Chains by Kristine Allen

“Rise  Up”—Andra  Day

Everything that happened was a blur. I screamed and beat Phoenix’s back, demanding he put me down and go back for Nico. He’d been shot and there was a massive wolf attacking him, just like my dream.

Once we hit the building the vehicles were in, he tossed me in the silver SUV we’d arrived in, and I grabbed my daughter from Nico’s brother as he passed her in.

“Go get him!” I shrieked as I clutched a crying Ehria to my chest.

“Buckle her in and keep your head down!” Nico’s brother shouted at me as he jumped in the driver seat. Phoenix climbed in next, and the tires squealed as we drove forward as the garage door was still opening. We barely missed hitting it as the roof rack scraped the bottom of the door.

Hands shaking, I fumbled to buckle the straps over my daughter as she sobbed and fought. I wanted to look back to see what was happening, but at the moment, my daughter’s safety was paramount.

“Hang on!” Nico’s brother—I still didn’t know his name—shouted as several shots hit the glass, but it didn’t break. He plowed into a man pointing his gun at the windshield just as he shot again. The entire time, Ehria cried, and I tried to soothe her the best I could, but tears poured down my face.

“Bulletproof glass? Nice,” Phoenix muttered as he breathed heavy.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Phoenix?” I yelled at him. “You left your brother back there! Both of you!”

“Chill, Angel is there, and Ghost. But if we didn’t get you out of there, it would’ve been my ass.”

In shock, I fell back in the seat. “Angel is here?”

Phoenix nodded as he watched the road behind us. Clouds of dirt billowed as we tore down the drive toward the gate that was slowly rolling open.

Relief hit me at hearing my brother was there, but I hoped and prayed he got to Nico in time. I had no idea how many more people were there that they might have to fight off. What if it was too late? I knew there were limits to my brother’s abilities. Then I worried that the wolves I’d seen coming around the building would get to Ghost and Angel before they could help Nico.

Mind spinning, breath heaving, I leaned over to press soft kisses to my baby’s wet cheeks. She clutched my tangled hair as her cries lessened to whimpers.

“Yes. I know it was sooner than we anticipated and not the way we wanted it to happen!” I heard Nico’s brother shout, and I realized he was on the phone.

“Calm down, Maximus. We have things under control.” The man sighed through the vehicle’s speakers. “What a shitshow.”

“Nico and his friends?”

“Busy,” the man replied.

“My mother?” Maximus hesitantly asked. There was silence. I watched as Maximus fought for composure. “I’ll check in after I get to town.”

The call ended, and I bit my lip to hold in my sob. Though she had kidnapped me and my daughter, she was Nico’s mother. I may not have seen it at the time, but I believed she’d done the best she could to ensure her children and grandchild were safe.

“I’m going to take you to town. You will be safe there. My friends have taken control of the pack.” His words were subdued, and I knew he was working through his emotions. “We thought we could take over before he sent my mother after you, but he did it sooner than planned. I think he may have been suspicious that he had opposition in the pack. By the time we knew, it was too late. We had a plan,” he said, and his voice caught. After clearing his throat, he drove in silence.

Phoenix was contemplative as well.

We pulled off at a small motel. “I know the owners here. I’ll get you a room to get cleaned up while you wait for your friends. You’ll be safe. I’m sorry things went this way.”

He got out of the vehicle and went inside.

“Do you trust him?” I whispered to Phoenix.

“Insanely enough, yes,” he replied. “But fucking hell, I had no idea Chains had a brother or that his mother was still alive.”

“Me either,” I murmured.

“Facet tried to find her. Did you know that?” Phoenix asked me as he turned slightly in his seat.

I shook my head.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he ran a hand over his mouth.

Maximus came back with a brass key on an old-fashioned motel keychain. He opened the door and looked into the back seat. “I have the room.”

Gently, I took Ehria from the seat and carried her inside. Phoenix stayed outside, and I saw him with his phone to his ear. I took in the dated but extremely clean and homey room. Once Maximus closed the door, he dropped into the chair, and his elbows rested on his knees as he buried his face in his hands.

“I’m sorry about your mother,” I whispered.

He dropped his hands and stared at me with red-rimmed eyes. “We knew there would be casualties. We all accepted it. I just didn’t think….” He trailed off as his gaze fell to his hands.

After a few moments of silence, he stood. “I need to get back. My pack needs me, and I need to check on my brother.” He sounded rusty as he said the word.

He glanced at my daughter before he ran a trembling hand over her dark hair. “You’re going to need help with her. There are things you won’t understand and won’t know how to handle as she grows into herself. We had hoped my mother would be the one to be there for you.”

The pain in his expression was heartbreaking. I understood, though. Losing your mother is one of the most painful experiences. I was around his age when I lost mine.

Losing Nico would be as bad, but I wasn’t allowing myself to think that Angel may not have been able to save Nico. I couldn’t. I was holding on to my sanity by a thread, and I was using every coping skill I knew to hold my shit together.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I get back.”

There was no need to say what he was referring to—I knew. He paused in the open doorway. “I hope you will let me be a part of her life, but I’ll understand if you don’t want me to.”

Without waiting for my reply, he left.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I cradled my sleeping but sniffling daughter to my body. Eyes closed, I breathed deeply as I rocked slightly.

The door opened, and my eyes popped open, heart thundering.

“News?”

Phoenix grinned before he blew out a heavy breath. “He’s okay. He and Angel are out right now. Ghost is with them.”

Relief hit me like a tsunami, and I nearly fell over. Unable to properly process, I laughed as I sobbed. Phoenix sat by us and wrapped his arm around me.

“He’s okay,” he repeated as if he needed to remind or reassure himself. I rested my head on his shoulder as I continued to blubber and laugh.

It was hours later when the same silver SUV pulled up out front. Heart in my throat, I stood. Phoenix was napping next to Ehria on one of the beds, with pillows on her other side, but his head had popped up the second he heard me remove the chain lock.

After making sure Ehria was secure, he crawled off the bed.

Tears filled my eyes as I saw Nico crawl out of the back seat, and I ran. Throwing myself into his arms, I cried as I held on for dear life.

“Don’t ever do that to me again! Can you please stop getting shot?” I mumbled into the plain black T-shirt he wore. He chuckled, and it shook his chest under my face.

“Where’s Ehria?” he asked into my hair before he pressed a kiss to me, and I looked up into his beautiful dark eyes.

“Sleeping, and don’t you dare wake her up!” I mock glared at him. She’d been intermittently fussy since our escape.

“I won’t. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, searching my eyes for the truth.

My lids dropped, and I took a deep breath that I let out slowly before I locked my gaze with his. “Yeah. I’m okay. Maybe not great, but okay.”

With a single nod, he kissed my forehead.

“It’s good to see you’re okay,” Phoenix said behind me. That’s when I realized my brother hadn’t gotten out of the vehicle.

“Where’s Angel?” I asked, fear trickling through my veins. “And Ghost?”

“He’s back at the compound resting,” Maximus said as he rounded the hood. “Your other friend is with him. Wouldn’t leave him. He saved our mother. It utterly drained him, and he’s been damn near comatose since. But I promise, he’s safe.”

“If it hadn’t been for you and Ehria being here, I might not have either,” said Nico with a chuckle before he cleared his throat. “You know my brother, obviously.”

“Well, yes and no,” I admitted with a half-smile. “I didn’t officially get introduced.”

“I’m right there with you, babe,” Nico said to me.

Maximus ran a hand through his dark hair, much like his brother often did. If you looked at their features, besides them both being handsome, they looked so very different. Still, they had similar little mannerisms—weird, because they weren’t raised together.

“I honestly only found out about you this year,” Maximus admitted. “I think my father was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop me from finding you, so he wouldn’t let anyone tell me about you. I can promise you, our mother didn’t stay away from you willingly.”

Nico’s jaw ticked, and I knew he was having a hard time believing what Maximus was saying.

“Can we go inside?” Maximus asked as he cautiously looked around. “I’d rather not discuss this out here.”

“I’ll stand guard outside,” Phoenix offered.

The other man who had traveled to town with them stepped up. “I’ll wait out here too.”

“Thanks. By the way, I’d like you all to meet Dare, my second.” Maximus gave a chin lift in the man’s direction. That’s when I realized they all had the same green-gold eyes that Nico’s mother and my daughter had. Huh.

We went inside, and I checked to be sure Ehria was still okay. Both fists up by her ears, she slept peacefully. Nico’s hands slipped around my waist, and he lowered his head to rest his chin on my shoulder. “She’s beautiful… like her mommy,” he whispered.

I pressed my palms over his hands before I turned to look at him and Maximus. Reluctantly, Nico let me go, and we sat on the other bed as Maximus sat in one of the chairs at the little table by the window.

“For several years, my aunt watched over you. At least until Amos found out and killed her. Mother said he was in a rage and told her that he would kill everyone she loved if she didn’t stay away from you.” He slouched back in the chair, legs spread and gazing at the ceiling.

It turned out it wasn’t one of the bodyguards on the job that had shot Nico. It was one of Amos’s people. He and his men were pissed because Ehria was refusing to stay away from us once she knew she was having a grandchild. Turned out she’d been the wolf that I thought I saw.

“My father threatened to kill your baby and your woman if she didn’t stay away. At the time, he thought you were dead. That was the night I found out about you. Mother was beside herself, crying in her home when I stopped by to see her. I didn’t understand why he hadn’t killed my mother over the years. I think it might’ve been because in his sick twisted way, he loved her. He didn’t want you in the pack because he hated that you were another man’s child with our mother. That was when we began to officially plan for the overthrow. Dare and I had discussed it in secret in the past, but I was young. I didn’t think I would have the support of the pack. After we found out about you, we gathered a group of loyal supporters who would rebel. We had everything ready to set our plan in motion when he sent my mother off and wouldn’t tell me why. Then she showed up with you and your daughter. I almost shit myself. It was a complication we hadn’t anticipated. I’m so fucking sorry.” He leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs and bowed his head.

“Maximus. None of this is your fault. Tell him, Nico,” I urged. Nico wrapped his big, tattooed hand around mine and squeezed.

“She’s right,” he began, and Maximus looked up at him in disbelief. “None of us decide who our parents will be. The fact that you turned out to be a decent man is testament to our mother’s influence in your raising.”

“You want to know a secret? I’m not sure if I’m ready to be the Alpha,” he said with a mirthless laugh before he chewed on his lip and glanced out the window.

“Look, man, I don’t know much about the inner workings of the pack—hell, until today, I didn’t realize my mother was a fucking wolf. Still, I think you have a good head on your shoulders and you’ll do fine,” Nico told his younger brother.

“What I can say is I love my pack and I have their best interests at heart. And I pray you’re right,” he said with a sad smile.

“I know I am,” Nico said. “Now, I’d like to get my brothers and head home, if that’s okay.”

“One of my men will drive Jasmine and the baby home. Unless you’d rather rent a vehicle. I’d understand.”

“Maybe you could?” I asked, thinking it might give him and Nico a chance to bond if I could convince him to stay when we got back to Ankeny.

“I would if I could. With the state of things in the pack, it’s important for me to be here. At least until I establish my place,” Maximus apologized.

“Well, hopefully you’ll be able to visit one day soon,” Nico said, and I knew there was hope for the two brothers.