by Camryn Rhys
Wasn’t it?
“We made you a big breakfast, so you can get your energy back.” Maggie nodded behind her. “And Sean brought some clothes for you. Yours…well, when you shift in clothes like that, they mostly rip apart.”
“No. I’m… last night was a dream.” Paul shook his head. Everything swirled in a foggy haze. He’d been at Sylvie’s, hadn’t he? And then… The accident… Sylvie in his truck, talking to him, then Caleb…
And the wolf.
“It wasn’t a dream,” Caleb said, his tone hard. “Look, I’m going to tell you all this as fast as I can because there’s no sense sugar-coating it, so just listen.”
Paul opened his mouth to argue, but Maggie put a warm hand on his arm and it made him look down at his body. If last night wasn’t a dream, then he should be a hurting unit. Injuries from the accident, and he’d been bleeding. But he felt like a million bucks this morning.
“My family, from way back, has always been werewolves.” Caleb paused on that word, and Paul found himself unable to disagree.
Everything in him wanted to, but he couldn’t ignore the facts. He should be injured. He wasn’t.
He remembered shifting.
“We’re very careful about who we let into our lives, because there’s this huge secret that we have to keep from them. So no one knows this, but last night, when you were in your accident, you were dying, and Sylvie had no choice...” He chewed on his lip and looked down at the floor. “She had to turn you.”
Paul blinked between Caleb and his daughter, unsure of what to say. The logical brain wanted to argue, but something just felt right about this. It explained so much.
The strange way that his mother interacted with the Gallagher family. The way Sylvie had pushed him away. They were protecting some kind of secret, and this was it.
The family was all werewolves.
“Sylvie… She’s a…”
“She’s a wolf, too, yes.” Caleb waved his hand. “From my wife’s family in Wyoming, so she’s not a Gallagher by blood, but when Gretchen married me, her pack decided to merge with ours, so I’m Sylvie’s alpha.”
“There are some things we need to tell you about your wolf, and about how we live in the world,” Maggie said. “But first, we wanted to bring in…” She backed up, moving her arm like a Price-is-Right-girl.
Paul’s heart rose.
This is it. Now, I can finally be with Sylvie.
His brother’s hard-set face was not a welcome sight. Brady walked through the door, his angular features all dark lines and shadows.
“Where’s Sylvie?” Paul asked, sliding to the side of the bed. But as the sheets moved, he realized he didn’t have any clothing on. Not even boxers. He wasn’t about to go full frontal in front of Maggie Gallagher.
“Forget about Sylvie,” Caleb said, putting his hand on Brady’s shoulder. “There’re some things you need to know about your family and mine, and then we can talk about how to proceed.”
“Why is he here?” Paul pointed at his brother. “Wait. Is he a wolf, too?”
“No.” Caleb snorted. “No, he’s not.”
“Good, because that would just be… I mean… I was adopted, so we’re not blood related, but it’d be weird to have been living with a wolf my whole life and not even know it.”
Brady and Caleb exchanged an eyebrows-up look that made his skin crawl.
He gathered the sheets around his hips and stood from the bed, pulling them along with him. “What’s going on here?”
Caleb pushed on his shoulders. “You’re going to want to sit down for this.”
Sylvie slid the black garbage sack over the last batch of her clothes and handed the hangars to Roman. She took a look around the bedroom with a long, hard sigh.
“Tell me again where you’re going,” Roman said, hefting the clothes onto his shoulder.
“It’s a little town just outside Laramie.” She followed him out of the room, closing the door behind her. Sean would have the place cleaned before he used it again, but it still felt strange to just leave everything behind.
It wasn’t her furniture in the first place. But still.
“And where’s Laramie?”
“Wyoming. It’s north of here, and west. Right up I-25.”
Her almost-uncle paused beside her kitchen island and they both took one more look around the place. She was leaving everything—it all belonged to the Gallaghers. All the appliances, the pots and pans, the equipment. All she’d done was clean out the food, and her clothes, and her bathroom.
Now, she was ready to go.
“I haven’t been north of here much,” Roman said, giving her a little smile. “What’s it like up there?”
“Laramie is a decent size.” Sylvie shrugged. “But Whitewater is small. Like Springfield.”
“Well, this is the smallest place I’ve ever lived. Even Choaca was bigger than this, and that was the smallest town I’d been in, until Maggie.”
Sylvie opened the refrigerator and the smell of chemicals hit her in the face. She’d been up all night, packing and cleaning, getting ready to go. After Paul had come to her…and after she’d let her guard down…and after the accident…she needed to get out of the place as fast as she could, or she’d never be able to leave him.
“Wyoming is beautiful.” She sighed, closing the fridge. “It’s a lot like here. Lots of country.”
“What will you do there?”
Sylvie found herself laughing at the question. She’d do what she always did. Work in ranch operations. She’d help with the horses, and help her mother run the rodeo team, and she’d disappear back into the Proulx family the way she’d disappeared into the Gallaghers.
“The same thing I do here, I guess.” She nodded at the door and Roman walked outside in front of her.
She glanced around the little apartment. Part of her could still smell Paul’s presence. It would be good to get out of this place. Out of this prison, where she couldn’t escape him, but she couldn’t have him.
“Do you want that?” the big man asked, opening the rear door of her little Subaru. He slid the black bag on top of all the others and looked back at her.
Sylvie paused at the question. She hadn’t considered that.
Do I want the same thing I have here?
Other than what she had with Paul, there was nothing about her life that she really wanted to replicate. She loved horses, but she’d never wanted to run a ranch. She worked for her family because that was what the Proulx girls did. Until they got married, they worked the ranch.
Packs tended to stay close, work for the family businesses, stay together, shift together, live together. All part of being a wolf.
“Is it bad that I don’t?” she asked, resting against the closed front door, feeling like her old life was at her back.
“No. You want what you want.” He leaned on her car. “If you don’t want the same thing you had, you should do something different.”
Sylvie clasped her hands and allowed herself to think, for the first time, of what was really possible. She had plenty of money in her savings account—Uncle Caleb barely charged her any rent for her apartment, and the ranch paid her well enough, she’d saved most of her paycheck every month.
She had three years of savings, just sitting in her bank account. Had always imagined herself using that money to buy a house, when she…
When she and Paul got married.
Only that isn’t happening.
Her uncle had made it clear, for two years, no-Paul was a hard limit. Apparently, changing him into a wolf hadn’t even amended that one, since Caleb had still ordered her to leave. And she was done. She couldn’t torture herself with the same-old-same-old anymore.
“What would you do right now, if you could do anything?” Roman asked, suddenly in front of her, on the steps.
Sylvie smiled. She wanted to answer Paul. But that was a bittersweet thought. She still wanted him so much, even though they could never be together.
Other than Paul,
what did she want?
“I don’t know.” She reached behind her and tried the door handle, to check the lock. Done.
She held the apartment keys up, but Roman didn’t take them.
“Come on, Sylvie. There has to be something.” He spread his arms wide. “You have three weeks until the next full moon, and nothing standing between you and the whole world. What do you want?”
Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
To heal. To finally be able to let Paul go. To wake up in the morning wanting something besides him.
“I want to get away from Springfield.” She jingled the keys and he finally took them from her. “And I don’t really want to go home.”
“Well, that’s a start.” He gathered her into his arms. “There’s a lot of world out there.”
“Yeah, there is.” She slipped her hands into her jeans’ pockets and looked across the driveway and the highway. There was still a dark gash in the snow where machines had come to pull Paul’s truck out of the ditch. And where they’d had to tow the semi.
All that seemed like a lifetime ago. A distant memory.
Maybe her brain was just protecting her, so she could finally leave him behind, in her past.
“I could do with a beach, maybe.” Sylvie raised her shoulders. “Maybe I could go to California.”
“Do you have a passport?” Roman said, one brow lifting.
“Yeah.”
“Then use it, girl.” He pointed down the road that led out of Springfield, and toward the interstate. “There’s a big world out there, and a lot of beaches. If you’re really looking for a change, then you should make a real change.”
Her gaze drifted down the road, toward the corner. It was the opposite direction from the Gallagher and Banfield ranches. Even having a focus in life that wasn’t one of those two places would be a pretty big change.
But she was ready.
“Don’t even tell anyone where you’re going,” Roman continued. “That way, no one can talk you out of it.”
Sylvie dug her car keys out of her pocket and gave her cousin’s mate one last hug. She’d miss Roman and his East Coast fast-talking humor. And his big-brothery-ness. She’d miss them all.
Paul most of all.
But if she didn’t leave now, she might never be able to. It was time.
Chapter Seven
Paul’s mouth hung open perpetually, while Caleb regaled him with the history of werewolves and witches. He needed to know these things, the alpha said, because Brady was a witch. And Brady’s family were all witches—at least, his blood family.
It was all too much to swallow in one sitting.
I’m a wolf now.
My brother’s a witch.
My ex-girlfriend is a wolf.
My mother is a witch.
They could tell him the moon was made out of cheese, and he’d probably believe it at this point.
“Are you sure you don’t want breakfast?” Maggie asked, running her hand across his shoulders. The skin-on-skin contact was strange, especially from a practically-married now-pack-member.
Pack member.
I’m part of a pack, too.
The Gallagher pack. Caleb was the alpha, and Maggie was what they called an Enforcer, along with Sean and Keir. Enforcers, they’d said, usually lived with or near the alpha, so they could always be ready, in case they were needed.
Will they make me an enforcer?
“I think he’s still processing,” Brady said, bending down in front of him and snapping his fingers. “You okay, brother?”
Paul nodded, but he wasn’t sure what to say. What could he say, to news like he’d received?
It was…completely surreal.
“Maybe you should get him some food.” Caleb stood, from where he’d been kneeling in front of Paul, and turned to the bedroom door. “Or I’ll get Gretchen.”
“Wait.” He reached for him. “Is someone going to go get Sylvie?”
Maggie looked at the ground and the alpha froze in his tracks.
Brady appeared to stop breathing.
“I’m assuming this is the weird thing that has been keeping the two of us apart. And if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather—”
“That’s not the reason.” Caleb stood at the end of the bed, flexing and unflexing his hands.
“You’ve got to tell him,” Maggie said.
“I promised his mother.”
“Well, that’s all blown to hell now.” Brady’s tone was so full of venom, Paul expected him to step up and challenge Caleb, but there seemed to be some sort of unspoken rule not to take on the alpha.
Fuck that.
“Tell me what?” He pulled the sheet with him, walking toward his new alpha.
“It was her dying wish,” Caleb whispered, continuing to clench his fists.
Paul recoiled. Dying wish? “Wait. My birth mother? Do you know my birth mother?”
Caleb nodded. With a low growl, he rounded on the room. “You have to understand, Paul, she begged us not to interfere. She wanted you raised as humans. It wasn’t until later that we found out who Matilda really was.”
“Oh, come on, Dad.” Maggie grabbed Paul’s shoulders and looked in his eyes. “You’re my cousin. Your real mother was a werewolf.”
His head snapped back and something burned in his chest. “Wait. Cousin? As in…”
“Your mother was my sister,” Caleb said, his eyes down, glistening. “You are my nephew.”
“Aunt Gabi was killed when you were very young. Before I was born.” Maggie gripped him, like he would pass out. “She asked her best friend—who she thought was human—to take her children. It was her dying wish.”
“We didn’t know Matilda was a witch.” Caleb came to stand next to his daughter, and finally met Paul’s eyes. “My sister married a human. She had human children, because female werewolves will have human children with human men. She wanted them…you…to have a human life. She was always adamant.” His gaze took on a sad, otherworldly sheen. “She didn’t want to be bound to the pack anymore. She loved her husband, and she wanted you and your sister to be…normal.”
Paul shook off Maggie’s hands and sat on the bed, stunned. His mother, the woman who raised him, had always been open about his having been adopted, and she’d even told him and his sister that their mother had died.
But in all the years he’d known the Gallaghers, and in all the years they’d lived on adjacent ranches, no one but Sean and Keir had ever shown him any interest.
Until he’d started dating Sylvie.
His breath caught in his throat. “Oh God. Sylvie.”
“That’s why we didn’t want you dating her, son.” Caleb knelt in front of him, grabbing his neck and bringing him close. “In order for Sylvie to be with you, she would’ve had to bring you in on a secret that we’d been trying to hide from you and your sister your entire life. I couldn’t allow that to happen. Not when I’d promised Gabi to stay away.”
“But that means… She’s my…” Paul couldn’t make the words. His eyes itched. Just when he’d been harboring hope he and Sylvie would finally get to be together, he got the bomb of all bombs.
She was his cousin.
“Oh.” Caleb’s eyes went wide. “No, that’s not the problem. Sylvie is my wife’s sister’s daughter. You are my sister’s son. There’s no blood between you.”
“So… Now… I can…” He struggled through the feelings swirling inside. Not blood related. But the alpha had still told her no. And she’d been so set on obeying her alpha, she would’ve said no to the person she so clearly loved.
Tears burned behind his nose.
Dammit. I love her so much.
“I know it’s been hard for her to be without you.” Caleb stood, shaking his head. “It was hard to keep you two apart.”
“She’s been like a hermit for two years now,” Maggie said with a little smile. “I’m sure this will change things.”
Paul cleared his throat and stood,
keeping a handle on the sheets. “Do I need to ask your permission?”
Caleb crossed his arms and looked him up and down. “Technically, since I am her alpha, and not yours yet, only she needs my permission.”
“Oh, come on, Daddy. No one needs your permission,” Maggie said with a giggle and an elbow on Paul’s arm. “Shasta turned her mate and never asked your permission.”
“Now, Maggie.” The alpha stretched himself up to his full height and looked down on his daughter. “You know you’re still supposed to ask your alpha before you turn someone. At least, in our pack, you are.”
“Technically.” She gave the word some air-quotes and Paul found himself laughing. “But since Sylvie already turned him, I figured you weren’t going to make her ask permission again to bond with him.”
“You want to bond with her?” Brady stepped behind the two Gallaghers and narrowed his eyes at Paul.
He willed his brother not to say anything. Brady’s beef wasn’t a shocker. The way Paul had been handling the break-up…and the injury…and the general sucky-ness of life was naturally a concern for his overprotective brother.
Brady didn’t think he had the commitment gene.
But it wasn’t that at all. He just couldn’t commit to the woman he wanted, and saw no reason to waste his time with anything else.
“If I’d known what bonding was, when I first met Sylvie, I would’ve bonded with her that day.” Paul’s voice shook as he remembered the time without her. “And every single day of the months we had together. And every day from then on.”
“You love her?” Caleb asked, re-crossing his arms. He liked that stance the best, it appeared. It gave him a sort of regal distance from the rest of them.
“I do.”
“And you want to bond with her?”
“I do.”
“Then go get her, son.” The alpha clapped him on the arm.
Maggie pointed to the chair by the door, a half-smirk on her lips. “Only put some clothes on, first.”
Paul pulled in to Sylvie’s driveway, his heart thrumming. He’d dressed in the borrowed clothes, and driven a borrowed truck, but it’d been all he could do not to shift and run. He hadn’t been a wolf for long, but he could already feel himself wanting to be the wolf.
