***CONTENT WARNING*** A good deal of swearing, including several F-Bombs and descriptions of violence.

Once aboard the plane, Valerie climbed into the pilot’s seat, fiddled with the small plane’s console, and expertly guided the craft to the runway. Neil cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re always full of surprises, Bonnie. Here, I thought you’d have a personal pilot to whisk you anywhere you’d want to go.”

“Oh, our family retains a pilot, but I prefer a more hands-on approach. I got my pilot’s license before a driver’s license. I bought this baby right after my trust fund became available to me.” Neil noted the pride in her statement. “If you can believe it, I once had aspirations of being a fighter pilot. But that sorta got squashed when I realized that being on a mission during a full moon would be dangerous. See, when you’re compelled to Wolf Out, you lose concentration for a hot minute, and that can spell doom. Full moon or not, you have to be prepared for any emergency, especially if you get deployed during a war.”

“Makes sense,” Neil said. “So what did you do when you realized your dream was crushed?”

Valerie grinned ruefully as she prepared for takeoff. “I was damn mad for a while. I eventually sucked it up and became a flight instructor for a time but really didn’t enjoy teaching. I’m just not a patient enough person, I guess. When all you want to do is take over the controls and feel the urge to call a beginner an idiotic lost cause, it’s time to hang it up and reevaluate your career choices.”

Neil waited until they were in the air before responding to her statement. Shouting to be heard over the roar of the engines during takeoff wasn’t Neil’s idea of fun. “I can understand that. What did you do after that?”

Valerie sighed as she checked her control panel and leveled the plane. “I bummed around Europe for a while, had a few flings, and generally just enjoyed myself. When I came home, I got married…and that was an epic failure.”

“I’m sorry.”

Valerie shrugged and sighed resignedly. “It was a terrible time. I made so many mistakes then and after, and that is how I landed up in this mess we’re both embroiled in. If I ever get out of this…if we get out of this, I have a lot to make up for.”

“Ditto.”

A somber silence fell over the pilot and her passengers. Greta fell asleep against the plush seats of the small plane. The droning of the engines and the calm, sure voices sounding over the plane’s communications system lulled Neil into a light doze.

The sun was up by the time the plane landed and the car was loaded with driver, passengers, and luggage. The car ride to Valerie’s property was uneventful and occurred without incident. As planned, Neil warded the car against magical detection, and Valerie drove skillfully over deserted backroads and sandy paths. Neil breathed a sigh of relief when he felt powerful magic around him as they passed through the protective wards of Valerie’s property, Approaching a driveway, Valerie pointed out the house Greta would be staying in. “There is also a car for you to use while you’re here. As you can see, It’s parked in the carport,” she said to Greta in her wolf’s gravelly voice. “It’s registered in the name of Regina Garfield so it can’t be traced back to you or me. You will be secretly hidden here as discussed, and there is also a set of fake ID and papers in Regina’s name that you’ll need to use while you’re in hiding. Best to be extremely cautious and cover our asses at every angle.”

Greta’s eyes widened. “But how did you manage that? I mean, that takes a bit of time to do, doesn’t it?”

“Valerie has connections, Mom. I gave her one of your passport pictures and she got things expedited. Just trust her. She knows what she’s doing,” Neil said, kissing his mother’s cheek.

Greta gave Neil a wan smile. “Common crooks, all of us, but if it keeps you safe, my son, that is all that matters.”

“And your safety is most important to me.” He squeezed Greta’s hand. “Come on. Let’s get you settled.”

Neil smiled as Greta oohed and ahed over Valerie’s beach house. He nodded in agreement, the weight of worry falling from his shoulders at seeing that Greta was pleased. “You should be more than comfortable here, Mom.”

“Your father and I always wanted a little vacation home like this.” A nostalgic look came over Greta’s face, and she sighed. “Oh, Neil, I wish you could stay and enjoy it with me.”

Neil hugged his mother close and rubbed the small of her back where it often ached. “When all this is done and over, I’ll come back and we can spend some time here together, if Valerie says it’s all right.” If I’m not in jail by then, that is. The unvoiced thought made him feel cold although the Sunlit Tides morning was pleasantly warm and inviting.

Valerie put down the last of Greta’s luggage and changed into human form. “That is perfectly fine,” she said, overhearing Neil’s comment. A dreamy expression came over her, and she moved to stand in front of a window that looked out onto a beautiful view of the water. “I hope it brings you the tranquility it has always brought me.”

Greta hugged the younger woman and gave her a motherly kiss. “I can’t thank you enough, Valerie, for what you are doing. You certainly didn’t have to get involved, and your generosity astounds me.”

Valerie blushed but ducked her head to blink back sudden tears. “I have a lot of sins to atone for in my life, and this only scratches the surface.” She returned Greta’s hug and stepped back. “Now then, let’s get down to it. There’s plenty of food and stuff to last you about three months. The grocery store has delivery service, and DoorDash and InstaCart are also available. Use the Regina name and use this phone that’s in Regina’s name, too. All the apps you’ll need are set up and are up to date. Passwords and important info are locked in a secret compartment hidden in the desk.” Valerie handed Greta an IPhone, gave her the passcode, and told her to commit it to memory.

“You should give Valerie your phone for safe keeping. We don’t want anything being traced back here to your real identity,” Neil added.

“Such cloak and dagger,” Greta said, giving Valerie her own phone. “It’s been turned off, and Neil’s scrambled the signals.” She sighed wearily, ran a hand through her dark hair, then turned her attention back to her son. “I’ve always wanted to be part of a spy novel and would be enjoying having such an adventure if there wasn’t going to be real danger to you both. Please, please be careful.”

We will, Mrs. Hughes–”

“It’s Greta, dear,” Greta said, interrupting Valerie with a kind smile.

Valerie smiled back at the older woman. “We’ll be careful, Greta. You just relax and enjoy. I’ll make sure you get more supplies as needed and check on you as often as I can.” She looked at Neil. “We’d better get going. You’ll be missed if you don’t show up for your next shift, and Shane will get suspicious if I’m not back by breakfast tomorrow.”

After a brief, tearful goodbye, a pensive Neil followed Valerie to the car and watched somberly as she resumed her wolf form. Both were silent until the return flight began. “She’ll be OK, Neil. Those wards are impenetrable, and Shane has absolutely no idea how to get through anything like that. As far as Shane will soon find out, your mother will have disappeared off the face of the planet. Now, what we need to concentrate on is getting you in to Lenora before he discovers your mother missing. Otherwise, he’ll certainly come after you. You’re a loose end.”

Neil nodded his understanding. “I’d better get my ass to Mathilda and throw myself on her mercy.” He produced a rueful smile. “I may not have to worry about Clayton killing me. Mathilda may do it first.”

“I don’t envy what you’ve got to do. Mathilda is going to be super pissed, to say the absolute least, but she’ll understand that you’re needed if Lenora is to make it out of there alive.”

“And you have to deal with the devil himself.” He rolled his eyes and gave a humorless laugh. “A fine kettle of fish we’re in, Landgraab.”

“From the pot right into the fire. Well, Clyde, let’s show ’em what we’re made of.”

Over the next few weeks as Summer changed to Autumn, Lenora’s condition worsened. Her appetite faded to nearly nonexistence and when she did eat, her stomach rebelled and disgorged its contents. She wanted to sleep all the time but when she did, she was plagued by unspeakably frightening nightmares.

Along with her waning strength, her magic was weakening. The cell, itself, kept her from being able to cast the day-to-day magic she’d always taken for granted. Even a simple spell to warm herself fizzled, and a charm to brighten the cell with more light didn’t ignite even a single spark. One of the few things she could still muster was a glamour to give the illusion of better health. She did her utmost to keep it in place. After all, she wanted to maintain some dignity, even if it was a very tiny helping.

Shane still refused to let Neil see to Lenora. “She’ll be OK, Al. She’s just sulking because she knows I’m in control here and can’t stand it,” Shane said one day, shrugging off Allen’s continued insistence that Lenora needed medical help.

For the first time in a very long time, Shane saw a murderous expression come into his brother’s eyes. “You need to look at her. She’s running a fever and having trouble breathing. It sounds like she has all kinds of gunk in her lungs. If she dies, I will never, ever forgive you and you’ll be very, very sorry.”

Shane sighed in exasperation. Where the hell was Valerie? It was her job to babysit the bitch, not his. “Fine, but I’m telling you, she’s completely fine.”

Muttering darkly under his breath, Shane trudged downstairs with Allen to Lenora’s cell and unlocked it. He gave Lenora a long, venomous stare upon entering. She, in turn, returned it, her fever-filled eyes narrowing in utter hatred, her lips pursing in complete disgust.

Allen knelt in front of the chair where Lenora sat and took her hands. At his worried look, Lenora softened her expression. Yes, she was acting out a charade, but she’d come to feel so truly sorry for him. The man was clearly mentally ill, but Shane was too thick to recognize that his brother needed major help. “Don’t look so worried.” Lenora squeezed his hands and tried to muster a weak smile.

“But I am, Lenora. You’re ill,” Allen said, touching her forehead. “Oh, Lenora, what can I do?”

Ye can release me and let me go home to my family, she thought bitterly, knowing that wouldn’t be happening. ‘For starters, ye could get me someplace warmer. It’s cold and dank down here, and there’s no sunlight. It’s a horrible place for someone to try to remain healthy,” she replied in a feeble, raspy voice, her lungs rattling with every breath.

“Absolutely not,” Shane growled, emphasizing his words with a determined shake of his head.

Before Allen could reply, Valerie ascended the stairs, looking windswept and flustered. “It’s about damned time! Where the fuck were you?” Shane yelled.

“My car broke down, so keep your fucking shirt on. I got here as quickly as I could,” Valerie snapped back.

//Ye went to see Neil, didn’t ye, Valerie?// Lenora mentally reached for her sister-in-law. //Your car really didn’t break down.// Lenora knew Valerie always kept her vehicles in tip top shape and that a car breakdown was simply a ruse to buy her some time.

//Yep. He gave me some stuff to keep you going until we can get him in here to look at you.// She put her bag down in a huff and quickly came to Lenora’s side. Valerie frowned as she touched Lenora’s forehead, her brows drawing together more and more as she listened to the harshness of Lenora’s breathing. “Shane, she needs a doctor now!”

Shane started to shrug his shoulders but stopped in mid gesture as both Valerie and Allen leveled unwavering stares at him. Lenora silently watched the exchange and sent a plea to Ariadne to let something finally work out in her favor. She noted the darkening expression on Allen’s face as well as the thunderous look in Valerie’s eyes. This could get ugly, and for Allen’s fragile mental health, he needed a distraction. “Allen, would ye please get me some cold water? I’m rather parched.”

“Of course, Lenora. Anything.” He kissed the back of her hand, got to his feet, and started for the stairs.

“Get it from the sink over there,” Shane commanded, pointing to the sink in the cell.

“But she wants cold water. She needs the better stuff with ice, not this nasty tap water,” Allen insisted.

Shane swore fluently but finally relented.

Valerie must have gotten the same idea as Lenora because once Allen was gone, she wasted no time in giving Shane a verbal spanking. “How idiotic can you be? Any moron can see that Lenora needs medical attention. What the hell is the matter with you? You are more insane than your poor damaged brother.”

What came next happened in a lightning-quick blur. Leora saw Shane’s muscles tighten as though ready to spring like an enraged panther, but Valerie was ready. When Valerie saw the flash of a needle and syringe come at her, the beast within became unbound. Lenora watched, agape, as Valerie’s features began to change. Her fingers grew longer, her nails turned into claws, her nose elongated into a snout, and thick, red hair sprouted over her body. //Yes, Valerie, get angry! Ye’ve been a victim long enough,// Lenora encouraged telepathically.

//I am Wolf, hear me howl,// Valerie sent back. At the same time, she twisted Shane’s wrist, forcing him to drop the needle and loaded syringe. Catching it deftly with her left hand, Valerie grabbed Shane by the front of his shirt with her right, slammed him forcefully against the brick wall, and brought the needle to his neck. “You…will…never…do…that…to…me…again…if…you…value,.,.your…life!” Her words were punctuated by ferocious growls that made goosebumps arise on Lenora’s fever heated skin. Lenora shivered violently and hugged herself as Valerie continued. “I will stab this right into your jugular, gleefully watch as the shit takes effect, and then kill you with one blow. Do you understand me?” She emphasized each statement with a further slam of Shane’s body against the wall.

Shane mothed soundlessly, looking like a guppy out of water. His face had gone the color of cottage cheese, and Lenora was immensely pleased to see that he looked like he might faint.

“What’s that, punk? I can’t hear you,” Valerie ground out.

Shane gulped. “Okay, okay, no more drugs. Just turn me loose, Landgraab!”

“That’s Ms. Landgraab to you if you insist on addressing me by my surname. Otherwise, it’s Valerie. Just Valerie. Got it?” Valerie put her face close to Shane’s, her fangs close to his nose. When he nodded wordlessly, she continued. “Now then. You will not protest anymore about me bringing a doctor in here to check Lenora, and you will not interfere once he gets here. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Shane croaked.

“Good. Any questions, asshole?”

“Bite me!” he bellowed in a last ditch effort to regain control.

“Oh, you’re not worth that,” Valerie retorted. Before Shane could blink, Valerie’s index and middle fingers forked toward Shane’s eyes, and her extended wolf’s nails flicked his lashes. “Instead, I’ll take great pleasure in blinding you.”

“Holy fuck!” The room was filled with a sour stench as Shane’s bladder let go. Lenora waved her hand in front of her face, revulsion marring her expression. But then, she didn’t fight the little smirk that rose to her lips. Shane was getting just the merest beginning of what he deserved.

Valerie flicked his lashes again. “I suggest you remember what I am before you try anymore stunts. I’m not taking anymore bullshit from you. Now, any questions?”

Shane shook his head mutely.

“Good.” Valerie released him, and Lenora blinked as Shane slid bonelessly down the wall. “Pick yourself up, march yourself upstairs, and clean yourself up. You stink of the sewer your mother gave birth to you in.” When Shane bristled at the insult to his mother, Valerie let out a low, menacing growl. “Go, fuckhead! And be sure you are out of my sight when I get back with Neil Hughes. Now fuck off!”

The next thing Lenora saw was elbows and ass as Shane scrambled upstairs. Turning to her sister-in-law who was beginning to subdue the wolf, she whispered. “Remind me not to get on your bad side. I don’t recall ever seeing ye this way. I salute ye and bow to your superiority.”

Valerie chuckled and blushed when Lenora did, in fact, offer her a salute and bowed a little at the waist. “Yeah, well, that’s been needing to happen for a while. I just couldn’t take it anymore, Lenora. It was either snap or burst.”

“I understand,” Lenora said, then produced a wet, rib-crunching cough.

“Awww, hell’s bells, Lenora! You sound like shit,” Valerie barked, helping Lenora to her feet and leading her over to the bed. Lenora didn’t protest when Valerie helped her into a fresh nightgown. Hugging her sister-in-law as tight as she dared so as not to hurt her, she stroked the golden tresses she’d always thought so beautiful and angelic. “Oh, Lenora, hang in there. You’ve got to fight this and hang in with me, OK? We can’t lose you.” Valerie continued to clasp Lenora close and gently patted her back, her pleas clogged with unshed tears. “I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. I’ll get you out of it, that I promise you. I’ll get you out even if it kills me.”

Lenora leaned back so she look into Valerie’s ravaged face. “Don’t ye dare talk like that, do ye hear me? Nobody’s going to do any dying around here. I won’t give that excuse for a human being the satisfaction of watching me check out. And you! Valerie, ye’ve got a lot of living yet to do. The family needs ye and so do I. Hear me now! I can’t make it in here without ye.” With a last effort at mustering some reserved strength, Lenora gave Valerie’s shoulders a little shake and took her face in the palm of her hands so Valerie had to look at her. “For the first time in a long, long time, I sense that all is not lost for me. Seeing ye get angry and take the upper hand against Clayton did my heart good. Ye need to stay strong, Valerie. Ye must! Shane won’t stay down for long and will try another tactic to take back control. Ye need to stay strong and remain extra vigilant, all right?”

Valerie took a deep breath, bit her lip, and finally nodded. “Okay, right. We won this battle, but we still have a war to win. Now, I’m going to get Neil, and you need all the rest you can get. He gave me some potions and stuff for you to take to help you until he can get here. Take the anti-nausea one first so everything else doesn’t come back up, OK? And try to keep down that water that Allen’s going to bring you. You need to get better so we can beat this sonofabitch and get you the hell out of here and back home where you belong.” She gave Lenora one last desperate hug, helped her into bed, and tucked the covers around her. “Get some sleep now. When you wake up, Neil will be here and things will look better.”

Author’s Note: First off, I want to give credit where credit is due. I did not build the beach house that Valerie and Neil whisked Greta away to. It came from a very talented builder named Josh or IntotheSimulation on YouTube. I absolutely adore his houses. Because he made a video of this as a speed build and showed screenshots at the end, I did not include a house tour. If you’re interested, you an find his video here. If you want to download the house for your own game, the link can be found in the description section of Josh’s video. However, I’ve also linked it here. When taking my own screenshots, the only thing I changed out was the car. Josh used the 4-Everything Van, but that just isn’t Valerie’s style. 😀 She’d want a shiny red sports car to zip around in. Thank you so much to Josh for sharing his wonderful talent with us and making his beautiful houses available for us building challenged Simmers to use. 🙂

I also want to emphasize to readers who’ve followed me over here from Blogger to please keep reading here and hang in with me on WordPress. If the story seems a bit familiar, it is, as I’d decided to revamp and improve on the original and flesh out the story a lot more. For example, If you’ve read the original storyline of Lenora’s kidnapping, please definitely take a look at this current version. You will notice that Valerie’s part in it has changed drastically. I thought it would be a lot more interesting to give Valerie a lot more depth and not make her the cold-blooded criminal she was in my original story. Yes, she is still very much a part of this in my reworked version, but her role is a lot different. There are other differences as well, and once both sets of quads age up into teens and then go into young adulthood, they will be a lot more fleshed out; their stories will be a lot more detailed than what I’d had on Blogger. Again, this started out as a legacy but when I moved here and decided to rework the story, I felt it would be better as a soap opera styled story with each chapter devoted to a character, set of characters, or a couple. I felt this was best since with two sets of quads who will be growing up, it gives them and extended family characters more screen time rather than just focusing on one family unit or couple all the time. Gosh, I hope that makes sense. 🙂

In the near future, I’ll be adding more to the Who’s Who section as more characters are added. You’ll probably notice that I don’t have any of the kids up there yet. As they are still evolving, I likely won’t add their profiles until they reach young adulthood. I might do an interview post with one or more of them as children and then do another when they are older so we can see how the character(s) have grown.

As always, thanks heaps for reading, liking, commenting, subscribing, and any and all support. I love you all so, so much. 🙂