She blindly reached in and pulled out whatever lay on top. Taryn smiled shakily when she saw it was a picture of her mother when she was a teenager. She hadn’t seen any pictures of her mother in years. Her Uncle Colin had said it was too painful for him to look at them. Taryn realized it had to have been something more than that.
The next picture made her shiver. It was a picture of a man and a woman with their baby. Taryn’s vision blurred as she stared at it. The woman was her mother, holding Taryn as a baby. The man next to her mother was Drake. In the picture, he was looking at her mother with the love he had for her showing on his face. He hadn’t aged a bit since that picture had been taken. Angrily, Taryn swiped the tears from her eyes. Turning the picture over, she read what had been written on the back. The date handwritten on it was two months after her birth. Her mother’s and Drake’s name was also listed, along with a name that was not her own—Kate.
A vague memory rose to the surface. It was shortly after she had come to live with her uncle, after her mother had died. He was telling her she had a new name now and that he had adopted her. That she had to remember her name was Taryn now, not Kate.
Setting the picture aside, Taryn reached back into the box and pulled out what was left inside. It was a stack of journals, written in her Uncle Colin’s bold hand. She opened the oldest journal and began to read.
In the earliest entries her uncle wrote about how at twenty-two years old her mother had decided to move to San Francisco, and there she had met Drake. They had fallen head over heels in love and she wrote home to tell him they had been married in a small ceremony a few months after meeting. Her mother had gotten pregnant with her a month later. The rest of the journal was filled with the running of the winery.
The next journal started when Taryn was four months old. Her uncle wrote how Lisa, her mother, was finding some of Drake’s habits out of the ordinary. How some of the sounds he made didn’t sound human.
Flipping through the next few pages, Taryn stopped at a page written when she was a year old. Her mother was alone, having left Drake. Her uncle wrote about a letter he had received from her mother. Some places he quoted her mother’s letter word for word. Taryn clutched the journal in her hand as she read the one section that seemed to spell it all out. Her mother wrote, “Drake is a werewolf. No longer could he hide it from me. At first I didn’t want to believe the man I would love forever could be such a creature, but he proved it to me by changing into a wolf. I knew then I couldn’t stay with him. I need to go into hiding. There is one that hunts us. One Drake warned me to stay away from. I’ll write when I have found a place that is safe for Kate and me. And if something should happen to me, promise me, Colin, you’ll take Kate and keep her safe.”
Taryn took a deep, shuddering breath before she reached for the journal dated around the time of her mother’s death. Taryn opened the journal to the page dated the day her mother had died. Her uncle wrote, “Lisa is dead. The police assume she was attacked by some wild animal. Her body was ripped to shreds. I now have myself to blame for not believing Lisa when she said werewolves were real and that she had married one. If I had believed her, maybe I would have been able to prevent her death. But thinking back on what I should have done will not bring her back, and now I have Kate to care for. I’ve started to do what Lisa asked I do if this situation came about. I’ve changed Kate’s name to Taryn. Tomorrow I’ll start the paperwork to adopt her as my daughter. Hopefully this will help to keep her safe from her father’s kind.”
Feeling as if she were going to be sick, Taryn slammed the journal shut. She had never known exactly how her mother had died. Her uncle had only said she’d had an accident. But even as a small child, Taryn had known that was not true.
Now that she had read how her mother had actually died, the memory she had pushed aside earlier would no longer be denied. Grabbing a pillow off the bed, Taryn clutched it to her chest as the images filled her head. Once they played to the end, she buried her face in the pillow and sobbed her heart out.
* * * *
Drake placed his hand on the closed bedroom door. He could hear Taryn crying on the other side. He didn’t know what to do. He had messed things up with her mother, and he didn’t want to do the same thing with his daughter. That she was alive was a miracle to him. All these years he had mourned, thinking he had lost them both. His heart felt lighter knowing a piece of Lisa, his mate, was still alive.
Taking a deep breath, Drake knocked on the door. Taryn ignored him. The need to explain, to make her understand, was too strong for him to allow her to hide from him. Lifting his foot, he kicked the door in. The sight of Taryn sitting on the bed, with a pillow clutched to her as she looked at him with fear, almost undid him.
He crossed over to the bed and slowly sat down next to Taryn. She flinched away from him. “Taryn, we have to talk about this.”
She shook her head. “No, we don’t.” Her voice sounded rough from all the tears she had shed. “Get out.”
“I’m not going anywhere. You are my daughter.” Spying a picture on the bed, Drake picked it up. If he hadn’t already known Taryn was his daughter, this would have been all the proof he would have needed to convince him. It was the last picture taken of them as a family. He ran his fingertip along the image of his mate.
“How can you not have aged? That picture was taken twenty-six years ago. You look to be my age,” Taryn said, quietly.
“Werewolves don’t age the same as mortals. We live very long lives.”
“How old are you then? Are you immortal?”
“No, we aren’t immortal. We do eventually die, but our life span can last thousands of years. I’m eight hundred years old.”
Taryn shook her head again. “That can’t be possible.” She fell silent. Drake could see a wild display of emotions flit across her face before she spoke once more. “What about Wade? What age is he?”
“He’s the youngest of our pack. He’s three hundred years old.”
“Three hundred is considered young?” Taryn laughed, but there was no humor in it. “What about me? Can I expect to live just as long?”
Drake placed his hand on Taryn’s knee, but she pushed him away. “You’re only half werewolf. You didn’t inherit any of my werewolf genes. You’re mortal as your mother was.”
“Great. So I’m sleeping with a man who is way too old for me, and will outlive me by thousands of years.”
“Wade is your mate. He will never leave you, even if you are mortal.”
“Like hell he is.”
“He is your mate, Taryn. If you look deep down inside yourself you will know it’s true. Your heart, your soul, calls out for him. He’s a part of you now. When werewolves find their mates, their souls join at their first mating. The bond then becomes strong. They find not being with each other hard to bear.”
“Was my mother your mate?”
“Yes. I knew the instant I met her that she was my other half.”
“If that is true, how could you have allowed her to leave you?”
Drake sighed. “I told her what I was, and she turned from me. After she left me, I thought the separation would show her how much she needed me. Not being with her was the hardest thing I had ever done. I regret letting her go. If I had known…” Knowing he had failed his mate when she had needed him the most still ate at him.
“Beating yourself up about it doesn’t change a thing, especially when the bastard who murdered her is still around.”
“What do you mean?” Drake stiffened, knowing what Taryn was about to say.
“Seeing you change into a wolf brought back a memory I had buried of when I was three. Of the day my mother died. I was there. I watched her being murdered. It was Lars. The bastard turned into a wolf and ripped her to shreds.”
Chapter Eleven
After telling Drake who her mother’s murderer was, he had taken hold of her wrist and dragged her back downstairs. She hadn’t been ready yet to be face-to-face with Wade, but her fat
her never loosened his hold on her, even when she had dug in her heels.
Taryn now sat on the sofa in the living room, trying her utmost not to look at Wade. The one time she made eye contact with Braedan, he’d smiled at her reassuringly. It wasn’t until that moment she thought about the family connection they shared. Braedan was her uncle. If anything, he looked even younger than she did. If this had been a normal situation, with normal individuals involved, finding out she still had family would have been something she would have been ecstatic over. Such wasn’t the case now.
Drake, who was sitting next to her on the couch, spoke to the room in general. “We have a situation here, and not just Taryn’s reaction to finding out we all are werewolves.”
Taryn stiffened at her father’s reference to her not accepting them with open arms. Against her will, she glanced over at Wade. He was staring at her with longing in his eyes. She quickly looked away. She couldn’t deal with his feelings right now.
“We figured that much,” Braedan said, dryly. “It’s obvious you’ve had dealings with Lars before, Drake. Your reaction to him was quite violent to say the least.”
“Yes, I’ve had the misfortune of having to put Lars in his place a few times. He used to be part of one of the packs allied with ours, until he went lone wolf. Even before he left their pack, there was something not right with him. He used to enjoy manipulating his pack mates, setting one against another. Some of the fights he caused ended up being quite bloody. But that is nothing compared to what he has done to me.”
Wade leaned forward. “What does the bastard want with Taryn?”
“His interest in her only lies with the fact that she’s my daughter. It all stems from the fact that before Lars went lone wolf, Lisa and I ran into him one night while we were out for dinner. I think Lars would have taken Lisa for his own if I hadn’t already claimed her as my mate. It surprised me. Lars thinks a werewolf mating with a mortal is beneath our kind. I should have thought about what his reaction would have been once he found out Lisa had left me.”
“He’s the one who killed your mate?” There was an underlying growl to Wade’s voice.
“Yes. And Taryn was there when he did it.”
Taryn felt Wade’s eyes on her, but she refused to look at him.
Drake grabbed her hand. Even though she flinched at the contact, he didn’t let go. “We need to know what happened the day your mother died, Taryn.”
Looking up at her father, she could see from his face it would be just as hard for him to hear what happened as it would be for her to tell it. “I don’t remember all that much. I was only three at the time. It’s mostly bits and pieces.”
“It doesn’t matter. What you have to say will determine what Lars’ fate will be.”
“What do you mean? Do you have some kind of werewolf court system or something?”
“In a way, we do,” Wade answered. “There is one individual who rules over all the packs. She will have the final say as to what should be done about Lars.”
Taryn turned to look at Wade. “She?”
“Yes. It’s Roxie, as a matter of fact.”
“Roxie? So she’s a werewolf as well? How come she’s the werewolf queen?”
“She is now. And she isn’t our queen. She’s just special. The markings around her left wrist marked her as the one who was foreseen to tie all the packs together.”
Taryn was a bit confused. Roxie wasn’t always a werewolf? As for the markings around Roxie’s wrist, Taryn had seen the intricate black Celtic design and thought nothing of it. Lots of people had tattoos nowadays. “So Roxie is the head honcho, and has the final say over anything to do with any rulings within the packs? If she wasn’t always a werewolf, does that mean anyone can be turned into one?”
“Yes, she does, and no, they can’t. Only Roxie. Let’s just say Roxie is unlike any werewolf ever born.”
Feeling a major headache coming on from all the information overload she was getting, Taryn turned back to her father. “As to the night my mother died, I only remember a strange man coming into the apartment. Mom had managed to get me out of sight before he forced his way in. She hid me in a closet. Not understanding what was going on, I kept the door open a crack so I could watch. Lars grabbed Mom and forced her to the floor, but she managed to fight him off. He mustn’t have liked it that she had refused him because he turned into a wolf. I closed my eyes after that, but I could hear her screams.” The memory replayed itself in Taryn’s head as she spoke. She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. “After … after the screams stopped I opened my eyes and saw the large silver-grey wolf standing just outside the closet door with my mother’s blood dripping from his muzzle. He stared at me for a few minutes, then walked out of the apartment.”
Drake growled in the back of his throat. “I have a feeling he left you alive, knowing it would torment me more if I thought both of you had died. I didn’t find out about your mother’s murder until after it was reported on the news. Obviously your uncle had already come to claim you and decided to keep your identity a secret.”
“I read in his journals that he was acting on my mother’s wishes to keep me hidden from you.”
“I had no idea your mother felt so negative about my being a werewolf. She had been very upset finding out about it, but I really had thought she would get over it,” Drake said, sadly. “I had really hoped she would come back to me. But if what you say is true, I have to face the fact that she wouldn’t have. I knew she had suspected I wasn’t the same as other men. She rarely talked about her brother. Even when we got married, she refused to invite him to the civil ceremony she insisted we have. When your body hadn’t been discovered with your mother’s, I did try to find you, Taryn. I ran into nothing but brick walls. I finally had to accept that your mother hadn’t been truthful with me from the start either. It wasn’t until I began searching for your uncle that I learned she had lied about what her maiden name was.”
Taryn could easily see how affected Drake had been by learning her mother had gone to such lengths to keep her hidden from him. Now that she had gotten over the initial shock of learning werewolves truly existed, Taryn felt a little irritated that her mother had taken away her choice to learn about her father’s kind. She was half werewolf after all. It was a part of who she was.
“So what happens now?” Taryn let her gaze rest on each of the men briefly. “I don’t like the idea of Lars roaming around on my property.”
“We’ll have to hunt him down,” Wade answered, sternly. “He has to pay for what he did to your mother. I think you should keep to the house in the meantime, Taryn. You’ll have to be watched at all times.”
“Like hell I will.” Taryn adamantly shook her head. “It’s the middle of the harvest. I can’t just stay cooped up in the house being babysat.”
“It’s for your own good. As your mate, I have the right to see to your protection. Until Lars is found, we have to keep you safe.”
Taryn surged to her feet and glared at Wade. “If you want this mate business to work, you had better learn real fast that I don’t like being ordered around. I will decide what is best for me, not you. If you can’t handle that, then all I have to say to you is take it or leave it.”
In reaction to her challenging words, Wade stood and slung her over his shoulder as if she were nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Taryn lifted herself up to peer over at her father. Drake shook his head and smiled. Knowing she would be receiving no help from that quarter, she tried to squirm her way free. She let out a small shriek of outrage when Wade smacked her bottom and then headed for the stairs.
“Stop squirming or I’ll end up dropping you on your head,” he said as he took the stairs to the upper level two at a time.
Slightly pissed off at his heavy-handedness, Taryn goosed him for smacking her in the ass. Wade stumbled, but managed to keep his hold on her. He walked into her bedroom and tried to shut the door behind them. Of course it didn’t stay shut. Drake had damaged it
by kicking it in earlier. With all the blood rushing to her head, Taryn started to feel dizzy as Wade swung her around as he looked for something that would hold the door shut. In the end, he took hold of her dresser with his free hand and pulled it in front of the door.
When he finally allowed her to stand on her own two feet, Taryn crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “How dare you. Did you bring me up here to punish me because I won’t do what you want me to?”
Wade shook his head. “No. I did it because I knew this would be the only way I could get you to be alone with me right now. We have to talk, Taryn.”
Taryn knew they had a lot to discuss, but she didn’t think she was in the proper frame of mind right now. She was likely to say something she would regret later. “I agree, but not now. I’ve been through enough.”
“Yes, we have to talk now. It hurts me to see you hurting inside. I know you’re mad at me because I wasn’t upfront with you from the start. Believe me, I wanted to tell you. I was just afraid if I told you I was a werewolf, you’d turn away from me. I didn’t want to lose you. Ever since I caught my first smell of your scent at Wulf’s Den, I’ve thought of nothing else but claiming you as my mate.”
Taryn felt some of her anger recede at Wade’s words. “Is that why you came after me that night? Because of the way I smelled you knew I was your mate? I really don’t understand this whole werewolf mate business.”
Wade stepped closer to her. “I knew you were my mate at the first whiff. It hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s what usually happens when a werewolf male finds the one female who is to be his mate. And until he claims her as his, the mating urge rides him pretty hard.”
“Is that so?” Taryn grew breathless as Wade’s eyes started to glow. “What about after he’s claimed her as his?”
“During their first mating, their souls join. They find it hard to be away from each other. If they do have to be apart, the need to be with the other, to reaffirm the bond they share, will be hard to ignore. It can be pretty intense, or so I’ve heard.”
Taryn’s Wolf Page 9
