Chapter 45

"Ouch." Thalia grimaced and rubbed the spot on her stomach where she had received a small kick from one of the twins. "What is up with you two today?"

It hadn't been Ms Thorton barging in that woke Thalia that morning like usual but instead it had been the twins. It wasn't usual that they moved but this morning it was as if they were in a frenzy. It had started with fluttering like bubbles in her intestines but as the morning went on, the movements became more pronounced and urgent.

"Is everything okay?" Laila looked up from her book, eyebrows pinching together in concern.

"Yeah." Thalia sighed, still rubbing her side. "Just the twins playing football with my insides."

Laila smiled. "It can be quite uncomfortable with just one so I can only imagine How it feels to have two of them doing it."

"Yeah." Thalia laughed softly. "Will be glad when they are out and my kidneys can have a break."

Both women were laughing when the door opened, cutting their time together short. Thalia felt her mood drop instantly when she saw Dante come in, followed by Ms Thorton and the new doctor. The sight of the demon still made her blood boil and she wasn't ashamed that she had fantasized about scratching that handsome face to pieces with her paws or feeling the flesh and bone of his neck yield to her wolven maw. However, despite the urge to follow through on those desires, Thalia had decided that she was better off trying to find a way out of this place and helping get the girls out.

"Laila, dear." Ms Thorton spoke first, her smile barely there. "It's time for us to go back to your room. Thalia has a doctor appointment."

"That's news to me." Thalia bit out, sending all three of the unwanted occupants an unimpressed glare.

"It was a last minute decision." Dante replied smoothly.

"I'll see you later, hopefully." Laila murmured as she stood, shuffling towards Ms Thorton who guided her from the room.

"This won't take long." The doctor spoke up as he set his kit bag on the table.

"Why are you still here?" Thalia shot at Dante.

The demon was unfazed by Thalia's hostility. He expected it every time he saw her but he knew that with time she would submit. Her mate was gone and once the children were born, Dante would take her back to his realm where she would remain with him while he saw to the end of her world. With nowhere to go and no one to turn to, it would only be a matter of time before Thalia's attitude would change. He had all of eternity on his side so he would wait.

Saying nothing, he walked slowly around the table until he was towering over the she-wolf. Even when filled with venomous hate she was beautiful. The moon goddess had done well when creating this vessel. Now, she was his to own and cherish like a rare diamond.

"I wanted to say goodbye." He finally spoke, reaching out to brush his knuckles gently against Thalia's cheek. As expected she flinched away but he didn't let it disappoint him. "I need to leave for a few days to attend to some other business. The doctor will keep an eye on you while I'm gone but I will return soon."

"Please, don't hurry on my account." Thalia growled, glaring at him.

Dante simply smiled and moved to stand near the door once again. "You may proceed."

Thalia didn't like the sound of that and a hand went to her belly instinctively as a warning growl erupted from her. It dawned on her now that the twins had fallen silent but there was a stillness in their presence that reminded Thalia of predators stalking their prey. It was a confusing notion to have but one that quickly made sense just seconds later.

The doctor had paid no attention to the warning growl as he pulled open his bag and lifted a surgical scalpel up between gloved fingers. Before he could even turn the blade towards Thalia, one of the twins twitched and a pulse of energy burst from Thalia, hitting the doctor like a freight train and sending flying into the small bookcase. For Thalia it felt like the moment a rollercoaster plunged over the crest of a steep drop. The brief burst of weightlessness made her gasp in surprise, eyes widening in disbelief when she saw the doctor crash into the bookcase, the furniture collapsing to the floor from the force.

"Hm, how interesting." Dante smirked, ignoring the groaning from the man on the floor. "It seems our children are developing very well."

"That was...the babies did that?" Thalia stammered.

"Of course." Dante chuckled. "It means they are going to be very strong indeed."

Thalia frowned. Of course she was biased but she had no doubt her unborn children would be strong but this surprising revelation left a freezing cold torrent of fear building inside of Thalia. If this was what the twins were capable of now, what about when they were older? And what would they do with that power if Dante got his way? Were the other children capable of similar things?

If so then humanity truly was in danger and Thalia knew that she had to act now if she wanted to escape.

---

Kade had expected the drive to be silent and awkward as Karim tried to digest what he had seen and for the most part, he was. Thankfully Mully had taken the hint to drop his campaign of tortmen on the human and was settled in the back of the car silently. Eventually though the questions came…

*Were you bitten or born as a werewolf?*
*Where do you live?*
*What's a mate?*
*Do you eat humans?*

Kade figured it was better than Karim being scarred for life but some of the questions were absurd plus it was well past midnight and they still had a lot of work to do. Unfortunately Kade's crash course on the supernatural community had revealed Karim for the knowledge-hungry and slightly excitable lid Kade knew him to be. The fear melted bit by bit which wasn't necessarily a good thing considering all supernatural creatures were dangerous and capable of killing humans with relative ease.

"Wait. So you're telling me there are werewolves back in Afghanistan?" Karim asked when they were finally driving up the obnoxiously long gravel driveway towards the large stone manor.

"Yeah. At least two packs that we knew of." Mully answered this time. "However there were more rogues than anything."

"And rogues are werewolves not part of a pack?"

"Not exactly. Rogues are usually wolves who have done something so bad it's warranted them being kicked out of their pack. There are cases where wolves don't like the hierarchy system and will rebel." Mully continued. "But they're not to be confused with packless wolves or lone wolves. They are wolves who opted to leave their pack either to find their mate or to start their own pack."

"Okay so I know Kade has a pack." Karim glanced behind him at Mully. "But what about you?"

Mully shrugged, looking out of the window. "I chose to leave my ancestral pack most to find adventure but I would argue I technically have a pack made up of the others in my unit."

"So, like a bachelor group?"

"Exactly." Kade spoke up. "We share a lot in common with our wolven cousins as well as our human ones."

"Now would you look at that." Mully let out a whistle of appreciation as the manor came into view from behind the curtain of trees.

Kade couldn't tell what he was more relieved about; that Karim had stopped with his barrage of questions or that they were one step closer to getting Thalia back. It felt like he had been fighting off the darkness for so long now that he was beginning to forget what life was like before the winter had kicked in. He hadn't been home in weeks, at least not properly anyway. He had spared a few hours for Eva's crowning as pack Luna but then he had been on the road again. Every waking moment was absorbed by Thalia and getting her back. That was all he had ever wanted but now it seemed that he had one more hurdle to jump and this one was much bigger than simple pack politics and kidnapped girls.

He was taking a very long vacation after this…

"Ah finally." Lucien stepped out of the manor, eyes flickering mischievously. "You took your time. There's been a development."

"What kind of development?" Kade frowned.

"A date has been set for the auction." Lucien replied. "In two days we need to leave for Prague or we lose our only chance of stopping Dante once and for all."

"Two days?" Kade barked. "How is that even going to work? We don't have the local police on board yet and we still don't know where exactly the girls are."

"I am aware of this Lieutenant Kade but Dante will have done this on purpose to try and catch us by surprise." Lucien sighed and glanced past the beta to the two new members of the team. "The wolf I understand but the human? Really?"

"And what are you?" Karim challenged.

"A fallen-angel." Kade replied before Lucien did. "And we need him to deal with the humans."

"Wait… he's a what?"

Mully chuckled at the look of shock on Karim's face and clapped a hand over his shoulder. "C'mon kiddo, let's get settled in and I'll explain about how there is more to our world."

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