Chapter Sixty-Five: Briar

“How is that even possible?” Lilliet didn’t seem upset as she screeched the words, but she was definitely taken entirely by surprise. Briar opened her mouth to reply, but the tiny, obviously distressed, ball of energy in front of her didn’t give her a chance to say a word. “Everyone said that Cara almost killed you when Alpha Theon found out that you were his mate. And that he rejected you for her.”

“Except now no one has seen him in days. And there’s a pack meeting tonight, with some sort of celebration planned after it, and Patty stopped by yesterday and said that Mom and I better both be there to work it, and when I tried to tell her what had happened she cut me off and said that she didn’t want to hear any excuses, that Mom could have a broken leg but she still better be there.”

“Slow down, Lilli.” Briar pulled her sister into another hug and squeezed her tight, wishing she could make the entire situation better for Lilliet then and there. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. But I’ll explain as much as I can. I think it would be better if we took this inside though.” She couldn’t help but notice her mate’s nervous gaze sweeping back and forth through the forest on either side of the house.

Torin said a few words to the two men who had come with them, and they immediately nodded and turned, disappearing into the woods in separate directions.

Ten minutes later Torin was still pacing, checking out each of the windows as if he expected a team of the pack’s warriors to shatter the fragile glass as they flew into the small space, tearing Briar from his arms and leaving him entirely bereft. In the small kitchen, at a battered, but clean table, Briar sat close beside her sister, having explained most of what had happened to her since she had been gone.

“Once I heard from you, I came straight back. But what is it that we’re supposed to do now? They wanted me home and I’m here. How do we know what we’re supposed to do now, to get mom back?”

“We aren’t going to do anything on their terms,” Torin interrupted the conversation for the first time, his eyes focused firmly on his mate. “We’re going to get your mother back, but there’s no way I’m handing you over to whoever it is that wants you back here. No way in Hell.”

Briar was tempted to smile at her mate, but she couldn’t manage it, with thoughts of what her mother might be going through flashing through her mind.

“I have a feeling they’ll come to us soon.” Torin’s voice was deep and he sounded more threatening than he usually did as he spoke, but Briar knew instinctively that any threat her mate posed wouldn’t be directed at her or her sister.

“What should we do? How can we get ready?” Briar’s eyes widened as Torin’s words sunk in, and for a moment she was tempted to haul her sister to the car and get her out of there as quickly as she could. But she couldn’t leave her mom behind. None of this would have happened if she hadn’t been mated to Theon, or at least, it wouldn’t have involved her family.

“We are ready. My friends and I are fully capable of protecting the two of you, and I have every intention of getting your mother out of here. But I need the two of you to listen to me when this goes down. I don’t need to be distracted by worrying that either of you is going to put yourselves in danger trying to save the day. Promise me.”

Briar and Lilli both murmured promises, and Torin nodded before returning to the window.

“This isn’t your fault.” Torin said the words so that she could hear them, even though he wasn’t looking in her direction.

“Reading my thoughts?” Briar’s voice was so soft that at first she wasn’t sure if she’d spoken loud enough to be heard.

“I don’t need to be able to read your thoughts when they’re practically written across your face.” Torin crossed the room to stand before Briar, lifting one hand to cup her cheek lightly, as he stared down at her. “I’m going to fix this for you, Wolfling. We’re going to figure out who’s doing this and put an end to it, once and for all. The leadership in this pack has crossed too many lines. They’ve hurt both their own members and other shifters, and I’m going to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

The door burst open before Briar could even think of response for Torin’s little speech, and in a flash Torin was in front of Briar, pushing her behind him and blocking her from the eyeline of the entryway, in case whoever had come into the little house had bad intentions.

“It’s just me. Miles has eyes on a large building, two miles west of here. He says it looks like their setting up for some sort of festival outside. But since he’s been there he’s seen two women being taken into the building who definitely didn’t look happy to be there.”

Briar had stepped out from behind her tall mate when she’d realized who was standing in the doorway and his eyes turned towards her, the corner of his mouth turning downward as he studied her for a long moment. “Is this your only sister? Because Miles passed on that one of the two women who was brought by looked a lot like you. He thought you could be twins.”

Briar paled at the news and was thankful when she felt Torin wrap an arm around her waist, worried that she might faint.

“What color was the other woman’s hair? The one who doesn’t look like Briar?” Lilliet asked the question in a soft voice, not meeting the large bear-shifter’s eyes as she spoke. He held up one hand as his eyes glazed over, obviously communicating with Miles. After ten seconds of silence he opened his mouth to speak.

“Dirty blonde, maybe just a bit lighter than yours.”

Lilliet’s face fell and she turned to look at Briar with tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.

“Mom. You know it’s mom.” Briar nodded, opening her arms and gathering her younger sister up as if Lilli wasn’t nearly the same height as her older sister. Lilli pulled away from Briar, turning to Torin, after scrubbing at her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Please save her. She’s done everything for us. And she never complains. Please bring back my mom.”

Torin nodded, his eyes meeting Lilli’s tearful gaze before turning to his mate. “This ends today. Now that we have a location, we can move. Warren I need you to stay here with Briar and Lilli. If anything happens, and you can’t handle it, let me know and I’ll come back. But I’m going to go meet up with Miles and find out who’s behind this. I’m going to put an end to them and make sure the prisoners get out of here in one piece. Understood?”

“I’ve got it. These two are safe with me.”

Torin pulled Briar into his arms and kissed her softly, before pulling back and staring down at her face.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Listen to Warren. If he says to run or hide, I need you to listen to him. I don’t expect trouble, or I wouldn’t be leaving you here, but Warren is one of my kind’s best warriors and he’s a great friend. I know that he can keep you safe. Okay Wolfling?”

Briar nodded and Torin kissed her forehead lightly, before turning and walking out the door.

“You feel like anything’s off, tell me and I’ll get here. She’s my world.”

“They’ll be fine. You go. I’ll guard them as if she was my own mate. Focus on your mission and I’ll see you when you get back.”

With that Torin turned and disappeared out the front door, closing it softly behind him. Briar continued to stare at the place where she’d last seen him for a long moment, a strange feeling unfurling in her stomach.

“I want you two to go upstairs. Stay away from the windows. Hopefully Torin’s right and we won’t see any trouble out this way, but whoever is after you has already kidnapped two women. Who knows what else he’s capable of, and I sure as Hell don’t want to find out. Torin won’t be long. There’s no way he’ll be able to stay away from you for more than an hour, with the link between you so new. I give him thirty minutes. Now go try and get some rest. I’ll let you know if I hear anything from him.”