Breanna (17 page)

“We finally had enough power to help ourselves and went to find her, but the shop was destroyed,” Jeffrey Cooper shook his head, his voice hard and cold. “No one knew what had happened to her. We asked all around town and finally the police said she was alive. That she’d been seen with each of you.”

“Why wouldn’t they tell you? Why wouldn’t they want to know how you’re still alive?” Nick asked bluntly.

“We didn’t tell them. We…..altered our appearance. Told them we were from out of town,” Hannah exhaled shakily, her eyes closed. “Thank you. For keeping her safe.” Brea gave a shuddering breath and pushed back, climbing shakily to her feet and throwing her arms around her father’s neck. The man’s arms closed around her tightly, 212

lifting her off her feet, his face buried in her throat, incoherent whispers crossing between father and daughter.

Nick stepped forward and offered his palm to Hannah, helping her to her feet.

“Can I get you something to drink? Brea’s made coffee and tea,” Nick shifted his feet, uncomfortable and uncertain about how Brea would want this to be explained to her parents. “Nick Gaines, Mrs. Cooper. This is Jase Bishop and his mother, Annie Bishop.”

Her breath sent a shudder through her as she pushed back, wobbling a little on her feet as she lifted her fathers’ hands in hers. She looked at them and then up at him.

“You had claws….” Brea released his hands and took a step back, her palms up.

“Do I? How do I make them work?” A slight hint of childish excitement in her words.

“Brea…maybe you should slow down just a little,” Jase ran his palm over his neck.

“And you owe Jase an apology,” she informed her father firmly. “They’re going to think I have crazy people for relatives.”

Jase closed his eyes.

Nick worked to not laugh.

“Tactful she isn’t but she is right,” Jeffrey extended his palm to Jase. “Rey Cooper. And I can only say I acted without benefit of a decent plan. We knew you were….we knew what you were and weren’t sure if she was safe.”

“I can’t think I’d be much different if I didn’t know, Mr. Cooper,” Jase accepted the palm, his eyes on Brea. “Somehow being rational and knowing she might be in 213

danger robs you of the ability to think all that clearly.”

“You have to know they would never hurt me,” Brea said sternly, her eyes going wide. “Oh, god, my chicken!”

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Jase barely stepped out of the way before she skirted around him and flew to the kitchen. Annie gestured toward the kitchen.

“I’ll go see if she needs some help.”

Awkward. That was one of the words that struck his mind. Nick waved to the sofa.

“We can’t stay. We have to leave,” Hannah moved toward the kitchen.

“Brea isn’t leaving,” Jase said clearly, waiting while Hannah came to a stop, facing him. “You’re free to go, although I’m willing to bet she’s already laying out place settings for you to join us for dinner.”

“Our daughter is leaving with us,” Hannah said firmly.

“Your daughter is thirty years old and wants a different path than you’ve decided she should be on,” Nick saw Brea come to stand in the archway, her head tilted as she watched them.

Rey Cooper went still. His nostrils flaring and eyes darkening. Now that the concern had cleared, now that he was thinking clearing, he could smell them on her. His little girl.

“You bastard. One of you…..you marked her? You dared to….” He stepped forward only to come up against a very solid, invisible wall. Dark eyes flashed, sweeping to his wife who looked equally stunned and then his daughter. “Brea?” 215

Jase and Nick looked at the single palm Brea had raised, her eyes wide and head shaking. “I can’t let you hurt them. Why would you do that? You know they kept me safe.”

Hannah reached out tentatively, her eyes matching her daughters but with more than a hint of pride. She should have been able to break the shield. She should have been able to push through it and step forward. But Brea wasn’t just a product of her genetics.

“You….you’ve taken a mate? A shifter?” Rey glared at the man.

“Actually….”

“Brea,” Jase reached for her hand, finding it gone when she stepped over to Nick and put a palm on each of their arms. He closed his eyes, the growl escaping before he could stop it.

Brea stood tall, meeting the sudden fury in her father’s eyes. Her palm flew up the instant she saw his intent. Whatever he released at the shield bounced off as if it hadn’t happened, striking back at him and sending him crashing to the floor against the door.

“I’m sorry,” Brea whispered, her head shaking. “You can’t hurt them. I won’t let you. I love them…..and if you love me, than you have to understand.”

“Brea….” Jase turned her, his lips close to her ear. “Maybe it would be best if we just let them believe it’s just you and I for now.”

“No. I won’t lie. Not to them and not to me, but mostly, I won’t have either one of you hurt,” she said loudly, her fingers sliding down and gripping Nick’s tightly. She 216

met the stunned looks from her mother and father without backing down. “You taught me to fight for what I believed in….to fight for myself.”

“They took advantage of you!”

“Is that how you see me, dad?” Brea asked softly. “I’m thirty years old. If anyone was going to take advantage of me, I hoped it would have happened before now.”

“Brea, you can’t stay here. You don’t understand….” Hannah tried once more to reach through the shield, her brows up and nod approving. “Strong. Very strong.”

“I don’t understand that you’ve chosen to dislike them because they’re shifters and because I’ve chosen them,” she met her father’s stare. “Are you going to make me choose? Just like your father did to you?” Rey Cooper felt the words as if they’d been a semi-truck running over him.

Brea abruptly pulled her palm back, her hand slipping down to twine with Jase’s.

“It might not be conventional but it’s not an aberration to nature, either. I’m not a victim and I’m not leaving with you. This is where I want to be and if I have to fight to keep it so, I will,” Brea dragged in a long breath, her smile shaky.

“How did you know to throw up a shield, Brea?” Hannah rubbed her palms down the sides of her jeans.

“Wade has been in my head since my dream,” she said with a sigh. Thank god not all the time, she thought with a faint hint of a blush. “He’s been giving me data…it’s like he’s downloading an instruction manual into my head. He said my instincts would take over.”

“They won’t be taking her in her dreams, will they?” Nick asked sharply.

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“I spoke with Tempest this morning,” Hannah said coldly. “I told her it was never to happen again without Brea’s permission. They’ve been searching for her, too, but for years. They had information that…that Sullivan was getting close to us. We don’t know how, but I suspect it’s because Brea was getting stronger and our snare wasn’t working as it should anymore. She was fighting it….and with the little bits of magic seeping out, he was able to pinpoint where she was.”

“When we were hurt, the snares began failing. We didn’t have the power to find her and make them stronger,” Rey paced the expanse of the room, his hands up and rubbing his neck. “I am not my father, Breanna.”

“I hoped you weren’t, dad,” Brea stepped toward him and held her palms out. “I don’t want to lose you. Who else would try and convince me to keep practicing those martial arts moves,” she grinned up at him, breathing a sigh of relief when his hands pulled her against his chest. “I love you….and you’ll never stop being my dad….and I’ve come to accept that learning from the past is important.”

“It’s hard to turn loose of your little girl,” Annie Bishop came up to the side, hugged Brea and smiled. “I’m emotioned out and I’m expected for a night out with my guy. Jase will give you my number, Brea. Don’t let them bully you. None of them.”

“Thank you, Annie. For everything,” Brea hugged her, watching Jase move to her side and walk her out to her car.

“Be back in a minute,” Jase promised.

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“Where have you been?”

“We slept for over five weeks, Brea,” Hannah let her daughter lead her to the sofa, exhaustion evident on her features, despite the sleep. “We woke only long enough to use the little magic we had to shield us. Wade was watching out for you, he knew.

He’s the only one we’ve trusted.”

“We were in the woods, Brea,” Rey Cooper sat on the edge of one of the chairs, his hands hanging between his knees. “He told us you were alright. We’d only come awake the day before your building was destroyed. Then we lost you again,” he shook his head.

“I was frantic,” Hannah breathed raggedly. “I was sure he’d found you, taken you…”

“I don’t think I want to know anymore tonight,” Brea shook her head. “Will you stay for dinner? Where are you staying? People think you’re dead….”

“We intended to find you and move,” Rey Cooper said simply. “Quickly.”

“Move…leave? Just…..but we can go and tell them you’re alive! That you’ve been in a hospital healing….under an assumed name,” Brea declared firmly. “You can stay here.”

The word awkward shot through the room and struck everyone in it, except Breanna Cooper. She looked from the suddenly choking fit Jase and Nick were having to 219

the lowered gaze of her mother.

“Brea, this might not be a good idea.” Her father just closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Brea…..” Jase pulled in a long breath of air.

“There is more than enough room in this house. And the apartment over the garage is empty. You told me that,” she said, her idea gathering steam in her mind.

“Brea…..” Nick decided to give it a try.

“Will you people stop saying my name like I’ve forgotten what it is?” She stood up and glared at them all. “You….” She narrowed a gaze at Nick and Jase. “Said I hold all the power. Well my parents are homeless and need a place to stay. They can use one of your rooms, you’re not in them anyway except to get clothes.” Jase tried to find something to look at.

Nick rubbed his neck and cleared his throat a few times.

“Subtle isn’t a word in her vocabulary,” Hannah said, keeping her humor inside as she watched her daughter. “I could use a restroom? We both could…”

“Down the hall on the left and there’s another off the kitchen,” Brea pointed in opposite directions, blinking at the sudden wave she felt go over her. They were angry at her. She looked at Jase and Nick. “What’s wrong? You’re angry with me….both of you.”

“Why did you do that?” Jase demanded.

“Do what? Offer them a place to stay?”

“Why did you just blurt out….” He growled and paced off toward the door. He 220

wasn’t sure what he was furious about. No, he knew. He knew how she’d be treated because of the stance she took. In front of her parents.

“It’s called a triad,” Brea said quietly. “I have friends in Arizona who live in one. I never thought about it for me only because I never thought I’d care for one man, let alone two. And how should I have handled it? I pretend it’s just you and I while Nick hides in the closet? How is that healthy? How is it fair or right? It’s a lie and I won’t consciously live a lie. If that’s what you wanted, then you don’t know me very well and maybe you should have considered that before you staked a claim,” she left them standing in the living room and went into the kitchen, laying out the dinner she’d prepared.

She was furious. With them. With society. With all the people who want you to pretend in the world so their little corner is nice and comfortable and fits into a neat little box.

“Do you even know what you’ll hear when people know?” Jase came into the kitchen, ignoring the warning from Nick to give her time.

“Do you consciously believe I’m stupid, or is it accidental? You don’t think women have been putting up with the blame for most of the crap in the world forever?” She slid the heavy casserole of asparagus from the oven and onto the mat on the table.

“Brea, we don’t believe you’re stupid at all. Christ, you’re beyond smart,” Nick moved to her side, his hand on her chin and forcing her to face him, that sweet little bow making him sigh before kissing her softly. “Maybe we just thought we’d have a little more time to prepare ourselves for the reactions of others. Important others in 221

your life. It isn’t us we’re concerned about.”

“Everyone is worried about me! How about asking me what I want instead of just making a decision! I can take care of me!” She shouted into the house. “I am not fragile! I am not breakable!”

“Most of the coast knows it now,” Nick teased.

“Your mother wasn’t shocked,” she pouted, letting Nick pull her to stand in front of him, his arms circling her from behind.

“My mother is……Nick and I have palled around since we were five. No matter what, including the military. We put up with comments about our sexuality and learned to shrug it off. Sometimes his taste was off in his choice of women,” Jase liked the little smile she offered. “But he got smarter.”

“An elder told us a couple years ago that our wolves were so close together, so bonded, that they would recognize our mate, together. His mom knew this because it was her grandfather who told us that,” Nick put his cheek against her head. “I don’t know that we believed him. Accepting it ourselves was one thing, convincing a woman of that….”

“And you never thought about how the relationship appeared to the town?”

“To be honest, I figured we’d grow into old bachelors together,” Jase growled, the deep grey of his eyes tinting green when she giggled. Giggled!

“You’re not going to win this one,” Brea said with a shrug. “So you can be as angry with me as you want. I don’t care what snippy little stuck up people think about me or us, as long as it doesn’t hurt your business. Most of them will just make wild 222

guesses, anyway. Are you ashamed of the choice you made?”

“Brea, for Christ’s sake….it doesn’t have anything to do with me. It isn’t me that people are going to judge!”

“And that’s important to you? How people judge us?” Brea knew she was confused.

“He doesn’t want to see you hurt, Brea,” Hannah came out of the bathroom after listening to them argue.

“No one can hurt me unless I allow it,” she answered, looking hopefully at her mother. “Isn’t that what you taught me? When….when kids bullied me…isn’t that what you said? That I have to be true to myself. Even when other people don’t understand my choice.”

“Who knew she was listening to those lectures all these years,” Rey Cooper couldn’t stop seeing her as his little girl, even with a man’s arms wrapped protectively around her and another man looking at her like she was the most important thing in his life.

That look he knew. That look he had felt every day of his life since meeting Hannah. So change your perspective, the physics teacher ordered. Now she has three strong males to look out for her.

“We have a beautiful and smart daughter,” Hannah smiled. “I never doubted that. It’s just hard to stop trying to protect her.”

“Don’t make me cry,” Brea ordered, ignoring the soft chuckle from the man holding her. “Dinner’s ready,” she declared, straightening and bustling around the 223

kitchen, laying things out on the table.

“Will you join us for dinner?” Jase asked, politely resolute. “Please.”

“We’d love to,” Hannah answered proudly, taking her husband’s hand and squeezing. “And if the offer of a place to stay is still there, it would be nice to not sleep worrying.” She walked to Brea, leaning close and whispering to her.

“What do I do?” Came the curious, fascinated response.

“Just what I tell you,” Hannah answered, taking her daughter’s palms in hers and raising them both above them. “Just let me guide the power this time. Listen and feel how it works.”

Brea closed her eyes and felt her mother speaking to her without opening her mouth. She knew she gasped. Knew she felt the surge leaving her fingertips. But this time she wasn’t cold. This time no one went smashing into a wall or forest. This time she controlled what left her.

“What did we do?” Brea inhaled rapidly, meeting the smiling eyes of her mother when she lowered their arms to their sides and stepped apart.

“We…..put up a really nice shield around the property line. No one searching with magic will be able to find us,” Hannah let her head roll on her slender shoulders, her gaze going from Jase to Nick. “It’s only good for twenty-four hours but is simple enough to replace.”

“She’s that strong?” Rey had felt the link between them.

“Even before the mating mark, she was that strong,” Hannah poured a large glass of iced tea and sat next to her husband. She took a drink and still stared at the 224

other two men. “Now….”

“Why does that make a difference?” Jase asked, vaguely taking the platter of vegetables Brea passed to him. “My mother started to say something…..then she stopped.”

“You really don’t know,” Rey stared as if seeing them for the first time. “I honestly thought you’d picked her on purpose. Because of what she is….”

“Hate to ruin a burgeoning relationship, but we didn’t know what she was. We couldn’t scent anything but human and she didn’t know until today,” Nick shook his head. “Your daughter beat us to our knees without magic,” he said, winking at Brea.

“You didn’t select her because a mating with her would enhance your own abilities or your life?”

Jase choked on a bite and reached for his water glass.

Nick swallowed hard and gaped.

“Run that one by us again?” Nick cleared his throat.

Brea just listened and ate.

“I don’t think they knew, Rey,” Hannah said with a laugh.

“You think because….and I….” Brea blinked and considered what she’d been listening to and she grinned. “Will I have claws?” Three men groaned. Her father spoke patiently.

“No, Brea, no claws,” it was the slightly exasperated sound of a father.

“Oh,” she pouted and considered. “Fangs? Fangs would be so…..” she stopped when her father shook his head. “Well that’s not right. Then what are you trying to tell 225

them? Since they already have claws and fangs and I get shafted…..”

“Yes, young man, she’s always like this once she gets her….teeth…into something she believes important,” Rey chuckled at the looks on their faces.

“We’re not surprised,” Nick said with a chuckle.

“This isn’t how you really look,” Brea declared, abruptly distracted. She stared at her mother. “I can feel it….around you….”

“No….it isn’t…it’s how we made ourselves look to fit in,” Hannah admitted with a little shrug. “How people expected us to appear as your parents.”

“Show me,” Brea whispered, eyes wide and food forgotten.

“Hannah….” But he sighed and nodded.

“Oh my god….” Brea watched the spell shimmer and fade. Watched the clothing they were wearing seem to suddenly be a size or two too big for them.

“Fuck,” Jase swore, blinking and rubbing at his eyes. It was like looking at an almost duplicate of Brea. Almost because Hannah’s hair was a pale blonde and cropped to where it barely touched her ears.

“You look like her sister,” Nick drained the tea in his glass.

“Wow…..my dad is hot.”

“I really did not need to hear that from you, Breanna Cooper,” Rey Cooper glared and knew he was wasting his efforts. He chose to eat instead.

“But this is perfect. No one has to know in town. You could be my distant cousins,” Brea absently began eating when Nick placed a spear of asparagus to her lips.

“I know someone who could make you all new papers. Don’t ask,” she said hastily, a 226

quick shake of her head at the rest of the table. “I have friends. Talented friends. A passport, driver’s license and school certificates.” Father and mother stared at her.

“How did we lose control of our child?” Hannah asked, lifting a slice of the juicy chicken and biting down.

“I blame the public school education,” Rey murmured, his head shaking.

“I met people in college….culinary school….” Brea said with a little pout. “It’s just wrong. They get age control and I don’t even get fangs?” Groans echoed around the table as they ate.

“She is still a genius in the kitchen,” Hannah complimented, spooning salad onto her plate. “She’s been cooking since she was eleven.”

“I bet she was cute,” Nick teased.

“Oh, believe me…..she had this little chef hat and an apron….”

“This is just so wrong,” Brea murmured. “I should be grateful there aren’t bearskin rug photos available.”

“I put all my photos online years ago, dear,” Hannah winked at Jase and Nick.

“And we do happen to have several….”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Brea interrupted, heat flushing her cheeks.

“We haven’t been back to the house,” Rey Cooper said slowly. “I liked that house.”

“I have the insurance money,” Brea told him, one shoulder up in a shrug. “I didn’t know what to do with it. It’s in the bank. You can rebuild it. Nick and Jase know 227

someone who can help you design it and make it the way you want. Please don’t leave,” the last words rushed out with a burst of emotion, her palm up and waving. “I’m sorry. I’m okay.”