Chapter 12

Athena grabbed the bars to her cage and stared at her sister imprisoned across from her. Beside Selene, in her own locked box, Mom.

"No. Oh no," Athena cried. "What happened?"

Mom's lips turned down. "I thought they were the cable crew coming to fix the internet, so I let them in. A mistake since I woke here with your sister."

"What of Ares?" Athena asked, not seeing her brother.

"He wasn't home, so I'm hoping they didn't nab him."

Selene wasn't smiling, a rarity. "I can't believe I didn't sniff out the ambush. I walked downstairs because the guy yelled something about Mom falling. As I walked past him, he jabbed me with a needle."

"They tracked me down at Derek's grandparents' farm. Fuck me." Athena paced. "I'm so stupid. This is my fault. I should have done something about Roger."

"It's not your fault, baby girl," Mom soothed. "It had been weeks. We all thought he'd given up."

"Turns out he was just biding his time," Athena grumbled. "Fuck!" Frustration had her clenching her fists. Despite what Mom said, she was to blame. She should have forced her family to move. Disappeared entirely from Ontario and started anew. She should have not been so caught up in playing the happy couple with Derek and stuck to her plan of revenge. If she'd killed Rogers?—

"Don't!" Mom snapped.

"Don't what?" she muttered.

"Don't play the woulda-coulda-shoulda game. We had no way of knowing this would happen."

"But I did know," Athena huffed. "And instead of nipping it in the bud, I played ostrich, hiding my head in the sand, pretending like it never happened. And now look at us."

"Have faith, baby girl."

"Faith in what?" she cried. Her mom truly didn't grasp how bad this was, her fault for glossing over her captivity. She'd not wanted to traumatize her mother with her experience.

"Your brother is still out there. He'll come for us."

"With what army? Rogers has guards coming out the ass."

"He'll find a way. And if he doesn't, you or Selene will. After all, you escaped once before."

She had. Barely.

A hum and a click led to a door opening.

Rogers sauntered into the room, and the sight of him unleashed her rage.

Athena yelled, "You fucking prick. You promised you'd leave them alone, but meanwhile, you already had them in your clutches."

"I lied." And he was quite smug about it.

"What happened to just needing me for proof?" she huffed.

"Also a lie. I mean, one lycanthrope is amazing, but a whole family?" He spread his hands. "That's terrifying because it will make people wonder if their neighbors and friends have a secret."

"I should have killed you," she muttered. "Should have known you'd never give up."

"Of course I didn't give up, silly bitch. I was delayed. Your escape forced me to move the lab, hence why you got a reprieve. My new one is not as central as the last." He made a moue of discontent. "My commute has doubled, but finding a private location with the space and power needed for the equipment proved tricky. Ironically, we're not far from where I found you."

"Now what?" she snapped.

"Now, we plan your grand unveiling as we wait for the full moon. I'm thinking TD Place. Under the lights. We'll charge a nominal fee for the tickets. I'm going to call it, The Wolves in Human Clothing exhibition. It will be grand. Those watching will be skeptical, hence the big splashy event. Big screens that never pan away from you as the moon emerges. Everyone will see you change. Become a monster."

"There's only one monster in this room, and it's not my daughters," Mom's soft retort.

"You might have been a waste of time capturing. Given the prelims on your bloodwork, I'm going to guess the father was the contributing factor to your genetic anomaly."

Mom clamped her lips shut.

"No need to answer. The thorough bloodwork will soon reveal all. I can't wait to separate the human from the lycanthrope. Although we'll have to make do with DNA samples for your paternal side, given the father is dead."

"Good luck with that. We had my husband cremated," Mom spat.

"Doesn't matter. A comparison of your DNA will give us the truth. Now get some rest. We've got a busy month ahead preparing. And don't worry. There won't be any mishaps like last time. No more stupid, randy guards delivering food." He pointed to the slot in the cage big enough for a tray of food and nothing else. "Until tomorrow, when we start the tests."

Rogers left, and Athena's forehead hit the bars as she closed her eyes and tried to not lose her ever-loving mind. Fucking hell.

"Don't worry, baby girl. I'm sure Ares is working on a way to get us out."

Athena eyed her mother. "How, when he has no idea where we are?" Her lips turned down. "This is my fault. I should have taken out Rogers when I had the chance."

"You're not a killer," Mom stated.

"I could be," Athena's dark reply.

"Can we talk about something else? Because I, for one, am not letting that pencil dick ruin my mood. I saw your new boyfriend," Selene chirped. "What a cutie."

"How?" Athena asked with a frown.

"Because I stuck around and saw you having breakfast. Talk about dreamy." Selene fanned herself.

"You spied!" Athena exclaimed.

Mom shook her head. "I told you not to tell her. But your sister is right. He's a handsome boy. She showed me pics."

"Man, Mom. He's thirty-three."

"And a firefighter," Selene added with an approving nod. "The kind sexy enough to pose for a month in one of them calendars."

"Can we not talk about Derek? I'd rather not think about the fact I'll never see him again."

"Don't be so pessimistic."

"We're in a cage," Athena reminded her Pollyanna sister. "A locked cage, under surveillance." She waved a hand to the camera watching. "In a place crawling with guards."

"Have a little faith," Selene declared.

"Faith in my ability to screw things up?" Athena sighed. "Sorry. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, just Jeezus, we are so fucked. I should have known he'd come after you. We should have run the moment I escaped."

"Your dad used to say when you can't hide anymore, fight until your last breath."

"Or let the fucker expose us and stop pretending we're something we're not," Selene chirped. "I mean, people love Fred, the Sasquatch."

"He's a sideshow freak."

"For now. There are people trying to free him. There's a petition making the rounds and a court challenge."

"Challenging what?"

"That Fred is sentient enough that caging him is, in a sense, slavery, which is illegal."

"Hasn't worked for monkeys," Athena pointed out.

"Yet," Selene insisted. "But it's coming. The world is changing. Becoming more diversified."

"Cultural diversity is a hell of a lot different from people who change into wolves."

"But there's the key word. People. We are human. Just with a little something extra."

"We shouldn't be talking about this." Not that it mattered. Rogers knew what she was. Knew it and soon would show the world.

Show Derek.

Would he remember her fondly, or would she become the mistake he'd almost succumbed to?

She'd probably never find out.