Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (60 page)

“My family has officially gone insane,” I groaned.

“Insane or not, your father and I have been there.
”

I cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean? I’ve never seen you two fight, ever.”

She nodded her agreement. “Because I’m naturally always right.”

“But of course,” I dryly agreed.

“
Your father and I have been married for eighty-five years, but he wasn’t my first love
or the first I marked
.
”

My eyes widened.

“
My first love was a human named Dustin.
Imagine my family
’s
and pack’s surprise when I announced that I was engaged to a human, and let’s not forget
,
he was a white man.
Your grandfather completely lost it.
Dustin knew that I was a werewolf, he didn’t like it, but he accepted it because he loved me.
Unfortunately, the drama it caused went beyond our borders and pack.
Dustin was the mayor’s son, and I was nothing more than an Indian
whore
who shouldn’t have been allowed off the reservation.

“My father was
so
irate
he se
nt me to the Pacific Northwest
where his friend was the Alpha
and
could keep an eye on me,
but Dustin followed.
We ran away together and were married.
We spent twenty-five wonderful years together before a heart attack took him from me.
Depressed and not knowing where to turn or what to do,
and considering my father refused to speak to me again,
I went back to the
Pacific
Northwest
and
the pack
there
.
Your
d
ad
was a
young,
cocky thing, but he was compassionate.
He refused to
allow
his father
to
turn me away
when they discovered I had marked a human. To you
r
dad
,
it didn’t matter that I was
Yavapai
and he was
of
the
Lhaq'temish
, or that I had fallen for a white man and marked him as my own
, or was a widow
. He
challenged
his father
, and in a bloody
fight, he became the Alpha male
.”

“
Holy shit!”
I gasped.

She nodded.
“
I wasn’t ready to move on with my life; I had just lost my husband, the only man I thought I’d ever love.
But y
our stubborn
d
ad was willing to wait
. He
said that I’d come around,” she
amusingly
informed me
.
“I eventually did
, but only a
fter becoming friends for over a decade
first. Then
our friendship turned into love and something else, something that I
never experienced with Dustin
:
mutual respect.
Dustin always had
a
slight attitude of superiority over me because of the werewolf thing, but your dad didn’t.
It wasn’t because we were bot
h werewolves, it was different
;
your dad look
s
at me as if I
am
the first and last woman on earth, and because of that, he
makes
me feel
as if
I
am
better than him.
It’s sexy, really sexy.
”

“Ew, I think this conversation has taken a turn for the worse,” I pointed out when she softly moaned and bit her bottom lip.

Mom laughed. “It was getting there,” she admitted. “Jay Dee, my
point is
,
the way that your dad looks at me is the same way that Tanis looks at you.
Men do lots of stupid things, but what makes us b
etter than them
is th
at we point out their mistakes
and then forgive them for their shortcomings.”

“Vampire
aside, you were married before
D
ad?” I
wanted to clarified
.

That was
news to me.

“Yes.
Jarvis doesn’t know, not many do anymore.
It was long ago.
Jay Dee, everyone
has a
past
, including your mom.”

I nodded
;
unfortunately, she
gave me more stuff to think about
.

We ate in silence
. D
ad
was absently picking at
his food
. M
om
had read
the same page i
n the romance novel next to her
at least a hundred times. And I was completely mentally preoccupied thinking about what Mom had said about Dust
in and my need to forgive Jerk-f
ace
.

A loud pounding came at the front door,
and it startled
all of us.

Before
D
ad could ans
wer, the pounding came again
and the handle jiggled.

Dad sniffed. “Yahto,” he whispered and
pulled
the door
open
.

“What flig
ht was Jarvis on?”
Yahto
demanded
as he
pushed
his way into the house.

“I’m not sure, why?” I
asked,
follow
ing
him into the living room.

“Find out!” he
yelled
, startling me
; I couldn’t remember the last time Yahto had raised his voice
to me
.

Mom went to the kitchen to get the copy of
Jarvis’
flight itinerary.

Yahto turned
on
the TV
in the living room
and flipped it to CNN.

The images of something burning in dark water flooded the screen. The reporter shuffled his papers,
a look of unfathomable despair on his face,
and in a grave tone said, “This just in from our London affiliate.
A little over two hours ago, American flight
ten-eighteen
from Chicago
to London
crashed forty
-
kilometers from land.
The wreckage and debris is covering a span of nearly
three
kilometers from the point of impact in the Atlantic Ocean.
Reportedly
,
one hundred and twenty-five Americans were onboard.
An FAA spokesperson has confirmed that
it has turned into a recovery effort
.
Again, American flight
ten-eighteen
departing from Chicago
to London
has crashed
with no survivors.”

“
No
,” I said, shaking my head. “
No.
No!
”
I yelled.

Not possible.

This can’t be happening
.

“Mom, what was Jarvis’ connecting flight number to London?” I
choked
.

When she didn’t answer
,
I knew the answer.

Mom screamed so loudly that it nearly dropped me to my knees.

“No,
it
isn’t possible.
Jarvis is fine.
I can feel it,” I argued
as the dark images on the television blurred beyond recognition from the tears flooding my eyes
.

Yahto sat on the floor crying
.

D
ad was trying to console Mom, but tears were staining his dark cheeks as well
.

“
This
isn’t
happening
,” I said. “
My brother is fine.
My brother is alive
.”

“I’m so sorry, Jay,” Yahto stammered.

“Jarvis
missed his connecting flight
,” I argued. “He g
ave
up his seat to someone else and is taking a
later
flight or
different
airline.
”

“Stop,” Dad pleaded.

“
He got drunk and they kicked him off of the
plane
until he sobers up
,” I continued. “
The Air Marshalls
mistaken
him for a terrorist because of his
beautiful
dark complexion and have him in a holding cell somewhere.
I don’t know what happened but I do know that he wasn’t
on that plane.
”

“Stop,” Dad yelled.

“This isn’t…no,” I whispered and
grabbed the phone and started to dial 4-1-1 for the air
line, for anyone…
anyone who could tell me that my brother was alive.

When I started to dial, I saw
the post-it note
next to the phone
.

I dialed his
cell phone
number instead.

“Please, please, please answer
,” I chanted over and over.

I
felt
like
I was
going to throw up
.

After
two rings
, the line picked up.

“Hey, I was just about to call you.”

“Jarvis?” I choked
.

P
lease don’t let this be his voicemail
.

There was silence.

Voicemail, damn it.

“Sis, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Jarvis, is this you or your stupid voicemail?”
I choked.

Mom,
D
ad, and Yahto were suddenly circling
huddling around me
.

“Not my voicemail,
” he said. “What
happened?
Are
M
om and
D
ad okay
…oh my god, are you pregnant?
”
he gasped.

“Your plane crashed,” I
stammered
.
“In the Atlant
ic. You should be dead...
”

Again there was silence on the other end of the phone before he laughed once, humorlessly.
“Holy shit
,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “
Um
...
Tanis took me to the airport but he had made arrangements for me to take his family’s privat
e jet so I’d have some leg
room and a shorter flight.
I got to Moscow a few hours ago
and
I was going to call you guys once I got settled.
Holy shit, seriously?”

I handed the phone to
M
om.

This
can’t
be happening.

Mom was crying hysterically
. Dad was hugging her tight.
I was overwhelmed with relief that my brother was alive, but flooded with guilt over how
I had
been treating Tanis.

I ran out the front door and didn’t stop until I was standing on the front porch of the three-story home.
I pounded on th
e front door as hard as I could
and rang the bell over and over again.

Someone has to be here
….
he has to be here
.

After another minute of pounding, the door flew open and Tanis’ face
went
from irritation to relief, then
to
pain and confusion.

“
Duckie
,
what happened
?” he demanded, noting my tears
through the rain
.

That was it
.

I
completely
lost it
and
threw myself at him and cried hysterically.