“I’d rather do it on my own. So I can feel good about it.” She told him she understood that. “I’ve got to make sure I can stand up on my own two feet rather than have to fall back because I let you get me in. Does that make sense?”
“It does. You want to feel good about your education rather than worry about you only succeeding because I pulled a few strings for you.” He nodded. “Good for you. But know this—if you need me to step in for you, for anything, then you only need to let me know. I’m your mom, and no one is going to hurt you so long as I live.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you too.”
Abe did love them, every one of the birds and their mates. He figured that soon they’d all have mates and babies on the way, and there would be that many more people he could call his own. So long as his bio parents, what Tracy called them, were not in the picture.
Last night before he’d gone to bed, he did that reaching thing. He could contact anyone in his family and figured he might be able to tell where the bios were. The only time he’d felt them was a few weeks ago. Something about them had called out to him. Abe had figured out later that it was them saying his name. Nothing more, just them talking about him. Trying it again now, he could actually see what they were doing.
His bio mom was Retha. But she spelled it wrong so people would remember her. Like anyone could forget her blue hair and tatted up face. “Did you think about what happens if they don’t want him anymore? I mean, we’re planning on taking him then selling him back. But what if they just say we can have him? I don’t want him around, Tag. Just the money.”
Tag. He supposed his bio father’s name would have been shortened to Tag from Taggert. “Have you figured out how much he’s going to be worth yet?”
“No. I’m still working on where he’s at. The newspaper talking about some king getting married and adopting two kids only said that they were in upper Ohio. That don’t tell me much.” Bio mom looked around. “Do you ever feel like someone is watching us? I mean, like right here in the room with us?”
“I don’t feel that. Maybe it’s you not being high yet that has you feeling that way. Come on, share what you have.” Drugs. That was when Abe noticed they were tying off a rubber thing around their arms. He moved back away from them but returned when Tag spoke again. “We could just take him and sell him on the black market again. It worked out okay for us then. I don’t like how that ended, though. Those people that bought him off us, they turned him over to the cops. That was shitty of them if you ask me.”
Now he knew how he’d ended up in the home. They’d sold him. Thinking about that made him realize they were no better than the woman at the home. Worse, he thought, because he had been their son. As he made his way to bed that night, he thought about what he’d said to Aunt Piper. He did wonder if this would make a difference to them if he told them. Abe was going to tell his mom first. She might have a better plan for them. He didn’t care, just so long as they never came around him.
Falling asleep was easier since living here. He didn’t wake in the middle of the night, terrified that he was going to be murdered in his bed. Abe had witnessed it once. The man that had taken one of the older kids had snapped his neck while his sister stood there, telling him to hurry before anyone woke up. Abe hadn’t eaten the cookies that came with dinner that night and figured it was the reason he wasn’t sleeping. The cookies had something in them. Abe never ate another cookie while there. He couldn’t even stand them now that he knew no one was going to kill anyone in the night. They were off the list of foods he enjoyed.
Chapter 2
Grant remembered the birds from when he’d been in the castle keep. They were something to behold, he remembered. He also remembered the old king. The fucking bastard had nearly killed his mother when she’d been in labor with him. It was small wonder either of them had survived working there.
Today he was digging a trough from the waterway to the back of his home. Grant had his mom move in with him some years ago. It was still the same now. They worked well together and didn’t have the problems with being together, as did some of the humans he knew living with their parents. He supposed it was because they were both magical and could make walls between them if they wanted some quiet time. Not that he wanted much of that anymore. He seemed to love being around groups more than he did when he’d been younger. Grant supposed it was because of his job as a doctor. That was his latest job anyway.
“Are you going to go with me to the castle in the morning?” Grant ask his mom why she was going there. “The lady of the house wants me to come by there and see if I can do anything with the material that was left in the castle for them. There are a few tapestries as well that she thinks could use a steady hand. To think the birds are all back now. It’s nice, don’t you think?”
“Yes.” He didn’t really care if they were back or not. He’d not had a great deal to do with them when he’d been here long ago and didn’t figure that was going to change all that much now that they lived around him. “I’ll have this dug out for you in an hour. Will you be ready to set up the water system for your herbs by then?”
His mom was the healer. Grant knew she also used magic when she made herbs or the like to help people. Being a fae, she was in tune with the earth more than most. Mostly she only made wraps or helped birth a baby or two. But she knew everyone in town, and they’d been using her forever, it seemed.
As soon as he had the water running the way she wanted it, it was easy for her to hook up the sprinkler system to turn on the herbs when she wanted. Grant laughed when she stood under the spray of water and cooled off.
“I think this summer is going to be a hot one.” He didn’t tell her the very definition of summer meant it would be hot, but he kept his mouth closed. “Do you suppose there is a chance we can get a few trees back here trimmed back? I’m tired of picking up sticks when the wind blows a little harder than usual.”
“I can do that. How far do you want them trimmed? I’m assuming you mean higher and not just trimmed off the fence.” She told him what she wanted. “All right, Mom. I can do that for you. But you’re about to have company. The ground is telling me it’s a child because of the light foot. Male too.”
“Oh, I forgot. It’s Abe from the castle. He was coming by for some information on some herbs. I have them ready.” She started for the house and stopped. “Grant, they’re on the table laid out for him. Could you go in and hand them to him? I’m soaked through right now.”
He didn’t mind. Grant had seen the kids around town a few times. He’d also heard that Abe had saved one of the merchants the other day. He wanted to thank him for that, as well as invite him to his classes about surviving in the wild. Grant thought everyone should be able to tell a weed from something they could eat to stay alive.
“You must be Mr. Grant.” He said he was just Grant. “All right, Grant. I’m Abe. Your mom, she said she had some starters she could give me for a project.” He told him to come into the house, and he’d get them. “This is so cool. It’s so big here.”
The house, like a great many of the houses here, was smallish. The difference was, with their home, it only looked like it was small from the outside. The inside of his home was much larger and spacious than the biggest home here because of their magic.
“When I first was moved into this home with my mom, we both knew it was never going to hold us both and all our projects. So we worked out what we wanted and made our own space. Usually, the magic doesn’t show itself to others. You must be very trustworthy.” Abe told him he hoped so. “I was going to ask you if you’d like to come to the survival classes I’m working on. I think your sister and cousin might enjoy them as well. I teach you how to know what you can do if you’re lost.”
“I’d have to ask my mom and dad.” Grant handed him permission slips to give them. “I’ll drop one of them off with Miley when I see her. She’s supposed to co
me to the house for dinner tonight anyway. You should come too. That way, if they have any questions, you’ll be able to answer. It will be fun to have someone other than all those women around.”
“I don’t know, kid. What if they don’t want strangers around?” Abe said he wasn’t a stranger, that he knew his sister and mom both. “But they still might not like it. You should probably get permission first for me to just show up.”
He nodded then smiled at him. “I asked. Mom said the more, the merrier, and that your mom should come too. Tracy had so much fun at your mom’s shop the other day that she has talked of nothing much else. Please say you’re coming. I will have someone to talk to while the women talk about dresses and stuff.” He made a gagging sound, then looked up at Grant. “It’s not that bad. I promise. I love having all my family around all the time. Especially at meal times. They’re fun.”
“I have to ask my mom too.” Abe told him if she couldn’t make it, he could still come. “You’re an all right kid. I think I might like having you hanging around with me.”
“My Aunt Piper calls me kid too. I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t know my name, but she just thinks of me as a kid. I don’t annoy her, I don’t think. We had dinner together the other night. Just her and me.” The kid had a serious crush on his aunt if Grant didn’t miss his bet. “She’s the phoenix. The scariest of all of them, I think. My mom is an eagle. So is Dad.”
In the end, it was just him that was going to dinner at the castle. His mom wanted to go, he could tell, but she’d already made plans to go over to Ms. Sanders’ home and help her with her legs. Abe told her that if she got done early to come on up. He’d love to have her sitting with them too. The kid was a charmer. He could tell that right away.
When it was time for him to head up to dinner, his mom actually going, after all, he thought about what he should wear. When he came out of his room in a pair of jeans and a white shirt and tie, his mom fussed at him for not dressing up more.
“Mom, if he would have told me to dress more, I would have. But he said they just wore what they had on. Just in case he was a little too casual about the dress, I’m wearing a tie.” She told him he needed to shave. Also that his hair was too long. “Mom, you being nervous isn’t helping me much, just so you know.”
“I don’t want to make a terrible impression.” He pointed out that they’d met them before. “I know, but we were working. That’s different.”
Rolling his eyes, he went out onto the porch to wait for her to come out so they could leave. Getting into the car for the short drive, Grant knew they’d be stopped several times before they made it out of the town, and that would delay them a great deal.
As they made their way to the castle, talking to their neighbors as they went, Grant realized how much his mom meant to these people. He would also bet his mom would tell him they were just being nice. No, he thought, they loved her. As much as he did. His mom was the best there was as far as he was concerned.
Grant also knew people would come to her about things too. Her opinion meant a great deal to each and every one of the townspeople. Even the mayor came to her about things he wasn’t sure were going to work. Grant had to laugh. He knew she’d have an opinion about whatever it was.
“Oh, my goodness.” He looked where his mom was looking and stopped the car. The castle was finished. The scaffolding had been taken down sometime over the last few days. In addition, the drawbridge, as old as the castle itself, had been installed. “It looks so much like it did when you were born, Grant. With the exception of the dirt and smoke.”
“The smell too. It doesn’t smell of pigs or sewage.” She nodded as she stared at the place. “Mom? Are you ready to go on?”
“Aye, I am. My goodness, the queen would surely be proud of her boy. Not just in taking care that the castle was restored, but how all of us are still here, as safe as the day she had us moved.” She laughed a little and turned to him while he still had the car in park. “You were so sick on that trip we took. If not for everything going on down below us, you might well have not spewed your breakfast and lunch.”
“Yes. You kept telling me not to look down. But I’d never been that high before.” He thought of that day, and it still terrified him to think just how high they had been. “If I remember correctly, the bird that took us was the owl. She was as gentle as she could be, too, I remember.”
He thought of all the changes that had occurred in his lifetime. There wasn’t a day that went by that something new wasn’t discovered. A patch of land that was quickly turned into one of the best herb gardens ever. Everyone kept it cleaned of weeds, and it was used by all. The running stream that seemed to be warmer in the colder months. He remembered taking baths in the stream with a great many other boys his age. Each house had water piped in. Wood used for cooking and heat was chopped and stacked in the summer and used up through the winter. Any need they were lacking in did not matter either. Someone was there to work out a solution. When one of their own died, they all worked together to take care of the family left behind. The casket would be made for them as well.
When they pulled up in front of the castle, Grant wondered what would have happened to them had not the queen of the castle provided for them. Even now, she had made sure there was plenty to go around. He thought that if Dante were alive today, she’d be working the fields with them if necessary. She’d be helping dig graves, a new well or whatever was necessary.
While he’d never met her person to person, everyone knew who she was. It was nothing, when they were all living in the keep, for her to be seen grooming horses or playing with the children she came across. Also, she’d be the first to go to a home that had a dying relative, holding their hands when grief would be too much for them.
“I wish I could have known her.” He looked around when someone said she did as well. “You must be Tracy. I’ve heard a great deal about the beautiful teenagers here now. How do you like living in a castle?”
“It’s wonderful. You must be Grant. Your mom told one of us to come out and get you. She seems to think you’re off your noodle. I myself think that if anyone can stop and enjoy a beautiful scene such as this one, there can’t be too much wrong with them.” He looked back out over the inlet. There were boats on the water even now. “Someday, I’d like to be able to ride the seas. My mom did. She said that being a pirate with her sisters was one of the most fun times she can remember.”
“I would imagine.” He thought about this young slip of a woman being a pirate. “I bet in her day it was very profitable too. Men would have gladly turned over anything to a pretty face. I was a pirate, too, for a while. For me, it was a good way to make some money to send home to my mom. It certainly did stave off the boredom for a while.”
They talked about his stint as a pirate. Also, when he’d been other things in his life. As soon as he entered the large double doors, Grant felt warmed. Not by the room, but by the feelings that came from it. The part of him that was fae told him this would be a good place to feel welcomed no matter what sort of day you were having.
Grant bowed to the woman he knew to be his queen.
“Oh, please don’t do that. I nearly had to kick your mother up from the floor when she did the same thing. Get up.” He did and grinned at the pretty woman in front of him. “I might be your queen and Duncan, your king, but as friends, as I’m hoping you’ll be, we’re just people having friends over for dinner.”
“I doubt very much that you’ll get my mom to do anything but bow or curtsy in front of you.” Jude, he’d been asked to call her, laughed. “You’ve done so much to the castle. I could swear that other than a few things, such as smell, you’ve done it exactly as it was all those centuries ago.”
“Yes. I remember the smell.” She laughed with him. “Isn’t it funny how you can remember a lot of good things about a place, but when someone brings up the bad part, it floods your memory w
ith all sorts of other things? Like the smell of cooking meat. The smokehouse too. My goodness. I’d forgotten about those. Dante did try and make it cleaner, but there wasn’t the sort of equipment we have now. Come in, Grant. Your mom is now trying to have a conversation with my husband, and I don’t think it’s going well.”
He was led to a large living room space. Whoever had designed it had taken into account that many people might gather in the room. Three massive couches faced the now cooled fireplace. The armor around it gave testament to the wars that had been fought. There were chairs set about in pairs with small tables between them. He found his mom in one of those little areas, trying her best to blend into the chair while sitting across from Duncan, their king.
“Your mother seems to think she is beneath me, Grant. I’m trying to tell her I don’t recognize such stations in life anymore. I can and will be king when it’s necessary, but we’re friends here today.” Grant shook hands with the other man and felt a surge of magic transferred between the two of them. “Ah. Fae, faerie, and brownie. I think there is a bit of wolf there as well. As well as a little magic from my mom. I’ve read about you, Grant. My mother had such plans for you.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
Duncan just laughed and turned when three women came into the room with them. They were beautiful beyond compare, but Grant thought all women were beautiful. Once he was introduced to them, shaking all their offered hands, he started to join his mom. She’d taken the opportunity to escape from the chair she’d been in and move to the couch.
When Duncan cleared his throat, Grant looked to where he was looking.
Piper: Queen’s Birds of Prey: Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Queen's Birds of Prey) Page 4