“Wait for what? Go where?” Melinda smiled her thanks to Pierre for her tea.
It hadn’t escaped her notice that although Annabelle, Stef, Pierre and Louis had filled her in on werewolves, there were still things they weren’t telling her. Things everyone in the roomexcept her knew. She could understand why they’d kept secret their true identity. It wasn’t something one bought up in casual conversation. But now she knew, why would they continue to keep secrets from her? Hadn’t they said she’d getallof them?
Louis and Pierre looked to Gabriel, and after a pause, the big man nodded.
Pierre pulled up a chair beside her. “Melinda, Isobella is taking a trip back in time to the tenth century.”
Melinda almost choked on her tea. “You’re kidding me, right?”Time travel? Really?
“No, Melinda, he’s not joking,” said Annabelle, swiveling around to face her. “We have a spell to transport a person through time.” She grimaced. “It’s not pleasant, but it works. I know. I’ve tried it.”
Gabriel grunted. Perhaps he’d tried it, too. Or maybe it was an expression of the protectiveness he seemed to have for his mate. Annabelle didn’t seem to mind. Melinda wouldn’t mind it either, if it came from Pierre and Louis.
Melinda set her tea down on the table. “Okay. I’ll bite.Whyis Isobella going back in time? And why to the tenth century?” If they were open to talking, Melinda wasn’t going to waste this chance, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. After all, werewolves existed. And so did witches. Why not time travel. “Are you hunting a powerful relic or something?”
“No.” Pierre shifted in his chair. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”
The stillness in the room unnerved her. Whatever it was, it was big.
“Isobella is our many times great grandmother,” Louis blurted out.
Pierre glared at his twin.
Louis held up his hands. “What? There’s no point dancing around the subject. Like a sticking plaster, you just rip that sucker off.”
Their many times great grandmother?Her gaze skipped from one set of earnest eyes to the next, then back to Louis and Pierre. They were serious. “Does Isobella know about this?”
“About going back in time? Yes.” Annabelle rose from the sofa and skirted the table. “That she will mate these guys’ ancestors? No.”
At Annabelle’s closeness, Manchu leaped from her lap and flew up the stairs. Pierre and Louis he tolerated—Louis mostly because he fed Manchu treats at every opportunity—but he didn’t like any of the others getting near him.
“So, let me get this straight. You’re sending a sick woman back in time, with a spell that—in your own words—is unpleasant. Then she’s going to have to mate with some tenth-century barbarian?”
Annabelle held up two fingers. “Two barbarians, actually. Twins run in the family.”
Melinda gaped at Annabelle. “And you’re okay with this? I mean, Isobella’s your sister. I don’t know a damn thing about the tenth century, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have oncologists and chemotherapy there. Do they even have hospitals?” Melinda took in the room, the unconcerned faces looking at her. “You’re sending her there to die. After…after…”
Gabriel cuffed Louis across the back of the head. “You idiots. You’ve told her nothing.”
Pierre snarled at Gabriel. “Like you told Annabelle?”
What was she missing here? Something important. Perhaps profound. She rubbed her chest, attempting to ease the tightness. Instinct, and the way Pierre and Louis couldn’t meet her eyes, told her it somehow concerned her. Maybe Manchuhad the right idea, but she remained in her seat. She had to know. “Told me what?”
Pierre reached for her hands, but she tucked them against her chest.
“Told me what?”
Pierre’s hazel eyes pleaded with her to understand. “There are certain things about us we can only reveal in…certain situations.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Have you three talked at all in the last few days?”
This time, both Louis and Pierre snarled.
“Cut us some slack, Gabriel. She’s only known werewolves exist for four days. It’s a lot to take in.” Louis rounded the table and joined his twin, blocking the others from view. He pulled out a chair and dropped into it, leaning in close. “There are other werewolf clans besides ours, but the Langeais wolves are different from them.”
Langeais? Is that somewhere in France?
“We are the only true werewolf pack.”
