Chapter 43

“I have a surprise for you,” Enzo murmured, but why did it hold a hint of a threat?

Already? How was that possible? We’d just arrived at Lucian’s not too long ago. The flight had dragged on, and we were all a bit sluggish in settling in.

I rubbed the cotton towel over my damp hair. “You want me to come now?”

He wrapped his hand around my forearm and dragged me down the stairs. Without his hold on me, he would have sent me tumbling down.

“Woah, wait a second!” I gasped and tightened the sash of my loose robe before I flashed everyone outside. At the open front door, he stopped and smirked.

I peeked around him. A cargo van? “Uh, thanks?”

Enzo sighed and released me while stepping outside. Gravel crunched under his steps. “It took me a while to find the fucker, but I managed it.”

“What’s going on?” Beckett asked, stuffing popcorn into his mouth.

“Enzo got me a present.”

Beckett’s eyebrows arched, and he chuckled. “This is going to be good.”

Enzo whipped the back of the van open, and a bulky shadow shifted inside. Those curses sounded unfamiliar.

“Tanner!” Beckett barked, pushing the bucket into my arms. I barely caught it before it went flying.

Tanner’s steps approached, and Beckett strode toward the van. The vehicle jostled under his weight. With a quick motion, he slammed his foot into the hunched form inside the vehicle.

I gasped. I thought he was going to stop Enzo, not help him.

Tanner stepped past me and squeezed my shoulder. “I love those pjs on you, Maya.” He smirked at the little donuts scattered across the pink silk. “How are we killing him?” Tanner called up to the guys.

Uh, what?

“He needs to suffer first.”

Elliot stepped up next to me, and his palm smoothed over the swell of my ass. “What are you staring at?”

“Idiots.” I shoved the tub of popcorn into his arms.

A pebble snuck into my monster slipper, and I shook the little fucker out, proceeding to stomp forward to get a better look inside. “Enough,” I snapped. “Not going to lie, this wasn’t what I expected when you said gift.”

The large male shivered in the back, a wool bag over his head.

Beckett yanked the fabric off.

Oh. Him . Boy was he was screwed.

I sighed and crossed my arms. “When did you plot this?”

Enzo pressed his mouth into a thin line and shrugged his muscled shoulders.

“You are crazy organized and determined when you put your mind to it. I admire your efficiency in the area of kidnapping.”

“Thank you.”

The sarcasm went right over his head.

I stared at the dragon who had beaten me within an inch of my life. Of course, he couldn’t have killed me, but we hadn’t known at that time. The beating was for the sake of finding Enzo, so I would do it a million times over to get us to this point.

“So, what does the dragon have against you?” I asked Enzo. The guy seemed too passionate about beating me to pulp, so he must hate Enzo something big.

“That’s beside the point,” he muttered.

“Does it have to do with you fucking or messing with his girl?” That was my first theory.

Enzo scratched his freshly cut hair. “No.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Or a family member of his?”

His eyebrows furrowed.

Bingo.

“Whatever. He hurt you. I can’t let that go unpunished.”

I scoffed. Beckett dragged the guy’s bound body out of the back and dropped him onto the uneven ground. Gold chains wrapped around his ankle and up his frame, covering every inch. Blood coated multiple areas on his body, but it was smeared so I couldn’t see where they originated or how badly he’d been cut up.

Tanner and Beckett each gripped an arm and dragged him through the pebbles.

“Do I have no say in this?” I sputtered as they made their way toward the back of the house.

An arm banded around my stomach, and my back pressed into a chest.

“That video was unpleasant,” Elliot murmured into my hair. “They need this.”

I sank my teeth into my lip and took a moment to think. He’d messed me up pretty badly, and not just that . . . Beckett and Tanner had seen the aftereffects. Their reactions as they cradled me remained ingrained in my memory. Traumatizing for sure, and I understood just how much after Beckett died.

I huffed and crossed my arms. “Fine, but no killing!” I shouted before mumbling, “There’s been enough killing.”

This seemed like a ‘them’ thing, so I trudged toward the house. I turned and saw that Elliot wasn’t following. “Where are you going?”

“To watch the show,” Elliot called.

I tipped my head back to stare at the stars. Save me from these males .

Now that we’d decided to stay here, there was a lot to do, and the first order of business was unpacking. I tightened the sash around my waist and got to work organizing the boxes that had arrived. Not everything of theirs had gotten here yet, just what we’d managed to pack and bring with us on the flight.

Ripping the tape off with my talon, a manila folder poked out. I flipped it open. The first page on top had a scrawled collection of symbols. Professor Lawrence’s documents. The list stating the names of the sold students. Helen’s name was scrawled at the bottom of the parchment. I shook my head and dropped it back in the box.

Backing up, I bumped into another package. Cardboard tipped over and a collection of wires and a ton of shirts spilled out with a waft of cinnamon. One of them unraveled, and a bunch of my hair ties tumbled out.They’d randomly disappeared, and I’d thought I’d misplaced them.

But Beckett had hoarded them.

A smile twitched my lips.

Tanner still had things at his family estate, so there would be much more to rifle through. Everyone would have their own room, but we were getting the attic renovated into a shared bedroom. I liked the idea of having an exit to the roof, and the guys had seemed down with it when I’d brought it up on the flight.

While they were doing . . . whatever brand of torture they deemed fit . . . I decided to call Fox. I fished my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number of the agent in charge of the kids. The line rang as I sliced my pointer finger talon through the tape of another box. It popped open, unveiling a dragon stuffed animal.

“Hello?”

I cleared my throat of the emotion coating it and hugged the big plush dragon to my chest. “I’m calling to speak to Fox,” I said.

“Ms. Rios?”

I hummed my affirmative.

“One second.” After a bit of shuffling, there was a pssst .

“Maya,” Fox whispered. “I thought you would never call.”

I smiled and fixed my gaze on Lucian’s glass figurine in the antique cabinet. “Not an option. How are you guys, any luck finding your families?”

A slight pause and then, “No.”

He didn’t sound too torn up about it as he launched into the description of where he was staying. He was not a fan of bunk beds.

As the call wound down, I cleared my throat, and he went quiet. “If they can’t find your families, all of you are welcome to return.” I’d been turning that option around in my head for a while now.

“Thank you, Maya.”

I pretended not to hear the emotion in his words, and we ended the call. All of them were good kids and they didn’t deserve this crappy adult world we lived in. They should have been protected.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t see my guys in their situation. They’d been denied a stable environment. I hated that, but we were creating a new normal for all of us. A happily ever after that worked.

Wait a minute. My phone thumped onto the ground. Kids . . .

Enzo walked in with his shirt drenched in blood. “We told you we would handle the boxes.” Exasperation spilled from him. His words rushed through my ears, but I couldn’t fully grasp them.

Kids . . .

Another thud from my heart wracked my chest.

“Maya?” More muffled voices and a hand waved in front of my face. Beckett crouched to look into my eyes.

“She seems out of it.”

“Shake her or something.”

Hands settled on my shoulders, and I sucked in a ragged breath.

“Can I get pregnant?” I squeaked the last bit. “Oh, shit, I can. You guys are my mates. Oh, my fucking god. I’m not ready for a kid. What am I going to do?—”

Beckett pulled me to his chest.

“Maya, breathe.” Tanner patted my head. Each lulling rub brought the frantic pace of my heartbeat down.

“I’m sure contraceptives work for us. But I am not going to lie to you; I never looked into this because I never considered becoming, uh, a father.” Tanner rubbed the back of his neck. “But we will figure it out—together.”

I nodded unsteadily, and my breathing evened out. Yes, we would figure it out; I wasn’t alone. The plush had been squashed between our chests so I wiggled free.

“I’ll reach out to the UB to ask about this,” Tanner added.

“Okay.” My brain crept out of panic mode with his assurance. The UB . . . I needed to discuss what I’d decided. I’d been anxious about bringing it up all day, but I needed to get it out before I combusted. “About the UB.”

“You decided to go to the training school?” Elliot asked.

I glared at Enzo. Snitch.

Tanner and Beckett studied me expectantly.

So, they all knew.

I wanted to do more, and school wasn’t cutting it for me right now. I wanted to fight and train and help people now that I could.

I rolled my lips in between my teeth and nodded.

I snuck out of the house with an ax swinging at my side. The large dragon remained chained, but was exceptionally bloodier and a missing finger. Likely in honor of me. I huffed and wiggled the hand missing my pinky. I’d kind of just . . . forgotten about it.

Sprawled on his back, his hands and feet were driven into the ground with gold stakes. I winced. That looked painful.

My steps crushed the dried grass and he jerked, head lolling toward me. He started, and a sob wracked his big body. Such a big baby. The fucker didn’t seem so tough anymore.

Blood pooled under his limp, trembling body. His face was unrecognizable.

They fucked him up.

Purity had once said Enzo tortured her. I mean, he could be cruel, but this meticulousness was psychotic. And it really shouldn’t make me hot.

The dragon’s breathing overpowered the rustling sound of the treetops.

I scoffed and shook my head. Enzo had carved “Enzo’s bitch” into the guy’s belly, right above his dick.

White shone from his eyes as they darted all over the place. He squeezed them shut as I swung the ax over my head and brought it down on the chains. His abrupt scream cut out, and he whimpered.

Oh shit, I’d nicked him a bit. I winced and waved my hand to get him quiet. “Shut up,” I hissed. I could have done that with my hands, but the man beat me to pulp so I wanted a tiny bit of revenge of my own. He still didn’t move from his frozen, cinched position.

I placed the head of the ax on the ground and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to open his eyes.

“Are you going to leave, or . . .”

Awareness sparked in his eyes, and he sprang upright, shoving the ruptured gold chains off while he dragged himself backwards. He shifted slowly and pitifully, but soon he was full dragon and catapulting into the air, frantically beating his torn wings.

I scratched my eyebrow. Enzo thought of everything, didn’t he.