by R. E. Butler
Kayne shrugged. “She was afraid to know the truth. If she never found out where she came from, then she wouldn’t have to face the possibility that she might have been abandoned on purpose, not kidnapped. I’m sure that learning from Memphis’ clan that she’d been kidnapped is weighing heavily on her.”
She froze at the same moment that all of them did, as the sound of footsteps outside the cabin filled the air. She swallowed audibly, and her fear scented the air. In a heartbeat Fade and his brothers surrounded her, and her fear eased somewhat. As Kayne opened the door, Whisper looked up at Fade.
“We’ve got you, baby,” he said with a rough voice.
She gave him a watery smile and looked past him to the open door where three men and one woman stood, waiting.
* * * * *
Nyte rubbed Whisper’s back through her shirt, willing some of his strength to her. She was trembling as she stared mutely out of the open door. It was clear in Nyte’s eyes that the males and Whisper were related. They looked very similar, from the caramel eyes to the dark hair.
Nyte said, “Come in.”
The group moved into the cabin, the three males protectively surrounding the female, the same as Nyte and his own clan were protecting Whisper. He felt conflicted. On the one hand, they were her biological family. On the other, they were strangers. Until she made the first move, though, she was going to stay nice and safe right with them.
Whisper opened her mouth, closed it, and then let out a frustrated breath. “I was found in a crack house in Atlantic City next to a dead prostitute when I was little. Why did I end up there? What…what the hell happened to me?” Her voice cracked, and the scent of her tears filled the air.
The woman, who Nyte knew was Whisper’s best friend Bliss, looked up at one of the males and said, “Tell her, Rome. Tell her everything.”
The one named Rome took a step forward but kept his hand twined with Bliss’s. “Our parents put you to bed one night. You’d just turned two; I remember a party with pink balloons and cake. You were right down the hall from them, from us. One of our dads went to check on you a few hours later, and you were gone. The only scent in the room was a heavy floral perfume, like someone had sprayed it into the room to mask their scent. Our parents went crazy searching for you. The baro was in an uproar. Everyone searched for you. The police were involved, even the state troopers.”
Another of the males stepped forward. “Our parents never gave up hope that you’d come back to them, but the truth is, we didn’t know what happened to you, only that you were taken. No ransom demands were ever made. No clues to your whereabouts. It was as if you vanished, but we knew that you hadn’t.” He paused for only a moment and then lifted his shirt, exposing his side and what looked like a heart-shaped birthmark.
“Shit,” Whisper breathed, taking a step away from Nyte and his brothers. “I have that. It’s like mine.” She twisted her upper body, and one hand lifted her shirt while the other shoved the edge of her jeans down. There, low on her hip, was a heart-shaped birthmark.
She met Nyte’s eyes, and he could see a thousand questions swimming in the caramel depths. He cupped her cheek and said gently, “Go meet your brothers.”
She blinked slowly and tears spilled onto her cheeks. She nuzzled his hand for only a moment before turning and closing the distance to the males who claimed to be her family. He believed they really were her brothers, and for whatever reason, fate had brought all of them together at the gathering.
Bliss stepped back to give her mates room to surround Whisper. Nyte felt Fade tense next to him, and he gripped his arm tightly and shook his head. This was Whisper’s family and their time together. It wouldn’t do for them to go charging over there all she’s ours and mar the moment with a pissing contest.
Kross and Kayne watched with impassive faces, and Nyte wondered if they were as unsure of the future as he and his own brothers were.
“You guys smell familiar,” Whisper said thickly, as she embraced the three males.
“You do, too,” one of the males said.
Whisper lifted her head and slipped her arms away from the males. “I want you to meet my family and my mates.”
She reached her hands out in two directions, one towards Nyte and his brothers and one towards her wolf brothers. As a group they came together — Whisper made sure everyone was aware that she wasn’t abandoning anyone, simply increasing the size of her family.
Whisper and Bliss hugged tightly for a long moment after everyone had been properly introduced, and Whisper said, “I can’t believe your mates are my biological brothers.”
Bliss grinned and looked at Kross, whispering the word holes. Kross made a face, and Whisper and Bliss fell into near-hysterical laughter. All that Kross would say in explanation was, “Get used to the giggles, these two are regular laugh riots.”
After the girls settled down, they moved to the couch, sitting together while the males discussed the circumstances. Memphis said, “There’s a lab facility about twenty-five minutes from here. They do familial DNA testing, and we can pay extra to rush the results and get a definitive answer in forty-eight hours.”
Whisper, who was sitting on Azrael’s lap on the couch next to Bliss who was sitting on Rome’s lap, said, “Let’s do it.”
It didn’t take long for them to load up into two SUVs and leave the gathering, Whisper seated in the backseat between her mates with her wolf brothers driving. Bliss and her mates led the way.
“How do you feel about everything?” Nyte asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Weird. I came here thinking nothing in my life would change, but suddenly everything has changed. Not just finding you guys, but finding my biological family, too. I don’t need a test to tell me they’re my family; I can feel it in my bones. But it’s good to get the testing done anyway.”
He agreed.
Azrael said, “You’ll want to meet your real parents.”
“Not ‘real’ — my biological parents. Mack, Kross, and Kayne are my family as much as Memphis and his family are. As far as I’m concerned, my family didn’t change, it just got bigger.”
He kissed her forehead and smiled.
Chapter 9
Fade rubbed the top of Whisper’s hand as they drove back from the lab where she’d had her blood taken for a DNA test. It was a sibling blood test, which would prove whether she was related to Memphis and his brothers. Not that she had any doubt, however. They just felt like family to her.
According to Memphis, who was the oldest brother, their parents had searched for her all these years, hoping that she was still alive.
“I think Mom will pass out,” Link, the middle brother, said.
After the test was done, she had felt guilty for all the years that she could have looked for them herself. Mack had pushed her to seek out hyena clans, but she’d been too much of a coward to find her own people. The guilt she now carried was from knowing that her biological family had been looking for her, praying for her return, and she’d been so close. Just a few hours separated Atlantic City and Ocean City.
Azrael said, “Don’t feel guilty, sweetheart. No one blames you for not contacting them. You were safe and happy in the pack. There’s nothing wrong with having a good life.”
“All those years.” She looked at him, the golden flecks in his eyes shining brightly. “They suffered because of me.”
Fade snarled, and the sound was louder than the engine. “You are not responsible for the situation. If I had a sister and she was kidnapped and ended up being adopted by an amazing family, grew up loved and cherished, then I’d sure as hell be glad for that. Don’t burden yourself for something you had no control over.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it. He was right, anyway. She hadn’t asked to be kidnapped, and she was grateful that Mack and her brothers had come into her life and taken such good care of her.
“Thanks, Fade.”
He nodded sharply and squeezed her
hand.
She was one lucky girl.
* * * * *
“So,” Bliss said over dinner as they sat at a long table while their mates got food for them from the buffet line.
Whisper shifted her gaze from watching Azrael’s cute butt as he walked down the buffet line and looked at her best friend. “What?”
“Tell. Me. Everything.”
Laughing, Whisper shook her head. “There’s not a ton to tell yet. Nyte said he wanted to take time for us to get to know each other before we mate officially.”
Bliss glanced at Link, who was sitting next to her and speaking quietly to Fade, who was sitting next to Whisper.
“My guys said the same thing to me. Apparently there’s some kind of special ritual before we get to mate.” Fanning herself exaggeratedly, she said, “Sounds hot.”
Link made a snorting sound, and Bliss grinned.
Switching gears, Whisper asked, “Did you call your parents?”
“No. Me calling out of the blue to say that I found my mates isn’t going to go over well. It’s the kind of thing that needs to be talked about in person. What about you?”
Nodding, she said, “I called Mack when we got back from the lab and told him about my mates and my biological brothers. He’s happy for me on both counts and said he knew that he was right in wanting me to come to the gathering.”
She hadn’t worried about Mack’s reaction to her finding her mates. He’d seemed to expect that she would find them at the gathering. But she knew that finding her biological family was a true surprise. She’d been worried about not only Kross and Kayne’s reaction to finding her biological brothers but also Mack’s. None of them had wavered in their support of her. Mack promised he would be there for her in any way that she wanted and so had Kross and Kayne.
After her conversation with Mack, she and her mates had discussed the future. Or at least the near future.
“After the results are back, we’re going to head to Beyton so they can meet Mack. Then we’ll go to Ocean City to meet with…them. Gosh, that’s weird.”
“What is?” Bliss asked.
“In a few days I’m going to meet my birth parents. Aunts, uncles, cousins. I went from three people in my family to a whole group I’ve never met. It’s overwhelming.”
Fade pulled her a little closer, and she rested her cheek against his shoulder. Link looked at her with eyes that matched hers. “We know that the pack is your family, Savan — shit, sorry, I mean Whisper. You’ve been through quite a lot in the last few days. No one will expect anything of you but to meet you.”
Link looked at Fade, and the two nodded briefly.
“Oh, I’ll be there meeting my future in-laws. We’ll be sisters for real!”
“We were already sisters, this will just make it official,” Whisper said. Azrael set a plate in front of her that was piled high with food. “Good grief! I only have one stomach!”
Azrael grinned down at her. “Fade’ll eat whatever you don’t. He’s like a bottomless pit.”
“Yeah?” She peeked at her biggest mate.
His answer was a grin.
Whisper looked at the roast chicken, macaroni and cheese, and steamed vegetables. “You chose well; these are all my favorite things.”
Azrael looked like a peacock preening as he sat down next to her with his own plate, after giving one to Fade.
She’d noticed that they’d quickly fallen into roles with her. Nyte was the boss. The others deferred to him in all things, including when they went to dinner. Fade was the protector. He hadn’t left her side, even holding her hand in the lab while they took the blood sample. And Azrael was the caretaker, the one who made sure everyone was happy.
Bliss frowned. “You’re going to move to Kentucky, aren’t you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I…” Whisper started, but stopped, unsure what to say.
Nyte said, “After Whisper meets with her biological family, we’re going to go to Dalton, where we’re from. Once the mating ceremony has taken place, then we’ll decide where we’ll live. It’ll be a joint decision from all of us. Regardless of where we live, though, you and Whisper can see each other whenever you like.”
Sadness settled over her quickly. Not seeing Bliss because she lived in a different state was not how she’d thought her life would pan out. But wasn’t Bliss going to live with her mates in Maryland? As if reading her mind, Bliss said that her mates had already said they would move to Beyton so she could stay with the pack if she wanted. But she hadn’t decided yet, and Whisper wondered if she was waiting for her to make a decision first. Kentucky was a ways away from New Jersey, that was for sure.
Shaking away the dark thoughts, she concentrated on the meal and dove into the conversation about the activities the following day. By the time Azrael and Rome cleared everyone’s plates, the groups had decided to meet up for breakfast and then sign up for the picnic-hike, in which each clan was given a picnic lunch and a map and allowed to hike as they pleased throughout the territory. She wasn’t much for hiking, but she did like the idea of spending a few hours with her biological brothers and her mates.
She called Kross and Kayne as she walked back to the clan’s cabin with them, feeling bad for not having seen them since breakfast. She was used to seeing them all the time, since they lived together. So much was going to change. Nyte said they wouldn’t make any decisions until they were fully mated, but as she’d come to understand, it was important for the clans to be in the baro. If she said she wanted to live in Beyton, she had a feeling that they’d take her there in heartbeat, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to wield that much power. She was one of four now. She couldn’t just expect everyone to give up what they wanted because of her desires. Her mates had made a home for themselves in Kentucky, and she needed to respect that. They’d been waiting for her before she even knew that clans existed.
“When are you heading to Maryland?” Kross asked, using the speaker on his cell phone so that she could talk to both of them at the same time.
“After the results come in, we’ll check out and head there.”
“I’d be damned surprised if you’re not related to them, Mouse. The eye color alone is a dead giveaway, but you also resemble them. You look like family.”
She smiled. “I guess that’s because we are.”
Kross paused for a moment and then said, “If I could have my family back, Whisper, I wouldn’t hesitate. I can tell you’re feeling torn about the future, but nothing changes what we’ve gone through — what you went through — to get to where you are. Where you live is just an address, and there are these wonderful inventions called airplanes and cars that make travel a breeze.”
“You’re an ass,” she said, laughing.
“And I’ll always be your brother. So goodnight, little Mouse, and we’ll see you in the morning.”
“‘Night Kross, ‘Night Kayne,” she said, ending the call. For a little while, there was nothing but the sound of the ground under their feet as they walked, her mates surrounding her and somehow, through their connection as mates, lending her their strength.
“Why do they call you Mouse?” Az asked, squeezing her hand as he walked beside her.
“Because I was very small when I was young. When I was found in Atlantic City, the doctor who checked me over at the hospital said I was two because I was so tiny. Mack and the pack believed I was older, but they didn’t really have proof of that belief until I shifted and they knew for sure I was sixteen. I was five when Kayne came into our lives, and he was instantly very protective of me and told Mack that I was too little, like a mouse, and needed a big brother to protect me. The nickname stuck.”
Nyte asked, “Were Kross and Kayne from your pack when Mack adopted them?”
“No, Kayne’s parents were the alphas of his pack and killed in a coup. He was taken by Social Services to a foster home and ran away. He was on his own for a while before he found me and Mack in the park, and…I don’t know.” She
tucked her phone into her back pocket and took Nyte’s hand. “He just felt like family, like he belonged with us, so Mack brought him home and he never left. Kross’s mom died when he was a baby, and his dad mated another she-wolf who didn’t like him. Eventually she drove him away, but he was only eight or so and was picked up by an elderly couple who knew about our pack and brought him to us. They both had hard lives before they came to the pack, but we all just fit together.”
The conversation dropped off as they reached the cabin and walked inside. Weariness gripped her, along with a sadness that threatened to encroach on the happiness she knew she should feel.
Nyte turned her gently to face him and cupped her face with his big hands. “Stop trying to quash your feelings. Whatever you’re feeling is okay. You’re allowed to be angry and worried and sad.”
“I don’t want to be sad when I should be happy right now.” She gripped his wrists, rubbing her thumbs along his flesh.
“Says who? Because you found us and we’re awesome?” He looked down at her, a small smile playing over his lips. “We’ve got the freaking rest of our lives, Whisper. Your whole world has changed in two drastically different ways. Not only did you find your biological family, but you found your mates. Feel whatever you’re feeling, say whatever is on your mind, and we’ll be here with you.” He tipped his head to the right, to where Az stood next to him. “This guy here is just itching to hug you and comfort you. And this guy,” he tipped his head to the left, “will flatten anyone that upsets you.”
She blinked as her eyes filled with tears. “And you?”
“Me? I’ve got all of us, sweetheart. I promise.”
Warmth suffused her, her heart pounding as he drew her close and pressed his lips to hers. Az and Fade touched her at the same time, their warm hands caressing her arms and moving closer, enclosing her in a warm, tight circle that made her feel loved and supported.
No matter what the day brought, she was certain that they could handle things together, and that she’d always have their support.