Page 42 of Forever Mine

“Janie, sweetie,” Jacob started. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“Apparently a friend of yours at the party said some things that totally freaked Liam out. He needed to get away from there and asked that we go with him. He’s still a mess. We’ll be okay. Oscar and I will be back home before you know it.”

“I had asked Jeremiah to warn the boy, not scare the living daylights out of him.”

“Wait, so it’s true?” I asked, still unable to accept what he was telling me. “You know? You’ve known all along?”

“About his kind? Yes. I know all about Liam Westin. He’s a bit of a celebrity among my friends. The question begs, how do you know about him?”

“I told you, we grew up together.” I kept it simple. Could they really not know who I was?

“Jane, no. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

I started to cry. I couldn’t confess something like that to a human. It was a sacred vow among shifters. I couldn’t reveal who I was, who I may have been, or who my family was to this man. I could no longer trust him. He had been like a father to me for so long. My heart was breaking.

“It can’t be,” I heard him say just before Annie grabbed the phone.

“Jane, please, come home. Jacob looks like he’s seen a ghost. What’s going on?”

“I don’t think it’s safe for me to come home again, Annie. I’m so sorry.”

“Wait,” she yelled, just as I was going to hang up the phone. “You’re our daughter. We love you. I don’t care what or who you once were. I know you, baby girl. Please don’t shut us out.”

“Did you know? Did you know all this time?” I cried into the phone. I never really cried in front of them, always alone into my pillow. I knew it would kill Annie to hear it now, but I couldn’t care about that.

“I swear we didn’t. I think maybe we suspected when Liam came around. I mean, of course we knew what he was. He’s a Westin. There had been a pack of out-of-control tigers stalking young girls in the area around the time you were”—she hesitated—“injured. So we thought, maybe Oscar was . . .” Her voice trailed off.

I couldn’t breathe. I could feel a panic attack coming on. It couldn’t be true. The boys who had raped me may have been shifters, too? Where did that leave Oscar? What was he? I had never suspected anything like that. I couldn’t fully comprehend it now.

“Janie? Janie?” Annie frantically yelled through the phone. “We didn’t know, I swear to you, we didn’t know. And we would never hurt you. You know that. It’s part of our most sacred vow as guardians, to protect people like you. Janie, please!”

I pulled myself together and steeled my voice. I had to be strong now, for Oscar. Liam was right, we could never go back. “My name isn’t Janie. It’s Madelyn. Madelyn Collier.”

I heard the sharp gasp confirming that they recognized the name as easily as Westin, and I hung up the phone.

I grabbed the first booster seat I saw and headed to the register. At the counter I loaded up on chocolate and grabbed two root beers. I knew it was Liam’s favorite. I didn’t think Oscar would wake before we got home.

Home.

I was going back to the pack, not my pack, but the next best thing. I’d be with my kind again, and they’d know I lived. I didn’t have a choice now. While the thought terrified me, it also brought me more peace than I realized.

Liam jumped from the car and grabbed the car seat from my hands. He tossed it on the ground and pulled me into a hug. We just stood there holding each other while I cried some more.

“You called them, didn’t you?” He didn’t sound upset or surprised that I had done that and I just nodded against his chest. “Ah sweetie, I wish it weren’t true.”

“They-they said they didn’t know about me. They never even suspected. They-they were tracking a pack of out of control tigers. They-they thought maybe Oscar had been fathered by one. Is that possible? What will happen to him? What is he?”

“Shh,” he comforted me. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever he is, whoever he turns out to be, it’s going to be okay. He’s a great kid, with a fantastic mom. Wolf. Tiger. It doesn’t matter.”

I looked up at him in confusion. “What do you mean? What happens when shifters of different species mate? Is it even possible?”

He growled at me and I shrunk back. My head dropped and I immediately submitted to him. He took a deep breath before speaking. “First, that wasn’t mating, Maddie. I will be your only mate. What they did to you was the furthest thing from that.”

I nodded. I knew what he meant was true. I hadn’t meant to upset him.

He softened and brushed a hand through my hair as he pulled me back against him. “It’s not impossible for different species to mate. I’m sorry I growled, it’s just hard for me to think of any other man touching you. I just want to track them and rip out their throats every time I think about it.”

I smiled against him. I liked that he went all protective like that. It made me feel safe, and cherished even.

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