Joseph had ceased looking debonair from the moment El had raised this topic of conversation.But now?He was shaky.His normally tanned skin was pale, chalky.There was sweat beading on his brow, dotting the taut skin of his jaw too.
“She told me what she was the second time we met.She had to.My reaction to her was… intense.
“I didn’t trust in it.Couldn’t.It was so much more than anything I’d ever experienced, and I thought..Well, I accused her of drugging me.It made no sense, and I knew she hadn’t, but the need she inspired in me was beyond normal.
“She shifted, and I thought I was going crazy.Then she explained about the different kinds of supernaturals roaming around this world with us.If she hadn’t have shifted, then I’d have thought she was completely batshit and would have had her committed.But when I saw her?When I saw her take that shape?”He gulped.“My life changed that day.”
“You claimed her,” Ryan asked quietly.
Joseph snorted.“Jessa claimed me.”
A soft sound escaped El’s throat.“Her name was Jessa.”
For the first time, Joseph did more than look at Ryan.He half turned to stare at his daughter.With a nod, he murmured, “And goddamn you, El, you look like her.”He closed his eyes, then covered them with his hand.“Fuck, I see you in her every goddamn day.”
His pain seemed to stun El.Her delicacy pained Ryan at that moment, and though he’d tried to stay out of this, let daughter and father handle this alone—his intrusion was required.
Softly, so as not to disturb either of them, he stood, then as he approached El, he curved an arm about her shoulders and gently guided her to the chair he’d just left.
She was shaking in his arms, her tremors making his beast want to rage.Barely containing his Lion, he squeezed her hand once she was huddled in the chair, then took the seat beside her, moving it up so they were closer together and he could keep his arm around her shoulders.
Whatever she was feeling, no matter how scared or freaked out, she had to know that he was there for her.
That, hell, she had four men who would kill to keep her safe.
Forgetting that was something she could never do.
“I-I’m sorry,” El whispered after a while.“I’m sorry I look like her.”
Joseph’s head whipped to the side in rejection of that.“You don’t have to apologize.It’s a blessing; but most days, it feels like a curse.”He swallowed.“I lost her so shortly after you were born.”His jaw worked at that.“You were… She’d have hated me for what I did to you.”
El tensed.“What do you mean?”
Joseph sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose.“I had a daughter all of a sudden.Somehow, I had to make it work.Annabel agreed to pretend to be your mother.She… she left for the Hamptons for a while and stayed there until she ‘gave birth’ to you.She agreed to be your mother for the sake of the family.”
El flinched.“So why did you stay with her if you were so in love with my mother?”
He sighed.“Because of the boys.Because of you.Because…” he shrugged.“What else was I supposed to do?We don’t get divorced in the Forsythe-Drew family.”His smile was tight.Bitter.“I would have done it, for your mother.But without her…”
The words, ‘what was the point’ went unspoken.
“What happened to her?”
A harsh laugh escaped him.“I don’t know.And you’re not going to believe me, but I genuinely don’t know.”
He got to his feet before El could do more than scowl, then headed over to a drinks’ tray that sat on a fancy oak console table close to the window where El had been standing.
He poured himself a brandy, sank back the three-fingered shot, then poured himself another.He half-turned.“You want anything?”
Both of them shook their heads as he returned with the glass brimming with amber liquid.
“You have to know something,” Ryan urged.“It’s important, Joseph.”
El’s father narrowed his eyes as he slurped down the bitter brew in his cut glass tumbler.“You’re Shifter too, I’d hazard a guess.”
Ryan blinked.“Yes.”
“What kind?”
