Page 69 of His Fate

"I have a theory."

I stop mid-pace and look at my brother, wait on bated breath to hear what he has to say.

Andrej continues staring outside as rain begins to pour. "Twenty-seven deaths twenty years ago."

I blink.

He rolls his eyes without looking at me. "Twenty-seven deaths twenty years ago. One failed attempt to make it twenty-eight." Then he turns. "But the twenty-eighth was rendered mute and paralyzed with no one to believe him and investigate."

Oh my gods. He could be right.

"And what? You think Hank glamoured Posey then to block out the pain the loss of her mother created, wiped the memories in order to protect her?"

He nods.

My gears start spinning wildly. "So you must also believe that Posey's mother was shifter royalty."

Another nod.

"And that the culprit thought Hank was dead, that Josephine would pose no threat since there was no clan or he had no knowledge of her, just as he must not have had any knowledge of Grace or any of the other children of rulers in order to leave them alive."

Andrej grunts his agreement.

"And this Anna was a part of Posey's fabricated memories to replace the ones of her real mother." I pause as my brow furrows. "But why create memories of a woman who abandoned them?"

"Because she was real."

I spin around to see Hank slowly walking into the room, Janet following with a tray of food, the chair that Andrej quickly takes and a sad smile.

"Anna was Claire's best friend and the nurse that tended to me after I was stabbed. She confessed she had always had feelings for me and vowed she'd help me recover but as soon as we were told I would never walk again, she bailed." Hank plops unceremoniously into the chair with a sigh. "I tried to just block her from Posey's memory but my daughter's mind is too strong and rejected the idea that she didn't exist. Then things became jumbled with the way I blocked Claire's death from her mind. Posey fabricated most of her memories with little aid from me but I molded them to fit the timeline she created."

I sigh and push a hand back through my hair, unease swirling in my gut. "When Josephine starts to regain her memories they are going to flood her mind in a potentially dangerous way."

"I know," Hank grumbles, regret and remorse clear in his tone. "It was stupid to keep it up for so long, stupid and careless on my part but I just wanted to protect her. If she knew that her mother was next in line to her father's throne, knew that her mother was murdered for it, that an attempt on my life was made because of it… well, you saw how mad she got today. My baby girl would have raided my gun closet and gone after that son of a bitch herself."

Despite my fear, I smile because he is absolutely right.

"Shouldn't have lied," Andrej grunts. "Not today."

"I have to agree," I say as I start pacing again. "We should have taken the opportunity to warn her, tell her about Jesse and the resurfacing of this threat, made her aware of the danger she is in not only as my mate, my queen, but as the potential heir to another throne completely." Anger wins out briefly and I growl. "You painted a target on Josephine the minute you fed her more bullshit about her past."

Hank scrubs a hand over his face and nods. "I know."

"So what was she?" Andrej asks, a threatening bite to his tone.

"Claire was a dragon, princess of theDragan na Gcnocclan from Ireland. She and her parents fled to America after her clan was wiped out by dragon hunters in the 1700's."

"Could she shift?"

"Yeah. And she did it well." Hank smiles then answers our next question. "Posey first shifted when she was eleven."

"Christ," Andrej spits as he glares at the window. "So young."

I nod, jaw hanging open. "How? I don't understand, none of that makes sense. If she can shift, is a dragon, how was she able to do it so young? And not stay that age? How has she gone so long without shifting?"

Hank shakes his head. "I don't have any idea why she hasn't shifted over the last twenty years but she hasn't, not once."

"And why… why does she go into heat every three years and not the way other female dragons do?"

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