Page 54 of Bruised MC Bear
Nancy turned from her spot in the front seat, posture tight as she avoided Kade. “All we have is your name, and a few others. Please Keith, just tell us the truth.”
The old man sat silently for a few moments, looking out of his window pensively. “I suppose we could say this all started when Natalie and I were in high school. I was in my senior year, and she was a freshman. We were the only two shifter teens in town back then, so we quickly figured that out right off the bat.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I was a bit of a rebel back then, and I may have told her that once I turn eighteen, I’d show up at school in my panther form, just as a prank, you know? I guess you could say that Natalie took it upon herself to make sure I didn’t do anything foolhardy around the human kids. Anyhow, it was about a week before my birthday. I had driven my car to school, but it was a real beater. The alternator acted up all the time. The thing wouldn’t start that afternoon, so I walked, figuring I’d take the shortcut behind the school that ran right through the woods to the back of my house. That was the fastest way to borrow some jumper cables and be back on the road.”
“So, you met my mother in the woods?” Nancy asked, probably hoping he would move the story along to get to the point.
“Actually yes I did, dear,” he confirmed. “Natalie lived three houses down my street, so she took that route every day. Well, we walked into those woods that day, but we didn’t walk out. Not on our own. Some men in camo snuck up on us. They overpowered me and covered our heads in black bags or something damned near invisible to see out of. We both tried to fight like hell, but there were too many of them. They shoved us into the back of a van and took us to a facility somewhere up the highway. All I remember after that was someone injected me in the arm. I passed out, and when I woke up, Natalie and I were sitting slumped over at the side of my garage. She said they did the same thing to her too.”
“Did you tell both your parents?” Nancy asked.
“Of course we did. Natalie’s folks had a meeting with my old man. My mother had passed on already, so it was just him. They didn’t know what to make of it. I mean, what would have been the point of going to the police? After a lengthy discussion, they carried us to the only doctor in town they trusted. Doc took our blood and requisitioned a bunch of tests. Everything came up normal. After extensive tests and back corner inquiries with some Louisiana witches we had heard about, we all left it behind us, and just moved on, you know? Natalie and I barely kept in touch, except for the fact that our parents remained neighbors right up until they passed on. Years later, I met Kade’s mother. Natalie got married to Alain. We had you kids, then about six years before Natalie and Alain were…before they passed, I came home from work to find a note shoved under my front door, warning me that I was in danger.”
“Who was it from? Colonel Travis or Director Riley? Or was it from Vincent Belmont?”
“Neither. It was from Natalie. She never stopped trying to figure out what they had done to us. Of course, I went to see her and Alain that evening. She believed that Colonel Travis and Director Riley had some knowledge about a secret off-the-books project…one that experimented on us. Shifters, vampires, you name it. Anything supernatural was fair game.”
“What did she say about Vincent Belmont?”
“Nothing at all.” Mr. Jackson’s phone rang somewhere in his pocket. He pulled it out and turned off the volume. “That’s your mother,” he said to Kade. “I never knew the vamp back then. Actually, I only met Vincent through you, Nancy. Anyway, after we spoke, I moved the wife and Kade out of Nevada altogether. We settled down in Utah. Years later, some old neighbors phoned me about Natalie and Alain’s passing, but not in time for the funerals. It was such a shame I couldn’t be there.”
He shook his head, agitated. “My wife and I tried to reach out and help you kids, but Child Welfare Services were being real hardasses. They wouldn’t even give us a contact number. I had no idea when Kade announced he was getting hitched to you, Nancy, that you were Nancy as in Natalie and Alain Voltaire’s daughter…not until I met you, dear. And even then, what was I supposed to tell you? That your ma and I were abducted and possibly experimented on? That she may have saved my family’s life? And don’t go blaming Kade for any of this. This is the first he’s hearing of the full story.”
Kade’s phone rang. He ignored it, and a second later, Nancy’s phone buzzed.
“It’s Tilly,” Nancy said after pulling the phone from her purse. “Tilly is Keith’s wife, Axe. It must be urgent if she’s tried all our numbers.” She swiped the call answer button and put it on speakerphone. “Hi Tilly. Sorry we didn’t answer sooner. I’ve got you on speaker for Kade and Keith. Are the kids all right?”
“Yes, dear. They’re fine. Perfectly safe. It’s just… I think you need to come over right away and see for yourself. Hurry.”
Nancy’s eyes shot up to Kade, then to Mr. Jackson. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
* * *
Axe wasn’t surprisedthat Nancy sped the entire way to get to Kade’s folks’ house about three miles away from the residential development where Nancy and Kade lived. She even beat the two SUVs over there. He followed her past Kade’s bodyguards into the front door of the older ranch-style home.
“Tilly?” She shouted from the front door. “Asher, honey? Annalee?”
“We’re out back,” said the voice Axe assumed to be the kids’ grandmother.
Axe followed Nancy through French doors that opened onto a wooden porch. The backyard was a large, fenced, lawn-covered space, lined with massive old sequoia trees.
“Tilly, this is my brother Alexander,” Nancy said quickly to the older woman sitting on the porch swing on the left of the French doors. “Alexander, Tilly. So, where are the kids? What happened?”
“Nice to meet you, Alexander,” Mrs. Jackson greeted him, taking her sweet time to get to her feet and shake his hand.
“Hello,” he said briefly, acutely aware that if Nancy did not catch sight of her kids stat, she was liable to shift to bear form and rip someone’s head off.
“Asher and Annalee are sitting under that tree in the far corner,” she said, pointing to a spot about a hundred and fifty feet away. “Go and see for yourselves. I can’t even begin to tell you. I never knew it was possible at all… just go look.”
Nancy dropped her purse on the porch and started running to get to them. Axe walked at a good pace, but picked up to an all-out run to get to Nancy’s side when she made a sudden stop in the middle of the expansive lawn.
“Oh my Lord,” she exclaimed. “Look.”
“What the fuck?” Axe could not believe what his eyes were seeing. Asher and Annalee were sitting under the sequoia tree, all right—but in their animal forms.
That was impossible.
These kids weren’t even ten, let alone of age.
