Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (51 page)

“Not personally,
however
I know of the story.”

Smart ass.

“Same premise,” I
said.
“Last year
,
Dad
picked Sir William up for me at a police auction.”
I slipped the M24 Sniper Rifle out of the cotton
cover
.

Tanis gasped.

“Don’t be such a chick.
I love shooting,” I
said and
laid out the cotton
cover
so I didn’t ruin my dress before
stretching
out on the ground and took aim.
“When I was younger, I won a lot of
shooting
competitions
, then
one day
D
ad said I had to stop.
It pissed me off
,
but he
’
s my
dad
so it isn’t like I could argue with him.
I could have made it to the Olympics eventually.”
I sighed
.

T
hat would have been awesome.
Oh well, too late now.

“Hold your breath,” I told him and took aim at the apple core sitting on the top of my brother’s head.
One miscalculation and I’d kill him.
I love
d
my family and the trust they
had
in me.

There
wasn’t
a breeze
and I
could
see him clearly through the scope; he
was
rolling his eyes
,
silently
telling me to hurry up—
he’s an
ass.

The loud crack from the gun was followed by the snapping of the apple core, and then by applause.

I sighed content
.
“That never gets old.”

I looked over at Tanis who was staring at me with wide eyes.

“What?
Did I neglect to tell you that I have a lot of strange and manly hobbies?”
I asked with a chuckle.

He swallowed loudly
.
“Something like that.”

“Yo
u should see my porn collection
!
” I teased, and he snorted
before smirking
.

Mom kissed me when we joined them back at the party.
Jarvis threw the two pieces of apple core at me
before he turned his attention on some broad in her
early nineties that looks forty-five; I could have lived without
seeing
that.

“I win,” I
said and
smiled wide
.

Meadow
growled.

“
Zip it!” I snapped at her. “
I never said the goal
was to hit as many as possible
. I
t was
all
a
bout distance
, and
your
poor
excuse for a rifle couldn’t handle the distance.”

“Bitch,” she growled.

“Yup, like you didn’t know
,” I dryly agreed then
headed back
to
the house with Tanis to put my rifle away.
“Are you having fun
?
” I asked.

He shrugged
. “I am neither enjoying meself nor not enjoying me
self.
I think
I have
seen more werewolves in the
past
hour than I have in me entire existence.
Honestly, Duckie, I
do not
know how you do it.”

“Do what
?
” I asked
, putting
my gun away in the living room.

Tanis shrugged
and turned his attention to the
wall of family photos.
“You had braces?” he
asked, sounding slightly amused
.

“
Yeah
, and glasses,” I admitte
d and blushed
.
“When I hit puberty I didn’t need the glasses any more, and the braces were to fix a slight overbite, nothing major.
I think I wore them for less than a year.
Why does that surprise you?”

“
I do not know. It is
ha
rd to picture you as a child
.
You were a
bonny
bird
, very innocent looking.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist from behin
d and looked over his shoulder
at the pictures.

“
Who is
that?” he
asked
as he took an old black and white picture off of the wall.

“Don’t!” I automatically yelled; that picture was to never be touched, per Mom and Dad.

Tanis, startled, accidentally dropped the picture and it hit the floor on its edge, breaking the frame. “My apologies,” he automatically
said and picked
up the picture. “I shall replace the frame.”

I groaned, taking the picture from him. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll glue it back together. It’s a unspoken rule to not ask about the picture or touch it. Whenever I asked about it
, when I was younger
,
D
ad
always
change
d
the subject
so I stopped asking,” I explained as I tried to slide the glass back into the broken frame
without slicing my fingers—that was all I didn’t need, another Georgia episode that evening
. “I think she’s related to them but I’m not sure...what’s this?” I mumbled when the edge of a second picture slipped out from under the other.

Tanis took the picture from me and his eyes widened. “That’s me mum and dad,” he whispered.

“And
those are
mine,” I stated the obvious.

In the picture was six people: Mom, Dad, Sabirella, Toran, and two blondes. They were dressed in simple
dinner dresses and suits
from the
early nineteen-fifties and stood
together in
front of a beautiful fountain.

“Where is that?” I asked, since it was obviously not local and Tanis might have known since he was cultured in the world.

“Rome,” he said, looking at the picture intently. “Trevi Fountain is one of the most famous fountains in the world. I shall take you to see it after graduation, if you would do me the honors.”

Typically, I would have been bouncing up and down at the invitation: to see Rome was on my list of places to
visit
. But his tone was completely absent of emotion
so
it sound more like an empty statement than an invitation.

“You don’t have to do that,” I mumbled.

Tanis looked over at me.
“In June we will holiday in
Rome and beyond, I promise. These people,” he said, looking back to the picture. “Do you know them?”

I shook my head. “All I know is they’re white.”

He snorted. “Yes, I suppose they are, cheeky bird. They are familiar to me yet I cannot place from where.”

The woman was beautiful—long white blonde hair, dark eyes, delicate sculpted features, curvy figure, full breasts, and overly full lips—and the man was handsome, I suppose—tall with broad shoulders, shoulder-length blond hair, light eyes, brilliant smile, and strong jaw—but I hadn’t seen them before.
If I used Jarvis and Yahto’s way of thinking, they were familiar since all white people looked alike, but tribal-minded thinking aside, I hadn’t seen them before.

“Maybe in another life
...
or century,” I offered.

Tanis nodded. “Possibly,” he whispered. “Will
you
fetch me some tape?” he asked.

I cocked an eyebrow. “That better not be a subtle dog joke at my expense,” I warned.

“I would never
do you the dishonor
,” he assured me, so I went to get him some tape from the kitchen.

When I returned, the picture was back on the wall and looked in one piece, as if we never touched it.

“So you don’t need the tape,” I surmised and he smiled at me. “Were you trying to get me out of the room for some reason?” I asked, suspicious.

He gasped, feigning being insulted. “Duckie, do you honestly think so little of me that you would earnestly believe I would do something so juvenile and clandestine in order to what, hang up a picture?”

I cocked an eyebrow.

Tanis chuckled and wrapped his arms around me. “Have I told you
how
simply beautiful you look tonight?”

“In not so many words,” I mumbled
, still
suspicious
.

“You are breathtakingly beautiful,” he purred, caressing one hand up the outside of my thigh, and under my dress
, while the other rested on the small of my back
. “More than one man, and a few woman even, have been rendered
breathless
by your beauty this evening. Never have I been more prideful than I have tonight, and that is simply b
ecause it is me
arm you are on.”

What was there to say to that?

“Oh,” was all I managed to say, and he chuckled at my dumbfounded expression before snaking his hand around to my ass and squeezed.

“Simply delicious,”
he moaned,
pulling me tighter against him
and the erection that was suddenly struggling to free itself from his jeans.

“You are being naughty, Mr. Ashton,” I informed him, trying to fight the urge to pull him upstairs to my room and continue what we started earlier that day.

“Uh huh,” he agreed and started working his lips down the length of my neck.

“Can I take a picture of us, or will you show up?” I
asked, trying to distract him.

It worked.

Tanis leaned back and looked at me, giving me the
look
that
silently conveyed I was going to get my ass spanked if I kept it up.

I grabbed the old Polaroid camera
from the bookcase
and positioned myself behind him so I could hold the camera out, and clicked a picture.

“So much nicer than digital, and less of a wait!”
I beamed.

“I think that
bloody thing
is older than I am,” he complained when I clicked a second picture.
“Are
you done torturing me? I would immensely enjoy sharing one
dance with you tonight, if you
do not
mind.”

“I don’t dance,” I said
, waving the pictures to make the develop faster.

“It
shall not
be a problem,” he assured me
and took
the pictures
.
“Not bad for an
old dude
,” he teased
; his Jarvis impression was appreciated.
“
I dare say, you look rather
lovely as well, and slightly naughty.”

“Shut up,” I
groaned and
tried to take the pictures but he slipped them into his jacket pocket.

After a quick stop at the snack table, we followed the music to the dance floor.

“I feel like I’m in a goddamn ho down on Hee Haw,” d’Artagnan complained, stepping out of the
shadows
.
“I didn’t know so much white trash could be found on the land of the red man.”

“I didn’t know such a giant tool could be so damn annoying,” I
countered
.
“Shouldn’t you be babysitting your vegetable sister?”

“No,” he
assured me
.
“Unlike my little brother, my siblings’ well-being is not my concern.
Impressive shooting, I haven’t seen a woman shoot like that in nearly forty years.”

“Next time, you can hold the apple,” I
informed him and
smirked
.

H
e nodded his appreciation of my subtle death threat.

“Go home,” Tanis growled.

“No, I’m having fun and something tells me that it’s going to get so much better.”

I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t have time to demand an explanation,
because
loud arguing came from the dance floor and it was drawing a crowd.

“Ooh, my spidey senses are tingling,” d’Artagnan purred, following us to the commotion.