Were She Belongs (17 page)

* * * *

Lexi felt them caress her back trying to soothe her. It was working, but images of Saber dying filled her mind.

“Lexi, honey, talk to us. Explain,” Saber demanded in an authoritative voice.

Slowly, she pulled back from him.

He looked concerned but focused.

Lexi couldn’t help the tears that flowed. She didn’t cry often and had found it didn’t help any situation get better, but she feared for her lover’s life. If he left Texas and went to New York, he would die.

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She grabbed his face and locked eyes with him. “You can’t leave me. I won’t let you go.”

Saber crinkled his eyes and stared at her as if she were crazy. He covered her hands with his own and took them away from his face to hold in front of them.

“You have no say in this, Lexi. I am alpha and need to leave.

There are things going on that you don’t understand—”

“I do understand that if you go, you will not return alive!”

She could see the shock on his face.

“How do you know this, Lexi? What have you been hiding from us?” Paul demanded in a stern tone.

Lexi knew she sounded guilty of something, but how could she explain the vision if she didn’t understand it herself?

“I can’t explain it. I know I sound crazy, Saber, but you must trust me. It isn’t safe.”

Saber lifted her off his lap and got up from the couch. He turned toward the others, who looked just as shocked by her words, and confused.

“First of all, how did you know he was leaving?” Andre inquired, standing with his arms crossed in front of his chest. The three triplets surrounded her in a confrontational stance.

Fear consumed her, but some emotion and deeper strength battled that fear. “I fell asleep in the sitting room by the fire. I dreamt you left for New York and tried to free some of the members of Jacob’s pack who were being held hostage. They were imprisoned and beaten. I saw the men with yellow glowing eyes hiding in the shadows inside the building waiting to attack. Then I saw you, Saber, Luke, Martin, Jacob, and others slowly sneaking toward the building. They knew you were coming.”

They looked at her strangely.

Andre eyed her, annoyed. “It was just a dream, Lexi. You don’t know anything about what is going on.”

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“Unless she has been hiding information from us,” Paul interjected, and she instantly felt the hurt his statement caused.

Lexi tried to control her breathing, but as she locked gazes with Paul, the tears resurfaced. “I have not lied to you or held any information from you in regards to this.” She looked at Saber.

“Please, listen to me. If you leave, if you go on this mission, it will be your last. I don’t know how I know. I just do. Please, Saber, call off your men. Call Jacob, and save the others.”

He waved his hand in the air for her to stop.

Lexi waited silently as the brothers seemed to be absorbing her words.

“
What is this all about?”
Paul asked through their link.

“I don’t know, but she seems like she’s being honest,”
Andre added.

“Honest? How can you say honest when suddenly it seems she has
the ability to foresee the future? If she can do this, what else is she
capable of? Deceit? How do we know she hasn’t been lying to us thus
far!”
Saber growled.

“She is our mate, Saber, and we need to trust her,”
Andre replied.

“Trust is difficult when we know nothing about her. Not about her
family or where she came from. How can she be trusted when she is
not one of us!”

Lexi couldn’t believe what Saber was saying. Did he not feel the connection between the four of them? How could he so easily reject her commitment and love?

Lexi didn’t know what came over her, but she stomped toward Saber and shoved him as hard as she could.

“I may not be one of you, but I am telling the truth, and I care about each of you. You are the biggest, meanest, most hurtful wolf I have ever met, but damn it, I will not let you walk out that door. Give it twenty-four hours, Saber, and if I am wrong, then I leave here—

mate or not!”

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She started to walk away when Saber grabbed her by the arm, causing her to come flying back against his chest. Paul and Andre were right beside her.

“How did you hear what I said?” Saber growled.

“Better yet, how long has she been able to listen in on our conversations?” Paul inquired.

“I think you all should leave us now. We need to discuss some things with Lexi,” Andre ordered. Valco and Feldman left the room, closing the door behind them.

Lexi was so scared. She wondered if they would kill her.

“Answer me now, woman,” Saber demanded, squeezing her tighter against him.

Tears stung her eyes, but she wouldn’t falter. “I heard you talking yesterday. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know if I was losing my mind or not. But after we made love, I was able to hear each of you more clearly than the first time. I’m sorry, Saber. I didn’t mean to listen in.”

“It’s not possible for her to be able to do that, is it?” Andre asked.

“Obviously it is,” Paul replied.

“It can if the bonding is strong. If she were were. What else haven’t you told us, Lexi?” Saber inquired.

She was so taken aback by his distrust, her heart ached. She lowered her head and began to cry. She didn’t hear a word they said, and she didn’t care. She was making a mess of things.

“Let her go, Saber.”

She heard Andre’s voice. She felt him take her hand and lead her over to the bed. She sat down as all three men stood in front of her.

Looking up, Saber looked pissed off.

“You can hate me if you want, Saber, but please don’t go tonight.

Don’t let Jacob or your men leave for New York,” Lexi pleaded, her voice cracking with emotion.

Saber rubbed his hand over his mouth and chin, exhaling. He looked disgusted, but she could tell he was considering her request.

“Call Jacob and the others. Have them call it off,” Paul replied.

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Saber nodded toward Andre, who walked into the sitting room to make the call on his cell phone.

* * * *

Paul wanted answers. If they were going to listen to their mate and call off a mission, then they deserved to know everything about her.

“Start talking, Lexi,” Paul demanded.

He stared at her as she wiped her eyes and calmed her breathing.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything!” Saber growled.

Paul saw Lexi jump at Saber’s tone. He was forceful and intimidating and obviously affected by Lexi’s actions.

“Saber, please, we need for Lexi to feel comfortable talking with
us.”

“Why are you bothering to use our link?” Saber stated out loud, sounding annoyed.

“I forgot,” he confessed before taking a seat on the bed beside her.

“Okay, Lex, so you’ve experienced visions for how long?” Paul asked.

“I never was able to before you guys. I mean before coming here and tonight.”

They both eyed her suspiciously. Paul watched as she bowed her head and wrung her hands together nervously. He covered her hands with his as Andre returned to the room.

“Jacob has men in position, but he is taking Lexi’s request to heart. He won’t chance it, but some of the men being held as prisoners used to be part of Renmore. Their friends who worked for Jacob are heavily trained militia and are going in anyway.”

“Well, that’s their choice. They’re not our men, so it’s their decision. I guess we’ll know if Lexi is telling the truth by the morning,” Saber replied, never letting his eyes off of Lexi.

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Paul released her hands and continued with his line of questions.

It was killing him to see her suffer like this, but they needed to know if they could trust her. The fact that she wasn’t were made them all unsure.

“Who are your parents?” Paul asked as Andre took a seat in the chair near the bed.

She looked at him with eyes full of tears. “I don’t know.”

Saber cleared his throat as if saying her answer wasn’t good enough. Paul watched as Lexi nibbled her bottom lip, looked up toward Saber, then back toward him.

“I don’t know who my parents are. I was raised in an orphanage until I was ten.”

“Then where did you go?”

She was silent a moment before she spoke. “I lived in a kind of halfway house until I was twelve. Then things got bad, so I hit the streets and took residence in a shelter.”

“At twelve years old! You were just a kid,” Andre stated.

“I had no choice,” Lexi whispered, her voice cracking.

“Why? Why did you leave the home?” Paul asked as he eyed Saber, knowing he had the same questions.

“It wasn’t…safe there.”

“Someone tried to hurt you?” Andre asked.

The tears rolled down her cheeks. “Let’s just say I matured faster than most girls. It wasn’t in my best interest to stay there.”

Paul swallowed hard just imagining what Lexi looked like as a preteen. She was a stunning woman, and her gorgeous green eyes were large and seductive. Some sick bastard had tried to touch her or take her purity away.

“Who tried to hurt you?” Andre pushed.

“Who didn’t?” she replied, raising her eyes toward Saber. He glared at her, and she turned away.

“What about school?” Andre asked.

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“I registered through the local homeless shelter. I attended public school, which was a total horror for me. No cool clothes, no friends, but I at least got breakfast and lunch.”

“So you lived in the shelter through high school? Did you have a last name for documentation?” Paul asked.

“I was registered through the orphanage as Gentino, but I think the registration person made the name up. It worked, and I was able to register for college as well.”

“So you lived on the streets for how long?”

* * * *

Lexi was silent a moment. How could she say her whole life? It was true, but saying it hurt and embarrassed her. She felt the knot in her chest and the tear escape her eye. Wiping it away as if she could avoid them seeing it was a wasted effort.

“For too long.” The words rolled off her tongue. She knew she sounded hard and defeated by the admission, but what did it matter now? If they hated her or thought less of her, then it would make it easier to leave.

“So for years you lived on the streets and in shelters? How did you survive, Lexi? I mean, you were just a kid,” Andre asked.

“It was so hard trying to make it, but I was determined to learn the ropes, the ways of the streets. You don’t really want to know all the gory details, do you?” she gave him a look of annoyance.

“We’re trying to understand, Lexi. We want to know everything about you.” This time it was Paul who sounded angry. She would tell them if they wanted to know so badly, and if they thought less of her, then so be it.

“I was able to secure some odd jobs and make some cash.”

“Where did you stay?” Paul asked.

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“There were a bunch of safe spots that the cops ignored. But the worst were the winter months.” She crossed her arms in front of her, hugging herself as if the thought made her cold.

“The shelters filled up fast, and if you didn’t get there early, then they turned you away. I was working cleaning offices in Manhattan, so by the time I got to the shelters, I was too late. So sometimes I slept on the streets between buildings, or I would catch some sleep in the offices I cleaned.”

* * * *

Paul cringed with sympathy. He couldn’t even imagine living on the streets and surviving city winters. It had to have been brutal. His wolf wanted to take her into his arms, protect her, and spoil her rotten.

“What kind of jobs did you do?” Saber asked, eyeing her from head to toe.

“I didn’t lie about my virginity, Saber. It wasn’t the easiest thing to hold on to, but it was the only pure and untouched part of me I had until I gave it to you.”

“You regret doing that?” he yelled.

She didn’t respond.

Paul calmed Saber down so they could continue to talk to Lexi.

“So you did odd jobs for cash, but how did you enroll in college?”

“You think colleges care about anything other than money? I handed in my transcripts from high school and put a check in the box next to ‘cash’ where it asked ‘payment type.’”

“So all through college, you lived in the shelter?” Andre inquired, moving off the chair to sit beside her on the bed.

“I couldn’t afford to pay for a dorm, or inform them I was homeless, so I continued to clean offices and worked as a waitress on weekends. That’s when the problems started.”

“What do you mean?” Paul asked.

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“I was working at Paulo’s, you know that Italian restaurant in the Bronx? Anyway, some guys came in for dinner one night, and they started acting all funny around me. I got the creeps, but they came back every night I was working and then showed up on campus one day during my lunch. One of the guys tried to ask me out, and I declined. He wasn’t too happy about it, but he looked around like he didn’t want to make a scene. Then I had already met Sierra, and we were meeting for lunch that day. She showed up, and they took off.

Sierra didn’t look too happy about the guys bothering me. Anyway, I hadn’t seen them again after that.”

“Were they the same guys who came after you the night Sierra was sick and you disappeared?” Andre asked.

“I don’t think so. I started to see some strange faces around the restaurant, at the shelter, then on campus. I thought I was just paranoid, but then I caught them following Sierra. I was worried about her safety. One night I was headed to the shelter from work, and two guys approached me. They said they knew my parents and that they could prove it. They said they were searching for me for years and thought I was dead. Out of nowhere this truck showed up, and these men got out and started fighting. One guy pushed me out of the way and told me to run and hide. I was so scared, but I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to trust, so I ran. Those guys were found dead the next morning. It was in the newspaper. I knew something was seriously wrong, so I made it through the last weeks of senior year to graduate.”