Chains by Kristine Allen

“Remedy”—Seether

Islept like shit that night. How the hell was I supposed to sleep when there was a possibility my daughter was a freaking wolf? I didn’t understand how that could be possible. I wasn’t a shifter; Nico wasn’t a shifter. It was crazy, wasn’t it?

My mother’s family were Native American, and my father’s half was part Native American, but part God only knew. I’d grown up knowing there were a lot of things in the world that couldn’t be simply explained. But the thought that two humans—though gifted—could give birth to a shifter? Insane.

Half asleep, I was going around and gathering everything I needed to bring with me for the day. I hated having to drag it all to the clubhouse, but I made a promise. Now that they had put that worry in my head, I was more than happy to be somewhere with other people while Nico was at work.

“I put the playpen in the back of the SUV,” Nico said as he stood in the doorway. His fingertips hooked the doorframe, and a sliver of his sexy inked abs peeked from under his shirt.

“Stop tempting me, or neither of us is going anywhere today,” I said with a mischievous smirk.

He snorted but dropped his arms. “You about ready?”

“As ready as I will be. How long do you think this is going to be the norm?”

“Hopefully not long.” He looked uncomfortable for a moment, and I narrowed my gaze at him.

“What aren’t you telling me?” As if our daughter possibly being a shifter or having wolf traits wasn’t enough.

At first, he looked like he was going to deny that he knew something I didn’t. Then he sighed. “Voodoo thinks that maybe the wolf is symbolic of your father. With what Sabre said, I don’t know what to think now.”

A sharp inhale was followed by a shaky exhale as I shot him a worried gaze. “But how can that be? You drew a wolf innumerable times. It never seemed to be a threat.”

“I’m not sure. Madame Laveaux is talking about coming for a visit to see Parker next week. Voodoo’s going to see if she can get a better read. Until we know more, try not to worry.”

A wry chuckle escaped my lips. “That’s easier said than done. So how long do you think it will be before she moves up here? She’s been up once a month since that baby was born.”

With a smile, Nico shook his head. “No clue. She says she can’t stand the cold here and that she would miss her home in the swamp, but I think it’s a matter of time.”

Nico grabbed the diaper bag and my laptop bag, and I followed him out the door with Ehria snuggled into me. He placed them in the SUV, and his hand wrapped around the back of my neck. Having him touch me never got old. The kiss he gave me was so full of promise that I was tempted to tell him he better cancel his appointments.

He broke away, and I leaned toward him with a sigh. He chuckled and nipped my lower lip before giving me one last chaste kiss. Ehria was pulling at his cut the entire time.

“See you at the clubhouse tonight when I get off,” he said as he kissed our daughter on the head and went to his bike parked next to the Range Rover he’d insisted on getting months ago. He was too handsome for his own good, and I sighed at the sight of him as he straddled the seat and slipped his sunglasses on. I wished he’d wear a helmet year-round.

Then I cleared my head and set Ehria in her car seat before I climbed behind the wheel. When I started the vehicle, Nico backed out and started down the road.

Before I could back out, I realized I’d forgotten Ehria’s blanket. She’d never nap without it. “Shit,” I murmured, putting the car in park again.

Not wanting to leave Ehria in the vehicle unattended, I quickly unbuckled her and rushed up to the house. I entered the code, went inside, and grabbed her blankie off the couch. She snuggled it as soon as I tossed it over my shoulder between me and her cheek.

“That’s better, huh?” I said with a soft smile.

When I locked the door again and rushed toward the car, I stopped short with a shriek. “Oh my gosh! You scared me! Can I help you with something?” I asked the woman standing in my driveway.

For a moment, she simply stared at Ehria, then she met my gaze and pulled out a gun. My heart stopped, and I struggled to find a breath.

“Give her to me,” she quietly demanded. Terrified, I hesitated. The metallic slide and click of the round being chambered got my attention really quick.

“You can’t take my baby. Please,” I begged as tears welled in my eyes and I stared at the gun. Ehria grabbed my hair as if she knew something wasn’t right.

“I said, give her to me.” Her hard dark eyes bored into me, and I shivered. Then they flashed silver, and I froze.

“What was that?” I whispered in shock, but she ignored me.

“You have no idea what you’re doing. She must come with me. If you want her and her father to stay safe, give her to me,” she demanded in a harsh whisper. My mind was spinning, trying to think of something to stall her until maybe Nico realized I wasn’t behind him or someone drove past.

“Take me with you. She’s only four months old, and she’s still breastfeeding. She needs me. Once she’s older, you can send me away, kill me, whatever, but please don’t take her from me now,” I pleaded. Anything to buy me time.

Indecision warred on her face. Finally, she glanced around and motioned for me to move. When I stopped at the SUV Nico had bought and insisted I drive, she snapped, “No! The car over there.”

Fear shot through me as I glanced at the car parked the wrong way in front of my house. I thought if we took the SUV, we stood a chance of Nico finding us because I knew it had a location program on it. Now all I had was my phone, and if it died, we were well and truly fucked.

“Buckle her in, then you drive,” she demanded. “Hurry.”

With shaking hands I buckled Ehria into the car seat. Worried it didn’t fit her properly, I hesitated.

“Get. In.” The woman was losing patience, and I didn’t want to give her a reason to change her mind, so I quickly got behind the wheel. She got in the back seat next to my daughter. It made my heart stutter. There was an apple core in the cup holder. Thinking quickly, I grabbed it with my right hand as I turned in the seat.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I switched it to my left hand.

“Turn around and drive!” she barked.

Doing as she said, I tossed the apple out the door and into my yard by the driveway. I had no idea if Nico would see it or if an animal would run off with it first. I had to do something, though.

“How did you get into the neighborhood?” I asked as I pulled away from the curb. At one time, I might’ve been a trembling mess of panic and uselessness. Thanks to my ongoing counseling, my beautiful daughter, and Nico’s support, I was stronger than the woman I’d been a year ago. That didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified; I was just better at holding my shit together.

She ignored me, and I cast a glance in the rearview mirror. What I saw stunned me. The woman was staring at my daughter with awe and tears shimmering in her dark brown eyes.

“Please don’t hurt her,” I whispered.

At my plea, the woman looked up, and our eyes met in the mirror. With an almost regretful expression, she sighed. “It’s not me you need to worry about.”

I was afraid of what she meant by that.

When we left the neighborhood, I noticed the car we were in had one of our neighborhood scanners that opened the gates for us. The woman either lived in the neighborhood, or she’d stolen the car. The strip was made to separate if removed, so she couldn’t have stolen it from another vehicle.

Shit, what if the apple belonged to one of our neighbors because this was their car?

She instructed me on where to drive. My heart bottomed out as the miles slipped away. My phone vibrated in my back pocket over and over. Thankfully, with the sounds of the road, she didn’t hear it. I prayed Nico and the club would be coming for us soon.

As the miles slipped away, I began to lose hope as each glance in the rearview mirror didn’t show the cavalry coming to the rescue. My old anxiety and insecurities clawed at my throat. Then I thought of the sweet little girl in the back seat relying on me and took a deep, grounding inhale.

“How much further?” I asked when we’d been on the road for three hours and were closing in on Minneapolis.

“It doesn’t matter,” the woman murmured.

“Well, it does, because Ehria will be waking up soon to eat,” I said as my breasts tingled and ached, signaling my milk coming down.

At the mention of my daughter’s name, the woman gasped, and I noticed her eyes go wide in the mirror.

“E-Ehria?” she stammered.

Thinking I may have hit a sympathetic nerve by giving my daughter a name, hope bloomed in my chest. “Yes. Ehria Angeline. We named her after her father’s mother and my mother.”

A tear ran down her face, and she took a shuddering breath. A delicate hand covered her mouth as she looked out the window and sniffled.

“Ma’am?” I asked her when she didn’t answer me about stopping.

“We’ll be stopping soon,” she said in a tone that sounded choked up.

Heart hammering, I continued to drive until she spoke up again.

“Take the next exit, then take a right.”

Driving with an unknown destination was nerve-racking, but knowing we could be nearing the end of the journey with an unknown future might’ve been worse. I followed her directions until I stopped at a gas station. I thought we were gassing up, but she told me to pull around back.

“Get out,” she told me. “You can come back here to feed her.”

Glancing around, I didn’t see a soul that could help. Resigned, I got in the back seat and unbuckled my daughter, who was waking up. When I lifted her from the seat, she arched her back, pulled her legs up, and stretched her arms by her head. Then she blinked her big green-gold eyes sleepily as she smiled.

“Hey, baby girl. Mommy’s here,” I said as I snuggled her close and inhaled her perfect scent. Trying to ignore the stranger sitting on the other side of the infant seat, I unbuttoned my shirt and lifted my sports bra with one hand to feed my suddenly ravenous daughter. When I didn’t move fast enough, she growled as her fingers clasped my shirt. I jumped at the sound.

The woman chuckled.

“She’s demanding, isn’t she?”

“Who are you?” I asked. I’d been afraid to ask before, but she had let me go with and was letting me feed my daughter. Maybe she had a heart after all.

“It doesn’t really matter,” she murmured with the corners of her mouth downturned.

Ehria had barely finished burping when a silver Tahoe with dark tinted windows pulled up next to us. I rushed to situate myself.

“Stay here. Do not get out,” she commanded as she opened the door and climbed out.

She rounded the car, and a man got out. They began speaking, and it was obvious from his expression and body language that he wasn’t happy. A second man joined them, and I guessed he was the driver.

“What the fuck is she doing in there?” I could hear him demand through the glass.

The woman rapidly gestured to me, then to the other man, but she spoke quieter than the second man so I had no idea what was being said. Finally, the first man shook his head and rounded the car. He jerked open the door and unfastened the child seat. Protectively, I held Ehria close. The man glared at me but didn’t speak.

My door opened, and I squeaked.

“Get in the SUV with your daughter, and do not speak or they will leave you behind—and you won’t be breathing,” the woman said to me with a brief flash of fear in her eyes.

Afraid, I did as she instructed and climbed in to buckle Ehria back in. The second man slammed my door shut, and I had to pull my leg quickly out of the way to avoid it being smashed. The woman climbed in the other side of the back seat. I watched as the men wiped down the vehicle we’d ridden in, telling me I was correct, and it had likely been stolen.

Neither of the men so much as looked at me when they got back in the vehicle. We got back on the road and continued North. After about an hour, I fell asleep with my hand resting protectively over the infant seat.

I jolted awake when the vehicle bounced on an uneven road. Confusion in my half-asleep state had me glancing around without comprehending what I was seeing. Finally, I realized we were deep in the woods. We pulled into a long metal building that had several other vehicles exactly like the one we were in and parked.

“We’re here,” she said as they shut off the motor.

“Where?” I asked.

“Shut up!” the driver demanded. “Do not speak unless spoken to. You do not question anything. You don’t so much as whimper unless told to,” he said with a sneer.

Asshole.

Grinding my teeth, I fought saying it out loud.

“Gather your daughter,” the woman softly instructed.

Not needing to be told twice, I did as she said and got out of the vehicle on stiff legs. Ehria woke and rubbed her eyes before she looked at me with a smile. She was such a happy baby, and I’d been so blessed. I prayed I got to remain in her life as long as possible.

Oh Nico, where are you?

We exited the building, and a group of people approached us. The silver-haired man in the center seemed to be in charge as he stepped forward, and the rest stayed behind him. Some seemed surprised, others angry, and the rest wary as they stared at me and the woman.

“Ehria! What is the meaning of this?” the leader roared, and I frowned in confusion as I glanced down at my daughter. What the hell did he expect a four-month-old to fucking say?

“The infant is still feeding from her mother. She needs her until she can be weaned,” the woman said. Time seemed to slow as the pieces clicked in place. The woman was named Ehria. The look on her face when I told her my daughter’s name.

Holy shit. She was Nico’s mother.