A Twisted Anthology: A Twisted Design Book

Forever Home Part 7

For his part, Brendan treated me well. He did all the cooking, because he didn’t trust me with knives. He managed to keep himself under control and hadn’t tried to get into my pants.

I did have to submit to his forced make-out sessions. My neck was covered in hickeys by the end of the first day. I couldn’t just lay there, either. That made him angry.

When I wasn’t having to be on my guard, I prayed to the goddess that someone would realize I would never leave my family. I couldn’t stand the idea of my sister and brothers thinking that I chose to leave them behind. I would never do that.

In the end, I was sure that people had just written me off. It had been two days since Brendan took me. At night, he would hold on to me so tightly I could barely breathe. During the day, I couldn’t leave the living room without his permission.

After having taken five girls captive, I was sure he was an expert in making sure they didn’t run. At least one of them may have even made him think she was going along with him. He certainly didn’t trust me.

I was sitting on the couch when Brendan came back in the room. He laid down with his head in my lap and closed his eyes. I listened to his breathing even out and slow. I wasn’t falling for it. He would pretend to fall asleep to see if I would try to run.

This time, he had a cell phone in his shirt pocket. I sighed. Like I would fall for that. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

“You’re not even trying to escape me. Why don’t you let me mark you early?” Brendan murmured.

“Because you promised to wait for my birthday and told me you can be patient. I can’t be with a mate who doesn’t keep his promises, Brendan. I already know you slept with other women and that you’ve killed humans. So far, you’re not showing me why I should accept you. All I want is for you to keep your promise.” I said.

“If I keep my promise, you’ll accept me?” He asked.

“I would never accept a mate who didn’t keep his promises, Brendan.” I answered.

I had to be careful. He caught me in a lie once and threw me against a wall. I only answered things with the absolute truth, which I had to make sure fit his questions or statements. Just because he was crazy, didn’t mean he wasn’t smart.

“I like that you have standards, sweetness. You’re not like other girls who just want a hot young wolf to be their mate. You wouldn’t leave me for a young Alpha just because he was attractive and powerful, right?”

“Of course not.” I scoffed, mainly at the idea of ever being an Alpha’s mate.

The longer I was with him, the more I felt the bond with him. I was almost as sure as he was that he was my mate. It made it even worse.

My mate was the type of man who would sleep with someone else’s mate. He was a killer. He was violent. Maybe that wasn’t who he was supposed to be, but that’s who he became.

Freewill means not everyone will become what the goddess intended. We make choices every day. The choices he made, turned him into a man I could never love.

I stroked his hair. I would find a way to get free from him and report him to the collective. They would probably sentence him to death for killing humans.

This was the only time I would have with my mate. Second chances were for ranked wolves. Not everyone got a second chance.

There was no chance for us. The moment he decided to take a life, his life with me was over. I wanted to be a doctor so I could save lives. He was a monster.

“Do you love me yet?” He asked.

“No. Not yet. It will take longer than two days.” I answered with a sigh.

“Will you let me know when you do love me?” Brendan whispered.

I felt a knot in my throat. There were times when he was so open and vulnerable that I wished I had found him before he killed anyone.

“Yes. You’ll be the first to know.” I replied.

He hummed happily as my fingers trailed through his hair. I shook my head. This was so ridiculous, but I had to make him think that I was able to be trusted.

There was a knock at the door, and Brendan sprung up. He looked at me before another knock sounded.

“Get in the bedroom and lock the door.” He quietly growled.

I jumped up and did what he said. I didn’t know who it could be, but I wasn’t going to risk my life on the off chance it wasn’t just some lost human. I wasn’t brave, but I was smart.

After a few moments, I heard some scuffling in the house. The walls shook from impacts and I could hear shouts from the living room. There was something that sounded like a bear’s bellow.

Quickly, I dove under the bed. A bear could probably smell me there, but I was hopeful that he had just pissed off some bear who was there for vengeance and would leave me alone. There was more clattering and crashing followed by wolf howls.

The doorknob jiggled and then the door was kicked in. I tried to make myself as small as possible and press myself against the wall under the bed. I prayed to the goddess for them not to notice me.

“Kaysie! Where are you?” A familiar voice shouted.

“Dillon?! I’m under the bed!” I called out.

The bedframe lifted and I saw a relieved looking Dillon holding it up. I crawled over to him and stood, throwing my arms around his waist. He tossed the bed on its side and wrapped his arms around me.

“We’re here, sweetheart. Sorry it took so long to find you. The trail had already gone cold by the time we got here from Lune Rouge.” He murmured.

“They called you?” I asked.

“No. I woke up from a dream about you being lost. I couldn’t find you anywhere. I called Miss Tye and asked her to check on you. That was when she realized you were gone.” Dillon said.

“Do you got her?” Jean-Claude asked as he came in the room.

I let go of Dillon and rushed to Jean-Claude, throwing my arms around him too. Dillon came up behind me and wrapped his arms around both of us. It was like the day he dropped us off at the orphanage, but better, because I didn’t know if I would ever have that again.

“Come on.” He said after giving me a kiss on the forehead.

Jean-Claude led me into the living room. It was trashed. Bellamy and Talia were standing in front of a bloody figure. Behind it was a very large Native American man with long black hair. He had to be over six and a half feet. I noticed that the picture window in the front of the room was broken.

“No! That’s my mate! You can’t have her!” The bloody figure shouted.

Bellamy punched him and he whimpered. I grabbed on to Jean-Claude’s arm and stopped him from moving. Bellamy turned to look at me.

“He killed five human girls that he kidnapped for mates.” I told her solemnly.

A tear rolled down my cheek as he looked up at me with heartbroken eyes. I knew what I was doing. I didn’t really like what I was doing, but I had to.

Bellamy turned back to Brendan. She grabbed his neck and pulled him up to face her.

“Is that true? Don’t lie to me ex-pack. If I smell a lie, it will take you a month to die but you’ll beg for death the entire time.” She snarled.

“Yes.” He hissed. “I killed them. They weren’t my mate. They wouldn’t accept me. She is my mate. You have to give her to me!”

She looked at me again. “Kaysie?”

“I’m not his mate. He’s an obsessed ex-pack. He just thinks I am.” I replied and made myself believe it so I wouldn’t smell like a liar.

Bellamy moved quickly. I barely saw her hand move as it pierced Brendan’s chest and yanked out his heart. I felt it though.

His eyes cleared for a moment before they went blank. There was something that was a mix of regret and gratefulness. I knew that was the real Brendan looking out at me.

“I love you.” I whispered before he slumped over.

My knees buckled at the pain of feeling my mate die. Dillon and Jean-Claude grabbed me before I could hit the floor. Bellamy looked back with horror as I grasped my chest and sobbed.

“Kaysie.” She murmured.

“Leave her, Baby Belle. She made the decision for a reason. He committed a serious crime. He deserved death and she decided she wouldn’t try to shield him from his punishment.” The tall Native American man said.

“She made the right choice, pheata. She didn’t want her queen, her Luna, to suffer in making the choice to deal out a punishment. The pain will fade.” Talia told Bellamy.

I hoped the pain would fade, because it felt like she had ripped out my heart too. Jean-Claude picked me up and carried me out to an SUV. There were three parked in front of the house.

The car was silent as they drove me back to the orphanage. I felt like I could barely breathe. I didn’t have it in me to ask if they still wanted us after the trouble I’d caused.

After we pulled up, Dillon helped me from the SUV. It was late evening, but Bobby was waiting in the entryway when I arrived and threw himself into my arms. I hugged him as I sank to the floor. He held on tightly and cried.

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Bobby sobbed.

“I was trying to get home. I just wasn’t strong enough.” I sniffled.

“Thank you for finding her.” Miss Tye told Jean-Claude and Dillon.

“Of course. We couldn’t just let her be stolen. It was partly our fault.” Dillon said softly.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Bobby told us that the boy got mad because you smelled like us. Maybe he wouldn’t have taken you if he didn’t feel threatened.” Dillon replied.

“He was an obsessed ex-pack. I didn’t lie about that. Even if I hadn’t been his real mate, he would have taken someone from here that night.” I said.

I let Bobby go and stood up. Dillon and Jean-Claude were holding hands. They still had a concerned look on their faces. They looked like worried parents. Like my worried parents.

“So.” I sniffed. “I’m not calling either of you ‘dad’, but I’ll scold the littles if they don’t.”

It seemed to take them a moment before they caught on to what I was saying. Dillon grinned. Jean-Claude shook his head and chuckled.

“As long as you’re happy and safe, I don’t really care what you call us.” Dillon said.

“We can send the paperwork to Lune Rouge, if you wanted to take the kids home with you.” Miss Tye told him.

I walked over and hugged her. “You were right. This is the one. Our family.”

“I knew you’d find your forever home soon. I’ll go get the twins, why don’t you and Bobby go pack your things.” She whispered.

Bobby and I ran up to grab our things as quickly as we could. Luckily, we didn’t have much, so it didn’t take long to get everything together. We could send for the car later. It was safe for now.

The pain in my chest was now a dull ache. I knew it would go away soon. I’d never forget it, though.  

When I returned to the entryway, I saw that Bellamy and Talia had joined Jean-Claude and Dillon. They weren’t looking my way, so they didn’t see me.

“She’s going to need therapy.” Bellamy said.

“We’ll make sure she gets help. That was a hard decision to make. I couldn’t have done it myself. I would have held out hope that my mate would be rehabilitated and I would have tried to look past what he did.” Dillon said.

“He was a murderer. There was no way she could overlook that.” Jean-Claude sighed.

“One might make the argument that she’s a murderer now.” Talia replied.

“I’m not a murderer. I just said what he did. I knew the punishment, but so did he. He knew it when he told me. He could have lied to me and never admitted that he’d ever killed or abducted anyone. Whatever part of Brendan was still the man I was mated to was what decided to tell me. He wasn’t stupid. That was the man I loved. Not the one who hurt people.” I told them.

“You think he wanted to die?” Talia asked.

“Our mates are complementary to ourselves. My mate wouldn’t have wanted to become a murderer. He wouldn’t have wanted to live with that on his conscious. I know I wouldn’t.” I said softly.

“The twins are all loaded up. Stanton is taking care of the body and the investigation. We’re going to try to give closure to the families of the girls Brendan killed.” Dillon smiled.

Bobby skidded into the entryway and grabbed my free arm, dragging me toward the front door. I followed him with a smile.

“Let’s go home, Kaysie. I miss our family.” Bobby grinned back at me.

“I miss our family, too.” I replied.

Dillon and Jean-Claude followed us out of the orphanage. We were really going home, for the first time in two years. Our real, forever, home.

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