Page 90 of It's You
“Jesus, Lela!” Julien hurried around Jack, holding out the shirt he’d been wearing earlier, and putting it over her shoulders. He clutched the sides together until she reached up and took them from him.
“You’re a prude, Julien.”
“Only because you’re acting like a slut.”
Jack’s head had whipped up as they argued, and now he was surprised to see Julien’s eyes burning as he looked away from an unaware Lela, who called him a “fucker” as she quickly let herself into the cabin.
Julien stared at the door, cursing softly under his breath. Jack touched Julien’s arm and spoke gently.
“She’s our sister.”
“Halfsister. Which doesn’t mean anything to the pack.”
“Doesn’t it mean anything to you?”
“Why should it?” Julien’s eyes narrowed, but changed from burning gold back to brown, and Jack could see the confusion there.
“I can’t help it,” he admitted in a whisper. “She doesn’tfeellike a sister to me.”
Jack took a step back, staring at his younger brother, unsure of what to say. Regardless of pack rules, they’d grown up with Lela. She wasn’t a contender for binding. She was their sister, their family.
“She’s so good with Delphine. And she’s around all the time. I hear her sleeping in the other room. I hear her breathing. I hear it when she turns over in her sleep. I smell her scent. Everywhere I turn, there she is. I?—”
Jack put his hands on Julien’s shoulders. “I know it’s not forbidden, but it’s wrong. It’s?—”
“Iknow!” When Julien looked up, his eyes were angry. “I haven’t made a move on her, have I? I haven’t kissed her. Christ, you come back every couple of years and think you have all the answers for us peons.”
“I don’t have all the answers, Julien.” He thought about Darcy, about the otherworldly pull he felt to her, even before he kissed her. So much of what Julien said about Lela felt familiar to Jack. Still, it wasn’t right. Maybe it was Julien’s grief over losing his wife, and Lela had offered him comfort, confusinghim. “I was sorry about Natalia. I know how much you loved her. Maybe you’re just confused about?—”
“Fuck you, Jacques,” said Julien and pushed past his brother into the cabin. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jack stood outside by himself for a moment, shaking his head. Things were messier at home than he’d anticipated, but Julien was wrong. Jack had no answers. Not for his own life, and not for those of his family. He was the last person in any position to give advice. He ran both hands through his hair and followed Julien into the cabin.
Their mother was sitting in a rocking chair by the fireplace, a sleeping Delphine on her lap. She didn’t look up as they entered.
“Pas de chance. Je peux à peine le sentir maintenant.”No luck. I can barely feel him now.She finally looked up at Jack and gave him a wan smile from her bony, sunken face, then tilted her head to the side and continued in French. “You look good, son. Strong.”
Lela stood in the kitchen, holding a mug with one hand and the ends of Julien’s shirt over her breasts with the other, eyes down. How Lela and Tallis had managed to share the small cabin for all of these years was lost on Jack. He couldn’t imagine the strain on both of them.
“Lela, I said wash up. Delphine needs to be put to bed.Maintenant. Don’t make me wait.”
Lela nodded once, then quickly crossed the room, headed to the bathroom between the bedrooms on the left side of the house.
“She should have left the search to you two. To my boys.” She looked up at Julien, and her shrewd look wasn’t lost on Jack. “Were you distracted by her?”
“No,Maman,” Julien answered, but he evaded her gaze.
Tallis took a deep breath, then sighed, staring at the fire. “Bane of my existence, that girl. If she’d bind herself, I couldfinally get her out of this house, but she finds fault in every available male. That they want her at all is a mystery to me. She’s nothing but a filthy Reynard bastard, even if she goes by Beauloup.”
“It’s not her fault?—”
Tallis raised her eyes to Julien, and they burned yellow to match his.
“We won’t discuss it. You go wash up. Use my bathroom.”
Tallis watched him cross the room and waited until he had closed her bedroom door behind him, then she gestured to the seat across from her, encouraging Jack to sit.
“Did you see her? Your human?”
