The Jackal (Black Dagger Brotherhood - Prison Camp 1)

“Posie’s my sister,” Nyx explained. “My other sister. Anyway, that was how it all started. In his delirium, your son was talking about where he had come from, where he had escaped from.”

Peter looked up at his father. “I wanted them to save you. I wanted her to go back and get you out because I wasn’t strong enough to.”

Jack cupped his son’s face in his broad hand. “You did?”

As the pretrans nodded, Nyx could only shake her head. “What can I say. It was meant to be.”

When Jack held out an arm, she wasn’t sure what he was doing. But then she realized . . .

Nyx got up on her feet and walked over in a daze. She paused, not wanting to crowd them, not wanting to intrude if she was somehow misreading the situation—

Peter grabbed on and pulled her in, and then Jack wrapped his big, strong arms . . . around the both of them.

This time, as tears were shed, they were of joy. Not sorrow.

And would they be thus forevermore—

Jack eased back a little. With a frown, he glanced down at Peter.

“But I don’t understand one thing,” he said. “How did you get out? You didn’t know about my secret passageway. I never told you because I was worried it would put you in danger. I’d made it for you, so that when the time was right, I could smuggle you free.”

Peter swallowed hard, and as he tilted his head, the light from the lamp on the side table hit his hair. For the first time, Nyx noticed . . . the red glowing in the dark strands.

“She let me go.”

“I’m sorry?” Jack said. “What?”

“The Command. She took me from my cell outside of the schedule. It was not a mealtime. I didn’t know what she was going to do. I thought I was in trouble.” Peter looked anxious, as if he were reliving things that had scared him. “She took me through the prison, and opened this steel door with a card. She didn’t say anything. She just kept us going, until . . . I don’t know, we got to this exit I’d never seen before. She gave me a leg up, through this grate.”

“She freed you herself?”

“Yes. I was so confused. The only thing she said was to go north. She told me to keep walking and go north toward the mountain. She told me to look for the white farmhouse with the big tree and the red barn. She told me . . .” Peter looked at Nyx. “That there were kind people of our species there who would take me in and care for me. Then she told me to replace the grate and . . . she disappeared.”

Nyx closed her eyes briefly. She hadn’t heard that part yet. Had Posie? Her grandfather?

“And she was right,” Peter said as he squeezed Nyx’s hand.

“Yes, there are very good people under this roof,” Jack murmured. “The very best.”

“Can we stay here, father?”

Nyx had to wipe both her eyes. “Yes, both of you can stay. Forever.”

She smiled, even though she had a pain in the center of her chest. Why had Janelle done one last good thing? Who knew. Maybe the love of a mahmen for her young had been enough to override the rest of her nature, in that one decision. In that one moment.

But Nyx was never going to know the full truth of it and it didn’t matter anymore. She had her two males, and she was going to take care of them both: Her one true love and her nephew. For all the nights and days she had upon this earth, and all the eternity up above in the Fade, she was going to watch over them.

Indeed, Destiny had mapped this all out beforehand.

It was the only way to explain it.

The following evening, Nyx woke up in her little bed with Jack right beside her. Rolling over in the darkened room, she discovered that he was already awake, his eyes hooded and hot as he stared at her.

“Have something on your mind, my male?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

When he leaned in for a kiss, she met him more than halfway. And they were quick and silent with the undressing. Everyone else in the house was downstairs, sleeping in the cozy quarters Posie had made underground for Peter’s protection, and the relative privacy of the first floor wasn’t going to last.

So yes, it was fast off with the clothes, and rough with the hands, and then Jack was mounting her and she was taking him inside. He bit his lip with his sharp fangs as they were joined, and she clawed at his back as they began to move together, his long, beautiful hair silky and lush around her. Then they were kissing again and things were moving faster—and God, she hoped the bedsprings didn’t creak.