main concerns about moving away to the academy. It wasn’t about living away from the pack, it was being away from the woman who needed him there. He didn’t give a shit about himself, but he was worried about how all this was affecting his mother.

Thankfully, he knew that Sylvie wouldn’t lie to him just to make him feel better. She’d hit him with the truth and work with him to resolve the situation. If she said his mother was going great, then she was.

Caleb and Sylvie hurried in after the others, who were standing in the small living room, looking out of place against the small feminine furniture.

“So, do you want to tell me what this is all about?”

“Sylvie, this is Master Warriors Dixon and Verynai of the Sons of Satrina.” Patrick introduced. “They are here because they suspect that one of their trainees is here on pack land.”

She looked around, confused. “I have no idea what that’s got to do with me. I don’t understand.”

“They think that he came here to see Starr.”

“Starr? No.” Sylvie looked shocked as her hands flew to her throat. “Why would a vampire be here to see my daughter?”

Patrick cleared his throat uncomfortably. “They had been in contact.”

“Contact? How do you mean?”

“They’ve been building some kind of relationship, as far as we can tell.”

Sylvie looked wildly from each of the men, her eyes resting on Caleb. “Is this true what he’s saying?”

Caleb nodded. “Trey’s a good guy, though.”

Patrick stepped up, knowing that this conversation could keep going in circles. “Could you please go and get Starr for us?”

“What? Now? You think that he could be here? In my house?” Sylvie all but shrieked, clearly outraged. She wasn’t one to let something like that happen under her roof. It wasn’t that she was against vampires in general, she just wouldn’t want her only daughter involved with one.

“Yes, please. Now.” Patrick replied with authority to his voice, brokering not room for argument.

Sylvie walked out of the room and Patrick stepped into the doorway to witness. He didn’t want the kid to slip out and leave Starr to face the fury. He also wanted to hear what was said between mother and daughter. The conversation could be heard clearly in the silence of the night.

“Starr? Wake up. Now.”

“Wha..?” the girl replied sleepily.

“Get up right now. Patrick’s here to see you.” Sylvie demanded harshly.

Starr suddenly came awake. “Patrick’s here? Why?”

“I think you know why.” Sylvie hissed. “Get up.”

Footsteps rang out in the hallway as Sylvie pounded back into the living room. Starr shuffled along behind her, pulling a hoodie over her pyjamas. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Patrick, Caleb and the two vampire warriors waiting to speak to her.

“What’s going on?” she asked nervously.

Verynai assessed the girl in front of them and could see what Trey saw in her. She was a beautiful little thing with a spark of fire in her eyes. She would be the type of girl that would challenge him, which was what Trey needed. It was just unfortunate that they were too different to really ever make a go of it.

“Where’s Trey?” Patrick demanded.

Starr paled slightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Caleb. Go and check her room.” Patrick didn’t take his eyes off Starr.

Caleb had no choice but to comply. The rest of them stood in silence while they waited for him to return, shaking his head. He knew that if Trey had been hiding out in there, the shit-storm would have hit them both, but at least they would have known he was safe and Caleb could write off that sick feeling in his stomach. As it was, they were still no closer to finding him.

“Starr, please. Trey is a friend of mine and I’m worried about him.” Caleb said, ignoring the shocked look from Patrick. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to get involved in this, but he was involved whether they liked it or not.

“Why? What’s happened to Trey?” Starr instantly looked stricken. She and Trey had been talking a lot and she liked him. He was coming to mean more to her than just a friend. It wasn’t an easy road they were proposing to travel, but they both agree that it would be worth fighting for.

“He was coming here to see you. To surprise you. Last night.”

“He hasn’t been here.” Starr shook her head as tears sprung to her eyes. “He hasn’t. Why would he come here? That makes no sense.”

“He wanted to surprise you.” Caleb paused for a moment. “Why didn’t either of you tell me about this? I’m your cousin. He’s my friend. You could have talked to me.” It hurt that they’d both kept this from him and he couldn’t understand it. He didn’t have a problem with this relationship, or whatever it was. He didn’t like being kept in the dark and lied to.

“It’s complicated.” She whispered, feeling a dead weight settling on her chest as she thought of Trey.

“Well, it’s got complicated now. We have a missing trainee.” Dixon turned back to Verynai. “Do you want to go somewhere quiet to speak to Kelton?” Verynai nodded and retrieved the phone from his pocket. He didn’t need to dial him as the line was still open, but he refrained from talking until he had left the room. He didn’t want Patrick to think that he was being disrespectful by having Kelton listen in to his conversation without his knowledge.

“And you’re sure you haven’t seen him?” Patrick asked Starr. “We can deal with any issues we have later. That isn’t my concern right now. They have a trainee missing and our only connection is to him coming here to see you. We need to know, Starr.”

“I promise. I haven’t seen him.” Starr’s shoulders started to jerk as she tried to hold in the sobs. Sylvie moved to put an arm around her and Starr sank into her mother’s embrace, letting the tears fall. She may not agree with what her daughter had been doing, but to see her daughter in this state, she knew that it must be serious and she would stand by her.

Verynai walked back into the room. “Kelton wants us to head back to the academy. He’s going to speak with you in a minute, Patrick, to arrange for a team of warriors to start patrolling your boarders in search of him.”

“That’s fine by me. I’ll get a group of my own to search pack land.” Patrick offered.

Verynai nodded. “We’ll be in touch.”

Dixon led the way out of the house, offering thanks to Sylvie and apologising for the late interruption. Caleb touched Starr’s arm on the way out. He might be pissed off at her for keeping this from him, but he was worried about her. But, at the moment, he was more concerned about his friend.

Trey wasn’t at the academy and he wasn’t with Starr. Where the hell was he?

Dixon and Verynai exchanged a few words with Patrick before he turned to Caleb, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Try not to worry. I’m sure he’ll turn up soon and wonder what all the fuss is about.”

“Thanks. I hope so.”

“And I’m glad you’re finally starting to settle in over there. I know it can’t be easy for you.”

Caleb nodded. It wasn’t actually as hard as Patrick probably thought it was. It was harder to juggle his two separate lives than it was to live just one of them at a time.

He had a really bad feeling about this. It was difficult. Caleb felt torn. It was hard to describe. There was something niggling in the back of his mind, telling him to stay there on pack land, but Kelton had ordered them to return to the academy. Caleb felt sick. He stared out at the night and wondered what he could do.

“Caleb.” Verynai called over to him. “It’s time to go.”

They were all silent as they got back into the car, Patrick waving them off solemnly.

“That was intense.” Verynai commented, breaking the silence in the car. Intense wasn’t the word. It was been the first time that he and Dixon had ever been on shifter land and although they both knew Patrick quite well in a professional capacity, it was a whole other thing to be going there to him. It had felt like they had hostile eyes on them the whole time they were there.

“Go straight up here and follow the road.” Caleb said automatically, giving Verynai directions off of pack land.

As they were heading down the main dirt road that would lead them back to the main drag, Verynai suddenly slammed on the brakes, jolting them all.

“What the hell?” Dixon exclaimed as he rubbed his neck.

“Look!”

“What is it?” Dixon asked, pissed off. They needed to get back to the academy and work out what they were going to do next. There wasn’t enough time to be stopping and messing about like this.

Verynai was peering out of the window intently. Suddenly, he lunged for the door. Dixon instinctively followed him with Caleb hot on their heels.

“Shit!” Verynai dropped to his knees. “Trey? Can you hear me?”

“Holy crap.” Dixon muttered. The poor boy looked a total mess, barely breathing and barely recognisable. Somebody had really worked him over, leaving him here for dead on the side of the road.

Caleb stood back in complete shock. He had been worried for Trey’s safety, but he had never expected something like this to happen to him. Shame clouded his mind. His pack members had done this. His family.

Caleb felt violently sick.

“Should we move him?” Dixon asked as he checked over Trey’s unconscious form.

“We can’t just leave him out here. It’s fucking freezing. We’ve got no choice.” Verynai moved to get ready to haul the boy up.

Trey didn’t make a single sound as they picked up his beaten and broken body. “Grab the door, Caleb.” Verynai called and Caleb jumped forward. They carefully eased him into the back seat of the car, directing Caleb around to the other side of the car so that he could help hold him still on the ride back to the academy.

The warriors jumped into the car. “Ready?” Verynai asked and Caleb nodded, gingerly holding on to Trey to make sure he didn’t bump around too much.

As Caleb glanced out of the window, he realised that this was the first time he had ever really been ashamed of his kin.

Kelton’s voice came through the speaker loud and clear, the gravity of the situation hitting them all, whether in the car with the badly beaten trainee, or back at the academy where everyone was rushing around, awaiting their return.

Kelton’s first thoughts were for the boy, gathering the medical team so they were ready to meet the car as soon as it pulled up in front of the academy.

His second thought was that he hoped this wouldn’t be the start of a war between the Lamia Matris and the shifters. Picking up the phone and putting a call through to Patrick, he arranged for a meeting between the two in the morning. He hoped that by then, he would have the full story from Trey.

This could be a veritable nightmare. He’d had a friendship with Patrick for several years, but his trainees and warriors came first. Admittedly, Trey had been in the wrong by breaking protocol and stepping on pack land without prior permission, but he didn’t deserve a beating. That was bang out of order.