The Protector (Complete)

Chapter 18

Greta realized that she was the only one sitting. Cenek stood near the doorway where he had greeted both William and Edmund. Alexander had moved from Greta's side and stood near the fireplace, placing himself in the position to see everything in the room. And neither William nor Edmund had decided to sit. For a moment, Greta thought about rising to her feet, but the chair was so comfortable, and she had found the perfect position to sit where her ribs didn't burn with every shallow breath.

Edmund broke the silence. "You have our children."

Greta assumed the accusation was directed towards her, so she was very surprised to see Edmund staring at Cenek. "Cenek has nothing..."

Edmund's glare at Greta was enough to stop her in midsentence. "You will not talk unless I ask you a direct question. Do you understand?"

Surprisingly the first word out of Greta's mouth wasn't a yes. "No. I think that since I was the one with your children and Cenek was the one who offered help after the fact, that I am the only one who has any right to talk in this room."

"Cenek is..." William sought for the correct word not aware that Greta now knew about Lycans. "He is a man. You are a female. It was not your job to protect the children."

She was starting to notice that her gender received the most notice and not in the usual way. "I was the female that was sent with the students. I was their chaperone, which by the way, actually means one providing protection."

She was ignored. Greta couldn't remember the last time she was so thoroughly ignored as she was being at that time. Edmund and William wouldn't look at her. The response which she thought had so perfectly explained the situation seemed to fall on deaf ears. Both men had directed their attention back to Cenek.

"We want our children. Now," William ordered without concern for the fact that he was talking to another leader on his own property.

Cenek also ignored Greta. Soon she would be pulled into the conversation, but for now he would deal only with the men if that was what they preferred. "Jarek, my second-in-command, has gone to get them from Greta's sanctuary."

"She has a sanctuary here?" Alexander asked more angry than surprised. "I am her protector, not you."

"You weren't here," Cenek explained. "I could have denied Margaret and the children access to my place, but they seemed to need help, especially with the news that Margaret was the kidnapper of the two children. If I had known that she had a protector, I would have handled it differently, but Margaret failed to mention that part." He flashed a smile in Greta's direction and then returned his focus towards Alexander. "Not that I grilled her on what she had been up to for the last several years."

"Papa," Isabella shouted as soon as she saw Edmund. "You came for us." She threw herself into Edmund's arms and hugged her father. "I thought I was never going to see you again."

Greta watched Patrick's reunion with his own father. Although it wasn't as vocal as Isabella's, she could tell that it was every bit as emotional. Men, she thought. She smiled to herself. Apparently Lycan males reacted similarly to human males.

"What happened, Patrick?" William asked. He had wanted to wait before asking his son the details but found that he couldn't wait. He wanted, needed actually, to know whom to kill for harming his child and a female from another clan.

Patrick looked over his shoulder at Greta. The male Lycan in him angered at the damage he saw on her, but his age prevented him from knowing how to handle it. "Are you okay, Miss Klassen?"

Greta gently touched the side of her face. She could feel the swelling of her face and knew that it wasn't going to be a very pretty color as the day went on. "I'll be fine, Patrick. Take Isabella and find Jarek. I'm sure Cenek has something for you to eat."