Capture

“Xander University,” the voice repeated.

My breath came out in small pants, and I was sure the person on the other end of the phone could hear me.

“Madeline, I know it’s you,” the voice said.

I dropped to my knees.

~Why would Darren do this? I thought he was fighting against the dragon slayers, not with them?~

I stared down the hall toward Loch’s bedroom, hoping my mates didn’t wake up. Praying my panic wouldn’t leak into their dreams.

“Are you ready to comply, Madeline? Ready to surrender? We need you. The prophecy demands it.”

~Fuck. They know about the prophecy. The one thing Loch and Hael still had in their back pocket.~

“I can hear you breathing, my daughter.” Xander. It couldn’t be anyone else.

After all this time, wondering for so many years, I finally knew who my family was. And they wanted my mates and me dead.

“Are you with them right now?” Xander asked. “Did you satisfy their needs? Or are you hiding from them, looking for a way out?”

I shook my head, unable to say anything in reply.

“Daughter, you belong with me. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come for you myself, rescue you from those monsters.”

“You are not my father,” I whispered into the phone, my voice full of hate. “You had no reason to leave me on the streets the way you did. I saw the way you live, the way Mason lives. You could have raised me too, but you chose not to.”

“You stupid girl,” he growled with annoyance. “As soon as you could mimic sounds, your mother and I knew the power you possessed. You hummed nonstop, trying to manipulate us into giving in to your demands.

“We knew, even then, that you were the one the prophecy foretold. ‘If the brothers unearth their siren’s song, their enemy’s downfall begins with the father.’

“Do you really think we’d let you stay with us knowing you would be the downfall of all we worked for?”

I clenched the phone tighter in my hand. I wanted to move, to wake my mates, but I was glued to the floor, waiting for the answers only Xander could give me.

“I was a child, barely out of diapers. How much of a threat could I be to you?”

“You don’t know your power, do you? The control you can wield over others—it’s immense. I can teach you to harness that power, to use it for good.”

I shook my head. “You mean use it against my mates.”

“Of course that’s what I mean. We were wrong to send you away like we did. We should have raised you ourselves, but we were scared.”

I scoffed. The big, bad dragon slayer afraid of a toddler? As if. “If you were so scared, why didn’t you just kill me? Why drop me off at the residential center?”

“I wanted to.” His voice was cold, and I shivered in the empty living room. “But your mother fought me on it. Then one day, you were gone. She’d taken you away, refusing to tell me where she’d placed you.

“I’m not proud of it, but I’m a different man now. Haven’t I proven that? After all, I revoked your execution order once I realized who you were.”

The old man’s voice was disarmingly genuine. Tears came to my eyes.

He did tell Nautica not to kill me, but was that what he really wanted? Or did he only want to keep me alive until he captured my mates and forced them to watch me die?

A loud snore from Loch’s bedroom reminded me that I was on borrowed time. I needed to get back to my mates before they woke up.

“What do you want from me?”

“Your mates.” His answer was firm, like he’d been waiting for me to ask the question.

“I don’t want them to die,” I whispered.

My breath stopped at this admission. Was it true? After everything I’d been through, did I really want my mates to live?

I thought of Loch’s ever-present sneer. Hael’s serious-yet-bored expression. Their hands on my body, their cocks filling me up. Hell, even the way they called me ~little mouse~, infused with both affection and exasperation.

No, I didn’t want them to die. And it wasn’t the brand influencing me. It was me.

“I refuse to let you kill them,” I said, my voice much firmer than before.

His chuckle echoed in my ear. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, daughter.”

With that, he hung up our call.

I knelt there, naked, the phone dangling from my fingers. I didn’t know what to do.

If I woke my mates and told them about the phone call, they would immediately seek out Xander and put themselves at risk. But if I didn’t tell them, the danger was still there, waiting like a guillotine poised to be released.

I returned to the bedroom, where my mates still slept soundly. I stared at their perfect naked bodies. They were too arrogant and pigheaded to respect me as their equal. To give me a shred of freedom.

But they also saw me as more than a thief. More than a street rat.

Yes, they wanted me for the sexual pleasure I could give them, but it was more than that. I had to believe it.

My brand burned, and I felt a pulse leading me back to bed, back to their arms.

Loch stirred as I stared at them both, his eyelashes fluttering against his pale cheeks.

No, I needed more time to think. To know, deep inside, what to do next.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth in song. My eyes filled with tears, and my heart ached.

I didn’t want to do this, but I had to. For my future. I would never know where I truly belonged if I wasn’t given the time and space to figure it out.

Ignoring my pulsing brand, I began to hum a melody. I sang wordlessly, the notes rising and falling in haunting tones.

Loch’s and Hael’s snores were replaced by long, shallow breaths. Their bodies went limp. Part of me enjoyed controlling them. Seeing them so vulnerable. But another part of me felt terrible. Once again, I was betraying my mates.

I turned away from them and roamed the hall, looking for a closet with clothes that would fit me. I found the closet from my first night at the penthouse when I was just sixteen.

There was a soft, velour sweat suit with matching running shoes. I put it on and thought about my next steps. Should I seek out Harry and Darshan? Or maybe Thea and Zayda?

Harry and Darshan would be the safer choice as they were farther removed from this situation.

With a plan in place, I made my way to the front door, eager to see my friends again and gain perspective on my situation.

I opened the door, only to be met by Nautica.

I blinked in surprise, not understanding what was happening.

“Well, if it isn’t the dragons’ bitch, right where Xander said she’d be.”

Before I could think to run, he slapped a bracelet on my wrist, cuffed my wrists behind my back, and shoved a pillowcase over my head.

~Fuck. Not again.~

***

The ride back to Xander University was bumpy, like they wanted to stay off the paved roads.

By the time the pillowcase was finally removed from my head, the morning sun was already rising over Xander University. I was pulled from the car, but when I looked back, I could see two SUVs parking behind us.

Black-clad men exited the vehicles and opened the back doors. They reached in, and my breath caught as I watched them pull Loch and Hael from the backseat.

“No!” I cried out, horrified at the rough treatment my mates were going through.

Nautica pulled me forward, forcing me away from my mates. We walked through campus, and I realized he was taking me to Freesia’s Rock. Xander was already there waiting for us, surrounded by a small group of students. He beamed when he saw me.

“There she is! We’ve been waiting for you.”

I frowned. “We?”

“~Maddie~!”

I turned to see a scruffy young man run toward me. He engulfed me in a hug. He looked familiar, but no, it couldn’t be…

“Harry?”

“In the flesh. Darshan’s here too,” Harry said. “Yo, Darshan!”

Darshan felt his way over to us, whacking my shins a few times with his cane.

“I know you’re there, Maddie,” my blind friend said. “I’m just getting back at you for disappearing for a year!”

With a nod from Xander, Nautica removed the shackles from around my wrists.

As soon as I was free, I hugged Darshan tight. I couldn’t believe my best friends were here. It had been forever since I’d seen them, but it felt like nothing had changed.

Two young women came toward me next—Thea and Zayda. We shared a long and emotional hug.

“I thought having some friends here might win you over,” Xander said. “Harry, Darshan, Thea, and Zayda are here on full scholarships, just like you.”

I stared at my friends again. I knew this was a ploy to get me to be compliant.

Xander smirked at me, his eyes glinted behind his gold-framed spectacles.

~Damn him and his tricks.~

I would do anything for these four people, and he knew it.

Mason approached, eyes wet with tears.

“You’re…my sister?” he said carefully, testing the word. I looked at Xander, who nodded.

“Yeah,” I told him. “Must be why I keep fucking with you.”

Mason chuckled and gave me a big brotherly hug. Xander put a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off, not ready to play nice. Not until I knew what he had in store for my mates.

“Well, we’ve all had quite a long evening,” Xander said. “Girls, why don’t you show Madeline to her new accommodations? I think we all need some rest.”

“Amen to that,” joked Darshan. “I haven’t been able to keep my eyes open all night.”

My friends turned to go, but I lingered behind, facing Xander.

“Will I be able to see…~them~?”

With the bracelet on, I wasn’t able to feel anything from my brand. Were they waking up? Did they think I betrayed them? Would they believe me when—~if~—I told them I was tricked by Darren?

“I’m sure we can find some time…in the future,” Xander said. “But truthfully, Madeline, you will need to gain my trust. I need to know that you won’t attempt to free them from their bonds.”

He glanced at my friends behind me. “And I’m sure you wouldn’t want to do anything stupid to put anyone in…harm’s way.”

I nodded slowly. To keep my friends safe, I needed to stay away from my mates.

I swallowed down the bile that threatened to escape my throat.

I reached out to Loch and Hael through our mind-link, even knowing they wouldn’t be able to hear me.

“~Stay strong, my mates. I’ll get us out of here. I promise.~”