Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
“I’ve been worried about being unable to carry a child. But there’s more. Other things I didn’t ask Cat about with the lack of privacy when we had that conversation.”
“What? What else are you keeping from your husband, woman?”
Ouch.
I can’t blame him for being upset that I didn’t share my fears, but it feels like my heart is breaking right now that he’s frustrated and upset with me amid everything else going on.
“I…” I blow out a hard exhale and scratch my forehead, contemplating. “Can we talk about this somewhere more private?”
He gestures ahead, tags my hand, and walks me forward until we get to the front office. We go inside and he sits on the reception desk, arms folded, waiting for me to speak.
But something about his body language reminds me too much of my brother. I feel sick to my stomach, suddenly, even thinking of Greyson being in Wyatt’s league. I know he’s not like Wyatt. I know he’s not going to hurt me.
But being here, in Silver Hills, inside this building where I’ve spent so much time… where I’ve been backhanded… where I’ve had things thrown around while I’m trying to work because Wyatt is pissed off or can’t find something…
It feels like years since I’ve been in here. So much has changed for me. I used to spend most days here and nothing has changed here, but I’m changed. Deeply.
I know who I am. I know what I deserve. This man right here. He’s mine and though he’s angry with me, I think he’ll understand once I tell him.
“Wyatt’s my half-brother,” I begin. “Different mothers. But it sounds like we would’ve been related anyway. When Wyatt’s mother died, Father took a second wife. His first wife’s cousin. This was my mother.”
Grey’s face changes, and I keep going.
“Stick with me here, I’ll get there. He was able to mate with them and produce the both of us so it must have been fated, right?”
“Your father was alpha, so yeah,” Grey agrees.
“There are a few situations in the pack that had me concerned. Rumor is that Kimmy, one of the little kids who’s sick right now, the one with just one arm… rumor is that her sire was her great-uncle.”
Grey’s expression darkens.
I go on, “Her mother’s uncle got drunk and forced himself on her. Wyatt put him to death for it, but Kimmy’s mother denied that he was Kimmy’s father. Said she’d been with two other men that month of conception so any of them could have been Kimmy’s sire, but I think she was afraid Wyatt would put Kimmy to death, so she made that up. It’s stuck with me that maybe Kimmy was born missing an arm because of incest. And… Wyatt has never been right in the head, and I found out about five years back through finding unfiled census records for The Collective from before Wyatt was born that Father was first cousins with Wyatt’s mom. I can’t find records about my own mom, how she was related to Wyatt’s mom, and it could be that she was related on the other side of her family, but she could also have been another first cousin. To both Wyatt’s mom and my father.”
I shrug and continue. “I asked Aunt Shea if our mothers were related and she said she didn’t think so, but she was acting weird about it. Changed the subject. I tried to bring it up again a day later and again… she deflected. Aunt Shea is one of Father’s sisters so I feel like she should know, they’d be her first cousins, too. Nobody really told me much about my mother when I was a kid. Just that Father brought her from some other village to look after Wy when his mom died and wound up taking her as his. My mother disappeared when I was a baby, so my grandparents came from their village to look after me. I stayed with them until I was six when my grandmother died, and I then moved in with Father and Wyatt. And… no one really knows much about where any of them are from. Or they didn’t want to tell me. Maybe I’m not right in the head either. Or maybe our offspring, if I’m healthy enough to carry and deliver them… w-won’t be.”
Grey is looking at me with sorrow in his eyes.
I ask, “How can a pairing like Father had with both our mothers be fated?”
He blows out a long exhale but doesn’t speak so I keep going.
“I don’t get it. And maybe that’s part of why Wyatt doesn’t believe in fated mates, and I had trouble with the notion. Because why would Fate pair up an alpha with a relative? How could I spill all these concerns to you when we first met, Grey? There’s so much going on. So much. And I’m… I’m trying to come to grips with it all while being in a relationship for the first time and … and… not wanting to upset you. Wanting everything to be perfect.”