Pretty Baby(30)

"Elliot, if these doctor appointments are so important then why haven't  the doctors ever discussed your medical issues with you?" Daniel asked,  gaining Elliot's attention. "You're a legal adult. I would think your  medical history is your business, not your father's."

"The doctors work for my father."

The hairs on Elliot's arm began to stand up as silence filled the room.  He looked around at all the faces in the room, not liking what he was  seeing. Their faces had expressions ranging from horror to anger. And  Elliot didn't understand why.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Elliot shrank back when Donovan suddenly sat forward. A small growl fell  from his lips until Donovan held up his hand. "Please, I don't want to  fight. I just have a couple of questions for you."                       
       
           



       

Elliot didn't trust the man but he nodded.

"How well do you know your father?"

"Uh." Elliot glanced between Daniel and Tommy. He really wasn't sure how  to answer that question. Neither man seemed to have an answer for him.  "Not very well, I guess. He wasn't around a lot when I was growing up."

"Did you live in the same house?" Donovan asked.

"He was gone on business most of the time, but until I was fifteen we  lived in the same house, then I was sent away to boarding school."

"Elliot got very sick when he was fifteen," Tommy said, his arms  tightening around Elliot. "He almost died. It was after he recovered  that he was sent to boarding school."

"Fifteen?" Donovan asked, one eyebrow raised in query. Tommy nodded.

"Puberty?"

The sudden silence in the room made Elliot wish he could crawl under the  couch. It was frightening. "Something is going on here and I really  wish that someone would tell me what in the hell it is."

"Elliot, shifters hit puberty around that age," Daniel said softly. "We  don't shift until we hit puberty. I suspect that is what made you so  sick."

"I don't … " Elliot glanced at each man in confusion, finding the same  angry expression on their faces. He didn't understand what they were all  so angry about. "I don't understand."

"You didn't shift, Elliot. It's natural for us to shift when we hit  puberty. When you didn't shift, you got sick. And I suspect that your  father knew all about it."

Elliot inhaled sharply. "Do you think he was trying to stop me from shifting?"

"No, Elliot, I think your father was waiting for you to shift and when you didn't, he sent you away."

"It's the only explanation," Donovan added.

"We're going to have to call Devlin," Chase said as he looked at  Donovan. Something was going on between the two brothers but Elliot  couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. "I think he needs to be here."

"Who's Devlin?" Elliot asked, glancing between the two men.

"My twin brother," Donovan said.

"You remember that friend of mine who I said was mated to a vampire prince?" Tommy asked.

Elliot nodded.

"That would be Devlin."

"Dude!"

Tommy chuckled. "Maybe you'll get to meet your first vampire."

"Donovan, I also think we need to go get Flynn." Chase grimaced as if he  didn't like the thought. "He has as much right to be here as the rest  of us."

"You know mother will be pissed," Donovan said, shaking his head. "She doesn't like him leaving home."

Elliot only heard one word and confusion filled him. Mother? How in the  hell were they talking about their mother getting pissed if she was  already dead? Elliot pushed his confusion away as anger took its place.  He suddenly felt like he was being played with and he was not happy  about it.

"Wait just a damn minute. First your mother was dead, then I smelled  like her, and now you're talking about her getting pissed off?" Elliot  jumped to his feet, glaring at the brothers. He clenched his fists and  stomped his foot in frustration. "Does anyone besides me see the problem  here?"

"Oh geez, Elliot!" Donovan pushed his hand through his collarlength  brown hair. "Man, I'm sorry. I didn't even think how this would sound to  you. Our birth mother is dead. The woman we're talking about is our  stepmother. She's the one that's going to get pissed when we go get  Flynn."

"Who is Flynn?" Elliot's confusion came back in a rush when Donovan shot Chase a slow look.

"Flynn is our younger brother," Chase said. "He had a real bad  experience several years ago, so our stepmother is very protective of  him. She doesn't like him leaving the house."

"You mean she thinks Flynn is her last chance at grandchildren," Donovan snorted.

"Excuse me?"

"Chase, Devlin, and I are all gay, and all mated to men. It drives our  stepmother up a wall. She can't stand the idea that we're with men or  that we mated men against her explicit direction not to. She wants  grandchildren to carry on the family bloodline, and she doesn't care how  she gets them."

"Or who she hurts to get them," Chase added.

Donovan nodded in agreement.

"This woman sounds like a real piece of work," Elliot said. "Why doesn't your father do something about her?"

Donovan shrugged. "I don't think our father ever got over our mother's  death. He's pretty much lived out of a bottle since she died. Our  stepmother runs things in the family. It's one of the reasons the three  of us went with Quilliam Reece when he became alpha of his own pack, so  we could get away from her."                       
       
           



       

"Another reason our stepmother hates us," Chase added.

"So, you just left your brother there with her?" Elliot asked, shocked.

"We've been planning on going back for Flynn, but there hasn't been  time. When we arrived here in Wolf Creek Valley, we all kind of found  our mates. Between that, and getting things set up for Flynn, it's been  kind of hard to get him.

"You have to understand, Elliot," Chase added, "several years ago,  someone kidnapped Flynn," Chase replied. "They wanted to study him and  learn how shifting worked. By the time we found him again, he had been  so abused and tortured that he was never the same again. He doesn't  leave home, ever."

"I think that's when our father really went downhill. He married our  stepmother right after that. Maybe he was trying to find us another  mother or something, someone that could care for us because he  couldn't." Donovan shrugged. "Maybe he just didn't want the  responsibility anymore. I don't know. But that's when things changed."

Elliot thought he detected a hint of tears in Chase's eyes when the man  looked at him, but he couldn't be sure. He didn't know Chase, or  Donovan, that well.

"Our mother was pregnant when she got kidnapped. I think that's what  really did it for our father. He lost not only our mother but his child  as well. When Flynn was kidnapped, it just kind of sent him over the  edge."

"Elliot, I'd like you to do something for me."

Elliot looked at Chase, his words coming right out of the blue.  Apprehension filled him when the large man stood up and walked toward  him. He started to push back against Tommy, but shock froze him in place  when Chase knelt down on the floor in front of him.

"I'm not making a pass at you or anything," Chase said as he tilted his  head to one side, baring his neck, "but I need you to sniff my neck."

This couldn't be happening, Elliot thought as he looked back at Tommy in  confusion. He could see that Tommy didn't like what Chase wanted him to  do. The man's lips were pressed tightly together, his eyebrows drawn  together in a deep frown.

"Tommy?"

"Go ahead, pretty baby, just don't sniff him very long. My wolf might  take it wrong and attack Chase for making a pass at my mate."

"I don't have to-"

"No, you do. This is important, Elliot. You need to smell Chase's neck."

Elliot was more confused than he could ever remember being but he did as  his mate said, leaning forward to sniff at Chase's neck. Instantly, an  alluring scent filled his nose. It was a combination of an outdoor  woodsy scent and summer rain.

Elliot blinked as tears came to his eyes. "You smell like my mother."

Chase nodded and scooted back to sit on the couch beside his brother. "I suspected as much."

"Suspected what?" Elliot asked.

The look that passed between Chase and Donovan before they looked back  over at him sent chills down Elliot's back. He braced himself, not sure  he was going to like what they had to say. He was suddenly terrified  what they would say would take Tommy from him and grabbed onto the man's  arms to hold him close.