I sniffle and rest my head in my hands. “I didn’t know what to expect. Is it wrong that I think this would be easier if she was dead?”
“No, because I felt the same.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, Vi, I did,” he says, splaying his arms out on the park bench as we both watch the ferry.
“What happened?” I ask, wondering if he’ll tell me. He surprises me by leaning back and telling me everything.
Chapter 19
I’m not sure if it’s Violet’s half-shed tears, the way this feels like a dead end, or how hard Thorin is riding my ass right now. But I decide Violet should know that she’s not alone.
“After Jonas and I took over Mander’s, we went on the search for our families. We knew we would have a claim on a pack with ancestral ties. That’s usually how things work. But the shifter community as a whole is secretive, most delivering their young at home, lying low, the typical supernatural M.O. So we spent a lot of time traveling around North America. Jonas found his half-brother in Toronto, and we stayed there for a bit, but it didn’t work out.”
“Why?” she asks, thoroughly engaged in the story.
“His brother was pack Alpha. It took everything in me to hold back Thorin from challenging him. I told Jonas he could stay with his family, but he chose to follow me instead. Eventually we found a lead, and I met my mother.”
“What was she like?”
“Terrible,” I say with a shake of my head. “She clearly has her addictions. It’s why she was kicked out of the Moon Walker Pack and why my grandfather had no direct Alpha heir to pass the claim to, or at least, I thought. It was passed to Collins instead.”
“The spirit?” she gasps and I nod.
“I didn’t think we were related, but honestly, all the bookkeeping with the pack is absolute shit. He could just as easily be his bastard. Hans, my grandfather, was nearly sixty when my mother was born, and seventy when he passed his claim to Collins. My mother wanted nothing to do with me when I met her, said she didn’t know who my father was. I couldn’t scent her as a shifter either,” I admit.
It’s not even something I told Jonas.
Her brows furrow, and she rubs her slender, pale throat. “It can’t be this coincidental,” she whispers.
“What do you mean?”
“Both of us, ending up at Mander’s, both of our mothers no longer a part of their lineage. Something feels off.”
I break away from looking at her for a moment, letting the breeze from the river caress my face. She’s right, this is all too messed up to not be connected somehow.
“What do we do now?” she asks, looking hopeless and sad.
“Comfort our mate,”Thorin whispers, and for the first time since I’ve reunited with Violet, I agree with Thorin.
“We could go home, try to figure this out, see what Jonas comes up with. Or…”
“Or what?” she asks. The idea of going home doesn’t sound great to her either, even though I know my pack needs order right now. But leaving New Orleans with no answers doesn’t feel right. Leaving while she looks so sad, doesn’t feel right.
“Or we take one day.”
“One day?”
“Where you’re not a witch from the coven who’s trying to ruin my fucking life and I’m not the Alpha of the pack you loathe? Just one day to actually live and then we’ll go back to hating each other tomorrow on our drive back home.”
She blinks at me, her eyes looking a brighter blue from her tears. She doesn’t look at me like she hates me; she looks at me with relief. Like the idea of shedding who she is and what she’s going through for just one day will be the thing she needs.
“Okay, let’s do that. Oh, let me put an illusion on our rings. Other supernaturals won’t be able to see them,” she says, not pulling out her hand, just touching my ring and then her own.
“How do you know it worked?”
“It worked,” she says easily.
