Get Out Alive

                                    

                                          
certainly1  for commenting on the last chapter! Thank you!
                          
Please let me know what y'all think! Epilogue will be up soon!
                          
Tyler 
                          
Six Months Later
                          
Sara was screaming, her little wails bouncing off of the walls of the neighboring room and acting as shots straight to my heart. I could hear frustrated grumbled from Kira as she no doubt fought to feed the baby, but I couldn't go help her and neither could Jackson. 
                          
We were in the middle of a meeting with the Council of Elders, they had just finished reading the charges against me in the case of my father's murder and treason against my Pack.
                          
Jackson's hand was currently squeezing the life out of mine as we waited for councilman Jonah to read the verdict. For a man in his early eighties, he still didn't look a day over fifty. I guess that was something he could attribute to being shifter. His mouth was set in a grim line as he glanced between the pair of us, a look that set my teeth on edge. They'd waited for the verdict to be read, pushing it off for months on end but I wasn't sure why. 
                          
"Jackson, you're going to cut the circulation off for his hand if you keep hold like that, son." Sean's voice broke the silence of the room, his smile in our direction more of a grimace. Neither if his parents had wanted to wait until the end to hear the summation, they wanted to be by our sides as it was read. I was glad for their support because I knew that if all went down hill Jackson would need them. I nodded in Sean's direction lightly, hoping my gratitude came through. His in return was a relief.
                          
Sara's wails were finally dying down and Tora was the reason why. I could hear her hushing the baby though the ting walls, thanking Kira and sending her on her way. As far as any of us were concerned, she was a supplier of milk and that was all. Tora wouldn't out and out be rude but her tone was cold.
                          
Just as my girl appeared, her chubby little hands began to clap, something that she'd picked up doing in the last few weeks. Tora said that her senses were heightened due to her lack of sight and her wolf, Zia, connected with our wolves when within distance. Our little one was a very bubbly baby, always showing her gummy grin off and making noises to occupy herself. Her green eyes were still so vibrant and her hair was starting to come in. At first we thought she might be red headed like Kira, but her hair was coming in the same color as mine. 
                          
Councilman Jonah opened his mouth to say something, likely to read off the verdict before he was cut off by an ear splitting scream that disappeared just as quickly as it began. The scent of blood mingles in the air.
                          
Sara begins to cry just when the door separating the feeding room is pushed open and Kira's wide eyed lifeless sprawls across the floor, blood spilling from the wide gash at her throat.
                          
The room stills.
                          
Jackson is the first to stand and grab our child, soothing her as he barks commands to the rest of the room. The council begins to clamor nervously at this, not liking the waves if power exuding from him. He's made it out of the room before the culprit is revealed. 
                          
"So I hear that I'm a grandmother now."
                          
*
                          
Tora
                          
The events that unfold moments after Amber reveal herself are still up for debate today. 
                          
To be totally honest, I remember very little of it. It's like watching a movie with my eyes half shut. Flashes of color, sudden movements, sounds that make little sense. 
                          
The blade in her hands as she repeated my grand baby's name is what sets me off. She's a threat, not only to everyone in the room but to the precious life that the Goddess blessed my children with.
                          
Yes, children. 
                          
Because looking into Tyler's eyes makes me need to protect him with everything I have. 
                          
I'm told that my reaction is quick, so fast in fact that no one is able to catch me to stop me. The blade is to her neck, a thin dribble of blood lining the sharp edge. The gleam in her eyes is amused, malicious, taunting me to do it. To kill her. And I want to. For everything she's ever done to me, my family. For killing my father, for taking my mate. For endangering my child and allowing someone to harm hers. 
                          
But I can't. 
                          
And the moment that I hesitate is where she takes her chance.
                          
And she began to talk.
                          
"Taking Nate from you wasn't the beginning, honey. Killing your precious mother was. And once mom killed that bitch, she waited. Sara was a friend of my mom's, childhood buddies. That is until your father comes in and sweeps the sweet, sensitive Sara off her feet. This was her fault, you see, because my mother had been seeing your father. Fast forward twelve years and pudgy mousy Lucinda Ann becomes tall, knockout Amelia Lea just in time to take Derek Tyler's world by storm. It was simple. The right witch, a little hair, some blood and, oh, the life of her unborn child and bam! You have a permanent Mate connection."
                          
We were led to believe that my mother had been mauled and eaten by rogues but my father never let on that she had been pregnant. Had he known? Had she? The puzzlement shows clearly on my face apparently because Amber simply laughs and continues on, a mad look in her eye.
                          
"No, sweetheart, daddy didn't know about the baby. Mommy did. She was on her way to the store to pick up her announcement when we captured her. Sweet, isn't it? Goddess, she begged for her child's life. I was young then, oh, seven, I think. But I remember her begging for release, pleading with my mother to let her go even as she began to cut her open." Amber hums lowly, as though she's reliving the memory all over again. "She cried for you. You father. The child in her womb. Sad, really. The last words on her lips were a prayer to the Goddess who wasn't going to save her." Queasiness stirs in my gut and my hand trembles, the blade quivering against the delicate skin of her throat. 
                          
"Once you found Nate, I knew it was my turn. Mother helped me out. Making him sleep with me wasn't hard, I actually didn't have drug him - he was drunk and horny and honestly, have you seen me?" A smirk falls to her lips, "the pregnancy was a surprise but useful all the same. And alerting the old bags on the council so he had to Mate me was the best. But seeing the heartbreak on your face when you realized what he'd done and every time after? Priceless." Anger begins to build in my gut, forming into a tight ball and expanding slowly. 
                          
"I'm sure you want to know why he attacked you, huh? Well, that was all mom's idea. A specially grown herb in the chicken that made the scent of your pregnancy stand out to Nate. It called the primal urge of his human side out and his wolf couldn't overpower it to save your precious child from harm." The burn is slow and it's crawling now, I can feel it bubbling inside me ready to burst. 
                          
"I was content for a whole after mother told me you couldn't have children. That Goddess had taken from you something so precious and I had won. Until Jackson was born." The way she sneers my baby's name calls to Xianna, who had been content with letting me take over. My grip on the handle of the knife tightens. 
                          
"Oh, then we got lucky once my precious little Tyler announced that your son was his Mate at such a young age. So, Nate locked him away and a few years later, in stumbles Kira, so lost, yearning to find the mommy she always needed to know. And I just couldn't resist." Her sneer steals the beauty from her face, "but that little bitch squealed the first chance she got. So, she had to die. And now you have to, too." 
                          
And as quick as a flash, the blade is exchanged from one hand to another and is soon buried to the hilt.