Bk 3 - Chapter 47 - Goodbye Oregon
Wesley stared at the man sitting on the ground. He appeared to be one of the captives, but Wesley knew the truth. He began to walk over, and the man stood up. Aiden saw what was happening and grabbed the guy by the arm, keeping him in place until Wesley got to them.
"What's going on?" Aiden asked. Wesley grabbed the man by the collar, ready to rip his head off.
"You're behind all of this? How could you do this?" He shouted angrily, getting the attention of everyone around them.
"Of course I am. I know you don't think you got to where you are on your own." The man laughed hysterically.
"Do you know him?" Trey asked.
"His name is Brendon Ruskin. He was the one who recruited me to INTERPOL. I've worked for him for the past few years. He was responsible for me starting the division to investigate the trafficking of shifters." Wesley couldn't believe the man he had looked up to and called a friend was behind the mess they uncovered.
"You're so stupid. I hand-picked you because I knew you were a bleeding-heart werewolf. Having you hand deliver all the shifters to me after you rescued them was too perfect. Lorin was useless, but you were the best partner I could have asked for." Brendon laughed even as Aiden's hold on him got stronger. Wesley punched the piece of shit in the face, breaking his nose.
"I was never your partner. You killed and tortured people. For what? Why would you do this to innocent children, women, and men?" He screamed as he punched him again. Could no one be trusted?
"For what? For more money than I could have ever imagined. We made so much selling some of them it was astronomical. When Lorin had the idea to make a super shifter, I agreed that would put us on the map. All we needed were those two caladrius women. They would have been the cherry on top. You had to go and mess everything up. I knew I had to think fast when I saw the men outside get killed. I took the clothes off a corpse and made myself look dirty, so you would think I was one of the shifters." Brendon laughed even with his face covered in blood.
"Kill him," Wesley said through clenched teeth.
"You think killing me will end this? You're kidding yourselves. This is bigger than me and all of you. There are people all over the world trading shifters, vampires, and witches. You're fighting a losing battle, so you're better off just returning home and waiting for your turn to be sold. Eventually, all of you will be sold to someone. You can't stay hidden forever; too many humans know about you. Some of your kind are more ruthless than we are." Everyone had heard enough. Wesley felt someone behind him and turned to see Mario standing with his mate in his arms.
"I would like this one if you don't mind," Mario said with a slight growl. Cat and Melanie helped Irina stand while he walked over to Brendon. He wasted no time breaking his arms and legs before breaking his neck. When he was done, Aiden threw his body on the pile of dead guards.
Mario walked over to Irina and lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. Her body still hurt, but now that the drugs they had given her were getting out of her system, her bear could heal her faster.
Thirty-five shifters were still alive once all the buildings had been cleared out. Wesley took boxes of documents from the office to go through later. The buildings and all the bodies were burned. The shifter's bodies were too decayed to try and identify them. Wesley hoped to get information from the documents so they could inform their families.
After they packed up, they headed to the buses to return to the airport. Some of those helping had decided they had seen enough and were going home. However, most were returning to Sacramento to continue the fight. Everyone was tired. Melanie and Saxon wanted to return to the cubs, while Wesley was anxious to see Mindy.
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Mindy and Valerie sat in the living room, watching the cubs play with Jade. Roger, Jelena, and Grant were taking care of the kids from the group homes. Mindy knew Valerie was waiting for her to talk, but she didn't know where to start.
"Don't feel pressured. You can talk to me about anything. I don't expect you to just jump right into the worst parts of your life." Valerie nudged her. Mindy nodded and took a deep breath.
"How about we start with the supernatural? I knew nothing about shifters, vampires, and witches a couple days ago, and now I'm surrounded by them. How do you get your head around something like that?" Mindy asked, staring at the cubs trying to see if they looked any different from human kids.
"Take it slow. No one expects you to be okay with everything right away. You've had a lot happen, and being mated to Wesley is just one of them. You've probably met shifters and vampires before, but you didn't know." Valerie answered softly. Mindy liked her soothing voice. It immediately put her at ease.
"Why not witches? Don't they walk around like the others?" She asked curiously. The witches she'd met, she would have known something was different about them, but she assumed they didn't all look like them.
"Witches tend to have a hard time hiding in plain sight. They like to fly and use their potions. Sometimes they forget and do them around humans, so they usually stay hidden." Valerie hadn't met many witches herself, but the few she had were nice enough.
"I want Wesley to mark me, but I'm scared. I've never had anyone I could really trust. What if he decides I'm not the mate he wants?" Mindy asked sadly. She was already missing him terribly. She couldn't imagine how she'd feel if he left her for another woman.
"The thing with shifters and vampires is once they've found their mate, they don't leave them. They can reject them, but it's rare. Once you've marked each other, you're bonded in a way you can't imagine. Your souls will be intertwined, so if one of you dies, so will the other. If you hurt, he'll feel it, and vice versa. Shifters aren't like humans that fall in and out of love. Their mates are their soulmates, and they take that seriously." Valerie said, hoping she was easing the young woman's mind. As a human, it was hard to understand the depth of feelings shifters have.
"That's refreshing. I've told him some of what happened to me growing up, but not everything. My mom was my biggest nightmare. I hear people say all the time that they don't understand people who don't want anything to do with their mothers. It angers me when I hear that because not all mothers are good. Just because she gave birth to me didn't make her a mother. She beat me every chance she got. I can't tell you how many broken bones or trips to the hospital I had. She was really pretty and knew how to play the sympathy card. No one ever helped me because they believed every lie that came out of her mouth." Mindy spoke softly.
"Take your time. Do you need a break?" Valerie asked quietly. Mindy reminded her of Cat and Kitty when she'd helped them. They had all been bent but were too strong to be broken completely.
"No. I just haven't talked through all this with anyone. I've always pushed the memories away, telling myself that was the way to get over them." Mindy glanced up when Lisa walked over to her. The cub smiled before wrapping her little arms around her.
"You looked like you needed a hug. My grandma will make you feel better." The little cub said before walking back over to Jade and Alex. Mindy couldn't help smiling. Lisa had such a big heart. Even after all she'd been through, she didn't like seeing anyone else hurt.
"She's incredible," Mindy said, watching Lisa sit beside Jade kissing her little cheek.
"I think she was adopted into the perfect family," Valerie answered. Mindy took a deep breath and continued where she had left off.
"The one time someone tried to help me, my mom heard the nurse say she would call Cat and Trey. My mom took me out of the hospital before they could get there, and we moved to Tennessee. That was how scared she was that she would end up in jail. After we moved, she went through several men until she married my stepdad, if you can call him that. When I was thirteen, he started raping me. My mom would beat me, telling me I was trying to steal her husband. It was non-stop for a couple of years until I ran away. I lived on the street for a while until I found a shelter for homeless teens. I stayed there until I graduated high school." Mindy was speaking in a monotone. As bad as that was, it didn't compare to what happened the day she graduated.
"Why don't we stop for now? Would you like to help me fix dinner?" Valerie asked. She had seen Mindy's demeanor change and knew that whatever she was going to say next, they would need some time to get through it. She wanted to make sure there were no interruptions.
"I would love that. Thank you for doing this with me. Wesley was right; it's helping." Mindy had never felt more raw and exposed. However, if she wanted to have any kind of life with Wesley, she needed to face her fears. She just hoped she could get through it without the night terrors coming back.
