Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Will you stop with that Alpha bullshit?” my mother snapped. “I’m getting damned tired of hearing it! You live in this fantasy world that has nothing to do with reality. Well this time you’ve gone too far—I’m taking Kira and leaving you!”
“You can’t do that—not now! Not when McCain is going to be here any day!” my father shouted. “I forbid it—you’re not going anywhere!”
“Do you see this?” Mamma pointed at my arm. “I show this to any child protection officer and your sorry ass will be thrown in jail and I’ll get sole custody. Now I suggest you get out of my way because I’m leaving tonight and I am never coming back!”
I burst into tears at that point. I hated it when Mamma and Daddy fought—hated it even worse when Mamma talked about leaving. But this time it seemed like she really was serious because she grabbed me by my unhurt arm and dragged me out of there.
We spent that night in a motel and the next day Mamma called one of her book group friends and they let us stay in their house for a while. Then she got a call from Daddy telling her that the house was hers—he was moving out so we didn’t have to live with strangers anymore.
If that gesture was supposed to get Mamma to come back to him, it failed. We moved back to our house all right, but she never let him see me again—not even a single visit.
Of course, it wasn’t long after that when the two policemen came to our house, saying that Daddy had been killed in a fight and was never coming home ever again. They said Drew—the man with the bushy beard who was Nick’s father—had been killed too. So much for the idea of having two fathers—now I had none at all.
I cried and cried after Daddy’s death and Mamma shed some tears herself. But she never did believe that letting me get branded was for my own good—just like she never believed what she called Daddy’s “nonsense.”
I wondered now, as we drove along the dark, rutted road, why my father had never showed her his wolf form. If he really was a Were—and I was sure now that he had been—why not just take her out into the forest on a full moon night and Shift?
Maybe he had been afraid she would leave him, I speculated. My mother had been a very practical woman. She had no use for anything flighty or foolish. I remembered her complaining when one of the women in her book group had wanted them to read a fantasy novel and discuss it.
“No point in reading things that couldn’t really happen,” she’d grumbled. “Just a lot of foolishness!”
Maybe my father had been afraid her mind couldn’t take it—the knowledge of what he really was. Maybe he tried to explain and she brushed him off. I didn’t know—I would never know.
They were both gone now and I would never see them—either of them—ever again.
PART 3
PRESENT DAY
SIX
“We’re here.” Nick’s deep, quiet voice interrupted my dark musings. I looked up and saw that the truck had stopped in front of an old wooden cabin nestled in a small glade.
I had no idea how long we’d been driving—I had been trapped in the flood of memories I’d tried for so long to suppress. And I knew there was still more to come—more of my past to sift through—but I didn’t want to deal with it now. With an effort, I closed the door on my memories and returned to the present.
“Where’s ‘here?’” I asked flatly, looking at the little wooden structure.
“My grandparents’ cabin. The one they left to me and my Dad,” Nick explained. “He put into a trust for me before he died. I just moved back in not too long ago.”
“Right. So you could come to an ‘Open Breeding’,” I said sourly, giving him what my Mamma would have called “the stink eye.” “And get yourself some pussy while you were in your Fur Form.”
He winced as though I’d struck him.
“Be fair, Kira,” he said, giving me a steady stare. “Did you see me breeding anyone—in Fur Form or otherwise—tonight?”
“Well…no,” I admitted grudgingly. “But there was a lot going on—I might have missed it.
“I would never do that.” Nick looked at me earnestly. “It’s one of the two Unbreakable Laws of our people! No breeding in Fur Form and no breeding with family members—no incest. Those two laws are the very foundation of Were society.”
“Then what were you doing there tonight?” I demanded.
“What were you doing there?” he countered. “I nearly went ballistic when I felt my brand start glowing and saw you in the crowd! I was keeping an eye on you, trying to make sure nobody went after you. When you climbed the tree, I thought you’d be safe. I had no idea McCain would be so focused on you.”