Chapter 17: Chapter 17
“Mmm…” Soft hums vibrated through Imara’s nose while Ben’s lips moved across his mark.
After one last sniff of her, he hovered above her lips. “I just wanted to kiss you before I left.”
A soft hand landed on his cheek, and her heavy eyes opened for a moment before they knitted shut again. “I love you.”
With his baby tucked in Imara’s arm, Ben backed away and pressed his lips against her fat cheek. “Daddy loves you.”
Before he left the bedroom, he peeked back over his shoulder to see them with what remained of the moonlight on their faces. “See you soon.”
After he milked the cows and fed the animals, he packed the wagon while Harold plowed the fields. He looked back to the cottage in time to see Shaw go inside.
Every part of him wanted to go home for just a minute. Still, as he looked over a load of deliveries in his wagon, he sighed at how little time he ever really had with his family. “Maybe in the next life.”
The last stop of the evening was always to Thorin’s house, and when he got there Ben parked by the kitchen. The cook’s bright orange hair bobbed up and down in the window as Ben tapped his knuckles against the door before he opened it. “Sofia, I got your groceries.”
She cleared the sideboard, and Ben slid the crate on top as he peeked around the room. “Where’s Thorin?”
“Oh, he’s popped off to New Orleans for the day, should be home soon.” She gave the meat a sniff before she dropped it into the sink. “Something about that old Viking he’s been looking for.”
He dipped his knees a little and moved in front of her to get her attention. “Haldir? There’s news about Haldir?”
“Yes, apparently he’s back in the country. I expect you all will leave us soon.” Freckled fingers pinched his cheek. “Oh, damn, I’m going to miss you all so much.”
He tugged her into his chest for a quick hug before he backed into the chair that sat beside the counter and lowered himself into it. “This is a good thing. We won’t have to worry about Imara anymore.”
Her fingertips landed on her chest, and she shook her head. “Oh, I know, honey.” With her toes pressed into the floor, she reached up and used her fingers to pinch a bottle of spice from the cupboard’s edge. “I’ve been with the Parker’s so very long. I don’t even know what I’ll do with myself when they’re gone.”
With his elbow on the counter, Ben rested his chin against his hand. “Where will the three of you go?”
The knife she pulled from the block waved in her hand as she shrugged her shoulder. “Thorin’s sending us back to Savannah. They have a new leader at the Order who’s a right good man, an old friend of their family’s. Since we’re familiars, he’s going to let us work there for them and stay in Parker’s old home.”
The sky was getting dark, so Ben knocked his fist against the counter. “Will you tell him to stop down when he comes home?”
For a hefty older woman, the cook chopped through the vegetables like the most seasoned warrior, and she never missed a beat when she turned to face Ben. “Course I will. Now give Sweet Pea a big old hug from me.”
He slipped onto the rough wooden bench of the wagon, and it finally hit him. “Oh, shit.” He took a second to take a deep breath before he wrapped the reigns around his fist and cracked it. “We’re almost there.”
Somewhere along the road, a sinking feeling came to his palms when he realized he’d never talked to his parents about what would happen. “Dammit!”
The horse came to a stop at his parent’s house, and he jumped down then tied the horse to the post. The dark kitchen’s only light was the spent oil lamp, but he didn’t need to see a thing to know that the puddle his foot skated through was blood. He could smell the rusty stench of it. “Momma!”
Bit by bit, he inched around the table and made his way to the staircase. The bloody handprint on the wall came into view through the darkness, and the universe stopped. All that remained was his heartbeat and the distant whispers in his head.
Each finger curled around the rail as the forces pulled him up the steps. The static moved up his arms until every hair on his body stood on end, and the icy hand of Fate pushed him to his parent’s bedroom door.
The whole horrific scene pulled away from his vision and became a long dark tunnel with only his mother’s bloody body lying on the bed at the end.
The wicked mumbles of ancient voices crept up through his chest until the creature poked through this world and woke Ben from his trance when it whispered to him. ‘Imara.’
A surge of fear dumped into his bloodstream, and his brown eyes became a sea of black as the world came into focus again. “Oh God, no. Imara!”
He leaped down the stairs in a single bound and shouldered his way through the front door. “Imara!”
No matter how fast he pumped his arms or lifted his knees, it wasn’t quick enough, but he was at the half-open door before he even knew how he got there. Without even stopping, he kicked through the doorway and froze in his tracks when he found Shaw face down on the floor with a bone-handled knife buried deep in his back.
“Eh-hmm!” A throat-clearing cough came from the other side of the kitchen table, and Ben’s eyes shifted to the man in black. “I’ve been waiting for you, Ben.”
Unlike his nightmares, he could see the man’s face clearly this time. His skin was so pale that Ben could see the veins underneath the surface, and his arrogant pointy nose lit up orange as Selvin took a drag from his cigarette.
Ben searched his mind for Imara. Every molecule called out to her, and an icy wave rushed over his body. “Where are they?”
Selvin’s white skin glowed in the moonlight that trickled in through the window when he leaned into it and grinned. “Oh Ben, I’ll get to that soon. Have a seat. We have much to discuss.”
In his mind, Ben screamed and pleaded for his mate, but on the outside, he was as cool as the most steely-hearted soldier as he spun the chair around and straddled it to face his enemy. “Talk.”
Selvin flicked his ashes on the floor, then pointed his cigarette holding fingers at him. “I have been looking for your mother for a very long time, just about thirty years now. She was quite tricky to find.”
With a shake of his head, the warlock slapped his hand to his chest. “Oh, forgive me, my manners are terrible sometimes. My name is Selvin Marcos. Did she ever mention me?”
His square jaw popped as Ben struggled to hold his temper, and he spoke through his clenched teeth. “No.”
“Hmm. Well, let me tell you a little story.” The well-dressed monster winked before he leaned back in his chair. “Many years ago, your mother and I were married. Well, I suppose we still are official.”
Without a hint of emotion on his face, Ben glared at Selvin. “Not anymore.”
Selvin’s thin lips pushed together as his eyes widened when he nodded. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. Back to my story. One day, she met a Lycan fellow, and as the Fates would have it, they discovered they were mates. Of course, we Northern witches aren’t as progressive as you Southerners, and we don’t allow blood mixing.” He pointed at Ben. “And, Ben, this concerns you. Anna was given a chance to reject her mate and return to her coven, no questions asked, but she disappeared off the face of the planet.” Ben sensed the regret on the old warlock when he shrugged and glanced away for just a moment. “I was quite heartbroken, really. Anyhow, the coven placed a bounty on their heads, and, well, you know how the rest of this story goes.”
The wolf could smell his family in the next room, but there wasn’t even a trace of them in his mind. “What did you do to my girls?”
Selvin wagged his finger at Ben. “What I didn’t know is that Anna was carrying a child with her when she left. I was quite surprised when my spies tracked her down here and discovered that she had a son. I was so hoping that you were mine, but Anna quickly shot down that idea.” With a giggle that was far too evil, he clapped his hands together and smiled. “Oh, this is the best part.”
Even though every instinct told him they were gone, Ben’s teary eyes begged the old man for mercy. “Where’s my wife?”
“Patience Ben. See, I wanted Anna back, but when I found out she polluted herself with a half-blood child, I changed my mind. Then as I was leaving, I noticed this lovely little cottage.” Selvin looked around the room. “Did you build this yourself, Ben?”
Ben nodded and licked the tears from his lips.
“It really is nice. You do excellent work. Anyhow, back to Imara and your daughter. You see, your wife and that human laying over there gave me quite a fight.” Selvin stopped and leaned into the table. “So, I made her watch while I killed your daughter, and then, of course, I killed her.”
The wolf-man leaped across the table with pure rage, biting and clawing at the warlock, who laughed his eerie cackle at the beast. In his partially shifted state, he was no match for the Elder witch. With a flick of his wrist, Selvin sent the dark rabid creature crashing into the hutch, and he fell to the floor, surrounded by shards of Imara’s mother’s best dishes. The wolf’s broken body tried desperately to stumble to his feet as Selvin raised his hands and spoke in the old language. “Cuirim mallacht ort do chrà a chónaí arís agus arís eile.”
Ben growled and gasped and bit at Selvin as he wrapped his arm around the injured Lycan’s neck, then lifted his knife into the air and gazed into the flashing golden eyes of the wolf below him.
“Tell me, Ben, how much pain can you endure?” A screeching yelp echoed through the farmland as the knife plunged through the farmer’s heart, and the glimmer of life left his eyes. Selvin kicked the still body away, then grabbed the dishtowel from the floor behind him and wiped his hands. “Well, we shall see.”