by Amber Lynn
“Lots of wolves have trouble with authority. Why aren’t you trying to convince them they’re some mythical ruler? How did you even come to that conclusion?”
Paul cleared his throat behind me, and I didn’t feel like addressing him by turning around. I could already guess what he was going to say. It was what I’d want to know if I’d just heard my wife referred to as a queen.
“I’m interested in why he thinks whatever you guys are talking about is true, too, but can someone explain what you guys are talking about? I’ve heard a lot of words that sound like you’re some kind of royal couple, but I’m not sure I follow.”
The man tilted his head to his side and extended his left hand to indicate I had the floor. I didn’t know why, since he clearly knew more about the subject than I did.
“There are days I really wish I could get drunk. The story is stupid, and isn’t even true. It’s like a Brothers Grimm fairy tale that little werewolves are told when they’re going to bed. Supposedly two powerful wolves are born, meet, have babies and end up being some kind of rulers.”
There were other parts of the story, none of which I really wanted to go into details about. Thinking of the grand love that was described throughout most of the tale made me irate, especially since my personal love story was over.
“I can tell it wasn’t one of your favorite stories. I take it you haven’t been sharing it with the girls.” The man leaned forward, causing me to want to take a step back, but Paul was in my way and I wasn’t a coward.
“If it was up to me, the girls wouldn’t know anything about that part of their heritage.”
It took me a second to figure out what happened in the next moments. I was standing, contemplating ways to get the pest out of my house, and then all of a sudden I was sitting on the couch next to him. I looked to Paul, hoping he saw what happened, but his eyes bugging out of his head told me he knew less than I did.
“I’m tired of talking up at you, and I’d prefer it if I was the closest male to you. Paul, you’re still welcome to sit, because we clearly have a lot to talk about before we let the girls join us.”
“And clearly you’re letting the idea that you’re a king go to your head.”
“How did you move that fast?” Paul asked at the same time as I made my statement.
I didn’t want to show my own surprise at his movements, but I’d never met anyone who could do what I’d witnessed. It didn’t mean there was something special about him, just that I wasn’t paying very good attention.
“Once we get you changed, I’m sure you’ll find your reactions are a little quicker. Are you going to continue to stand, or will you join us?”
He hadn’t sat me down right next to him, but I was too close, and as he spoke I moved over about a foot. If Paul sat down with us, chances were I’d be closer to him again.
“I’m good. The more words that come out of you, the more I find myself getting confused. I didn’t touch on you saying you thought it was a good idea for me to change, but I’d like to know more about what the process entails and how soon you think we can get that going.”
“I already said you aren’t changing. I’m sure you haven’t missed how screwed up my life is. There’s no reason for you to be miserable too. I still think you should try to work things out with Katie. It’d be good for the girls to have at least one parent happy.”
I didn’t want Paul running off to ask Jack to turn him, but I also didn’t want him to live the rest of his life cursed. I saw how crazy humans got when they thought about what it’d be like to be a werewolf. Movies and books made everything look like fun, but it was pretty obvious that no real werewolves were asked their opinions in the writing room.
“We should probably let her simmer just a bit on the thought. Once she realizes that everything I’ve said is true, she’ll come around. I don’t know that I can help with her need to push you and your assistant together. Maybe you should show her the nondisclosure agreement.”
If I didn’t have enough reasons for Paul not changing, the fact that they already seemed semi-buddy-buddy was enough for me. I knew deep down they hated each other, and there were parts of me that hated them too.
I’d started out hating the newcomer before we’d even spoken a word. He had to know that, so his claims of us being destined to find each other made a little more sense in my mind as I thought about it. He was only trying to get me to think our connection was something deeper than us rutting in the woods.
“Have you guys been making contracts behind my back?”
I tried not to inhale. It was bad enough standing a few feet away from him. Sitting right next to him made his forest more than a little overwhelming. My stupid biology reacted to that smell in ways I didn’t want to think about.
“No, the contract is between him and Katie. If you sincerely think there was ever anything between them, you’d find the piece of paper he made her sign an interesting read.”
“How do you know what that piece of paper says? There’s a clause in the agreement that says neither of us will reveal it exists.”
I didn’t really care, and preferred to get back to kicking our unwanted company out, but I knew Paul took his paper work seriously. We’d gotten so far off our original topic that I had a feeling that’s just what the man wanted.
“No, we’ll work our way back to everything we need to discuss, including what I see for our future. I consider it important to know everything there is to know about my mate, including her husband’s actions. So, finding out whether Paul had something in place to keep Katie quiet was important to me.”
“You know how wrong that all sounds, right? Not that I’m condoning such things, but most guys in your position wouldn’t be able to sit in this room with him. I don’t have to read his mind to know how he feels about me.”
I was back to wondering whether I was dealing with a werewolf or not. I hadn’t seen a lick of temper, which was unheard of based on years of experience living with wolves. I was living proof that we tended to have short fuses.
“I’m pretty sure we already had that discussion. Hurting him hurts you, so I deal. Plus, I like to think I’m better than your typical werewolf. Whether you believe it or not, I am the king.”
He’d turned his body to face me, but I continue to sit facing Paul. I could understand how uncomfortable it was for him to sit while others in the room were standing. Paul seemed a bit more relaxed than he was when we were waiting for company to join us, but my sitting down had aggravated him a little.
“I don’t think you can convince me of that, so let’s move on to you answering all the other questions.”
Thinking back to the story I didn’t really listen to as a kid, there was nothing I could remember that proved a person was or wasn’t a part of the par lupu. Not that I believed the couple ever was meant to exist in real life.
“Okay, we’ll work on that. Let’s talk about the fact that I’m being moved from my detective position to secret service duty. Sadly there was a threat that I uncovered and I’ve volunteered my services to protect our state’s leader and his family. It works out well that I haven’t taken any vacation since I started with the force, so I have plenty of time I can take off for this assignment.”
I didn’t understand his need to wink at me as he finished speaking. Of course I’d come to the conclusion I didn’t understand the male mind, so maybe weird eye twitches were normal.
“I’m guessing you’re barely keeping the fact that you’re expecting to move in to make sure the job is done properly contained under the surface.”
There wasn’t really excitement rolling off him, but I was smart enough that I could read between the lines. He’d figured out an easy way to spend all the time he wanted getting to know the girls. I had no plans of letting him get to know me any better, but I couldn’t deny Selina a chance to know her dad.
“I figure it will be a great chance to prove to you that we’re the par lupu and we’ve already had our little chosen
wolf. It also makes me look a little less creepy. I don’t think there’s a member of your regular security who hasn’t heard one of my amazing excuses for lurking around.”
“Are there books I can read that will explain what you guys are talking about, because you still haven’t really answered that to my liking? I was only privy to you being werewolves, no one said anything about there being special kinds of werewolves.”
If that was the issue frustrating Paul, and not the eight hundred problems I had with the situation, his priorities needed a little adjusting. My mind was trying to figure out how long the nice guy act could really last with both men living in close quarters.
I didn’t doubt for a second the man was going to claim he needed to set up shop in our private residence. None of the normal security detail did, but I highly doubted he’d be satisfied sleeping on the other side of the building.
“Werewolves don’t write things down. We don’t want anyone to find out about us, so our history is passed down from person to person. As you can imagine, each person changes what they’ve been told slightly, so by the time you get through four or five generations, the original story doesn’t really exist,” I explained.
Which is why I didn’t go into great detail about the par lupu story. It was probably originally a story about two people killing each other that had somehow been ripped apart and regurgitated as a love story. Love stories didn’t happen in the werewolf world, so that was unlikely, but so was the story existing in the first place.
It didn’t seem like we were going to get anywhere anytime soon, so I went ahead and relaxed back into the couch a little. I was still on high alert, but I didn’t think I needed to continue sitting on the somewhat uncomfortable edge of the cushion – if you could really call what I was sitting on a cushion.
“Okay, then explain what’s special about Selina. You said that someone might attack me and Sierra, but they’d leave her alone. How would they distinguish anything about the girls?”
I knew that if people knew who my mate was, they’d know Selina was his, but I didn’t think it was obvious that Sierra wasn’t as well. I couldn’t exactly remember the lore behind the par lupu’s kid, but there was something special about the firstborn.
“As far as your thought, Nikki, they gave her a special name, but I think what it means has never been shared. I assume there’s a reason why they decided to give her a special title. I just don’t have any answers.
“As far as how they’d know Selina was mine, but Sierra isn’t, it’s hard to explain to a non-wolf, and I suppose Nikki doesn’t pick it up. For a male wolf prowling around trying to get Nikki’s attention, they’d know the difference just by smell.”
He could’ve been about to go into a detailed explanation, but I doubted it, so I butted in.
“The girls smell different, but so does every other wolf. That doesn’t explain why you think it’d be obvious. Just because she shares your hair color doesn’t mean anything.”
“Of course not. I do think the hair color is a pretty good indicator that she’s not Paul’s, but that doesn’t mean people would immediately think she’s mine. I’m sure you know you smell like lilacs, which Sierra has inherited to an extent. Selina on the other hand, has absolutely no scent. Maybe you didn’t realize that with the girls always together. For you they’ve always been a connected force, but I realized quickly when I started watching there was a difference.”
It was nice of him to try to explain something I should’ve known, if it was true. I knew I didn’t like to use the abilities that I was born with, but I would’ve known if something was off with one of the girls.
I looked to Paul, curious if he’d noticed anything about smells. I doubted his sniffer picked up much more than baby powder and dirty diapers when the girls were little. He seemed to be waiting for me to provide some kind of answer.
Before I could, the man next to me laughed, causing me to turn and glare at him.
“I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at our daughter. I always thought you had your hands full as I watched from afar, but I had no clue.”
That didn’t explain his sudden case of the chuckles, and any mom with twins could’ve told him the hands full theory was right.
“Can you really hear what she’s thinking from her room? You already mentioned the girls weren’t sleeping, but I thought you were joking about knowing she wanted to come down.”
“No, no joking. She’d really like to come explain herself. Those two together are devious.”
By the twinkle in his eye, I could assume where Selina inherited her devious tendencies. That wasn’t exactly fair, knowing my own faults. It was nice to have someone else to blame.
“I’m guessing there’s a reason I never picked up on what you were just talking about.”
I’d been learning just how strong the girls’ abilities were, so hearing they could do something without me knowing had started to surprise me less. A part of me was scared to find out just how advanced they were.
“You said earlier that you wished they didn’t know anything about being wolves, so I’m guessing you didn’t teach them any tricks. Do you know we have geniuses for daughters?”
I growled softly. I still didn’t like him referring to the girls as his, but there wasn’t much choice. Everyone knew about each other, apparently long before I felt the need to share the information that there was someone else involved in the making of our family.
“You’re so cute when you do that. Anyway, why don’t you let the girls come in so we can be officially introduced? We have plenty of time to go over logistics of how things are going to work in the future. There’s so much that’s still unknown that it’s kind of hard to hash everything out now.”
I raised my left eyebrow, surprised he was admitting he hadn’t picked out my wedding dress and the hundred acres he was going to provide us to live on once Paul’s term was over. He’d implied Paul and I got a say in things, but I didn’t know him well enough to believe him.
As far as bringing the girls in, I was nervous. We’d sat them down to talk about who the scary man at the hotel had been. Of course they’d already known and Selina had almost proudly admitted he was her dad.
Knowing who he is and actually interacting with him were two different things. He did a pretty good job of not being intimidating, but he was a large man, larger than any other they’d been introduced to. It probably didn’t help that he was wearing workout clothes that revealed more than a few muscles.
“I honestly don’t think we’ve settled anything, but we might as well let them join us. If you’re going to be even more visible in our lives, they need to get to know you.”
In a way it was a better them than me situation. I didn’t want to use them as buffers, but Paul wasn’t working out as one. I was pretty sure he was following the conversation, inserting questions when he cared to, but for the most part, he’d been a little preoccupied since he found someone to agree with the idea that he should change into a werewolf.
“You heard her girls, why don’t you come on in.” He was way too giddy for this meeting.
I looked to Paul, which I’d been doing too often, since he wasn’t doing a very good job of helping me. He smiled, somewhat reassuringly, and directed his eyes to the door, probably expecting the girls to walk right in.
Chapter Eleven
There was a part of me that was afraid the girls were doing something under my radar again, but as I listened to their little feet make their way to us, I let out a little sigh of relief. I’d kindly asked them not to play any of their tricks on me, which I assumed they hadn’t. It was hard to verify that though.
“And you still don’t believe that Selina is special? I know they act like they’re both in on the deception, but it’s Selina who holds the actual power. Not that Sierra isn’t a little powerhouse all on her own. Her powers are just more what you’re used to seeing in a wolf.”
“You’ve spent zero time with the girls and you somehow thi
nk you’re more of an expert than I am? Did I really get stuck with a stupid mate?”
I probably should’ve kept that all just thoughts in my head, but the words needed to be said. I really didn’t care if he thought he was some imaginary king. No one came in my house and told me I was a horrible mother for not realizing anything was off with my daughter.
“I didn’t say you were a horrible mother. I’d never say that. You’re the mother of my child and for that alone you should be worshiped.”
He reached over and cupped my right cheek with his hand. I instantly froze, both because he’d moved quickly enough that I couldn’t prevent the touch, and because my body temperature rose about ten degrees.
“You don’t believe yet, but eventually you will. Your life was meant to be different than a normal wolf, and you always knew that. It’s a shame you decided that meant you looked to the human world for answers, but we’ll get things figured out.”
I could tell he was doing his best not to lean in and do more than pet my face. Thankfully, the footsteps came closer and Sierra tottled into the room, heading straight for Paul. She reached her arms in the air, the usual signal that she wanted to be picked up.
I watched out of the corner of my eye as he followed through with her wishes and swung her up into the air before settling her on his hip. The hand on my face slowly drifted down as the eyes that had connected with mine diverted to look at the doorway Sierra had entered.
I followed his gaze and saw our little girl tentatively standing in her cute purple dress that matched her sister’s pink one. They hadn’t been wearing them when they’d gone to sleep, so I assumed they somehow managed to change themselves.
It wouldn’t have been the first time, but I was still surprised when they appeared wearing something different. It was one of the little tricks I thought they were going to stop.
“Sorry, Mommy. Sierra thought we should dress up to look our best. The last time we met we were in nothing but our swimming suits.”