Nicole pulled her sweater off and took a seat on a stool near the table, her back to Vera. “I won’t scream,” she promised.
Vera patted the powder into her torn skin, and she had been right. It burned like she was lying down on a hot metal stove. She squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her teeth as the agony dragged on.
“A few more seconds, and it’ll be done,” Vera whispered, her hand gentle on Nicole’s other shoulder, holding her steady.
And as promised, a few more seconds and Vera was cleaning the awful powder out of her injury. She re-bandaged Nicole as she sagged heavily against the table, relieved it was done. It still hurt like a mother fluffer, but at least it wasn’t an active burn anymore.
“He must love you very much,” Vera murmured. “He didn’t want to hurt you when he made this mark. McCalls aren’t usually this gentle by nature. Elyse got one of these marks before Ian covered it up.”
“From a McCall?”
“Yeah, from Cole McCall.”
Nicole lurched from under Vera’s gentle touch. “What?”
“You knew Cole?”
Her breath was ragged as she leaned heavily on the tabletop. “Buck Lund was my dad. Cole McCall killed my dad.”
Vera’s eyebrows arched high. “Oh, my God. Is that how Link found you?”
Thoughts racing, Nicole nodded slightly. Elyse had been claimed by Cole? “Did she love him?”
Vera shook her head sadly. “Cole went after Elyse because he thought she could save him. He didn’t treat her well.”
“Elyse tried to save him from the curse?”
“Elyse didn’t know there was a curse, but even if she did, no. No one could’ve saved that man. He was too far gone and didn’t even try. Link is different from his brother. Really, he’s different from his entire damned bloodline. He’s trying really hard to stay good.”
A short yell sounded from the other room, and the clatter of glass crashing against the floor echoed through the house. The murmur of angry voices followed, and Vera arched her delicate eyebrows pointedly at Nicole. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“To see some fireworks.” Vera’s nostrils flared delicately. “I smell Clayton.”
Chapter Twelve
Nicole bolted from Vera’s lab into the living room, but what she saw there had her skidding across a rug, legs locked so she could stay out of the north end of a loaded rifle. A tall, brawny man with silver hair and three long scars down his cheek stood at the front door, eyes bored even as the three Silver brothers aimed rifles in his direction. Link grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him defensively.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Dad?” Ian gritted out the last word like a curse.
“That would be my doing,” Elyse said softly from beside her mate. “I invited him.”#p#分页标题#e#
Ian jerked a shocked gaze to her, but it was Jenner who spoke next. “Shouldn’t you be hibernating? How are you still awake?”
Vera lifted her hand like a second-grader with the answer to a math question. “That would be my doing.”
“Vera,” Tobias gritted out. “What the hell is going on?”
“Guns down and I’ll explain, boys.”
Link snarled constantly in front of Nicole as she waited for one of the Silver brothers to either pump their asshole father full of lead or to back down.
Tobias cocked his shotgun. “Tell us you’re not here to put a kill order on Link.”
“I’m not. I want Link to be cured as much as you do. Maybe more.”
Tobias frowned, but slowly lowered his weapon. Ian and Jenner followed suit one after the other.
“You took Vera’s medicine to suppress your bear. That’s why you aren’t hibernating, right?” Tobias asked.
Clayton nodded once.
“Why?” Tobias barked out. “You were the one who said the cure would ruin us and make us weak. You fought me to make sure Vera went back to Perl Island. Fought me to make sure I stayed away from the cure.”
“I was wrong,” Clayton said low, hands clasped formally behind his back. “I was wrong about a lot of things.”
Jenner ran his hand roughly down his face and muttered, “Fuck. I need whiskey now.”
“I made pie,” Vera said cheerfully.
Tobias stared at his mate like she’d lost her mind, but after a few loaded, silent moments, he sighed and gritted out, “Clayton, won’t you come in and enjoy desert with us?” His hand was clenched around the barrel of his shotgun in a stranglehold. He lifted an empty smile to his dad. “Try anything, and we’ll happily kill you.”