Rory ignored Graham and the others and nodded. Alex and Shannon’s male stepped closer to her mother, each one grabbing one of her mother’s arms, holding her immobile. Then before the pack’s shocked and horrified gazes, Shannon’s male bit her mother on the neck, drinking her blood.
Vampire! Shannon’s male was a vampire? Shannon had mated a vamp, for there was no denying the two were mated. Ashley stood frozen with shock, watching the tableau unfold before her.
Some of the men protested and moved forward as though they would put a stop to whatever was happening. Alex snapped his fingers, and quick as a blur, there was a wall of Raven pack wolves standing in the way. Knowing they were no match for the others, the Sparrowhawk men settled down, resorting to angry mutterings and hostile glances.
The vampire raised his head, fangs showing clearly in the moonlight. He closed his eyes and licked the few drops of ruby-red blood spotted on his lips. There was a tense silence as everyone waited to see what would happen next. Ashley didn’t know much about vampires and their powers. Most of what she’d heard was probably rumor. She did know that shifters had a natural immunity to some of their more powerful psychic powers.
Suddenly her mother shrieked, “Get out of my head!”
All movement ceased. Ashley’s startled gaze bounced from her mother to the vamp. He was in her head? How was that possible? Unless it had something to do with the blood… Ashley glanced around at the older pack members. Their gazes were somber, knowing.
“Nikolai?” Rory asked.
“Guilty as charged,” Nikolai stated calmly as his eyes opened.
“You can’t prove anything, you bastard! Let me go!” her mother shouted furiously, the mask beginning to crack.
Ashley heard the mutters.
“He read her mind.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He’s a vampire.”
“He took her blood. Never give blood to a vamp. It gives them a path in.”
“On the contrary. We have proof. We took the herbs you gave Shay to an herbalist in Fort Knox. He’s the one who told us what you did,” Rory said in a voice gone as cold as his expression.
There were more gasps. More whispers, but opinions were divided. The mood of the pack shifted from angry disbelief to denial and uncertainty.
“He’s a liar,” her mother hotly denied. “I’d never do such a thing.” Laurie Bell glanced at the council, the pack. “You know me. I delivered most of you, doctored the rest. There’s been a mistake.” She turned back to Rory.
“It’s no mistake,” he said in a flat voice. “You own a shop. You knew what that particular blend of herbs would do to Shay’s body, to the babe.”
Oh God, this was awesome. Damn, all she needed was popcorn. It was about damn time someone else knew what her mother was capable of. Ashley felt the gazes of others searching her reaction to the unfolding events. Seeing what she knew, if she knew anything at all. She held in a smile, struggling to look as horrified and stunned as the rest.
“I want to know why.” The human’s quiet voice cut like a knife through the uproar that had risen at Rory’s words.
“Why what? I didn’t do anything,” Laurie Bell protested. “Shayla, I know you’re new here, but believe me, this is all a terrible mistake. I’m a woman, a mother. A midwife, for God’s sake. Bringing healthy children into the world is what I do.”
The human stared at her out of a face set in stone. No sympathy there, either, Mother.
Laurie Bell glanced around wildly. “Why aren’t you listening to me?”
“I’d also like to know why,” Shannon stated. “Nikolai, can you…?”
All eyes turned toward Nikolai. He nodded. Then his eyes lost focus.
Her mother began struggling. “Stay out of my head!”
“She’s fighting me,” he said to Rory in a low voice that still managed to carry. “I need to get in front of her.”
“Kian,” Rory called.
Kian left Shayla’s side, stalked toward Laurie Bell like the predator he was, and grabbed hold of her arm. From the way the muscles in his arms bunched, Ashley would bet money that his hold was painful. Nikolai joined Rory in front of her mother. As he stared into her eyes, her mother screamed her rage. Her eyes changed and jaw elongated. The scream morphed into a deep-throated growl.
“She’s trying to shift,” Alex warned.
Nikolai’s eyes flashed red as he firmly ordered, “You will not shift!”
Ashley watched in horrified fascination as the wolf seamlessly faded away.
The scent of her mother’s fear rose in the air. She stared at the vampire like he was the devil coming to steal her soul, eyes wide and glassy.
Nikolai’s hand clenched on her jaw, and he leaned in close until they were eye to eye. His were a red flame of power. “Bitterness. Hate. So much hatred.”
Laurie Bell shook her head and threw her body back, trying to escape his grasp.
“Betrayal,” Nikolai continued, moving with her. “Love and hatred, intertwined.”
“Noooooo!” she moaned.
“I see a man, one she loved heart and soul. He turned away, mated someone—”
She turned to Rory, hatred in her gaze. The mask was finally gone. “Stop! I’ll tell you all. Just make him stop,” Laurie Bell demanded.
Rory considered, then gave an abrupt nod. Nikolai released her and stepped back.
Laurie Bell angled her gaze up toward the alpha’s mate. “You want to know why? I’ll tell you why. Magnus was mine. Then she came along. She was nothing. Less than nothing, but he mated her. When I asked why, you know what he said? The bastard actually fell in love with her. An omega. A nobody.”
At her words, Wesley protested. Magnus’s mate had been his sister, after all. No one paid him any attention, too caught up in the drama.
She turned her venomous gaze on Rory, then Kian. “When she got pregnant with twins, Magnus was so happy. Even happier when it turned out to be boys. The pack began to accept her. I couldn’t tolerate it. She had my man, my children, and what did I have? Nothing but pitying looks and questions about my suitability to be a mate.” Laurie Bell’s rage was palpable. Her voice and body trembled with it.
“He got his precious sons, but I made sure he didn’t enjoy them, enjoy her.” She smiled then at Rory and Kian, and it was purely evil. “If Magnus had been this much slower”—she held her thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart—“getting into the room, you both would have been…” She snapped her mouth closed as though realizing she’d said too much.
“Would be what?” Rory asked in a dangerous voice.
Laurie Bell tightened her lips, refusing to answer.
“You will speak the truth, all of it,” Nikolai ordered. Ashley could feel the power in his words. They pressed on her mind and in her heart, and she had bite down on the urge to blurt out what she’d done. As insurance against confessing, she retreated farther into the safety of the pack, her hand covering her mouth.
“Dead. As it was, I damaged his precious firstborn so he couldn’t lead. Told him it was because his bitch was so weak that his sons were flawed. He died believing it.” She cackled, her laugh so manic Ashley felt the hairs on her nape rise. Her mother was well and truly crazy.
“No matter how much she tried, I never let her or anyone else forget she wasn’t good enough,” she continued. “I was happy as long as the three of you were miserable, but then you brought her here,” she said to Rory, nodding her head in the human’s direction. “Your pregnant mate. And you were happy—” She spat.