Dark Veil (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Malcom sat in the large, leather chair at the end of the long table in the silent room, a formidable force to be reckoned with. Patterson was a fool, although ‘fool’ was perhaps too weak a description for him. How he even dared to dream that he would get away with this plan was beyond reasoning. He’d not be coming out of this alive, that was certain.

Malcolm clasped his hands together in front of him, elbows on the table, thumbs tucked under his chin. He was a man of fact, much like Cade. He dealt with reason and logic and a great amount of control that held no bounds. Even now, as he sat staring at the phone waiting for someone to pick it up on the other end, his rage stayed down, bubbling under the surface as his mind stayed fixed on the task at hand. Stephen had no idea how he did it. How he could sit there and not drive to the
Human’s
place and rip their fucking doors off. Stephen wasn’t sure if he admired or hated his father for it—this was Gemma they were talking about it. He seethed just thinking about it.

Cade fidgeted in his seat, eager for the phone to be answered on the other end. The room hummed with electricity–an electrical charge that stemmed from a
tiger
,
wolf
and
panther
, all of them hunkered down in the grass, lying in wait and ready to leap out.

Malcolm showed no anger, but it was there, almost palpable. No one in the room spoke as they watched the phone and waited. The phone beeped and, once again, the female voice on the other end answered and informed them that the call could not be taken at this time. It ended with a click and the dull dialling tone echoed around the room until Stephen couldn’t stand it any longer.

He reached over to shut it off. “Leave it,” his father commanded.

Stephen paused mid-reach and looked at him, a tick working along his jaw. Why were they not acting? What the hell did they still need all this diplomacy for? Patterson had fucking taken Gemma. “Call them again,” he gritted out. Right now, he wasn’t talking to the alpha of
Others
, he was talking to his father—his sister’s life was in danger.

Anger flashed in Malcolm’s eyes as they fixed on his son. He did not appreciate insubordination—less so from his son and future alpha. “I said leave it.” Before Stephen could say more, he reached for the phone panel and hit the button to end the call, then hit star-1—Trevor.

Cade inched forward uncomfortably, but Malcolm raised a hand before he could even voice his concern of his father being brought into this. He shot Stephen a concerned look, but Stephen’s expression reflected his own. If Trevor found out about the baby, they’d all be fucking killed—Gemma being number one, and Cade being last just so that Trevor could make sure he had learnt his lesson before losing his life. It would be a race between the two alphas to see who could get the execution order first. He frowned—but then why rescue Gemma? She was already being taken care of by the
Humans
.

As he always did, Trevor answered immediately. Cade was sure that his father sat on the damn phone.

“Call the board,” Malcolm said, not offering any kind of greeting. “We need them here right away. Patterson has taken my daughter.”

There was a brief pause before Trevor spoke. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” was Malcolm’s curt response. He shot a glance in Cade’s direction. “They had your son, too.”

Another pause. “Had?”

“Cade is here. He is fine, but we need Society here. Now. Every minute that gets wasted is another minute Gemma doesn’t have. Call the board.” Malcolm hung up the call without waiting for a confirmation. Trevor would do it. He might be an asshole, but he was efficient. God knows he wouldn’t want anyone to see him as incapable if Malcolm finally fell off his perch.

Stephen leaned over to this father. This was so fucked up, all of it. “If Trevor finds out about the baby …” He would have a fucking field day. He could get rid of Phoenix, get rid of Gemma, and dig his hooks into Cade and command him like a puppy for the rest of his life. This really was as Cade had said—it was his life, literally.

Malcolm’s jaw clenched, the only indication he had heard him. With a muttered curse, Stephen leaned back in his chair and glared at him. Sometimes he wished his father could forget to be an alpha for at least one fucking minute. 

Cade could barely stay in his seat. They were just sitting here waiting for a damn meeting to be arranged while Gemma was left at the mercy of the
Humans
. His
wolf
urged him to get out there and look for her, but his rational side told him that getting organised the way Malcolm was trying to was probably the right course of action. It was still hard to just sit there and wait, though.

Stephen glanced over at him, knowing exactly how Cade was feeling. There was no question in his mind that when Gemma got back—because there was no
if
about that—she and Cade had to leave. So much as it would hurt him for them to go, so much as he needed them there, he couldn’t see them killed for this.

“Trevor will not find out about the baby. No one will,” Malcolm said sternly. He turned to Raven and Anika with a harsh expression on his face. “Do you understand the consequences for yourselves if you mention this to anyone?”

Anika nodded in quick compliance, and Raven raised his hands. “It ain’t none of my business,” he said smoothly.

With a brusque nod, he turned back to Stephen. “You need to go and find Evie and your mother. Tell them what is going on before they walk in on a big meeting and panic. You can make our guests comfortable in the summer lounge. Get them something to eat and drink.” Code for
Leave Cade and me alone
.

Stephen glanced at Cade as he got up with Raven and Anika, sure that his friend wasn’t worried about whatever Malcolm wanted. His mind was too preoccupied with Gemma and Phoenix.

“Close the door behind you,” Malcolm said.

When the three had gone and Malcolm and Cade were left alone, Malcolm rose from his seat and went to the bureau by the wall. He moved some papers around and exchanged one set of glasses for another before turning to face Cade again. His nostrils flared and he crossed his arms over his chest as he fixed Cade with a non-too-friendly glare. “Do I need to enquire who the father is, or have my assumptions served me correctly and you and my daughter have gone against not just Society law, but the laws pinned down by our Council and the Council before them?”

“We didn’t plan for this to happen.”

“But you didn’t plan for it not to happen, either?”

In truth? No, they hadn’t. They had never thought that it would be possible. “I am in love with your daughter,” Cade refused to back down. Arguing about what they should have done and what they had done wasn’t going to change a thing. It wouldn’t make the pregnancy not exist. It wouldn’t bring Gemma back. She was pregnant and they had fucked up, but Cade didn’t regret a thing.

Gemma was his.

Malcolm nodded slowly. “You do realise that there can never be anything more serious between the two of you? This cannot be allowed to continue.”

“More serious than a baby?”

“She can’t keep it. You are not a foolish man, Cadence. If you were, I would not have allowed you to be working on the DSA or dealing with any Society affairs.” Malcolm moved closer and leaned onto the back of the chair he had previously vacated. “What did you think could happen? You are already promised to a mate. Gemma has a place here.”

“To produce heirs?” It was seditious, he knew it, but he really didn’t care in that moment. Who was Malcolm to tell him that his baby couldn’t exist?

Aware that Cade’s
wolf
must be going wild—after all, this was his unborn cub they were talking about—Malcolm seemed to excuse his bout of rebelliousness. “Yes ...
tigers
, not
wolves
.”

Cade stood, shoving his chair back so that it scraped along the floor. This wasn’t out of disrespect for Malcolm; this was respect for himself. He was not submitting on this one. No fucking way. This was his child they were discussing, not some pet that he wanted to keep. It was his and Gemma’s, and no Society or Council was going to tell them what to do about it. “What if Gemma wants the baby? Will you forcefully kill it?”

Malcolm sighed and stood upright again. “There are laws that we must abide by. We may not like them, but they are there, and they are what we follow when we choose Society. We …”

“I didn’t choose Society,” Cade ground out, cutting him off. “I didn’t choose any of this. It was all chosen for me. Why should I stick to laws that I never agreed to being a part of?”

Malcolm inhaled slowly, his eyes on Cade as he did. His voice held no room for objection any longer. “This child cannot be born. You know this. There can be nothing between you and my daughter. You know this, too. The pregnancy will be terminated, and then you and Gemma will deal with one another only as Society needs. I cannot cast you out without raising questions. I do not wish for your father to seek an execution order for my …”

Cade leaned forward, hands on the desk. “So you can break the laws when it is your child? It is okay then? When your flesh and blood might be killed or your precious seat on the Council is at stake? If we are forced into an abortion, I will speak out.”

A tic worked along Malcolm’s jaw. “Then you will die.”

“I don’t fucking care about dying.”

“But you do care about Gemma dying. You would not risk her life.”

“I will not risk my child’s life,” Cade shot back just as the door to the meeting room burst open and Emily stormed in.

“Tell me it isn’t true … what Stephen told me,” she said. “Tell me …”

Stephen stood behind her. “I tried to tell her you were busy,” he said before his father could unleash his anger at the intrusion.

Emily walked around the table to where Cade was standing, and Stephen came in fully and shut the door behind him, closing all four of them in the room. “I told Stephen that I don’t care if you are busy when one of my children has been taken,” she told him furiously. “I want in on it. The
Humans
? They have her?”

“We’re dealing with it,” Malcolm said grimly.

She narrowed her eyes and wagged her finger at him. “Don’t you leave me in the dark on this one, Malcolm Davies. She is my daughter, too. I want to know where she is and who has her.”

Malcolm gripped the back of his seat, the leather creaking under his grasp. “Patterson has her ... and Phoenix, too.”

“She’s pregnant,” Cade added, and Malcolm’s eyes darkened. He had crossed the line, but he didn’t care. He knew that Emily would never allow for her grandchild to be aborted, no matter what Society ordered.

She gasped, putting her hand over her mouth, her pale green eyes widening. “Is this true?” She turned to Stephen, not Malcolm. “Gemma is pregnant?”

Stephen gave a curt nod.

Emily turned to Cade. “They have Phoenix, too,” she said softly, not as a question. He had expected lots of things, but what he wasn’t prepared for was Emily suddenly reaching up and wrapping her arms around him to pull him into an embrace that he hadn't realised he needed until that very moment. His heart ached as she held him. It thudded in his chest, his emotions begging for release at the sudden onslaught of comfort. He wrapped his arms around her, closing his eyes for a moment and taking what he needed. When she let him go, she wiped her eyes and sniffled before turning back around to face her son and husband.

“I will start letting the others in,” she said, and then she walked out of the room with her head held high.

The Society members arrived not long after. Trevor wasn’t first, and that probably pissed him off to no end, Stephen supposed—although the man could be pissed off if his own shadow dared to walk in front of him.

Malcolm opened the meeting when there were five of them there—Angela, from the
foxes
, Trevor from the
wolves
, and Aaron his shadow and heir. The bears finally arrived, and Malcolm filled them in on the things that he did know, without the details of the baby. He told them about Phoenix and gave them the story that Stephen and Cade had fed to him.

Cade and Stephen hadn't given him the true events, but what did it matter? They had been staying in the hotel for the night when Gemma and Cade were taken. Phoenix was caught later when Stephen went looking for them. They didn’t need to know about the tickets or the trip to Phoenix’s father. None of that mattered. Before the meeting was done, the phone at the centre of the table rang and for one, long moment, they all just stared at it.

Malcolm hit accept and put the call on loudspeaker—Patterson’s voice rang out. “Malcolm,” he said in a purr of fake, sleazy delight. “I had a couple of missed calls from you it would seem. Is there something bothering the top cat?”

“I believe we have a problem,” Malcolm said tersely.

“We do?”

Malcolm leaned in, palms down on the table. “It would seem that you may have seen fit to detain my daughter, and I was calling to enquire why that is and demand that she be returned home immediately.”