Page 52 of Taming Raptor

That got Seth’s attention and he lifted his gaze to mine. A confused frown marred his youthful face and his eyes glistened with the tears he kept at bay. The face of a boy in the process of becoming a man. With eyes that looked like mine. My chest ached for him.

Resting my elbows on my thighs, I leaned forward. Then I set my bottle down to buy time. Finally, I looked him in the eye and told him the truth. “Seth, I wanted you and Sam more than you’ll ever know. But your mom told me you weren’t my children. I demanded paternity tests. When the results arrived in the mail, it was a knife to the chest. They said you weren’t mine. The rest is a lot of legal bullshit that I’m not going to get into, but know that I wanted you.”

He looked as shocked as I’d been when that letter had arrived.

“I’m sorry, Seth. Trust me—I wish it weren’t true.”

“Then why are we here?” he asked, his voice almost hoarse.

That was Sam’s cue to come into the conversation. “Because you know how you’ve been getting those bad headaches? And you suddenly started feeling restless? Like you’re crawling out of your skin?”

Seth frowned, then reluctantly nodded. His knee bounced relentlessly as he nervously searched our faces.

“I went through the same thing. Should I show him?” Sam asked, turning to me for guidance.

“Sure, Sam.” Talk about stress. A fifteen-year-old boy should’ve been prepared for this. Normally, he’d be educated from a fairly young age. This was so unfair. It was more unfair that Sam had gone through all of it completely alone.

“Dude!” Seth exclaimed and shot out of his seat when Sam started to undress.

“Be patient,” I firmly instructed. Both boys looked to me, their inner hawks naturally ready to follow my guidance. Seth sat back down.

Sam crouched in the stance that had come natural to him. The shift coming was nothing new to me. But it was still a shock to watch the young man who I’d once loved as my son, morph to the hawk he’d become. It was a mix of pride and regret—with a little bit of anger added in.

“Holy shit!” Seth scrambled up and back, his chair toppling over and him landing on his ass in the dirt. His wide eyes bespoke of fear, confusion, and awe. It may have been years, but that had been my first response, too—and I’d been raised to know about it.

Seth’s eyes wildly darted around as his chest heaved and his mouth hung open. “Is that gonna happen to me too?”

“Yes,” I told him. “But unlike your brother, you won’t be alone in this. We’ll be here with you every step of the way.”

“I Did Something Bad”—Halocene

I’d been stunned but ecstatic that Blade had survived. Ruby’s death, on the other hand, had been heartbreaking. Before something more happened to the people I cared about, I knew I needed to get out of town. What I wasn’t expecting was that Venom agreed and was sending me away.

“Cookie, this is what’s best for everyone. Facet tracked down most of the other girls that quit showing up and no one has messed with them or bothered them since. We’ll work out a disguise so you look like one of the other girls when you leave. You’ll be on Blade’s bike with him with very little to give you away. Anyone that might be watching won’t know it was you and will never suspect you’re traveling cross-country. You’ll look like you’re simply going for a ride.” Venom explained everything very matter of factly, and I’d already known I would need to leave, but I was still reeling.

“Where are we going?” I asked, with worry eating me from the inside out.

“Texas.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me.”

In the wee hours of the morning, we were ready. When we rode out of the compound, what we could shove in Blade’s saddlebags was what we left with. Dressed in Willow’s clothes, with my hair dyed back to its natural brunette, and a tinted visor on my helmet, I could’ve passed for any number of the girls.

A sense of deja vu hit as I wrapped my arms around Blade’s waist. The only difference between now and then, besides the years, was that we no longer rode on a barely legal dirt bike, and we weren’t looking for another bike to steal.

Blade rode hard once we cleared Des Moines and didn’t slow down except to fuel up and for bathroom breaks. We stopped in Kansas City for breakfast and were back on the rode immediately.

Unfortunately, we were only back on the road about forty-five minutes before I was frantically tapping on Blade’s shoulder. He pulled over and I barely cleared the bike and got the helmet off before I was yakking in the ditch. Thankful my hair was braided for the ride, I hurled until I was dry heaving as Blade rubbed circles on my back.

“Do we need to stop for the day?” he asked, with worry in his gaze.

“No. Not as long as you can pull over quickly.” Though I tried to laugh, it came out more like a groan.

“Are you sure?” His sky-blue eyes were filled with concern.

“Yeah. Though I’m not looking forward to arriving, I’d like to put as many miles between us and that fucking nut job as we can.”

“Good, those were my thoughts exactly, but I was trying to be a sensitive fucker,” he teased as he ruffled my hair.

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