You Wouldn't Dare (Khaos Trilogy Book 1), стр. 92
“Ye-es,” I drawled slowly, staring at them both suspiciously. “What’s going on here? Why do you both look so shifty?”
“Nonsense, darling. We’re just shocked is all. Come here and give your old man a cuddle.” My dad extended his arms out to me and I fell into them, instantly warmed by the familiar scent and feel of him.
The minute my arms locked around his waist, he shoved me away from him, hard enough that I stumbled against the table in the hallway.
“Christopher!” My mother snapped. “What on Earth are you playing at?”
“Smell her,” my dad demanded, looking as though he had seen a ghost.
“I most certainly shall not. A month shacked up with that creature, the Goddess only knows what stench is clinging to her! Have you absolutely lost your mind?”
“Amanda,” He gritted his teeth, “smell. Her.”
My mother inhaled deeply, stepping back slightly with a gasp as she exchanged a glance with my dad. Slowly, she turned back towards me, her eyes burning with a rage I had never before seen on her face. I hadn’t even realised she was capable of that sort of emotion. Something was seriously, seriously wrong here.
“Khaos,” I called over the bond. “Khaos this was a bad idea. Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
“Pregnant?!” My mother screamed, loud enough to make me wince. “Pregnant! No! Oh, no! No! No! No!” She looked at me as though she wanted to hit me and then spun around, pulling on her hair in frustration.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that the hairdresser wouldn’t be pleased with her ruining her extensions, but her next action had me holding my tongue.
Her priceless vase went hurling down onto the tiled floor, her family heirloom picture was snapped in two, the phone table pushed to the floor and stomped on.
I took two steps backwards, my hand reaching behind me to find the doorknob. I had to get out of here.
“Are you fucking insane?” My eyes bulged from their sockets at my mother’s profanity. She mumbled under her breath, pulling at her hair once more. She seemed so close to the edge of insanity that I was genuinely growing more and more frightened of her.
Her head snapped up at the sound of the door clicking open. Her hand snaked out to snap around my wrist.
“Violet!” She hissed, her eyes swirling with hysteria. “The apple never falls far from the tree.” She spoke as though she was in a trance, every syllable elongated and vicious. “Trust us. We’ve seen it. We cannot allow this to continue. We cannot let another generation roam this earth knowing what we do.” She nodded to my dad, who immediately grabbed me, pinning my arms to my sides, and picked me up in his firm grip.
“The basement, Chris. The basement,” my mother mumbled. “We’ll get her out of here. We’ll put a stop to this. She can stay with my sister in Ireland. Where Khaos can’t find her. We’ll put an end to this.” I screamed as I was dragged down the dark steps, trying in vain to kick at my dad’s shins.
“Think of the baby,” I pleaded as I was thrown into a dingy cell.
My mother let out a frightening laugh, “the baby is all we’re thinking of. We must destroy it. Such evil should never have been created. Such evil should be stopped before it destroys everything.”
The door slammed shut and away they both went, my dad practically carrying my hysterical mother out of the room as she wept for her reputation, her pure family blood-line and everything else she blamed the baby for stealing from her.
Shit.
Don’t panic, Violet, do not panic.
Khaos
I fell to my knees as soon as I entered the pack grounds.
There was nothing left.
Nothing but burning piles of embers as every structure was burned to the ground and huge piles of rubble from the explosions. There were bodies everywhere, some wolves, some humans, some a grotesque mix of both.
Nothing, nothing in my wildest dreams would have ever prepared me for this. I crawled across the rubble of my packhouse, looking for any sign of life.
Please, Goddess, please. I prayed, not knowing what it was I was praying for.
I wanted to see some sign that someone had survived this, but at the same time hoping that if anyone had managed to survive, they had gotten the hell out of here long before I returned.
Above all else, I hoped so desperately that no-one had used the one room I wanted to find above all others. My wolf howled his anguish, screaming out, warning me we were in danger, but I ignored him as I pushed on in my search.
It didn’t take me long. The door to the safe room was unmistakable. I saw the small bodies, the mothers with the vials of poison still on their necks. The babies were in their mother’s arms, but it was obvious that they had been placed there after the deaths had taken place – someone had survived and gotten out of here.
Tears pooled in my eyes as I saw the children I had loved so fiercely, the ones I had tried so hard to protect.
In the end, it hadn’t been enough. It was never enough.
I wasn’t enough.
I had failed them, just like I had failed every other wolf in my pack.
There was nothing left.
Before I had time to fully process what I was seeing, I heard the calling that chilled my very bones.
“Khaos!” Violet shouted over the bond, “can you hear me?”
I shot to my feet, ready to