Chapter 9 #2
“Bel,” he started smoothly. “You’ve brought us guests. That’s excellent.”
Aiden wrapped his arms around Bel, pulling him in for a tight hug.
Bel closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Aiden’s shoulder.
Aiden might not be his biological father, but he’d been the man to care for him and guide him since he was a child.
Aiden loved him like a father, and his father knew he was nervous.
When Aiden released him, Bel was centered and stronger. He turned toward the wolves. “These are my friends, Wyatt Campbell and River Stone.”
Aiden shook their hands as he took over the introductions. Bel watched him closely, trying to see if he noticed the same difference that Ethan had. There was something, a small twitch at the corner of his eye, but his warm smile never wavered.
“My, my, my,” Rafe drawled, his smile turning positively wicked.
Bel could feel his face heating before his twin even finished making his teasing remark.
No doubt his brother noticed the resemblance between Wyatt and the man he’d fed from at Blush just a month ago.
“I think I underestimated you, my sweet Bel. I had begun to think you didn’t even notice men at all, and here you found two lovely ones for your—”
“Rafe!” Marcus barked in warning and Ethan snickered.
“It’s not like that!” Bel quickly said. “Wyatt and River are together. I’m just…just…”
“I think you better explain…everything,” Aiden said. And yes, he knew.
It didn’t help Bel feel any more settled when he saw that Aiden hadn’t returned to his previous seat on the couch.
No, he was now sitting in the ornate high-back chair they’d used when Lola, Ryder, and Gideon had become official members of the Varik clan.
The chair looked more like a throne and had quietly become Aiden’s seat of power within the clan.
Add in the blond man’s impressive height, wide shoulders, and his regal bearing—he just looked like a king in that chair.
Bel had no idea if this was a good sign or bad. Probably bad.
“As Ethan noticed downstairs, Wyatt and River aren’t vampires. They’re werewolves,” Bel started.
“This is a joke, right?” Winter said. “First, Rafe with his witch talk—”
“Don’t mock Zelda. She is a witch!” Rafe snapped.
“And now you’ve got werewolves,” Winter continued as if Rafe hadn’t spoken.
“Werewolves exist?” Ethan demanded.
“No, they don’t,” Marcus said firmly.
“They are very real,” Bel countered.
Winter scoffed. “This is ridiculous. Let’s just invite Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in for a family dinner—”
“Silence!” Aiden shouted above the cacophony. He stood in the middle of the room, frowning at the assembled group.
Yes, his brothers had enjoyed a little too much mocking and joking, but it was clear to Bel that Aiden understood the gravity of what they faced.
“Bel, please explain to your brothers everything.” Aiden turned his glare on Rafe. “You will be respectful and listen.”
His twin sighed and cuddled with Philippe. Winter moved over to sit on the couch with Ethan and Marcus, while Aiden returned to the thronelike chair.
Glancing around quickly, Bel ushered Wyatt and River to an oversized leather chair.
River sat while Wyatt perched on the arm, his hand resting just on the back of River’s neck.
The younger wolf turned worried eyes up, and Bel couldn’t stop himself from touching his cheek.
“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” he whispered.
He turned his attention over to Wyatt to find a look of banked anger, but also hard resolve.
He would not leave Bel’s side. He would protect him, even from his own family.
Bel moved carefully to the center of the room. In all his younger, human years, he’d been called onto the carpet to face Aiden only a few times. All of them had been in relation to antics and stunts he’d gotten drawn into with Rafe. And sometimes, with Winter. Never alone.
“Yes, they are werewolves. They are the same werewolves we faced against the MacPherson clan, but they are my wolves now. And…I’d like them to be Variks.”
Rafe suddenly leaped to his feet and stalked toward Bel and his companions, his face twisted with rage. “Those are the fucking wolves that attacked me!”
“Yes, but—” Bel tried to say.
“We had no choice,” Wyatt replied calmly.
“Bullshit! How about I take a chunk out of your hide—”
“Enough, Rafe!” Aiden’s voice was a sharp whipcrack, and silence resumed again. “Explain, Bel.”
Bel twisted his fingers together as he closed his eyes and took a deep, fortifying breath. It was always so much easier to organize his swirling thoughts when he was working on the computer or on paper. But he could do this for Wyatt and River.
As clearly as he could manage, Bel told his family about them being ejected from their pack, their lives threatened.
He told them about the deal they made with Brett MacPherson and their forced servitude with the clan.
He went into detail about their horrible life and the commands they had no choice but to follow.
And finally, their brief freedom before coming to seek Bel’s assistance.
His family’s expressions changed as he spoke. Ethan looked sad and while Marcus’s expression remained stern, he pulled Ethan a little closer to him. Winter was unreadable; but then, his youngest brother was always impossible to read unless he was annoyed with Rafe.
His twin…his twin still looked angry. He could feel the rage boiling off him and through their connection. Only Philippe looked moved by Bel’s words. But was it enough that he would intercede with his lover, get him to see reason?
Aiden simply appeared worried, which did not help settle Bel’s fears.
“Lies,” Rafe hissed the moment Bel stopped talking. “MacPherson lies!”
“It’s not! It’s the truth!” Bel shouted back, his hands balling into fists at his sides.
“I’m sorry, Bel, but Rafe might be right,” Marcus added. His voice was gentle and sounded so damn reasonable. “How do you know this isn’t some ruse constructed by the remains of the MacPherson clan to kill us off?”
“It’s not! Do you take me for a complete fool?”
“Bel, you’ve got a soft heart, and their sob story—”
“Fuck you, Rafe!” Bel snapped, silencing his twin on a gasp.
“They are still partially wolves. I can feel when they are honest and when they are lying. I can feel when they are holding back from me. Do you think I’m not completely aware that they would rather be free?
That they’d rather not be dependent on vampires for their own survival?
” There was no need to go into the fact that their emotional connection had grown over the past two months.
More than he and Wyatt had first noticed in the lab a month ago.
So much, in fact, that Bel was sure what he felt from them no longer had anything to do with their animal otherness.
Rafe lowered his eyes. Everything about his posture still screamed rage, but he could no longer glare at his brother. “They still attacked me.”
“Mon amour,” Philippe murmured, placing his hand on Rafe’s tense arm. “I think what your brother is saying is that the attack was not personal. You’ve healed. I can say with complete certainty that there isn’t a single scar on your body from that encounter.”
“They had a choice.”
“Did they? Truly?” Bel wanted to reach out and shake the stubbornness from his brother’s thick head. “You have no problem mocking the Ministry and flaunting your love of Philippe, but what would you sacrifice to be with your Philippe?”
“Everything!”
“Really? Would you do things you don’t agree with to protect him? To be with him?”
Rafe stared past Bel at where River and Wyatt sat. Some of the anger had left his frame, and he was now clinging to Philippe’s hand as if Bel’s words could make the vampire disappear.
Wyatt stood and River joined him. Both men placed their hands over their hearts and bowed their heads. “We are sorry for causing you any injuries,” Wyatt said. “We hope that you can one day understand we did what we had to so we could remain together.”
Rafe’s shoulders wilted and he grunted. “I’ll think about it.”
Bel nearly smiled. Rafe had never been the most gracious when it came to admitting he was wrong about something, but Bel would take it as a step in the right direction.
But all his hope died when he turned his attention to Aiden’s sad expression. “The timing of this is bad, adding a complication to our clan that we can ill afford right now.”
Bel’s stomach sank and he took an unsteady step backward. “What are you talking about?”
Aiden glanced over at Winter, who sighed. “Word is spreading that Beatrice was found murdered this evening. That’s the sixth Ministry member killed in less than a year.”
“No!”
“Catherine and Titus have both gone into hiding,” Winter continued, his tone grim. “Rumors are circulating that they’ve abdicated their seats on the Ministry. That leaves only Damon, Paavo, and Christopher left on the Ministry and none of them are particularly big fans of the Varik clan.”
Bel shook his head. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. “I don’t understand. I thought Minerva from the Black Wolf clan admitted to killing the first three members. She’s dead. The clan has been disbanded.”
“Winslow and Robert killed each other, thanks to our rumors, in a bid to protect themselves and their claims to power,” Marcus said wearily.
Even Bel had to flinch at that reminder. The desperate acts of angry and hurt children following the murder of their mother. They had thought striking out and adding to the chaos would help heal the wounds of their kind, but it had only made things worse.
“But who killed Beatrice?”
Winter shook his head. “We don’t know. No one has admitted to it yet or claimed her seat. But with only three of the eleven seats filled…”
“What? What are you thinking?”