I didn't want to bring Menza back to Sublatus.

That was the only thing in my head. It was there the moment she told me what happened, the moment I learned the extent of it. It was there when we sat down for dinner with those of Altia. It was there when Menza had leaned against my side as she ate. It was there as I fed Maeve for the first time in months. It was there so heavily as I helped Menza pack her things into the SUV and put Maeve into her car seat.

It was there when Menza got into the passenger seat and it was there when the Head Priestess stared at me with eyes that saw far too much as she spoke to me.

'Blessings turned into a curse. Mene knows what is coming and she knows she cannot stop it. However she will not excuse you for what you are chained to do. It must all die and those who sit idly by are just as guilty as those who utilize it.' Her words had been spoken carefully, carrying a weight that had shoved down on my shoulders. 'The ways in which you live, will bring you nothing but heartache. You can come back from this but things will be changed in such a way you will not know who you are underneath it all. There are some things that can't ever be undone and all you can do is atone.'

I tried to respond, tried to tell her but the Command held my throat tight, choking me, not letting the words come out no matter how hard I tried. I had ended up with a straggled 'I have to.' because that was all I could say. I didn't have a choice. Stenton had Commanded me and I had to obey. There was no way out of the Command to bring them both back to Sublatus.

'And you will atone.'

Her words had struck me so hard I found it had been hard to breathe as I got into the SUV and started the drive back. I couldn't stop what I was doing. The Command to take them back had only grown stronger but I did my best. I kept to the speed limit, I stopped for frequent breaks. When it became later, the sun sinking below the horizon, I stopped for the night.

"Why are we stopping?" Menza's soft question had me gripping the steering wheel tighter in my hands. The Command was demanding I keep going, keep driving. I could make it, be there for the morning but I didn't want to do that. I just... I wanted more time.

I cleared my throat. "We can finish it tomorrow. I don't want Maeve to get too fussy." She was quiet, probably sleeping but I was trying to rationalize the stop for the Command, trying to subvert it however I could. I worked it over and over in my head that a break was necessary, that Maeve wasn't used to the drive, that stopping was an appropriate thing to do.

The Command eased slightly but only just. I relaxed slightly at that before I turned and gave Menza a small smile, knowing it was strained. "We'll stop for the night and then continue on in the morning." We still had another eight hours to go and I wanted to push it as far as I could to try to think of a way I could stop whatever was coming.

She smiled back, nodding, "Okay. That's a good idea." I pulled off my seatbelt and heard her do the same. "I'll grab Maeve." I nodded as I grabbed the debit card that had been provided to me by Stenton. I'd pay for the room and some food, then we could sit for a time. I didn't like the idea of Stenton being able to track the purchases but I didn't have a choice. It wasn't like we were given our own accounts. The pack provided for us what we needed. I wished I had some cash at least but there was no such luck.

There was a feeling of impending disaster grew inside me as I headed in and rented a room. There was a bit of a fuss with the mundane because I didn't have a credit card but I said for him to just put a $500 deposit down and then refund the difference when we left. It had been a bit of an argument that had my wolf getting more and more agitated before the mundane gave in. Although I wasn't sure if it was the arguing or the fact he clearly had an issue with being viewed as prey. One of the two, not that it actually mattered.

I walked out with the room key and Menza was walking beside the car, patting Maeve's back as she shushed her softly. She looked... that feeling of disquiet, of something being wrong, as if there were danger on the horizon, grew even worse. There was that tugging inside of me that said I needed to be careful, to protect Menza because there was a storm coming.

I knew there was. I had known that the moment she gave me her timeline.

With Menza's timeline of what happened, I had pieced together some of what Stenton had done. There was no way that the Hunters hadn't contacted him and she had said that when she had woken up in Fortis, she spoke to the Hunters to try and find me. They would have gone to the nearest packs to ask, and then, roughly at the same time that the Hunters more than likely would have come to ask about Menza, Stenton barred me from looking completely.

In fact, using Menza's rough timeline, Stenton started cracking down and barring everyone from looking after that block of time. I had questioned why he had done it. I had questioned it extensively because it made no sense, but knowing that Menza had been found by another pack that was close, that she had gone to the Hunters, it sounded very much like Stenton had learned that Menza and Maeve were fine and then put the entire pack into a choke hold. He stopped the searches, he kept driving up the resentment towards Menza for stealing Maeve, not that it worked, if someone believed it, they kept quiet and everyone else was giving him judgmental looks because of the fact he throttled the search efforts.

Stenton didn't like Menza, he wanted me as Master-At-Arms, and he wanted her punished. I didn't know why, not entirely. He didn't like her, Getts didn't like her, and Regan wanted to victimize her. I could guess Getts and Regan's reasons, they were fairly simple, but Stenton, I couldn't understand why Stenton didn't. I was missing something important and that made me feel under prepared for going back and it made me more than aware something bad was going to happen.

I knew, for a fact, Stenton was going to attempt to punish Menza, despite my words and wants. He had already shown himself to use his Commands and that my word over the females in my house meant nothing. But the fact I knew that didn't mean I could subvert his Command to bring her back, it was absolute.

"Brochan?" Menza's voice was soft and I blinked. She was standing in front of me and I smiled down at her, feeling sick right down to my core over the fact that I knew something was going to happen but I didn't know what and I simply knew there would be little I could do to stop it.

"Let's go to our room." I reached out and brushed the backs of my fingers against Maeves's cheek as she slept against Menza's chest. With that tight feeling in my stomach, I took her up to the room. It was a standard motel room and I lingered in the door. I wanted to tell Menza what was happening but I couldn't, not in anyway that mattered, not in anyway that she could understand. This wasn't a situation where I could give her a look and say something and have her just get it, like with Jason. She hadn't been Commanded before, she wouldn't be able to understand what it was like. To be honest I doubted she could ever be Commanded without having a wolf.

"It looks comfy." Menza's voice was soft as she looked into the motel room.

I nodded, "It does." I moved to the side, letting her bring Maeve into the room. "I'm going to get some food, anything you want?" I swallowed hard, I was a mess inside. I didn't even think I wanted to eat but I wanted her to eat something, her and Maeve.

"Some soft foods for Maeve would be good." She gently bounced Maeve in her arm as the little girl wiped at her eyes, fussing. My heart clenched in my chest at the realization that Menza was still just Menza, more worried about Maeve than herself.

"I'll see if I can get some baby food and maybe a pizza for us." I didn't want to eat but I wanted Menza to eat.

She nodded, smiling as she kissed Maeve's forehead. "Will be tasty, huh, sweet girl?"

My stomach twisted as I set down one of the key cards for the room. "I'll be right back, okay?" I continued to look at her as she swayed, holding Maeve close. I had never wavered in the belief that she loved Maeve. She went through hell to protect her and she was still putting her first. Menza loved Maeve and I was glad to see that my faith in that, was as true as the day they had gone missing.

I made sure the motel room was closed as I headed down towards the SUV. I opened it and heard a phone ringing. I reached over and grabbed the phone Getts had tossed at me before I had left. I answered it and even from as far as I was, I felt Stenton's agitation.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" His voice was a snap and he pushed hard against the mindlink. "I didn't authorize you stopping for the night, or get a motel room. In fact I Commanded you to bring them both back to Sublatus. I don't like the fact you're dragging your fucking feet."

That had me clenching my teeth together tightly. I had known he was checking but I got the room less than ten minutes ago. I didn't like that he had that close of eyes on the account I was forced to use. "Maeve was getting fussy and I didn't want to force her to endure more of a car ride when all she wanted was to be out." Was it a lie? Yes, but he didn't need to know that, he didn't need to know my reasons for anything I was doing. Even my wolf's hackles were raised at it, at the lengths he was going to keep track of me.

There was a thick silence on the other end of the line. "How I choose to deal with my child is my business and if I feel like she needs a break, I will take that break." I couldn't help how sharp the words were. I needed some control back. I needed to have something there to feel like I was still me, that I was still who I was underneath all the damned Commands. I wanted to rail against him, I wanted to confront him, demand if the Hunters had approached him but I wasn't stupid. That would be picking a fight I wouldn't be able to win.

"Fine." He said it lightly and that immediately had the hairs on the back of my neck rising. "Spend some time with your little female. In fact you don't have to be back until later tomorrow. Make sure she travels well. We don't want her sick." He was saying it, loosening the Command slightly but alarm bells were ringing in my head and churning my stomach into an acidic mess that made me want to puke. "So take your time, in fact if you want to meander and get back at sunset, feel free."

It felt like a trap. I couldn't explain it but his sudden give, the lightness to his tone, it felt all wrong. It made that sense of foreboding grow into this massive knot in my stomach. "Thank you." I didn't want to say it but I knew it was expected of me.

"No problem, Brochan." He chuckled and it had me swallowing hard, my skin feeling like it was prickling. Even my wolf was wary and concerned by the sudden shift. "I do these things because I care about you, okay? Like, I want you to be the best possible version of yourself and sometimes you make it hard. But if you say your little female isn't travelling well, I completely believe you. So take your time."

"Thanks." I swallowed against the bile that touched my tongue. It was false, all of it was so false.

"No problem. We'll see you tomorrow, around seven perhaps?" It was asked but it wasn't a question, he was telling me what time he wanted me back.

"Yah." I clenched my teeth together, my grip tight on the phone. I didn't like a single second of this.

"Aood." He gave another low chuckle. "And, Brochan, you aren't to tell that little bitch anything." The Command caught me off guard and the line went dead. I wanted to puke. It wasn't just him laying around to Command me, he was planning something and now I couldn't even warn Menza about it. I wanted to break the phone but I tossed it into the passenger seat instead. I rubbed at my eyes, letting out shuddering breaths.

I was trapped. 

I was trapped with no fucking way out.