Page 29 of The Wolf and the Monarch

Once again, she was crying. She really couldn’t help it that time. Her uncle was back but it was painfully obvious that her brother wasn’t. “Where’s Benji?” Andi asked, keeping herself wrapped around the man before her.

He didn’t answer. He just hugged her tighter before he released her. “Let’s go inside.”

“Spence… Come on. Is he–”

“Shh,” he commanded, “Come on.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders before he guided her inside. It felt wrong. Andi should have been the one bringing him in but she was so overwhelmed. She didn’t know how to feel. It was great that Spence was back, it was. Of course it was. But her brother… Where was he? Was he hurt? Lost? Dead? She couldn’t help but think it didn’t bode well that Spence didn’t outright tell her right then and there. And where the hell had he been?! It took her a moment to realize that his arm was in a sling, which she then felt extremely guilty for throwing her entire body weight on him like she had.

The two walked inside and over towards the office. The first to look up was Matthew and he audibly gasped as he stood up from his seat.

“What?” Travis asked and turned around. The moment he saw his brother, he was up and moving towards him. While, yes, the three men in the room were all brothers, Spence and Travis were closer to each other than they were with Matthew. In a way, they were just like Andi and Benji, just without being twins. They were practically joined at the hip. Travis pulled his brother close by the back of the neck and their foreheads met. Travis’ whole body was shaking as he shifted and pulled his brother close.

After the initial shock, Matthew had crossed the room and he placed his hand on Spence’s back. Once he had the life squeezed out of him by Travis, he switched to hugging the oldest of the three. It was a bittersweet thing to watch for Andi. She moved around the three and took a seat at the table in the center of the room.

Her heart physically ached.

She wiped at her eyes and sniffled softly, watching the three men before her. Matthew was the first to break the hug so he could cross over to Andi. His hand brushed over her hair but they didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. Even though he was happy to see his brother, she knew he was hurting about his son as well.

“Sit down,” Travis finally said and pulled out a chair for Spence, which he happily took. “What the fuck happened? Where’ve you been?” He swallowed. “What about Benji?”

Spence sighed heavily and closed his eyes. His body slacked some in the chair. “It wasn’t good… We had everything planned. I set up my eagle eye and Ben went in. Things were quiet… That much I expected,” he sighed, “But they were quiet for too long. He wasn’t supposed to be in there that long.” Spence turned his gaze towards Matthew. “Right? A quick job. That’s what you said. Get in, get out.”

“That was the plan, yeah.”

Spence shook his head. “After forty five minutes of radio silence, I knew something was wrong.”

Benji knew it.

Andi knew it too.

Something isn’t right.

“I had set up a little less than a mile out from the bunker. I thought I was hidden, especially with the storm. Figured if I could barely see or hear shit, no one else could. Clearly, I was wrong,” he shrugged, “They took advantage of it, I guess. I saw them leaving the bunker and then I got sniped from behind. I was expecting it from the bunker but not from anywhere else. Fuckers got me right in the shoulder. Thought they blew my whole fucking arm off.” Spence sighed, rubbing at his eyes with his only available hand. “I was stormed by two other bastards. They knocked my ass out, took my shit and broke my comm. I lost contact with Benji. I-I don’t know where he is.”

Her heart dropped. She was hoping that wasn’t going to be the case. She was hoping that he would have some information about her brother. “Did you see him at all?”

Spence shrugged. “I don’t know. Saw a couple people come out and that was about it before they got me.”

“Then what happened?” Travis asked with a furrowed brow.

“Woke up and dragged my ass back to where we parked the car but it was gone. I’m guessing they jacked it.”

“No shit.”

“Yeah. Luckily, a cop was driving by and they drove me to the hospital before I got hypothermia. They kept me for a couple days so I could heal up and I came right here as soon as I could.”

Andi sat back in her seat and ran her hand under her nose. “So, he’s alive, right?” All three of the pairs of eyes turned towards her. “What?”

“We can’t assume anything, Andi,” Matthew stated and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“Okay, sure. But now that Spence is back, we’re going to start looking, right? We can start at that bunker and we can find some evidence of what the fuck happened and we can–”

“Stop it,” her father said, shaking his head, but she didn’t stop. Andi continued to go over the half-baked plan she had concocted but it was better than nothing. “Andi, I said stop it!” Matthew suddenly shouted.

It was enough to get the attention of the three in the room. Her brow knitted together in confusion. “What?”

“You’re not listening to me. You’re just spouting off random ideas without thinking about them and that will get us into trouble.”

“But–”