Chapter 77

Kalani
Seconds after her father ran out of the room, she gripped Lily’s face in her hands.
“Listen to me, I’m going to need to run fast and I need you to stay with me. I need you to listen to everything I say.”
She took her hand and began to run. Lily stumbled behind her.
“Come on, baby girl, try to keep up.” They leapt down the stairs and flew past her father who was standing guard on the landing. She started running down the hallway behind the stairs. She heard her mother taunting her father and she had to fight the urge to go back to help him. She saw Aiden’s office up ahead and she breathed a sigh of relief. Lily cried out and fell.
“Fuck!”
Kalani tried to pull her to her feet fast. They were almost to the safe room. Multiple scents were coming towards them rapidly and she cursed under her breath again. She pulled a silk bag out of her pocket and dumped the entire contents over Lily. She shoved Lily into a closet and turned around. She growled as soon as the men rounded the corner. They all stopped in their tracks, grinning.
“Well, fellas, look at who we found. Hello, princess,” the big one said.
She eyed him as she shifted away from the closet she had Lily in. She wanted to draw them away from Lily, even if it meant she had to sacrifice herself. They followed her movements.
“Where’s the other one?”
“Gone,” Kalani answered immediately.
“You can’t protect her. We will find her. Maybe we’ll get to pass her around, too. You know that’s what your mother is going to do to you and Sasha. We can’t wait! Can’t tell you how long we’ve been waiting.”
Kalani snorted. “You have to get me first, fucker!”
She dropped into a crouch with her fists up. He laughed, before wiggling his fingers in her directions. Her body jerked and it was immobilized. She face planted with her legs stuck together and her arms glued to her side. She was kicked onto her back.
“Good for us, this one hasn’t gotten her dragon yet,” he laughed.
He spit in her face and she glared at him.
“Where’s the other one?”
She didn’t answer. He laughed and pulled a dagger out of his pocket.
“I guess if you won’t tell us, I will just have to slit your throat, then,” he almost yelled.
The closet door was pushed open and Lily flew out of it to throw herself on top of Kalani.
“NO!,” she screamed. “Please,” she sobbed.
“What a stupid little bitch. I had higher hopes for you to be honest.”
She was dragged off of Kalani and was held sobbing by her arm. The leader wiggled his fingers at Kalani again.
“Get up!”
She was forced to her feet and he grabbed her arm. He began to pull her behind him as he went back towards the front door.
‘Galina, we need to shift,’ she told her dragon.
‘We can’t. If we do, they will kill Lily. We need to save shifting for when we get to where we are going and nobody is around her. Maybe they will take us to Sasha and we have help.’
Kalani growled. ‘I refuse to risk it. Shift.’
‘No.’
Kalani tried to initiate a shift, but Galina pushed back, preventing it. She broke out into a sweat with the effort. She whimpered when they got outside and she saw her father laying on the ground with her mother standing gloatingly over him.
“Daddy!,” she cried.
She tried to jerk away from the man holding her. She needed to get to him. She needed to save him. Tears poured down her face as her mother sent her a grin as she approached her father. He weakly tried to push himself up, but her mother dumped something into his nose and he collapsed again. He met her eyes and she could almost hear him apologizing to her. She started thrashing wildly.
“DADDY!”
Her scream was whipped away on the wind. Her mother clapped her hands together excitedly.
“We got what we came for. Back to the safe house.”
The man holding onto Lily leaned down to breathe in her face. She went limp and Kalani started screaming for her.
“Don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt her. I’LL KILL YOU!”
‘Shift! Goddess damnit! Shift,’ she begged Galina.
‘No. They won’t hurt her while she’s unconscious. We need to wait.’
The man holding her laughed. Goddess, she hated this bastard. She thrust her head back and took pleasure in the sound his nose made breaking. He spun her towards him.
“You fucking bitch!”
He punched her in the face and she narrowed her eyes at him.
“Is that all you got? Pitiful.”
He grinned, before punching her again. Her head swam and her legs buckled. She laughed tauntingly.
“You hit like a grandma.”
He punched her again and she passed out.
She woke up groaning. Images flashed in front of her eyes and she leapt up off of the stone bed she was on. She stumbled and had to lean against the wall. She was dizzy and her head was pounding.
“Lily?,” she called weakly.
“I’m here, Kalani. Are you okay?”
“Are you? Did they hurt you?”
“No. I’m okay. Sasha is here.”
“Sasha?”
“Lani, I’m here, baby. Can you follow our voices to the bars between Lily and your cell?”
She ran her hand over the wall, following the sounds of their voices. When she reached the bars, small hands gripped hers. Soft energy was pushed into her and her head ceased to pound. Her vision cleared and her stomach settled. She blinked, before pulling Lily against the bars to hug her tightly. She met Sasha’s eyes.
“How are you feeling?”
Sasha laughed. “I found out I’m tough to kill. So, there’s that.”
Kalani rolled her eyes. “And I’m the one that makes jokes at bad times.”
They all fell silent when a metal door closed down the hall. Their mother positioned a chair in front of Lily’s cell. She sat in it.
“Welcome home, girls,” she said, smiling.
“Anastasia,” Sasha replied with disdain.
“Now, now, Sasha, is that anyway to talk to your mother?”
“Egg donors are not mothers.”
Anastasia laughed. She stood up and unlocked Lily’s cell. Lily backed away and Kalani tried to grab her mother through the bars. She grabbed Lily by the hair and dragged her across the cell to press her face between two of the bars between her and Sasha’s cells.
“Let me tell you what is going to happen, my dear child. You have 12 hours to force a shift. If you do not, I will torture this little bitch in front of you until she dies. If you still don’t shift, I will move onto the other one. Then I will go after your precious king. I will get your egg and wait for it to hatch and then I will slowly eat your child. I will make my way through every single person you love until you shift.”
Sasha growled at her. “Why does it matter if I shift or not?”
Her mother smirked. “I am going to extract all the magic from your DNA and use it to become the most powerful witch. So, my dear,” she muttered as she pulled Lily’s head back and left saliva on her face when she kissed her cheek. “I would suggest you think about what you are going to do.”
She used Lily’s hair to push her into the wall. She walked out of the cell, closing it behind her. She blew Sasha a kiss.
“Ta- ta for now, daughter.”
Her cackling laughter echoed around the dungeon. Kalani eyed Sasha.
“What are we going to do, Aja?”
She sighed and sat on the ground with her back against the wall. She closed her eyes.
“Irina and I are going to shift.”