Escaping Death

~ 4 years earlier ~

Solana

“Are you sure?” I whisper, too dazed to voice anything louder.

“I ran the labs twice,” Ember, affectionately known by my siblings and me as Auntie Ember, smiles kindly at me. “About 6 weeks along, maybe 7.”

I alternate between laughing and sobbing, unable to distinguish between the two. Light and joy fills my heart, blocking out everything else.

“I take it you and Hunter haven’t heeded your fathers’ advice?” She purses her lips in a weak attempt to hide her playful grin. It’s a little obvious that Hunter and I have continued to see each other, the proof of our love is growing at this very moment within my womb.

Almost three months ago now, what was supposed to be a happy day — the day I agreed to marry the love of my life — everything caved in on us. My great uncle brought home a woman who brought with her Hunter’s fated mate, Annie.

I’ve since learned that Annie felt an immediate sense of rejection when she saw Hunter holding me in my mother’s office that day, and again when Hunter ran off with me rather than greet them properly. Apparently she told her brothers, who told their mother, who told my great Uncle, and so on and so on until it reached mine and Hunter’s parents.

Both my fathers and Hunter’s dad spoke to him. Our dads have always supported our relationship despite knowing that we weren’t fated mates, so I’ll admit I felt somewhat betrayed when all three of them encouraged Hunter to consider giving his mate a chance.

I do understand where they’re coming from. I do. I’ve never seen a love like the one my parent’s have, and as part wolf myself I admit I’ve thought about the matebond a time or two. But it’s hard to imagine feeling this kind of connection – this spark – with anyone else.

Now everything I’ve ever feared about admitting how deep my feelings truly run are coming true. I finally gave him my whole heart for him to protect and honor against my better judgment knowing this day could come. So I did what I always promised myself I’d do. I stepped aside. I gave him space so that he could move on and start a life with who he was fated to be with.

A week. It took all of one week for Hunter to come knocking on my bedroom door, telling me he still chooses me. He held me like he’d never let go again, he kissed me like he was making up for a year apart, he made love to me like I was the other half of his soul.

I’m sure that was the night we created this new life together, the physical embodiment of our inextinguishable burning for one another.

We couldn’t be together as openly as before. He promised to get to know Annie and make an informed decision about whether or not to claim her, and I promised not to interfere. In order to maintain our illusion of respecting those promises we had to be discrete about our rendezvous.

But now I’m pregnant with our child. We can no longer deny that we’re together, that we’ve continued to be together even behind his mate’s back, and Hunter will have to formally make a choice. Her or me.

“For what it’s worth, I’ve been team Solana and Hunter all along. I know wolves are different but you’re also part dragon, and we don’t need a matebond to recognize the person who makes us feel whole,” Ember takes my hands in hers and gives them a loving squeeze. “So…when are you going to tell him?”

“Tonight, I think. We have an assignment today with her brothers of all people.”

Ember nods reassuringly, “alright, but no heroics. Let the guys do the grunt work.”

When I shoot her a doubtful look she throws her palms up with a laugh, “consider that my obligatory recommendation to take it easy…because we both know you won’t. I swear you are a carbon copy of your mother.”

My phone alerts me to a new message from Hunter. His name alone plasters a smile on my face and I find myself smoothing my hand over my still flat stomach anticipating the coming day when a bump forms there. “It’s Hunter,” I swoon in front of Ember.

“Alright, go on, get out of here. Be careful today, Sol. Come see me tomorrow, I’ll have prenatals for you. And steer clear of your dads, they’ll smell that baby a mile away.”

Ember hugs me tightly and I return it in kind, pouring all of my unspoken gratitude into our embrace. “Thanks Ember,” I say before I rush back to my room to check his message and get ready to meet up with him for today’s task. I’ve been trying to get involved with the anti-breeding groups, but they’re just as guarded as the breeder rings they dismantle. It’s dangerous but worthwhile work. My own mother was nearly forced into breeding so it’s a cause that is deeply personal to me, and Levi apparently has a friend from his former pack who can connect us to the right people so I might finally be able to put an end to the sick fucks of the world.

H: Hey beautiful, change of plans.

H: Levi will pick you up and I’ll meet you there.

If it were any other day I’d be disappointed by his text, especially because Levi is Annie’s eldest brother and it’s uncomfortable being around him and his siblings knowing that I have a part in their sister’s pain. But not today. Today I’m glowing, I’m burning, I’m sparkling.

The whole ride with Levi is silent but comfortably so which would ordinarily seem odd but I’m too busy to worry about Levi’s behavior, daydreaming about how to tell Hunter that he pupped me and how he’ll be a father.

My daydreams disperse when the car comes to a stop outside of a tattoo parlor in an abandoned strip mall on the outskirts of town.

“Why are we stopping here?” I ask Levi while he begins maneuvering to exit the car.

“Meeting was switched to this spot, the rest of the guys are already inside. Everyone is waiting on us.” His tone is devoid of any intonation or emotion.

I try taking my phone out to text Hunter to make sure he really is inside because something in my gut is telling me not to go in there but to turn around and run. My footsteps falter on the steps leading into the parlor which aggravates Levi.

“Let’s go Solana,” Levi hisses at me. He grabs my arm tight enough to bruise and drags me into the building and down into the basement below the main parlor.

“Let go of me, Levi. I can fucking walk on my own.” I spit back but Levi’s grip only tightens.

He slips a blade from his vest and puts it up to my throat. “Be a good girl and get your ass downstairs.” His eyes are onyx, his wolf is at the very surface of control. At this moment I have only two thoughts; those of my child, and those hoping beyond hope that Hunter is downstairs and will keep me safe from Levi.

I tremble down the stairs, discoordinated like a newborn calf, only to find Owen and Tom, Levi’s younger-but-just-as-strong brothers, and no Hunter. There are two other men here, too. Leering at me as I’m pushed into the light in the center of the dim room.

“Where’s Hunter?” I growl at the men in the room.

Levi’s laugh is sadistic and sinister, “Hunter won’t be joining us, but he knows you’re here. He was the one who asked us to help rid him of his unwanted baggage.”

I clutch my hand to my chest as my heart fractures and it’s beat stutters like a faulty engine. “No,” I exhale in defiance of his words, “Hunter would never do that to me. Even if he didn’t want me anymore he’d never let you hurt me.”

“Your assumptions are wrong, Princess. Because here you are, here we are…and no Hunter to tell us no.” Levi boasts.

“How much for her?” Owen says to the two unfamiliar men.

“A hybrid like her? She’ll be worth millions.” One of the guys says and it’s only then that the full weight of what’s about to happen dawns on me. We’re not here to meet with someone who is looking to take out breeder rings, they’ve brought me here to sell me to the very people I hoped to one day stop.

“She’s been fucking my sister’s mate, is that going to affect her bid?” Levi speaks to the buyers like I’m not in the room, like I’m cattle brought to auction.

“Mm, well in that case,” the other buyer purrs and licks his lips, “I might need to do a quality check to make sure she’s still tight, make sure our buyers are getting their money’s worth.”

He circles me slowly, eye fucking me with every step. I work desperately to keep the bile from rising in my throat when his hands skirt along the small of my back. “Keep your fucking hands off of me.” I spin out of his reach only for my back to hit the stone abs of his companion. He wraps his dirty, sausage fingers around my shoulders and runs his nose obscenely from my shoulder to my jaw, inhaling loudly for dramatic effect.

I feel his body freeze behind mine before he pushes me away, repelling me and distancing himself from me as if I had the plague.

“You fucking idiots,” the buyer seethes. “Hybrid or not, I can’t sell her knocked up.”

The air evacuates the room, time slows, and all I can hear is the blood pulsing between my ears. Then comes an explosion of pain emanating from the left side of my head before the cracking of bones reverberates through the room.

I’m spinning and falling, my head is ringing and throbbing. There’s no bracing for impact. I belly flop to the floor, dislocating my elbow and breaking my nose upon contact with the ground. My arm is numb, my nose is a waterfall of blood, and I’m dizzy from the pain in my head.

“You fucking whore!” Levi growls at me and delivers a swift kick to my stomach with his steel-toe boot. Blood spews out of my mouth as I choke and gasp for air.

“Did you think a baby would make him stay?” Owen kicks me in the ribs.

“I bet it’s not even his. You’d spread your legs for anyone, wouldn’t you?” Tom flips me onto my back, drops to his knees, and hacks at my clothes with his knife, not caring when he slices my flesh in the process.

I swat aimlessly above and in front of me, but I’m so dizzy from pain and blood loss I’m not sure how effective my self-defense really is.

The five of them stand around me in a circle, scowling at my bruised, broken, and bloodied body. “What a fucking mess,” one of the buyers laments.

“Should we just kill her?” Levi asks.

“No,” the voice of the other buyer is firm. “Leave her. If she lives I know a few buyers who need new punching bags.”

“Fine. Come on guys, let’s go let Hunter know the good news. Solana is gone.”

All five of them walk back upstairs, the three brothers each kick me once more on their way past me before they ascend. Their footsteps and their voices get further and further away. I can’t make out their scents because the smell of blood pervades my senses. So much blood. So much pain.

Hunter told them to do it. He didn’t want me, not to keep anyways.

But we made a baby…

When the room stops spinning I use my left arm to grab my cell phone. I fight the impulse to call Hunter, he’s always the first one I call. Instead, I call Griffin. The prodigal offspring of Ember and Xander, Griffin is pure golden light. He can teleport like his father and he can heal like his mother.

“Hey, Sunflower. You guys back yet?” Griffin answers cheerfully.

“Griffin…,” my voice is hoarse from unshed tears.

His voice drops to a stern, but panicked, whisper. “Solana, where are you?”

“Illicit. Tattoo. Basement.” I wheeze between words.

Minutes later I feel Griffin’s warm light wrapping around me mending what was broken. My elbow is no longer dislocated, my ribs are no longer shattered, my nose is no longer broken. But my heart is still failing, and my body is still bleeding.

“Solana, who did this to you?” His panic hasn’t subsided.

“Hunter. He got Levi and his brothers to trap me. They tried to…sell me…breeders…” I trail off, woozier by the minute from the continued blood loss.

“Hang on to me, Sol, hang on! I have to bring you to my mom.” He scoops me into his arms and teleports us to his mother’s office.

“Griffin, what on Earth — is that Solana? What happened?”

“I’m not really sure, she said something about being sold to breeders. She was a broken mess when I found her, they beat her close to death. I healed what I could but she won’t stop bleeding. I can’t… it won’t stop.”

“You did great, Finn. Now go home, I’ve got her.”

“Just tell me what I did wrong, mom. Why can’t I heal her?”

Ember exhales sadly, “we can’t heal the dead, Finn.”

“She’s not dead! I can hear her heart!” He cries.

“Not her, love. Solana is… was… pregnant.”

That was the last thing I heard before I gave into the darkness. I woke up three days later in a hospital room. Griffin was asleep in the chair beside my bed and Ember was adjusting my I.V. drip.

“Where’s Hunter?” I rasp. Upon hearing my voice Ember and Griffin both turn their attention to me.

“You’re awake,” Griffin’s face releases the tension it looks like it’s been holding for quite some time. “Thank the Gods. How do you feel?”

That’s a good question. How do I feel? I feel tired, I feel empty, but mostly I feel confused. My head feels cloudy and my stomach is aching.

“What am I doing here? Where’s Hunter?” My attempts to think back and remember only anger my headache.

Griffin shares a weary look with his mom, but she nods to him encouragingly, making me fear the worst.

“Hey, sunflower,” Griffin’s pained smile doesn’t mask the tremble in his voice. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

My forehead creases as I do my best to search my scattered memories.

“Annie’s brothers…they tried to sell me. They beat me.” Griffin nods grimly but patiently gives me time to keep thinking backwards. “They said Hunter wanted me gone. Hunter texted me…he…he set me up.” Hot tears blaze down my cheeks. “I was here in this room when he texted me. Why was I here?”

My brows furrow, I’m imploring my mind to make sense of this when the memory appears with sharp focus. “Oh Gods…the baby.” My hand moves down to my stomach but the looks on Griffin’s and Ember’s faces tell me everything.

My baby is gone.

Tears stream faster down my face, they begin to sizzle and evaporate as my skin slowly heats. “Where. Is. He?” I growl through clenched teeth.

“No one has seen or heard from him, Annie, or her brothers in three days. Your mom ordered a search, half the grove has been looking for them. No one can find them.”

Griffin protests when I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed. There’s no need for me to stay here any longer. The damage is done and they’ve healed what they could.

I’ll find them. And when I do I’m going to slaughter every single one of them.