Page 9 of Visions, Paws, and Claws

Except they’re not human, are they?

That made it worse. That shifters could treat their own kind in so… emotionless a manner.

Jake lowered his voice. “How did you do?”

Seth sighed. “I’m not sure. If Aric is with our mate, that might help amplify the signal, for want of a better word.” He’d waited until the block had emptied before sitting on his bed, closing his eyes, and opening his mind, striving to reach Aric. “I think he’s simply too far away.” The fact Seth had located their mate at all was a miracle.

Aric is with him now.

Seth didn’t know if that was knowledge provided by his gift or more like wishful thinking. Gods, he missed Aric. Seth brought the sleeve of Aric’s tee, which he wore over hisshoulders, to his nose, breathing in his scent. Okay, so it had lost Aric’s scent long ago, but Seth could imagine, right? Heknewit was wishful thinking that it still smelled of his mate, but he clung to it anyway.

He was never going to wash it. Not till he was able to give it back in person. And right then it had a job to do—to keep Aric alive in Seth’s mind, to help him remember the nights when Aric had crawled into Seth’s bed and they’d held each other until dawn, when they had to be in their own bed before the guards checked on them.

Jake’s face tightened, and he suddenly appeared every one of his sixty-two years. “They’ll be coming for us soon. I know I shouldn’t think about it. I should focus on something else, but….”

Seth grimaced. “Easy to say, damn near impossible to carry out.”

How long do we have? Minutes? Longer?

Time ceased to have all meaning, measured only in termsgo here,go there,do this,do that,eat,sleep….

Suffer.

“Tell me about Dellan,” Seth asked suddenly. Jake hadn’t talked much about his son, but Seth knew he had to be on Jake’s mind.

He thinks Dellan could be in danger.

If he was anything like his father, Dellan would undoubtedly be of interest to the Gerans. Unless….

No. The likelihood of Dellan being on the enemy’s side was remote. Jake was a noble shifter with a strong sense of right and wrong, and Seth believed such traits to be inheritable.

Jake expelled a long breath. “I can’t. My memories are all of a little seven-year-old boy. I was taken from him more than thirty years ago.” He smiled, but it was tinged with sorrow. “Iwonder if he looks like me. What he’s doing right now. Does he have a family? For all I know, I could be a grandfather.”

Except Seth knew Jake wasn’t thinking about Dellan’s possible children—he was thinking of his own offspring. After all these years, there was no telling how many shifters Jake had sired.

“Does it bother you? Knowing you have children out there that you’ve never met?”

Jake scowled. “Of course it does. I don’t care how they came to be—they’re still part of me.” He gave Seth a sympathetic glance. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea who your mother was. You know how it goes here. We’re never allowed to make our own decisions or choices. They’ll put us with someone, and we’ll never see them again. I do worry about what happened to some of them.” His face tightened. “They were so scared, so desperate to get out. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard the bastards dangle their freedom in front of them like a carrot, but once it’s done, they’re gone. I sincerely doubt they simply let them leave.”

Seth knew all right.

He knew that if Jake refused to cooperate—which he did, frequently—then a shift was forced on him, using that fucking drug. That was an infinitely worse situation. The aftereffects left Jake feeling ill for at least a day. His mom had had no idea who Seth’s father was, not that they’d shared cozy chats about Seth’s parentage. He still found it hard to believe his mother fell in line with all this shifter superiority crap.

That didn’t mean he hadn’t hurt the day they’d appeared on his doorstep to take him to the compound. Seth had cried out for her to keep him.

What had hurt worse than the blows he’d received from his captors was the fact that she’d let them take him without so much as a blink.

“Hey, where are you?” Jake squeezed his shoulder.

Seth shoved the memories from his mind. “Sorry. Iamlistening.”

“I was saying, it’s crazy the number of shifters they forced me to mate with.” He tilted his head to one side. “Did your mother know about your gift?”

Seth shook his head. “I didn’t tell her. I didn’t tell anyone except you and Aric.” Once he’d learned where her allegiance lay, he’d decided to keep his talents a secret.

There was no way Seth would have given the enemy more ammunition.

“Then how did these bastards find out?”

---