Page 86 of Forever Mine

Just before the door closed, a smell so memorable and strong hit me, crippling me in panic. I looked around and just at the edge of the woods I saw them . . . all six of them. They smiled and nodded at me in appreciation and my entire body began to shake violently. Tigers!

"What's wrong?" Patrick asked, sounding very concerned the moment he got into the car.

"Drive. Quickly, just drive," was as much as I could say before the full realization of what I'd done began to sink in. I had freed the shifters. I had freed the six men that had raped me so violently. What had I done?

In a fog, like I wasn't really myself, just watching myself, I picked up my phone and I called Jacob.

"Janie, are you okay?" he asked, sounding very distracted.

"No," I said in a far too calm and eerie voice. "The six men that raped me. I just saw them by an abandoned gas station, approximately three miles from your office."

I heard him inhale sharply, knowing I had never once confessed to being raped to him or Annie, before covering the receiver and yelling out some orders.

"We'll get them, Jane. I promise you, they won't be allowed to wonder free for long. If it's the last thing I do, I'll get them. I'm so sorry. I don't know how this happened."

Guilt. That's what I felt, sheer guilt. I had done this.

"Shit. You fecking let them all out, didn't you?" Patrick asked.

I was still in that daze outside of myself. "You didn't see them, Patrick. They were in cages like animals, stacked two high and five deep. Seven rows, all filled but one."

"That would have been mine," Raina said softly. "They'll come for me now, too."

"They won't," Patrick assured her. "We went to great lengths to ensure they all believed you were dead. They think you were already cremated. No one will be looking for you, especially with all the others on the run now."

"Wow! Who are you people? And is that why I can't remember anything? How did I even get here? Where are we going?"

I supposed Raina's fear and questions helped distract me from my own. I was still very shaken up, but I had something to do as I tried to tend to her.

"Relax, Raina," I started.

"See, how do you even know my name? We've never met. I've smelled him before, but I can't place where, but you, I've never even seen you before. Why did you do this?" she interrupted me.

I smiled in spite of it all. "Kelsey sends her love."

"Elena? She did this?" Raina asked, using Kelsey's given name that she hadn't gone by since she was four years old.

"Perhaps more like Kyle, on Kelsey's behalf. He's been working hard to keep this entire mission from her. Not so easy for a fully bonded couple, but I don't believe she knows, yet," Patrick filled her in.

"You're Westin then?" Raina asked, looking confused.

"Patrick O'Connell. Originally from the Irish Clan, but I'm been a Westin for a while now. I'm mated to Elise Westin. This is Maddie. She's mated to Liam Westin and was our inside connection to the facility."

Raina fell quiet with her questions as she tried to take it all in. I was grateful Patrick hadn't told her exactly what my connection was. I didn't think I could handle hearing Jacob portrayed as the bad guy. I prayed that wasn't the case, but I had seen them with my own eyes. Did my rapists even deserve such treatment? I wanted to say yes, but I had been so horrified by the conditions I had found, that I hadn't hit the yellow button that would have only opened the cages for those deemed safe. I had hit the green button that unlocked every cage in the room at once.

The hours spent driving home were largely in comfortable silence as each of us internalized the events in our own way.

When we arrived back at the house I went straight to my room to see Liam. I needed him and I knew he would need me, too. He wasn't there.

I knocked on Kyle's office next, and he answered.

"Have you seen Liam?" I asked without even a hello, still feeling distraught and upset at what I had done.

"Hey, I didn't know you guys were back already. Did everything go okay?" he asked.

I nodded. "Raina's in the living room with Mary, doting over Zander. They just called Kelsey to come over, but didn't tell her why. You may want to be there when she arrives."

He let out a breath of release and hugged me. "Thank God! I'll never be able to repay you for this, MC."

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