Seven Years (20 page)

I knew that look on Austin’s face and he wasn’t about to have words with Church. He was about to break bones.

These were two alphas, and I didn’t know the rules when it came to fistfights.

“Evening, Cole,” Lorenzo greeted him. “Still mad about Winnie, I see. She made a great bitch, but I had to pass her off to one of my packmates. Turns out she wasn’t up to my speed.”

So that’s what it was about
. Bad blood my ass; Cole hated Lorenzo because of girl trouble.

Austin took my left hand and held it tight as Lorenzo posed a question.

“You have no official claim on her, Cole. So tell me what your intention is?”

I looked up expectantly.

“She’s
always
been my pack,” Austin said in slow, threatening words. He surprised me. I thought he’d pull a Beckett and go at Lorenzo with fists flying. But he maintained his composure and stayed in control, which made him even scarier.

Lorenzo brushed his long, straight hair away from his eyes. “Tell me why a Shifter was living with a human family.”

“That’s why I’d like to find my father,” I interrupted. “Only he knows where I came from.”

Some of that fire extinguished from Lorenzo’s eyes and they skimmed over me. “You don’t know your real parents?”

I shook my head. Austin inched so close I could feel his body heat.

“How old are you?” Lorenzo asked.

“Twenty-seven.”

Lorenzo reached in his shirt pocket and lifted a box of cigarettes, pulling one out and lighting the end with a red plastic lighter. “That’s interesting.”

Austin picked up on it too. The way Lorenzo said it wasn’t conversational; it was the way you sound when you know something.

“What’s interesting, Church? She’s not yours.”

He chuckled and savored another drag of his smoke. “Perhaps she is, more than you know.”

I yanked my hand free and stepped forward, feeling Austin hook his arm around my waist. “What do you mean by that?”

Lorenzo nodded, staring at the stars with a contemplative look on his face. “My uncle was a Packmaster years ago. There’s a family secret we kept for a long time, but he’s dead now so it doesn’t matter. My aunt had a baby and then a few weeks later, she was murdered and the baby went missing. There were territorial disputes over a large piece of property at the time and two names were on the deed—my uncle’s and an old friend of his. We were told the baby was found dead and my uncle buried her on that property, where our pack belonged.” Lorenzo drew in a deep breath and sighed, tossing the cigarette in the grass. “One night, I overheard my father talking and found out that my aunt had been cheating on her husband—the Packmaster. The baby was not his. To add further insult, the father was a drifter from up north—not one of our people.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” I said, hoping he’d get to the point.

“My father suspected he had hired someone to take out his wife and baby, then pinned it on the neighboring pack. Two problems solved. No more cheating wife and no infant to remind him of the affair, and an end to a dispute which had been going on for decades. My uncle challenged and killed that Packmaster, reclaiming his property. We sniffed around that land over the years. Never picked up the scent of a dead baby.”

His eyes lowered and memorized me on the way back up.

“Uh-uh,” I said, shaking my head. “You think that was me?”

“Little Talulah, all grown up.”

I gasped, and Austin pulled me tight against his chest.

“She’s a grown woman. I don’t need to remind you of that,” Austin warned.

“Alexia is ours.”

“You mean… you’re my
cousin
?”

The horror. Oh, God. I’d been felt up by my cousin.

Lorenzo laughed. “By family and pack, but not by blood. My father and uncle were blood relations. My aunt—your mother—was married in from another pack. She had a baby by a nobody, which makes us related, but not related.”

My face heated and I looked away. Maybe we weren’t really related by blood, but it still felt wrong in all kinds of daytime-talk-show ways.

“Hang on to her as tight as you want, Cole, but just remember she’s a Shifter of free will until she signs with a pack. If she wants to come to my bed… then I’m not going to stop her. Goodnight, Alexia,” he said with a soft growl.

I turned to Austin. “What’s a Mage?”

When Austin found out about the Mage who had threatened me, he crashed on my couch
. I received a brief education on some of the Breeds that lived in our world, and the Mage that was after my father had the ability to manipulate energy. Dangerous didn’t even begin to describe their kind. All this was difficult to process and sometimes when you become so overwhelmed, you just learn to accept truth without explanation. What other choice is there?

Austin called Reno to review the video and apparently, he knew a guy who could do a facial-recognition scan.

Whatever that meant.

Needless to say, Austin wasn’t happy when I told him I wanted the cameras out of my apartment because it was invasive. The last thing I needed was for Austin to get a call while he was having a beer, detailing how I was making out with someone. That was the downside, because thinking about a houseful of men sitting around a computer and watching me dry hump someone on the sofa was too much.

Not that I dry humped my dates, but a girl has to put her foot down when it comes to her privacy.

I woke up on the bathroom floor because I’d been afraid to sleep in the same room with Maizy. I was certain my wolf wouldn’t materialize, but Austin had me paranoid about it.

“Why do you got all those marks on your arms?” I heard Maizy ask.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and dragged myself into the kitchen, where I poured a short glass of cranberry juice and greeted my guests with a sizeable yawn. Maizy sat on the cabinet wearing her pink unicorn nightgown, watching Austin make pancakes.

“Because I like to doodle,” Austin said in a teasing voice.

Maizy giggled and I leaned over the stove. “What is that?” I glared at the misshapen batter.

“These,” he said, flipping one over carefully, “are my specialty flapjacks.”

“He’s making me a kitty,” Maizy explained excitedly.

I glanced at the batter again and noticed the tail. “Very sweet.”

“Looks better than your dragon.”

I narrowed my eyes and shoved his arm. “Austin Cole, you leave my dragon alone. I was five when I made that cup and you’re how old? I think my artistic abilities excel in comparison.” I leaned over the pan and touched the ear. “It’s all crooked.”

He snatched my wrist. “It’s a work of art. Why don’t you put on some clothes?”

There it was again—that husky morning voice oozing with sex. It made me want to snuggle against him. Sometimes I wondered if there was a power in his voice because he was an alpha.

“It’s my house,” I argued. “If I want to prance around in my underwear, I will.”

Maizy giggled and when she started humming the kissing in a tree song, I lifted her off the counter. “Go watch cartoons, sweetie.”

She jogged into the living room clutching a little stuffed dog I kept around for her. Maizy also had her own drawer of clothes for her visits, although Auntie Naya had a whole wardrobe for that child. Naya treated her like a girly girl and Maizy adored her. The last time they went swimming, Naya bought her a pair of pink sunglasses shaped like two hearts. Maizy wore them for two weeks until they finally broke when she fell asleep with them on.

Austin scooped up the pancake and put it onto a plate. “You want me to make you one?”

I cracked a smile. “You want to cook me breakfast?”

While wearing no shirt
and
doing his infamous lean against the wall, holding a spatula in his right hand. He had great arms. Cords of muscle that roped around, but not the kind my meathead ex had with the bulging veins. Austin was built like a man should be, all the way down to the V-cut that peeked out of his jeans, which were slung low on his waist.

Damn
, that lean.

I grabbed the pitcher of batter and made an attempt to do something creative in the pan.

Austin came up behind me and peered over my shoulder. He took my hand and guided the drizzle that shaped into a snake. Then I realized he was trying to do his own rendition of my version of a dragon.

“Cut it out,” I said with a soft laugh. He used a knife to shape the legs. His left hand slid around to my stomach as his chin rested on my right shoulder. Then his breath grew heavy and he suddenly stepped back.

Austin tossed the knife into the sink and raked his hands through his hair. “You’re right,” he said. “You can’t stay at my house. Not right now.”

I turned off the burner and moved the pan. “I’m glad we see eye to eye. What’s really bothering me this morning is what Lorenzo said. I don’t know anything about pack rules, but why would his uncle have murdered his wife?” Then I thought about it. “My
mom
.”

Austin had a pensive stare that made me uneasy. “The greatest shame on an alpha is for his woman to go to another man’s bed. Having his baby? Even worse.”

“Divorce?”

“It’s not the same with us as it is humans. When we choose a mate, we mate for life. Some alphas have more than one mate, and that’s their prerogative, but loyalty is expected on both ends.”

“He’s hardly loyal if he has more than one wife.”

“If it’s consensual, it’s loyalty. If he strays outside of his females, it’s infidelity. His pack won’t respect him if his woman doesn’t.”

“That’s really scary, Austin.”

“It goes on in the human world,” he said indifferently. “It’s not commonplace, but I see his motive. Had it been proved, he would have been put to death. That would have shamed his entire pack, so maybe that’s why they covered for him and kept it a secret.”

I stared at his abs and began daydreaming about how close Lorenzo was to having his way with me. My mind drifted back to what the Mage said about Wes. Austin had taken care of the killer years ago, but not the man who put a hit on him. And if my father stole diamonds, why did he come back? My head was swimming.

“Did you hear me?”

“Huh?” I glanced up at Austin’s messy bedhead as he was raking his fingers through it. He yawned and casually leaned against the sink.

“I was just asking if I could take you to The Pit for dinner. It’s been a while since I’ve gone there and I’d like to take your mind off all this. You got nothing to worry about with your mom; I trust Ivan will keep to his end of the deal. We can talk about old times.”

Then I got nostalgic. Me tagging along with Wes, Austin, and two more of their friends one Friday night at The Pit. I felt like I was part of the cool crowd. Wes had this thing about keeping his cigarettes under his shirtsleeve and when we sat at the table, I snatched the box and pulled out a cigarette. It broke when Wes grabbed it from my hand. His friend Randy complained, “What are you, her dad? Let her have it. She’s a big girl.”

So Wes let me have my first cigarette. He admitted later on he wanted me to get sick smoking it so I’d never pick another one up again, which is why he kept telling me to take another long puff. It worked. Fifteen minutes later, I ran outside and threw up by a newspaper stand. Then I started to cry. I was only fourteen at the time, but I felt humiliated in front of his friends.

I crouched down on the curb, hugging the yellow stand and crying relentless tears. I was too embarrassed to go back inside and I had no other way home. All I could think about was hearing them laugh as I bolted from the table, and it burned me because for a split second, I thought they had accepted me. Stuff like that’s a big deal when you’re a teenager—it’s your whole world.

There was one person who didn’t laugh.

I’d made it two blocks when Austin pulled up in his Camaro. He helped me inside the car without saying a word and drove me home. I’d always assumed Wes had sent him after me, but now I wasn’t so sure. In retrospect, there were a number of memories I had of Austin looking out for me, I just never thought of it that way at the time.

“Well?” Austin asked, setting the spatula on the counter and wiping up a splatter of pancake mix. “Unless you’d rather go somewhere else.”

“I need to find out if Naya can watch Maizy for a few hours.”

“Bring her,” he suggested. “If they still have crayons at the table, she’ll have something to do.”

“No, I’d rather her stay with Naya. I won’t be able to talk to you about certain things with her there. She’s been asking where her mommy is and I don’t have an answer. I just don’t know what to say.”

Maizy suddenly ran into the kitchen half-dressed with her blond hair in wavy tangles. Her pea-green summer dress was open in the back due to a stubborn zipper.

“Lexi, can you fix me?”

“Sure, sweetie. Turn around.”

“Can we go to the pool?” she asked hopefully.

“No, not today. You don’t have a bathing suit.”

I knelt down and straightened out the fabric. “What time did you want to go out?”

“Where are we going?” Maizy asked.

“Not you. You’re going to stay with Auntie Naya tonight while me and um…” I started thinking about all these aunts and uncles and how confusing that was going to be for her. “Mr. Cole and I are going to go out and talk about grown-up things.”

The zipper got stuck and I tugged it a few times, but a stubborn thread was wrapped around it.

“Here, let me try,” Austin said. He knelt down and as he grabbed the zipper, he froze.

“I like Auntie Naya,” Maizy went on. “She’s pretty, and so is Misha even though she hides from me.”

“What’s wrong, Austin?”

He was staring at her back. “What’s this?” he asked in a whisper, pointing to a mark on her shoulder blade.

“It’s a birthmark, silly.”

He leaned in and looked closer, rubbing the pad of his thumb over it. “I’ve seen that pattern before. That’s no birthmark.” Austin yanked up the zipper and Maizy took off.

“What was that about?”

Austin stood up and covered his mouth. His eyes were sharp and wide.

I shoved his chest, coaxing him to talk.

“I met an old woman when I was up in Wyoming. She was one of the ancients—a Chitah.”

“What the hell is a Chitah?”

“It’s not just Shifters out there, Lexi. Chitahs live much longer than we do and while they don’t shift, they have an animal spirit within them. The woman had the same exact mark on her wrist.”

“So?”

“Some are born into the Breed, but not everyone. Humans can be transformed into a Mage or a Vampire if chosen, but the rules are pretty cut and dry. Breed can’t have babies with humans. She told me she was once a human, which is impossible because a Chitah is
born
into their race. She said there are a rare group of humans called Potentials, and there’s something special about their DNA. She didn’t seem to know much more than that, other than they all carry the same exact mark.”

“I don’t get it; so she shares the same mark.”

“This changes everything,” he murmured.

Now he was really freaking me out. I stepped closer until we were just an inch apart. “Changes what? Don’t scare me with some old wives’ tale.”

“Maizy has the ability to absorb Breed DNA and fuse it to her own.” He looked down at me and I still wasn’t getting it. “When she’s a woman of age and beds a man, the first Breed male she takes in, she’ll
become
that Breed. No take-backs. If she stays with human men her whole life, she’ll be nothing more than a human herself. What that means, Lexi, is if Maizy sleeps with a Mage, she’s going to become a Mage. If she sleeps with a Shifter, she’ll become a Shifter.”

Now we were both pacing in small circles and cursing under our breath. “Why isn’t this common knowledge?” I asked.

“I’d never heard of it until I met the old woman, but some of the ancient ones know about it. There’s always rumors floating around and half of them are bullshit. Or so I thought. The old woman said Potentials come from human parents, and she thought somewhere way up in the line, there must have been a crossover of some extinct species. She was a little batty, so she had a lot of theories I had to listen to.”

“Then maybe she was crazy and—”

“It’s the
same
mark. It can’t be a coincidence. Do you want to take that chance?”

My stomach turned and I stepped back, gripping the handle to the oven door.