Page 96 of Shattered

He followed her back to her house and noticed the subtle changes she and Nico had made since moving in. They were making it their place and again, the sudden welling of pride surprised him. Mackenzie got out of his truck and followed her to the door. Once inside, Hayden placed Asher in his playpen while Emmeline sat down at a smaller table and began to color one of her books.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Hayden washed her hands then set about making lunch.

“The locks.”

She stilled. Tension filled her. “You don’t have to explain.”

“Yes. Yes, I do.” He blew out a breath. “I thought it would protect you from the truth. I thought if you knew Holly and I weren’t mates... Shit, I guess I don’t know what I thought would happen.”

“I bought it,” she said. “All of it. I even understood why, especially the day I believed I caught you and Holly having sex.”

“It wasn’t me,” he replied.

“Figured that out,” Hayden quipped. “Later, much later. But, if it wasn’t you, who was it?”

“Truth?”

“No, keep lying to me, Uncle Mac,” she snarled, sounding just like Kalkin.

He chuckled. “Sometimes, the truth is worse than the reality.”

“I’m a big girl now,” she said. “I need to know. If we’re going to tell each other the truth, might as well start here.”

He nodded. “Okay. I believe the man you saw with your aunt, was your biological uncle.”

She stared at him for a second. When his words registered in her mind, the blood drained from her face and a green tinge crept into her cheeks. “Oh, God. So gross. He... He... They had that kind of relationship?”

“I think so,” Mackenzie said, keeping an eye on Hayden. “I smelled a man in the house once. I couldn’t place the smell.”

“He looked like you from behind.”

“Even more so why I think it was Henry,” Mackenzie whispered. “Until recently I kept my body trim, whether it was due to not healing well or because I worked myself to death with Rapier, isn’t the point. Worthington and I had the same body type—I noticed in pictures—so it could have been easy for Holly to sneak him in and do their thing.”

“Added bonus,” Hayden said, “if I did happen to overstep the boundary, I’d be none the wiser.”

“You would have now,” he said. “When your senses developed you could have smelled the difference.”

“Jesus, Mac,” Hayden murmured. “She didn’t have any restrictions, so you made them.”

“And, you were an unintended victim of those circumstances,” he replied.

She shook her head. “I’ll be glad when this is over, and we forget she ever existed.”

Her words had bite. “You are a vicious little sprite, aren’t you?”

Hayden laughed. “I’ve learned everything I know from watching all of you, Uncle Mac. If it wasn’t for you and Kalkin and Royce and my dads, who knows, I might have been a Geithner, not a Raferty.”

Mackenzie shook his head. The thought of their Hayden not being a part of the family tore him up. “Nope. There’s no doubt in my mind, you’re Raferty, through and through.”

The next morning, Mackenzie woke early. He made lunch for Riley, Liam, and Abby then grabbed a shower and got ready to head to the courthouse. The backdoor opened as he poured coffee into his cup, and Charisma stepped inside with Mikey and the twins. Their cheerful presence took some of the edge off. He’d felt uneasy since the night before and, though he and Aurora had sex twice, he couldn’t relax. He’d contemplated going for a run but didn’t want to leave his bed or his mate.

“You look like you’re about to shit yourself,” Charisma teased.

“I feel like I could,” he replied.

“Did Kalkin call?”

He shook his head. “Charles said it might not be a bad thing if we didn’t get a call. I’m choosing to believe that’s the case and not something nefarious.”

---