Authors: Ivy Sinclair
Doc Walton nodded. "We have time before the Summit starts. This is going to be a shit storm, and you know it. We’re going to be lucky if we keep the rest of the shifter leaders here after they find out about this. No one is going to want to work with you if they think you killed him."
"I know what it looks like," I said. "Do you think this is the first time I've had someone try to frame me for something I didn't do?" I let that question hang between us because I knew the answer. I had earned my reputation as the bad boy of Greyelf more than twice over, but I wasn't responsible for everything that happened around Greyelf when he lived there either. There have been more than a few mistakes and examples of public mischief that had happened that had my name attached to it that weren't actually things I had done. At the time, I shrugged it off. I didn't give two shits what people thought about me then, and so I didn’t care if people didn’t like me or were afraid of me.
Now is different. I needed to look different. I was different. I had my people to be concern about, and I felt anger that ball of anger inside growing larger. Someone was taking aim at the Greyelf grizzly clan through me. That meant that everyone around me was in danger whether I realized it or not
"Have you managed to get an appointment with Reddon?"
“He said he think about it. That's the best I could do."
I gave a low growl. “You’re going to have to try harder than that.”
I sat across the living room from my father feeling awkward and like I was ten years old all over again. The pause between us stretched out too long. My dad wasn’t capable of a high level of emotional support on the best of days. There was really no preparing us for what this was. It was a heart-to-heart that have been a long time coming, and I didn't know where it was going to end. I don't think he did either.
"Can you at least tell me what happened to your face?" my dad finally asked. "I swear to God if that animal put his hands on you, I'm going to kill him."
I was a little bit surprised. My father was not one who tended toward violence.
"Lukas didn't have anything to do with this," I said. "Although the reason it happened started with him, I have to admit. There are people out there who want to mess with the Summit. Some of them knew that Lukas and I had a relationship."
I let the word
relationship
settle there for a few moments. My Dad had not wanted to acknowledge that Lukas and I had even been friends at any point. He was stubbornly against the idea that there would be anything that Lukas and I had in common. I don't know why it had been news to me when Lukas told me my father had been involved with Markus keeping him away from me. It seemed as if everyone thought they knew how to run my life better than me.
"Maybe you should start from the beginning," he said.
It was as good a point as any really. But I was going to go back even further than he realized. "Dad, I know you don't like Lukas."
My father interrupted me, "It's not that I don't like Lukas. It's that he isn't good enough for you, Maren. You’re smart, witty, and pretty as a picture, just like your mother. I didn't deserve her either. How I got so lucky I have no idea. But he's trouble. He always has been, and he always will be."
If I didn't say something to get him out of his ‘I hate Lukas’ rut, we were going to go around and around in the same circular argument that we'd been having about Lukas since I was a kid. “I know you don't like Lukas. Then again, I don't think that you would have liked any guy that I brought home."
“What about Billy Miller? I saw him standing outside looking pretty upset," my dad said. "He seemed like a good enough guy, even though he’s apparently a bear. I didn’t see that one coming, I’ll admit. I just want what's best for you, Maren. That's all I've ever wanted."
"I know, Dad. I know that's what you want, and I'm trying to tell you that I found that. You can argue with me until the cows come home, but what I want is what I've always tried to tell you. Lukas is the one for me. Even when he didn't know it. He knows that now."
"What do you mean he knows it now?" My dad asked.
I took a deep breath because I wasn't exactly sure how to announce my new status with Lukas. It would be the first time saying it out loud to someone other than Lukas or the council members. Plus, it was like I was married but I wasn't. At least not in the traditional sense that I was used to thinking about it. It all happened so fast my head was still kind of spinning about the whole thing. "Dad, I know you know that Lukas was supposed to take a mate. It was supposed to be announced at the Summit."
"I heard that he was engaged to a girl who belongs to the Loper clan. That news was announced via a press release shortly after the end of the opening remarks of the Summit."
Now it was my turn to look surprised. It seemed as if the council was hell-bent on making sure that Lukas and Vivian Reddon were together forever. But that wasn't how it was going to happen. As far as I was concerned, that ship had sailed when Lukas and I marked each other and had the best sex of my entire life.
"The press release was sent in error," I said. "Lukas asked me to be his mate several days ago."
"What exactly does that mean? Becoming someone's mate? Goddamnit Maren, I can't believe you're getting yourself mixed up with this boy again, especially a goddamn shifter!" my dad exclaimed.
I had expected anger. I had expected unkind words. I knew that my father wouldn’t understand. He might have a pretty open mind when it came to all things around the shifter community. He knew better than most humans out there how it all worked. But when it came to me and Lukas, I thought my father lost all common sense and proprietary.
"It's exactly what it sounds like. Lukas has declared that I am his mate." I thought about that word again,
mate
. Even though I understood innately that this was a term of endearment and possession in the shifter community, it was a word that was still unfamiliar for me to associate with myself.
There was another word the word that was common those of us humans that I wanted to add to that title. I wasn't even sure if that something that was done in shifter community circles. Was there such a thing as weddings? Did they do the big church with the white dress and circle of friends and family? I didn't know. I guess it was something I was going to have to ask Lukas about because I had dreamed of getting married to him since I was a teenager. And I still wanted all of that.
"Maren, are you sure that you know what you're doing? And I'm saying this not only as your father but also as someone who has seen what's going on right now around the shifters. This is a dangerous time to be anywhere near Lukas Kasper. Your life could be in danger." My father stood up and began to pace the room. "I knew over the last eighteen years of about fifty attempts on Markus's life." He looked at me then, and I saw him register my shocked expression. "Yes, not all of those made it into the paper. Hell, only about a tenth of those made it into the paper. Markus and the sheriff kept a pretty tight lid on all of that kind of talk. They were afraid that if it got out, there would be anarchy. All of this talk of peace, and it's just not happening, Maren. Tempers are too volatile. Beliefs are embedded too deep. People aren't ready to accept an integrated society, no matter what they say. We are too different from them."
His words created a bolt of fear inside of me, but I thought that he was wrong. It was a debate that he and I had also had for several years. "Dad, there are people who want to do bad things in the world no matter what. I know that, and you know that. There are people who are biased and bigoted and have opinions that are different from mine and yours. But if we stop fighting, if we stop trying to make progress, we’re not going to get anywhere. Are you about concerned about what it looks like for you if I’m with a shifter? Are you ashamed of me now?"
My father's face softened for the first time since he walked through the door. He pointed at my face. "What happened there, Maren? You said that Lukas didn't do it, so that can only mean that someone else did. The fact that you're sitting in the man's house right now with a guard outside tells me that he thinks you're in trouble too."
Naturally, my father was as perceptive as ever. It was time to tell him the other truths of the matter. "During the opening ceremony, I was kidnapped. They took me out to the old mining town. I don't think that they meant to hurt me, at least not initially. What they were trying to do was scare Lukas. They were definitely gunning for him and not for me. Lukas and Billy came after me, and they saved me. My face got in the way during the process. I’m okay, so you don’t need to worry about me. Lukas is taking good care of me." I let him absorb the story.
"I can't believe you'd ever think that I was ashamed of you," he said softly. "I am prouder of you than I could ever imagine. I may not say it much, but I think you are amazing. I don't know why the hell you been sitting in this podunk town writing for your old man when clearly you're far more talented than that."
"What? I thought that's what you wanted," I said.
"The only thing I ever wanted was for you to be happy," he said. "I wanted you to go to school. I wanted you to get a good education. Then I wanted you to go out and explore the world beyond Greyelf. I wanted you to get away from all of the ghosts that were here and out from the shadow of the shifters. It's something that I should've done myself a long time ago."
"Dad, Greyelf is my home.” The words were heartfelt. Greyelf was my home. Lukas was my home. I had come back there after college because I thought that one day he would return, and he did. I wasn't sure what else to say.
"Dad, I think there's something else going on here. Something that’s being hidden under wraps. Lukas believes that there was someone who had something to do with Markus's death. He doesn't think it was an accident."
I could tell that my father was going to try and argue with me, but then he paused and seemed to think better of it.
“Maren, what you know about what's supposed to happen with the negotiations at the Summit?” he asked.
"I know what everybody else knows. The shifters are planning to ask for further enforcement around an integrated society and harsher punishments against those who act in violence against them."
"There are many who stand against that kind of action," my dad said. "It's a little-known secret that has been going around in the upper echelon of the political circles. Those that stood behind the equal rights legislation eighteen years ago are seriously thinking about switching their vote. People are scared, Maren. The attacks on humans have been increasing every year."
I didn't know what to think about this shift in conversation. I brought my dad here to ask him tell him about me and Lukas and to find out what he knew about Markus Kasper's death that he hadn’t told me. But now I realized that there was something far deeper and more sinister and everything that he was talking about. "How do you know about this? Where did you hear it?"
"Where doesn’t matter. I didn't want to believe either. But maybe it's time that you saw some of the truths of the world we live in. Things I don't know your alpha, or whatever you want to call him, has told you about. That's the thing that pisses me off about this entire situation," my dad, clearly getting ready to launch into a tirade. "He should’ve told you all of this! He's put you in danger just by the very nature of being close to him because of who he is. This Summit is going to be a landmark in history. That's the real reason that Markus Kasper is dead."
I couldn't keep the shock off my face. There was something that my father knew that he hadn't told me. "You know something. Tell me what it is."
My father stood up. “I'm amazed that they let me in the front gate to begin with considering what a thorn in the side I’ve been to them over the years. I guess I have you to thank for that." He moved over to the window and looked out the curtain shaking his head. "They can try make this place look like Mayberry, but it's not. We want to all think that we’re like each other, but we’re not. Shifters are far more dangerous than they will ever let us believe. We have to be aware. Yes, they are our neighbors and our friends, but they also hide something from us that cannot be controlled. I think we fully appreciate that yet."
I never heard my father speak this way before. I didn't know what to make of it. My father had long supported the shifters and their push for equal and integrated rights. Now, he was talking like he had changed his mind. Suddenly, I didn't trust him the way that I had before. Plus, there was something that he knew about Markus’s death that I didn't know. "Well, maybe you can show me the information you’ve gotten from your sources so I can see it all for myself."
My father walked to the front door and with his hand on the doorknob paused and glanced in my direction. "If you can find your way out of here, come see me then. I'll show you what I can show you and try to help you understand what you’ve put yourself in. In the meantime, watch your back sweetheart." With a long sigh, he left the house without another word.
Billy poked his head inside. He had a concerned look on his face. "Everything okay in here?"
"I don't know,” I said honestly. "That conversation makes me wonder what else I don't know about what's going on in this town."
Billy's face was unreadable. "Lukas said that you would need some time to get adjusted. Maybe, instead of doing your investigative reporting at the Summit, you should take his advice and rest." Billy closed the door and left me alone to my thoughts.
No matter what they said, sitting around twiddling my thumbs was the last thing that I was going to do. That wasn’t what I though an alpha’s mate would do anyway.