“Yes. We werewolves call it being mated, but for human purposes, we’ll be married. You need to be Jennifer. We’ll figure out how to make that happen.”
“We haven’t even touched on this werewolf thing.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be doing plenty of touching.” Holy hell, had he just said that out loud? “On the werewolf thing.”
He walked her back to the room, and Jeffrey leaped from his bed and ran over to her, throwing his arms around her. “You came back!”
“I told you I would. Did you read to Aunt Taylor?”
“He sure did,” Taylor said admiringly. “He’s great at it.”
Grant barely kept his temper in check.
“You. We need to talk,” he growled at Cliff. “Outside.”
Cliff scowled at his tone, but he, Mandy and Taylor walked out of the room. Remembering how good Jeffrey’s hearing was, Grant walked them into the parking lot before swinging around and shoving Cliff backwards. Cliff stumbled, then went furry for a brief moment.
A car drove by, and he glanced at the car and quickly smoothed his skin out.
“Grant! What the hell’s wrong with you?” Taylor said furiously. “If he shifts in public, we’re screwed!”
“I don’t know what crawled up your ass, but don’t start something you can’t finish,” Cliff snarled at Grant.
Grant advanced on him, lips curling back to reveal fangs. “You and Dad. Fucking manipulative control-freak bastards. You told Jennifer to get rid of my son before he was born. You kept that from me. And you kept my messages from me when Celeste tried to contact me. Get away from me now. Get away from me before I kill you. You think you’re stronger than me because you’ve beaten me in a fight? My rage is giving me power. I could destroy you right now. I’d like that.”
Cliff’s claws curved from his fingertips, sharp like daggers. Taylor let out a snarl and her eyes went dark.
“Easy,” Mandy said in a low tone. “I’ve got your back, Grant, but I’m not going to let you kill your brother. You’d hate yourself in the morning.”
“You didn’t want me to find out what you and Dad did to keep me from getting tangled up with a dirty little grifter. So you tried to keep me from my own son.” The bones under Grant’s skin cracked and shifted. He knew he was going furry.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Cliff spat at him. “I didn’t do anything like that.”
“Right. You’ve never manipulated our family for your own ends. You didn’t manipulate Dad into sending Austin off to military school. One less contender to be pack Alpha when Dad died.”
“I did it to save his life!” Cliff snapped. “Dad was going to kill him! And…” He hesitated. “There’s more to it than that. I just can’t get into it.”
“Of course you can’t. Save it,” Grant snarled at him, stalking off.
“Grant! Your boy needs a pack! He needs family right now!” Taylor called after him.
“I’ll find my own pack!” Grant yelled without looking back. “You come near us, and I will end you!”
Chapter Six
They were back in Somerville, the last place that Jennifer had dragged Jeffrey to, the town she’d died in. The early morning sun glowed red and orange behind the tips of the mountain range to their west. It was still a comfortable sixty degrees right now, a little cooler than other parts of Nevada because they were in the shadow of the mountains.
Jeffrey and Celeste yawned and stretched as they climbed out of Grant’s helicopter. He held his hand out protectively to keep them safe from the spinning blades.
Jeffrey looked up at Celeste, confused. “What is this place?”
Grant had rented a house for them to stay in while they got things sorted out in court. Somerville was a small resort city, and there weren’t a lot of choices of places to rent. He’d wanted something impressive, something that screamed “I have a fuck-ton of money and I will drown you in it if you come near my family.”
The house definitely delivered on that front.
It was an eleven-bedroom, fifteen-bathroom nouveau-riche monstrosity, an enormous Spanish-style mansion built by a multi-millionaire who’d gone bust and put the house on the market. Grant had paid three months’ rent, although he hoped they’d be done with the court case and out of there long before that.
He winced as the sunlight glared off the enormous arched windows. The house was too orange, and it clashed with the red barrel-tile roof. The water bill for the enormous manicured lawn would have bankrupted the average homeowner, especially in a parched desert state like Nevada.