by Cali Mann
I froze, blinking. “How did you know?”
Looking back at me, Aileen smiled. The first real smile I’d seen from her all night. “A mother always knows.”
“Oh,” I said, continuing up the steps. I didn’t know how to respond to her. Did I tell her that even though we were mates, Brenton might not ever see me again? Where would my father take me?
“You do look so like your mother.”
I paused. “You knew my mother?”
“Yes,” she said. “Abigail and I were good friends.”
“What was she like?” My heart squeezed.
“She was funny and kind. She always lent a hand to anyone in need. A light among shifters, but . . .” Aileen shook her head and took another step up the stairs. “Never mind.”
I reached out for her arm, and she flinched at my touch. Just like Brenton. “He beats you, doesn’t he?”
She shook her head, eyes glistening. “No, no, of course not.”
“I know what it’s like.” I squeezed my hand around the banister. My scars might be hidden but they were still there. “I used to live somewhere very bad.”
“Oh honey,” she said. “I’m so glad you have Brenton now.”
“Me too.” I gave a half-smile. Because I didn’t really have him, did I? Soon his suspension would be lifted, and he’d be returning to Thornbriar Academy. I couldn’t ever go back.
“I am glad that you’ve made a better choice.” Her eyes met mine. “Than either Abigail or I did.”
I nodded tightly. Abigail had chosen Kaiden and now she was dead. “Do you know how she died?”
Her eyes darted to the carpeted stairs behind us. “They say she fell down the stairs.”
A frown creased my forehead. “They say?”
She picked at the sleeve of her dress. “It was a nice funeral. Abigail was beloved by many.”
Suspicion crawled up my spine. I hated that I even thought it, but as my father had said, the world is a very dark place. “He pushed her, didn’t he?”
Her eyes darted around as if we might have been overheard, and her lips pressed into a thin line. She shuddered. Then she turned and started up the stairs again.
Aileen McKinnon was a troubled woman. I grimaced and followed her. My father had killed my mother. There was no doubt in my mind. If he beat her like Mr. McKinnon did his wife, and I assumed his son, then I could easily see it happening, even if I hadn’t witnessed the death of Professor Ward.
Biting my lip, I trailed after her. What had I gotten myself into? I’d just barely gotten used to life at Thornbriar Academy, and now I’d been thrown into the larger world of shifter politics. I was less free than ever, now trapped with my dangerous father. I hoped Sciro was okay. At the same time, I was terrified he’d run to the Headmaster and exposed me. Of course he had. I’d be stupid to think otherwise.
32
Brenton
I stumbled downstairs for breakfast the next morning. The only good thing about being suspended was Francesca’s scones in the morning. The food at Thornbriar was good, but nothing matched our chef’s spectacular baking. I passed through the hall and I caught a whiff of lavender and stopped. Hailey?
No, Hailey’d have no reason to be here. Last time I’d seen her, she’d been sweaty and wet, fresh from fucking, and I had never seen her look more beautiful. I shook my head to clear it. Probably someone brought some lavender in from the greenhouse.
I started forward again when I heard the murmur of voices from the parlor. I frowned. Who would they be entertaining this early in the morning? Curious, I moved closer, trying to pick out the words.
“Samuel Ward’s death has Thornbriar in an uproar,” my father said.
Samuel Ward? Did they mean Professor Ward? My empty stomach swirled uneasily. How’d he die?
Another man chuckled. “Well, that place needed to be shaken up anyway, and I always did hate that bear shifter.”
“I can’t keep her forever,” my father said.
“My daughter?” the man asked, his voice deepening. “You’d think you’d be honored.”
“I am, Kaiden.” My father’s voice, oily sweet.
Who the fuck would he talk to like that? I scratched my chin, still half asleep, and then it hit me. Kaiden Hartsman. My dad was meeting with the most infamous criminal in the Shifter world. Holy shit.
“But she needs to be with her mates,” my father said. “Isn’t that how you stave off the madness?”
Who was Kaiden’s daughter? I sniffed and froze. No, it couldn’t be. Was Hailey his child? Why would she be here?
I leaned closer to the wood door, and it cracked just a bit. I could see my dad sitting across from a tall, thin man with red hair. Their drinks lay on the coffee table between them. I didn’t think I’d ever heard or seen what Kaiden looked like. It’s not like we had a shifter newspaper or something, and the man had never been caught. I shook my head. Nothing like Hailey.
“Yes,” Kaiden said at last. “She’ll have to return to Thornbriar once this whole investigation blows over.”
My stomach sank. It was Hailey. It’s not like there could be two spirit shifters at Thornbriar. The school was big, but not that big.
My father nodded as he sipped his drink. “It is the safest place for her, and with our spies in place to look out for her, she should be fine.”
I held my breath. What excuse could they possibly give for her being away?
“And she’ll need to know about the shifter world if she is to help us.”
Help us what? I wished he would speak more frankly. I needed to know what their plans were for Hailey, for my mate.
“Yes, the toppling of the Council needs to happen sooner rather than later.” My father grunted. “Do you think the girl will help?”
Kaiden gestured expansively. “Of course. She’s my daughter.”
My father chuckled. “If only parentage were a guarantee of obedience.”
The other man’s face hardened. “Hailey will do as she’s told.”
“Yes, absolutely.” My father said more solemnly than I’d ever seen him. “For Thornbriar, I’m the executor of the Coopers’ estate. I’ll say I invited her to go over her inheritance.”
“That’s a good plan—”
I must have leaned a little too hard on the door, because it flew open, dumping me in the room at their feet. I caught myself on my hands and peered up at them.
My father leaped to his feet. “Brenton!”
Kaiden hadn’t moved from the couch as if he’d known I was listening. How had he? They said he was psychic. Maybe it was true. I shivered.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, hello.”
I climbed to my feet, straightening my loose shirt and pajama pants.
“Of course,” Kaiden said. “We could also just say she’d run away because she couldn’t bear to be away from her mate.”
“Her mate?” my father asked, and then his gaze landed on my bare shoulder. “Oh.”
“Are you really Hailey’s father?” I asked.
Kaiden smiled, with just as slippery a smile as my father, and said, “Yes.”
“Huh,” I said, not sure if I believed him, but Hailey was my top priority. “And you want to help her?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then what do I need to do?” I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to, or when exactly I’d decided that it was worth sharing her if Hailey stayed in my life. But, looking at these two men, I knew Hailey was under attack from all sides and she was going to need all of her mates by her side. My dragon roared within me. He might not like sharing either but the safety of our mate was more important.
I sat down and listened to Kaiden’s proposal.
33
Hailey
It was late afternoon before I wandered downstairs because my stomach refused to wait anymore. I walked down the curved staircase, staring at the portraits that lined the wall. Each one hinted at Brenton: a curve of a smile, blue eyes, a broad frame. What would it have been like to grow u
p knowing what you were? With generations of a family staring down at you. I grimaced. And a father who beat you every chance he got.
I scratched at my neck, where the lace of the dress itched. My torn and bloody tee shirt and jeans had disappeared while I was sleeping, and this emerald-colored dress had replaced them. It was beautiful with lace along its scooped neck and knee-length hemline. The color almost perfectly matched my eyes. Still, I hadn’t wanted to wear it, but there had been nothing else. I’d looked at my muddy sneakers and sighed slipping on the waiting black flats.
When I’d showered and looked in the mirror I’d felt like I was different, changed somehow. As if running away with my father had remade me into someone else. What was my life going to be like without Thornbriar, without Terrin and Adrian and Sciro and Brenton? Would I live on the run with my father? Or would I be secreted away in some mansion like this, captive again? I shuddered at the thought.
My steps, cushioned by the thick carpet, barely made a sound on the stairs. I twisted my charm bracelet as I descended. My fingers stopped on the wolf, and I paused. Had it come from Mr. Reed like I assumed, or somehow, had it come from my father? I scrunched my nose. If it had come from Kaiden, who had delivered it? Doug Brar? Or had he come in spirit form?
That spooked me more than anything that my father could have been wandering around Thornbriar for weeks and I wouldn’t have known. But hadn’t Doug said that he didn’t visit Thornbriar because it wasn’t safe? I held on to that small bit of comfort. Maybe I hadn’t been haunted. I swallowed. At school at least.
Even though I’d accepted my father, I still didn’t trust him. How could I after he had killed Professor Ward in cold blood? And what plans did he have for me? I sighed. I had chosen this life for better or worse. I couldn’t go back now.
After the last step, I slammed into a broad chest and stumbled backward, landing on my ass. I looked up into eyes as blue as the hottest part of the flame.
“Rosie Posie,” he said. “We do have to stop meeting like this.”
“What are you doing here, Brenton?” I snapped.
He laughed. “Well, it is my house.”
My cheeks burned. Of course, and he’d been suspended. Where else would I expect him to be?
“I was just coming upstairs to escort my mate to breakfast,” he said, offering me an arm. “Our chef makes the most amazing scones.”
Taking his arm, I stood. He seemed taller and broader in the large hall than he had at Thornbriar. “Brenton, I—”
He pressed his finger to my lips. “Shh,” he said. “Let’s just enjoy some scones.”
I inhaled his smoky scent. This might be the last time I ever saw him. I didn’t want to argue. I just wanted to be with him. I met his eyes and nodded.
He led me down the hall and into the dining room. His father, mother, and my dad all sat around a formal dining table. Each of them had a section of the newspaper as if this was a normal morning as if we were normal people. I didn’t think my life had ever been normal or safe, but on the run with a dangerous criminal, I think that might beat anything that had come before.
The smell of coffee and the promised scones drifted over me, my mouth watered and I forgot how odd I felt. “I’m starved.”
Brenton helped me load a plate and grabbed two piping hot cups of coffee. We settled down in the middle of the table to eat. He’d been right, the scones were divine, but the rest of the buffet was just as good: sausage, eggs, pancakes, and coffee with plenty of milk and sugar. I devoured it all.
When I looked up again, I’d cleaned my plate, before Brenton had barely had a bite. “I thought you loved these scones?”
“Oh, I do,” he said with a smile. “But it’s way more fun watching you eat.”
I laughed, and I must have been loud because everyone looked up from their reading.
Brenton’s dad glared at me. I’d barely met the man, and I understood Brenton in a whole new way. If this is what he’d had to put up with his whole life, no wonder he spooked when anyone touched him.
“Hailey,” said my father with a smile that seemed genuine. “How good to see you.”
“Yes, welcome,” Mrs. McKinnon said with a twinkle in her eye.
Heat rose in my cheeks for the second time today. She acted like we were getting married. I cast a sidelong glance at Brenton. I didn’t even know where we were after our fire inspiring sex. I sighed. And I couldn’t go back to Thornbriar anyway, so it wasn’t like we were ever going to be together.
Brenton laid his hand on my knee, steadying me, and they all returned to their reading. He’d dug into his meal finally and had stopped watching me.
He finished most of it and then I whispered to Brenton, “We have to talk.”
“Okay,” he said, popping another bite of scone into his mouth. We stood, and he took my hand. “This way.”
We went out through the hall and down a corridor that opened into a greenhouse. Lush green plants grew all around us, all varying shades of green, and the heat rolled over my skin. The sweet smell of tropical flowers in bloom hit my nose. It was as if we’d walked into another world.
He grabbed a colorful purple and blue flower and tucked it behind my ear. I giggled.
Then, he pulled me into an alcove surrounded by plants where a small bench sat before a window. We were hidden from passerby but could see the yard stretching into the woods that lay behind the house.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, looking at the flower I’d plucked from my hair. The purple petals curved out exposing the delicate stamen within. I took a seat on the bench.
Brenton stood at the window, looking out over the lawn, his arms crossed behind his back. “My mother loves these gardens. She tends every bloom herself.”
I smiled. “She does a lovely job.”
“How long have you known about your father?”
“I only just found out,” I replied, twisting the stem in my hands. “Doug, Nurse Brar, told me about him when I was in the infirmary.”
Brenton turned, his gaze falling on me, but his face was impassive, waiting.
“I didn’t know who he was of course. Not until Professor Ward—” I closed my eyes, my heart heavy with grief. “He knew who Kaiden was.”
He nodded. “Yes. Professor Ward knew Kaiden through his mate. She was a spirit shifter, you know?”
“Yes. Sciro said—” I gasped, my eyes flying open. “Sciro! I hope he’s okay. He was injured, and we left him in the woods.”
“He’s fine,” Brenton said.
I studied his face. “How do you know?”
“My father says that he’s being held for trial.” He dropped down on the seat next to me. “They think he killed Professor Ward.”
“He didn’t!”
Brenton reached out and took my hands in his, crushing the flower between them. “We know that, but they can’t know. Not ever.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I won’t let Sciro take the blame. I can’t.”
“You would turn in your father?” he asked, squeezing my hands.
“I would,” I said, my voice firm. “He deserves to pay for all the crimes he’s committed.”
“But you just found him. He would be executed.”
“I don’t know.” I bit my lip. “Part of me wants to get to know him. To have some relationship with the man I came from. But—”
He waited. His warm hands cradling mine.
“Sciro is innocent. I can’t condemn him to captivity or death.” My shoulders squared. “For the chance to know the man who abandoned me.”
Brenton nodded. “I thought you’d feel that way.”
I frowned, studying his face. “Where do we stand?”
“I’m your mate and I will do anything for you.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “I thought you didn’t share?”
He smiled wryly. “I don’t want to, but you need the protection and support of your mates. All of them.”
“Why?”
“That’s the c
ure for spirit shifter madness.”
“What?”
“The spirit shifter needs four mates, one from each of the elements, in order to balance their nature. When they are balanced, no madness.”
I blinked, staring at him. “The spiral. The balance.”
“Yes.”
“But I’ve been having episodes—”
“Because your mates are not all bound to you,” he said with a shrug. “Because shifter males are a stubborn lot.”
“Oh.” It couldn’t be that easy. I laughed. As if any of our relationships had been easy. I’d fought with each one even as we bonded. “So Terrin for earth, Adrian for water, you for fire . . . who’s the fourth?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we need to find him.”
I twisted the crushed flower in my hands. “My father told you this. He has four mates?”
“He does.”
“He’s not crazy? All the killing he does, and he’s sane?”
Brenton brushed back a lock of my hair, gazing into my eyes. “I don’t know. He seems so.”
“You’ve talked to him? He told you all this?”
“Yes.”
“How can we trust him?” I didn’t trust anybody. I couldn’t trust anybody.
Brenton snorted. “Trust him? We can’t. No more than we can trust my father.”
“Then how do you know any of this is the truth?” But I trusted Brenton. I pressed my lips together. Why? What was it about this guy, no these guys, that made me let my guard down?
“Because I feel it, Hailey, don’t you? We’re stronger and in harmony the more we are together.”
I stood, crossing to the window. We’d never really been all together, so how could he know. But I thought about how good I felt after Terrin and Adrian and I made love. How their presence was often enough to stave off my demons. How Terrin’s hand on my back had made me relax, no matter how angry I was. I hugged myself.
More patient than I’d ever seen him, Brenton sat on the bench, silent, while I wrestled with my heart. He’d really made peace with the idea of sharing me. I couldn’t believe it. “But I’m here and my other mates are at school.”
