Now let’s not screw it up.
Not even his wolf was going to dampen the excitement this moment created for him.
Even as his heart beat loudly in his ears, he was overcome with a sense of completeness, with a sense of, for the first time in his life, coming home. The kiss ended too soon as her soft, dainty pink lips moved off his.
He opened his eyes. Leah’s were still closed and he was glad to see her breathing was as fast as his own. Raising his hands, he touched her cheekbones with his palms. She opened her eyes and grinned.
Her smile was infectious and he grinned right back. “What are you grinning about?”
“You just kissed me lightheaded.” She chewed on her bottom lip. It was all he could do not to start biting her himself. “You know, Az, since I have no idea about my personal history, those two kisses were my very first ones.”
“Leah, with as gorgeous as you are, I find it very unlikely that you haven’t been kissed many times by many people.”
“No way. Not when I was so obviously waiting for you.”
Gods, the things she said made his heart flip flop. If this was what it was like having a mate it was a wonder anyone ever got anything done. He rubbed his thumb over her left eyebrow, loving the soft feel of her light brown hair under his rough callused thumb. She sighed and his groin got even tighter.
Leah’s next noise sounded quite different. She shrieked and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Az managed to catch her barely, before her knees gave out and she hit the floor. What the hell?
“Leah?” He yelled loudly, as if he could will her back to him just by the sound of his voice alone.
What was going on? Seconds later, her eyes opened and her head shot up. Fury stormed through Az’s veins. They weren’t her blue-grey eyes that looked at him but dark, almost pitch black pupils.
“You know what has to be done, Azriel.” The voice was Leah’s but the intonation was wrong. He hadn’t known her long but he’d bet any money that Leah never used that singsong pitch he heard now. In fact, he was sure he’d recognize it anywhere.
“Mom?” His mother’s death had wounded him but not for the same reasons it had ruined the others. He and his mother had never been exactly what he would have called close.
“He knew you would know what to do, it’s why he tried so hard to kill you as a child. You and my Angel.” Her angel? Realization dawned fast on Az. Angel was his sister. He had no memory of her except that Cullen had recently remembered her existence and told everyone her name. Their oldest brother Michael searched for her.
“Let go of Leah. Whatever you’re doing, I don’t want to communicate with you like this. Give me back my mate. Now.”
Leah smiled and he wanted to wince. It wasn’t his mate’s jovial, side smile but his mother’s practiced grin. “She’s not being harmed. This is her gift, her magic. She can commune with the other side.”
“Somehow I doubt she intentionally allowed you into her body and mind while we were getting to know one another. Now get out.”
She reached out and touched the scar on the side of his face. “He did that to you during the horrible night where nearly everything was lost. I’m sorry.”
Az batted away her hand. “It’s too late for apologies and even if it weren’t, I don’t want sorrys delivered from beyond the grave. Maybe that makes me a bad person and a bad shifter. I don’t like magic. It’s what got us all into this situation to begin with. Now, give me back my mate.”
Leah’s eyes narrowed and he groaned. Obviously, his mother wasn’t any better at listening to him now than she had been then. “You haven’t yet figured out that of all your brothers you always held the most magic at your fingertips?”
“Only the women have magic.” He sighed. “Get out of her now.”
She gripped his chin, turning so he had to look her straight in the eyes. Her fingernails tug into his skin. “That is nonsense. You know it and I know it. We both know what you were capable of doing as a child. If you’re not doing it now then that is your choice. I didn’t protect you. That is my burden and my guilt. You have to take Leah on a memory spell. It’s the only way she’s going to remember and you need her to do that if you’re going to bring back your father.”
Abruptly, he pulled away. “What the hell makes you think I want him back? I want him dead.”
Her slap surprised him. The side of his face burned from the impact. “Use your head, Azriel.”
He bit down hard on the side of his cheek to keep from wincing and to keep his grip on Leah’s shoulders soft. No way did he want to hurt his mate just because his mother, who had driven him nuts while she was alive and had now found a way to do it dead, inhabited her body.
“If you have something to instruct us, why don’t you go and speak to Tristan. Find a way to bother Ashlee about this.”
Her eyes filled with tears and he cursed. Women’s tears, especially ones that seemed to be coming out of Leah’s eyes, were always his undoing. One tear slipped out and ran the length of her cheek before they stopped. “You have to do this, not Tristan.”
With that statement, Leah’s head fell backwards again. Seconds later, she was back shaking her head. “Oh my, that was odd.”
He picked her up in his arms, carrying her to the table before he sat her down on it.
His eyes roamed her body, looking for any signs of physical distress. She grabbed his head, turning his attention to her.
“I’m okay, let’s talk about what happened?”
He closed his eyes. “I don’t want to.”
“Open your eyes and look at me.” Since he was being a baby and he knew it, he complied. “I could feel what she felt and I could see what she remembered. How on earth did you survive your childhood?”
He shrugged, he would have preferred it if she had never known about any of this. “We all had our burdens. Michael, as the oldest, was made to feel weak. Dad didn’t want competition for Alpha. Gabriel was all but destroyed to make him tough with a killer instinct. Tristan, they ignored. That was probably on purpose. All of us knew he should be Alpha but he never knew it. Mom must have wanted to spare him Dad’s notice. Theo has his temper. Dad tried to encourage that but T’s a really good man and couldn’t be destroyed that way. Rex was all but forgotten.”
She smoothed the hair on his forehead. “And you he blamed for everything.” It wasn’t a question. He knew she’d seen it in his mother’s memories. Just how much she had seen still remained to be discovered. “You he tried to kill you when you were a child.” Okay, she’d seen enough.
Letting go of her he stalked to the other side of the room. “I don’t want your pity, Leah. I’m just fine.”
“Everyone has a past, Azriel. Even me and I can’t remember it. Evidently, there is something you can do about that.”
Az really wanted to throw something. “Men are not supposed to be able to do magic. There are rules to these things, order in the universe even to magic. What I can do is an abomination.”
“That’s nonsense. Your father told you that because he was scared of your power. I saw that. So what did you do? Bury it so far inside you that you can’t find it anymore and only your wolf’s pestering you reminds you that it even exists?”
Ouch. That was a direct hit. Inside of him, his wolf perked up.
Maybe mating isn’t just about lovey-dovey stuff. Maybe she sees us better than you would like.
No, he shook his head, this was Mom’s fault. She never had to know.
She did.