Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (29 page)

“I resent…or possibly
embody
, that comment,
Cousin,” Romeo said as he entered
the kitchen.
“
Good morning, Beautiful
.
How was your evening?”
he asked, turning to
M
um.

“Good,” she
said with a smile
and he kissed her on the cheek.

“So tell me,
Cousin
,” Romeo
said
with a smirk
, “
haven’t
you noticed that there’s something rather strange about
the
girl
you’re
all hot and bothered over
?”

I fought the urge to growl at him; he was testing my patience.

“
Aside from the fact that she has
brilliant
taste in men and is immune to you and your
bollocks
persuasion?”
I countered, cocking an eyebrow.

Romeo
flipped me off, earning a smac
k in the back of the head from
M
um.
“Whatever,” he mumbled under his breath.
“There’
s something different about her, something
that isn’t...I don’t know, right or something
. Why would all of the damn werewolves on the res be out looki
ng for her with urgency if she
’
s just a white girl in the land of the red man?” he asked, genuinely curious.

Honestly, I was curious about that as well, but I wasn’t going to ask.

Mum
gave him a look. “Miss Jay Dee is a young girl who has spent her entire life
with the Lhaq'temish
and her family, her parents are the alphas, and now suddenly there are vampires in the area… Why in the hell do you think they got paranoid?” she asked, seemingly uninterested in the answer.

Romeo made a mocking face at her; no one in the house missed her sarcasm. “But still,” he complained, “there
’s
more than
just
the werewolf and white girl t
hing
,
I think, that’s up with her.”

Mum nodded. “But you do not know what that is, do you?” she surmised with a smirk.

“No,” he mumbled.

“Just as I thought,” I
scoffed
.
“
Mum, he
is still
narked
that
Miss Jay Dee
picked me and not him.
”

“Am not,” he shot back.

“Are too,” I countered just as juvenile. “Romeo, you are not
used to being second best.
You always have to have
the best clothes, the best ha
ir, and the hottest birds on your
arm
and in your bed
.
Well guess what,
Cousin
, not this time.
This time, I got the bird!”

Whoa, where in the hell did that come from?

His mouth fell open and he looked at me in shock.

Mum
,
h
owever laughed, applauding.
“It truly is
like Christmas all over again.
You two, I swear are brothers.
Romeo, my beloved little
brat
, keep your hands
, tongue, lips and prick,
to yourself.
And Tanis, my precious
one
, do what makes you happy regardless of what anyone says.
You have
been going through the motions
of existing for
far
too long. It is
about damn time
you are
happy, and if this girl, regardless of what might be
different
about her, makes you happy, then embrace
it
just as she has embraced you
.”

“Yes ma’am,” R
omeo grumbled under his breath and headed to his room to pout.

“Do you think she can...
could
look past
that I am a vampire?” I asked and chewed o
n my bottom lip
.

Mum nodded. “She
already
has, my precious one.
Jay Dee
sees you, the man that you are, not the vampire that you were turned into.
Revel in the fact that she sees the man you have kept hidden for much too long, and do not allow those walls to go up
around
your heart as you always do. Take a chance. It is about damn time you
take that leap of faith, Tanis.”

I
licked my lips. “What if she is not there to catch me
…
if
I take that leap?” I asked.

She smiled. “The qu
estion you should be asking is,
what if she is there to catch you?”

I had not thought of that.

“Thank you, Mum,” I said with a smile before
kiss
ing her on the side of the head, then
hurried from the room and up the stairs
; there was a girl to see and a leap of faith to take.

It didn’t take me long to shower and change, and when I exited the closet, Georgiana was sitting on the
edge of my
bed
,
flipping through a magazine.

“Tell me, Brother
, wh
at in the hell do you think you are
doing?”
she asked.

“Getting dressed. W
hat does it look like?”
I
rhetorically
asked.

She threw the magazine at me.
“You know that
is not
what I meant.
A human, are you
nutter?
I ahve
seen you do some ridiculous shite in the past, but falling for a bloody human who is stoney is beyond
daft
.”

“
Miss
Jay Dee
is not after me
brass
,” I
snapped at her then growled, livid that she was speaking about Jay Dee in such a
way
.

“Every woman is after money, espe
cially when they
do not
have any,
”
she amusingly informed me.

There
was
no reason to argue with her.
Georgiana
would
argue until she
was
blue in the face even if she
knew
she
was
wrong
; you really had to admire that about the stubborn woman
.

I nodded that I heard her and headed towards the door.

“I wonder what d’Artagnan will think of yo
u parading around with a human,” she warned.

I stopped in mid-step.

“Why would he care, or know for that matter?” I
asked indifferently
.

“Because d’Artagnan knows everything, and he was rather
furious
to find you gone last night.”

I spun
around and was across the room before I even thought the action through, and slammed
Georgiana
into the wall faster than she could register the movements.

“What are you talking about?
d’Artagnan is here, in Washington?” I demanded.

She choked
on the
burst of
amusement that broke past her lips
.
“Not just Washington, but in Lummi, you
bastard
.
If you
do nto
watch yourself, he will succeed where you failed.”

Bloody hell
.

That
was
going to cause a major barney
in my bigger plans
, all of which revolved around properly courting Jay Dee
.

I slammed
my sister
into the wall again, dropping the unconscious bitch to the floor
then
hurried downstairs.

“Mum, I knocked Georgiana out
…
again.
Keep her home today.
If need be, stake her,” I called out.

“
Of course, my precious one,” Mum said from the top of the stairs. “Remember, take the leap,” she said.

That would be so
much easier said than done now
.
When my lovely brother was around, headache and heartache always followed.

I was in a foul mood when I pa
rked outside of Jay Dee’s house, so I sat in the car and waited while I glared at the illuminated numbers on the dash.

What in the hell is m
e bloody
brother doing in
Washington
?
I
have not
seen him in nearly
a decade
, not since I tried to kill him
last
.
I
a
m sure he
is still narked about that
.
d’Artagnan
is not
known for his forgiving nature.

Bugger! That is all I
do
not need
right now; a narked brother
with an attitude
putting his annoying nose in my business
.

P
ounding
on the driver’s
side window startled
me.

I looked over to see Jarvis glaring at me.

Lovely.
Another arsehole brother to deal with, and this one
is not
even mine.

I rolled down the window.
“May I help you with something?” I
asked with a completely fabricated smile just to irritate him
.

“Leave my sister alone,” he warned with a growl.

“No.
Is there anything else?” I
asked as I continued to smile at the
mongrel.

Jarvis rolled his large amber eyes and
ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
“Seriously, leave my
baby
sister alone.”

“You
did not
say please,” I
amusingly informed him
.

Obviously I haven’t lost it and can still be a condescending, cynical bastard when I fancy.

“Asshole,” he mumbled under his breath,
and quickly walked
around to the passenger side and got in.

Bloody hell!

“I
do not recalling offering you an invitation to join me,
”
I spat through clenched teeth.

“I’m not a damn suck
head so I don’t need an invitation,” he smugly informed me.

You cannot be serious?!

“
So back to the problem at hand: Jay Dee,” he said. “
I don’t
want
my
baby
sister running around with you.”

This day will never end, and yet it just started.

“
Well then,” I
said
, “it is
a good thing that
Miss Jay Dee is
an adult
, is it not
?”
I countered.

I really
didn’t
want to be talking to
that damn lapdog at the moment, I had enough arsehole brothers to deal with.

However, what he said next surprised me.

“I know,”
Jarvis
said with a heavy sigh. “
Jay is different; she’s beyond special.
I guess it only makes sense that she’d fall for a
goddamn
vampire.
..an old ass vampire.”

I shook my head.

“
She’s never done anything that would be considered normal
,” he continued. “
What’s your interest in her?
If you just plan on bumpin’ uglies and runni
ng, save both of us the trouble
because I really don’t feel like burying a body before I head back to school.”

Again,
it
wasn’t
a conversation that I wanted to have, especially with him.

“
Do not fret
,
Mr. Jarvis,” I said. “You would not
need to
worry with
bury
ing
a body, a dust buster would suffice.
Heaven forbid
that one of
such
distinction
should get
their
nails dirty.”