11. I Am Not Your Son!
ELEVEN
I AM NOT YOUR SON!
Jack
T he chopper touched down, jerking me forward. I growled underneath the black sack they’d shoved over my head a few minutes ago.
“Up you get, half-breed,” one of the agents muttered by my ear. I stood, shoving the man aside when he tried to take me by the elbow, hoping that he couldn’t hear the crinkling of the paper envelope hidden inside the lining of my jacket. The letter, given to me by a Shifter. A Shifter who was also my uncle.
“Your father gave me this, before he died. In case I ever had a chance to pass it onto his offspring.” Asbj?rn had said, pressing it into my hand, his icy eyes serious.
He was dead.
One half of my DNA, the male whose ‘deposit’ had impregnated my mother.
My father.
Dead.
And he’d left a letter for me.
The envelope felt like it was burning a hole in my jacket. I hadn’t opened it. I wasn’t sure whether I would, or if I’d just tear the fucking thing to shreds and flush it down the toilet.
Did I even care enough to know more about this male who I shared genes with?
I felt my way to the ground from the door of the chopper, refusing to let the assholes who blindfolded me help. I managed without even a tiny stumble. My monster senses were well and truly online.
I realized I hadn’t been dosed the entire time we’d been away.
That realization hit me even harder when I moved through a door that was sealed behind me, and the black sack was ripped from my head.
And even though this place was fucking enormous, I could smell springtime. And black tea.
I could smell her .
The other words my Shifter ‘uncle’ had said to me as he ushered me out a back way, thankfully avoiding the depraved shit going on in his club, slammed back into my skull with more clarity than I’d felt at the time.
“Your blood is calling, youngster,” Asbj?rn said softly. I looked up into his serious face. His jaw was tight, like whatever the fuck he was telling me was terrifying to him.
“Ignore it. Do not answer that call.”
“Why?” I managed to ask. My mouth felt numb with shock. I was holding in my hands a letter from my biological father. My immortal biological father.
My dead immortal biological father.
Asbj?rn sighed, his eyes flitting to the envelope in my hand. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll resist the urge to Join. It leads to nothing but pain.”
And then he’d opened my jacket, used one black claw to slice the lining, and had stuffed the letter inside.
“Don’t let Baxter get his hands on that,” he’d warned, and then he’d shoved me back into the stone corridor beneath the Japanese Pagoda, slamming the door behind him.
Gee, thanks so much for the advice, ‘Uncle’ Asbj?rn!
‘It leads to nothing but pain’ . Could he at least have told me something I didn’t know? I snorted. Hadn’t I watched the agony Blaire had been in when Roman had gone off on his little stupid side quest and left her alone, knowing what would happen to her?
Selfish prick. And stupid, too, because he would’ve felt just as shit as she did. Maybe being Joined turned immortals into total fucking idiots.
I definitely didn’t want anything to do with it.
“What the fuck is so funny, half-breed?” the agent, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against me, snapped. I shrugged, taking shallow breaths, because I could smell her like she was standing right next to me.
Were they pumping her scent through the air vents to drive me insane?
“Nothing,” I grunted. “It stinks in here, that’s all.”
The agents started down the corridor, one of them muttering, “Filthy fucking Shifter, he probably smells like wet dog.”
I clenched my jaw so hard it creaked as Baxter fell into step beside me. I started to follow the agents, but his arm shot out, holding me back.
I stared down at the spindly little thing, then raised an eyebrow at him. I could snap it in two with just my thumb and middle finger. He flinched his arm away and took a step back, but his expression was determined.
“What did Asbj?rn want with you?” he muttered once the hallway ahead of us was completely empty.
Lie … the monster commanded.
I’m not a fucking moron!
I kept my fists firmly by my sides, not giving him the slightest hint that I had contraband hidden inside my jacket.
“He just wanted to offer me the … human blood again,” I replied with a sneer as if I found the very idea of it disgusting.
It wasn’t even a stretch—I did find it disgusting.
“Why did he have to do that without my presence?” Baxter asked, his brow furrowed. Clearly, he didn’t trust Asbj?rn. And it was fucking obvious to anyone with the brain cells of a gnat that Asbj?rn didn’t trust him.
Great allies they were. The second they offed Fortis, the whole thing was going to fall apart.
“He assumed I said no because I didn’t want to seem too eager in front of you.” The lies rolled off my tongue as if I’d been practicing them in front of a mirror, and not that I was pulling them out of my ass.
“What did you tell him?” Baxter asked. He seemed way too invested in whether I drank human blood or not.
I shrugged. “I told him to shove his blood up his ass. He escorted me out pretty quick after that.”
Baxter’s lips pursed as he watched me, and for a second, I thought he might actually crack a smile. But then he strode off down the corridor.
“You did well tonight, Jack,” he said as I followed him. I sneered behind his back.
I had zero idea what I’d done that was so amazing, but I wasn’t about to argue.
One step closer to getting out of this shithole and getting back to Blaire.
You cannot leave without HER.
I ignored the stupid voice, even as I inhaled another hit of her. And hated myself for how much I enjoyed every breath of that scent.
“You see, Jack, Asbj?rn will be especially motivated to … comply with our agreement having seen you. Your presence at that meeting was more beneficial than you could ever imagine.”
If my eyes could have shot daggers into his back, he would have been bleeding out on the floor. What a piece of shit! Using the fact that Asbj?rn’s brother had died, and I was a living piece of him … what a dick move!
But of course, Baxter had no idea I knew these details. Which said he underestimated me, and Asbj?rn.
Moron.
“And because you played your part to perfection tonight, I think you can have a little … reward.”
I stopped breathing for a second. Would he let me see Blaire? Was she somewhere in here? Fuck I hoped not. But if she wasn’t … how had the clusterfuck in the clearing on Greenrock ended? No one had told me much, and to be honest, I’d been so stuck in my own head about it all that I hadn’t wanted details.
“I thought you might like to have a chat with your parents.”
I ’d never been into this part of the facility before. Not that I’d really seen much of this place at all, but I’d never seen a corridor like this. It was wider, and it wasn’t all concrete walls and linoleum floor.
It was carpeted. And the doors, while solid, weren’t bombproof.
There were no hybrids behind these doors.
But it was still a prison.
My stomach dropped. I had no words as Baxter and another agent who met us at the elevator led me down the hallway. Why hadn’t I ever thought that my parents would be held here, too? I’d assumed they were back at home, going about their lives, knowing they’d done their bit and raised a half-breed in the wilds of Chicago’s ritzy Forest Lake, and had dutifully handed me over to Operation Stranger when commanded to.
The memory of bullets exploding out of a gun echoed my brain. Of me stepping in front of Daphne Rodgers because she was defying Baxter, and someone had tried to shut her up.
My parents had been involved. And if they were being held like this, what was happening to Daphne? And did Harvey know about it? Did he even care? He’d seemed afraid the last time I’d seen him. He’d been trying to tell me something, but Baxter had interrupted him. And it was pretty obvious that Harvey wasn’t allowed access to me anymore. What did he know?
Where the fuck was Blaire?
“Ten minutes, Jack,” Baxter said, looking down at his watch like this was all supremely boring to him. Asshole. The other agent stepped up to a door, unlocking it with a card kept strapped to his belt. The door buzzed and then swung open.
I stepped inside. The room was spacious, decked out like a five-star hotel. This Operation had some serious cash to be fitting out the human jail cells this nicely.
A couch faced away from me, a TV on the wall behind it. It was switched off, and the pale, tight faces of my parents, at opposite ends of the couch, reflected in it. They looked around as I stepped inside, eyes widening as they took me in, staggering to their feet. I clenched my jaw.
“Jack,” Mom breathed. And then she stood and rushed to me on shaky legs. I couldn’t move. She was emaciated. Her skin looked like it hung from her body. There were lines around her eyes and on her forehead that hadn’t been there before.
I glanced behind her to where Dad … Michael … stood. He didn’t approach, but he watched me with sad, wary eyes. He looked older, too. His hair was more gray than brown now.
I hadn’t been here that long, had I? Weeks, at most, had been my guess, even when I was in the haze of self-hatred and the drugs they filled me with.
Mom collided with me, her arms wrapping around me, not being able to make it all the way around my chest. Even without a scrap of shifting going on, I was still much bigger than I’d ever been. My arms stayed by my sides.
“Jack,” she whispered again. “We thought we’d never see you again.”
I felt nothing but coldness at her words.
“Wasn’t that the plan?” I asked, my tone dead. I kept my eyes trained on Michael. “Raise the freak like he’s a human kid, then hand him over the second he starts to change. That was the deal you made when you started this, wasn’t it?”
Michael’s eyes flicked away from mine. Yep. Confirmation right there. But Mom dragged in a sobbing breath against my chest.
“It’s so much more complicated than that,” she mumbled. Hot tears soaked into the front of my jacket. Fuck. The envelope.
I might never want to read whatever my biological father had written to me, but I didn’t want the choice taken away from me. I gripped Mom by the shoulders and pressed her back. Preparing myself to lie, just like I had to Baxter in the corridor earlier.
“Sorry, Mom. I’ve been a bit of a mess. And I got no warning that I’d get to see you guys, so I guess I’m just a … a bit emotional.” I turned her and steered her towards the couch, sitting her down beside Michael and taking a seat, putting as much space as I could between me and them.
Only willpower kept me from reaching into my jacket to check on the letter.
“Have you been home at all?” I asked, looking around the space because it was easier than looking them in the eyes. There was another door that looked like it probably led into a bedroom. Did they know I’d been kept in a room with no privacy, not even when using the john?
How much did they know about what was going on here?
How much did I really know?
“We were told that it’s not safe to return to Forest Lake, Jack,” Michael said warily as Mom dropped her face into her hands and shook. Tears spilled between her fingers, and my heart lurched. My skin felt too tight. Like the monster lurking under the surface was ready to tear its way out.
“Why?” I asked, but I thought I knew the answer.
Michael’s face went gray as he glanced down at Mom, putting a hand on her back and rubbing gentle circles there. “Things didn’t go … quite to plan that last night on Greenrock. And until that threat is neutralized, we need to lie low.”
My barely-held emotions exploded.
“Shit, that’s shocking news. I was positive the plan all along had been for Blaire to be kidnapped by some skin-thieving freak, for Daphne to get shot at by these maniacs you’ve been working with, and for me to take the bullet for her.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed, pulling Mom closer to him and stroking her head as she dissolved into violent, wracking sobs. I felt a pang of guilt, but I stifled it. These two had known what I would become all along. And they’d let me get a taste of a normal life, only to have the rug snatched out from under me in the worst possible way.
“Was my whole life just some sordid experiment to you?” I asked, my voice a hoarse growl. I pushed away from the couch, rubbing at my tingling arms, rolling my burning shoulder blades. The last thing I wanted was to shift in front of them, but I was balancing on a knife-edge.
Mom choked on a sob, but Michael sighed. “Of course not. You’re our son, I—”
“I am not your son!” I snarled, rounding on him, teeth and claws popping free. Mom and Michael stared up at me; Mom’s face blotchy and tear stained, Michael’s face a tightly held mask over his fear.
They should be afraid.
I was afraid of myself. I clenched my jaw, turning away and leaning against the wall, struggling to get myself under control. My skin rippled, but no hair shot through it. Pain seared through my shoulder blades, enough to have me hissing through my monster teeth.
I needed another dose of the suppression drugs. Now.
“Jack …” Michael’s voice was tentative. “Are you …”
“Don’t you dare ask me if I’m okay!” I grated, my teeth piercing my lip. “I am not okay! None of this is fucking okay!”
The door burst open.
“Michael, back away from Jack,” Baxter said. I squeezed my eyes shut, hating the surge of relief I felt at the sound of his dead voice. He would drug me. I wouldn’t have to feel like this.
Don’t trust the drugs , the monster warned darkly. You need to be free of them, to break free with her.
I ignored it as Michael and Mom were hustled from the room, and an agent hurried in with a syringe. I pressed my face to the cool wall, waiting for the moment when the drugs took me down.