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“It’s my mark,” Thayer said, gripping my waist tightly and tugging me to him. With his index finger, he tucked some hair behind my ear to show the mark off to the other guys. Thayer looked at Calder, challenging him, and growled lowly, “If you have something to say about it, fucking say it.”
After shooting up from the couch, Calder forcefully took my chin in his rough hand and pulled it to the side to get a better look at my mark. A low and feral growl escaped his lips. “I don’t have shit to say about it. It’s just …”
It was like he was lost for words too. And he was pissed the fuck off. I might’ve been all their mates, but he was a possessive asshole who wanted me all for himself. I didn’t know why. He was so fucking confusing.
Not wanting him to flip out—because I didn’t have the time or the energy for that—I pushed his hand off my chin and pursed my lips at him. “Can you not touch me like I’m an object? I might have your mark on my neck, but you don’t own me. We have more important things to talk about, like”—I stared from guy to guy—“what I am.”
Calder glared at Thayer and snarled, “You told her?”
“You knew?” I asked, arching a brow at Calder because he was pissing me off again.
Thayer shoved him back and growled, “Don’t be pissed because she wears my mark too. She’s not just yours. She belongs to all of us.”
I crossed my arms. “I don’t belong to anyone.”
But those two didn’t seem like they were listening. All they did was try to posture and alpha over one another. As they stepped closer and closer, I rolled my eyes and pushed them away from each other. I guessed that was what happened when two psychotic, testosterone-filled guys got together.
“What are you?” Darius asked me, ignoring the others.
“So, it’s true?” Gaian spoke up for the first time since we had made it back to the pack house. He looked from me to the marks on my neck, and then he clenched his jaw, jealousy clear in his eyes. But at least he wasn’t overcome with it, like Thayer and Calder were. Gaian stood. “You’re a … a Paragon?”
I swallowed hard and shrugged, stepping away from the two assholes who couldn’t control their tempers, not even for me. “I guess so because I can …” I started, nerves biting my inside. I still thought of myself as a monster.
But whether I was a monster or not, Thayer didn’t care. He wanted me to embrace everything that I was, every species that resided inside me. He wanted me to hone my strength and kill my father.
“I can shift,” I finally finished. “It’s a shit-ton of species, but only bits and parts of me. My fangs need blood, my claws ache for flesh. And my senses … there’s so much more than that … of a wolf. When I lose control, everything is more intense—my smell, my movement, my sight. Everything.”
“You killed the guard in the prison?” Calder asked, still glaring at Thayer, who shook his head and growled back at him. It was like he already knew.
Had Thayer told him the plan all along? How long had he and Gaian known about this? Darius seemed completely out of the loop.
“Yes, I killed him.”
My stomach twisted and turned, the thought making me shiver. Not in disgust. But in pleasure. That fucker had gotten what he deserved.
I stood there, uneasy, shifting from foot to foot. I didn’t want them to think of me any differently though.
“Do you guys … do you hate me for it?”
“Hate you for killing that asshole?” Gaian asked, chuckling in a lighthearted manner, but there was something sinister simmering underneath his good-guy persona he had up right now. “No. He deserved it.”
I let out a deep breath, my shoulders drooping forward. “That’s not all. I had a vision earlier, and I don’t think my father is really my father. My vision was of my mother coming to his home while I was a baby and asking him for help, for him to take a stand because my real father was out of the picture. I don’t know what that means, but I hope he’s not dead. He’d be the only family I have left.”
“Your father isn’t dead,” Thayer said, as if he was sure of it. “Paragons don’t die easily. They’re more immortal that vampires or demons. If you’re a Paragon, then your father and your mother must be ones too.”
“He could’ve been captured, picked apart by an enemy,” Darius offered.
“We need to find them for answers,” Thayer said.
“Them?” I asked.
“Your mother and father,” Calder said, finally looking at me.
“But my mom died. I saw her corpse with my own two eyes.”
“Then, we retrieve her body. Wherever your father—I mean, that prick who took you—is keeping her, we need to get her back. If she’s really dead, then she’s not in good hands. He wouldn’t have buried her. He’s using her for something,” Thayer said. “Something sinister.”
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