Chapter 18 Struggling Survivors

Jake...

She marked us, Shalom actually marked us, my wolf rejoiced.

But instead of feeling elated, I regretted it because she did it out of fear, not love. Her nightmares were driving me and my wolf crazy. It was like I could see bits and pieces of them as she dreamed, I've never heard of mates dreaming the other's dreams or nightmares.

Last night's nightmare was one of the worst ones she'd had. In the dream, she was so terrified and running. My wolf was chasing her, trying to catch her to protect her but she kept running from us, then she tumbled out of bed and curled up in the corner. Her whimpering voice, pleading not to be hurt, broke my wolf's heart. When she looked up at us as he licked her tears, she fainted. I'd never seen anyone so terrified. She was even more terrified than she was in my memories of the Revelation Night. All I could do was shift, put her back in bed and wait for the dark night to end.

When she woke from another nightmare, she freaked out more. Barely managing to keep our son at her breast as her memories overwhelmed her, her tears falling on his dark hair as she talked about Elmhurst and her escape. I could see pieces of it in my mind as she remembered. She screamed at me to stay out of her head. It was all so fragmented and frustrating that my wolf just pushed forward and marked her, so we could see what she was seeing. It was too terrible to describe. My mind rebelled against the thought of anyone doing that to any female of any kind, let alone my mate. But the more I looked through her dark memories, the more I couldn't stop looking. It was like watching a disaster about to happen and I couldn't look away. She was violated so many times, abused in ways that could never be justified. Then her memories of the night we met flooded into my mind, her husband, her family, their deaths. The pain of her grief was like a knife in my own soul.

Her wolf tried to defend her but instead she ended up marking me and my memories poured into her already broken soul before I could stop them. As I managed to regain control, she was whispering over and over for me to stop, that she didn't want to see anymore, begging me for mercy when I should have been begging her for forgiveness. I hadn't meant for it to be that way.

Quinn, no, Shalom, I must remember to call her Shalom, I have seen why she hates that name now. I reminded myself.

She locked herself in the bathroom with our son until Nicolea and Saul coaxed her out around noon. I must remember not to call her Quinn after I saw how Kenneth earned the right to use it along with gaining the love of her whole heart. I hated him for the pain he caused her with his betrayal. I jealously despised him for having her love for a decade and a half while I was alone, but I must admit, after what I did this morning, he was a far better man than I.

I made myself wonder about the tests Nicolea and Will were running on his Raver. They had gotten permission to use the diagnostic scanning equipment at the hospital where we found so many survivors after the Revelation Night. It was a level of testing not performed on a Raver survivor of the Revelation Night. I prayed they found something that could be used to help the others. There were fourteen Vampire and Werewolf Ravers still being held at Mid-America Pack, they were heavily sedated because they were trapped as their beasts. We hoped that they could be saved. Greyson was with them, trying to help them, trying to save them.

My wolf refused to leave this spot under her window. Even after Richard dragged us away by our scruff, we crawled back on our belly and laid there. We hurt our beautiful, brave mate again.

We didn't mean to, but we did, just like that night.

VvvvV

Days later...

Will's wolf waited for the first pass of the MRI scan to stop, it didn't like the noise but knew they needed these tests. Suddenly, the loud thumping of machine stopped, and the bed slid out so fast he rolled off, landing ungracefully on his side.

"Shift and get dressed!" Nic was holding his clothes. "Hurry, I can feel someone close, not one of the Ravers, she feels terrified and is being hunted."

Never had Will dressed so fast. They ran to the Flight Rescue helipad outside, and as he started the helicopter, he could see the fae holding her hands out to the abandoned city. Will was so grateful Jake taught him how to be a pilot during high school. With all the abandoned vehicles on the roads, driving at any speed was impossible. Nic turned, running and ducking her head, then climbed in the back.

Through the headset, she told him, "Fly west. Toward the river, then south."

In a matter of minutes, they were hovering over the river basin.

Will saw them first. "I see it, I see a wolf running from Ravers."

The Heli flew in low, the wolf looked up at it and Will guided it to a field in a park. Nic threw open the door and yelled at the wolf to run. It was a tiny brown and tan wolf, probably a juvenile, but it was speedy. Will wondered if the teen had been alone all this time. The wolf jumped in the back and the door slid shut. Will twisted the throttle and pitch making the Heli rise quickly, just as the Ravers reached the edge of the field. There was no way the Ravers could continue to chase them as he turned the helicopter toward Westcliff. They could make it back by late afternoon.

"She's okay," Nic's voice mirrored his own relief. Tremulous thank you's were sobbed out by a young girl's voice as he flew toward the mountains. "I am putting one of your shirts on her."

"Roger that. There's some protein bars and water bottles in the gray bag," Will responded, thinking how fortunate the girl was he and Nic had flown in today. A lone teenager running from five Ravers had no chance to escape, he thought some people had more luck than sense.

"She says her name is Chelsey Thomson." Nic's words made his blood turn icy despite the warmth of the sun through the windscreen.

Will swallowed the bile that threatened to rise as the memories of that night rushed into his mind. "I know her, Nic. She was with the survivors Jake and I rescued on the morning after the Revelation Night. Ask her, why she came back?"

Nic repeated the question, and then repeated the murmured reply to Will, "She said she came to find her mate. A pair of Faes sent her and told her if she ran into monsters to run until she was flying. And she would be taken to him."

VvvvvV

Galen step out of the mirror in Greyson's room in Colorado, Nicolea was waiting for him. He could see rage and grief coloring her aura and consuming her soul but before he could snap at her for leaving Quinn unprotected, she slapped him hard enough that he collided with the wall and left a crack in the cinderblocks.

"I am done doing your twisted work, Galen. I did not leave my clan to cause harm," she hissed. Violence tinting her aura murderously.

"It worked, he marked her and she marked him," Galen responded, rubbing his jaw. "It will bring their bond back to life, it will heal them."

"No, it won't, not now. Making me cause her to have nightmares and feeding the images to him to the point that he marked her by force and practically raped her soul before she marked him back in self-defense isn't healing, it's horror. We broke her soul worse than it was before, Galen. She wants to die now, she isn't going to resist her death when Gerard comes for Justice," Nicolea ranted.

"Jake won't let her die, he needs her," Galen retorted coolly. "It had to be done, we are running out of time."

"Had? H-Had to be d-done?" She sputtered in raged.

He could see Nicolea fighting the urge to shift into her Demonus, her tawny eyes were dark as the night sky and her nails were already ebony talons. She was not powerful enough to take Galen down, but she could hurt him.

"Calm down, Nicolea. You need to..." He started.

"No! I won't help you again. I am only here to protect her and the pup from your brother and mother, if I can keep her from getting herself killed. Don't you understand, Galen? Shalom doesn't want to live anymore; she is worse off now than when she escaped the hospital to return to her dead family," Nic revealed with such certainty that he began to doubt his plan.

"She'll be fine, she's stronger than she looks," Galen declared his belief.

Nicolea snorted derisively, her voice was a fiery challenge, "You're a fool. Everyone thinks she is holding it together, but she isn't. This broke her the rest of the way. Bianca may foolishly believe you still have light in you, but I don't, not anymore. I am not going to be a part of this sick game between you and your brother. She has lost her will to live and I took that from her because you lied to me."

"I did not lie to you. Dr. Phillips wrote she had been through much but..."

"You have no idea! I think you wanted to see how far she could bend, but you didn't account for everything that happened to her at Elmhurst. It was so much worse than her husband reported," she revealed angrily.

"What do you mean? Dr. Phillips kept excellent records." Galen was starting to worry, the records were a tale of horrifying abuse, if it was worse and the repressed memories surfaced too quickly, the harm...

Nic bared her pointed teeth at Galen, her black eyes were pools of hatred. "She admitted to the Alpha Commander that she never told her husband everything. If you want to see how bad it was, go look for yourself. She dreams about it every night now, even without me drawing the memories out. And being bonded to Jacob means nothing, because I guarantee she will not allow him near her after what happened. He raped her soul, the same way he raped her body that night and the worst part is he didn't mean to harm her either time. Now, they are both ruined because of our kind." There was so much regret in her voice as she shifted from her mortal form. She turned her amber ringed eyes on him. "Go and read them, who knows, maybe you have enough of Gerard's darkness that you might even enjoy the horror, cursed one."

If her tone was any proof, Galen would believe she hated him now. He couldn't answer her hatred until he knew if it was justified. Galen's silence drew her ire. Dark wings unfolded around her.

"Mark my words, Galen, keep this game up, Shalom will let herself get killed and Jake will follow because he does truly love her, then Gerard will claim the heir and win." In a moment, she was gone, stepping back through the window behind her like the glass wasn't there, and flying away.

Grumbling, Galen stepped outside, unfurled his own wings and flew to Monarch Mountain. Sebastian's cloak prevented the Fae from mirror traveling there. Landing on the roof of the house where Quinn lived now, he listened to the night sounds. Joshua was standing by the porch. The Raver Alpha gave his old friend a nod as he entered the house. Nic was standing by a door. In the bedroom, Quinn was thrashing around on her bed. Galen took her wrist and she stilled immediately.

He sifted through the darkness that touched her. It was so much worse than he believed from her husband's notes. He miscalculated and as a result, Quinn's soul was broken and barely breathing. Galen hoped marking Jacob would bring her back from her fear and grief, and open her heart to her new life, but the opposite happened. Quinn surrendered to her pain. Nicolea's assessment was correct. Quinn was ready to die, even motherhood wasn't enough because she believed herself incompetent to be Justice's mother.

Tears ran down his cheeks from dark eyes at the pain his reverse attempt to heal caused. There just wasn't time to let nature take its course and now the damage might be too great to be undone. He heard a noise and made himself disappear in the shadows. Jake's wolf was peeking in at her through the window. Galen watched it lay down on the grass below the sill. His pain was almost as intense as hers; guilt, regret, helplessness, unworthiness, and many other negative emotions churned like a stormy sea in his soul, blotting out the stars of hope and love. He was on the verge of giving up too, if she died, he would follow.

Appearing back on the roof, Nicolea looked at him, waiting for an answer.

"Putting them together for the birth of their child was supposed to help them heal, give them something to bond over as they dealt with the pain of that night, but both feel worse off than they did a mere month ago before they were reunited. I don't know what happened or how it went so wrong,"

Their wings allowed them to slip away into the night and fly back to Westcliff. Galen needed to speak with Greyson, hoping his mentor would know how to fix this. His doubts ate at him as miles passed below, perhaps Nicolea was right. Perhaps he had been twisted by his brother's darkness to the point he could no longer see the difference between harming and healing, the difference between what is for good and what is for ill. Galen ached over Quinn and Jake.

How could I bring two such beautiful, brave souls to the brink of destruction?

They landed outside the hanger that held all the information on the Revelation Night and shifted back into their mortal forms.

"Chelsey Thomson is here, she is demanding to be taken to Monarch Mountain to be with her mate. She doesn't care about the danger or that he is a Raver. Why would you risk her life by showing her who he was and where he was? She was almost eaten."

"They are mates, true fated ones, the werewolf holy grail... If she can save him, it will show the world, love and compassion are more powerful than fear. Ravers are deserving of mercy too."

Rolling her eyes, Nicolea walked away from him without speaking.

VvvvvV

Will paced back and forth. "You're not going."

"My mate is there, the Fae showed me. He told me to go home, to run until I was flying... Now, I am going with you to see my mate. I know he's a Raver, I want to help him." Chelsey stood with her arms folded under her breasts with a determined attitude that reminded Will of his sister Julia. Whenever she took that stance, it was pointless to try to dissuade her.

"You realize that your mate may try to attack you, rape you, kill you, and we would have to kill him to stop him," Will warned. "Let me bring him here. We could set up a safe way for you to meet."

"No... I want to meet him there... He won't hurt me, we're mates," Chelsey insisted.

"Nic, you need to tell her to stay here," Will demanded as Nic threw her bag in the back of the Hummer they were driving.

"I think Will is correct. Ravers don't act or react the way normal werewolves do. It could be very dangerous. You saw the boards..." Nic started gently.

"I did, but he won't hurt me. It isn't like that night," Chelsey snarled. "I survived it. I remember every moment. My parents were true mates, the chemical made my dad kill my mom, but I saw his board, he got better, he helped Mrs. Phillips. He was a... a good person.... Being made a Raver wasn't his fault. He died burying mom and my brothers. I won't give up on my mate, he's all I have left after the Revelation Night. And I am going with you." Chelsey got in and slammed the door.

Nic and Will exchanged looks then got in the hummer. It was going to get interesting when they got back to Monarch Mountain.

After an hour, Will asked quietly, "Chelsey, why is it so important you meet him?"

Chelsey wiped a tear. "I want to meet him before they kill them all. You haven't been outside the zone, you don't know what it's like."

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

"The rumors are that they are going to come and kill all the Ravers, the... Monarch Vanguard, King Charlemagne, and President Thornton are having people file paperwork to return to their homes. The only way they can do that is to kill them, right? I want to meet my true mate. I want to take him and go to Mexico or someplace remote. Keep him safe. I just want to have a chance to have what mom and dad had. The Ravers whose mates survived... they aren't allowed to be together."

"But it helps them to be with their mates," Will interrupted.

Chelsey shrugged, then continued in a small terrified voice. "Most of the surviving mates aren't even told when their Raver mate is going to be put to death, they just feel them die. I don't want my mate killed over something that wasn't his fault... A lot of people are saying the A.S.H. didn't cause it, just like Mrs. Phillips and Dr. Greyson have on their boards. There have been riots at the MidAmerica Pack and marches in Washington and New York. Everyone knows that the governments have been lying to us, but if you talk about it, you disappear or have an accident."

"What else is going on?" Nic turned to look at her.

"Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, want to be changed, but it's almost illegal now. The governments are forbidding all new matings between humans and nonhumans without a whole bunch of medical tests and a one year wait. It is restricted to true mates and beloveds only. No choice mates. If a human gets changed, or dies after being bitten, the Non goes to prison or is put to death."

Will rubbed his forehead, "I can't believe my brother is letting them do that."

"He says it is for the good of our kind, but everyone knows a new monarch was born and Monarch Vanguard is hiding it," Chelsey whispered like she was committing treason.

"That's because the heir of the Monarchy is our nephew. My brother Jake found his mate on the Revelation Night," Will revealed. Nicolea made an angry sound so Will added. "Okay, his Raver found her, mated with her, and she had his pup."

Chelsey looked confused, "But isn't that a good thing. The Alpha Commander is a hero."

"Chelsey, listen... Jacob's Raver found his mate... When he was a crazy, like your dad. For hours, he... he hurt her." Nic's eyes were harsh as she revealed the truth, "And the reason your Monarch hid it, is because Jacob Vanguard's mate and the mother of the next Monarch is Quinn Shalom Phillips, the most wanted female in the world."