“Oh really?” Orion snarled at Tisha. “And who was the favorite child, Mother? Who do you think Dad loved more? I was his oldest child, the next leader of the King Wolf Pack! Who else would be first in his affections?”
“Oh, honey.” Tisha made a clucking noise like a sick-minded mother hen. “Jason, of course. Jason was your father’s favorite. I think that’s why you’re doing so much to squeeze Jason out. You’re jealous!”
“The hell I am!”
And with those words all hell did indeed break loose. Orion exploded from his human form to his wolf one. The enormous charcoal gray animal pushed Zane and Devon aside as he lunged directly for Jason. Edward watched in stunned and frozen silence as Jason shifted just in time to catch his eldest brother’s charge.
Jason was not smaller than Orion. He wasn’t any less than their eldest brother. In fact, Jason was so much more in touch with his wolf form that he shifted and twisted and managed to catch Orion by the throat. The black wolf was huge. He snatched at Orion and leveraged his own weight and that of his elder brother to send the charcoal wolf flying across the room.
Orion bounced off the bookshelves and hit the floor. Landing directly atop the boxes full of books, Orion snarled and snapped at them all as he struggled to regain his feet for another charge.
Edward finally managed to shake off his shock. He pointed to Zane. “Get the door! Close it before they take this nonsense into the hallway! I think we have enough issues going on out there, don’t you?”
Zane hurried to comply. Devon grabbed their mother and spun her around to keep her safely tucked between his big body and the wall. Orion and Jason were now snarling and snapping at each other. White teeth closed on flesh and bits of fur went flying all over the office. The two big wolves were so far gone from their human brains that there was really nothing to do but let them finish it out.
Tisha was trying to shout at her sons, but that wasn’t going to help anything. Edward snapped his fingers at Devon. “Shut her up. Actually, get her out of here! Now. We don’t need her stirring things up more than she already has.”
Devon seemed to agree. He picked up their mother’s much smaller form and slung her over his shoulder. Zane opened the door just enough to let Devon through without smacking Tisha’s head on the doorjamb. Unfortunately, by this time there was plenty of confusion going on throughout the whole room and Orion actually tried to bolt for the door when it opened.
“Shit!” Edward lunged at his brother. It was a foolish move, but this was no time to have some savage wild creature slashing his way through the corporate offices of King Security Solutions, Inc. “Orion, stop it!”
Edward wrapped his arms around Orion’s midsection and simply tried to sling him around. Unfortunately, by the time Edward had managed to pivot, Jason was right there waiting like a wild animal about to rip its prey apart. Jason’s huge mouth closed around Orion’s throat and he started snarling and biting as though he were honestly going to rip it out and end Orion for good.
“Zane! Grab Jason!” Edward called to his remaining brother.
For just a moment Edward could have almost believed that Zane would have rather joined in to help Jason rip Orion apart than to use the cool human logic that suggested there was a better way to settle this disagreement.
“Don’t make me get the hose!” Edward grunted as he did his best to use his strength and anything else as his disposal to hold Orion down long enough to get through to him. “Snap out of it, you idiot! You have to stop. You can’t do this. You cannot let Mother make you into her pawn. That’s what’s happening, Orion! Don’t you see? She’s using you. Stop this. Stop it!”
For just a moment Edward thought that he might be getting through to Orion, but that was only seconds before his eldest brother turned those pearly white teeth on Edward as though he were going to rip out his throat instead.
Chapter Nine
Werewolves. Seriously? Diana almost could not believe that someone like Skye Kincaid who seemed like such an intelligent and reasonable person could possibly believe such a stupid line of mythical lore—or whatever you wanted to call it. The whole notion was absolutely ridiculous! People did not turn into wolves. And that ridiculous thing about the lodge meetings on Friday night? Just a coincidence. It had to be.
At least that was pretty much what Diana continued to tell herself with each and every step she took closer and closer to the King building in downtown Dallas. It wasn’t that far from The Corner Shop where Diana had smiled and pretended not to be completely weirded out by the ridiculous story that Skye Kincaid had told Diana about the King brothers. So because Diana needed to blow off some steam and recenter her brain, she opted to walk.
The day was beautiful. October was nearly at an end. Diana hadn’t really thought much about Halloween. Maybe this was all a Halloween prank. Not that Diana could possibly imagine this being the most appropriate time for such a thing. The Kings had just lost their father. Why would they be playing at this werewolf nonsense for a Halloween prank? Of course, people had been known to do stranger things while they were grieving loved ones.
“That must be it,” Diana whispered to herself as she approached the massive front entrance to the King building. “This is all just some odd sort of way to get over the death of their father.”
The huge glass doors whooshed open in front of her and Diana started to walk inside. But at that moment she was nearly mowed down by Devon King coming out of the building at such a quick rate of speed that he almost pushed her right over. As it was she stumbled backwards and fell. Her bottom hit the pavement and she bounced a little.
The shock of the moment was compounded as Diana realized that Devon had a very angry Tisha Olivares-King draped over one shoulder. The woman was pounding his back with her fists and trying to kick him with her high-heeled feet. It wasn’t working. Her second eldest son was too big and too strong to even notice her struggles.
Devon happened to be too big, strong, and distracted to notice that he had just bowled right past Diana too. He did not even look at her. In seconds he had disappeared around the corner and it was almost like it hadn’t happened. How odd. How absolutely odd.
Diana got to her feet and grumbled a bit to herself about the smudges of dirt and sand from the pavement on her once pristine sand-colored slacks. She particularly liked these pants. They had a pin stripe that was very flattering. At least in her opinion. And since she was the one who had to stare at herself in the mirror every morning that was really what mattered.
The smudged and smeared slacks were still very much on Diana’s mind as she headed up the elevator. She tried not to think too much about anything else. That allowed her brain to go right back to the whole ridiculous werewolf thing. Wait. She was doing it again. The reason she was coming upstairs to talk to Edward was to put this whole stupid thing to rest anyway. And that actually meant she should be coming up with a reason to see Edward that Candace, the dragon lady receptionist, would not shoot down. It wasn’t like she could count on a save from Skye once again. Skye was still back at The Corner Shop pretending that her future husband Jason was a freaking werewolf!
Diana shook her head as the elevator doors opened in front of her. Out she went all prepared to get tough with Candace. Which meant that Diana was more than a little taken aback when the reception desk was utterly empty. It was like Candace hadn’t come to work today.
How odd. But not bad! This was actually a very good development. It meant that Diana could just march right on down that hallway and right into Edward’s office. So with that in mind Diana sailed right past the reception desk and headed toward that office.
About two steps down the hallway Diana realized that someone had left a television on. Or something. It was kind of hard to believe that the King brothers would waste any time during their very busy day of trying to unravel the financial woes of their company to watch a bunch of Halloween-style horror movies, but that’s kind of what it sounded like.
“Good Go
d!” Diana didn’t even bother to whisper. There was no way they could hear her over the volume of the movie playing. “It sounds like someone turned the surround sound on mega loud!”
The whole idea that Edward was sitting in his office with his brothers watching some lame movie while she was down at the coffee shop listening to Jason’s future wife spin ridiculous nonsense about werewolves kind of pissed Diana off. By the time she reached for the door handle to Edward’s office she was in a bit of a self-righteous tiff.
“I really don’t appreciate all of this subterfuge and nonsense!” Diana said loudly as she pushed the door open.
Flung backwards almost instantly, Diana felt something huge and furry brush up against her right before an actual chair went sailing over her head into the hallway. It slammed into the opposite wall and left a huge gouge in the drywall. Diana stared in open-mouthed horror as she realized that the furry thing was a wolf the size of a baby elephant and that there were two of them in that office.
Human shouts mingled with canine sounds of anger and near madness. There was actual fur flying. Tufts of the silky stuff pelted Diana’s bare arms. And before she could scramble back completely out of range an enormous clawed foot raked her shin just above the top of her shoe. Her pants ripped as though they were made of paper. Her leg was abruptly exposed, her tender skin on display, and that was when Diana realized that she had to get out of there. Now!
Flipping over onto her belly, Diana began to crawl toward the other end of the office. She was heading back toward the reception desk. It was big and solid and probably had a phone. She had to call someone. Animal Control? The cops? Who did you call when there were enormous wolves loose in a public building?
The door of the office was still open. Diana heard something shove its way through the opening. She scrambled faster, getting up on her hands and knees as she struggled to move toward the big reception desk and the faux safety that it afforded.
“Diana!”
She twisted her body around just in time to see Edward’s familiar form outlined in his office doorway. What was he doing there? He was going to be killed! The huge dark gray wolf was advancing on Diana slowly as though he were enjoying her terror. She was trying to scream, but no sound came out.
Then before her already overwhelmed eyes, Edward turned into a wolf. It wasn’t slow or subtle or anything like a Hollywood version. There were no contortions. In fact, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. One second he was standing there like a man and the next he was a pale, almost white, wolf. With one athletic leap, the white wolf jumped right onto the dark gray one’s back. There was snarling and angry sounds of death and potential dismemberment.
Diana squeaked and turned back around to finish her dash for the reception desk. She finally managed to round the corner. Her ripped pants had been joined by twin holes in her knees rubbed threadbare by the industrial carpeting in the hallway.
The wolves were fighting behind her still in the hallway. Diana scooted herself into a sitting position and shoved her back as far underneath the desk as she could. From the sound of things she could have sworn that a third wolf had joined the fray. What was going on? What was happening to these people? And why was Edward now masquerading as some kind of freaky werewolf? This was not a Halloween prank. It wasn’t even possible.
That was it. Diana put her head in her arms and curled her knees up by her chest. She rocked back and forth and tried to figure out where she had completely lost her mind. She had to have gone crazy. That was the only possible explanation. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
And then, all at once, it was as if someone had turned the volume down. The sound just went off. No more snarling. No more claws raking the floor and the walls. No more violence. No more shattering pots and glass and furniture. It was almost eerie.
Diana focused on her breathing. In and out. In and out. In and out. And finally she felt her heart starting to slow down. She kept her eyes closed. Where was she? In her room? In her apartment by herself after a horrible night of dreaming? She could not begin to think where her life had taken such a bizarre turn for the worse.
“Diana?”
She jumped so hard that she slammed her head on the underside of the reception desk. Pain exploded through her head. Parting her lips she shrieked as though someone had just stabbed her through the heart. She did not open her eyes. She wasn’t sure who was there beside her. She just knew that she needed to get away from them. Not safe. The words kept going around in circles inside her head.
“Diana, it’s okay. It’s Edward. You’re all right.”
She inhaled sharply and suddenly she realized that it was Edward. His scent—outdoors and spicy man—was right there beside her. Very, very slowly she opened her eyes and tried to get her bearings. It wasn’t easy. It was rather dark underneath that desk. She shouldn’t have been there. She should have been—wait. Where was she supposed to be right now?
Diana’s eyes opened. She fluttered her lids and managed to focus on Edward’s face. He looked normal. How could he look normal? She had seen him turn into a wolf. She had seen it. Then it all came flooding back.
“Skye Kincaid told me that the King brothers are actually like werewolves,” Diana whispered to Edward. “I came here to your office to confront you and to tell you that I think your brother’s fiancée is crazy.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry.” Edward made a face and she realized that he was genuinely sorry. For what? “You shouldn’t have had to find out like this.”
“I—I”—what was she saying anyway?—“I don’t believe in werewolves.”
“That’s good.” Edward smiled at her and lightly stroked her cheek with the tips of his fingers. “I don’t either. We’re shifters. There is a very big difference. A shifter can shift whenever they want. There is no biting and no moon cycle and no worrying about giving your supposed disease to someone else. It’s just something that I was born with. All of us were.”
“Oh my God, your mother?” Diana sucked in a gasp of horror. Then she remembered the bizarre sight she had witnessed on her way into the King building. “Wait. I saw your mother being carried out of the building on Devon’s shoulder!”
“Yeah. That was rather unfortunate.” He sounded annoyed. It might have just been because he was sitting with his legs kind of cramped as he struggled to get close to her underneath the reception desk. “Hopefully not too many people took much note of Devon and Mother. He had to get her out of here because she keeps stirring up the shit between us brothers.”
“Your mother made you guys fight?” Diana was briefly distracted by this notion. It was better to focus on that then to think about the fact that this man was actually a wolf or vice versa. “Why would she do that?”
“The usual reasons, I suspect,” Edward told her with no small amount of irritation. His expression was rather hard to read under the reception desk, but she could tell he was upset. “I think she’s trying to make us hate each other so we’ll be too distracted to notice that she’s taking our inheritance right out from under our noses.”
Well, that was just crap. And it was also very, very human. Perhaps Diana could find a way to wrap her mind around this after all. As long as she could wrap her mind around the fact that this man would never be a match for her.
Chapter Ten
Edward did not know whether to be grateful to Skye or to hunt her down and kill her for breaking their family’s necessary secrecy about their shifter status. It wasn’t the sort of secret you could just tell. There were reasons that nobody knew what the King brothers were. Their family had kept these secrets for generations and it had helped to keep them safe.
“When did this start? The whole shifter thing, I mean.”
Looking over at Diana, Edward tried to read her expression and felt helpless to get it right. The two of them were in the kitchen of his roomy downtown apartment. Diana sat at the high counter and Edward was making coffee in his expensive French press. The scent of the brewing liquid f
illed the apartment with the comforting scent of liquid caffeine.
Finally Edward cleared his throat and decided he needed to come up with some kind of answer. Reaching into a cabinet, he located two mugs and set them on the countertop. “I don’t actually know how far back this whole thing goes,” Edward admitted. He offered Diana a small smile, but she didn’t return it. “I want to say that it goes back to at least the first King family that settled in this part of Texas. They had come to the New World looking for room to roam.”
Diana chuckled. The sound was almost wry. “So they came to Texas when the eastern portion of the country got too cramped.”
“And Texas has been our home ever since.”
Diana reached for the mug that Edward handed to her. “I think I finally understand why that land out in the boonies is so important.”
Edward sipped rich black coffee from his mug and wished that he were starting over this morning before all of the drama had occurred. Did he even remember this morning? The entire day had been a blur. Right now he could not have said what time it was. He was tired and the coffee tasted and felt like heaven.
“So do you guys live forever?”
Edward quickly glanced up at Diana. Was she kidding? It was hard to tell. Her lips were hidden behind the rim of her mug.
“Silver bullets? Biting. Anything at all about the moon?” Diana’s tone had turned almost nasty. What was up with her now? She had been rather calm about the whole up till now. Perhaps he’d expected her to just take it all in stride.
“None of that.” Edward set his mug down. “I don’t even like my steaks rare. We have a regular lifespan. We’re probably a little more robust than your average Joe. We don’t get sick. Generally, we’re not susceptible to the regular human diseases. But you saw my father. We age. It’s not like we live two hundred years or something. I can’t even imagine that.” Edward felt himself trailing off. He and his brothers had speculated about that when they were younger. What it would be like to outlive all of your friends and potentially your mate and even your children.
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