The Twin Moon (The Moon Series) (26 page)

“There was this little girl, she was blond and she had on a pretty blue gingham dress. One minute she was there the next she was a tiger cub and her dress was on the ground.”
Someone whispered “Ashley” as she continued to talk.
“Then a little boy did the same thing.
Am I crazy
,
Ian?” She finally met his gaze.

“No
, baby
.
You’re not crazy.
I didn’t want you to find out like this, I’m so sorry.” He
cupped her face as his heart squeezed painfully in his chest.

“The r
eason I couldn’t pet the tiger…
it’s because that’s a person isn’t it?” Her eyes
were
very clear now and wide.

“Yes, Andy.”
He waited for her to shriek.

“Can I get up?”
She motioned as if she would move.

“Of course, here let me help you.”
Ian pulled her up.
His heart thudding wildly in his chest waiting for her to freak out.

She teetered for a minute on her tall fetish shoes, then found her balance with the help of Ian’s arm.
W
ith her shoes on she looked him in the eye.

Andy glanced around at all the assembled adults.
Their expressions varied from scared to happy.
Andy looked at Ian.
He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

“Everyone, I want you to meet Andy.
Andy this is my family.”
Ian forced a smile on his face.
He introduced the gathered brothers and sisters.

“This is Cathy. S
he’s the oldest, and her husband Jason.”

“Nice to meet you.”
Cathy replied and hugged Andy. Jason grumbled a hello and moved away.

“Angelica’s next.” Ian motioned to his sister with her hair pulled up in a twist.

“This is my husband, Ray, and this is Ashley.”
She introduced the shifting blond girl.

“But I don’t understand why?”
Ashley complained
.
“I like being
the tiger. I
t’s fun.”

“Ashley.”
Her mother scolded as she pushed her toward the other kids.

“Nice to meet you.”
Ray shook her hand.

“This is Chris. S
he’s not mated yet, unfortunately.”
Chris shook hands with Andy and ran an appraising gaze over her.

“Keep it up Ian, one of these days, and mom’s not going to be there to stop me.”
She walked around them.

“Christina!
Don’t threaten your brother!” Millie snapped and smacked her on the arm.

“This,” Ian said bring attention back to them, “is Jillian and Katie. Who’s a pretty girl?” Ian took the baby from his sister
’
s hip and kissed her chubby cheeks.

“Hi, Andy.” Jillian’s voice was gentle and she kissed Andy on the cheek.
“It’s good to meet you.
Carey, my husband, had to work today so you won’t get to meet him.”

“That’s everybody and you’ve already met
Dillon,
Ivy and Edge.” Ian handed baby Katie back to Jillian.

***

Were-tigers.
Holy shit.
Andy couldn’t wrap her head around it.
People who turned into animals.
For real.
She was just about ready to go screaming from the building, but everyone acted so nice she couldn’t bring herself to
be rude
to them.
Andy’s head spun with all the names.
There was no way she
would
remember all of them.
Why had Ian brought her here to a family function?
It was very overwhelming;
she’d never been around such a big family.

Ian twined their fingers and walked her over to a table, then sat and pulled her into his lap.

“Ian, I don’t think I should be sitting on your lap, what will your family think?”
Her voice was hushed, her spine stiff.

Ian nuzzled her ear.

“They won’t think anything.”
He traced her ear with his tongue.

“Ian.”
A shiver reached into her toes.
“Really, I should sit over here.”
Andy got up and scooted on the bench seat, fear itched inside of her at his touch and it made her sick to her stomach.
She didn’t want to be afraid, not of Ian.
Something inside her just wouldn’t allow her to be close to him right now.
He was different that’s all, but even though her heart professed that over and over her human head was still having a really hard time wrapping itself around that fact that he could shift into a tiger.
She wanted to leave, to put some distance between them, but how would that look her walking out.
Her heart ached, everything in her screamed that she had been betrayed and lied to.
His soft words of love from just the night before seemed like a distant memory now.
How could he profess to love her and not tell her this kind of a secret about himself?
He was no different than Rich.
Pretending to be one person only to become another.
A monster.
Andy stared at Ian’s beautiful face and her eyes glossed over with tears as her heart broke in two.
The same thing that had happened before
,
that’s what it was, all over again.
Andy struggled to get a breath in her lungs as panic seized her.
Pain and anguish put her chest in a vise and ratcheted it down tight until she
gasped.
“I can’t stay here.”
Andy stood up and walked as steadily as she could for the door, a turbulent storm inside her head, battering her brain.

“Andy, don’t go.”
Ian was behind her right on her heels and a hush had fallen on the barbeque.

Andy kept moving reluctant to look back and see his family behind her.
Through the door she went and out into the air conditioned hallway as Ian caught up and grabbed her shoulder.

“Andy, please.”
His voice was full and deep as he tried to turn her, but she resisted, keeping her face toward the hall.

“I can’t.
You have to give me some time.
This is just too much, Ian.”
Andy didn’t dare glance over her shoulder at him.
She didn’t know if she could walk
away from
him if she saw his face, and she needed to leave him right now.
This was a world
,
for the life of her
, that
she didn’t understand.
She wasn’t sure right now if she wanted to either.

“At least let me see you home.”
Ian’s hand dropped from her shoulder.

Andy took a deep breath in slowly let it out through her nose. “It’s okay, I need the fresh air.
I’ll…I’ll see you later.”
With that Andy walked out of the
Haven
as fast as her fetish shoes would take her.

Andy unlocked her door and went inside turning o
f
f the security alarm.
She slumped back against the door taking off her shoes.
It was a good thing she had decided to call a cab.
Andy made it to the couch and collapsed.
She hung her head in her hands as the pain of Ian’s betrayal rolled across her heart like a wild fire.
Her eyes burned then burst over
tears tearing
down her face in small rivers of wetness.
It had only been a week and she had trusted him so completely.
She had believed in him to protect her and keep her safe.
He had just lied to her.
Hidden himself from her.
Andy sobbed as she turned into her throw pillow, her shoulders shaking.
Why did it hurt so bad
ly
?
Her cell phone rang in her purse and Andy just let it go.
She couldn’t have talked right now even if she had wanted to.

Andy turned her head and let it rest on the pillow as her tears subsided a little.
She pushed her hair back from her face and wished this whole thing hadn’t happened.
They could have been perfect together.
The phone started ringing again.
Andy finally moved and pulled it out of her purse.
It was Rosie.

“Hello?”
Andy’s voice was rough from her tears.

“What’s wrong?
What did he do?”
Rosie was immediately on the protective front.

“Nothing, really.”
Andy wiped her eye
s
with the back of her hand as she stared at her blank television.

“Then why are you crying if he didn’t do anything?”
Rosie’s voice was softer now as she spoke to her.

“We went to the barbeque and something happened.
There’s something about him really important that he never told me.
And now I don’t know what to think.
I feel like he betrayed me.”
Andy sniffed.

“What something important?
What exactly did he do?”

“It’s not my secret to tell, Rosie.”
Andy hesitated.
She didn’t want to tell the world what she knew about Ian and his people.
It wasn’t her place.

“Is it something that could hurt you?”

Andy thought about that for a minute and rolled the idea around in her mind.
“Not really.
It’s just about him.
It’s just something unexpected.”

“Then why do you feel betrayed?”

“Because he told me he loves me.
How can he love me and hide things about himself?”
Andy sucked in a deep breath, the whole though
t
made her want to cry again.

“Maybe he was scared.
He doesn’t
k
now everything about you.
It’s a new relationship.
Do you love him?”

Andy hesitated.
Did she?
Is that why it hurt so badly?
“Oh, God Rosie.
What have I done?
I fell in love with him!”
A fresh burst of tears ran down her face as she sobbed into her cell phone.
“I’m such an idiot.”

“No you’re not.
I did try to warn you.”
Rosie spoke and soothed in her softest voice.
“It’ll be okay,
mi amiga
.”

“No, not this time.
I’m his soul mate.
He told me so.
I don’t think he’s going to give up without a fight.”
Andy used her fingertips to wipe away the tears.

“Do you want him to give up?”
Rosie always saw more than she should.

“I don’t know yet.
I just need sometime.
There so much to sort out.”
Andy cuddled into the pillow.

“Just rest, Andy, and follow your heart.”

***

Ian stormed down the hallway really ready to break something.
Andy had just walked out on him.
Just like that.
Well, what had he expected?
Shit, but he was pissed as all hell.
He didn’t want to go back into the barbeque like this, but pacing up and down the hall only seemed to be making him
angrier
.
He would go over there tonight.
That’s all there was to it.
To hell with her being mad at him.
He had made the right decision by not telling her.
Look what had happened
,
he was right
,
she hadn’t understood.
He had hoped for more.
But she’d walked away from him, right here in front of all his family. What would they think?
Who cares what they thought.
Andy was his mate and she would be his for all time w
h
ether they liked it or not.
Whether she liked it or not.
She would learn to love him.

“Whoa
,
slow down there
,
Hoss.”
Ivy appeared out of thin air in the middle of the hallway.
Ian almost ran her over.

“What are you doing out here?”
Ian growled at her as he went to step around her, but she grabbed his arm and held on.

“Stop, Ian.
I can sense when something’s wrong with you.
Now talk to me, tell me what happened.”
Ivy ran a hand over his arm as she held him with her other hand.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Ian made to snatch his arm away
,
but she shook him in her hold.