Page 70 of Revelations

Speechless, Greylyn stared after her. Once she could no longer hear Adeline’s paws crunching through the underbrush, she turned back toward the house.

Thomas was more than a little upset that he had missed the steel-gray wolf shifter, once Greylyn told him that the creature had morphed into its young, nubile—and, more importantly, nude—human female form.

“You could’ve hollered for me, or something,” he insisted.

After assuring him that there was nothing she could have done, he finally let the subject slide. Besides, he had exciting news of his own to share. No nudity involved, but exciting nonetheless.

“Changed our departing flight to the day after tomorrow. Seems a friend of a friend of a colleague actually works at the Trinity College Library, but she won’t be available until the day after next. She’s also an expert on local lore and…she’s originally from that town that I can’t pronounce next to the lake. Also, I’m following a few leads regarding your family crest, which could further narrow things down. Apparently, it’s incredibly obscure. Nothing in the archives—at least, not in the official archives. My contact is trying to get me access to that database, but it may not be one hundred percent legal.”

The way his eyes twinkled, she knew the prospect that it was against the law made it all the more exciting for him.

“Okay, I’m fine with a delay. There are a few things I need to take care of, as well.”

She stood, but his hand reached out to tug her back down beside him on the worn leather sofa.

“Hey, lady. We’re not done here.” His tone was soft, but firm. “Don’t you think it’s time we had our own little heart-to-heart?”

To emphasize his case even more, he lifted her face to gaze into her eyes. “You’ve been quiet, keeping things to yourself. I know it and so does Jasper.”

Oh yeah, that was an understatement.

“You can trust me. No matter what.”

The pupils of his eyes enlarged to almost blot out their warm, welcoming hazel color. It was Thomas’s best imitation of the sad puppy dog to tug on her heartstrings. It was not fair, and he damn well knew it.

“Besides, if you think you aren’t going to ‘fess up as to how you arrived on my doorstep inthatcondition, you’re crazy.”

Dammit!She would have done anything to avoid this particular conversation for the rest of eternity. He held her chin stubbornly, so that she couldn’t look away. Thomas knew that she couldn’t lie to him, at least not to his face.

She slumped against the back of the sofa and a wide assortment of mismatched decorative pillows, one with a fish reeling in a man in a flannel shirt. The stitched message had long ago worn out.

“You have to promise…not a word. Not even to Jasper.”

“Now, Grey, you know that bastard will know if I lie to him. He always knows. You can’t ask me to do that.”

It was the truth. Jasper could sniff out a lie faster than a bloodhound could catch the scent in a butcher shop.

“Just don’tvolunteeranything.”

Telling Thomas the full sordid story was bad enough. For Jasper to learn the whole truth…well, that would be catastrophic. Anything involving Kael triggered the guardian’s wrath, but this…

With several deep Lamaze breaths, Greylyn began. Everything from the first time that she’d encountered Kael during her very first guardian assignment, to their close interactions at Gaelic Haven and then the stare-down in the vampire’s Garden of Eden. How Kael had saved Thomas from death’s clutches in Baltimore, to how she came to be half-naked when she’d showed up there; everything.

By the end of the tale, Thomas’s eyes registered shock and his mouth hung open.

“Damn, I need a drink.”

Suddenly, he pulled her toward him into a crushing bear hug. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”

He repeated that mantra as he rocked her softly like a small child who had just woken from a nightmare. A dam deep within her burst open with her heartache thundering out in epic tidal waves. Slight tremors gave way to gut-wrenching sobs, as all the fight within her was swept away by the torrent of emotions that she had held back for so long.

Time passed and still the tears flowed. Not for a second did Thomas ease up on his embrace. His strong arms encased her shaking body. He clutched her to him as if her life depended on it. The tempest within raged, but like a devastating hurricane, the calm embedded in the eye of the storm eventually rolled in.

As they continued to sit in silence, Greylyn collapsed against him. The comforting thumping of his heart and rhythmic rise and fall of his chest lulled her to sleep as his large hands stroked her hair.

***

The face in the bathroom mirror repulsed her. Greylyn knew that she was pretty, but that thing staring back at her was far from it. Her eyes were nearly swollen shut from crying. Her skin tone, normally clear with a spattering of freckles across her nose, was blotchy and her cheeks were red; and then there was the unsightly imprint of a sofa seam in her left cheek.

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