Kelly Meade - Black Rook

She means Shay Butler. Sweet Avesta, Shay is my half-sister.

The Butlers had been her family, which made Stonehill, in many ways, her community as well. Brynn’s entire body rippled with rage for those lives lost, and for the lives her twin sister was still bent on ruining.

“Don’t look so disgusted, honey.” Fiona seemed to be enjoying the one-sided conversation. “The loup garou are animals. You’re a fool for casting your lot with them. You never knew her, sweets, but our father treated our biological mother like a queen, which is more than her own people did.”

Brynn shook her head. That wasn’t right. Chelsea Butler was a White Wolf. She’d been treasured by her run and mourned when she was taken. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“She speaks!” Fiona dropped her half-eaten cone onto the table, oblivious to the mess it made as it splattered. “It means I’ve seen proof that Andrew Butler sold his wife to the Magi for half a million dollars. Money that is in trust for his daughter Shay and accessible on her thirtieth birthday.”

“But that’s—” Brynn didn’t know what it was. Archimedes all but admitted to kidnapping Chelsea not ten minutes ago. White Wolves were too valuable to a run’s healthy existence for any Alpha to sell theirs—especially not their own wife. And Fiona was just crazy enough to make up such a story. “I don’t believe you.”

“Then don’t believe me. I know what I know.” She clasped her hands and rested them on the table and leaned over; she grinned like a kid about to spill a big secret. “I also know the Magus you thought was your mother, the witch who gave birth to us, didn’t die of natural causes. She killed herself when she found out what Daddy impregnated her with. She found out what her precious baby Brynn really was.”

Brynn couldn’t take any more. She tried to stand, only her feet didn’t want to work. Her knees didn’t lock. She pushed back in her chair, as far from Fiona’s tainted words as she could get. She was cold all over, numb inside, thoughts racing too quickly to catch and decipher. She pressed her palms into her eyes to stave off frustrated tears. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Telling you the truth? Because the truth is a powerful weapon, B. Our father lied to us about a lot of things for our whole lives. But he’s a fool, and he’s losing his power over both of us. It’s time to stand on our own two feet, don’t you think?”

“I’m doing that.”

“By playing in the dog pen? The loup garou are weak-minded animals. You and me? Us and the triplets? We’re the strong ones. The Magi think we’re pets on their leash, but we’ll prove them wrong very soon. You should be with us, with your family. You’ll be an aunt, sister.”

Brynn’s blood froze. Fiona and Victoria had been alone with Knight for over two hours. Had more happened than he’d admitted to? Or was Fiona speaking in future hypotheticals?

“You can’t stop us from taking what we want,” Fiona continued. “And neither can his family. We will kill every dog in Cornerstone to get Knight back, starting with his brothers, and that’s a promise.”

“Why?” Yes, it was an incredibly stupid question. Far beyond the obvious reasons for wanting Knight, Brynn didn’t understand what motivated Fiona to go to such murderous extremes. She needed to understand if she was going to stop Fiona from reaching her goals and killing more loup, and she willed herself to pay attention.

“Power, dear little sister. You’ve seen what four of us are capable of. Can you imagine what we can do with more? It will take years, of course, to build a proper army. Once we have it, though? The Magi, the vampires, and the loup will be our slaves. Ours to control and torment. Ours to use as we see fit.”

Hate flickered past the amusement in Fiona’s eyes—the first genuinely negative emotion she’d displayed since sitting down. Curiosity got the better of Brynn, and she asked, “What did they do to you?”

“Do? They made me. They called it a lab, but it was the basement of some abandoned hospital in New Jersey. I was alone with our natural mother, Chelsea, until I was seven, when the triplets were born. Apparently the in vitro process had a high failure rate, and since your Magus adopto-mom had already offed herself, Chelsea was chosen to carry them.” For a moment, Fiona seemed sad. “Chelsea died when they were born. Their gestation destroyed her uterus, and the Magus doctor chose the babies over her, and he let her bleed to death. She was useless to them then, you know?”

Brynn scowled. “So much for the Magi treating Chelsea better than her own people.”

Fiona matched her glare. “The Magi didn’t sell her. She had every comfort while she was alive.”

“She was probably drugged out of her mind and didn’t understand what was going on. The Magi used her to create children to use as weapons. Do you really think she was okay with that?”

“Maybe she was drugged most of the time, but it doesn’t matter. She took care of me, she gave us our sisters, and now she’s dead. Let go of the past, B, and look at the future. The Magi’s power is waning, and we will be the mothers of a new generation more powerful than the last. You should be with us.”

“Never.”

“Don’t you want to be a mother one day, B? You know the White Wolf is your only chance for children.”

“It doesn’t matter. And any children he sires should be Knight’s choice, not yours.”

“This is where we disagree. His function is not as a partner or a parent. He’s a sperm donor, a tool necessary for the survival of our kind.”

“We don’t have a kind, Fiona. We’re experiments. We’re unnatural.”

“We are perfectly natural. The only thing unnatural about us is that we’re subjugated to the whims of others. But that’s going to change very soon.” She gave Brynn a pleasant smile. “Maybe I won’t kill Knight’s brothers after all. I mean, a girl has needs and the triplets are much more interested than I am in being mothers. Maybe I’ll keep the brothers around as pets.”

Brynn’s temper surged, melting the ice in her veins and setting her on fire. Every loup instinct inside of her reared up, desperate to protect Rook from Fiona’s threats. She couldn’t bear the idea of Rook chained up as a sexual slave to Fiona. Such a fate would kill him—and Brynn, as well. Hatred for Fiona began to clear her mind and lift the haze of shock she’d worn since the moment Fiona sat down.

Fiona ran her finger through a puddle of melted ice cream. “Methinks I struck a nerve. What value are the lives of three loup garou to you? Or is it one in particular? Does my little sister have a crush?” She inhaled deeply through her nose. “Ah, there he is.”

“Don’t.”

“You smell of the youngest. Rook.” She giggled, the sound so sharp it was almost an hysterical cackle. “I suppose you have a choice now, B. Join me and keep him, or fight us, lose him, and I’ll keep him.”

Brynn surprised herself by maintaining perfect calm. A bizarre sense of peace had settled over her, allowing her to think clearly. She would not lose Rook to Fiona, but she was never going to join her half-sisters in their quest to populate the world with Knight’s children. She needed to buy some time. She need Fiona distracted from the idea of attacking Cornerstone, even if only temporarily.

“What if I deliver Knight to you, without the violence or the fighting?” Brynn said before she’d fully considered the consequences of her offer.

Fiona snorted. “You can’t deliver on such a promise, and I don’t believe you, anyway.”

“I am falling for Rook. You’re right about that, and I’ll do anything to keep him safe.”