Revelations (Brighton Wolves #1)

by Samantha Hoffman

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Gwen was rooted to the spot, her eyes locked on the battle about to rage in the heart of the woods. It was as if everything was unfolding in front of her in slow motion. She could see the horrifying changes taking place over her father once again, and this time he refused to hold it at bay. Before Gwen’s eyes, her father had transformed into a dark creature on four legs, standing higher than her hips. Gwen flashed back to the road, where two darkly colored wolves had saved her and Gabe from Roman’s clutches.

  She recalled that one of the wolves was larger than the other, and it appeared that her father was the bigger of the two, which shouldn’t have surprised Gwen. Her father was the more aggressive and volatile of the two, it would only make sense that he was more imposing and more of a threat. I wonder if he’s a good fighter.

  In his wolf form, Roman was larger than her father, and more powerfully built. His fur was darker and shaggier, giving him a more wild and untamed appearance. He looked every part the wild animal that would have ripped out her throat, while her father looked more like a house pet in comparison. She knew that he could probably be every bit as ruthless as Roman, but she found it hard to believe when she thought about what kind of man he was. Roman was a cold-blooded killer, but even though her father had a temper, she couldn’t picture him ever being the same as Roman.

  It looked like he was about to prove Gwen wrong. Her father lunged at Roman, colliding with his shoulder. The force of her father’s hit sent the two of them rolling across the forest floor, disturbing leaves and debris. Before Roman could get to his feet, her father went for his throat, his teeth clicking together on empty air as Roman managed to roll away. He was on his feet before her father recovered, and he whipped his head around faster than a snake, his fangs sinking deep into her father’s hip.

  Grant howled, twisting his head to try and bite Roman or at least free himself from Roman’s grasp. Gwen tore her eyes away from the fight just long enough to get a glance of the other wolves, afraid that they might jump in and gang up on her father. They were watching from a safe distance, looking fidgety, like they were dying to get into the fight but were afraid of crossing their alpha. They must have orders to stay back and not interfere, Gwen thought. Roman and my dad are both the kind of men to handle things on their own. They wouldn’t let anyone else get in the way of their revenge.

  Roman and her father circled each other, their eyes full of hatred, saliva dribbling from their fangs. Gwen saw a flash of white as Roman snapped at her father, forcing him to jump back to avoid being bitten again. His leg gave out and he slid onto his butt, giving Roman an opportunity to tackle him. He rammed his shoulder directly into her father’s chest, ands he heard him wheeze as all of the air was knocked from his lungs. He tumbled backwards to the ground, exposing his throat.

  He dove for it, but her father managed to roll out of the way, and Roman stumbled. Gwen bit her lip, tearing a piece of skin away. Skyler still had a firm hold on her, and she couldn’t have joined in the fight even if she wanted. She was a weakling, unable to offer any help. All she could do was stand there and watch in horror as her father fought to save not only Gabe’s life, but her life as well. She could see Gabe out of the corner of her eyes struggling to break free of his captors, but it was doing him no good.

  They were both useless. Where’s uncle Geoffrey? He needs to be here to help dad! She knew that Geoffrey could make a difference in such an intense fight, but she had no idea where he was or if he’d make it there in time. She had to find some other way to get her father help that didn’t involve joining the fight and messing things up. She briefly thought about running back to the house to see if Geoffrey had returned, but Skyler’s arms tightened around her, as if he sensed her desire to flee and do something stupid.

  Skyler!

  She craned her neck around to get a look at Skyler’s face, and was surprised to find that he looked as equally horrified as she did. She had thought a werewolf might be itching to get into the fight, but it looked almost as if he wanted to be anywhere other than these woods. She could tell he wouldn’t be any help to her, but she still felt the need to try. Even if Skyler was scared or reluctant to fight, he might be the key to saving her father’s life, and Gabe’s.

  “Skyler, you have to help my dad! Please.”

  He looked down at her, his face twisting into a grimace. “Gwen, I can’t.”

  “Skyler, you have to! You’re the only one here who can save him! You can’t just let him die. Please,” she pleaded, her voice rising until she was nearly hysterical. He couldn’t just tell her no like it was no big deal. This was her father’s life on the line, and he had to give her a better answer than that.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Gwen, I have my orders. I’m not allowed! Even if I was, I couldn’t fight Roman. He’s my uncle and the only family I have left!”

  She tried to wrench herself from Skyler’s grasp and succeeded in freeing one of her arms. She felt her hand come back and fly forward, striking Skyler across the face. Her cheeks were wet and she was screaming incoherently at him, struggling to free herself. If he wasn’t going to save her father, then she would just have to do the best she could, even if it got her killed. But Skyler’s grasp was like iron, and she couldn’t have freed herself if she fought him for a hundred years.

  Because of his cowardice, she was forced to watch helplessly as Roman and her father struggled to get the upper hand. She wanted to close her eyes and tell herself this was all just a bad dream, but she knew that it was real, as impossible as it all seemed. She was watching a fight to the death between werewolves, and one of those werewolves was her father, a man that she had a difficult relationship with on a good day.

  Her father managed to get to his feet and create some distance between himself and Roman, but she could see that his fur was wet and matted in several places, while Roman didn’t seem to have more than a few scratches. It looked like it was going to be an entirely one-sided fight, one that her father didn’t stand a chance of winning. What was she going to do? What was she going to do?!

  She could see even from a distance that Roman’s eyes were crazed and wild, and she knew that he was enjoying this fight more than anything. He had probably been waiting for this moment for years, and he could probably taste his victory. As Gwen watched, Roman closed the gap between them, rushing in with reckless abandon. She wanted to close her eyes and look away, but she was rooted to the spot, helpless and scared.

  Roman threw all of his weight into the attack, launching her father across the clearing. He rolled over and over, coming to a stop when he hit a large tree hard enough to crack the trunk. He had time for one yelp before Roman was on him, standing on her father’s chest with his massive paws, forcing the air from his lungs. Her father had time to look at her one last time before Roman’s teeth were buried in his throat. Gwen screamed as blood began spouting like a fountain from the wound, while Roman continued to gnaw his way through her father’s windpipe.

  Even from this distance, Gwen could see her father’s eyes roll back into his head until only the whites were visible. He gasped, choking for air as blood filled his lungs and began suffocating him. She saw her father’s body spasm once before going limp, and Roman clamped down one last time, making sure there would be no coming back from it. When he finally released her father, his body slumped to the ground, limp and nearly lifeless. She wasn’t sure if it was the shock or the horror, but Skyler’s grip on her loosened, and she manged to break free.

  Before he could snatch her back up, Gwen was racing across the clearing. Her heart was hammering in her chest and tears blurred her vision, making her stumble and fall to her knees at her father’s side. Her knees were instantly soaked with blood, and she could feel it squishing up through the grass in pools around her. Her hands trembled as she reached out to touch her father’s face, and he slowly blinked at her.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, blood bubbled from his li
ps and he choked. It looked like he might have been trying to say her name, and she felt herself lean in closer, desperate to hear him say anything, knowing it could be the last thing she ever heard from him. But he couldn’t manage to get the words out, no matter how hard he tried. Not that Gwen would have been able to hear him over the hammering in her chest or the sobs that wracked her body.

  Instead, Grant reached out a trembling hand, taking hers with surprising strength. She felt something in the palm of his hand and she closed hers around it, realizing it was a piece of paper. He held on to her so tightly he was nearly squeezing the life from her, as if he could apologize for everything with just one more embrace.

  And she forgave him instantly. In that one moment, there was nothing she didn’t understand or forgive, nothing that mattered except the knowledge that he loved her and would have done anything for her. She knew it, as sure as he was bleeding to death in front of her, that her father was a better man than she’d ever given him credit for. Despite all of his shortcomings, his greatest strength was that he loved his children more than anything in the world, and nothing was more important.

  Not even his own life.

  She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him to her chest, holding him as close as she could. His raspy breathing had begun to slow, and his eyelids were fluttering. These were her father’s last moments, and she couldn’t think of the words she wanted to stay. There was so much she had to say, so many questions she had to ask, and she was never going to get the chance. She thought back to all of the wasted time she’d spent angry at him and felt ashamed.

  Having an imperfect father was better than having no father at all, and she hadn’t realized it until just now, when he was about to be brutally ripped away from her. She would have done anything to keep him there with her, but she could feel him slipping away. It was too late to save him from Roman’s fury.

  “Dad? Stay with me!” Gwen shouted. Her hands tightened on his shoulders and she nearly shook him. “Open your eyes and look at me. Please. Daddy, please!” She was screaming now, her voice more shrill than it had ever been before. She could have shattered glass as she began to lose control.  She was babbling utter nonsense as she pleaded with him to keep fighting, but even as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew it was a lost cause.

  Her father slipped away while in the comfort of her arms, and as he took his last breath, she felt a piece of her die along with him. Everything around her faded out until it was just Gwen and her dead father lying in the middle of the woods, covered in blood and separated for life. Roman was talking in the background—bragging, it sounded like—but it was little more than white noise to her. She didn’t care about his words or his threats. Everything she cared about was being systematically taken from her.

  What finally broke through her thoughts was the sound of Gabe’s animalistic scream. It was pure rage and defiance, and it took Roman by surprise. Faster than her eyes could follow, Gabe had somehow broken free from his captors, and he was free to take his rage out on Roman. He lunged, hitting Roman at the knees and bringing him down hard on his side.

  His fists rained down blow after blow before Roman could even manage to get his guard up. By the time he finally pushed Gabe off, he was already on his feet and racing towards Gwen. When he reached her, she was still holding her father’s lifeless body, wondering how her life had ended up where it had. She couldn’t see past his lifeless eyes and found herself getting lost in them, drifting away until she was dangerously close to imploding.

  Gabe rescued her from the madness, his vice-like grip on her arm snapping her back to reality. He yanked her to her feet, half dragging and half carrying her. Her feet were moving of their own accord, and they were racing through the woods as fast as their feet could carry them. Gwen’s vision was blurry from tears as she blindly followed Gabe. She could hear wolves hot on their trail, but she forced herself to keep her eyes forward, knowing that if she looked back, the sight of her father’s body would paralyze her.

  Gwen had no idea where they would go, or if there was even anywhere safe from Roman’s reach, but Gabe seemed to have an idea. She didn’t question him as they raced through the trees; Gwen didn’t have the strength to even think, let alone speak. Aside from the harsh breathing from her and Gabe, Gwen could hear the crashing of wolves closing in on them. She closed her eyes tight, refusing to witness the death of anyone else she loved tonight.

  She heard a beep and the sound of unlocking doors, and she opened her eyes. They were in Geoffrey’s driveway, and Gabe was shoving her into the passenger side door of Ginny’s car. She was wide eyed and terrified as Gabe slammed the door on her, creating a barrier that would protect her from Roman’s wolves, if only for a minute. She watched as Gabe slid over the hood of the car, landing nimbly on his feet and wrenching open the door. He was beside her in an instant, and the car was started up and speeding out of the driveway.

  Wolves swarmed the house, too many for Gwen to count. They chased the car as it backed out of the driveway and hit the road. Tires squealed and gravel sprayed behind them as Gabe floored it. She watched the rearview mirror as the wolves began to fade into the distance, getting smaller and smaller until they had all disappeared from view. She felt herself slide down into the seat, nearly collapsing from exhaustion.

  She watched her shaking hands for a minute, letting her mind wander. She had no idea where they were going next or what they were going to do when they got there, but she knew they couldn’t stay here. Even Geoffrey wouldn’t be able to protect them now. Not without Dad to help him fight Roman… At the thought of her father, Gwen felt herself crumple, and she burst into wild, uncontrollable sobs in the front seat. She saw Gab glance at her, but his face remained stony and impassive.

  One of us has to be strong, she thought.

  The radio was off and the two of them drove in silence for so long Gwen lost track of the time. The only sound in the car was the quiet sound of her sobbing as she stared out the window. She had no idea where they were, but it definitely wasn’t Brighton, or even Rockford. She watched signs pass by too fast for her slow mind to read whatever was written on them, and she began to feel an intense longing in her chest for the home she had just left behind. With no idea whether they would ever return, it felt like a part of Gwen was dying with every passing mile.

  The ache in her chest was nearly unbearable as Gabe pulled into the back of a greasy looking motel. He turned off the car and the two of them sat in silence for another minute. Gabe hadn’t said a word to her, and it looked like he wasn’t ready even now. He opened her door and helped her stand, steadying her when she wobbled and nearly buckled. When he was sure she could stand, he let go and led her to the front desk of the motel.

  She waited in the doorway while Gabe spoke with the woman behind the desk, but she couldn’t hear what was being said. The woman glanced at her and back to Gabe, her eyes softening until it looked like she might cry. With a shock, Gwen realized that Gabe must have been telling her some kind of sob story in an attempt to get them a free room for the night! She didn’t understand why Gabe was going through this when they had a card to use in case of emergencies.

  Don’t be stupid! she scolded herself. It’s not too hard to trace credit card activity. Anyone could find us once we use it, and Roman would be here by morning. Or even worse, Mom.

  What were they going to tell her? Hi Mom, it’s Gwen and Gabe. We just wanted to let you know that Dad is dead and we saw it happen. Roman wants to force me to turn so that I can join his pack and become a mate for one of his members. I’ll spend the rest of my life spitting out babies until I die. How are you holding up?

  They were going to have to call their mother eventually, but Gwen didn’t have the strength for it tonight, and she knew that Gabe didn’t either. When he came back with a room key, she could see the toll tonight had taken on him. His face was an ashen, gray color, and he was practically swaying on his feet as he struggled to open the door to their room.


  She couldn’t believe he was still on his feet and in one piece. The strength he was showing was incredible, and even more incredible was that it was mostly for her benefit. Even though she felt an ache in her heart at the loss of their father, she felt a rush of gratitude that she still had Gabe with her, even if they had no idea where they were going or what they were going to do when morning came. With all of the uncertainties in her life, Gabe was a constant.

  The door swung open slowly, revealing a modestly furbished room with a single bed shoved into a corner, a pine dresser, and a tiny loveseat that looked worn but had no stains or tears. The wallpaper was ugly, but it was much nicer than Gwen had expected. It wasn’t enough to lift her spirits, but it would be better than sleeping in her dead cousin’s car.

  She sat down on the bed, her shoulders slumping as she heaved a sigh of exhaustion. She felt like she was ready to give out, until Gabe sat down beside her. His presence was comforting to her, and she leaned her head on his shoulder, grateful for him once again. “Gabe, where do we go from here?” she asked wearily.

  “I don’t know,” he said, his voice honest and tired.

  The remained silent for a minute, and Gwen fell back against the bed. Her hand closed tighter, and she felt the scratch of paper against her palm. Her eyes widened as she remembered the scrap of paper her father had pushed into her hand before his death. She unfolded it now, getting her first real look at it. Scribbled in red ink was a list of names—names of women. In parenthesis beside the names of the women were city locations.

  There were six names in total, and under each name was a bullet with another name beneath it. She wracked her brain trying to figure out what the names could possibly mean, but she was drawing a blank. She had never heard of any of the names before, of that she was nearly certain. Why had her father had a list of names? What could he have been planning to do with it?

  “Gwen, what is that?” Gabe asked, mildly interested.

  “It’s a list of names Dad gave me right before he died. It was the last thing he did, so it must have been important, right? But I don’t recognize any of these names. What could they be for?”

  “Can I see it?” he asked, holding his hand out.

  She handed it over, sitting back up as Gabe took a few seconds to look over the list. She could tell he was going over it for the third or fourth time when recognition finally hit, and he clenched his hands, crumpling the paper. “Gabe!” she snatched it out of his hands, straightening it out as best as she could. She didn’t know what purpose it had, but it was from her father and she couldn’t bare to see it destroyed.

  Gabe was staring out the motel room window, his face expressionless except for his eyes. There was a deep, seething hatred in them, one that put Gwen on edge. She almost didn’t want to know what could have turned Gabe so quickly, but her curiosity got the better of her. “Gabe, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  “I know that name,” he said, pointing to the second name on the list. His hand was trembling faintly. “And I know what this list is.”

  Gwen looked at the list more closely. “Miriam Walker? Who is she? How do you know her?”

  “You know her, too. She used to be our baby sitter, Gwen. When we were little. Remember? I think you were only four or five when Mom fired her.”

  “Why did Mom fire her?” Her voice was unsteady and she didn’t know why. There was something about the tone of his voice that made her feel anxious.

  “I didn’t understand it at the time, but I did a few years later.” He frowned. “Gwen, Dad had an affair with her.” Deep down, Gwen had felt his answer coming, but it still hit her like a punch to the gut. “Miriam was barely more than a kid, like nineteen at the time. It was just a summer job for her while taking classes or something at the community college. She wasn’t really fond of us, in fact I think she hated me. Probably because I wasn’t as stupid as she thought.”

  “Gabe—”

  “I don’t think Mom ever found out. I think she just had a sneaking suspicion, or maybe she thought something might happen down the road.” He chuckled angrily. “Well, she was right.”

  “Gabe, what about the other names on the list?”

  “Other affair partners,” he said, his tone disgusted and trembling at the same time. “And the names that are listed below them, the ones in bullets...those are the kids produced as a result of the affairs.”

  Gwen felt as if her heart was going to rip in half at the weight of his words. Not only had their father had one disastrous affair, he’d had multiple. Cheating on their mother hadn’t been a mistake, it had been a choice. A choice that he’d made over and over again, knowing what the truth would have done to their family. When she had found out about his affair with Sandra, she had thought of it as a mistake, a crime of passion perhaps. One that her father had learned from, one that her father had never meant to hurt their mother with.

  But she’d been wrong. Gwen doubted that their father had ever loved their mother. Nobody who loved someone could treat them with such disrespect. She felt herself split down the middle, being torn in two different directions. On one hand, she was devastated at the thought that her father was gone and never coming back, that he’d made the ultimate sacrifice for the lives of his children. But she felt seething anger bubbling below the surface at the secrets and double life, all things that had been more important to him than his family—at least for a few minutes between the sheets.

  Gwen gripped the sheets, anchoring herself in reality. “So...we have more siblings than just Ginny?” She looked at the names on the list, noticing a pattern. All of her potential siblings all had names that started with the same letter:  Gretchen, Gideon, Gilbert. Her eyes began to blur with tears as the other names were lost on her. “I wonder what they’re like.” Her voice had a far off quality to it, like she was floating and un-tethered.

  “I wonder why he gave us this list,” Gabe said, sounding far more focused than she felt. “What could he possibly want us to do with these names?”

  “Maybe he wants us to find them?” Gwen offered. “They are family, after all.”

  “No, they’re not,” he said. “Don’t think of them that way. They’re nothing to us,” Gabe said, getting off the bed. He was pacing across the floor, and Gwen tracked each of his movements, from the length of his stride to the twitch of his hand as he chewed on his thumb nail—a habit she shared but had never seen him do before. She could tell he was agitated, and she couldn’t say she blamed him.

  “Gabe, they might not be anything to you, but they were clearly something to Dad. He kept track of them, and he wanted us to know about them. If they’re important to Dad, they could be in danger. If Roman wants us, he might want them, too. Maybe he found out about them.”

  He nodded, looking reluctant to agree. “I don’t know how Roman would have found out about them, but you’re right. If he did, they’re most likely in danger.” He sighed. “I know Dad would want us to find them and warn them of the danger, but I don’t know, Gwen. No good can come of it. It’ll just bring up bad memories and open wounds.”

  “Think about Mom,” Gwen pleaded. Now that she knew they weren’t alone in the world, she had something to cling to, and that’s what she was going to do. There was another Ginny out there, and even though it wouldn’t be the same, there was someone out there that Gwen could relate to.

  “What about her?” Gabe asked. He sounded annoyed but his face had gotten a little paler at the thought of their mother.

  “What if she lost us and found out someone could have prevented it? That someone could have saved us from a terrible fate? What if something happens to these kids because we didn’t do something? We’d be guilty of robbing a family of someone they love. We’d be the reason another family was going through what we are right now.”

  He made an exasperated noise in the back of his throat, raking his hands through his hair. “Gwen—”

  “We have to find them.” Her voice was stronger now, confident
of her decision. “Their mothers deserve to know that their children might be in danger, no matter what painful memories it might bring up. And these kids deserve the right to know us...if they want to.”

  He sighed, and she knew that she’d won. “Okay, Gwen. If this is really what you want, we’ll do it. But I think it’s a terrible idea.”

  Gwen jumped off the bed and hugged Gabe, holding him tight. “Thank you!”

  He shook his head. “I can already tell we’re gonna regret what comes of this. I can’t wait to say I told you so,” he said, his voice only partially serious. She could hear the teasing in it, and it helped to lighten her mood, if only a little bit. “In the morning, we’ll figure out where the closest ones are and we’ll give it a shot. But I have a feeling none of these women are gonna be happy to see us. Be prepared for some hostility.”

  “After what we’ve gone through, I’m prepared for just about anything. I think we can handle some angry women.” She bumped him with her shoulder. “We should get some sleep so we can get an early start in the morning.”

  Gabe’s expression plummeted. “Gwen, do you wanna talk about Dad?” he asked, his voice hesitant and uncertain. “We can’t just pretend it didn’t happen, you know.”

  She sighed. “Gabe, I’m too tired to talk about it now. We have all the time in the world to sit down, but it’s not what’s important right now. If Roman knows about this list, he could have several hours on us. For all we know, he might already have showed up at the first place.” She sat back down on the edge of the bed. “Do you wanna share the bed?”

  “No,” he said with a ghost of a smile. “I think you and I outgrew bed sharing more than a few years ago. I’ll take the loveseat. Try and get some sleep, cause we should make sure we’re out of here by seven at the latest. We don’t wanna give Roman a chance to find us.” He plopped down on the loveseat, exhaling deeply. “Goodnight, Gwen.”

  “Goodnight, Gabe.” She rolled over, putting her back to Gabe. “Love you,” she said, her voice quiet.

  She knew he was smiling when he said, “Love you, too,” his voice equally quiet.

  Gwen lay in the dark of the motel room for what seemed like hours, just listening to the soft snoring coming from the other side of the room. Her mind raced so fast she couldn’t keep track of her thoughts or feelings. It was all a jumbled mess, but the emotion that reared its ugly head the most was easily recognizable:  fury. She was gritting her teeth so harshly that she was surprised Gabe was still asleep nearby.

  She was so angry and she felt so helpless that she couldn’t keep the tears from falling. They soaked the pillow and her mouth felt dry, but more than that, her chest felt oddly hollow. Two of the most important people in her life had been taken from her, ripped away unexpectedly. She felt the harsh ache of loss as if she’d been stabbed in the chest; it was a feeling that was sadly becoming familiar to her, and it was one that she was tired of experiencing.

  She still had Gabe with her, but their futures were uncertain at the moment, and she knew he could be taken from her at any given moment. There was no way she was going to let that happen, though. She would fight Roman with everything she had; there was nothing she wouldn’t do or sacrifice to ensure his safety. He did so much for her, and now it was her turn to protect him. Gabe’s curse would be complete by the next full moon, and no matter what happened between now and then, Gwen silently promised to anyone who might be listening that everything would be okay in the end. It has to be…

  Finally sleep took her, and for the first time since she had found out Ginny was missing, her sleep was dreamless. She was no longer plagued by nightmares of evil eyes or the howls of dangerous creatures.

  The End.

  Coming Soon: Resolutions (Brighton Wolves #2)