“At least.”
“Until then,” I continued. “This is home. I want everyone to get plenty of rest tonight, because tomorrow, we make plans to bury the new council chair. And don’t worry about the shovel shortage,” I said, glancing from face to determined face. “Because Calvin Malone has just dug his own grave.”
Twenty-five
“Holly, would you like a drink?” I asked, eyeing Michael, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that already. But he only shook his head, and I caught a flare of annoyance in his frown.
“She doesn’t drink. Alcohol has too many calories.”
And homemade cocoa doesn’t? I glanced from my brother to his wife, whose hands were actually shaking in her lap. “I think she’d make an exception today.”
Holly nodded, crossing her legs beneath her funeral skirt. “Something strong.” Maybe some of my clothes would fit her, until we could take her shopping.
Michael stood, and I called after him as he headed for the kitchen. “There should be several bottles left under the sink, and with any luck, the ice tray’s full. But I doubt there’s anything to mix with, other than Coke.”While he poured, I glanced around the living room, assessing the general level of despair while I tried to decide how best to help my brother tell his wife that he wasn’t entirely human. And neither was his family.
We had a little more breathing room, with four of the toms gone on errands, but Marc’s small house was still a tight fit for a group our size. I’d sent my mother to lie down, and Jace had blown up one of the air mattresses in the front bedroom for Manx and Des, who were both already asleep. He’d blown the other one up for Kaci, but so far she’d refused to leave my side, and I couldn’t really blame her.
Owen, Brian, Carver, and Jace were playing poker at the card table in the kitchen, but had only made it through two hands so far, because Owen kept leaving to check on Manx, and Jace kept staring at me rather than at his hand.
Michael returned with a drink for his wife—whiskey and Coke, based on the scent—and sank onto the couch next to her, drawing in a long, tense breath. He was ready. But I couldn’t let him do it.
Disclosure of our existence to a human was a capital offense, punishable by an automatic death sentence. In this particular case, we had no choice—Holly obviously knew something was very, very wrong, and even her mafia fixation would cease to make sense once we started planning for the renaissance of the south-central Pride.
But I couldn’t give Malone a chance to take another brother from me or a husband from Holly. And if they didn’t want to kill me for handing Lance Pierce over to the thunderbirds, then disclosing our secret to Holly wouldn’t change that.
“Michael. Let me.”
He frowned. “Faythe…”
I shrugged. My Pride. My responsibility. “What are they going to do? Kill me twice?”
“You sure?” Michael asked, eyeing me closely.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, what the hell are you talking about?” Holly drained her short glass and coughed, then clutched it like nothing else in the world made sense at that moment. “If you’re not some kind of mob family, who were the men in those cars and how can they kick you out of your own home? And if we had to run away to protect the women and children, why did we leave Faythe behind?”
Michael put a hand on her arm, trying to calm her. “Faythe isn’t a woman—she’s an Alpha.”
I frowned at Michael, warning him not to say anything else. All the important facts needed to come from me, or he’d be opening himself up to serious trouble.
“Um, point of fact,” Jace chimed in from the card table, flaunting an actual grin—the first I’d seen in a while. “That’s not an either/or. She’s very definitely a woman, too.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed in irritation, but he refrained from replying, probably because his own personal life was in a bit of a shambles at the moment. He knew about me and Jace—we’d made a detail-less disclosure to the adult members of the household, out of necessity—but Kaci did not, so I shot Jace a censorious glance.
He shrugged in apology, but didn’t look very sorry.
“I’m not following any of this,” Holly snapped, and I had to respect her spirit. “Look, I know something’s wrong, and you guys have always been a little weird—sorry, but it’s true—and I’m sitting here scared to death that someone’s going to bust down the door with an automatic weapon and equalize us. So I wish you’d just spit it out. Whatever you have to say can’t be worse than what I’m imagining.”
“Don’t bet on that…” Kaci mumbled, and I put a hand on her arm to quiet her.
“You’re right.” I tried to smile at Holly to reassure her, but I couldn’t make my mouth cooperate. I was not in a smiley kind of place. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through today, and I know it must be scary. But I need you to be patient. And as openminded as you can possibly manage.”
Holly only nodded, splitting her focus between me and Michael.
“We’re not in any kind of mob or gang, though I can understand how it might look like that, from the outside.” I took a deep breath, uncomfortably aware that I was about to intentionally break one of our three most important laws. “We’re shape-shifters. Specifically, feline. We’re werecats. All of us.”
Holly blinked. Then she blinked again. Her mouth opened, then snapped shut. Then she turned to Michael, brows raised in question. “I’m seriously traumatized here, and she’s making jokes. This isn’t funny. Tell me what the hell is going on, or I’m out of here. For good, Michael.”
“She’s not joking. I know it sounds impossible. Crazy—” he began, but she cut him off.
“You think! I hope the men in those cars had a year’s supply of straitjackets and Thorazine, because you’re all insane. All of you. I’m leaving…” She tried to stand, and my hand closed over her wrist. Michael stood with her, moving smoothly between his wife and the front door.
“Let go of me!” She snatched her arm from my grip, and I let her go. Everyone was watching Holly now, except for Jace, who watched me expectantly.
“Michael…” I warned, hoping he could calm her without…extreme measures.
“Holly, you can’t go. It’s not safe—”
“The hell I can’t.” She tried to step around him, and he took her by both arms, pleading with her silently to cooperate.
I stood. “Look, I’d show you myself, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly at my best tonight.” And Dr. Carver had forbidden Shifting until morning, at least.
Jace stood and dropped his cards on the table. “I’ll show her.”
“No.” I wasn’t going to put anyone else at risk.
Jace rolled his eyes. “Cal wants me dead, anyway. What’s he gonna do, kill me twice?” He flashed another grin at having thrown my own words back at me, and I could only scowl. “Besides, you already told her. She’s fully disclosed. I’m just offering a demonstration.”
I thought for a moment, then finally nodded.
Jace stepped into the middle of the living room, already pulling his shirt over his head. His arms bulged in the light from the dusty fixture overhead.
“What is he doing?” Holly demanded, and she actually took a step back when he unbuttoned his pants. “Why is he taking off his clothes?” She glanced at Kaci, then at Michael, silently demanding that he put a stop to what must have seemed like absolute insanity, for the sake of the child, if for nothing else.Kaci cleared her throat, drawing Holly’s attention as Jace stepped out of his jeans and underwear and dropped onto his hands and knees. “It’s weird at first. Especially all the nudity. I know, ’cause I used to be like you. But Shifting with clothes on just doesn’t make any sense. I tried it once. My shirt tore and I got all tangled up in my jeans.”
Holly only gaped at her until Michael took his wife’s hand. When she turned back to him, he gestured to where Jace was now on the floor on all fours, in the first phase of his Shift. His skin began to ripple, and Holly gasped. Her hands shook, the tremors so violent she nearly dropped her empty glass. When his wrists and ankles lengthened, she took a step back, ripping her hand from Michael’s grip. “No. No, this isn’t real. You…you put something in that drink. What did you do to me?”
Michael faced his wife and took her chin gently in both hands, forcing her to look at him. He leaned down so that their foreheads met and whispered to her, crooning almost like he would to a child. “It’s real, Holly. It’s all real. I’m sorry I never told you, and I’m even sorrier that I have to now. But you need to see this. This is who I am. This is who we all are, and if you can’t live with that after you truly understand it, then you can go. No one will stop you.”
Though that was up for debate. We couldn’t risk her telling anyone else, and frankly, that hadn’t truly seemed like a credible threat until that very moment.
“But first you have to see,” Michael finished. Then he stepped to the side, revealing Jace again.
Jace’s hands and feet had become paws, his digits already plumping into toe pads. His fingernails lengthened and hardened into claws, even as his head began to bulge and shift with the formation of his new muzzle.