She did not.
Rolling onto her side, she went over the conversation with Angus and thought of the black wolf clan with a chuckle. Her mate hadn’t appreciated her teasing him regarding the beginning of the half-breeds into his world. He had been so hateful at the beginning of their relationship that she simply had to rub it in. Most fairy tales were grounded with an element of truth so they couldn’t discount the entire old wives tale.
After clearing the table and placing the dishes in the sink, she left to go check on her babies. There was too much information racing around her head now for her to sleep, plus Silas was still working and might need her.
When she entered the nursery, she stopped short seeing her mom sitting in the rocking chair. Jacques must still be working. “Mama.”
Her mom nodded. “Can’t sleep either?”
“No. I got a lot on my mind.” She took the rocking chair next to her mother and listened to the sounds of her children sleeping. Every once in a while one of them would snort, or make some sound. It was comforting. Her mind strayed to Silas and the situation he faced. She wanted to talk to him, but knew he needed to focus. The lives of his team and those who lived in that area depended on his clear thinking. Over the period of a few months she had grown to consider Leon and Asia as family. She prayed that they all returned safe.
“You ever wish you could go back in time and change some of the things you’ve done. Kind of like making right the things you did wrong?”
Jasmine looked up at the ceiling not wanting to hear about Mark, the fiancé who went bad, again. But, she had pinned her mom to the wall earlier and sought to make amends. “Probably…most people wish they could.”
“True. I wonder sometimes. What if I had met Jacques first…before I met your dad? I mean, if he is my mate now, he was my mate, then, right?” Her mom whispered.
Sensing this conversation might get deep in a hurry, Jasmine touched her mom’s arm. When her mother looked at her with troubled eyes Jasmine new they needed to find a comfortable, secure place to chat. “Let’s go to my place and talk in private.” She glanced to the area where the nurses slept.
Her mom caught on and nodded. Together, they walked arm in arm down the hall and entered Jasmine’s suite. “You want something to drink?” she asked her mom as she headed to the refrigeration to grab a glass of wine. It was late, she had heard, seen and done things today that required she take the edge off.
“No, I’m good.” Her mom sat on the sofa where Jasmine had lain earlier.
She brought her wine and some cheese puffs in a bowl, placed them on the end table next to her chair. “The way I understand it, Jacques was always your mate.” Jasmine eased them back into the conversation.
Her mom stretched out on the sofa and leaned her head against the arm rest. “I wish I had met him… before. But life doesn’t always work out the way we expect does it?” Her mom looked at her. “Look at you…a few years ago you were miserable and now… you’re different. It’s in your eyes. You glow. And it’s because you’re mated.”
Not fully understanding where her mom was headed, but willing to go along for the ride, she nodded. “I never knew love like this before. Silas…he is my everything.”
“I’ve always longed for that in my relationships, always wanted more. Your father… he was a good man. George loved me, I knew he did… but I wanted, I guess what you have now.”
Jasmine didn’t know what to say. Her dad had been a good man, and a good father. When he died, his absence left a hole in her life.
“If I had been more…content. Certain things never would’ve happened. I would never have gone out that night with my friends after work. Never would’ve drank more than I should’ve or flirted with that jerk.”
Frozen in place by her mom’s confession, Jasmine blinked and then took a gulp of her wine. What jerk? She wondered. Should she ask? Were they having a woman to woman talk or was her mom just blowing off steam while waiting for Jacques to finish his assignments.
“He was handsome, though,” her mom said in a wistful tone that made Jasmine stare at her.
“Who?”
Her mom scooted down the sofa and covered her eyes with her arm. The silence drew out so long Jasmine took another sip of her drink and popped a couple cheese puffs in her mouth.
“The man in the bar that night, can’t remember his name now and I swore I’d never forget. I shouldn’t have gone, it was a week night and Renee was crawling. But I wanted to hang out just a bit with the girls, you know what I mean?”
Jasmine had no idea. Mother of twins and married to a career military man at a young age, she had never done that. “Yeah.”
“We get there, the place isn’t that crowded, but people are coming in from work, eating and drinking, unwinding. Back then food was free during happy hour. So we grab a table and start talking, pretty soon guys are sending us drinks from all over the place. It felt good…too good. Your dad had stopped that.”
“What?”
“Looking at me with appreciation. Like Silas looks at you every time he sees you. The first time I met Jacques he looked at me that way too. It does something to a woman. At least to me. And this guy knew how to play the game. He hung onto my every word, paid for everything.”
She sighed, a long whistling sound. “I was stupid, gullible and needy of male attention. He had me at hello, beautiful. My single friends were jealous because he was rich and handsome and he only wanted me.”
Was her mom telling her about an affair? Or a booty call? Jasmine took another gulp of her drink and wondered if she could listen to her mom talk about this.
“Within an hour I was wasted. Truth is I was proud this fine sexy man had chosen me, so when he offered to walk me to my car later, it never occurred to me to say no or that I might be in any kind of danger.”
Needing more reinforcements, Jasmine jumped up and walked quickly to the bar in the corner and pulled out the bottle of rum to go with the can of coke she pulled from the mini-fridge. If her mom was going where she thought she was going, Jasmine needed to be numb so she didn’t react.
“Danger?” Jasmine said in what she hoped was a calm tone as she mixed her drink. Her mom had told her and Renee she had been raped… was this what happened?
“Yeah. I was dumb and drunk. He was a bigot and wanted to taste a black chick, his words afterward, not mine. I was too ashamed to tell anyone that he…he had taken me against my will. Not after the way I had been all over him inside…”
After taking a sip of her drink Jasmine looked at her mother lying on the sofa. “My sperm donor raped you?”
Her mom uncovered her eyes and met Jasmine’s gaze. For a long moment neither spoke. “Yes, he did.”
Jasmine nodded and took another sip to douse the anger boiling inside. “You know his name?” she asked without looking at her mom.
“No. Not his real name. But I recognized him in the paper a year later. Some man killed him, cut off his head with a machete. He had raped the man’s daughter. At the time it was big news because the father got away with it, killing the guy that is. When I saw his picture in the paper, I recognized him and thanked God for karma. You know what I mean?”
Jasmine nodded thinking of the story Angus told them regarding the Alpha’s seed and wondered at the coincidence. “Karma is a bitch.”
Her mom turned on her side and met her gaze. “I used to wonder what my life would’ve been like if I hadn’t gone to that bar that day. For a long time after that night, I kept seeing his face, the anger, the disdain he had for me. The filthy words he spoke as he… well you know. I couldn’t be with my husband for a long time. When I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to die.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.”
Her mom smiled. “Me too. I think your father suspected, but he never said. I made a vow to be happy with what I had at home and never hung out with the girls again… but now, meeting Jacques, I can’t help but wonder what my life would have been like if I met him years a
go.”
Jasmine placed her drink down and placed her hands behind her head. “Well your life would suck big time, because I wouldn’t be in it. Just think of all the arguments you would’ve missed. The fall outs we had over clothes and curfews. Plus you wouldn’t have had grandsons at a ridiculously young age. Or the headaches that accompanied a teen pregnancy.” Laughing with her mom, she shrugged. “I’m the product of a mistake you made. But I know a few people who are damn skippy that you went to that club that night. Life is weird. Sometimes we have to roll with the punches. I would love to read that news article about when the rapist died if you can remember anything about it.”
Jasmine intended to have the male researched to complete her family tree and see if there were any black wolves up the line. Karma would truly be Silas’ bitch if they discovered Angus was right and the crux of the breed problem started from his line.
“Of course I won’t ever forget, I’ll write what I remember down for you.” She paused. “Thank you for that. I have wanted to tell you that for a long time, but was too embarrassed. It was the main reason I couldn’t get overly upset when you got pregnant so young. If Davian’s relatives weren’t such dicks, I never would’ve allowed you to marry him so young. But he wanted to take care of you and the boys. Plus you said you loved him.”
Jasmine shrugged at the faded memory. “I did not know what love was until Silas, mom. The thing with Davian…I wouldn’t change the beginning because I got Rone and Rese. But the rest of it, yeah, we should’ve cut it short by at least five or ten years.”
“I hear you. You and me both.”
Chapter 14
Leon led the way up the stairs, followed by Silas and the twins. Once they reached the upper level, Bruce was there to meet them in the hall.
He nodded and stepped to the side. “Over here,” he called over his shoulder as he led the way down the hall before turning the corner. When they caught up with him, he placed his palm against what appeared to be a solid wall. After a series of beeps and a click, it opened.
“Nice trick,” Leon said as he followed the janitor down the dim hall. A musky odor wafted toward them.
Samuel hung back. “Do I call the humans now Sir or wait?”
Silas glanced back as the others filed past. “Give us a few minutes to see if we can clean up this mess. If we can’t then you can call them. I know it’s cutting it close, but you don’t want the media all over this right now. There’s stuff on those boats that need to be sorted or destroyed.” He placed his hand on Samuel’s shoulder. “Clear your pack from the area just in case.”
Samuel nodded. “Yes, Sir and thank you.” He turned and jogged in the direction they had just left. Silas stepped through the dimly lit passage and went to join his team.
“What is going on? I can help if you just tell me what’s going on?” Angus said.
Silas shook his head as he continued forward without responding. When he reached the others, Tyrese had a look on his face that spelled trouble. Tyrone stood with one hand on the top of his head, looking down at Leon and Bruce, who surrounded a large cardboard box with a lot of brown shiny tape.
Damn.
“How bad is it?” Silas asked picking up the vibes in the small space.
“Very bad, Sir,” Leon said. “The way this is set up, if it is moved at all it’ll blow. So even if I could deactivate it, I’d have to move something to get to the main part—”
“Which will activate it,” Silas said, pissed.
“You promised to share information with me…so far you have not kept your end of the bargain,” Angus said.
“There are boxes of rocks on the boat. That’s information I bet you didn’t know,” Silas sneered.
“What? No…I didn’t know that.”
“Any ideas? We are running out of time,” Silas said into the silence.
“Actually, Alpha Samuel read the time wrong. There’s an hour and forty-five minutes on the timer,” Leon said slowly, moving aside so Tyrese and then Tyrone could see.
Tyrese exhaled. “He’s right. We have a little more time. I should check on clean up before the bomb squad arrives. Then we can leave, I contacted the pilot and have him picking us up nearby. He said he would be here in thirty to forty minutes.”
Silas nodded. “Rone, you and Leon go check those boats, I want to know what they were planning to move out of here.”
“Yes, Sir,” Leon said as he and Tyrone followed Tyrese.
Silas crossed his arms and looked down at Bruce. “Can you explain how Samuel made such an error? It’s not like him and his fear that we are running out of time was genuine. You were with him, Bruce.”
Bruce stood.
“I was with him, Sir, but I did not look at the bomb then as I did now. He came in here alone while I continued searching other possible locations for explosives. When he left the room, he told me the timer had fifty-five minutes left. I said it may have started the moment the door blew. I have no idea how he made that mistake.”
Silas made a mental note to discuss the situation later with Samuel. That was a huge mistake and may have caused Silas to handle the matter differently than he would have with more time. “Did you find other locations?”
“Yes, Sir. But no explosives. Just this one. But this one is all they really need,” Bruce said looking at the box on the floor.
“Silas I see your men out here, what is going on?” Angus said sounding pissed.
“We are searching for the end of the rainbow, have you seen it?”
Silas turned and waved him out of the room. When they were outside, he looked at Bruce. “Lock it up for now. We will leave it open for the local bomb squad before we leave.”
“Yes, Sir.” Bruce closed the doorway.
“Go up, Bruce, help your Alpha secure the pack. I’ll see you later.”
“But how will you get in the room, again?”
Silas stepped back to the door, placed his palm on the wall and the door opened.
“That is…great, Sir,” Bruce said sounding confused. He bowed to Silas and left as Silas re-closed the door.
Now to deal with Angus and Brix. Something weird was going on with those two. Tyrese nor Tyrone mentioned Angus on the dock. The fight surrounded them as if they were invisible but Silas saw them plainly. Full of questions, he returned to the dock. When he reached the deck, the stack of humans and breeds were gone. Inhaling, the scents were still in the atmosphere but dissipating. A wolf would pick up the smell but humans would not.
As he made their way to Angus, Tyrone stepped out the second boat with an opened box on his shoulder. “Look at this, Sir.”
He changed directions. Once he reached Tyrone, he placed the box on the ground. “Inside are new collars in sealed bags. There are quite a few more boxes stored inside. What should we do with them?”
“We take them with us.” Silas called out to Tyrese. “Did you order a vehicle to take us to the plane?”
“Yes, Sir, a four wheel SUV.”
“Good, I want to take the boxes from the boat with us.”
“Yes, Sir. How many boxes? Do I need to get another truck?”
“How many boxes?” Silas asked Tyrone who was stooped over the box.
“At least twenty. We’ll start carrying them to the opening so all they need to do is get them up and loaded. Maybe we can rig something to make it go faster,” Tyrone said standing. He returned to the boat.
Silas informed Tyrese, pleased that they had made a small dent in his enemies’ pocket. “Where’s Leon?” Silas asked.
Tyrese jogged over and followed his twin inside.
“On the other boat, going through boxes,” Tyrone said as he placed five stacked boxes on the ground.
“Leon?” Silas called while looking at the boat. “What have you got?”
“It’s weird, Sir. These boxes have dirt and rocks. They must have some value. I’m bringing a few on deck so we can take them as well.” He walked out the small cabin area carrying boxes. Tyrone and Tyr
ese took their boxes up the stairs to place in the truck once it arrived.
“Silas what’s going on?” Angus asked and this time there was a sound of authority in his voice that had not been there before.
“Just cleaning house.” Silas watched as the twins returned and took up the last of the boxes.
“You are almost out of time,” Angus said slowly, his tone serious.
Silas turned to face the wolf and saw two men. One was a tall dusky complexioned man with long wavy back hair draped over his wide shoulders. Standing next to him was a man who could easily have passed for a Viking of old. Tall, blond and fair. Curious, Silas strode forward, stopping short of the glowing energy cage to get a better look at both men. Angus’ emerald green eyes gleamed in the low lighting of the cave.
“Time? What do you mean?” Silas asked taking in the way Angus’ lean frame shivered as if his wolf wanted to resurface.
“There is only twenty minutes on the clock,” Angus said in a deep, halting voice as if it were rusty from non use. He pushed his hair behind his ear and waved toward his cell mate. “This is the last day he will use that old form since his cover is now blown. He was an excellent operative who will be missed.”
BirthDate (La Patron, the Alpha's Alpha) Page 15