Page 67 of Heart Broken Mate

Just like they did when they conquered the royal families. They needed hunters to win the throne. Now, they needed hunters to hold on to the throne. We’d stopped the merchandise from going through and signaled our interest in a war with the Tarloux family. We knew they were powerful, but we had underestimated the extent of their powers. If the Tarloux family made the first hunters, then they would have techniques unknown even to the best hunters out there. They will be ruthless killers with a hunger for blood and the hunt. Killers, we weren’t capable of going up against.

Yes, we have the moon stone, which will only make Luke and me stronger. But can we take on a horde of specially trained hunters? Hunters that the Tarloux family have trained over the years to kill werewolves.

There is an endless supply of werewolf children on the streets all around the world—an endless supply providing an army to the Tarloux family.

This wouldn’t be the walk through the park that I assumed it would be. We had assumed we would be going up against Viper backed up by the family. We would be going up against more than that. We would be going up against the foundation that the werewolf community has come to know and recognize for the last couple of centuries. To many werewolves out there, the Tarloux family was the archetypical definition of normalcy. They ruled with an iron hand, but with them, there was stability and peace. People recognized their position and played their roles obediently. Going up against them would be going up against the lives these people have crafted, depending on the stability Tarloux had provided. It would be going up against what it means to be a werewolf now.

“Are you okay, Hayley?” Luke asked me as he started towards me.

No, I wasn’t. I was far from okay. I had hit a stack of dominoes the day I killed James; now, it was all falling down on me. And it was falling heavy.

But this didn’t start with me. I am just part of the cascade. It started with the three friends. It started with Tarloux’s jealousy and his resulting reign of tyranny. And if there is anything a tyrant like the Tarloux family had accumulated as much as they have an army, it is enemies.

“We need an army,” I said to Luke. “We need to get to Bonne and get people that are willing to go up against the Tarloux. We’ve declared war on them, and they have an army of hunters. We need an army of our own.”

Chapter thirty (Luke)

We were standing at the door to Bonne’s home again. Something had happened while I was gone; I could tell. I could sense it in the way Mikhail had talked to me when we took the dock and rescued those kids and the hours it took to get the kids somewhere safe until their families came to recover them and then to get back into town and head to Bonne, I had my heart in my mouth. Had I put him and his family in danger? It seemed that was what had happened. But if someone were dead, Kurt would have told me. So, I calmed myself down with the fact that they were all alive and well.

The walk down to their house had been uneventful. I had expected Viper to send some more hunters after us, but it seemed he had learned his lesson. He would stay his hand and think for a while about his next line of action. He wouldn’t be so rash anymore. But it doesn’t matter how long he takes to decide. He only had one sensible line of action. To call the Tarloux. If he doesn’t call them, they will simply waltz into town and take over. If he does now, he could still have a sort of negotiation with them.

I wouldn’t want to be him right now. Barely a month in charge, and everything was falling apart around him.

I looked at Hayley, who looked a bit tense. She doesn’t do well around strangers; I have come to know that. She was a strong woman, though. One that was more than capable of taking care of herself, and I fell deeper in love with her every day I spentwith her. I don’t need the ritual or the moon stone to tell me that she is the woman I am fated to be with. I can feel it deep inside me. Nothing I have ever done felt more right, and it feels right to be with her. It seemed I was made to love her.

She had handled the sudden transition in her life for a month. She went from being a member of James’s posse to becoming a fugitive, and now she was a rebel, looking to rouse the foundation of the werewolf community and bring it to its knees. She had that stern and steady look on her that said she could do whatever she wanted. Become whoever she wants.

The moon stone made the two of us feel more powerful, but this with her wasn’t just about the moon stone. It was what she was. A woman that keeps her head up fighting, and survives no matter the condition. She was just like me.

I held her hand as footsteps became audible behind the door and smiled at her. “They are happy to have you here,” I assured her.

She nodded at me and relaxed a bit. The door opened to show Bonne behind the door. I tried a smile at him, but he didn’t return it. He looked behind him and closed the door before stepping out.

“What is it?” I asked. He was acting suspiciously.

“Jade got worse while you were gone. Something happened, but I took care of it.”

“What happened, Bonne?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Bonne said, but he knew that wasn’t possible.

“Was it Viper? What did he do?”

“I said I took care of it,” he insisted. “Now, I need you to promise me something.”

I squinted at him. I didn’t like where this was going. Bonne keeping secrets never ends well. He isn’t very good at doing that.

“What is it?”

“I need you to be on your best behavior,” he said. “Nellie is with Jade. She’s been by his side for days now and won’t leave. There is someone in there that I had to recruit to help me—someone you might not like to see. But no fighting in there. Do you promise me?”

Bonne was acting very strangely, but I promised him because what would it hurt? He said there was someone in there that I wouldn’t want to see. Many people have made an enemy of me that I wouldn’t want to see, but there was one that I would kill should I set my eyes on him. Bonne couldn’t be referring to him.

“Wait,” I told him before answering. “Tell me what happened while we were gone, and I promise not to fight whoever is in there.”

“Viper took Jade and Nellie as hostages. I got them out, and that is all you need to know. The lone wolves helped.”

So, that was what happened. Bonne had a deep resolve in him that I hadn’t seen before. Something was different about him. More alert, more grounded.

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