Page 31 of Rejecting his Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #2)

Chapter 31

Halle

I no longer feel magic in the air now the fighting is done and our attackers are on the run. Cade sends the guys to make sure they clear the territory, but he doesn’t release me from his arms.

I don’t fight him, knowing it is pointless. He is stronger than me, and it is not a fight I can win.

“Let me go,” I tell him.

His mouth comes to my ear, his breath warm against my skin. “She’s gone, Halle, and I’m not going to let you put yourself in danger.”

He’s right, but I hate how that makes me feel. My mom didn't recognize me. I’m not sure she even knew where she was. “We can help her.”

“Her mind belongs to them,” Hester says. The coldness of her tone pisses me off.

“Screw you.”

She takes the insult I fling at her. “I know you’re angry. I am too, but there is no helping her.”

I narrow my eyes, my anger flashing through me. “You don’t know that.”

“Do you think you four are the first tau I have rescued?” Her voice sounds shredded as she says this, filled with pain.

“What happened to them?” There is horror in my voice as scenarios play through my mind, none of them good.

Hester’s gaze locks on the fire still burning in the trees, the orange light dancing across her face.

“The Order took them. Those women thought they could protect themselves, just like you. It’s bullshit. The Order has existed for millennia. They are organized, vicious, and motivated. Standing alone is why we’re easy to pick off one by one.” She gives me her attention. “We are stronger together, and we have always been. That is why I created the sanctuary. I thought it could be a place for us to grow into our powers and stop those fuckers from taking any more of us.”

“You knew they were taking us?” Tessa’s voice is small, but I hear the bite of anger in her words.

“I saved you. Don’t look at me as if I am the monster here. Everything I have done has been for our survival.”

“Including withholding the truth?”

“And what would you have done with the truth, Tessa?”

Anger flashes across her face. “I would have been more prepared for what happened tonight. We all would have been.”

“What is the Order doing with us when they have us?” Apryle speaks, her voice level. I can’t tell if she is pissed off as well.

“I don’t know. The only thing I know is that they are collecting as many tau as they can find. That is why we have to protect the sanctuary. We need a safe place for our kind to gather.”

I glance around the burning woods and the chaos. One of the cabins across from ours and Tessa and Abel’s is burning too. I can smell the blood in the air and the scent of death. “Fuck the sanctuary,” I snap. “My mom is with that—that animal !”

What the hell has he done to her? Has she been with him since I was eight? Why doesn’t my own mom know who I am? She didn’t even acknowledge me.

“Your mom is no longer your mom,” Hester snaps. “I’m sorry I have to deliver that hard truth, but there’s no point sugarcoating it. Whatever the Order does to them, it erases everything they are. I’m sorry, Halle, but you can’t fix what they broke, even if you get her back.”

Pain stabs through my chest at her words. Fuck her. I don’t want to believe what she’s saying. I found my mom and she’s alive. That means something, right?

“I can fix her. My magic—”

“Can’t do shit, Halle. Those tau with the Order are broken beyond recognition. There is nothing we can do, and there is no magic that can put back what was taken from them.”

I shake my head, refusing to believe it's true. “Everything can be fixed.”

Cade tightens his hold on me, hugging me closer.

“How do you know it can’t be fixed?” Cade demands.

“Because I’ve tried, Cade. I got one of them out. I did everything I could, but her mind was so fragmented, so damaged, she wasn’t herself anymore. I know that’s not what any of you want to hear, but it’s how it is.”

I swallow down my dismay. It was easier to imagine my mom was dead. Knowing she has spent more than a decade as a captive, having her mind screwed with, makes me want to heave.

“I can’t just leave her. She’s my mom. I thought all this time she was dead.”

Hester’s expression is sad when she looks at me. “We can’t save those the Order already has. I’m sorry, Halle. I wish I could tell you differently. But we can stop them from taking new targets. We do that through the sanctuary. If we can concentrate our power here, bring more tau to us before the hunters take them, we can defend ourselves.”

“You’re talking about building an army,” Cade says. “I won’t let you drag Halle into whatever crusade you’re on.”

“She’s already a part of it,” Hester fires back. “Do you think they care whether she wants to be here or not? They just want her. They want all of you. If we lose control of the sanctuary, then we will always be running.”

“We can’t stay here, Hester,” Apryle says. “They know where we are. They’ll regroup and come back.”

“You think it’ll be better if we’re out there? Running from motel to motel, living out of bags, and always looking over our shoulders? At least here we can strengthen the wards, and add more magic so they can’t get to us.”

“This is ludicrous,” Cade mutters, and I agree with him. Staying here is suicide.

“They didn’t come here to kill us, Cade. They came to take your mate. On the road, with no defenses, how hard will it be?” Hester demands.

Cade growls, and I rub a hand over his arm around my waist. It doesn’t soothe him entirely, but it calms some of the anger flaring through the mating bond.

“They come for her, they’re not going to find it easy,” Cade snaps. “I have no issue ripping the heads off hunters.”

“Okay, let’s just count it out,” I say.

“Fuck counting it out, Halle. They want to take you from me, I’ll fucking destroy every one of them.”

I don’t doubt his sincerity, but I don’t want him in the firing line of this bullshit, either. “I know.”

“Why do they want us?” Roux speaks, her hand wrapping around her throat as if she is choking on her own fear.

“I don’t know. All I do know is that at some point, the Order stopped killing tau and started collecting them,” Hester admits. “I’m going to hazard a guess they are not doing that out of the goodness of their heart.”

The female who had been with Dalton hadn’t spoken or responded when I addressed her. It was as if she was a robot following commands.

“I don’t give a shit what they’re doing,” Apryle says. “ I’m not letting them lock me in some lab like a fucking rat.”

“I don’t want that to happen to any of you,” Hester says. “I built this place to keep our kind safe. We need to fix the wards, make them stronger. We need to fortify and prepare for another attack in the future. My wards were strong, but with our combined strength, we can make them impenetrable.”

Movement has us all twisting as Wyatt and Sawyer step out of the darkness, both naked, their bodies bruised and cut. Abel and Jackson are behind them, dragging their feet, exhaustion written in every inch of their bodies.

Tessa rushes to Abel, wrapping her arms around his naked body and holding him as if she is terrified to let him go.

Sawyer makes a beeline for Roux, getting into her space even as she steps back.

“You’re bleeding,” he says, his fingers trailing over the sticky redness on the side of her face.

I watch as she flinches away from his touch, but there’s a flash of something in her eyes—heat.

“You’re bleeding too.” The words come out breathy and hoarse.

He glances down, his hand pressing to the cut on his side. “You sound worried,” he accuses.

She lifts her chin a little. “I’m not.”

He pushes his tongue against the inside of his cheek, his brows raised. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

“The fire’s burning pretty good,” Wyatt says, breaking through the awkwardness as Sawyer steps away from her. “We need to put it out.”

“It’s an illusion,” Hester tells him. “It’ll fade when the witch who created it is too far to maintain it.”

Wyatt turns and looks at the burning inferno, and my eyes slide toward it too. That’s a hell of a spell. It looks so real. I can hear the crackling of the wood as it burns, but now that she mentions it, I can’t smell it.

“It’s not real?” Wyatt sounds skeptical.

“Magic has limits,” Hester says, “but it can do many things, including tricking both mind and eyes. Don’t believe everything you see.”

Wyatt says. “I’m gonna grab us all some pants.”

“Some of us don’t mind standing here with our dicks out,” Sawyer jokes, and I notice he glances at Roux as if gauging her response. Her expression is a mask of indifference, but I swear I see a slight quirk of her lips.

Wyatt returns a moment later with a stack of sweatpants. He hands them around, and the guys pull them on.

Cade has to let go of me to do it, but he watches me carefully as if he thinks I might bolt at any moment. I don’t move, though. Even if I go after my mom, she’s not going to listen to me. She doesn’t know who I am.

The fire starts to die down, just as Hester said it would. The cabin I thought was on fire is unscathed as the flames disappear.

“We need to fix the wards,” Hester says. “Are you all up to try?”

“Yeah,” Roux agrees.

“Whatever it takes,” Apryle adds.

“I want to help,” Tessa finishes.

I don’t answer. I let my gaze go out over the grounds, most of which are swallowed by darkness. My thoughts are jumbled and racing, nothing making sense.

A memory flashes back through my mind of my mom and me in my bedroom before we were running. She tucks me in under the covers, telling me she loves me. That’s the mom I remember. That’s the mom I want to get back.

The Order stole her from me. They took thirteen years of our history from us. All that time, I could have had my mother at my side, teaching me, loving me.

I turn back to Hester, fire blazing through my veins. “I want to help.”

“It should be an easy spell with the five of us.”

“I don’t mean with the spell,” I say. “I mean with—whatever it is. I want to save those tau wolves from whatever shit the Order is doing to them. I want to find a way to bring back the ones they took, including my mom, and I want to destroy the hunters. Every last fucking one of them.”

“Me too,” Roux says. “It’s not right.”

Tessa glances up at Abel, who has her pressed against his side, his arm around her. He smiles at her, and I’m not sure what passes between them, but when Tessa meets Hester’s gaze, her expression is resolute.

“I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I want to have pups with Abel and not be scared that hunters are going to steal my children.”

My heart squeezes. I want that too with Cade, but as things stand, we can’t bring young into this shit.

“I want to help too,” Jackson says. “I mean… I know I can’t do the magic shit, but I still want to bring these fuckers down.”

Keeping his eyes on Roux, Sawyer says, “I’m not going anywhere.” He wouldn’t, not while his mate is here.He doesn’t say it, but he doesn’t need to. I hear those unspoken words clearly.

“Me neither,” Cade says.

Wyatt blows out a breath, and I hold mine. It will hurt Cade if his cousin leaves, but I understand if he wants to. This shit is going to get dangerous, and it’s not really his fight. “I think you’re all insane, but—I’ve followed Cade and Sawyer everywhere. I guess I’m staying.”

Hester’s mouth curves into a smile as she holds out her hands at her sides. Apryle takes one side while Roux gets the other. Tessa grabs Roux’s hand, and I slip mine into Tessa’s.

Connected like this, I feel the swirl of power grow between the five of us. I close my eyes, pulling my magic to the surface and directing it where I need it.Hester speaks the words, though what she’s saying I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I feel the power swell and push out from us.

I struggle to hold my magic where I need it, the pressure making my head throb in time with my heartbeat.Roux whimpers, but I focus on controlling my emotions and keeping calm like Hester has been showing us.

The snap of magic through the air as the wards come back to life nearly knocks me off my feet. It is only Tessa’s grip on me that keeps me upright.

I open my eyes and expect to see everything is different, but nothing has changed other than the power thrumming around us, which is strong and reassuring.

“Done?” Cade’s expression is concerned as he steps toward me.

“Yeah,” I say before slipping into his arms and wrapping myself around his waist.

“We’re safe now?” Tessa asks.

“For now,” Hester agrees. “I’m going to clean up the house. Those sons of bitches made a mess.”

“I’ll help,” Apryle says.

The others disperse, and I watch Sawyer step up to Roux, but she steps around him, heading toward her cabin.

Cade squeezes me. “Not your business,” he tells me, kissing the side of my head.

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

He pulls me away toward our cabin. As soon as we’re inside, he grabs a shirt and sweater before slipping into his boots.

“Where are you going?”

For a moment, I don’t think he’s going to answer, but then he says, “To burn the dead.”

“Fuck,” I murmur, my head spinning.

Dalton is lying among them, his body ripped apart. “Are there many?”

“Enough,” he hedges.

“I’ll help.”

“No. I want you to stay here and let me take care of this.”

I want to argue, but I can see there is little point. Cade has decided this is how it’s going to be, and I’m not sure I have the stomach to bury the remains of chewed-up hunters.

“Okay.” He kisses me, his mouth soft and warm. When he pulls back, I feel the weight of everything on my shoulders. Cade is here because of me. The guys are here because of Cade. If anything happens to them… “It’s still not too late to run,” I joke, but I’m really giving him an out.

“I’m not going anywhere. You and I are in this to the bitter fucking end, Halle. Whatever that might be. I love you.”

My heart squeezes. “I love you too.” I snuggle against his chest, my arms wrapping around his waist. “I want to save my mom and those girls.”

“And we will, but not tonight.”

No, not tonight, but we’re coming for the Order, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life destroying it piece by piece.