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“You’d be good at it, you know.”
I depressed the clutch and eased the shifter of my truck into reverse. “See you in an hour?”
He reached in and squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll tell Donna to set another place at the table. And come hungry! I saw her squishing blackberries into a pot this morning.”
I groaned. “God, talk dirty to me. I’ll be there in half an hour if I can get a slice of pie before dinner.”
Just like that, my evening had perked up. Being with Larry’s family always made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, even if I’d never have a dynamic like that in my own life. After my mother and father got divorced, Mom packed everything up and hauled ass to Los Angeles where we created a completely different life for ourselves. Mom worked two and three jobs at a time to make ends meet so we could live in the moldy, leaky, creaky one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Hollywood, and I never once heard from my father again. Ever.
We were trash to him, and I never wanted to hear from him again so long as I lived.
However, once I got home and got changed into my eating clothes, I pulled out my cell phone to let Larry know I was on my way.
And saw that I had a voice message.
“Oh, yeah,” I murmured as I dialed my voicemail, “someone called.”
“Hi there, Raven. This is Elias Michaels. I’m an estate planning lawyer in Portland, Oregon.”
The second I heard his voice, my entire body froze.
“I’m calling on behalf of your father, Colin Kennedy.”
I swallowed hard as I braced myself for the only reason why my father’s estate lawyer would contact me.
“First, I want to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. Your father was a powerful figure here in Bend, and we are all going to miss him greatly.”
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath as a cold shiver worked its way down my spine.
“Your father’s passing was painless and peaceful, if that brings you any comfort. His only wish was—”
I deleted the message and hung up the phone. I didn’t give a shit about my father’s last wishes. He had casted my mother and I out like we meant nothing, and I hadn’t heard from him one iota since Mom and I had moved to Los Angeles. Fifteen years, I hadn’t heard from my fucking father. Fifteen years, and all of a sudden I had to settle his estate because I was his only fucking child?
At least, that was why I figured the man had called.
“I gotta get to Larry’s,” I murmured to myself.
The second I headed for my front door, however, my phone rang again. I looked down at that same number—that same unknown number with a Portland area code—and my knee-jerk reaction was to ignore it. I needed to ignore it. I needed to put my parents behind me and move forward. Burying my mother two years ago was hard enough. The last thing I needed was to bury the body of a man I didn’t want anything to do with.
However, something else overtook me as I picked up the call and held my phone up to my ear.
“Elias?” I asked softly.
“I was hoping you’d pick up,” he said.
I swallowed hard. “What happened to him?”
He drew in a heavy breath. “He was in Portland and suddenly passed away.”
All my life, I had rejected the shifter side of myself. My mother had been completely human, and my father had been the Alpha of a wolf pack called the Ironcrest Pack. They owned the territory of Bend, Oregon. Deeds and land rights had been passed down within all of those families for generations upon generations, well before the land had been settled by humans. And as I stood there in the middle of my musky apartment, my knees grew weak.
So, I leaned against the wall to my left for support.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked.
“It’s very simple,” Elias said as I heard him filtering through papers. “You’re the only person he names outright in his will.”
I had to admit, I was shocked. “Why?”
