After several more minutes of silence, and Sherry looking back and forth from Raze to Janine, she’d had enough. But when she finally started to say something, she and Janine spoke at the same time.
“For crying out loud! Tell me what is going on—”
“I’m a lycan.”
“What?” She stood.
“We both are.” Janine nodded at the same time Raze did. “Well, actually, he always has been, and he recently turned me, with my permission.”
Sherry plopped back in her chair and stared at her sister with her mouth gaping wide open. Had she gone completely insane? Had they both? Wait, they must be playing a joke on her.
“Okay, okay. You got me. Ha ha.” She started laughing, and put her hands up in surrender.
It didn’t take her long to realize she was the only one laughing. She immediately stopped and sat in quiet contemplation for several minutes.
“Do you really expect me to believe this?” She raised a brow in question and looked at them both with what she hoped to be her best I-wasn’t-born-yesterday look.
“It’s the truth. Believe me, I can prove it, but it might be a bit much for you at the moment.” Janine reached for Raze and he wrapped his long fingers around her small hand.
“Seriously? I mean, you are seriously telling me that on the night of the full moon you two turn into big scary monsters and run around killing…”
Her eyes snapped up to her sister’s. “Oh my God. Tell me you don’t kill people.”
“No! And we don’t turn into to monsters, and we don’t have to wait for the full moon. We can change at will, after the first time anyways, and we shift into wolves. We don’t kill people. We know exactly what we are doing at all times. We can control ourselves just like when we are in our human forms.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Sherry cried, her brain on overload.
“I have to. You are a destined mate, and you need to know what could happen. You may be in danger.” Janine watched her nervously.
“A destined mate? What the hell does that mean?” Her voice rose with each word.
“Take it easy, Sherry,” Raze said in a low, soothing tone.
“Take it easy? Are you serious? You are sitting here telling me that you are werewolves and that I’m what? Destined to be one?” She shook her head.
“I don’t think so. I hate nature.”
“Just let me explain everything, and then you can sleep on it and we can talk about it more tomorrow.” Raze smiled.
“Fine. Tell me.” Sherry leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her middle.
What the hell was happening? Were they serious? If this didn’t turn out to be a big freaking joke, or she didn’t wake up from this dream soon, she might seriously have a nervous breakdown. She leveled her gaze on Raze, tapped her foot, and waited.
Janine nodded at Raze when he raised a brow to her. He cleared his throat and began talking. “I’ll start at the beginning when I met your sister.”
“I’ve heard this story. You two met and fell madly in love when she went on vacation last year.” Sherry rolled her eyes in frustration.
“No. We left out some details.” Raze shook his head.
“Like?” She was going to have to have her sister and Raze both committed after this, maybe herself for sitting here and listening to this ridiculous story.
“Janine was kidnapped by the leader of a rogue pack I belonged to.
Understand that I was a member of this pack long before it turned rogue.
After that, I was stuck in it. Every time I tried to escape, I was captured and punished. I decided to try once again, and of course, was caught. It is very hard to get away from a pack of lycans. They are attuned to every sound and smell and they could make any expert tracker look like an inept fool.”
Raze lifted his hand when she started to ask a question, and she snapped her mouth shut and glared at him.
“My punishment for my latest failed attempt at escape was your sister.
Damon, the leader I mentioned, kidnapped your sister from a rest stop, brought her to the den, and insisted that I was to…” Raze’s face turned red, and he took a deep breath.
Sherry was pretty certain the sudden ruddiness of his skin had nothing to do with embarrassment and everything to do with anger. In fact, it was almost as if it radiated off him. His muscles tensed, and he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Janine squeezed his hand before he finally continued.
“I was instructed to use her as punishment because Damon knew I was so vehemently against such depraved acts that he and the other pack members enjoyed practicing.”
“Oh my God!” She sucked in a startled gasp and looked at Janine.
“It’s okay, Sherry. Raze never hurt me or forced me to do anything I didn’t want to.” Janine’s face turned red, but the source of her mottled skin was obviously from embarrassment.
“I devised a plan to get us both out of there, and we made it here. A few days later, Damon and some of the pack came looking for us. He was determined to kill me even if it meant killing everyone else and using Janine to accomplish it. Things got a bit complicated for a short time, but Damon and the rest were dealt with. It’s not something that was easy, but they threatened your sister’s life, and I couldn’t allow anyone to hurt her, nor would anyone else allow that here at Sanctuary.
“Sanctuary is a place for rogues to come and learn that we must protect our destined mates, that preservation of the ancient laws is essential to our race’s survival. If our mates are killed, we will have no way to reproduce. I didn’t want to tell you all of this because I didn’t want to upset you, but Janine insisted. And now that we have told you, I believe she was right. You have to be aware of the kind of danger you are in and take precautions.”
She didn’t ask exactly what he meant by Damon and the others being dealt with, but she was no dummy. Anyway, if some scumbag threatened her sister, he’d deserved what he’d gotten. They all had. Fear knotted in her stomach. If all of this was true, her life had just been turned upside down.
“I don’t want to be a werewolf or have one as a mate.” Her bottom lip quivered. “I’m not a woodsy type of girl.” She fought back the tears threatening to spill. “Are you telling me that these things are going to be hunting me or something?”
“We aren’t things. We are just like you or anyone else,” Janine said softly.
“You are definitely not just like anyone else. Not if you turn into wolves.
But I’m not judging. I need some time to think about all of this. I’m just a little bit freaked out right now.”
Sherry abruptly stood, knocking the chair over. Her brain was numb. She was glad her brain decided to take that route as a few seconds earlier, she’d been torn between shrieking or bursting into a hysterical fit of tears that would have lasted for a few hours or until someone had slapped some sense into her. Her hands shook as she went to retrieve her pajamas from her bag so she could take a long, hot shower before going to bed.
“You know that no one here will ever hurt you, Sherry. Right? Raze, myself, and everyone that you will meet tomorrow would die to keep you safe. I love you, and I’m sorry, but it’s not like either of us had a choice in this. It just is.”
“Yeah. Fate crap and all, right?” Fate must really hate her. She massaged her temples and could feel a wicked headache starting. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I want to take a shower and go to bed.”
She was almost too scared to go to bed because her mind would start playing with all the things Raze and Janine had told her, and she’d probably end up having a panic attack. Maybe tonight would be a good night to take one of those wonderful tiny yellow pills her doctor had prescribed to her for her anxiety. She only took them when she absolutely had to. She sighed. She wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all herself. She hated taking pills, and she was well aware that she had suffered much more than she would have had she not been so damn stubborn about taking them in the past.