Chapter 24: 24 Why

Max

Lillian pushed the door open, those beautiful eyes searching the room furiously and slipping past me thanks to the magic that the witch accompanying me maintained. I looked at Seneca and whispered, “It’s Lillian.”

She inhaled carefully, obviously tracking my scent, getting closer to my location next to a pile of crates. “Max?” she asked into my mind like a whisper, her expression confused, and then her eyes widened as they caught on mine.

“I’ve extended the range of my protective spells,” Seneca explained. “No one should be able to hear us. Can’t keep it up too long though.”

Lillian rounded on him defensively as she became aware of his presence, but I intervened before she could do more than release a startled growl. “Professor Seneca’s a friend, Lillian. He got me in.”

With another assessing look, she disregarded him as a threat.

He looked away in an attempt at pretending not to be present.

Her eyes swung back to me, softening before hardening again. “What are you doing here, Max? I told you to leave.” It sounded like an accusation, which was jarring, because she’d never been so harsh back in Glenhaven, or even in Stonemason’s prison.

“I came here for you, of course. Did you really think I wouldn’t?”

“I told you not to look for me.”

“Did you really think that was enough for me to just give up on you? You’re my mate. I promised to find you, Lillian. And I did.”

She inhaled and closed her eyes. “You need to give up on me and leave.”

“Why?” Was she truly rejecting me after everything? My wolf whined at the thought. I didn’t know if I would survive it with my sanity intact.

“Because it’s dangerous. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. Now, you need to go.” Nervous eyes flicked towards the door of the storage room.

“I can’t leave you somewhere dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt. What is this place?”

She shook her head. “You don’t need to know. And it doesn’t matter. All you need to understand is that you can’t stay and I can’t leave.”

“Why can’t you leave? Don’t you want me anymore?” Now that I was prepared for it, even this painful dismissal did not entirely make me doubt what we had once had. She had loved me at one time, and it was deeper than the bond, even if something had happened to change that after she fled Stonemason. What had the years we had been separated done to her? The questions ached helplessly in my chest.

And maybe in hers as well, since she was on the verge of tears, her bottom lip trembling. I wanted to hold her, but I was afraid she’d reject that advance. “Of course I still want you. I’ll always want you. You’re my mate.”

“Then let me get you out of here. Seneca can get us out of here.” It wasn’t the plan, but I was willing to wing it.

“It’s not just about us.”

“Who else could it be about? That vampire who was with you?”

She scoffed and shook her head, disgusted. “Roderick? Of course not.”

“Is he compelling you?”

“No. It’s...it doesn’t matter. You have to leave, Max. It’s not safe.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t care about my safety. And why? Does this Roderick have your father?”

Her eyes widened. “How’d you know my father is here?”

“I know you and he were separated from your sister after you fled. And he’s the only other survivor I know of who I failed to locate while I searched for you.”

“Max, I’m so sorry you’ve had to look so hard. And for everything else.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked like she would throw herself into my arms, but she held herself back. I resisted the urge to close the short gap myself. We did have an audience, but it wasn’t Seneca who stopped me, instead it was her reluctance that stopped me from seeking that comfort.

“We can save him too, Lillian. Just tell me where he is.”

She shook her head. “He works here. It’s not like that.”

“Something isn’t adding up. I know you.”

“I can’t explain, Max. I need you to trust that I’m doing what needs to be done. I wish I could explain, but if I do...”

Screw her hesitancy. The only thing that would stop me from getting back my mate was if she didn’t want me, and she herself had said that was not the case. So I stepped forward and pulled her up against me, ignoring the witch who was still doing his best rendition of a piece of furniture. She didn’t fight me, she just rested her head on my shoulder, shoulders shaking and a flood of tears soaking my shirt again.

This place was cool, ostentatious, and it was nothing like my mate. She wouldn’t willingly choose to be in a place like this, so if she wasn’t being actively forced, she was being coerced.

“Lillian, I don’t know what’s holding you here, but I can’t fix it if I don’t know what it is. You have to tell me.”

“I can’t say.” More tears.

“You know no one can hear us like this. No one will ever know you told me. And you know that I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about.”

“Then...?” My mind spun through all the possible horrors that could be used to keep my mate in a place against her will, and my wolf growled in my mind.

She pulled back and looked into my eyes for a long moment. I was mesmerized by the warm depths I’d been deprived of so long, her delicate brows arched in concern, her soft lips...

“Montgomery has...”

She swallowed and I watched the movement of her graceful throat, before her shocking words registered in my slow mind.

“Our son.”

—————

Author’s Note:

I laughed when some of you called it in the flashback where she said she was really hungry, although she really was just hungry because Max was late. They made the baby right after that, just before the massacre. Because why wouldn’t it happen at the worst possible time? 😈

There’s a second post today.

Thanks for reading!