Shades of Midnight (Midnight Breed 7)

Tegan's green eyes narrowed. "It's no easy thing, to kill a brother, no matter what he's done. Ask Lucan, he'll tell you."

"Is it any easier to break a father's heart?" Kade scoffed, a bitter sound that grated in his throat. "My father would have expected this of me, not Seth. All his hope and attention has always been pinned on Seth. He'll be devastated to see him like this. Just as he would have been if I'd exposed Seth's secret instead of protecting it all this time."

Tegan grunted. "The truth only gets uglier the longer you try to hold it down."

"Yeah. I know that now." Kade's gaze strayed to Alex, but she had turned away from him. Handing the blanket over to Chase, she strode back to her plane in silence with Luna trotting at her heels. Kade cleared his throat. "I need to take my brother home to his family. That's where he belongs. But first I want to make sure Alex is all right. Her friend Jenna, too."

"There's also the added problem of one dead trooper back in town," Chase put in. Kade nodded. "Not to mention several more people on ice after the attacks by the Ancient, and a unit of Staties currently on the way in from Fairbanks to look into those recent killings in the bush."

"Shit," Tegan said. He gestured to Chase to cover Seth's body. "You and Hunter bring him to the plane. And be careful, yeah? Rogue or not, Kade's brother saved his life today. What Seth did more than likely saved all our asses up here."

The two warriors nodded in agreement as they carried Seth away. When Kade took a step to follow them, Tegan held him back with a meaningful look.

"Hey," he said, his voice pitched only for Kade's ears. "I know something about what you're dealing with, so you're not alone. A long time ago, I gave in to a similar wildness, only my drug of choice back then was rage. It nearly killed me. It would have, if Lucan hadn't pulled me out of it. Now it's Elise who keeps me grounded. But it's always there. The beast never fully goes away, but I'm here to tell you that it can be mastered."

Kade listened, recalling what he'd heard of Tegan's own struggles, both in the Order's earliest days in Europe centuries ago, and the more recent events that had brought Tegan and his Breedmate Elise together in the past year.

"I'm not gonna say I'm happy to hear all of this today," the Gen One said, "but I respect that you trusted us enough to put it out there."

Kade gave him a short nod. "I owed it to you."

"Damn straight you did," Tegan replied. "You need to remember one thing, my man. You lost a brother in Alaska today, but you're always gonna have family in Boston." Kade held the intense gem-green stare. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Tegan confirmed, his broad mouth breaking into a brief smile. "Now let's get the fuck off this frozen rock and go take care of business."

Alex could not pretend that hearing Kade's admission hadn't frightened her. Seeing his brother--the twin who looked so much like him--transformed into the same kind of monster that had killed her mother and Richie only made things worse.

Could Kade one day turn into a monster, too? He certainly believed he could, and the worry put an ache in Alex's chest, not so much out of fear for herself but out of concern for Kade. She didn't want to see him in pain. She didn't want to lose him to the disease--or to the addictive wildness--that had claimed Seth.

With the exception of Jenna, whom she could only pray would be all right, Alex had already lost everyone she loved. Now Kade could be next. He feared the seductive nature of his talent. Seeing what it had done to Seth, Alex feared it, too. She wasn't sure she could handle letting herself fall any deeper in love with Kade, only to lose him later to something she could never compete with and hope to win. But the problem was, she did love him.

It was the depth of that love that terrified her the most as she flew him and the other warriors back to Harmony. She couldn't dismiss the knowledge that Kade's Rogue brother lay dead and shrouded in the cargo hold, a grim warning of the future that might await Kade one day.

Losing her loved ones to Rogues had been difficult enough. Losing Kade to the same vicious enemy that had robbed her of her family was a prospect too terrible to consider.

Alex dragged her thoughts away from those dark worries and searched for a place to land near Jenna's cabin outside town. They had decided on the way to avoid using Harmony's airstrip when it would Jenna's cabin outside town. They had decided on the way to avoid using Harmony's airstrip when it would risk drawing more undue attention from the upset residents. Instead, Alex brought the plane down in a small clearing not far from Jenna's property.

"The trail to the cabin is just through those trees," she told Kade and the others as she brought them to a stop and killed the engine.

Kade turned to look at her from the passenger seat, the first time he had done so since they'd left the mountain to head back into Harmony. His eyes flicked down for a moment as he cleared his throat. "After we sort things out here in town, I'd like to return Seth to my family's Darkhaven near Fairbanks. I know it's a lot to ask of you. Too much, probably, especially after--"

"It's not too much to ask," Alex replied. "Of course, Kade. I'll take you there whenever you're ready." His expression was sober, contrite. "Thank you."

She nodded, feeling a bit sorry herself for the way he seemed to be pulling back from her with his silence, and his carefulness when he did speak to her. Or maybe it wasn't so much that she felt him pulling back but, rather, pushing her away.

Alex climbed out of the plane with him and the other three Breed males, leaving Luna to stand watch over Seth's body while the rest of them went to check on Jenna and Brock.

As soon as her friend's cabin came into view with the door smashed open and Zach's blood still visible beneath the freshly fallen snow, the reality of what had occurred there rose up on Alex in a swell of emotion.

"Oh, my God," she gasped, breaking into a run as they drew closer. "Jenna!" Brock appeared in the open doorway, his huge Breed body blocking the entrance as Alex dashed up the steps of the porch. "She's doing fine. Confused and not exactly coherent yet, but she's unharmed. She's going to be okay. I put her in the bedroom so she could rest more comfortably." Alex couldn't help herself from throwing her arms around the big male's shoulders in a grateful hug.

"Thank you for taking care of her, Brock."

He nodded solemnly, his dark brown eyes warm with a kindness that seemed incongruous with the warrior's immense, lethal appearance. "What happened?" he asked as Alex moved past him into the cabin and Kade and the other warriors came in behind her. "Did you find the Ancient?"

"Long story," Tegan said. "We'll fill you in later, but suffice to say the Ancient is dead. Unfortunately, not without casualties on our side. Kade lost his brother in the battle."

"What?" Brock's expression fell as he put a comforting hand on Kade's shoulder. "Ah, Jesus. Whatever happened, I'm sorry."