She felt raw, like she'd been pulled inside out. It had to come out. "Jonas is the father," she blurted.
His beautiful face crumbled, and she wanted to cry with him.
She reached out for him, but he stood and backed away.
"I can't talk about this now. I have to go."
She'd hurt him beyond measure. He'd never forgive her.
* * * *
"Why is it so goddamn hard to find a cab in this city?" Jude complained as he climbed inside the taxi.
"Where to, buddy?" The driver laughed.
"Philadelphia Hospital." Jude leaned back and tried to relax. Flying had ceased to be fun on a good day, and this was definitely not a good day. The drinks he consumed on the plane had soured in his stomach.
The driver muttered an oath as a black SUV barely missed taking the side mirror off.
In Center City, the heavy traffic slowed to a crawl, increasing Jude's dark mood. The ride took forever, and he suspected the meter reading was higher than it should be. The driver probably hacked it to overcharge his passengers. God, he hated the city. No wonder Jonas drank too much. He didn't belong here.
The cabbie let him out in front of the hospital, and he stood on the curb, out of his element and uncomfortably hemmed in by the skyscrapers. Is this how Sable felt when they captured her? Claustrophobic and defeated?
What had they done? He and Jonas had made a real mess of things, and he couldn't blame Sable for any of it. They took advantage of a naive woman who only did what came naturally to her. She was right. He didn't know her or the world she came from. No matter how many times he told himself he accepted her, he never made the effort to find out more about her heritage. He couldn't get his head around her customs because he hadn't tried hard enough. He'd fallen in love with a woman that only existed in his head. He didn't know the real Sable at all. He'd made some big mistakes, but this was the biggest.
He tensed up and had to force himself to walk through the doors. One thing he hated more than being in the city was being in a hospital. Anyone unlucky enough to be admitted was more likely to leave sicker than they came in, if they got to leave at all. After his parents were attacked, they were taken to a hospital. It was the last time he saw them alive.
The antiseptic smell hit him as soon as he got off the elevator, and his throat constricted. The white tile reminded him of Jonas’s lab. His brother probably felt right at home, but it brought back disturbing memories of Sable locked in the tiny white bedroom.
Some overly cheery nurse pointed out the room, and he peeked in. Jonas looked like hell, pale and sporting bags under his eyes that were big enough to pack for his trip home. How could he dump this on him now? Hi, bro, how are ya. Wanna marry us? Oh, and by the way, you have two sons.
Were they really Jonas's babies? He still felt like their father. He always would.
Jude stood by the door for a few minutes. There was no sign of another patient sharing the room, so he sat on the other bed and watched his brother sleep.
He missed Jonas. Sable was right about that anyway. They were nothing alike, yet they'd always been close as two peas in a pod. But close enough to share a wife? He didn't think so.
What would happen if he and Sable split up again? He tried to imagine a life without her and the twins. He couldn't do it. It would kill him for sure.
The possibility existed. If Jonas decided to exercise his rights as the father, he'd be left out in the cold. He couldn't imagine watching his brother caring for those boys. But then, he couldn't imagine Jonas as a father at all. Sometimes his brother acted as if he had ice water in his veins. Jonas would never love those babies like he did. He loved those kids more than life itself, and he was a damn good father. He would take care of them no matter whose sperm created them.
"Hey." Jonas opened his eyes and looked up startled. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Jude threw back at him. "Janis called me, and I took the first flight out. What happened?"
"Nothing. I let my guard down. My own stupid fault." He let out a breath. "You were always the better fighter."
Jude shook his head. "How are you, really?"
"Just a flesh wound. I'm not that easy to kill." He pointed to a dressing on his shoulder. "So you can turn around and fly back to the nest. The wife and kids need you more than I do."
"Jude!" Janis ran in and threw her arms around him. "How long have you been here? I got stuck in traffic. How are the babies and Sable?"
He stiffened perceptibly and mumbled something. This probably wasn't the best time to unload.
Janis narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing.
Best to keep the focus on Jonas. "What's the real deal with this slacker here?" He gestured towards the bed.
"He'll live," Janis replied, dryly. "They cut his shoulder. Thank God, someone walked out of the bar and scared them off. It could have been worse."
"Just a couple of street punks," Jonas added. "They took me by surprise. I shouldn't even be here, but Janis carried on like some overprotective mama."
They both ignored him.
"When can he go home?" Jude asked.
"He can leave today, if he behaves and doesn't overdo it."
"Good, because he's coming home with me. You, too, if you're smart. The city is no place for us."
"Whoa! Wait just a minute." Jonas raised his voice. "I'm right here, you can talk to me."
"You're too pigheaded to listen. Get your shit together, and we'll talk when we get out of here." Jude walked his sister out of the room before Jonas's temper boiled over.
"I'm worried, Jude. Something's bothering him." Janis's grim expression scared him. "He's desperately unhappy, but he won't talk to me. Maybe you'll have better luck.”
Jesus. Was his brother in love with Sable? His chest felt tight. Maybe the two of them belonged together. Who was the third wheel now?
He never thought a woman would come between him and Jonas. Then again, he never thought his brother would come between him and his wife. They were all miserable. Could Sable be right about this? What a fucked-up mess.
Jonas walked out, and they left the hospital, each lost in their own thoughts. They climbed in the car, and Jude offered Janis money for parking. Then he shut up again. He had a golf ball-sized lump lodged in his throat, and he couldn't get past it.
The building turned out to be nicer than he expected, a newly renovated midrise not far from the hospital and popular with the med students. With a bit of probing, Janis admitted to dating one of the tenants, an ER doctor, probably the reason they kept Jonas overnight.
Janis sensed something between them, and she left them at the door to Jonas’s apartment with strict instructions to keep her posted.
"It's a one-bedroom. You can sleep on the couch. I missed you, but not enough to have you in bed with me."
Jude threw his bag on the floor and wondered how to tell his brother that's exactly what his wife wanted.
Jonas went right to the kitchen. "Let me get you a drink for your jet lag."
"Christ, Jonas. I wasn't even on the plane an hour. Sit down and talk to me." He planted himself on the leather couch and looked around. Modern, sleek, uncluttered, it looked like nobody lived here.
Jonas sat on a matching leather chair and looked at him over a glass-topped coffee table. "Why did you rush out here?"
"You know how excited Janis gets. She made it sound like you were dying."
"No, I don't know. Janis would never scare you over the phone like that. Are you avoiding the ball and chain? Maybe you needed a vacation from family life?" He laughed, a dry, humorless sound.
Jude ignored his comments. "I hear you're drinking too much."
"Since when is that your business?"
"Sable was worried about you." He looked for Jonas’s reaction.
"Then why didn't she come?" he asked bitterly.
"Would you have liked that?"
"Look, let's make this quick. I'm fine. You've seen it for your
self. Go home to your wife and kids."
"There's one problem with that statement." He couldn't hold back. Jonas had to know the truth. "The kids aren't mine."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jonas needed a drink before he could process Jude's words. He went into the kitchen and started pulling cabinets open.
Jude watched from the doorway. "Do you know anything about this?"
He looked in the refrigerator. There had to be a bottle here somewhere. Shit. Think, Jonas. You couldn't have polished off everything.
"You were always good at putting on a poker face, but news like this should get some kind of reaction." The frost in his brother's voice lowered the room temperature by ten degrees. "Why do I get the feeling that you're not surprised?"
He wasn't ready for this. Not in any way, shape, or form. Should he bluff his way through? Try and act surprised? Too late for that, he guessed. "I'm not," he said simply.
"You son of a bitch." Jude pounded his fist on the counter. "All that bullshit about wanting me to be happy and starting over. It's all crap. You've lied to me from day one. If you weren't hurt I'd—"
"You'd what? Kill me?" Jonas said harshly. "Sit down. You wanted to talk. Let's talk."
Jude pulled out a chair and sat on the edge, like a wild animal waiting to pounce. "Why did you really leave, Jonas? Was it because after all was said and done, you couldn't accept the fact that you fathered half-breeds?"
Jonas closed the space between them in an instant. Pent-up feelings of frustration and jealousy exploded like a ticking time bomb that had just been detonated. He clenched his fists to keep from slugging Jude. "Whatever you think of me, leave them out of it. They're innocents in this whole fucking mess. They didn't ask for any of this."
"So you do have some feelings. You're not a complete stone-cold, unfeeling bastard."
Jonas suddenly remembered where he hid the bottle. The anger disappeared as quickly as it came. He went down on his knees and started rummaging under the sink.
"Aha." He came up with a half-full bottle of Absolut. He found two water glasses in the dish strainer and filled both of them. "You need this." He set one in front of Jude and then took a seat across from him. "How did you find out?"
Jude took a big swallow. "Sable told me." He stared at Jonas. "Now you look surprised."
He was. Why would she screw up her life again? "She told you they were yours."
"And now she says you're the father. I don't know what to think. How could she know? Did you run some kind of test and tell her?"
"I did, but not until later, and I never told Sable. I don't know how she thinks she knows, but she's only half right."
Jude looked at him blankly and took another drink.
"You know Sam has a birthmark like mine."
"So that means he has to be yours?"
Jude was beating himself up for nothing. "No. But it got me thinking, and I ran DNA tests. We're both fathers." His brother didn't believe him. He saw it written all over his face. And why should he? It sounded crazy even to him. "It's hard to believe, but it happens. Two eggs fertilized by two different men and you have bi-paternal twinning. Heteropaternal superfecundation is the medical term.”
Jude's eyes narrowed. His brow furrowed. "This is for real?"
"Max is yours. Sam is mine."
"You should have told us. Why didn't you?"
"I did what I thought was best for all of us. I already screwed up your marriage once, I wasn't about to try again."
"You can give up your son, just like that?" A frown crossed Jude's face.
"You'll be a better father than I could ever be, and the boys will grow up as full brothers. Tell that to Sable. And tell her not to worry. I won't try to separate them. I know you'll take care of Sam like he was your own." His heart twisted. "Sable will understand."
Jude let out a sigh. "No, Jonas. She won't. She has some crazy idea we're connected, the three of us. That these scars on our necks are Lycan marks of bonding. Some kind of three-way marriage."
Jonas put a hand to his neck and rubbed the scar, a constant reminder of the woman he wanted more than any other. "Her tribal customs don't mean anything to us, you know that."
"After what you just told me, I don't know what to believe anymore. A birth this rare has to mean something special."
"Don't read more into it than you have to. There are documented cases. We're not the first."
"All I know is you need to come home. Sam needs to know who his real father is. We're family. We can work this out somehow. But we need to sit down and talk it out."
Jonas shook his head and took a drink. "Don't play Dr. Phil with me, Jude. The kids deserve to be taken care of, and I'll help support them financially, but don't expect me to tie myself down to a woman who's not even human. It won't work." He watched the blood drain from Jude's face. It tore him up inside to mouth those words, but he had no choice. If he didn't distance himself from Sable, he'd be all over her, and Jude's marriage would be doomed to failure. They'd thank him one day.
"Then you come home and tell her," Jude said furiously. "For some crazy reason she thinks you're worth caring about."
* * * *
Sable waited in agony, afraid Jude wouldn't call. When he finally did, she breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the Gods. She'd thanked them a lot lately. Fifteen years ago, when her people were massacred, she became a nonbeliever. But when push came to shove, she prayed for their help, and Kweo responded. She prayed that he would bring her men home again.
Jude's phone call was short and to the point. He didn't end their conversation with I love you, but just the fact they had a conversation at all gave her hope. He was thinking about what she'd told him and trying to convince Jonas to come home. He'd call back before he returned. Other than that, he refused to discuss their situation on the phone. It needed to be dealt with in person. She agreed. A discussion of such importance required face-to-face contact.
Karin and Malcolm were supportive. They came over every day to help with the babies. Her twins were almost as big as Malcolm Jr. The boys would be great friends when they got older.
They talked a lot. Malcolm told her stories about their Nature Gods. He still believed. A carving of Kweo, the wolf spirit, sat on his mantle. The Gods inhabited everything, animals, revered ancestors, and the elements. Her parents had believed they created the world. Their origins were shrouded in mystery, but one thing was clear. When Kweo took a human lover, he created the first Lycan.
The stories helped. Having family that understood her helped. Karin and Malcolm convinced her to give Jude and Jonas time and space. A Triad would be a hard thing for them to accept. They weren't brought up that way.
She would give them whatever they needed and hope for the best. She didn't want to think about the very real possibility that the brothers would never agree to a three-way marriage. The alternative would be unbearable. She couldn't live without either of them.
* * * *
Sable waited on pins and needles, only it felt more like lying on a bed of nails. She tried to be patient, but it was six days before Jude called back and told her they were coming home.
As soon as Jonas walked through the door, Sable knew he didn't want to be there. Her first sight of him broke her heart. He looked exhausted, thinner, and so unhappy she couldn't bear it. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and comfort him.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Jude came to her and kissed her cheek.
"I missed you," she told him.
He accepted her hug. "I missed you, too. And the boys."
The words brought a smile to her face. He knew they weren't his, and he didn't plan to shut them out. She couldn't ask for more than that.
She led them into the den. The babies were asleep in a portacrib. They weren't identical twins, but she dressed them alike in blue onesies. Strangely enough, Max looked like Jude with his white-blond hair. Sam, a little darker, looked more like Jonas.
Jonas’s expression
softened as soon as he laid eyes on them. The boys seemed to sense they were being watched. They opened their eyes in unison. Jonas reached for Sam then pulled back.
"Jonas has something to tell you." Jude's voice sounded strained. "Let's sit down."
Her anxiety must have shown on her face because Jude put an arm around her and led her to the sofa.
Jonas took a chair across from them. He sat hunched over, staring down at his hands clasped in front of him.
"You're scaring me." Sable's heart pounded against her ribs. Was he going away? Was he sick?
"Spill it, Jonas." Jude took one of her hands in his.
"Sam is my son, Jude is Maxwell's father."
She looked at him, stunned. In her wildest imagination, she never expected this.
"How can that be?" she whispered.
Sable hung on Jonas's every word. She didn't understand the medical terminology, but she knew about DNA testing. "There's no mistake?"
"I ran the tests twice."
Jude looked so serious. Sable feared the worst. A feeling of certainty came over her. Jonas planned to take his son. But to what end? Research? Close to tears, she looked from one brother to the other. "The boys are already so attached."
Jonas stared at her. "I don't want him. You don't have to worry about that."
His callous attitude stunned her. Happiness warred with hurt. He didn't intend to separate the boys, but how could he not want his own son? Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Why are you crying? I just told you I'm not taking him. Jude will raise him as if he's his own son." He looked at his brother as if for confirmation. Jude nodded. "The boys don't have to know different."
"This is what you really want?" Sable asked.
"Yes."
The way Jonas looked at Sam broadcast a different message than the one that came out of his mouth. She didn't believe for one minute he could give up his son. She wouldn't let him do it no matter what it took.
* * * *
With only iced tea to sustain him, Jonas barely made it through dinner. He breathed a sigh of relief when Sable took the boys upstairs to feed them and get them ready for bed.
Stanley, Gale - Mating Call [Black Wolf Gorge 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 19
