by Jana Leigh
“I know, and I get it. But do you know how hard it is to see her looking so sad. I know she is feeling kinda useless. She has never been the one who did research. That was me, she was always the one who reacted, was in the mix of things. I just don’t know what to do for her. It is hard to see her like that. I guess when I was getting ready to go in, I thought like I always did. Sabrina had my back. By the time I realized she wasn’t there, I kinda snapped,” Tara said.
“Snapped means you beat the shit out of an unsuspecting person because you knew they had done something bad and couldn’t control your rage. Snapped does not mean grabbing plates full of food and throwing them around at people, covering them with hot dishes,” Reese said slowly.
“Yeah, I know,” Tara said. “I just need to get used to working with someone else.”
“Should we try to talk to Cassandra and Marcus about it? If she is that miserable I mean. They have to understand a little bit. It’s not like she asked for it or anything,” Nian said slowly and Tara shrugged.
“I think that would piss her off even more. You know, she would feel like it was charity or something,” Tara said.
“Well, so far she seems to be handling things well. Maybe you should give her the benefit of the doubt when it comes to what she wants,” Reese said slowly and Tara stared at the ceiling for a minute.
“When they were talking last week. At the meeting, and Hope was talking about blood and stuff, I couldn’t help it. I looked at Sabrina and she was pale as shit. They were talking about her when they were talking about the DNA manipulating, in front of everyone. I just don’t think she was prepared for it. That was the first time she really felt like an outsider, I could see the look on her face,” Tara whispered.
“Honey, it’s not her fault, not anyone’s but those fuckers who caused all of this,” Nian said.
“Have you thought about what we are going to do if there are more,” Tara asked.
“More?” Reese said and she nodded.
“More of them like Sabrina. I mean, I am sure they had to have made more than one,” Tara said and the guys looked at her closely.
“Yes we do,” Nian said slowly and she focused back on them.
“Okay for the last week, since I have been benched and all, I have been in the library.”
“Honey, we have been in there with you,” Reese said slowly.
“I know, but I found something and didn’t tell you,” Tara said softly and both men sat up and stared at her.
“What?” Nian said calmly.
She shifted on the bed, she should have told them right away, she knew it and dammit, she had really hoped she was wrong. There was no one she could ask, which made things like a hundred times worse. No one she could talk to since Sabrina already had her own problems and Tara couldn’t go to her.
“Okay, there is a list of Denver Pack members in one of the books in there. When Quin and the Chosen left, it was still part of the New Council pack. Quin and Jaden trusted the men in that pack because they had come to the US with him,” Tara said slowly.
“We know the story,” Nian said carefully.
“Okay well, at one time, it looks like just after Shea had taken her place, a woman named Stephanie Prose had some information she passed on to the New Council about Diavolo and Roarke,” Tara said slowly and they both nodded. “She was uh, abused by Roarke, Stephanie was trying to do something good, women had disappeared in Ohio, anyway. The New Council put her under their protection.”
The men nodded some more. Tara licked her lips and said, “Well, eventually she found out about the magical community and asked to remain at the Denver Pack.”
“Not sure where this is going, honey. You are talking about a human who joined a pack. She isn’t one of the Chosen nor is she the mate to any of the Senate since there is no Stephanie on the Senate,” Reece said.
“Yeah, that is really not the issue. Um, so in these notes they showed births in the pack,” Tara said slowly. “And Stephanie, who as not claimed by anyone while in the Denver Pack, ever, had a child just shy of nine months after she arrived from Ohio where she was assaulted by Roarke on more than one occasion.”
Nian leaned back and said, “And this child, he was part of the Denver Pack.”
She nodded slowly and then whispered, “Wouldn’t they have known?”
“I would assume so,” Reese said.
“The child, it was a girl,” Tara said, got off the bed and then pulled a paper from the back pocket of her discarded jeans on the floor. “I need Lexie and Anthony to check the information. Because I am certain that no one actually expected this.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Okay, so what you are saying is this woman named Stephanie Prose was a human in the Denver pack. She was abused by Roarke and at some time or another she had a child. This child was raised in the Denver Pack until her mother died when the child was sixteen at which time she disappeared,” Marcus said, looking at the papers Tara had brought to them.
“Yes,” Tara nodded. “However, you need to look at some of the timeframe here that I have more or less pieced together from not just our documents, but also the documents that Lexie had from the Prentiss that are all cover papers for their stuff but there is a glimmer of truth that runs through them in order to make sure they are on track.”
“Okay,” Cassandra said leaning back. “Lay it out for us.”
She nodded and then began hanging up blown up articles Lexie had given her that rather proved what she thought was right. There was only a little bit of time not covered in these papers, but Lexie was still digging and now Anthony was helping her.
“So Stephanie Prose died in Denver with complications surrounding a surgery she had. During the time with the Denver Pack, Stephanie took no mate, and lived a very quiet life. By all accounts, the woman was broken by what Roarke did to her. Which, you can see, I am not going through that again, it serves no purpose other than to show that Stephanie gave birth to a little girl right around eight and a half months after she was taken to the Denver Pack. That child’s name was listed as Becca Prose. She was sixteen and disappeared, they thought she had run away from the Denver Pack right after the death of her mother, she shows back up in another notation as a half wolf with the pack during the wars as a ward of the Old Council. The notation says that if located they were to notify the Old Council. Now according to someone named Judy whose mate was Jean Paul, the alpha of the Denver Pack that Quin appointed, shared in numerous entries that Becca was spoiled rotten. Her mother overwrought with guilt about how she was conceived tried to make sure her daughter never found out about her father. However, upon her death, Judy found a small diary that Stephanie kept and pages were ripped out. The child never had access to the diary, it was given to the New Council for their archives when she disappeared. I have a different theory of course, because there are small little trails that lead in different places but if they are put side by side, they show a much different picture. This picture shows little Becca who was officially considered part of the Denver Pack since her mother was taken in, upon the death of her mother left the Denver Pack after someone close to the Chosen gave her information about her biological father, Roarke, and then took her to him. Roarke welcomed her in with open arms, where according to several old small publicity stories when Roarke was employed by the Prentiss Agency way back when, he spoke of his daughter on many occasions, however, there was no mention of her when she was a child, as a young woman he was very proud of her. This is where it of course gets a little interesting,” Tara said and turned and pointed to another paper.
“Becca aka now Rebekka according to the papers where Roarke spoke of her, continued to do her father’s work for many years before disappearing from the public eye at the age of twenty-nine. At which time there is no other mention of Rebekka again. Shockingly years later, a woman with no resemblance to Becca/Rebekka shows up with her husband, the President of the United States and also the main champion for the Prentiss Agency, the only thing I have fou
nd to connect the two women together is one article when Rebekka was interviewed right after the election where she mentions growing up in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, not iron clad I know, however, some things like what they did with Sabrina is also far-fetched, but considering they were experimenting, I contend she was Guinea pig. Of course, she couldn’t still be alive, so I figure they messed with her DNA to extend her life. That is interesting and all, but also not the point I am getting at here. Rebekka was part of the Denver Pack, she would have known a lot about the goings on, a lot about the movements of the Chosen. And if perchance she still had connection somehow to the Denver Pack, then she would be very familiar with everything the Chosen and Senate did during the wars when she was still a part of the pack at the beginning.”
“That is a pretty big leap,” Cassandra said slowly.
“I would agree most of the time, which is why I hesitated to even say anything. But then I thought about it, and something was bugging me about Rebekka,” Tara said and pulled up two pieces of paper. “She had a birthmark.”
“That is all and good but I am still confused on why this all matters. Really, she is a bitch, she was always a bitch, nothing new,” Cassandra shrugged.
Tara nodded and then looked at her mates who both nodded their encouragement. She took a deep breath because she knew for a fact if she were wrong, she would be accusing someone of something so heinous that she was sure it would ruin her if she were wrong. Dramatic yes, but still true.
“During this time, there was only one member of the Old Council who regularly visited Milliken, the Denver Pack, and although assumed to be killed in the wars was later documented in the Prentiss Agency with his DNA as Mr. Bondi aka the Bondi King, which no one has ever actually seen anywhere. We have never been able to identify him, ever.”
Everyone was silent and Marcus finally said, “Who?”
Lexie stood up. “When the New Council and the Senate knew the wars were turning they made sure everyone was on file with their pack, identified with their DNA should something happen to them so family would be notified. When I ran the DNA in the Prentiss it came back as a conclusive match for someone only labeled Geoff. He was on the Old Council.”
The room was silent as they all thought about what Tara had said and Lexie had confirmed, could this whole thing have gone back that far, the betrayal of the New Council had been going on even then? Their parents had never stood a chance. All of the pieces to the puzzle were buried in the files and notations from so long ago, they would need to check every single person in the archives to make sure they weren’t missing even more of the puzzle.
The one good thing, they had identified the Bondi King, he was no longer a faceless enemy of the Drekinn. But they still needed to know the why’s, mostly because their parents deserved to know, but also because, there were still holes. So Rebekka had once belonged to the Denver Pack, so she was the daughter of Roarke, they were enemies, they were still the same people they had been fighting, the only difference was they were getting down to the nitty gritty of what had happened in the past. And with that information, maybe, they would figure out the last thing that eluded the Chosen and the Senate, and why even the Prentiss thought they had missed someone in the Chosen. How in the hell would that ever matter now? They still had a lot of work ahead of them.
Marcus stood and looked around the room. “We need a board, one we can add and subtract, connect situations and people. If Tara is correct which, I do believe she is, then the Chosen had been fighting a losing battle all along, they were betrayed at the beginning, which in turn, changed all of our futures.”
Everyone nodded and Marcus turned to Tara and her mates. “From now on, no more going out to search. You are all in charge of the archives. I will personally make sure if something is missing, it be returned. Any little bit of information you find will be put up on the board for us to figure out. It is time we were finally on the offensive with the information. The way we will win this battle is with the past.”
Anthony and Lexie both nodded when Marcus turned to them. “Every file we downloaded needs to be gone through. If Geoff is mentioned anywhere I want to know where, we find out who he is, we will find out why this whole thing started. That man is the key, and we are gonna crawl up his ass with a microscope until we know every single thing about him. He has a weakness; it is high time we found out what it was.”
Then Marcus turned and faced the entire room. “We are going to take this fight to their doorsteps. The next team to go out is Vince, Cameron, and a team of Enforcers. Chase has asked to be a part of one of the teams as well.”
“You know, it just blows the mind thinking that someone who was a part of the Denver Pack, part of our family, basically has betrayed us so much, it changed the course of all of our lives,” Tara said to Nian who was standing in their living room later that night. Tara hadn’t wanted to eat in the main house tonight, they were all exhausted from the meeting and needed time to think, and recoup. Reese was in the bedroom, he had gone to shower and they were just relaxing.
“Our parents are going to be shocked to say the least,” Nian said, especially when they find out that Geoff, someone they knew, apparently was involved in this. He knew that Hope and her mates had said they weren’t going to tell them yet, not until they had all the facts, and not until they were all together. This mess was created by someone they trusted. It only was fitting when they finally took the Bondi King down they would be there.
“They are, and I feel bad about that as well. But what bothers me the most is that he messed with Sabrina, Sadie, and Stephan. And those are the ones we know about, if there are more? I just can’t help but think the other shoe is gonna drop, you know. We haven’t gone by one week without the shit hitting the fan,” Tara said and then smiled at him and said, “But tonight, I just want to forget the whole damn thing.”
Reese came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and hugged her tightly. “Sweetheart, just let it go, for tonight, let it go and let us take care of you.”
“We need to make sure we have the good with the bad right now, if not, we will all go crazy,” Nian whispered.
“You’re right, let’s have tonight,” Tara said and pulled Nian to her front so she was in the middle of both of her men. It felt right, their small family together, healing each other. Tomorrow was going to come no matter what any of them did, so right now, she wanted to shut out the world.
“Reese, let’s give our mate exactly what she needs. A night to remember,” Nian said and kissed the end of her nose. She sighed and smiled.
They moved her to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed, then settled her in the middle of the bed before each kissing her and then standing back up. Reese went to the small stereo, tuned into soft romantic music, and then dimmed the lights.
“It is late, we know this, but we are gonna woo you tonight,” he said and she laughed.
Nian took a book of matches and lit the candles she hadn't noticed placed around the room, Reese must have put them everywhere after his shower. It gave the room a soft glow. The effects were like something she would have only hoped her mates would do for her.
“Nice,” she whispered and they stood at the foot of the bed and nodded. She crawled to the end of the bed and reached for Reese’s shirt and he slapped her hands gently.
“You first,” he said huskily and pulled at her shirt. Nian pushed her until she was once again in the middle and they slowly undressed her, making sure they stroked and kissed her as they went. Paying special attention to her breasts. Fours hands on her body made her feel like she was the center of their universe, which is what they intended. She gasped when she felt one of them run a finger down her slit slowly.
First Reese kissed her deeply, taking her breath away, and then they switched before she could even think and Nian was kissing her, devouring her mouth slowly, making it seem like he was memorizing the way she tasted.
Tara sighed with delight at the feelings the men were creati
ng. Already the sexual tension in the room was rising, and the way their hands felt, she could almost come with just their touch.
“I need you,” she whispered, opening her eyes to see them staring at her intently with love and lust showing blatantly. Her breath sucked in, she saw the love.
Reese continued to touch her as Nian pulled back and undressed slowly for her. She moaned when he undid the buttons on his jeans. She wanted to trace the light fine hair that led to his cock with her tongue. She watched as he pulled himself out and stroked his cock slowly, looking at her in the eyes. She watched as he stroked down his length, thinking it was more than sexy watching him do that. He moved slowly and took over where Reese was stroking her breasts and kissing her neck.
Tara reached and grasped his cock in her hand. Loving the feel of his passion as she moved her hand slowly up and down, pumping him as he touched her. She turned her head and watched Reese as he slowly undressed as well.
This is what she wanted. Both men were caught in a web of love and passion. The only ones who existed right now were the three of them, in this room their love would last a lifetime because they were meant to be together. If she had any doubts, they flew out the window with the feeling of perfection as Reese finished undressing and then joined them again on the bed. Once again, four hands touched her.
Reese turned so he was laying on his back and pulled her to him. “Ride me,” he whispered and she nodded.
“With pleasure,” she said and crawled up his body, straddling him and rubbing her nipples slowly across his chest. Tara sucked in a breath and threw caution to the wind and said, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Reese whispered.
Tara looked over her shoulder and smiled. “I love you.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I love you so much,” Nian said, running a hand down her back. “Tonight we take you together. We are going to be inside you together, making you ours.” She heard the click of a lid and moaned.
