Keeping Secret (Secret McQueen) - By Sierra Dean Page 0,46

no way around it, short life or long, I couldn’t escape the decision. I had thought choosing to marry Lucas had made the choice for me, but I was still deeply entrenched in my vampire half, and as long as I had a foot in each world, my choice would remain up in the air. My destiny was a coin tossed high, and eventually it would come back down and I would know—wolf or vampire. I couldn’t be both forever.

“I like you,” Callum said. “Things would have been very different for you if Vivienne hadn’t taken you from us.”

Sure. I’d be dead.

“Well, what’s past is past. But if you have a time machine, I’d be willing to give your version a go.”

“Do you know why she took you?” He sounded genuinely curious.

“She thought because Mercy had abandoned me the pack would shun me. She was afraid for me. Of what a young teenaged king might do to an unwanted baby.” I shot him a look.

“A baby who was a born wolf?”

Looks like my story for Magnolia had made it all the way to the top. “Yes.”

“No, my dear, we wouldn’t have shunned you for that.”

I shrugged. “I can’t know now if that was true then.”

“Well, why would you be any different?”

“Different?”

“We didn’t shun Mercy’s other children.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Inside my skull, behind the intense headache that had blossomed out of nowhere, a thousand different versions of what the fuck were bouncing against the sensitive tissue of my brain, bruising me with their sharp, jagged edges.

What came out when I opened my mouth was, “Wuhhhuuueeeezzzzeeee.”

“I guess she didn’t get around to telling you about them when she saw you in New York.”

“She was too busy trying to shred my face.”

“Yes, well. Not the best time for her to deliver such news.” He gave a half shrug.

“Them. You said plural. How many bastard pups has Mercy kicked to the curb?” My heart was hammering against my sternum. I often found that snark was a great way to mask other real emotions. I didn’t have a name for what I was feeling now. Terror… Excitement…

It was motherfucking hope.

“Three. You were first, of course. Then about four years after she abandoned you, she came back seeking refuge. She had the twins with her then, only a few weeks old. We took her in because she was a rightful member of the pack and she was afraid for the safety of her babies. By morning, Mercy was gone, and we raised her pups as part of the pack.”

“Twins.”

“Yes. You’ve met your brother.”

I choked when I tried to swallow.

“Ben,” Callum clarified. “I sent him with Amelia as one of my emissaries in February.”

Oh my God. I’d shaken hands with my own brother and hadn’t had the faintest idea of who he was. I remembered how I’d marveled about us sharing the same last name and wondered how much family I had down here I didn’t know about.

All the while my family had been within reach.

“And your sister…”

I thought of the ages, my heart throbbing. “Magnolia?”

Callum laughed then. “No, no. Magnolia is Amelia’s daughter. Your sister is part of the reason I asked you here.”

“Why?”

“Eugenia, your sister, took on the change at the same time Ben did. Afterwards, Eugenia became difficult. Not like a normal teenager, but something different. The Awakening altered her somehow.”

“How?”

“We haven’t been able to find out. Within the year she ran away. We know where she is, but we can’t get her to come home.”

“You’re the king, she’s pack. It can’t be too hard.”

“You of all people should know nothing is that simple with high-spirited, teenaged werewolves.” He raised one brow and gave me a meaningful look. “She is with family, which is enough for me to believe she’s safe. But she is eighteen now. It’s time for her to come back, and that’s where you come in.”

“How am I going to convince an eighteen-year-old to come home if you’ve already failed?”

“How you do it isn’t my concern. I’m sure you have ways of being very persuasive.”

Sure, but they usually involved broken fingers or silver weapons of some kind. I didn’t want that to be my introduction to my sister.

My sister. I rolled the words around in my head over and over until they almost lost meaning. But they never lost their power.

“You said you know where she is. She’s with family?”

“Yes.” He ran one big hand through his curls and shook his head in a bemused and exhausted way. “She’s with Vivienne’s mother. Your