Ain gently squeezed Elain’s hand to silence her again. “Carla, what else did Liam and Maureen say? When you saw we were triplets, you reacted.”
“Maureen made me promise that if Elain ever started to, you know, to do the wolf stuff, that I would find you three. That you and your brothers lived in Arcadia. That if I asked around, someone would know you or know of you and be able to find you for me. She insisted you would be able to protect her. I just…”
Carla took another drink with trembling hands. “I honestly put your names out of my head. I spent a lot of years convincing myself that what Maureen and Liam showed me was some sort of daydream or nightmare. Maureen got sick when Liam left. I was too busy working and trying to take care of her to think about anything else. Not to mention all the adoption paperwork. She had me adopt Elain immediately after her birth. Maureen knew she was dying, even though doctors couldn’t tell us why. Once Elain was born, she didn’t even try to keep herself alive. I was suddenly a single mom with a baby to raise. The last thing I wanted to think about was that wolf craziness.”
Carla’s hands still trembled as she emptied her glass. Without comment, Cail stood, walked over to her and took her glass, and went to the kitchen to make her a fresh drink.
Carla’s eyes looked bright with tears. “I’m sorry,” she continued. “I did the best I could. Maureen got to the point where she refused medical treatment and wasted away. As the years passed and Elain grew older, like any other normal little girl her age, it was easier for me to just pretend the wolf stuff didn’t happen. That I imagined it.”
“You asked if we’d marked her,” Ain pointed out.
“Maureen told me about that the first night. When we were waiting for Liam’s call. She showed me the mark on the back of her shoulder, said that’s what wolves did when they…mated. Said it joined them together forever. She told me she’d marked Liam first, then he marked her.”
Cail returned with her fresh drink and handed it to her. “Thank you.” She took several long sips from it before continuing. “She told me the basics, that there was a very old blood oath in Liam’s family. That some family named Abernathy wanted Liam’s girl baby because he was the first Alpha in his family line to have one. They said that’s why they came to me. They’d found out through ultrasound in Spokane that Elain was a girl and had to hide.”
“How did you know Maureen?” Cail asked. “Wasn’t Liam afraid they’d track Maureen through you?”
Carla shook her head. “We worked together for a couple of years in Spokane and became really good friends. Then I moved to Tampa for a job. After a couple of months, I lost touch with her. There wasn’t the Internet and Facebook back then. Hell, we didn’t have cell phones. I sent her a letter, and the post office returned it, no forwarding address. I tried calling her, and the number was disconnected with no forwarding number. I called my old job. They told me Maureen left with no forwarding info, and none of my former coworkers knew where she went, either. I was shocked when they appeared on my doorstep in Tampa.”
“Well, that explains that,” Ain said. “They came to you because they knew they could trust you. They’d no doubt heard about our parents and what they did. It was either that or stay on the run with a pregnant wife and then a new baby, and he didn’t want to risk their safety like that.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Carla agreed. “That’s what she told me.”
Elain looked at the photo. It explained everything. It explained why she’d reacted the way she had to the man in the steakhouse.
He is my father.
“What does this mean?” Elain quietly asked. “I’m…I’m a shape-shifter? I’m a wolf, like you guys?”
The men exchanged a guilty look.
“What?” she asked. “What do you know?”
Ain took point. “We suspected, based on a few things, but we had no idea in the beginning. We were just so grateful to find you in the first place, we never thought to try to figure out if you were a shifter or not. We assumed you weren’t. Just because someone is from a shifter line doesn’t mean they will shift. When I saw your birth certificate and saw your father’s name, I made some calls.” He looked at his brothers. “We think you probably are a shifter.”
“How long have you suspected?” she quietly asked.
“Not long,” Ain said. “We suspect the night Brodey chased you that you probably shifted during the chase. But none of us ever actually saw you shift.” From his quiet tone of voice, she suspected he thought she’d probably erupt into a tantrum over them keeping the news from her.
Normally, she might have. Tonight, however, Elain felt too exhausted and emotionally wiped out to throw a temper tantrum. She emptied her drink. “May I please have another?” she quietly asked Cail.
He jumped up to get it. “Of course, sweetheart.”
While he was gone, she stared at the picture of her parents, then at her mom.
“Do you hate me?” Carla asked.
“No!” Elain said, and meant it. “I love you. You’re my mom.”
Carla studied her glass. “I never believed the shape-shifter stuff,” she said once again. “It didn’t make sense. I twisted it around in my mind so I didn’t have to believe it. As the years passed and you never did any of that stuff, I convinced myself it wasn’t real. That I’d dreamed it or imagined it or something. I just never thought—”
“It’s okay,” Ain gently said. “We understand.”
Carla stared at him, anger suddenly painted across her face. “No, I don’t think you do! I’d just watched my friend die! I had the responsibility of raising her baby. Her father disappeared, and I suspected he wasn’t coming back. All this crazy stuff she told and showed me, it was too much to handle.”
She tipped up her glass and drained the rest of her drink. She looked at Brodey. “I wanted to hate Liam. I’d liked him when I first met him. He seemed like a nice guy, a handsome guy, very sweet. When I knew them in Spokane, I always envied Maureen. I’d wished for a guy like that for me. Then I went through Elain’s early years afraid someone from Maureen’s family would come and try to take her away from me. I loved her as if she was my own baby. She was my baby. My daughter. My little girl. If Liam returned, I knew he wouldn’t take her away from me. At least, I wouldn’t let him have her without a fight. I was even afraid to date guys who showed too much interest in the fact that I had a daughter. I always thought in the back of my mind ‘what if.’ What if there might be something to that crazy story about the blood oath, and they were someone trying to find Elain?” She burst into tears.
Elain moved to sit next to Carla and hugged her. Cail brought Elain’s drink in and set it on the coffee table in front of her. She picked it up and downed it in a few gulps.
“What did the letter say?” Carla tentatively asked when she’d composed herself.
Ain handed it to Elain, who passed it to Carla. They all sat there, waiting for her to finish reading. When she did, Carla looked up at them. “May I have another drink?” she softly asked.
“I think I’ll take one, too, please,” Ain said. Cail got up to make them. “It’s going to be a long night,” Ain said.
Chapter Four
Cail returned with the drinks. He handed Ain’s to him, Carla’s to her, and gave Elain another rum and Coke. Elain downed half the glass in two large gulps. They sat there, silently trying to absorb all the information Carla had given them, as well as the contents of Maureen’s letter to Elain.
Ain found his voice first. “What are the odds?” He looked around the room at everyone. “What are the odds we would find not only another shape-shifter as our mate, but that she was born to two Alpha shape-shifters, and she had no idea she was a shape-shifter?”
Brodey snorted and with his thumb pointed over his shoulder to the hall leading to Micah and Jim’s bedroom. “The same odds as two straight men becoming mates. Anyone want to go with me to buy a few hundred dollars in lotto tickets? It might be our week to hit it big.”
?
??We do seem to be bucking the odds,” Cail agreed. He looked at Ain. “I think we need to make a few more phone calls. It’s time to bring Daniel, Callie, and Lina and her guys into this.”
“Lina’s in Brussels with the gang on business,” Brodey said. “I’m not sure how to get in touch with them over there. I’ll try later. I think it’s the middle of the night there right now.”
Elain didn’t try to make sense of all of that. At that moment, she still felt too stunned as she tried to absorb all this new information. She took another sip of her drink. Unfortunately, she didn’t even feel a buzz yet.
“That wasn’t nearly strong enough,” she flatly told Cail.
“I’ll make you another when you finish it. I don’t want you getting sick.”
She gulped the rest, belched, and handed him the glass. “Hit me again, bartender. Please?” With a sigh, he took her glass from her and returned to the kitchen.
Elain was trying to figure out what her next question should be when they heard what sounded like multiple cars pulling into the yard. Before Brodey could reach the front door, it flew open. A very pregnant redheaded woman stormed in, her smile brightening when she spotted Brodey.
“Brod!” She threw open her arms and waddled toward him.
He looked surprised to see her, but he laughed as he picked her up and easily swung her around. He planted a kiss on her cheek. “Holy crap! We were just talking about you guys. I thought you were in Brussels.” He patted her belly. “And when did you get a bun in the oven? You look wonderful!”
“Thanks,” she said, rubbing her belly, “but they’re twins. Double your pleasure, you know.” She laughed. “And double the trouble.”
“Congratulations!”
Elain felt the instinctive growl start deep in her gut. Before Ain could grab her, she jumped off the couch and stalked toward them. Pregnant or not, no woman touched her mate like that!
She was preparing to swing when the woman spotted her. A wide, beaming grin spread across her face. “Elain!” she happily squealed, as if they were long-lost friends.
Elain didn’t know how to react when the redhead threw her arms around her and gave her the biggest bear hug she’d ever had. A sudden wave of joyful glee washed over Elain. It had to be coming from the strange woman, because she herself felt anything but joyful.
Now unsure of herself, Elain unclenched her fist and looked over the woman’s shoulder at Brodey, who stood there laughing.
“Elain, I’d like to introduce you to our friend and Seer for her flagyer, as well as part-time Goddess and honorary wolf, Lina Zaria-Alexandr.”
Two hunktacular men of identical height and build filled the doorway behind her. One blond and pale with blue eyes, the other darker with brown hair and amber eyes. “And this is Jan and Rick Alexandr, her mates,” Brodey added.
Elain immediately felt the territorialness drop from her system. She returned the woman’s hug. “Um, hi? Nice to meet you?” Elain had no clue how to react.
Lina held her at arm’s length. “You don’t know how happy I am to finally meet you after all this time!” she squealed before engulfing Elain in another hug. More waves of joy flowed through Elain.
Elain didn’t understand Lina’s slightly cryptic comment, but she hugged her back and looked at Brodey again. She remembered seeing the names on the guest list for the wedding, but beyond that, nothing.
Cail chose that moment to return with the drinks. “Oh, hey! Lina, what are you guys doing here? Holy crap, girl, look at you!”
Lina turned and received a kiss on the cheek from him without letting loose of Elain. “A Seer’s work is never done, and we all need to talk.” Then she whispered in Elain’s ear before releasing her hold on her. “Congratulations! I am so glad they finally found you!”
Elain stood there, confused. Cail eventually put the drink in Elain’s hand before getting his hug from Lina. Elain quickly emptied the glass and handed it back to him. “Hit me again, please,” she said.
Ain stood behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll allow another because this was an additional shock,” he said. “But I don’t want you getting drunk. We still have a lot to talk about.”
She wouldn’t even fight him on that one. “Sure.”
Laughing, Cail took her glass and returned to the kitchen. Two more men walked through the door and were greeted by Brodey and Ain. Zack and Kael, both handsome and apparently a couple, were part of the new travelling circus that had just landed on their doorstep.
“Could someone please give me a quick explanation?” Elain asked.
Ain squeezed her shoulder. “Let’s get that next drink into you first, babe. You’re going to want it. Trust me.”
* * * *
Carla sat there, apparently in a state of shock or inebriation, judging from her lack of comments and the way she stared at the newcomers. Once Lina and the men had their cars unloaded and their stuff settled in two different guest rooms, everyone reconvened in the living room.
There, the Lyall men gave Elain and Carla an abbreviated version of the story of how Lina and her gang ended up meeting Brodey, Cail, and Micah during the Yellowstone shifter Gathering a couple of years earlier, as well as the trip to Europe shortly thereafter.
And Elain received her answers to the cockatrice question.
Elain preferred to focus on that story and not the rampant and copious questions swirling in her head about her own history. Focusing on her past, and the probability that she was also a wolf shifter like her men, meant using brain cells she wanted devoted to more easily digestible tidbits of info.
Like how to talk Ain into letting her have another and much stiffer drink.
She wasn’t a heavy drinker, but she didn’t think she was nearly drunk enough to deal with all of this bullshit.
Yet.
* * * *
Marston hated Florida. Hated everything about it. Hated the weather, hated the people, hated the drivers, and especially hated the Podunk cow town of Arcadia. He knew where the Pardie woman was staying, he knew who she was staying with. The problem was, she never traveled into town alone, and every wolf and shifter here was either a friend or distant relative of the Lyalls, so there were no friendly faces he could turn to for assistance.
It didn’t help that where the Lyalls lived was fairly isolated, to the point that it hindered the chances of him sneaking up undetected. No, they couldn’t live in a fucking city where he could easily blend in. He’d spent years tracking her down. To literally miss his chance to catch her alone by weeks enraged him.
No way in hell could he take on her mates by himself. Three Alphas a fraction of his own age?
Yeah, right. They’d disembowel me before I could blink. He couldn’t keep on killing shifters, either. His luck would run out eventually. He also couldn’t bring in the cockatrice to help him without them using it against him. His only two decent allies were both dead now.
Damn bastards. He couldn’t take a chance letting any of the other cockatrice know about the blood oath. They’d turn on their own kin for an advantage, much less a wolf shifter.
He was still no closer to finding the Tablet of Trammel than he’d been decades earlier. The Tablet would put him squarely in the driver’s seat. Either it would give him the power he needed over the cockatrice, or he could ransom it to them for enough money to leave him set for a long, long time.
When it was obvious he needed to cool things for a while with the cockatrice, at least until those stupid dragons and their witchy Seer woman quit looking so hard for him, he’d refocused his energies on fulfilling the blood oath the old-fashioned way, through detective work. Rodolfo Abernathy wouldn’t tolerate being stymied for much longer. Marston had been getting warnings from Abernathy that if he dragged his feet too long, he’d simply take it out of Marston’s hide.
And Marston was rather fond of his hide, as old as it was.
Maybe he shouldn’t have killed Charles and Ellie Lyall. Maybe he should have let Pardie hook u
p with them. Then he could have grabbed the baby at some point. But he’d panicked, worried they’d tell their damn sons or get Maureen hidden so well he couldn’t track her down. He knew then that the baby Maureen carried had to be a girl. Why else go on the run and hide?
How was he to know Liam wouldn’t go back to his mate? It’d seemed like a good idea at the time. But he’d cursed his luck when he watched Liam get on the plane to Ontario the next evening.
Alone.
He’d thought the damn dragon Seer he’d killed in Yellowstone would answer his questions about where Liam’s damn bitch pup was, or if there even was one. It’d taken him forever to find out who Liam’s mate was and work out her family line to find out who she was related to. Since Liam’s mate was related to the dragons a ways back, it made sense.
The dragon Seer was a weak, old woman. It was his dumb luck she hadn’t cared if he killed her. What kind of sick person wanted to die?
He hadn’t wanted to kill the shifters’ mates. Beheading was messy and a lot of work. But he needed information and apparently the only way to get it anymore was the surefire old-fashioned way—brute force.
Unfortunately, they didn’t give him any more information than he already had. No one knew where Liam Pardie had disappeared to, or even if he was still alive. They had no knowledge about his pup, either.
Now he was stuck here in this cow town in the middle of nowhere, Florida. He looked around his crappy hotel room, the third he’d had in as many weeks. So far, he’d managed to escape the notice of other shifters. He didn’t know which shifters were allies of the Lyalls and had to assume they all were. Getting his hands on Elain Pardie wasn’t going to be an easy task, but it would, at least, get Rodolfo off his ass once and for all so he could get back to hunting for the Tablet.
And coming up with the Tablet of Trammel would bump him to the top of the damn shifter food chain for good.
Damn blood oath anyway. He hadn’t asked for this responsibility. Dumb luck of parentage stuck him with it. Why should he have to be the one to uphold it? Then again, he was lucky Rodolfo Abernathy hadn’t slit his throat over his gambling debts when he had the chance. He’d finally gotten those paid off a few decades ago and was careful not to become indebted to them again any more than he already was by the blood oath.