21. Twenty-One

I'm not usually the one to use brute force when interrogating the rebel scum, but the thoughts running through this particular shifter set me off.

His disregard and willingness to sell his daughter off to the Mastery the moment her gift emerges hits too close to home as I think about Will and her father basically doing the exact same thing to her.

"Damn, T-man, what did he think?" Draken asks with a crazed smile across his face, which causes me to relent a little.

I draw in a deep breath, the air feeding my lungs and slowing my racing heart. My hands are covered in the blood of the piss-poor excuse of a father who lies beneath me, motionless. I didn't kill him. I can see his chest expanding slowly with each struggling breath. Part of me is pissed Draken distracted me, while the other part is happy he did. I'm not done interrogating him once he wakes up and heals.

"He planned to sell his daughter off when she emerged," I tell him, clipped.

"Piece of shit. I should eat him when we're done with him," he says, grinning like the thought makes him so happy.

There're so many shifters in Rebel Castle right now, we've wasted no time getting started the moment we got here this morning. It'll take days to go through all of them, even with the amount of people we have interrogating them. It's much quicker for me, Draken, and Caspian to sift through them because of our gifts, but the others have to do it the old-fashioned way.

"Damn." Caspian whistles as he steps out of the shadows and over the beaten shifter.

"You missed the show, Cas. Tillman went full fucking savage mode," Draken cheers, wrapping his arms around Caspian in an energetic hug. To my utter surprise, Caspian doesn't fight him off or push him away. He just smirks, patting him on the back in return.

"I can assure you. I didn't miss the show," he replies vaguely.

"Wait a second…" Draken growls, sniffing the air around him.

Caspian's small smirk grows into a full-fledged, satisfied smile. My gift reaches out to his mind, and I feel his barrier slowly draw down, meaning whatever he's thinking, he wants me to see.

"Fuck." I groan, shaking my head as the image of Willow on her knees, blessing Corentin with a blowjob fills my mind.

My dick grows painfully fucking hard as I continue to watch the two of them spank her ass then set her on Corentin's face like it's her throne. I swear I can almost feel her orgasm ripple through me.

"Why do you smell like my little wanderer?" Draken asks Caspian, narrowing his eyes.

"We live in the same house, Draken," Caspian teases.

"No, no, no. I know that smell," Draken argues, grabbing Caspian's hands and bringing them to his face to sniff. When he goes to reach for his pants in a frantic moment to find the scent of her, I put him and his dragon out of their misery.

Despite my better judgment, knowing he's going to be ready to leave after this, I lay my hand on his shoulder and show him what I just watched through Caspian. I can feel his muscles flexing beneath my hand, and I know he's fighting the urge to run off to her.

"She's a fucking goddess. I want her to fuck my face like that," he rumbles, shaking his head out and forcing his eyes to shift back to normal.

I grunt my agreement and pull my hand back.

We're all going to be distracted now.

"Come on, we got more work to do," I order, shooting Caspian a dark look as he continues to smile in our faces.

Grabbing the shifter by his collar, I drag him out of the room and down the hall, parading his bloody body in front of all the other awaiting shifters. Whimpers and growls alike echo down the hall, so I know the message I'm sending sounds loud and clear.

Opening the cell he's staying in, I sling his limp body in and slam the ward back down, leaving him there to suffer for a while before we give him a healing vial. Striding down the hall, I make a point to stare down the grizzlier shifters, those who were angered by my little power play rather than fearful.

"Bring the next one," I bellow as we enter back into the interrogation room.

Our goal for the day is to start working through the lower-level Mastery members. The ones who don't have a rune tying their heads and hearts. We'll focus on the others when we can get Lyker to bring Aria here. Plus, he wants to be here for Kael's and Eirik's interrogation.

So far, the small bits I've gotten have been useful, confirming some of the assumed locations we made a list of. There're definitely four main areas we'll be planning scouting trips for, possibly more.

The next five shifters to come through are lowly recruits and pledges. The information I gather from them doesn't get us closer to the Summum-Master's identity or the location of the hostages, but they have the most insight so far into how their recruitment process and training works.

Just like the structure of their society, their training and recruitment is very much like ours, which leads me to believe either someone who was previously a high rating E.F. member or still is a member has fallen into the Mastery's clutches.

It'll be a bad day in Elementra if I find out someone amongst us has betrayed us.

One of the ones we interrogated was born into the society, so his training and preparations began long before his gift even emerged. The role was expected of him, and he'd been training for it his whole life. His gift only emerged two years ago. He's merely eighteen. Unlike the others, he didn't have to go through the recruitment trials and initiations.

Seeing that kid and listening to him talk was a knife to the gut. He knows no difference. This is the way he's been raised. His parents and the influential adults that've been in his life have buried these beliefs that the Mastery is the only way to go so deeply in him, it's what he believes to be true.

The other four I interrogated did have to go through the recruitment process. They were sought after, not because they're particularly skillful or even very powerful, but they're loners. No family, no Nexus formed yet, just young individuals who have nothing to lose and everything to gain if they truly were rewarded with everything the Mastery promised them. Money, power, a social status, a purpose that sounded like riches from their wildest dreams.

Fucking fools.

A lot like us, the E.F. tries not to recruit fully formed Nexuses who have Primaries because the strain of being away, and the tense situations are rough on the Nexus's dynamic. The only time we do is if the entire Nexus, Primary included, wants to join, like my parents. Then they stay together at all times as a team. If we accept a loner, they nine times out of ten find their Nexus because they were already in the E.F. and that's what was keeping them apart.

Unlike them, our recruitment is spent during the years of third year academy, where they're trained properly. We don't throw them into situations where they could be hurt until we know for sure they're ready. Their recruitment process is different.

They're trained in battle, thrown into deadly situations, and if they make it out, they get to continue on. Grunts. Cannon fonder. They don't want to acknowledge that's what they are when they're first recruited, but that's exactly what they are. The Enforcers and Masters work with them on their combat and magical skills for years, only after they've been thrown into missions where they run in kidnapping people.

It's so fucked up.

"Last one and we'll call it a day. Caspian, go tell the others this is the last session, then we'll head back to the academy," I gruffly order.

I wish I could blame Draken's fidgeting and constant pacing on the sole reason I'm calling it a day almost two hours earlier than I planned but really, I'm just as bad. I thought once me and Willow bonded, this constant possessive need to see her and be around her would lessen for me, but it's only gotten worse.

If it doesn't calm as she bonds the other two, and we finally become one, we're literally going to have to stick together at all times or shit isn't going to get done.

Caspian enters back in, face grim, and I'm about to ask what's wrong when I see a scrawny kid, can't be but maybe seventeen or eighteen, even though he looks like he's twelve, enter behind him. The boy's shaking so hard, I'm sure at any moment his skin is going to slide right off him.

"Take a seat, kid, none of us are going to hurt you," Draken commands softly.

"I-I don't want to be here. I want to go home," he stutters.

"Well, unfortunately, that's not going to happen. There're consequences for joining the Mastery. You only have yourself, probably your parents to blame," Caspian snarks, although his tone isn't as harsh as it would be if this was an adult sitting in front of us.

"My parents aren't in the Mastery. This is my punishment." The boy sniffles.

"What's your name kid?" I ask.

"Layton."

"Explain what you mean by this is your punishment, Layton," I demand.

The echo of my voice has him jumping in his seat, as if he's prepared at any moment to get smacked upside the head. Turning to Draken, I nod toward the boy.

"Layton, we won't hurt you. Calm down and tell us your story," Draken commands. The breeze of his dominance coats the room and the difference in the boy is instant. Draken's gentle demand forces the anxiety to the side, and it seems this is the first full breath the kid's taken since coming here, maybe longer.

"Thank you." He blows out a breath, nodding at Draken, surprising us all. It's almost never the case someone's thankful for Draken using his power on them.

"What kind of reptile are you?" Draken asks.

"I'm a chameleon and that's why I'm being punished," Layton answers as tears well in his eyes again.

Very rare shifter.

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" I ask.

He takes another deep breath and nods.

There's something about this kid. I just know he's already telling the truth and he's barely spoken. There's a block on his mind that I know I could tear down, but I don't know the consequence of doing that to him, so I don't pry.

"My family is from Terian. We live on the outskirts, on the Aquaria line in a small shifter community called Marka. A year ago, shortly after I emerged, Alpha Jarod and a few men came to our community. We're all reptile shifters, so we're loners, but we still like to surround ourselves with shifters of our kind for protection." He pauses, taking another breath, and Draken again reassures him, calming him back down.

"My mom told me to go hide when Alpha Jarod and the men with him appeared. I'm the only small reptile shifter around, and my family had been lying about my gift emerging because of what I am. They didn't want me to go to the academy and have people find out I can blend in with everything. So I took to the trees behind our house to my hiding spot. And I sat there for what felt like forever.

"As I started to climb down, Alpha Jarod and the men came walking right under my tree, dragging Mr. Gami. He was our unofficial leader. He was the strongest amongst us and called the shots when tough decisions had to be made." He stops, his eyes clouding over like he's floating into the memory.

I can already tell where this is heading.

"Mr. Gami yelled and fought, said that he already told them he wasn't subjecting himself or us to the Mastery. And Alpha Jarod told him he had no option and he warned him of what the consequences would be if he didn't have everyone on board when he returned. Then…then…"

"Hey, it's okay, Layton. Take a deep breath for me. Everything's okay," Draken whispers soothingly, lacing the words with a purr-like sound. It's different than the purr he uses on Willow that makes her wild. This is like a parent calming a child.

"Then Alpha Jarod stabbed him, and it was like all the blood was sucked out of Mr. Gami's body and into his knife. It scared me so much, I lost control of my gift and fell out of the tree. They were on me in a second, snatching me up, which made my gift flicker in and out. Once they realized what I was, they took me. Dragged me through the middle of our town and threatened to kill me if my parents tried anything. The entire community had to hold my parents back and let me go. They were planning on using me as a spy." He sobs, tears and snot falling from his face as his body trembles.

"So they kidnapped you for your gift. Is that what you mean by punishment?" Draken asks lightly.

"No. I was so angry, scared when I first got there, and I have no control over my gift, but one night, I was able to shift and hold it, so I tried to escape, but I ended up in the woods, spying on a meeting between Alpha Jarod, the Summum-Master, and some men who were with him. They all wore capes with these red gem pin thingies, keeping it closed. The Summum-Master placed his hand on Alpha Jarod's chest and made him glow. I should've run, should've done something other than stand there because my gift flickered, and they saw me.

"The Summum-Master stopped Alpha Jarod from ripping my throat out and asked what I was. When I answered him, he hummed and said I had to be in service to him for the rest of my life. He didn't mark me but him and another guy did something to my head. I know more than that happened, but I can't remember, and when I think hard enough, excruciating pain rips across my brain."

The three of us look at each other, all of us thinking the same thing. There's no telling what this kid has seen or heard because it's all locked away behind that block. Fuck, I'm glad I didn't tear it down now because no doubt the kid would be lying here dead rather than crying.

"What are your parents' names, Layton?" I ask.

"Sira, my mom, Langston, Joe, Sim, and Dani Fank," he answers immediately.

"Okay. You're gonna have to stay here for now, Layton, but we'll get you moved into a better cell, get you some food and more clothes, and we'll work on getting in touch with your parents. As long as you have that block, you're not safe, but we'll do what we can for you," I tell him as his eyes mist.

"You'll get my mom? You'll bring her here?" he asks hopefully.

The sincerity in his voice and eyes damn near tears my heart to shreds. I know this kid is petrified, and I hate to think of all the others his age who are in a similar situation.

"We're going to do what we can," I vow.

I can't make any promises. The kid's been gone a year. There's no telling if his parents are even still there, if they're alive. There's just no telling. But at the end of the day, I know this kid isn't some brainwashed soldier. He was an innocent child who was torn away from his life, and I'll help him get it back.

The three of us walk Layton out of the interrogation room silently, all stewing in the things he just told us. By the looks being shot the kid's way by the shifters we pass, they all know he isn't a true member of their society; he's just a pawn that didn't fall into place. He may be a whimpering mess right now, but he's got more strength in him than any of them.

After we get him settled into the new cell he'll be staying in, I instruct the teams back to the academy so we can debrief there and go over everything learned and piece together stories. But first I got to check on Will.

"Corentin's office?" Draken asks knowingly.

"Yes," me and Caspian answer as one.

My smile takes over my face in its entirety the moment I step out of my transport, and my bond thrums in my chest. Willow's sound asleep laid out on Corentin's couch. Soft snores are purring from her lips with a blanket pulled around her. So fucking gorgeous, peaceful.

There's nothing in this realm that can compare to bonding with her. To be able to feel someone so deeply. A connection on a soul level is heady, addicting. I already knew I loved her for her and thought she was fucking perfection before we bonded, but the way that greedy little pussy accepted all of me, strangling my cock for more, has left me a man more than in love. I'm fucking obsessed. I'm addicted to her mind, body, and soul.

I wish more than anything we weren't in the middle of a war so we could've stayed in our treehouse for weeks, just bathing in the bliss of each other. I know she feels it too, she wants that too, with all of us.

The constant go, go, go has been so hard for her. The surprises at every turn are taking their toll. Knowing the thoughts that plague her, I want to protect her from it all, keep her out of it as much as possible.

"You guys are early," Corentin whispers from his desk, smirking at us.

"Has she been sleeping since I left?" Caspian asks with his own fucking satisfied smile.

"She was out before you made it back to the castle," he says cockily.

"You two are assholes. I'm tired of everyone leaving me out of the fun stuff. My little wanderer would have no problem being spread out between the four of us, so I don't understand why none of you invite me to join," Draken whines, like legitimately pouts.

I can't help but snort at his ass because he's being serious. I hear the thoughts running through his head. He's truly offended and would have no problem with any of us joining him when he pleasures her because he knows she'd love it.

"It was spontaneous, Draken. You don't think my first time being intimate with her, I'd have liked it to be alone? It just happened. It wasn't planned," Corentin says, seemingly pissed that Draken is insinuating we all need to be together every time Willow's being pleasured.

"Draken, this has only occurred two other times, both of those times with me. You don't think the rest of us want it to be a little special, have her to ourselves? You do, don't you?" I ask him more reasonably than Corentin just did, knowing that right now he's just worked up from missing her.

"Yeah. My bad. I'm really fucking off today. Almost dying is doing a number on me, guys," he admits quietly, not looking at any of us, just staring at Will with an extremely protective gaze.

The smirks melt off mine and Caspian's face and the anger bleeds out of Corentin's. The words that filtered through my mind from him while we lost our shit as they both lay motionless in the arena haunt me. Although they were one hundred percent said in Draken style, it was his goodbye. He thought he was dying, and he was trying to tell us bye. And to think of a life without him in it is enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I've never been so fucking scared in my life as I was in those few moments. The way both of them laid so unnaturally still, so lifeless, was petrifying. I swore to myself as I looked down at the two of them, if they didn't make it, I was going to tear this fucking realm apart looking for the Mastery, then I was joining them.

"I'm sorry, Draken. I didn't realize how hard this was hitting you. I've been so focused on Willow and everything else." I apologize genuinely.

Caspian and Corentin both join me where I'm standing by him, squeezing his shoulder in solidarity.

"I know, I know, and I'm being selfish right now. I'm sorry. Life's been fucking hectic, and she's my number one priority, all of ours, but my dragon's restless, adding to my own. We were trapped in nothing but a dark void, his wings pinned to his body, I'm assuming an imitation of what her dragon was feeling, and ever since then, he's got an obsessive need to be near everyone, like a sated fear that you're all gonna be ripped away from us at any moment if we aren't together," he confesses. Rage, anxiety, fear, determination, all filter over his expression in a matter of seconds. I understand what he's saying, though. I've felt it too.

"We'll work it out to where we're separated minimally for however long we need to get both of you feeling better. I promise, Draken, we'll be here for you both. She's struggling too, and we won't let either of you down." Corentin swears, pulling him into a hug, and I see some light enter back into Draken's eyes.

We've got to be better about talking things out. With how much shit has been piling on top of us, we can't let feelings like this fester.

"So, on a more serious note, what did you do to deserve that little gift from my sweetness?" Draken asks, causing us to laugh.

"I didn't do anything. She surprised me early from Oakly's and Crissy was here picking up paperwork, and like fucking always was hitting on me. Willow caught her about to touch me and threatened to rip her throat out," Corentin says with a smile, making Draken groan.

"Fuck, her possessive side is so sexy. So she had to claim what's hers?" he asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

"That she fucking did." Corentin preens like a damn peacock.

Bastard.

"You know you're gonna have to fire her or move her from your assistant position. Will's not going to tolerate her being around you," I tell him seriously. With the way she beat the hell out of Gima, she's not going to put up with any female touching what's hers.

"Yeah, I know, already got that covered," he answers knowingly.

A soft little moan permeates the air and all of us go silent, turning toward the noise. We each have a different reaction when we see Willow's rolled over, pulling the covers down, exposing her flawless, fucking naked body.

The groan that slips my lips is drenched in lust and I want so badly to go suck her perk little nipples into my mouth, waking her up with a sweet surprise. I have no doubt the guys are all thinking the same by how they all tensed. Caspian, somehow, is the only one able to keep his shit about him as he slowly, silently approaches her and covers her body back up.

"Why the fuck didn't you put her clothes back on?" he asks Corentin as he comes to stand back beside us.

"I didn't want to wake her up."

I grin because I wouldn't have bothered either. She's blissed out, exhausted from pleasure, clothes are redundant right now. Plus, I wish she'd be naked all the time. Well, at home where no one but us could see.

"What did you learn today?" Corentin asks, stealing my attention.

I jump right into giving him a debrief. We'd still need to catch up with Rhett, Lucas, and Ry to see what they found out, but what I learned from Layton is by far the most important and promising start.

"We need to see how soon Lyker can get here. See if Aria can break through his block, maybe take it down permanently or at least make sure the Summum-Master doesn't have some sort of control over him. We'll assign a detail team to him and get him working with Vince to try to learn to control his gift and we can figure out a solution for finding his parents," Corentin states immediately, jumping right into working shit out for the kid.

"Me and the Primary can go scout the area, see if we can find them," Caspian declares.

"What?" me and Draken ask as Corentin says, "No."

"Why not? She'll be perfectly safe with me." Caspian sneers, taking offense to Corentin shutting him down instantly.

"I just said we'd work out not separating all of us and you're trying to swoop her off to somewhere that could be dangerous, just the two of you. What if the Mastery has now taken over that area?" Corentin snaps back.

"Fine, then plan it to where we all can go." Caspian relents, shockingly easily.

"We'll give her a few more minutes to sleep then head to the gym and debrief with the others, then head home. We all could use an afternoon to relax together," I declare.

Another groan falls from Willow's sweet lips as she tosses and turns on the couch, again exposing us to our deepest fucking desire. This time, though, no one moves to cover her up because we're all too busy staring at her.

Fuck, we got to get some clothes on her.