Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (17 page)

I rolled my eyes and headed to the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth.

Showering certainly didn’t help to calm my nerves or relax me.
I went from feeling hung-over and falling out of bed, to blubbering and complaining about
life
and how everyone ha
d
been hurting my feelings, and how the only person that I can rela
te to is a goddamn vampire
,
to feeling ridiculously giddy.
There was a ball of butterflies in my stomach, nerves that had me doubled over more than once in
the bathroom longing to throw
up whatever was left in my stomach
,
but nothing came up.

For more than twenty minutes I stood in front of the steam-covered mirror and debated what to do with my hair, face...anything really.
I never wore makeup.
I was pretty sure that I owned some but I didn’t actually know where it was stashed.
I never screwed around with my hair.
Other than ponytails, braids...and that wasn’t only because I didn’t know what else I could do with it or
extreme laziness; to Mom’s
disappointment
,
I was the epitome of a Tom Boy.

“Screw it,” I said, releasing the handful of hair I was
toying
with, and looked at my reflection in the mirror. “
I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not in order to impress someone who isn’t interested in me
like that
.
”

The pep talk did very little to keep me from fighting the urge to
double over
again.

After running a brush through my hair, I threw on some clothes.
I was seventy-percent sure they matched, and they smelled like freshly laundered linen so I was pretty damn sure they were clean
:
black fitted polo and Dickies with a black leather studded belt.
I slipped my shoes on and hurried downstairs to the kitchen.

“Good morning, Daughter,” Mom coldly greeted as she refilled her cup of coffee.

Crap.
She’s still mad.

“Hey,” I said with a forced smile.
“Sorry about last night, I lost track of time.”

“Uh huh,” was all she said in a clipped tone.

Usually
I can
talk to mom…last night I would have stayed up all night telling her all about Tanis and how amazing he is and what he’s been through, but I didn’t because she wouldn’t understand.
Her and Dad have been married for nearly a century, and it was love at first sight….she wouldn’t understand
.

Damn it.

I nodded once without looking at her and took
the plate Jarvis was offering me
; never had I disappointed her before and it was more than obvious that she was disappointed in me
.

Jarvis shook his head and rolled his eyes, his way of silently tell
ing me that Mom was playing mad
,
and that she wasn’t as pissed as she
wa
s pretending to be.

I smiled when he winked at me. “Seriously, Mom,” I said, “
it isn’t like we went on a crime spree or anything.
It was just dinner and conversation.” I quickly shoved the sweetened cream cheese and strawberry covered toast in my mouth so I couldn’t answer any of the questions she
might
have
had.

Tonight I’ll tell her all about him while I brush out her hair. That’ll make both of us happy!

“Whose jacket is this?” she asked, holding up the jacket Tanis let me borrow.

“My mouth’s full,” I mumbled, shoving more food in it.

Jarvis took the jacket from her and looked at the label, his eyes widening.
He looked up at me, still wide-eyed, the color seemingly draining from his dark complexion.
“Sis, this is a five-thousand-dollar jacket.”

I choked, spitting food across the kitchen.

What in the hell?
Tanis
lent me a jacket that cost five grand?!
I’m kicking his ass.
He
dropped me off at work, knowing that I’m a mechanic and that grease could ruin it.
What in the... that can’t be right!

“Shut the...what?” I demanded.
“You can’t...who in the hell would pay five grand for a goddamn jacket?” I argued.
“What is it made of?
Gold?!”

Jarvis raised an eyebrow.
“Res whore,” he sang
and
I flipped him off.

“You’re stupid,” I hissed at him, grabbing for the jacket but Jarvis pulled it away from me and slipped it on.
“Seriously?” I groaned.

This could not get any worse if I tried.

“What do you think?” he asked, sashaying around the kitchen like a short-bus model on the catwalk.
“Does it make my ass look fat or bring out the gold in my eyes?” he flamboyantly asked, batting his lashes at me.

It’s
official: my brother was dropped on his head as a baby.

“Jarvis, stop being the Res
whore you’re accusing your little sister of being,” Mom tried to say with a straight face but couldn’t and ended up roaring with laughter.
“Seriously, stop it,” she choked when he started shaking his ass at her as he danced around the kitchen, using
a
chair to pole dance with.

“You break it...or rip it, you buy it,” I reminded him and he stopped
in mid-grind
and cocked an eyebrow.
“Or would you rather I sleep
off your debt
?” I countered with a smirk, and suddenly the jacket was balled up and smacking me in the face.
“That’s what I thought.”

I kissed Mom goodbye and flipped Jarvis off before heading to the door, stopping at the stairs to grab my hoodie and backpack.
“I’ll see you after work, love you!” I called out as I hurried out the door; I didn’t want to risk Jarvis following and starting shit with my ride.

I hadn’t told Tanis what time to pick me up, but to my surprise he was parked in front of the house waiting.

“Hey,” I said as I climbed in the passenger seat and handed him his jacket.

Tanis forced a smile and closed his door, the look of irritation washing across his face.

What’s his problem...shit, did Jarvis follow me?

I looked around but the front door was still closed and I didn’t see my meddling brother
lingering in the shadows anywhere
.

“You could have kept it,
Miss Jay Dee,
” Tanis said, reluctantly taking the jacket from me
,
then tossed it in the backseat.

“A five-thousand-dollar jacket?” I scoffed and rolled my eyes causing him to
shake his head
.
“Thanks for picking me up.
I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

He smiled, a genuine one
that
time.
“Think nothing of it and no, not long.
I needed to go through the contacts in me mobile anyway.
Did you know that I had a hundred and thirty-five people whom I have not talked to in a couple of decades, and whose names I had time to erase?” he teased and
pulled out
onto the main road.
“I was not sure if you would be sozzled or knackered thus I grabbed you a cuppa...coffee.
I recall you telling me how you take it.”

That’s really sweet
.

“Thanks,” I whispered, not entirely sure what to think or say about that.
No one other than my friends and family had bought me...actually, no one had bought me a coffee before.

“It was nothing,”
Tanis
assured me.
“How did you sleep?” he asked.

Was he making small talk?

“I was rudely woken up by my brother,” I said with a shrug, and blew on the coffee he had handed me.
“Even fell out of bed,” I informed him and he chuckled under his breath.
“Then I had an emotional breakdown like a chick...made him cry, and then I cried,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“It was a rough morning to say the least,” I whispered, looking away from him.

Tanis looked at me and his smile fell.
“May I inquire as to what has you gutted?”

I shrugged
as I
watched
the steam dance from the mouth of the white recyclable coffee cup
in my hands
.

“Upset,” he clarified.

“Life...I suppose that’s the best way to sum it up,” I blurted out now that he had translated from Tanis to Jay Dee for me.

He nodded.
“Would you care to elaborate?” he asked softly.

Not really.

“I realized something last night,” I whispered, “and when Jarvis started flipping me shit about hanging out with vampires, I kind of snapped...which doesn’t happen often.
In fact, it’s never happened before.
I’ve never lost my temper, ever, so it kind of scared both of us.”

“I am so sorry,
Miss Jay Dee,
” he instantly apologized.
“I did not mean to cause issues for you with your family.
However, I have to ask, what did you realize last night?”

Ag
ain, I didn’t want to tell him, but
I felt compelled to, so I told him everything I told Jarvis.
And again I cried, I hadn’t realized how pissed off my little revelation was making me.

When we got to school, he put the SUV in park but we just sat there
while I continued venting, but it
was different talking to Tanis.
Where my words and feelings caused Jarvis to cry and get upset, they caused the exact opposite reaction in Tanis: he was pissed.
I wasn’t sure if he was pissed at me or at someone else, but his hands were squeezing the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles appeared as if they would break through his skin at any moment.

As each emotion-laced word spilled from my lips in a rush,
it felt as if a sliver of the emotional burden I had always kept inside was being lessened. Somehow,
Tanis apparently took the weight of that burden upon himself
,
and for the first time in years
,
I
felt emotionally lighter...that wa
s the only way to d
escribe it, and I hated to admit it, but I liked it more than I should have.

When
I was finished, the cuffs of my hoodie were stained with tears and my eyes were red and puffy.

“Pity party for one,” I laughed, sniveling like a
little
girl.

“Two,” Tanis corrected.
“Pity party for two.
Are you stable enough for school
, Miss Jay Dee
?” he asked and wiped away my latest tear with his thumb.

I nodded and shrugged at the same time; honestly
,
I didn’t know.

“Let us get some breakfast.”

I looked at him and forced a smile.
“Okay.”