by Dannika Dark
Denver knelt down and tried to look at her, but her long wavy hair completely obscured her face. He didn’t want to mess with it and wake her.
She still smelled the same, only there was something different to her scent—a heady fragrance that caused his wolf to stir. Before he could resist, Denver involuntarily shifted. As soon as it happened, his wolf nuzzled her hair and then licked her arm. Maizy moaned and reached out, gripping a handful of his fur. Denver’s wolf had always liked it when she handled him that way. He could feel his wolf’s pride, his joy, and a deep-seated instinct to protect her. He drew in her scent and groaned as he nuzzled her once more before turning to face the door.
As Denver began to fade and his wolf took over, the last thing he heard was Maizy saying “Love you” as she stroked his face.
***
The next morning, I woke up with a stiff neck and nauseous tummy. I found a pair of sweatpants in a small pile next to my bed and remembered Denver’s wolf sleeping by my side. Having him there had been a comfort and made me realize his absence might have been the reason I’ve had trouble sleeping over the years.
My head was pounding when I crawled out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if it was a hangover or the fact my head had been literally hanging over the bed all night. I made all kinds of promises to never drink again.
When I reached the bathroom, the door was closed.
“Can you hurry up in there?” I knocked and pressed my ear against the door. Someone was gasping for breath. When I reached for the knob and jiggled it, I found it was locked. “Who’s in there?”
“It’s just me, Maizy. Go back to bed,” Lexi said.
Something was wrong. “Lexi, let me in. I want to know why it sounds like—”
The door swung open and Lexi looked at me with a tear-stained face. “Shh. Don’t let anyone hear you.”
“What’s wrong?” I pushed my way inside and locked the door behind me.
Then I noticed small droplets of blood—a stain on her thigh and on the toilet. I walked past her to look and grimaced when I realized what had happened.
Lexi sat on the floor, and I’d never seen her so distraught. I knelt down and blotted her face with a few folded sheets of toilet paper.
“We should call a Relic,” I said.
She shook her head. “It’s over. There’s nothing else to do.”
“Has this happened before?”
Lexi drew in a deep breath and wiped her nose. “Years ago—just after Naya and Wheeler got together—I had sex with Austin while I was in heat. I didn’t know I was pregnant until after I lost it. I told Austin, and we decided to keep it between us. After that, he kept putting off kids. He said we weren’t ready and the pack was too young, plus I had the business and maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”
I leaned around her to make sure no one was listening at the door, but I didn’t see any feet or shadows beneath the crack at the bottom. “Go on.”
She wiped her wet lashes and rubbed her eye. “A couple of years ago, I talked him into it. Having kids, that is. The sex is amazing when you’re in heat, but I really want to have a family with Austin. I got pregnant right away again. I started getting sick but kept it hidden from the pack because I wanted to make sure it would keep, you know? Anyhow, it happened in the morning. I woke up and… God, Austin saw the blood. So I went to a Relic, and she said maybe it had something to do with my first change happening so late. Maybe my body had repressed functionality or something. She told me that sometimes women lose their babies, but they keep trying and eventually one stays. It’s been devastating. Twice more it’s happened, and I can’t have the pack know what’s going on between us.”
“Why not? They should know what you’re going through.”
She shook her head adamantly. “This is our personal business, Maze. I’m afraid they might not see Austin as a competent alpha, even though it’s not his fault… it’s mine. We didn’t try to get pregnant this time. He tried to be cautious and pull out, but… God, I can’t talk about this with you.”
I smirked and brushed her hair away. “You’re my sister. We can talk about anything. I can’t imagine how hard it’s been for you to keep this a secret, but you need someone to confide in. Anytime you want to talk, or cry, or just yell at someone, come see me. Okay? Well, maybe not so much the yelling part.”
Lexi laughed quietly and patted my leg. “Thanks. Maybe after a while, but not today. I’m trusting you to keep this a secret, Maze. I don’t want Austin to worry. He told me once we shouldn’t have kids because he couldn’t stand the thought of losing me. I just feel like I’ve failed him as a mate.”
When the tears came, I held her. “Shhh. You haven’t failed him. Your body just needs more time, and maybe you need to find another Relic who specializes in this kind of thing.”
“Yeah.”
I let go and looked around the room. “Do you need to stay in here a little longer? I can tell everyone to use the guest bathroom downstairs. Unless they want to take a shower, and then they can just go play in the sprinklers with a bottle of dishwashing soap,” I said with a gentle smile. “I’ll tell them you’re in here taking a long bath and want privacy.”
“I’m pretty much done,” she said, sounding broken.
“I’ll come up later and check on you, okay? If you start feeling sick, or if something seems different than the other times, let me know. You’re a Shifter, but you’re not invincible.”
“Send Austin to the store, will you? I have a long list on the fridge of things I need around the house—just odds and ends. That’ll keep him busy most of the day. Otherwise he’s going to get suspicious if he sees me in bed all day.”
I stood up and poured water into a paper cup. “I’m so sorry, Lexi. I didn’t know any of this was going on. I’m trying to think if I’ve ever said anything stupid about you having babies…”
She stood up and tugged my long hair. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Maybe my coming home was too much excitement and—”
“Maizy, cut it out.” She gripped my arm firmly and then rested her head on my shoulder. “Your coming home is the best thing that’s happened since Spartacus learned how to use the litter box.”
We both laughed until tears came—the good kind. I handed her the tiny cup and she drank it to the bottom.
“You go out and do your thing, Maze. I’d rather be alone. If anyone asks, I’ll just tell them I ate something bad, which is easy to believe since Wheeler was the one who cooked breakfast this morning. Go shopping with Mom and get her out of the house before her psychic powers sense something is amiss.”
“Moms have that sixth sense, don’t they? I’m going to check on you in an hour, and if you’re okay, I’ll take her out shopping. I want you to go back to bed and keep the phone next to you. Call me or anyone in the house if you don’t—”
“Hey, I’ve been through this before. I know the drill,” she said, reassuring me. “Don’t worry about me. Life has tried to stomp me down more than once, and I just keep getting back up.”
“Something good will come out of this someday. Everyone here loves you, and that’s not going to change. Maybe I came back just in time. You haven’t even told Mom?”
She shook her head. “She’ll just worry. Someday you’ll find out there are things couples keep between themselves, and it’s not everyone’s business. You’re all grown-up, Maze,” she said, looking at me with her pale brown eyes. “I used to dread this day because it meant losing you. But I was an idiot.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because now I have more than just a little sister; I have a best friend. I know it wasn’t easy for you growing up without Wes—”
“Wait, why would you say that?”
“Because he was your real brother, and—”
“You’re my real sister,” I interrupted. My God, was that what Lexi had thought all this time? That I resented my life because she wasn’t related to me by blood? “I miss Wes beca
use of the way you loved him. I’m sad I didn’t get to meet him, because that’s the kind of brother I’d want in my life. I used to be jealous you had that time together, but I don’t feel like that anymore. You needed him, and maybe that’s what he was put here for. You’re the only real big sister I have and could ever want. Don’t you get it?”
She shook her head and looked at me with pause. “What’s really bothering you, Maizy? You haven’t been the same since coming home. What don’t I get?”
My heart shredded to ribbons. Verbalizing my feelings wouldn’t match the gravity of how they weighed me down. “All those years, you always felt like the outsider in our family because you were adopted. But don’t you see? Now it’s me who doesn’t belong. I’m the one who doesn’t fit in with this picture. Mom always wanted me to live in the human world, and I feel like maybe that’s where the pack expects me to go. I don’t know where I belong. I don’t know who can love and accept the life I have right now. Breed men don’t usually date humans, and how many human men do you think would really be okay with all this? I mean, there’s a very real probability I’ll be asked to keep it secret, because he won’t be trusted among our kind. Maybe it’ll take years before that happens, and by then, I’ve deceived my husband.”
Lexi leaned against the sink and straightened her legs. “I find out yesterday my baby sis has had sex, and now you’re talking about getting married already. You always did want the fairy tale, but I never considered what your husband would think about your sister actually having a tail.”
A quiet laugh bubbled out and I stood next to her. We stayed like that for a while, bonding in a way we hadn’t before. Time had changed the both of us, and now we realized how perfectly we fit into each other’s lives as sisters.
“Your birthday is coming up,” she said quietly.
“I don’t feel like a party this year, Lexi. I really don’t. Let’s not make a thing of it anymore, okay?”
“If that’s what you want. Can we promise to say things to each other and keep secrets?” she asked, clutching my arm.
That was a big promise. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”
“Go,” she insisted. “I’ll shift in a minute and heal. I just need to be alone.”
After a quiet moment passed, I raised a question that had been on my mind since our talk. “Who else might know more about my mark?”
“There’s only one other person who knows about you, Maizy. He might know more than Austin does about Potentials.”
“Who’s that?”
She turned her head and studied me for a moment. “Prince.”
Chapter 7
After making sure Lexi was all right, I took my mother shopping that morning to keep her away from the house. I called Lexi twice to check on her, but she was adamant about needing alone time, which I completely understood. She assured me that after shifting, her body had fully healed. But she wasn’t emotionally ready to face the pack, so she stayed in bed for the remainder of the day. Austin was out buying everything from new stovetop covers to a wheelbarrow. He had plans to meet up with two local Packmasters that afternoon, so he would be tied up most of the day. Packmasters maintained relations to keep each other up to speed on recent news happening in the territory.
When I got home, I found her sleeping in a dark bedroom. Since everyone had either eaten already or was gone, Mom and I had a quiet lunch in the kitchen, talking about her garden. She made ham sandwiches, chips, pickles, and cheese on the side. Little moments like these were the ones I missed the most, the ones I’d savored when the pack had come to visit and we’d done nothing but hang around my flat.
Trevor tossed me the keys to his old hatchback. “You can drop me off later at work and zip around town in my flashy wheels if you want,” he said as we headed out to spend the day together.
“Maybe it’s time for a new car. You’ve had this thing forever.”
He laughed as we got in. “Wheeler and Austin are pretty handy with rebuilding engines and fixing up cars, so they’ve kept this running way past its expiration date. You looking to buy? I might be willing to part with it if you need some wheels.”
I rolled down the window and tied my long hair back. “I don’t have any money. A job comes first.”
“Why don’t you work at one of the stores? We could use the help.”
Dodging the question, I glanced at my legs. “Do you think I’m too pale to walk around in these shorts?”
“In Texas? Hell yeah,” he said with a snort. “You practically blinded me walking onto the porch.”
I playfully smacked his arm.
Trevor laughed in that wonderful way he was known for. “How about we grab a few paperbacks, some cold drinks, sandwich wraps, and head over to the lake? You can lay out, and we can catch up.”
“Sounds like fun, but I don’t have a bikini.”
“That’s what emergency funds are for.” Trevor threw the car into reverse. “Hold on to your panties!”
We swung by a used bookstore and collected a small bundle of books. Trevor browsed for a little while and chose a few for April, one of them having the worst romance cover I’d ever seen. He said it was a tradition they used to have on weekends to go out and find trashy romance novels. Our last stop was at Walmart so I could pick out a bikini while Trevor bought premade turkey sandwiches.
When we arrived at the lake, we spread out a blanket over a nice patch of green grass, then started soaking in the rays. He caught me up on pack news, and I gave Trevor the scoop about Europe. He’d visited three times and said he’d like to go again, this time to Italy. After the conversation died down, we chose a book from the stack and took turns reading it aloud.
Trevor rolled over and put on his sunglasses, his scratchy voice signifying he was all done reading for the day. I plucked a dandelion from the grass and blew a soft breath, sending the tiny white florets floating above me like weightless specks of cotton. A few billowy clouds floated overhead, stark white against the blue sky.
He eased up on his elbows and looked down at my bikini-clad body, which was finally picking up a nice color. “Damn, girl. If I were straight, I’d be a fool to ignore how stunning you turned out.”
I rolled onto my stomach and bent my knees, crossing my legs at the ankles. “You think? I wasn’t a big deal in England.”
“Hell, I just lost respect for an entire country in less than two seconds.”
I shooed away a bug and looked down at his toned body. Trevor wasn’t as big as some of the Weston boys, but he had a nice build. Not many men could pull off bangs, but Trevor styled his hair forward in layered chunks. It was the kind of look that made him stand out, especially combined with his style. Only now his hair was kind of sweaty and slicked back.
“Does April ever talk to you about stuff?” I asked.
He wrinkled his nose and watched a jogger run by. “What stuff?”
“Like how she fits in with the pack—how she feels being human and…”
“Mated to Reno?” He laughed softly and fell onto his back. “She wrestled with it in the beginning when they first got together. I’ll admit I thought he was an asshole when we first met.”
“That I believe.”
“Yeah, well, I had trust issues.”
“Had?”
Trevor elbowed me and smirked. “She doesn’t regret it for a minute, and neither does he. What choice does she have? It’s not like she can magically turn into a Shifter, and it would be dumb as hell to deny herself love because of it. Reno once said time moves at a crawl because he’s savoring every minute with her.”
“Wasn’t she afraid of the backlash?”
“I don’t know what kind of answer you’re looking for, Maizy. People make choices and do what’s best for them. You can’t live your life for someone else, and you can’t let someone else tell you how to live your life. People spend so much time judging the shit out of each other—it’s a waste of energy. So what if she’s mortal? She’s fucking happy, and April
deserves to feel like a princess. She deserves the love she gets, and Reno’s one lucky bastard.”
“But it’s not forever.”
“Nothing is forever. Nothing. Death doesn’t discriminate. Time is no one’s friend—not even if you’re an immortal. And Shifters aren’t immortal. I could kick the can tomorrow and you might still be here another eighty years. Since when did you get so curious about April’s situation? That shit is solid. Even without all the passion, they’re best friends.”
“Oh, I know that. I’m just curious if she struggled with it. I’ve lived with humans for a long time, and returning to the pack… I don’t know. Suddenly I’m seeing things differently than I used to. I have questions I never thought to ask before.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and sat up. “I think an ant just bit me.” After staring at his fingers for a minute and scratching his neck, Trevor leaned back on his hands. “You fit.”
“Huh?” I rolled over so I could see him better.
“That’s what you want to know—how you mesh with our family. Every Shifter who comes into a pack is either chosen by the Packmaster or they come in as a mate. Now you want to know what your place is, right? You fit. Don’t even doubt it for a second, Maze. You’re one of us. You can’t escape,” he said with an evil laugh.
“Mom’s been trying to push me out for years.”
“Moms aren’t always right. I grew up in an abusive home, and I’ve never known what a functional relationship is about. I don’t know.” He rubbed his hand over the sweaty hair curling at the nape of his neck. “Figure out what you want while you’re still young—before it’s too late and you live your life in a pattern of rinse and repeat.”
“Trevor?” a voice boomed from behind us.
A big guy standing with two other men shaded his eyes and looked in our direction. His shaved head and black shirt made him look militant and out of place by the lake.
