Page 5 of Retribution

“We did it,” I answered on a sigh.

“We did it.” He nodded, the pause heavy before his next words, “We’re going to need him, I feel it.”

“Who?”

“Rolland.” My mind flitted to the guy in the warehouse, and I in absolutely no way was willing to accept another person to share Liberty with. I was at my max. I hated waiting in line.

“It is seen.” Lenin sighed as he plopped himself down onto a nearby bench. We were all loitering in the hallway, afraid to leave her and roam too far. “But not as a mate, if you worry.”

Still, mate or not, another person in our mix seemed excessive. “Do you trust him?”

“He owes me from a past favor. I trust him in the very least to let me collect. As a whole, though, I don’t feel threatened. We were close once,” Ellis explained, and I wondered what favor that was. Ellis sat next to Lenin; he looked tired. Beat. Liberty had us all past the point of exhaustion.

“He wanted to die,” I informed Ellis. “If Liberty didn’t pull him through the portal, he would have been crushed to death.”

“It must be hard, you know. Being the keeper of time. Controlling the use, the function, then losing that, having it all taken from you. Becoming a shell used to control something so intangible as time at someone else’s whim.”

Sterling let out a soft snore from where he had slumped to the ground, obviously not interested in this conversation. “We’ve all lost some power these days.”

He nodded his agreement. “Then we do what we have to.”

I hated how right he was. But if he trusted the guy enough with Liberty, then I had to support him. “Then we do what we have to do to take power back.”

Chapter 3

JUSTICE

I feltit the moment Libby popped back into the states. My stomach tightened, my nerves jumped, the relief I didn’t know existed flooded me. Fear I hadn’t let myself entertain dissipated instantly. I knew she would make it. In fact, I knew they both did. But there was always that fear. The fear that one of them wouldn’t be as successful.

I was fine after that, for a while. We had just finished freeing everyone and had begun the trudge through the thick forest when the first pang hit, having me double over with the pain and Horo smirking knowingly. I pushed through because though I felt it strong, I knew we had time – or at least I thought we did. But the pains kept coming in rapid succession, and soon, it was a constant. Had her being overseas blocked out most of it from me? It had to be the only excuse.

The moment we made it to tribe land and were deemed safe, I took out my phone, the one Ellis had given me, and taught me how to use, but nothing seemed to go through. Horo, who knew more about these things, said I was out of the reception range, but that didn’t help because my anxiety seemed to accumulate as each second ticked by. I kept trying, taking the phone out any chance I got to check, but nothing seemed to work.

I had to leave. I had to go now. Who cared what we needed to do to comfort these people? I’d leave Horo in charge of that if required. Now biology demanded I get her, and it would be a lie if I didn’t say I had mixed feelings about it. Disregarding the whole sixty years of celibacy and not including that one time in the room at the bunker or the kiss I shared with Lenin, I was feeling pretty inexperienced right now. Add to it the fact that the last woman I had sex with trapped me for sixty years and my insecurity over Libby controlling my animal, and well – I didn’t know how to handle my emotions.

A growl broke free, and everyone who surrounded us grew quiet. Horo’s brows pinched as he regarded me, but I didn’t care; I couldn’t control it. I needed to leave. I prolonged my travels as long as I could, fighting the feeling in my gut that called me to her. I couldn’t stand that she could be in pain when I knew damn well I could stop it. We didn’t always get along. In fact, we probably bickered more than we were civil, but that didn’t change the facts. That didn’t eliminate the issue. That didn’t stop fate’s call.

I left.

I left everyone behind while the tribe divided out food and supplies. I trusted they would honor their agreement with Ellis. I trusted that enough that I left my best friend, my right-hand man, Horo, behind, and I followed the calling to the city. The act of getting there was stressful enough. My phone had died, preventing a call for Sterling’s transportation. I should have taken Horo’s phone as backup. Not knowing what else to do, I rode a bus.

The king of shifters rode a bus.

If my mother had known, she would have melted with embarrassment. Scowled at me. Disowned me. The scandal it would have caused, me – taking a bus to my already scandalous hybrid mate. My mother would die on the spot.

When the doors opened on the bus, I was the first one out, nearly stumbling down the steps to touch the ground on the city pavement. I knew not where I was going, but I didn’t need directions. My senses, nose, and body ordered me in a direction, and I followed blindly, trusting that I would find my mate. Trusting the fates that gifted her to me to make sure she didn’t go long with want.

When the manor came into view, the relief was palpable until a wave of pain, want, need hit me so strongly I had to stop and hold my body up by gripping a light post. How long? How long had I missed? How long had she known discomfort? When it passed, I moved on, walking as fast as I could, entering the gates and wards without any difficulty.

I knew they were here; I could feel their presence. Their scent so strong in the air that there wasn’t another possible location they could be. But when I pushed open the door, silence greeted me. There was no one in the library or kitchen, and though I cared that they made it, they weren’t my top priority; Liberty was. So I followed the scent in the air, rich and heady as it called for me, leading a trail to where she was.

I turned toward the hall, my pace quickening as I was drawn to her room. I took the turn left and tripped, my body being caught midfall by my mate. “I knew you would arrive.”

I missed his voice, and the truth of that should have registered as weird or odd to me, but it didn’t. Hearing his deep robotic tone was soothing, a sound that relaxed a part of me that had never before been touched. “Am I late?”

“Depends.” He stared down at the vampires littering the ground, each looking exhausted. It was Oak who I tripped on, and the man didn’t even stir. The man who never slept and who I swore always had one eye open was out and sleeping so deeply, he might be dead. “The vampires think you’re late, but I think you are right on time.”

“Is she –“ I blew out a breath, not even knowing what to ask.