Ozzy talks about the two packs, Sierra and Shasta. “Around the time we were born, Monte Tallac and Jay’s grandfather, Lowell Duke, were vying for power. Duke won.” Raine shines when she learns the Duke family came out on top.
“Lowell’s reign didn’t last long though,” Jay continues. “He got power hungry. The pack turned on him. He resorted to desperate measures. He administered a serum to humans, creating a new breed. They call them R49.”
I’ve heard the term R49 in hushed conversations between my grandparents and my mother. My hands begin to sweat. “What does this have to do with you? Why are you here?”
The room is quiet, waiting for Jay to finally come clean. “I came here to meet you. All of you deserve to know the truth.”
I knew Jay didn’t come here for me, but I liked the idea of him finding me. A happy surprise. Like Mom’s surprises, Jay knew exactly what he was doing. The conversations about my parents, asking Raine about me, it was all part of his covert plan to out that my family has power-hungry tyrants.
“You came here out of the goodness of your heart to tell a bunch of strangers they were being lied to their entire lives?” I look at Raine and Trevor. “Do you believe this?”
“I don’t know, Abs. Kind of.” Raine is blinded by love.
“You know why I was sick today?” Jay places a hand on my shoulder, and I flick it off. “I drank your water.” He looks at the group. “Your parents are poisoning you.”
“They would never do that,” Rory exclaims. My mother won’t even let me eat gluten.”
“It’s true.” Ozzy raises his voice. “My grandmother, Belle, worked in the clinic where they developed the serum. I found her notebooks in a box in our attic. They led me to Oregon.”
“Belle lives at the sanctuary with my great-grandmother, Grace.” Jay explains. “That’s where Ozzy met me and Lauren.”
More questions are asked about phasing and the serum. Nobody asks the obvious question.
Who the hell is Lauren?
Chapter Sixteen
Jay
I’ve know what I am since before I could ride a bike. Watching my father turn from man to wolf doesn’t faze me anymore. I knew convincing them was going to be a hard sell. Ozzy warned me, but my ego wouldn’t listen.
“Oz, you’ve seen someone phase?” Rory asks.
Ozzy pulls out his cell phone. “We’ve come prepared.”
Everyone gathers around him. Abbi remains on the other side of the room sending me hate vibes. This would be so much easier if I didn’t care about her. The plan was to come here, turn their world upside down, then bail. That was an epic fail.
“Who is that?” Raine asks.
“That’s Lauren.”
“She’s hot.” Raine is trying to goad Abbi into watching. She should know her best friend better than that.
The moment Lauren phases happens quickly. Ozzy is still in awe and he’s seen it firsthand.
“You’re saying my mom can do that?” Raine points at the cell phone. “No freaking way.”
“All our parents have phased. Everyone in our families for hundreds of years.” Ozzy taps his screen and returns the phone to his pocket. “Hopefully we will too.” He looks at me.
“You will.” I have to stay optimistic. It’s all I have left.
“What now, Jay?” Landon asks.
“Now we have a ceremony,” Ozzy announces.
The ceremony is the problem. It sets a hierarchy that keeps the wrong people in control. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” I finally look at Abbi. She wouldn’t even look at the video, there’s no way she’d take part in the ceremony.
“It’s the only way to claim our lives, our freedom. We can do it right this time. Make it so everyone is invited. We’ll create a new community built on equality. If we don’t do this, they stay in power.” Ozzy looks at Abbi. “We can flip the script on them.”
Abbi shakes her head in disbelief. “I don’t believe any of this. Even if I did, our families will never approve.” She opens the door and walks out into the storm.
I debate chasing her, but maybe she needs space.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” Raine points. “Go after her!”
She is just outside the perimeter fence when I catch up.
“Where are you going?” I shout over the thundering rain.
“Go back, Jay. I want to be alone.” She jogs ahead of me, jacketless, her sling soaking wet. “I don’t want to be around you right now.”
“Give me a chance to explain.”
“You’ve said enough.”
“Abbi, wait.” I step in front of her, forcing her to stop. She squints to keep out the rain. “There’s more.”
“I don’t think I can take anymore.” She supports her injured arm with her good hand. I hate seeing her in pain.
Lightning rips across the sky, followed by thunder.
“We need to get inside.” I guide her to the building closest to us, which is the factory.
Abbi is expressionless as she walks through it and up the stairs. She stops at the top and turns around. “Nothing is going to happen here.” The nervous girl who brought me here a week ago is nowhere in sight.
“Of course not.” I’m almost offended.
She walks in ahead of me and turns on a floor lamp, the kind with five bendable arms, each holding a bulb on the end. Two of the bulbs are red. The room smells like Pine-Sol and looks like the set of a cheap porn film. She opens a closet door and retrieves a towel. She tosses me one, then pulls her hair loose from the rubber band, freeing it so she can dry it with the towel.
“What else could you possibly have to say to me, Jay?”
Watching her dry her hair in that wet shirt….
“Earth to Jay.” She waves a hand in my face. “What? Did you change your mind? Do you want me now?”
“You think I don’t want you?” I sit on the far side of the worn-out bed.
Her cheeks flare pink. “I don’t know. I guess I read too many romance novels.”
“Are you saying I don’t live up to the fantasy?”
She smiles, that’s a good sign. “I have unrealistic fantasies.”
I want to say something charming, like I can make your fantasies come true. This isn’t the time.
“When I imagined us here, it wasn’t like this.” Her sadness tears at my heart. “I was hoping for a little romance.
“This isn’t romance.” I stand and gesture to the wall. “Do you really want your name up there?”
“Yeah, I kind of did,” she says, embarrassed.
“You deserve more from me than the boom-boom room.” I shove my hands inside my wet pockets.
Her eyes give off a hint of a spark. “What makes you think I want anything from you?”
“I don’t think, I hope.”
Another spark.
“You said you had more to say, so say it.”
She’s trying really hard not to warm up to me. She’s failing.
“I might have hidden the truth about my identity, but my feelings for you are genuine.”
Her heartbeat remains steady, even. You’d think having the ability to read emotions would come in handy in situations like this one. Sensing fear, desire, loyalty will only get your so far. If I want to impress her, prove my feelings, I have to up my game.
I move around the bed and kneel on the floor next to her. I only have one shot to sell this. After tonight I don’t know if I can stay. Rory has a big mouth, if the Tallacs find out why I’m here, who knows what they’ll do to me? I’ve heard the stories. I’ll take death over torture.
“Do you believe in fate, Abbi?”
“I don’t know what I believe in.”
“Do you believe in us?”
“There is no us. You’re just a chapter in my story, nothing more. Can’t that be enough?” She kisses me, forcing her tongue into my mouth.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m kissing you.” She grabs the front of my we
t shirt and yanks me forward.
The bed creaks beneath us. Restraint isn’t my forte. Taking what I want, when I want, is how I was raised. Whether I was attacking a wave set or setting mi sights on a girl, I was never denied anything. Abbi is the first who’s turned me down. She’s willing to give me her body, but for once in my life, I’d rather have her heart.
“What does this kiss mean to you?”
She looks me in the eye. I steady my heart to accept her declaration of love. “I want my name on the wall, Jay.”
I laugh. She must be joking. Any second she’s going to say she cares about me, that she could fall in love with me.
“Stop messing around and just do it already.”
My mind says to stop, but she’s already unbuttoning my jeans. “Abbi—"
“No more talking,” she commands. “Just go with it.”
I fall on her. Her legs wrap around my waist. My heart is breaking but other parts of me obey her demands.
“Tell me this is more than a fling.” I slide a hand up her shirt, over her bra.
She grips my hair. I pull back and brush my lips against hers.
“Admit you like me.” I’ll take whatever I can get at this point.
“You’re so frustrating.”
“And you like me.”
“Jesus, Jay.” She starts to push me off. Her eyes widen. “Oh my god.” She slips her arm from the sling. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” She inspects her elbow, the bruise and swelling are gone.
I leap from the bed. “Do you have any idea what this means?”
“How is this possible?”
“Healing quickly is a sign the serum didn’t take on you.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
I kiss her. “We have to get back to camp. I need to tell Ozzy.”
“Tell Ozzy what?” Rusty says from the doorway.
Oh, fuck.
Chapter Seventeen
The storm caused the camp to lose power. Rusty and Sophie-Ann went cabin to cabin, making sure we had working flashlights, and discovered half the counselors were missing.
Rusty didn’t say much to me on our walk from the factory back to camp. I kept eyeing my uncle, watching his stride, imagining him as a wolf. If what Jay and Ozzy says is true, Rusty can phase. Everyone can. Sophie-Ann, Carrick, Layla, Monte. My mother.
We go to my cabin first. I run inside, grateful to delay the lecture I’m sure will come tomorrow. I can’t even imagine the earful Jay received. Something like this is grounds for dismissal. There are only a few days left of camp. Only a few days left with Jay. My heart cramps at the thought. He is hell-bent on having me admit my feelings. He doesn’t understand what he’s asking. I can’t allow myself to imagine a future, any kind of future, with him. The idea of him staying in Meyers makes my heart happy. Yes, I want more. I want to drive him to the lookout and watch the sun set. I want to snuggle on the sofa in our family room and watch scary movies. I want to date him. As long as Kalysia breathes air, it will never happen. I wanted to confess all my feels to him tonight when he knelt in front of me. I had to keep it superficial for both our sakes. Just knowing he could love me in that forever and ever kind of way is good enough. It’s something I’ll take with me when camp is over.
I toss and turn until the first signs of morning creep under the window shade. I slip out of bed and follow the same morning routine as always. Shower, dress, and walk to the lake. He’s sitting at the end of the dock with two coffee mugs. I wasn’t sure he’d be here this morning after what happened last night.
“Morning.” I sit beside him.
“Morning.” He offers me one of the mugs.
I take a large sip of the creamy, lukewarm coffee. “How long have you been here?”
“Awhile.”
We sit in silence as Mother Nature performs her own morning rituals. Birds dive from their nests and hover above the water in search of breakfast. Squirrels run along the dock, looking for crumbs. This view is my safe place. The lake doesn’t care about family drama or boy problems. Every day is the same. The sun rises, the birds sing, life goes on.
Last night Jay made some outrageous claims. Maybe he’s right, and the myths are true. Even if my life gets turned upside down, I’ll always have the lake. This is my constant.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Jay turns his camp hat backward so I can see his face. “At the factory.”
I blush. “Just another failed attempt to lose my virginity. No biggie.”
“I meant about your arm.”
“Oh, that.” I inspect my elbow again. The idea of phasing is even more outrageous than living happily ever after with him.
“You didn’t watch the video of Lauren phasing.” He chokes on her name, and his pulse quickens. Lauren means something to him.
“Who is she?”
“A friend.”
That’s a lie.
“Just a friend?”
“Now she is.”
I’m not allowed to be jealous. Jay isn’t mine and never will be. “My arm healed, now what?”
He leans back on one elbow and squints at me. “We aren’t capable of phasing until the first full moon of our eighteenth year. Ozzy wants to have the ceremony, make it official like the old days where we all phase together.”
“Tell me about the ceremony.”
“Yeah, Jay. Tell her.”
I know that voice. I’ve heard it every day of my life.
We turn at the same time. She doesn’t move. Her arms are crossed, her hair perfect.
“Morning, Mom.”
Jay springs to his feet. “Mrs. Kincaid, it’s nice to meet you. I’m—”
“I know who you are.” She shakes his hand. “You can call me Kalysia.”
Jay is in nervous awe of her. Gross.
I hold up a hand for assistance, so he’ll stop gawking at her.
“My father told me a lot about you.” He helps me to my feet but doesn’t stop staring at her.
“How does your dad know my mom?” I ask, confused.
His eyes tell me he has a secret.
“Dillan was my Lunam match.” Mom watches Jay, more like inspects his face, his demeanor. “You look like him,” Kalysia’s pensive remark makes Jay smile.
“Your Lunam, what?”
She places her arm around my shoulders. “Come on, honey. We need to talk.”
She texts Rusty and instructs him to gather the counselors in the Iroquois cabin. Mom moves around the place with familiar ease. She finds a stash of wine in a locked closet.
“Dillan and I moved in here after the Lunam Ceremony.” She points out the window to a nearby cabin. “Leah and Drake lived there.”
Rory moves to the window to see his parents’ old place. “This is wild.”
“What about mine?” Raine asks. “Did they live here too?”
“Yes, right over there.”
“And what about my mom?” Jay’s sharp tone catches everyone off guard. “Where did she live?”
Kalysia taps her ring on the wine glass in her hand. “She lived on the other side of camp.” Mom looks sad. The worry line on her forehead is magnified by the fact that she’s drinking wine at nine o’clock in the morning.
The door opens, and Raine’s parents, Patsy and Tripp, join us, along with my Aunt Leah and Rusty.
“The gangs all here,” Tripp announces.
“Not everyone.” Kalysia looks at Jay. “How is your father?”
“He’s living his best life,” Jay reports. “He travels the world, surfs every day.”
“That was his dream.” Mom smiles at the thought of Dillan Duke.
“Why are you here, Mom? We have campers—”
“Rusty made sure your campers are taken of,” she says. “We’ll only be here an hour or so.” She checks her watch, the one Dad gave her for Christmas a few years ago.
“Where’s Dad?” I remind her of the man she married. The love of her life. “Shouldn’t he be part of this reunion?”
The question rattles her. “He had work to do at the motel with Carrick.”
“He didn’t live at camp.” Jay discloses. “They met later.”
The timeline in my head doesn’t add up. Mom and Dillan lived here together, yet both had children by other people less than a year later.
“We’ll discuss family matters another time.” Clearly, she doesn’t want to go into detail. I let it go for now.
Everyone settles in the living room. Mom leads the conversation. It’s the only way she can control the flow of information.
“I want to start by saying everything we’ve done has been for the betterment of your lives.” She looks at me, sitting beside Jay, his hand on mine. “Jay’s intentions may have been honorable, but his delivery was a bit harsh.”
“I told them the truth,” Jay says defensively.
“Your truth,” she counters. “No offense, but you don’t know the whole story.”
“Who does?” Ozzy asks.
Kalysia looks at her allies. Leah shrugs, Patsy drinks.
“We had to make decisions, hard ones,” Tripp explains. “During difficult times.”
“You mean after the fire of 2017,” Jay says.
Tripp is impressed or concerned by how much Jay knows. “We lost a lot of people in that fire.”
“The council.” Jay suddenly stands.
I realize we’re all sitting, but our parents are standing, talking down to us like we’re children. Jay isn’t one of us, he demands respect.
“Yes, but they were also our family.” Tripp is growing annoyed.
“At what point did you decide to poison your kids?” His confidence is astounding. Even Ozzy looks at him in admiration.
“Poison is a strong word,” Leah says.
“But is it the right word?”
Leah scoffs and looks at Kalysia.
“Yes.” Mom replies with tears in her eyes. “We have been giving you kids a serum to kill the gene that allows you to….”
Ozzy jumps from the couch, interrupting her. “When I was fifteen, I broke my ankle. You kept feeding me the serum, knowing if I stopped taking it, I would heal. You let me stay broken and ruined my chance of competing in the X Games.” Tripp tries to console his son, but Ozzy pushes him away. “Don’t touch me.” He glares at his mother, Clio. “You said it wasn’t written in the stars for me to compete. You lied.”
The Lunam Legacy (The Lunam Series Book 3) Page 9
