haired woman.
She leaned into the car, peering down at me. “There’s no time, but I’m your aunt. My father, Geoff, sent me to get you to Montana.”
She clapped her hands loudly, and the portal appeared ahead of us. Reaching into the car, she squeezed my hand quickly before letting go. “I'll see you soon.”
My eyes widened as the shock settled into me.
My aunt.
I have an aunt.
What if I had an uncle and cousins and … holy crap. I had an entire side of the family I knew nothing about. Before I could think more on it, Noble gunned the gas.
‘Hold on,’ Rage said, a little too late.
My back slammed against the footwell, and then everything spun. The kaleidoscope of colors I’d remembered from last time exploded within the cab, and my insides twirled like a freaking carnival ride. And then we shot through the portal and back into Montana. I burst from the dirty clothes pile a second time and stared at Rage’s mom. Noble parked on the side of the road, and Rage climbed out of the back, distracting me for a second with his shirtless yum.
“You know my aunt?” I asked. Elaine had totally fumbled when she’d seen my mom’s sister—like she looked familiar.
Justice drove out into the wooded forest behind us and screeched his vehicle to a halt. Rage took the driver’s seat, but Elaine indicated that Noble should take shotgun.
“Head for Crescent Pack, Courage,” Elaine said and then crawled into the back seat next to me.
My heart thumped against my ribs. The alpha queen had just crawled over the center console for this. No way would it be good.
She grabbed my hands and tucked them into her own, offering me a sad smile. “It makes so much sense now.”
Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them back. “Now?”
Elaine swallowed. “Your father will have to fill in the gaps, but I’ll tell you what I know.”
I nodded, my hands slick with sweat. “I saw them, you know, in the Realm of the Dead. My mother and my … uncle? They were together…”
Somehow I couldn’t finish the sentence. To tell her they were holding hands, like … lovers.
Elaine nodded. “Honey … I don’t think your uncle is your uncle … but that’s for your father to confirm.”
Yeah … in some part of my mind, I’d put that together.
“What do you know?” I asked.
She patted the tops of my hands and then looked out the window. “The night the boys’ father died … it was well past midnight, and we were asleep in bed when someone pounded on the door.”
My gaze flicked to the front. Rage’s hands tightened on the wheel, and the muscle in his jaw ticked.
Elaine sighed. “It was Mackay, his best friend from Alpha Academy, someone he hadn’t spoken to in years.”
My throat went dry. My Uncle Mackay…
She looked at me, pity and heartache and so much emotion glistening in her eyes. “He was terrified. Clothes in tatters and filthy, he spoke so fast… In all the years at the Academy, I’d never seen him like that.”
“What happened?”
Elaine exhaled through pursed lips as she stared at the ceiling. “Those two did everything together at Alpha Academy. They may have been from different packs, but they were … what is that saying? Thick as thieves? Better than brothers. Anyway, Valor and Mackay made a pact that they’d always help each other … no matter what.”
Oh, mage. My funcle, because clearly he needed a name that wasn’t father or uncle, had gone to Rage’s dad for help.
“Valor told me to stay with the boys. The four of them had an adjoining room with a door that led to ours, and then he left. That’s the last time I saw him alive.” Elaine swallowed hard and dabbed her eyes.
I grimaced as realization settled like an itchy blanket over me—one I shrugged off. “That’s it?”
Elaine’s expression pinched with … regret? Fear? Anxiety? “Before Valor closed the door, I saw a silver-haired woman standing next to Mackay, her belly swollen with child. That mage looked a lot like the one at the portal moments ago.”
My aunt.
So my funcle had asked Rage’s dad for help with his high crime. AKA … me.
“How did Dad die?” Rage asked, his voice hoarse and trembling.
His voice yanked me back to the present. So lost in my own tragedy, I’d totally forgotten we were in the car with him and Noble.
Elaine shifted in her seat, and her eyes welled with fresh tears. Had she never spoken