“Did you love her mother?”
“For the six months we dated in college, yes.”
“This is why you’ve been going down to Vancouver every other weekend for past ten years. This is why you always take a ski vacation in Whistler and a summer vacation on Victoria.”
I nodded. I couldn’t lie or deny this anymore.
God, my baby girl was hurt. I didn’t have time to ask Leighann all the right questions, and I was flying into a situation I knew nothing about.
“Call her,” Tati said and put her hands on the yoke. “Call her, Patrick. You’re fucking all this up, and you need more information.”
“How did you know?”
“Your whole body is trembling. She’s your kid, call her mother. I can handle the plane with the autopilot.”
I pulled my phone out and dialed Leighann’s phone. She answered by the second ring.
“Patrick.”
“What’s going on? I’m about an hour out right now.”
“She was on her bike, just riding with her friends. Next thing any of them knew, she and two of the other girls were under a car and blocked in by a flipped vehicle and everything was smashed and destroyed.”
“Who was with her?”
“Danielle and her sister, Bebe and her two brothers. All with helmets, all on the right side of the road, all obeying the traffic laws. The police have ways of scaring kids if they aren’t quite telling the truth, but all of them were so terrified of what happened…”
“What is her condition?”
“She’s comatose. The helmet cracked. She—”
“The helmet cracked? How goddamn hard was she hit?”
“She was hit by the engine block of the car. After the hood was ripped off and tossed into the air, she and the engine collided on the way down. There were so many little wounds they had to shave her hair off.”
That was when she broke down. I heard the phone clatter to the floor, and she was out and out sobbing.
The phone clattered again. “Patrick, that you, man?” Uriah’s voice was wobbly as well.
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m on my way, man. I can only get the plane to go so fast.”
“Cassie is in good hands, but we’re working with the police. The accident was massive and bizarre.” He made noises at Leighann, and I heard him hand her off to her mother. There were some footsteps, and he spoke again. “Leighann doesn’t know this. I’ll trust you not to tell her. When Cassie’s wolf tried to come out in the ambulance, I had the tech knock her out. The tech was a cat shifter, so we were able to contain that. I’ve asked the doctor to keep her sedated until you get here.”
“Fuck, man, she’s early.”
“Six years, Patrick. Whatever this accident was, it scared her, bad. The doctor and I made up a little song and dance about her needing to be sedated for the pain in her leg, but…”
“We’ll work this out. Take care of Leighann, please.”
“Always do, man. Get here.”
“Done.”
We both hung up, and I shoved the phone back in my pocket. I stared out the window.
Leighann and Cassie had girls’ nights about every six weeks where they did the whole mani-pedi-haircut thing. It was a fun thing for both of them, and I’d felt that as Cassie’s hormones started rising as a preteen, had helped her and her mother be nicer to each other.
Cassie’s vanity lay all in her hair. Expensive shampoos, conditioners, treatments, haircuts. She adored her long, wavy chestnut hair, and loved new and interesting hairdos.
This accident had made them shave the one thing my daughter was vain about. She was going to be so upset, so utterly miserable. I didn’t even know where to start to make her feel better about this.
“So?” Tatianna asked quietly.
“She’s pretty banged up, and there’s something not right about what happened,” I managed. “She tried to shift.”
“What? You said she’s twelve.”
“She is.”
Tatianna stared at me across the tiny cockpit. “That’s…”
“Virtually unheard of, I know.”
“She has to shift,” Tati whispered. “You can’t keep her sedated. That’s really bad.”
“I know.” I let out a sigh. “I know.”
Chapter Twelve
My little girl’s face was covered in bruises. Sporting a black eye, she had a turban of bandages on her head, and too many wires running from her to various machines.
Her leg, not yet casted, was elevated in a sling above the bed and wrapped with what seemed like a thousand ace bandages and miles of gauze.
The steady beep of the machines was comforting and disconcerting as I stood there. Her not-so-little-anymore hand still fit in mine.
“She looks like Mom,” Tati said.
“I know.”
Leighann sighed. “I’m so sorry, Patrick. I know you weren’t going to tell them about her.”
“We thought she was moonborn, Leigh. We couldn’t know this was going to happen. And, not telling them was one of the stupidest things I ever decided.”
“We have to let her shift,” Uriah said.
“I know that as well.” I scrubbed my free hand over my face. “But what about the police? What about the fact there are all kinds of medical records now about her broken leg? I saw the chart. The ortho is coming in tomorrow to look at and cast the leg if he feels like it’s ready. We can’t let her shift with all that ahead her.”
“She’s so young.”
Tati sighed. “It’s the accident. Her wolf wants to save her life. And if you don’t let it happen...”
“She’s bound. And she’ll be insane and feral by the time she’s twenty-five,” Uriah finished.
“Is the doctor a shifter?” Tati asked.
“Yes, he is,” Leighann said.
She smiled. “Then we can work with this. I’m good with computers, and since everything is digital…”
Uriah considered her a moment. “Are you proposing what I think you’re proposing?”
“Probably more.” She nodded. Glancing at me and then at Cassie, she pursed her lips. “She can’t be bound. We can’t let that happen. She’s already been held back for ten hours. Get the doctor in here and we’ll do this. Fast.”
Uriah and I looked at Leighann. She gave a slight nod, and Uriah left the room to find the doctor, motioning my sister to follow him.
“Patrick…”
“No. It was going to have to come out some time. I’m an idiot for hiding this. We had such fun when she was little, and then I just became ‘every other weekend and vacation Dad.’ I don’t want that. She’s a shifter and she needs to know about that.”
“She loves you, Patrick. She does. I have never heard her once bitch about you taking her for the weekend. Or the vacations. She had friends who weep when their non-primary custody parent comes to get them.”
I looked at her across the bed. “Do we need a new custody agreement?”
“I threw the old one out years ago, Trick. Years. You were always welcome to ask for more time. You’ve been so good.”
Shaking my head, I disagreed with her. “No. I haven’t. I’ll be better, though.”
She cocked her head. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Trick, maybe we didn’t work out, but we have Cassie and I consider you one of the best friends and best mistakes I ever made. You can tell me. Talk to me.”
I couldn’t stop the confession. “By not telling anyone about Cass, I may have just completely fucked any hope of winning my mate over. I screwed the pooch. Hard.”
A smile slipped onto her face. “You found your mate?”
“And lost her just as quickly.”
“You haven’t. We both did this wrong. We should have just been honest with everyone. I think…” She looked down at Cass. “I think this is my fault. If we had been honest with everyone about her, I wouldn’t be terrified of this not being an accident.”
/>
I snapped my head up. “Are they still after you?”
“They never weren’t after me. I felt like keeping her a secret kept her safe. Now I just wish we had lived out loud and let everyone know. It’s easier to keep someone safe if everyone around you knows the need to be safe.”
“You know you can ask me for help.”
She grinned. “I have Uriah.” She looked at the door and leaned forward. “He’s CSIS. There’s a reason I let the cat out of the bag about Cassie.”
“Wait.” I narrowed my eyes. “Canadian Intelligence?”
“Yeah, he was assigned to me. We…were assigned to each other.”
I chuckled. “Well, that’s kind of stereotypical.”
“You only saw the wedding, you have no idea how stereotypical it was!”
“He’s good for you, Leigh.”
“And your mate will come around. Give her time. I give you permission to explain why we did hide her.”
I let out a breath. “I will. This is going to take time and I’m not sure I have it.”
“If she’s your mate, you’ll make time.”
She was right.
* * *
Doctor St. Sulpice, another cat shifter, stood in front of the door, with one of his other shifter staff, a big burly orderly named N’gadi. He was a damn gorilla shifter. I’d never met one; I knew they existed, but they almost never left Africa.
He had his arms folded over his chest and planted himself in front of the door. No one was coming or going.
“We have just a few minutes before someone gets suspicious,” the doctor said. “You’re sure you can get her to shift and shift back?”
Leighann and I nodded, and Tatianna and Uriah nodded as well a moment later.
He walked over to the IV he had set up and unhooked the sedative, rinsing it with a saline. He taped the IV lead to Cassie’s arm a moment later and stepped back to stand by N’gadi.
It didn’t take all of five minutes for Cassie to snap her eyes open and start panicking. Leighann and I grabbed a hand each and held on.
“Cassie, baby, it’s okay. Daddy and I are here.”
“It hurts, Mom!” She gasped and big fat tears appeared in her eyes. “Why is my skin crawling?”
“Do you remember the accident, Cass?” I asked, wiping her tears away.
“Yes.” She gasped. “Make it stop hurting, please…”
I felt her wolf below her skin, trying to do just that for her.
“Cassandra, your skin is crawling because your wolf wants out,” I said. “Don’t fight her, honey. Let her come out. She’ll help you. She can make the pain go away.”
“Wolf?” Her eyes were terrified and shot between the two of us. “I thought you said…”
“We were wrong, love, so very wrong,” Leighann said. “Let your wolf come out. Dad and I are here to help you.” She wiped off a tear this time.
Her nails reshaped into razor sharp claws and dug into my hand. The fur erupted quickly and traveled up her arm, her bones reforming and changing. Lying on her back wasn’t the best way to shift, but since her leg was pinned up in the sling, there was nothing to be done.
A moment later, her leg slipped out of the temporary soft cast, fully furred and fully healed. Leighann and I grabbed her and turned her over, so it was less terrible to shift, and watched as our daughter shifted from human to wolf.
It took less than a minute, which was excellent for a first shift. Her long legs were tucked under her, and there was a look of terrified confusion in her eyes. A soft whine left her adorable little muzzle.
Her coloring was a blend of her mother’s and mine. She had a dark brown muzzle that thinned out to light brown by her ears. Very much her mother. Her body was red-brown, like my wolf’s.
She was still a juvenile wolf and it was easy for her to stand on the bed, and that’s when we saw her paws. In front, she wore two white socks like mine, and in the back she had two black ones, like her mother.
“Oh, God, you’re beautiful.” Leighann sighed.
“You are, baby girl,” I agreed, digging my fingers into her ruff. “Feel better?”
There was a chuff and she licked my face.
Shift back, baby girl. I sent the words quietly to her. Can you do that?
Daddy? What are you doing in my head?
When you’re shifted, most shifters will be able to talk to you this way, Leighann said. Right now, it’s only Daddy and I who can. Once you’re eighteen, there will be more. Leighann glanced at me. “Can you shift back, Cassie?”
She stood stock-still for a few heartbeats, then whined. I have no idea how to trade places with her.
“Do you want to, Leigh?”
“Bad idea,” Uriah said.
I glanced over. Oh. Right. His mate. Bad idea asking her to get naked in front her baby daddy. “Gotcha.” I whipped my shirt off and yanked off the pants. The boxers were worth the sacrifice, and I shifted on the spot.
Dad. Your wolf is so pretty.
I put my paws up on the bed and sniffed her wolf. She sat down and sniffed at my head. You smell nice. Is that a thing? Can people smell nice?
Or rotten, yes. I snuffled the top of her head. I’m going to shift back, Cassie. Follow what I do and see if you can do it.
Got it. Her little wolf’s head nodded, and she watched as I shifted slowly back to human. It wasn’t really hard once you saw what another wolf did. Usually I thought of it as if asking someone to step aside and let you through. The other person, or wolf, stepped back and took a seat, allowing the other to drive a while.
But there was never any forgetting the other was there.
Half a minute later, her wolf receded, and Cassie lay face down on the bed.
Leighann quickly covered her while I pulled on the pants Tatianna had been holding for me.
Flipping over, she tossed her arms around her mother’s neck and held her tight. Cassie turned to me and did the same, a big, tight hug.
“Thank you, Dad.”
“Feel better, Cass?” Leighann asked, fastening the last of the ties of the hospital gown.
“A thousand percent,” she said. “Can we go home?”
“No,” Uriah said. “We have to play along a little, so we can get you home without suspicion.”
“Uri, are you a shift—are you all shifters?” Cassie was glancing around, her nose twitching.
“Everyone in here.” Uriah nodded and stepped forward to the edge of the bed. “Cassie, you have to keep this all a secret. You know what would happen, right?”
“Government labs,” she said.
“Or worse, private labs,” he answered. “You’re really young for your first shift, but you were hurt so badly that we had to let it happen. The police will want to talk to you, and Tatianna and the doctor have rigged your chart. You have to wear the soft cast for a few days.”
“But my leg is all healed… Oh.”
Nodding when the understanding hit her, I patted her hand. “Exactly.”
“Have a seat, young lady,” the doctor said, muscling in. “We need to get your leg rewrapped for this ruse to work. I hope you’re willing to play along?”
She nodded, watching the doctor motion over N’gani, and start pulling out bandages, and then turned to me. “Dad… Wait, how long was I out?”
“Just a few hours,” I answered. “I got here as fast as I could.”
She looked at me, and back at her mother, and then over at Uriah. “Uri, I remember everything. Everything. They wanted to kill me to get to you. They were screaming about how you and I needed to be out of the way, so they could get to Mom.”
“Flipped and wrecked three cars and risked the lives of six other children,” Uri said. “We’re going to have to get going on this again. We need to figure out who it is this time and where the threat is coming from.” He put his hands on his hips. “Patrick…”
“If Cassie needs to come to Juneau for a while, that’s fine. I have plenty of room.” A big fat empty house now.<
br />
“Hey, Trick,” Tati said, leaning up from the wall. “How about an intro?”
Motioning her over, I moved to the wall. “Cassie, this is my sister, your aunt Tatianna.”
“I got an aunt?”
“Yes you have an aunt. And two uncles, who are up in Alaska,” Leighann said. “We’ll explain everything once the doctor is done with your leg.”
She smiled at Tatianna. “Hi. Do we shake hands or hug?”
Tati opened her arms. “Totally hug, kiddo. Totally hug.”
Maybe I hadn’t fucked this up.
Not completely.
Chapter Thirteen
“So, you’re pissed?”
I looked at Jess standing near the water’s edge. “Me? Nope. Not pissed.”
She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Not even a little?”
“Nope. Slept like a baby. Been having a great time at the cabin. Found a cool swimming hole. Read about nine books in four days. It’s been nice.”
“She’s full of it,” Brandy said.
I growled at her and shoved my kayak into the water. I straddled it and paddled out to where Delia was waiting in the water.
“So, you’re pissed?”
“No! I am not pissed!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “I am not pissed that my boyfriend took off in his private plane to go play baby daddy in Vancouver to a kid that not even his fucking parents knew existed. What would ever make you think I’m pissed?”
Delia pursed her lips and pushed me away from her with the paddle she had. “Don’t sink my kayak. I don’t have a baby daddy.”
Brandy paddled up, with Jess and Zanna just behind her. I stared at all of them. Even at the cabin I had been avoiding them. It was a defense mechanism, and I knew it, but what else was I supposed to do?
He had a daughter.
Even his parents didn’t know.
Martin’s rage had filled the car that night as he drove me back up the mountain from his house. He didn’t have to say a thing; his wolf was beyond pissed and I could sense that.
“Will you ever forgive him?” I asked.
“Someday, probably. It’s going to be a long time, though.” Martin navigated the curve with ease. “And you?”
Exploring Alaska (The Juneau Packs Book 3) Page 11
