The Truth About Kadenburg

by T. E. Ridener

  Lorcan’s brows lifted on his forehead before he laughed. “If this is about Dimitri, you’ve got the wrong-”

  “No,” his father shook his head. “It’s his pack.”

  Thirteen

  Dimitri had envisioned meeting Liam’s parents for the first time to go a little differently. He imagined that a nice dinner would be involved, and then the process of easing them into the acceptance that their son was a man in love with another man would go swimmingly. It was something he and Liam had discussed many times. All they wanted was to be seen as two men who cared about one another, not two forces on opposing sides that were supposed to hate each other.

  You’re doing this for Liam, he reminded himself as he gazed back and forth between the two overprotective ursithropes standing before him. The young female’s uncle stood at his side, but Dimitri understood he wasn’t doing so in an effort to protect him. He was in a dangerous situation, no matter his status with Liam. It didn’t matter that he saved the girl, or that he wanted to help. The stench of judgment dulled his brain and slowed his heart rate as he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

  “What is he doing here?” Richard Bamey asked in a low voice.

  “Heck if I know,” Arnold replied as he scratched the top of his head. “He came here with your boy even though I’m pretty sure he knows that was a stupid idea.”

  The woman placed her hand over her mouth as she stared at Dimitri, and he wondered if she was going to push herself past stroke level.

  “Why the hell was Lorcan with him?” Richard asked. “I don’t see any chains on him. He’s not a captive,” he said the last part in a way that made Dimitri wonder if he was actually serious.

  Dimitri rolled his eyes. “With all due respect, Sir,” he started. “This is the twenty first century. I don’t see any need for putting me in chains-which I could break free from easily, just so you know.”

  “Bite your tongue,” Mr. Bamey frowned. “I don’t guess I should expect anything better from a wolf.”

  Dimitri refrained from making a snide remark, despite the overwhelming need to do so. So this was the man who would’ve been his future father-in-law, huh?

  How charming, he thought.

  “If you’re done insulting me, Sir, I’d like to finish the conversation I was trying to have,” Dimitri spoke up after a few seconds of tension rolled by. He turned his attention back to the girl’s uncle. “My alpha will be back.”

  “I figured as much,” Richard interrupted as he scratched the scruff on his cheek. “Charlotte caught your alpha’s scent just an hour ago. He’s putting his long nose where it doesn’t belong, but I shouldn’t expect any different from your kind. It ain’t like you to just leave well enough alone. If you kill one, you gotta kill them all, right? You like the taste of blood. You can’t get enough of it.”

  Dimitri’s jawline tightened. Even if that was true for most wolves, it wasn’t true for him. He’d tasted the blood of many creatures in his time, but the blood lust wasn’t so consuming that he’d destroy anything and everything in his path to get it.

  “If you’re quite finished,” Dimitri said more sternly than before. “I’d like to speak.”

  “Let the boy talk,” Arnold said, glancing at his friend. Mr. Bamey scowled as Arnold turned to face Dimitri again. “What do you have to say?”

  Dimitri hesitated for a few seconds as his mind betrayed him. For weeks, he’d had this speech planned out. He knew exactly what he was going to say to Liam’s parents and now his mind was blank. Was it the stress from his alpha being a complete ass? That was a damn good possibility at this point.

  He exhaled loudly as he let his eyes move back to the woman. She was peering at him with timid curiosity. He could see who Liam got his nose from. A sharp ache in his chest caused his eyebrows to furrow as he tore his gaze from her. This was a hell of a lot harder than he anticipated.

  “Well?” Her husband asked impatiently.

  “It was my fault,” Dimitri finally stated. He lifted his gaze to meet Mr. Bamey’s. “It’s my fault your son is dead.”

  Making that confession temporarily paralyzed Dimitri and it left him vulnerable to the sudden outburst of rage that came from Liam’s dad.

  “You son of a bitch!” He bellowed.

  Before Dimitri could comprehend what was happening, he was tackled to the ground and the unrelenting force of a steel fist against his jaw had him seeing stars.

  “You killed my boy?!” Liam’s father quaked. “You took my son away from me, you bastard!”

  “Richard, stop!” Arnold said as he attempted to drag his friend off Dimitri. “Damn it, Richard. I said stop!”

  Dimitri didn’t even try to shield his face. This was what he deserved. He deserved to be beaten into a pulp for what had happened to Liam. He deserved to feel every ounce of pain Mr. Bamey unleashed upon him for failing to save Liam from his alpha.

  I’m sorry, Liam, Dimitri thought as his eyes watered from the strikes to his face, mixing with the blood that escaped the fresh cuts on his cheeks from the impact of Mr. Bamey’s knuckles. He could hear the woman shouting and the other man was cussing as they tried to pull Liam’s father off him again.

  “STOP!” Mrs. Bamey barked. “Richard, stop! You can’t do that!”

  “The hell I can’t!” Mr. Bamey argued. “Don’t tell me I can’t do it, Charlotte. He deserves to pay for what happened to our boy.”

  “Richard, you can’t. He’s protected.”

  Mr. Bamey had his bloodied fist pulled back, ready to strike again when he heard his wife’s words. He froze in mid-air before he turned his head to look at her. “What’d you say?”

  Dimitri opened the eye that wasn’t swollen shut to gaze at the woman who was staring at him with wide eyes. It was like she’d seen a ghost.

  “I can smell it,” she said softly as tears glistened in her eyes. “I can smell Liam on him.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mr. Bamey asked in a trembling voice. “I don’t smell anything but wolf.”

  Mrs. Bamey moved closer, kneeling down beside of Dimitri’s head as she reached her hand out to trace her thumb over a reddening bruise upon his forehead.

  “I can smell him on you,” she sobbed as her voice cracked. “I can smell Liam’s…” Her lower lip began to tremble as a tear rolled down her cheek. She shook her head slowly.

  Dimitri blinked in confusion as the woman cupped his face between her extremely warm hands. It was an odd comfort for him. A chill ran down his spine from the familiar heat of an ursithrope’s touch. If he closed his eyes, he was willing to bet he’d mistake her for Liam, which was crazy.

  “What the hell do you smell?” Mr. Bamey asked as he watched his wife in bewilderment. “Why are you acting so funny, Charlotte?”

  Dimitri watched as the older woman opened her eyes and then she smiled gently at him. There was a prominent tenderness in her smile, and it broke his heart to realize Liam had inherited that from her, too. He couldn’t look away from her as she lifted a hand to wipe her tears away.

  “Liam’s love,” she responded quietly. “I smell Liam’s love on him.”

  Dimitri’s eyes drifted from Mrs. Bamey to her husband, watching as it began to register in the man’s mind. Dimitri was still flat on his back with all of Mr. Bamey’s weight crushing down against him. His lungs ached and his face was throbbing in more than one place. He swiped his tongue over his lower lip and tasted the metallic flavored liquid collecting there.

  Mr. Bamey sure knows how to fight, he thought.

  The air rushed back into his lungs as Liam’s father pulled away from him, straightening up and then taking a few steps away from them. Dimitri watched him in silence as Arnold offered a hand to him. Dimitri pulled himself up with Arnold’s help, but kept his eyes on Mr. Bamey’s back.

  “Richard,” his wife whispered. “Richard, we need to-”

  “Give me a minute, Charlotte,” he said hoarsely as he placed his hands on his waist and gazed u
p towards the sky. “Just give me a gosh darn minute here.”

  Mrs. Bamey nodded her head before she turned to face Dimitri again. There was an expression of sadness on her face, yet her eyes held another emotion. Dimitri couldn’t figure out what that emotion was just yet.

  The wolf flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head quickly to meet Arnold’s gaze.

  “Don’t you think you could have warned me about how this conversation was going to unfold?” He asked.

  “I’m sorry,” Dimitri shrugged, wiping at his lower lip. He pulled his fingers away to see the bright red crimson. It would heal quickly, but he’d not soon forget the ass kicking he’d just received from an old ursithrope. “I didn’t exactly plan for it to work out that way.”

  His eyes moved back to Liam’s mother as she stepped towards him again and his brows furrowed as he watched her. She was struggling with her own emotions. He could tell by the way she fidgeted with the loose threads on her blouse. He could sense her confusion and her sadness, as well as her…happiness?

  “I knew there was someone in his life,” she said softly as she smiled. The tears still glistened in her eyes, but the sadness that lingered there only moments before had dispersed. The middle aged woman was quick to wrap her arms around his neck in a surprise hug, and Dimitri didn’t know how to react.

  It felt nice to be hugged like that.

  “I didn’t know,” she said. Her voice was muffled against his shoulder as her arms squeezed around him. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know.”

  Dimitri could feel the oxygen leaving his brain as her grip seemed to get tighter and tighter. Ursithropes definitely had to be the reigning champions of bear hugs, and for good reason.

  He was still trying to figure out how she even knew, but then he recalled a particular night during a steamy situation when Liam bit him harder than usual.

  He marked me, Dimitri thought. There was a thrill of pride that ran through him, but it was overclouded by sadness. Mrs. Bamey was accepting him as her son’s mate, but Liam wasn’t there to celebrate the joyous occasion with them.

  Mr. Bamey still had his back to them and Dimitri knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to try to approach the man. He could sense his anger. He felt betrayed by his son. He was hurt. He was sad.

  Dimitri felt guilty for spilling the beans during such a critical time. His pack was on the way, he just knew it, and he had to protect these people somehow. Why couldn’t he have waited until after this was over?

  They needed to know now. They needed to understand why this is happening. It’s because I loved their son and he loved me. I have to keep Breslin from hurting them. I won’t let him get to them like he did Liam, he promised himself mentally as he wrapped an arm around Mrs. Bamey.

  Just as Dimitri began to allow himself to enjoy the embrace of a maternal figure, a surge of panic ran down his spine and his eyes snapped open. He went rigid in Mrs. Bamey’s arms and the woman pulled back when she realized the change in his demeanor.

  “What is it?” She asked, catching her husband’s attention by the grave tone of her voice.

  Dimitri frowned. He turned his gaze towards the wooded area before he looked back to her, and then to Arnold.

  “They’re coming,” Dimitri said lowly. “They’re almost here.”

  Fourteen

  She didn’t understand what was going on. The world was moving at the speed of light and in slow motion at the same time. Lorcan’s hand held hers tightly as he led her back into her childhood home where they joined her uncle, Lorcan’s parents, and that guy in the living room. They all looked as if someone had just died, and the alarm going off in her brain told her something bad was about to happen.

  What could possibly be worse than turning into a freaking bear? Presley wondered when she felt Lorcan’s arms coiling around her body in a protective manner. It was weird actually, how Lorcan’s touch calmed the tension and melted away her anxieties. Even when they were younger, Lorcan always gave her great comfort in times of overwhelming stress.

  Presley could remember the first time she ever wrecked her bicycle. All the Kadenburg kids met up near Manor Lane to ride to the creek together to do typical kid things, but Presley hadn’t quite gotten a grasp on how to turn around while pedaling at the same time. There was a small ditch near the bank where they parked their bikes, and Presley didn’t want her peers to know she wasn’t as skilled as they were. It wasn’t her fault she was such a prideful girl.

  While her friends zoomed past her and turned with precision to park their bicycles, Presley panicked and squeezed the brake on her handlebar without much thought about it. The last thing she remembered was flying over the bright pink handlebars and soaring through the air like Mighty Mouse before crash landing against the gigantic rock nestled between mud and twigs below.

  “Pretz! Pretz, are you okay?” Liam called as he slammed on his brakes and skidded to a halt near the ditch’s edge.

  She was too embarrassed to look up. The pain in her knee was hot and searing, much like the tears in her eyes.

  “Presley?” Lorcan called. His bike hit the dirt road as he appeared above her, staring down at her with a frown on his face.

  “That looked like it hurt!” Larry Johnson laughed.

  “Shut it,” Lorcan warned angrily before he leapt down into the ditch. His shoes sank into the mud as he crouched beside of her, reaching his hand out to touch her arm. “Presley, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she said through clenched teeth as a tear slid down her cheek. It was one of those instances where she was in a lot of pain and she didn’t want to show it. Despite her best efforts though, the tears fell anyway. “Stupid bike.”

  “Hey, it’s not the bike’s fault,” Lorcan offered with a boyish grin. “That was a pretty nasty fall. It looks like you banged up your knee though. Let me help you out of here.”

  “No,” she said urgently as her tearful eyes snapped up to his face. “No. Just leave me alone, Lorcan. I’ll be fine.”

  Lorcan gazed at her quizzically before he tilted his head to the side. “You can’t stay down here, Presley. You’re covered in mud and you’re bleeding.”

  Presley lowered her gaze to her left knee. The impact against the rock must have been pretty hard judging by the gash. She frowned from the sight of the blood oozing down her leg before she quickly covered it with her hand.

  “Just go,” she demanded.

  She could hear the other kids laughing at her. What idiots! It wouldn’t have been so funny if they had gotten hurt.

  “Shut up!” Liam scolded. “It’s not funny.”

  As the laughter quieted down, Presley chewed her lower lip. She was more embarrassed than anything else. She should’ve been more careful…

  “It’ll be okay,” Lorcan said gently as he pulled his green t-shirt off and offered it to her. “Put this on your knee. It’ll help it stop bleeding I bet.”

  “But that’s your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt,” Presley protested.

  “It’s just a shirt, Pretz.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to argue as he pressed the balled up material against her knee, smiling at her.

  Presley wasn’t sure how long she’d been lost in the memory, but she caught the tail end of a conversation as Mr. Bamey slammed his fist against the doorframe that separated the hallway from the living room.

  “I knew this was a bad idea!” He exclaimed. “It’s never amounted to any good having your kind here, kid. Do you understand that?” He asked angrily as he glared at Dimitri. “We’ve not forgotten the last visit.”

  The auburn haired male remained silent as he nodded his head. “Of course I understand that,” he stated in a calm tone. “Do you think I’m not aware of what my alpha is capable of? Do you think I turn a blind eye to the true nature of lycanthropes? I do not. I was born as one; I am one. I know exactly how we work and what we do.”

  Presley glanced up at Lorcan and she realized that he was deeply engrossed wi
th what the wolf had to say. But why-why was anyone listening to this man if he was the bad guy? She might’ve been new to the game, but she was a hell of a fast learner. Given the fact he was the reason for her traumatic first transformation, she’d gathered he was not their friend at this point.

  Just thinking about it made her skin crawl. It was like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. Kadenburg was a town full of hillbillies and grandmothers who loved to bake; not weird man-bears and psychotic wolves who liked to feast on said man-bears. It was madness!

  “Perhaps you should take this conversation into another room,” Mrs. Bamey suggested in a soft tone as she gazed at Presley. The worry was evident on her face.

  “Why?” Mr. Bamey asked with a frown as Presley met his gaze. “Presley has a right to know what these monsters did to us in the past. She should know exactly what they’re going to try to do again.”

  Presley couldn’t help but to be curious about what had happened in the past. She had a feeling that it was going to affect her more than anything had thus far. Maybe she was wrong, but her instincts never led her astray.

  “Richard, you can’t dump all of this on her,” Mrs. Bamey frowned. “She’s just a girl.”

  Presley fought the urge to roll her eyes. If Mrs. Bamey thought she was innocent in any way, the woman had another thing coming. Life had corrupted her since day one and she wasn’t a stranger to bad news. Who did the woman think she was kidding?

  “She’s just a girl,” Mr. Bamey mocked with a scowl. “Take a good look at her, Charlotte. She’s nearly as old as Lorcan. I’m pretty sure she can handle it.”

  “Handle what?” Presley asked as an eerie silence fell over the room. She’d never felt tension rise as quickly as it did in that very moment. Lifting a brow, she glanced from one person to another. No one would meet her gaze. She felt Lorcan’s arm tightening around her and she turned her head to stare up at him. “What are they hiding from me?”

  Just when she thought no one was going to answer her, Uncle Arnold cleared his throat.