I could understand everything else like I had an automated Google Translate running inside my head.
When I righted the car, and got us back on the drive, I cut a look at Daniel, whose grin was beaming on his face.
Apparently, he liked a little excitement in his life.
Well, he was coming to the right place for it, I thought wryly.
When we rolled down to the end of the drive, and I saw the cars backed up there, I tensed a little.
“See?” the she-wolf muttered.
I frowned, wondering how the visitors could smell like the twins, then I decided now wasn’t the time to worry about it. Now was the time to hope I didn’t have a bloodstain on my jeans.
As I pulled up, the gravel made a sloshing sound as I did so, then I raced out of the car, opened the door for the bitch, and then helped Daniel out too. Scurrying us across the porch and through the front door, when I pointed to the door at the end of the hall, I told him, “If you go in there, Elsa will get you something to eat.”
“Elsa? Like in Frozen?”
I pulled a blank at that, then gaped at him. “Who’s Frozen?”
He sniffed, a tad superior for my liking, before he muttered, “Never mind.”
I wafted him away, then rushed to the downstairs’ bathroom.
Just in time.
When I was all sorted out, I peered at my ass again, checked there was no blood, and made my way out into the hall.
There was a tension in the air I could sense now that I wasn’t panicked.
Anger too.
The combination had me wondering what was happening, especially when I heard Ethan growl, “Motherfucker.”
He wasn’t exactly the swearing type, so the curse came as a surprise. Not that I minded. Especially when he growled, “Love fucking you, mate,” in my ear as he’d done last night.
I hummed at the thought, trying not to get turned on as I wandered over to Eli’s office, where I knew he would place the visitors for a meeting.
As I slipped inside, I saw their heads turn to the left to face me, and as they did, I was granted a full, frontal view of the visitor in question.
Well, two visitors. Men, shifters. Not of the pack.
And both of them stole my heart. Not in a good way, either.
One, well, he looked like Ethan and Austin combined. He had their long nose, the wide brow. He had the soft lips and the beautiful eyes.
He was gorgeous, but he was a helluva lot older.
He had to be either their father or, maybe, their uncle? Only he didn’t scent like them entirely, just of them. And yes, there was a dramatic difference between the two. You had to have the she-wolf’s nose to get it. So, maybe uncle…even though uncles weren’t exactly a thing in the pack, were they?
And the other man?
On his knees? His wrists bound to his ankles?
My brother.
I swallowed at the sight, swallowed again when I saw the hatred in his eyes when he glared at me.
And like that, it came rolling into my mind.
The memories.
Not just ancient history, but the recent past too.
Cyrilo had never liked me. He’d always said I was too weak to be Papa’s favorite, but I had been that because I looked like Momma. Just because he beat her and treated her like crap didn’t mean, in his own way, he wasn’t proud of her beauty.
My defection, as it were, had hit him harder for that reason.
I knew that, knew he’d had plans for me, to marry me off to one of the Lindowiczs who ran some shady dealings over on the East Coast, and who the clan had been battling for what seemed like decades. Plans I’d ruptured by bearing Kian a child.
But here Cyrilo was.
And out of nowhere, the flashback hit me. That hatred…a twin to the hate in the wolf’s eyes when he’d leaped onto me like I was sport for him. My attacker. Who’d torn out my throat like I was so much prey to be hunted.
I remembered it, those gleaming eyes filled with loathing and burning anger that, even then, I’d known couldn’t be animal. It just couldn’t be.
There was too much human emotion in that gaze, and I was right.
It was my brother.
He’d attacked me.
He’d been the one to transform me.
My mouth trembled as I whispered, “How did you find me?”
Cyrilo didn’t answer, he was mute as he tipped his chin down and stared stonily at the floor.
“Sabina, I presume?” the older Ethan/Austin murmured, striding over to me with his hand held out for me to shake.
It was such a human gesture that I wasn’t sure how to respond for a second. I hesitated so long he started to drop his hand, but mine snapped out, and I whispered, “Sorry. I’m just shaken.”
“Hardly surprising,” the other man said softly. “It’s taken me a while to catch him. Otherwise, I’d have brought him here sooner.”
“Catch him?” I frowned, staring up at him with confusion, taken in by those soft eyes that belonged to my men.
“First, I think I should introduce myself.”
“This is Frank Gunner, Sabina,” Eli rasped, and I cut him a look. He hadn’t moved from behind the desk, but I could see he wanted to. I knew he wanted me close, and since this bastard was my attacker, I figured it was understandable.
I smiled at Frank and murmured, “Pleasure to meet you, Frank.”
“I just wish it was under kinder circumstances,” he rumbled.
My smile grew tight, and I moved past Cyrilo, darting out of his way as I slipped over to Eli. When I was by his side, my hand on his shoulder and his fingers entwining through mine, only then could I breathe a sigh of relief.
The twins weren’t doing as well. Ethan was scowling at Frank, and Austin was staring out the window.
I was confused as hell, I’d admit, and with Cyrilo here, I was just more nervous than I thought I’d ever been in my whole life.
And that included having to deal with the aftermath of Austin’s attack.
Selfish, maybe, but hell, I wasn’t perfect.
I released a soft breath, trying to get my control back, as I questioned, “What’s going on?”
“Frank is Austin and Ethan’s uncle.”
Frank beamed a smile at them. “Am indeed. Mighty fine day it was to find you here. Never would have believed it if it wasn’t for this piece of shit storming into your territory.”
I blinked. “Your uncle?” I wasn’t sure why that came as a surprise, but then it clicked when I took in the similarities between the nephews and uncle. “I thought twins were rare.”
Frank shrugged his shoulders. “We are. But we beget twins in my line. Always have. Always will. Got a set of twins of my own, and one of them has already given us another set.”
His pride beamed out of his smile.
But I wasn’t as happy. “Why didn’t you come for Austin and Ethan then? I thought twins were to be ashamed of?”
Frank shrugged. “Whether we were cursed or blessed is something I don’t bother thinking about. We are what we are, and that’s that. Truth is, I didn’t even know Lucas had the chance to have any sons. Had I known, I’d have been a part of their life without hesitation.”
I cleared my throat. “Lucas is dead?”
Frank whistled under his breath. “If he is or isn’t, I haven’t heard from him in…” Another whistle. “Twenty or more years. Maybe even thirty. Wasn’t a good egg, all told.”
I winced at that candor, then muttered, “Why are you here? To bring…him?”
He crinkled his nose. “Truth is, ma’am, I’ve been watching this fool for a while now. My granddaughter brought him home, and though they’re mated, he never felt right to me. Always shady, never settling down, getting into trouble left and right, but she pleaded with me to transform him, and like a fool, I did.
“She called and told me about him coming back to her boasting about taking out some woman.” He blew out a breath. “I managed to track down his
whereabouts, but the bastard must have overheard me talking with my granddaughter. He ran off.”
Instinct had me asking, “And he hurt her?”
Frank, for the first time, lost his joviality. “Yes. He did.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
His nostrils flared for just a second. “She was a fool for letting him into her life. We have a choice to reject the mate bond when the mate is a bad egg.” He cleared his throat. “His punishment will be hers when it comes time for it.”
My mouth worked a little as I processed how he was trying to hide from his pain before a memory whispered inside my mind.
Two wolves had been there that night.
Two.
Not just one.
Her? The female? His mate?
My she-wolf howled like she knew I was right, and with that sound ringing in my ears, I decided it was a kindness not to mention the granddaughter’s involvement in my attack. Instead, I spoke to my brother, “Well, seems like even in all these years, you’ve yet to change, Cyrilo. Not even getting transformed could shine up the pile of shit you are. Not even the blessing of a mate bond.” A mate bond that would see both of my attackers die.
Maybe there was justice in the world, after all.
A surprised breath billowed from Eli’s lungs. “You know him?”
I gritted my teeth, tipped my chin up, and confirmed, “He’s my brother.”
A snarl escaped Ethan, and when he flew across the room to attack Cyrilo, I moved toward him to try to stop him, but I wasn’t surprised when Austin shifted and dove into the fray. The two of them got caught up in a tussle, snarling and snapping at each other, but even their fighting, which was anything other than playful, didn’t snatch my attention totally away from Cyrilo.
He hadn’t shifted in response to the attack.
Hadn’t responded in any way aggressively, other than to rear up and fall back as his cuffs controlled his movements.
“The silver,” Eli explained as he stood up and moved from behind his desk and strode over to me.
I wanted to melt into him when he put his arm around my waist and tugged me close, but I couldn’t.
Not when the enemy was in our midst.
I sucked in a breath, trying not to feel like I had the last time I’d seen Cyrilo.
Trying to forget what he’d done to me, to my baby, to Kian, but it was impossible.
He’d always been working on Daddy’s orders. His minion.
“Last time I saw you, you were smiling at me when you forced us off the road,” I rasped.
Cyrilo didn’t even duck his head in shame, he just stared stonily ahead.
I heard Ethan snarl some more, and Austin growled at him, focused on controlling his brother, but it was Eli who murmured, “What did he do?”
“Drove into my little car. He was behind the wheel of a pickup truck with massive bull bars on the front. We didn’t stand a chance. None of us did.”
“Thought I’d fucking killed you until I saw you on goddamn TV one day at some carnival dressed up like a gypsy,” Cyrilo snapped, peering over at me long enough to slam me with his hatred. “Proudest day of my life was telling Father I’d cut out the scum from our line. You shamed me, bitch.”
“I shamed you?” I squeaked, my eyes widening, and then I felt the way Ethan and Austin were tearing into each other, their blood actually spilling over this conversation, and I did what I was slowly learning to do.
It was, as always, a learning curve, but I breathed in, sucked in calm with some oxygen, and blew it out in a measured flow as I closed my eyes and focused on their bright energy balls which, as always, were there the second my eyelids shut.
I worked on soothing them, calming them, and as I did, the strangest thing happened.
I saw more balls of energy.
About twenty-five more.
When I focused on them, I recognized that one was Daniel, and there were a few people in the house who were linked to those energy balls.
Even crazier?
I could sense the bitch back in town.
She was there too. The whispers back in the grocery store—all from my pack.
I froze a little, taken aback to note this was how I could help people. Would every person I met who was pack become a part of my little cluster?
The biggest difference between the pack and my mates was size and color. My men were larger presences in my soul, and oddly enough, I noticed they were at the bottom, closest to me. Almost as though…
They were keeping the hordes from me.
They were my barrier.
They kept the pack apart from me.
Relief whispered through me, even as I focused on Austin’s and Ethan’s spirits and tried to calm them down.
Of course, trying to calm someone down wasn’t as easy as it was in real life. Telling them to breathe or to think happy thoughts wasn’t going to work in this medium, so I did the equivalent of petting them.
Well, as much as I could when I wasn’t able to use my hands during this exercise.
This was a whole other ball of wax.
I hummed under my breath and jerked back into Eli’s hold when I felt how they responded to that.
Instantly, they calmed.
It was like I’d pushed a button or something.
Insane.
But brilliant.
A laugh escaped me, and that?
Had the power of a tidal wave.
The energy reacted to sound!
Oh man, I could handle that.
The laughter didn’t just affect Ethan and Austin, I felt it change Eli’s mood too. It even slipped into the other people in my care, mellowing them out.
My happiness or joy spread into them the second I focused on them.
Interesting!
I hummed again to soothe them, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Frank was staring at me with curiosity.
“Been a long time since I felt an omega as powerful as you,” he mused the second our gazes connected. “In fact, that was a mighty impressive show. I could feel you, even though I’m not in your pack.” He cut Eli a look. “She’ll need guarding.”
A snap came from behind me, and Frank’s lips twitched as the bitch slinked in, rumbling all the while, her shoulders hunched, head low, sporting a menacing glare. When she brushed up against me, her head butting my hand, I speared my fingers into the thick fur, and murmured, “I have my own guard.”
“I can see that.” He laughed a little. “Never seen a she-wolf taken with a transformed female before. Why, you do things differently up here in the North, don’t you?”
Eli cleared his throat. “Some things we do, sure. But other things, no.”
The curve of Frank’s mouth flatlined at that. “Yeah. I feel that. Well, I brought him here for you. A sacrifice, even though he’s hurt my family, but my omega confirmed he won’t leave your lady alone. Not until he’s seen through his task.”
“He almost killed her,” Ethan snarled, and I twisted around and saw that he was standing there, back in his half-shredded clothes, glowering at Cyrilo.
Austin stood in front of him, evidently trying to hold him back, and I could confirm that he needed to.
I had never, not in the time we’d been together, seen him so angry.
So uncontrolled.
It was almost a turn-on.
At the start of our relationship, things had been so unpassionate, so clinical, that I’d been concerned. I was getting all the passion now in spades.
Which made me a very happy bunny.
The thought had my lips twisting into a smile as I asked, “What will you do with him? Do you have jails?”
“For what he did, he won’t go to jail, sweetheart,” Austin replied, and a satisfied rumble escaped Ethan.
“You’ll kill him?” I inquired flatly, and even though I knew I should feel badly about that, I didn’t have it in me to do so.
I couldn’t feel anything other than relief to know that Cyrilo was going to d
ie, not when he was the one who’d ripped my life out from under me.
Twice.
I sucked in a breath, and questioned, “Father’s dead, isn’t he?”
That had to be why Cyrilo had upset the apple cart the way he had.
Everything about this way of life was mahrime to our kind. Dogs and cats were pets we were forbidden from owning. We loved horses as a result, because, to my people, they were the noblest of breeds. First, Cyrilo would never have allowed himself to be transformed if Father was alive. Second, Father would never have accepted Cyrilo’s methods as justifiable.
Even that car crash wasn’t how the family did things.
A knife to the throat. A dagger to the heart. No guns. Nothing of that nature.
Nothing mechanical.
Only blunt force and the will to kill someone who had dishonored the line.
He’d made a mistake in transforming me. He’d just meant to slaughter me and thought to use his wolf to get away with murder.
A wolf attack was a lot different than homicide.
“You’re a hypocrite,” I rasped, my thoughts whirling as I tried to get myself under control.
My brother was dying soon, and I needed answers, answers he wasn’t going to give me.
His tight mouth and the way he stared blankly at the ground told me all these things.
I knew he wouldn’t give me the peace I needed.
I knew he wanted me to suffer, but he would suffer too.
Striding over to him, I waited for Eli to hold me back, but he didn’t.
“How did he manage to transform her, that’s what I’d like to know?” Frank muttered. “The bastard’s always been alpha-type, but not strong enough to best me.”
Of course, that pricked the fool’s pride. “I never showed you just how strong I am.”
“Makes sense,” Eli murmured. “Something in the line is powerful. Just look how it bred Sabina.”
I jerked my chin up at that, taking heart from his words.
To my men, I wasn’t a victim. I was strong.
I was powerful.
I was their omega, their mate.
Their equal.
Recognition slammed into me as I processed all that before I grabbed Cyrilo’s chin and forced him to look at me. “May Kali Sara heed my words. May she whisper them into God’s ear and beckon him to send you straight to the pits of hell for what you did to Joshua and Kian.” I lowered my face, closer to his, knowing he could attack, but I didn’t care. “May the evil in our family line die with you, may it rot in Satan’s arms with you—”
WOLF CHILD: A PNR RH Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 1) Page 31
