Fated Legacy Complete Collection

Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

S everal Hours Earlier

Rivière Du Loup

New Orleans, Louisiana

“You’re home! You’re home!” said Darby Gautier as she ran to embrace her son.

“Darby,” said Jean-Michel patiently. “We’ve been over this. Rémy is home on leave, nothing more.”

Tucking her arm through his, he led her inside and up the grand staircase that dominated the foyer. “Don’t worry, Maman , I’m not going anywhere for a while. I don’t think I can stay here full-time, but I signed my separation papers before I left. The only fighting I plan to do for a while is against whatever this thing is that seems determined to destroy our family.”

“That’s the best news I’ve had in a long time, but I could kill Travis,” snarled Darby.

“Sweetheart, you cannot expect Travis not to have told him. There is a supernatural force that appears to be dedicated to eradicating us and all those we hold dear. It almost got Mawmaw Chantal’s granddaughter.”

“What happened?” asked Rémy.

“One evening, after Robyn finished her shift on dispatch, she was going to visit her grandmother. As she was walking down the street she felt as though she were being stalked. When she glanced back, there was a man…” said Jean-Michel.

“More monster than man,” interjected Darby.

Jean-Michel nodded. “Coming after her. He began running towards her when he realized she knew he was there. Robyn barely made it through the gate to her grandmother’s front yard. When the man tried to follow her, he bounced back as if someone had swatted him down.”

“Chantal’s protection charms did their job, he wasn’t able to pass through,” finished Darby. “Robyn said a kind of black smoke started to come through his nose and mouth, but it couldn’t pass through the barrier either. So the fumes receded, and the man ran away.”

“That must have been incredibly frightening for Robyn. Travis told me he and Skylar have moved Chantal and her family out of the line of fire,” said Rémy.

“ Oui . Our friends at Luna de Lobo have offered them sanctuary.”

Rémy shook his head as they entered his room. “I should have been here.”

“To do what?” asked his father. “It is only recently we have begun to formulate a plan to end this evil spirit once and for all. We know that we need an elemental magick wielder—one who can create magick within the natural elements, and it seems Branson Norris has taken one to mate.” His father frowned.

“Is there a problem, Papa?”

“ Non . James assures me his daughter-in-law bears no love for the wolf who sired her and no ill will toward me for ending him once and for all. But still, he was her father.”

“No, my beloved,” said Darby, turning to her mate of more than thirty years. “He was never her father. He raped her mother and abandoned her when he thought you were closing in on him. He never told you he had sired a child and may not have ever known about Renata. My guess is she sees you as having avenged her mother. Shea assures me that she’s a lovely girl and madly in love with Branson. She is also committed to helping to destroy the Darkness and thinks that Bran may be able to fill in some of the blanks about how we can defeat this thing once and for all.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that there isn’t some big party planned for this evening,” said Rémy.

“I wouldn’t call it big,” equivocated Darby.

His father laughed. “Maybe not, but everyone else in the world would. Come along my love and let Rémy get dressed.”

Jean-Michel began to guide his wife out of Rémy’s bedroom but stopped suddenly and turned back to his son. “The pack has been anxious for your return. After breakfast, I will try and answer any questions you might have about the Darkness. The Nichols clan as well as Branson and Renata will be here this evening for the party, but your sister and Travis arrived early this morning. Both Simon and Mariah as well as Jed and Kat, are deliberately keeping away so that if we fail or need a fallback position, we’ll have one.”

“Jean-Michel,” his mother started to say in protest but ended up letting out nothing but a squeal when his father swatted her backside to get her out the door.

Rémy couldn’t help but smile at his parents. Their love, respect, and affection for each other ran deep and it was the same kind of connection he hoped he’d soon have with Piper.

Piper. Now there was a veritable quandary. On the one hand, he wanted to keep her as far away from New Orleans and this Darkness thing as he could. On the other, he wanted her to be close to him and wanted to never spend another day apart from her. Travis had been clear—the Darkness was old, powerful, and evil, and it seemed focused on destroying the Gautiers. Piper would be safer if she was away from him. But would she really? The Darkness had proved to be an elusive quarry and capable of easily killing those it chose to target.

He finished getting dressed and headed down the stairs. Rémy could have done without the boisterous greeting he knew he would receive. The New Orleans pack was noted for the exuberant way in which it approached life— Laissez les bons temps rouler! Most of the time he embraced the family philosophy, but the loss of his unit and his subsequent torture and near-death experience had changed him. He was older and hopefully wiser.

As he entered the dining room, a great cheer went up and he pasted on a bright, smiling face for his pack. They loved him and while most knew only vague details of what had happened, they had no way of knowing the profound effect it had had on him. Not even his parents knew; he’d managed to keep most of it hidden from them. He’d caused his mother enough grief by leaving home and becoming a SEAL in the first place and she wouldn’t take it well if she knew the particulars of his experience.

His sister ran to greet him and wrapped her arms around him. She rolled up onto her toes and kissed his cheek. “It will be all right,” she whispered.

While Rémy loved all his siblings, it was Skylar with whom he was the closest. Perhaps it was because they were the closest in age, but maybe it was because both of them had known for most of their lives that Rivière Du Loup was never their destiny. Jean-Edouard would someday rule as alpha, and their younger brothers Lucien and Octavio would act as beta and omega, respectively. The pack was in good hands.

“Brother,” said Travis, Skylar’s mate and his oldest friend who had come to join them. “Just enjoy this morning. Then we’ll need to catch you up on things. There will be a lot to do when the rest of my family gets here.”

Rémy hated to ask but couldn’t stop himself. “Is Piper coming with them?”

Skylar squeezed his arm. “Yes. For what it’s worth, she isn’t with anyone.”

Travis laughed. “Not for lack of my father’s trying,” he said. “There are plenty of wolves who would love to take my sister to mate, but so far she’s managed to send them all packing. She can be a nasty piece of work when she tries.”

Rémy growled.

“Don’t growl at me, Rémy, growl at your fated mate. She isn’t going to make this easy on you.”

Rémy laughed. “So you tell me, but as I said, I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to take her to mate. And you,” he said, turning to Skylar, “should remember that you were my sister long before you were her friend.”

“Don’t worry about Skylar, she’ll keep her cute little nose out of it. I reminded her last night what happens when she tries to come between a Dom and his sub, or in this case a wolf and his fated mate.”

Skylar punched Rémy in the arm.

“Shit, Sky, what was that for? I haven’t even done anything yet,” said Rémy.

“Yet being the operative word. The two of you can growl and threaten all you want, but if I find out either of you tries to coerce Piper, you’ll find yourselves with two pissed-off alpha she-wolves to contend with.”

When breakfast had concluded, Jean-Michel requested that his sons and Travis join him in his study.

“I would remind you, Papa, that I have a gun and know how to use it,” said Skylar.

Jean-Michel turned to Travis. “You would let her speak to her father and alpha that way?”

“You are not her alpha. I am. And I imagine this isn’t much different from the way she’s always spoken to you. The difference now is, as she says, she has a gun. More importantly, she has me. I would also remind you that she is the one who initially figured out what was going on.”

Jean-Edouard shook his head. “I do not understand you. You allow my sister to run amok and wonder why she can be so difficult. I warned you that Mama and Papa had given her entirely too much freedom.”

“Want me to break your nose again?” asked Skylar, glaring at her brother.

“Sky, that’s enough,” admonished Travis, who then looked at Jean-Edouard. “I’ve never been able to tell if you’re joking, deliberately provoking her, or are just utterly oblivious to the fact that your sister could kick your ass and if for some reason she couldn’t, I’d do it for her.”

“I’ll clue you in, brother,” said Rémy. “The answer to your question is that he is utterly oblivious, which is why it’s generally a good idea to have Bre around. The guy’s an idiot savant where business and figures are concerned but does much better in social situations when Bre can filter and redirect for him.”

“And I’ve always thought, Rémy, that you were some kind of mutant. You’re far too big and dark to be anything other than a changeling,” retorted Jean-Edouard.

Before anyone could lob another insult, the sound of Jean-Michel’s fist pounding on the desk got everyone’s attention. “I would remind all of you that I am alpha here.” He shook his head. “Why is it you all revert to your childish ways whenever you get together? You are lucky to have such close siblings and friends and should act that way.”

The five Gautier offspring all looked at each other and then at their sire—confusion clouding their faces.

“I think, Jean-Michel,” said Travis, “that it’s their default setting when emotions are running high. I know from past experience that if anyone—including their fated mate—tries to come between them, they tend to turn on the interloper like a ravenous pack. As intimidating as they may be as individuals, your offspring as a group are even scarier.”

“I suppose there is some comfort in that,” said the Alpha of New Orleans with resignation. “Right now, I need you all to band together. We cannot defeat this thing as individuals or even as a pair, it will take a focused and combined effort to destroy it. And let’s be clear, we don’t just want to beat it, we want to eradicate it once and for all. Travis and Skylar, you two had the latest interaction with this Darkness. What do you know that we don’t?”

Travis’ face grew dark as they addressed the trouble at hand. “Unfortunately, not as much as we’d like to. We do know it’s clever and Sky believes it has a mind of its own.”

“It seems capable of independent thought,” added Skylar. “While it may use a host to move from place to place and to gather the energy it needs to exist, it is quite capable of jumping from host to host in a relatively quick fashion.”

“I’ll be glad when Bran arrives,” said Travis. “He and Renata should be able to tell us more.”

“You’d better watch your manners around Renata, big brother. I’m quite sure she could turn you into a frog if she had a mind to,” said Piper.

“Is she a real magick wielder?” asked Lucien, leaning forward in his seat with curiosity.

“She is,” answered Travis, “and quite an impressive one. I think if Mawmaw Chantal is right about having to trap the Darkness outside of its host, Renata is our best bet for pulling it off.”

“So the plan is that somehow we incite this thing to come after our family here at the plantation and then have Renata trap it. Once she’s done that, Travis and Skylar will come together as the dire wolf and take it down,” said Rémy, skeptically. He tried to remind himself that none of the people in the room, with the exception of his father, had any military training, much less special ops expertise. “I’m not sure that’s much of a plan.”

“I don’t know that we know enough to be able to put more of a plan together than that. This thing reacts and moves quickly, and we still don’t exactly know what we’re working against,” said Skylar.

They sat in silence for a moment as everyone thought about the conversation.

“What kind of information will Bran have when he arrives?” asked Rémy.

“I talked to Renata last night,” said Skylar. “She says Bran found his research notes and thinks they’ll be helpful with understanding where the Darkness comes from. Although I’m not sure how that could be all that helpful.”

Rémy shook his head. “I would tend to disagree, Sky. Knowing where it comes from might give us insight into how it may react or respond to stimuli or to an attack. We might be able to find a weakness to exploit.”

Skylar shook her head. “We already know what we need to do. Get it to leave its host, then Renata freezes it, and finally Travis and I become a dire wolf and destroy it.”

“Do you know how to get it to leave its host?” asked Rémy.

Skylar turned to him. “Either make it think we’re going to kill the current one or actually kill it.”

“That’s not a very specific plan. But let’s say we get it to jump, and Renata does manage to zap it so that it can’t escape. Then what?” he persisted.

“I told you. Trav and I combine to become a dire wolf.”

“Have you been able to do that a second time?”

“Well, no, but the circumstances have to be specific. Full moon, imminent threat, last resort kind of thing.”

Rémy ran his hands through his hair. “Anybody know when the next full moon is? Isn’t this thing always an imminent threat? And what constitutes a last resort?”

“Don’t make things difficult, Rémy.”

“I’m not trying to be difficult, Sky. I’m trying to figure out how we kill it once and for all. In my opinion, we need to have answers before we can set an effective trap.”

“Your brother is right,” said Jean-Michel. “I think we’ve been going at this all wrong. We’ve been reacting instead of being proactive and planning our way through this. I would suggest we table this discussion, and enjoy our time until Bran, Renata, and Amy get here.”

“Amy?” asked Travis with surprise. “My Aunt Amy?”

“ Oui . She sent me a message this morning that she’s been going through a lot of information she’s collected over the years—not about the Darkness, but about the dire wolves and your family’s link to them.” Turning to Rémy, Jean-Michel continued, “The full moon is in five days. So if it is critical that we have a full moon, we need to know how to protect ourselves and all those for whom we are responsible for the next five days.”