Page 56 of Tempest

“As soon as I saw his face, it all just flashed back. All of the weeks of him harassing me and following me, trying to corner me whenever I was alone to force the issue. He just kept calling me his mate, telling me we weredestined. Even though I kept denying it, he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to stop,” Ore said thickly, his tears burning Cash’s throat.

“He wouldn’t have,” his father added. “That became clear to us. No matter what Ore said or did, Louie wouldn’t stop until he’d won. He didn’t care what Ore actually wanted.”

His rage, which had begun to temper with his mate in his arms, ramped back up. His fangs dropped, and his claws fully extended.

“Dude, chill,” Robbie scolded him, and surprisingly, it worked.

He took a few deep breaths, forcing his panther back down but holding Ore tighter. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to let him out of his grasp.

“S-so we told him to leave,” his mother said haltingly, and when he glanced up, he saw she was staring at him warily. “We don’t have any influence in the pack, and even though people didn’t agree with what he was doing, nobody was willing to help us stand up to him.” She lightly laid a hand on Ore’s upper back. “We’d hoped you would find another pack, start over somewhere safe, but then you never contacted us, and we started assuming the worst.”

Ore’s grip on Cash tightened. He turned his head and looked over at Robbie. “I remember that too. I was… I was there, in the white room, just like your stepdad described it.”

Robbie’s eyes widened, and he clutched at Ore’s arm. “The place where they made him fight like a gladiator?”

Shrugging, Ore sniffed and wiped his face against Cash’s chest, leaving behind a wet spot. “I guess. That didn’t happen to me. I only saw the cell they kept me in and the room where they brought me to do their sick experiments. It was all white, just like Caden said. It has to be the same place.”

Cash’s panther rumbled in his chest, and he crushed his little bird against him so hard he grunted in protest. “Sorry,” he murmured, loosening his hold.

Ore patted his chest. “It’s okay. I think I was there pretty much the whole time between when I left my family’s pack and arrived here. I took a bus north into Oregon and got off at a random stop. I don’t know if they were following me or if I justhad the worst luck in the world, but I remember going into a cafe to get something to eat, and then the next thing I knew…”

“You were in that place,” Robbie finished for him.

Debbie turned into her mate’s arms, weeping quietly. Harold’s face was slack with shock and devastation as they listened to their son talk about what had happened to him before he arrived in Silver Oak.

“Yeah. But it was kind of weird. They seemed really excited about me being there,” he said, glancing up at Cash. He couldn’t help but wonder if Ore was deliberately ignoring his parents, if it would be too hard to talk about if he had to deal with their emotions too.

“What do you mean?”

Ore shook his head. “I don’t really know. They just kept saying how close I was to something, how it was almost ready.”

“It?” Robbie asked, looking over at his uncle. Liam was typing furiously on his phone, probably taking notes or texting his brother everything Ore was remembering.

“I don’t know,” Ore said, shrugging. “The one witch that seemed to be in charge of the experiments would check me over with magic again and again and then get frustrated. In between the checks, they would… inject me with things.”

Ore’s mom gasped behind him, and his little bird squeezed his eyes shut, tensing.

“Yeah, it fucking sucked. It… hurt a lot.”

“How’d you escape?” his dad asked, stepping forward and placing a hand on Ore’s back in comfort.

“I can’t remember,” he said slowly. “That part’s still kind of a blur. I think they gave me something, maybe so I wouldn’t remember.” He jerked back and stared up at Cash. “So I wouldn’t remember. That’s what Fern said during my checkup. She thought that could be why my memories were just gone. That somebody had deliberately severed my connection to them.They must have not wanted me to be able to remember how to get back to that place.”

“Maybe that memory will return too,” Cash said soothingly, cupping the side of Ore’s face. “Just?—”

“Be patient, I know.” Ore made a cute little growling sound. “I know you’re right. It’s just… It feels more important than ever to get them all back.” He sighed and leaned into Cash’s hand. “All I know is that once I got out, I followed… I don’t know, like a beacon.”

“A beacon?” Liam said, looking up from his phone.

“Yeah, it was like—” Ore pressed a hand to his stomach. “—a tugging on my insides, guiding me.”

“And it led you here?” Cash asked, eyebrows raised.

Ore smiled up at him, placing his hands flat on Cash’s chest and shaking his head. “No, it led me to you.”

“Ohdamn,” Robbie whispered loudly.

“Your parents are settled upstairs,” Liam said, strolling into his office. “They’ve reluctantly agreed to stay and give us a chance to come up with a plan to help.”

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