again. “Delicious.” Caiden’s mouth leaves me and so does his hand around my throat. A second later, he snaps and is gone.
My knees give out and I drop to the floor. Dirt crumbles beneath my palms as I suck in gulps of air. I hear in the earpiece how they think everyone is dead. But it doesn’t matter. Regardless of what happens, there will always be someone out there doing things they shouldn’t. Evil never sleeps.
Someone is beside me wrapping me in their arms. Camden. I turn and grip him back as the reality of the situation hits me. I was useless tonight. I did nothing to help the team. I was the hostage. The one who needed rescuing. I was a liability. As brave as I thought I was in the moment, I truly wasn’t.
“No,” Thay’s voice enters my mind. “You were held against your will. That doesn’t make you weak because you didn’t fight back. You looked at the situation from all sides. Not just you being held but the others in the room. You saw it all and made the best decision, which was to do nothing. You let Camden and us handle things, which wasn’t much of a handling since Caiden got away, but you put your trust in us. If the roles had been reversed, I hope I would have done the same thing you did. Been as brave as you were.”
I shake my head, not trusting my voice. He’s wrong. I should have used my magic. Blasted Caiden away. But I couldn’t. He’s Cam’s brother. No matter what, I can’t forget that.
Then Aries is there crouching down beside Cam and me. “Whit, we could use your help with the paranormals who were held hostage. They’re afraid and you have a more calming presence than the rest of us.”
I focus on Aries. Pull myself from my inner turmoil. He still needs to shift to heal. His eyes are sharp, though. Ready for anything. Then I glance around the room at Sevan and Sawyer, who are down here now. I see the ones who were held still cowering in the corner, even though the magical handcuffs aren’t on them anymore. Thay stands near them. Every male in here on the team is dressed in head to toe black, including me. But they have a massive amount of muscle on their bodies where I’m not as broad and muscular.
I nod and let Cam help lift me to my feet.
“We can go home,” Cam whispers.
“No.” I shake my head. “This is why we came. To save them. I want to be part of that.”
Looking over at the scared paranormals, I realize part of the problem is the way we’re dressed. With a quick flick of my wrist, I rid myself of the tactical clothes and put on something more casual. Something I would wear every day: jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and sneakers. I even let my fae side show. Hopefully it will help calm them since they’re fae, too. From what I’ve heard, fae are taken more often because of their abilities.
I take a step forward and Cam is there at my side. He can’t approach like he is either and I have a feeling he won’t be leaving my side until we’re out of here, so I change his clothes as well. I don’t conceal his appearance to make him less intimidating, but hopefully the lack of gear will help.
We take a few more steps until we’re in front of two females who are shielding the children behind them with trembling arms and hands still cuffed.
I take a few deep breaths to try to calm down from what happened. I don’t want to scare them more than they already are. “I’m Whit and this is my mate, Camden. We’re here to rescue you. You witnessed a lot and you’re probably confused. You don’t think you can trust us, but I assure you we won’t harm you. We want to set you free. You can go back to your homes or we have a large place on our pack’s property where you’d be welcome to stay as long as you like. We have warm beds, food, and even a therapist. Whatever you need.”
It was explained to me that we can bring anyone we rescue back to Hayden’s Home. However, they have to understand they aren’t to speak of who the team is or that we rescued them. We have to stay a secret. The only one they are