“He harmed you. I can tell.”
“All parents harm their children,” I told him softly. “Whether it’s intended or not.”
“That’s a very cynical belief.”
“No, it’s candid and true. Even the best parents die, don’t they? They can’t stop death. We come into this world knowing we will be left alone at some point. Knowing that we will have to endure a world without those we love. Is there anything more certain than death?”
“Taxes?”
My smile was brisk. “Depends on how you lead your life.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Everyone pays taxes.”
“Not if you’re dead.”
“And you’re dead?”
“Yes. According to the appropriate governing bodies that count, at any rate.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you mean me no harm. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.” Not only did I sense it, but I surmised as much from what Sabina had said. “You want what’s best for me.”
“You’re right. I do.”
“Then you’ll leave me alone. That’s what’s best for me.”
If I’d hurt him with my answer, I couldn’t tell. Not even in those signs I was accustomed to reading. He didn’t project any emotion, even though I knew he felt it.
His control, his barriers…they were as strong as mine.
Interesting.
Few knew how to contain their emotions to that extent. Not even Sabina could, and she was one of the most adept people I knew.
“You want to be alone?”
“I prefer not to live a lie.”
“That’s a hard way of looking at things.”
“Life is hard. I can rely on myself.”
“You know what you are to me?”
“Sabina explained.”
“You know that I won’t just let this drop?”
“Yes. Of course,” I told him, just as calm as he was. “But that’s to be expected. I do hope you won’t be predictable, though.”
“Oh, I’m sure I won’t be.” His smile was small, just a hint of it flashed in his eyes, making the orbs gleam like they were tinted with gold. “If it’s interesting you appreciate more than anything, without any strings attached, maybe you’ll do me the honor of dining with me at some point this week?”
The need that sprang up inside me was too ardent to ignore, but equally, I didn’t trust it. I’d been cool and collected, as relaxed as he was, but at his dinner invitation, things changed.
Feelings bubbled up inside me that I couldn’t control, so, like any dim-witted ingenue, I blurted out, “No strings?”
“No strings.” Then, he sat forward, his elbows coming to rest on his knees, as he calmly told me, “You’ve no need to fear me, Lara. To harm you would be to harm myself, and I have no intention of being alone, not when the Mother blessed me with a gift.”
“I’m no gift,” I assured him, but I unfolded my arms at his remark.
“Are you a curse, then?”
“Maybe. Depends who’s asking.”
“Me?”
I stared him straight in the eye and nodded. “I’m the worst kind of curse for a man like you.”
“Then I consider it my role in this life, my duty, my privilege, to prove to you just how wrong you are about that.” And with that, he got to his feet, and started strolling out of the room. As he crossed the threshold, he tossed back at me, “I’ll contact you with more information on when we can get together to eat.”
And he left.
Taking my curiosity with him.
Twelve
Ethan
“Do you know why there were a mated pair of hyenas on your territory, Alpha Kinsdale?”
“No. That’s the short answer. And in the interest of full disclosure, the longer answer is that their clan came to me and asked permission for their entry into my land.”
“With no explanation?”
“No. I didn’t ask for it.”
Brow furrowing, I asked, “Is that normal?”
“It is when they grease your palm,” Austin ground out. “How much did they pay you to look the other way?”
I shot my twin a glare, and silently told him, “Shut the fuck up.”
But Kinsdale wasn’t mad. If anything, he was amused—fucking Austin. I swear, if I pulled the stunts he did, I’d get a broken nose for my pains. My twin? He just got an ‘aw shucks’ grin and a slap on the back.
A hunch of Kinsdale’s shoulders was followed with a, “Your brother is quite right, Beta Cartwright. My pack isn’t as fancy as the Highbanks pack, and we needed the money. You know how wealthy the clans are. I wasn’t about to turn them down.”
“You kept an eye on them, surely?” Austin queried, placing his hands on the desk beside me as he loomed over the call.
Kinsdale grunted. “Of course.”
“And are you willing to tell us what your men reported?” I inquired.
“I extended your alpha the favor of retrieving his sister-in-law, but I don’t appreciate being interrogated like I’m a common criminal.”
“Those hyenas attacked my alpha’s sister-in-law,” Austin stated firmly. “With an intent to kill. Eli’s pissed off about it, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
Kinsdale’s jaw worked a second. “Heard about that. Not going to lie.”
“I’d expect nothing less from an alpha such as yourself,” was Austin’s smartass retort.
I glowered at him, but he was too busy getting in the other alpha’s face.
“They were asking questions around town,” Kinsdale admitted.
“What kind of questions?”
He cleared his throat. “About a woman.”
“You catch a name?”
“Course I did,” he muttered, but he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Let me guess, the one and the same as the female your men helped return to our pack?”
Kinsdale pulled a face. “They said they were looking for one of their own. What was I supposed to do? Shield a hyena in my pack lands?”
I scowled at that. “That makes no sense. You’d have scented a hyena if there was a lone one around town. Plus, you know they always run in pairs, and a male hyena stinks,” I said candidly, shaking my head at his illogical answer. “There’s no way you’d be able to miss two of them running around your territory.”
“I figured they were on a wild goose chase—”
“And speaking of geese, you weren’t about to bite the goose who lays the golden goddamn egg. So you knew they were there on a false errand, but took their cash anyway.”
Kinsdale’s amusement had long since died a death. “Like I said, we’re not all highfalutin Highbanks.”
Austin smirked at him. “No, we sure ain’t.” He cut the call before I had a chance to do so, and I growled at him.
“I swear you were born to try my patience.”
“Like you weren’t born for the exact same reason, Ethan. We came out of the womb kicking and screaming one another, I figure we’ll go out the same way too.”
“I’d look forward to it, if it weren’t for Sabina,” I muttered grumpily. “Do you always have to be so antagonistic?”
“Do you really think he’d have answered your questions if you hadn’t bypassed the bullshit? There’s a reason I’m the people person, Ethan. Remember? You go and do your Data shit and read, and leave me to deal with folks with pulses.”
I shoved him in the side as he made to stand from his leaning position against the desk, and when he twisted around to glower at me, I snapped, “You pissed him off when we could have asked him more questions.”
“Questions he can’t answer.”
“You know that, how?”
“Because he was uncomfortable. He liked that we owed him a favor for his help in bringing Lara home, and now we know that, essentially, he did diddly squat to protect a female from hyenas who were on the hunt for her—which never bodes well, does it? Vindictive
bastards that they are—that favor is null and void.”
“Eli doesn’t work that way,” I muttered, uncaring that I was being mulish.
Austin didn’t take enough care sometimes, and things were different now.
We were no longer just rogue enforcers doing what needed to be done. We had a position in the pack, and we had a mate and a child. We couldn’t just dick around anymore.
And when I said ‘we,’ I meant he.
I pushed away from Eli’s desk, something I’d taken to using now he preferred working upstairs in our room as the pack had more access to him. This room promised me no distractions, because the pack still distrusted Austin and I. Like everything at the moment, it was a work in progress.
Sighing at the thought, I got to my feet.
“Why would the hyenas be looking for Lara?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, pausing on my way to the door. “She doesn’t seem the type to get involved with money lenders.”
“Everyone needs a loan from time to time,” he said softly. “Maybe things got tight—”
“Maybe. We need to talk with her.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I don’t like that the hyenas were there for her and the male still went ape on her.”
“That’s because they have no self-control.”
“Like we would if anything happened to Sabina,” I snapped.
“We’re sensible. We die after our mates pass. We’re not left to linger on in misery,” he retorted. “That’s what happens when you choose your partner and the Mother doesn’t.”
“Merinda lingered on in misery,” I said softly, catching his eye and watching as he immediately ducked his head. “Not just after our father died, but after Eli’s did too.”
“Probably being punished,” he muttered.
“For what? Being a shit parent? I don’t think that’s how the Mother works.” His obstinacy had me gritting my teeth. “So many things have been going on of late. Everything from Lara arriving, to finding out Berry is Merinda reincarnate, what with Seth and that weird power transference and then Choi turning up?” I shook my head. “Barely a minute to think about what’s actually happening.”
“Ever since Sabina showed up, it’s been like that. I figure we just need to adjust to the change of pace.”
“Merinda’s been protecting Sabina since she came to this realm,” I murmured, and even though it astonished me to be defending my biological mother of all people, there was no hiding from that particular truth.
“What’s going on?” Austin asked warily. “Why are you talking like this?”
“I’m not talking any which way. Just saying…she endured a lot for a reason.” I hunched my shoulders as I dug my hands into my pockets. “Seeing as you’re the people person, you can go and talk with Lara, see if she knows why hyenas might be looking for her.”
He sniffed but didn’t argue, and I strode on out, heading straight for the kitchen. It was empty, with most of the staff about their business somewhere in the house, so I peered in the fridge, found the tray that I’d asked Elsa to prepare for Seth, and grabbed it, before heading for the central staircase.
As I loped up the steps, I bypassed the wing where we slept, where our quarters were housed, and headed for the guest wing. Maribel’s door was open—unsurprising, she was like that. Open in nature too—and I saw her napping on the bed.
She was barely even showing, but she was sleeping something fierce.
The second pup was wearing on her, that was clear. She’d lost weight, and I knew that might be because of her circumstances, what with her and her mate being separated and that not being good for either of them, but I just got the feeling it was the baby.
Sleeping more, eating more…throwing up more. It fit.
When I stepped past her door, and she didn’t awaken, it confirmed two things. One, she was resting so deeply that her defenses were down. Two, she knew Seth was a strange boy. Any other mother would have slept with one eye open, well aware that someone could be approaching her child.
That level of detachment wasn’t great.
Even if I got it.
Seth, before the other day, had made it hard to like him. Now? It was a whole other kind of crazy.
I went to his door and turned the key in the lock. When I opened it, I saw him sitting on the bed, staring at the wall ahead.
Like usual, he creeped me out, and in my time as enforcer, I’d dealt with all kinds of criminals. Anything from some human POS who’d been using a corner of our land to grow pot and who’d killed some of our pack while defending his farm, to some jacked up douches from the city who’d been riding down our streets drunk. I’d had guns shoved in my face, almost had my ear blown off by bullets, and as a wolf, I’d almost been shot by a hunter—until I’d torn his face off.
This wasn’t my first rodeo, but this kid?
Sheesh.
“Seth?”
He didn’t turn to look at me, just carried on staring at the wall, and call me the crazy one, but I got the sense that he’d been looking at the damn wall ever since he’d been locked up in here.
I stepped deeper into the room and placed the tray on the desk.
It was decorated simply, but then, most of the bedrooms were like that. The Highbanks had spent most of their fortune in making the public areas swank, not bothering to make a fuss of the guest bedrooms, so this one contained a simple bed, a couple of landscape oils, and a table and chair we’d brought in so he could do his homework. Maribel had also brought in a bean bag, which sat in one corner, and he had a small chest filled with toys.
The room was sparse, but you’d never know a young kid lived in this one.
Daniel’s, a few days after he’d arrived, had been chaos itself.
Maybe it was because I wasn’t the most fastidious guy in the house that his neatness put me on edge, but either way, I stated firmly, “Seth, eat your food.”
“When will I be able to leave my room?” he asked, his tone calm. Too calm.
Too old.
Too everything.
Wariness loading me down because I knew why he sounded so old now, I stared at him and stated, “When the alpha decides what to do with you.”
“And what if I don’t recognize his judgment?”
For a second, I felt sure my eyes were bugging out, then, when I figured they actually were, I sucked them back in—metaphorically speaking—and stated, “Where you’re concerned, Seth, there’s no higher law than the alpha.”
His smile, when it came, had me gritting my teeth. Especially when he looked right at me and murmured, “We’ll see, Ethan. We’ll see.”
The anger that filled me wasn’t something I was used to feeling. I considered myself to be a calm and rational man. One who prided himself on being logical and sensible.
I wasn’t someone who allowed fits of temper to stir me into action.
I wasn’t the kind of person who’d let a child goad me.
Yet, here I was.
Goaded.
I balled my hands into fists, and the sudden urge to beat the shit out of the kid hit me. It hit me so fiercely that I took a step forward, until someone grabbed me, pulled on my shirt and wrenched me back.
“Seth, stop it.”
Twisting around at the sound of Daniel’s voice, I frowned and asked, “Daniel, what are you doing here?”
“I’m watching over Seth. He needs me.”
The simplistic answer in no way explained just how peculiar any of that was.
But even worse? The notion that if this small child hadn’t stopped me, I’d have beaten Seth.
When pain hit me behind the eyes, enough to have me staggering to my knees, Daniel rasped, “Seth! Stop it! Right now!” He stormed into the room as I collided with the floor, and when his hands grabbed Seth’s shoulders and he shook him, with more strength than was wise, I felt the sudden release like the pressure on a vacuum seal had just been ruptured.
I gasped, sucking in air like I’d been drowning, the bur
den off my shoulders, even though they still felt like they were caving in. Which was how Lara found me.
She knelt at my side and asked, “Seth isn’t himself.”
Somehow, I knew she wasn’t talking figuratively.
I twisted to look at her, and when I came face to face with her calm, I shook my head in bewilderment.
Why was everyone, apart from me, calm today?
Sinking back onto my heels felt far too difficult, but every single bone in my body ached with a misery that made me feel about a hundred years old.
“What’s going on?” I rasped, watching her stare at Seth and sensing she somehow had gotten a read on things.
“I have no idea,” she admitted. “But what’s inside him can somehow attack what’s inside you.”
My nostrils flared at that news. “Have you spoken with Sabina about this?”
“No. We had other things to discuss, and I only just learned this so how could we have talked about it?”
I ignored that to sharply question, “Other things? What kind of other things? What else could be more important than—”
She grunted at that, then reprimanded me, “What’s discussed between sisters is none of your business.”
Then, of course, I remembered what they had to talk about—how she was mated to Choi, and the whole, ‘how the hell she’d transformed’ thing the night before, plus a decade’s worth of stuff they had to share.
I reached up and dug into my eyes, which hurt, but it made me feel awake, and hey, at the moment, everywhere was damn well hurting so feeling more alert was a boon.
Her hand on my shoulder snagged my attention, but it was Daniel who I listened to as he said, “Ethan, Seth is being very trying right now.”
Bet your ass he was.
“Think he figured that out already, Daniel,” Lara muttered.
But I looked at the boy who was becoming like a son to me, saw the earnestness on his face, and asked, “I thought you and he weren’t friends?”
“We weren’t. Until I realized Maribel was having a baby.”
I froze at that. “Why would that matter?”
He blinked at me. “I can’t say.”
“Why can’t you?” I demanded, not appreciating that answer. I hated it when my mate stonewalled me because she was hiding a new talent that she thought would make us think she was nuts, but this was even less tolerable.
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