Hannah swallowed thickly. She wasn’t afraid of Cicile after hearing that she’d killed him. That didn’t bother her at all, since she’d already been afraid of the woman to begin with. “So…what now? Does he just stay a ghost?”
Cicile shrugged. “Perhaps. Or perhaps my forest will swallow his spirit up and turn him into something far more useful than a man that hunts others. What do you think?”
Hannah didn’t really have an answer for her.
“Was there someone else with him? Another man?” Caelum called to Cicile. Hannah looked back to see their hands still tightly entwined. That didn’t bother her. Not in the least. In fact, like knowing that Ippy could talk to Caelum, she was glad that he had someone else that he could touch now, too. There was no jealousy, only happiness for her best friend in the knowledge that he’d found someone to be comfortable with and that his circle could now include someone else for the few times that she couldn’t be there for him because of whatever she had going on in her own life. It made her happy to see it. And he gave her a small smile back.
Cicile cocked her head to the side. “Yes. There was one. But like his…friend, he’s now a part of this forest.”
Hannah relaxed greatly. “Alright. So that means you’re safe, Caelum.”
He nodded. “We all are.”
More crashing through the forest had her running back to his side, though, and she took his hand, wondering if perhaps they’d grabbed some friends or something to come track them. But when Daddy Liam stepped into the little clearing she broke away from Caelum and Ippy and ran to him, her arms outstretched. She’d never been happier to see him as he hugged her tightly. Her dad wasn’t far behind and he held her as well as she tried not to cry.
“Hannah, our little girl—”
“We were so worried about you,” her dad finished for Daddy Liam. She nodded against them both.
Cicile stepped forward. “Your daughter, returned safely to you, as promised.”
Daddy Liam lifted his head and Hannah watched his face tighten. His wolf snapped into focus and its ears went back. “She appears unharmed.”
Hannah touched his cheek and his wolf looked down at her even though Daddy Liam didn’t. She didn’t mind so much. “Daddy Liam, Cicile was good to us. She and her dog killed the men that was kept us prisoner. They chained us up and—”
“They what?”
Oh, oh okay. She didn’t let the wolf frighten her as his teeth pulled back from his lips. Her daddy wasn’t mad at her, he was worried. She knew that. And yet his wolf was pretty freaking scary. Samson came out of the forest, too, followed by Evangeline, who was wearing the most impractical heels. She stepped back, hating to let her dads go, but knowing that she had to introduce them to her knew friend all the same. “Dad, Daddy Liam, Samson, Evangeline…this is Caelum. He’s my selkie,” she said as she took his hand. He offered her a soft, almost nervous smile and she grinned up at him. Everything would be okay now. He’d see. Her pack would take care of it all now. And they could all go home.
No one came forward for a long moment, but her dads were the first to do so when they started. Except Cicile stepped between them, blocking their path. “Your daughter is unharmed. I require payment for services due.”
Hannah huffed loudly. “Really, Cicile? Thanks for keeping us safe and killing the guys, but can’t I just hug my dads? Kind of a big moment here and all. What do you want? Name it and lets go. I want to go home already.” If she sounded annoyed, it was because she was. Cicile didn’t need to interrupt them. But she had, and Hannah wanted to have her moment with her friends and her pack.
“Hannah, don’t!” Samson scolded her, sounding mad. She bristled at the command and Ippy moved a bit behind Caelum, getting closer to her without actually going toward Samson. Of course the command would bother him. Samson was being all alpha-y and she didn’t like when he did that. Not at all.
“The child meant nothing by it. Correct?”
Hannah felt like Cicile’s question was directed at herself, so she replied, “Right,” before anyone could think to stop her.
Cicile continued. “But she does bring up a point. There’s a debt to be paid. And I have something in mind.”
Samson nodded, his ebony face glowing with the light of the fire. “Name your price. It will be paid, and we will take the children back with us.”
“There is a house where these ones were kept. I saw it in the minds of the men when I killed them. In this house there is a staff made of old aspen wood. Bring it to me, bury your dead in there, and burn the house to ground. Do this, and our debt will be paid.”
Samson nodded. “I’ll get directions from them and it’ll be done tonight. Thank you, kind lady, for keeping our cubs safe.”
Cicile stepped aside, opening the space up for Hannah and her family again. “Then I bid you safe passage home and hope to only briefly find you in my woods again. This is not a place for young hunters, werewolves and selkies to play in.”
Daddy Liam shook his head and stepped forward. “Of course. We’ll make sure of it. My daughter is grounded at least for a year.” Her mouth fell open, ready to argue, and he gave her a quick, silencing look. She knew better than to argue, and yeah, she probably deserved to be grounded. But for an entire year? Come on! That was harsh, even for Daddy Liam.
She walked into his arms and her dad hugged them both. She was glad to be heading home. Even if she was in a huge amount if trouble.
It took their little group a good ten minutes to get from the clearing to the big SUV one of them had left parked by the side of the road. In that time no one spoke, but Hannah kept looking back at Ippy and Caelum as her dads tried to steer her around various tree roots and things so that she wouldn’t fall over them because she wasn’t watching where she was going. Once inside the vehicle she, Caelum and Ippy took the furthest seats back with her dads in front of them and Evangeline and Samson in front with their alpha at the wheel. They rarely travelled in something this big, in fact she couldn’t remember the last time they had, but it was kind of nice having everyone together instead of in multiple cars.
“Phillip, your parents will be waiting for you when you get back. I believe you’re in trouble, too,” Daddy Liam said without looking back at him. He was focused more on finding directions back home on his phone as Samson called someone to send them to the farmhouse. He still seemed pretty upset, and Hannah knew they deserved that.
Still, Hannah wasn’t about to let her best friend go down with her. “But Daddy Liam, it was my fault. I dragged him along. Ippy didn’t even want to come. It’s my selkie that we went after. Ippy shouldn’t—”
Daddy Liam looked over his shoulder at her before she could get him to tell Ippy’s parents not to punish him. “They’ll figure out the best course of action, Hannah. What you two did is unacceptable. Ippy will be made to face the consequences that his family decides.”
Her hands balled up into fists on her lap. “But you’re third in command. And Samson’s the alpha and Evangeline is second and you can all go over their heads. Whatever you say, they have to do. So make them leave Ippy alone. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just following me. He—”
Samson glanced back at her in the rear view mirror. “Hannah, enough. It’s done.”
Pouting and crossing her arms over her chest, Hannah glared at the seat back in front of her. Caelum put an arm around her shoulders and Ippy leaned into her from the other side. She softened a little between them. “Sorry, Ippy,” she whispered.
Ippy shrugged and snuggled further into her side. She felt Caelum moving his hand behind her shoulder and looked over to see him playing with Ippy’s unruly mess of hair. Her dad moved in the seat in front of her and she turned to see him watching them curiously. Hannah relaxed her arms and put one hand on each of her guy’s knees. She was claiming them, and Daddy Liam would have understood. Her dad probably did, too, even though he wasn’t a wolf. Even if he didn’t, he still gave her a soft smile.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” he said softly.
Hannah nodded. “Me, too. I was really worried.”
Her dad’s expression softened further. “I was, too. When the teacher let Liam know that you didn’t make it to school and that Ippy hadn’t either…” his face pinched and he shook his head, going silent.
Daddy Liam turned in his seat and pressed his hand to her dad’s cheek. They shared a look before Liam gave her his attention again. “Don’t do that again. Not ever. No more running away. I’ve never been so scared, so worried about someone in my life. The whole pack has been out looking for you. We had a news conference and Christopher asked for help from his department. We never imagined that you would cross state lines and end up so far away.”
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I’m sorry. Both of you. And the whole pack, too. I didn’t mean to worry everyone. It was just that when no one would help me go track down the new lead for Caelum, I knew I had to go. He was in trouble. And I was right, too. I got him out. Ippy and I did.”
Daddy Liam looked up at Caelum and Hannah wished she could know what her dad was thinking right then because after a long moment he nodded. “Where are you from, Caelum?”
“Ireland,” he answered automatically.
“And you were here in the US how?” Daddy Liam asked him. Hannah knew he was using his interrogating voice. She was used to it from the few times she’d seen him work. But she didn’t like it being used on her friend.
Caelum stopped playing with Ippy’s hair and leaned forward, his hands coming together on his lap. She put her hand over his. She was here for him, even if it was just as support while her dad questioned him. “When I was very young, I was taken from my family by a hunter and his friend. I don’t know what they wanted with me, but I know that I wasn’t the first that they’d taken in, because when we were living just outside of Dublin they already had a cage set up for me. Then when I was eleven we moved here. I’m grateful to Hannah and Ippy for coming to rescue me. I didn’t even know she was looking for me. In truth, I’d thought everyone had forgotten about me and I’d be their captive for the rest of my life. They took my skin from me, and without it I’m trapped, unable to go far from it.”
Daddy Liam’s gaze darkened and his mouth pinched into a hard line. It was his thinking face, and it made Hannah smile, because she knew that he was figuring out how to fix everything. She had faith in him, too. He could always find a solution, no matter what the problem was. “And where is your skin now?”
Caelum pulled it out from underneath his shirt where he’d hidden it. Hannah knew what it was, knew what it felt like. But she wondered if her dad just saw a bit of old leather folded up and rolled haphazardly into a ball. “It’ll look better once I’m back in the ocean,” Caelum said, almost sounding apologetic.
“We don’t have any ocean near us,” Hannah told him.
Caelum nodded and turned toward her. She knew she probably wasn’t going to like what he was about to say from the sad look he was giving her. “Hannah, I’m grateful for what you did. Really, I am. But I can’t go back with you. I have to go home.”
She turned away from him and Ippy took her hand.
Don’t want him to go.
Hannah nodded, she didn’t either. But she was also trying not to be selfish. “I know,” she finally said, even though she didn’t like it one bit. “Will you be back?”
Don’t let him go!
Caelum gave her a soft smile. “Of course.”
No! No! No!
Hannah’s face pinched. It always hurt when Ippy started yelling into her mind. “Ippy, Caelum has to go. Has to.”
Caelum reached around her to touch Ippy’s shoulder. “I promise. I’ll come back. I’ve got two new friends. That’s more than I’ve had in a long time. I’ll see you soon. I just have to go home first. Just for a little bit. It won’t be too long. I promise. I have to find my family again.”
Hannah squeezed his hand and looked up at her dads. They were both watching her, their expressions looking curious. “Can we go to the airport now so that Caelum can get home?”
She saw Caelum smile from the corner of her eye. “If there’s an ocean nearby, I can swim it.”
“It’s a long way. Like thousands of miles long,” Hannah told him seriously.
Daddy Liam nodded. “It is quite a distance for a swim. We’re a few hours from the airport, but we could have you home by tomorrow afternoon if you’re willing to wait that long.”
“Thanks for the offer. Really. But I’d rather swim it. I don’t much like being in planes, and it’s been so long since I was last in the water. I think I need it,” Caelum softly replied.
Evangeline turned in her seat to look back at them. “The ocean is only about an hour east of us. It’s not really the ocean like you’re probably thinking, more like an inlet. But it’s salt water and it shouldn’t take you too long to get out into the Atlantic. From there you’d be best following the coast as much as possible until you get back home. Just keep going north and hugging the shoreline.”
Hannah gave her a smile and Evangeline returned it. “Thanks.”
Caelum nodded. “Thanks from me, too. That sounds good. I could handle that.” He took a deep breath, and she laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes as Ippy leaned against her as well. It was enough that she’d helped him, that she’d found her selkie and been able to save him. And he’d promised to come back. That meant something.
Just as Evangeline promised, an hour later they were pulling off into a secluded area of a rocky beach. It was after midnight, so no one was there and there were very few lights. Ippy had fallen asleep on the way there, but Hannah shook him awake, knowing he’d want to see Caelum off just as much as she did. Icy wind whipped against her as she stepped out with Caelum, Ippy right on her heels. Everyone else stayed in the vehicle, which she was really happy about. She didn’t want them to see their goodbye. Or to see her crying over a boy she’d known for less than a day. Even if it did feel like far longer. She stepped up and hugged him as soon as they were close to the water. She didn’t ask and he didn’t push her away, only held her close. She stayed there as long as she could, until Ippy squeezed in as well. Part of her wanted to stay with them and hug them both. But she moved back, giving Caelum and Ippy some room. Ippy looked a bit awkward. He wasn’t used to hugs after all. But Caelum closed his shiny black eyes, and Hannah smiled at the sight of them both in their moment as she wiped away a few of her tears.