“Because you love him,” Jax said, holding her close.
“But, you’re my soul mate. You’re the one I love and can’t live without. I just don’t understand how he can affect me so much,” she said, clinging to Jax.
“I love you too, but I can also feel the love you have for Thaniel.”
“That doesn’t bother you?” she asked, wiping her face and sniffing back the tears.
Jax shook his head. “Oddly, no. It doesn’t.”
Tierney stared up at him, surprised.
Jax smirked. “I guess it’s because I feel the same way.” Tierney pulled back to stare at him. Jax gave her a small, sad grin.
“He didn’t even take his clothes,” she said, and had to fight not to break down again because thinking of Thaniel once again with nothing was enough to do so.
“He’ll be okay,” Jax reassured her.
“Where did Mister Timid go?” Genna asked from behind them as she sucked on a candy cane.
With a slight growl, Tierney let Jax go and hurried past Genna and through the kitchen. She started to go up to her room and then hesitated. Wiping her eyes again, she turned to go check on her dad. She needed a distraction.
When she entered her dad’s room, Tierney found Sasha, the Okami healer, working her healing magic on Zander.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Tierney asked her dad as she inspected his limbs under the covers, hoping they had grown a little more. It was hard to tell, but she thought maybe they had.
“Good morning,” Zander said, then he noticed her red eyes. “What’s wrong?”
Tierney shrugged. She didn’t want to bother him while Sasha was working on him. “I’ll tell you later.”
Sasha gave her a little smile but didn’t say anything as she turned back to Zander. When she was done, she nodded, her light brown hair waving around her face. “Your ribs are healing and there is a little more growth happening. Still, it is not as fast as I’d like it to be.”
Tierney swallowed, hating how long it was taking her dad to heal. Blasted Ilyium and their fucked up spells and curses!
“I will check back in a little bit, see how you are doing,” Sasha said as she turned away. She stared pointedly at Tierney as she got to the door and Tierney nodded. She’d call Sasha if Zander needed to be put back in his coma.
Once the door closed behind the Okami wolf healer, Zander sharpened his gaze on her. “Tell me what happened!” he demanded and Tierney knew he hated being out of the loop, or unable to help.
Tierney told him everything that had happened from the moment she woke up to find Thaniel had changed back during the night. “Were-wolves and leopards change back naked,” she said, swallowing deeply.
“Thaniel was embarrassed,” Zander said.
Tierney nodded. “Yeah. Embarrassed and ashamed … and—” She thought about the other feelings she’d gotten from Thaniel, but didn’t tell her dad. She was still trying to wrap her mind around it all. “Anyway, he panicked, so I let him go.” Tierney finally slumped into the chair beside the bed. “I went down to talk to him a few minutes later, but we had a visitor.”
Tierney told him about Elianna and what the girl had said to Thaniel. She grabbed a wad of tissues from the box on the side table as tears ran down her face. She averted her eyes and mopped at the moisture on her face, trying to come to grips with how much she cared about Thaniel. It felt like she was betraying Jax and she’d rather die than hurt her mate.
“Tierney.” Her dad’s voice had her raising her eyes to his. “I know you care about the leopard, but is this just your protective instincts, or is it something more?”
Tierney sucked in a breath. How were both the closest men in her life suddenly so astute? She thought about his question and about what Jax had said earlier. The thought that she could be in love with Thaniel as well as Jax, both embarrassed and terrified her. “I don’t know. I mean, I love Sami, and I’m protective of him, but what I feel for Thaniel is so much more.”
“Honey, do you remember all the families in Razukeen?”
Tierney frowned. “Yeah, sure, why?”
“Well, do you remember how large some of the families were? I don’t mean with a lot of children. I mean how many women or men were in some of them?” he asked.
“Maybe, I guess,” she said.
Zander smiled gently at her. “You’ve been raised here on Earth where it is frowned on to love more than one mate at a time. But where you come from, it was different. You are different.”
Tierney continued to frown at him. “What are you talking about?”
Zander sighed. “Honey, all of us have the capacity to love more than one person, to share our hearts and souls, but you are used to the mentality of the humans here on Earth.”
“So?”
“So—you are not human. You are Dracones, and Dracones have, as far back as I can remember, shared their heart and soul, their homes—their love––with more than just one mate.”
Tierney blinked, stunned. Was he really saying what she thought he was?
“Yes, I’m telling you that you can love someone besides Jax,” he said as if he knew what she was thinking, and maybe he did.
“No,” she whispered, horrified at the very idea. Jax was everything to her. He had been since they were small children. She knew without a doubt that if something happened to Jax, she’d die as well.
“Tierney,” her dad said, but she shook her head.
“No. I … I feel like I’d be betraying Jax,” she said, staring at him, scared to admit what she already knew and where it might all lead.
Zander stared intently at her. “You know and I know that you would never betray Jax,” he said. “And, I’m also sure, since you are bonded, that he knows that as well.”
Deep in thought, Tierney lowered her gaze to her hands. The tissues were in shreds.
“How does Jax feel about Thaniel?” he asked.
Tierney blinked at him. She didn’t say anything as she thought of her and Jax’s earlier conversation. Sure, she could feel what Jax felt, but what if he only felt that way because she did? Since they were connected by their bond and being soul mates … what if her feelings were influencing his?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Clan Home
THANIEL TRIED HIS HARDEST to ignore Elianna. Her soft voice that he once thought sweet, no longer did anything for him. In fact, it now grated on his nerves. He clenched his fists as she spoke.
“So, the clan is ruled by the Queenlee. Your father is our Tomlee—the Queenlee’s second in command,” she said.
Thaniel didn’t say anything. He was still too shocked to find out his father was a Were-leopard. What were the odds of that? Somehow, he didn’t buy that it was a coincidence.
“When you meet the Queenlee, or your father, you must show respect. You do not speak until they speak to you,” Elianna instructed him.
Respect? Thaniel wanted to snort as he stared blankly out the window, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. He already regretted leaving Tierney and Jax, and the hurt on Tierney’s face was not something he’d ever wanted to put there, especially as he knew firsthand how it felt.
Really, he was no better than his father, hurting her like that. The devastation he felt when his father left filled his mind. Did he really even want to see the man who had destroyed him and his mom? He once thought he did, but now, now he wasn’t so sure.
“Why did you do it?” he finally asked.
“Do what?” Elianna glanced over at him perplexed until she met his angry glare.
“You know—this.” He waved his hand at himself and wanted to growl as Elianna’s features took on a hard, uncompromising look. “Why did you bite me? Change me into a … beast,” he demanded, not willing to let it go.
“A beast?” Elianna looked at him as if she were amused, which only riled his anger further.
“Yes, a beast. A Were-leopard that I can’t control,” he said, and ground his teeth. For the first time in his life,
he wanted to reach over and throttle someone.
Elianna turned back to stare at the road without saying a word, and he thought she wasn’t going to answer, when she finally let out an aggravated sigh. “I had to.”
When she didn’t say any more, Thaniel glared at her. “You made me into a monster,” he said softly as the agony of being bit, and later of being the Were-wolves prisoner consumed him.
***
ELIANNA SWALLOWED at the memory of how badly she had fucked up, but she still clung to the idea that she had done the only thing she could. Nothing else was acceptable. “It was for your own good,” she lied, eyes straight ahead on the road. It had been the only way to get what she wanted. Yeah, keep telling yourself that, her inner voice said, but she pushed it away.
This had to work, it just had to. She refrained from touching her lips as the memory of a stolen kiss still haunted her. She needed the Tomlee to finally see her, to accept that she would be good for him, that she had his best interests at heart. Again the voice laughed in her head. Whose best interests? it asked, but she ignored it. She had to; it was survive or die.
“For my own good? Do you have any idea what you set in motion?” Thaniel asked. Elianna didn’t answer. He wouldn’t understand, not yet anyway.
***
THANIEL STARED at her, and the only indication that she even heard him, was a slight tic in her jaw. “Why?” he persisted, needing to know, to understand. Had his father instructed her to do it? And if so, again it begged the question why?
Frustrated when she still refused to answer, he asked a different question while trying to calm down. “You said you knew why my father left me and my mom when I was four.”
Elianna relaxed a fraction and nodded. “I do.”
Then she didn’t say anything for so long that he thought that was the end of it. He started to ask why again, when she finally spoke.
“But it isn’t my story to tell. You will have to ask the Tomlee himself.”
The Tomlee. Thaniel thought about his father as they drew closer to Spokane. After his father left, when Thaniel was old enough to understand his last words, he’d believed that the man he called Daddy was not his real father. Now, according to Elianna, he was. Was she telling the truth? And, if so, then what did that mean? Why would his father say he wasn’t?
Putting on her signal light, Elianna turned off the main road. They took a winding dirt and gravel road past a bunch of acreages and a horse farm with white fencing. Finally, she pulled off onto a long gravel driveway that wove through the forest and up a gradual incline.
When they exited the trees and Thaniel could see the massive old Victorian home on the hill ahead, he sucked in a breath. The home stood three stories tall, with pointy spires and a veranda around the front part. Painted dark gray, he just knew it would look creepy at night—kind of like a haunted mansion. He couldn’t take his eyes off the place and as Elianna stopped and parked the car, a shiver rushed through him. It was as if there were many sets of eyes on him.
“Home sweet home,” Elianna muttered as she climbed out of the driver’s side and closed the door. Thaniel scanned warily around before he too climbed out. This was a big mistake. He just knew it. He couldn’t see anyone, but the feeling of being watched was intimidating him. He could just imagine members of the clan sitting up on the roof in leopard form, awaiting prey. He shivered. That was what he felt like right now—prey.
With a hard swallow, he followed Elianna onto the wooden veranda, but before they could reach the door, it swung open and Thaniel stopped dead. He felt like he was looking in a mirror. In front of him stood a young man who was the spitting image of him, maybe a slight bit younger and yeah, of course, bigger … because why not, anything to make him feel inferior.
As his doppelganger quickly recovered from his own shock, his jaw snapped shut. Then he narrowed his eyes at Thaniel, who could only stare back, dumbfounded.
“Are you insane?” The young man turned to shoot a fiery glare at Elianna.
With a shrug, she shoved past him and into the house. “Out of the way, George,” she said, and then glanced back at Thaniel before pushing at George. “For Pete’s sake, let your brother in, will ya?” she said before disappearing into the bowels of the old home.
Thaniel swallowed hard. Brother?
George sneered at Thaniel as he moved aside and waved his hand, indicating Thaniel step inside. “Well, what are you waiting for, an invitation?”
Thaniel frowned. “You are my brother?” he asked, not going anywhere until someone answered some of his questions.
George snorted. “Looks like. At least half, unfortunately.”
Thaniel felt himself growing angry at his new, half-brother’s attitude. “How old are you?” he asked, struggling to control himself.
“I’m eighteen,” George said smugly.
Eighteen? That meant George was two when dear ol’ Dad called his wife a whore and left her and his four-year-old son. Feeling sick, Thaniel eased past George and inside the huge mausoleum into a carpeted foyer. In front of him, a huge staircase led up and then split in two to the second floor and then continued up to the third floor.
Thaniel stared up, trying to see, but although it was only noon, it was too dark inside. With shadows everywhere. Like he had outside, Thaniel shivered at the feeling of eyes on him. Only it felt like there were more now, and he couldn’t help but wonder who was watching. Was his father watching? George started to close the door behind him and then paused. “Is there someone else with you?” he asked suspiciously.
“No,” Thaniel said.
George turned and stared back out into the yard. Not sure what he was looking for or at, Thaniel looked out as well. All he saw was the driveway and forest.
“Well, come on then,” George said with a disturbed frown as he closed the door. Turning away, he led Thaniel past the staircase and into a dark hallway. It wasn’t anything like Tierney and Jax’s comforting home, or the nasty Were-wolves’ den.
This place had antiques everywhere and old, framed photos on the walls, but it was similar to the den in that it was dark and chilly. Thaniel bit back his fear and followed George. He needed to keep himself in control. He didn’t want anyone to have any reason to lock him up again.
George led him to a room and shoved the door open. “Here, you can have this one,” he said, and Thaniel could hear the disdain in his voice.
Chapter Forty
Brother
THANIEL WALKED into the room and looked around. It was small with a single bed, small dresser, and a nightstand. A pair of old, flowered curtains hung over a small window that overlooked the side of the house. It was a far cry from the other room he’d recently been given.
“Don’t you have any stuff, clothes?” George asked, scowling.
Thaniel shook his head and George let out an aggravated huff. “Great, another thing we will have to do for you. Just stay in here, don’t go wandering around.”
Offended, Thaniel tensed up. He hadn’t thought about his clothes when he left. Besides, it didn’t seem right to go take the stuff Tierney and Jax bought him when he was leaving them. Still, he was really beginning to not like George, no matter how they may be related.
Just then a female voice piped up from the hall behind George. “George,” a woman said in loving exasperation.
Looking chagrinned, George turned to the newcomer. “What, Mom?”
Mom? Thaniel studied the woman who didn’t appear any older than twenty-eight or twenty-nine.
“You must be Thaniel,” she said, looking past George at him with a kind smile. She was very pretty with long, brown hair and light brown eyes.
He nodded, staring at her warily through his own hair. So this is who his father left his mother for? Anger seethed inside him.
“You are his mother?” he asked, nodding at George.
“I am. I’m Deseria,” she said softly as if she knew how he must be feeling.
Thaniel was still trying to wrap his h
ead around all this. All his life, he’d never imagined that his dad had left them for someone else, never mind another family. The thought had never even crossed his mind, but it was obvious now that was what had happened.
“You know he’s going to be pissed, right?” George said to his mother.
Deseria nodded but didn’t comment and Thaniel frowned, wondering what he was talking about.
George sighed. “I gotta go.”
Deseria looked at him. “You have something more important than getting to know your brother?” she asked with a bite of annoyance in her tone and George’s eyes flashed angrily.
“I didn’t ask for this, besides, there’s something I need to check out,” George said and turned away to head back down the hall.
Shaking her head, Deseria walked into the room. “I hope you will be comfortable here.”
Thaniel didn’t say anything. After all, what could he say? His comfort wasn’t something that mattered much. “Why does he hate me?” he asked instead, baffled by his brother’s attitude.
“George? I’m sorry about him,” Deseria said with a little wave. “I don’t think he hates you. He doesn’t even know you. You and he just need to get to know each other, that’s all,” she said a little too optimistically. Thaniel wasn’t buying it.
There had to be more going on. He could almost feel George’s hatred. “What did my father tell him about me?” he asked, not ready to let it go.
Deseria sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed and studied him. “Your hair is so long and beautiful.” Thaniel hunched his shoulders, uncomfortable with her scrutiny. Deseria shook her head. “I’m sorry that your father left you and your mother like he did.”
Thaniel blinked but couldn’t think of a single thing to say. She was sorry? How could she be sorry? Thaniel’s dad left him for her and her son. And, it was obvious he had somehow, for some reason, poisoned George against Thaniel.
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