Rise to Embrace [Rise of the Changelings, Book 3] (Siren Publishing Epic Romance, ManLove) (14 page)

Willow’s breath froze in her lungs as she looked from Brooke to Deluca, hope rising up inside of her. “Your family?”

“That would be you and the kids, sweetheart,” Deluca answered. “Do you think we would take you and not Kell, Peanut, and Trisha?”

“I wasn’t sure what to think,” she answered honestly. “Everything has happened so fast, and we really haven’t had time to talk about anything other than the war.”

Deluca’s brows bounced up and down playfully as he gave Willow an impish smile. “You’re stuck with us, sweetheart. The moment you gave yourself to me and Brooke, you became ours. So don’t try backing out now.”

Willow smiled and then a laugh began to build. There was no way she was backing out of this. Deluca and Brooke were offering her a life she had only dreamed of. It may not be the small-town fantasy she had in mind, but as long as she had these two men and her kids, she knew she could just about survive anything.

They had arrived in Indiana and found the orphanage. Deluca wasn’t sure what was going on, but the nun who had greeted them when they came through the door was being very evasive. They had explained, twice, what had happened to Kell and why he was there, but she wouldn’t look them in the eye and her attention kept wandering off to her right.

Something was up. He could feel it in his bones. Every red flag in his mind was waving frantically back and forth as he tried to catch the nun’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, but unless you have a birth certificate stating that he is your son, there is nothing I can do about it.” That was the third time she had said that. Deluca was starting to wonder if that was all that she was programmed to say. She was human. He had no doubt about that, but his instincts were screaming for him to interrogate her.

He just had a slight problem laying into a nun. That went against everything he had been taught growing up. Brooke’s family had instilled values and honor in him, and Deluca just couldn’t bring himself to browbeat her.

“If you tell me that one more time, I swear I’m going to throttle you.”

Deluca beamed with pride. Apparently Willow had no problem whatsoever.

“You hide behind your habit and preach to us about needing paperwork. What paperwork did you receive when my kidnapped son was given to you? I can show you who I am. Can you show me the legitimate paperwork where I signed him over?” Willow was working herself up. If Deluca didn’t calm her down, they were going to get more than they bargained for.

He pulled her to the side, glancing back to see Brooke talking quietly with the nun.

“You can’t kick her ass, Willow.”

“The hell I can’t,” Willow growled as she shot daggers at the woman. “She knows where my son is, and I’m not leaving until I have him. I’ll tear this place apart if I have to.”

And Deluca believed her. Why was it every time Willow became feisty, Deluca got a hard-on? It was like a trigger inside his groin that he never knew he had. He wasn’t complaining. Hell, he was considering pissing her off right before he fucked her just to see how naughty he could make her.

“Brooke and I are trained at this sort of thing. Let us handle it. You aren’t going to get anything but kicked out of here, or worse if you don’t calm down. Do you really want the cops showing up right now?”

Willow opened her mouth and then closed it, glaring hatefully at the woman who wouldn’t give them the information they needed. Deluca knew a stall tactic when he saw one, and the nun was stalling them.

But for what?

“Is there a problem?” A woman in a tailored business suit walked their way from an office. She wore a tight smile as she glanced from Brooke to Deluca, and then finally settled her eyes on Willow. Deluca knew the woman was measuring them up, and from the look on her face, they fell short of her inspection. His lip fought not to curl as she glanced at Willow. Deluca had never hit a woman in his life, but he was damn tempted to smack the disapproval from the lady’s lips.

He didn’t like anyone looking at Willow with disdain. She was a sweet and precious woman. Deluca knew that Willow was a nurturer, not a fighter. There was nothing wrong with that. Not everyone was made to take on the world.

But if the woman in the tailored suit didn't stop giving Willow nasty looks, he was going to pop her a good one.

“These
people
say their son was brought here by a kidnapper. They are demanding that I retrieve the infant and bring him to them at once,” the nun said. “I asked them for a birth certificate, but they tell me they do not have one.”

The woman turned toward Brooke who was the closest person. Her tight smile wavered as she gazed at his uniform. “Is the child human or nonhuman?”

Deluca’s gut clenched at the question. Somehow he knew he wasn’t going to like what he heard. He grabbed Willow’s arm, stopping her from moving forward. Her emerald-green eyes seemed to blaze with hatred as she stared the woman.

“Don’t say a word,” he whispered so low that he knew the humans wouldn’t hear him. But Willow was changeling. Deluca knew she heard him loud and clear. She gave a slight nod, but her eyes never left the female who wanted to know what species Kell was.

“And why does that matter?” Brooke asked without missing a beat.

The woman waved the nun away and then turned back toward Brooke. “Because any child who comes here and is found to be nonhuman is sent to the Calvary Home of Salvation.”

Deluca held back the curse as he watched Brooke. There was the slightest nuance of tension that filled in around Brooke’s eyes, but he remained calm. Deluca had heard about that place, and it wasn’t somewhere he wanted an infant to be placed.

“Wasn’t that place shut down for experimenting on nonhumans?” Brooke asked, and Deluca had to hold Willow back. She had gone crazy, snarling and fighting to get to the woman who stood there as if she had no idea why Willow was becoming feral.

“You sent my baby to butchers!” she shouted as Deluca pulled her from the building. “I’ll kill your sorry ass, bitch! Let me go, Deluca, so I can show her just what a mother will do to protect her child.”

“Sorry, sweetheart. I can’t let you do that,” Deluca said as he cleared the doorway. “I know where the place is. You can believe that as soon as we leave she is going to call them.”

“Then we have to stop her!” Willow shouted as she still fought to get free. Deluca was having a hell of a time holding on to her. Her dark-red hair was getting in his face as she clawed and kicked. He knew she wasn’t trying to intentionally hurt him, but damn if those boots weren’t tearing up his shins.

“Brooke will take care of her, Willow. You need to calm down before you damage something on me you will regret.”

When Willow stopped fighting him and gave him a nod, Deluca released her.

Big mistake
. Willow took off toward the door, and Deluca was hard-pressed to stop her before she made it inside. He caught her just as she reached the entrance. “I warned you.” He let his hand fly, smacking her hard on her ass.

Willow stopped fighting and turned around, staring at him in disbelief. “Did you just spank me?”

“And I’ll do it again if you disobey me on this. Now get in the Humvee and let Brooke do what he was trained to do.” Deluca pointed to the Humvee, making sure his glare matched hers. There was no way he was letting her run back in there and maul the woman. They had to go at this in a way that wouldn’t be traced back to them. He was pretty sure Brooke was in there right now putting the woman to sleep and placing her at her desk. The man would pull the landline cord and sneak out before anyone knew what happened.

Of course there was the nun to consider, but Deluca was pretty sure she wouldn’t check on the administrative woman for some time. The nun had looked terrified of the lady. He was willing to bet the nun avoided the admin bitch at all costs.

Deluca felt an intense urge to protect Willow no matter what happened. She was becoming the center of his universe, and he would be damned if he allowed anything to happen to her. No woman had ever meant this much to him, and Deluca liked the feeling of having someone special in his life. It didn’t bother him to share her with Brooke. He had been around Brooke’s family too long to consider two men in a relationship with one woman bizarre. Brooke had grown up with two fathers and a mother. At first, it was the strangest thing to Deluca, but as the years rolled by, seeing Brooke’s parents together became normal to him.

Deluca may have played a lot with the ladies, but deep down, he wanted a relationship like Brooke’s parents had. They seemed happy and content in their relationship. Deluca never thought he would find someone to feel that way about.

But lo and behold, Willow changed all of that and set Deluca’s heart to pounding every time he glanced her way. Her curvaceous body and mane of deep, dark, red hair made his mouth water for just one taste.

But her sweet disposition had him baring his teeth at anyone who thought to harm her. She had a wild, vicious side that Deluca had only glimpsed once or twice, but damn if he didn’t want to see more of it. In Deluca’s eyes, Willow was beauty, grace, sensuality, and a wild siren. She was someone he could imagine forever with.

And that was saying something considering Deluca had never imagined settling down. He had always thought of himself as what some might consider a playboy. And Deluca had loved loving the ladies.

But ever since he set eyes on Willow, there was only one lady he wanted to truly love.

Willow gave a low throaty growl that only made his cock thicken impossibly harder. With one last snarly protest, she turned on her heel and walked to the Humvee, a glower etched deep on her face as she slid into the backseat. Deluca was pretty sure he wasn’t getting any sex tonight when she slammed the door shut. She was pissed off and Deluca didn’t blame her.

“Let’s go,” Brooke said as he walked down the steps. “We need to get to the salvation building before the ice princess wakes up.”

Knowing he was asking to get his ass handed to him, Deluca headed toward the backseat. He couldn’t stop himself. Willow was all teeth and claws, and hell if that didn’t turn Deluca on. Brooke stopped him by laying a hand on his shoulder. “Unless you want your nuts taken off, I suggest you drive and let me handle her.”

Deluca glanced at the Humvee and then at Deluca. “Do you think she would do that?”

Brooke gave him a droll stare before he climbed into the backseat. Resigned to driving, Deluca slid into the front seat. He watched Brooke pull Willow next to him and begin to speak softly to her.

One of these days he was going to learn that neat trick Brooke had with smoothing things over with pissed-off women.

But then again, one of these days Deluca was going to learn not to piss women off in the first place.

* * * *

“He went straight into my house?” Rick asked Nate. “What the fuck is Sasha doing making himself at home at my place?”

“I asked, but he wasn’t forthcoming in his answer,” Nate replied. “He caught Selene and me off guard, and then was gone before we could get any answers from him.”

Rick paced the driveway of the home he was currently hiding in. He knew why he had to be here, but just thinking about home made his chest hurt. He had taken so many things for granted before all of this started. What he wouldn’t give to be sitting on his back porch, sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper. It seemed like such a simple act, but one he could no longer luxuriate in. He couldn’t go home. Not now. Not until all of this was over.

If it ever ended.

Just thinking about the possibility that this war could last for years was putting him in a sour mood. All he wanted to do was take his mate home and live a normal life. He didn’t even care about being an alpha any longer. Rick would gladly give up his position just to have peace and quiet for the rest of his damn life.

“I want you to hunt that bastard down and find out why he shot Larry and then felt he could just waltz into my home.”

“I already did. He said if I kept following him that I was going to get him killed. Sasha hinted around at doing something that was of extreme importance and that I basically needed to leave him the hell alone.”

“Hang on,” Rick said when his phone beeped. “I’ve got another call.”

Rick swapped calls. “Myrtle’s Pancake House.” Rick started using made-up names of businesses when he answered the satellite phone Deluca had left him. It broke up the monotony of using his alias name—which he hated.

“It’s Brooke.”

“Did you find the baby?”

“We’re getting close to the place he was given to. But I wanted to let you know that I found some interesting paperwork at Garrett’s.”

Rick knew he wasn’t going to like what Brooke had to say. “Go on.”

“Garrett was blackmailing someone named Sasha Monroe. He wanted this Monroe guy to obtain your financial records in exchange for not telling the world Monroe is a half breed. Garrett also had your birth certificate in the pile of paperwork with your father’s name circled and a question mark next to it.”

“Why in the fuck does he want my financial records?”

“I’m thinking you were next on Garrett’s blackmail list. You need to figure out why he has your father’s name circled.”

Everything Nate had just been telling him made perfect sense to Rick now, and he couldn’t get angry. No, he was too busy being stunned to the core. Sasha was basically turning traitor on Rick to do what Garrett wanted. And he thought he was shocked when Graham, the pack healer’s mate, had turned on him. Never in a million years would Rick have thought Sasha would do something like this. The man didn’t bow to anyone. But then again, if his leap found out Sasha was a half breed, the man stood to lose everything.

“Anything else?”

“That’s about it. I’ll call you once we have Kell secured.”

“Do that,” Rick said before he swapped the call back to Nate. “Find Sasha and bring his traitorous ass to me!”

“Whoa,” Nate said. “What the hell just happened?”

Rick wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to shift and kill. He was no longer stuck on stunned. Rick was past boiling with rage. Nate liked Sasha. Rick knew this. But fuck if he was going to let personal feelings get in the way of traitors. “He was being blackmailed by Garrett. It seems the alpha of the werecoyotes wanted Sasha to get my financial records, and he promised Sasha he wouldn’t tell anyone the wereleopard alpha is a half breed. Find his fucking ass and meet me in Indiana. I want to know why he felt compelled to hand me over on a silver fucking platter just to save his own ass.”

“I’ll find him.” Nate sounded even more pissed than Rick. It must suck to find out the man he was most interested in was a piece of shit. Rick was pretty sure Nate was going to make Sasha pay dearly for the betrayal. “I’ll call you when I reach Indiana.”

Rick began to throw his phone against the side of the house in a fit of rage but stopped himself at the last minute. He needed the phone and didn’t feel like replacing it.

“You need me to kill someone?” Freedman asked as he walked down the driveway.

“No, this one is all mine.” Rick began to pace up and down the drive, something he hated to do. Pacing was not his thing, but Sasha had him so mad he was seething.

“Who pissed you off?” Dorian asked as he bent over the railing of the back porch.

“Sasha,” Rick replied as he took in deep and cleansing breaths. It wasn’t helping. “He betrayed me for Garrett.”

“No shit,” Dorian said as his Peruvian-brown eyes grew dark with anger. “Is Nate going to kill him?”

“Who are Sasha and Nate?” Freedman asked.

“A dead alpha and my top enforcer,” Rick replied as he slid the phone into the case at his hip.
Sasha of all people.
Rick just couldn’t seem to get over the fact that Sasha was the one to turn on him. He and the wereleopard alpha weren’t on buddy-buddy terms, but he thought they had a quiet understanding.

Good fucking god, couldn’t he trust anyone anymore? The only people he felt he could trust without a shadow of a doubt were Dorian and Isabelle. Everyone else just kept shocking the shit out of him.