Lana shook her head, “this is all too much.” I had to agree, and I’d grown up knowing all of this. I caught Beth watching me then, and I raised my eyes to meet hers.
“She’s been gone a while. Perhaps someone should go check on my granddaughter?”
“She’s not alone, and she doesn’t want to speak with any of us right now. Garrett is keeping an eye on her though.” Beth tipped her head forward, glad to know her granddaughter would be safe at least.
“How do you know that? Do you have some weird telepathy thing with other wolves? Oh, wait… Garrett? Does that mean he is one of you?” Lana asked.
“He is, and that’s his business. In fact, everything we have shared with you today stays between our pack and this family. No one else is to know.” I looked at Beth then, “and I don’t care what the townsfolk think they know. There will be no gossip surrounding anything that has been discussed here.”
Lana’s watery smile was the only indication that she agreed to what I just told them. “You, Jackson, Garrett…” she sighed. “Whom else do I know that can turn into a dog?”
“Lana!” Lori’s quick reprimand startled her sister. “They are not common house pets!”
“Whatever! Who else?” Lana’s patience with this whole thing was fraying.
“I’m pretty sure it’s easy to guess, and that being said, it’s up to those individuals if they want to confirm it with you.” Lana rolled her eyes at my response.
“Fantastic, so pretty much all the guys from the brewery then? Gage too?”
I just gave her a look. She shook her head. “And you’re in charge.” She was piecing things together in her head that probably should have stayed in the dark, but there was nothing I could do about that. “Gage…”
“He didn’t do anything he didn’t want to do. I don’t run my pack on orders that take away someone’s free will.”
“You still suggest though, don’t you?”
I just shrugged my shoulders. “I told you once before you wouldn’t understand. Even now, knowing what you do, there’s no way for you to comprehend what it’s like when you…”
“…find your mate,” she finished for me, rolling her eyes again.
It was clear that Lana was still going to be trouble. I had hoped that hearing of Jackson’s plight would endear her to my cause more, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Chapter Eight
~*~ IZZY ~*~
I knew he was there in the shadows watching me as I walked away from my nana’s house. It didn’t matter. He could watch all he wanted. All I was doing was walking, and I was pretty sure Garrett could turn into a wolf too and outrun me, so I wasn’t going to even try to get away from him. That didn’t mean I had to chat him up either. Oddly enough, he must have sensed my mood or something, and he didn’t even attempt to say a word. “You might as well come walk with me so you don’t look like a complete stalker if someone sees you trailing me in the shadows like that.”
I couldn’t see his grin, but since it was Garrett, I was pretty sure it was there. “Rough night, huh?”
“I guess you would know.”
“I heard most of it,” he confirmed.
“Wait,” I stopped in my tracks and took a hard look at him. “You heard?”
He pointed to his ears. “Sensitive hearing. We can hear a long ways off. Normally, we tune the far-away sounds off, but if I want to hear something, say in a house close by, I can listen in if I want to.”
The implications of what he just revealed caused me to blush. How many times had Lana and I discussed him being a sexy beast or the things we said about the other guys. “Oh boy, that’s umm… embarrassing.”
Garrett actually laughed out loud then. “It would only be embarrassing if I didn’t like the things you guys said about me.” He tossed a wink in at the end of that statement, making me blush even more.
“I don’t even know what to say to that.” That being said, I simply lost myself in my thoughts again. “He has to know then, right? He had to overhear the things I said concerning the situation with Lana.”
Garrett nodded, his lips thinning into a small line as he pulled them tight before speaking. “I think he was hoping he could change your mind once you knew the truth.”
“Well, the truth is, he knew about me. He knew all the truths there were to know, and it wasn’t like he was waiting around or looking for me.”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Iz. He looked. He looked for two and a half years for you before he started to lose hope of finding you again.” He sighed then. “I know you think him being with other women is an awful thing, but really, it was a coping mechanism. Something to help him forget his hopelessness if only for an hour or two.”
My mouth gaped open in what I’m guessing was a most unattractive look. “Seriously? Not just Lana, but multiple women, and that’s supposed to be some excuse? He lost hope? He stopped looking, and pounced on the first vagina he could find to make himself forget about me? These things are supposed to what? Make me feel better? Endear me to his plight? What, Garrett?”
“Damn it, Izzy, that’s not how I meant it.” His normal, playful smile was completely gone now. “You had school that you used as a distraction. He’s a grown man who runs a business with partners. It didn’t offer much of a distraction. That’s all I’m saying. And let me be clear, because your aunt hasn’t been very honest with you. Hell, maybe she wasn’t honest with herself, but Dre doesn’t play around with emotions. I do know for a fact he told her numerous times that there would never be anything more than the physical once in a while thing. That might not make you feel any better, but it’s the truth.”
“I don’t even know what to do with all the truths everyone keeps shoving at me today. I feel like I drank the damn water and went freaking crazy here. I mean werewolves? My dad? Mates? The weird feeling I get…” I shook my head as Garrett steadily walked by my side and let me rant. “It’s too much. This is craziness.”
“I know this is all new to you, but I want you to understand something, and it might help you forgive your dad’s decision too. In our history, we weren’t always as… how should I put this? Tame? Yeah, we weren’t always as tame as we are now.” Garrett was rambling a bit, but I tried to keep up with where he was going with all this.
“Long ago, if a wolf found his Kindred, he didn’t even give the woman a choice. He took her and claimed her on the spot.” At the horrified glare I was throwing his way Garrett held his hands out in surrender before explaining. “It’s instinct and self-preservation of the pack. There are only so many females in the world that can produce male heirs for us. Only a potential mate can do it. You have to understand how easy it is for a Kindred to slip through our fingers, just as you did three years ago.”
Now, I was beginning to see another side to things. “It was devastating for Dre. Knowing that he came so close to his mate only to lose her just as quickly…” Garrett frowned over at me. “He was not good company, I will tell you. Hell, I was the one that told him just to wait for the train to return to approach you, and then when it did, and you weren’t on it anymore…” He sighed heavily instead of continuing.
“I tried to convince my parents that I shouldn’t get on the train,” I admitted to him. “I didn’t know why I felt that way then.”
“I know. Your dad told us about that earlier today when we met.”
“My dad is a wolf, and understands the whole mating thing, so why did he keep me from Dre? Surely, he knows how important it is.”
“I can’t speak for why your dad did it, other than to repeat what he told us, and that was that he was protecting you. He said you were too young.” Garrett shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? Maybe that was a good call on his part, but if he’d at least come forward then and talked to Dre about it, decisions could have been made, feelings spared, things would have happened differently, and you two might actually be happy together by now.” We walked on after that for a while longer before he spoke again.
When he did, he rocked my world with the story he told. “I’m only telling you this, because your dad meant for you to know the story, and I know,” he tapped his ears indicating his super-human hearing, “he already told the others.” Garrett started in on the story about my dad’s potential mate, and how everything went horribly wrong for him, but how he ended up with my mom, my sister, and I instead.
I was floored once again. “So, that’s why he stayed away all that time? He was afraid of running into his mate and not being able to say no?” Garrett just nodded. “Just more crazy to add to the heap, I guess.” Garrett didn’t acknowledge my mumbling, just shrugged his shoulders as he stuffed his hands deep into the front pockets of his jeans. Eyeing him carefully, I finally asked the question I wanted to ask everyone else, “what would you do?” His eyebrows rose in question as he turned to me. “If you were in my shoes, what would you do?”
A genuine smile graced his masculine face then, softening his rough features. “It’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but I think in this case, that’s exactly what I would do if I were you. I would put myself in your dad’s shoes, and try to understand why he did what he did. I’d put myself in Dre’s shoes too, and hopefully come to terms with what he did. Then, I would take the time to consider everything. You’re right. It’s a lot. It’s crazy, especially since you’ve had it all dropped in your lap in one fell swoop with no time to digest it really. Take some time, and do that. Mind you, if Dre knew that was the advice I gave you, he’d kill me.” Garrett’s mischievous grin was back. “How about we have a secret of our own, and don’t tell him that part?”
I couldn’t help, but laugh at Garrett then. “Is the mating thing real?”
“Sweetheart, I can’t speak from personal experience here, because I’ve never met my mate. I can tell you about my parents, who are a happily mated pair. They are sickeningly sweet, still to this day. They love each other like there’s no one else on this planet. Just them. They love me too, of course! Who wouldn’t? And, I guess they love my brother.” He laughed at himself then. “Seriously though, they’d be lost without each other. My aunt and uncle, Gage’s parents are the same way.” He smiled while thinking about his family then. “I know that every guy in our pack starts out as a pup thinking about the day they meet their mate. When we were really young, it was the thing we feared the most. As we all grew older…” he smiled and then held his finger up to his lips. “Another secret I’m gracing you with here, sweetheart. As we grew up, we all secretly wanted what our parents have. Most won’t admit it openly, and after seeing what Dre’s been through the past three years I think it’s put a couple of the guys off on the whole mating thing, but not a damn one of them would ignore the call if they felt it.”
“I wish I could talk to my sister about all this, but I don’t even know where to begin now. She should have been here for this revelation.” Suddenly, a crazy thought occurred to me. “Oh my God! I keep joking about how you’re just my sister’s type. Maybe you two are meant to be a mated pair too?”
Garrett laughed. “Thanks for trying to take me off the market, but I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” I asked incredulously.
“I was there that day three years ago when Dre felt your pull. Your sister was there too, and I’m betting she didn’t get a funny feeling in her belly?”
“No, I guess not. Well, damn. I’ve been hyping you up to her for when she comes to visit in a few weeks. I guess that’s not going to happen now.”
“Hey now, I am not one to turn down the company of a beautiful girl.” Garrett laughed out his response.
“How do you know she’s beautiful?”
“Come on, kid, seriously? She’s your identical twin, how could she not be?”
I am not ashamed to say I blushed. I didn’t feel a pull to him like I did Dre, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t see how attractive Garrett was. “Okay, fine, well… how about this then. If I’m destined to be Dre’s mate, then my sister must be destined for someone too, right?”
“Sure,” Garrett agreed.
“So, then do me a favor and when she comes don’t encourage her. You’re just the type she’d fall hard for, and if she can’t have you in the end, it’s best to make sure there’s no beginning.” Garrett watched me thoughtfully for a few minutes before nodding his head.
“For you, I will keep my distance. Your family has had enough hardship thanks to our kind. No need to add any more to it.”
With that statement came my reminder of family, in specific, Lana. “I know you think Dre was straight up with Lana about not wanting anything, but that doesn’t negate the feelings she developed for him.”
“No, it doesn’t. It also doesn’t put the blame at his feet for those feelings either. She knew what was happening, and while I understand you wanting to protect her pride, or whatever, she has to get the fact that you guys are bigger than a fling. You’re forever kind of material, because the crazy cosmos deemed it so. I don’t know how the potential mate thing works. I just know that it does. Those who find it, and hold on to the bond are blessed beyond measure. Those who lose it, well, they are shells of themselves. Your dad included.”
I knew he was right. I’d always sensed a void between my parents. Sure, they loved one another, but it was more like they were friends than someone’s true love. There was love, friendship, and a familial bond. There was not an undying passion I saw in some couples. Even my grandparents had an enviable bond before my grandfather passed away.
“Garrett?”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
“For what, sweetheart?”
“I don’t know, for being here, I guess. Making sure I’m okay. For trying to help me understand without the pressure.” He offered a quick, simple smile in response, and then tipped his head back in the direction of my nana’s house. I knew my family and Dre would be there waiting on me to get over myself and come back. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got back though, and honestly, it worried me. “Will you stay with me when we go back?” Another smile greeted me. “I don’t know why you’re the one I trust in all this, but you haven’t lied to me yet, and everyone back there has, so…”
His smile turned a bit, mimicking something more akin to a frown. “If you need me to be there with you, I will, sweetheart. Just remember, I don’t think anyone in that house lied to hurt you. If anything it was just the opposite. Try to keep that in mind.”
“I had a dream that morning,” I admitted.
“What’s that?” Garrett was looking at me funny then.
“The morning before we got on the train,” I took a deep breath before continuing. “Before Liz woke me from it I had this dream about turning into a wolf, and when I howled another wolf responded. I looked up to see this giant tan and gray animal with bright green eyes staring back down at me. It was the most spectacularly real dream I’d ever had in my life.” I whispered the last words out in near reverence. Then I explained what I had felt when I was shifting into a wolf in the dream. His eyes were wide, and we had stopped walking.
“That is exactly what it feels like to shift.” He shook his head then. “I’ve never known a Kindred to have that kind of dream, but I can ask my mom about it.”
“Thanks,” I smiled at Garrett. “I just remembered about it earlier when I saw my dad shift. I haven’t thought about that dream in a long time, since I put that damn picture up and stopped looking at it.” We started walking again.
“Please, do me a favor, Izzy.” I turned to see Garrett watching me closely. “Take your time to think about everything, but don’t count him out completely because of this mess with Lana. He’s my best friend in this world, and I don’t think I could watch what it will do to him if you walk away without really considering things. I like you too, and I wouldn’t wish that existence on you either. Our world is different, and probably really strange to someone who had it hidden from you for your entire life, but it’s also amazing.”
“Will I turn into a wolf?” I asked the question as I remembered what it was like in the dream, but that image was dashed as I watched Garrett shaking his head.
“Nah, there aren’t any female wolves anymore.”
“There once were?”
“Yeah, long ago, and honestly, I can’t even tell you what happened to change that, because the truth behind the change has been lost to us over the centuries.” He shrugged. “We have Kindred, or potential mates, and I think it’s Dre’s job to tell you what it would mean for you to be claimed by him, but again, do me a favor. Don’t ask. Don’t bring it up at all. Not unless you are seriously considering taking him on as a mate, okay? If you ask him, the hope will be a horrible thing to come down from if you decide it’s not what you want, okay?”
I nodded my head. His point didn’t stop me from hurting or being confused by everyone else’s agendas, but I felt like I had an ally now. I knew Garrett was Dre’s friend first, but he at least made it ok for me to take some time to sort everything out in my own headfirst. That counted for something in the midst of this mess where everyone else was making decisions for me based on their own needs, and that was exactly what they’d all done. They may have tried to justify actions by saying it was to protect me, but ultimately, it wasn’t. We were back to the house before I knew it, and I took a deep breath before Garrett reached out and pulled the door open, holding it for me to enter first.
~*~ DRE ~*~
I heard them before the door ever opened, and I knew Jackson had tuned into their presence too. His weight shifted like he was preparing for a fight. His ears apparently weren’t as good as mine were. Either that or he was too distracted to have tuned in quickly enough to hear their conversation. I had heard it though. Hell, I had been on high alert listening for any hint of them coming back. She told him he was the only person here right now she could trust, and while I was grateful that he could be there for her, supplying some comfort, I wished that she could have been talking about me. It wasn’t so much that I had lied to her, but I knew what she meant when she said she couldn’t trust me. I had tried to hide who I was when I first talked to her, and beyond that, I kept from her who I was and why we had such a strong connection. Granted, I kept that information back because of the complications with the Lana situation, but this cluster fuck certainly wasn’t endearing me to the woman I was supposed to be with for life.
Entwined (Vukodlak Brew Book 1) Page 10