Page 127 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

Swallowing hard, her gaze flickered to Caleb to find him pressing his back against the bars as his terrified gaze met hers. “Mommy?”

Jill went to open her mouth only to have the large hand wrapped around her arm give it a warning squeeze, letting her know that was a bad idea. Closing her mouth, Jill’s gaze shifted to the man standing behind Caleb’s cage, noting the bored expression on his face and realized that he wouldn’t hesitate to push the cage the rest of the way into the water.

They were only going to have one chance to do this right.

“They shot me through a fucking window,” Tomas said in a daze, drawing her attention as she tried making sense of what was happening.

“What?” Jill asked, taking in the demon struggling not to pass out next to her as he held what was left of his arm against his chest.

“They shot me through a fucking window,” Tomas said, shaking his head in disbelief as the move drew her attention to a spot just beneath his ear to find a jagged silver disc lodged in his skin.

“That reminds me,” Elizabeth said as Jill glanced back at the woman that had a lot of explaining to do in time to watch her gesture absently towards them, “Magnus is expecting him.”

Without a word, several men descended on Tomas and pulled him to his feet.

“Time to go see the asshole,” Tomas said with a humorless chuckle as he was dragged away by four men before the priests left the room.

Slowly exhaling, Jill glanced at Logan and-

Did he just wink?

Before she could wonder about that, Elizabeth was making her way over to the table that Logan built with the boys and sitting down before pulling Emma, who was still silently crying, onto her lap. The threat was clear, if either one of them stepped out of line, she was going to hurt Emma. Reminding herself that Logan would never let anything happen to the children, Jill forced herself to remain where she was while the bitch that better not harm one hair on her little girl’s head began spinning her tale of woe.

“This never would have happened if Kale had given me what I wanted,” Elizabeth pointed out with a heartfelt sigh.

“And what was that?” Logan asked as Jill’s heart broke for him.

“Immortality, of course,” Elizabeth murmured, reaching up to push a strand of Emma’s hair behind her ear. “In retrospect, I probably should have just slit his throat as soon as I realized what he was, but unfortunately, I didn’t realize that was an option at the time.”

“How did you find out that he was a shifter?” Logan asked as an eerie calmness spread over her. Deciding to take that as a good sign, Jill released a shaky breath as she knelt there, noting that the men who’d taken Tomas hadn’t returned.

“One night, I spotted Kale making his way to the woods and decided to follow him out of boredom,” Elizabeth said, giving Emma’s nose a playful tap that had their baby girl crying harder. “Imagine my surprise when he shifted into a werewolf. I’d heard rumors of men that turned into beasts, but I never thought they were true until that night.”

“After that, I watched Kale, waiting for a chance to get closer to him, but he didn’t trust me, which left me with no choice but to find someone else willing to help me. I decided to leave the village, but unfortunately for me, my aunt and uncle were determined to see me settled.”

“Thankfully, I had a lovesick boy who worshipped the very ground that I walked on and just so happened to be best friends with the man whose blood I needed. As long as I professed my undying love for you, they allowed me to wait until you bought your land. Of course, I made sure that you weren’t able to buy it, giving my aunt and uncle no choice but to send me to London under the guise of searching for work,” Elizabeth said, setting Emma down on her feet in front of her.

“You stole the money I’d saved,” Logan guessed as a wave of anger tore through her chest.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Elizabeth said, shrugging it off. “I knew London was my best option, but I wouldn’t be able to go if I was forced to marry you. So, I made sure that you lost everything, freeing me to go to London, where I was able to find everything that I was looking for.”

“Pierce,” Logan said, watching as Elizabeth nodded. “What happened to him?”

“I slit his throat one night while he was sleeping. Not that I had a choice with a crazed vampire determined to get his revenge after him. I knew that it was just a matter of time before you found him and I couldn’t risk losing my only chance to become an Alpha.”

“So, you stole his identity and led me on a wild goose chase for eight centuries,” Logan said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Why not just kill me?”

“I thought about it. Actually, planned on doing it as soon as I got what I wanted, but I could never make the blood transfusions work,” Elizabeth admitted with a heartfelt sigh, making Jill frown in confusion. “I still needed you to get to Kale since the asshole was always two steps ahead of me.”

“How many Alphas have you drained over the years?” Logan asked, only to go still at Elizabeth’s answer.

“Ninety-seven and your son will make ninety-eight,” she said with a wink that had Jill moving to stand up only to force herself to stay where she was when Caleb’s cage was pushed another two inches.

“Mommy!”

“The next time she moves, I’ll drown the mutt,” Elizabeth warned.

Closing her eyes, Jill slowly exhaled as Logan asked, “How does Gray fit into this?”

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