Blind Acceptance (11 page)

David groaned. “It was wonderful!

We were both in a children’s home before Kitania choose us, and it was a miserable way to live.”

“Were they abusive to you?”

Eric snorted. “No, nothing like that.

We had warm clothes, a place to sleep, and three meals a day.”

“And that’s all we had,” David said.

“There were no family outings, no birthday celebrations, no playing in the park. We were given the bare minimum to survive, and that was it.”

Eric laughed. “When we came to live here, it was a real shock to our system.

We’d been in the home for as long as we could remember. This place was like a breath of fresh air.”

“The three of them have so much love between them,” David said, “it’s impossible for it not to rub off on you.”

“Don’t they get jealous of one another?” Laynee asked.

“Not that we ever saw,” David said.

“They’re blood brothers, and both seem dedicated to making her happy and keeping her safe. Was there a lot of love between your mother and father before she died?”

Laynee blinked back the moisture in her eyes. “No, not that I ever recall.”

She squeezed her hands together in her lap. “I turned out to be a bitter disappointment to my father.”

Eric kissed her hand. “I’m sure that’s not true. Maybe he just didn’t know how to show his love.”

“He was ashamed of me. The blindness was something he never learned to deal with. He would have shipped me off to school sooner if not for my mother and grandfather. Mother loved me, but she was so sad after I was born. My grandfather once told me to always remember that nothing was my fault. He said my mother was weak, and didn’t know how to handle the situation.” She sighed and leaned back on the sofa. “I would hear the servants talking about her drinking. I guess she turned to the bottle to get her through the tough times. My grandfather had nurses round the clock for her and insisted my father keep me around.”

“How could he make your father do anything?” Eric asked.

“Of course, I didn’t know it then, but later on I found out he financed a lot of my father’s business. Originally, my father had his own investment firm, but he couldn’t keep it going. I guess loaning him money gave my grandfather the right to make demands.”

“Sounds like you come from a wealthy family.”

“Grandfather was wealthy. He had a really elegant home.”

“Where did he live?” Eric asked.

“I can only tell you his house is in St.

Paul, Minnesota. I was only there a few times while my mother was still alive, but I can remember it to this day.”

Eric took her hand. “Tell us about it.”

“When you walked into his house, the entryway had this wonderful, cold floor that felt like marble. It was divided into large squares by these little ridges. If I took off my shoes I could slide easily across the middle in my socks. To the right of the door was a living room that had such soft carpet. My feet would sink down in the fibers. I wasn’t allowed in there very often because it held so much furniture. There were tables everywhere, and they held glass figures and lamps. I broke several before they made the area off-limits.”

“Where did they turn you loose to just be you?” David asked.

“Upstairs. I went up fourteen stairs, holding on to the smooth, wood banister.

Two doors down toward the left was a playroom my grandfather had made up just for me. The floor was carpeted, but it wasn’t that really thick stuff he had downstairs. There was a small bed that I took naps in, with the softest sheets I’ve ever felt.”

Laynee leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. “In one corner was a chest filled with dolls and stuffed animals and these little blocks that had raised ridges on them. On the other wall were rows and rows of books.

Grandfather would come to the room and sit in a rocking chair with me on his lap and read me all those wonderful stories.”

David took her hand. “How long did this last?”

“My mother died when I was five.

They told me that she went to live with the angels, but I learned later that she’d literally drank herself to death.”

“What happened after she died?”

“My grandfather asked me if I’d like to come and live with him. He said he’d had a bedroom made over for a little girl just like me.” She shrugged. “Of course, I told him I’d love to come and be his little girl. Even at that age I realized that my father was rarely around, and when he was, he ignored my existence.”

She ran her fingers through her hair.

“Then, one day, not long after my mother died, my father put me in the car, and then on a plane, and delivered me to the Perkins Institute for the Blind.” She laughed harshly. “Turned out, I was the youngest student they’d ever had. They had to create a whole program just for me.”

Eric took her hand. “What happened with your grandfather?”

“My father told me that he’d changed his mind and decided he didn’t want a little girl living in his house. Of course, it was a lie. Grandfather had his butler pack him up, and he flew out to see me after I’d been there a few weeks. He told me that my father had been unwilling for me to live with him because he thought it would be unhealthy for a small child to live in the house with an elderly man that wasn’t in good health. He said it would be too much for my grandfather to look after me. Since my father was my legal guardian, there was nothing my grandfather could do. He paid for me to stay there at the school, and in exchange, my father let him visit me a couple of times a year.”

David snorted. “How generous of him.”

Eric cleared his throat. “Laynee, you don’t seem…well, you don’t act like you’re broken up about finding out your father is trying to kill you.”

“I’m not broken up. I’m just plain, damn mad. There’s never been any love lost between us. But this, this is just over the top. I could barely believe it when he came to take me out of school. I was so excited at the thought of going home. But, even then, I wasn’t given a choice. He told me that he was paying the bills now, and I had to do as he said. It was time for me to take over being hostess in his home since my mother was no longer alive and I was an adult now. He said I might as well start putting all that stuff I’d been learning all those years to practical use.”

She jumped to her feet. “Damn, I need to call Miss Withers.”

“Who’s that?” David asked.

“She’s the headmistress of Perkins.

She was my boss.”

“Why do you need to call her?” asked Eric.

“Well, it’s a cinch I’m not going home with dear, old dad since he’s trying to knock me off. I need to hang onto my job so I have somewhere to go and some way of supporting myself when I get there. I can’t see Daddy Dearest continuing to pay the bills when I send his ass to prison.”

David chuckled and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to the sofa. “Hold on, tiger. I don’t think it’s safe for you to contact anybody until we find out what your father’s agenda is and put a stop to it. It’s better if no one knows where you are right now.”

Eric captured her other hand again. “I promise you, Laynee, we’ll work things out after we take care of your father.

You’ll have everything you need, I guarantee it.”

Laynee bit her lip. She wanted to believe the two of them. They made her feel things that she’d never felt before, and she wasn’t ready to give that up yet.

The school had always been short of teachers. Miss Withers would probably take her back even if she didn’t call for a day or two. “Okay, I guess that’s fair.

I’ll wait until we find out more about my father’s plans.”

Zack Wind River listened to the wind slipping through the trees. He’d drawn the late-night patrol and was walking the grounds with his cousin, Alexander Barrows. Alexander was the only son of Michael and Ariane and had spent most of his adult life working as an enforcer for Alpha Remus. He was a likable person, with a quiet nature, and that was something that Zack appreciated at this point in his life. He’d recently mustered out of the Marines, and he wasn’t up to a lot of friendly chitchat.

The only sounds he heard were the crackling leaves and branches with each step his cousin made. The dark tree trunks lined the barely visible black trails snaking through the undergrowth.

The smell of rich earth had him yearning to strip away his clothes and let his inner coyote loose. The only thing stopping him was his Alpha’s orders to lay low for a few days.

“So have you made any decisions yet?”

Zack glared at Alexander and kicked a large stone on the path. After his eight-year hitch in the military, his superiors were on his case about reenlisting, but there was no way he was going back.

Not after the things he’d seen. He’d never felt like he belonged with the other men, any more than he felt a part of his dysfunctional family. Ethan, Latan, and Kitania were great, and he’d always be grateful they opened their home to him.

But there was no getting around the fact he was a coyote, living in the middle of a wolf pack.

He shook his head and studied Alexander out of the corner of his eye.

At least his family was normal. One mother, one father, and a sister wolf.

Zack’s family looked like escaped inmates from a zoo when they got together. It was a wonder he wasn’t in therapy.

He glanced at his cousin. “The only thing I know for sure is that I’m not reenlisting. I’m tired of leading a structured life. I want a little freedom for a change.”

“I hear ya! To please Dad, I went and talked to a recruiter.”

“Yeah, what’s the verdict?”

“The verdict was in before the trial. I only went to the interview to make him happy. There’s no way I’m signing over any of my life to a bunch of humans.”

Zack laughed. “You do realize there are others besides humans in the military?”

“Were any of your superior officers shifters?”

Zack shook his head. “No, not that I met.”

Alexander shrugged. “I rest my case.”

“When are you—” Zack turned when a strange, musical sound broke the silence.

“What the hell is that?” asked Alexander.

Zack ignored him and moved quietly over the uneven ground, quickly finding the source of the noise. Frowning, he reached into the dewy leaves at the base of a tree and picked up a ringing cell phone.

“Who the hell could lose their phone out here?”

Zack shrugged. “Only one way to find out.” He flipped open the phone, pressed the green bar, and held the small unit to his ear. “Hello, who’re you trying to reach?”

“I… Let me speak to my daughter at once.”

“Who is your daughter?” asked Zack.

“Who is this? I demand to know where Lyssa is.”

Zack frowned. “Lyssa? Is this Zebron?”

“Yes, I’m Zebron. Who are you?

Where is my daughter?”

Alexander placed his hand on Zack’s arm and then pointed down. The earth near the phone’s resting place showed several footprints and the grass and leaves crushed.

“Zebron, this is Zack. I’m on patrol in the north. Get dressed and get out to the north gate, and we’ll show you where we found this phone. I’ll call in Alpha Remus and get a search party out here.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Zack?”

“The area is disturbed. It could be nothing, I don’t smell anything abnormal for the area, but I’d rather lean toward the cautious side. We’ll get some of the pack out here to track her.”

Zebron growled. “I’m on my way.”

Zack handed the phone to Alexander and began to unbutton his shirt. “Notify the alpha what we’ve found. I’m going to see if I can pick up enough of her scent to track.

Alexander nodded and pulled out his phone.

“Come on, Laynee, you gotta wake up.”

Laynee snuggled down further in the warm covers and tried to slip back into the dream she was having. It was so real. The brothers had been there, all warm and inviting.

“Laynee, you’ve got to wake up. We need to get going.”

She screeched when the covers were yanked from her body. “What’s wrong?

What’s going on?”
Where am I? This
isn’t my bed. It’s too big.
Then she remembered the camping trip, her father’s betrayal, and meeting David and Eric.

David grabbed her hand and pulled her to a sitting position. “Damn, woman.

I’ve never seen anybody sleep like the dead before. I was beginning to think I’d have to throw a bucket of cold water on you to wake you up.”

Laynee pulled her arm away and slid toward the opposite side of the bed.

“Nothing could have ruined our budding friendship faster. What time is it? It doesn’t feel like morning to me.”

David chuckled. “That’s because it’s only around three.”

“Three! Why do I have to get up?”

“There’s been an emergency with the family. One of my cousins is missing, and they’re asking everyone that can help to join in the search.”

“Oh, my God. I’m so sorry.”

“Hold your sympathy for now. This could all be just a misunderstanding.

Lyssa’s known to be inconsiderate from time to time. They found her phone in the woods, but it’s possible she just lost it.”