His words are violent and painful. Clio sobs an apology. Tripp quietly comforts his wife.
“Ozzy,” Kalysia scolds. “Your parents had no choice. The decision was made by—”
“By your family,” Ozzy accuses. “As pack leader, everyone followed Monte’s plan to give us the serum.”
“Pack leader?” Raine mumbles at Jay. “I thought the Dukes won?”
“After Lowell Duke died in the fire, the Tallacs regained control.” Kalysia doesn’t challenge him. “Pack rules force everyone to follow the alpha. They had no choice in who they obeyed. We can change that.”
Monte garners respect from everyone he meets. It isn’t his charismatic smile or his deep pockets. There is a history of power and greed I wasn’t privy to.
“Is that true, Mom?” I stand beside Jay. “Did Grandpa start all of this?”
“When Monte told us about the serum Lowell Duke was creating to generate new members, action had to be taken. Not knowing how many people Lowell had already dosed, how many humans he’d turned, a decision was made.” Mom says they reversed engineered the serum. “It was the only way to restore balance. The serum prevents you from phasing but certain traits remain. The ability to heal, heightened senses.”
“Did you take the serum, Mom? Did any of you kill the gene inside you?”
Their guilty faces answer my question.
“The serum didn’t have the same effect on those born with the gene. It didn’t kill the gene,” Rusty corrects. “It made it dormant. It’s still in you.” He walks around the room to Ozzy. “Breaking a bone before Lunam would’ve diminished your chances of phasing. Any regeneration of cells would have killed your wolf gene. The serum made it dormant. Your parents had no idea but they were actually helping you.”
“You’re saying his gene is still intact?” Clio asks hopefully.
“He’s still one of us,” Rusty confirms.
Tripp hugs Ozzy. “I’ve always wanted the best for you, son.”
Clio cries and holds Ozzy. “Come here, Raine.” She pulls her into their hug. Into their family.
Chapter Eighteen
Jay
Abbi’s palms sweat as her mother explains why they created the serum. I try not to read too much into her sudden desire for affection. This is a lot to absorb.
“We thought it was the best thing at the time,” Kalysia says, defending the actions of her family.
“And now?” I gesture at Ozzy and his parents. “Clearly they had other opinions.”
The Tallacs have lead the pack for centuries, they seem to forget they have a natural power over the others.
“I stand behind our decision,” Kalysia insists, but she doesn’t look sure.
“Phasing is part of who we are. It will bring us….” I don’t know how to explain matching to Abbi and the others. We haven’t gotten to that part yet.
Kalysia realizes this and jumps at the chance. “Jay believes you’re fated to be together.”
When I told Abbi I wanted to be with her after camp, she was skeptical. In front of her mother, she’s different.
“You can’t be suggesting what I think.” Kalysia moves closer to me and Abbi.
I won’t show her any sign of weakness. “I am.”
“We are,” Ozzy seconds.
“Absolutely not!” Kalysia booms and turns to the parents. “Back me up here.” None of them speak in her defense.
Rusty finally tries to calm her. “Kalysia, I think we need to let the children decide. It’s their choice, not ours.” Rusty is the mole. The one who approved my shoddy application. He’s been secretly helping our cause all along. “I don’t want these kids to end up like Taylor.” Rusty chokes up. “We thought we knew what was best and pushed her.”
Abbi consoles her uncle. “That wasn’t your fault.”
“We found out three years ago that the serum wasn’t taking. The plan was to wait until after Taylor’s eighteenth birthday, then dose her with R-249.”
“Rusty, stop.” Kalysia’s warning doesn’t deter him.
He explains what I already knew. R-249 keeps you human forever. You can still pass on the gene to your children, but you will never phase. Monte presented this plan to my father when he first returned, thinking he would get on board. They were wrong. Dillan been working against them ever since.
“Abbi, let’s go.” Kalysia reaches for her daughter.
I want to force her to stay, but I’d be no better than Kalysia. I feel Abbi’s desire to remain, even though she’s inching away from me.
“Release her.” Kalysia makes a threatening move in my direction.
Rusty steps between us. “Sis, this isn’t the time.”
Abbi obeys her mother and they storm out of the cabin.
“She’ll come around.” Rusty pats my shoulder.
Dillan told me stories about his Lunam. The way he felt about Kalysia and how it differed from what he shared with my mother. Never in my wildest dreams, and I’ve had some pretty wild dreams, did I believe the granddaughter of Monte Tallac would be the woman I wanted for the rest of my life. Her stubbornness, her strength, proves we’re meant to be. I never saw myself with a pushover. The beach girls with bodies made for magazine covers never did it for me. They were too amicable. Even in Abbi’s weakest moments, she’s still the strongest woman I’ve ever met. How the hell am I going to convince her I’m more than a summer fling? If she’ll let me, I’ll be the man of her dreams.
Chapter Nineteen
We return to camp duties just before lunch. Sarah bulldozes me on the path to our cabin.
“Tell me it isn’t true!” She’s distraught. “Is Jay being fired?”
I keep my face as expressionless as possible. I’ve had enough emotion for one day. “Where are you supposed to be right now?”
“It’s a free day,” she says. “Because of your super-secret meeting.”
“Where are the other girls?” I ask as we approach our cabin.
“Inside.” She stops behind me.
“You first.”
She looks offended. “Seriously?” She opens the door and walks inside unscathed. “See? No prank. I’m done with that childish nonsense.”
“Good.” I walk past her to my bunk in the corner. “We only have three more days of camp, let’s keep things lowkey.”
“Totally,” she agrees. “Jay said pranks are juvenile and hurtful. I see that now.”
Jay said. “What else did he say?”
He was loose-lipped when it suited him. I was throwing myself at him like an idiot. Like a desperate fool. He had a secret agenda that had nothing to do with me or my vagina.
“He said he likes you,” she huffs. “A lot. Like a lot.”
“Awesome.”
Sarah catches my disinterest. “I’m serious. He said you’re end game.”
I stop folding my clothes. “He told you that?”
“Me and Amanda,” she corrects. “And Justin.”
“Jesus, how many people were there when he spilled his heart out?” I imagine him holding court, explaining how love works. These kids soak up everything he says. He’s setting them up for failure.
“He also said he’d wait until you were ready to be with him, no matter how long it takes.”
“That’s a weird thing to confess to a bunch of kids.”
“I’m not a kid. I’ve kissed a boy with tongue.”
“TMI.” I hold up my hand. “Wait, who did you kiss?”
Sarah gives me her best demure smile. “Justin.”
Good for him.
“Do you love him?” She sits on my bed, her heart on her sleeve. “If I were you, I’d tell him tonight. Before you lose your chance. Camp is almost over.”
Yesterday, I had the same mentality as Sarah. The end of camp was the end of life as I knew it. Now I realize I have no clue about life or the world waiting for me outside those gates.
“Is your family coming up tonight?” I pull a clean shirt from my bag.
“No. Mo
m is out of town for work and Dad is on call at the hospital.” She sighs. “It’s whatever. They’ve been to so many of these, I think they’re over it. I don’t even know if I’m coming back to camp next summer.”
“Why not? You’re a going to be a junior counselor next year.”
“Mom called yesterday, totally freaked out. She wanted to know if anyone had spoken to me about her. It was totally weird. Anyway, she rattled on about being done with this place.” Sarah goes to her bunk and opens her backpack. “Actually she said she’s done with these people. Whatever that means.”
Sarah’s mother must carry the gene, which means Sara does too. I wonder if her mother even knows. How many generations have passed on the gene without their knowledge? How many humans are like us?
“Uh, Abbi, there’s someone here to see you.” She snags her hoodie and heads to the door. “I’ll see you at dinner.” The other girls leave with Sarah.
Kalysia surveys the cabin. I wonder what memories this place is conjuring. “How are you handling everything?”
“I’m processing,” I tell her as I pack my makeup. “Tell me about the ceremony.”
“What do you want to know?” Mom sits on my bed and fluffs the pillow I brought from home to avoid eye contact.
“Why are you against it?”
“Like most socioeconomic dynamics, there are those at top of the food chain and those on the bottom. Monte and Layla wanted to level the playing field. The only way to achieve their goal was to destroy the thing that made us special. If we prevented our heirs from phasing, it would end the hierarchy, making it a lot easier to convince the others to administer the serum to their kids and stop the dilution of the human race.”
I think of Sarah and wonder how many kids here carry the gene. Are they being poisoned too? Where does it end? “Even if Monte was able to convince the pack to take R-249, there are others out there, right? People who have no idea they carry the gene. Girls like Taylor.”
“Taylor’s test were always inconclusive. We hoped she wouldn’t turn. Hell, we prayed. Rusty and Carrick planned to give Taylor R-249 to prevent her from phasing forever. They never got the chance. She phased the day before her birthday.”.
“What triggers the phase?”
“The moon. You phase under the first full moon after your eighteenth birthday. Conception and birth aren’t an exact science. Taylor was born the seventh but labor could’ve began on the fifth or sixth. The day you enter the world, isn’t always the day you were meant to be born. Nowadays, we have no control over conception, or birth. The only constant in this world is the moon. Once Taylor learned the truth about what she was, she refused the serum. They dosed her anyway. She never forgave them. Not even in her final note.”
We were told Taylor was depressed over losing her place in art school. Another lie. Taylor was the big sister none of us had. She was an amazing friend and even better babysitter. Her inside matched her outside. Unlike us, Taylor was light-haired with green eyes. All the boys loved her, and all the girls looked up to her.
“We have no way of knowing who carries the gene. The only option we have now is to control the situation. R-249 can do that. Contrary to what Rusty believes, we know how the serum works. We just need to make some final tweaks, collect some very important data.”
“From us?”
“It’s a complicated situation, Abbi.”
“If you want me on your side, I need to know everything.” The assertiveness I exude impresses her. I can tell by the way she looks me in the eye. Not to force me to cower to her, but as her equal.
“Your grandfather has been working on a food preservative. He’s marketing it as a healthy alternative to sodium nitrate. Celery powder masks the serum making it undetectable. If he gets FDA approval, it will be mass-marketed so every household in the country carries a product with the preservative.”
“The preservative carries R-249,” I guess.
“Yes. With this new strain, you only need a few doses a year to suppress the gene. Once we have the data, we’ll be able to present the final product for approval.”
My issues seem trivial now. There are thousands of people on the verge of being dosed by my grandfather. “People don’t know if they carry the gene, as long as it remains a secret, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“The gene is changing, adapting. We have no idea what will happen to someone who gets chemotherapy. The chemo could trigger the gene. We don’t know if the age limitation will change. Five-year-olds turning into wolves on a playground would be deadly. There are too many what-if’s. We have the power to control this before it gets out of hand.”
In every paranormal book I’ve ever read, one thing is always constant: containment.
“The ceremony will provide us with the data we need to finalize the serum. How do you feel about the ceremony?”
“What’s the point?”
“It’s symbolic to our kind.” I hear the pain in her voice. “The others will do what they believe is right. It’s their choice to make.”
She doesn’t say it’s mine. That’s okay, because for the first time, we’re on the same page. I’m not sure I can make the decision on my own. I don’t want to.
“Jay is probably a really nice person, Abbi. But he’s trying to relive the past. If you want freedom, don’t participate in the Lunam Ceremony. It’s a trap.”
Chapter Twenty
Everyone gathers under the white tent for family night. After dinner, there are activities. Mom, Leah, and Patsy are huddled at a table in the corner. The last thing on their mind is a night hike.
“Can you believe this shit?’ Raine slides beside me. “We’re supposed to put on a smile and pretend everything is normal.”
“You mean pretend we aren’t wolves,” I whisper. “Or the part about them secretly dosing us since we could walk.”
“Mom gave me a cliff notes version of our kind and how we phase under the Harvest Moon.” Raine raises an eyebrow. “I guess you were right about something big happening when we turned eighteen.”
“This wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“My mom is actually for this ceremony thing.” Raine bites her thumbnail. “Ozzy believes in it all. He says it’s the key to our happily ever after.”
“What about Napa?”
“You’re kidding, right? That internship was just a way to keep me under their thumb. After camp I’m leaving with Ozzy. If you were smart, you’d come with us.” Raine walks away when Patsy spots us talking. She slips out the side of the tent, where Ozzy is waiting. I’ve always believed Raine made her own fate, her own choices. She leaves nothing to chance, while I’m always waiting for things to happen to me. I should be making my dreams happen.
“Abbi.” Dad places his hand on my shoulder. I turn and I’m greeted with his warm smile. He’s still wearing his work clothes, a dingy blue button-down with his name embroidered over the left chest pocket. The logo for his garage in Quincy is on the back.
“Hi, Dad.” The sight of him gives me comfort. After all the craziness of the last twenty-four hours, he is the only part of my life that hasn’t changed. I still have no clue how he fits into the story. Does he phase? Does he know Mom is wolf?
“I heard about everything.” He chooses his words carefully. After nearly two decades with my mother, he knows every word out of his mouth will be analyzed. “We’re here to support you no matter what happens.” We, he says. That isn’t true. My mother will support her agenda.
Although he never rebukes Kalysia in front of me, he will always find a way to let me know he understands my side. He secretly agrees with me when it comes to moving to the city. He doesn’t share her oppressive parenting tactics. As fathers go, Jase Kincaid is the best. I’ve never been scared to share my feelings or fears with him. I think he would support all my choices, even when it comes to boys.
As soon as we arrive at Mom’s table, I see Jay approaching us from the other side of the tent. I’m almost eighteen, and this is the fi
rst time my parents are meeting a boy I’ve kissed. Mom moves from one side of the table to the other so she’s beside my father. A united front.
“Dad, this is Jay.” I introduce them and try to maintain some level of cool. “He’s the new counselor.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Jay nervously offers his hand.
“Jay,” Dad says and shakes it.
“I guess you know my dad.” Jay motions to the man standing beside him. He’s tall, fit, tan, and looks like an older version of his son.
“Kalysia, you look beautiful, as always.” Dillan kisses her on the cheek.
My father’s body temperature increases exponentially.
Mom accepts the compliment and the kiss. “Thank you, Dillan.”
“Dillan.” Dad offers his hand in peace.
“Jase.”
They shake, and I can tell from the tense look on their faces it was firm.
“This must be Abbi.” Dillan looks at Mom with a melancholy smile. “Is it just me or is this a little—”
“Weird.” She finishes his sentence.
Dillan exhales and chuckles. “Yeah. I mean”—he gestures to me—“for a few months, I thought she was—”
“She doesn’t know,” Jase interjects.
Dillan locks eyes with Mom. “I just assumed.”
“Assumed, what?” I look at Jay, then to mom. Everyone seems privy to this information but me. “Hasn’t there been enough secrets? If you won’t tell me, then let him.” I point to Dillan.
“Kalysia.” Dad says. “It’s time she knows everything.”
Everything about her demeanor says no, yet she agrees. “All right.” I wonder how much of her decision is based on seeing Dillan. I watch her struggle with looking at him. Even a glimpse of the man she used to love is a betrayal to my father.
The Lunam Legacy (The Lunam Series Book 3) Page 10
