Page 19 of Shifter’s Promise (Devourer of Magic)

Chapter

Fifteen

“ I ntroduce yourself, warrior,” Lifal bade, extending a hand to indicate my mate.

Again, I bristled. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Leona being scrutinized, it was the look in Lifal’s eyes. Like he could use her.

“Leona,” she said. A swift glance confirmed her face was as emotionless as her words.

Lifal waited, but when she didn’t continue, he chuckled. “Leona, hm? No title? Clan name? Daughter of?”

Leona stiffened, nostrils flaring. “Bodyguard of these brats.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder to indicate the triplets.

For the first time since we’d entered, Lifal’s gaze lingered on the three males I’d come to see as comrades in the fight against Jeremiah. The wolf’s brow descended, cheek twitching. Realization blossomed in his eyes at the same moment he reached for a blade at his hip .

Leona moved first, her massive greatsword coming down between us, slicing through the makeshift table with a thunk .

“Hands up,” she growled.

I blinked in shock, realizing my hands had automatically shot out to protect the males, just as Leona’s blade had.

I’d have to think on why later, but something in me didn’t want to see the triplets hurt.

Maybe it was our time together, or their plight once I understood them.

But no one was hurting the men who’d somehow become my friends.

Lifal chuckled darkly as he slowly raised his hands. The murmurs in the room behind us quieted, and Willow stepped back against the wall. She made no move to protect or defend Lifal. Interesting , considering he might be the rebel leader.

“Right, right,” Lifal said, a fake joviality to his words. He slowly removed his hand from the blade at his hip. Once all ten digits pointed toward the ceiling, only then did I lower my hands.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I snapped.

Lifal’s smirk disappeared. “Do you know who you call comrades?”

“Yes.” No hesitation.

Surprise raised his brows. “You know who their father is? What he’s done?”

What he’s done? My forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“So you don’t know.”

I snarled. “I know who their father is, but what the fuck are you talking about?”

Jeremiah had done some messed up things to both me and his children, but that couldn’t be what he meant, could it?

“I’m going to move toward the stack of papers,” Lifal said, gaze locked on Leona’s.

After a moment of hesitation, Leona’s chin dipped in my peripheral.

Slowly, with exaggerated movements, Lifal reached toward the stack of papers now strewn across the floor.

He rifled through a few until he found the one he was looking for.

He brandished it toward me with a thwip of the page.

“What is this?” I asked, taking it anyway.

The sheet was full of names, arrows beside them indicating?—

I gasped. “Does this mean?”

“What is it?” Aya peered over my shoulder, his breath catching just like mine had.

I lowered the page and met the intense red gaze of the wolf. “Our own kind?”

Lifal’s jaw twitched as he nodded.

“What is it?” Taka whispered feverishly, bouncing on his toes to see over Aya’s shoulders.

My fingers shook as I turned toward Leona and the triplets, holding the page in their direction. “Jeremiah.”

“What?” Raxa’s voice echoed in the hollow space.

“He’s… part of this. Part of the slave trade.” I couldn’t believe it. He might be a snake in jaguar fur, but would he really sell off his own kind?

The silence left by my words made my skin crawl. Three matching pairs of golden eyes met mine, shock clear on their handsome faces.

“So you had no idea, hm?” the wolf rumbled. I turned to find him scratching his beard again. “That explains why you’d have the gall to befriend a former slave.”

“This can’t be true,” Taka said, disbelief coloring his words. “Father might be a bastard but…”

“He couldn’t do… this, ” Aya finished.

I risked a glance at Leona, needing her reaction as much as I wanted her comfort. Having elves and humans working against us was one thing. But our own kind? Beastkin?

Leona’s eyes glazed, her fingers white around the hilt of her greatsword. The tension running through her made her shoulders shake, armor clinking slightly as she trembled.

“That bastard.” Amber eyes glowing with rage, Leona sheathed her blade, causing each of us to take a step back. The massive sword nearly brushed the ceiling before it was returned to its home. “After everything…” she cut herself off with the clench of her teeth.

“Father wouldn’t,” Taka tried again in vain.

“He did,” Lifal deadpanned. With Leona’s sword safely put away, he turned around, rifling through crates until he produced a leatherbound ledger. He handed it to me. “Beastkin have been involved since the beginning. The greed of the individual doesn’t taint us all.”

Aya barked a humorless laugh. “Doesn’t it? If what you’re saying is true… our father…” The triplet peered over his shoulder, stiffening. “Raxa?”

Each of us turned to find the third triplet gone. The sound of deadbolts giving way hit my ears.

“He’s making a run for it,” I said.

“Fuck,” Taka snapped before racing from the room.

“Go after them,” Leona told Aya. He nodded and followed his brothers.

“We’ll be back,” I said, glancing between Willow and Lifal. They both looked about as confused as I expected. Swallowing thickly, I offered them the only explanation I could give. “Their mother was taken by slavers.”

Understanding blossomed in the rebel leader’s gaze. “You best follow then.”

“Come back soon,” Willow said. She squeezed my arm, yellow gaze shimmering with an emotion I couldn’t quite place.

I nodded. “We will.”

“See you soon.”

Slamming back outside, I raced down the path we’d come, skidding to a stop on the main street. With the moon high in the clouds, there weren’t many pedestrians outside.

“This way,” Leona said. Her hand closed on my arm, and the next thing I knew she pulled me after her, racing up the street before tearing right into an alley. We didn’t make it far before the telltale voices of the triplets hit my ears.

Thank the goddess . They’d caught him.

We hurried to catch up, reaching them just in time for Taka to slam Raxa against the sandstone wall of the alley.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, huh?” Taka yelled in his brother’s face, chest heaving, hands trembling.

Aya sighed in relief and propped himself on the opposite side of the alley while he caught his breath.

“To kill that bastard.” I’d never heard Raxa sound so cold. His keen eyes were chips of ice, staring lifelessly back at his sibling.

Taka stiffened. “Like only you have the right to.”

“She was our mother too,” Aya said. He stared at his kin, saddened.

Raxa gritted his teeth, head lowering until shadows obscured his eyes.

“She was taken while I was… she just hid me and didn’t even think of saving herself.” His whole body trembled along with Taka’s. With the way Raxa had gone slack, I wasn’t sure if Taka was the only one keeping him on his feet.

Aya growled and pushed himself off the wall before slamming a hand next to his brother’s head.

“Because she fucking loved you. She loved all of us.” His teeth ground so loudly I winced at the sharp sound. “Mom would have sacrificed herself for any one of us. Don’t be a fucking martyr.”

My brows furrowed, unsure what he meant until Taka spoke next.

“If you run into the clan house and try to take Jeremiah on alone, he’ll kill you.” Taka’s fists shook around Raxa’s tunic, which he seemed reluctant to release.

“Taka’s right,” Leona said, stepping in. “Jeremiah’s men are loyal. Some probably already know.”

“What?” Aya gasped.

“How could they not?” Leona chuckled darkly. “Have you ever known Jeremiah to do his own dirty work?”

I looked between them as the tense silence grew. Finally, Raxa sighed and Taka released him.

“You’re right,” Raxa mumbled. “But he can’t get away with this.”

“He won’t,” I promised. I joined them then, realizing that I’d put myself on the outskirts, not feeling like it was my place to intervene.

However, they were my friends now, my comrades against not only their father, but the slave trade itself.

They were good men, even if they acted like immature assholes sometimes.

“We’ll stop him,” Leona said.

“All of us,” Aya added.

We all exchanged firm looks. Resolve echoed in the nods around me, despite the betrayal still coloring their golden eyes. I might not have as personal a stake as them, but I had a feeling this ran just as deep as I’d expected.

Had Jeremiah given up his own mate to the slave trade? Had he been the one to send them after me too? What I had always assumed was a chance encounter with the slave trade might have been anything but.

I had no way of knowing without speaking to him directly. Fingers clenching, I blinked in surprise—the ledger still firmly in my grasp.