Her Pack by Tamara White
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Liaand I are sitting at the table, both of us a little unsure about this current situation. Jason grabs his phone and is ready to dial Tim, but I just need a moment.
“Are you sure your father and mine are the same?” Lia questions her eyes filled with countless different emotions. Most likely the same as what I’m feeling. Confusion, anger, frustration, hope, denial, and pretty much everything else one could imagine at finding out you share a father with another person.
“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I’m as close to certain as I can get without making you have a DNA test. The name you had, was one I know my father used often in the human world,” I explain, then continue on with what else I noticed upon meeting her. “Plus, when I saw you this morning, I couldn’t help the familiarity that was bugging me. Like I had met you long before I’d seen you with this pack. When you said Dad’s name, I could see it. The similarities between the two of you. If your eyes were green, and your hair a lot lighter, then I would have seen it sooner.”
She chuckles softly. “Yeah, mom jokes that the only part of her I got was her dark hair and her eyes.” She shakes her head, then studies me too. “Do you take after your mom?”
I smile sadly. “Yeah, I do, but I never got to meet her, so I’ve recently begun taking it as a blessing. A reminder that when I look in the mirror, there is still some part of my mom alive in the world,” I tell her with a sigh. And now there’s still a part of dad in the world.
As pathetic as it may seem, I truly hope that Lia is my sister, if not for the fact I have a piece of my father on this earth beside me, but because it will mean my family has gotten bigger.
“Call Tim, we need to know.” I direct my gaze at Jason, who dials Tim’s number than leaves the phone on the middle of the table. It’s clear he put it on speakerphone when the sound of it ringing echoes through the room.
Lia and I both give each other nervous smiles while we wait.
“Jason? Is everything okay?” Tim’s voice is loud as it echoes through the room.
Cam squeezes my shoulders, giving me the strength to talk. “Sorry, Tim. It’s not Jason, it’s well a few of us. We have you on speakerphone," I inform him. That way he won’t say anything too private if he knows there are other listeners. Not that he has much he could reveal about me.
“Dani? What’s going on? Is Luke attacking? Do you need help?”
“No, no, it’s not anything like that, we’re all fine,” I rush to reassure him. I blow out a breath, wondering how to word this without being an ass. “Look, I just called because I have to ask you something about my father, and I need for you to be completely truthful. No sugar coating it or anything to avoid hurting my feelings, just be as blunt as possible.”
“Oh, alright then, what is it?” I can hear a car horn through the phone and wonder if he’s currently driving? No, someone would drive him, he’s the Alpha, I remind myself.
“Go ahead, Dani. Ask away. I will be honest with you, I promise.”
I take in a breath and slowly let it out, preparing myself mentally. “Did my dad have a kid with a human before he met my mom?”
“What? No, not that I’m aware of.” His voice doesn’t change to that of someone lying, and my gut doesn’t sense it as a lie, but I have no clue if my lie detector abilities work over the phone too.
“Was he at a human college before he met mom? Is it possible he met someone there, and you just didn’t know about her?”
I fire off both of the questions, unsure whether or not I made a mistake. I know he used the name Greg Bartlett on a few of his human ID’s though, but it’s entirely plausible it’s a common name. Maybe not for other wolfs to use, but common enough that I very well could have made a mistake.
“Of course your father attended college. Where else do you think he got his degrees in environmental science and botany?” Tim sighs down the line. “Why are you asking this, Dani? Why are you so concerned with your father’s past before he met your mother? You know he loved Blair more than life itself. His past relationships were simply that, the past.”
Lia appears distraught by his words, and I reach out across the table, gripping her hand in mine. “It matters because I met a girl today, and I’m pretty certain that she is my half sister, on dad’s side.”
There’s a beat of silence before Tim clears his throat, like he’s not sure how to respond. “Are you sure?”
“No, I’m not, which is why I called you. When Lia told me the name her father gave to her mother, I recognized it as the same one Dad used to use in the human world. And it doesn’t seem possible that there are two people using the same name in the wolf world. It isn’t just that though, she looks like Dad. The longer I stare at her, the more convinced I am.”
“She’s not wrong, Tim. I didn’t notice it at first, but now that I’m looking for it, I see Greg a lot more than I do even in Dani. it’s pretty uncanny,” Jason notes, his eyes fixed on Lia.
I imagine once the rest of my mates are informed of the connection, they will notice it a lot easier too.
“Well, I guess it’s possible, but Greg never mentioned it to me, so I doubt he had an inkling. If he knew he had a daughter out there, he would have kept a close eye on her and been a part of her life. As to any humans he could have been involved with, he only ever mentioned a woman by the name of Ivy that he dated a couple months before the trials begun. From what he said back then, she apparently got furious with him when he said he had to leave and told him that if he left, she didn’t want to see him again. But then, he met your mom and never really thought about her again.”
I’m watching Lia the whole time Tim speaks and at the mention of Ivy, her eyes light up. My guess is that Ivy is her mother.
“Thanks Tim, I think you just confirmed what we needed.”
“Yeah,” Lia breathes. “Ivy was my mom. Thank you for helping us.”
“Oh, well, you’re both welcome, I guess.” There’s silence on the other end, like Tim is unsure how to proceed. “If you girls want to know anything else, we can talk about it when I get there.”
“Alright then,” I say, reaching for the phone to end the call when my mind catches up to his words. “Wait, what do you mean when you get here? Are you coming to visit?”
I glance around the room at Eli, Jason, and finally up to Cam. Each of them is wearing matching expressions of guilt. Tim chuckles, drawing my attention back to the phone. “I guess they were planning on leaving it a surprise. Sorry, boys!”
“What surprise? What is going on?” I demand, looking for answers, but each of them remains quiet. “Tim, what are they planning? Am I going to need to plan a week of torturous pranks?” I joke, watching my mates all frown.
“Really, Dani? You haven’t figured it out yet? It’s your birthday in a few days. You didn’t really think any of us would miss that, did you? We’re on our way to help you celebrate. Me, Laura, the Elders, your grandparents and Lily all decided to come down and make it the best birthday a girl could ask for. Even some of the pack members are coming to stay with the rogues to help you celebrate your eighteenth in style.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, now go and enjoy yourself until we get there. I imagine Laura is going to be stuck to you like glue once she sees you,” he laughs lightly. I know it’s probably true. I’ve missed her though, and it will be great to see her, to ask how her pregnancy is going.
“Be good, Dani.” The phone clicks, the line going dead.
I remain silent, not sure what to say to Lia. She, however, seems a little agitated. “My mom told him not to come back.”
I blink, wondering how she got stuck on that fact. “Why would she do that? Why wouldn’t she want our dad to meet you?”
She gets to her feet, giving me a longing glance. “I think I should go.”
“Lia, I know this is hard, it’s a whole new reality being thrown at you. But, my dad, he was an amazing father, despite losing his mate. If he knew you existed, I can guarantee that he would have done anything in his power to find you.”
“Maybe,” she says a little dejectedly. “Or maybe he would have been satisfied that one of his daughters was a Queen, while the other is nothing but a half human, half wolf mutt.”
“Lia...” I don’t even know how to respond to that. There is no way dad would have thought that, but I can see by her expression she won’t believe otherwise. “I’m sorry you feel that way. Maybe it’s best we both take some time to process?” She isn’t looking at me, her eyes seeming far away. I can’t even imagine what she’s thinking about. “If you want to know more about our father, then you only have to seek me out and ask, okay?”
She nods absentmindedly and leaves the room. I give Jason a worried glance. “Please go with her and make sure she gets home okay.” He nods and exits the room, leaving me with Eli and Cam.
Both of them take a seat at the table, looking over at me with concern. I guess if it was one of them in the same position, I would be filled with worry too.
“Well,” I say, not sure how to feel. “I have a sister, guys. How cool is that?”
“Cool?” Eli questions, his eyes flicking to Cam. “Don’t you mean weird?”
“Well, it’s strange, but I don’t know.” I sigh and sink my head into my hands. “I don’t know,” I mutter in my hands. “I always thought it would be cool to have a brother or sister, but this wasn’t how I was expecting it to happen.” My voice is muffled, but they heard me.
I always thought I would be the older sibling, but that is not the case here. Lia is older than me by a few months but still she’s the older one. In my fantasies, it was always me being the big sister, looking after my younger sibling. Teaching them the things I had learned with age.
This scenario, though, involves me being an Alpha Queen. While Lia may not have the royal line in her, she is connected to me. If I worry about how my enemies will want to use my mates against me, then I can see them targeting Lia too. She doesn’t deserve that kind of life.
Cam scoots his chair closer. “Maybe you need to do what you told Lia to, and just take a moment to breathe and adjust. Stop overthinking whatever is going on in your head, and just take it one step at a time. If she wants to acknowledge the relationship she could have with you, then great, but if she doesn’t, then you need to be prepared for that possibility too.”
I know Cam is being logical, but I think it will hurt if she wants nothing to do with me. Hopefully with time, she will be ready to talk about our father.
