“Don’t mind me,” Lydia said, “I’m just starving and I couldn’t wait.”
She slid into a chair, hair still dripping from her bath. Lydia grabbed a sandwich and began eating voraciously, talking to the group in between bites.
Martin watched her for a moment, pride evident on his face.
“What?” Lydia asked.
“I never would have guessed, but you did us proud out there.”
“Thank you,” she managed, feeling a little awkward about the entire thing. “Do you know who that man was?” she continued.
“I do. I met him yesterday. I was surprised as hell to see him.” Martin stopped for a moment. “I was just as surprised to see the man I helped out of the bushes in a mangled heap in the field. I guess I’m not the best judge of character.”
“You like me, don’t you?”
Lydia smiled at him.
“That I do. Anyway, the man was Adam’s own driver. I would guess that, just based on how I saw Adam treat the man that they didn’t part on good terms.”
“But how did he know?” Lydia wondered.
“There’s no telling, and we’ll probably never know. Adam wasn’t the brightest star in the sky. He probably talked about you and Carter and Jareth openly in front of the driver. The man was human, but not all humans hate shifters. In fact, I’ve fought beside more than one human in my lifetime. Things are changing in our world right now.”
“Our world.”
Lydia repeated the words with reverence. She’d never been included in anything in her short life, and it felt so odd to be a part of something.
“Yes, our world. You might not have been open about yourself with us before, but you’re one of us. The world as we know it has been changing very rapidly the last few years. Every night, when you turn on the news, there’s something new going on.
“Pretty soon, shifters and humans will live in this country with no distinction. Interspecies families won’t be afraid for their lives, and people like me and Siva, and you, won’t have to worry if anyone will love a silver tiger. We’ll all be free to be who and what we are without worry.”
“That would be a welcome change,” Lydia admitted.
“Wouldn’t it though?”
The four of them passed the rest of the afternoon away in easy chatter, and before too long, Lydia forgot all about the death and destruction of the past few hours. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was part of a family. A real family.
The late afternoon sun faded into twilight, and pretty soon, it was nearly time for bed.
“What about Jareth?” Lydia asked Siva.
“I still have Carter’s phone. You can call him if you’d like. Doc Bowyer’s home phone number is in the contacts.”
“That would be great.”
“No news is probably good news, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.”
Siva handed Lydia the phone and left the room to give her some privacy and show the men to the guest rooms.
Carter answered on the first ring.
“Lydia.”
“Hi, Carter,” she let the breath she’d been holding out. “Wait, how did you know?”
“Don’t they have caller ID where you’re from?”
His tone was light and teasing. Lydia took it as a good sign.
“How is Jareth?”
“He’s going to be alright, at least Doc Bowyer thinks so.”
“When can I see him?”
“He’s going to have to stay here overnight, and then we can bring him home. I’ll hire a full time nurse to help him until he’s on his feet again.”
Home. The word sounded so nice coming from his lips.
“Is he awake? Can I talk to him?”
“He was awake and talking for a bit earlier, but right now, he needs to rest. Doc Bowyer gave him some heavy sedatives and he’ll be out until early morning. Once we get the all clear from Doc Bowyer, we’ll be home.”
Lydia took a deep breath, fighting back the tears and not trusting herself to speak. The relief was overwhelming.
“Lydia? Are you alone there?”
“No. Martin, Tristan and Siva are going to stay until you get back, if that’s alright with you.”
“Lydia, it’s your home too. Of course they can stay. I didn’t want you to be alone right now. A lot has happened, and I’m sure it’s hard on you.”
“It really is, but Martin has been talking me through a lot and that has helped.”
“He’s a better Tribute than I could have hoped for.”
“He is. I feel safe and, aside from the guilt I feel, I’m okay.”
“Lydia, there’s no reason for you to feel guilty. None of this is your fault.”
“I know that, Carter. Deep down I do. But it doesn’t change the fact that men died today to save me. That’s a heavy burden.”
“I understand.”
“The men that died fighting for me? I want to do something special for their families. It won’t bring them back, but I want to make sure they know that I am very grateful.”
“It’s a great honor to die protecting the innocent. They don’t need you to thank them, but I’m sure they’ll be glad to hear from you.”
Lydia nodded, then, realizing that Carter couldn’t see her, she took a ragged breath.
“I have to go. I’m exhausted and I’m not going to feel right until you’re here again. I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Lydia.”
Lydia hung up the phone, slipping it into her pocket and dragging herself up the stairs to her room. The others had already retired for the night and the house was eerily quiet. Lydia couldn’t wait to see Jareth tomorrow. But for now, she was exhausted and ready for bed.
CHAPTER 13
Lydia was pacing the foyer, watching the front gate monitor on Carter’s phone the following afternoon.
“Lydia,” Martin said. “They’ll be here soon. Just relax.”
They were alone in the house, waiting for Carter to return with Jareth. Siva and Tristan had gone home to get some things for themselves and Martin so that the three of them could spend the week helping with Jareth’s recovery.
“I can’t relax. Carter said they would be back today, but it’s almost five. I thought they’d be back in the morning.”
Martin sighed, settling down into an overstuffed recliner and watching her move about the room.
“Lydia. You have to be patient. You have to have faith.”
“Having faith has never worked for me,” she scoffed.
“Well, maybe that’s changed. Did you think of that?”
“No. Nothing has changed. Every time I’m happy, something bad happens. That’s just the way my life has always been.”
“Are you happy here?”
“I am,” she stopped and looked at him for a moment. “Why do you ask?”
“I just wondered if that meant that you were still planning on leaving.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Lydia. There are no secrets here. Well, except that you’re a shifter. None of us saw that coming.”
“That’s another reason I need to leave. It will only be a matter of time before my uncle hunts me down, and I can’t bear to be the reason anyone is in danger again.”
“Maybe if you tell me about it, I can help you.”
“I can’t risk you, too, Martin. It’s bad enough that all this death will eventually get out and probably lead my uncle here. He’s crazy. I can’t invite that into your life.”
Martin looked at her, his face kind and patient.
“You’d be surprised what I’ve lived through in my life. Trust me. Please.”
Lydia stopped moving again, this time sitting in one of the small groupings of chairs near where he was.
“If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else.”
“Mum’s the word. But I think you should tell Jareth and Carter, too.”
“Maybe later, but not now.”
Lydia took a deep breath, stealin
g herself for what she was about to say.
“My parents died when I was eight, and my uncle was the only family I had left. He was my dad’s brother. He took me in, but it wasn’t the loving, kind environment that he made it out to be. As soon as I was dropped off and people around town forgot about me, my life turned into a living hell.”
She stopped, shuddering when she inhaled and setting her shoulders in defiance of the bitter memory.
“There’s so much to the story, but when my uncle found out about me, it got so bad that hell would have been a better place to be.”
“Found out that you were only half shifter?”
“What? Oh no. My family is human. No one knew that my mother was a shifter. They kept it to themselves. Even when they died when I was eight, no one found out. It wasn’t until I was ten and I got angry at something my uncle said that he found out.”
“Because you shifted, and you couldn’t control it.”
It wasn’t a question. Martin had seen it before. Many humans were unprepared for raising a child that couldn’t control their transformations. When interspecies families broke up, or when the parents were never married in the first place and a child was kept away by a human parent, there was always an issue when puberty started. Shifters, on the other hand, were much more equipped to deal with this completely normal milestone.
“I’m afraid to ask what he did to you.”
“He locked me up, only letting me out when no one was around. He brought priests in to try and pray the shifter out of me. When that didn’t work, he threatened me.”
“When was the last time you shifted? I mean before yesterday.”
“When I was fourteen, so over ten years ago.”
“When did you leave?”
“I tried to leave when I turned eighteen, but with no formal education and no job experience I really had no way of taking care of myself. By then, my uncle had softened somewhat towards me and living with him was bearable.”
“What changed that?”
“I was going through the mail, and I saw a letter for me. I opened it, not thinking anything of it, even though I had never gotten mail in my entire life. It wasn’t until I opened it that I realized it said “to the estate of Lydia Blunt”. That’s when I realized that my uncle had sent in a phony death certificate for me, transferring the money left behind by my parents to himself. I never wondered why he didn’t work but we always had what we needed. But at that moment, I knew what he’d done.”
“You must have been angry.”
“I was, but I was mostly sad. He’s the only connection I had on this earth to my parents. But he didn’t love me. He never loved me. That hurt more than the loss of money.”
“Money means nothing in a situation like that.”
“Exactly. Sadler never understood that. He thought it was enough that he put a roof over my head and allowed me to forage in the kitchen for food bought with money that was rightfully mine. My parents had life insurance that paid out to my caretaker in the event of their death. This money was meant to be held for me when I turned eighteen. But Sadler went through everything they left for him and a good portion of what they left me.”
“What did you do?”
“I confronted him when he got home and like I thought, he turned it all around on me. How raising a shifter’s brat had ruined his life and isolated him. How I owed it to him to give him a good life because he did so much for me. It was a slap in the face. All that money and he couldn’t sit down and have dinner with me like I mattered. I spent my entire childhood hiding whenever the doorbell rang because of him. I’ll never get that time back.”
“So why would he come after you? Wouldn’t it be better for him if you stayed gone?”
“It would, except he threw me out, telling me to come back when I wasn’t such an ungrateful little bitch. I went straight to the bank and transferred all the money from the account in my name to an old savings account my parents had opened for me when I was seven. They made me memorize the account number and the name of the bank. I don’t know why they thought to do that, but since I had information on an account at another local bank with my name and fingerprints on file, I was able to convince the clerk to transfer the money. Then I went home.”
“You went back after that?”
“I had to. I had nowhere to go, no skills to earn money, and there was a three day lag on the electronic transfer. I didn’t think Sadler would find out until I was gone.”
“That never happens.”
“I know that now. When he found out, he was livid. He tried to force me to withdraw the money from my account, but I couldn’t because it wasn’t there yet. I’d never seen him like that. He pulled a gun on me, threatened to kill me for real this time if I didn’t do what he wanted. This time, when I got away, I never looked back.”
Lydia stopped for a moment, heart pounding as the memories took hold. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she’d run, but it had been mere months. Her progress on foot had been slow, but every mile she put between herself and her uncle had brought a type of peace with it.
“I feel like there’s more to the story.”
“There is. He filed a report with the police. He claimed that I stole the money. Since he was technically the executor, legally I did. There’s a warrant out for my arrest in Kentucky.”
“I doubt that would affect you here.”
“It’s a felony and I stole a few million dollars from him.”
“Ah. That’s a little bit more than pocket change.”
“Exactly. They can’t get into my account and take it back because I haven’t been prosecuted. But, if Sadler has his way, he’ll find a way to convince everyone that I’m the bad guy. Since I’m a shifter from a very conservative town, there’s no doubt I’ll be found guilty.”
Martin nodded.
“I understand,” he said. “Everything you’ve done makes complete sense now. But who could blame you?”
“Everyone in Merryville?” Lydia laughed at her own joke. “What a stupid name for a backwards little town.”
A chime sounded somewhere in the distance and Lydia looked down at the cellphone’s video feed in her hand.
“They’re here!” she all but shouted.
“Relax. It takes a few minutes to get up the driveway. Maybe you should go to Jareth’s recovery room and let the nurse know he’s here.”
“Good idea.”
Lydia bounded out of the room and down the first floor hallway. Jareth was already stabilized, but walking up the stairs was out of the question. So Siva and the nurse, Mathilda, had set up a temporary room in a downstairs guestroom.
“Mathilda, they’re here,” her voice was sing-song and full of almost child-like delight.
“I’m ready for him.”
Mathilda grabbed the wheelchair and wheeled it through the front door and onto the low front porch. Lydia stood between Martin and Mathilda, eagerly awaiting the return of Jareth. And Carter.
The SUV slid to a halt in front of them and Martin stepped forward, opening the door.
Jareth looked pale, but otherwise alive. Lydia’s eyes stung with tears. She thought she’d never see him alive again.
“You look awful,” she said, choking on something that was halfway between a sob and a laugh.
“Thank you. I love you, too.”
Jareth smiled, allowing Martin to assist him out of the SUV. Mathilda pushed the chair forward, but Jareth waved it away.
“I’m a tiger, not a lamb. I’m walking through the door on my own two feet. After that, I’m all yours.”
Mathilda scowled but said nothing. This wasn’t her first time dealing with an Alpha tiger.
Carter and Martin walked beside Jareth as he slowly made his way through the doors. Lydia watched him carefully place each foot in front of the other.
When they crossed the threshold, Jareth sat down heavily in the wheelchair. Just those few feet had drained him. Lydia took the hem of her shirt and wiped the sweat from h
is brow.
“You need to take it easy.”
“Never,” he quipped and laughed weakly. His laughter dissolved into heavy coughing, and Mathilda looked at him, concern furrowing her brow.
“You need to rest,” she said.
Jareth nodded, still coughing and unable to speak. Mathilda whisked him away to the quiet room.
“Shall we eat?” Carter said.
“Yes. But after that, I need to talk to you and Jareth. There’s something I have to do.”
Her voice was heavy and serious. Carter opened his mouth to say something but closed it after a look from Martin silenced him. Whatever it was, Carter was going to have to wait until after dinner.
Carter swept Lydia into his arms, planting a kiss on lips before giving her a squeeze.
“I missed you so much.”
“You were gone a day.”
“It was twenty-six hours and fifteen minutes,” he countered.
“It must have felt like a lifetime.”
“You have no idea.”
They took their time with dinner, talking easily amongst themselves and giving Jareth ample time to rest. When they finished, Martin excused himself, claiming exhaustion and needing to wake up early.
He walked by Lydia, leaning over and whispering in her ear.
“If you want to leave first thing in the morning, I’ll pack a bag and go with you.”
She leaned back so she could look into his eyes.
“Are you sure? You don’t have to.”
“Now what kind of Tribute would I be if I didn’t? I’ll be ready to leave first thing.”
“Thank you.”
Lydia hugged him tight around the neck and kissed his weathered cheek.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better Tribute.”
Carter waited until Martin left the room before he spoke.
“So you’re leaving?”
“Yes and no. There’s something I have to take care of, but I want to talk to you both about it at the same time.”
She stood, setting her plate in the sink and heading around the corner to Jareth’s room. She left Carter to follow her. Whether he did or not was up to him.
Jareth was sitting in the dim light, looking a little less weak than he had before.
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