Desired (Two Marks 2)

“I shouldn’t have followed. I should have stayed to talk to your grandparents, instead. But my wolf needed to be with both of them so badly, I chased after them. It was winter, and the roads were icy. A boulder had rolled down the incline and lay in the middle of the road. Noble swerved to miss it, and skidded off the edge.”

Harlan’s eyes turned red and he blinked rapidly. “I didn’t mean to kill them, but I was responsible. I took your parents from you, son, and not a day goes by I’m not sorry for that.”

I blinked back tears of my own. “Fuck.” That’s all there was to say about it. All I could think of, anyway.

“It’s true,” Cord said.

I shifted in my chair to get more comfortable. I figured there was one more bullet in me. The other two were through-and-throughs, and I just had to wait for the wounds to heal up. I pressed a hand on my gut and felt the hard metal.

Rachel came up on her knees and looked down at the wound. “I’m all right, beautiful,” I murmured.

“I talked to Gibson,” Cord said. “Got the old alpha’s records.”

Harlan stared at him, wide-eyed.

Cord set his hand on the older man’s shoulder. “Your story matches.”

“You went to the alpha?” Harlan asked.

Cord nodded. “I wanted the truth. Facts are better than gossip.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, then grimace. “The doctor does like proof.”

Something shifted in Harlan. A wariness that had been about him since I met him—fuck, was it only a few hours earlier?—left him. A smile turned up the corners of his mouth.

“No one’s ever believed me. Noble and Cathryn…” He pulled a bandana from the back pocket of his jeans, and wiped at his eyes.

“They didn’t give you the chance to explain,” Rachel said, getting to her feet and taking Harlan’s hand.

He shook his head.

“Neither did anyone in the pack?” she asked.

“Jack West knew the truth, but it didn’t matter.”

“You banished yourself,” I added.

Pushing off the arms of the chair, I stood. Rachel came over to me and propped me up. I didn’t need her help but I wasn’t going to let her know that. Her concern and caring filled a well inside me I hadn’t known was empty.

“Yes. I didn’t mean to scare my mates. I didn’t mean to push them to hide from me. To hide you from me.”

Fuck. He’d done nothing wrong, and hadn’t even known he’d had a child. For almost thirty years, he’d isolated himself, afraid of what was inside of him.

He’d missed out on so much. He’d fled.

So had I.

“Fuck,” I breathed.

“What? Are you hurt?” Rachel asked, running her hands over me. That sure as hell felt good, even as I had a bullet working its way out of my body and I had an epiphany about how much of a dumbass I’d been.

“I’m fine. I realized that I was about to do the same thing.”

Rachel frowned. “What do you mean?”

I cupped her face. “I’m rough with you. Wild. I thought… I thought I was tainted.” I tipped my head toward Harlan. “Like father, like son.”

She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at me. “I hope so. Your father is brave and protective and courageous and kind.” She went up on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear. “I told you, I like it rough.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Yeah, my mate was a little she-wolf in the sack.

I released my hold on Rachel and went to my father. Met his gaze that was identical to mine.

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance earlier.”

He looked away and waved me off.

“Thank you for saving our mate. I am forever grateful.”

Harlan cleared his throat. “That’s what family does. Takes care of each other.”

Cord shook Harlan’s hand as I continued to look at the man I’d never expected to be alive. To look like me. To act like the man I hoped to emulate.

There wasn’t anything else I could do but hug him.

For a second, he stood stock still, then his hands moved around me and he hugged me back.

He stepped back first. “I think you’ve got one more job to do. That mate of yours, lock her down. Claim her. Carefully.”

I ran a hand over the back of my neck and looked to Cord.

“Listen to your elders,” Cord said.

We both turned and faced Rachel.

She bit her lip. “You said this claiming thing… it means forever for shifters?”

We nodded in unison.

“Good.”

22

RACHEL

“Are you sure?” Cord asked, his large hands settling on my waist.

The three of us were in Cord’s bedroom. Harlan had left—but agreed to return soon—and Nash had showered to clean off the blood. He was up and moving around without a problem now. His wounds looked weeks old, not hours. Only a bit of puckered pink flesh remained.

It was a lot to take in, but honestly, no more than believing two incredibly hot guys wanted to share me. The wolf part just felt like the missing piece of the puzzle. Now it all made sense.