"Is there someone special in your life?" Minka asked, changing the subject.
Layla's smiled faltered. "There is, but I'm not sure he feels the same way."
Minka was about to ask Layla what made her think so, but a knock on the open door interrupted her. She looked up to see a big man with a wild mane of dark blond hair and a scruffy jaw coming into the room. Even if Minka didn't know he was a hybrid by his scent, she almost would have certainly been able to figure it out by the way he carried himself. Like a caged animal-a very big caged animal.
"Sorry I'm late," he said as he closed the door.
Layla smiled. "You're right on time." She glanced at Minka. "Minka Pajari, meet Tanner Howland."
Tanner stepped forward and held out his hand, his movements slow and careful, as if he was afraid he would scare her. But while his appearance might have been wild, one look in his eyes told her that he wouldn't hurt a soul.
"Do you want some coffee before we get started?" Layla asked him.
He shook his head as he lowered himself into one of the chairs opposite the couch. "I had a cup before I came over."
Layla picked up her notepad from the table and rested it on her knee, pen poised in her right hand. Taking that as a signal they were about to get started, Minka sat up straighter and eyed her expectantly. But before Layla could say anything, someone knocked on the door, then opened it and poked their head in.
Minka stiffened when she saw it was Ivy. After overhearing the argument Angelo and Ivy had had in the hallway yesterday, she hadn't expected to see the other shifter again. Had Layla convinced her sister to join them? Minka gave Layla a sidelong glance, but the psychologist looked as surprised to see Ivy as she was.
"Ivy," Layla said. "I didn't know you were joining us."
Ivy glanced at Minka, then turned back to Layla. "It was kind of a last-minute thing. I'd like to sit in if you don't mind."
"No, of course not." Layla gave Minka a reassuring nod, then gestured to the other chair. "Come in and sit down."
Minka didn't know the two sisters, but she sensed there was a rift between them. Tanner must have thought so too, because he suddenly looked like he'd have rather been anywhere else than in the room with them.
When Ivy was seated, Layla said, "Let's get started, then." She looked at Minka. "You already know Tanner is a hybrid like you, right, Minka?"
"Yes." Minka frowned. "However, I am curious about why he wasn't made from Ivy's DNA like I am."
When Angelo had told her about Tanner, she'd assumed he was made from Ivy's DNA too, but he didn't smell anything like Ivy or Layla-or even her. She didn't think the question was an odd one, but from the shocked expressions on everyone's face, Minka wondered if maybe she shouldn't have asked.
"What do you mean, you were made with Ivy's DNA?" Layla said carefully, like she was using words Minka didn't understand. "Ivy, what is she talking about?"
Minka looked from one sister to the other. Ivy stared down at her hands clasped in her lap but didn't answer.
"I thought Layla knew, Ivy," Minka said softly. When Angelo told her not to tell anyone, she hadn't realized that included Ivy's sister. And now she'd given Ivy another reason to hate her. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you hadn't told her. I thought … "
Ivy shook her head. "It's okay, Minka. You couldn't have known. I should have told Layla before this."
"Ivy, you're not making sense," Layla said. "How did someone get your DNA, and what does it have to do with Minka?"
Tanner cleared his throat. "Maybe I should leave."
"Stay. Please," Ivy said. "I've been keeping this secret for too long. There are people I should have trusted with this information a long time ago, and you're one of them."
Tanner looked unsure but settled back in his chair.
Minka waited for Ivy to continue, but she didn't say anything. Minka could see the turmoil in her eyes, though-like there was some kind of battle going on inside her, one that involved facing memories Ivy would probably have rather forgotten. Minka could relate.
Finally, Ivy took a deep breath. "Remember when Landon and I went on that mission in Washington State last year?" Layla nodded and Ivy continued. "Well, we were there to do recon on a man named Stutmeir. He'd kidnapped several doctors and scientists, and we thought he was making a bioweapon. But instead, he was turning humans into hybrids.
"I don't want to get into the details of how it happened, but I was captured. They held me prisoner and experimented on me, taking DNA and tissue samples from every part of my body in the most painful, humiliating, and horrible ways they could come up with. They thought that if they used DNA from a shifter instead of an animal, they could create the perfect hybrid."
Layla's eyes glistened with tears. "Where was Landon when this was happening?"
"Trying to rescue me," Ivy said. "I didn't know that, though. I thought he was dead, and I wanted to die, too. But Stutmeir wouldn't kill me. In the end, Landon, Clayne, Kendra, Angelo, and some of the guys from Landon's former Special Forces team got me out. But not before the doctors escaped with my DNA."
A tear trickled down Layla's cheek. Minka wanted to cry, too-for the torture Ivy had gone through then and the torture her sister was going through at that moment.
Ivy stood and walked over to stand in front of the window. "Landon and I spent months scouring the world looking for the two doctors, but all we found were the horribly twisted bodies of people they'd experimented on using my DNA. When the trail went cold a little while ago, I hoped they'd stopped the experiments because they hadn't worked." She took a breath. "But then, Minka showed up."
Minka felt the tears that had threatened earlier burn her eyes. She blinked, hoping no one would see.
But Ivy turned and looked straight at her. "I'm sorry for how I've been acting, Minka. It was just that every time I looked at you, I remembered all the things I'd been trying so hard to forget. Even more than that though, I'm sorry for being the cause of all the pain and suffering you went through."
Minka did a double take. She could understand Ivy wanting to forget being tortured-she did as well. But she didn't understand why Ivy was apologizing for what had happened to her.
"You aren't responsible for what those doctors did to me, Ivy," she said.
"Yes, I am. If I hadn't gotten captured and they hadn't gotten my DNA, you wouldn't have been turned into … "
Ivy choked on a sob, the words trailing off as tears rolled down her face. Minka stood and crossed the room to put her arm around Ivy even as Layla did the same.
"You didn't turn me into a hybrid," Minka said softly. "Klaus and Renard did that. They would have experimented on me whether they had your DNA or not. And if they hadn't used it, I'd probably be dead like the other people they experimented on. But for whatever reason, your DNA worked on me, making me strong enough to survive and escape. If it weren't for you, I would never have met Angelo." She smiled. "Your DNA saved me, and for that, I owe you a debt of gratitude."
Ivy wiped the tears from her cheeks, her dark eyes filled with awe as she looked at Minka. "I don't know if anyone has ever told you this, but you're an amazing person."
Minka didn't know what to say to a compliment like that, so she just hugged Ivy again.
On the other side of the room, Tanner cleared his throat. "So, should I come over and join the group hug or what?"
Minka laughed along with Ivy and Layla. Tanner eyed them in confusion, which made Minka laugh even harder. But then, her mother always had said that men never understood women.
With Layla guiding the conversation, Minka, Ivy, and Tanner spent the next two hours talking about what happened to them while they had been held captive. At first, Minka hadn't been convinced it was a good idea reliving all of that, but it turned out to be very cathartic. Minka hadn't realized she'd been carrying such a heavy weight on her shoulders until she told them about how she'd been mistreated. Minka had no way to know for sure, but she suspected it was the same for Ivy.
"Now you know why I was so against you working at the DCO," Ivy told Layla. "Every time I thought about it, I imagined you getting kidnapped and tortured like I had been. It was hard to be happy for you with thoughts like that. I'm sorry."
Layla leaned over and squeezed her sister's hand. "It's okay. But you don't have to worry about anything like that happening to me because I'm not a field agent and I promise I never will be."