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“Yes, you do. Your half-brother. I remember, Mum. Don’t try and pretend.”
She looks panicked for a second, glancing at my father then dropping her chin and cursing. It’s an admission of guilt. She’d hoped I’d forgotten.
“Michelle!” My father exclaims, shocked at both the profanity and the lies. “You said he was a friend from college.”
He frowns, and I can see all the details of that brief visit replaying in his mind as he views them now through a different lens.
“Sorry, sorry.” With trembling fingers, Mum lifts her tea and points to the table, telling me to sit back down. Reluctantly, she joins us and grips the mug in both hands.
“I only met him that one time. He was my half-brother. Is my half-brother. I presume he’s still alive.” I’m afraid to push in case she clams up, so I just wait. Dad reaches out silently and squeezes her hand. “He said he’d found my own Mum’s name in some older documents of his father and wanted to come to see us. But when he never got in contact again, I figured he didn’t want to build a relationship. It didn’t seem right to track him down. I wanted to respect his decision.”
She holds my dad’s eye. “But recently, I’ve been wondering who exactly he was.” With a sad shake of her head, she stares at the old wooden table, badly in need of varnishing, but somehow better from the wear and tear we’ve inflicted on it as a family over the years.
“Why are you asking about him now, son?” Dad asks, watching me curiously. A barrage of memories hits me, and I scrub my hands down over my face, leaning back.
The first time the memory came back to me was after the first time I knew something was seriously wrong with me. We were out on patrol and there was an ambush. Three of us got separated from the platoon and Van was badly hurt. Something about me… changed… and I was able to get us out of there. I swear I heard Killian’s voice in my head.
Then, more memories started to come back in small fragments. Not enough to make sense, but enough to know I wasn’t going crazy.
“Last year. I’m not sure why it suddenly came back to me.” That’s a lie. I know exactly why. Killian warned me that I had another side to me, a powerful one; one that needed to be kept hidden. It would help me if I needed protection, but I needed to be careful not to let it overtake me when I was angry, or it would put me in danger.
“What did he tell you?” Mum is still struggling to look at me. There’s more that she’s keeping from me.
“That I have a secret that needs to be kept. That I needed to protect my sisters.” It all sounds so vague now. To the ears of a six-year-old boy struggling with his temper, though, a boy in awe of the powerful man who filled our house with his larger-than-life personality and wild bedtime stories, it sounded incredible.
Standing, I pace, frustrated at being kept in the dark. The way Natalie’s brothers stared at me. Even they could tell something was off about me. It served me well in the military, but if I have any hope of having a normal life, I need to know what I’m dealing with.
“It feels like this is all connected. Him, me, the girls. Tell me I’m not losing my mind.”
It’s like there’s a giant lock on part of my brain and I’m shaking it and pulling at it, but without the key, I haven’t got a hope of getting in. Sensing my rising aggravation, my dad rises and pulls me into a tight hug, thumping my back and refusing to let me go when I try to pull away. The man is a hugger. I let him have his moment, reluctantly enjoying his comforting scent and strong embrace.
Mum sighs as she considers her words carefully.
“You are different, Chase, and you’re not losing your mind. You’re stronger, faster, and, yes, you’ve always been a protector, not just of your family but of anyone who needs it.” I come to her side and squat down so she can look me in the eye without straining. When she takes my hand, I get a sinking feeling. It’s the kind of gesture I’d expect someone to make before they delivered devastating, life changing news, like a death in the family. “I just don’t think I’m the best person to explain it to you.”
If I had hair, I’d be pulling it out. Jumping to my feet, I’m about to say something I’ll probably regret when Dad’s hands land on my shoulders, steadying me in that way he’s always done.
“Zoe is the one you need. She’ll be in Grey Ridge tomorrow. Let’s all go there together, calmly, and lay all of our cards on the table.”
Zoe. It’s obvious now that she’s where I should have started. If anyone would have answers for me about my wilder tendencies, it’ll be the veterinary in our family. It won’t kill me to hang on a little while longer. My phone beeps and I glance at it, my insides doing a mini flip when I see that the red dot is on the move again. The same red dot I’d stared at and obsessed over while killing two hours in my makeshift jail cell.
Nodding, I snatch my keys off the table and head for the door. “See you tomorrow. I have some things to take care of before then.”
CHAPTER 20
NATALIE
This early morning yoga with Leah is supposed to be helping me find my centre after yesterday’s testing encounter with Chase, but she’s not helping me at all.
I’m a mess, convinced he’s going to leap out from around every corner.
“If a she-wolf bit him, would he fall madly in love with her? Then technically he’d be mated and we could tell him everything straight away,” she muses. Lifting my head from the pretzel-like position Leah has me twisted into, I narrow my eyes at her. My bear surges forward, unhappy at even the suggestion.
“Don’t get any ideas. I know I came here complaining about him, but that’s not even funny.” She shrugs, wide-eyed and innocent, when I point my finger at her. “Apart from being wrong on so many levels, it wouldn’t work. He hasn’t got a wolf.”
My bear goes completely still inside me, and I frown. She has the nerve to be disappointed even after how he mocked us yesterday morning.
Leah rolls her eyes. “I wasn’t really thinking about it, just curious about what if.” Climbing to her feet, she brushes off her leggings and winks at me. Then tapping her chin as she thinks, she changes her mind. “She’d run for the hills the minute he opened his mouth anyway.”
