Someone softly tapped on the bedroom door about ten minutes later. Instinctively, she knew it was Brodey.
“Come in.”
He slipped inside. “Oh, babe,” he softly said upon seeing her state. He closed the door behind him and curled around her on the bed, his green eyes looking sad and mournful. Gently, he took the papers from her and gathered her close. Once he knew she was comfortably nestled in his arms, he pressed his cheek against her temple.
With his lips near her ear, barely louder than the sound of breathing, he read Maureen’s letter to her. She listened with her eyes closed as the soothing sound of his voice and his familiar scent comforted her.
Chapter Three
My Dearest Elain,
Please believe me when I say how sorry I am not to be there for you right now, to witness the beautiful woman you’ve no doubt grown into. If your father, Liam, isn’t there, then I’m sure he is wishing he was. You were such a wanted and loved baby. I cannot begin to tell you how much so. Letting you go, even for a minute, was never in our plans. It was the last thing we wanted. And that’s why your father had to leave, to try to protect us.
I don’t know how much Carla has told you about your history. When we revealed the truth to her, she was in shock over it. She might have convinced herself it was a hallucination or hypnosis or something. Maybe she’s humoring me when I tell her information to pass on to you. Maybe you know nothing about who you are or where you came from. Truth is stranger than fiction. You come from a long line of wolf shape-shifters. Both your father and I are Alphas.
Maybe you’ve discovered you like to run. Or at times, when you’ve been angry, you felt like you could just tear something apart. Or perhaps you listened to the mournful howl of a wolf and felt a kindred spirit. Maybe the sight of a full moon fills you with a wonder you can’t begin to comprehend as the night lights up around you like the midday sun. It’s not just bad Hollywood movies. We really can turn into wolves. We have no guarantee that you can also shape-shift. Not all children can. But with both myself and your father being Alphas, meaning we are very strong shifters, it’s likely you will have the ability.
What does this mean? It means you may have found the love of your life already. You might have felt an irresistible urge to sink your teeth into his flesh and claim him. Or if you’re lucky enough to have met another shape-shifter, he might have already claimed you. If not, if you’ve gotten married already before you read this and you think you’re in love…don’t be surprised if some day you are swept out to sea by the strength of emotion you randomly feel for someone you meet. They are meant to be your One, although in my family’s Clan, the Code of the Ancients prohibits taking someone who already has a mate.
There is so much I wish to tell you and teach you, and so much I cannot because I’m not there with you to answer your questions. If you haven’t met with any other shape-shifters by now, you need to track down the Lyall brothers. They used to live in Arcadia, Florida. Their names are Aindreas, Brodey, and Cailean. Their parents used to help other shape-shifters. Your father met with their parents, Charles and Ellie, to arrange help for us. Unfortunately, we suspect someone killed them because of that, to keep us from getting to safety.
As far-fetched as this sounds, there’s this thing called a blood oath that someone in your father’s family swore to centuries ago. In exchange for letting a woman marry her love, her family wanted the groom’s family to turn over the first daughter born to an Alpha male in the line. Meaning you.
Needless to say, no way in hell were we about to turn you over to anyone. Especially those creepy jerks.
You need to be very careful. There are people out there who will try to get to you, to use you, or maybe even abduct you to satisfy the damn oath. We want nothing but happiness for you, with the person you choose, or who chooses you.
I want you to find the Lyall brothers. Talk to them. Tell them your mother is Maureen Alexander. I’m a cousin of their mother, Ellie. Tell them your father is Liam Pardie. Hopefully they won’t hold it against him that his Clan had the blood oath with the Abernathy Clan. The Abernathys are the ones who wanted you. Needless to say, stay away from those guys. If you cannot find them, then search in Maine for a man named Jocko Connelly. He knows my family. He is a shape-shifter, too. He can also help you. I have two brothers who are, as of right now, still alive. That’s not to say they’ll still be alive, or even living under the same names when you eventually get this letter. They are both Alpha shape-shifters, too. I don’t recommend finding them because of the Abernathys.
Under no circumstances should you attempt to locate or contact anyone in your father’s family, even if you find them. To do so could lead to you being kidnapped by them.
I wish I could have been there to help you through all of life, the normal hurdles and the shape-shifter ones as well. I love your father with all my heart. I know it’s soul sickness taking me now, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I love him so much, I can’t live without him. He’s as much a part of me as I am a part of him. I fell in love with him at first sight. It’s not just fairy-tale nonsense. He looked so handsome. He was working at a restaurant in Spokane as a waiter, and I knew the second I laid eyes on him that he was my One, and that he was a shape-shifter. I dragged him outside into the alley behind the restaurant. I don’t know who was more shocked, me or him. But right there I marked him and we went home to my place. We got married the next day. I’m giving my rings to Carla to pass on to you. They belonged to your father’s mother and were the rings he placed on my finger.
One day, hopefully, Liam will be able to find you, if he hasn’t already. Please don’t be angry with him. He did what we thought was best to protect you. I love Carla like a sister, and I know she loves you and will be a good mother to you. I couldn’t ask for a better person to raise you since I can’t be there for you myself, and I can’t risk finding someone in my family to give you to. They might feel beholden to the blood oath and give you to the Abernathys. Please tell her when you read this, or let her read it yourself if you want, that I cannot begin to tell her how much I appreciate what she’s done for us, and for you.
As I lie here writing this, you’re lying on the bed next to me, only six days old. You are a beautiful baby. I hope your blue eyes don’t change color. I can see your father in your face, although Carla says you look like me. I think she’s angry with your father, because she refuses to talk about him. He did what he had to. Although Carla doesn’t believe it, I am ninety-six years old as of two months ago, although most people think I’m in my late twenties. Your father was one hundred and sixty-four six months ago. He looked like he was in his thirties. I was born here in the States, in Maine, at our Clan compound. Your father was born in Ireland. I tell you all this because you will notice your aging start to slow down. Everyone will envy you, how youthful you look. But the truth of the matter is, as a shape-shifter, even if you don’t shift, you will have many of the characteristics, the physical strength, keen senses, and long life. Please avoid getting any bloodwork done. It could raise questions about you, draw notice from the wrong people that you need to avoid. You most likely rarely got sick as a child.
My brain feels fuzzy. There are so many things I need to tell you, normal mother-daughter stuff as well as shape-shifter stuff, and at the moment, I can’t think of anything else except how peaceful you look lying here next to me. When I tickle your hand with my finger, your tiny fingers grab me and hold on tight. I only wish I could hold as tightly to you throughout your life.
Please live your life with honor and integrity. Some might curse your father, and me, for what we did, but the blood oath has no place in today’s age. I know of no other person who would agree to such an outrageous plan in this modern day, although some would feel honor-bound to uphold it as a matter of principle.
Please don’t hate your father. He loves you every bit as much as I do. I know that, wherever he is, his heart aches for both of us.
Remember tha
t sometimes the strongest family ties are the ones you choose to have, not the ones linking you by blood or name. Love fiercely, and laugh and play hard and frequently. Life is too short, even for those of us blessed with a long walk on this earth, not to play at least as much as you work.
Remember that I love you. I only hope you can forgive us the choices we made. We only wanted the best for you.
All my love and all my hugs,
Mommy
* * * *
Elain lay in Brodey’s arms and stared at the picture.
“She was beautiful,” Brodey said.
Elain nodded. “Yes, she was.”
“Is this the only picture you have of them?”
Elain nodded again. “And the only good one of her. I have two others of her, but you can’t see her face clearly. Mom always said I had her eyes, but I was so young when she died, I have no memory of her.” She closed her eyes and cried again. Would that ever stop? She felt like she’d cried a river in the past couple of hours.
They heard a soft tap on the door. It opened, and Ain and Cail stepped in. Brodey waved them over to the bed. Cail closed the door behind them and they joined them on the bed. Brodey handed the letter to Ain. He held it so both he and Cail could read it.
When they finished, they looked at the picture.
“You look so much like her,” Ain said.
“Yeah,” Cail agreed. “Spitting image.”
“That’s what the guy at the steakhouse said,” Elain admitted before she realized what she’d done.
She mentally winced. Oh, fuck. Here we go.
As one, the men asked, “What guy?”
Feeling a little guilty, she told them about her experience at dinner at the steakhouse. Then she grabbed the picture back from Cail and sat up. “Oh, fuck!”
“Babe,” Ain warned. “Language.”
She held up the picture, waving it at him. “This is him! This is the guy!” Her heart raced. “I’d swear that it’s the same man!”
He frowned and took the picture from her again so he could study it more closely. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Yeah!”
Brodey frowned. “So, he’s been in town recently. I think we need to get with Mark and find this guy.”
Ain nodded. “First, let’s get back out there with Carla, get some alcohol in us, and hear her side of the story.”
Elain stared at the picture again but nodded. “I like that idea,” she softly said. “The alcohol, I mean. I think I really need it tonight.”
* * * *
With everyone fortified by a stiff drink of their choice and comfortably settled in the living room, Ain spoke. “Carla, can you please tell us what happened? From the start?”
Elain remained silent. She didn’t even know where to begin digesting all this new information.
Her mom sipped her rum and Coke, which Cail said he’d mixed very heavy on the rum. “I suppose the best place to start is when Maureen and Liam showed up unexpectedly at my apartment in Tampa late one afternoon. I didn’t understand what they were saying at first. They weren’t making sense, but I could tell they were both very upset.”
She took another sip of her drink. “Upset’s not exactly the right word. Scared. Worried. He kept saying crazy stuff about how they had to protect the baby. That someone would be after them for their baby. Then he said he had to go talk to Charles and Ellie Lyall.”
All three Lyall men perked up at that statement. “Are you sure?” Ain asked. “He mentioned our parents by name?”
Carla blinked, wide-eyed. “Your parents?”
Ain nodded. “They were our parents. But you’re sure he said their names?”
“Yes. He’d set up a meeting with them for early that evening and left to go talk with them. We never saw him again after that. He was going to stay at a hotel that night, because he was afraid to come back to the apartment any more than necessary. The original plan was that either he or the Lyalls would call to tell us where to meet them the next day. That they were going to arrange a safe place for Maureen and the baby, and he’d join them shortly thereafter once he knew they were safe.
“He found out Charles and Ellie were killed in a car wreck the next day. He insisted someone must have murdered them. He was afraid to come back to my apartment. He called and said he didn’t want ‘them’ following him back to Maureen.” Her hands trembled. “At the time, I wasn’t exactly sure who ‘them’ was, but he was very afraid for Maureen. That was the last we heard from him, after he talked to Maureen. He said he had to disappear for their safety, for her and the baby.”
Stunned, Elain listened but didn’t speak. She couldn’t speak. She didn’t know what she’d say anyway.
She stared at the picture in her hand again.
Ain’s voice sounded sad. “We suspected that it wasn’t just a car wreck. We had no idea Liam had met with them. They’d called the day before they died and wanted to come talk to us. We knew what they did, but we never openly discussed it with them. We’d let them bring people here to the ranch, usually just for a couple of days. We’re out in the middle of nowhere. It’s hard to sneak up on us here.”
“What did they do?” Carla asked him.
“They helped people, mostly women and sometimes their children, escape. Sometimes shifter women, sometimes human women. Not just wolves, but other breeds.”
Elain found her voice, her reporter training taking over momentarily. “Escape who?”
“Other shifters, usually,” Brodey said. “Not all Clans or shifter breeds are like ours, babe. Some still do arranged marriages regardless of anyone’s feelings in the matter. Like the Abernathys. Some will even abduct mates. Our parents helped run an underground railroad of sorts. It happened far less frequently than it did in the past, but they still helped people.”
The room went silent as Elain tried to digest all of that. Eventually, she found her voice again. “Cail, is that what you and Brodey were talking about that day in the truck?” A sudden flash hit her. “You two didn’t tell me everything, did you? You said stuff hadn’t happened for a couple of decades.”
The men looked at each other. Ain, looking far from happy, stepped in with Prime tone.
“Tell us what you said, guys.”
Brodey scrubbed his face with his hands. “Crap.” He looked at Ain. “We didn’t tell her all the shit about the cockatrice, okay? We were only talking about wolves.”
“The stuff with the cockatrice was right after everything in Yellowstone a couple of years ago,” Ain said with a frown. “Not a couple of decades ago.”
“What?” Elain interrupted. “What’s a cockatrice?”
Cail shook his head, addressing his comments to Ain. “I was specifically talking wolf Clan politics. We were—”
“Whoa, stop right there!” Elain said, silencing her men. She glared at Brodey and Cail. “Did you two lie to me?”
“No!” Brodey and Cail said together. Cail took over. “Babe, we can’t lie to you. We told you that. We were trying not to heap more on top of you than you could take.”
“Then what the fuck is a cockatrice?”
Ain blew out an aggravated breath at her dropping the F-bomb, but apparently under the circumstances he was going to overlook her swearing since he let her off with nothing more than a dirty look.
Brodey snorted. “They’re a really fucked-up-looking chicken.”
“We’re getting off topic,” Ain said. “Let’s cover the story of Liam and our parents first before we start in on the cockatrice situation and the story about Yellowstone.”
“What cockatrice situation?” Elain yelled. “What the hell does Yellowstone have to do with anything?”
Ain calmly took her hand in his. “It’s okay, babe. I promise you, we’ll get to that really quick. Let’s handle one thing at a time. Please? We’ve got a lot of ground to cover. I’m not even sure we can figure it all out tonight anyway.”
Grumbling, she finally nodded. “Fine.”
A
in looked at Carla. “So let me get this straight. Liam and Maureen showed up at your place late one day. Liam said he was meeting with our parents. Then the next day, our parents died and he disappeared after his phone call to Maureen.”
Carla nodded.
Ain chewed on that for a moment. “Do you think he had anything to do with our parents’ death?”
Carla firmly shook her head. “No. I’d be willing to bet he did not. He was a nice man. A good man. I knew them both before I left Spokane. He adored Maureen. I could see how much it hurt him to have to leave her, even though I was really mad at him for doing it at the time. He might have killed to protect her or the baby, but he wouldn’t hurt someone maliciously. I can’t believe that about him.”
“That’s not what you said about him all these years,” Elain groused. “You said he was a jerk for leaving after they found out I was a girl. You painted him to be a deadbeat and that my mom was a saint for ever marrying him in the first place.”
Carla took a gulp of her drink. “I know. I’m sorry I did that. Honey, I convinced myself the shape-shifter stuff wasn’t real. I did what I had to do to keep Maureen and you safe. You mother was dying, and I never expected to have a baby of my own. I loved your mom like a sister, and I love you more than anything. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth before. Would you really have believed me if I told you all this before you met Ain, Brodey, and Cail, and saw what they could do?”
“I—” She stopped and thought about it. Would she have believed her? Honestly?
I would have taken her to the doctor and gotten her evaluated for Alzheimer’s. “No, I guess I wouldn’t have believed it,” Elain softly admitted.