“Since I was penniless and had earned decent grades in high school, I was able to get into college with a mountain of financial aid. I waitressed for everything financial aid didn’t cover. I kept journals of my dreams and the bits of memory that came to mind, and I eventually started writing stories about wolf shifters. When I graduated from college, I continued to waitress and moved in with some friends, so we could split rent. I started looking then, digging to find out about the fire. I couldn’t find anything about the fire, the foster family or anything other than my fall and the time I spent in the hospital. I tried to track the social services worker down, but that trail grew cold, too. The only thing I did uncover was a life insurance policy in my name. My parents had set it up when I was still an infant.”
Avery paused to take a sip of her iced tea then jumped right back in. She wanted to get her story over with as quickly as possible. “I contacted my aunt and uncle again, and they gave me the death certificates and other documents I needed for the insurance company. They refused to tell me how they’d gotten the documents and why they hadn’t pursued the insurance money. My uncle told me if I showed up at their home again, he’d call the police, maybe even have me committed.
“So I started writing every day, for hours, whenever I had free time, almost in a trance. It was a way for me to escape. I couldn’t tell anyone what I believed had happened, and if I thought about it too long, I wondered if maybe they were right. Maybe I was crazy. One of my roommates read my first book and raved on and on about it. I thought she was just trying to encourage me, but she went behind my back and showed it to her mother, who is in publishing. She liked it, and while I was still in shock over that alone, I was offered a contract.
“That’s basically it.” She’d only hit the high points, not wanting to get into all the drama that happened over the years. Even so, Chase’s mother looked tearful, and even Liam looked almost sympathetic.
“You didn’t know any of it was true?” Liam asked.
“I knew I believed my memories to be real, but I’d also learned I couldn’t tell anyone that without being labeled certifiable. I knew my dreams, certain dreams, felt like memories. I guess I knew what I’d seen and thought I was sane, but there was always some part of me that thought maybe I really wasn’t altogether right in the head.” She laughed. “I knew I wasn’t dangerous, though, so I figured I’d go ahead and just be me.”
“The reporters were pretty rough on you,” Gypsy said. “After your second book.”
“They were,” Avery said. “My second book sold better than the first, I mean beyond-my-wildest-dreams better, and a few kids I’d gone to school with decided to tell the world that I believed I was a wolf. They got copies of my old report cards with teachers complaining that I lived in a fantasy world and couldn’t seem to exit to reality. They produced psychiatric records, which, thankfully, they’d faked rather than trying to get their hands on the real versions. I was news for a few minutes, but most people seemed to think it was a publicity stunt the publisher had conjured up.”
“But there were some who believed you?” Liam asked.
She had to smile at that. “I got a huge influx of fan mail after the media fiasco, much of it from crazies who believed they were wolves, had been raised by wolves, or were my mate.”
Chase growled at that last part. She ignored him. “There were also nudes.”
“Nudes?” Liam asked.
“Naked photos of fans wearing wolf masks mostly.”
Gypsy leaned forward at that. “Any hot ones?”
That produced a growl from just about every male at the table.
“Sadly, no.” Avery shrugged. “Not even one.” She looked to Liam. He looked disappointed by her answers. “The journals I brought with me…they’re just a couple from when I was a little girl, but I thought they might give you some insight. I can share the others, too.” She hadn’t been planning to offer him any others, but she liked Chase’s family so much already that she wanted to be helpful.
Liam’s expression remained serious, but he looked as if he might actually smile someday. “When can I see them?”
“Wait,” Chase said. “I asked Gypsy to get them out of my truck a while ago. Didn’t she give them to you?”
All eyes turned to Gypsy, who shrugged sheepishly. “I thought I’d vet them first.”
“Bring them to me,” Liam said. “Now.”
It didn’t take long for Gypsy to return with her journals. They were really just battered old spiral notebooks. Liam grabbed them with a snarl in response to which his sister rolled her eyes.
Avery turned her attention to Chase’s mother. “I was hoping someone here might have answers for me, or at least some ideas about what happened to my family.” Chase was sure no pack member in his age range knew anything about her, but maybe one of the older wolves did. “Anything at all?”
Chase’s mother reached over to cover Avery’s hand with her own. “I truly wish I did know something. The first we heard of you was when Gypsy started talking about your books. If we knew anything that might help, we’d tell you. It breaks my heart to think of how you grew up without your family.”
“We’re her family now,” one of the brothers said. Was it Noah? Aiden? It would take time to tell them apart.
Liam leveled his gaze at her. “We want answers as much as you do.”
Chase’s dad frowned, leaning forward on the table. “We can circulate her photo to some of the other packs.”
“Allies only…for now,” Liam said. “Chase, let’s talk. You, too, Aiden.”
Chase, Aiden, and Liam gathered a few other men at another table.
Their father got up, too, patting Avery’s shoulder. “If there’s information to be had, Liam will find it.” He made a beeline toward a barrel filled with ice and bottles of beer.
She wasn’t surprised when Chase’s mom reached out to push a few strands of hair away from her face. They were a touchy bunch. “You know, I hope each of my children will find a love as strong as the one I did. We raised them well, and they’re all loyal, protective men.”
Avery didn’t know how to respond to that. “They all seem…great.”
“What I’m saying is, a mother worries that her sons will end up with the wrong sort, even with the mating bond involved. I’ve seen men raked over the coals despite fate’s hand in things, but I can already tell you’re a smart, caring woman. I’m pleased Chase has you to love.”
Fuck. What did she say to that? “Thanks.”
“No thanks needed. Like Noah said, you have us now—as family.” She scanned the backyard scene, then turned back to Avery. “I better go pack the leftovers up before the insects get after them.”
“I’ll help,” Avery said, already standing.
“No, not tonight, honey. Just relax for now. Best to conserve your energy.”
Avery was still puzzling over what she’d meant by that when Gypsy slid into an empty seat beside her and gave her a shoulder-bump. “Sorry about the journals. I was fan-girling and lost my mind a little bit. Mad at me?”
“No, but I don’t think they’re what you’re expecting.” If anything, she felt a little flattered that anyone would bother trying to spirit away her childish scribblings. “Remember, I was just a little girl, so there’s nothing sexy or romantic in there.” She could tell from Gypsy’s expression that she wasn’t convinced. “But since we might be sisters someday, I’ll let you read them next.”
Chapter 11
Spending time with Chase’s family and friends had been a wonderful experience. From Avery’s point of view as a paranormal author, it had been particularly exhilarating. They’d welcomed her into the fold and made her feel like one of them, though, honestly, she would have been content to simply watch them for hours. She’d found them all easy to be around and envisioned growing to love them in time. Liam wasn’t quite included in that group, at least not yet, but she guessed she couldn’t expect everything to be perfect.
Spendin
g time with them like that, liking them so much, it put the capper on what she already knew she had to do. As soon as she returned to White Oak Run, she would destroy the video of Chase shifting, both on her computer and on the camera. She really should have destroyed it the moment she realized she was falling in love with him. It was the lost little girl in her who’d wanted to hold on to it, desperately in need of some way of proving to her remaining family that she was worthy of their love. The woman in her didn’t need to prove anything to anybody, and she couldn’t put Chase’s family at risk by keeping it around. She felt incredibly guilty that she’d taken it in the first place.
Chase had driven her back to the house he shared with two of his brothers once the after-dinner socializing ended. It was a brick home, like his parents’, but it lacked the porch swing. There were a couple of tree-stumps-turned-stools out there, with a table that looked roughly carved out of the same tree. The inside was all rugged furniture and technology. She had to admit it surprised her to see the huge flat-screen television and some type of gaming system in the living room. Chase had never once mentioned watching television or playing video games. The wolves in her books didn’t do such things, possibly because Avery wasn’t much of a television watcher herself.
His bedroom continued the masculine feel of the rest of the house, though it was all woodsy browns and dark greens. His bed was large, a king size, and Avery experienced her first moment of jealousy looking at it. The covers were tousled, and he apologized for the mess, saying he didn’t know he’d be bringing her back with him when he left for White Oak Run. That didn’t bother her at all, but she couldn’t help wondering how many women had rolled around with him in his big bed. The fact that it was silly to be jealous of women he’d been with before her didn’t stop her from disliking every last one of them.
She didn’t spend much time worrying about the women he’d had before her, though. Chase pulled her into his arms and then into his bed. Soon, she was lost in his touch, feeling as if she were the only woman who’d ever existed for him anyway.
* * * *
It didn’t take long for Avery to realize Chase was right. Liam could be a true pain in the ass. Over her next couple of days in Deep Valley, he continued to question her, even when it should be obvious she knew nothing else. Usually, he questioned her casually when they just happened to be in the same place, but not this time. This time she’d been summoned to his office for what seemed like an interrogation rather than a discussion with her future brother-in-law.
She’d had to send Chase outside because he’d seemed a hair away from totally losing it on his brother, and she knew how the alpha-pack dynamic worked. Roughhousing was fine, but she didn’t want him in trouble with the pack. Besides, she believed Liam might hurt him, despite Chase’s size. The thing was, she knew Chase, and he wasn’t the type of man who would do real harm to someone he cared for, which included Liam. Liam, on the other hand…she just wasn’t sure of.
The only reason she even felt safe being alone with him was because she knew he wouldn’t hit a woman. That, she’d learned, was forbidden in their pack and a rule not even the alpha could break. It could cost him leadership of the pack.
Liam had been droning on about something, and she’d tuned him out, choosing to look around his office rather than listen to more of his incredibly off-base suppositions. She only realized he’d asked her something when his glare intensified. “Sorry, what?”
“I said, why are you really here, Avery?”
“Seriously? How many times can you ask the same question?”
“As many times as it takes to get the truth.”
“God, you are insufferable. This is it, okay? I’m not going to sit here answering the same questions repeatedly. I came here to meet Chase’s family, and fortunately they all turned out to be great, present company excepted. I also wanted to see how a real wolf pack lived after seeing them in my memories for my entire life. That’s it. No ulterior motive.” She stood up. “Are we done now? Can I finally go?” They’d been at it for almost an hour, and she wanted to get back to Gypsy. She and her friends had invited Avery to some kind of chick event.
“You can go when I say you can go. You’re holding something back.”
“I am not, and I’m not one of your wolves. You can’t just order me about. I’m only here listening to this idiocy because I care about Chase and your family.” Fuck, he was pissing her off. “You have my journals. What more could you possibly want?”
He leaned further over his desk, frowning. “The journals don’t prove you aren’t working with your human government.”
“Do I really look like super spy, bent on bring the wolfdom down? Give me a goddamn break.”
“I don’t know what to make of you. It was a risk to come here. It never crossed your mind that a pack of shifters might do you harm?”
It had, for the briefest of moments. “Sure, I’m not stupid, but Chase said I’d be safe. He said he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me, and I believed him. I still do, so your intimidation tactics won’t work on me.”
“There’s something else, and we won’t be done here, as you put it, until you tell me the truth.”
“Well, what human would pass up the chance to meet a bunch of real life wolf shifters? Is that what you want to hear? I was excited and curious, too. I don’t know what else you want from me, but I’m done. If you’re not smart enough to know you can’t get blood from a stone, that’s not my problem.”
“Sit down.” Liam’s voice was low, not the roar she knew he could issue, but for some reason she felt the need to obey.
She sighed deeply. “Please, just let me go.”
“No. Not until you tell me what I want to hear. I just don’t buy the human girl raised by wolves thing. There’s no way no one in this pack would have heard about something like that. So that means you’re lying about how you know about us, and I want to know why.”
She just snapped, her patience gone, just over. “Are you trying to make me hate you? Are you hoping to make me so sick of you that I go running home? That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t like me for some reason, so this is your stupid plan to get rid of me.”
“Do not talk to me that way. I’m the alpha of this pack.”
“The thing is, you’re not my alpha. Maybe that’s what you don’t understand. I don’t have to listen to you. I’m beyond done with this interrogation.” This time she stood, stiffening her spine. He could order her to sit back down all he wanted.
“Then you’re not welcome to stay in Deep Valley.”
Avery turned toward the doorway at the sound of a fierce growl. Chase was standing there, and apparently, he didn’t like what heard. “If she goes, I go with her. For good.”
His words surprised her. “You don’t have to say that, Chase. This is your home.”
“And you’re my mate.”
“You’d do that for me? Just leave your pack?”
He walked in and wrapped his arms around her protectively. “What did I just say?”
Avery took a deep breath and fought to calm down. If he could give up his pack for her, she could deal with Liam a little while longer. “Look, I will answer anything you want, just not this way. You can’t force me to sit here while you ask the same questions repeatedly. And you have to stop accusing me of lying and at least entertain the idea that I’m telling the truth.” It rankled having to be nice to the big oaf, but she didn’t want Chase burning bridges with his pack for her.
Liam glowered at her, then sat back in his chair. “Well, how about you answer this question, then? If you’re so innocent, why do you have a video of Chase on your computer? A video of him shifting, with you talking in the background, pretending to be fascinated with him?”
She’d taken it on the sly, so how could he possibly know? “How the hell do you know that?”
“What video?” Chase asked at the same time.
Liam raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m asking the questions here.”
&nb
sp; “What fucking video?” Chase roared, making her jump.
Liam glared at him. “This is what I meant by thinking with your dick. Obviously you didn’t know that your mate was pretending to be excited about watching you shift just so she could record it and send it off to whoever she’s working with.”
“That…that’s not true.” Avery looked from Liam to Chase, fists clenched. “You have to believe me, Chase. I wasn’t working with anyone. I stupidly took that video, and I’m so sorry now it hurts. But I only ever meant to send it to my aunt and uncle. I only ever wanted to prove I wasn’t crazy. I sat down and started typing an email to them, but then I just couldn’t… I couldn’t send it.”
“I told you how important this was to me.” His voice was harsh, angry. “I told you no other humans could know.”
She shook her head. “I know, and I’m sorry, but try to understand my point of view. After finding out everything that had separated me from my family and made me this weird little freak was true, I had proof. I finally had proof!”
“That’s right,” Liam growled. “All she’s ever wanted from you was proof, and you gave it to her. Even if her story is true, she hates shifters. She thinks we killed her family.”
“What? That’s not true. Don’t listen to him, Chase. I swear I was going to destroy it. I’d already decided to.”
Liam half-laughed at that. “She was so damned busy, she just didn’t get around to it. I’ll show you the date stamp on the video if you want. She had plenty of time to delete it if she really wanted to.”
“When?” Chase asked, his voice cold.
“When what?” she asked, wringing her hands. She didn’t like the look in his eyes. He looked hurt.
“When did you take the video?”
“Oh. Well, it was on the second day we were...together, after you told me who…I mean what…you are.”
He ran a hand through his hair, looking angry and confused. “How could you do this? After we were together like that? After I told you what you meant to me?”
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