Page 315 of Secret Shifters Next Door

He let out a shaky breath. “Liam and I were distraught. We were only fourteen. Way too young to have to see your parents dead in pools of their own blood. Once we pulled ourselves together, we managed to get their bodies up into the woods and bury them. We didn’t want the police or EMTs to take them away from our home. We wanted them to rest together. I still remember the place we buried them.

“After that, Liam finally opened the backpack. We found a bunch of money. It must have been everything they had. It was seven or eight thousand dollars, and there was a note. It said that hunters were coming for them and that they wanted us to run. To make a life for ourselves, and try to stay hidden from them. They…uh…they wrote a bunch of stuff about how much they loved us.”

Blayne’s eyes were red. My own story of loss was bad, but I couldn’t fathom what he’d gone through. Seeing my mom sick in the hospital had been one of the most traumatizing things I’d ever experienced. This? It was so much worse. Finding his parents dead like that, and then having to drag their bodies into the woods and bury them? As children.

Liam had never gone into this type of detail. He’d told me his parents had been killed by hunters when he and Blayne were young, but I never would have imagined this. It made me hate Antonio even more. His people had probably been behind the attack.

“Anyway…” Blayne said after regaining control. “We did run. We were able to get into contact with the other family from our pack, but they’d already made it halfway across the state. They’d found another panther pack and were offered the chance to join them. They wanted us to join them, but we didn’t have the heart. I think part of it was that we didn’t want to go too far away from our parents. Even though they were dead, it felt like they were still around. We found a place in Lilly Valley that would rent to us without an ID—a little old lady who had a small studio apartment over her garage. We lived there and paid her rent for a few years, keeping our heads down. Then Liam met your family. You know the rest. Once he’d made enough money, we were able to buy a little house.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, and I truly meant it. “I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t mean to make you relive that.”

He wiped a tear from his cheek and shook his head. “It’s fine, Ava. Seriously. I asked about your past. This is part of it. If we’re going to do this, we need to know about each other.” He nodded toward the windshield. “Looks like we’re here.”

My own tears were still sliding down my face when I looked at the massive field of flowers. It stretched on almost as far as I could see until the glade bent around to hide behind a copse oftrees that attached to the surrounding forest. Blayne pulled the truck into a parking lot near the field.

“What is this place?” I asked.

He chuckled. “You’ve never been here?”

“No.”

“You’ve lived in Lilly Valley almost your whole life and you’ve never been here?” He sounded amused.

“Nope. Can’t say that I have.”

“Where do you think Lilly Valley got its name?”

I looked out the window and took a closer look at the white flowers that spread like a blanket across the green field. “Oh…” I whispered. “An actual lily valley?”

“Yeah. This is where the town got its name. Apparently someone brought a bunch of bulbs out when they came homesteading back in the eighteen-hundreds. They planted them before moving on toward California. I guess the soil in this valley was perfect, and by the time a group of settlers came this way to actually found the town, it was like this—lilies as far as the eye can see. Come on.”

I got out of the car, following Blayne around the front of the truck. It looked like it was a touristy area. Lots of cars were parked in the lot with us, and there were a couple of carts near the field.

Blayne led me toward a cart where they handed out baskets. He handed over a few single bills, and we went into the field to pick flowers.

This must have been a popular date spot. I could see a dozen couples winding their way through the flowers. Behind us, I could see the guys my dad had sent to follow us. Thankfully, they were staying in the car and not getting out to look out of place.

I wanted to ask more questions, but after the car ride, I was worried it might get too deep. There were a thousand things Iwanted to ask, but I did my best to keep quiet. My face must have betrayed my curiosity, though.

“Go ahead and ask,” Blayne said with a smile.

“Ask what?”

“Whatever you’re dying to ask me. Go ahead.” He knelt and plucked a massive white flower, then dropped it into the basket.

A sigh escaped my lips. “That obvious?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“All right, fine. When did things change for you? What caused you to…accept me?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Getting deep first thing?”

“Hey, you asked. I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Fair enough.” We strolled along, picking flowers for a few moments before he finally answered. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I had to look deep into my heart. I was so fucking angry for so long, it became hard to focus on anything but that anger. I needed an outlet for all my pent-up rage and bitterness, and I directed it toward you and your family. Once I realized my anger was misplaced, it was like it all sort of tumbled away, like dominoes.

“Liam was all I’d had, and I had to push that blame somewhere. I couldn’t believe that my brother would choose something that would take him away from me. After hearing your father say he tried to pay Liammoremoney to stop doing the dangerous jobs, I realized that Liamdidleave me. He chose the danger, chose to put his life on the line. I am making peace with all that.”

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