“Lucas has a birthmark,” Ariana blurted. “It’s on his shoulder blade.”
Her eyes dropped to her lap as she described it to them. It wasn’t really a surprise when she offered to draw it for them so they could get a better look at it.
“I’ve seen it somewhere in one of the books in our library at home,” she muttered as she drew on the piece of paper Silas handed her. “I can’t remember what it meant though.”
She handed the paper over to Ethan when she was done. He studied the picture with a frown and then handed it over to Silas. He handed the photo back to Ethan and then looked at the twins.
“It’s late. Time for bed, girls,” he told them.
Eva scoffed. “You are aware of the fact that we are adults, right?”
“I want to talk to Lucas alone.”
“Why can’t we—”
“Because I said so, Eva,” he growled.
They glared at each other silently. Eva looked away first and with a huff she stood and walked over to Ariana to help her up. Silas glanced at me and then at Ethan.
“I’ll be right back.”
Placing a hand on Eva’s arm, he waited for her to step aside before he picked Ariana up and carried her out of the room with a sulking Eva trailing behind them. Eva paused at the door and looked at me. For a moment it looked like she wanted to say something but then she shook her head and left.
I sucked in a breath and relaxed slowly. It was easier to breath with them out of the room.
“Wrin called me,” Ethan said once I had taken a seat across from him. “He told me what Silas did.”
“He told you that his Alpha beat the shit out of me?”
“He was worried that Silas might kill you.” He hesitated. “Silas has trouble controlling his temper sometimes.”
“So I’ve noticed,” I muttered dryly. “You got here sooner that I thought you would.”
Ethan chuckled. “You escaped a lot faster than I expected.”
Bitterness coated my voice. “I was trained to be prepared in any kind of situation.”
His eyes instantly lowered. My words made an uncomfortable silence settled between us but I didn’t regret it. There was no use soft-soaping things. I wanted them to know exactly what I had suffered through for years. My eyes darted over his face.
Maybe Ethan understood things to an extent. After all, he has lived through years without his family or his daughter knowing about him.
Silas returned carrying a tray loaded with two plates, two beers and a can of soda.
Ethan’s stomach rumbled. “Fuck it smells good,” he breathed.
“Mom made dinner.” Silas handed him a plate with a beer. “There’s desert too if you want.”
He turned and held the other plate out towards me. “Do you—”
“It’s probably not a good idea,” Ethan interrupted him.
I ignored Ethan and took the plate and soda.
My body would either digest the food or it wouldn’t. I had been eating human food since I was little so I didn’t really think that changing made much of a difference.
“Do you have an idea as to who my parents might be?” I asked them.
“No, but I’ll look into it. Your birthmark might lead to something.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “Grayson might know of someone who’ll be able to help you.” He paused and waited until I looked at him before he continued. “There’s a guy. . .from what I understand, they are sort of friend. He’s willing to help you learn everything about your parents and about yourself.”
“When did you talk to Grayson?”
He took a few bites of food and chewed it before he answered me. “I called him when you went through the change.”
Then why wasn’t he here? I frowned down at the plate in my hand. If he knew about my change then he should’ve been here to help me understand things.
“She gave me injections,” I said softly. “She got them from the black market. I stopped taking them when she died.”
“Do you know what they were for?”
I shrugged. “Grayson’s looking into it.”
My eyes darted over the plate and lingered on the chicken for a few seconds. I gripped the fork a little tighter as I hesitated a moment and then took a bite. It sucked that I couldn’t really taste a thing because the food looked delicious. Swallowing, I waited for my stomach to protest but nothing happened so I continued eating and before I knew it the plate was empty.
I placed it down on the coffee table and opened the soda. A sigh fell from my lips after taking a sip. I couldn’t taste it either. Well, at least I didn’t have to lie to the twin when their cooking sucks. The thought made me smile but the smile faded as an important question flashed through my mind. Was there going to be a future for us?
“Lucas,” Silas called, making my eyes snap to him. “I-I would appreciate it if you don’t tell the girls about. . .what I did.”
“I wasn’t planning on telling them.” I glanced around the room. “Are you planning on telling Eva that Ethan’s her father and not you?”
“No,” Silas answered.
Ethan glanced at him with a frown. He didn’t look very happy about Silas’s answer but he didn’t argue with him either. Interesting. . .Ethan wanted her to know, I could see it in his eyes but Silas wanted to keep things the way they were.
“I have a few questions for you,” Silas leaned back as he nursed his beer.
“We’re not close enough to share secrets.”
Ethan’s lips twitched but Silas didn’t look amused.
“Considering a fact that you’ll be part of the family soon, I have the right to—”
“Family? When did you decide that? Before or after you were beating the shit out of me?” I asked him.
Silas glared at me. “Your record’s not so clean either!”
“Hold up.” Ethan held a hand up, instantly silencing me. “”Fighting isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
“Don’t tell me you’re not even a little curious—”
“Of course I am,” he interrupted his brother. “He was raised by Avery, but I’m not going to force him to talk.”
“You’re okay with your daughter being around a trained killer?” Silas growled.
I stood, snapping their attention to me. “Since he’s not allowed to be in his daughter’s life, his opinion doesn’t really matter now does it?”
Ethan surprisingly nodded. “See, the kid is smarter than you.”
“Smarter?” Silas laughed. “If he was smart he wouldn’t have come back here!”
“And you would be planning Ariana and Eva’s funeral,” I hissed at him.
Slamming the empty can down on the table, I grabbed the papers from the desk and headed for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I paused and turned to look at Silas. “Trust is earned, Silas. It’s not given freely.”
“How do you expect me to trust you when you’re set on destroying me?”
“Honestly?” I smirked at him. “I don’t really give a fuck about what you think of me.”
Turning, I reached for the door handle but the door opened before i even touched it.
“Val—”
The man’s words died down when his eyes locked with mine. I only stared at him for a few seconds before I looked down at the woman who had opened the door.
“You didn’t inform us that you were having visitors over,” she said.
“It was last minute,” Silas muttered. “They were just leaving.”
I glanced at him.
Silas stood facing them but Ethan was still seated, facing forward.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us, son?” the man questioned.
It wasn’t really a surprise to find the woman studying me with curiosity. I smiled at her which wasn’t the smartest thing to do. A growl fell from the man’s lips as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her slightly behind him.
“Dad, wait!”
The hair on my arms stood to attention when his lips parted to flash sharp teeth at me.
“You allowed a Bloodsucker onto our land without warning?”
“David.” My lips twitched. “So that makes you Valeria.” I glanced down at the woman. “I had a different kind of meeting in mind.”
“How the hell do you know her name?” David demanded.
The smile slipped from my face when he took a step closer. “Don’t,” I warned him softly.
Movement behind them made me sigh. I watched a pale Ariana stumbling closer.
“You’re never going to heal if you don’t keep weight off your leg, doll.”
Ariana pursed her lips as she pushed passed her grandparents. Three steps into the room and her legs gave way beneath her. My hands shot out to grab her arms and pulled her against my body. She dropped her forehead to my chest and sucked in a breath.
“H-had to make sure that you d-don’t leave again,” she whispered.
Wrapping an arm around her back, I bent slightly to slip the other behind her knees to pick her up and cradle her against my chest. She wrapped her arms around my neck and tilted her head back to look at me.
My lips parted but the words died down when Eva appeared in the doorway.
“There you are.”
Silas growled. “Don’t you ever fucking listen?”
Eva lowered her head but I could see the smile playing around her lips. It might have looked innocent but it was clearly planned. I was sure that Silas wasn’t that stupid either.
I swallowed when Eva attached herself to my side. She wrapped an arm around my waist and smiled at her grandparents.
“I just went to the bathroom and when I came back Ari was gone so I came to look for her,” she explained.
Lowering my head, I pressed my lips to her ear. “Liar,” I breathed, making her shudder.
She turned her head, making my eyes drop to her lips for a moment before they darted back up to hers. Whatever she had been about to say was clearly forgotten. I sucked in another breath and nearly groaned. It was a mistake to be so close to her but other than wanting a taste of her blood, I really wanted to kiss her too.
Before I could close the few inches of space between our lips, Eva was jerked away from me. I hissed, flashing my fangs at him.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
I took a step towards Eva but three low growls filled the room, making me freeze.
“Lucas?”
I blinked and turned my head to look at Ariana but my eyes instantly dropped to her neck where I could see the faint outline of a blue vein a few inches above her erratic beating pulse.
“You’re eyes,” she whispered. “They’re really beautiful.”
They snapped up to hers when her words penetrated my mind. I tensed when she suddenly pressed her palm to my cheek.
“Lucas,” Ethan called softly. “Give her to me.”
It would be so easy to slip from the room and take her with me. It would be so easy to get her to agree. . .or I could just take. Her neck was only a few inches away.
Blood straight from the source.
I pushed Ariana into the arms of her grandfather and hurried out of the room. There was no fucking way I could trust myself to be anywhere near them.