Aimee shook her head. “No. It never mattered to me that he was Lykos Katagaria. Though I didn’t want to admit it, I lost myself to that face the first day I saw him. But it scared me how others – and in particular, my mother – would react to our union. And it terrifies me what they might do to our young once they’re here. My mate comes with some rather scary enemies. And not just in our community.” She cast her gaze to her massively large brothers. “But the good news is, I come from a scary, over-bearing family.”
She laughed at the bad pun. Then turned serious as she remembered why she was so harsh against the Katagaria. Those memories still woke her up at night with terrors that never faded. “But you never had the Katagaria tear apart your family, either.”
The anger returned to Aimee’s eyes. “No. I watched my older brothers and parents be viciously slaughtered because of lying Arcadian bastards and their needless hatred and intolerance for their Katagaria brethren… and my brothers they slew were Arcadian. But they didn’t want to believe it… Honestly? I’d rather lie down with the animals at night. From my experience, they’re a lot less likely to go for my throat than their human counterparts.”
Seraphina swept her gaze around the small group gathered on the third floor of Sanctuary as they prepped a rescue for her children.
Different species.
Katagaria and Arcadian.
All working together to save two teens they’d never met and knew nothing about. Each prepared to bleed and die for them.
She couldn’t fathom it, and she knew in her heart that her tribe would never do something like this to save strangers, especially Katagaria children.
Aimee had a vicious point.
Not wanting to think about it, she was just about to take a drink when three more wolves came up the stairs to join their raiding party, leading an attractive human female… each of them carried a small child in their arms. Three boys and one girl, ranging in ages from about a year old to around six or so. But then given the fact they were Were-Hunters, the children could be older than that. Unlike their Apollite cousins and humans, Were-Hunters aged much slower, and what might appear to be a six-year-old Arcadian Were could easily be as old as ten or even eleven or twelve.
Sound asleep, the babies were nestled in the arms of the adults.
Fang came over immediately to take the girl from the sole human. “What are you guys doing here?”
The human kissed his cheek. “Like big brother would let you face this alone. Or leave me by myself at the house with an imminent threat of any kind, even though I’ve got two packs of wolves denned in every house in and around my block? Get real. This is a blood alert, so here we are until it’s cleared and everything’s safe and quiet.”
Fang laughed. “Well, I’m glad to see you. Maybe you can talk Aimee into going to bed. She’s not listening to me and she’s been up for almost twenty hours straight.”
Tsking, the human walked over and hugged Aimee. “What have I told you about resting those puppies?”
“I know. I know. I was going to bed when all this happened. It’s hard to sleep when my family is up here planning to go break badass on a horde of Sumerian demons who were created to eat gods for fun.”
The female wolf who held a small infant boy had the same chiding expression on her face. “You need to rest, Aims. C’mon. Let’s put these pups to bed and Bride can ride herd on you for a few hours.” She handed the infant in her arms to Aimee, then took the girl from Fang. “I’ll be back in a few to gear up for battle.”
Fang kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Lia.”
Seraphina froze as the small group drew near her. The voluptuous, auburn-haired human offered her a kind smile. “I’m Bride Kattalakis. Fang’s sister-in-law and mate to his brother Vane, the dark-haired cutie next to him.” She brushed her hand over the head of the sleeping eldest boy. “This is our son, Trace, and the girl is our daughter, Trinity.”
Seraphina inclined her head to her. “Nice meeting you.”
“You, too.”
The female wolf had a strange hair color that was white-blond at the roots and slowly darkened to black at the ends. Her brown eyes were every bit as friendly. “I’m their brother Fury’s mate, Angelia. Call me, Lia, though, everyone does… The two younger boys are ours. Asher is the older, blond one, and the dark-haired baby is Ryan.”
She must have had a peculiar expression on her face because the next second, Lia laughed. “Yes, I know. Fury and Fang are Katagaria. Vane and I are both Arcadian Sentinels. And all the children are Arcadian… so far. But since both Vane and Fury changed their base forms during puberty, we’re waiting to see if the kids remain Arcadian or switch in a few years.”
Her eyes widened. “They can do that?”
Aimee laughed. “Yes. We can when we have mixed parentage. I started out as a cub and switched myself.”
Now that was something Seraphina had never known about or considered. Could that have happened to one of her children? Edena had been acting very peculiar and secretive. Seraphina had foolishly thought it might stem from a crush on a male she didn’t care for. But that might explain some of her daughter’s more irrational behavior…