Page 11 of Shifter’s Promise (Devourer of Magic)

Chapter

Nine

I didn’t wake until the rhythmic bounce of Leona’s strides stopped. Lurching up, I looked around with wild eyes.

“It’s okay,” Leona assured. She squeezed, her arms tight around me. She held me bridal style, a soft smile on her face despite the concerned furrow of her brows.

Her orange scent tingled my nose, a soft, citrus smell that made me relax despite the remnants of lingering fear.

“What happened?” I asked, wiping the blurriness from my vision with the back of my bloodied hand.

Leona stiffened.

It wasn’t her voice that answered but a familiar, usually annoying one, “We found you just in time.”

I blinked and looked over her shoulder to find the triplets. Taka had been the one to speak, but all three of them looked like kicked puppies.

It took me several long moments to realize what he meant. It had been them. The jaguars tearing apart the two humans who’d tried to abduct me. All four of them had come for me, not just Leona.

Confusion spun my mind into knots. “No seriously, what happened?”

It was Raxa who snorted in amusement, much to my surprise.

“That’s fair,” Taka said on a defeated sigh.

“He’s telling the truth,” Leona said with an indulgent smile.

“To think there are still humans and elves trying to abduct beastkin like that,” Aya mumbled, lost in thought, staring at some unseen point.

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. Four sets of round eyes stared at me. I covered my mouth with my fingertips, but still the giggles slipped through. There was no humor in my laugh, and still, I couldn’t stop it.

“Where the hell do you think I’ve been for ten years?” Again, I cackled.

Finally, it clicked on all of their faces.

Several sets of yellow eyes landed on the thick white band of a scar wrapping around my neck.

They wouldn’t have been able to see it until now.

I kept it well covered, even around my family.

I didn’t want to see the pain and regret on their faces, so I shielded myself with scarves and turtlenecks.

“You were a—” Taka begins, horror plain in his voice.

“Slave?” Leona finished. Her entire body stiffened, her hands suddenly clinging instead of holding. Her normally soft, kind gaze was glassy, a million emotions flashing across her face.

I swallowed thickly around the lump in my throat. “Yeah.”

“I’m so sorry,” Leona breathed, drawing me back against her shoulder. It was my turn to comfort her. Smiling softly, I patted her arm as she held me close.

There was no getting away from her now. A mate in danger would never leave their other half.

Though my lips twisted ruefully, it was only for her sake.

I was damaged, traumatized and more than a little broken.

Leona deserved so much more than me. She deserved a mate full of love and life, not one who’d been torn down so many times she wasn’t sure how to love.

“I’m sorry, Twinlin,” Taka surprised me by saying.

“Me too,” Aya quickly added.

“We are so, so sorry,” Raxa finished.

The three kicked puppies couldn’t even meet my gaze. Instead, they stared at the ground like chastised children.

I shrugged as if it was nothing, when it was in fact… everything.

“I’m alive, that’s what matters,” I said simply.

Leona scoffed as if disagreeing, but she didn’t speak. Instead, she shivered against me as I squeezed her arm in comfort. My leopard purred in our shared mind, finally satisfied. I had to admit, there was something in me that began to mend with her touch.

“Wait, so the men who attacked you?” Raxa had finally caught on.

“Slavers,” I confirmed.

“Motherfuckers!” Aya yelled into the breeze, earning hushes from his brothers. It was the middle of the night after all. “Sorry!” he whisper-yelled. “But this is crazy! ”

“Indeed,” Raxa agreed.

“How did you know—” Taka cut himself off, gazing at my scarred neck. “The collar. That’s what they use?”

I nodded. “They’re enchanted. We can’t shift with one on, or feel our beast as well.” Though I had come to learn we could still use magic—or maybe that was just Cinna.

Leona gasped, pulling back slightly, finally able to look at me again without water in her eyes. “They take your beast with those things?”

“Monsters,” Aya snarled.

“Does your father know about this?” Leona spun to face the triplets, who froze in unison. They exchanged a look of confusion before shaking their heads.

“Father wouldn’t tell us even if he did know,” Aya said, a clear dislike for Jeremiah.

“Always keeping fucking secrets,” Taka snapped as he crossed his arms.

Raxa glanced around as if concerned we might be overheard. It was the first time I finally did the same and quickly realized we were standing outside my house.

“Does your father know?” Raxa asked me, pensive.

I nodded. “I haven’t been able to tell him everything yet, but he knows the basics.”

Raxa nodded, considering that. “We should deal with your father first then.”

My brows furrowed. “Huh?”

“Good idea,” Taka said. He moved toward the door before I could stop him.

“Wait! What do you mean deal with my father first?”

I’d barely gotten the words out before he knocked, three quick but harsh raps of the bronze door knocker.

“There are slavers in the Beast Kingdom,” Raxa said slowly, like he was talking to a child. I narrowed my eyes, not liking his tone one bit. “We can’t sit on our hands and wait for someone to do something.”

Oh . “Of course not,” I rushed out quickly. “But someone is already doing something.”

Again, four sets of confused eyes met mine. I sighed. Maybe I should have explained all of this to my father first.

As if conjured by my thoughts, the man himself answered the door with a scowl that deepened the moment he saw the state of me.

“Twin?” His nostrils flared. “You’re bleeding? What the hell happened?” His rage boiled into a growl, but I quickly held a hand out to stop him from attacking the trio that might not be quite as bad as I thought.

“It’s not their fault, dad,” I said, gaining his attention. “I was attacked on my way home.”

Father snarled, again facing the triplets. “You allowed this to happen?”

Ugh . “No! Dad, just listen.” I sighed, frustrated. “They didn’t do anything. Can we come inside?”

Seeming to realize we were all hovering in the doorway, my father nodded and backed into the house.

He held an arm out, letting the group of us enter before closing the door.

He ushered us into the living room before venturing off to the bathroom for some bandages.

I might be healing already with my shifter strength, but I could still feel a few deeper wounds oozing.

It’d be better to get them taken care of so I didn’t pass out again.

Once we were all situated, the trio on one sofa, and myself and Leona on the other, Father finally waltzed back in, taking the single chair closest to me.

His brow furrowed like he’d only now realized the woman meant to guard the triplets held me in her arms. His gaze slashed between both couches, confusion written all over his face.

Yeah, that’s fair.

“You two have grown close,” he commented while gently peeling the oversized shirt wrapped around my naked body off my arms, searching for wounds.

I exchanged a look with Leona, uncertainty souring my stomach while nothing but certainty shone through her orange orbs.

“We have,” I said. I needed to come up with a better way to deflect his questions, but before I could, the trio saved me.

“Twinlin was attacked by slavers.” Taka’s voice might be devoid of emotion, but a quick glance told me he wasn’t emotionless. His arms laid on his knees, hands grasped so tightly together his knuckles went white.

Father jerked back, looking at the jaguar. “Slavers? In Auroi?”

Right . We hadn’t talked enough about what had happened to me yet. He knew I was taken inside city limits, but not that slavers lived among us. Hunting us. They might have guessed so, but it was time I confirmed it.

“They’ve been here for a long while, Dad,” I said calmly. I laid a hand on his arm, hoping to soothe this blow in any way I could. “They took me from our streets ten years ago. Today they tried to take me again.”

Maybe Cinna wasn’t enough to handle this entire mess.

As much as I wanted to believe in the wolf that saved me, she was only one woman.

An insanely powerful one, but still, one person.

She could only do so much, even with her four mates involved.

Maybe she would involve the rest of the wolves of The Wilds. Then they’d have an army.

My mind stuttered. Then they’d have an army.

Eyes widening, gooseflesh ran rampant up my arms and legs. It was as if a cold bucket of water splashed over my head. Of course. That’s where this was all going. The slavers were embroiled in Auroi, and had been for gods knew how long.

“There’s something deeper going on,” I continued.

I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen so deeply into my thoughts that I interrupted the conversation that had erupted around me.

“What do you mean?” Leona asked, quieting the other voices around us.

I blinked a few times like I was rising from slumber. Mind full of possibilities, I wasn’t sure where to start.

“I was taken from our streets ten years ago,” I began, drawing their attention. “The wolf who saved me was taken from her own village five years ago. The other beastkin I was enslaved with… some had been there for decades, some for merely a few years.”

“This has been going on for that long?” Raxa asked, tensing.

“Longer, I bet,” Aya said. He exchanged a meaningful look with his brothers. Each of them nodded, as if giving permission. Before my brow could scrunch further, Aya met my gaze. “We believe our mother was taken similarly when we were young.”

I startled, pressing back against Leona subconsciously. “That had to be?—”

“Around twenty years ago.”

That meant one thing—slavery had been alive and well for at minimum two decades.

“We must tell the king,” Father said gruffly. His hands fisted in his lap.