Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [927]
Alex shot him an incredulous look as understanding dawned on her. “You mean the whole town? There are nearly a hundred people in Harmony. What are Tegan and the others going to do, walk down every street, knocking door to door?”
Kade smiled despite the gravity of the situation, including the chasm of unresolved issues that still gaped between Alex and him. “I’m sure they’ll find a way to get the job done. Tegan is nothing if not efficient.”
Kade glanced out the window as the dark landscape below the plane changed from the uniform terrain of city with its plowed streets and snow-covered rooftops, to the rugged, far-reaching wilderness of the bush. “My father’s ten thousand acres begin just at that ridge ahead. There’s a clearing where we can land on the other side of those tall spruce to the north. The Darkhaven compound is within an easy walk of the clearing.”
Alex gave a nod of acknowledgment as she guided the plane to the ground where he had indicated.
Once they had landed, Kade went back to the cargo hold and retrieved Seth’s bloodied, blanket-wrapped body. He carried the lifeless bulk in a careful grasp, Seth’s weight a precious burden he would never know again. As much as he intended to bring his brother home alone, as was his duty, he had to admit Alex’s presence as he made the trek to the Darkhaven compound lent a comfort he hadn’t expected he would need.
She walked beside him in sober purpose, into the snowy yard of the main residence. It had to be late morning by now, probably only a couple of hours before the noon daybreak. Most of the Breed population of this small community would be inside their private quarters, sleeping perhaps, some of them making love.
Kade paused in front of the large house where his mother and father lived, reflecting that in just a few minutes, he would shatter their lives with grief and pain. The very things he had sought to protect them from in keeping Seth’s secret for so long.
“Are you okay?” Alex hesitated beside him. She put her hand on his shoulder, a tender, warm touch that gave him more strength than she could have possibly known.
He needed that strength in the moment that followed.
From within the Darkhaven came the sound of footsteps traveling swiftly over the wood-plank floors. His mother’s voice called from somewhere inside. “Kir? Kir, what is it? Where are you going?”
Kade’s father did not answer.
The doors of the main residence burst open with the force of the elder Breed male’s emotions alone. He stalked over the threshold like a tempest, clearly roused from his bed and having paused only long enough to tug on a pair of loose flannel lounging pants before he flew outside to face the news no parent wanted to hear.
Alex gasped at the sight of him, though her shock came as no surprise to Kir’s surviving son.
Six and a half feet of muscled fury, dermaglyphs seething with the dark hues of anger and alarm, stood frozen on the porch of the large log residence. Gray eyes burned with amber, flicking questioningly over Alex before landing on Kade in searing judgment.
“Tell me what has happened to my son.”
Kade had never heard his father’s voice shake, not even at Kir’s worst. The tremor in that deep baritone now was like a knife to Kade’s gut.
“Father … I am sorry.”
Kir thundered down the steps and into the snow. He stopped in front of Kade and Alex, reached out with a shaking hand to lift the blanket that covered Seth’s face.
“Ah, Christ. No.” The words choked in the back of his throat, raw with anguish. He looked once more, longer now, as though forcing himself to take full measure of the Rogue’s face that had been hidden beneath the shroud. “I prayed this wouldn’t happen again. Goddamn it, not to one of my sons.”
“Kir!” Kade glanced up as his pregnant mother strayed out to the porch, her silk nightgown engulfed