Chapter 55

(**Rayne’s POV**)

Rayne watches Parker’s face as he stares at Owen. She can tell he is eager to get his brother alone. Their reunion should be a private one. Frank is still giving off a vibe she isn’t comfortable with, but instead of watching her like he usually does, he is watching Nyla. There is a story there that she wants to know, but it is best to let that wait.

*I am going to go up to my office and call everyone. We should close the bar for the night so you can spend time with your family.* Rayne tells Parker through their link.

*That shouldn’t be needed. I can move all this to the safe room downstairs.*

*I am not sure that is a good idea. This may sound paranoid, but I still dislike the vibe that Frank is giving off. Having him know that room exists is a risk that I am not willing to take right now.*

*Alright. Close the bar for the night.* Parker didn’t sound happy about it, but he agreed.

Rayne moved away from him and made her way upstairs. She made the calls to all their people, then just sat at her desk to think over all they were told. Declan and Frank lived through so much at the hands of The Collectors. Gerald Finkman sounds like a nasty man. Frank grew up as a caged animal. Captivity was all he knew.

That could explain why he is the way he is to a point. The rest must be the influence of the Irish Mob. Rayne is very curious on the relationship between him, Nyla, and Owen. Was Nyla more to Frank? He seems to think so, but her words say otherwise. How does Kerri fit into all of that? Did Frank pick her because he is lonely or does he actually care about her? What were the two of them really after?

It is more than a family connection, if Rayne had to guess. Question is, what else could there be? She knows that if Parker ever sees Kerri again, there will be issues. Holding a knife to his mate’s throat was a terrible move.

With a heavy sigh, Rayne stands up from her desk to join the others downstairs. As she walked to the stairs, she meets her father as he reaches the top. The worried look on his face makes her frown. What happened in the thirty minutes she was away?

“Did you come looking for me or is something wrong?”

“Can Nyla join you up here? She looks worn out and the couch in your office is more comfortable than mine.”

“What else? I know that look. You are worried about something.”

Edmund shook his head with a sigh, “I could get nothing past you.”

“Nope, now spill it.”

“I am worried about Parker. He has been silent and we both know that isn’t like him at all.”

“I had a similar thought. He closed our link tight after I came up here.”

“I would say get him alone, but I think he needs time to process everything. Alone.”

“I agree, however, separating him from Owen right now is a bad idea. I think they need some time together one on one.”

“How do you suggest doing that?”

“I have an idea. Tell Owen to bring Nyla up here. Parker will follow him.”

“What should I do with Delcan and Frank?”

“Leave them alone with each other.”

“With anger boiling just below the surface, Frank seems primed to go off on someone. Leaving Declan alone with him now might be a bad idea.”

“Their family will have to work those issues out. We have a group of witches, Sebastion coming down, and a wedding in two weeks.”

Edmund nodded, then left her alone. A few minutes later Owen could be seen at the bottom of the stairs. He was carrying Nyla bridal-style in his arms. His face was red with anger, while hers was pale with fatigue. This was going to be a long night.

Rayne moved out of his way as he was reaching the top of the stairs. Glancing down, she could see that Parker was right behind them. His face was flush with rage. His eyes were onyx, showing his animalist instinct was in top gear. He was in fight mode. What the heck happened down there?

“Why did you block me out?”

“Because sometimes I just need my fucking space without you in my goddamn head.”

Rayne flinched like he slapped her. Not once in all the years that have known each other has he spoken to her with hatred in his voice. Anger, hurt, lust, and love. Never like this. Rayne let the hurt and anger she felt get the best of her as she slapped him hard across the face. The sound of flesh slapping flesh as her open palm connected with his cheek, filled the hallway and echoed down the stairs.

Parker’s head whipped to the side as she made contact. When he turned to face her, his eyes were wide with shock. Instantly the shock turned to shame and regret. “Ra.. I am..”

She didn’t let him finish. “No! There isn’t anything you can say to me right now that will make this better!”

Looking away from him, she turned to Owen. He was shaking his head at what just happened. Rayne simply pointed to her open office door. Then she walked to the door to their quiet room. Instantly she felt Parker behind her. When she looked back over her shoulder, his face was looking down at the floor. She stopped when she reached the door, unlocked it with her thumbprint, then stood against the wall across from the door.

When he reached her, Parker looked up with sorrow in his eyes. Her link was wide open, she knew he felt her pain. Why should she hide her reaction to what he said? They were mates now, and it required transparency. Let him face the consequences of his hateful words.

“Rayne, I didn’t ...”

She shook her head, making him clamp his mouth shut. “What you are going to do right now is go into that room with Owen. The two of you need to be alone. I will deal with Frank.”

“How are you going to deal with our baby brother? What did he do when he was pretending to be me?”

Pointing at Parker, “He will tell you. Right now, I have a plan. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt him.”

Parker opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but reached out for her instead. She moved out of his reach before he could touch her. Pointing at the door like a mother scolding her child, Rayne shook her head at him. She wasn’t saying a word to him about it until they were home again. This way a conversation no one else needed to be a part of.

Owen walked into the room, whistled at its style, then sat in a chair. Parker watched his brother for a moment, then turned back to Rayne. She felt his pain. All of it. Knowing what was just on the surface happened at the stairs. He was in pain because of what he said to her. He knew it hurt her, and that he didn’t mean it made it worse.

“Just go in there and talk to your brother. Have the reunion that you should have had with him, not Frank. Hear the past from his mouth, not Frank’s. You have been wanting family or shifters to be a part of. You have all of that now. So, go in there and connect with the brother you thought you lost when you were a child.”

With that statement made, Rayne brushed past him and walked down the hall to her office. Quietly closing the door behind her. Sliding slowly down the door, she finally let the tears fall. Forgetting that there was another person in the room. Closing their link tightly, she closed her eyes, sighing heavily as she laid her hand over her belly gently.

“How are along are you?”

Rayne jumped at the sound of Nyla’s voice. Looking up quickly, she looked across the room. Confused at what Nyla meant, she frowned. When she realized, a smile blossomed on her face. Standing up off the floor, Rayne pulled herself together, then she walked to her desk.

“We just found out today, so I was a little confuse. We had just found out when we met Declan. That was how today started.”

Rayne had yet to fully process the knowledge that she was going to be a mother. So much had happened since the moment they stepped out of the clinic this afternoon. Parker’s entire world was flipped upside down in an instant when Declan spoke. Then it shattered when the real Owen walked into their bar.

She was going to be a mother.

(**Parker’s POV**)

Memories of his childhood swamped him as he closed the door behind them. Memories of the day his parents left him with the neighbor so they could go into town. The night they came to tell us that our parents died. The morning the nuns came for us when the neighbor declined keeping us. Then the last day he spent with his older brother.

“Do you remember the sound of mom’s voice?”

“Sometimes when I think about her, I hear her, but other times it was like those silent movies she made us watch. Her face and actions are still there in my head. What about you?”

Hearing Owen mention the silent movies, Parker felt his knees collapse from under him. That was a detail Frank got wrong when he recounted that memory. Tears fell from his eyes. As much as he wanted to believe that Frank was Owen all that time, Parker always had a gut feeling something was off. Rayne telling him she had suspicions of Owen made him angry at first, but then he started paying more attention to the situation.

Feeling arms wrap around his shoulder only made him cry harder. “I wanted to believe him, but somehow I always knew.”

“He wanted to test you. I didn’t like the idea and told him not to do it. Nyla and I were planning on coming here, but we were delayed because of her health. Frank came anyway, without telling us. We didn’t know he was here until he called us on Halloween. We were waiting for clearance from the doctor for Nyla to fly here.”

“That was the night he shared that memory with me.”

“Why did my telling it have this reaction have this effect on you?”

“He got the detail about the movies wrong. He said he remembered her taking us to the drive-in theatre. She never did that. I would have remembered going since I love watching movies outside under the stars.”

“Frank loves those too.”

Parker moved to stand up, Owen moved away from him so he could help him up if needed. “Let’s sit down on something more comfortable than this floor.”

Owen chuckled as he helped him off the floor. Once they were settled on the sofas, silence descended. It was like it was dawning in them that the situation they were in was real. Parker had found every member of his family in one day. He had a younger brother who he almost killed a week ago for lusting for Rayne.

“I almost killed him.”

“What? Why would you kill me?”

Parker laughed at how Owen phrased his question. He had thought he was biting Owen then. “The whole fake brother, real brother thing is fucked up.”

“I can imagine. I want to strangle the fool the minute he called us on Halloween.”

“I wanted to kill him when he stood on my deck and lusted after my mate.”

“What the fuck? He did what?”

“Rayne was in heat. We were in a lull between the storms on our deck. During that time of day, we would normally sleep, but were otherwise very occupied with each other instead.”

“Did he know she was in heat?”

“Not until he showed up at our house.”

“Then why did he show up when he would know that you work nights and sleep during the day?”

“He wanted us to meet Kerri, his mate.”

“She is his girlfriend or what I call her, his attempt at making Nyla jealous.”

“Where they ever more than friends?”

“Nyla and Frank? Not on her part, but he thought she felt the same way he did. When I met her for the first time when she moved into the house next to ours., I knew she was my mate. We couldn’t do anything about it openly because of situations with my gang. The shit they got into was dangerous and didn’t want her exposed to that. Frank hung out with her when I was not around and fell in love with her.”

“But she knew she was your mate?”

“Yeah. We would meet at night in the garden behind her house. Spend time getting to know each other, making plans, and stealing kisses. It was the teenage romance I never got. When I got out of the gang free and clear, we announced being mates and that she was pregnant. Frank lost his mind and disappeared for a month.”

“Was that when he came up with the idea of coming here?”

“He met Kerri while he was doing whatever he did. He was convinced that he could pass her off as Nyla and come here to test you. To save me the travel if you turned out not to be who we thought. Telling him not to was a bad idea. It only made him want to do it even more.”

“The day he came to my house, Rayne was in heat, Kerri was with him. When Frank caught the scent of Rayne’s heat, the lust for her started pumping off of him. I shifted and bit him. My instincts to protect my mate kicked in before I knew what I was doing. My anger at his audacity made me bite harder. Knowing then and there that he was not who he claimed to be, made me hold on longer.”

“Will knowing he is our brother stop you from killing him?”

“Yes.”

“He has issues, but after what he grew up in, but he is our brother.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“No, but I think he needs to get used to this like all of us do. Get to know each other after all these years. Get to know our father.”

“I am remembering that I used to hate when you were right about a situation.”

“That was because you were always so stubborn, even when you got proven wrong.”

“That smirk you gave me when you proved me wrong,” Parker growled at the annoyance he felt as a kid.

Soon they were bantering back and forth like they used to. Then they share stories of their lives since the night of the fire at the orphanage. Parker felt like no time had passed between them, but at brief moments he could tell that time stool so much from them. Owen was right. They all needed to get to know each other.

Not just because they were family, but to help each other overcome their past. There was a wedding in all their futures soon. Rayne would kill him if he fucked that up.