Chapter Fourteen
Lyra was unsure of everything. She had no idea what direction her life had suddenly taken. The most notable difference was Aleksy. She felt his need to keep her close to him. She knew it had to do with their mating, but she sensed it was more than that, as well. Several times, he’d mentioned his animal side being primal. She assumed that played a big role in his need to keep her with him. If he couldn’t be with her, he left her alone in the bedroom they shared. He wasn’t keen on leaving her while he went to speak with Orsai and Zane.
I’ll be fine, Aleksy.
“I don’t like leaving you alone and unprotected.”
I’m in a building full of people. I’ll be fine.
“I don’t know why Orsai wants to speak with Zane and me anyway. The past is best left in the past. Nothing he’s done in his life requires explaining. Not to me anyway.”
I get the impression they matter to him. Hear him out. When he’s done speaking to you, come get me, and we’ll talk to him about the changes taking place in me.
Those are from the mating, Lyra.
She nodded. She got that. She was even beginning to accept that she might have an animal inside her as he did. She’d always sensed…something…inside her. She’d thought of it as her conscious or intuition. It was disconcerting to realize it was something more, to suspect her mother had known what Lyra possessed and told her to cage it inside. Would her life have been different if she’d embraced who—what—she was from the beginning? She’d never know. As Aleksy had said, the past was best left in the past.
I know. I have questions, though. I need to understand.
Then ask me. Ask me your questions. I won’t lie to you.
How did she explain that she was afraid of inadvertently hurting him? Which was the last thing she wanted to do.
His face softened, and she knew he was aware of her worry, though she’d tried not to speak it even in her mind.
You won’t hurt me. I’d be surprised if you didn’t have questions. I’ve seen many of our kind struggling to accept who we are, who they are, when the truth was always hidden from them. I can help you, Lyra. I want to help you. I love you.
I know. I just… You trust this man, Orsai Ephraim. I want to trust him, too. And there might be things he can answer that you might not know. Biologically speaking.
She saw the hurt in his eyes, but he quickly hid it from her. She felt it though, like a stab to the heart. How could this man be so confident as to profess love after so brief a time? And why did it make her heart ache to deny him the words? Three simple words, yet she couldn’t force them past her lips. She’d given them to two other people in her life and both had ended up dead. Now, any words of love were locked inside her where they couldn’t hurt anyone else.
“I understand,” Aleksy said, but he didn’t. How could he when it was all tangled up inside her? She didn’t even understand everything she felt. “I’ll find you when this meeting is done.” He dropped a soft kiss on her lips and gave her hand a squeeze before reluctantly turning away.
He’d no sooner left the room than another entered, as if they’d only been waiting for such a moment. Her brother’s mate, Amia Blane. No, Amia Esponetti.
“I was hoping we could speak for a few minutes,” the other woman said as she stepped forward. “Alone, if that’s okay with you.”
Lyra nodded and pointed to a cluster of chairs on the other side of the room. They walked to them in silence then sat for a moment, neither speaking. Finally, Amia gave a nervous laugh.
“I’ve been so wrapped up in my own emotions I haven’t considered what you must be feeling. I’m sorry for that. My mate is reeling, so I can only imagine how you’re doing.”
Lyra didn’t say anything. She still wasn’t comfortable speaking aloud. She’d never done so before, relying on her hands or the fact people would assume her rude and walk off.
“I’m…fine…” she managed as Amia continued to watch her.
“No offense, but how could you be fine? From what I’ve learned since I’ve been here, you were hunted down and captured by my…” She paused, shaking her head. “By Marcus Blane for the sole purpose of getting to me. He almost killed you, Lyra. To get to my mate and me. Reno…a brother you never knew you had. Hell, I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me.”
“I don’t hate you,” Lyra promised. She’d listened when Nathan had spoken of Amia. The woman had put herself in harm’s way many times to save others.
“Tony told us more after you and your mate left. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be deaf then suddenly able to hear.”
“Overwhelming,” Lyra assured her.
Amia sat forward, leading toward Lyra. “If Marcus is after you, he won’t rest until he has you. He’ll try anything and everything to get his hands on you again. I know you don’t know Reno or me, and I’m sure the two of you will have things to discuss and work out, but I know my mate. He has a huge heart, and once he accepts that you’re his sister, and I promise you he will, he’ll want you with us. He won’t rest until he knows you’re safe. We want you to come back to Oklahoma with us. We’re a close-knit group, and we watch over one another. You’ll be safe with us. Plus, you’ve somehow managed to connect with Tah, the alpha of our pride. He won’t rest until he meets you in person. Reno had a hell of a time getting Tah to stay behind. He had to beg Abby’s help in persuading Tah—sorry, Abby is Tah’s mate. He’s the alpha, but she’s the one who rules him.” Amia laughed. “I’d never tell him that, though. His mate and his daughter are his whole world.”
“I’m staying here…with my mate,” Lyra told the other woman.
“But…” Amia glanced around. “This isn’t a home. It’s a bunker. A nice one, but still a bunker. Surely, you don’t want to live in a place like this? We have a home, Lyra. Family and friends. Children and laughter. A doctor and medical facility where you’ll get the best care a shifter can get. We also have Professor Mueller. Trust me when I tell you the Professor will figure out what happened with your hearing, how it corrected and why. The man is a genius. Even more, he’s tenacious. He won’t stop until he knows the answers. Can you get that here?”
“I trust my mate,” Lyra replied. She wanted to know the whys and hows, but staying in a place surrounded by people wasn’t too appealing at the moment. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d told Amia she felt overwhelmed.
“I’m glad. Trust is important between mates. Reno and I… We had a rocky start. I wasn’t prepared for him, and sure as hell not for the mating that took place. Now, I can’t imagine my life without him.”
“You had questions?”
“Hell, yeah,” Amia agreed with a smile. “Some that I was too embarrassed to ask him. Thankfully, I had Abby, as well as Zane’s mate, Diane, to turn to. There are some questions you only feel comfortable asking another woman.”
Lyra nodded, though she was certain there were some questions she wasn’t comfortable asking anyone.
“You can ask me anything,” Amia assured her. “I’ve experienced the initial stages of mating and watched many others go through it. It’s unique for all of us, I would think, but some things are basic. The need to mark and claim.” Amia tugged her shirt to the side, revealing a bite mark on her flesh that was like the one Aleksy had given Lyra. Lyra’s hand flew up to cover hers over the shirt she wore. “Yeah, I figured you had one. Have you bitten him back yet?”
“No, I… What’s inside me is still…locked up,” Lyra admitted. She felt it prowling, though.
“I can’t really help you with learning to shift,” Amia admitted. “I’m human. Reno can. Or Zane. Calloway and Gideon are shifters also.”
Lyra knew those were the other two men who’d arrived with the group. “The other woman? Vic?”
“She’s human, too, though you wouldn’t know it if you heard her growl at her mate,” Amia said with a laugh. “There are changes in us, as well, when we mate. Our senses begin to expand, though not to the intensity of a shifter’s. Our healing ability changes. We don’t get sick. No flu bug since your brother bit me.”
“What about…birth control?” It wasn’t that Lyra didn’t believe Aleksy. She just wanted to hear it from someone else, which basically said she didn’t believe him. She regretted the question as soon as it left her lips.
“It doesn’t work. None of it. Condoms, pills, patches, any of the things humans use to prevent conception are wasted on us. If nature decides it’s time for you to get pregnant, you’re going to. I’ve watched three mates go through pregnancy. The first one was rough. No one was sure of what to do for her or even exactly what her body was going through. I think we were all afraid we were going to lose her. Thankfully, Clara showed up. She’s the mate of the other member of what I like to term the pride trifecta; Tah, Reno, and Logan, who’s Clara’s mate. Those three are like brothers. So, having Reno as a brother means you get Tah and Logan by default. Plus, you get Abby, Clara, and me as your sisters. Anyway, Clara knew about shifter pregnancies. Through her knowledge, they were able to help Abby, who delivered a healthy baby girl named Regan. We’ve had three other babies born to our pride since then. Diane and Zane have a daughter named Amala, and Calloway and his mate, Darby, have twin boys named Cahl and Andy.”
Lyra wasn’t ready to have a child. Not yet. Someday, maybe. “When do you…know nature has decided?”
“I’ll be honest and say I was terrified to ovulate. I’d never been so happy to have weird periods in my life. Don’t get me wrong; I love your brother. And Reno…seeing him with Regan and the others, I know he’ll be an amazing father. But…” The other woman glanced down and away. “I’m a Blane no matter how much I deny it, and the thought of having a child scares the hell out of me. Blood will tell.” Amia’s last words were a faint whisper Lyra wasn’t even sure the other woman realized she’d uttered.
“So, when we ovulate we get pregnant?”
“No. I’m sorry. Our scent changes when we ovulate. You might be able to detect it in yourself. I don’t know. All I know is it begins a fu—” She paused and cleared her throat. “Your mate won’t be able to keep his hands off you. You’ll spend days going at each other, barely eating or sleeping until it burns itself out. Some mates end up conceiving. Some don’t. Reno and I have been through it a few times now, but I’ve never ended up pregnant.” Her hand dropped to her belly. “Maybe nature agrees with me.”
Lyra thought it more likely to be an emotional block. Maybe nature was waiting for the other woman to be ready? It sounded plausible to Lyra and gave her hope that nature would wait on her to be ready, too. Though sex for days with Aleksy didn’t sound like a bad idea to her.
“I keep telling you nature’s waiting on you, not punishing you,” Reno said as he entered the room and walked to his mate. Lyra watched as her brother pulled his mate up and sat before tugging her back into his lap. He kissed the side of her face, and Amia nuzzled into him. They were content with one another, surrounded by love. Lyra craved it yet feared it.
Reno turned to her. “Tell me about your mother.”
How long have you got? she thought to herself.
“As long as you need,” he replied then nodded at her wide-eyed look. “It appears we have some kind of connection. When I focus on you, I can hear what you don’t guard. I felt your compassion for my mate as soon as I walked in. I don’t…I don’t know how our father was able to get both of our mothers with children. Mating, for our species, is said only to happen once. But I can’t look at you and deny we’re related. Anyone can see we are. And if you sense the anger pouring off me, I am angry. I’m mad as fucking hell to be more precise—at the man who left my mom and me to create another family.” He shrugged. “Maybe, he wanted a daughter instead of a son.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Lyra admitted softly. “I don’t remember him at all. I’m not sure when he left us or why my mother continued to love him. I just know he was gone, and when I lost her, there was no way to reach him. So, I was placed in the foster care system.”
Reno’s gaze clouded. “I’m sorry, Lyra. Our father is a bastard.”
She nodded. She’d come to that conclusion on her own a long ago.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t around when you needed me, but I can be here now, if you’ll let me.”
Reno must have decided to accept her as his sister. Instinctively, she knew it was true. Perhaps, her animal knew it? That would make as much sense as anything else. But what was she supposed to say? They seemed to think she’d head back to Oklahoma with them. If that was why they’d come all this way, it had been a wasted trip. She couldn’t see Aleksy contentedly heading to Oklahoma to live with a bunch of people. He seemed to be more of a loner than she was. It was enough that they were already accepting of each other. Neither of them were ready for an entire pride of people.
“Thank you,” she said aloud.
Reno smiled. “You’re not so good at blocking your thoughts just yet. I get that it’s a lot. We’re a lot to take when you’re used to going it alone.” He glanced down at his mate. “I understand that completely. But trust me when I say your mate will follow you. As much as we like to think we’re in charge, we quickly accept the truth. Amia is my heart and soul. Where she goes, I follow.”
“I…appreciate the…invitation,” Lyra tried to assure Reno. “I’m not sure it’s what Aleksy and I need. Yet,” she added.
“Here’s the thing, Lyra. Tah wants to see you, to understand how the two of you connected. It’s important. To him. To all of us. Every moment Amia and I are here is a moment when Marcus Blane could attack and try to take us, kill us. But I’m not leaving without you. And if I call Tah to tell him you’re not willing to come meet him, he’ll be on his way here with his mate in tow, putting both of them at risk, as well as their precious daughter, Regan.”
Was he trying to fucking emotionally blackmail her?
“Whatever it takes to protect those I love,” Reno assured her, making her growl. “And whether you’re ready for it or not, I’ve decided to claim you, little sister. So, you just joined the club. Congratulations. Let’s see how long it takes you to hate having an overprotective, older brother.”
Anger filled her. What the hell was he playing at?
Reno laughed. “About five seconds, it seems.” He relaxed in the chair, looking far too comfortable to her. “So, what’s it going to be, Lyra? Are you going to the pride? Or does the pride have to come to you?”