Chapter 26
“Does this look okay?”
Tori stepped into the living room and twirled back and forth.
She looked beautiful. The skirt of the dress swished around her ticklish knees, and plenty of cleavage was exposed for his visual pleasure. Her hair was in those spring curls he couldn’t help but to touch and uncoil so he could watch them bounce back.
“You are adorable,” he said, reaching for her
He sat on the arm of the couch and pulled her to stand between his legs.
“You’re all dressed up,” she said as she scanned her gaze over him and flipped the hem of his kilt up a half an inch before it fell back into place.
“It’s a big day. Are you sure you’re okay doing this with me? It’s your birthday, you don’t have to share it.”
She rested her arms on his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. “What better than a birthday for this?”
Les placed his hands on her hips and kissed her, breathing in her scent and everything about her before he stood. He could cancel the visit to the house and just steal her away to their planned picnic among the grape vines.
“Okay, let’s go.” He grabbed the basket he had prepared and followed her out of the apartment.
He settled into the passenger seat of her car. “You aren’t going to freak out on me now, right?”
“Les, I have been waiting for weeks for you to tell me everything. I’m not going to freak out.”
Tori navigated onto the highway out of St. Helena. They had a decent amount of time before they would arrive at Mission Run. Les hoped he had timed this right.
“My mother and her sister, Tia Connie, started working for the Palatines a long time ago. I don’t know at what point they were made aware of, or found out about, the Palatines, but they knew. My mother had an affair with one of the men. And had me. When she got pregnant, she left and went back to live with her mother, mi Abuela. I was raised with that crazy lot until I hit puberty. Unfortunately, around the same time, my mother passed away. She was out with friends on a motorcycle, and there was an accident.” Les got quiet for a long moment. “Before she died, she had told me that my other family was where Tia worked, and that I would go live with them soon. I didn’t know why. Tia came and got me, along with Remi and Joseph. Joe was Morgan’s father, you’ve met Remi. I was taken away from the only family I had ever known.”
Tori reached over and squeezed his leg. “I’m so sorry, Les.”
He let out a long sigh. “I hadn’t started shifting yet, but when I did, holy fuck was I glad I was with the Palatines and not at Abuelas. So, I found out rather traumatically that I could shift, and that one of the adult men there at the mansion was my father. That’s it. I don’t know who my father is.”
“But we’re finding out. And I’ll be right there with you when you do.”
“Yeah. I’m not really concerned about who my old man is from my perspective. You see, fuck, how do I put this? Tori you glow. I see some kind of magic aura around you that tells me you are perfect for me. And wolves mate for life. I’m the result of an affair. But whose? And what are their kids going to think of me showing up proving that the faith everyone has put into the magic of the mate glow is wrong.”
“Are you saying that this aura you see around me is wrong? That we are wrong together?”
“No, not at all. I don’t know if it’s even possible to be more in love with you than I already am. But aren’t I proof?”
“Maybe your biological father wasn’t mated at the time? Did you think about that?”
“I’m one of the younger cousins or siblings from our generation in that family. Yeah, I’ve thought about it, but they’re older than I am.”
“Okay, okay. I think we don’t worry about that until it’s actually time to worry about it. Is that why you waited so long to take the DNA test?” Tori asked.
Les nodded. He hadn’t told her Morgan had been pressuring him for months to take one.
“Why did you take it if you’re so worried about the fall-out?”
“I was being an asshole. They had requested it of me before, and my refusal was some kind of ego trip. I was going to lose you, and I was being a total ass to my family. I needed to start making amends to everyone. Taking a DNA test was an easy enough start to doing that.”
Tori parked the car in front of the extravagant home. Les got out and walked around to help her out of the car.
“Les, Tori, welcome back.” Remi sat waiting on the front deck when they arrived.
Tori nodded. “Nice to see you again.”
“Come on in. Morgan is expecting you.”
Les took Tori’s hand and led the way toward Morgan’s office.
“Don’t look so glum,” Morgan said as they stepped inside. “It’s a DNA test, not an order of execution.” He held out an envelope.
Les stared at it.
Tori took it. “Before we go all afternoon talk show here, I have a few questions.”
Morgan nodded and sat down.
She sat and tugged Les to also sit.
“What happened at the Vista Antigua?”
Morgan looked from Tori to Les. “You haven’t told her?”
Les shrugged. “I’ve told her what I know. Cyan’s assistant was having a fling with the manager. I don’t know why they got Tori involved. Cyan had me poking around to see what I could find out. That’s all I found out. Tori has been waiting for a chance to ask you. I told her if anyone knew what was going on, it would be you. You’re our alpha.”
“She knows about us?”
“How could I not? You were all running around either naked or in wolf form.”
Morgan twisted his lips to the side. “Okay, long story short. Cyan was responsible for the death of her assistant’s master.”
“Master?” Tori asked.
“You didn’t tell her about the Del Fuegos?”
Les scratched his head. “I wasn’t sure if I should.”
“You definitely should,” Tori said.
“That’s part of a much longer story. I’ll let Les fill you in on those details. What’s pertinent to you is that the woman called Madyson was playing the long game to get back at Cyan. She was trying to convince or blackmail the guards, and when they weren’t taking action quickly enough, Madyson went after the hotel manager. She had some mind control and was able to utilize it. What I gathered is she tried to influence Les, but couldn’t. She did not know what he was at first. She went after you to use you as leverage to get Les on her side.”
“But that didn’t work, did it?” Tori asked.
Morgan shook his head. “Unfortunately, you got caught up in a failed attempted love triangle revenge plot.”
“Love triangle?” Tori asked.
Les chuckled. “That explains why she was sleeping with everyone, trying to get them to do her dirty work. How did you know about it, though? I kept trying to get you to step in, kept telling Cyan to call you.”
“Apparently Cyan’s brother overheard something, and had Melinda give us a call.” Morgan shrugged. “And Caro wasn’t in St. Helena just for dance classes.”
“How would Cyan’s brother have been involved?” Tori asked.
“I think that’s part of the longer story Les needs to explain.”
Tori looked over at Les. “You’re gonna have a lot of explaining to do at lunch today.”
Les nodded. He kept looking at the envelope in her hands. “I think I need to see that now.”
Tori lifted it slowly. “You sure? I could read it for you if you’re not ready.”
“I’m ready,” Les said.
She handed it over. He carefully peeled back the flap. “Have you looked at this?” he asked Morgan.
“No, I think I might be as nervous as you are,” Morgan said.
Les held the open envelope but left the folded document inside. “You promise you won’t be mad at me if this says…” Les swallowed around a lump in his throat.
“I’d be proud to have you as my brother. Let’s find out.” Morgan encouraged.
Les scanned over the words. The first page was the ethnographic break-downs that made up his heritage. There was Native American in there along with a broad spectrum of European, Spanish and Italian. Mostly what he suspected.
He chewed on his lower lip as he flipped to the second page.
Genetic match for mother, unknown. Connie matched as an aunt.
“You made Connie test?” he quipped.
The next line, he read it and stared. Dropping the paper on the desk, Les stood and walked out the door.
Waiting for him in the hallway was Remi. His hands looked neatly folded in his lap, only they weren’t still as he wrung them. “Les?”
“How long have you known?” Les asked in a stilted voice. His gut clenched and his skin prickled.
“Your mother wouldn’t let me tell you. She made me promise that I would have to wait for you to reach out, for you to ask. But you’ve never wanted to know.”
Tori slipped her hand into Les’s. Her presence was a balm to his frazzled nerves. He looked down at her. “Tori, I’d like you to meet my father, Remi, Remus Palatine.”
She waved. “Nice to meet you, Les’s father. You two should talk.”
“About what?” Les asked.
“Anything, everything. What do you want to know?” Tori said.
“Did you love her?” Les turned back to face Remi.
“I did.”
“Why did she have to leave?”
“I didn’t want her to go. But when she got pregnant, she got scared. I can’t shift, but I wasn’t able to tell Maria that you wouldn’t when you got older. I had no way of knowing. So she took you and left so you could be raised the way she had been, before she had to give you up to come live with us. She could have stayed. I asked her to. I was devastated when she left. I waited for you to get older, and hoped she would come to live here if and when you started shifting and came to live with us.”
“But she died,” Les said flatly.
“But she died,” Remi repeated, “and I was heartbroken again. But you came, and you have her fiery eyes and fierce determination.”
“And you’re my father?”
Remi nodded.
Les twisted to see Morgan standing behind him. “Hey cousin. Did you have any idea?”
Morgan chuckled and shook his head. “None.”
“I’ve got one more question, and then I’m gonna take Tori out for the picnic I promised her. I’ve got a lot to process.”
“You do, take your time.” Remi looked as if he were going to say something else but changed his mind.
“Did my mother glow?”
Remi looked sad as he shook his head. “She did not. That didn’t stop me from loving her. I agreed to her wishes because I cared, and I didn’t want to hurt her.”
“Would you have let her go if she had glowed?”
Remi shook his head and shrugged. “I loved her, glowing or not. I can only imagine that I would have continued to follow her wishes in either case.”
Les nodded. “I don’t know who I expected that report to tell me who my father was. I’m relieved it’s not someone else. I don’t know if I expected your name to be there or not, or what I should be feeling right now.”
“We don’t have to go,” Tori said, wrapping her arm over his.
“It’s your birthday,” Les said, placing his hand over hers.
“And you just met your father.”
“Happy birthday, Tori,” Morgan said.
“Go take Tori on your picnic. We’ll be here when you come back, and do come back for dinner. We’ll have a birthday celebration for her,” Remi said. “She can meet the rest of the family.”
“I don’t want to scare her off.”
“Too late. I’d love to come back for dinner.”