Healing His Soul's Mate (14 page)

They had not talked about Shade, or about their mother, who did her very best to make every living soul who worked at the Wiccan Haus miserable. At least, today, she’d locked herself in her room and refused to come out, gracing the island with her absence. But she would emerge for dinner because the disgrace of being carried there bodily was too much for even her to stomach. Dana admitted Rekkus waited for the chance to “deal” with Mrs. Stone.

“Deal with her?”

“I have to admit I was scared to ask,” Dana said between sips of a shake Sage had brought to her. “Do you think they will notice if I wash this down the drain?”

“Don’t you like it?”

“I can’t get it down. I have no appetite. And if I don’t finish it, they worry.”

In the end, they snuck into one of the bathrooms together, breaking into a fit of giggles when another guest entered to find them standing over the toilet, watching the shake swirl down the drain. Running hand in hand, they took refuge in the library.

Their father stopped by sometime after lunch. Ashlynn wondered when he’d mention Dana’s pregnancy, but she seemed okay with giving him time. They talked about the weather, the food, and about Ashlynn’s head, which hurt more today than it had in days.

“Will you stay, Dad? And, Ash?” Dana asked. “Until the babies come?”

Her dad flinched, but Dana didn’t comment on his response. He recovered and nodded. “I would love to.”

“As would I.” Ashlynn’s mind wandered to the tall man with long hair like silk. Would Shade stay? Did it matter? It shocked her to discover it very much did matter. How could a man become so integral to her thinking in such a short time?

“I want you both there. It would mean the world to me, but I don’t want Mother here. In fact, I want her gone as early as possible on Saturday. I can’t have her hurting those who have been nothing but nice and caring to me. They accepted me, made me feel welcome. I won’t have her being rude to those I love.”

“No worries there. I’m surprised she hasn’t started swimming already.” Her father tucked a book under his arm.

“Perhaps we could recommend it.” Ashlynn giggled.

He shrugged. “I’m off to find a quiet place in the apple orchard to read.” His shoulders seemed bowed as he started off.

Dana smothered a yawn as she called good-bye to him.

“Are we boring you?” Ashlynn asked, keeping it light, but concern ran through her. It was enough to be pregnant, forget the fact she carried three babies. Add that those babies might be kittens some of the time and cold edges of panic covered Ashlynn.

Holy hell. She married a man who could change into a very large, rather scary-looking tiger. But the idea of him being a large cat did explain some of his personality traits.

“No, you aren’t boring me.” Another yawn. “But I do think I need to lie down for a bit. Housing these babies takes a lot out of me.”

She scrambled to her feet to help the mama up. “Want me to walk you down to your place?”

“No. I promised Rekkus I would stay up here. The staff is on pins and needles as it is. Rekkus has a Murphy bed in his office.” She let Ashlynn help her down the hall.

“Do tigers sleep in Murphy beds?”

“What?”

“Well, I tried to picture Rekkus pulling the bed down to sleep in it. Just seems like he would curl up in the corner or on a cat bed or something. Does he have one of those?”

Dana gaped at her.

“What?”

“No, he doesn’t have a cat bed.” Dana giggled before grabbing her belly to really laugh. She leaned against the wall until the glee subsided. Her face turning serious, she lowered her voice. “My understanding is, at one time, Cyrus didn’t feel safe without Rekkus beside him. The only way for Rekkus to get any work done and ensure Cyrus could sleep was to install a bed where Rekkus could work.”

Cyrus couldn’t sleep without his bodyguard in the room? “Okay, so why does he need Rekkus?”

“You mean other than as his best friend? Because there are people whose only job is to hunt him down. Cyrus has powers I don’t understand. Here we are.” Dana indicated a small door marked Animal Control.

“Seriously?”

“Myron’s idea of a joke. Rekkus says he doesn’t give her any feedback good or bad; otherwise, she will get out of control.” Dana punched in a code and turned on the light in the spacious office. “Can I get you to pull the bed down?”

“Of course.” She followed her in, hoping to get some insight into her mysterious brother-in-law. She found an OCD’s wet dream, the room immaculate, even the cork board organized. The only thing out of place was a black-and-white poster of a kitten with the words RAWR. I IZ A DANGEROUS TIGER. “Myron?”

“Got it in one.”

After a second of fumbling with the cabinet door, she found the handle and pulled down the bed. “I like Myron.”

“So do I.” Dana eased onto the bed. “Can I be silly? Would you go into the wardrobe? I am hoping there is a T-shirt balled up in the bottom of it.”

Wasn’t that so sweet it made Ashlynn want to gag? Sure enough, a T-shirt lay where Dana said it would be. She couldn’t say her sister didn’t know his habits, even if that one appeared out of place in the tidy office. She handed it over before shutting off the overhead light then slipped away. Her sister fell into a restless sleep before the door closed behind her.

“There you are.” Her mother’s voice wiped all semblance of relaxation away. “Is there some wild animal on the island you had to report?”

“What? Oh, yeah, something like that.” She needed to move her mother away from the office door in case Dana woke. “Did you need me?”

“I haven’t seen you today and thought we should sit down and chat.”

Great. A chat with her mother always meant she would listen and agree with whatever her mother decided for her life. She didn’t like the life she’d had before. She hadn’t liked the person she had become.

She wasn’t weak nor did she care a fig about the fame or prestige her mother so craved.

Her mother would no longer live vicariously through her. Squaring her shoulders, Ashlynn waved toward the front door.

“Fine. Shall we take a walk?”

“Getting far from this building suits me fine.” Her mother headed toward the lobby at full pace—away from Dana.

As they passed Myron at the reception desk, and she paused. “Dana is resting…but you already knew, didn’t you?”

“I did, but thank you for telling me all the same.” Myron smiled. “Good luck.”

“Rawr?” She winked and mimicked a T. rex clawing the air.

“That’s the spirit.”

Her mother tapped her foot, the annoying I-will-not-be-kept-waiting attitude she always had. Ashlynn hurried because she didn’t want to add to the argument they were sure to get into. “You seem to be rather chummy with the staff.”

“I like them.”

“You must be joking, Ashlynn. They, this whole place, is below you.”

“No, Mother, they aren’t.” Ashlynn stopped, forcing her mother to do the same. “I never understood why a simple thank you or please was too much for you. Why you belittled and said hateful things when it wouldn’t have cost you to be nice. And I never understood the way you behaved toward Dana. She did nothing but want you to love her, and you treated her worse than dirt on your shoe. She never acted up, she never argued, and yet she never could please you. Now she is about to make you a grandmother—”

“No, she isn’t.”

“She is pregnant and, though you disowned her, in a couple of weeks, maybe less, she will be bringing your grandchildren into this world.” Leaving out the fact they were part tiger was the best decision. “Do you care so little, you aren’t moved somewhat?”

“Moved to vomit.”

This conversation was deteriorating at lightning speed. “How can you call yourself a mother?”

“I am not— Never mind.”

Something hadn’t been said, something the woman wanted to say but wouldn’t or couldn’t. A bad feeling passed over her, one of those premonitions you got when you knew things weren’t right. Not in a “para” way, but in a trust your gut way. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“It does not concern you.”

“It does concern her.” Dr. Stone appeared around the corner of the building. “And perhaps it’s time we told the truth. This has gone on long enough.”

“No, you promised.” Her mother paled.

“Yes, and, as I told you two nights ago, I am also filing for divorce.”

“I won’t let you.”

“You cannot stop me. I should’ve done it long ago, but I remained blind to what went on under my own roof.”

“You didn’t expect me to care for your bastard, did you? You had an affair, and I had to face the product of your infidelity every day and remember what you did.”

“Wait, what?” Ashlynn blinked. The only muscles she seemed to be able to move were in her eyelids, so she blinked again and again. But, as the shock ebbed, it made a great deal of sense, and she realized this news would be welcome to Dana. Hell, maybe her mother would say Ashlynn spawned from another in a long line of her father’s mistresses.

Her mother ignored her and tore into her father, threatening to take him for everything he had.

“Do you think I give a damn about money?” He raised his chin. “I’ve learned how to enjoy life again. Why do you think I fell in with Dana’s real mother?”

“Because she would spread her legs to anyone.”

“No, the sex came much later. She cared about me, not my status. She cared about the man I wanted to become. A man I forgot existed. No more.”

Decades of anger and frustration poured from them both. Vile things and then silence, as if they had run out of things to say. Words they had kept inside for so long left behind a great nothingness.

“Amazing how this happens.” Ashlynn jumped, but Cemil’s touch on her arm calmed even while the air sizzled.

“What do you mean?” Ashlynn couldn’t look away from her parents.

“Why do you think you have been suffering from unexplained headaches?” He brushed her bangs from her forehead.

She jerked her attention from the parents she barely knew anymore to the blond man at her side. “Um, duh. I was knocked out by a lighting instrument.”

“Yes, well, there is that. But I suspect it was building long before the accident, from the moment Dana took her leap of faith and broke from the family.” Cemil pulled Ashlynn away. “It was the first time you realized you could escape, too, but your mother had her claws into you. Where she didn’t love Dana, she did have some emotional connection to you. She saw her as a responsibility, a burden.

“But, deep inside, you knew something odd surrounded your house and a little voice warred with the person you had been trained to be.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“We are victims of our environment. Even the gentlest of puppies can be turned into a killing machine under evil influences. You hid your light deep inside to protect yourself. And, I think, to protect your sister.”

“Mother would hit her if I was kind.” A memory hidden deep shot to the surface.

Cemil nodded as if the news didn’t come as a surprise. “I believe that is information we should keep to ourselves. There would be no controlling Rekkus if the knowledge came to him.”

“I’ve never spoke of it before. I didn’t remember until now.” She shook her head. A great weight lifted from her shoulders and head.

“Nothing can save your parents’ marriage.” Cemil stopped in the lobby.

“I don’t think they should try.”

“A healthy response to an unhealthy situation. But I am thinking it’s you who needs to divorce them. Time to rebel.”

Ashlynn watched the sun drop below the tree line. Her heart and other parts of her clenched. He would be here any moment. With a quiet shove from Cemil, she ran, stopping long enough to hear Myron say, “Synergy Room.”

The Haus shook, followed by a loud rumble. Dana had said it happened every night, but Ashlynn hadn’t believed her. At the end of the hall, two guards in black flanked the ever-formidable Sarka. “Only those three come through.”

The guards nodded, and Cyrus, well, Cyrus with fiery hair, came into sight. A second later, Rekkus walked through then patted Cyrus down before nodding. Only then did Cyrus shake his head and the red disappeared. She stared at the swirling, inky cloud until Shade appeared. He leaned on the wall, gasping.

“I…hate…portals.” His eyes met hers.

“Dana?” Rekkus asked.

“Sleeping in your office,” Ashlynn replied.

Rekkus smiled and broke into a run down the hall toward his office.

She didn’t think. She had spent too much time thinking, thinking about what was right. What everyone expected and what was normal. Now she needed to feel. Grabbing Shade’s hand, she pulled him along until she found a door marked Synergy Room slightly ajar. Pushing it open, she towed him into the dark room. Ashlynn jerked off her sunglasses and, with a hand tangled in his hair, brought his lips down to hers, forcing his mouth open and tasting him with her tongue.

“What are you doing?” he asked when they paused, gasping for air.

“Rebelling.”

“Oh, I like the sound of rebelling.”

“You’ll love how it feels more.” Grinding her pelvis against his, she reveled in the moan escaping him.

“I’m not complaining” he whispered against her neck. “But what are you rebelling against?”

“My mother, and I don’t want to think or talk about her anymore.”

“I don’t want to think about her either.”

Holding her against the door, he worked down her body until he knelt before her. Anxious, she shimmied her pants into a puddle of expensive fabric at her ankles. He removed them, first one foot then the other, careful to keep her high-heeled shoes she wore secure on her feet. Another jolt of excitement ran through her as she watched his gaze follow the long line of her legs. She hadn’t known why she put on heels today, seemed trivial and frivolous, but now she thanked heaven she had.

“I have never seen anything more beautiful.” The truth lay in his expression for her to see.

“I want you.”

He kissed her inner thigh, breathing deeply. “I know.”

The lacy panties soon joined the pants leaving her bare from the waist down, with her blouse open but remaining on her shoulders for him to remove. The only article of clothing yet to be touched was the matching bra to her discarded panties.