Aaron nudged her with his elbow and she took another bite of the salad, chewing to hide her smile. They were such mother hens. She sent them the mental image and struggled to hide her laugh when Cooper choked. He turned hot eyes on her, a slight twist of his lips.
“You’ll pay for that one later, sweetheart.”
The image that filled her mind was out of her deepest fantasies. She was tied up and he was kneeling between her thighs. She sucked in a ragged breath, glaring when she saw them grinning at each other, and reversed the vision.
“That could go both ways,” she said sweetly.
“You know, I think I’m missing most of this conversation,” Trey said.
“You are,” Tara answered. “They’re telepaths. All three of them. I’d expect that from the twins. Bit of a shock in a human woman, though.”
“Cool. I could use a talent like that.”
Tara shuddered. “I doubt you’d want it. Ask Meg.”
He frowned. “True.”
“Ask Meg what?” The woman in question sat down next to Tara, who nodded at Delilah, Cooper, and Aaron. Darius took the chair next to Meg. Her mate, Delilah reminded herself.
“Telepaths. Trey thought it might be a fun talent to have.”
Meg snorted. “Not really.” She cocked her head and looked at Delilah. “I’ve never met another reader.”
Delilah couldn’t believe the turn the conversation had taken and was shocked to her toes. She’d always considered herself, her abilities, unusual, but the others were speaking of them like they were an everyday occurrence. Well, maybe not every day, but not so strange. She didn’t feel any surprise from the twins, and she realized Meg was waiting for some response. She shook her head.
“I’ve never been able to read people before. It was always animals I could connect with.”
Trey grinned and Darius laughed, tipping his tea glass at her. “We’re not exactly human.”
“Um, yeah. There is that.”
There was no way she was touching that, not in this crowd, and was surprised someone had brought it up. Setting her fork down, she stopped pretending to eat and waited for Cooper and Aaron to finish. She needed to go back to their house and knew there was no way they’d let her go alone. She wondered if there was a way to go back to pretending to be normal. Except, she’d never been that had she?
“The rest of us aren’t either, exactly, you know,” Meg said, her gaze sharp, assessing. “Well, my cousins and I. And you.”
She started. Had she been so distracted she’d missed part of the conversation? “Aren’t what?”
“Normal.”
Tara grinned, lifting her glass to the woman next to her. “Normal is overrated.”
“Amen to that.” She turned back to Delilah. “Did anyone tell you we’re cousins? Me, Tara, and Summer?”
“I think I heard that.” She definitely had and she better lock down her thoughts before Meg picked them all out of her head.
“Ahh. Well, our grandmother was a witch. We inherited some of her talents. I’m the reader. Tara is wonderful with spells, and Summer dreams.”
Delilah cocked an eyebrow. She didn’t have to voice the question. Meg shrugged one shoulder. “The future. Sometimes the past. You can’t exactly direct that kind of thing.”
“And you, my dear,” Tara said, “will fit right in with the rest of us completely normal witches.”
“I’m not a witch.” She was a werewolf with an interesting little talent thrown in but she couldn’t tell them that.
“How do you figure that? Who’s to say your mother wasn’t?” Aaron asked.
She sighed and reminded herself he didn’t know. Aware there were several people at the table who could apparently read her thoughts, she tried to control them, tried to wall up her emotions. No one gave her any looks or called her on her concerns, so maybe she was successful.
“Delilah,” Cooper said softly. “Don’t cut us out like that.”
It did work but she saw the hurt flash through his eyes, and she knew she couldn’t keep it up. She sighed. “Could we get out of here?”
“Yeah.”
He gathered their plates and Aaron took her elbow, helping her up. Before they could leave though, another werewolf and woman came into the kitchen, and she groaned silently. She was so screwed. Ellen Moore gaped and for half a second Delilah thought she might escape. She was halfway to the door before Ellen snapped out of it.
“Delilah? I had no idea you were here.”
She forced a smile and faced her. “Ellen. It’s been a long time.”
“Yeah.”
“How do you know each other?” Jackson asked suspiciously.
Ellen looked stunned, recovered much too slowly. “Jesus. They don’t know who you are, do they? How did you end up here?”
“Gage,” she replied coldly, trying to edge back towards the door.
Jackson rose to his feet slowly, pure predator, and Cooper and Aaron bristled at her sides. Damn damn damn.
“Who are you?” Jackson snapped.
“Thanks, Ellen,” she said drily.
“Sorry. Sorry. I just…can’t believe you’re in a pack.”
“Delilah.” Aaron tried to push her behind his back, but she shook her head once. Might was well get this over with.
“It’s okay.” She faced the others. “My last name isn’t Anderson. It’s Danvers.” She gave it a minute to sink in. “My grandfather was Sean Danvers.”
Anger turned to incredulity to concern. “Does Gage know? You trusted him with this information?”
“He does know, and I trust him with my life. He’s trusting you with it too,” she said softly.
If she guessed right a silent message would be sent with that statement. From the corner of her eye, she saw Summer jerk and exchange a look with Meg.
“Delilah and I need a minute alone,” Summer said.
“It’s fine,” she snapped when the twins tried to follow them from the room. Cooper held her gaze a long moment, nodded, and pulled Aaron back.
She and Summer entered a sitting room across the hall and the alpha’s mate shut the door. She pulled an old coin from her pocket and handed it to Delilah, who smiled when she turned it over to see the Regis crest.
“So you know who he is,” she murmured. Handed the coin back.
“Why didn’t he tell you?” Summer asked.
“It’s only a guess but I’d say because he wanted me to draw my own conclusions. He didn’t say anything to you because I made him promise not to.”
Summer nodded. “Have you told Aaron and Cooper?”
Another question answered. She sighed. “About Gage? No. I told Cooper who I am this morning but Aaron just found out. If I’d known Ellen was here I would have tried to get her alone before she told everyone. I’d rather the hunters not know.”
“Gage doesn’t trust them.”
“Can you blame him? They failed the last king and they’re too autonomous now.”
“And Ellen is in Anthony’s pocket,” Summer said.
“It’s not a far leap from discovering someone of my line survived to suspecting the same of Gage’s.”
“We can try to keep a lid on it.”
Delilah snorted. “Only if you plan to kill at least three hunters and the daughter of an alpha.”
Summer was quiet. It wasn’t an option and they both knew it. “Aaron and Cooper. Will you be able to mate them and keep this secret?”
It killed her, not knowing if she could trust them with this, but…She shook her head. “My first loyalty is to my king but I don’t know if I can keep something so big from them.”
“Let me talk it over with the others. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”
“Who else knows?”
“Everyone but your twins, Clint, and I assume Ellen and the Sanders twins.”
“You don’t trust Osborn?”
Summer spread her hands. “We just can’t be sure.”
“Yeah. I’ll be glad when all this waiting is over. And
speaking of waiting, I can hear Aaron and Cooper pacing the hall.”
Summer tilted her head. “Sharp hearing.”
Woops. “Maybe sense them would be more accurate,” she said lamely.
She could see Summer wanted to say something about that. Thankfully she didn’t and a couple minutes later, the twins led her through the kitchen and out the back door. Aaron was seething but quiet, and she did her best to ignore it. He’d speak—or rant and rave—when he was ready.
When they were away from the house, she breathed easier and stopped, squatting down to scoop up a handful of snow. She compressed it into a ball then crumbled it, watching it fall to the ground through her fingers. One of them cleared his throat, and she looked up to see them watching her with odd expressions.
“What?”
“You act like you’ve never snow before.”
She grinned, stood, and dusted her hands off on her pants. “I haven’t.”
Aaron relaxed and exchanged a grin with his brother. “That’s a real shame, wouldn’t you say Cooper?”
“Definitely.”
Something in that look, in their mischievous smiles, warned her, and she held her hands up and backed away.
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes,” they said in unison as they bent over at the same time, scooped up handfuls of snow, and balled them together. She was quick to copy them and launched the first ball, hitting Aaron square in the chest. He looked down at the white clumps falling off the front of his coat. When he met her gaze, it was with a mixture of disbelief and promise of retaliation. She laughed and took off running down the path, barely dodging three balls that zoomed by.
She didn’t hear footsteps behind her and hoped they were giving her a head start. She grinned. No way. They would try to outflank her. She needed a plan, and a place from which she could ambush them.
She rounded a corner in the path and ducked behind a tree long enough to form several balls. Cradling them in the crook of her left arm, she readied her right for throwing. She could see the house in the distance and thought she saw a flash of movement in the trees to her right. One of the twins. She’d have to make a run for it.
Crouched low, she took off, trying to watch the forest on both sides. She sensed Cooper before she saw him, threw on instinct, and got lucky. When he broke through the trees a few feet behind her, his hair was dripping snow. She laughed, thrilled at the impromptu game. It had been years since she’d let loose like this. She ran, pumping her legs faster, glad it was something she’d done for years when it hadn’t been safe to shift.
She broke through the tree line into the clearing around the house and tried to run backwards to throw snowballs at Cooper. He stopped, laughing, and held his hands up in surrender. Too late, she wondered where Aaron was.
She squealed when he grabbed her from behind. She wormed her way out of the embrace, but he hooked his foot around her ankles, crushing her under him as they both fell on the soft snow. Her arms were free so she stuffed two handfuls of snow down the back of his coat. He yelped, stood up, and jumped around to dislodge it. She should have used the opportunity to escape, but she was laughing too hard and winded from the run in colder, higher altitude air than she was unaccustomed to. She lay back in the snow and relaxed, watching her breath puff before her face. She started to rise but he was on top of her again, pinning her down.
“So,” Aaron drawled. “You’re werewolf royalty. Any other secrets, baby?”
She glanced at Cooper who shook his head. “I didn’t have privacy to tell him.”
Aaron scowled. “Tell me what?”
She held up her hand and showed him her claws. His eyes widened and he jerked to his feet. She felt a sharp sting of rejection.
“And here we thought you boys might have finally grown up.”
The voice was deep, masculine, joking, and definitely not Cooper’s or Aaron’s. She jerked up, saw two men leaning against the porch railing, and felt her eyes widen. More twins? Cooper held out his hand, pulling her to her feet, while Aaron stepped away. He walked up the stairs and nodded at both men.
“Dad. Pop. Y’all are early.”
“Your mom was anxious to get here.” The one who spoke shrugged, but the pause in the conversation was short.
“Well boys, are you going to let us have a look at her?” the other asked.
They both looked at Delilah and she fought the urge to squirm, feeling like she was being measured. Judged.
“Don’t,” Cooper whispered to her before walking forward, tugging her along with him. On the porch, he let her stop and stand sandwiched between him and Aaron.
“Delilah, meet our fathers. We call them Dad and Pop to keep them straight.”
She’d been having such a fun time until she’d shown Aaron what she was and he’d freaked out. Oh he hid it quick but she’d seen. And now this? Right back into the twilight zone. She looked at the older wolves, trying to figure out how she was going to keep them straight, if she’d even be around long enough to need to keep them straight.
The two men looked like their sons. And wasn’t that a weird thought? She wondered which was the biological father but quickly buried the thought before Cooper or Aaron could pick it out of her head. She was certain no one in this crowd would consider it polite to ask. Anyway, how to tell them apart? They looked identical. Same build, same features, same eyes. Both bald. She wondered if Cooper and Aaron would go bald some day?
“Bite your tongue, woman.”
Cooper looked incredulous as he lifted a hand to shove his hair out of his face, while Aaron laughed. She grinned and shrugged. Who knew he was vain about his hair? His fathers saved him from her teasing.
“Delilah. It’s wonderful to meet you. I’m Zach.” He stepped forward and kissed her cheek. She was so surprised she almost missed the other one.
“And I’m Steve. Welcome to the family.”
Family. She blinked back a rush of tears and uncertainty. It had been a long time since she’d had a family. She wasn’t sure if she could deal with such open acceptance right now.
“Dad.” Cooper’s voice was full of warning. Or maybe not. Maybe that wasn’t their intention at all.
“What?” Zack asked, his gaze disapproving. “You mean to tell us our boys are dallying?”
Cooper was going to take exception to that, she felt it, sensed it as he shifted his stance and turned to more fully face the older men. She held her breath. She did not want to get dragged into the middle of a family argument. Or worse, be the cause of one. Thankfully, they were all interrupted when a woman stepped out the kitchen door on the other end of the porch.
“Mom,” Cooper said, sounding thankful for the rescue. “This is Delilah. Sweetheart, this our mother, Linda.”
“Y’all let her come inside. Good grief, she’s so cold she’s shivering.”
She gave the older men a scolding glare and they looked contrite. But Delilah didn’t correct her. It wasn’t the cold that made her tremble. It was the uncertainty. She didn’t know where she fit in here, didn’t know what Aaron was going to say when they had a minute alone, and she just wanted to escape. She shivered yes, but with the instinct to run.
“No way,” Cooper said.
“Forget it, Delilah,” Aaron added.
She huffed, broke free of their grasps, and went into the house through the French doors in front of them rather than walk down to the kitchen door. It was bad enough so much had changed so quickly she hadn’t been able to process it yet. Why did she have to end up with two men who couldn’t seem to stay out of her head? She hurried through the living room and up the stairs to the bedroom they’d assigned her, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed when no one followed.
Thirteen
“Shit.”
Aaron rubbed a hand over his heart, watching Delilah flee up the stairs. He hadn’t meant to hurt. He’d just been so fucking surprised. The whispers of female shifters were true and his mate was one of them, in addition to being related
to the most famous werewolf family in the world. A family that was supposed to have died out but obviously that wasn’t true, and he seriously doubted she was the only survivor. If there was a living Regis, she was his cousin. Did she know who he was? And what was that private little chat with Summer about? He should have asked questions before playing with her but she’d looked so damned happy.
Cooper ushered their fathers into the kitchen and he followed.
“You owe her an apology,” Cooper answered softly even though they both knew their words would be overheard, the situation reported to their mother and no doubt dissected at length. Before he could think about that though, and how to deal with it, his mother wrapped her arms around him.
“Aaron. Did they run her off?”
“Yeah, Mom.” He glared at his fathers, ignoring his own part of the blame. Delilah was skittish enough without getting ambushed by his family. He fought back the urge to scowl some more and smiled at his mother. She wasn’t the cause of his current problems, didn’t deserve the brunt of his anger and frustration.
He leveled a glare at Dad. “Y’all weren’t supposed to be here until late tonight. And don’t try blaming it on Mom.”
Dad shrugged, sheepish. “You told us you’d found your mate. You can’t blame us for getting here ASAP.”
“She doesn’t seem very friendly.” Pop’s scowl was his usual default expression, but for the first time it irritated Aaron.
“Lay off, Pop,” Cooper said, deflecting them. “She’s new to this, and there are things she doesn’t understand yet. She’s overwhelmed.”
“Which is to be expected.” Leaning back against the counter, his mother glared at her mates. “And better than y’all were. Talk about being thrown to the wolves.”
Both of the older men winced at her tone and neither would meet her gaze. Aaron cocked an eyebrow. Interesting. He’d never had the impression their coming together had been anything but smooth. Obviously, he was wrong. Before he could pursue it, Dad changed the subject and asked what all the excitement up at the big house was about.
Both fathers’ gazes turned hard as he explained the situation with the rogue, which suddenly held a whole new danger considering Delilah’s connection to the old Atlanta pack, though he didn’t tell them that. The reserve wasn’t something he was accustomed to seeing in them and reminded him that they were both hunters when they met his mother. Pop had been Brant’s enforcer before his mother insisted he retire.
Lunar Mates Volume Two: Books 4-6 Page 16