Walk on the Striped Side (26 page)

EPILOGUE

Elena

Elena slammed open the door to her
aunts’ house and stomped inside with Gage following silently behind her. He was
like her goddamn shadow ever since she had become pregnant. He barely left her
alone long enough to use the bathroom. “Is Delta here?”

Chloe and her aunts walked out of
the living room to meet her in the foyer where she was standing.

Looking a little concerned, Aunt
Indigo answered, “No. Why?”

Elena shook her head. “She was
supposed to meet me at the McPhee Pack bar and never did. I thought I’d come by
and check on her today. She was pretty upset over that guy.”

“What are you doing going to a
bar
!
You’re pregnant for Pete’s sake. You don’t need to be taking my unborn nieces
or nephews into a freakin’ bar!” Chloe screeched at her.

She felt her left eyebrow twitch in
annoyance and clamped down on her inner urge to smack the crap out of her older
sister. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve been pregnant for like a week and
you’re pulling this shit on me already? It’s not like I was going in there for
shots and to get piss drunk! I went there in the hopes of getting Delta drunk
so she’d finally tell us what happened with the douche nozzle that broke her
heart. And you can’t tell me where I can take my unborn children. They’re
my
unborn children, you twat waffle!”

Chloe narrowed her eyes and
growled, “You’re lucky you’re knocked up, bitch, or I’d lay the smack down on
you right now.”

She snorted in amusement. “The only
thing you’re capable of laying the smack down on is a credit card at some
ridiculously expensive hooker’s clothing line store, so don’t get all high and
mighty with me, you over-priced piece of fluff.”

The two sisters lunged for each
other, however they were stopped by their two aunts stepping in between them
and Gage grabbing Elena gently around the waist to prevent them from fighting.

Aunt Thea gritted out between her
teeth, “Can you two act reasonable for one damn day?”

Elena and Chloe stood there in
stubborn silence, refusing to answer the question.

Finally, Chloe murmured, “You think
she went to see the guy? I could never get her to tell me his name.”

Aunt Indigo ran a hand through her
hair in frustration. “It’s possible. She wouldn’t tell any of us who it was.
The fact that she has refused to give any of us his name makes me think that we
know him. Why else would she keep it a secret?”

Elena pulled her cell phone out of
her pocket. “So we start calling people. I don’t think
it’s
Alec, but we can start with him.”

“It’s not Alec,” Gage chimed in.

Elena had to love being mated to a
man of few words.

Rolling her eyes, she continued,
“There are the guys on Gage’s unit, Jenna’s brother, and Jenna’s SWAT team
partner.”

“Kent?” Chloe asked as if
surprised.

Elena’s brows furrowed at her
sister’s question. “Yeah, Kent. Why?”

A mask fell over her sister’s
features, turning them blank. She twirled a piece of her long hair around a
finger. “I don’t think
it’s
Kent. We’ve been… spending
time together,” she answered nonchalantly.

With that answer right there, Elena
was certain of one thing; they’d fucked.

“God, you are such a whore!”

Chloe tried to lunge for Elena’s
hair to start a catfight, and somehow small Aunt Indigo held her off.

All four of them were yelling now.
Aunt Thea at Elena for calling her sister a whore. Elena at Chloe for being a
whore. Chloe at Elena for being such a judgmental stick-up-the-ass. And Aunt
Indigo at Chloe for trying to start a fight with her pregnant sister.

There’s no telling how long the
four of them would have stood around, yelling at each other like only family
can do while Gage silently watched, because suddenly a loud banging on the door
got their attention, so they shut up.

“You think it’s Delta?” Chloe
whispered.

The four women ran for the door
with Gage prowling behind them, shoving each other out of the way to be the one
to answer it in the hopes that it was the youngest Demos sister on the other
side.

Aunt Thea was the first one to get
there, so she grabbed the door knob and flung the door open in haste without
looking through the security peephole to see who it was.

What they found on the other side
of the door wasn’t Delta, though, which caused all of them to deflate a little
in disappointment. No, standing there were two men Elena didn’t know. Both
tall, trim, fit and incredibly good looking. Both sporting red hair, green eyes
and pale, creamy white skin that would stand out in a crowd. And both of them
looked so similar in appearance that you would have thought they were brothers
if one of the men didn’t look old enough to be the other man’s father. Of course,
on the younger man, all of that handsomeness was marred by the thunderous scowl
on his face, which was currently being directed at her. What the fuck had she
done to deserve that look?

Aunt Thea’s voice finally filled
the confused quiet. “Can we help you?”

The younger man turned his scowl
from Elena to Aunt Thea. “Yeah, you can make sure that crazy bitch,” he thrust
an angry finger in Elena’s direction, “never gets near another flame thrower or
pistol again! She almost killed us!”

Everyone turned their heads to
stare at her in silent accusation. Where was the loyalty in this family? It
wasn’t like she was a homicidal serial killer running around and killing people
for fun!

She held her hands up in the air.
“I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, guys. Honest. I’ve never seen
him a day in my life and Gage took all the weapons away from me and hid them
after he told me that I was preggers.” She pointed to the man who had stolen
all of her fun away from her as proof.

Her aunts and sister turned their
glares back to the man who was still glaring at Elena. The stranger took a
small step forward, however the older man put a hand on his shoulder to stop
him.

“Calm down; this is not why we came
here.”

“Then why are you here? And who are
you?” Aunt Indigo asked.

The older man’s shoulders
stiffened. “My name is Manus Campbell and this is my son, Deo. We came here
because we know what happened to Delta and we’re worried about her. Would you
please let us come inside so that we can discuss things with you?”

Chloe pushed her way to the front
of the pack and pointed a finger in Manus’s face. “You tell me what happened to
my sister this very second or I castrate you where you stand.”

Manus sighed in frustration. “I see
Aggie passed on her temper to you girls.”

After dropping that little verbal
bomb, they all went deathly quiet. Until Chloe’s temper kicked back in.

“Who the hell are you, buddy, and
why are you talking about my mom!”

Weirdly, Manus looked to Thea and
Indigo, hoping for some recognition or perhaps help, yet there was no help
coming from her aunts.

His shoulders slumped a little as
he muttered, “I see she took it to her grave then.”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled
out a piece of paper and handed it to Chloe. Elena stepped up to stand beside
her sister as Chloe started to unfold the document. The words were faded—the
paper was a wrinkly mess as if it had been crumpled and uncrumpled many
times—but the words at the top were still bold and legible.

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

BUNCOMBE COUNTY

OFFICE OF REGISTER OF DEEDS

Application, License and Certification of Marriage

Scanning her eyes down the
document, Elena took in the words and felt her heart speed up. What in the holy
flying monkey shit was this? Her mom had been married to Manus? Suddenly
feeling light headed, she looked back up to the man, who nodded his head as if
answering her unspoken question.

“I’m
your
and Chloe’s step-father, Delta’s biological father…” putting his hand back on
his son’s shoulder, he continued, “and Deo is Delta’s twin brother.”

Elena’s vision swam with tiny black
dots. Her legs wobbled like jelly and she felt like she was on one of those
Tilt-A-Whirl rides at a carnival. She tried to keep herself standing up
straight, yet she lost the battle and started to lean dangerously to the side.
Everything around her felt like it was in a tunnel. Even Aunt Thea sounded like
she was in a tunnel when she heard her shout, “Someone grab her! She’s going to
pass out!”

Several hands grabbed her at once
and she tried to push them off, but they easily over-powered her until she
found herself reluctantly, and slowly, walking towards the living room couch.
Once they sat her down, someone had her bend over and put her head between her
knees. She heard Aunt Thea tell her to take deep breaths. Right. Breathing was
good, she reminded herself. Vital, even.

After a few moments, she slowly sat
back up, feeling a bit better. There were no more dots in her vision, however
she wasn’t exactly feeling like her old self yet. Her aunts were sitting on
either side of her while Chloe, Manus and her newly discovered half-brother,
Deo, stood in front of her on the other side of the coffee table… staring at
her.

Elena ignored the stares because
she wasn’t used to looking weak in front of anybody, especially strangers. All
of this was too much to process. Her mother had been married and she had a
step-father and half-brother she’d never known about. There was one thing that
kept repeating her mind.

“Why?”

Manus’s eyebrows shot up to his
hairline at her question. “Are you asking why she married me?”

Elena nodded.

Manus shrugged. “It was the only
way I would give her a child.”

This comment caused Elena to scowl
at him. “Are you trying to tell us that our mother married you for some whacked
out, baby-making business arrangement?”

Manus’s features softened and he
gave her a small smile. “It wasn’t just a business arrangement. I loved your
mother very much. I just refused to give her a child without some kind of
permanent attachment to her. So she agreed to marry me if I would help her
produce a child, but instead of one baby, we made two.”

Elena blew out a frustrated breath.
“I don’t understand this. Why would she marry you but not stay with you, and
why would she leave our brother behind when she kept the three of us?”

Manus’s mouth opened to answer her,
but Chloe beat him to the punch. “Because she still considered herself an
Amazon. Amazonian women do not keep their lovers, remember? Nor do they keep
any boy children. If they birthed a son, they either killed them or gave them
back to the child’s father. I guess we should be grateful Mom wasn’t a
cold-blooded bitch and didn’t kill him.”

“
Chloe
!” her two aunts
yelled at the same time.

Chloe shrugged. “What? I’m just
being real. Don’t act like it’s not the truth.”

Aunt Thea scowled at her. “There
hasn’t been an Amazon in the last four hundred years that’s killed a boy child
that we know of. That practice disappeared a long time ago.”

“Don’t get your panties into a wad.
We need to skip all this crap and get back to the important part of the
conversation.”

Elena gave Chloe a look that said
she thought her sister was nuts. “What’s more important than finding out Mom
was married and we have a brother?”

Throwing her hands up in the air,
Chloe shouted, “How about the part where they said they knew what happened to
Delta and they were worried about her?”

Deo shook his head. “I’m not
worried about her; she’ll be fine.” Pointing to his father, he said, “He’s the
one that’s worried about her.”

Losing her patience, Elena yelled
back, “Well, why the fuck is he worried about her?”

Deo glowered at her. “Don’t yell at
me, you crazy woman. I’m still mad at you for trying to kill me!”

“Why do you keep saying I tried to
kill you? I’ve never seen you before, you nutcase!” she wailed.

Deo smirked in an evil way and his
father saw it.

“Don’t.”

“Pfft. Keep dreaming, old man. I’m
showing her right now.” Deo put his hand in his coat pocket while he spoke to
her. “One of the reason that dear old Mom wanted to have children with Dad is
because he’s a powerful warlock of some repute. She hoped to have a child with
some magical abilities. From what I understand, Delta never developed
abilities, but I did.”

Pulling his balled up hand out of
his pocket, he held it out in front of him. That devious grin on his face
caused all the hairs on the back of Elena’s neck to stand up in warning.

“One of my specialties is
connecting to a familiar. I have one creature that bonds to me, and I can see
life through his eyes. But when we’re connected, we share a life force. So if
he dies, I die, too. You tried to kill my familiar.”

Elena shook her head in denial, but
stopped when Deo opened his hand. Right there, in the middle of her brother’s
palm, was the bane of her existence.

It was that big ass,
motherfucking,
hairy
spider
that had been
stalking
her.

Seeing Chloe’s gossip rag magazine
on the coffee table, she snatched it up so that it was rolled in her hand and
leapt with a homicidal war cry towards her brother and her enemy. This time,
she was going to kill that little bastard once and for all!

Only she never made it near her
target because her Aunt Thea was holding her back as Deo laughed his fool head
off at her.

“Let me go!
LetmegorightnowsoIcankillthatcreepyabomination!” she shrieked.

Deo stopped laughing, and his tone
became severe. “You can’t kill Rufus.”