Hide and Seek

Day by day the raids on the tunnels continued. Silas knew Syri was down there somewhere, and he was hell-bent on finding his daughter and bringing her home. Even if she wasn't going to have her birth mother, Silas was convinced she'd learn to love his mate, Cassandra.

Jessie had worked as hard as she could from stopping the gossip from getting to Syri's young ears, but eventually it ended up getting to her.

"Where is my mom?" Syri asked one night as Jess was combing her hair after a bath.

"I don't know, sweetie. I wish I could tell you. I'm sure wherever she is, she's thinking about you," the elder wolf replied as gently as she could.

"Why did my dad not want my mom anymore?" Syri asked again, her eyes tired from crying.

"Things are complicated when you get older. I can't answer that - but what I can tell you, is that you have a lot of family who love you - like your uncle Jyriah and Aunt Myranda. Someone will always be around to care for you, do you want to go back to your dad?" Jessie asked, although she was sure she knew the answer.

"No...I don't want a new mommy," Syri sniffled and looked down to the lion that Jessi had repaired for her, and even stuffed with more soft insides so he was 'sturdier' to hug.

"Cassandra will never, ever be your mother of any kind, sweet pea. I hope you can understand all of this someday...but for now, that's such big grown-up stuff that you don't need to worry about," Jessie said tenderly.

"I just want my mommy..." Syri whimpered into her stuffed lion and cried.

"I know, I know honey" Jessie cooed and turned her around so she could hug the small child to her in protection.

They were interrupted by the door being unlocked, opened, and followed by the sounds of rushing footsteps.

"Jessie - you need to give me Syri right now. The guards are searching again, and this time with Silas. They've swept my hall, and they're coming up here, too. Hurry, hurry - there isn't time" her father said nearly breathlessly. He held his arms out, and without hesitation he felt Jessie fill his arms with the young child.

"No - I want to stay with aunt Jess" Syri whined and looked over her shoulder.

"I'll come and get you when these guards are gone. Go with Pawpaw, okay?" Jess gave her a smile with eyes filled with worry. As soon as she realized the hesitation in her father's movement she followed up with a hissed, "go - get her safe!"

"I love you, pumpkin seed. Come on, Syri - we're going a fun secret route," her father said as sweetly as possible, but Jess could see that the child's face was filled with pain and fear.

Jess wanted to tell him the same, but there wasn't time. As he ran out, she went about to clean.

She had things to hide before someone got to her door and smelled Syri's presence in her home. Usually Jess had far more of a warning, but they were doing sweeps five floors at a time recently, and had bigger packs of soldiers to keep order and stop others from hiding.

Good thing it didn't work. Those royal dogs (in this case literally...) may know ever inch of the upper caves, but down here the tunnel dwellers had many secret routes and places to hide contraband and other things.

Truth be told, even with all those safeguards, Jess was terrified they'd find that sweet little pup and she'd be hurt by whatever vile plans Silas had for her. As long as Syri got to safety, she didn't care what happened to her.

The best she could manage for now was stuffing child-sized clothes under mattresses, behind furniture, under her own laundry, and even in some of the cabinets in the kitchen. She could find it all later with a fun game of hide and find, so it didn't matter.

As she was coming around the corner from the living room into the bathroom, her ankle twisted and caused her to crash down to the hard floor.

Her ankle and now chin were throbbing in pain as she started to pick herself up from the floor to try to rinse down the tub.

It wouldn't be fast enough, though - as soon as she tried to turn the water on, her door was pushed in with a great, heavy force.

"Where is she?" came a booming voice.

"Where is my daughter? your friends sold you out, Jessie. Where are you hiding my child?"

Jess cringed at hearing Silas' grating voice, and then she grinned immediately afterwards as she realized that he was too late. She was going to die - but she was going to die victorious.

"Where is my child?" he raged again and bulked his way down the hall where Jess was holding onto the edge of her tub trying to pull herself up. His impulse told him to grab the poor female by her ankle, and pull her to the ground so he could drag her into her own living room.

Although she didn't recognize his authority, he was still intimidating as he slammed her into her own couch and squat down to her level to stick his face almost entirely into Jess'.

"Who are you - and why do you have my daughter? I smell her everywhere in this place, and so many told me you have someone who looks just like my girl running around with you. I see no mate or a picture of one -- so are you just a loose wolf, or did you kidnap the princess?"

Jessie shook her head, blinked a few times, and looked at him with disgust at his insult.

"Answer me. I am your alpha!" Silas roared and slapped Jess as hard as he could with the back of his ringed hand.

She could feel the metal hit her already injured jaw, and let out a yelp as it made contact.

"You're not my alpha," Jess said and spit out a little bit of blood before she continued on, "and I don't know where she is. I don't ask questions. Ignorance is bliss."

Silas replied in anger and shook her shoulders as his smoldering emerald eyes beamed into her beautiful orange ones that shined like the sun in her chest, which dimmed for no one.

"Did Metas put you up to this? Who else is in on this? Where is my child!?" Silas raged on and once more slapped the unprepared female in her face again.

It was out of her control when her eyes started to water. Her body betrayed her steel exterior as tears streamed down her face.

"No....and like I said... I don't ask questions...and I know nothing.." Jess lied and took in a deep breath in order to quell her sobs.

"Tell me where my daughter is, or I'll feed you to the vampires. How does that sound?" Silas threatened.

Her eyes widened at his words, and even the guards gasped. To say something so vile was beyond taboo. Feeding their own kind to their immortal enemies? Unthinkable. No one said anything, though. Silas had been mad with power lately, and hunting down Syri had only driven him closer over the edge.

"Hah." Jess started and then spat directly into Silas' face. "You aren't an alpha. No real king, no real werewolf would dare feed those death-scented, blood-sucking vermin one of their own. How dare you even say such a thing you hideous b-Nhn..." she was unable to continue as his hand hit her again across her bruised face.

"Give me information, or I'll make you" Silas warned again.

"Then make me, you pathetic spit of a man," Jess replied with a cold, stern glare.

"Very well. I will."