“I think your brother would understand, the need for this. Markus is a standup guy, he wouldn’t deny you that right.” Paris replies back at me. “Besides, you’re not guilty of anything. Surely you’re family members have thought at some point that perhaps for you, there would be this need to know where you came from, who you were before them.”
I raise my eyebrows and think about it. “I had a few conversations with my dad about it, earlier on. But it was just dad. No one else ever broached the subject with me. I think as far as the Sommers kids were concerned, I was just one of them.”
“Still are.” Paris said back at me. “This doesn’t change that Cadey.”
My smile feels weak and I felt unsettled as I look at him. “Does it change anything between us?”
“What? No, no of course not.” Paris says quickly striding over to me. He kneels down before me putting his hands on my knees. “Hey, no, it doesn’t change anything between us. You are my wolf, always my wolf.”
“I don’t know what I’m thinking, it’s just, they don’t have a pack and if they’re my brothers, does that mean I default to no pack status instead of Breukelen pack status?”
Paris grabs both my hands in his. “You are a Breukelen. Ask Markus I’m sure he’d say the same thing.”
“Yeah, he did, when we were walking back here.”
“See?” Paris says kissing my hands. “Markus wouldn’t lie to you, of all people in the world, in the pack in your family, you are the one person, and he wouldn’t lie to. I’ve seen you two together and you’re above the others in his eyes, you know that?”
I nod my head back at him. “Talk to them, it might help you sort through, what you’re feeling having this dumped on you like this. I’m sure both Phelan and Thane are going through some mixed emotions too about finding you.”
“That’s just it,” I say looking at Paris. “They didn’t find me.” He frowned back at me.
“What do you mean?”
“The hunt, we were all put there together, by someone who knew, somehow knew, the three of us were related. Figuring out the boys are related, not that hard, they live together, they are their own pack. But me? Who outside of my family knew about me?”
“Well me, I knew you were adopted, so did Addison and Jules and,”
“Beyond the adopted part. Who outside of my family knew the origin of my adoption, how it really happened? My father only told my step mother. Even my brothers and sisters don’t know the exact details of it. They just know I was a werewolf in need of a home and my father adopted me, to save me from going into the foster system and getting given to Nons.
My father thought it was rather imperative that the details of my adoption, stay rather generalised and secret. My father only told me the details of exactly how he came to adopt me, when I was old enough to understand. I always thought he was just being overly protective, you know, as a father towards a daughter. But maybe the old man knew something I didn’t?”
Paris stroked my hand as he looked it. “Do I know it?” He asked me.
“No, not even you know that much about me.”
“I hope some time you’ll feel you can tell me.” He said as his fingers stroked the back of my hands.
“Not before I tell Markus.”
Paris nods his head. “Do you want me to get him for you?”
“Please.” He leans forward and kiss my forehead as he raises up and heads out of the room to go collect Markus. The only werewolf I truly considered my brother, despite latest developments in my family life and placing in it.
14
Markus walks into the room and I waved Paris in too and got him to close the door. “Did father ever tell you about me, about how he came to adopt me?” I ask him. I can see Markus think it over and try and remember what he was told.
“Not really. I remember he used to say to me when I was little that I was your big brother.” Markus says with a little smile curling upwards on his lips. “He told me I had to love you protect you and keep you safe.”
“Really?”
Markus laughs. “For real. All the time. Aksel never got that spiel. I know, because do you remember when we used to get into fights with him? When we’d done something and he would tell us both off, you remember what I’d say back to him?”
I frowned, thinking back to me and Markus as naughty pups. “Oh god, yeah, you used to back chat Aksel all the time.”
“Right.”
“And you’d say something like were my protector werewolf. The pack alpha himself had said so. So Aksel had better back off or you’d report him to the alpha.” We burst out laughing at one another.
“Yep, that was my big defense speech.” Markus smiled at me.
“Damn, that speech got us out of so much trouble with Aksel didn’t it?”
“Every single time.” Markus said back at me. “He used to whine at father you know, about me pulling that on him too.”
I looked back at him in surprise. “And Father would brush it off, saying I was in the right. Used to drive Aksel insane.”
The room went silent and I kicked my feet out from the edge of the bed and watched them. Talking about myself, you wouldn’t think it’d be so hard. But somehow it seemed confront-ing.
“I think the official line father told Aksel and Bodil about me, was something like I didn’t have parents and was in need of a loving home. He knew they could all love me, that they had room in their hearts to love me like I was their own. But with you, he didn’t have to cause we grew up together, side by side.”
Markus dips his head and smiles. “That’s it exactly.”
“Right, right.” I muttered wondering why I was hesitating. It was Markus, the one guy in the whole world I could rely on, lean on, no matter what. “My adoption, it wasn’t exactly a regular thing.”
Markus looks back up at me.
“I was found abandoned at a church in Red Hook. I was wrapped in blankets and in a box. Like you might put an animal in.”
I paused wondering if that was a deliberate part of my abandonment, had my mother meant to put that obvious detail there instead of putting me in a baby basket. She wanted whoever found me to know what I was.
“The priest of the church discovered me, and looked for my mother. Searched around the church grounds, and looked outside the church. But he couldn’t find her. He was good friends with father and called on him for help in what he should do. The priest didn’t want just call the police, he held out hope for finding my mother. Thought if they got together they could figure out where she was and return me to her, and help her if need be.”
I paused. I wondered if Phelan and Thane knew our mother. They didn’t speak of her, but then they didn’t speak of anything either.
After all, we’d only just meet, and none of us were really on speaking terms that much. Being in the hunt hadn’t bonded us together, we’d just worked through it. Because we had to.
“Of course, they never found her. And father knew, they had to report me to the police, and that if they did, there might be a chance the police or social workers knew who my mother was, or where they could likely find her. But they never did. The authorities couldn’t tell if I was a day old or a few days old, I was just a newborn. So no one really knew when my date of birth was. They put it down as the day I was reported to the authorities. So I was put up to go into the foster system. But father, being father,” I said with a smile.
“Ensured I was constantly monitored and tracked by people he knew in the system. And he greased the palms of whoever he needed to, to be the only one who saw that I was up for adoption.”
“That’s the story he told me.” Markus said back at me.
“Story? You think he made it up and lied to me, to us, all of us?” I ask Markus my attention focusing sharply.
Markus shrugged his shoulders. “I’d like to think he wouldn’t do that, but if he did, there would be a damn good reason he did.”
“He never said it, but I always thought, there h
ad to be a reason, something specific that made him adopt me in this manner. Other than perhaps he sensed I was a werewolf. But he never said anything other than what I just told you. And you know the rest, I grew up right alongside you, a few months younger than you and right alongside Bodil and Aksel and you know, eventually, Joss and mom.”
“Right.” Markus said.
“But he always called me special, his special girl. He would tell Bodil when she tried to go off at me with him, that I was different. I never thought much of it at the time. But it’s al-ways bugged me. I’ve always kept that comment, catalogued for some reason. I mean, every parent says their child is special and wonderful right?”
Markus nodded his head silently and I looked across at Paris.
“You two, outside of father, mom are the only people who know my story now.”
Markus thought about it a moment. “What about the priest, and those involved in looking after you, making sure you didn’t go fully into the foster system? Doesn’t they know too? Do you know who he is?”
“I never got a name, not even of the church. It was always generalities with this story. I never probed either, because, well,” I sighed and bit my lip before continuing on. “I didn’t want to. I’ve loved being a part of this family, I’ve always had what I wanted with it.”
Paris walked over to me. “What about your birth mark?” He said side tracking the conversation.
“What birth mark? Cadey doesn’t have one.” Markus says back at him.
“Yes she does, I should know, I look at it often.” Paris replies.
“Yes I do. It’s a rare one. If you don’t know to look for it, then you don’t know what it is.” I state back at Markus.
“What? Where?”
I point at my right eye.
“How many werewolves have that exact birth mark?” Paris offers up. “Maybe your father knew something about that. Or at least, thought he did, and so he thought for some reason, you were more than you appeared to be. Or could just be, he fell in love with you when he looked at you.” Paris smiled. “I know I did.”
“What? Where? Show me!” Markus demands walking over to me looking at my eyes intently.
I widen my eyes and let Markus stare at my eye up close. “I don’t see it.”
“It’s a bit darker than the rest of the eye and it’s got a slightly ragged edge, look for that.”
Markus stares at me. “Oh, yeah, there I see the ragged bit but that’s kind of it. It kind of blends with the rest of the iris.”
“That’s it, that’s the birth mark.” I state back at him, relaxing my eye again. I added that item to the list I was building in my head of my weird and usual abilities and things about me that made me different to the girl I’d grown up thinking I was.
Rare birth mark. Check.
Partial shifting abilities. Check.
Eyes changing when feeling defensive and shifting. Check
Attracting powerful werewolves into my orbit. Check.
My werewolf abilities getting stronger and not diminishing during an eclipse, like they did
for every other werewolf I knew. Check.
Having a twin brother I didn’t know I’d had my whole life. Check
Having another Alpha werewolf for an older brother. Check.
Being part Dire Wolf. Check.
Surviving being in a hurricane. Check
Being immune to wolfs bane poison, like Phelan. Check.
Being abandoned at birth for reasons unknown. Check.
Being adopted by an alpha pack leader. Check.
Being brought up in the Breukelen werewolf pack. Check.
Growing up in a leading pack family. Check.
Dating a pack leader from another werewolf pack. Check.
15
Its time to talk with the brothers wolf as I’d come to think of them. My head is spinning and my thoughts were going everywhere.
I need to get focused and that only comes from answers, the right answers. Not speculation like I’d gotten into with Markus and Paris.
I walk into Phelan’s room without bothering to knock.
“Come on in then,” He mutters as I walked right over to him and grab his face. “Hey, what the hell?” I stare into his eye, keeping the eye lid and bottom of the eye, wide open. Phelan squirms underneath me, his hands going up to my arms and gripping them.
“Stay fucking still.” I growl at him looking at his right eye.
It looks normal. I move onto his left eye and pulled it open. “Stop trying to blink.” I stare hard, looking for the difference in iris and there it is. A ragged line that if I follow round, smoothed out somewhat.
“Fuck!” I mutter dropping my hands off him and taking a few steps back.
I don’t know anyone else other than me who had a birthmark in their eye. It’s not like they’re fucking common. Just like me. Fuck!
Phelan frowns back at me. “What the hell is your problem?”
I look at him as if to indicate the answer to his question was damn obvious, it was him. Paris and Markus walk into the room. “He has the same damn birth mark. But it’s in his left eye.” I say back at them.
Markus walks over towards him, Phelan shirks back putting his hands up. “What the fuck are you going on about?” He says as Markus grabs his face in his hands and studies the eye in question.
Phelan puts his hands up on Markus’s but Markus’s grip remains firm as he studies the eye until he too see is. Markus steps back. “Don’t think he can shape shift that there. Or like that.” He mutters backing up to my side.
Phelan is scowling at us both. “Do you mind?” He mutters indicating his state of dress which I’d failed to pay attention to. He’s just come out of the shower and has a towel wrapped around his hips.
“Maybe you should use the bathroom.” Markus remarks picking up the jeans that lay on the bed before us and throwing them at Phelan.
He catches them and I watch as the two of them eye each other off. Phelan being the type not to taken to being threatened by another werewolf. Markus walks up to him, right up to him. Markus and Phelan are the same height. Markus stands his ground and keeps eye contact as they stand off against one another.
“My room.” Phelan says dropping the towel.
“Oh,” I start to turn around and Markus ensures he’s blocking my line of sight as Phelan pulls on his jeans on right in front of Markus, eyeballing him while he does so.
“You wolves think you can just do whatever you want to me and my brother because there’s more of you here?” I hear him ask. “I’m dressed.” He mutters for my benefit so I can turn around again to face the two males. He bends down to snatch up the towel and toss it aside onto the bed. “You are not my masters.”
“And we don’t believe in slavery.” I throw back at him. “So you might want to drop that massive chip on your shoulder.”
“Bite me.” He snarls back at me.
Markus is on him in an instant and they’re swinging fits and trading blows again.
“Stop it!” I yell at them.
Markus gets one solid connect in to Pehlan’s jaw before backing off and coming back over to me. Leaving Phelan rubbing his jaw with a hand and looking dark and angry.
“Don’t you ever talk to her like that!” Markus says pointing a finger at him. “Ever.”
I sigh heavily and scratch my head, because really what I want to do is throw my arms around Markus and hug the shit out of him, I love him so.
But it’s not the right time, we have to figure this thing, this event that has brought us all together, out. So we know what the hell is going on and how we go on with or without it.
“So,” I say crossing my arms over myself. “I guess we can all expect this kind of shit to happen for a while yet, while we get to know one another. Learn about each other and our ways.”
Phelan glares back at both of us Sommers kids. “We’re from New York, death glares aren’t nearly enough to do either of us in, wolf-head.” Phelan’s eyes dart
back to me.
“Which reminds me, where exactly are you and Thane from? You never did say.” I ask Phelan.
“Canada.” He replies simply.
Great, he’s from the very country we find ourselves in. No other details for us to figure out. Not big on words unless he wants to be.
I suspect I will have more success talking and getting information out of Phelan by myself than I will with Markus hovering over us. “Which means, technically, you’re Canadian.”
I purse my lips together as I think this over. “How do you know where we were born?” Phelan shifts on his feet and I know he doesn’t. “Got a birth certificate? I mean, if you did, surely it would say twins, one boy, one girl that our mother gave birth too. And if that is the case, then I have to ask the most obvious question there is.”
Markus stills beside me as we look back at Phelan. “Why leave me behind? If we were born at the same time, so to speak, why abandon me?”
Phelan looks uncomfortable with this line of questioning. It makes me think, he knows far more than he is letting on. “Okay, scratch that. So I get abandoned as a newborn.” I see the pain in Phelan’s facial expression at my words.
The atmosphere in the room changes too. There is a thickness to it now. Like a burden being pressed into a promise. Heaviness of the heart washes up against me. It is Phelan’s mood I am feeling, I suppose because we are so connected, I feel it stronger than Markus might, if he even does.
“Do you feel that?” I ask Markus softly out the side of my mouth.
“No.”
Shit. Empathic twin ability, has now been activated.
I think about the forest and how we responded to one another in there, how we fought, and thought. It’s like a light bulb moment that makes complete sense to me now. Everything between Phelan and I is stronger than it is when we’re alone.
The closer we are to one another, the more we can do. Shit. Shit. Shit. I have never had this before. Ever.
“What?” Markus asks leaning towards me.
I wave a hand at him. “Nothing, forget about it.” I try to curb my anger as the next question rears itself on my tongue. I assume whatever I can feel from him, he too can in return, feel from me when we are both in this heightened emotional state.
Red White and Werewolf Page 5
