Freeing the Feline by Lacey Thorn

wouldn’t he want you to bring Amia back with you?” Abby asked.
    “He was afraid for her.”
    “But he could have protected her from the Blanes. They might have never gotten their hands on her,” Diane countered.
    “It wasn’t the Blanes he was worried about, or at least not the ones you’re referring to.”
    “Lydia?” Abby asked.
    Clara nodded. “He was afraid of what Lydia might do. My uncle travels, and he wouldn’t have been able to take Amia and me with him all the time. There would have been times when Lydia could have gotten to her.”
    “Why would Lydia harm her own daughter?” Tah questioned.
    Clara shrugged. “I don’t know. She was broken when she arrived. We didn’t even know she had a daughter. She told us her family was gone. She…she tried to rescue my dad from the Blanes but wasn’t able to. He died.”
    “I’m so sorry, Clara,” Abby said.
    Logan squeezed her shoulder, offering comfort and support.
    “He sent Lydia to us. I thought he must have seen something good in her. Uncle Thomas thought the same. When she first arrived, we’d find her crying. She’d wake from nightmares, screaming Amia’s name. It’s how I learned Amia even existed. It’s how Lydia finally confessed who she was. But as the years passed, Lydia became withdrawn and angry. She hated hunters, especially the Blanes. She wasn’t the same woman who first came to us by the time I found Amia when we were sixteen,” Clara told them. “I guess I’ve known for a long time that Lydia was bitter. Uncle Thomas said he was watching her. She’s all about vengeance, trying to convince some of the younger shifters to attack first, to capture the hunters and subject them to the same treatment.”
    Logan met Tah’s eyes and wondered if Tah was thinking the same thing he was. When Reno had been sent to get information about the Blanes, they’d planned for the possibility of him capturing one and bringing them back. Hell, Amia had even been thrown into one of the small storage rooms downstairs. Would they have tortured her if she hadn’t been Reno’s mate? Would they have tortured a man if that had been who Reno had brought back with him?
    “I can’t say I haven’t had similar thoughts myself,” Abby admitted.
    Logan had to agree he had, as well. Hell, after what they’d been through with Harlan Jones, they all would have jumped at the opportunity for a little payback.
    “I’m betting it’s not the same as Lydia. Her rationality is skewed,” Clara said. “If she had her way, she’d hunt down every Blane and kill them. Man, woman, child, infant. It doesn’t matter to her. How is that right? How is that just? How many like Amia would have been killed at Lydia’s word? I can’t believe that the only way to defeat the beast is to become the beast. I have to hold onto the belief there’s a better way. There has to be.”
    “Maybe there’s not,” Amia said from the doorway. She and Reno stepped into the room. “Maybe death is the only answer.”
    “No.” Clara shook her head, and Logan knew what she was going to do before she rose from the couch. “I’m so sorry, Amia.”
    “You knew my mother was alive. All this time.” There was a world of hurt on Amia’s face, and anger—a lot of anger. “You should have told me as soon as Reno confronted you and brought you here,” Amia said.
    “I wanted to, but there was never the right time to.”
    “Then you make a right time,” Amia gritted out, her voice hard. “You should have found the time to tell me.”
    “I should have,” Clara whispered, and Logan felt his mate hurting for Amia when all Amia seemed focused on was anger.
    “When?” Logan challenged. He’d be damned if he sat back and let them railroad Clara into feeling as if she was the bad guy in all this. “When we all stood against her in that room? Or when you went to her room to pretend to be her friend and instead set her up?”
    Reno growled, but Logan didn’t care.
    “Not to