“Hello, Mr. Daniels,” I said as he finally worked his way across the room to where I was standing next to the bar. “Wonderful party tonight. Appreciate you having me.”
He eyed me suspiciously like he was trying to place me, then recognition shone in his eyes and his face morphed into a big smile. The scrutiny with which he looked me over set my wolf on edge.
“Liam Westin,” he finally said, shaking my hand and clapping me on the shoulder. “I must say I was quite surprised to hear you were coming. In all the years of balls and celebrations, I don't think your father or brother ever made a single one.”
“The Foundation certainly keeps us busy, but I am making an effort, sir, and we do appreciate your business.”
As he waved his hand in gesture as he spoke, I couldn't help but notice a large ring on his right ring finger. It had an odd insignia on it I had never seen—or maybe I had and just couldn't place it—but it drew my attention and I couldn't stop staring at it.
“Liam, let me introduce you to a few of my friends,” he said, interrupting my curiosity over his ring. I tried to shrug it off, thinking it must be a family symbol or just something of special meaning to him.
He introduced me to three men, all around his age and stature. I didn't pay close attention to names after the first one who went to shake my hand was wearing the same ring. In fact, all three of the men wore the ring. I had a fraternity ring back home. It wasn't something I just wore, especially on formal occasions, unless I knew my brothers were present. This ring didn't look like any frat symbol I recognized, but I figured it must be something similar.
One of the men, I think his name was Kent something or another, kept staring oddly at me. It creeped me out and my wolf was getting restless. If I didn't get away and settle him soon, I'd be looking for places to change tonight in order to calm him, and it wasn't safe to do that in the city.
Spotting familiar faces in the crowd, I politely made my exit. I headed right for Jacob and Annie, grateful though surprised to see them. Jacob looked uncomfortable and his eyes kept scanning the room ahead of my approach. I didn't miss the shared look of concern between the two.
“Liam,” Jacob said, hesitantly offering his hand.
“What's wrong?” I asked, lowering my voice. My wolf was on full alert at this point.
“Not here,” Annie whispered with a smile planted on her face.
“It's good to see you again, I didn't realize you'd be in attendance tonight,” Jacob said in a normal voice. He looked over his shoulder and something akin to fear flashed in his eyes.
“Winthrop,” Daniels interrupted. “I didn't realize you and Mr. Westin were acquainted.”
Something in me told me to lie. “We're not really,” I started. “But we are staying here at the hotel and struck up a conversation a couple mornings ago over breakfast. It's nice to see a familiar face in a crowd such as this.” I was oozing charm and I knew it, but I didn't know why. Jacob seemed to relax some, though Annie was still very tense. I could hear her heart beating erratically.
“Ah, yes, I suppose it is,” Daniels said, sounding a little disappointed.
My brain was spinning with questions. How did a renowned geneticist connect to a business tycoon such as Stephen Daniels? And then I saw it.
The ring.
Jacob was wearing the same ring I had spotted on the hand of every notable mention in the room. He was clearly somehow connected, and it was obvious he did not want our friendship or whatever it was to be found out.
I politely excused myself and wandered about the room. I could hear whispered conversations and suddenly felt like eyes were on me everywhere I turned. A part of me cursed myself for letting my imagination and paranoia run wild, but my wolf was also struggling to maintain his composure among these people.
The ring was everywhere; almost every man present wore one and several of the women displayed similar pendants around their necks. It had to mean something. But what?
I wanted to pull Jacob aside and ask him so many things, but I knew that was a very bad idea. I made my way back across the room and out onto the balcony, which overlooked the Bay. There seemed to be less eyes on me and breathing in the fresh air helped calm my nerves some. I couldn’t help but wonder just want Jacob and Annie were into, though I suspected it was nothing good.
I startled at an approaching man that I didn’t notice until he cleared his throat. I tried not to visibly react. “Keep looking forward,” he whispered from where he stood ten feet away, keeping to the shadows. “There’s no one else out here but us. If you can hear me, and I know you can, run your hands through your hair.”
I took a deep breath and did as he asked. From my peripheral vision I watched him take a long puff of a cigar and blow it out in the shape of a ring. I waited anxiously for him to speak again.
“I’m a friend of Jacob’s. It wouldn’t be safe for him to speak to you directly again, so Annie asked if I could do it. Your kind isn’t safe here. You need to make an excuse and leave quickly. I’ll make certain you aren’t followed. Then get in your car and go home, Liam.”
“What do you mean ‘my kind?’”
“Don’t play games, Liam Michael Westin. Everyone here knows exactly who you are and what you are. You’re a bit of a celebrity actually, the first of your kind to ever accept one of Daniels’ invitations. It was stupid of you to do so. Things are changing. The Order is dividing and we don’t want to see you caught in the middle of it.”
“Who are you people? How do you know about my kind?”
“We are the Order of the Verndari. The Guardians. We’ve taken our vows to protect your kind seriously for many millennia. The Order is as old as shifters, but there’ve been changes within. There are those that wish to study you, for the betterment of humanity. They are pushing a new agenda, one that many of us cannot support. Things have been done that I’m ashamed of, but the opposition is strong. The medical benefits found through unsanctioned research is making others reconsider the principles we have always stood on.”
Humans knew of our kind? How? Why didn’t we know about them sooner? Verndari. I had never heard the word before, of that I was certain. Even when studying the history of shifters, nothing about guardians had ever come up.
“I’ve been here too long. I’ve said too much already. We aren’t supposed to interact directly with you, only watch, observe, and intercept human interest as needed. I must go. You should, too.”
“Wait. Jane and Oscar. Are they in danger?”
“Jane? Jacob’s daughter?”
I stared at him. I needed to see if he was telling me the truth. I wasn’t prepared for the look of complete shock that crossed his face.
“I-I never suspected,” the strange man said. “You’re certain?”
I neither denied or confirmed, unable to put them in further danger and cursing myself for ever asking.
“As far as I know, they are safe. No one knows of them, if you’re saying what I think you’re saying. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but Jacob and Annie love them and would never intentionally let harm come to them.”
That wasn’t good enough for me. I worried I had just unintentionally given away their secret and my wolf roared in fury. I needed to get to them and I needed to do it quickly. The man slinked further into the shadows. Without another word I turned and headed back in, much more in tune to the whispers and stares than even before.
Stephen Daniels was once again standing by the bar. I headed right for him with my biggest smile possible.
“Order you a drink?” he asked on my approach.
“No, thank you, sir, I just wanted to give you this check,” I said, producing the large sum I had written and signed earlier. “Unfortunately, I have a very early morning drive back. Something’s come up, and well, it’s work, work, work all the time these days.”
“No sleep for the weary.”
“Exactly. But it’s been wonderful to meet you, Mr. Daniels,” I said, offering him my right han
d and the check in my left. He took both and we said an amicable goodbye. I was already beginning to second-guess the strange man outside, but as I passed Jacob and Annie, I saw the fear in her eyes and watched him turn away. I didn’t even so much as nod in their direction before making my exit. I knew I was being watched. I could feel their eyes on me.
Once back to the elevator, I punched in the number to my floor which I knew was two below Maddie’s. No one had gotten on with me, but if they were watching the lights, they’d hopefully believe I went right back to my room.
Once on Maddie’s floor, I walked as quickly as possible, trying not to draw any attention and knowing there were cameras watching the hallways. I banged on her door until she opened it.
“Liam? What’s wrong?” she asked sleepily, and I realized she and Oscar had gone to bed early. There was no time to waste.
“Look, I need you to trust me right now. Absolute trust, Maddie. Can you do that?” She slowly nodded, but I could feel the anxiety starting to build in her. “Is Oscar asleep?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I need you to pack your things. Whatever you can fit into a bag as quickly as possible. I will get Oscar. I don’t have time to answer a lot of questions. We’ll talk in the car, but it’s not safe here and we have to leave now.”
To my shock and relief, she did exactly what I told her to do. I gently picked the boy up and he never even woke. We stopped off in my room and Maddie quickly threw my things into my bag and within minutes we were heading for the elevator.
“Wait, there’ll be too many in the lobby, it could draw suspicion. There’s a staircase at the other end of the hall. It goes straight to the parking deck, we need to take that.”
We walked to the far end of hotel and decided to chance the elevator there instead. The ball was on the other side of the complex and I prayed we’d put enough space between us and them to get away safely.
Uneventfully making it to my car should have been enough to calm me down, but it wasn’t. I gently laid Oscar across the back seat. Maddie looked at me and then back at him. “He needs his car seat, it’s in Annie’s car.”
“He’ll be fine.”
“Liam, it’s illegal and it’s not safe.”
“We’re not safe. I promise you, I will stop and buy him the best car seat on the market the second we are away from here.”
I felt close to having my own anxiety attack. Why wasn’t she freaking out? As my anxiety grew, I felt a calm come over her. It was the strangest thing. Maddie got anxious over every little thing, so why not now?
She gently wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close My body shuddered at her touch and I started to relax. She stared into my eyes and nodded. In that moment I knew she trusted me one hundred percent. She was doing exactly what I’d asked of her without question. I could suddenly breathe again knowing that.
We got in the car and I quickly sped away. The entire time we were in the city and even many miles later with nothing but darkness surrounding us, I obsessively watched my rearview mirror, just waiting for the boogieman to jump out or something. That guy had scared the shit out of me.
Maddie
Chapter 14
I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t even know why. Liam had come to my door and looked so terrified, I couldn’t tell him no. I just couldn’t. I hoped Annie and Jacob would understand. I would call them later and make arrangements to meet up with them. Right then all I knew was that Liam needed me. He needed me to be strong as he struggled not to fall apart. He had been there for me through several panic attacks already. It was the least I could do for him, especially once I saw the desperation in his eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I finally asked, breaking the silence that loomed between us.
“Did you know about the Order of the Verndari? Did you know they knew all along? What you are? Who you are? Annie and Jacob, they’ve been lying to you, Mad.”
His words didn’t make any sense. There was no way they knew who I was. I was just their Janie. “That’s not possible,” I whispered.
“Sweetheart, please don’t argue with me about this. I’m telling you the truth. You know I could never lie to you. The Order of the Verndari, it’s some sort of shifter watcher group of humans. I went out to the balcony to get some fresh air, ҆cause you know, the smells were driving me crazy and starting to hurt my head. You know how humans like to douse themselves in stench. Anyway, some creepy guy came out to join me. Said Jacob sent him and told me who they were and that some of them were done with watching and wanted to do research on us. He said we weren’t safe. I don’t know for sure if they know about you and Oscar, but Mad, we can’t take that chance. They were all there. So many of them in one place.”
He sounded absurd. I didn’t want to laugh, though. I could tell he was really freaked out. I asked him how he knew they were all part of this secret society group and he told me about the ring. He described it, and I knew exactly which one he was talking about. Jacob wore it frequently. He had even promised it to Oscar one day. If he knew about shifters, did he truly not know about me? Or was it all a front so he could observe and study us up close?
I thought back to everything that had been said and done over the last eight years. Anything at all that stood out. Did I say or do anything to alert them to what I was? No. I couldn’t have, because I wasn’t really a shifter. I couldn’t shift. I never had, so aside from a few lingering quirks like my intense sense of smell and really good hearing, there wasn’t anything for them to see.
“I know the ring you’re talking about,” I finally confessed
“They all had them, Mad. Nearly every single person in the room had them, and the look on Annie’s face when I approached them—I’m telling you, she was terrified I was going to say something to alert the others. The guy told me point blank that they all knew what and who I was. And they just stared and whispered in my direction. I didn’t focus in to what they were saying, but on my exit I did key in to several things that verified what he told me. Like, ‘I can’t believe Liam Westin is actually here.’ Or, ‘Have you ever been this close to one?’ There is no doubt in my mind that that guy on the balcony was telling the truth.”
I watched him shiver and I knew he was telling the truth. He was right, he couldn’t lie to me. I had felt our bond growing over the past few days. I wasn’t sure how it was happening but it definitely was. Aside from the obvious tells of someone lying like a spike in heart rate and nervous twitches that shifters are more in tune to notice, I would feel the lie on him. He had never lied to me, but I knew I would. I could feel all his emotions at this point. It was the reason I didn’t completely freak out when he banged on my door and demanded I pack up and follow him.
He was still obsessively looking in the rearview mirror, though we had gone several miles without seeing a single car. We’d been driving for hours already and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet. I couldn’t let him take me and Oscar back to Westin Pack. Oscar didn’t even know about our kind.
“There’s a town just up ahead. Can we stop and see if there’s a place to buy a car seat?”
“Are you sure? He’s sound asleep and we could have been followed. I’m not sure it’s safe. I don’t think I’ll breathe again normally till we’re in pack territory.”
And that’s what I was most worried about. I did manage to convince him it was for the best. We found a twenty-four hour megastore and I asked him to stay with Oscar while I ran in to buy it. Despite having my own money, he handed me a wad of cash and insisted I take it to pay for the seat.
The moment I was through the doors and safely out of earshot, I grabbed my phone and called Annie.
“Thank God, you’re safe. Where are you? We came back to the hotel and all your stuff is gone. Is Oscar okay?” She sounded so upset, it broke my heart.
“Janie, sweetie,” Jacob started. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”
“Apparently a friend of yours at the party said some thin
gs that totally freaked Liam out. He needed to get away from there and asked that we go with him. He’s still a mess. We’ll be okay. Oscar and I will be back home before you know it.”
“I had asked Jeremiah to warn the boy, not scare the living daylights out of him.”
“Wait, so it’s true?” I asked, still unable to accept what he was telling me. “You know? You’ve known all along?”
“About his kind? Yes. I know all about Liam Westin. He’s a bit of a celebrity among my friends. The question begs, how do you know about him?”
“I told you, we grew up together.” I kept it simple. Could they really not know who I was?
“Jane, no. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
I started to cry. I couldn’t confess something like that to a human. It was a sacred vow among shifters. I couldn’t reveal who I was, who I may have been, or who my family was to this man. I could no longer trust him. He had been like a father to me for so long. My heart was breaking.
“It can’t be,” I heard him say just before Annie grabbed the phone.
“Jane, please, come home. Jacob looks like he’s seen a ghost. What’s going on?”
“I don’t think it’s safe for me to come home again, Annie. I’m so sorry.”
“Wait,” she yelled, just as I was going to hang up the phone. “You’re our daughter. We love you. I don’t care what or who you once were. I know you, baby girl. Please don’t shut us out.”
“Did you know? Did you know all this time?” I cried into the phone. I never really cried in front of them, always alone into my pillow. I knew it would kill Annie to hear it now, but I couldn’t care about that.
“I swear we didn’t. I think maybe we suspected when Liam came around. I mean, of course we knew what he was. He’s a Westin. There had been a pack of out-of-control tigers stalking young girls in the area around the time you were”—she hesitated—“injured. So we thought, maybe Oscar was . . .” Her voice trailed off.
Forever Mine (Westin Pack Book 3) Page 12
