FINN
Spencer sat with her absent look fixed on the road. I thought she would need some time to think through what had happened, so we didn’t speak much. But when her expression became too grim, I took her hand and stroked it with my thumb.
“How are you feeling?” I asked. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for . . . finding out the truth that way. That was harsh.”
“He didn’t care.” She said quietly. “When he realized I was his daughter, I looked him in the eyes hoping for some . . .” She shook her head and looked down. “But there was nothing. The first thing that came out of his mouth was she’s a witch.”
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No. But he grabbed Mom. That’s why I showed myself. He threatened her. He knew if the other alphas found out that the heir of Great Alpha is his daughter, he would lose everything. Then he threatened me. He said he would kill me if he had to, to protect his son’s future.”
Rage bubbled inside me. It blurred my mind, and I couldn’t find words of comfort for her. “That son of bitch. I’ll kill him if he comes near you. He’s just like his vicious father.”
He was even worse. At least his father wasn’t related to my parents. But to be ready to kill your flesh and blood to save your ass was a whole different level of evil. Would Daryl Grey kill his own son if he found out that Marcus was just as much of a lawbreaker as my parents were?
“I just need to get what’s mine.” Spencer’s face darkened. “And then he’ll get what he deserves.”
She sounded pretty determined now. She was hurt and angry. None of this was good. But it would help her in this fight; it would make her stronger.
My phone buzzed. I attached it to the dashboard and put it on the speaker. It was Alister.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“We should stop somewhere to discuss our next step.”
“How about a diner?” said Spencer drily. “I’m hungry.”
“Diner it is.”
Fifteen minutes later, we walked into a retro-style diner. We chose a table with six seats. I sank onto the brown leather couch next to Clare and Spencer, and Alister sat across from us with Liam and James.
“We need a new plan,” Alister said as the waitress took our order and left. “Any thoughts?”
“If they’re taking the relics to Tennessee, we should follow them,” Liam said. “And, I don’t know, maybe we don’t need a new plan. We could recycle the old one.”
“True,” Alister nodded. “The plan was good; it was just bad timing. Otherwise, it would’ve worked.”
“I’m not sure of that.” Clare sighed. “The relics were in a safe, and we had no idea how to open it until Marcus came and gave us a chance to get a glimpse of the items. We don’t know where Aaron will keep them. It’s one thing if it was sealed with a spell, Spencer and I could manage that. But to figure out a code combination . . .”
“Right. That would be a problem.”
“We need some time to think of a way to solve it,” I said after a moment of silence. “So we need someplace to stay.”
“We could stay at a motel,” suggested Spencer. “As close to the pack as possible.”
“It’s too risky.” I leaned back and folded my arms over my chest. “Eric knows your scent, and he’ll keep looking. We can’t make it easier for him to find you.”
“What are you saying, Finn? You can’t expect me to hide all the time.” She sounded frustrated.
“How about we eat and then get some rest first?” Alister glanced at us from one to another. “Then we can get back to this conversation.”
I knew that Spencer’s anger had nothing to do with me, and I was ready to be her punching bag. What bothered me was that it wouldn’t be enough to make her feel better. I could sense the tension between her and Clare. That’s who Spencer was really angry with and who she needed to talk to.
We drove for another few hours and then stopped at a motel outside Macon. When everybody started toward the entrance, I took Spencer’s hand and pulled her back.
“Go easy on her, okay?” I said quietly.
She leaned against the car and looked away. “Why are you protecting her? She’s been lying to me my entire life,” she said coldly with her eyes fixed on the dark woods at the end of the long parking lot.
“Because she was doing it to keep you safe. She’s your mother, Spencer. She loves you. I think after everything she had to go through; she deserves some compassion.”
I gently took her chin and turned her head to face me. “Can I kiss you?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re asking for permission?”
“Yes,” I grinned. “You kinda look like you could explode at any moment, and I don’t wanna be the one to set off that bomb.”
“Don’t be silly.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “You’re the only one who can defuse it.” She brushed her lips against mine.
I clutched her in my arms and deeply inhaled her delicious scent. Her lips parted and I deepened the kiss, then pushed my body into hers. I missed her and I wanted her, and I knew she wanted me too. But the others would be waiting for us to discuss the situation, so we reluctantly pulled away from each other.
“I could get a separate room for us, but—”
“No. I can’t leave Mom alone,” she stole the words out of my mouth.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t get one for a couple of hours and tell the others we want to go for a run.” I raised a brow.
“Can’t wait,” she smiled.
I kissed her, then threw my arm around her back and led her toward the motel.
Our rooms were the last three on the second floor. Alister unlocked the door in the middle, and I followed him inside.
“She’s upset,” Alister said as I closed the door behind me. “It’s understandable.”
“Who? Clare?”
“Spencer. Clare is just . . .” Alister dropped his car keys on the desk under the TV. “She’s devastated. She didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“She told you?” I couldn’t hide the surprise in my tone.
“Yeah,” He sighed. “It hurt her too much not to. She needed to let it out. She’ll be okay. They both will after they talk.”
“I hope so. But that’s a big secret to keep from your daughter. If she’d told her in time—”
“Don’t you get it? She wasn’t going to tell her at all. She wasn’t ready for this. She was sure that Spencer wouldn’t survive her first shift, and she would be better off without knowing the truth about her monster of a father.”
There was a knock on the door before it opened, and Liam and James walked into the room.
“Are they coming?” asked Liam, nodding toward the wall separating us from Spencer and Clare.
“Not yet,” I replied.
“Finn, she was crying.” James sank onto the bed. “What happened out there?”
I glanced at Alister who shrugged slightly, leaving me to decide what to say.
This new fact, like any other information about Spencer, could be important in this fight and we all had to be on the same page. I knew that finding out that after everything that Marcus’s pack has done to our families because they broke the law when Marcus himself was the biggest lawbreaker of them all, would come as a shock to Liam and James. But even then, I decided to tell them the truth.
“Are you kidding me?” Liam burst out after I told them what happened. “They chased us our whole life. My father was from Russell’s pack, but it was Marcus’s father who hunted him down and handed him over to Russell for execution. And now you’re telling me that his son is—”
“Marcus had a relationship with a witch, yes. But he never knew about Spencer. And keep your voice down,” I barked at him.
“I can’t believe this,” muttered James. “That son of a bitch.”
“Liam,” Alister frowned at him. “You don’t know the whole story.”
But Liam was so pissed, he couldn’t shut up. “She knew. Clare knew, and she didn’t tell anyone. He was supposed to be executed just like our parents.”
“And then they would kill her too,” I snapped at him. “Are you hearing yourself? You’re blinded by anger, and you can’t think straight. Pull your shit together.”
* * *
SPENCER
“Spencer,” Mom turned to me as I walked into the room.
“Not now,” I stopped her before she could say anything. “I need to take a shower.” I dropped my bag on the bed, pulled out fresh clothes, and headed to the bathroom.
I stood with my eyes closed under the warm water raining down on me. Finn was right. This wasn’t just about me. I wondered how Mom felt about seeing Marcus after eighteen years of hiding from him. She told me they loved each other. Was that true? Whatever they had, I was sure it wasn’t some one-night hook-up. I saw this spark in Marcus’s eyes the moment he recognized her. He was pleasantly surprised.
It was strange to see them together. He was a few years older than Mom, but he looked ten years younger than her. If he stayed with us, the difference in their aging would look suspicious. Now when I thought about it, I realized how strange it would be to call him Dad when he looked only a couple of years older than Finn.
It suddenly hit me that the boy, Jackson, the one I saw on the porch of his house, was my brother.
I have a brother. Yeah, okay, half-brother. But still. He’s sort of family, isn’t he? But the next thought extinguished that sudden spark of inner joy. Who is the heir of his alpha daddy and who’ll grow up and become as vicious as his father.
Unless I put a stop to it.I’m the rightful heir after all. And not just Marcus’s.
When I came out of the bathroom, I found Mom sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard. She was looking through one of the grimoires she brought with her that belonged to Finn's ancestors.
She glanced up at me as I crossed the room.
“I know why you lied to me. I understand.” Drying my hair with a towel, I turned my back to her and faced the window. “I just don’t think you should’ve. It would've been better if I was prepared for this.”
“I’m sorry you had to find out about him this way. I’m sorry you found out about him at all. It wasn’t my intention. But the way things were going, sooner or later, it would’ve happened anyway. I just wish I had more time and a little courage to tell you the truth after you survived the shift.”
Right. Because if I died, it wouldn’t matter. But I survived, and the lie came out, and now the perfect image of my dead father I had created for myself was shredded to pieces.
I turned around and threw the towel over the back of the chair.
“Why did he call you Miranda?”
“Because that was my name.”
And here's another lie. My mother's name, which I thought was Clare my entire life, was Miranda. I looked up at the ceiling and heaved a breath.
Mom put away the grimoire, dropped her feet down from the bed, and stood up. “I changed it after I left, so he couldn’t find me if he tried.”
“You left him? I thought it was the other way around.”
“No.” She sighed, but when she spoke, her voice was firm. “He knew I was a witch, but he kept coming back to me. When I got pregnant, I ran away.”
“You didn’t love him?”
“Oh, I did, despite his nature. I knew he was a tough man. But not with me. Maybe he made the best of the time we had because he knew we couldn’t be together forever.”
It must’ve been hard to burn all the bridges behind her as she ran. And she did it all for me.
Mom leaned against the desk and clutched its side.
“I was afraid of what would happen if we got caught. I knew what his father and his pack were capable of. But having a secret affair with a witch is one thing, having a baby together was a whole different matter. That was a death sentence. That was literally an ax hanging over our heads. And I knew if Marcus found out I had his baby, he would kill you himself. He was a werewolf, and he was his father’s heir, and I think he would’ve killed me too, to make sure I wouldn’t tell on him to ruin his life.”
“You wouldn’t do that. If you did, they would punish you for being with him.”
“Of course, I would. If he touched you, I would destroy him no matter the cost.”
We heard loud voices coming from Finn’s room. It sounded like they were arguing.
“Yeah,” Mom sighed. “I knew the boys would be angry with me if they found out the truth. Finn should be hating me right now. Marcus’s father killed his parents, and I was having an affair with his son.”
“He doesn’t. He understands. You were lawbreakers just like his parents. His mother was also from one of those packs who killed our kind, and his warlock father still fell in love with her. We can’t choose who we fall in love with.”