My brain feels fuzzy. There are so many things I need to tell you, normal mother-daughter stuff as well as shape-shifter stuff, and at the moment, I can’t think of anything else except how peaceful you look lying here next to me. When I tickle your hand with my finger, your tiny fingers grab me and hold on tight. I only wish I could hold as tightly to you throughout your life.
Please live your life with honor and integrity. Some might curse your father, and me, for what we did, but the blood oath has no place in today’s age. I know of no other person who would agree to such an outrageous plan in this modern day, although some would feel honor-bound to uphold it as a matter of principle.
Please don’t hate your father. He loves you every bit as much as I do. I know that, wherever he is, his heart aches for both of us.
Remember that sometimes the strongest family ties are the ones you choose to have, not the ones linking you by blood or name. Love fiercely, and laugh and play hard and frequently. Life is too short, even for those of us blessed with a long walk on this earth, not to play at least as much as you work.
Remember that I love you. I only hope you can forgive us the choices we made. We only wanted the best for you.
All my love and all my hugs,
Mommy
Elain lay in Brodey’s arms and stared at the picture.
“She was beautiful,” Brodey said.
Elain nodded. “Yes, she was.”
“Is this the only picture you have of them?”
Elain nodded again. “And the only good one of her. I have two others of her, but you can’t see her face clearly. Mom always said I had her eyes, but I was so young when she died, I have no memory of her.” She closed her eyes and cried again. Would that ever stop? She felt like she’d cried a river in the past couple of hours.
They heard a soft tap on the door. It opened, and Ain and Cail stepped in. Brodey waved them over to the bed. Cail closed the door behind them and they joined them on the bed. Brodey handed the letter to Ain. He held it so both he and Cail could read it.
When they finished, they looked at the picture.
“You look so much like her,” Ain said.
“Yeah,” Cail agreed. “Spitting image.”
“That’s what the guy at the steakhouse said,” Elain admitted before she realized what she’d done.
She mentally winced. Oh, fuck. Here we go.
As one, the men asked, “What guy?”
Feeling a little guilty, she told them about her experience at dinner at the steakhouse. Then she grabbed the picture back from Cail and sat up. “Oh, fuck!”
“Babe,” Ain warned. “Language.”
She held up the picture, waving it at him. “This is him! This is the guy!” Her heart raced. “I’d swear that it’s the same man!”
He frowned and took the picture from her again so he could study it more closely. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Yeah!”
Brodey frowned. “So, he’s been in town recently. I think we need to get with Mark and find this guy.”
Ain nodded. “First, let’s get back out there with Carla, get some alcohol in us, and hear her side of the story.”
Elain stared at the picture again but nodded. “I like that idea,” she softly said. “The alcohol, I mean. I think I really need it tonight.”
With everyone fortified by a stiff drink of their choice and comfortably settled in the living room, Ain spoke. “Carla, can you please tell us what happened? From the start?”
Elain remained silent. She didn’t even know where to begin digesting all this new information.
Her mom sipped her rum and Coke, which Cail said he’d mixed very heavy on the rum. “I suppose the best place to start is when Maureen and Liam showed up unexpectedly at my apartment in Tampa late one afternoon. I didn’t understand what they were saying at first. They weren’t making sense, but I could tell they were both very upset.”
She took another sip of her drink. “Upset’s not exactly the right word. Scared. Worried. He kept saying crazy stuff about how they had to protect the baby. That someone would be after them for their baby. Then he said he had to go talk to Charles and Ellie Lyall.”
All three Lyall men perked up at that statement. “Are you sure?” Ain asked. “He mentioned our parents by name?”
Carla blinked, wide-eyed. “Your parents?”
Ain nodded. “They were our parents. But you’re sure he said their names?”
“Yes. He’d set up a meeting with them for early that evening and left to go talk with them. We never saw him again after that. He was going to stay at a hotel that night, because he was afraid to come back to the apartment any more than necessary. The original plan was that either he or the Lyalls would call to tell us where to meet them the next day. That they were going to arrange a safe place for Maureen and the baby, and he’d join them shortly thereafter once he knew they were safe.
“He found out Charles and Ellie were killed in a car wreck the next day. He insisted someone must have murdered them. He was afraid to come back to my apartment. He called and said he didn’t want ‘them’ following him back to Maureen.” Her hands trembled. “At the time, I wasn’t exactly sure who ‘them’ was, but he was very afraid for Maureen. That was the last we heard from him, after he talked to Maureen. He said he had to disappear for their safety, for her and the baby.”
Stunned, Elain listened but didn’t speak. She couldn’t speak. She didn’t know what she’d say anyway.
She stared at the picture in her hand again.
Ain’s voice sounded sad. “We suspected that it wasn’t just a car wreck. We had no idea Liam had met with them. They’d called the day before they died and wanted to come talk to us. We knew what they did, but we never openly discussed it with them. We’d let them bring people here to the ranch, usually just for a couple of days. We’re out in the middle of nowhere. It’s hard to sneak up on us here.”
“What did they do?” Carla asked him.
“They helped people, mostly women and sometimes their children, escape. Sometimes shifter women, sometimes human women. Not just wolves, but other breeds.”
Elain found her voice, her reporter training taking over momentarily. “Escape who?”
“Other shifters, usually,” Brodey said. “Not all Clans or shifter breeds are like ours, babe. Some still do arranged marriages regardless of anyone’s feelings in the matter. Like the Abernathys. Some will even abduct mates. Our parents helped run an underground railroad of sorts. It happened far less frequently than it did in the past, but they still helped people.”