Page 48 of Wild Wolf

“I don’t know,” I breathed, still not looking at him, shaking my head as I tried to process what had happened to me, still in shock from it all. “But that wasn’t the end of it. When they took it away, they replaced it with a new Order. They changed me. They forced that change upon me. And they said none have survived that transformation until now. I was the first, but I won’t be the last.” I looked up at him, making myself do it and expecting to find him recoiling from me, but I only found rage and sympathy written into his features.

“What Order?” he rasped and in answer, I let my fangs extend and bared them at him.

His throat bobbed and he nodded before throwing his arms around me, hugging me firmly and speaking into my ear. “We’ll destroy them for this. And we’ll get your Lion back. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

I gripped him tight, the feel of his embrace like a balm to my soul, soothing its jagged edges. I’d been so sure he would reject me for this. Our kind were proud and being Lions was so ingrained in who we were as Nights. Relief and gratitude swept through me for this man who hadn’t abandoned me at any point. Not when I’d been arrested, not when I’d brought shame on our family, and not now when I stood before him as a wholly changed creature.

“I thought you’d want nothing to do with me,” I admitted as we pulled apart.

“We’re brothers,” he said passionately. “If you’d returned here as a swamp rat, you’d still be my swamp rat. There’s no form you could take that would change that.”

“I don’t deserve you, but I’m fucking grateful for you,” I said.

“You deserve more than me. Come on, Aunt Bianca is preparing a feast. Let’s celebrate the good and forget the bad. Everyone’s dying to see you, swamp rat or otherwise, two Fae most of all.”

“The kids?” I rasped, a keen need filling me to meet my niece and nephew at long last. I’d seen pictures and heard so many tales from Leon, I had such an image of them in my mind that it was as if I knew them already. But I didn’t really. I had been denied them and that, above all my punishments, had been the cruellest.

Leon nodded, smiling excitedly as he led the way up the house, my body humming with anticipation, but trepidation too. I wasn’t the Fae I’d hoped to be when I met them. I was more scarred than I’d planned on, more damaged and altered. But my love for them transcended all that, guiding my feet forward as if fate was coiling me close to them by a thread.

There were Oscuras milling on the porch, trying to get back inside to see the newcomers and as we made it to the steps, two kids squeezed through the crowd of legs and came flying at us.

The eldest boy Luca led the charge, but the little one RJ put on a burst of speed to catch him, a fiery determination sparking her eyes. Leon stepped aside and they let out little gasps of excitement before launching themselves off the porch steps with complete faith that I’d catch them.

“Uncle Roary!” they shouted in unison as I lunged, grabbing them mid-jump before they face-planted the ground. Their little arms came around my neck and RJ placed a kiss on my cheek before pulling my hair.

“I missed you,” I told them with a grin, hugging them tight, the relief at finally uniting with them making the weight on my heart lessen.

“Dad says you broke out of prison!” Luca said excitedly. “Did you punch a guard in the face?”

“Or the butt?” RJ piped up and I laughed.

“The face and the butt,” I said.

“Told you!” RJ squealed, then the two of them wriggled out of my arms and leapt at Leon, tugging on his trousers.

“Can we show him the thing we made now?” Luca whispered keenly and my sharp Vampire hearing picked it up.

“I’ll bring him to the kitchen, you two go get it ready,” Leon said excitedly and they dashed back into the house with cries of excitement.

Leon rested a hand to my shoulder and I smiled at him, my chest full of light. “You have no idea how good it is to see them in the flesh.”

“They’ll never leave you alone now, bro. You’re like a celebrity to them, they haven’t stopped talking about you since the breakout.”

I breathed a laugh and let Leon lead me into the house where the Oscuras were bustling around and chatting keenly.

The sight of all those people was strangely off-putting, like my inner desires for company had shifted, and I realised it must have been to do with my Order. Vampires were notoriously solitary and as I stepped into the manor and was overrun by excited Wolves, my gaze caught on Cain where he stood by a grandfather clock, escaping the bedlam.

He was the epitome of all their Order stood for and I knew he held the answers to a lot of the questions I had about my newfound desires. But he was also an asshole with an attitude problem that had been very much pointed at me during my time at Darkmore. It was hard to forget about the times he’d shouted orders at me or punished me for disobedience.

Ethan was in the thick of the masses, soaking up the attention as he pushed a hand through his blonde hair. A bunch of Wolves cooed and praised him for his bravery as he retold the story of my breakout. Hastings was close by in a crowd of his own, his cheeks turning a little pink as the Wolves pulled details from him.

“Dalle stelle!” Dante boomed as he pushed through the throng of Oscuras. “Let me get to him.” The Wolves parted to let him through and he clapped me on the back of the neck, pulling me to him and kissing me on both cheeks before embracing me. The Dragon born of Wolves was one of my favourite people and I smiled at him, letting the joy in the space infect me at last. “Good to see you, Dante.”

“Better to see you, mio amico,” he said then he whispered in my ear. “Rosa told me what they did to you, and I assure you we will gut every last enemy who is responsible for this. A morte e ritorno. Now come! Eat, drink, celebrate with us. For the night is still young, the FIB left here empty handed and the dawn waits for no Fae.”

Rosalie caught my eye from the stairs as I was swept away into the lounge, the Wolves crooning, all desperate to greet me, but also to touch me like doing so would grant them eternal luck. There were arguments breaking out over the need to get closer to me, and Leon was being swept away on a tide while being asked a thousand questions about me at once.

Bianca all but shrieked when she spotted me in the lounge, barking at the Wolves in Faetalian to let her through and they leapt aside like they’d been struck with a frying pan. I had to bend right down to embrace her, and her kisses pressed all over my face before she let me go. There was no escaping it either because she had damn strong arms on her.

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