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“Where is she? Where’s my baby?” she snarls, thrashing in Damian’s arms.

“The orphanage! You crazy…” he stops when Damian growls at whatever he is about to call her. I look at Kyson and gulp.

“The orphanage?” Tandi whispers. “Go home,” she breathes like those words finally made sense, yet for rogues and for those of us from the orphanage, home was death, and Tandi clearly believed the same. Home wasn’t a place.

It was the feeling of setting one’s tortured soul free. Home was death, and death was freedom if you grew up rogue in that place while under Mrs. Daley’s care.

“Yes, the one he got you from! The one in Alpha Brock’s pack,” Larkin hisses, getting up off the floor. I gasp, wondering which child she is because we adopted them all but a handful to Lycan homes.

“We’ll find her. We’ll find her,” Damian whispers, trying to soothe his mate.

“Alpha Brock has her,” Tandi sobs.

“No, we do. I took all the orphan children,” I tell her, and her head whips to the side to look at me, and I swallow hard.

“Where?” she says, her hands trembling as she tries to get Damian to loosen his hold.

“Most were adopted by the other Lycans in town. We will find her. They will give her back if she is here,” Damian assures her.

“She was adopted? But she is alive?” Tandi asks, turning her gaze to Larkin, who nods.

“A few are still here. Clarice watches over them with Abbie. Abbie will take you to see if she is amongst the ones still here,” I assure her.

“Either way, my people would have looked after her. We’ll find her, Tandi,” Kyson assures her, and she looks at Damian over her shoulder, and he nods, pressing his head against hers.

“If she is alive, I’ll get her back,” he whispers, and she lets out a breath, squeezing her eyes shut.

“So, can I sit, or are you going to punch me again?” Larkin asks, fixing the chair. Tandi’s eyes fly open and she glares at him.

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

KYSON

I am beginning to get a headache from all this drama. But watching Azalea, I see she isn’t fearful or hesitant about asking questions. In fact, she demands them with my help. I am shocked to find I can actually touch her aura. I expected it to recoil and force me out.

If it did, I wouldn’t have been able to touch it, let alone manipulate it. She is a Landeena, and I may have some resistance to her being that I am her mate, but overall, she can make me beg at her feet once she is capable of controlling it. So I am ecstatic because it means her bond feels safe with me, that she trusts me entirely. It also means she must have forgiven me. Our bond is solid, and now it has let me in. I can feel her as if she is an extra limb.

“Take Tandi to Abbie,” I tell Damian, and he nods before I watch him wander out with her. She is no longer needed here. Yet as I turn my gaze back to Larkin, he watches her go as if he wants to follow. He remains seated and rubs a hand down his face, looking as tired as I feel.

“The missing rogue children? The ones that turned up dead?” Azalea asks, her sadness bleeding into me through the bond for them.

“I swear I had nothing to do with it or the Council that I know of. Whatever Crux was up to with the secret meetings. I was kept out of it. I had no idea,” Larkin says.

“What do you think of Crux?” Azalea asks. Larkin grits his teeth, resisting her command, and I force it over him harder, his eyes bulging from his head.

“Answer me!” Azalea demands.

“I can’t stand him! He is power hungry, and I don’t like how he handles the rogue women. I don’t like his side dealings. We are supposed to uphold the law, not dabble in the shady parts of it,” he growls, making my brows raise.

“So you know he is trafficking rogues?”

“Yes, that isn’t illegal under the Lycan laws. You said the packs decided. That doesn’t mean I like what he does with them.”

“That law will be changing,” Azalea growls, her anger blistering hot as she glares at me. It is my fault. I never should have given them a choice, yet I didn’t think the Council would abuse it. I nod, telling her I agree.

“Do you believe Crux is helping the hunters?” Azalea asks him.